the things I keep from my mother

A teenager named Noriko Shimabara runs away from her family in Toyokawa, to meet Kumiko, the leader of an Internet BBS, Haikyo.com. She becomes involved with Kumiko's family circle, which grows darker after the mass suicide of 54 high school girls.

Several women (and one girl) in L.A. are hiding something from someone else, or discovering something hidden from them. Maxine, a therapist, discovers her husband cheating on her with the mother of Charlotte, a 13-year old patient. Addy (the other woman) and her sister Doris have withheld from the girl the truth of her parentage. Holly, an adult film actor, isn't telling her friend Bambi how she feels about her, and another actor, Elektra, who discovers she's pregnant, hasn't told the baby's father that she loves him. A stuck elevator, a car crash, mid-air turbulence, a flight attendant, a shotgun-wielding bartender, and her roommate, who's a masseuse, help these women communicate.

Taking place after alien crafts land around the world, an expert linguist is recruited by the military to determine whether they come in peace or are a threat.

Taeko and her husband, Jirō, are living a peaceful existence with her young son, Keita, when a tragic accident brings the boy's long-lost father, Park, back into her life. To cope with the pain and guilt, Taeko throws herself into helping this deaf and homeless man.