The story focuses on Madame Souza, an elderly woman raising her young grandson, Champion. Souza notices her grandson is sad and lonely, hinted as due to the loss of his parents, so she first tries to get him interested in the piano. When this fails, she buys him a puppy named Bruno to cheer him up. Although he is initially happy, he quickly becomes melancholic once again. After discovering that Champion has a keen interest in road bicycle racing, because it is implied that Champion's deceased parents were bicyclists, she buys him a tricycle. Years later, Champion becomes a professional cyclist with Souza as his coach.
In 1917, Baby Jane Hudson is a vaudevillian child star while her sister Blanche Hudson is not famous and overlooked by their father. By 1935, both sisters are movie actors, but Blanche has achieved stardom, while Jane’s films have flopped, leading Jane to drink heavily. One night, returning from a party, one of the sisters (implied to be Blanche) gets out of the car to open the garage door, while the driver (implied to be Jane) attempts to run her over, misses, and crashes into the garage. The accident leaves Blanche paralyzed.
Alex is a single, 35-year-old video game tester who lives with his friend Josh. When Josh wastes their rent money on Filipino hookers, his landlord kicks them both out, and Alex has to find a new place to live. Alex tries to stay with his marijuana dealer, Dante, but cannot do so because Dante is adopting a wild lion to live in the house. Alex spends one night with his co-worker Jeff, but Jeff still lives with his parents. After an embarrassing "encounter" with Jeff's mom, in which he is caught masturbating in the bathroom and subsequently ejaculates on her, Alex is forced to move in with his grandmother and her two eccentric friends, Bea and Grace.
Alvin Straight has not shown up to his regular bar meeting with his friends. He is eventually found lying on his floor at home, although he insists that he "just needs a bit of help getting up". His daughter Rose takes her reluctant father to see a doctor, who sternly admonishes Alvin to give up tobacco. He also tells Alvin that he should start using a walker. Alvin refuses, and does not tell Rose. Alvin then learns that his brother Lyle has suffered a stroke. Longing to visit him, but unable to drive, Alvin gradually develops a plan to travel to Mount Zion on his "ancient" riding lawn-mower and towing a small homemade travel-trailer, to the consternation of his family and friends.
Professional thief Henry Manning is in an Oregon nursing home's care. Having suffered a massive stroke, he is immobile and mute. Henry is in the care of Carol Ann McKay, a high school prom queen who married her boyfriend Wayne, the star of her school's football team, and whose glamour days are well behind her.
Alex, trentenaire, donne des cours d'informatique à Pierre, septuagénaire, qui décide alors de s'inscrire sur un site de rencontre... mais avec la photo de son jeune professeur...
Madeleine, 92 ans, décide de fixer la date et les conditions de son décès. En l’annonçant à ses enfants et petits-enfants, elle veut doucement les préparer à sa future absence. Mais pour sa famille, c’est le choc. Tous ont du mal à accepter ce choix sauf Diane, sa fille, qui partagera avec humour et complicité ces derniers moments.
Amelia and Pippo were once together famous as dancers. Thirty years after they've retired they team up one more time for a TV show. Although this reunion is overshadowed by Pippo's lack of stamina their performance is well-received and revives their popularity for another day.
Robin Wright plays a fictional version of herself, an aging actress with a reputation for being fickle and unreliable, so much so that nobody is willing to offer her roles. Her son, Aaron, suffers from Usher syndrome that is slowly destroying his sight and hearing. With the help of Dr. Barker (Paul Giamatti), Robin is barely able to stave off the worst effects of her son's decline. Robin agrees to sell the film rights to her digital image to Miramount Studios (a portmanteau of Miramax and Paramount) in exchange for a hefty sum and the promise to never act again. After her body is digitally scanned, the studio will be able to make films starring her, using only computer-generated characters.
Police disperse an organized street demonstration of elderly men demanding a raise in their meager pensions. One of the marchers is Umberto D. Ferrari, a retired government worker.
Harold Chasen (Bud Cort) is a young man obsessed with death. He stages elaborate fake suicides, attends funerals and drives a hearse, all to the chagrin of his socialite mother (Vivian Pickles).
En 1930 à Paris, Léon Galipeau, médecin généraliste à la compétence discutable, ausculte Louis Martinet, célibataire de 59 ans. Persuadé que son patient, usé, n'a que deux ans tout au plus à vivre, Galipeau convainc son frère Émile d'acquérir en viager la maison de campagne que possède Martinet dans un petit village de pêcheurs alors méconnu : Saint-Tropez. Confiants dans leur affaire, les deux frères acceptent même d'indexer la rente viagère sur le cours d'une valeur, pensent-ils, sans avenir : l'aluminium.
Madame Berthe, a newly widowed 70-year-old miser, has lived a sheltered life married to her husband for some sixty years. She determines to venture into the modern world and have as much fun as possible, and in doing so finds that she loves it. She blows her life savings, much to the disapproval of the young people around her.