An aspiring poet who hones his craft through hard practice experiences an unexpected setback when his younger cousin undermines his belief that skilled art-making requires time and effort.

A rejected author ponders his writing abilities and lonely existence as he experiences his monotonous daily life. After one of his stories is rejected yet again, he receives a mysterious letter regarding the unpublished story that offers new hope.

A man tells the story of his son-in-law who used his poetry skills to make real money.

An American writer travels to Sophia where he meets a famous poetess. He falls in love with her and her attitude.

Upon returning to Paris after a decade-long hiatus wandering the French countryside and writing an epic, a poet encounters an enigmatic young woman who believes he is a god and wants to be his disciple,

After twenty long years of destitution from being rejected by popular art sellers, an artist decides to reverse his misfortune by besting the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In a small town, a resident watches as the people and place change. He recounts eight seemingly disparate stories, but the town connects them all.

An older Jewish man living in America becomes increasingly jealous of a fellow writer as his Yiddish poetry is continuously rejected by publishers, while his colleague's short stories are translated into English and earn him fame and success.

A young would-be poet develops a complicated relationship with the most famous living Bosnian poet at the time. This relationship ends decades later on another continent when that poet dies, and the young man finds a life of his own that doesn't involve poetry.

A college professor pays a famous poet to guest lecture at his university. Although this encounter improves his professional standing, his personal life suffers as a result of the poet's behavior.