Katherine Watson is a recent UCLA graduate hired to teach art history at the prestigious all-female Wellesley College, in 1953. Determined to confront the outdated mores of society and the institution that embraces them, Katherine inspires her traditional students, including Betty and Joan, to challenge the lives they are expected to lead.

Cynthia Warren, independently wealthy through her ability as an illustrator and poster artist, rebels against the premise that every woman is destined for matrimony and motherhood and decides she has as much right as a man to play around.

Three working-class teenage girls in a port city in Bangladesh escape daily hardships and stifling family lives by riding waves on their surfboards and grabbing hold of the fleeting and thrilling sense of freedom that brings.

Gu Lingxiu's dream of becoming an actress is opposed by her grandmother. Her father Zhongqi remains ambivalent. Years ago, Zhongqi was in love with a Peking opera diva Hua Yanhong, but the lovers were separated by the matriarch. Regretful of the mistake, the matriarch discards her prejudice and allows Lingxiu to pursue her career. She also urges Zhongqi to look for Hua.

Focusing on five of them, this documentary pays tribute to the wealthy women who, under the Ancien Régime, promoted scholars and artists, and paved the way for female emancipation through their intellectual independence.

Tata Milouda came to France from Morocco in 1989, forced by her controlling husband. Undocumented, exploited and separated from her six children, she decided to start a new life in France, by taking literacy classes and even drama lessons. Slam poetry then gave her back her freedom. Now, from her balcony in Épinay-sur-Seine, she can see the Eiffel tower.