A successful advertising executive finds his freewheeling life crashing to a halt when his parents end their longtime marriage.

The Trevino family tries to overcome the irresponsible behavior of Don Cruz, an erratic father with numerous defects that contrast with his son Silvano, a young kid man that is incapable of passing judgment on his own father.

A student will do anything to become part of the "in-crowd" at the exclusive school she attends in New York.

While touring in Italy, a recently-widowed American opera singer has an incestuous relationship with her 15-year-old son to help him overcome his heroin addiction.

A young, white school teacher is assigned to Yamacraw Island, an isolated fishing community off the coast of South Carolina, populated mostly by poor black families. He finds that the basically illiterate, neglected children there know so little of the world outside their island.