The title of the film refers to the duration of a relationship between Wall Street arbitrageur John Gray (Mickey Rourke) and divorced SoHo art gallery employee Elizabeth McGraw (Kim Basinger). John initiates and controls the various experimental sexual practices of this volatile relationship to push Elizabeth's boundaries. In doing so, Elizabeth experiences a gradual downward spiral toward emotional breakdown.
Suite à une querelle avec son agent et avec son producteur, Susan, une star du cinéma d'horreur érotique, part s'isoler dans un hôtel de luxe. Le soir même, elle est au bras de Paul Steven, un homme d'affaire fiancé. Lorsque le producteur de Susan et la fiancée de Paul sont retrouvés morts, les soupçons se portent tout naturellement sur la jeune actrice.
Detective Cathy Palmer (Ellen Barkin) is on the trail of an elusive serial killer. During her investigation she meets Vickie Kittrie (Peta Wilson), who belongs to an exclusive club of women who engage in secret sessions of bondage and S&M. Matters become even more complicated when Palmer finds herself attracted to Kittrie, leading to a brief lesbian encounter. Palmer soon learns that each victim belonged to this club of prominent, sexually experimental women. In order to catch the killer, Catherine must trust Vickie to guide her through the dangerous and illicit underground.
Harry Angel (Rourke), is a downtrodden New York City private detective contracted by Louis Cyphre (Robert De Niro) to track down John Liebling, known as Johnny Favorite, who suffered severe neurological trauma resulting from injuries he received in World War II. Favorite's incapacity disrupted a contract with Cyphre regarding unspecified collateral, and Cyphre believes that a private upstate hospital where Favorite was receiving radical psychiatric treatment for shell shock has falsified records, deliberately preventing the contract from being fulfilled. He hires Angel to discover the truth and locate Favorite's true whereabouts.
Une journaliste reçoit un coup de téléphone obscène qu'elle prend pour son petit ami. Elle accepte alors de rencontrer l'appelant dans un bar, mais au lieu de rencontrer le petit ami, elle est témoin d'un meurtre.Ld
Carmen, a young Spanish woman who is engaged to be married, has her hen night at a French restaurant in London. She is invited to participate in the observance of an old custom which allows her to kiss the stranger of her choice before the marriage, symbolically "kissing her single life goodbye" and bringing luck for the future. The man she chooses is Kit and both enjoy the kiss far more than they have intended. They fall in love, which creates a "love triangle" among Carmen, her fiancé Barnaby, and Kit.
Valentina Rosselli (Isabelle De Funès) is a Milanese photographer. One night, on her way home, she meets a middle-aged blonde seductress who calls herself "Baba Yaga" (Carroll Baker). The following day, Baba Yaga visits Valentina, showing an ostensibly sexual interest in her. After a series of events, Valentina becomes suspicious of Baba Yaga's supernatural powers and goes to her house. Baba Yaga gives her a doll dressed in leather fetish wear. It is soon revealed that Baba Yaga has started to control Valentina through the doll.
In the 1950s, Catherine toys with her older sister, Marie-Anne, by reading her the story of Bluebeard which scares her. As Catherine rereads the story, the film moves to 1697, where two sisters, Marie-Catherine and Anne, have just lost their father. With the loss of their father the two have no dowries, and so agree to attend a party thrown by Lord Bluebeard, in his search for a new wife. Although it is rumored that Bluebeard has murdered all of his previous wives, as they all disappeared within a year after the marriage, Lord Bluebeard and Marie-Catherine, the younger sister, develop a connection and are soon married. Despite their age difference, the two develop a close bond, and Bluebeard dotes on his new young wife. He must leave her periodically to attend to far off business and when he does he gives her the keys to the castle and tells her to enjoy herself while he is gone. She appears to miss him terribly and is overjoyed when he returns.
A retired rock star, Johnny Boz, is stabbed to death with an ice pick during sex by a mysterious blonde woman at his apartment. Homicide detective Nick Curran investigates, and the only suspect is Catherine Tramell, Boz's bisexual girlfriend and a crime novelist who has written a novel that mirrors the crime. It is concluded that Catherine herself did it or someone who is trying to frame her out of spite. Tramell is uncooperative and taunting in the investigation, smoking in the interrogation room and exposing her bare genitalia in front of the officers. She presents alibis and passes a lie detector test. Nick discovers that Catherine has a habit of befriending murderers, including her girlfriend Roxy, who is later shown to have murdered several young boys on impulse, and Hazel Dobkins, who murdered her family.
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".
Le corps sans vie de Lily Sampson, un mannequin connu, est retrouvé par la police dans une douche. Clark et Fabrice, les deux enquêteurs chargés de l'affaire, commencent par fouiller dans le passé de la victime. A leur plus grande surprise, ils découvrent une cassette vidéo troublante. Ils y voient la belle pratiquer des jeux d'adulte avec un photographe de renom. Les deux hommes ne doivent pas se laisser guider par leurs sentiments et garder leur sang-froid pour retrouver le coupable. En effet, leur enquête est jalonnée d'obstacles et de tentations érotiques auxquelles ils doivent résister. Ils suspectent naturellement l'homme aperçu sur la cassette.