Following a messy breakup, an MIT graduate and a PhD student at Indiana University separately talk about the problems in their former relationship in two spliced-together conversations, exploring conflicts surrounding language, intimacy, commitment, and intellectualism.

A man fantasizes about courting his friend's wife, despite being married himself, with increasing desire.

A lustful, rhapsodic husband makes an unsuccessful attempt to seduce his distant wife and is surprised when the tables soon turn.

A woman considers her possible shortcomings when her boyfriend tells her that he doesn’t like some things about her. After a period of reflection, she acknowledges the futility of self-deprecation.

A man tries to determine the cost of a passionate but brief love affair, and his calculations lead him to a solemn but hopeful realization.

A lovestruck journalist and a torn painter pull the threads of their affair in opposite directions: he desires something more permanent, while she feels indebted to her husband and sons.

A Native American woman reminisces on the story her great-grandfather would tell about running away with her great-grandmother. The woman draws parallels between the story and her own first love.

A young writer attends a writer's workshop where she begins a relationship with an author whose books she loves. But after they move in together, she finds that his life begins to suffuse every aspect of hers.

A writer uses his relationship with a mysterious woman as inspiration for his magical realism story. But, things go awry when he begins to question their compatibility.

When a depressed middle aged man strikes up a romance with his neighbor in a modern suburban American town, he consults women's magazines to make himself into the perfect lover.