A 36-year-old Irish man indulges in his usual routine voyage from Boyle to Sligo via train, enjoying himself and his rituals, until an unsettling encounter throws his entire day off-kilter.

Feeling unloved by her sisters, a woman elopes to Houston only for her marriage to swiftly fall apart and her cat to abandon her. However, an unexpected development allows her to reconcile with her sisters and finally be at peace.

In 1110s Islamic Spain, a banished court philosopher's affair with a supernatural girl lends his ideas persistence when she gives him a cohort of children to spread his beliefs to all corners of the world.