A college girl becomes her professor's mistress and moves into his home with his wife and children. After she becomes pregnant, the wife is pushed to make a tragic decision to escape her crumbling marriage and protect the young new mother.

In 18th century France, an executioner faces enormous job stress leading up to and throughout the French Revolution. He must choose between his beloved wife and his job, and he struggles to leave the profession that was his father's before him.

Hoping to win the faith of the girl he wants to marry, the best diver in the world prepares to dive from a platform one hundred feet above the ground, but doubt and fear creep in before he jumps.

A journalist begins writing an article critiquing the use of a new software set to replace cognitive memory in humans, and is forced to reimagine his perception of self and his relationship with his daughter in the process.