A poet attempts to sleep comfortably at a friend’s house without disturbing his hosts.

On a cold February night, a man innocently eavesdrops on the lives of those around him — but when he overhears a violent situation, he must decide if he can remain a bystander.

After he is kicked out of his house, a husband spends his days sleeping under a flowering pear tree in the front yard, his wife hatefully observing.

After accidentally killing a friend's baby, a 35 year old woman tries to find her footing again at her husband's academic conference in Europe—but finds herself struggling with herself and her marriage.

A young man who works at a shipping company comes back to a rooming home and befriends the host. He meets the host's ill husband and discovers more about the couple until he receives the news of the husband's passing.

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.

On a cold winter's day, a doctor travels to the home of a deathly sick man who claims that his illness is actually a curse his wife cast on him.

A starving man wandering the countryside finds solace in a young woman's cottage where she offers him food and rest. But when the young woman starts to behave as if the man is a threat, he must decide whether or not to live up to her fears.

An elderly couple's battle for control over the decoration and organization of their house drives them apart.

In intense discussion a group leader ponders aloud, asking why hermits hide and what defines outcasts, among other cerebral queries. A group of friends discusses the oddities they have seen and perceived in their lives leather-clad hermits and criminal astronauts among them. They debate the purpose of hermitage, the classification of outcasts, and the purpose of their own reflections.