Manhattan explores how the life of a middle-aged television writer dating a teenage girl is further complicated when he falls in love with his best friend's mistress.
In a vibrant tapestry of love and longing, nine interconnected souls navigate romance and heartbreak in L.A., where passions collide and truths unfold, revealing that the heart's desires often lead us where we least expect.
When the hard-working bread-winner Katja and Hendrik the intellectual meet Saida, an illegal immigrant from Algeria, and accept to organize a "passport marriage" between her and Hendrik, they are caught up in a chain of events and feelings over which they have no control.
After the death of her father, Little Voice or LV becomes a virtual recluse, never going out and hardly ever saying a word. She just sits in her bedroom listening to her father's collection of old records of Shirley Bassey, Marilyn Monroe and various other famous female singers. But at night time, LV sings, imitating these great singers with surprising accuracy. One night she is overheard by one of her mother's boyfriends, who happens to be a talent agent. He manages to convince her that her talent is special and arranges for her to perform at the local night club, but several problems arise.
Love blossoms for Lily over double Meaty Boy burgers at mid-day when uber-computer nerd Jarrod comes in and leaves with free extra large fries. After gatecrashing Jarrod's party and proving her skills on the game console, Lily goes down to Jarrod's home town with him so he can settle an old score with a past school bully.
When a young African-American woman brings her fiancé home to meet her parents, she's neglected to mention one tiny detail - he's white.
A sex therapist goes through puberty after the successful removal of a benign tumor resting against his pituitary gland. He experiences all the changes and effects of puberty over a three-week period.
Over the course of three days Ross, a college dropout addicted to crystal-meth, encounters a variety of oddball folks - including a stripper named Nikki and her boyfriend, the local meth producer, The Cook - but all he really wants to do is hook up with his old girlfriend, Amy.
Alex and Erica Boyer are a young couple in crisis. Alex, despite his loving wife, beautiful home and high-paying job, feels trapped. When Erica has an accident that leaves her temporarily confined to a wheelchair and requiring the services of a private nurse, the beautiful Lisa enters the Boyers' lives. A complicated situation develops as Alex sees Lisa as the cure for his own problems as well as his wife's.
Ben and Katie Jordan are a married couple who go through hard times in fifteen years of marriage.
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.
An eccentric East German inventor and defector travels to Los Angeles, California to sell a prototype revolutionary new car that runs on vegetables and produces no pollution, but he runs into one madcap situation after another to find a buyer and financier for mass production.
In Gu Jia Gou Village, 150 km from Beijing, men outnumber women. Some buy wives from faraway Sichuan province. Other remain bachelors; they gossip and complain together - yet find ways to have a sex life. Lao Yang is still in love with the girl he was forbidden to marry as a young man; she is now the middle-aged wife of the village head, but they sneak out for secret trysts. Yet, Lao Yang wants more...
Actress Maria, and filmmaker Luke, travelled from LA to Spain in March 2020 to get married. The pandemic caused them to cancel the wedding, and forced them into lockdown with Luke’s mum, Karen, who had travelled all the way from Australia. Luke filmed it all and put it online as a series. They cancelled their wedding again when Maria fell pregnant. Luke filmed that too. Maria is now determined to get married. Luke, feeling stuck in Spain, thinks the only way to enjoy the wedding and cling to his old dreams is to film it. For Maria, sick of their life being public, it’s the final straw.
Traci and Brooke are just like any other woman: they are looking for love. When Brooke's mother suggests she tries speed dating, she drags Traci with her. Things aren't quite as they seem when the gong rings.
The career and personal life of writer Lee are at a standstill, so he divorces his bashful wife, Robin, and dives into a new job as an entertainment journalist. His assignments take him to the swankiest corners of Manhattan, but as he jumps from one lavish party to another and engages in numerous empty romances, he starts to doubt the worth of his work. Meanwhile, top TV producer Tony falls for Robin and introduces her to the world of celebrity.
The life of Danny Wright, a salesman forever on the road, veers into dangerous and surreal territory when he wanders into a Mexican bar and meets a mysterious stranger, Julian, who's very likely a hit man. Their meeting sets off a chain of events that will change their lives forever, as Wright is suddenly thrust into a far-from-mundane existence that he takes to surprisingly well … once he gets acclimated to it.
Helena has just started a new job - and she's already pregnant. She desperately needs daycare. Madness ensues as she discovers that the odds of getting into a nursery are about as high as winning the lottery.
Writer Paul Benjamin is nearly hit by a bus when he leaves Auggie Wren's smoke shop. Stranger Rashid Cole saves his life, and soon middle-aged Paul tells homeless Rashid that he wouldn't mind a short-term housemate. Still grieving over his wife's murder, Paul is moved by both Rashid's quest to reconnect with his father and Auggie's discovery that a woman who might be his daughter is about to give birth.
A seaside resort in the middle of winter, with its abandoned beach bars and rain-battered alleys, can easily flank the drone. Refugees on the top floor of a building in La Grande Motte, Carole and Richard Lazure have zero morale: swindled by their tax advisor and badly defended by an incompetent lawyer, they lost their business, their house and no longer even enough to buy the essentials. The eruption into their life of a childhood friend of Richard, a talkative talker with questionable dating, could be a game-changer - or make their situation worse.