When a mysterious deadly plague descends on the earth, four friends are engaged in a life-or-death struggle against an alien race attempting to fumigate the earth.

After a white sheriff's deputy arrests a Black man in 1968, a winter storm causes him to take refuge in a garage, and the two Black brothers who work there make the deputy question his position and his morals.

In 1956, a sister and brother miss a train from Boston to New Brunswick, Canada, because they’ve lost their father’s coffin on the way to the funeral; this delay gives the whole family time to reflect on their distinct relationships with their father.