In post-Cultural Revolution China, a Marxist philosophy professor must decide whether he should confess to a crime he did not commit.

Two jobless Harvard graduates who mostly read Marx and do acid reckon with the changing times since their days of revelry at university.

From factory workers to the king, members of all social classes in an industrialized society are distraught with their way of life and desire socioeconomic change. In scheming to join the revolution they deem inevitable, everyone struggles to be the first to initiate the highly desired change.

In the early 1970s, a listless radical must decide what to do with his life as his social circle of grassroots activists dwindles.

Following the fall of the Soviet Union, a Russian man studying in the United States reconnects with his estranged, ludicrously Communist grandfather. Through letters, phone calls, and eBay, they bond over their shared experiences with death and Soviet life.

When a Soviet state official attempts to coerce a celebrated poet into apologizing for a political joke he made, the official gets a taste of his own predatory medicine at the hand of the poet's vengeful wife.

In communist Ukraine, a canning engineer reports a heating problem in his apartment to his local city hall—only to learn that his building doesn’t exist in the city registry. He takes drastic measures to restore heating to his apartment.

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.

In a job interview, a former factory worker explains how the Red Scare caused conflict at his previous workplace. When one of his coworkers is accused of sabotaging the new machines, the factory worker must defend that he is not a communist.

In 1990s Leningrad, a Russian man prepares to emigrate, but things don't quite go as planned—twists of fate, complex friendships, and the omnipresent KGB stand in his way.