Pretentious critic Cornelius is writing a biography on a famous cellist and to do some research he stays in the critic's house for a few days. He doesn't manage to get an interview with the man, but by talking to all the women who live with him, he comes to learn a lot about the musician's private life none the less. Cornelius then decides to use this information to blackmail the cellist into performing a composition that he, Cornelius, has written.

After breaking up with her girlfriend, a nightclub singer, Jane, answers a personal ad from Robin, a real estate agent with AIDS, seeking a cross-country travel partner. On their journey from New York City to Los Angeles, the two stop by Pittsburgh to pick up Jane's friend Holly, who is trying to escape an abusive relationship. With three distinct personalities, the women must overcome their differences to help one another.

After one short blind date, Mary Horowitz, a brilliant and eccentric crossword constructor, is convinced that Steve, a CCN cameraman, is her soul mate. Because his job takes him hither and yon, she crisscrosses the country following Steve, with the encouragement of a reporter, turning up at media events he's at to convince him they are perfect for each other. Along the way, she befriends an assortment of misfits who accept her for who she is, leading her to reassess her reasons for this strange journey.

A man awakens to find himself immersed in a real-life scenario of a board game with an ever expanding cartography.

Cronenberg's speculative historical work draws inspiration from the anatomical waxworks at the La Specola museum in Florence, Italy. These wax models, traditionally used for medical demonstrations, are given a new perspective in the film. Cronenberg's work reveals the vibrant and surprising aspects of these female wax corpses, which were previously seen as static and serious. As David Cronenberg explains: “The Specola wax figures were created as a teaching tool, capable of revealing the mysteries of the human body to those who could not access … real cadavers held in universities and hospitals. In their attempt to create whole, partially dissected figures, whose body language and facial expression did not show suffering or agony … the sculptors ended up producing living characters apparently overcome by ecstasy. It was this surprising stylistic choice that captured my imagination: what if it was the dissection itself that induced that tension, that almost religious rapture?”