A man recalls his intimate friendship with his former English professor, who resolved to fuel his unsatisfied desire for playwriting during the time they were apart. In their reunion decades later, instead of the brilliant play he promised, the professor shows his former student a disturbing product of his mental instability.

An elderly shopkeeper tells a customer about his experiences as a prominent actor's understudy for various decades. The customer witnesses how the old man's obsessions with his unfulfilling acting career still occupy his everyday thoughts and behaviors.

A young Shakespearean play actor finds himself stuck in 6 million year time loop being observed by high-school aged aliens. As John relives the same morning repeatedly--one where his wife leaves him--he becomes more aware of how important connections are as time is not as infinite as he assumes.

A group of high-class Polish Jews raucously enjoy a stunning rendition of Macbeth until German police descend upon them.

A professor conceives a plan with a magician where he can be transported into the world of fictional characters. He tries to have an affair with Emma from Madame Bovary, but when he brings her into New York, things go awry.

In Iowa, a young violinist is asked to play at a famous poet's memorial. In the process, he gains a new perspective on who and why we grieve.

A teacher on the Lower East side meets a friendly man with a presence resembling a dead English poet.

A young man invites a tourist to his favorite London café and recounts the strangest affair he’d ever had with a woman he picked up there; a woman who challenged and changed him. A young, beguiling man picks a tourist out of a group and invites him to see the real sites of London, not the tired and disappointing spectacles. He takes the tourist to the Café de Paris, an old but grand establishment with the promise of dancing and young ladies. The man admonishes his companion to loosen up, stay and drink, and while they wait for the evening to unfold the man begins a story.

An old, English spy clings to crumbling ideals as he and his partner are caught in a case in Egypt.

When a professor of French literature attends a tribute event in New York City for her old playwriting teacher, she remembers how young she was when their unconventional relationship transpired.