When a village's beloved schoolteacher disappears just as mysteriously as she arrived an entire century earlier, the townspeople are left to contend with her legacy and lessons.

When a World War II soldier returns home to San Francisco, memories of a late friend keep him from enjoying the normalcy of civilian life.

Compiling notes for an English essay, a sixteen-year-old girl recounts her middle-class upbringing, kleptomania, and eventual coercion into prostitution and assisting with drug use. After she suffers violence and abuse, she is eventually rescued — but the experience traumatizes her.

An Indian college student returns home for Diwali for the first time in two years. Upon his return, he must decide if he will please his dying father by getting married, or tell his family about his dreams to study in America.

A young boy living in America recalls his childhood in Jamaica living with his grandmother and reflects on the importance of his childhood friendships and familial relationships.

After a teenage girl comes home to East Hampton from her fancy Connecticut boarding school, she finds in her new step-mother an unexpected ally who helps her to navigate her relationship with her father and exact revenge.

In an attempt to impress his emotionally distant father, a boy ridicules his mother, who has loved him unconditionally even in his father's absence. Wracked with guilt, he yearns for her forgiveness - only to find that she does not hold it against him.

An old (76) man returns to his hometown in China after 66 years, to find that his mother has just passed away. With fanciful ideas of his assured prosperity in America, the village women seek to marry the old man.