After being brought to life by a strange formula, an old man's Linotype machine wrecks havoc on his small print shop in early-20th-century New York.

A catalog of the tools different alien species use to read and write, leading to fundamental questions about what it means to make patterns of knowledge against the noise of the universe.

A college student's somewhat pathetic alcoholic uncle regales him and his mother with a tale of how a famous skywriter meddled with his life and love.

A woman, living with her husband, is overcome with a strange, inexplicable ailment to her body.

A maid, silently and in thought alone, contemplates her own position in a house full of opulent, decadent lives.

A daughter, on the verge of becoming a mother, learns a great deal in spending time with her own mother.

A mother, her two children, and their stepfather come over to a friend’s for a dinner on Labor Day.

The ex-wife of a famous male writer considers a story he wrote about a neighbor they once had.