Akaky Akakyevich Bashmachkin, a titular counsellor at one of the St. Petersburg offices, has been harassed and ridiculed by everyone for 33 years. For this gentle-hearted failure in life, his only dream is to own a coat, because as the owner of "the most beautiful coat in the world," he can finally feel equal to other people.
This is the sprawling saga of Honoré de Balzac, a man who created a great literary oeuvre from the dramas and adventures of his own life - a life that he shaped into one spectacular and unforgettable blaze of passion.
Maria earns her living fishing in a northern Peruvian village, working alongside her husband. But when her husband is called away to work on larger industrial fishing boat, Maria, who is pregnant, finds ways to act out her anger.
In a neighborhood bar, a mysterious man tells a group of friends the story of an aspiring soccer player who, 50 years ago, tried out for an English club but who had the peculiar characteristic that he could only play soccer in flip-flops.
Andy heads off to Cowboy Camp, leaving his toys to their own devices. Things shift into high gear when an obsessive toy collector named Al McWhiggen, owner of Al's Toy Barn kidnaps Woody.