A French detective adopts an Indigenous Brazilian boy interested in anthropology.

As an old woman revisits her family's quintessentially American history, she finds a way to respect and love her parents, despite the scandals and tragedies they endured.

A young boy suffering from OCD-like symptoms grapples with self-hatred, bullying, and sexual abuse and frequently flaps his hands and constricts his throat to escape reality. His compulsions and coping mechanisms follow him through elementary school, middle school, high school, and college.

Following the death of his genius wife, a poet discovers there is more to the moon than meets the eye.

When a young academic's wife dies suddenly on the couples' honeymoon voyage across Europe, he copes by turning to his landlord.

While waiting for an unrequited love to return, an elderly woman ruminates on her role in discovering an elegant alien technology. She feels death approaching and regrets not seeing her love again before she passes—only for him to arrive in the nick of time.

In the 70s, a depressed, overweight, insecure, intellectual teenage girl stays for two weeks with a wealthy family her mother sews clothes for, the members of whom she considers confident and beautiful. She visits the historic house of her favorite novelist and entertains sexual fantasies about the boys. Years later, after becoming an academic, she reflects on the dynamics of gender and power.

An academic in Cambridge encounters a man who has decided to lose his memory each day at 3:30 am. Each time they meet, the man doesn't remember him.