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.

In the far future, a woman is selected to undergo a Great Becoming. As she is forced to choose what she will become, she realizes that someone people do not have to choose at all.

In an increasingly inappropriate recorded message to a customer, a department store clerk compares their product complaint to kangaroos he saw at the local zoo.

A grieving mother and accomplished linguist relives her child's lost life as she learns to communicate with the aliens that have landed on earth.

A virus spreads between music-playing electronic devices, pausing music across the world and playing a series of chords that awe everyone.

In the far future, an invention called "the prism" uses quantum mechanics to cause divergences in future timelines and create a means of communication across these alternate realities. Two different women explore the choices they have made in their own lives and the regrets they harbor--and have to figure out how to ultimately make peace with their decisions.

A Chinese woman reminisces on her relationship with her geologist husband, reuniting with him after a work-separation and his eventual death by sickness. Their communication centers around the husband's assistant, the Human Phonograph, who sings on command.

Short bursts of inexplicable silence envelope an unnamed city and its residents, inspiring self-reflection and—much to their surprise—contentment.

A man goes to the movies with his father-in-law and uses an assisted hearing device to listen in on the old man's thoughts, discovering that his father-in-law may be a murderer.

A man attends a classical music concert and uses it as a surrealistic form of escape as he copes with the news of his mother's death.