In a suburb of Paris, a group of teenagers enjoys the last days of summer vacation. They meet in cafes, restaurants or disco, talking about first love, experiences, disappointments and jealousy. Sandrine tries to figure out if she should keep her boyfriend Didier or try with silent Joel, whom she's just met. Riri, Alex and Paulo desperately try to get laid.

Antonio, a policeman (carabiniere), has an order to take two children (Rosetta and her brother Luciano) from Milan to Sicily to an orphanage. Their mother has been arrested for forcing Rosetta (11 years old) to work as a prostitute. First the relation between Antonio and the children is tough, but it relaxes so they become temporary friends.

Despite his lifelong efforts, Jean is one of those unfortunate men who can never understand women. This arty, metaphorical French film presents three examples of Jean's difficulties over the course of his long life. Each of the three episodes takes place beside the same river. He is first seen as a small boy playing on the river banks with the teenage girl he secretly loves. She mischievously promises to tell him her darkest secret if only he will perform a certain task for her. The story then takes a more surreal turn as a now-grown Jean, once again beside the river, toys with a beautiful woman at a picnic. She wants a commitment from him, but wily Jean is unwilling to satisfy her. In the final segment, Jean has become an old man and is once again deeply in love.

Alain runs Le Detour, a small cafe in Paris where Antoine works. Antoine is reunited with his sister Marie when she's released from prison; they are very close, perhaps abnormally so, but she's not aware that Antoine has fallen into cahoots with Stephane, who works as a waiter at another cafe. Damien, a local businessman, is pressuring Alain to expand Le Detour, and cut his nephew Xavier in for a percentage as a manager. While Alain waffles on Damien's proposal, Xavier offers Antoine a chance to make some money under the table by delivering some drugs to a cadre of dealers. Antoine makes the drop and picks up the payment, but runs off with the money rather than bringing it back to Xavier, which proves to have tragic consequences for Antoine and his friends.

Two men and a young girl meet at the end of the world

In Russia, in 1907, a rich lenient husband of a loose unfaithful woman is brutally murdered. She and her two lovers are suspects, but what about the stranger she met just before the murder? With no friends left, she and the stranger bond.

While hiking in the countryside near a coastal town in Normandy, two young lovers have a spat and separate. The woman is run down by a ghostly Land Rover and disappears. Meanwhile, her beau comes to a big old house where he is taken in by an old and lonely man. It doesn't take long for the young man to realize that his host is wacko and terrified of dying and is willing to take extreme measures to prevent this from happening. Though billed as a thriller, director Michael Ferry chose to focus on the inner thoughts and fears of the protagonists rather than exciting action sequences. All of the violence occurs off screen.

Mathieu disappeared ten years ago. Every year, he calls on Mother's Day. But his mother cannot stand it anymore. Believing she sees her son in the street, she has a heart attack. Mathieu's sister, Caroline, decides to look for her brother.

Olivier, the nine-year-old son of Elisabeth and Serge, a country veterinarian, vanishes one afternoon on the way to his grandmother's house. The emotional aftermath of his disappearance sends his father packing and nearly destroys his mother.