In the near future, a young mother leaves behind a book for her daughter before she embarks on her space journey to the outer solar system in an attempt to communicate with extraterrestrial creatures. Sections from her book are interspersed with her husband's verbal recollections of their love story, which he addresses to their young daughter.

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.

An injured man lays on a long stretch of sand looking up at the stars; his mind races back to previous injuries and illnesses, but he can't seem to get a grip on where he is or why he's there. He soon realizes that he's a long way from home, in outer space.

On the brink of death, an elderly man recounts his life to his great grandson, revealing that his mother's schizophrenic delusions of an otherworldly fantasy land were no delusions at all.

A group of friends realize they have been living vicariously through one of their friend's travel stories for their entire lives.

A dying human author travels to a foreign planet to die, but meets a young girl who he begins to teach the art and beauty of storytelling.

When an old woman sees her son straining to leave to see the world, she remembers her husband doing the same many years earlier. In a fierce battle pitting love against discovery and adventure, she does her utmost to set him free.

A young man who has wasted his life finds himself sucked into a non-human world — a gray, ghostly landscape to which those who don't make use of their time are drawn, potentially forever.

A nameless soul is stranded on an unknown shore, watching the countless soldiers of wars long past go about their nightly activities.

A young man has been experiencing intense hallucinations for most of his life. When one of his nightmares begins to seem a little too real, he realizes there may be an explanation for these experiences, and it may have something to do with his mother's death.