The impact of an absent father emerges in the gruesome stories of a young daughter as her alcoholic mother listens and reflects on the struggles of raising her alone.

A father has an increasingly difficult time getting his son ready in the morning and notices that all the young kids around the neighborhood are acting strange. When his son becomes violent, the father must decide if it is really his son anymore.

A mother struggles to come to terms with her son's mental illness, and begins to realize how poorly society treats people like him.

When a mother takes her children to buy a puppy from another mother, she finds an unsettling household and a child chained like a dog in the backyard. Through their alternating narratives, both mothers reflect on what it means to love your children.

In the late 20th century, an aging couple's daughter returns to live with her parents in an attempt to flee her failing marriage. While the mother easily slips back into her maternal role, the arthritic father struggles to empathize with his youngest child, and, in his increasing frustration, commits an unforgivable act that isolates him from his family.

Over dinner, an observer reflects on mothers and their omnipresent prevalence in children’s lives.

Thirteen-year-old Angelle gets into a car accident when her drunken father begs her to drive home in his stead. Later, she must take the witness stand in court and decide her family's future with her testimony.

As she begins to feel that her boyfriend is trying to create reasons for her to leave him, a woman tries to understand his difficult past as a child in the American foster care system.

A mother and her three children discuss what to do (in the hours after?) after the father leaves (and they aren't sure if he'll come back. something like that).

When the father of her baby overdoses, a young mother with a crippling drug addiction hits rock bottom much faster than she thought possible. All the while, she must take care of her son and figure out how to survive.