Michael and Karen Carr (Kurt Russell and Madeleine Stowe) are a couple living in an upscale part of Los Angeles, and their peace of mind is upset by an intruder coming in through their skylight one night. The intruder briefly takes Karen as a hostage, before dumping her in the swimming pool and making his escape.
Anna Ivanovna, a British-Russian midwife at a London hospital, finds a Russian-language diary on the body of Tatiana, a 14-year-old girl who dies in childbirth. She also finds a card for the Trans-Siberian Restaurant, which is owned by Semyon, an old vor in the Russian Mafia. Anna thus sets out to track down the girl's family so that she can find a home for the baby girl, having meetings with Semyon, whom she initially regards as friendly. Anna's mother Helen does not discourage her, but Anna's Ukrainian uncle and self-described former KGB officer, Stepan, whom Anna asks for help with the translation of the diary, urges caution. Through translation of the diary, Anna comes to learn that Semyon and his ignorant therefore unstable son Kirill had abused the girl, addicted her to heroin, forced her into prostitution, and raped her. Ultimately, Anna realizes that the baby was fathered by Semyon (in several scenes it is made clear that Kirill is impotent and never had sex with Tatiana).
Julian Kaye (Richard Gere) is a male escort in Los Angeles whose job supports his expensive taste in cars, stereophonic equipment and clothes. He is blatantly narcissistic and superficial; however, he claims to take some pleasure in his work from being able to sexually satisfy women.
Ben Sanderson (Cage) is a Hollywood screenwriter whose alcoholism costs him his job, family, and friends. With nothing left to live for, he moves to Las Vegas to drink himself to death. As he drives drunkenly down the Las Vegas Strip, he nearly hits a woman, Sera (Shue), on the crosswalk. Sera chastises him and walks away. Sera is a prostitute working for an abusive pimp, Yuri Butso (Julian Sands), a Latvian immigrant. Polish mobsters are after Yuri, so he breaks his relationship with Sera in fear that the Poles may hurt her. Yuri is murdered (off-screen) shortly afterwards.
As the film opens, Joe Buck (Jon Voight), a young Texan working as a dishwasher, dresses in new cowboy clothing, packs a suitcase, and quits his job. He heads to New York City hoping to succeed as a male prostitute for women. Initially unsuccessful, he succeeds in bedding a well-to-do middle-aged New Yorker (Sylvia Miles), but Joe ends up giving her money.
When call girl Claudia Draper kills client Allen Green in self-defense, her mother Rose and stepfather Arthur attempt to have her declared mentally incompetent by Dr. Herbert Morrison in order to avoid a public scandal. Realizing if her parents succeed she will be remanded to a psychiatric facility for an indefinite period of time, strong-willed Claudia is determined to prove she is sane enough to stand trial.
Travis Bickle, an honorably discharged U.S. Marine, is a lonely and depressed man in New York City. He becomes a taxi driver to cope with chronic insomnia, driving passengers every night around the boroughs of New York City. He also spends time in seedy porn theaters and keeps a diary. Travis becomes infatuated with Betsy, a campaign volunteer for Senator and presidential candidate Charles Palantine. After watching her interact with fellow worker Tom through her window, Travis enters to volunteer as a pretext to talk to her, and takes her out for coffee. On a later date, he takes her to see a Swedish sex education film, which offends her, and she goes home alone. His attempts at reconciliation by sending flowers are rebuffed, so he berates her at the campaign office, before being kicked out by Tom.
Jean (Gad Elmaleh), a waiter/barman at a luxury hotel, is mistaken to be a millionaire by Irène (Audrey Tautou), a gold digger who convinces wealthy men to fund her lavish lifestyle in exchange for companionship and sex. Irène's elderly lover gets drunk and falls asleep on her birthday, so she goes to the bar in the hotel where she and Jean meet. After making her an impressive cocktail, actually several, they retire, tipsy, to the hotel's Imperial suite where they spend the night together. In the morning Jean awakens to find Irène has gone.
Irma la Douce ["Irma the Sweet"] tells the story of Nestor Patou (Jack Lemmon), an honest cop, who after being transferred from the park Bois de Boulogne to a more urban neighborhood in Paris, finds a street full of prostitutes working at the Hotel Casanova and proceeds to raid the place. The police inspector, who is Nestor's superior, and the other policemen, have been aware of the prostitution, but tolerate it in exchange for bribes. The inspector, a client of the prostitutes himself, fires Nestor, who is accidentally framed for bribery.
Gigolos in Europe are being terrorized by a serial killer. In Malibu, Deuce Bigalow's wife Kate has died from a shark attack, and Deuce is invited by his former pimp T.J. Hicks to Amsterdam where T.J. is currently pimping. Deuce goes, as he is suspected of complicity in some dolphin-related injuries in Malibu and to take his mind off of Kate (even though he brings her prosthetic leg along).
Chuck (Winkler), formerly a successful stockbroker, has found a refuge from the ulcer-inducing Wall Street rat race in his job as an attendant at the New York City morgue. His displeasure at being "promoted" to Night Shift Supervisor to make room for his boss's nephew is exacerbated by the irrational exuberance of Bill "Blaze" Blazejowski (Keaton), his new co-worker. They are inspired by the plight of Chuck's prostitute neighbor, Belinda (Long), to apply Chuck's financial acumen and Bill's entrepreneurial spirit to open a prostitution service headquartered at the morgue.
Marie is 19 and is bored in her little suburban life with no future. In a café, she met Gérard, a beautiful brown frimeur and voluble, who has no trouble seducing. Blinded by love, too candid, Mary decides to leave her parents and her clerk job to live with the man she considers as the love of her life. But Gerard is a pimp, who soon forced into prostitution Marie. By "home visit" first, in the street or the in the Bois de Boulogne then, the young woman gradually discovers a world of decay and violence.
Nomi Malone is a young drifter who hitchhikes to Las Vegas hoping to make it as a showgirl. After being cheated of her money by her driver, Nomi meets Molly Abrams, a seamstress and costume designer who takes her in as a roommate. Molly invites Nomi backstage at Goddess, the Stardust Casino show where she works, to meet Cristal Connors, the diva star of the topless dance revue. When Nomi tells Cristal she dances at Cheetah's Topless Club, Cristal derisively tells her that what she does is akin to prostitution. When Nomi is too upset to go to work that night, Molly takes her dancing at The Crave Club. After getting into a fight with James, a bouncer at the club, Nomi is arrested. James bails her out of jail, but she pays him little notice.
Séverine Serizy (Catherine Deneuve), a young and beautiful housewife, is unable to share physical intimacy with her husband, Dr. Pierre Serizy (Jean Sorel), despite their love for each other. Her sexual life is restricted to elaborate fantasies involving domination, sadomasochism, and bondage. Although frustrated by his wife's frigidity toward him, he respects her wishes.