Two American friends escape their vacation in Paris to the French countryside, enjoying a day of fresh air until a Russian waiter and an Austrian remind them of the horrors of war.

A 33-year-old woman living in an apocalyptic Scotland with her husband writes in her diary about the tribulations of their lives and their pilgrimage to Russia in hope of a more stable existence.

In Ceylon, colonized by the British, an Indian Tamil woman describes the events that follow the departure of the British from the plantations. She imagines the possibility of a new world as the Indians reclaim their land. However, the reality that follows shows how the British values persist and are upheld by ethnic differences between the Indians on the plantation.

When he discovers gold near his village, an African man dissatisfied with his lot in life develops new obsessions, flouts old responsibilities, and ultimately loses more than he gains.

While visiting a Jewish colony in Argentina, a man gives a lecture as part of an effort to revive Yiddish culture in the settlement. Afterward, he hears from locals the unexpectedly unrighteous history of life in the colony.

Two American expatriates in modern Tanzania are mourning a lost lover in a tourist inn when a murderous hyena breaks their peace, hungry for the lover's corpse.

A young Native American man visits a burial site on a nearby island and must reflect on both his allegiance to his culture and to himself.

When a shipbreaker travels to an African island to shut down a shipyard owned by his employer, he meets an ex-Corporate America worker who pushes him to reconsider.

In limbo between life and death after falling five hundred feet into a cement mixer, a construction worker reflects on the nature of love.

In colonial Angola, a Herero woman torn between her family and her oppressive white husband finds herself accused of disloyalty on all sides. Despite significant sacrifice, disaster ensues when she tries to honor both commitments.