The film begins on New Year’s Eve 2001 when Angelica attempts suicide by somewhat theatrically cutting her wrists in the bath. Over the weeks that follow we learn all about the complexities of her life and her three best friends, the quartet of the title.

In poverty-ravaged Calcutta, Sister Teresa, a teacher at a boarding school for wealthy girls, feels God's call to leave everything behind to devote herself to those most in need. With determination, she defies church rules and plunges into the crowded streets, bringing comfort to the sick and marginalized, thus beginning her extraordinary mission of charity.

Ludovico accepted the last choice of his wife, out of love. Now he has to find the courage to reveal this to his daughter.

By chance some surreal characters arrive at the Happy Days Motel taking their grotesque stories.

Following the death of their best friend, four guys and the dead men's sister steal his body and burn it on a beach in Italy to fulfill his last wish.

Mario and Maria Boschi, a 30-year-old couple with small children, are hit by a crisis: husband and wife cannot agree on a party name. A colleague, also named Mario, makes an impressive speech, and Maria find herself increasingly attracted to him. She feels able to relate to him like she could to her husband in the old days. They spend the night together, and she falls ill. When she is asked by her husband to leave the house, she realizes that there may be a difference between real love and a vague need for understanding.

An American couple bring their 10 year old daughter, Claire, to her grandfather Lawrence's hotel in The Dolomites, Italy. They usually come for Christmas but this year it’s August. The fact is they are breaking up, and once Claire realizes there’s not going to be a family Christmas this year, she insists on everyone making it out for Christmas in August. Claire, in collusion with her grandfather, plan activities that are designed to re-unite her parents.

Hired in the Montsou mines, Étienne Lantier meets the Maheu family and falls in love with their daughter Catherine.

An aspiring young writer tracks a literary titan suffering from writers block to his refuge in rural Italy and learns about life and love from the irascible genius and his daughters.