In a dystopian society in the Archipelago, a select group of people are trusted with memories from history, and they serve the ruling council as advisors. When one of the councilman disagrees with the advisors' most recent decision, he makes it his mission to put a stop to their influence by any means necessary.

A man looks back on his father-in-law's life after he passes away, thinking of the many jobs he held and his military service.

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 schoolboard debates the merits of history—and how to remember it.

REQUIRES RESCANNING

A professor tries to convey to his students the magnitude of the most perfectly crafted poem ever written in the English language: “Lycidas.”

A deceased man’s friends and coworkers try to come up with the best way to mourn him and comfort his widow, even though it seems like she doesn’t need it.

In a distant future in which technological advances have extended human lifespans, a man must decide whether or not to upload his dying Cuban refugee mother’s consciousness to a digital “habitat” technology he has developed, where she can live out her life in virtual simulation back home in Cuba.

Four women–a retired dancer enacting an old dance, a grandmother preparing a birthday dinner for her family, her granddaughter participating in a genetics study, and a researcher quantifying the burden of old memories–all unite under the combined weight of their war-burdened pasts in the contemporary United States.

In the far future on a cold and snowy planet, an aging woman seeks a successor to her role as Kunchen: a bearer of memory for her people across generations, a role in which one must live a long and lonely life punctuated by decade-long cryosleeps.