A writer reflects on his mother’s incredible strength, which he depicts in a short story. However, his mother does not approve of the piece as he had hoped, and he soon makes an important discovery.

After losing a fight, a professional wrestler navigates loss, guilt, and self-worth and explores his love-hate relationship with fighting.

In the WWII era, a married couple spectates a death-defying stunt. The husband likens the impossible feat to their failing marriage and is relieved when the performer succeeds, but when the man then falls to his death, his wife's strange reaction signals the end of their love.

An ordinary man gets an inch and a half of mention in the newspaper after stumbling into a low stakes rescue — and the small bit of fame sends him spiraling down a dark, egotistical path.

In an unlikely encounter, a homeless teenage boy recounts harsh events of his life to a writer. He nonchalantly tells of an employer whose assignments caused him to have permanent physical and mental damage.

A twenty-year-old boxer endures his trainer's grueling practice techniques to perfect his skills and win money from bets at his bar fights on the weekends. Though boxing has given him a purpose and a home with his trainer's family, the young man fears for his future, especially considering the tragic failures of those before him.

On a visit to his old family farm in the Great Plains, a man recalls his tumultuous relationship with his now-deceased brother. In the process, he must reckon with the continued influence of familial trauma and confront his own ambiguous role in his brother's death.

As a Canadian gym teacher starts a family and a new life with his wife, he worries about his brother ,who has a developmental disability. The teacher is haunted by his guilt from how he treated his brother in the past, and hopes to make up for his mistakes.

In an airport terminal, a former boxer recounts to his coworker about the time he punched a classmate outside of the ring and the traumatic events that transpired.

The males of a family and their neighbor set off to a nearby mountain during winter to retrieve a CAT rig in order to maintain their lumber business, but are forced to contest with extraordinary natural forces as they do so.