An afternoon at the park takes an unexpected turn for a mother and her son as the well-established families that they admire turn out to be unhappy people who secretly enjoy the misery of others. As the day progresses, the mother is surprised to learn that she and her son share many negative qualities with those families.

A couple adopts a troubled six year old child who takes a startling interest in one very precious item in their home.

After they have been removed from their parents and send to a camp to be brainwashed, two girls connect over an act of institutional rebellion. One suffers for it, and one goes on to live her life as she is supposed to—but will she be satisfied with leaving things alone?

On the eve of her students' elementary school graduation, a teacher in rural Ireland makes one last push to prepare her students for the real world.

After a young Jewish boy moves to Berlin with his family, he learns that his family agreed to watch a boy from the mental institution on the weekends. The two become friends, and the boy learns more about himself through meeting the other boy.

On his sixth birthday, a young boy receives a surprise present that forever changes his perspective on life.

After their mother leaves a preteen and her siblings, the preteen must navigate her emerging adolescence by herself in an orphanage.

After her son dies, a mother reckons with the grandson he left behind.

On a cold December day, parents grieve for their son who was killed in a football game. A friend of their son helps them realize their son may have hid the feelings he was too afraid to show.

A World War II era fairytale-like story of two young evacuees who witness a strange event in childhood, and are reunited in adulthood by a long serious of unlikely coincidences. During World War II, two young evacuees witness a strange event in their childhood. This event leaves a strong impression on both girls, and it proceeds to shape their futures into a long series of unlikely coincidences.