A woman on a plane tells a story of how her younger brother started speaking to a sinister, unknown creature at night after their father's death.

A high school cheerleader's uneventful life is shaken up when a crop duster—hired by her father to fly pesticides over his farm—comes to stay with them.

A woman flying home to San Francisco is forced on a detour because of a catastrophic earthquake that hits Northern California. She calls an ex-boyfriend with whom she is still in love to make sure he is safe and the two weigh whether or not to continue their romance.

An elderly academic with an anxious wife is enlivened by a trip to New York, where he has an unlikely series of encounters with the peculiar woman who sat beside him on the plane.

After the death of her son, a Japanese mother visits Hawaii every year and builds relationships in the small town where he died.

Two older female friends reunite after eleven years in New York and one grapples with the overwhelming responsibility of caring for her older father and how it has held her back from her dreams.

When a middle-aged lawyer in contemporary Indiana discovers that he has a powerfully sensitive palate, he suddenly finds himself with riches, fame, and a mid-life crisis.