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.

Following a breakup, a woman trapped in a nine-to-five office job becomes depressed and begins to consider suicide.

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.

As a woman grows older, she falls into a deep sadness while the men around her constantly tell her to cheer up.

A slice of grim parts of life

A writer wakes up every day hoping each day would be the day he finally manages to write, though each day he finds new reasons to delay his writing.

An aging electrical engineer's intensifying sensation of detachment culminates in a series of debilitating headaches. As he works through fatigue, setbacks, and pain, he finally confronts the source of his desolation.

A disillusioned candy store owner feels burnt out with his current life and begins to project his past mistakes on the actions of a young thieving customer.

Jaded architect John Cashmore begins finding fault with the greed and ambition of everyone around him, dissolving into erratic behavior on a business trip as he desperately tries to reckon with lost dreams and hopelessness.

A man's lonely life focused on the pursuit of reason and music leaves him questioning what more there may be in the lives of other people and of religion.