When a sixty-nine-year old high school teacher's elm tree is infested with insects, the man does everything he can to save the tree, even going so low as to sabotage his neighbor.

After his wife's death, a man struggles with his belief in God and with taking care of his young daughters as a single father. But when someone is brutally murdered in the rural countryside, the man finds both a welcome distraction in bringing justice to the killer and an unlikely ally along the way.

After it is announced that an apocalyptic event that will destroy all life in the universe, an astrophysicist and her gardener mother meet in near-future England to decide how to spend the last months of life.