A teacher on the Lower East side meets a friendly man with a presence resembling a dead English poet.

A man recalls his intimate friendship with his former English professor, who resolved to fuel his unsatisfied desire for playwriting during the time they were apart. In their reunion decades later, instead of the brilliant play he promised, the professor shows his former student a disturbing product of his mental instability.

A woman grows obsessed with a single book from the time she is a young adult to her death in old age, as the book's meaning changes for her over time.

A high school English teacher copes with his disappointing reality by imagining a secret life for himself at a distinguished university campus - but he is shocked and furious when one of the students that he looks down upon has a similar method of escapism.

At the end of the world, a girl resolves to finish her English paper.

A professor finds himself attracted to one of his students, allowing her to skip the final exams - but her resultant grade causes her to lash out at him and reveal harsh truths about his own life that he finds difficult to accept.

Despite her friction with other teachers, a young student shows exceptional talent in the writing field and is encouraged by her favorite teacher to continue to kindle that passion and become a writer someday.

A rambunctious teenager with an inquisitive mind causes much grief for all his New England family and neighbors when he visits them in the summer of 1914, on the eve of World War I.

A Canadian graduate student and his wife are living in France and often socialize with their peers at concerts and dinner parties. They soon make friends with an established novelist, but as the student continues to meet people he begins to question who he can trust and who his real friends are.

A disillusioned professor finds himself challenging the university when he learns that one of his students is facing physical abuse at home, leading to a confrontation that ultimately reinforces his hopelessness.