忽如其来的神秘灾难使全球秩序陷入混乱，一名政治家崛起为联合国的首脑，但他能引领人们走向希望吗？还是令世界走向深渊？

　　Two chimney sweeps living in monogamous, heterosexual marriages both end up in situations that challenge their views on sexuality and gender roles.

Norman Taylor is a successful young professor, married with Tansy Taylor. He is a very skeptical man, while his wife believes in magic and witchcraft. One day, he finds lots of amulets and witchcraft in his house, and he decides to destroy all of them. His wife gets scared and advises him that he destroyed all the protection their home and lives had against the evil of envious and wicked persons, including some of his colleagues. Norman in principle does not have faith in her, but many strange events happen with him, and he changes his mind

　　母亲的早逝、姐姐的出嫁令少女艾玛（格温妮斯•帕特洛 Gwyneth Paltrow 饰）很快就成了哈菲尔德大宅的女主人，在成功撮合了她的家庭教师泰勒小姐（格列塔•斯卡奇 Greta Scacchi 饰）与韦斯顿先生（詹姆斯•卡沙莫 James Cosmo 饰）的美好姻缘后，艾玛更加意气风发。这次艾玛又将目标对准了她的好友——出身平凡的哈丽叶特小姐（托妮•科莱特 Toni Collette 饰），她准备将哈丽叶特小姐介绍给当地的牧师——绅士埃尔顿先生（艾伦•卡明 Alan Cumming 饰）。为此，艾玛不仅处处为哈丽叶特小姐和埃尔顿先生制造相处的机会，甚至怂恿毫无主见的哈丽叶特小姐拒绝了和她身份般配而且善良富足的农夫马丁先生的求爱。这一切，艾玛的好友——聪明的奈特利先生（杰瑞米•诺森 Jeremy Northam 饰）都看在眼里，虽然他极力反对艾玛的做法，并且认为艾玛这样做会害了哈丽叶特小姐，但信心满满的艾玛又怎会将他的意见放在眼里。　　艾玛一方面继续着她的“红娘事业”，另一方面期待着从小寄养在舅母家的韦斯顿先生的绅士儿子——弗兰克的拜访。艾玛的“事业”最后能否成功，她又能否找到自己的意中人？

　　患有帕金森的母亲朱迪和丈夫埃德、儿子杰米生活在加拿大边陲海边小镇。虽不富裕，但朱迪与丈夫之间的相互扶持让家庭生活还算温馨，丈夫的关怀体贴，让帕金森淡化成了生活一部分。但一切就像是冬日的冰封，被埃德突然地逝世打破了……