A man contemplates suicide after losing his high-paying job that supported his lavish lifestyle and he finds an unlikely therapist in a slow-witted townsperson.

A college professor pays a famous poet to guest lecture at his university. Although this encounter improves his professional standing, his personal life suffers as a result of the poet's behavior.

A man recalls his intimate friendship with his former English professor, who resolved to fuel his unsatisfied desire for playwriting during the time they were apart. In their reunion decades later, instead of the brilliant play he promised, the professor shows his former student a disturbing product of his mental instability.

Two former Yale roommates, now middle-aged divorced men, reunite in Montana when one of them is being investigated for embezzlement. During the brief time they spend together, the other friend wonders why the clearly unsuitable friendship has gone on for so long.

With the help and company of her master's clerk, a young slave girl runs away; however, her search for a habitable town is long and arduous, and she slowly begins to lose hope.

A young comic artist works at a nearby steakhouse and spends his free time dreaming up a character he calls 'Warrior Jesus,' a savior who enacts revenge on evil people.

A teacher on the Lower East side meets a friendly man with a presence resembling a dead English poet.

After two men get laid off from their construction jobs, they concoct a scheme to kidnap a local kid and earn ransom.

When a music teacher in Medieval England finds an alluring young student who can sing the perfect note, his home life comes crashing down around him.

An aimless, twenty-two-year-old Californian man questions everything—from his job to his ability to take care of a potted plant—as a heat wave sweeps his town. Just when he's about to spiral, a life-changing act of heroism gives him unexpected clarity.