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.

In a future where technology has advanced to the point where humans can undergo "optimization" to rid themselves of emotions and increase their mental functions, one man decides to cling to his humanity in an effort to atone for his sins and appreciate the beauty of being human.

After two of a man's acquaintances die by suicide, he goes on a hunting trip and can't stop thinking about why they wanted to die.

On his thirteenth birthday, a boy on the edge of puberty climbs the high dive at the public pool for the first time. At the top, he feels as if he can stop time and see the entire world laid out before him — but eventually he must jump.

Everything all at once in word form.

A typical nice-guy colleague with a toxically positive attitude delivers an exhortation to his colleagues about eliminating self-doubt so as to increase work performance.

A story with an unconventional structure that asks "What is your number one priority?"

As a woman slips in and out of sleep, her dreams become windows to moments in her life.

An old woman experiences several blackouts as she approaches death.

After kicking her husband out and changing the locks, a mother imagines he is still living with her, distant and uninterested in sex. Lying in bed, she conjures up old memories and imagines new ones, grappling with questions of selfhood, identity, womanhood, and motherhood. One night, her real husband returns, and she lets him back in.