Three boys struggle to save their companion on a cave wall climbing trip.

A boy listens to his old friend tell a gruesome tale of his experience in the Civil War before the man’s health takes a turn for the worse.

A woman flying home to San Francisco is forced on a detour because of a catastrophic earthquake that hits Northern California. She calls an ex-boyfriend with whom she is still in love to make sure he is safe and the two weigh whether or not to continue their romance.

After the death of his mother, a young boy unhappily spends time with his wimpy uncle and witnesses a moment of unexpected heroism.

An American veteran who watched his friend drown in a field of excrement in Vietnam drives in circles around the lake in his hometown ruminating on how he might have saved his friend, won a Silver Star for valor, and made his father proud.

Aboard a Royal Navy submarine stationed in the Indian Ocean during World War 2, a group of sailors spend most of their days writing letters. When the captain chooses to fire at enemy ships, possibly disclosing their location, the men reckon with their proximity to death.

A Kentucky lab technician ponders his future as he tries to choose between his fiancee and his girlfriend.

Three very different people—a vulgar comedian, an eloquent Cambridge graduate with a chemistry doctorate, and a proud historian—deliver three speeches posthumously honoring the same chemist and lend comic but profound insight into the recipient's multi-faceted character and contributions.

A professor tries to convey to his students the magnitude of the most perfectly crafted poem ever written in the English language: “Lycidas.”