A tea master and his daughter Ogin are both Christians in feudal Japan. Ogin falls in love with a married feudal prince who shares her faith. When the Shogun bans Christianity, the situation worsens.
Two students in the West Bank are forced to return home to Gaza, where their love defies tradition. To reach his lover, Qays graffitis poetry across town.
Martha "Red" Tierney used to be a hot-shot reporter, but that was before alcohol took over her life. One morning Martha's son, Jonathan, leaves for school, stopping first to meet his father for breakfast.
The main character, Michèle, spends the hour discussing her views of life with some old and new friends, and tries to understand her own feelings about her place in the world and her sexuality, while a camera follows along at close range.
In 1880s China, young Lalu is sold into marriage by her impoverished father. Rather than becoming a bride, Lalu ends up in an Idaho gold-mining town, the property of a saloon owner who renames her, China Polly, and plans to sell her as entertainment for the locals.
Brothers Martin and Simon, not yet teens, are incorrigible vandals; Martin runs away from reform school, Simon from foster homes, and they always find each other in a seacoast town of Lignan, where their destructive behavior is infamous.
The evil scientist Dr. Caronte plots to revive the brains of three dead scientists and use them to obtain the formula for the super-powerful neutron bomb.
Raja, the son of a rich man who was cheated of his wealth by Jambu, grows up in an orphanage. He becomes a famous poet in the city with the help of Jambu's family, unaware of his past.
Thomas Crimmins is a new warder, or guard, in an Irish prison. He is young, naive, and idealistic, determined to serve his country by his part in meting out justice to criminals.
Albert, a cheeky, womanising, door-to door salesman, with a never-take-no-for-an-answer attitude, lives his life for the moment, and with no thought of his future, or the consequences of his actions on the people he encounters.
Jean Wells believes she kills a man during a hit-and-run one evening. A man named Joe appears and, in exchange for keeping silent about the murder, blackmails Wells.