In their finely appointed Connecticut home, Agnes and Tobias have grown used to the imperfection and fragility of their marriage. Quietly nursing their grief over the death of their son, they get by well enough together. Agnes' boozy sister wanders in and out, and they allow anxiety-stricken friends to move into an upstairs room. But, when their daughter, Julia, shows up announcing her fourth divorce, long-repressed emotions come to the surface.
After her husband leaves her, a woman travels to London for the funeral of the pop star, Victor Fox, she's adored all her life. There, she meets the lover of the dead pop star, and convinces him to come back to Chicago with her to figure out who killed the singer.
With the death of her mother, eight-year-old Anna ends her childhood: From now on, she has to look after the nine-member family. Deprivation-rich years, which also find no end when Anna marries: Her husband Albert must be a soldier in the Second World War, and the pregnant Anna has to work hard in the farm and care sick relatives. Lonely and exposed to the harassment of the tyrannical mother-in-law, she waits for Albert, with no certainty that he will ever return.
A young Greek woman falls in love with a non-Greek and struggles to get her family to accept him while she comes to terms with her heritage and cultural identity.
Following the unexplained suicide of his wife Liza, website designer Wilson Joel turns to huffing gasoline fumes and remote control gaming while avoiding an inevitable conflict with his mother-in-law.
A cat burglar is forced to take a bickering, dysfunctional family hostage on Christmas Eve.
After a rough divorce, Frances, a 35-year-old professor and writer from San Francisco takes a tour of Tuscany at the urgings of her friends. On a whim she buys Bramasole, a run down villa in the Tuscan countryside and begins to piece her life together starting with the villa and finds that life sometimes has unexpected ways of giving her everything she wanted.
Longtime friends become feuding mothers-in-law when their children marry.
Louise, an unfulfilled divorced woman with regrets, gets the chance to relive her past when she meets a young man who bears an uncanny resemblance, in name and appearance, to her high school sweetheart who died many years before.
An endearing light comedy about a woman who spontaneously becomes a resident of Venice after her family left her behind. While enjoying the wonderful people she meets she achieves a new life and the first time independent of her family.
Recently divorced, Laurel struggles to get into the holiday spirit while heading up her hometown Christmas parade. With the help of a Christmas sleigh and a handsome woodworker, Laurel is destined to turn her luck around, rekindle her holiday spirit and even find time for love.
Janet Flanders is a small-town, unsophisticated young woman who is seduced by the fantasy of romantic love; she believes that someday her prince will come to sweep her away. Then she meets handsome Brett Becker; she believes she's found the man of her dreams -- little suspecting he is engaged to marry a wealthy socialite. Deep into her illusion that Brett loves her, she moves to Chicago to be closer to him, deluge him with calls and love notes, tells her family about her boyfriend Brett, and buys an engagement ring. Her obsession with him leads her from intrigue and eventually to murder.
The arrival of a newborn girl causes the gradual disintegration of the Cairn family; particularly for 9-year-old Joshua, an eccentric boy whose proper upbringing and refined tastes both take a sinister turn.
Fumiko, mother of two children and wife of an unfaithful man, shares her family life with her budding vocation as a poet. The beginning of her successful literary career coincides with her divorce and her breast cancer diagnosis. In the last stage of her life, she meets a young journalist from Tokyo who wants to write a story on her life.
Newly married, Norma hopes for a happy marriage with her husband. Her husband has been well received by Norma's family and he has a close relationship with her family. However, her husband secretly has a relationship with his mother-in-law (Norma's mother). The two of them become reckless in carrying out an unusual affair behind Norma and her father's back.
A ring passes between a lot of different people, giving the bearer or someone close a new meaning to life. Actors, embezzlers, old ladies and cheated husbands all seem to gain temporary hope from misery and disillusionment.
After divorcing her cheating husband, a newly single still and beautiful woman, (played by Actress Rosa Carmina), travels to Acapulco. She soon becomes the center of attention and spoiled for choice when she finds herself wooed by no less than four handsome suitors, three of whom are very wealthy and prominent men. Initially torn between her head and her heart, but mindful of past mistakes, Carmina's character chooses love over money and picks a humble and hard-working waiter. Directed by Juan Orol, (Carmina's soon-to-be ex-husband in real-life), this drama features the long, drawn-out scenes and shadowy film noir techniques which he became well- known for.
A celebrity psychiatrist struggles to find a date for a wedding. Her dearest ex is getting married and she needs to find someone fancy enough to hide the fact that she is lonely, drinks too much and is pretty fucked up in any imaginable way.
Former burlesque star May and her daughter Peggy dance in the chorus. When May has a fight with featured dancer Bubbles, Bubbles leaves the show and Peggy takes her place. When Peggy falls in love with wealthy Randy, May fears class differences may lead to misery.
When Ethan arrives at the airport just in time to declare his undying love for his girlfriend, love appears to have conquered all. The scene, however, is really the ending of Ethan's novel, which his agent calls "unrealistic." Ethan soon meets a waitress, Jesse, and falls in love with her despite her growing devotion to Troy, a charming businessman. But the line between reality and fiction becomes increasingly blurred.