A New Yorker working at a salon spends her time observing people she meets on the subway and at work. Though she meets a lot of people between washing hair and riding the subway to and from work, she avoids talking to them except for the rare occasions when she has to.

A divorced mother has a terrible morning at her ex-husband's property at Presque Isle, which she enjoys as a vacation home for the summer, after her car breaks down and her daughter calls her out for her shameful drunken actions of the night before.

A stubborn and grumpy letter writer is detained in a palace for the crimes of his so-called brother during the Iranian Revolution.

An embittered teacher takes an inner-city Black boy under her wing and discovers his immense academic and personal gifts. But even as he begins to escape the drugs that have defined his upbringing, dealing threatens to tear his loved ones away forever.