Reporter Rowena Price, under the pseudonym of David Shane (Halle Berry), and researcher Miles Haley (Giovanni Ribisi) are investigating conservative Republican senator Stephen Sachs, who has been having secret sexual encounters with his male interns, despite his publicly anti-gay agenda. The story is shut down, however, when the source clams up and Rowena's editor, a supporter of the senator, puts a stop to the story. The editor also insists she take a vacation and won't take no for an answer.
Ed Earl (Reynolds), the sheriff of Gilbert, Texas, has a relationship of long standing with Miss Mona (Parton), who runs a brothel there called the "Chicken Coop." Illegal or not, Ed Earl doesn't interfere with her business, which has been a fixture in the town for as long as either can remember.
A Miami area high school guidance counselor, Sam Lombardo (Dillon), is accused of rape by two female students, the wealthy and popular Kelly Van Ryan (Richards) and poor outcast Suzie Toller (Campbell), and hires lawyer Kenneth Bowden (Murray) to defend him. At trial, Suzie admits that she and Kelly had made everything up to get revenge on Lombardo: Suzie for him failing to bail her out of jail on a minor drug charge and Kelly for him having an affair with her mother, Sandra. Kelly's mother is humiliated by the scandal, and Lombardo and Bowden negotiate an $8.5 million settlement for defamation. In reality, however, Lombardo and the two girls were accomplices who used the trial as a way to get money from Kelly's wealthy family. To celebrate their success, the three of them have sex.
The film takes place in the 1940s, when Shanghai was under Japanese occupation. A young Chinese woman named Mrs Mai is sitting in a luxurious cafe. She makes a phone call, signaling a group of resistance agents to load their weapons.
Deuce Bigalow (Rob Schneider), an insecure fishtank cleaner (aquarist), is fired for cleaning the tank at a public aquarium in the nude. Deuce is unsuccessful in attracting women, so he attempts to keep himself busy at work. On a house call, he meets an Argentinean male prostitute Antoine Laconte (Oded Fehr). Antoine is going on a business trip, and so asks Deuce to care for his lionfish and protect his home while he is away. Deuce accidentally sets Antoine's kitchen on fire when trying to make a grilled cheese sandwich in the toaster, and breaks an expensive fish tank.
Joel Goodson is a normal high school student who lives with his wealthy parents in the North Shore area of suburban Chicago. His father wants him to attend Princeton University, his alma mater, so Joel participates in Future Enterprisers, an extracurricular activity in which students work in teams to create small businesses.
After moving from Michigan to Florida, Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute, meets Selby Wall in a gay bar. After initial hostility and declaring that she is not gay, Aileen talks to Selby over beers. Selby takes to Aileen almost immediately, as she likes that she is very protective of her. Selby invites her to spend the night with her. They return to the house where Selby is staying (temporarily exiled by her parents following the accusation from another girl that Selby tried to kiss her). They later agree to meet at a roller skating rink, and they kiss for the first time. Aileen and Selby fall in love, but they have nowhere to go, so Selby goes back to her Aunt's home.
Anna Ivanovna, a British-Russian midwife at a London hospital, finds a Russian-language diary on the body of Tatiana, a 14-year-old girl who dies in childbirth. She also finds a card for the Trans-Siberian Restaurant, which is owned by Semyon, an old vor in the Russian Mafia. Anna thus sets out to track down the girl's family so that she can find a home for the baby girl, having meetings with Semyon, whom she initially regards as friendly. Anna's mother Helen does not discourage her, but Anna's Ukrainian uncle and self-described former KGB officer, Stepan, whom Anna asks for help with the translation of the diary, urges caution. Through translation of the diary, Anna comes to learn that Semyon and his ignorant therefore unstable son Kirill had abused the girl, addicted her to heroin, forced her into prostitution, and raped her. Ultimately, Anna realizes that the baby was fathered by Semyon (in several scenes it is made clear that Kirill is impotent and never had sex with Tatiana).
Julian Kaye (Richard Gere) is a male escort in Los Angeles whose job supports his expensive taste in cars, stereophonic equipment and clothes. He is blatantly narcissistic and superficial; however, he claims to take some pleasure in his work from being able to sexually satisfy women.
Claire Peterson (Jennifer Lopez) separates from her husband Garrett (John Corbett), after he was caught cheating with his secretary. Her colleague and best friend Vicky Lansing (Kristin Chenoweth) urges Claire to divorce. Claire meets 19-year-old Noah Sandborn (Ryan Guzman) - the orphaned nephew of her wheelchair-bound neighbor - who has just moved in next door. Noah befriends Kevin (Ian Nelson), Claire's teenage son, and begins attending his school, where Claire teaches English literature. Noah is drawn to Claire, expressing love for Homer's Iliad. With Kevin and Garrett away on a fishing trip, Claire watches a naked Noah in his room through her window.
Ben Sanderson (Cage) is a Hollywood screenwriter whose alcoholism costs him his job, family, and friends. With nothing left to live for, he moves to Las Vegas to drink himself to death. As he drives drunkenly down the Las Vegas Strip, he nearly hits a woman, Sera (Shue), on the crosswalk. Sera chastises him and walks away. Sera is a prostitute working for an abusive pimp, Yuri Butso (Julian Sands), a Latvian immigrant. Polish mobsters are after Yuri, so he breaks his relationship with Sera in fear that the Poles may hurt her. Yuri is murdered (off-screen) shortly afterwards.
A young woman walking home from her birthday party is stalked by a man in distinctive sneakers. After she drops one of her presents, a police officer offers to escort her to her front door. The camera reveals that the policeman is wearing the same sneakers as the stalker.
Allison "Allie" Jones (Bridget Fonda) is a software designer in New York City, engaged to Sam Rawson (Steven Weber). In the middle of the night, Sam's ex-wife calls, and it is revealed that he slept with her recently. A hurt and angry Allie throws Sam out, breaking off their engagement, and is comforted by neighbor Graham Knox (Peter Friedman), an aspiring actor. The next morning she attends a business lunch with Mitchell Myerson (Stephen Tobolowsky), a fashion house owner who is looking to buy Allie's revolutionary new program. He manipulates her into significantly lowering the cost, on the basis that his recommendations within the industry will be her future business. As he is her first and only client, she accepts.
As the film opens, Joe Buck (Jon Voight), a young Texan working as a dishwasher, dresses in new cowboy clothing, packs a suitcase, and quits his job. He heads to New York City hoping to succeed as a male prostitute for women. Initially unsuccessful, he succeeds in bedding a well-to-do middle-aged New Yorker (Sylvia Miles), but Joe ends up giving her money.
Set in London, the film opens with American best-selling author Catherine Tramell in a speeding car with her companion, Kevin Franks, a famous English football star. Tramell takes the man's hand and begins masturbating with it, all the while increasing her vehicle's speed. At the point of orgasm, Tramell veers off the road and crashes into the West India Docks in Canary Wharf. She attempts to save her partner but, as she says while being questioned by the police, "When it came down to it, I guess my life was more important to me than his".