Two young strangers, Ewan and Lucy, meet at the edge of a bleak and deserted nudist beach. One person shy, the other guarded; neither are prepared to admit why they have come to the beach. So begins an awkward, flirtatious, and utterly self-conscious conversation that results in both of them throwing caution to the, admittedly cold, winds.
Reporter Judith Wilkes leaves her husband and two sons in Sydney and goes to Malaysia to cover the story of the Vietnamese boat people. She becomes romantically involved with Kanan, and strikes up a friendship with Lady Minou Hobday, who keeps a regular vigil at "Turtle Beach" where the refugees try to land secretly in the hope that one day her own children will arrive. Accompanying Minou one night, Judith witnesses a brutal massacre by the Malaysians which spurs her on to expose the horrors of the internment camps at Bidong.
Struggling if the existence of his love is real or not, Matthew embarks on a train journey to find it. As he travels without a fixed destination and searches for his beloved, he begins to hallucinate between imagination and reality, trying to realize which is which. Was it true love or just metaphysical?
Upon learning that his rich dad is on the brink of bankruptcy, spoiled Vavá summons his friend Jandir with a plan to get some quick cash: they will blackmail an uncle of Vavá by taking compromising photos of his lover, Leda.
David loves his wife, Gillian. Unfortunately, she died two years ago. David deals with his grief by continuing his romance with Gillian during walks with her "ghost" on the beach at night. While David lives in the past, other family problems crop up in the present in the real world....
Maya has for several years stayed away from Sweden and lived a fluttering life in southeastern Asia. But when she finds out that the only person she still has contact with in Sweden is about to die, she must quickly find money for the ticket home. She finds out that she cannot trust anyone, because she herself has cheated everyone.
Summer 1996, north-east coast of Brazil. Tamara is enjoying her last weeks at the fishing village she lives in before departing to Brasilia for her studies. One day, she hears about a teenager nicknamed Heartless after a scar she has on her chest. Over the course of the summer, Tamara feels a growing attraction for this mysterious girl.
Félix finds a young man lying unconscious on the beach, he has scales on his back. Félix takes him home and takes care of him.
A paralyzed girl finds difficulty living a normal life, so she participates in a ritual to metamorphize into a mermaid to replace her useless lower half.
Chicklet is a sixteen-year old tomboy who's desperate to be part of the in-crowd of Malibu beach surfers. She's the typical American girl - except for one little problem: her personality is split into more slices than a pepperoni pizza.
In a small fishing village, a gloomy middle school student named Kai meets a mermaid named Lu.