In intense discussion a group leader ponders aloud, asking why hermits hide and what defines outcasts, among other cerebral queries. A group of friends discusses the oddities they have seen and perceived in their lives leather-clad hermits and criminal astronauts among them. They debate the purpose of hermitage, the classification of outcasts, and the purpose of their own reflections.

In an fantastical Russia, a flower shop owner thinks he recognizes a strange woman on the street—and almost loses everything trying to remember who she is.

On a trip to Basel, a man falls in love with a middle-aged writer’s muse, creating a love triangle destined to fall apart under the weight of the old writer’s age.

While on a mission to retrieve his magical coat, a legend of the London Below gets captured by a long-time enemy and, in the face of death, is saved by his older brother. Shaken by this sudden encounter with his first-ever rival, the legend resumes his mission with renewed determination to be his own hero.

Two designers visit a historic English hotel with an attached maze, looking to propose a redesign of the property. As the maze entices them in mysterious manners, they come to uncover the dark history that continues to live on within its hedges.

A wealthy but sad merchant meets a man in the City of Peace who tells him of a gate that will allow the merchant to step twenty years into the past and visit his former self. He travels back in time and learns that nothing can erase the past.

An unwilling Antarean guide takes an obnoxious family of Earthlings on a tour of the planet's most important temple.

Upon returning to Paris after a decade-long hiatus wandering the French countryside and writing an epic, a poet encounters an enigmatic young woman who believes he is a god and wants to be his disciple,

A young man leaves his traditional village behind to travel and work on distant planets. Throughout his interplanetary journeys, he must constantly reevaluate his understandings of truth, tradition, and love as he seeks a fulfilling life of his own, independent of what is expected from him.

During a voyage to Bangkok, a captain sets out for a side-trip to a small island where a lone writer has isolated himself, crafting the work of his lifetime so he may regain the glory he once had and rejoin his beloved.