Having been hospitalized for a long time, a young girl finds herself surrounded by people who cannot understand the strangeness of her illness. After her friend visits her, she must accept that her relationships may never be the same, and that her expectations that tether her to a life outside of the hospital may be very different from the disappointing reality.

Having escaped internment, a Japanese man happens upon a confederacy of Natives and ingratiates himself in the culture and tradition of clockwork.