After kicking her husband out and changing the locks, a mother imagines he is still living with her, distant and uninterested in sex. Lying in bed, she conjures up old memories and imagines new ones, grappling with questions of selfhood, identity, womanhood, and motherhood. One night, her real husband returns, and she lets him back in.

A girl with a big imagination tries to use magic to heal her little brother, but the consequences are far worse than she could have dreamed.

Upon hearing about an upcoming wedding, a former American soldier reminisces about the time he met a young girl who gave him the recourse to survive the war.

While visiting her estranged father in Paris, a little girl makes a friend with an initially unwelcome critter.

A young boy stays with his mother and their slaves at a farm in the Deep South, while his father and brother fight as Confederate soldiers. When Union soliders show up for a meal, the boy confronts the humanity of the enemy.

A sailor on the Atlantic Ocean attempts to cure his loneliness at sea by writing about his travels. When he tries to befriend his fellow crewmates, only one man reciprocates — but even their friendship is tenuous.

A group of children in a family lives with their grandmother, but she is mean and abusive. The children soon become tired of her abuse and plot to kill her in various ways, though the task is complicated by logistics.

A poor, 9-year-old, Black boy travels with a church camp to visit a house in a wealthy, white neighborhood with a pool to play in and lots of food. When the group's usual host is out of town and the van takes them to a Black woman's house instead, the boy begins to learn lessons about race and class that he does not yet fully understand.

At a rundown hotel in tropical South America, the only resident cycles through a fever dream of hazy memories and repetitive conversations with his friend, the bartender.

A man moving to San Francisco finds himself dragged into conversation with his neighbor on the plane, a woman who is fleeing New Jersey after her affair with her sister's husband.