A new mother wakes up after giving birth to her son and upon gazing at his face, feels an ephemeral peace that only comes once in a lifetime.

Amongst problems with her ungrateful children and ex-husband, a middle-aged mother deals with a burgeoning mid-life crisis — until she realizes that she has become miraculously pregnant.

After kicking her husband out and changing the locks, a mother imagines he is still living with her, distant and uninterested in sex. Lying in bed, she conjures up old memories and imagines new ones, grappling with questions of selfhood, identity, womanhood, and motherhood. One night, her real husband returns, and she lets him back in.

A middle-aged American woman living abroad feels alone and out of place, so she seeks company from the local church and the Mothers' Union held there. However, as an atheist, the uptight nature of the church and its members leave the woman feeling unsettled.

A woman harbors a secret desire to have a baby in a future world where childbirth is extremely rare and discouraged.

A woman's complicated relationship to her mother is captured in three vignettes: one from directly after her death, one from when she is still alive, and one from years after she is gone.

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 mother, upon helping a girl at a playground one day, contemplates the nature of her marriage and the daughter who came from it.

When 17-year-old girl becomes pregnant, she has no choice but to hide her pregnancy. As she grows older, she realizes she must unburden herself of the secret, or hide it for the rest of her life.

After a tumultuous and difficult upbringing, a woman contemplates whether or not she should give up her newborn child for adoption.