Sarcelles. The TGV, broken down, takes a break at the city's RER station. A young passenger, music manager, has never set foot in the suburbs. This is an opportunity for him to go and study urban music.

Michael is supposed to go to prison for 18 months, but escapes from the police officer. On the run, he meets Malika, who has also committed "stupid things." Together, they flee from the "third eye" of her mother, who, according to Malika, can see into the distance.

The movie, for the most part, charts the AIDS epidemic in France from 1980 – present through the microcosm of a family, but particularly through their gay son Nicolas, who narrates the story.

Camille is an emancipated 30-something woman who has no desire to settle down and have a family, preferring to coast along on a succession of ephemeral relationships and one-night stands. However, her lifestyle fails to satisfy her fully, and in a moment of depression she runs into a complete stranger, Alexis, whom she instantly falls in love with. Alexis, alas, is married, with two children, and works for the Socialist Party. None of this is going to deter Camille though…

This is the story of four French friends: the Greek (an osteopath), Fifi (who lives with his mother), Fortuné (a West Indian) and Freddy (a gambler). They meet up regularly at a Parisian bookmakers’, their favourite haunt. Tired of frittering away the little spare cash they have, they agree to give up gambling. But no sooner have they taken this pledge than Fate intervenes, in the guise of the turf king, Monsieur Paul. The latter persuades the four friends to buy a champion racehorse, not knowing that it is in fact an old nag…

A young unemployed man finds work at a nuclear power plant and begins an illicit affair with the fiancée of one of his senior workmates.

After a conviction for theft, Merwan was expelled from France, where he had lived since the age of one, to Algeria, his country of birth. In a foreign country of which he knows neither the language nor the customs, he finds himself stripped of his belongings and on the street.

In Paris, Ismaél, a young Tunisian, cares for two brothers, Nouredine, a cripple, and streetwise Mouloud, 14. In haste, Ismaél and Mouloud go to Marseilles where an uncle lives. Nouredine has died in a fire, and Ismaél feels guilt on top of grief. Ismaél becomes friends with Jacky, a white man whose father and brother hate immigrants. Mouloud hangs out with cousin Rhida who breaks Islamic rules and deals hash. Ismaél decides Mouloud must return to Tunisia, but the boy runs off, becoming an acolyte to Rhida's supplier. Ismaél and Jacky's Arab girlfriend start an affair, friends betray friends, and the racism gets ugly. Can Ismaél rescue himself and Mouloud or will life in France crush them?

His name is Nicolas, but she calls him “Calino”. She is Nejma, he calls her “Nej’, ma neige”. She just wants to be herself, but he wants her for himself. In him we see a combination of the desire to fit into society and the need for love. But they’re walking on thin ice, and despite all his efforts, his love becomes all-consuming and neither Nej nor reality can yield to his desires.

After a violent dispute with her mother, sixteen-years old Chloé ends up in the streets with nowhere to go. Then she finds Jean-Michel, a charming young man who will lead her to prostitution.