Many loosely connected characters cross paths in this film, based on the stories of Raymond Carver. Waitress Doreen Piggot accidentally runs into a boy with her car. Soon after walking away, the child lapses into a coma. While at the hospital, the boy's grandfather tells his son, Howard, about his past affairs. Meanwhile, a baker starts harassing the family when they fail to pick up the boy's birthday cake.
After a fictitious marriage with a Russian emigrant, Cellisten Louka, a Czech man, must suddenly take responsibility for her son. However, it’s not long before the communication barrier is broken between the two new family members.
A professional cellist has an encounter with a stranger on the subway which has unexpected and far-reaching ramifications on his life.
Millie Blake, a high school senior soccer player, has her life turned upside down after an altercation with an out and proud classmate of hers, Andy Wellick. As punishment, the two girls get sentenced to a month of community service at a local nursing home. As she begins to not only bond with two of the residents, Jade and Pepper, but with Andy too, Millie begins to understand more about herself and becomes more confident in who she is.
The tragic story of world-renowned cellist Jacqueline du Pré, as told from the point of view of her sister, flautist Hilary du Pré-Finzi.
High school athlete Cyd Loughlin lives alone with her depressive father in South Carolina, perpetually longing to get away from it all. When her aunt, famous novelist Miranda Ruth, agrees to host her for a few weeks during the summer, Cyd jumps at the opportunity. While there, she falls for a girl in the neighborhood, even as she and her aunt gently challenge each other in the realms of sex and spirit.
A raw exploration of a mixed relationship between an asexual man and allosexual woman, and their struggle to reconcile their needs with their love for each other.
Emma, an asexual graphic designer with generalized anxiety disorder, learns of the stress-reducing properties of sex, and decides to place an ad on Craigslist for a test sexual partner to determine if it will help with her panic attacks.
Prades, France, 1940s. The exiled Catalan cellist Pau Casals decides not to perform any more in public until the fall of the dictatorship that oppresses Spain. Pierre, a young Frenchman studying with Casals, tries to convince him to celebrate an extraordinary concert as a tribute to freedom.
David Cardew, a talented sculptor, lives an idyllic life in the English countryside with his wife, Laura, and their two children. But his happiness spoils as he becomes increasingly fixated on the idea that Laura is having an affair with a young cellist, Anton Falk. The three attend a fête where David watches Anton and Laura during a ballet about brutal and violent revenge - and his obsession begins to take an even darker turn....