Anna Carson awakens from a recurring nightmare, and later has unsatisfying sex with her husband, a businessman named David, as a prowler watches the two of them through their living room window. The next morning, Anna and David argue about the long hours David has been working, and about how bad their sex has become. Anna then drives into town, followed by the voyeur, as her car radio discusses the Long Island Rape Murderer, a serial killer who has been sexually mutilating and shooting women and children. At a train station, Anna meets Maggie Ronson, a photographer who later tracks Anna down to a beauty salon, to return a datebook Anna had dropped.
At an unspecified point in the future, the government created a type of jet which never needed refueling, but which leaked a type radiation that caused those exposed to it to die, and reanimate as intelligent zombies dubbed "Grubs". One of the victims of the radiation is a prostitute whose scarred body is taken to a laboratory, where she wakes up while being sexually abused by a pair of necrophilic scientists, who she kills after deeming what they have done "the worst fuck of my life".
Georgina Spelvin plays Justine Jones, a lonely, depressed spinster who decides that suicide is the only way out of her routinely dull existence. While lying in the bathtub, Justine slits her wrists, dying quietly as the water fills with her blood.
Linda Blair stars as a 14-year-old runaway who, after getting arrested one too many times, is sentenced to do time in a girls' juvenile detention center, which doubles as a reform school for the girls. Blair's character, Christine Parker, comes from an abusive home. Her father (played by Richard Jaeckel) beat her on a regular basis, which caused Chris to run away many times. Her mother (Kim Hunter) is just as troubled as Chris is; unfeeling, sitting in her recliner, watching television and smoking cigarettes all day, and in denial as to what her husband is doing. While the movie had a morality play tone, calling attention to the harsh conditions of juvenile detention centers, it also blamed society for Christine's downfall.
Affinity is set in Victorian England; the story of an upper-class woman, Margaret (Anna Madeley), who becomes an official "Visitor" to a woman's prison; however, she becomes emotionally attached to one of the inmates, Selina (Zoe Tapper).
Sister Maria lives with the convent for her charity works, but in the secret downs of her fantasies, she becomes agonized by visions from another world, a world in which she is permitted to run free. In this world Satan is her lord, and her acts of violence and blasphemy mount. Sister Maria realizes that she is elected by the Devil himself to destroy the convent and lead her sister nuns into hell. Only the Devil can intuit the dark secrets of her tortured mind.
The story begins during a thunderstorm. The house, which is shown in the opening shot, named Prairie Blossom, is very clearly fake which lends itself to comedic value. A caller, Willene Cassidy, pays a visit to the house owner, Mrs. Gert Hammond, who is very drunk. She insists that she make herself presentable before she answers the door. This takes a very long time and she makes a bad job of putting on her makeup. In an effort to get the alcohol out of her system she makes herself vomit by putting her fingers down her throat. Finally, having retrieved her wig from the toilet, where it fell during her vomiting, she is ready to greet her visitor. Willene is shocked at the dishevelled appearance of Mrs. Hammond and insist on giving her a bath. Willene explains that her husband is a very famous country music star, Simon Cassidy, whose music is heard on the radio during the later scene and is terrible. During the course of the bath, Willene unintentionally masturbates Mrs. Hammond. It is also revealed that Mr. Hammond died and that their son "no longer exists".
Parole officer Sandra Parker (Lois Nettleton) becomes aware of the death of one of her cases, Ginger Stratton, at the hands of brutal prison guard Claire Tyson (Ida Lupino). All too aware of Tyson's impeccable record, Parker and her friend, Assistant District Attorney Helen Anderson (Penny Fuller), come to the conclusion that Tyson is basically untouchable.
Three young women—Kelly MacNamara (Dolly Read), Casey Anderson (Cynthia Myers), and Petronella "Pet" Danforth (Marcia McBroom)—perform in a rock band, The Kelly Affair, managed by Harris Allsworth (David Gurian), Kelly's boyfriend. The four travel to Los Angeles to find Kelly's estranged aunt, Susan Lake (Phyllis Davis), heiress to a family fortune.
Mike (Tatum) has big plans for a business of his own but pays his bills through a series of odd jobs, most notably performing as the star stripper at Xquisite Strip Club in Tampa, a club owned by Dallas (McConaughey), who has dreams of creating an "empire" of strip clubs.
Two girls, Cathy Phillips (Deborah Raffin) and Diane Emery (Lynne Moody) get engine car trouble in a small town. When they spurn the sheriff Slim Danen's (Chuck Connors) advances, they are thrown in prison on false accusations, where they endure atrocities at the hands of the administrators and prison guards. All hope seems very lost unless the girls find a way to escape.
Agnes Benson, an elderly and paraplegic recluse, hires Jenny Merlin to care for her and her adult son, Timmy, a skilled mimic who has the mentality of a child due to witnessing the accident that crippled his mother, and killed his father. Not long after being hired by Mrs. Benson, Jenny has sex with the woman's handyman, Charlie. When Timmy catches the two of them together, Charlie tells him that he and Jenny were only "sunbathing". Timmy leaves to run an errand, and spots a couple having sex in the woods. When the man leaves to get cigarettes, Timmy approaches the woman, who panics and tries to run away, dying when she hits her head on a rock after being tripped by Timmy, who believes that they are playing a game. Oblivious to the woman's death, Timmy engages in intercourse with her body, and leaves when he hears the girl's boyfriend approaching.
Erica Hayden (Knight) is a young expectant mother who is wrongly implicated in a crime and sent to prison for five years. Erica learns that she must find a guardian for her daughter or she will become a ward of the state. The prison's warden, Frank Cole (Duggan), becomes infatuated with Erica and effectively blocks her chances for a parole.
Dinah Hunter (Mimieux) works for a Los Angeles advertising agency and has been involved in a two-year romantic relationship. After she catches the man being unfaithful to her, Dinah quits her job and drives to New York for a fresh start.