For a 13-year-old boy like Filipe, the prospect of a summer vacation in the Azores with his father is like a dream come true. But dreams are sometimes just a way to avoid facing reality.
Pauline Schwebe is a police officer and single. She is touched when she discovers Leo Golombeck's handwritten wish list at a traffic light. In it, the seven-year-old invites a lonely soul to a Christmas party with his family. In return, he wouldn't mind if the lonely soul brought a few presents. Pauline visits Leo, who lives in modest circumstances with his sister Lotte and his dad Daniel. As Pauline's parents are constantly nagging her that she is still single, she quickly invites Daniel and his children to the family Christmas party and introduces him as her new boyfriend.
Two strangers, fleeing failed relationships in other cities, meet on the streets of New York. As they connect over a single evening, their outlook on life and love is tested.
Irène is a beautiful girl working in Paris, she soon meets a manager and hopes a love story with him. But he tells a lie, so she falls in love with a house painter.
Paul is thirty years old and can’t seem to settle down. When his father tells him that his grandmother would love to see him with a girlfriend before dying, he goes on a quest to find a girl with whom he can make it happen.
Barley Scott Blair, a Lisbon-based editor of Russian literature who unexpectedly begins working for British intelligence, is commissioned to investigate the purposes of Dante, a dissident scientist trapped in the decaying Soviet Union that is crumbling under the new open-minded policies.
Timid and restrained Andrius lives in a monotonous marriage with his wife Sandra. And then there is the pressure to have a child. Father-in-law Vytautas, who lives happily with his wife Marta, is convinced that "small" sins and missteps are the basis of a strong marriage. The father-in-law wants to help his son-in-law save his marriage and advises him to relax and look around more... Soon the attractive lady Sarlote appears among the men and the situation starts to heat up.
A sort of meta riff on Alexandre Dumas fils' novel The Lady of the Camellias (La Dame aux Camélias or Camille) here in Mexican melodrama form involving the doomed love of a bullfighter and a beautiful but ailing actress/courtesan.
A prison trustee rescues a despondent executioner from a bar-room brawl, and is blamed for the fight by a tabloid reporter who actually started it, and loses parole, becomes embittered, and gets blamed for murder of guard.
London's jewel thieves are under the thumb of a mysterious fence, who ruthlessly exposes any thief who crosses him. Desperate, Scotland Yard re-hires ex-Inspector Barrabal who, as a known drunkard, is ideally suited to go undercover with a faked criminal record (which may spoil his chances with lovely Carol Stedman).
Vincent Bruce, a war veteran, begins working as an occupational therapist at Poplar Lodge, a private psychiatric facility for wealthy people where he meets Lilith Arthur, a charming young woman suffering from schizophrenia, whose fragile beauty captivates all who meet her.
Charlie Mason and Rusty Fleming are star reporters on a Chicago tabloid who are romantically involved as well. Although skilled in ferreting out great stories, they often behave in an unprofessional and immature manner. After their shenanigans cause their frustrated city editor to resign, the publisher promotes Charlie to the job, a decision based on the premise that only a slacker would be able crack down on other shirkers and underachievers. His pomposity soon alienates most of his co-workers and causes Rusty to move to New York. Charlie resigns and along with gangster friend Smiles Benson tries to win Rusty back before she marries a stuffy society author.