A young heiress in the 1950s takes up a decades-long affair with a married architect, which seems like a safe venture until a mutual friend begins blackmailing them.

During his leave, an American World War II soldier visits the family of one of his fellow British soldiers. While he expects a warm and doting environment, he is instead greeted by a circumspectly cold group of British people.

When their son returns back from boarding school, his Viennese father and French mother argue over what’s best for their son, who feels hopelessly different from all of the American teenagers in New York City. Unexpectedly, the argument reaches a deadly conclusion.

The nephew of a deceased housekeeper goes around to different apartments of high society figures in New York City, asking the housekeeper’s past employers if they can spend some money for her funeral arrangements.

When a New York woman learns that her assistant’s husband cut his middle finger off during a fight, she can’t help but dwell on her assistant’s luck with men and her own inferiority.