Two families, cotton merchants in England and America, with branches in France and Prussia swear to stand by each other in a belief that a great business firmly established in four countries will be able to withstand even such another calamity as the Napoleonic Wars from which Europe is slowly recovering. Then many years later, along comes World War One and the years that follow, to test the businesses.
Penfield Gruber, a once great scientist, is reduced to managing a sleazy hotel. He monitors the daily comings and goings of his tenants, mainly for his own interest, until underworld figures ask him to spy on a suspected double-crosser. While watching the man, Gruber overhears a murder plot.
A group of college friends are reunited after the death of their very successful friend. The will dictates that each person will receive a large sum of money if they can all successfully stay in his mansion for a week. If one person leaves, everyone forfeits the money.
A law student becomes an outlaw French revolutionary when he decides to avenge the unjust killing of his friend. To get close to the aristocrat who has killed his friend, the student adopts the identity of Scaramouche the clown.
Prudence resigns from her teaching position after being criticized for giving a student her copy of a romance novel. She sails for Italy, takes a job at a small bookstore in Rome, and meets Don, who has just broken up with his girlfriend. Prudence and Don tour Italy together, and romance naturally follows.
A young Army nurse, Lt Ruth McGara, newly assigned to the 8666th MASH during the Korean War, attracts the sexual attention of the unit's commander Dr. Jed Webbe. Major Webbe, who has a drinking problem, at first wants a "no strings" relationship. McGara is warned by the other nurses of Webbe's womanizing ways. Despite these initial handicaps, their love flourishes against a background of war, enemy attacks, death and injury. The relationship deepens and uplifts both characters.
The story of president Andrew Jackson from his early years, through his meeting with and subsequent marriage to Rachel Donelson Robards. The plot concentrates on the later scandal concerning the legality of their marriage and how they overcame the difficulties.
In the early 1960s, an interracial couple undergo hypnosis, which unlocks memories of a forgotten event on a lonely road. Soon they believe they were abducted by extraterrestrials.
A lonely man finds a beautiful young woman unconscious and covered in blood while walking through the woods. He starts to fall for her but learns of a terrifying secret.
Jermaine, a young struggling Atlanta lawyer, decides to spruce up his marriage with Jasmine, who's mentally recovering from an abusive previous relationship, by hiring Jade, a bisexual stripper/prostitute fighting a custody battle with her ex-husband for their four-year-old son, for a threesome menage-a-trois get together only to have all three of them suffer the after-affects when Jermaine begins acting possessive towards Jasmine and Jade which leads to Jade (or someone) stalking him and disrupting his private and professional life. Written by Matt Patay
Musical dancer on the way out (at 36) Paula McFadden had it swell with actor Tony DeSanti, but instead of taking her to Hollywood he gets a European movie part. He even sublets their (his) New York apartment to Elliot Garfield, who generously lets her stay, even keeping the master bedroom. Pragmatic pre-teen daughter Lucy soon takes to his charm, but Paula remains determined to hate all actors. Despite the stress of a Broadway Shakespeare lead he must play too queer for Frisco, he's determined to snatch romance from ingratitude.
Chelo is an architect, withdrawing from her social life because of realistic dreams she's having of a romance with a strange man. She's convinced the man is real, out there, destined to be with her. She reports a rape to the police, describing the man of her dreams to a sketch artist. The police find a suspect: he's Marcos, a physician. Chelo tells the police this is not the man who raped her, but now she has Marcos in her sights. Her plan for him to fall in love with her is complicated by his having a fiancée. What can Chelo do? Meanwhile, Marcos has violent dreams about an unfamiliar woman. Chronologies overlap, glass breaks. Can a mind lie to itself?
On his death bed in the 1820s, King Ferdinando I of Naples tries to escape the ghosts of his bloody kingship by remembering his younger days, when he was allowed to go hunting and have fun, and inventing love games. Then he was obliged to marry Mary Caroline of Austria, daughter of Empress Mary Theresa, in a political marriage: unexpectedly, they became happy lovers, until court power games divided them, and a different historical season arrived.
During a medical exam, Helena, a student in anatomical drawing, meets Benoit, a young radiologist. Their mutual fascination for the human body incites them to start a passionate romance. Helena's capability to memorize every detail of Benoit's body and Benoit's irresistible curiosity to uncover the 'interior' secrets of Helena's body lead them to a dangerous journey with no limits...
Rosie and Vincent know each other for ten years, and are married for five. She doesn't like her job, he isn't too pleased working with her dad. They're trying to have a baby. One morning Benoit, a Frenchman and former pen pal of Rosie, whom she never met, comes to visit. Did Rosie love him? Does she love him now?
A series of intertwining tales involve "pleasure seekers and pleasure providers" during the course of one night in Geylang, Singapore's red-light district. There are three distinct stories, united only by the presence of characters from all the stories in a streetside eatery:
A mild-mannered gay man, tired of being pushed around by straights, enrolls in "Butch Camp," a program designed to turn wimpy gay men into assertive, confident gay men.