In a futuristic world, the space race between China and South Africa leads to the discovery of the Spirit World, leading to the deaths of hundreds by spontaneous combustion.

A Los Angeles speech pathologist is assigned to the case of a presumably mentally-ill woman who speaks in gibberish that turns out to be Old English. When the woman disappears, deciphering her mysterious writing leads the pathologist to wonder if she has stumbled across a time traveler.

In a futuristic society in which free speech is illegal without a license, a man works to get his license by having strange and touching conversations with a bizarre cast of characters.

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.

A depressed police officer investigates whether a shopkeeper is performing amateur brain surgery in his back room. His findings subvert not only his expectations, but also his assumptions about mental health and crime in his city.