A brilliant little boy is taken to an elite school in space to learn how to fight "buggers", insect-like aliens who have attacked Earth in the past and will likely attack again. Along the way, he is forced to participate in acts of extreme violence that challenge who he believes himself to be.

Mourning her beloved father's death, a young girl takes a vow of silence to spite her cruel and adulterous mother. After her mother begins yet another affair, the girl comes up with a plan to expose her and do right by her father's memory.