Over the course of their marriage, Geoffrey Lymes has become increasingly exasperated by the shallowness and superficiality of his wife Anne. He despairs of her ridiculous affectations, social-climbing aspirations and constant embarrassing attempts in company to show herself as an elegant, cultured sophisticate. He feels trapped in a relationship where, as he observes, a wife "does nothing to entitle her husband to divorce her, but a thousand things that entitle him to murder her".
Tony Blair, a producer of Broadway plays, is murdered on a California-bound passenger liner, and a series of events leads to an assumption that Claire Norvelle has committed the killing. Despite the fact that Blair was an obnoxious character, murder is murder and Barbara is accused of the crime. Complications arise when another murder occurs.
The small-time thug Muntu (Bernard Safari) has just been released from prison in the fictional African country of Nakara. Shortly after, he falls in love with a preacher's daughter, and loathes to tell her of his dark past. He therefore pretends to be a successful businessman.
Delmar Youngblood is a single mother with a passion for cooking; she dreams of opening her own restaurant called Food for the Heart, but in reality has a low-paid job as an insurance adjuster. Her best friend and roommate Hortense believes she would be a perfect wife for lawyer Stanley Diggers, though he wishes to advance his career before making a commitment. With their culinary talents and gift for hospitality, the two women host regular dinner parties for an assortment of family and friends.
Betsy Cummings takes a job as a secretary, using the alias “Mary Layton”, only to find that her Father is being cheated by his brokers, Crone and Jan Jaffin. She steals the diamond, worth fifty thousand dollars, her Father used as collateral for a loan, which the brokers plan to cheat him out of; and, the chase is on, with the crooked loan sharks and police after her. Jimmy Baxter, an honest but broke artist, hides her as a mannequin, and helps her get away, in a stolen car.
Jeanne is a milliner courted by aristocrats. She first has an affair with René, a young writer for Count du Barry. She then marries the Count in order to become Louis XV's mistress.
A reporter eager to move on from the dull gardening beat gets the opportunity to investigate a string of arson fires troubling the city. He believes the fires are tied into a web of political corruption involving a wealthy businessman, the mayor and the police chief. Complications ensue when the girl assigned to help him turns out to be the businessman's daughter.
Caroline (Alexandra Stewart) is torn between two cultures, the English-speaking community of Vancouver where she grew up and the French-speaking Québec where she is currently living. Her uncertainty extends to her lovers, Peter (Robert Howay) from Vancouver who wants to take her home and Marc (François Tassé) from Québec who would like to continue their pleasant, if inconclusive affair.
Two men, Tommy McCoy and Dude Markey, are in love with Nita, a beautiful nightclub singer/dancer. Markey robs a jewelry store and gives the haul to a local gangster. Later, he steals the jewelry from the gangster's safe and frames McCoy for the robbery in the hope that the gangster will kill him, thereby getting rid of his rival for the lovely Nita.
The film follows the lives of 10 dysfunctional individuals for 48 hours before the grand opening of an art show, focusing particularly on one dysfunctional couple played by Elster and Harold. When this couple (Lili and Morrison) kiss for the first time, Lili goes into his bathroom and has flashbacks of her mother and realizes that she is not ready for a relationship. The film concludes that only with closure of her past, can she commit to a healthy relationship in the future.
When Jerry Martin and Connie Taylor, reporters for rival newspapers, fall in love, Taylor's Editor Tim Whelan sets up a fake murder to disrupt their wedding. Taylor insists on investigating the story, which causes a break-up with her fiancee. When the two reporters end up covering a real murder, Taylor attempts to reconcile her relationship, while Whelan attempts to break them up again.
Working-class girl Molly finds a necklace and hands it in to the police. It turns out that the necklace is an extremely valuable piece belonging to Lady Devenish, who is impressed by Molly's honesty and invites her to her home to present her with a substantial cash reward. Molly informs Lady Devenish that she has always longed to own her own taxi and plans to use the money to start up in the business.
