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.

In an unspecified country destroyed by war, a former chef-turned-political prisoner escapes his chains and steals the identity of a physics professor.

After visiting his terminally-ill classmate, a man heads to his 50-year high school reunion in Pennsylvania and reflects on an afternoon that brightened his life back when he was sixteen.

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.