The story of , the director of (1931) and (1935), in the time period following the Korean War. Whale is homosexual and develops a friendship with his gardener, an ex-Marine.

This movie is a declaration of love to cinema that is used as a metaphor for the universe itself. We are the films and God is projecting them, including this one with Rachel and Leopoldo, who in a former life literally co-invented cinema as an assistant of named .

Ray is young, charming, successful and the owner of a prosperous architect company. However, he has recently gone through a very painful divorce. His friends try to cheer him up by showing him the positive sides of being single but for Ray marriage and stability is just too important. But when he meets Lena his gloom is quickly forgotten. She is beautiful, sensual, mysterious and he is drawn to her like a moth to a candle. They marry quickly, have their first child and Ray lives in a total bliss. But then strange incidents occur which shed some light on Lena's background. Ray slowly realizes that he hardly knows anything about her at all. Who has he really married?

While helicopters overhead spray against a Medfly infestation a group of Los Angeles lives intersect, some casually, some to more lasting effect. Whilst they go out to concerts and jazz clubs and even have their pools cleaned, they also lie, drink, and cheat. Death itself seems never to be far away, even on a fishing trip.

Kika, a young cosmetologist, is called to the mansion of Nicolas, an American writer to make-up the corpse of his stepson, Ramon. Ramon, who is not dead, is revived by Kika's attentions and she then moves in with him. They might live happily ever after but first they have to cope with Kika's affair with Nicolas, the suspicious death of Ramon's mother and the intrusive gaze of tabloid-TV star and Ramon's ex-psychologist Andrea Scarface.

Through a series of flashbacks, four young chinese women born in America and their respective mothers born in feudal China, explore their past. This search will help them understand their difficult mother/daughter relationship.