In Spain during the Francoist dictatorship, a girl's father insists that their family will never speak Spanish again in favor of Basque — a small act of political defiance that slowly changes their lives, until they can never go back.

An old linguistics researcher is ousted from his university position on the frontier of a small island he acculturated. Upon his return home, he begins to believe that he and his life's work are marginal.

A Laotian six-year-old, whose parents can't read English, struggles in school.

Over dinner, an observer reflects on mothers and their omnipresent prevalence in children’s lives.

A daughter and a mother wonder what the lesson of their story is.

A Los Angeles speech pathologist is assigned to the case of a presumably mentally-ill woman who speaks in gibberish that turns out to be Old English. When the woman disappears, deciphering her mysterious writing leads the pathologist to wonder if she has stumbled across a time traveler.

A Caribbean mother rants to her elementary-aged daughter about how to be a respectable girl. When the girls tries to reply, the mother continues her lecture.

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.

An Indian American woman wishes to reconnect with a childhood friend, but all does not go as planned.

In San Francisco, a Chinese grandmother teaches her granddaughter how to pickle the memories she no longer wants to carry with her, much to her daughter’s chagrin.