An investigator stays in a family home in order to become acquainted with the family and all their intricacies while he investigates the case of family's adult son, who has threatens to kill the president of the United States to spare the lives of those involved in Vietnam.

In post-Cultural Revolution China, a Marxist philosophy professor must decide whether he should confess to a crime he did not commit.

A stubborn and grumpy letter writer is detained in a palace for the crimes of his so-called brother during the Iranian Revolution.