Knowing that some things happen only once in a lifetime, a man walking down a street is convinced that he sees the girl of his dreams and wonders if fate is telling him to leave his wife.

Asked by his therapist to tell a fable, a man recounts his unenchanting life as a lawyer married to a depressed, drug-abusing woman, with a disabled son he's struggling to raise. By filling his unremarkable story with sorceresses, magic, and true love, he attempts to romanticize a life he's desperate to escape.

During the second World War, a fortune teller in Northern Italy discovers a headless body by the road. He investigates the murder to see if any details will also magically reveal the winning numbers of the lottery.

Five days after moving to the quiet town of Manacle, Arizona, a married couple learns of the curse on the town: if you do anyone a favor, they will turn against you.

In this fairy-tale, when two women who are cursed by the men meant to love them meet, they realize that to stay cursed is not to love, and that they have the ability to escape if they do it together.

The tragic loss of his childhood friend puts a boy on the path of religion - but his inner feelings remain as repressed and turbulent as they always were.

A man learns the exact date and time of his death from a fortune teller, and, when the day comes, he visits his ex-girlfriend's house, hoping to turn it into a grand performance for her and her children.

A man is forced to reconsider his suspicions of superstition when a racketeer decides the man is good luck.

In a series of commentaries on the human condition — life, truth, happiness, death — a spinster sister takes in her dead sister’s children; a man is entranced by the endless waves which roll and crash in the ocean; a carpenter wrestles with the burden of being everyone’s confidante; a dying railroad crossing watchman shares a simple but complex wisdom.

A poor woodcutter's chance meeting with Death turns his life around - a single moment of generosity is rewarded with a magical gift that allows him to heal the sick. However, when his luck runs out, he finds that his second meeting with Death does not go as well as the first.