Just before an American college student is set to leave for the airport after visiting her extended family in Ethiopia, she realizes her suitcases are too heavy. A fight breaks out between her relatives about what items should travel with her at their behest, versus which ones deserve to be left behind.

A U.S state department official encounters an infatuation on his trip to Eastern Europe that ends in despair.

A Canadian graduate student and his wife are living in France and often socialize with their peers at concerts and dinner parties. They soon make friends with an established novelist, but as the student continues to meet people he begins to question who he can trust and who his real friends are.

A chance encounter with an old ex-girlfriend causes a man to remember his past relationship with her and with his cousin, who immigrated from Korea to America to live with his family as a small child. Though she died in a motorcycle accident years ago, when his ex-girlfriend asks how she's doing he lies, creating the life she never had in his imagination.

A second-generation Russian immigrant living in contemporary Michigan finds himself caught up in a sad but emotive group of friends when he takes a continuing education course on Intermediate German.

A Native college student recounts some of the people he dated once he left his reservation. After dating a string of White girls, he dates a Native graduate student, who changes the way he sees his place in the world as a Native person.

A professor finds himself attracted to one of his students, allowing her to skip the final exams - but her resultant grade causes her to lash out at him and reveal harsh truths about his own life that he finds difficult to accept.

An American expat who lives in Rome struggles to understand his adopted country, especially the Italian language. When he finally finds the right teacher, he is overjoyed, but her unique personal life quickly pervades their lessons and confounds their rapport.

A woman in British Columbia reflects on her Japanese friend from childhood who was swept away from her during World War II-era Japanese internment.

A trio of two Europeans and one American, embark on a casual trip to the Italian countryside that becomes engrossed in contemplating what it means to be American.