Plagued by an aggressive case of pneumonia and haunted by a dying neighbor, a sanatorium patient is advised to have his ribs resectioned, thus sending him into a panicked reflection on the inevitability of death.

Grateful to have a reason to escape the brutality of war, an injured American soldier is happy to be in the care of nurses and medics. Unfortunately, the doctor's decision leaves him grappling for reasons to keep fighting.

Having been hospitalized for a long time, a young girl finds herself surrounded by people who cannot understand the strangeness of her illness. After her friend visits her, she must accept that her relationships may never be the same, and that her expectations that tether her to a life outside of the hospital may be very different from the disappointing reality.

In an unlikely encounter, a homeless teenage boy recounts harsh events of his life to a writer. He nonchalantly tells of an employer whose assignments caused him to have permanent physical and mental damage.

A woman's chronic illness stirs up long-suppressed conflict within her family. As she helplessly listens to her husband and brother-in-law argue about the best treatments, she wishes she could be there to defend her troubled husband.

On her drive to her hometown in Georgia, a medical student contemplates the recent death of her reckless friend and picks up a stranger with a cast on the side of the road.

As his son recovers from a devastating head injury, a father reflects on what could have been their last moment together.

A retired pro-quarterback is controlled by his debilitating heart disease. Terrified of being trapped in his current quality of life forever, he must decide whether he should go through with a risky surgery to repair his broken and depressed heart.

A patient becomes passive during her post-automobile accident surgery. She reflects on how ignorant her doctors are faces feelings of violation.

After a young woman is diagnosed with a grosteque sickness with no known cure, she desperately tries remedies to get better, but slowly loses control over her own life in the process.