In the Valleys of the Southern Rhine

Six days in the life of Wilhelm: a detached man without qualities. He wants to write, so his mother gives him a ticket to Bonn, telling him to live. On the train he meets an older man, an athlete in the 1936 Olympics, and his mute teen companion, Mignon. She's an acrobat in market squares for spare change.

Years after her son's suicide, a woman longs to confront both the past and a friend of his who took his business idea.

94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.

During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.

A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.

While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.