Private eye Jake Gittes lives off of the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-World War II Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together.

In 1884, an eleven-year-old Quaker boy sets out on his own to seek revenge against a gang of outlaws who senselessly murdered his family.

A young teenage girl is jealous of her father's new wife, and when one day she discovers the two of them having sex, she freaks out and starts hanging out with the "wrong crowd" at school. Next thing you know, she's smoking pot and having sex with long-haired hippies. From there it's all downhill.

An ex-soldier is recruited by the FBI to go undercover in L.A. and find other ex-soldiers who are part of a drug-dealing gang.

A young soldier attempts to lose his virginity before he leaves for Vietnam.

Sheila, an affluent black teenager, begins dating working class white teen Wayne, and asks him for help to sell a kilo of marijuana.

An elderly married couple find that as their physical and mental health deteriorates, they find themselves dependent more and more upon their grown children.