In the 1930s, a young American girl and an Englishwoman board a bus to Biarritz, France. On the trip, the woman attempts to indoctrinate the young girl about living a life of luxury.

An American man travels to Peru, where he impregnates a woman who works at a local café.

Upon returning to Paris after a decade-long hiatus wandering the French countryside and writing an epic, a poet encounters an enigmatic young woman who believes he is a god and wants to be his disciple,

A mother and daughter join the community of passengers on a ship to Naples. Scorning and delighting in one another’s peculiarities, vying for transient social status and partnerships, the colorful group awaits the varied promises of their destination.

During a cruise to Antarctica, Maud becomes suspicious of her husband Peter's flirtatious behavior with other women.

As a bus travels from Ohio to New York, a man entertains himself by conversing with the passengers he calls "hillbillies" riding along.

A man, uprooting from his life in San Fransisco, takes on a rider on his long drive towards Denver, but finds they don't get along.

A woman who is not content with life and fears staying in one place works as a traveling writer, recording her thoughts and interactions on tape recorders and finding different lovers in each place she visits.

An American woman and man visiting France criticize the French people and culture, revealing their ignorance and disregard even as they delight in the fun their unusual group of friends is having.

On a vacation in France with his wife and family, Reynolds reminisces about the trip he and his wife took to Mont-Saint Michel decades ago, despairing at the bigger and faster pace of the town and the beauty and culture that seems to have been lost since then.