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.

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.

A businessman covertly heads to the skating rink every day with a flailing routine, where he basks in the laughter of onlookers. Finally, he is forced to choose between his straitlaced family and his clownish — but authentic — alter ego.

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.

In 1960s Boston, a Jewish deli owner who struggles to come up with his newest joke stumbles into a scam with more ramifications than he could have ever dreamed possible.

The characters found in jokes are forced to act out the jokes every time they are told.

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.

An elderly Russian man comes across a young American in a park and tells the young man about coming of age in Russia.

A Russian girl looks forward to occasional visits by her mother's best friend. When the friend soon plans to visit with her new deaf and blind lover, feelings of scandal, anxiety, and curiosity emerge in the girl's family.

An American college student who studies Russian history heads to St. Petersburg at the the end of the Cold War and becomes attracted to her roommate's boyfriend, a former soldier. His stories, along with her interactions with other college students, add to her experience of a tentative social environment in post-war Russia.