The lives of six German-Turkish immigrants are drawn together by circumstance: An old man and a prostitute forging a partnership, a young scholar reconciling his past, two young women falling in love, and a mother putting the shattered pieces of her life back together.
Corky, a tough female ex-convict working on an apartment renovation in a Chicago building, meets a couple living next door, Caesar, a paranoid mobster, and Violet, his seductive girlfriend, who is immediately attracted to her.
After serving time in prison, former drug addict Sherry Swanson returns home to reclaim her young daughter from family members who have been raising the child. Sherry's family, especially her sister-in-law, doubt Sherry's ability to be a good mother, and Sherry finds her resolve to stay clean slowly weakening.
Egon is starting to be a little forgetful; he forgot the zone number, so he fails to open the strongbox. When he gets out of Vridslose State Prison, Kjeld and Benny have become associates of Yvonne's cousin Georg from America. He is not just some old-fashioned strongbox thief that can't remember like Egon, but a young hip IT criminal, that thinks that everyone else is inferior. However, Egon doesn't take lightly to the Georg's patronizing so he sabotages Georg's computer and ruins his cup. This time Egon's ambitions reaches a new high, when he and his gang break in to the World Bank, and they get away with it. Of course, thanks to Yvonne, they aren't rich very long.
Fresh out of prison, Git rescues a former best friend (now living with Git's girlfriend) from a beating at the hands of loan sharks. He's now in trouble with the mob boss, Tom French, who sends Git to Cork with another debtor, Bunny Kelly, to find a guy named Frank Grogan, and take him to a man with a friendly face at a shack across a bog. It's a tougher assignment than it seems: Git's a novice, Bunny's prone to rash acts, Frank doesn't want to be found (and once he's found, he has no money), and maybe Tom's planning to murder Frank, which puts Git in a moral dilemma. Then, there's the long-ago disappearance of Sonny Mulligan. What's a decent and stand-up lad to do?
Harry Doyle and Archie Lang are two old-time train robbers, who held up a train in 1956 and have been incarcerated for thirty years. After serving their time, they are released from jail and have to adjust to a new life of freedom. and soon realize that they still have the pizzazz when, picking up their prison checks at a bank, they foil a robbery attempt.
An-ex convict nicknamed Al Capone, who spent six years in jail, tries to adapt in new environment. Members of the two rival gangs try to engage him in their new ventures, but he wants to make a new start with the girl he loves. At the same time, a young criminal who shares the same nickname replaces him in these actions.
A journalist duo go on a tour of serial killer murder sites with two companions, unaware that one of them is a serial killer himself.
Bruno Stroszek is released from prison and warned to stop drinking. He has few skills and fewer expectations: with a glockenspiel and an accordion, he ekes out a living as a street musician. He befriends Eva, a prostitute down on her luck and they join his neighbor, Scheitz, an elderly eccentric, when he leaves Germany to live in Wisconsin.
Arrested while a student in university, Yusuf is released from prison after ten years. He returns home and is welcomed by his sick and elderly mother. Soon he will meet Eka, a beautiful Georgian girl who is a sex worker, and love becomes a final desperate attempt to grasp life and elude loneliness.
Luke Wilson plays a good-hearted ex-con who gets a job in a retirement hotel. Three elderly residents help him win back his girlfriend as he lends them a hand in fighting hotel corruption.
A New York press agent must scramble when his major client becomes embroiled in a huge scandal.
Frank is an expert professional safecracker, specialized in high-profile diamond heists. He plans to use his ill-gotten income to retire from crime and build a nice life for himself complete with a home, wife and kids. To accelerate the process, he signs on with a top gangster for a big score.
A convict is released from prison in a small town in New Mexico. 18 years ago he killed a deputy. The then-and-now sheriff seeks revenge.
Jackie Brown is a flight attendant who gets caught in the middle of smuggling cash into the country for her gunrunner boss. When the cops try to use Jackie to get to her boss, she hatches a plan — with help from a bail bondsman — to keep the money for herself.
A woman struggles to interact with her family and find her place in society after spending fifteen years in prison.
An ex-convict is tracked down by his estranged teenage son, and the pair try to build a relationship and life together in Seattle.
Billy is released after five years in prison. In the next moment, he kidnaps teenage student Layla and visits his parents with her, pretending she is his girlfriend and they will soon marry.
A basketball player's father must try to convince him to go to a college so he can get a shorter prison sentence.
After a jewelry theft Tommy Lane can hardly free. His girlfriend Kristen has less luck and is arrested. She's sentenced to jail in an ill-reputed female prison in Oklahoma. Tommy doesn't let her down; he manages to get into the prison - on the other side of the bars - to force the ruthless director to let her go.