In 1950s Connecticut, a housewife's life is upended by a marital crisis and mounting racial tensions in society.
Katherine Watson is a recent UCLA graduate hired to teach art history at the prestigious all-female Wellesley College, in 1953. Determined to confront the outdated mores of society and the institution that embraces them, Katherine inspires her traditional students, including Betty and Joan, to challenge the lives they are expected to lead.
Mahlee and Blanche Sackville are half-sisters, Blanche the daughter of an Englishman and his wife, Mahlee of the Englishman and his Chinese mistress. Mahlee rejects her people and attempts to find a life for herself among the Europeans. But she finds the color line impossible to pass and returns to lead her Chinese people in rebellion.
In the racially divided town of Anderson, South Carolina in 1976, football coach Harold Jones spots a mentally disabled African-American young man nicknamed Radio near his practice field and is inspired to befriend him. Soon, Radio is Jones' loyal assistant, and he becomes a student at T.L. Hanna High School. But things start to sour when Coach Jones begins taking guff from parents and fans who feel that his devotion to Radio is getting in the way of the team's quest for a championship.
A Taiwanese-American man is happily settled in New York with his American boyfriend. He plans a marriage of convenience to a Chinese woman in order to keep his parents off his back and to get the woman a green card. Chaos follows when his parents arrive in New York for the wedding.
A couple's attitudes are challenged when their daughter brings home a fiancé who is black.
Determined to leave the ravages of war behind, 38 year old Gian Singh resigns from the British Indian Army to a quiet life. His world is soon thrown in turmoil, when he suddenly finds himself responsible for the life of a 17 year old girl, traumatized by the events that separated her from her family.
The story of an interracial couple's marriage being tested by family and societal pressures when they realize that even love may not be enough to save it, further amplified when a child is involved in the couple's life.
A dashing Mississippi river gambler wins the affections of the daughter of the owner of the Show Boat.
The fantastical tale of a little girl who won't - or can't - follow the rules. Confounded by her clashes with the rule-obsessed world around her, Phoebe seeks enlightenment from her unconventional drama teacher, even as her brilliant but anguished mother looks to Phoebe herself for inspiration.
Kii, a young woman who isn't good at studying or sports, finds her passion in life through amateur photography. While trying to take a good shot one afternoon, she meets fledgling singer Yuu by chance and together they move towards the light of accomplishing their dreams.
After his father leaves home for another woman, 16-year-old Martial has to move with his mother, Sabine, to a more modest apartment. Martial finds it difficult to fit in his new life. His mother offers to help him, but she only makes the situation worse. Martial then forms a bond with two twin sisters his own age, with whom he has a series of exciting and disturbing experiences.
College and high school serve as the backdrop for two stories about dysfunction and personal turmoil.
Verona and Burt have moved to Colorado to be close to Burt's parents but, with Verona expecting their first child, Burt's parents inexplicably decide to move to Belgium, now leaving them in a place they hate and without a support structure in place. They set off on a whirlwind tour of of disparate locations where they have friends or relatives, sampling not only different cities and climates but also different families. Along the way they realize that the journey is less about discovering where they want to live and more about figuring out what type of parents they want to be.
Seeking refuge on an island in Upstate New York, a married couple's final attempt to salvage their failing relationship takes a turn for the worse when the husband begins to regress emotionally, mentally, and physically.
A prison guard begins a tentative romance with the unsuspecting widow of a man whose execution he presided over.
A successful and married black man contemplates having an affair with a white girl from work. He's quite rightly worried that the racial difference would make an already taboo relationship even worse.
In the slums of the upper West Side of Manhattan, tensions are high as a gang of Polish-Americans compete against a gang of recently immigrated Puerto Ricans, but this doesn't stop two romantics from each gang falling in love.
A white female detective is partnered with a black male detective to find the person who is committing a series of particularly vicious murders. During the course of the investigation the two begin to develop an attraction to each other, but the situation is complicated by the fact that he is married.
Igor is a professional boxer whose world comes to a halt when he learns that his brain has been severely damaged from his many years of fighting. Refusing to undergo surgery, he knows that his days are numbered. Not having much left, his last desire is to leave a child behind as his legacy. A young Vietnamese immigrant, Yen Ha, agrees to have his baby in return for Polish citizenship. Despite the nature of their agreement, they slowly fall in love, but then Igor's health deteriorates...