When an armed, masked gang enter a Manhattan bank, lock the doors and take hostages, the detective assigned to effect their release enters negotiations preoccupied with corruption charges he is facing.

Eight very different couples deal with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London.

An undocumented immigrant finds a human heart in one of the toilets of the west London hotel where he works with other undocumented immigrants.

Fired from his job, a former executive turns to impregnating wealthy lesbians for profit.

Loosely based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina, who smuggled heroin into the United States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War, before being detained by a task force led by Newark Detective Richie Roberts.

The story of Washington D.C. radio personality Ralph "Petey" Greene, an ex-con who became a popular talk show host and community activist in the 1960s.

In 1839, the slave ship Amistad set sail from Cuba to America. During the long trip, Cinque leads the slaves in an unprecedented uprising. They are then held prisoner in Connecticut, and their release becomes the subject of heated debate. Freed slave Theodore Joadson wants Cinque and the others exonerated and recruits property lawyer Roger Baldwin to help his case. Eventually, John Quincy Adams also becomes an ally.

Four adopted brothers return to their Detroit hometown when their mother is murdered and vow to exact revenge on the killers.

Lee and Mae are a couple trying to work out their differences. As Mae struggles with memories of a former flame, Lee, who is a writer, works through his frustration by forming his problems into a story in his mind. And that's when everything starts shifting back and forth from reality to Lee's imagination.

In a not-so-distant future, couples can share pregnancy on a more equal footing via detachable artificial wombs. While botanist Alvy has doubts about this new way of birthing babies, his love for Rachel prompts him to take a leap of faith.