In the far future, a Welsh woman temporarily moves to a space colony on a distant planet with her husband, Owen. The woman regals her space-born daughter with tales of the wonders of Earth, and her daughter develops a great longing for Earth that eventually puts her life at risk.

An explorer tells the tale of his time on another planet before making a strange request.

When aliens land on a planet new to them, they find a population obsessed with a virtual reality and uninterested in the intense beauty of the natural world around them.

In an austere farmstead on the distant planet O, two lovers must find a way to fool their fellow citizens and satisfy a complicated series of marriage rites so that their forbidden love may last forever.

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 the far future, a zealous scientist wanders the highlands of Venus alone, risking death at the hands of Cytherean tigers in order to discover the lost settlement that would vindicate her research and satisfy her jealousy for her "perfect" partner. What she discovers, however, fails to satisfy her. Tired of living in her famous partner's shadow, a zealous scientist in the far future embarks on a dangerous solo expedition through the highlands of Venus in order to discover the lost city of Ishtar. What she discovers, however, fails to satisfy her.

After a devastating accident in space, a young astronaut constantly underwhelmed by her own achievements is forced to make a long, arduous trek back to her ship while dragging the corpse of her more impressive partner.

The asteroid work crews don't have much to do but tell tall tales to each other. One man tells a particularly riveting account of an expedition where he met a strange parasitic species that inhabits human bodies and barely escaped unscathed—or did he?

On an intergalactic spaceship, two runaway servants turned mercenaries agree to a dangerous mission that will take them back to the planet from which they escaped—in return for a shot at a clean record and a peaceful life.

Prison inmates are told that they're being sent to scope out a new Earth for mankind to move to, but when they "come back" they find out they have just been play-testing a new virtual reality video game. Prison inmates are used to test a new video game which would have them inhabit a virtually real new planet, but they believe they are truly being sent to another solar system. When they realize that they've just been playing a game, there are long-term psychological impacts.