On a trip to revisit the grave of their old horse, an isolated farming family connects with the deep messages about life embedded everywhere in nature.

By trampling the grass as he walks the same route over and over to gather clams, an elderly man makes space for a bounty of primroses to flourish, which allows the moths and other pollinators to thrive. When he dies, the roses and moths follow suit.

In a near future where environmental collapse has progressed, a young woman and her crush illegally gather shed elk antlers to sell on the black market. Meanwhile, the woman's aging father, fixated on his impending death and consumed by guilt, attempts to square his ecological debts.

An elderly woman prepares for her death, but is anxious for someone to listen to her precious memories and cherish them after her death.

Two people of color work for a German immigrant in Massachusetts helping him grow and maintain trees, and when he dies years after they've moved on from the work and each other, they reflect on the natural philosophies they learned from him.

In a series of commentaries on the human condition — life, truth, happiness, death — a spinster sister takes in her dead sister’s children; a man is entranced by the endless waves which roll and crash in the ocean; a carpenter wrestles with the burden of being everyone’s confidante; a dying railroad crossing watchman shares a simple but complex wisdom.

A woman who has moved to the countryside to write a chapter on an American philosopher reflects on and recovers from her recent miscarriage.

Faced with cancer, Mrs. Wilson confronts her impending death. She finds new strength fight her prognosis with a book, The Will to Live, by the philosopher Schopenhauer.

A series of deaths leave students wondering about life. After watching their class's pet gerbil, fish and plants die, the students are left wondering if their school is cursed.

After a drunk college boy falls off a balcony, a slew of characters--a groundskeeper, another student, a chaplain, and an RA--relate to his death in different ways. Their stories are sidelined for the core matter: that a boy died.