A wealthy couple picks up an old man on a desert road, and they quickly become interested in his story about an untapped amethyst mine and its potential riches.

After his death, a Judge converses with an old friend and a philosopher about the reality of an afterlife and grapples with the idea of regaining people he’s missed his entire life.

In a town so small it can hardly be called a town, a black woman serves a rich white family until a series of horrific events causes the single joy in her life to vanish.

After his car breaks down at the base of a steep hill, a man encounters a stranger and walks with him to the ranch at the top of the hill, both seeking to solve the mystery of why the stranger’s wife has been taking apart their ranch piece by piece.

In a small fishing town in New Hampshire, a midwife helps a young, unmarried girl--whose family cares more about their reputation than their daughter--through a difficult childbirth.

A former doctor is called out of his alcoholism and cynicism to help others—first when his nephew is shot, then when a tornado devastates the area.

An elderly shopkeeper tells a customer about his experiences as a prominent actor's understudy for various decades. The customer witnesses how the old man's obsessions with his unfulfilling acting career still occupy his everyday thoughts and behaviors.

A young girl helps her father search for her little sister who was kidnapped by her mother.

A hired hand explains how he has been wrongfully accused of stealing a horse.

An elderly Russian man comes across a young American in a park and tells the young man about coming of age in Russia.