A creative writing teacher sits through a conference with one his favorite students. He takes us on a journey through the characters in the story, and in his life.

Two men from the same small town share stories about a pivotal moment from their past, revealing a decades-old coincidence that explains their drastically different paths.

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.

After a young man runs away and is said to be hiding in a canyon, his co-worker sets out to find him and ends up sharing his painful backstory of fear and lost opportunity.

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

After spending his adult life under the shadow of his father, a former NSA whistleblower, a man comes to terms with his complicated family history and what he wants for his own future.

A son tells a series of stories, most of them about his father and stepfather. As the son describes a robbery that took place at his house in high school and his experiences with his father, a former Jehovah's Witness and current alcoholic, he begins to recall details from his childhood.

Following her mother's death, a Chinese American woman relives her childhood days, halved between Catholic school and her parents' disintegrating marriage. She remembers her old ability to make unlikely miracles happen.

In 2018, a pedestrian on the New York City’s Lower East Side witnesses a young Black couple in love, prompting a consideration about the storytelling, hope, and Nelson Mandela.

In a small town, a resident watches as the people and place change. He recounts eight seemingly disparate stories, but the town connects them all.