Sex Appeal

Marco, a teacher from Milan, relocates to Palermo and takes a temporary job teaching in a juvenile detention centre while he waits for a high school teaching position. He tries to understand and motivate his handful of students, encouraging them to stand up for their rights, finding out about their histories: Natale, in for murder and enamored with the Mafia; Pietro, who can't seem to stay out of jail; Claudio, barely 14 and learning to stand up for himself; and Mery, a trans sex worker, who was arrested after a fight with a trick who didn't want to pay her, and is now stuck in a male prison.

Ethan, a magician rendered paralyzed in an accident, sets off a furor when he makes a petition to the court to end his own life.

Trish's friends set her up on a blind-date, but when she forgets to adjust her clocks to compensate for Daylight Savings Time, she inadvertently stands her potential sweetheart up. Instead, she arrives at the venue and meets Parker, a sweet-natured but troubled paramedic who decides to play along with the oblivious Trish. The pair hit it off, but their promising romance is threatened when the case of mistaken identity is revealed.

After losing her parents, young flower selling Midori is put up by a fairground group. She is abused and forced to slavery, until the arrival of an enigmatic magician of short stature, who gives her hope for a better future.

Young men with no future have little in the present as well. Natale is released from prison: he takes up with his friends again but none can find work. Claudio, from Palermo, gets out of juvenile detention in Naples and he's met by Vita, a girl who's come from home to run away with him. Where can they go? A young dad, whose potato stall at the market is shut down because he has no permit, takes his two small children to the beach and yells at them. Mario, gay, a prostitute in drag, gets a visit from his mom; he offers tea, then finds the water to his apartment is shut off. Social workers drop by, parole officers file reports. What hope is there? What options besides crime?

Fifteen-year-old Lulu has never known any affection from her family. But when she goes to a rock concert with Pablo, a friend of the family, he introduces Lulu to her first sexual experience. Years later, Pablo and Lulu have married; Pablo has created a sheltered, private world for Lulu, into which nothing intrudes. However, Lulu tires of her cloistered existence, and begins hanging out in shady bars, looking for vicarious thrills and danger.

A bickering couple driving cross-country through California pick up a psychotic hitchhiker with two million dollars who threatens to kill them unless they take him to Mexico.

Upon taking a new job, young lawyer Rick Hayes is assigned to the clemency case of Cindy Liggett, a woman convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death. As Hayes investigates the background for her case, the two begin to form a deep friendship, while the date for her execution draws nearer.

Roseanne looks forward to her high school graduation and leaving her dysfunctional home life behind -- until a brutal act brings doom to all involved.

Agnes and her two sisters struggle through a day in a home overrun by gamblers, thieves, and johns.