Knowing that some things happen only once in a lifetime, a man walking down a street is convinced that he sees the girl of his dreams and wonders if fate is telling him to leave his wife.

During the second World War, a fortune teller in Northern Italy discovers a headless body by the road. He investigates the murder to see if any details will also magically reveal the winning numbers of the lottery.

An alternate universe where all that was improbable begins to happen a lot. A black female narrator navigates the ever crumbling New York City in this new world order.

Based on a premonition, a man chooses not to board a flight. When the plane crashes, he is forced to admit that he is possibly psychic. His family life grows fraught with tension while he wrestles with survivor's guilt.

On the day her husband leaves for a work trip, a middle-aged woman hosts a dinner for a few guests at their house. During the meal, one of the woman's friends introduces her guest as a fortune-teller, which makes the hostess uneasy, a feeling that only increases as the night goes on.

A pessimistic father's belief that the world is actively against him and his family displaces his frustration on his wife and son. His opinion may prove to be correct after his child succumbs to a sudden illness.

Under the cover of secretarial work in a psychiatric unit, the protagonist records patients’ dreams in a logbook dedicated to Johnny Panic, believing themself a disciple to the omniscient master of fear and creator of all dreams. When the protagonist spends the night at the unit for unfettered access to patient records, the clinic director takes them away to a secure room for electroshock therapy.

When a young boy witnesses an odd event from the window of his small-town house, he begins to doubt the stability of the world around him.

A young girl suspects that she has a power ordained by God. When her mother comes to visit at her boarding school, the girl tries to use the powers to chastise her mother.

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.