Three airline hostesses combine their work crossing the Atlantic with searching for a rich handsome man to marry.

Former CIA man, Bill Fenner, now a downbeat, loner journalist, is sent to Venice to investigate the shock suicide bombing by an American diplomat at a peace conference.

The Grimm brothers Wilhelm and Jacob, known for their literary works in the nineteenth century, have their lives dramatized. Wilhelm fights to write something entertaining amongst the sea of dry, non-fiction books they write and he sets about collecting oral-tradition fairy tales to put into print. Their life story is countered with reenactments of three of their stories including "The Dancing Princess," "The Cobbler and the Elves" and "The Singing Bone."

A French reporter working on a steamy story about the secret strip joints found in London's Soho district becomes involved in the lives of the owner and star of a famous club.

In Argentina, one daughter of patriarch Madariaga is married to a Frenchman while the other is married to a German thus leading to a crisis when Nazi Germany occupies France and some Madariaga family members fight on opposite sides.

When 17-year-old Effi Briest marries the elderly Baron von Instetten, she moves to a small, isolated Baltic town and a house that she fears is haunted. Starved for companionship, Effi begins a friendship with Major Crampas, a charismatic womanizer.