The film follows Mr. Shi, a retired widower from Beijing. When his only daughter, Yilan, who lives in Spokane, Washington and works as a librarian, gets divorced, he decides to visit her to help her heal. However, Yilan is not interested. She tries keeping an emotional distance but when this finally fails she begins physically avoiding her father. He confronts her about an affair with a married Russian man and she, in turn, lets loose about all the gossip she'd heard as a young girl about his alleged affair with a female colleague back in China.

In 1986 Iran, Sahebjam, whose car breaks down in a remote village, enters into a conversation with Zahra, who relays to him the story about her niece, Soraya, whose arranged marriage to an abusive tyrant ended in tragedy.

In Tehran, a young man struggles between keeping his integrity and joining a band of criminals to prosper for the woman he loves.

American tourist Gene LePere (Lee Remick), on vacation in Turkey, is hounded by a street vendor into buying a carved head she doesn't want. Then she is cast into prison for smuggling an antique.

A wannabe private investigator wins the Green Card lottery and moves to America to pursue his dream only to find himself embroiled in a conspiracy to start the next world war.

When a woman finds out that her husband has been influenced by a cabaret singer, she changes her appearance and behavior and once again approaches her runaway wife and tries to lead her to family life. With the help of her staff, the cabaret singer takes the woman, and the husband, with the help of the police, catches them and begins a new life with his wife.

An Iranian couple (Shohreh Aghdashloo, Mohsen Marzban) declare themselves political refugees after police detain them on their way to Cuba.

Amir who needs money to marry with his fiance Maryam begins to do illegal working in a gang of a guy Afshar. Afshar's wife falls in love with Amir but he doesn't care for her. One day Afshar sees them alone and becomes suspicious.

A Croatian soldier turned boxer is haunted by disturbing dreams of the Virgin Mary that lead him to post-911 America (Oakland) to fulfill a religious vision in this suspenseful and timely look at the violence underlying any form of fundamentalism. Made in the months following the 9/11 attacks, the film offers a warning to anyone who misreads religious texts as a means to profaning the holiness of life.