Through three tales of impossible machines with abilities to manipulate the physical world, travel through time and space, and bestow telepathy onto an entire community, candidates of an engineering exam in the far future are asked to ponder fantastical implications of technology.

A French detective adopts an Indigenous Brazilian boy interested in anthropology.

An exhausted husband and wife travel by foot and stop by a house to ask a woman for food. She is rude and only allows the wife to eat, but the wife saves some food for her husband so they can continue their long journey.

Freshly transferred from a hospital position, a twenty-year-old navy sailor must adjust to his new position, which requires him to clean the ship's furnaces. Despite being warned, the work is much harder than he expects, but he is determined to get the job done.