A series of snapshots from the life of a fictional actress named Shirley serves to weave together thirteen paintings by Edward Hopper (e.g. "Office at Night", "Western Motel", "Usherette", "A Woman in the Sun") into a fascinating synthesis of painting and film, personal and political history. Each station in Shirley�s professional and private life from the 1930s to 1960s is precisely dated: It is always August 28/29 of the year in question, as the locations vary from Paris to New York to Cape Cod.
Following the assassination of President Marc Jarry, a member of the investigation committee refuses to sign off on the committee's final findings.
On the outside, Helen has it all � a loving family and a successful career � but when her suppressed mental illness resurfaces, the world crumbles around her. Crippled by depression, Helen finds solace through her friendship with Mathilda, a kindred spirit struggling with bipolar disorder.
Abelard, a famous teacher of philosophy at the cathedral school of Notre Dame, falls in love with one of his students, H�lo�se d'Argenteuil. A sixteen-year old girl raised in a convent, H�lo�se has an intellectual curiosity and rebels against the status of women in 12th century Europe. When others begin to suspect their relationship, Heloise's uncle Fulbert and the bishop of Paris work together to put a stop to it. H�lo�se becomes pregnant with Abelard's child, and they are married in secret. Abelard struggles for acting against the will of God, yet is unable to escape his love for Heloise.
Otsuta is running the geisha house Tsuta in Tokyo. Her business is heavily in debt. Her daughter Katsuyo doesn't see any future in her mother's trade in the late days of Geisha. But Otsuta will not give up. This film portraits the day time life of geisha when not entertaining customers.
Agnese has many men who woo her and live with her cousin Cesira, who has the opposite problem with men and wishes she would also have men woo her.
Tensions mount as the lonely wife of a trucker becomes involved with a gas station attendant.
Four Parisian women navigate the world of romance and daily life looking to fulfill their dreams.
Costanza is drinking a beer in a Prague pub, a summer night in 1968, while a violinist enters and starts playing a "canone inverso" for her. It is not a case, that music and that violin have a story behind that could concern her. It is the love story between Jeno Varga and the music, between Jeno and Sophie.
A young female character, Nikki Douka, from Samothraki, is sailing to the U.S. to fulfill a marriage contract and save her family honor. Her skills as a seamstress keep her busily sewing throughout the voyage to alter wedding dresses for the third-class voyagers. But along the way, she meets a young American photographer who is returning from the Middle East where he was snapping shots of the war in Smyrna, 1922. Her honesty, pride, and beauty attract the attention of the American who falls in love with her. Tribulations abound during the voyage, following the dramas of several unfortunate young women upon whom nasty characters preyed, as Nikki struggles with her feelings for the photographer.
