A teenager living with her sister and parents in Manhattan during the 1990s discovers that her father is having an affair.

A series of snapshots from the life of a fictional actress named Shirley serves to weave together thirteen paintings by Edward Hopper (e.g. “Office at Night”, “Western Motel”, “Usherette”, “A Woman in the Sun”) into a fascinating synthesis of painting and film, personal and political history. Each station in Shirley’s professional and private life from the 1930s to 1960s is precisely dated: It is always August 28/29 of the year in question, as the locations vary from Paris to New York to Cape Cod.

Paris, 1993. Selma, 17, lives in a bourgeois and secular Berber family. When she meets and is strongly attracted to Julien, a dashing young man, she realizes for the first time the heavy rules of her patriarchal family and how they affect her intimacy. As Islamism takes over her country of origin and her family crumbles, Selma discovers the power of her own desire. She must resist and fight. Through the strength of her people, she starts walking down the path of what it means to become a free woman.

When a family of swans make their home on the Peterson farm, it’s love at first sight for 10-year-old daughter Frankie. But along comes no-nonsense ornithologist Ginny Newsom, who rushes in to “save” the majestic birds. For Frankie’s dad Jack, it’s dislike at first sight when he encounters pushy, know-it-all Ginny. Frankie and her brothers are anything but neutral observers as they watch the initial hostility between their widowed father and the strong-willed Ginny transform into something else. Could that be romance in the air?

The lives of three women have a commonality: adoption. Karen is a physical therapist who regrets that, as a teenager, she gave up her daughter for adoption. Elizabeth was an adopted child and is now a successful lawyer, but her personal life lacks warmth. Lucy and her husband have failed to conceive and now hope to adopt a baby to make their family complete.

In the arid region of Rajasthan, India; there are two royal families, Mirtagarth and Surjangarh who believes in a religious ritual which states that a warrior from each of these two families will come together annually to have a fierce battle with the winner having to sacrifice a baby buffalo and it will rain in that person’s territory. This tradition must be fated to carry on by the future generation as it is a rule of nature set down by their kin.

A traveling art saleswoman tries to shake off a flaky motel manager who falls for her and won’t leave her alone.

In Victorian England, a master criminal makes elaborate plans to steal a shipment of gold from a moving train.

A progressive graduate student finds success and sparks outrage when his interest in battle rap as a thesis subject becomes a competitive obsession.

Set in Brazil, three kids who make a discovery in a garbage dump soon find themselves running from the cops and trying to right a terrible wrong.

Cleveland ‘Stack’ Stackhouse is a guard with the Texas Correctional Youth Authority who witnesses the cycle of destructive choices and racial tensions among female teen offenders and decides to do something about it. He gathers African-American, Latina and Caucasian teens, and organizes a multi-racial track team behind the bars of the prison. Participation in Stack’s track team not only breaks down the racial divides between the girls, but puts them on a path to turn their lives around.

Neglected by her husband, Sarah embarks on an impromptu road trip with her young daughter and her best friend, Mindy. Along the way, the dynamic between the two friends intensifies before circumstances force them apart. Years later, Sarah attempts to rebuild their intimate connection in the days before Mindy’s wedding.