Tired of being deceived and humiliated by people that he trusted, a Swedish-American man decides to leave civilization behind and live alone on an island forever. However, his paradise quickly turns into hell, and he is forced to realize that history always repeats itself.

A woman who is not content with life and fears staying in one place works as a traveling writer, recording her thoughts and interactions on tape recorders and finding different lovers in each place she visits.

A group of friends realize they have been living vicariously through one of their friend's travel stories for their entire lives.

Aina Lappi migrates from Finland to Canada to marry her childhood suitor and start a farm, but she takes drastic action when her new life is not at all to her liking. Strong-willed Aina Lappi migrates from Finland to Canada to marry her childhood suitor and start a farm, but she hates the new life and quickly develops a death wish for her husband, who is not at all what she remembered.

When a young man leaves his home in Kansas City to find a career, he struggles to settle down in one spot. He wanders, impoverished, across the western United States and finds a transcendent understanding of the human condition.

In limbo between life and death after falling five hundred feet into a cement mixer, a construction worker reflects on the nature of love.

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.

A young woman embarks on a voyage across the Atlantic, leaving her boyfriend behind. Her good-bye reminds her of when she almost married an artist in Mexico.

In the far future, a Welsh woman temporarily moves to a space colony on a distant planet with her husband, Owen. The woman regals her space-born daughter with tales of the wonders of Earth, and her daughter develops a great longing for Earth that eventually puts her life at risk.

A conversation with his former lover opens a man's eyes to his tendency to flee rather than confront the hopeless reality of his own life.