Sitting at a bar, a man reminisces about his past experiences with love and develops a philosophy for 'beautiful' relationships that relies on the inevitability of their ends.

A chance encounter with an old ex-girlfriend causes a man to remember his past relationship with her and with his cousin, who immigrated from Korea to America to live with his family as a small child. Though she died in a motorcycle accident years ago, when his ex-girlfriend asks how she's doing he lies, creating the life she never had in his imagination.

After his wife's death, a man strikes up a romance with a new woman — as well as an unexpected friendship with the woman's ex-husband.

A woman in Ireland finally gets to be with her long-lost love, but only after he is tragically made a widower when his previous wife passes from an illness, leading the new wife to compare herself to the perfect, kind, dead one.

A veteran returns to his hometown in rural North Carolina, hoping to rekindle a romance with the teenage sweetheart that World War I separated him from. Upon their reunion, he realizes that she has stayed the same while he has irreparably changed.

A middle-aged writer turns back the clock by twenty years and narrates his ill-fated romance with the beautiful but unattainable girl from his memories.

A man tells his assistant about his first marriage when they go on a business trip to Chicago after the company opens up a new branch in the building he used to live in with his first wife.

A lovestruck journalist and a torn painter pull the threads of their affair in opposite directions: he desires something more permanent, while she feels indebted to her husband and sons.

A young man tells the story of his first love after smelling a perfume that reminds him of the woman from his childhood.

One year out from a chaotic relationship, a woman reflects on her former lover. When she receives a surprise missive from him, it dredges up lingering feelings.