In 1930, Mrs. Erlynne, who describes herself as poor and infamous, driven from New York society by jealous wives, sees a news photo of wealthy Lord Windermere and his young wife: she heads for the Amalfi Coast to be among the rich and famous for 'the season' and to snare Mr. Windermere. Gossips twitter as he spends his afternoons with her, his wife blissfully innocent as she blushingly fends off attentions from a young English nobleman, an international playboy who thinks he's in love. Mrs. Erlynne is also pursued by a worldly-wise older English nobleman. Mrs. Windermere's 20th birthday party approaches, where all plays out amid numerous amoral Wildean aphorisms.

An aspiring young writer (Jackson) tracks a literary titan (Keitel) suffering from writers block to his refuge in rural Italy and learns about life and love from the irascible genius and his daughters.

During the Second World War, an American Pilot stationed in England meets a young British nurse during an air raid on London. The two instantly fall in love, despite the fact that the young Nurse is already married; a secret she keeps hidden from her American lover. After being shot down behind enemy lines, while being assigned to ferry a British agent into France, the American pilot realizes that his secret agent cargo is in fact his lover's husband, and that the two must now work together in order to survive.

A man and a woman meet by accident on a Sunday evening at their childrens' boarding school. Slowly they reveal themselves to each other, finding that each is a widow/widower. Each is slow to reveal anything personal so that each revelation is hidden by a misperception. They become friends, then close friends, and then she reveals that she can't have a lover because, for her, her husband's memory is still too strong. Much of the film is told wordlessly in action, or through hearing one of their thoughts as they go about their day.