A disgruntled writer returns to his small suburban town for what will likely be his last time seeing his ill father.

During the Civil War, a young man finds purpose helping the wounded while visiting his own injured brother.

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.

A college professor goes on a wilderness retreat to better connect with some ideas of American Literature, but his plan backfires and turns into a learning moment for his students.

In a small town, a resident watches as the people and place change. He recounts eight seemingly disparate stories, but the town connects them all.

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.

Upon returning to Paris after a decade-long hiatus wandering the French countryside and writing an epic, a poet encounters an enigmatic young woman who believes he is a god and wants to be his disciple,

A man's lonely life focused on the pursuit of reason and music leaves him questioning what more there may be in the lives of other people and of religion.

A struggling writer finally completes his novel, only to have his original voice corrupted by the demands of his publisher. His supportive family cannot understand why he is unhappy with his success - but after a tragic accident leads to his death, they find solace in the remnants of his work.

A writer finds himself entangled in the lives of his college friends, an ex-literature professor and his wife, decades after they graduate. They pursue love and their literary dreams mind a chaotic New York City of the 1960s.