A woman finds a genie in a bottle after the end of the world — except that he's not a genie, he's a wish-fulfiller and former theater-critic, and this is the sixth apocalypse through which he's had to live.

A man recalls his intimate friendship with his former English professor, who resolved to fuel his unsatisfied desire for playwriting during the time they were apart. In their reunion decades later, instead of the brilliant play he promised, the professor shows his former student a disturbing product of his mental instability.

When a professor of French literature attends a tribute event in New York City for her old playwriting teacher, she remembers how young she was when their unconventional relationship transpired.