A young man returns home to find a girl in desperate need of a father figure. After a few seemingly unsuccessful attempts to win her trust, he has almost given up - until an encounter with a snake in the woods gives him the chance to truly put his life on the line for her sake.

Reeling from his recent divorce, a man tries and fails to reason with his ex-wife. He hopes to find solace in the arms of his girlfriend, but realizes that sex will not fix the wound left by his dead marriage.

A retired chemist forms a friendship with a young girl whose mother is suspected of poisoning her dead husband. Out of concern, the chemist starts a rift with the woman that has an unexpected romantic ending.

A man takes his niece to the circus, hoping her sense of wonder will help him feel young again; however, a tragic accident leaves him haunted by the experience.

A lonely girl forms a friendship with a woman rejected by society; they spend an afternoon together, after which the girl is able to better understand the casual cruelty of the people around her.

Upon seeing the image of his friend shot dead in the newspaper, a man reflects on their childhood experience with police corruption and criminals to understand the moment his friend turned to a life of crime.

A Canadian family drives out to the forest with their reserved, American friend. On their way home, a deadly encounter with a angry bull spurs the American into action, changing his relationship with the family.

Having always admired gamecocks, a businessman makes a bet on a cockfight, only to be humbled by the gamecocks' fighting spirit.

An American bureaucrat in Germany tries to save a girl and her mother from abuse at the hands of a sergeant, but finds that his clumsy intervention makes the girl's life much worse than he could have imagined.

In an attempt to impress his emotionally distant father, a boy ridicules his mother, who has loved him unconditionally even in his father's absence. Wracked with guilt, he yearns for her forgiveness - only to find that she does not hold it against him.