In 1920s New York, a young boy watches his mother fall in love with a new man, only for that man to unexpectedly pass away and the family's savings to be lost.

An expatriate and veteran of the Jazz Age tries to regain custody of his daughter, but the ghosts of his darkly opulent lifestyle stand in the way.

In a small rural town in the 1930s, three friends — a farmer’s wife, a music teacher and adulteress, and a single huntswoman — drift away from one another as they grow older, choosing unexpected futures for themselves.

A middle-aged man’s trip into the Irish countryside causes him to reflect on the dreams he gave up for his now-failing marriage.

After a man from New York meets a young woman from a Mexican family on a bus to L.A., the two travel across mid-20th century Southern California searching for work, food, and shelter while falling in love. As the travelers struggle to survive on their few remaining dollars, the man wonders how long this adventure can last.

In a town so small it can hardly be called a town, a black woman serves a rich white family until a series of horrific events causes the single joy in her life to vanish.

When the Great Depression hits a well-to-do family, an eighteen-year-old girl works at a ranch to put herself through college, enduring the difficulty of the work while also enjoying being away from the stifling environment of her home.

After fleeing Germany in the wake of World War II, two immigrants struggle to adjust to a new life of labor and hardship on an American farm.

An unnamed narrator muses about the layout and the mundane emptiness at a neighborhood intersection. A man later gets out of a streetcar at the intersection and enters one of the brick buildings.

An old man recounts the story of how he met his wife while traveling to Birmingham to look for work. Though they are initially strangers, the man is determined to win over his future-wife, despite her parents' hesitations.