A 5-year-old boy with a unique way of seeing the world feels alienated from his mother and tells her that he does not need her anymore. This viewpoint later causes him to lash out at his family, leading him to reflect on himself and his life.

After experiencing what should have been the most idyllic childhood, four siblings must learn how to assimilate back into the real world.

After a young Jewish boy moves to Berlin with his family, he learns that his family agreed to watch a boy from the mental institution on the weekends. The two become friends, and the boy learns more about himself through meeting the other boy.

Though numerous social workers try to step in, a co-dependent mother and son bounce from city to city, in search of a place where they can be together at all times.

A woman leaves her island home to serve at a créche on the mainland in a poor area of the city. There, she falls in love with one of the children she cares for and wants him as her own, but his mother commits a crime that puts the boy out of reach.

After their mother leaves a preteen and her siblings, the preteen must navigate her emerging adolescence by herself in an orphanage.

An afternoon at the park takes an unexpected turn for a mother and her son as the well-established families that they admire turn out to be unhappy people who secretly enjoy the misery of others. As the day progresses, the mother is surprised to learn that she and her son share many negative qualities with those families.

A young boy who spends his time in an abandoned house fears for his own future happiness after he watches his father live a difficult life.

Two sheltered children are put under the care of a governess with unorthodox ideas about education. The children have never loved learning until now - but these novel ideas draw the disapproval of their mother, who is determined to get rid of the new governess.

The 15-year-old daughter of immigrants works as a keeper for a rural cottage with her parents. She observes the family who takes over the cottage for a week.