A solitary young hotel clerk finds himself enticed by a mysterious, sophisticated writer. Both desire intimacy, but find their romance obstructed by unspeakable kinds of loneliness.

A ten-year-old girl witnesses a fire at her neighbors house. The arsonist, an employee, is found dead, and the girl is disturbed by his ghostly presence in her mind.

After their son goes to bed, a husband and wife socialize with another couple on the Fourth of July. As the group smoke and dance, the wife watches her husband admire the other woman, and she worries that he will leave her.