Twenty-one-year-old Anastasia "Ana" Steele (Dakota Johnson) is an English literature major at Washington State University's satellite campus near Vancouver, Washington. Her roommate, Kate Kavanagh (Eloise Mumford), becomes ill and is unable to interview Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan), a 27-year-old billionaire entrepreneur, for the college newspaper. Ana agrees to go in her place and meets Christian at his Seattle headquarters, literally stumbling her way through the meeting. Christian, who is that year's WSU's commencement speaker, takes an interest in her; soon after, he visits the hardware store where Ana works. He agrees to Ana's request for a photo-shoot to accompany the article.
Après que Anastasia a rompu avec Christian, celui-ci fait des cauchemars à propos de son enfance. Pendant ce temps, Ana commence un nouveau travail en tant qu'assistante de Jack Hyde, un éditeur de la société Seattle Independant Publishing (SIP) dont les trois assistantes précédentes ont démissionné au cours des dix-huit derniers mois. Ana est surprise de voir Christian à l'ouverture de l'exposition de photographies de son ami José Rodriguez. Elle est consternée quand Christian lui apprend qu'il a acheté tous les portraits d'Ana. Christian propose à Ana de reprendre leur relation avec quelques modifications dans le contrat : plus aucune règle, plus aucun secret.
Christian et Ana se marient et partent en lune de miel autour du monde. Alors qu'ils sont en France, ils doivent interrompre leur séjour pour retourner à Seattle après avoir eu connaissance d'un raid au siège social de Christian. Certains fichiers informatiques ont été volés, et les bandes de caméras de sécurité ont identifié le vandale : Jack Hyde, l'ancien patron d'Ana qui a été renvoyé pour harcèlement sexuel. Pendant ce temps, Ana est présentée à sa nouvelle équipe de sécurité.
Child psychologist Catherine Deane (Jennifer Lopez) is an expert in an experimental treatment for coma patients: a virtual reality device that allows her to enter into the minds of her patients and attempt to coax them into consciousness. When serial killer Carl Rudolph Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio) falls into a coma before the FBI can locate his final victim, Agent Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn) persuades Deane to enter Stargher's mind and discover the victim's location. Stargher's victim is imprisoned in a cell in the form of a glass enclosure that is slowly filling with water by means of an automatic timer.
Private investigator Tom Welles (Nicolas Cage) is contacted by Daniel Longdale (Anthony Heald), attorney for wealthy widow Mrs. Christian (Myra Carter), whose husband has recently died. While clearing out her late husband's safe, she and Longdale found an 8mm film which appears to depict a real murder of a girl, but Mrs. Christian wants to know for certain.
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.
An older man, Andrew Marsh, views a homemade pornographic tape. It is later revealed the man died from complications stemming from erotic asphyxiation. The main suspect is the woman who has sex with Marsh in the film, Rebecca Carlson, who after being charged with murder is represented by lawyer Frank Dulaney. The trial begins in Portland, Oregon, and it is not long before Carlson and Dulaney enter a sadomasochistic sexual relationship behind the back of Dulaney's unsuspecting wife.
Patrick Bateman is a wealthy investment banker living in Manhattan in the late 1980s. His life revolves around dining at trendy restaurants while keeping up appearances for his fiancée, Evelyn, and for his circle of wealthy and shallow associates, most of whom he dislikes. Bateman describes the material accoutrements of his lifestyle: his daily morning exercise and beautification routine, his music collection including performers such as Huey Lewis and the News, Phil Collins, and Whitney Houston, his taste for expensive designer clothes, and the lavish couture of his apartment.
Breaking the Waves tells the story of Bess McNeill, a pretty young Scottish woman with a history of psychological problems. She marries atheist oil rig worker Jan, despite disapproval from her community and her Free Scottish Presbyterian Calvinist church. Bess is steadfast and pure of heart, but extremely simple and childlike in her beliefs. During her frequent visits to the church, she prays to God and carries on conversations with Him using her own voice, believing that He is responding directly through her.
Séverine Serizy (Catherine Deneuve), a young and beautiful housewife, is unable to share physical intimacy with her husband, Dr. Pierre Serizy (Jean Sorel), despite their love for each other. Her sexual life is restricted to elaborate fantasies involving domination, sadomasochism, and bondage. Although frustrated by his wife's frigidity toward him, he respects her wishes.
In New York City during the middle of a hot summer, body parts of men are showing up in the Hudson River. The police suspect it to be the work of a serial killer who is picking up homosexual men at West Village bars like the Eagle's Nest, the Ramrod, and the Cock Pit, then taking them to cheap rooming houses or motels, tying them up and stabbing them to death.
John Buckingham (Ben Chaplin), a lonely St Albans bank clerk, orders a mail-order bride Nadia (Nicole Kidman) from Russia on the Internet. John is uncomfortable and shy, but Nadia is sexually bold. Though Nadia cannot speak English and John cannot speak Russian, they soon bond. Later on, a man she introduces as her cousin Yuri (Mathieu Kassovitz) and his friend Alexei (Vincent Cassel) turn up to celebrate her birthday. Alexei soon shows that he has a temper. After a violent altercation, Alexei holds Nadia hostage and demands a ransom from John. John has grown to care for Nadia and is forced to steal from the bank where he has worked for ten years. After the ransom is paid, he realises that he has been the victim of an elaborate con. Nadia, Yuri, and Alexei are criminals, and Alexei is actually Nadia's boyfriend.
In Morocco, Frank Cotton buys a puzzle box from a dealer. In a bare attic, Frank solves the puzzle, and hooked chains emerge from it to tear into his flesh. Later the room is filled with swinging chains spattered with the remnants of his body. A black-robed figure picks up the puzzle box and returns it to its original state, restoring the room to normal.
The majority of the film consists of Randy, Carl, and Dehling reciting their separate lovesick accounts of their experiences with Jewel, each narrating over what they consider to be the real version of the recent events. Scenes are often re-enacted twice, with different accounts contradicting each other for comedic effect. For example, when Dehling is narrating, he acts as if he were a completely fair, by-the-book police officer, and Randy is painted as a slimy, macho, abusive thug. When Randy is telling the story, he is the innocent victim and Dehling is shown as a suspicious, prying, hard-nosed cop; Carl is convinced that every woman is in love with him, and during his version of the tale, everyone acts accordingly.
On a snowy evening, the middle-aged bachelor Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård) finds the self-diagnosed nymphomaniac Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) beaten up and lying in the alleyway behind his apartment. He takes her back to his home and, over tea, listens intently as Joe recounts the eventful story of her libidinous life. Seligman, a highly-educated but cloistered man, connects and analyzes Joe's stories with what he has read about.