After a retired inventor becomes widowed, he decides to take Latin classes and falls for his teacher despite his grief and hesitations.

A humanoid immortal figure lives through the years following the death of her friend. As she watches the last of her friend's lineage die after 600 years, she reflects on the nature of her relationship with the friend.

A man thinks about his relationship with his parents (especially his mother) as he watches them grow old. He then realizes that he is now old too.

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

Set in 1914 Detroit, a young man with a life threatening condition is forced to live a mundane life protected from the outside world. When a new friend begins showing him the joys life has to offer, he is forced to decide how he wants to live.

Eventually it came to pass that no one ever had to die, unless they ran out of money. Then, unless they were so horrible that society had to dispose of them. Then, unless wanted to or could be talked into it. Then, no one would die so long as they had just one person who loved them.

An aging writer grapples with an existential crisis as he struggles to continue loving his wife.

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.

When an old woman sees her son straining to leave to see the world, she remembers her husband doing the same many years earlier. In a fierce battle pitting love against discovery and adventure, she does her utmost to set him free.

A new police officer develops a close but confusing relationship with an old and troublesome local, fading into obsolescence when the man passes away.