After several divorces and the death of his daughter, a man receives a terminal diagnosis himself, and ends up exploiting his impending death to amuse himself. At his deathbed, however, he is granted a moment of clarity where he can finally be his true self.

A woman finally forms a relationship with her half-sister, but becomes concerned for her well-being; the half-sister and her husband each tell the woman a different story.

When he and his fellow workers are left unemployed by the mechanization of the cotton-picking process, a man overcomes his instincts to flee, and stays with his friends as they set out to make a new life.

After struggling to appeal to their state governor, a dysfunctional family anxiously awaits the public execution of a relative. As they wait at home new of the execution, tensions and strife erupt in a dispute over the relative's innocence.

A disillusioned professor finds himself challenging the university when he learns that one of his students is facing physical abuse at home, leading to a confrontation that ultimately reinforces his hopelessness.

An aspiring artist goes to work for a businessman, hoping he can earn enough to follow his dream. Instead, he is forced to learn that dreams are not as important to the world as money.

Tired of being deceived and humiliated by people that he trusted, a Swedish-American man decides to leave civilization behind and live alone on an island forever. However, his paradise quickly turns into hell, and he is forced to realize that history always repeats itself.