In 1958, Margaret leaves her husband and takes her young daughter Jane to North Beach, San Francisco. Supporting her daughter alone, Margaret gets a job painting illustrations at a furniture factory. While creating portraits at an outdoor art show, Margaret meets Walter Keane, who is selling his Parisian street scene paintings. Soon, Walter proposes to her and they marry.
Betsy Jobs (Kirsten Dunst) and Arlene Lorenzo (Michelle Williams) are two sweet-natured but somewhat ditzy teenage girls living in Washington D.C. in the early 1970s. Betsy comes from a wealthy family in the Georgetown area, while Arlene lives with her widowed mother in an apartment in the Watergate building. One night, on a quest to mail a letter to enter a contest to win a date with teen idol singer Bobby Sherman, the two girls sneak out of Arlene's home, at the same time as the Watergate break-in. They manage to enter and leave through the parking garage by taping the latch of a door, accidentally causing the break-in to be discovered. They are seen by G. Gordon Liddy (Harry Shearer), who they believe to be committing a jewel robbery; they panic and run away. The security guard, startled by the taped door, calls the police, who immediately arrest the burglars.
In 1991, four childhood friends reunite in their hometown of Shelby, Indiana. Samantha Albertson (Demi Moore), a science-fiction writer, narrates the story. As an adolescent (played by Gaby Hoffmann) Samantha was considered the "weird" girl who liked performing seances and was interested in science and the supernatural. Roberta Martin (Rosie O'Donnell), a doctor, was a tough tomboy (played by Christina Ricci) whose mother died when she was four years old. Chrissy DeWitt (Rita Wilson), who lives in her childhood home, is married and about to give birth to her first daughter. As a naïve youngster (played by Ashleigh Aston Moore), she was overly sheltered by her mother. Tina "Teeny" Tercell (Melanie Griffith) is a successful Hollywood actress; as a child (played by Thora Birch), she had always dreamed of fame. Teeny and Samantha have not visited their hometown in ten years.
Theta Pi sorority sister Megan (Audrina Patridge) discovers that her boyfriend Garrett (Matt O'Leary) is cheating on her, and enlists the help of her friends and sorority sisters Cassidy (Briana Evigan), Jessica (Leah Pipes), Ellie (Rumer Willis), Claire (Jamie Chung), and Garrett's sister Chugs (Margo Harshman) to pull a prank on him. After Megan fakes her own death while having sex with him, Garrett and the girls bring her to a lake, where they intend to dump her body. When Jessica mentions they need to release the air out of her lungs so her body will not float to the surface, Garrett actually kills Megan by stabbing her in the chest with a tire iron. Jessica, Claire, and Chugs dump Megan's body and the tire iron in a nearby mine shaft. Everyone swears to never mention the incident to anyone, much to Cassidy and Ellie's dismay.
Four friends — Chloe (Skyler Shaye), Yasmin (Nathalia Ramos), Sasha (Logan Browning), and Jade (Janel Parrish) — are about to start high school. Self-centered Meredith Eilazbeth Vickrica Baxter Dimly (Chelsea Kane) wants everyone to belong to a clique, and goes about organizing people. She does not like the independent spirit of the four girls and plots to destroy their friendship and make them conform to her pre-fabricated cliques. Chloe is an amazing soccer player. She meets Cameron (Stephen Lunsford) and is instantly smitten. Sasha is recruited as a cheerleader. Jade joins the science kids and meets Dexter (Chet Hanks) and designs great outfits. Yasmin joins journalism, even though her real passion is singing even though she hasn't realized yet. She also feels lonely as her friends are busy with their own cliques. She also meets Dylan (Ian Nelson), who is deaf but can lip read. The friends begin to drift apart, as they are compelled to stay within their cliques. Two years later, when an accidental food fight causes them to get detention, they realize that they miss being BFFs and decide to be friends again. They also try to get the other schoolmates to socialize outside their cliques, but their attempts fail when Meredith's 2nd Super Sweet 16 party (which ends disastrously) has them seated with their original cliques. The upcoming talent show and its prize of a scholarship gives them the idea to bring all the cliques together again with an act, but the chances are slim with Meredith's constant attempts to steal the spotlight. In the end, there is a tie. Meredith gets the trophy, but the girls get the scholarship, which they later give to Cloe.
In 1989, Josey Aimes returns to her hometown in northern Minnesota with her children, Sammy and Karen, after escaping from her abusive husband. She moves in with her parents, Alice and Hank. Hank is ashamed of Josey, who had Sammy as a teenager by an unknown father and therefore thinks Josey is promiscuous. The townspeople believe the same, which causes the community not to associate with her. Her only friends are Glory Dodge and Glory's husband, Kyle. Glory, who works at the local iron mines (the town's main source of income), aids Josey in getting a job there. Glory and Kyle also allow Josey to stay at their home with her children, due to Josey's poor relationship with her father.
A bamboo cutter named Sanuki no Miyatsuko discovers a miniature girl inside a glowing bamboo shoot. Believing her to be a divine presence, Miyatsuko and his wife decide to raise her as their own, calling her "Princess". The girl grows rapidly and conspicuously, marveling her parents and earning her the nickname "Takenoko" (Little Bamboo) from the other children in the village. Sutemaru, the oldest among Kaguya's friends, develops a particularly close relationship with her.
Wealthy New York City wife Erica Benton's (Jill Clayburgh) perfect life is shattered when her stockbroker husband Martin (Michael Murphy) leaves her for a younger woman. The film documents Erica's attempts at being single again, where she suffers confusion, sadness, and rage.
High school teacher and writer Frannie Avery meets a student at a local bar, and when she heads to the bathroom sees a woman performing oral sex on a man. A few days later, Detective Giovanni Malloy questions her as he investigates the gruesome murder of a young woman, whose severed limb was found in her garden. They flirt despite the grisly nature of their introduction, and meet at the same bar later. Frannie is alternately thrilled and frightened by the detective's sexual aggressiveness, even as she grows more disillusioned with the attitudes and crude behavior of other men, including the detective's partner, Richard Rodriguez. Even as Malloy defends his partner, who can no longer carry a gun because he threatened his unfaithful wife, he promises he will do anything she wants except hit her. She leaves abruptly and is assaulted walking home, but calls Malloy and their affair begins that night.
Three unique women embark on a cross-country road trip: Jane (Whoopi Goldberg), a lesbian lounge singer in search of a new life after breaking up with her girlfriend and getting fired; Holly (Drew Barrymore), a pregnant girl who just wants to escape her brutal boyfriend; and Robin (Mary-Louise Parker), an uptight real estate agent who has her own secrets (namely being infected with HIV).
The film is set in Bailey Downs, a suburb where a rash of dog killings has been occurring. Brigitte and Ginger Fitzgerald are teenage sisters who harbor a fascination with death and, as children, formed a pact to die together. One night, while on the way to kidnap a dog owned by school bully Trina Sinclair, Ginger begins her first period, which results in the girls being attacked by the creature responsible for the maulings. The creature wounds and bites Ginger, but Brigitte rescues her. As the girls flee, the creature is run over by a van belonging to Sam MacDonald, a local drug dealer. Ginger decides not to go the hospital as her wounds heal quickly.
Best friends Hailey Rogers (JoJo) and Claire Brown (Emma Roberts) are upset to know that they will be separated in five days as Hailey has to move to Australia because of her mother's (Claudia Karvan) job. Claire, senisible and slightly naive, looks up to Hailey as a mother figure in some ways, since her parents drowned in a boat accident years before. She now lives with her grandparents by the beach near Hailey, who is more daring and adventurous, in a small Florida town.
The film traces the sexual awakening of Theresa Dunn, a young teacher of Irish American descent who is searching for excitement outside her ordered life, in which she teaches deaf children. Suffering from severe body image issues following a childhood surgery that left a large scar on her back, Theresa finds first love with her older, married university professor, Martin, who ends the affair just before her graduation. The affair leaves Theresa feeling used, and she begins daydreaming about being reunited with her professor.
Norma Rae Webster is a minimum-wage worker in a cotton mill that has taken too much of a toll on the health of her family for her to ignore their poor working conditions. After hearing a speech by a New York union organizer, Reuben Warshowsky, Norma Rae decides to join the effort to unionize her shop. This causes conflict at home when Norma Rae's husband, Sonny, says she's not spending enough time in the home.