Though plagued by her economic circumstances, a pregnant former circus performer finds life blooming all around her when she forms a special connection with her boarding house’s pear tree.

When a modern man sitting in Lagos traffic receives an email from his ex-lover of lifetimes ago, he reevaluates the facts of his prosperous but ultimately empty life.

A middle-aged Texan mother in Alcoholics Anonymous tells stories about her eccentric, rich neighbor instead of focusing on the miserable truth of her own addiction.

After a dangerous encounter with a predatory artist in the 1980s, a former artist-turned-housewife tries to imbue her oblivious teenage daughter with that same fear of men that leaves her cold decades later.

A German hotel owner in Hawaii experiences a jolt of excitement in his life when a young woman who loves literature and detests flights as much as he does checks in his hotel with her husband.

A gay man is rejected by his father and thrown out of his home, which forces him to rebuild his life. Years later, the man realizes that his father was indirectly responsible for his success, and that he is surrounded by many deep and loving relationships.

When a flu epidemic leaves people with proteins that make them as hairy as chimpanzees, an American college student and a Mexican scientist in New York City work to develop a cure for mankind’s newest affliction.

When a music teacher in Medieval England finds an alluring young student who can sing the perfect note, his home life comes crashing down around him.

When a mother of three children visits her home country of South Africa for Christmas, her depression at how her life has failed her renders her neglectful, putting both her eldest child and sister in irreparable danger.

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.