In San Francisco, a Chinese grandmother teaches her granddaughter how to pickle the memories she no longer wants to carry with her, much to her daughter’s chagrin.

A 36-year-old Irish man indulges in his usual routine voyage from Boyle to Sligo via train, enjoying himself and his rituals, until an unsettling encounter throws his entire day off-kilter.

In the far future, a Welsh woman temporarily moves to a space colony on a distant planet with her husband, Owen. The woman regals her space-born daughter with tales of the wonders of Earth, and her daughter develops a great longing for Earth that eventually puts her life at risk.

A newscaster recently arrived in space receives ominous advice from a jaded engineer: whatever you do, leave space because getting attracted to aliens will be the death of us all.

After his newspaper route, a young paperboy enters a Southern café, only to be roped into a philosophical conversation surrounding love by an old man.

On a trip through Europe, an old man grapples with his terminal illness and finds himself increasingly disappointed by his current lover and missing his old flame.

A bartender laments that the professional wrestlers in Charlotte are moving to Atlanta, feeling that all excitement is draining from the North Carolina town. At the end of the final match, all possibilities of love and hope drain from his life.

A bipolar doctor returns to the West Coast after an extended period of practicing medicine in Africa. An unexpected hospital stay makes him remember an old promise he made to his sister.

A woman reflects on a day — back when she was a young poet in 1972 New York City — she spent retrieving furniture to borrow from a young man about to visit his home in Chile. The man was eventually taken by the secret police, leaving the woman with his furniture for years to come.

As an old woman revisits her family's quintessentially American history, she finds a way to respect and love her parents, despite the scandals and tragedies they endured.