An American heiress's fiancé saves a fisherman accused of stabbing his wife.

Uptight, try-hard dad Neil Hackett's decision to buy a lodge in the Lake District proves disastrous when he discovers he is living next door to the uber successful, effortlessly superior Dillons.

Victoria Franklin, a budding classical pianist, begins to crumble when tragedy strikes at home.

The incompetent Richard II is deposed by Henry Bolingbroke and undergoes a crisis of identity once he is no longer king.

A taxi driver, a young girl and a backpacker simultaneously experience a wonderful journey in Tokyo, where they find connections to their own homes in Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia.Throughout their journey, they run into the same Japanese woman named Akiko. Meanwhile, a writer in Paris recalls her encounter with Akiko in Tokyo.

In southern Morocco, a hold-up is organized on the road linking the northern towns to a major factory built on a gold deposit. Several accomplices have perfected a carefully thought-out "scenario" that should bring them success. Travis, a specialist, and his mistress, Lila, a former barmaid, "work" in liaison with Vibert, the mine engineer. José, the local mechanic, and Georges, the truck driver, have already been sacrificed.

In Turkey, the son of a rich manager is kidnapped. This boy finds a friend in one of the kidnapper when the adventures evolve.

While in Bohemia, an American industrialist named Craigs goes missing. In Prague, the police have arrested a man without identification, who bears a striking resemblance to Craigs. The doctor, the secretary, and the hotel staff all claim that he is the industrialist. The man denies this claim. When he learns how harsh and despotic the man he is believed to be is, he agrees to go to London and adopts his new identity.

Mathias Pascal, saddled with a stupid wife and a nagging mother-in-law, leaves home and is extremely lucky at several gambling resorts. He returns home and discovers that a drowned man, fished out of the river, bears an uncanny likeness to him and is being buried by his family as him. This, to him, is a pleasant turn of events and he goes to Rome, where he falls in love with Louise Paleari. Count Papiano, a jealous suitor of Louise's, threatens him with arrest unless he produces credentials to prove his identity.

In 1860, a young orphaned girl is sent to live with her uncle, but she is troubled by a shadowy figure that appears and disappears.