An aspiring Gordie journalist drops his inhibitions to research the UK's North East outdoor sex scene. He meets a certain girl in a car park, and the totally unexpected happens.
Following a tragic plane crash, newspaper columnist Peyton MacGruder happens upon a hastily-written note that was from one of the passengers onboard. She makes it her mission to deliver it to its intended recipient by Christmas, bringing her readers along for the ride.
Yeda, the green-faced woman, sells homemade bread to support the house where she lives with her sick husband. Through the context of green-faced people, we know the reality of those who live on the fringes of a purple-faced society.
Five people - two Indian journalists, an American journalist, an Afghan guide and a Pakistani soldier who takes them all hostage - are taken on a 48-hour journey into Afghanistan in a jeep called the Kabul Express, a special and unlikely bond developing between them along the way.
Riyo, an orphaned 17-year old, sails from Yokohama to Hawaii in 1918 to marry Matsuji, a man she has never met. Hoping to escape a troubled past and start anew, Riyo is bitterly disappointed upon her arrival: her husband is twice her age. The miserable girl finds solace with her new friend Kana, a young mother who helps Riyo accept her new life.
A small-time thief steals a car and impulsively murders a motorcycle policeman. Wanted by the authorities, he attempts to persuade a girl to run away to Italy with him.
The Maclean brothers, Paul and Norman, live a relatively idyllic life in rural Montana, spending much of their time fly fishing. The sons of a minister, the boys eventually part company when Norman moves east to attend college, leaving his rebellious brother to find trouble back home. When Norman finally returns, the siblings resume their fishing outings, and assess where they've been and where they're going.
Andy moves to New York to work in the fashion industry. Her boss is extremely demanding, cruel and won't let her succeed if she doesn't fit into the high class elegant look of their magazine.
At the height of the Vietnam war, Captain Benjamin Willard is sent on a dangerous mission that, officially, "does not exist, nor will it ever exist." His goal is to locate - and eliminate - a mysterious Green Beret Colonel named Walter Kurtz, who has been leading his personal army on illegal guerrilla missions into enemy territory.
Two men share an odd friendship while they care for two women who are both in deep comas.
Nine years later, Jesse travels across Europe giving readings from a book he wrote about the night he spent in Vienna with Celine. After his reading in Paris, Celine finds him, and they spend part of the day together before Jesse has to again leave for a flight. They are both in relationships now, and Jesse has a son, but as their strong feelings for each other start to return, both confess a longing for more.
American corporations are using the North American Free Trade Agreement by opening large maquiladoras right across the United States–Mexico border. The maquiladoras hire mostly Mexican women to work long hours for little money in order to produce mass quantity products. Lauren Adrian, an impassioned American news reporter for the Chicago Sentinel wants to be assigned to the Iraq front-lines to cover the war. Instead, her editor George Morgan assigns her to investigate a series of slayings involving young maquiladora factory women in a Mexican bordertown.
Office temp Charlotte Cantilini thinks she's found Mr. Right when she starts dating gorgeous surgeon Dr. Kevin Fields. But there's a problem standing in the way of everlasting bliss: Kevin's overbearing and controlling mother, Viola. Fearing she'll lose her son's affections forever, Viola decides to break up the happy couple by becoming the world's worst mother-in-law.
Matias meets Violeta, his cousin one morning in Madrid at the Plaza de Opera. He is twenty-five. She is 18. He's a divorced journalist trying to write a thriller. She studies violin. She's a vegetarian. He loves meat. Many things separate them, but he moves into her apartment.
Three stories told simultaneously in ninety minutes of real time: a Republican Senator who's a presidential hopeful gives an hour-long interview to a skeptical television reporter, detailing a strategy for victory in Afghanistan; two special forces ambushed on an Afghani ridge await rescue as Taliban forces close in; a poli-sci professor at a California college invites a student to re-engage.
Two down on their luck cousins are forced to come up with a plan to make some cold hard cash when they lose the rent money after a night of partying with two strippers.
Dr. Parsa and his daughter, Bahar, are on the way to Khoramshahr to set up a specialized hospital there. It seems their cold relationship is related to this journey. Reaching there, Bahar finds a diary of a girl at her age called Maryam which was written in the same day, 30 years ago; 2 days before the first day of schools, and also the start of Iran-Iraq war! The girlish joy that Maryam describes in the first pages of the diary, the sudden invasion of enemies to their town, and finally her love story which is mentioned in the diary, motivates Bahar to continue reading it. Maryam was in love with a young intern who was working in the town's only clinic. Now Bahar thinks that the intern could be his father.
On the night of their wedding anniversary, a bohemian theatre actress and a beatnik inspired writer confront the strife of their relationship, dreams, and the city they once loved.
In 1997, Osama bin Laden declared war on the USA and Pulitzer Prize winning CNN correspondent Peter Arnett embarked on a mission to locate and interview him. A War Story follows the dramatic events leading up to the interview and the Kiwi journalist's horror on 9/11, as he recalled bin Laden's veiled threats.
Tragedy strikes a married couple vacationing in the Moroccan desert, which jumpstarts an interlocking story involving four different families.