A lovestruck journalist and a torn painter pull the threads of their affair in opposite directions: he desires something more permanent, while she feels indebted to her husband and sons.

Vignettes of a number of relationships, most of them troubled, are glimpsed through the descriptions of creatures in this bestiary of the imaginary.

Following a messy breakup, an MIT graduate and a PhD student at Indiana University separately talk about the problems in their former relationship in two spliced-together conversations, exploring conflicts surrounding language, intimacy, commitment, and intellectualism.

A writer uses his relationship with a mysterious woman as inspiration for his magical realism story. But, things go awry when he begins to question their compatibility.

A complex web of human relationships is presented in the form of an algebraic expression.

A man meets his girlfriend’s mother. While at first she is cold to him, because of a secret his girlfriend won’t speak of, they grow close, begin to depend on each other.

With elaborate descriptions of the body, a husband muses about his relationship with his delicate wife. Reflecting on their good and bad days, the husband oscillates between worrying about their future and feeling passionate love.

An advertising model befriends an older man. After she returns from Algeria, her new boyfriend reveals an unsettling hobby to the man that continues to haunt him long after the model’s mysterious disappearance.

A woman considers her possible shortcomings when her boyfriend tells her that he doesn’t like some things about her. After a period of reflection, she acknowledges the futility of self-deprecation.

When a depressed middle aged man strikes up a romance with his neighbor in a modern suburban American town, he consults women's magazines to make himself into the perfect lover.