Two American friends escape their vacation in Paris to the French countryside, enjoying a day of fresh air until a Russian waiter and an Austrian remind them of the horrors of war.

An American continues to run into another American on their trips around Europe and the Mediterranean.

A group of friends realize they have been living vicariously through one of their friend's travel stories for their entire lives.

A soldier stumbles to the doorstep of a friend in Paris after World War II, begging to tell the story of his lost comrade to anyone who will listen.

Upon hearing about an upcoming wedding, a former American soldier reminisces about the time he met a young girl who gave him the recourse to survive the war.

To hear his friends and readers tell it, an American war correspondent based in Saigon is losing touch with reality. But to him, the opposite is true. Through studies of the Vietnamese people and fantastical letters to his children, he alternately tries to confront and embrace the world as it truly is.

A chance encounter with an old ex-girlfriend causes a man to remember his past relationship with her and with his cousin, who immigrated from Korea to America to live with his family as a small child. Though she died in a motorcycle accident years ago, when his ex-girlfriend asks how she's doing he lies, creating the life she never had in his imagination.

In the midst of World War II, two lovesick foreigners meet at a nightclub in Rio and indulge in the company of each other while still languishing after previous relationships.

During his travels in the Pacific, a young man hears tales of a great adventurer. When he returns home and relays the news to his father, he discovers a long-kept secret.

Two American soldiers looking for work in Honduras decide to make the journey to a nearby port to get new shoes. But as they walk toward the town, they begin to realize that their prejudice about the locals has consequences.