A group of children in a family lives with their grandmother, but she is mean and abusive. The children soon become tired of her abuse and plot to kill her in various ways, though the task is complicated by logistics.

A little girl navigates her relationships with two boys in her elementary school class, a brash bully and a shy victim, and learns about the nature of suffering.

A four-year-old black boy vaguely recalls a mixture of occurrences that puzzled him, including a sentenced hanging in his town of a man who allegedly murdered his wife.

Almost a hundred years ago, people built a road at the cost of destroying a local lake. A young boy sets out deliver vengeance and justice for the wronged party, but in doing so, finds himself dealing with a problem he couldn't have imagined: the war between the roads and the water.

A high school boy makes a habit of stealing cars, picking up girls, and skipping school. When he begins to worry that he is getting into too much trouble, the boy must decide whether to seek help or continue his criminal lifestyle.

A rambunctious teenager with an inquisitive mind causes much grief for all his New England family and neighbors when he visits them in the summer of 1914, on the eve of World War I.

After they have been removed from their parents and send to a camp to be brainwashed, two girls connect over an act of institutional rebellion. One suffers for it, and one goes on to live her life as she is supposed to—but will she be satisfied with leaving things alone?

Eager to get his children to stop fighting, a father tells them a story about dragons and kings; things take a disappointing turn when the children realize that their father doesn't know the end of his own story.

A child chained in a cellar abused by their enraged parents decides to take matters into their own hands.

On the eve of her students' elementary school graduation, a teacher in rural Ireland makes one last push to prepare her students for the real world.