A young girl works to impress her highly critical parents and submits to a terrible fate as she struggles to meet their impossible standards.

A slice of grim parts of life

The impact of an absent father emerges in the gruesome stories of a young daughter as her alcoholic mother listens and reflects on the struggles of raising her alone.

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 dealing with conflicting emotions resorts to deliberately putting herself in danger to learn to value the life she's been given - but these unorthodox methods leave her more desperate than ever.

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.

After a terrible accident, a boy and his family spend the next years in a depression that verges masochism.

A man suddenly realizes that he hates his wife, and resolves to free himself.

A pessimistic father's belief that the world is actively against him and his family displaces his frustration on his wife and son. His opinion may prove to be correct after his child succumbs to a sudden illness.

A middle-aged man ruminating on his past failures witnesses a canoe accident and considers sacrificing himself to save two drowning girls.