Pilar, a meek housewife living in Toledo, gathers a few belongings one night and flees her apartment with her seven-year-old son Juan. They find shelter with Pilar's sister, Ana, who is soon to marry her Scottish live-in boyfriend. Pilar's husband, Antonio, tries to make her change her mind, but she is tired and fearful of his abusive behavior. Determined to start a new life on her own, Pilar sends her sister to retrieve her belongings from the apartment she shared with her estranged husband. Once there, Ana discovers through medical bills that her sister has also been physically abused by Antonio. When he arrives, they have a confrontation.
In a working class London district lives Raymond, his wife Valerie, her brother Billy, Billy's mother Janet and their grandmother Kath. Billy is a drug addict whom Raymond kicks out. The family is dysfunctional, mostly due to Raymond's short temper and violent outbursts.
Long victim of her husband, violent and alcoholic, Rose Mayer, the Walloon countryside, decided to take their destiny in hand, and kills by crushing it with their car after leaving prison for having crushed a girl with the same car. She joined her son, homosexual, in Brussels, who left the family hell the day of his 16th birthday. But freedom does not erase guilt and family stories are not without contradictions. Rose does find its place in his new life?
The film revolves mainly around a scene in which Cynthia Kellogg (Demi Moore) is interrogated by two investigators at the police station. The deposition given by Cynthia is supported by detailed flashbacks throughout the film. The interrogation arouses particular suspicion about whether Cynthia's own husband could have informed the police about the incident and anything which his wife could have confided in him.
The film begins in a Los Angeles diner where a waitress named Slim (Jennifer Lopez) works with her best friend, Ginny (Juliette Lewis). She receives romantic advances from a customer who teases her about her name. Another man in the diner, Mitch Hiller (Billy Campbell) reveals that the customer had made a bet that he would be able to convince Slim to sleep with him. Soon after, Slim falls in love with and marries Mitch, and they have a child named Gracie (Tessa Allen). Years later, Slim finds out Mitch has been cheating on her with a woman named Darcelle. She confronts him and he admits it, but also insisting Darcelle means nothing to him. Slim becomes angry and threatens to leave, which enrages Mitch who becomes violent, slapping and punching her in the face. He gives her a warning, saying that he makes the money and gets to do whatever he likes, implying he wants an open marriage. Mitch refuses to stop his affair unless she wants to fight him. The next day, Slim confides in Mitch's mother (Janet Carroll), she asks her what she did to make Mitch angry, implying he has a history of physical abuse. Ginny advises Slim to leave Mitch, but Slim doesn't want to hurt Gracie. She then goes to pick up Gracie from school, only to discover Mitch had already picked her up. Panicked that Mitch might have left town with her, she calls Mitch, who tells her that he took Gracie to the zoo.
After blacking out in a violent domestic battle, Jimmy (Bridget Fonda) awakens in the hospital to learn that her abusive husband, Frank (Hart Bochner), has died in a fiery crash...and that she is the prime suspect. As the police focus on building their case against Jimmy, she uncovers evidence indicating that Frank may not only still be alive, but getting away with murder. Jimmy, in a daring escape from police custody, races towards a final confrontation with justice and revenge.
The film narrates the story of domestic violence survivors: Kit Gruelle, a domestic violence victim turned advocate who seeks justice for all violence survivors, and Deanna Walters, whose estranged husband Robbie kidnapped and beat her for four days in the cab of his truck but was not arrested for it.
Kiranjit Ahluwalia (Aishwarya Rai), a Punjabi woman, marries Deepak Ahluwalia (Naveen Andrews) in an arranged marriage and moves to Southall, UK with him to be closer to his family. Initially he seems caring and affectionate towards her but soon enough the true colors of her husband begin to show as Deepak gradually reveals a darker, threatening, and even sociopathic side of himself. After enduring ten years of abuse and having two children with him, Kiranjit, unable to bear the brutality and repeated rapes at the hands of her husband any longer, sets fire to his feet while he is sleeping, unintentionally killing him. Charged with murder, her case comes to the notice of a group of South Asian social workers running an under funded organization called the Southall Black Sisters.
Buenos Aires. Un centre de loisirs pour enfants. À la fin de la journée, le garçon Matías paraît bien seul. Aurait-il été oublié par ses parents ? Une animatrice le reconduit vers son quartier, situé au cœur d'une cité populaire. Là, Matías découvre sa mère, Laura, à demi-inanimée et immobilisée, le corps et le visage gravement tuméfiés. Transportée en urgence vers un centre hospitalier, on apprend que Laura est également enceinte. La radiographie est cependant rassurante : les jours du futur bébé ne sont pas en danger. Plus tard, la jeune mère traumatisée est recueillie dans un refuge où sont rassemblées d'autres femmes, toutes victimes de violences conjugales. Un rendez-vous est fixé au tribunal. Le mari téléphone, émet des plaintes, s'excuse puis menace. Laura a peur et décide de fuir avec son fils.
Jack Torrance arrives at the mountain isolated Overlook Hotel, 25 miles from the closest town, Sidewinder, Colorado, interviewing for the position of winter caretaker, planning to use the hotel's solitude to write. The hotel, built on the site of a Native American burial ground, becomes snowed-in during the winter; it is closed from October to May. Manager Stuart Ullman warns Jack that a previous caretaker, Charles Grady, developed cabin fever and killed his family and himself. In Boulder, Jack's son, Danny Torrance, while brushing his teeth, has a terrifying premonition about the hotel, viewing a cascade of blood emerging from an elevator door, before falling in trance. Jack's wife, Wendy, tells a doctor that Danny has an imaginary friend named Tony, and that Jack has given up drinking because he dislocated Danny's shoulder following a binge.
Marv (Mickey Rourke) regains consciousness on a highway overlooking the Projects, surrounded by several dead young men and a crashed police car, and with no memory of how he got there. He retraces his steps, recalling that since it's Saturday, he watched Nancy Callahan (Jessica Alba) dance at Kadie's Saloon. Stepping outside, he encounters four rich frat boys burning a homeless man alive. When Marv intervenes, the leader of the frat boys shoots him in the arm, calling him "Bernini Boy," which Marv mishears as "Bernie." They flee; Marv follows, stealing a Police car on the way, which he crashes into their car, leading to his blackout and memory loss. He follows the two surviving frat boys into The Projects, the neighborhood where he grew up. With the assistance of the deadly residents lurking in the shadows, he dispatches the frat boys. He questions the leader about being called "Bernini Boy" and learns that it is the brand of coat he is wearing. After slitting the boy's throat, he considers his coat and realizes he can't remember how he acquired it.
The story is told in the present and flashbacks of a young woman, Annie (Caroline Dhavernas) who was abused by her husband, Simon (Brendan Fehr) whilst his brother, George (Corey Sevier) was seemingly helpless to intervene. The film hits an interesting twist when Simon is murdered. Annie is convinced that she is the murderer, even as she gets herself admitted to the gaol in the Fort.
Born and raised in a small Tennessee town, Nutbush, Anna Mae Bullock (Tina's original name) grows up in an unhappy family, with her parents later leaving and abandoning her and only taking her sister. Following her grandmother's death, she relocates to St. Louis, reuniting with her mother and close sister Alline. Anna Mae pursues a chance to be a professional singer after seeing charismatic bandleader Ike Turner perform one night. Later she wins her spot in Turner's band after singing onstage and he begins mentoring her. In time, an unexpected romance develops between the two after she moves into Ike's home. Shortly afterwards, they marry and begin having musical success together as Ike and Tina Turner.
Rebecca Dubrovich (Doherty) is a nurse, who years ago was brutally raped. Ever since, she has been skeptic about dating men and instead focusses on her work and her training for the Santa Barbara triathlon. Her life and look on love changes when she meets and falls in love with billionaire Dick Strang (Matheson), the owner of a large fitness chain. She opens up to him about her past, and admits that she was a rebellious girl for a while who got caught up in drugs. Dick helps her leave behind the past, while getting involved in a romantic relationship with her. Not long after their first meeting, he already asks her to give up med school and move to Houston for him. Rebecca finishes up her semester and heads out to Houston, where she is talked into becoming the image of Dick's fitness company.