Imprisoned in a German prisoner of war camp, an American soldier fights for his morals while succumbing to enemy threats.

When a middle-aged woman goes on a hike with a man she is seeing, a mastiff attacks the man. The woman wonders whether the dog or the relationship itself is the bigger danger.

In 1988 Germany, a teenaged girl likes to probe her uptight family members for the rich stories they carry from their past. When her aunt—the black sheep of the family—comes to stay with them, the girl is fascinated by her free-spirited persona and the family secrets she may hold.

When a German professor teaching Comparative Literature at an Indiana university in the 1950s receives a letter, he suspects anti-Semitic motives.

An immigrant woman reflects on her courtship with her husband. She thinks of how she beguiled her husband with stories about her grandfather's friendship with scientist Gregor Mendel, and how they remind her of untold stories about her sexual assault.

On a cold winters morning, post World War I, an older couple works on updating their family memory book with the intention of passing it on to the younger generation.

A second-generation Russian immigrant living in contemporary Michigan finds himself caught up in a sad but emotive group of friends when he takes a continuing education course on Intermediate German.