Sidney Young is a down-on-his-luck journalist. Thanks to a stint involving a pig and a glitzy awards ceremony, Sidney turns his fortunes around, attracting the attention of Clayton Harding, editor of New York-based glossy magazine 'Sharps', and landing the holy grail of journalism jobs. The Brit jets off to the Big Apple and moves from one blunder to the next.

Unemployed and unemployable, Tony is a sympathetic recluse with severe social problems, an addiction to VHS action films and a horrible moustache. Occasionally he snaps and murder is the result…

When Tess Kelley realizes her daughter Jenny Kelley still isn't over her divorce from musician Rick Meadows, the irresponsible, ever-absent father of her little boy Jesse, and thus fails to make progress with friend and promising potential fiance Miles Healey, she places an ad on her daughter's behalf on a lonely hearts internet website. She then starts an anonymous relationship through the dating service with charming British-born literature professor Peter Campbell, who lives in America. Then Peter comes to meet Jenny in person, but who will end up with whom or stay alone?

Matt, a young glaciologist, soars across the vast, silent, icebound immensities of the South Pole as he recalls his love affair with Lisa. They meet at a mobbed rock concert in a vast music hall - London's Brixton Academy. They are in bed at night's end. Together, over a period of several months, they pursue a mutual sexual passion whose inevitable stages unfold in counterpoint to nine live-concert songs.