The film is a character study focusing on Suzanne, a promiscuous sixteen-year-old Parisian, played by Sandrine Bonnaire. Despite her age, Suzanne engages in a number of affairs in reaction to her miserable situation at home.
A teenage girl accuses her primary schoolteacher, Jean Doucet (Jacques Brel), of trying to rape her. The police and the mayor investigate, but Doucet denies the charges. Two other students come forward to reveal more of Doucet's misconduct – one confessing to be his mistress. Doucet faces trial and hard labor if convicted.
À Paris, Paul, 16 ans, vit avec sa mère, qui est divorcée et ne s'intéresse pas à lui. Il rencontre Philippe, marié et sans enfant, un imprimeur quadragénaire qui ne trouve pas non plus l'affection qu'il attendait auprès de son épouse. Philippe et Paul partagent mutuellement la tendresse et la compréhension qui leur font défaut. Paul se sent des dispositions artistiques et Philippe l'encourage dans cette voie. Lors de leur séjour à Deauville, Paul se lie avec un groupe de jeunes de son âge et plus particulièrement avec Marie-Laure, une des filles de la bande, dont il tombe rapidement amoureux. Mais ce flirt n'était qu'un amusement pour cette dernière et Paul trouve l'épaule compréhensive de Philippe pour se consoler. Grâce au soutien de celui-ci, Paul suit des cours d'art dramatique où il obtient d'excellents résultats jusqu'au jour où Philippe a un terrible accident de voiture.
The film opens with 16-year-old Telly (Leo Fitzpatrick) and a 12-year-old girl who are making out on a bed. With no adults around, Telly convinces the girl, who is a virgin, to have sex with him. Afterwards, he meets his friend, Casper (Justin Pierce), and tells him about his sexual experience in graphic terms. They go inside a local store, where Casper shoplifts a bottle of malt liquor as Telly distracts the cashier. Looking for drugs, food and a place to hang out, they head to their friend Paul's (Sajan Bhagat) apartment, though they express dislike of him on the way there. They arrive at Paul's house, talk about sex and smoke marijuana while watching a skate video (Video Days). Casper inhales nitrous oxide out of balloons, which Telly considers dangerous. The scene intercuts with a group of girls, among them Ruby (Rosario Dawson) and Jennie (Chloë Sevigny), talking about sex—each gender contradicting what the other gender says, especially about oral sex.
Maxi (Nathan Lopez) is a 12-year-old effeminate gay boy who lives in the slums with his father and brothers who are petty thieves. The story primarily revolves around the conflict between his love for handsome young police officer Victor (JR Valentin), and his family's illegal livelihood. Neo-realist in orientation, the film is a tale of lost innocence and redemption amidst the poverty of Manila's slums.
Four high school seniors from western Michigan are good friends: Jim Levenstein (Jason Biggs), an awkward, nerdy and sexually naïve character whose dad Noah (Eugene Levy) attempts to offer sexual advice including purchasing and giving him pornography; Chris "Oz" Ostreicher (Chris Klein), a member of the high school lacrosse team; Kevin Myers (Thomas Ian Nicholas), their geeky leader who wants to lose his virginity with his girlfriend named Vicky (Tara Reid); and Paul Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas), a mochaccino-drinking sophisticate and a nerd. They are four outsiders who are geeks, usually get laughed at by arrogant jock Steve Stifler (Seann William Scott). These four boys make a pact, at Kevin's prompting, to lose their virginity before their high school graduation after a dorky classmate, Chuck Sherman (Chris Owen), claims to have done so at a party hosted by Stifler an ignorant and obnoxious lacrosse player who happens to be a close friend of the group (to a lesser degree, Finch, with whom he has a love-hate friendship).
Twelve-year-old Simon (Kacey Mottet Klein) lives with his older sister Louise (Léa Seydoux) in a housing complex below a luxury Swiss ski resort. Despite his age, he supports both him and his sister by stealing equipment from the resort, refurbishing them to look new before reselling them to children at a discounted price. Though he makes a substantial sum of money through these sales, he spends most of it on Louise, buying her clothes and giving her money so that she can go on dates. Louise is selfish and irresponsible, unable to hold down a job and frequently going off with men, leaving Simon alone at home. Though Simon tries to teach her how to refurbish the skis, she leaves with Bruno (Yann Trégouët) on a short vacation.
Paul and Hélène, a wealthy Parisian couple, are preparing to go out for the evening. While driving, they see three men chasing a prostitute down the street. She begs them to save her by letting her into the car, but Paul locks the doors and drives away as the three men savagely beat her, leaving her unconscious in the street. He refuses to let Hélène phone an ambulance, afraid of being charged with not helping a person in danger (which is a crime in France).
Raoul (Gérard Depardieu) and his wife Solange (Carole Laure) are eating in a restaurant when Raoul expresses concern with Solange's apparent depression, as she eats little, suffers migraines and insomnia and also sometimes faints. He finds another man in the room, Stéphane (Patrick Dewaere), to be her lover and hopefully enliven her again. Stéphane is puzzled by Raoul's plan but gives in to his desperate appeals for help. The two men take turns sleeping with Solange, and both try to impregnate her without success, believing a lack of a child to be the source of her depression.
It's a love story between a teacher, Danièle, and one of her pupils, Gérard, during the heat of the Mai 68 events. Danièle is a young militant woman, very active during this political fever. Gérard's parents make a complaint, Danièle is arrested, and the drama begins.
In 1963, thirteen-year-old Anne and fifteen-year-old Frederique are two Jewish sisters whose parents are separated. They live in Paris with their mom and spend their summer holidays at the beach with their father, around whom they both feel awkward. They attend a strict school.
Jeanne aime Jean mais celui-ci ne pense qu'à partir. Un jour, il s'enfuit sur les routes puis meurt. Jeanne ne le saura jamais. Dans l'absence de cet homme aimé, elle se souvient de lui et se confie à son ami Pierre, lui racontant leur séjour en Provence. Les derniers mots de Jeanne sont : « Jean, tout est fragile. Peut-on vivre d'un souvenir ? ».
When shy and introspective Mary arrives as a new freshman student at an all-girls boarding school, she shares a dorm room with two seniors, Paulie and Victoria (nicknamed Tori). In contrast to the timid Mary, Paulie is full of life. For example, at Mary's very first day at the school during a quiet afternoon party on the campus thrown by the staff as a welcome back gathering, Paulie turns the events into a loud music-blasting dance party and spikes the punch with hard liquor. In an effort to break Mary out of her shell, Paulie and Tori involve her in their activities, such as running in the morning. When Mary's roommates learn that her mother recently died, Paulie nicknames her "Mary Brave".
In an upscale New York City mansion, wealthy and popular Kathryn Merteuil (Gellar) is discussing her prep school with Mrs. Caldwell (Christine Baranski) and Caldwell's daughter Cecile (Selma Blair). Kathryn promises Mrs. Caldwell that she will look out for the sheltered and naive Cecile. Sebastian (Phillippe) enters and Mrs. Caldwell reacts to him coldly and leaves with Cecile. Kathryn reveals that her real intention is to use Cecile to take revenge on Court, her ex-lover, who had dumped her for Cecile. Kathryn asks her step-brother Sebastian to seduce Cecile; he refuses as he is planning to seduce virgin Annette Hargrove (Witherspoon), the daughter of their school's headmaster. Annette is a 'paradigm of chastity and virtue' who recently wrote a published essay about saving herself for marriage and has been temporarily staying with Sebastian's aunt. The two make a wager: If Kathryn wins, she gets Sebastian's vintage Jaguar XK140; if Sebastian wins, Kathryn will have sex with him. It is mentioned that Sebastian keeps a journal detailing his conquests.
In the middle of a drought, a drama disrupts the life of the Santerre family on a dairy farm in Quebec's Eastern Townships, and how out of confrontation, they will have to learn to forgive.