An old linguistics researcher is ousted from his university position on the frontier of a small island he acculturated. Upon his return home, he begins to believe that he and his life's work are marginal.

In Spain during the Francoist dictatorship, a girl's father insists that their family will never speak Spanish again in favor of Basque — a small act of political defiance that slowly changes their lives, until they can never go back.

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 Polish immigrant feels her mind slipping away, as her surroundings and even her own body seem unfamiliar. After she's diagnosed with Alzheimers, she reflects on the importance of her memories and her past.

An American college student teaches English to a German Jewish refugee who is preparing to give a lecture. As World War II begins, the refugee cannot break his writers block and his tutor begins to fear the refugee may die by suicide.

When a lesbian Cuban woman moves to the United States, she finds her hopes of romantic relationships, familial reconciliation, and prosperity threatened by an onslaught of mysterious medical concerns.

When a man visits an old village called Ain Tadouirt to visit an old friend and conduct research, he becomes captured by a tribe and forced to entertain. He must figure out how to escape a life of enslavement in a foreign land.

The 15-year-old daughter of immigrants works as a keeper for a rural cottage with her parents. She observes the family who takes over the cottage for a week.

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 daughter and a mother wonder what the lesson of their story is.