In 1991 in New York City, 11-year-old Alyssa "Ally" Craig is waiting with her mother for the subway on the F Line at 18th Avenue and McDonald Avenue. Suddenly, the pair are mugged by two young men who then shoot her mother before boarding the train. Ally is left scarred by the events and refuses to travel by subway again.
Disenchanted poet Susan Grieve, escorted by her friend Stacy Grant, meets embittered World War II naval hero Lieutenant Slick Novak at a Manhattan restaurant where a dinner party is being held in his honor. He is more interested in Susan than his blind date Peggy Markham and offers to take her home at the end of the evening. The two become better acquainted over coffee in Susan's apartment, and she initially resists but then succumbs to his charms when he tries to kiss her.
Ex-football star Mike Gambril and singer Terry McKay, each of whom is engaged to marry someone else, meet on a flight to Sydney. The plane makes an emergency landing and passengers must wait until a piece of equipment is delivered.
L'histoire est centrée sur un piège que, pour se venger, don Salluste tend à la reine. Sachant que l'un de ses esclaves, Ruy Blas, est secrètement tombé amoureux d'elle, il l'habille comme un noble et l'emmène à la cour. Intelligent et généreux, Blas devient populaire, est nommé Premier ministre (il commence dans cet emploi des réformes utiles) et conquiert le cœur de la reine. Don Salluste revient prendre sa revanche : il dévoile la vérité en humiliant cruellement Blas : il lui ordonne de fermer la fenêtre et de ramasser son mouchoir, tout en essayant d'expliquer l'état où en est la politique espagnole. Blas le tue et décide de se suicider en s'empoisonnant. Sur le point de mourir, il reçoit le pardon de la reine, qui déclare ouvertement son amour pour lui.
Harry Moulton Pulham Jr. (Robert Young) is a conservative, middle-aged Boston businessman, set in a precise daily routine. He has a proper wife, Kay (Ruth Hussey), with whom he has settled into a comfortable if passionless relationship. However, it was not always that way.
This romance is set in Tyrol, western Austria. Previously filmed in 1928, the sentimental Margaret Kennedy novel The Constant Nymph was sumptuously remade by Gaumont-British Picture Corporation in 1933. Victoria Hopper plays the title character, a rich, Belgian gamine named Tessa Sanger. The girl falls hopelessly in love with world-famous composer Lewis Dodd (Brian Aherne), who is so full of himself that he barely acknowledges Tessa's existence. As she looks on in quiet desperation, Dodd marries another woman, his distant cousin Florence (Leonora Corbett). It takes him nearly the entire picture to realize what a fool he's been, and that Tessa was the one girl for him all along—but alas, it's too late. The Constant Nymph was remade by Warner Bros. in 1943, at which time all prints of the 1933 version were supposed to be destroyed, however, several prints did survive.
Lewis Dodd (Charles Boyer) is a composer in Brussels, but his most recent latest symphony is badly received in London. To get over the rejection, he decides to visit his old friend and fellow musician, Albert Sanger (Montagu Love), at his house in Switzerland. Lewis' arrival causes great excitement among Sanger's four daughters: Kate (Jean Muir), Toni (Brenda Marshall), Tessa (Joan Fontaine) and Paula (Joyce Reynolds).
Newlywed Carl (Ralph Forbes) goes to war where he endures major suffering. Back home, wife Pauli (Lillian Gish) starves, becomes a prostitute to survive, and their baby dies.
Nikki (Bening) is a recent widow whose husband, Garret (Ed Harris), died in a drowning accident and has not yet gotten over it. Objects, people and situations that remind Nikki of the love of her life still haunt her. Resigned to life alone, Nikki visits an art gallery she often frequented with Garret and sees a man (Harris in a dual role) whose resemblance to her husband stuns her. She returns to the gallery several more times, hoping to see him. Eventually, Nikki identifies him as a professor at a small local college. She finds "Tom" on the internet and visits an art class he is teaching; but she is emotionally overwhelmed and flees. Eventually, Nikki calms down and invites Tom to give her private, at home, tutoring in painting. She doesn't disclose to him his physical resemblance to her late husband.
Marcia, une jeune femme, séjourne dans un camp de bûcherons. Elle est attirée vers un homme de la ville, Fosdick. Par contre, elle éprouve une aversion pour le chef du campement, Barnes, un homme rustre et dur. Mais ses sentiments vont changer lorsqu'elle connaîtra plus profondément le caractère des deux hommes.
Aurore est une pianiste, concertiste talentueuse. À la suite de la mort de son père, elle se sent incapable de jouer et part avec son frère, Paul, qui gère sa carrière, dans le sud de la France pour vider la maison de son père. Elle y rencontre Jean, installateur d'alarmes venu effectuer des travaux. Tandis que Paul tente vainement de la pousser à se remettre à jouer, ne voulant pas gâcher son talent qu'il trouve immense, une idylle naît entre Aurore et Jean. Grâce à cette histoire d'amour, Aurore retrouve goût au piano. Mais Jean vit avec Dolorès, une femme qui éprouve pour lui des sentiments extrêmes et se montre prête à tout pour le garder auprès d'elle.
Drab Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis) is an unattractive, overweight, repressed spinster whose life is brutally dominated by her dictatorial mother (Gladys Cooper), an aristocratic Boston dowager whose verbal and emotional abuse of her daughter has contributed to the woman's complete lack of self-confidence. It is revealed that Mrs. Vale had already brought up three sons, and Charlotte was an unwanted child born to her late in life. Fearing Charlotte is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, her sister-in-law Lisa (Ilka Chase) introduces her to psychiatrist Dr. Jaquith (Claude Rains), who recommends she spend time in his sanatarium.
A love affair between a young lieutenant and a musician's daughter ends tragically when the lieutenant is killed in a duel, and the girl commits suicide.