A young man contracts an intestinal disease as he travels to a tropical island and chooses to fast for his physical and spiritual health. As he develops an intimacy with the island, he becomes convinced that this fast will cure his illness — despite what other Western travelers believe.

A young boy, who is still unaware of his future in which his mother dies and he becomes a miserable, unaccomplished middle-aged man, lives through an ever-so-slightly unusual day which would later become the one and only core memory he has of his mother.

The granddaughter of a revered Princeton genius reaches out to her family's maid to uncover what terrible secrets tore her family apart and resulted in his lonely death many years ago.

An American writer listens as the father of his friend tells the story of a writer he met in Paris many years ago who was tortured and taunted by Parisian aristocrats until he's driven mad.

Upon the death of their tyrannical mistress, three old maids venture to the place she forbade them to go and reminisce about her life.

A seventeen-year-old boy who just got released from reform school tries to prove to everybody that he is a good person. However, he can't control his bad nature.

A middle-aged Black Miami divorcee trying to buy her first car finds herself unexpectedly trapped by a vicious dog in the parking lot of the car dealership.

In Iowa, a young Black man goes to a party where he meets a host of artist types who cause him to reflect on how people relate to each other.

On a ship heading for America, a young Jewish girl, having spent her childhood during World War II, is determined to have her first kiss before she reaches the other side of the Atlantic.

Knowing that some things happen only once in a lifetime, a man walking down a street is convinced that he sees the girl of his dreams and wonders if fate is telling him to leave his wife.