A middle aged upper class woman and her family live in an upscale neighborhood. The family's laughter turns malicious when they cannot distinguish between what is comical and what is horrendous and increasingly find amusement at the expense of others.

The characters found in jokes are forced to act out the jokes every time they are told.

In 1960s Boston, a Jewish deli owner who struggles to come up with his newest joke stumbles into a scam with more ramifications than he could have ever dreamed possible.

A disenchanted couple moves from the country to the city. As they engage with an inside joke that once kept them closely together, it incites an exasperated conversation about long-accumulated problems.

When a writer and her old writing professor reconvene in a Mexican restaurant one final time before the professor's death, they experience a night of unwanted encounters and unnecessary criticism that leaves the writer with a bitter taste in her mouth.

Upon hearing news of his wife’s poor state of health after giving birth, a man quickly boards a train home and deludes himself into thinking his wife is well.

A hard-working Pennsylvania nurse discovers her friend and ex-lover dead in a ditch. She searches his pockets for the money she loaned him, and when she doesn't find it, she drags his dead body around town in a search for the money.

The gas man falls and breaks his leg at a customer's house, and instead of calling for help, the customer keeps him company for hours and talks to him about his wife's imminent death.

A young bachelor attends his friend's wedding, and the friend tells him he needs to grow up and behave. The young man tries to behave for his friend, but the problem is that he is so stoned he has forgotten his name.

A writer grapples with the suicide of her longtime friend and mentor.