Twenty-something Richard travels to Thailand and finds himself in possession of a strange map. Rumours state that it leads to a solitary beach paradise, a tropical bliss - excited and intrigued, he sets out to find it.
Mexican beauty Camilla hopes to rise above her station by marrying a wealthy American. That is complicated by meeting Arturo Bandini, a first-generation Italian hoping to land a writing career and a blue-eyed blonde on his arm.
Hinako is a surf-loving college student who has just moved to a small seaside town. When a sudden fire breaks out at her apartment building, she is rescued by Minato, a handsome firefighter, and the two soon fall in love.
A very middle-class Bavarian family spend the last day of their Mediterranean vacation on the beach, day-dreaming and muttering racist remarks about Italian people.
Clumsy but lovable young man named Buki wanders around beach at the Sava river and old Belgrade airport.
In Mexico, two teenage boys and an attractive older woman embark on a road trip and learn a thing or two about life, friendship, sex, and each other.
Teresa is a young widow who is concentrated on her little business until she hires Gino.
Two beach combing-shutterbugs accidentally capture a murder on film. Now detectives, the boys set out to capture a murderess shot only from behind, with a rose tattoo on her behind. Fun in the sun turns dangerous when they end up shooting bullets instead of film.
Carlo Cofield vacations to Southern California, where he quickly becomes immersed in the easy-going local culture, getting entangled in two beachside romances.
Paul, a rich English boy, and Michelle, an orphaned French girl, run away from home to a remote beach. Living on their own, their friendship grows into love.
Diego is a twenty-year-old Chilean boy who spends every day taking pictures of anything he sees. After many years he meets Sebastian, his childhood friend, and they spend a whole summer together drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana and walking around in the blazing sun of Santiago. They both come from dysfunctional families (Diego's mother is an alcoholic and Sebastian feels abandoned by his father and his stepmother), but the need to discover the world around them and explore their inner feelings brings them closer to each other, making their friendship very, very intense. The desire that ties them to each other is palpable, and soon barriers and fears fall, leading them to wonder what they really want.
For many years, four teenage orphans at an Australian outback convent have watched their younger comrades find new parents, and realize that they may never be adopted. The Reverend Mother sends the four boys away on a seaside vacation, where they meet Teresa and Fearless, a couple who would make perfect parents. The youths compete with one another to be the one Teresa and Fearless decide to adopt.
Rick is a Los Angeles County lifeguard who is in his thirties. At his 15-year high school reunion, he sees his old girlfriend who is now a divorced mother. After falling in love with her, Rick considers changing his career and lifestyle.
A property developer wants to take over an Australian beach for a high rise resort. He sends his son to Australia to check out the situation, posing as an exchange lifeguard. He falls in love with a woman who owns the land his father needs for the development and finds himself sympathising with the locals.
The film consists of a series of tightly interlinked vignettes, the most sustained of which details the story of a man and a woman who are passionately in love. Their attempts to consummate their passion are constantly thwarted, by their families, by the Church and bourgeois society in general.
Lili, a pouty and voluptuous 14-year-old, is caravan camping with her family in Biarritz. She's self-aware and holds her own in a café conversation with a concert pianist she meets, but she has a wild streak and she's testing her powers over men, finding that she doesn't always control her moods or actions, and she's impatient with being a virgin. She sets off with her brother to a disco, latching onto an aging playboy who is himself hot and cold to her. She is ambivalent about losing her virginity that night, willing the next, and determined by the third.
A mute Scottish woman arrives in colonial New Zealand for an arranged marriage. Her husband refuses to move her beloved piano, giving it to neighbor George Baines, who agrees to return the piano in exchange for lessons. As desire swirls around the duo, the wilderness consumes the European enclave.
A Hollywood songwriter goes through a mid-life crisis and becomes infatuated with a sexy blonde newlywed.
Nothing gets between Anne Marie and her board. Living in a beach shack with three roommates, she is up before dawn every morning to conquer the waves and count the days until the Pipe Masters competition. Having transplanted herself to Hawaii with no one's blessing but her own, Anne Marie finds all she needs in the adrenaline-charged surf scene - until pro quarterback Matt Tollman comes along...
Popular and dashing American singer Nick Rivers travels to East Germany to perform in a music festival. When he loses his heart to the gorgeous Hillary Flammond, he finds himself caught up in an underground resistance movement. Rivers joins forces with Agent Cedric and Flammond to attempt the rescue of her father, Dr. Paul, from the Germans, who have captured the scientist in hopes of coercing him into building a new naval mine.