Office drone Maria Barbizan leads what looks like a meaningless life. She’s lonely, and she doesn’t really exist, at her job or within her family. One day, she does everything we’ve all dreamed of – she throws her purse and old life in the trash, and joins an enigmatic contest to win… a car. Locked in a room with four strangers, each more eccentric than the next, she must go through a series of challenges – a “competition to probe the very essence of mind-body articulation”, lead by Homunculus, an intriguing and curious host.

Sam, who after his motorcycle is damaged in an apparent crash into the ocean, becomes stranded in a small New England town, finds refuge at a run-down motel managed by Kate, a similarly burnt-out, lost soul. The mystery around Sam’s presence in town unravels when it’s discovered that his estranged daughter Audrey lives there – the daughter he hasn’t seen her in 25 years. As he tries to bridge the gap between the little girl he left long ago and the woman who grew up without her father, Sam learns he was never cut-out to be emotionally connected to anyone – unless he falls in love with another soul just as lonesome.

Jean Jones, a gawky, 25-year old finds new love unexpectedly in the back of a Brooklyn ambulance with paramedic Ray Malcolm on the day the grandfather she’s never met shows up on her doorstep and drops dead with her book in his pocket. Against the advice of her family, who all seem to be stewing in their own secrets, Jean plans the funeral for Gray Jones and uncovers some tough truths about the Jones women, her failing career and a crippling inability to move on from a past relationship.

Out of the approximately 600 players in the National Hockey League, thirty are Black. Mattie Slaughter, a hockey phenom from the rural Black community of North Preston, wants to make it thirty-one. To reach his goal, Mattie needs to keep his nose clean and avoid trouble. Hard to do though, when you go to a school where racism taints every interaction, your older brother is a hustler and you’re crushing on a girl who’s already hooked up.