A new mother wakes up after giving birth to her son and upon gazing at his face, feels an ephemeral peace that only comes once in a lifetime.

Set in 1914 Detroit, a young man with a life threatening condition is forced to live a mundane life protected from the outside world. When a new friend begins showing him the joys life has to offer, he is forced to decide how he wants to live.

A young being describes coming of age on their planet. Though they spend most of their time without gender, when it comes time to get physically intimate, they meet at a kemmer-house for a short duration, as either female or male.

While trying to conceive a child, a woman finds a small, apricot-sized hand beneath her mattress. She collects more tiny body parts that she finds around her house.

In a futuristic society in which humans can swap out bodies as they please, a woman's son lies critically injured in a hospital after an accident. As they attend to him, she reflects on the ways society has changed and strained her familial relationships.

After a tumultuous and difficult upbringing, a woman contemplates whether or not she should give up her newborn child for adoption.

A father tells his twenty-year-old son how he was married suddenly to his son's mother at a young age.

A man thinks about his relationship with his parents (especially his mother) as he watches them grow old. He then realizes that he is now old too.

A woman examines a period of time in her childhood spent with her sister and the babysitter's son, viewing it through the lens of an adult, and ponders how the experience might have shaped her as a person.

A college counselor watches anxiously as her teenage son applies to college without her help. As her son plans for his future, the counselor and her husband reflect on how quickly their lives have changed, seeking ways to steady themselves in the midst of middle age.