When a young man moves in with his pregnant girlfriend's family in the Pacific Northwest, he feels increasingly trapped by his girlfriend's secrets, her brother's drunken behavior, and the demanding land on the family's orchard.

An innocent introductory French course called la Muerte teaches vocabulary, by describing a typical farm until the farmer disappears.

In civil war-stricken Burundi of 1994, a divorced expatriate posing as a blindfolded chess grandmaster meets another imposter pulling off the same con as him.

When a young woman in a contemporary American city witnesses her father cheating on her mother, her entire world crashes down around her.

On the night of his daughter's birthday, a middle-aged Canadian professor laments the death of his daughter's mother, who died in childbirth twenty years ago.

One year out from a chaotic relationship, a woman reflects on her former lover. When she receives a surprise missive from him, it dredges up lingering feelings.

A young South African man traveling through Africa befriends a group of people and stays with them, following them north to Kenya. He becomes romantically attached to one of the young Swiss men, despite their language barrier, and they begin a hot-and-cold relationship.

An American man on a train in France encounters a peasant man and his family who try to speak to him despite the fact that French is not his first language.