Gloucestershire, England, 1796. A poor day labourer is offered work but must first let his son be used in a medical experiment. Based on the story of James Phipps, the eight-year-old boy used by Dr Edward Jenner to test the world's first smallpox vaccine.

Gabrielle is writing an illustrated guide book on sex called 'How To Do It.' At a book signing she meets Saul, an established male writer who is straight. She both loves and hates his work which has seeped into her secular Jewish life from childhood. The more Gabrielle tells him about her book the more he wants to know about her life; the relationship with her younger girlfriend Olivia and her determination to "stop using my penis in sex". As her book takes form, is Saul jealous or desirous? Their friendship is tested as is Gabrielle's relationship with Olivia. The film muses on how we write, how we draw. And the nature of "story" and what it makes us do.

A Peacemaker, who rejects his final mission to save an endangered planet, is believed to be cursed when a solar storm hits his spaceship.