Gabriel Gascon

Dorothy Parker remembers the heyday of the Algonquin Round Table, a circle of friends whose barbed wit, like hers, was fueled by alcohol and flirted with despair.

Through an immigrant cab driver, our world collides with a nervous filmmaker, a lawyer whose new breasts her ex-boyfriend wants to see, a mystery man, a gay man who might or might not have AIDS, and a birthday girl who got stood up. It is a mixture of laughter and sadness, all floating on a sea of philosophy.

The same man lives out several parallel lives in different "worlds" and in different relationships at the same time.

Henri Savin has managed a trucking company for his lover, Dominique Montlaur, for many years. Now he is planning to leave her for Julie Manet, the woman he has made pregnant, and Dominique is hysterical. She first threatens suicide, then shows up at a meeting of Savin and Julie. Dominique tries everything she can think of to break Savin and Julie apart, to no avail. Frustrated in her efforts, she jumps off a cliff and dies. Savin insists that he and Julie lie to the police about the encounter, although Dominique's death was a suicide and therefore they had no direct hand in it. Detective Waldeck investigates Dominique's death.

Sucre Amer tells the story of a unique court case in which an event from the past is judged by a court of history. Major figures from history are brought together in the present to re-examine the "Ignace case", about a legendary figure in the history of Guadeloupe who fought against the armies of Napoleon Bonaparte to preserve his freedom. A hero despite himself, Ignace's life and struggle were subsequently consigned to oblivion by his enemies. His treatment has left a bittersweet taste in the mouths of the people of Guadeloupe.

Two social outcasts in 19th century Eastern Europe, Alexandre and Ulysse, become friends and settle down to live alone on the edge of a marsh that is reputedly haunted by demons, monsters and goblins. These two men have been outcasts all their lives. Alexandre was raised in a nomad family that traveled from town to town, being rejected by the people of his homeland. Due to his physical abnormalities, Ulysse has always been pushed aside ever since his childhood. When a strange murder is committed in a nearby village, the peasants turn their suspicions on Alexandre and Ulysse, because they are different. In the eyes of the villagers, they are demons that must be hunted, burned and killed.

At the request of settler boss Miles Forman, Natty Bumppo leads his trek to Michilimackinac, accompanied by Chingachgook. The group of settlers includes the criminal Bush family. After a few days, the wagon trail meets the Pawnee Indian tribe, whose chief Weucha knows Natty and by whom the settlers are warmly received. On the onward journey, the Bush sons veer off to seemingly hunt but sell the Sioux weapons they had stolen from a fort before leaving. On the way back to the trek they are surprised by two hunting Pawnees. In the following fight, one of the Bush sons is killed. The archer is immediately shot, and the other Indian is supposed to be lynched in the camp of the whites. Chingachgook, however, cuts the rope with a bullet. Later, Father Ismael Bush incites the peaceful Pawnees and Sioux against each other by having a Sioux killed and leading suspicion to the Pawnees. The Sioux attack and destroy the Pawnee village.

Two narrators, one seen and one unseen, discuss possible connections between a series of paintings. The on-screen narrator walks through three-dimensional reproductions of each painting, featuring real people, sometimes moving, in an effort to explain the series' significance.