A schoolteacher at a newly desegregated Southern school agonizes over whether to turn a Black student in for the murder of a white boy in an alley fight, in order to prevent a white mob from murdering the student's friends and family. The Black student explains he didn't commit the murder and only acted in self-defense, but he insists on turning himself in to protect his neighborhood.

A mercurial girl named Pony crashes into the life of protagonist Henry Thigpin and his older roommate Mike, and the three form an offbeat domestic triangle. When Henry falls for Pony even after she has warned him not to, Pony works to sabotage their friendship.

A mother and her young daughter flee the clutches of her abusive millionaire husband who is intent on keeping her by any means, and even sends a man to her hotel dressed as Santa during Christmas.

A Frenchman tells the story of his escape from the Germans and how he believes the French have lost, not because of the battle, but because they have lost the French women and the French spirit.

When her beloved mule goes missing, a young woman in rural Texas struggles with her marriage and the dreams she long ago gave up on.

A young girl decides to run away with her best friend to a strange city only known in stories with the help of her talking dog after he loses everything in a world where success is scored to determine social status. But can they actually escape the controlling society they're running from?

A man returns to New Hampshire after years of hiding from his past to handle his dead father's affairs. When he encounters an old friend-turned-enemy and a local girl goes missing, the past he tried to run away from comes to light in a heart-racing turn of events.

A young woman with a troubled family life works at a burger restaurant and receives a proposition from an older customer to run away with him. She ignores him and starts a new relationship with someone she has no attraction to.

In a rural town, a woman attempts to run away, with her three children, from her abusive husband. While the feat seems straightforward at first, a series of complications causes their escape to become increasingly precarious.

In New Jersey, a punk-obsessed Dominican teenager deals with a tumultuous relationship with her mother, who has been diagnosed with breast cancer. At a breaking point, she runs away from home.