Fred arrives at the doorstep of his beautiful young mistress Velvet after four years apart, claiming to have finally left his wife. But when she rejects his attempts to rekindle their romance, his persistence evolves into obsession.

Jean, a fortyish filmmaker who's struggling to make a feature, is married to the smoothly bourgeois Francoise, but for six years, has been brazenly carrying on an affair with the much younger Catherine, an aspiring actress. Toward Francoise, Jean is merely chilly; toward Catherine, with whom his relationship is vitally carnal, he's both verbally and physically abusive. Unable to stand his outbursts and unwilling to live in fear, Catherine leaves him,...

During the 1940's, mobster Benjamin 'Bugsy' Siegel is inspired by his mistress Virginia Hill to follow his dream and build the now-famous Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas.