The intersecting stories of twenty-four characters—from country star to wannabe to reporter to waitress—connect to the music business in Nashville, Tennessee.

Carefree single guy Charlie Waters rooms with two lovely prostitutes, Barbara Miller and Susan Peters, and lives to gamble. Along with his glum betting buddy, Bill Denny, Charlie sets out on a gambling streak in search of the ever-elusive big payday. While Charlie and Bill have some lucky moments, they also have to contend with serious setbacks that threaten to derail their hedonistic betting binge.

Noah, a young woman who lives alone in New York, is dating two very different men, Fred and Mitch, at the same time. However, she realises that neither man can totally fulfil her needs.

A federal agent whose daughter dies of a heroin overdose is determined to destroy the drug ring that supplied her. He recruits various people whose lives have been torn apart by the drug trade and trains them. Then they all leave for France to track down and destroy the ring.

The staff of the Back Bay Mainline, a Boston underground newspaper that rose to prominence in the 1960s, struggles with the shifting social climate of the '70s amid rumors that the paper is about to be sold to a media giant.

A man returns to his sublet apartment to find the previous tenants, three offbeat young women, still in residence, under the mistaken belief that they have the apartment until the end of New Year's Day.

Hellé is a young deaf-mute living among the mountains. She’s ignored by everyone except, now and then, the local woodsmen, who use her for their pleasure. She has no education, no knowledge of right or wrong. One summer, a young man comes to spend the holidays in her village.

While waiting for her divorce papers, a repressed literature professor finds herself unexpectedly attracted by a carefree, spirited young woman named Cay.

Cassie, who seeks love and escape from her mundane ordinary life, meets a traveling Shakespeare troupe offering a community acting workshop.

Tom Peters looks back to 1978, the year in high school that he came out of the closet. Tom's mom is both sweet and intrusive, urging him to take out girls. She also drags him to her disco-dancing lessons. His friendship with Matt becomes his first love, and then Matt turns on Tom with homophobic venom. Later, Matt and Matt's new girlfriend trash the classroom of an effeminate teacher with more vicious homophobia. At first, Tom joins in heaping scorn on the teacher, then he has to decide if it isn't time to open the closet door. A crisis of sorts ensues with his mom, and disco proves to be a balm.