Amber Kivinen is moving to Mars. Or at least she will be if she wins a chance to join "MarsNow." She and 23 reality TV contestants from around the world are competing for two seats on the first human-led mission to Mars, sponsored by billionaire Geoff Task. Meanwhile, Amber’s boyfriend, Kevin, was content going nowhere until Amber left him --- and their hydroponic weed business --- behind. As he tends to (and smokes) the plants growing in their basement apartment, Kevin tunes in to find out why the love of his life is so determined to leave the planet with somebody else. On screen, Amber competes in globe-trotting, “Survivor”-meets-“Star Trek” challenges and seems like she might be falling for fellow contestant Adam. But is that real, or is it just a tactic to keep from being voted off?

The characters in these 13 stories exist on the edge of danger, where landscapes melt into dreamscapes and every house is haunted. A drug dealer’s girlfriend signs up for the first manned mission to Mars. A girl falls in love with a man who wants to turn her into a bird. A teenaged girl and her best friend test their relationship by breaking into suburban houses. A wife finds a gaping hole in the floor of the home she shares with her husband, a hole that only she can see. Full of longing and strange humor, these tales --- about the love between a man and his pet crow, an alcoholic and his AA sponsor, a mute migrant and a newspaper reporter --- show how love ties us to each other and to the world.