A nine-year-old boy reflects on the heroes he's identified in his life, from religious figures to his relatives, while he and his father drive home on a snowy night.

An old man looks back on his boyhood idolization of a soldier he sees in the parade - until his hero is forced off the pedestal after trying to steal a prized horse from the boy's father.

A man develops a deep interest in the author of a children's book he reads to his daughters. Ignoring his wife's confusion and mild disapproval, he goes to visit the author's old house and takes his daughters with him.

A 5-year-old boy with a unique way of seeing the world feels alienated from his mother and tells her that he does not need her anymore. This viewpoint later causes him to lash out at his family, leading him to reflect on himself and his life.

An afternoon at the park takes an unexpected turn for a mother and her son as the well-established families that they admire turn out to be unhappy people who secretly enjoy the misery of others. As the day progresses, the mother is surprised to learn that she and her son share many negative qualities with those families.

A World War II era fairytale-like story of two young evacuees who witness a strange event in childhood, and are reunited in adulthood by a long serious of unlikely coincidences. During World War II, two young evacuees witness a strange event in their childhood. This event leaves a strong impression on both girls, and it proceeds to shape their futures into a long series of unlikely coincidences.

After a ten-year-old boy joins his parents in bidding his grandfather farewell as he leaves New York for Germany, he experiences the first major loss of his youth and struggles to understand the complexity of the experience.

After a young Jewish boy moves to Berlin with his family, he learns that his family agreed to watch a boy from the mental institution on the weekends. The two become friends, and the boy learns more about himself through meeting the other boy.

After a dying mother instructs her children to find their distant aunt and new guardian, they must step outside the home they have always known and embark on a journey toward their new life.

Two boys become friends after one of them displays unflinching honesty in the face of a tyrannical teacher. Ultimately, their friendship is destroyed when the same honesty robs the second boy of some of his childhood ignorance.