During World War II, a boy moves to the big city from agrarian Alabama. Astounded by the lack of greenery, he convinces a local gang to build a farm, but not everyone agrees with his plan.

A teenage boy follows in the footsteps of his favorite teacher and leaves his small, rural community to attend a faraway college. However, a chance encounter with an old man makes him remember the value of nostalgia and one's birthplace.

On the Great Plains, an aging farmer and his wife struggle to sell their produce amid an increase in frozen food manufacturing. The farmer must figure out how to avoid the fate of his neighbors, who were pushed out of business and into welfare dependence.

Two people of color work for a German immigrant in Massachusetts helping him grow and maintain trees, and when he dies years after they've moved on from the work and each other, they reflect on the natural philosophies they learned from him.

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.

When a young man moves in with his pregnant girlfriend's family in the Pacific Northwest, he feels increasingly trapped by his girlfriend's secrets, her brother's drunken behavior, and the demanding land on the family's orchard.

After a death in the family, a son travels with his father to his rural Mexican hometown to settle the estate. The town is littered with all the abandoned houses, roads, and people left behind that didn't migrate to big cities; a fate which his father fears will be his if he does not immigrate to California like his brother.

After reuniting with an old friend, a man reconsiders whether he is fulfilling his life purpose by working as a farmer.

A father facing mental and physical debilitations has his sights set on capturing a drop of sunlight to bring joy to everyone in his small hometown. Despite his good deed, the town finds it necessary to deliberate: is this man an alcoholic, mentally ill, or a criminal?

A ranching family stays optimistic during tough times by remembers their good luck last summer when they persuaded a generous rancher to work on his farm.