影片描繪的是登陸諾曼底的第一天所發生的事件，所謂最長的一天是該片分別從盟軍和德軍雙方面的角度同時描述諾曼第登陸這一歷史戰役的來龍去脈，以及雙方在此期間的重要反應，手法平實，場面逼真，讓整個事件在觀眾眼前重現。並且粗中有細，無論是決策的將軍還是登陸的士兵都寫得栩栩如生：英軍戰機低空飛過攻擊；美國特種部隊遭德軍射擊；一群法國修女冒著槍林彈雨搶救聯軍傷兵……

Two close friends kidnap and murder a young boy and are defended in court by a renowned attorney who makes an impassioned plea against capital punishment.

The political career of Woodrow Wilson is chronicled, beginning with his decision to leave his post at Princeton to run for Governor of New Jersey, and his subsequent ascent to the Presidency of the United States. During his terms in office, Wilson must deal with the death of his first wife, the onslaught of German hostilities leading to American involvement in the Great War, and his own country's reticence to join the League of Nations.

In 1920s rural Mississippi, Nancy Mannigoe, an African-American servant, is placed on death row for the murder of Temple Drake's infant child. Temple, the daughter of the governor, pleads with her father to exonerate Nancy of the charges, explaining that Nancy acted in haste to prevent her from resuming her affair with a roguish Cajun called Candy Man. Details of Temple's sordid past are uncovered as she begs mercy for her faithful servant.

The O'Leary brothers -- honest Jack and roguish Dion -- become powerful figures, and eventually rivals, in Chicago on the eve of its Great Fire.

A research psychologist gets involved in the personal lives of four women.

A woman from a bourgeois family marries a loveless man. She remembers (or dreams?) a life of adventure and smuggling, hijacking ships at night. She is kidnapped by the leader of the enemy gang, with whom she falls in love.

On a Caribbean island, a rich landowner's son, Maxwell Fleury, is fighting for political office against black labor leader David Boyeur. As if the contentious election weren't enough, there are plenty of scandals to go around: Boyeur has a secret white lover and Fleury's wife, Sylvia, is also having an affair. And then, of course, there's the small matter of a recently murdered aristocrat.

In Fort Lamy, French Equitorial Africa, idealist Morel launches a one-man campaign to preserve the African elephant from extinction, which he sees as the last remaining "roots of Heaven." At first, he finds only support from Minna, hostess of the town's only night club, who is in love with him, and a derelict ex-British Army Major, Forsythe. His crusade gains momentum and he is soon surrounded by an odd assortment of characters: Cy Sedgewick, an American TV commentator who becomes impressed and rallies world-wide support; a U.S. photographer, Abe Fields, who is sent to do a picture story on Morel and stays on to follow his ideals; Saint Denis, a government aide ordered to stop Morel; Orsini, a professional ivory hunter whose vested interests aren't the same as Morel's; and Waitari, leader of a Pan-African movement who follows Morel only for the personal good it will do his own campaign.

Irish seaman Vic Brennan persuades his Dublin family to finance a truck-hauling business in the remote African town of Jebanda. The only stipulation is that his cousin Samuel, a timid bank clerk, accompany Vic and his Corsican bride, Marie, to Africa and protect the family fortune.