By trampling the grass as he walks the same route over and over to gather clams, an elderly man makes space for a bounty of primroses to flourish, which allows the moths and other pollinators to thrive. When he dies, the roses and moths follow suit.

A young boy finds a clearing while exploring the wilderness and meditatively observes the nature around him.

When an old woman sees her son straining to leave to see the world, she remembers her husband doing the same many years earlier. In a fierce battle pitting love against discovery and adventure, she does her utmost to set him free.

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.

Two female biologists spend a few months in a hotel in the Northeastern United States to research shore life, and whereas one pursues romance with men, the other feels spurned by unrequited love.

An ex-couple spends the afternoon together catching up in a valley they used to call their own, a month after the man loses his job. He paints, and she watches birds.

A Canadian family drives out to the forest with their reserved, American friend. On their way home, a deadly encounter with a angry bull spurs the American into action, changing his relationship with the family.

A man who firmly believes he does not love the woman he felt obligated to marry begins to realize the gravity of losing her after she ventures into the woods one stormy evening.

After hearing about his son's exciting experiences on a Boy Scouts outing in the woods, a father begins to feel jealous and detached from his work at a big law firm.

When an anthropology professor moves with his family to a remote home on the Great Plains, a new friendship with an idealist, a landscaping disaster, and a disheartening consultation with an Indigenous man shake his beliefs about cultural relativism to the core.