Tired of being deceived and humiliated by people that he trusted, a Swedish-American man decides to leave civilization behind and live alone on an island forever. However, his paradise quickly turns into hell, and he is forced to realize that history always repeats itself.

A bitter recent divorcee and her partner embark on a cruise to the Great Barrier Reef. Over time, the woman’s disdain for her loud fellow passengers turns to one of admiration and she leaves with a more positive attitude.

A teenage girl is swept into the wealthy side of her coastal town by her new boyfriend, but soon finds that she longs for adventure and freedom outside of his superficial social scene.

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.

In an apocalyptic world where the rich have abandoned land to live on cruise ships, a rock star jumps off her ship and is washed ashore. She strikes up a grudging friendship with the reclusive island-dwelling woman who rescues her.

A mother and her three boys are on a small Greek island, where they prepare to reunite with her husband. Before they leave, they attend a party, and spend time reflecting on the possibility that they may never see their missing loved one again.

On a charter through islands in Australia, an accountant meets the woman her husband has been having an affair with.

Two young girls trusted their mother to bring them to place where they could have a better life, but now they are stranded on a mid-Atlantic island. Can they keep each other alive?

A German hotel owner in Hawaii experiences a jolt of excitement in his life when a young woman who loves literature and detests flights as much as he does checks in his hotel with her husband.

In the far future, a Welsh woman temporarily moves to a space colony on a distant planet with her husband, Owen. The woman regals her space-born daughter with tales of the wonders of Earth, and her daughter develops a great longing for Earth that eventually puts her life at risk.