A son tells a series of stories, most of them about his father and stepfather. As the son describes a robbery that took place at his house in high school and his experiences with his father, a former Jehovah's Witness and current alcoholic, he begins to recall details from his childhood.

A teenager learns how to cope with the premature loss of his father. Through a newly developed relationship with his uncle, he discovers a new version of his father he wasn't privy to during his life.

After a drunk college boy falls off a balcony, a slew of characters--a groundskeeper, another student, a chaplain, and an RA--relate to his death in different ways. Their stories are sidelined for the core matter: that a boy died.

A middle-aged man tells his son the story of how he once killed a man while driving when he was younger, and another about how his first wife—his wife before son's mother that the son knew nothing about—suddenly passed away.

A series of vignettes about various sons along a family tree.

On a cold December day, parents grieve for their son who was killed in a football game. A friend of their son helps them realize their son may have hid the feelings he was too afraid to show.

When his son is born with a fatal disease, a man struggles to bond with his dying child. After the son's death, the man and his wife enter a year of hardship and, eventually, separation. Now alone, the man spends his days on the Chesapeake Bay trying to distract himself, unsure whether his marriage can be saved.

A young mother mourns the death of her firstborn child, a son, three days after his birth and falls into a bout of depression.

A writer reflects on his mother’s incredible strength, which he depicts in a short story. However, his mother does not approve of the piece as he had hoped, and he soon makes an important discovery.

After the death of his wife, a man struggles to comfort his grieving son amidst sudden a power outage.