After a man's wife dies in childbirth, he hires a nanny to take care of his children. The children develop a loving relationship with the nanny, while the father brings in numerous stepmothers.

A woman leaves her island home to serve at a créche on the mainland in a poor area of the city. There, she falls in love with one of the children she cares for and wants him as her own, but his mother commits a crime that puts the boy out of reach.

An afternoon at the park takes an unexpected turn for a mother and her son as the well-established families that they admire turn out to be unhappy people who secretly enjoy the misery of others. As the day progresses, the mother is surprised to learn that she and her son share many negative qualities with those families.

On a weekend trip to their lakeside cottage, two anxious parents watch as their young son experiences nature and takes a small first step onto the long path of growing up.

A single mother living in the Bay Area is attempting to successfully raise three children, but finds trouble optimizing both their freedom and their safety.

A stay-at-home dad with a wife who works in Manhattan attempts to find a sense of control by tenderly disciplining his young son after he puts himself in danger.

A 5-year-old boy with a unique way of seeing the world feels alienated from his mother and tells her that he does not need her anymore. This viewpoint later causes him to lash out at his family, leading him to reflect on himself and his life.

After their mother leaves a preteen and her siblings, the preteen must navigate her emerging adolescence by herself in an orphanage.

Fearing her father's cruelty, a young girl is determined to save a bird trapped in the attic. Things spiral out of control when she realizes that her intervention has proved to be worse than anything her father could have done.

A young girl works to impress her highly critical parents and submits to a terrible fate as she struggles to meet their impossible standards.