Xiao Xian is in charge of finishing a dress. Her mother has decided that she is going to take care of it that night, and she obeys, as usual. Sheng Xia, her best friend, shows up at her house to convince her to go partying. Xiao Xian accepts, but she cannot imagine what will end up happening that night.
With his mother dead and his father busy at work, Howie feels adrift in his New York suburb. He and his friend Gary spend their time burglarizing their neighbors' homes — until they make the mistake of robbing the house of Big John, a macho former Marine who is also an unrepentant pedophile. He propositions Howie, who declines, but the two eventually develop an unlikely and dangerous friendship.
Private-school student Christine loves Jim. But her classmate, Jordan, is also vying for Jim's attention and trying to end his relationship with Christine. Meanwhile, Jim's friend Bubba embarks on a series of sexual escapades, including dressing up as a woman to access the girls' locker room. Despite Jim and Christine's efforts to spend some time alone, various shenanigans and schemes interfere.
When fourteen-year-old Maggie and her two best friends hang out with older guys they meet on Facebook, a crush on a complicated boy unravels into a twisted trance fueled by Four Lokos and naive infatuation.
An awkward adolescent boy and his angst-ridden friends try their best to fit in amongst a cast of varied characters.
Simon is an intelligent and privileged young man whose family expects him to become a Princeton graduate. Crying out for attention from his reserved and cool hearted family, Simon commits numerous petty crimes and is soon sent away to boarding school where he befriends a "Deadhead," adopts the "hippie" lifestyle and dabbles in many drugs in his search for acceptance.
Dr. John Carpenter takes the job of running a health center in a low-income district. He enlists three women to help out who — unbeknownst to him — are actually nuns in street clothes. The church wants to improve the neighborhood but fears that nuns in full habit would not be well received. Unaware of her unavailability, John falls for Sister Michelle, serenading her with his guitar — which, luckily for him, effectively wears away at her religious resolve.
Four teenagers from a rural village in South West Nigeria stumble upon a pouch of uncut diamonds — but before long, others come looking for the bounty.
A Community college burnout in the making Crispin, spends the majority of his time stuck on repeat with a longtime group of childhood friends. But his newfound desire to move out of his suburban hometown prompts him to land a job at the local, rundown Northwood Pizza. There he meets a group of employees as attached to their jobs as Crispin's friends are to their city; including Sierra, a girl whose musings lie deeper than most. Through his experiences with his friends, coworkers, and a kindling relationship, Crispin Learns to embrace his higher ambitions.
Apu and his family have moved away from the country to live in the bustling holy city of Benares. As he progresses from wide-eyed child to intellectually curious teenager, eventually studying in Kolkata, we witness his academic and moral education, as well as the growing complexity of his relationship with his mother.
Lulu is a young woman so beautiful and alluring that few can resist her siren charms. The men drawn into her web include respectable newspaper publisher Dr. Ludwig Schön, his musical producer son Alwa, circus performer Rodrigo Quast, and seedy old Schigolch. When Lulu's charms inevitably lead to tragedy, the downward spiral encompasses them all.
The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.
A recently widowed American begins an anonymous sexual relationship with a young Parisian woman.
A successful and married black man contemplates having an affair with a white girl from work. He's quite rightly worried that the racial difference would make an already taboo relationship even worse.
The story of an idealist's rise to power in the world of Louisiana politics and the corruption that leads to his ultimate downfall. Based on the 1946 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel written by Robert Penn Warren, loosely based on the story of real-life politician Huey Long.
In the slums of the upper West Side of Manhattan, tensions are high as a gang of Polish-Americans compete against a gang of recently immigrated Puerto Ricans, but this doesn't stop two romantics from each gang falling in love.
In Los Angeles, a colorful assortment of bohemians try to make sense of their intersecting lives. The moody Dark Smith, his bisexual girlfriend, her lesbian lover and their shy gay friend plan on attending the wildest party of the year. But they'll only make it if they can survive the drug trips, suicides, trysts, mutilations and alien abductions that occur as one surreal day unfolds.
Sixteen-year-old Micki never met her parents. Raised by her ex-gangster grandfather Pops and crazy Uncle Sal, she develops a scheme to set her family up for life. A simple robbery, a violent loan shark, and a ticking clock. What could go wrong?
Sixteen-year-old Jann shields his mother Lina from the outside world in a system that has been established over the years. When Jann falls in love with Selma, who is a year older than him, he is less and less able to keep his family secret. Selma and Jann's love causes his previous world to collapse, but ultimately it also gives him the strength he needs to claim a new place for himself in life.
Noble Moroccan Othello finds his life with beautiful, fiercely loyal Desdemona thrown tragically out of balance when secretly jealous, scheming confidante Iago begins an insidious campaign of lies and treachery.