The tragic loss of his childhood friend puts a boy on the path of religion - but his inner feelings remain as repressed and turbulent as they always were.

A Buddhist monk tells a visitor about an enchanting woman he met and why he feels he must redeem himself.

A wife leaves her husband in order to ensure his ultimate salvation after they are rejected from the Christian church for their polygamist marriage.

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.

A boy and his father live on the open road for a year, after which is father forces him to make a choice - settle down or keep wandering.

In discussing the altercations witnessed over the course of the day, Stephen Elwin and his family grapple with question of whether the downtrodden and those burdened by prejudice are nonetheless responsible for their own breeding and behavior. Elwin’s earnest and idealistic daughter Margaret valiantly defends their maid, who happens to be Black and also named Margaret, until she witnesses 'the other Margaret' breaking a piece of artwork.

A reserved and recently-divorced man joins a pilgrimage to meet a mysterious and all-powerful guru, and, through a harrowing crisis, finds his skepticism replaced with a newly-opened mind.

A gay man is rejected by his father and thrown out of his home, which forces him to rebuild his life. Years later, the man realizes that his father was indirectly responsible for his success, and that he is surrounded by many deep and loving relationships.

A girl raised on a farm by a strict Christian mother decides to indulge in her curiously and approaches a young farmhand, despite her mother's warnings that all men are sinful.

When a young man leaves his home in Kansas City to find a career, he struggles to settle down in one spot. He wanders, impoverished, across the western United States and finds a transcendent understanding of the human condition.