A research psychologist visits a peculiar asylum patient who recounts his life story. The patient warns the researcher about how obsession with the pursuit of knowledge can make one lose sight of their humanity until it is unsalvageable.

Is it better to have a human civilization devoid of art and culture than to have none at all? Three Earth ambassadors must whether to annihilate a space colony that has traded away human consciousness for a hive mind that feels nothing but the need for survival. In the distant future, three humans in possession of nuclear warheads must decide whether to allow a remarkable human variant species without consciousness to dominate the galaxy or destroy them forever.

After a revolution, disabled peoples have been captured and banished to a new planet. When they receive a message from Earth, the exiled peoples believe they are in great danger and must decide whether to stay in the society they have established or journey to the other side of the planet to escape.

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.

A man's lonely life focused on the pursuit of reason and music leaves him questioning what more there may be in the lives of other people and of religion.

In the quarantine stage of the 2020 pandemic, a woman and her husband reflect on their marriage, how time has somehow conflated, making them, at once, who they are now and who they used to be.

In a dystopian American Midwest, a young Arab-American woman tries to get in touch with a past lover as she journeys through the Dakotas with her dying mother who's a part of "the Movement," a philosophy based on continuous transience and the avoidance of violent places.

After being laid off from his job, a man struggles to find meaning in a utopian world where all of his basic needs are already met for him.

In intense discussion a group leader ponders aloud, asking why hermits hide and what defines outcasts, among other cerebral queries. A group of friends discusses the oddities they have seen and perceived in their lives leather-clad hermits and criminal astronauts among them. They debate the purpose of hermitage, the classification of outcasts, and the purpose of their own reflections.

In an alternative past where each human can access the minds of all other people at all times, a car crash causes one man to lose connection, and he becomes infatuated with the feeling of having a singular mind.