This episode of This American Life offers three different stories about people who tried to bring their dreams to reality but found that the road to their lofty goals was a rocky one. In the first story, a young boy confronts a simple childhood problem with no simple answer. In the next segment, a farmer goes to extreme ends to save a pet but is torn with what he gets as a result. In the last portion, a team of performers conspire to give an obscure rock band their greatest show ever, but the band feels a tumult of emotion when it's revealed that the whole evening was planned.