Stinging from his recently cut-off engagement, a young man retreats to a small town in the mountains of Virginia to work as city editor of the local newspaper. Alternately entranced and disgusted with his hermit-like nocturnal life, he finds peace and pleasure listening to the St. Anthony Chorale.

When the girl he loves leaves him after a misunderstanding, a boy is picked on by one of his neighbors and fantasizes about winning his love back by beating his foe.

A young man tells the story of his first love after smelling a perfume that reminds him of the woman from his childhood.

When the California Santa Ana winds blow down from the desert and through the windows of a lonely young woman’s house, she is imbued with the inspiration to embrace an unexpected encounter.

Walking around town, a man acts as a good samaritan, offering money and assistance to anyone he passes by. He seems to be genuinely kind-hearted until his conversation with his wife upon returning home suggests his compassion is only performative.

When a woman finds her purse stolen, she retraces the steps of her eventful day only to realize that the encounters, and her life as a whole, are empty and purposeless.

A man remembers a fateful autumn during his junior year of high school, which he spent playing football in apple orchards, riding in his best friend's car, and falling in love.

In a small town, a teenage girl who suffers from sexual harassment and assault finds first love, escapes her abusive household, and begins to heal.

As she walks alongside the Hudson River with her friend, a woman excitedly explains her intricate vision of what would give her happiness.

A young woman recounts three times in her life when she felt emotions of an unexplainable transcendent love: watching a ballet for the first time, making eye contact with an attractive librarian in high school, and listening to an old professor lecture during night classes at a university.