Silent Snow, Secret Snow is the story of Paul Hasleman, a teenage boy who becomes quietly obsessed with the idea of snow. Paul quickly retreats into a fantasy world where he imagines snow, white and seamless, for extended periods of time. Eventually this begins to intrude on Paul's everyday life and his relationships and interactions with his parents begin to break down. Therapy fails to correct Paul's problems and he retreats totally into his fantasy.
Snow Falling on Cedars is a novel set in the 1950s which tells the story of Kabuo Miyamoto, a Japanese American, who has been accused of killing a fisherman, Carl Heine. It's still only a few years after WWII, and prejudice against Americans of Japanese descent is common. The narrative follows Kabuo's trial, flashing back to past events to depict the relationships between townspeople and the old tensions that may have led to the false accusation of Kabuo.
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening is a simple, naturalistic poem in which the speaker literally stops in the woods on a snowy night. The woods are tempting to him; he describes their beauty and their solitude, but notes that he still has a long way to go before he sleeps. The poet contemplates the allure of the peaceful darkness of death, but ultimately rejects it for the time being. This poem's themes include isolation, nature, and mortality.
The Snows of Kilimanjaro is the story of Harry, a writer on safari in Africa who has suffered an infection in a slight leg wound and now lies dying. Harry spends his last hours blaming his female companion, Helen, for his slide into decadence and apathy. He laments not spending his life writing, questioning his identity. In the end he slips into a coma and experiences a vision of being taken to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro by a plane.