A writer finds himself entangled in the lives of his college friends, an ex-literature professor and his wife, decades after they graduate. They pursue love and their literary dreams mind a chaotic New York City of the 1960s.

In a town so small it can hardly be called a town, a black woman serves a rich white family until a series of horrific events causes the single joy in her life to vanish.

A disenchanted couple moves from the country to the city. As they engage with an inside joke that once kept them closely together, it incites an exasperated conversation about long-accumulated problems.

A Jewish communist quit working at an editorial bureau where his co-workers are bothered by his leftist ideology because of his boss' praises of him.

After his wife's death, a man strikes up a romance with a new woman — as well as an unexpected friendship with the woman's ex-husband.

A woman returns home to her family having just slept with another man. At dinner, her son gets into an argument with his father about their privilege. As the narrative moves back to the time they spent abroad in Nigeria, Burma and Ecuador, fractures in the family life are revealed.

In a small town, a resident watches as the people and place change. He recounts eight seemingly disparate stories, but the town connects them all.

In 2018, a pedestrian on the New York City’s Lower East Side witnesses a young Black couple in love, prompting a consideration about the storytelling, hope, and Nelson Mandela.

When a writer and her old writing professor reconvene in a Mexican restaurant one final time before the professor's death, they experience a night of unwanted encounters and unnecessary criticism that leaves the writer with a bitter taste in her mouth.

A teacher on the Lower East side meets a friendly man with a presence resembling a dead English poet.