This study explores the tension between self-knowledge and self-expression, and how it manifests in the processes of storytelling that unfold in digital storytelling workshops offered to new immigrant women living in Toronto, Canada. Both in their multi-modal complexity and in the significant shifts from their original telling, the digital stories produced seem to offer something in excess of the storyteller's conscious intention. Here we consider what these unexpected self-expressions might mean for theories of narrative and practices of narrative inquiry: How do the unconscious dynamics of storytelling complicate our notions of narrative? How can narrative inquiry account for the unconscious? To explore these questions, we begin with a conceptual exploration of narrative and its limits and possibilities, followed by a discussion of two case studies that illustrate a range of dynamics--telling several different stories, telling a contradictory story and repeating the same story over and over. (Contains 3 notes.)