Recently paroled from prison, legendary burglar "Doc" Riedenschneider, with funding from Alonzo Emmerich, a crooked lawyer, gathers a small group of veteran criminals together in the Midwest for a big jewel heist.
Gabby, the waitress in an isolated Arizona diner, dreams of a bigger and better life. One day penniless intellectual Alan drifts into the joint and the two strike up a rapport. Soon enough, notorious killer Duke Mantee takes the diner's inhabitants hostage. Surrounded by miles of desert, the patrons and staff are forced to sit tight with Mantee and his gang overnight.
A violent screenwriter and a female neighbor fall in love after she clears him of murder, but she begins to have second thoughts.
Cashier and part-time starving artist Christopher Cross is absolutely smitten with the beautiful Kitty March. Kitty plays along, but she's really only interested in Johnny, a two-bit crook. When Kitty and Johnny find out that art dealers are interested in Chris's work, they con him into letting Kitty take credit for the paintings. Cross allows it because he is in love with Kitty, but his love will only let her get away with so much.
A young man struggles with contemplating mortality a year after the passing of a loved one.
Joe and Paul Fabrini are Wildcat, or independent, truck drivers who have their own small one-truck business. The Fabrini boys constantly battle distributors, rivals and loan collectors, while trying to make a success of their transport company.
A seductive woman gets an innocent professor mixed up in murder.
A disillusioned young writer living in New York City turns to drugs and drinking to block out the memories of his dead mother and estranged wife.
Expecting the usual loss, a boxing manager takes bribes from a betting gangster without telling his fighter.
A police detective's violent nature keeps him from being a good cop.
Charley Davis, against the wishes of his mother, becomes a boxer. As he becomes more successful the fighter becomes surrounded by shady characters, including an unethical promoter named Roberts, who tempt the man with a number of vices. Charley finds himself faced with increasingly difficult choices.
A socialite marries a prominent novelist, which spurs a violent, obsessive, and dangerous jealousy in her.
After a woman shoots a man to death, a damning letter she wrote raises suspicions.
An upper-crust family dinner is interrupted by a police inspector who brings news that a girl known to everyone present has died in suspicious circumstances. It seems that any or all of them could have had a hand in her death. But who is the mysterious Inspector and what can he want of them?
Sojourning in Macau, Su Erning by chance helps Pan Meiniang resuscitate his younger brother and fends off the thug. In her admiration, Pan calls off the engagement arranged by her mother to exchange vows with Su despite having known him for only three days. To raise the money for the wedding, Su plans to sell his family yacht to the rich wife of his classmate Lu Zuhua in Hong Kong and promises to buy Pan a pearl necklace. The promiscuous Mrs Lu seduces Su on the yacht and then dumps him. 18 years later, Pan's daughter is getting married. Su prepares a wedding gift—a stolen pearl necklace—for the bride but is too ashamed to show himself.
A romantic drifter gets caught between a corrupt tycoon and his voluptuous wife.
A gambler discovers an old flame while in Argentina, but she's married to his new boss.
A mad writer checks into a hotel. In the window of a opposite building he sees four men and starts to write their life story. Every man is an anonymous person who have done or experienced something irreversible in his life. They end up together to plan a heist.
Paul, a young idealist trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life, takes a job interviewing people for a marketing research firm. He moves in with aspiring pop singer Madeleine. Paul, however, is disillusioned by the growing commercialism in society, while Madeleine just wants to be successful. The story is told in a series of 15 unrelated vignettes.
A self-assured businessman murders his employer, husband of his mistress, which unintentionally provokes an ill-fated chain of events.