Zainab welcomes her brother's classmates during the mid year vacation as they form a dance troupe to train for the annual university competition. She falls in love with Ahmed, the troupe's first dancer.
A day in the life of London and the Home Counties in 1962, seen from the perspective of the use of London Transport facilities from buses and tubes to long distance coach routes, accompanied by extracts from BBC radio.
A group of boys playing near the seashore in Tokyo find a goat, kill it in a tug of war for ownership, bury it with ceremony, and, except for one boy, run off in heedless laughter ready for more games.
Down-on-his-luck veteran Tsugumo Hanshirō enters the courtyard of the prosperous House of Iyi. Unemployed, and with no family, he hopes to find a place to commit seppuku—and a worthy second to deliver the coup de grâce in his suicide ritual.
First World War. In a largely rural area of neutral Spain, two families confront one another and play a part in embarrassing situations because they don't support the same side in the war.
Thomas Crimmins is a new warder, or guard, in an Irish prison. He is young, naive, and idealistic, determined to serve his country by his part in meting out justice to criminals.