A son tells a series of stories, most of them about his father and stepfather. As the son describes a robbery that took place at his house in high school and his experiences with his father, a former Jehovah's Witness and current alcoholic, he begins to recall details from his childhood.

In an attempt to impress his emotionally distant father, a boy ridicules his mother, who has loved him unconditionally even in his father's absence. Wracked with guilt, he yearns for her forgiveness - only to find that she does not hold it against him.

Though numerous social workers try to step in, a co-dependent mother and son bounce from city to city, in search of a place where they can be together at all times.

After being left behind by her husband and two sons due to her alleged "boringness," a woman must learn how to cope with her new life.

A series of vignettes about various sons along a family tree.

A writer reflects on his mother’s incredible strength, which he depicts in a short story. However, his mother does not approve of the piece as he had hoped, and he soon makes an important discovery.

A woman with a troubled, cruel son pays careful attention when a mother across the street murders her children, feeling eerily connected to the mother and her motives.

When a young college student's father gives him money for tuition, the student spends it away and lies to his mother for money. His father catches him, but the student remains unsure if his mother knows the truth.

A bitter divorcee and distant father having an affair with a younger, married woman gets a call that his son has gotten into trouble at boarding school. He travels to the school, where the headmaster says his son, who beat up another student, must transfer. In a series of events that makes him increasingly bitter, he ends up making his son's girlfriend cry in a restaurant.

A recently divorced couple struggle with their three-year-old son's erratic behavior in the wake of their divorce.