In the near future, a newly created device called the DC Mini allows users to view people's dreams. The head of the team working on this treatment, Dr. Atsuko Chiba, begins using the machine illegally to help psychiatric patients outside the research facility by assuming her dream world alter-ego, a detective named Paprika. Atsuko's closest allies are Dr. Toratarō Shima, the chief of the department, and Dr. Kōsaku Tokita, the inventor of the DC Mini. Paprika counsels a detective named Toshimi Konakawa, who is plagued by a recurring dream regarding an unknown former colleague and a victim in a homicide case he is investigating. She gives Toshimi a card with the name of a website on it, which leads him into a bar where he is able to meet Paprika, who compares the Internet to dreams. In a meeting with the company chairman, Dr. Seijirō Inui, to discuss the theft of three DC Mini prototypes, Toratarō goes on a nonsensical tirade and jumps through a window, nearly killing himself. Upon examining Toratarō's dream, which is a parade of random objects, Kōsaku recognizes his assistant, Kei Himuro, which confirms their suspicion that the theft was an inside job. While investigating Himuro's home, Atsuko ignores the warnings that Paprika gives her, and accidentally slips into a dream space, which, due to her frequent use of the DC Mini, can now affect her constantly. Atsuko almost dies, after ignoring another warning by Paprika, but is rescued by her co-investigators. When two other scientists fall victim to the DC Mini, Seijirō bans the use of the device. This fails to hinder the crazed parade, now inside Himuro's dream, which claims Kōsaku. Paprika and Toratarō discover that Himuro is only an empty shell. The real culprit is Seijirō, who believes that he must protect dreams from humankind's influence through dream therapy, with the help of Dr. Morio Osanai. Investigating the demise of the two scientists, Toshimi meets with Atsuko, Toratarō, and Kōsaku. Leaving the meeting, he has an anxiety attack. In an emergency session with Paprika, she reveals the scenes in his dreams each correspond to genres of movies. The parade bursts into Toshimi's dream, prompting Paprika to leave the session to help Kōsaku in Himuro's dream. Paprika is captured by Seijirō and Morio, who obsessively confesses his love for Atsuko and peels away Paprika's skin to reveal Atsuko underneath. However, he is interrupted by the outraged Seijirō, who demands that they finish off Atsuko. Meanwhile in his dream at the bar, Toshimi learns his recurring dream is based in anxiety over the illness and death of his colleague from his youth whose memory he'd repressed, with whom he aspired to be a film director. Resolving his anxieties, Toshimi finds and enters Himuro's dream and flees with Atsuko back into his own dream. Morio gives chase, which ends in Toshimi shooting Morio. The act kills Morio's physical body in the real world. Dreams and reality begin to merge. The dream parade runs amok in the city, and reality starts to unravel. Toratarō is nearly killed by a giant doll, but is saved by Paprika, who now appears as a fully separate entity from Atsuko. Amidst the chaos, Kōsaku, in the form of a giant robot, eats Atsuko and prepares to do the same to Paprika. Seijirō, in a megalomaniacal delirium, returns in the form of a giant humanoid nightmare and threatens to darken the world with his delusions. Paprika throws herself into Kōsaku's body. A baby emerges from the robotic shell and consumes Seijirō, aging into a fully-grown combination of Atsuko and Paprika as she does so, then fades away, ending the nightmare. In the real world, Atsuko sits at Kōsaku's bedside as he wakes up. Toshimi later visits the website from Paprika's card and receives a message from Paprika, suggesting the film Dreaming Kids to him. He enters a cinema and purchases a ticket for Dreaming Kids.

In 2017, aliens known as Scavengers attack Earth and destroy the Moon, triggering global natural disasters. Although humanity wins the war using nuclear weapons, Earth is left uninhabitable. Sixty years later, the remnants of humanity have relocated to a colony on Saturn 's moon Titan, except for Unit 49—technician Jack and his communications officer Victoria—who are scheduled to join them in two weeks. The pair oversee hydro rigs that convert seawater into fusion energy for the Tet, the last remaining human colony ship in orbit. Though Jack and Victoria are romantically involved and have had their memories erased for security reasons, Jack experiences recurring dreams of an unknown woman. He also secretly visits a hidden, verdant valley where he has built a lakeside cabin and collects relics of Earth's past. While investigating a missing drone—autonomous, highly advanced, and heavily armed machines—Jack is nearly captured by Scavengers. Later, he discovers the Scavengers are transmitting a signal into space. A NASA pod crash-lands at the signal's coordinates, carrying five humans in suspended animation, including the woman from Jack's dreams. A drone arrives and destroys four of the pods, but Jack rescues the remaining one and brings the unconscious woman to Unit 49's base. After reviving her, Jack and Victoria learn that the woman, Julia, has been in stasis aboard the Odyssey spaceship since 2017. Julia insists on recovering the ship's flight recorder. She and Jack are captured by Scavengers and brought to the Raven Rock Mountain Complex. Their leader, Malcolm, reveals that the Scavengers are surviving humans. Malcolm needs Jack to reprogram a captured drone to deliver a nuclear bomb, built from Odyssey's reactor, to the Tet. Jack refuses, so Malcolm releases him and Julia, urging him to seek the truth in the radiation zone, which is supposedly deadly and off-limits. Julia helps Jack recall that she is his wife, and fragments of his memories begin to return. When they arrive back at Unit 49, a devastated Victoria informs Sally, the Tet's mission controller, that she and Jack are no longer an "effective team". A drone activates and kills Victoria. Jack and Julia destroy the drone but crash their aircraft inside the radiation zone. There, they encounter another version of Jack—"Jack-52"—who arrives to repair the drone. Jack subdues him, but Julia is seriously injured in the fight. Jack impersonates his clone to infiltrate Unit 52, meets Victoria-52, and steals medical supplies for Julia. They rest at his cabin. At Raven Rock, Malcolm reveals the truth: humanity lost the war, and the Tet is an alien machine intelligence harvesting Earth's resources. After the Moon's destruction, the Tet deployed thousands of clones of astronaut Jack Harper—brainwashed into obedience—to exterminate the remaining humans. Malcolm had assumed that these clones were inhuman until witnessing Jack show interest in a discarded book, hinting at lingering humanity. Jack reprograms the captured drone, but it is destroyed in a surprise attack by other drones, leaving Malcolm badly wounded. Jack and Julia resolve to deliver the bomb; Julia enters a stasis pod. En route, Jack listens to the Odyssey's flight recorder, which reveals the original Jack Harper and Victoria were astronauts sent to explore Titan before being confronted by the Tet. The pair were captured but not before Jack ejected the remaining crew—including Julia—in stasis pods to protect them. Jack gains access to the Tet by claiming he is delivering Julia, as previously instructed. However, the stasis pod contains a dying Malcolm. Jack and Malcolm detonate the bomb, destroying the Tet and themselves. Julia later awakens at the cabin. Three years later, Julia lives there and it is revealed she had a daughter with Jack. A group of Raven Rock survivors arrives, with Jack-52, who has begun regaining fragments of his identity.

Man-su, an award-winning veteran employee at a papermaking company, lives happily in his beloved childhood home with his wife Mi-ri and their children: Si-one, Mi-ri's teenage son from a previous marriage, and Ri-one, an autistic cello prodigy. The company is bought out and a devastated Man-su is laid off after defending his fellow workers, but assures his family he will resume papermaking within three months. Thirteen months later, Man-su has been unable to find another job in the papermaking industry. His family is forced to minimize their spending, including rehoming their two dogs with Mi-ri's parents, upsetting Ri-one, whose cello teacher recommends her for expensive advanced classes. The family considers selling their home to the parents of Si-one's friend Dong-ho, and Mi-ri takes a part-time job as a dental assistant to suave dentist Jin-ho, while Man-su endures a toothache he cannot afford to treat. Man-su attempts to join the successful Moon Paper company, but is humiliated by manager Seon-chul. Wanting his job, Man-su nearly kills Seon-chul with a potted plant, but realises this will not matter unless he is the best candidate to replace him. Instead, Man-su uses a fake job advertisement to identify his chief competitors: Beom-mo and Si-jo. Retrieving his father's Vietnam War gun, he prepares to kill Seon-chul, Beom-mo, and Si-jo to eliminate his competition. Spying on Beom-mo, an unemployed drunkard, Man-su is bitten by a snake and treated by Beom-mo's dissatisfied wife, A-ra, and is later unable to stop Beom-mo from discovering A-ra's infidelity. A-ra finds Man-su confronting Beom-mo at gunpoint, leading to a struggle for the gun, but A-ra shoots Beom-mo dead and Man-su escapes. He arrives late to a costumed party, where Mi-ri dances with Jin-ho instead. A-ra and her lover bury Beom-mo, but Man-su recovers the gun. Man-su and Mi-ri accuse each other of infidelity, and she reminds him that he was a violent drunk when Si-one was very young, but they reconcile. At the shoe store where Si-jo works, Man-su recognises him as a kindred devoted father, but tricks him into staying late and feigns car trouble; when Si-jo stops to help, Man-su reluctantly shoots him and drives away with his corpse. Si-one and Dong-ho are arrested for stealing iPhones from Dong-ho's father's store, but Man-su and Mi-ri blackmail Dong-ho's father, who used the store for his own infidelity, into having Dong-ho take the blame. Detectives question Man-su about Beom-mo and Si-jo's disappearances, having linked them as unemployed paper men. Smoking on the roof, Si-one witnesses Man-su in his greenhouse trying to dismember Si-jo's corpse with a chainsaw. Unable to do so, Man-su buries the body in his garden, alongside Si-one's stolen iPhones, and plants an apple tree. Plying Seon-chul with alcohol at his remote cabin, Man-su breaks his sobriety and drunkenly extracts his own tooth. Haunted by nightmares about his father and the chainsaw, Si-one informs his mother, who digs up the tree and calls Man-su. Determined to protect his family, Man-su suffocates Seon-chul with meat and stages his death to appear as if he choked on his own vomit. Mi-ri tells Si-one that Man-su dismembered and buried a pig to nourish the apple tree, and she and Man-su come to a tense understanding. Moon Paper hires Man-su to replace Seon-chul, allowing the family to keep their home and reunite with their dogs. Ri-one's antisocial behavior improves, and Mi-ri realises her unusual drawings are actually musical compositions. The detectives reveal that A-ra has implicated Beom-mo as a gun-owner, and conclude that he murdered Si-jo and went on the run, lifting suspicion off Man-su. At his new job, Man-su celebrates alone in a modern paper mill run by machines instead of workers.

Nostalgia for the Light opens with a view of a telescope and images of the Moon. The narrator, Patricio Guzmán, describes how he came to love astronomy and begins to remember his childhood during which “only the present moment existed.” Soon, Chile became the center of the world as astronomers and scientists flocked to Chile to observe the universe through the thin and clear skies. We next see Guzmán walking in the Atacama Desert, a place with absolutely no moisture, so much so that it resembles the surface of Mars. This desert, and its abundance of history, becomes the focus of the documentary. Because of how dry it is, the desert hosts the untouched remains of fish, mollusks, Indian carvings, and even mummified humans. Astronomer Gaspar Galaz is introduced and comments on how astronomy is a way to look into the past to understand our origins. It is generally a science seeking answer, but, in the process, creates more questions to answer. He comments that science in general, like astronomy and geology, is a look into the past; even sitting there having this interview, he comments, is a conversation in the past because of the millionths of a second light takes to travel and be processed. Lautaro Núñez relates astronomer's endeavors to his own; archeologists and astronomers have to recreate the past while in the present by using only a few traces. The documentary then shifts into Chile's recent past dealing with Pinochet and his dictatorship. Luís Henríquez, a survivor from the Chacabuco concentration camp, describes how a group of about 20, led by a Doctor Alvarez (who was knowledgeable in astronomy), were taught theory during the day and learned how to identify constellations at night. They learned how to create a device that helped them track the constellations, and while they studied the cosmos they “all had a feeling of great freedom,” as Henríquez describes it. The military, however, quickly banned these lessons because they believed the prisoners could escape using the constellations. Miguel Lawner, similarly, was a prisoner who survived the concentration camp. He is referred to as the “architect” in the movie because he was able to memorize and then later recreate the environment the prisoners lived in. Miguel would measure buildings and the grounds with footsteps and would then draw a scaled version of the concentration camps with those measurements. He would rip his drawings up and hide them at night, in case of a raid, and then flush them down the latrines in the morning. The narrator concludes that he and his wife Anita are a metaphor for Chile: Henríquez remembers what happened in the past, while Anita, who has Alzheimer's disease, is forgetting. Valentina Rodríguez talks about how her grandparents were detained and threatened to give up the location of her parents. After their captors threatened to hurt Valentina, her grandparents complied and her parents were taken away. However, Valentina acknowledges that she and her parents all belong to the recyclable matter of the universe, which brings peace to her. She has a son, who she knows will not have to suffer dictatorial violence like his past generations. This idea leaves her strong and optimistic. Guzmán ends the documentary affirming the value of memory because, as he states, “those who have a memory are able to live in the fragile present moments. Those who have none don't live anywhere.”

Lieutenant Commander Ewen Montagu, a Jewish barrister, remains in England during World War II while his wife Iris and their children travel to safety in the United States. Montagu is appointed to the Twenty Committee and takes his secretary, Hester Leggett, with him. Prime Minister Winston Churchill has promised the US that the Allies will invade Sicily by July of that year. Admiral John Godfrey suggests that Britain deceive Nazi Germany into believing the Allies will invade Greece to prevent a heavy Wehrmacht presence on Sicily. Charles Cholmondeley proposes an operation from the Trout Memo, which would entail planting false documents on a corpse where German intelligence could find them. Montagu and Cholmondeley plan the operation with Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming. The body of a vagrant named Glyndwr Michael, who died by possible suicidal poisoning, is obtained and given the false identity of Major William Martin, Royal Marines, with identification papers revealing a detailed backstory. A widowed secretary in the office, Jean Leslie, offers a photo of herself to serve as Martin's fake fiancée, "Pam". Theatre tickets, personal bills and a love letter from "Pam" written by Hester are added for verisimilitude. Cholmondeley has a crush on Jean, but soon realises that Montagu and Jean share romantic feelings. This causes Cholmondeley to grow jealous and occasionally lash out at Montagu. Complications ensue when Michael's sister arrives to claim his body, but she is turned away. Godfrey suspects that Montagu's brother, Ivor, is a spy for the USSR. Godfrey incentivises Cholmondeley to spy on Montagu and, in return, Godfrey will locate and return the remains of Cholmondeley's brother, who was killed in action in Chittagong, Bengal. Cholmondeley reluctantly agrees. Specialist MI5 driver St John "Jock" Horsfall transports Montagu, Cholmondeley and the corpse to the submarine base at Holy Loch where it is loaded onto HMS Seraph. The submarine drops the corpse into the ocean in the Gulf of Cádiz and it is located by fishermen in Huelva, Spain. The mission is hampered by bad luck, as the Spanish have resisted Nazi influence more than expected. Captain David Ainsworth, the British naval attaché in Madrid, meets with Colonel Cerruti of the Spanish secret police in one last attempt to get the papers to the Germans. When Martin's personal items are returned to London, a specialist determines the documents have been tampered with, giving the Operation Mincemeat staff hope that Germany retrieved the false information. The team then intercept an encrypted communication from General Jodl who believes the Allies will invade Greece. Jean is threatened by Teddy, a waiter at a club the team has frequented, claiming to be a spy for a German anti-Hitler plot. She tells him that Major Martin was travelling under an alias but the classified information was genuine. After Teddy leaves, Jean informs Montagu and Cholmondeley. They come to believe that Colonel Alexis von Roenne, who controls intelligence in the German Army High Command, sent Teddy to verify information so Roenne could undermine Hitler but they have no way of being sure. Montagu takes Jean to his home for protection, but she accepts a job in SOE and leaves London. The Allied invasion of Sicily proceeds with limited casualties, and a viable beachhead is quickly formed. Cholmondeley admits he received his brother's remains in return for spying on Montagu. Feeling sympathetic and relieved that Operation Mincemeat was a success, Montagu offers to buy Cholmondeley a drink even though it is eight in the morning. The epilogue says that Montagu reunited with Iris after the war, Jean married a soldier, Hester continued as Director of the Admiralty Secretarial Unit and Cholmondeley remained with MI5 until 1952, later married and travelled widely. Major William Martin's identity was revealed to be Glyndwr Michael in 1997 when an epitaph, with his real name, was added to Martin's headstone in Spain.

Kanji Lalji Mehta, a middle-class Gujarati atheist, owns a shop of Hindu idols and antiques in Mumbai. He mocks religious activities around him until one day, a low-intensity earthquake hits the city, with Kanji's shop being the only one destroyed; his family and friends blame this on his atheism. At the insurance office, Kanji learns that the disaster claim does not cover any damage caused by natural calamities classified under " Act of God." Running out of options, he decides to sue God but fails to find a lawyer for such a lawsuit. Hanif Qureshi, a working-class Muslim lawyer, helps him file the case after Kanji decides to fight on his own. Legal notices are sent to the insurance company as well as to religious people like Siddheshwar Maharaj, Gopi Maiyya, and their group's founder, Leeladhar Swamy, forcing them to court as representatives of God. As the court case commences and gains attraction for its bizarre quality, Kanji finds himself facing armed fundamentalists and harassment, with his mortgage provider occupying the house and his family leaving him. He is then rescued by Krishna Vasudev Yadav, who claims to be a real estate agent originally from Gokul, Uttar Pradesh, yet is also responsible for supernatural acts outside of the human realm. The lawsuit causes a public outcry. On Krishna's advice, Kanji goes to the media and gets wide coverage. Sympathisers join him in the lawsuit, causing the number of claims to skyrocket and Catholic fathers and Muslim Maulvis to also be forced as defendants. When the court demands written proof that the earthquake was an 'Act of God,' Krishna steers Kanji toward holy books such as the Bhagavad Gita, the Quran, and the Bible. Kanji reads them and finds a passage in each that says the world and all events are a creation of God and come from God's will alone. This strengthens his case and increases public support. However, Kanji suffers a stroke in court and is rushed to the hospital, where he goes into a coma and is paralyzed. When he opens his eyes after a month, he finds Krishna, who reveals that he is God and proves it by curing Kanji completely. He further reveals that while He created the entire world, animals and humans, religion was created by humans, and he was the one who destroyed Kanji's shop because he sought to punish the godmen who showed his fear to the public to earn money. He adds that he created the entire world and thus does not like to live in temples, contrary to what the godmen claim, and he is not interested in the offerings he gets from devotees. Instead, he created millions of humans who die of hunger and would be glad if those offerings were given to them instead. He figured out that an atheist like Kanji would end up exposing them if he destroyed his shop, and thus destroyed it by causing the disaster, and started to help him with the lawsuit by appearing as a human, befriending him, and revealing himself in his true form so that Kanji realises that although he does exist, he does not live in temples but in every creature he created. Kanji learns that the lawsuit's verdict was in his favour, and religious organizations were ordered by the court to pay the compensation to all the plaintiffs. As a result of this, people have begun revering Kanji himself as a god. Leeladhar, Gopi Maiyya, and Siddheshwar have taken advantage of this by opening a temple dedicated to Kanji and accumulating millions in donations. Krishna explains to Kanji that his job as God is to show people right and wrong – people do with it what they will. Moved by Krishna's words, Kanji breaks his own statue, admonishing the crowd about trusting in God-men and advises them to search for God in themselves and in others, not in statues; that God is everywhere, not just in temples, and faith should come from within. He tells them not to believe in fraudulent godmen, as their job is to turn religion into business. After successfully completing the job, he goes back to thank Krishna, only to find that he and his motorcycle have disappeared. Kanji's family arrives, and they get reunited. Kanji sees Krishna's keychain on the ground. When he is about to keep it, he hears Krishna's voice, telling him to get rid of the keychain, as fear of God and reliance on religious objects were what he'd fought against. Kanji smiles and throws it away, watching as it disappears into the sky with a flash.

The film takes place in two different times: the present and 11 years earlier. The two plot lines are told in parallel through flashbacks. In 2002, software engineer Alan Russell moves into a new house with his wife Marie, 10-year-old son Tim, and 12-year-old daughter Kaylie. Alan purchases an antique mirror to decorate his office. Unbeknownst to them, the mirror supernaturally induces hallucinations. Marie is haunted by visions of her own body decaying, while Alan is seduced by a mysterious and ghostly woman named Marisol Chavez who has mirrors in place of eyes. In 2013, Tim is discharged from a psychiatric hospital, having been convinced that there were no supernatural events involved in his parents' deaths. Kaylie has spent most of her young adulthood researching the history and perceived powers of the mirror. Using her position as an employee of an auction house, she obtains access to the mirror and has it transported to the family home, where she places it in a room filled with surveillance cameras and a "kill switch" — an anchor attached to the ceiling on a pivot, positioned to swing down and smash the mirror. Kaylie intends to destroy the mirror, but first wants to document its power, proving both Alan's and Tim's innocence. Over time back in 2002, the parents become psychotic: Alan isolates himself in his office and Marie becomes withdrawn and paranoid. All of the plants in the house die, and their family dog Mason disappears after being shut in the office with the mirror. After Kaylie sees Alan with Marisol, she tells her mother and the parents fight. One night, Marie, distraught over her husband's supposed affair, tries to harm the mirror, finally becoming possessed by it, and attempts to kill her children, but Alan locks her away. When the family runs out of food, the children realize that their father is now permanently under the influence of the mirror too, so Kaylie goes to seek help from their mother and finds her chained to the wall, acting like an animal. Kaylie and Tim try going to their neighbors for help, but the neighbors disbelieve their stories. When Kaylie attempts to use the phone, she discovers that all of her phone calls are answered by the same man. The fully possessed Alan eventually loads up a gun previously purchased by him and unchains Marie, with both parents attacking the children. Marie briefly comes to her senses, only to be shot dead by Alan. The children try to destroy the mirror but it tricks them, making them believe they are hitting the mirror when they are actually hitting the wall. Alan also experiences a moment of lucidity and kills himself by forcing Tim to pull the trigger of the gun and shoot him, causing a small crack in the corner of the mirror in the process. Before dying, he begs the children to run, but Marisol and other victims of the mirror appear as ghosts. The police arrive and take Tim into custody. Before the siblings are separated, they promise to never forget what happened with the mirror, one day reunite as adults and destroy it. As Tim is taken away and put behind bars, he sees the ghosts of his parents watching him from the house. Back in 2013, Tim attempts to convince Kaylie that she is wrong and the siblings argue. When they notice the houseplants begin to wilt, they review the camera footage and see themselves performing actions they do not remember doing. Tim finally accepts the mirror's supernatural power and attempts to escape the house with Kaylie, only for the pair to be drawn back by the mirror's influence. Seeing a hallucination of her mother, Kaylie stabs it in the neck, only to realize that she has stabbed Michael Dumont, her fiancé and one of her fail-safes, who has come to check on her. They try to call the police, but are only able to reach the same voice who spoke to them on the phone as children. At this point, they see their doppelgangers inside the house standing in front of the mirror. Realizing that the 9-1-1 call is not going through, they go back inside the house. Kaylie and Tim begin hallucinating by seeing younger versions of themselves, the past and the present merging into each other. They are separated and each of them relives the nightmare from their youth. Tim awakens alone in the room with the mirror, while simultaneously a younger Kaylie hallucinates her mother beckoning her from the mirror. Tim releases the anchor, unable to see that Kaylie is standing before the mirror, and inadvertently kills her instead of destroying it. The police arrive and arrest Tim, who is hysterical, just as they did when he was younger. As both a boy and an adult, Tim claims the mirror is responsible. As he is taken away, Tim's adult incarnation sees Kaylie's ghost standing in the house with his parents.

London-based journalist Martin Sixsmith has lost his job as a government adviser. He is approached at a party by the daughter of Philomena Lee. She suggests that he write a story about her mother, who was forced to give up her toddler son Anthony nearly fifty years ago. Though Sixsmith is initially reluctant to write a human interest story, he meets Philomena and decides to investigate her case. In 1951, Philomena became pregnant after having sex with a man she did not know at a county fair, so was sent by her father to Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea in Ireland. After giving birth, she was forced to work in the convent laundry for four years, with little contact with her son. The nuns gave her son up for adoption without giving Philomena a chance to say goodbye. She kept her lost son a secret from her family for nearly fifty years. Martin and Philomena begin their search at the convent. The nuns claim that the adoption records were destroyed in a fire years earlier; they did not, however, lose the contract she was forced to sign decades ago forbidding her from contacting her son, which Martin considers suspicious. At a pub, the locals tell Martin that the convent burnt the records deliberately, and that most of the children were sold for £1,000 each to wealthy Americans. Martin's investigation reaches a dead end in Ireland, but he receives a promising lead from the United States so invites Philomena to accompany him there. His contacts help him discover that Anthony was renamed Michael A. Hess, who became a lawyer and senior official in the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations. When Philomena notices Martin in the background of a photo of Michael, he remembers that he met him years earlier while working in the US. They also learn that he has been dead for eight years. Philomena decides she wants to meet people who knew Michael to learn more about him from them. Visiting a former colleague of Michael's they discover that Michael was gay and died of AIDS. They also visit his 'sister' Mary, who was adopted at the same time from the convent, and learn that they were both emotionally and physically abused by their adoptive parents, and hear about Michael’s partner, Pete Olsson. After avoiding Martin's attempts to contact him, Pete agrees to talk to Philomena. He shows her some videos of his life with Michael. To Martin and Philomena's surprise, they see footage of Michael, dated shortly before he died, at the Abbey where he was adopted, and Pete explains that, although he never told his family, Michael had privately wondered about his birth mother all his life, so had returned to Ireland in his final months to try to find her. Pete informs them that the nuns had told Michael that his mother had abandoned him and they had lost contact with her. He also reveals that, against his parents' wishes, he had Michael buried in the convent's cemetery. Philomena and Martin return to the convent to ask where Michael's grave is. Despite Philomena's pleas, Martin angrily forces his way into the private quarters and argues with an elderly nun, Sister Hildegarde McNulty, who worked at the convent when Anthony was forcibly adopted. He accuses her of lying to Anthony and denying him the chance to finally reunite with Philomena, purely out of self-righteousness. Hildegarde is unrepentant, saying that losing her son was Philomena's penance for having sex out of wedlock. Martin demands an apology, telling her that what she did was un-Christian, but is speechless when Philomena instead chooses to forgive her of her own volition. She then asks to see her son's grave, where Martin tells her he has chosen not to publish the story. Philomena tells him to publish it anyway.

Hirayama works as a public toilet cleaner for The Tokyo Toilet project in Tokyo 's upscale Shibuya district, across town from his modest home in a middle-class neighbourhood east of the Sumida River. He repeats his structured, repetitive routine each day, starting at dawn. His pride in his work is apparent by its thoroughness and precision. He dedicates his free time to his passion for music cassettes, which he listens to in his van to and from work, and to his books (Faulkner, Kōda, Highsmith), which he reads every night before going to sleep. His dreams are shown in flickery impressionistic black-and-white sequences at the end of every day. Hirayama is also fond of trees and spends time gardening and photographing trees. He eats a sandwich every day in the shade under trees in the grounds of a shrine, and takes film photos of their branches and leaves and the 'Komorebi' (木漏れ日) – sunlight filtered by the leaves. Hirayama's love of trees is contrasted with the repeated appearance of the Tokyo Skytree during his drives and bike rides through the city. Hirayama's young assistant, Takashi, is often late, loud, and not as thorough. One day, a young woman named Aya calls on Takashi at the toilet he is cleaning, so he hurries to finish. He tries to leave with Aya, but his motorbike will not start, so he persuades Hirayama to let him use his van. When Aya says Takashi can stay with her as she works at a girls bar, he complains that he is broke. Unbeknownst to Hirayama, Takashi slips Hirayama's Patti Smith tape into Aya's purse. Takashi talks Hirayama into going into a shop to get some of his cassettes appraised. When Takashi discovers they are valuable, he urges Hirayama to sell but Hirayama refuses, giving him some cash so he can take Aya out. When Hirayama runs out of fuel, he is forced to sell a cassette for fuel money. Hirayama commences a tic-tac-toe game with a stranger after finding a piece of paper left hidden in a stall. The game continues over the course of the film. He exchanges furtive glances with a woman eating lunch one bench over. Aya catches up with Hirayama to return his cassette. She asks to play it in his van one last time, and then gives him a thank-you kiss on the cheek, leaving him visibly startled. On his free day, Hirayama does his laundry, takes the film with his tree photos to be developed, cleans his flat, buys a new book, and dines at a restaurant where the proprietor shares gossip with him. Niko, Hirayama's niece, shows up unannounced, having run away from his wealthy estranged sister Keiko's home. Hirayama lets Niko accompany him to work during the next two days. They photograph the trees in the park and ride bikes together. Eventually, Keiko comes to pick up Niko in a chauffeured car. Keiko tells him that their father's dementia has worsened and asks whether Hirayama will visit him in the nursing home where he lives. She says that he does not recognise anything anymore and will not behave the way he did before. Hirayama sorrowfully refuses but hugs his sister goodbye. Before she leaves, she asks him whether he really cleans toilets for a living, and he says yes. As they drive away, Hirayama begins to cry inconsolably. The next day, Takashi quits without giving notice, leaving Hirayama to cover his shift. Later, as Hirayama goes to his usual restaurant, he sees the female proprietor embracing a man. Hirayama hurries off, buying cigarettes and three bottled highballs to consume at a nearby riverbank. The man Hirayama saw at the restaurant approaches and asks him for a cigarette. The man tells him the restaurant proprietor is his ex-wife whom he had not seen in seven years, and that she opened her restaurant the year after divorcing him. He says he visited her to make peace before he dies of cancer, telling Hirayama to look after her. Hirayama lightens the mood by offering him a drink and inviting him to play shadow tag, and they eventually part ways. The following morning, Hirayama begins another workweek. As he drives his van and listens to Nina Simone sing " Feeling Good ", a range of powerful emotions wash over his face.

In 2018, Programmer Pan Sheng is lured overseas by a supposed high-paying job and is trafficked into a Canaan slave-camp-like fraud factory, where he is threatened by violence into committing online fraud on behalf of the controlling syndicate. In the camp, Sheng encounters model Liang Anna, who was similarly recruited under false pretenses, and who works on-camera as a dealer in the online gambling section. Sheng offers to help Anna reach her sales target, after which she will supposedly be allowed to leave and can send a message on Sheng's behalf to his loved ones. Sheng uses Anna's identity to catfish Gu Tianzhi, a young man who becomes addicted to online gambling. Sheng baits Tianzhi with "tips" to encourage increased betting, which pulls Tianzhi into debt. Tianzhi's girlfriend Song Yu goes to the police, and is told by officer Zhao Dongran that Tianzhi is likely the victim of a scam. During the 2018 FIFA World Cup final, Tianzhi sits at a bar and bets a large amount of money on the winning team, and is euphoric watching the game's end on television, thinking he has made a fortune. Instead, he finds Yu has cancelled the bet at the last minute. Tianzhi obtains more money from his grandmother, who has dementia, and is tricked into performing a direct transfer of ¥ 8 million to "Anna", which is detected by but cannot be stopped by Zhao's online monitoring taskforce. The money is quickly withdrawn by the syndicate, who celebrate the success while Tianzhi tries to commit suicide by falling out his apartment window. Anna is told by the camp's manager Lu Bingkun that her sales target has increased and she cannot leave. Sheng offers to build an app for Lu to run scams efficiently, and is given new privileges for his efforts. Sheng writes "SOS", "12308 " on a bank note seeking rescue, but it is intercepted, and Sheng and Anna, voluntarily admit, are both tortured as punishment. While being transferred in a bus, Anna jumps out and runs to a police station, but the officers work for the syndicate. Cai, Lu's enforcer, stages Anna's murder but lets her escape. Zhao meets Song Yu again, and is able to connect the messages on Tianzhi's phone with Anna's real identity. Anna manages to return home, where she is picked up by the police but refuses to explain where she's been. Anna is made to attend a scam awareness seminar and is taken to see Tianzhi in the hospital in a vegetative state. This compels her to share what she knows about the syndicate. A large-scale anti-fraud operation is launched. Lu and Cai become persons of interest and multiple raids are carried out. When Zhao and the officers investigate the camp, they find it empty and the computers removed. The taskforce is about to leave the country when they receive a call from Sheng's friend who has just realized that Sheng has been sending coded messages to him asking for help. Using those messages, Zhao and the taskforce are able to locate the syndicate's hiding place in an elementary school, which they successfully raid and arrest everyone except Cai, who is killed in a shootout. Although Lu has all the computers destroyed, the app Sheng built for Lu's phone retains information of the scams and victims, which is used as evidence against the syndicate. In an epilogue, Zhao leads an anti-fraud conference with Song Yu, Sheng and Anna as speakers. In the audience, a member of the syndicate watches them.

"Ghetto" Pat Calhoun and Perfidia Beverly Hills are lovers and members of a far-left militant revolutionary group, the French 75. While breaking out detained immigrants from Otay Mesa Detention Center, Perfidia sexually humiliates the commanding officer, Steven J. Lockjaw, who becomes obsessed with her sexually. Later, when Lockjaw catches Perfidia planting a bomb, he lets her go after she agrees to his demand to meet him for sex. Soon after, Perfidia becomes pregnant. After Perfidia gives birth to a girl named Charlene, Pat tries to persuade her to settle down, but she instead abandons Pat and Charlene to continue her revolutionary activities. Perfidia is arrested after murdering a security guard during a botched bank robbery. Lockjaw arranges for her to avoid prison in exchange for information on key French 75 members. Perfidia enters witness protection, while Lockjaw uses the information she provided to hunt down and summarily execute her comrades. French 75 member Howard Sommerville gives Pat and Charlene stolen identities as Bob and Willa Ferguson, while Perfidia flees witness protection for Mexico. Sixteen years later, living off-the-grid in the sanctuary city of Baktan Cross, California, Bob has become a paranoid stoner. He is protective of Willa, now a free-spirited and self-reliant teenager who resents Bob's substance abuse, and told her that her mother was a hero who died when she was a baby. Through his anti-immigration efforts, Lockjaw has become a colonel and a prominent figure within the U.S. security agencies. When Lockjaw is invited to become a member of the Christmas Adventurers Club, a white supremacist secret society, he seeks to kill Willa to hide his past interracial relationship with Perfidia. He hires bounty hunter Avanti Q to capture Howard, whose distress signal goes out to the remaining members of the French 75. Using an immigration and drug enforcement operation as cover, Lockjaw sends troops to Baktan Cross. French 75 member Deandra rescues Willa before her school dance is raided and takes her to a convent of revolutionary nuns, where she guesses the truth about her mother's betrayal. While high at home, Bob is warned by the French 75 about Lockjaw, whose men then raid his house. Escaping through a tunnel, Bob is helped by Sergio St. Carlos, Willa's karate sensei and a community leader, who also evacuates immigrants via a hidden passage. After learning about the convent from another French 75 member, Bob flees with Sergio's students across rooftops but falls and is arrested, although not recognized. The Christmas Adventurers find evidence of Lockjaw's relationship with Perfidia, including the possibility that he had a child with her, and send member Tim Smith to kill him and Willa. By tracing her phone, Lockjaw locates Willa at the convent, where Deandra is arrested. Holding Willa hostage, Lockjaw tests their DNA in front of her, confirming she is his biological daughter. Sergio arranges Bob's escape and drives him to the convent, throwing him out of the car when police begin to pursue them. Bob steals a car and reaches the convent, unsuccessfully attempting to kill Lockjaw with Sergio's rifle. Lockjaw hires Avanti to kill Willa, but after refusing over her age, Avanti agrees instead to deliver her to a far-right militia. Tim tracks down Lockjaw while driving and shoots him in the face. While searching for Willa, Bob discovers Lockjaw's body and crash site. Avanti brings Willa to the militia, but after a change of heart, frees her and is killed in a shootout with the militia. Willa escapes with Avanti's car and pistol, only for Tim to begin tailing her as Bob tries to catch up. Willa lures Tim into a crash by exploiting a blind summit, shooting and killing him when he fails to recite the revolutionary countersign. Bob finds Willa and they embrace. Some time later, a severely scarred Lockjaw is seemingly welcomed into the Christmas Adventurers Club, but is fatally gassed and cremated shortly afterward. Returning home with Willa, Bob gives her a letter from Perfidia, in which she apologizes for her actions and vows to someday reunite with her family. Later, Bob gives Willa his blessing as she departs for a protest in Oakland.

Fire and Rescue Crew 7 of Prescott, Arizona, superintended by Eric Marsh, responds to the Cave Creek wildfire. Eric predicts that the fire will threaten a residential area, but is disregarded by the assigned superintendent. Eric's fear comes true; he vents his frustration to fire chief and close friend Duane Steinbrink, warning that when a wildfire threatens Prescott, his crew will not be allowed to fight it directly as they lack Hotshot certification. Eric asks for Duane's help, who successfully vouches for the crew with the mayor of Prescott. Crew 7 has until the end of the fire season to pass the evaluation. Meanwhile, 21-year-old heroin addict Brendan McDonough learns that his ex-girlfriend Natalie is pregnant and does not want him involved with the child. Brendan is arrested for larceny, which prompts his mother to evict him from her house. Determined to provide support for his newborn daughter, Brendan interviews with Eric, who gives him an opportunity. After months of training, the crew are given an evaluation during a wildfire deployment as they were set to battle the Horseshoe 2 Fire in the Chiricahuas near the town of Portal. Eric commands his crew but is criticized by their evaluator, Hayes, who Eric bluntly disregards. The fire is halted by Eric's strategy and the crew are certified, officially becoming the first municipal hotshot crew in history, the Granite Mountain Hotshots. Throughout the season, the Granite Mountain crew are deployed across the country. Brendan, who's been anonymously dropping off baby supplies at Natalie's doorstep, is finally accepted by Natalie and allowed to see his daughter. Near Prescott, the crew saves a landmark Alligator juniper and are hailed as local heroes. After battling the fire, Brendan is bitten by a rattlesnake and is rushed to the hospital. Brendan expresses his concerns to Eric about being there for his daughter and asks if he would recommend him for a structural firefighting position next season. Eric snaps, stating that nobody would hire him due to his prior drug addiction. On the way home, Eric has an argument with his wife Amanda, who challenges him about this; reminding him about his own previous drug/alcohol addiction (from which he has been clean for a number of years and which lead to him meeting Amanda) The two talk about starting a family, which they had previously decided not to do due to the nature of their past. Amanda makes it clear to Eric that it is now something she would like to revisit. Eric stops the truck and leaves Amanda alone; unwilling to continue the conversation he leaves stating that he is going for a walk. He ends up at Duane’s house where he speaks openly about his fears. After speaking with Duane, Eric returns to Amanda, announcing that he is ready to settle down. The Granite Mountain Hotshots are called to the Yarnell Hill Fire. Eric informs his captain, Jesse Steed, that he will step down as superintendent after this season and offers Jesse his job. Eric also apologizes to Brendan and promises that he will help him with the transfer. The crew assembles a controlled burn, but is doused mistakenly by an airtanker. Marsh sends Brendan, still recovering from the snakebite, as the lookout, while the remaining crew move to find another suitable location. The wind suddenly shifts, and the fire jumps a trigger point. Brendan is rescued by another hotshot crew while the others relocate to a safe zone, but the fire's speed and intensity continues to increase. The wind picks up again, jumping Granite Mountain's safe zone; cutting them off from escape. Clearing a small site quickly, Eric attempts to douse the blaze with an overhead airtanker, but it misses the drop zone. The crew deploys under their fire shelters as the fire sweeps over them. Brendan listens into the radio traffic, and is devastated when a call finally comes in from the first responders who arrive at their shelters; all 19 of his crewmates have perished. Though the information is treated sensitively, rumors flare amongst the devastated families of what has happened. Brendan, being the sole survivor, demands to meet with them at the gather point at Prescott Middle School. Upon arriving, the families' worst fears are confirmed, with Brendan suffering a psychological breakdown due to survivors guilt. He is ultimately consoled by a grieving newly widowed Amanda. Three years later, Amanda goes on a horseback ride with the horse she rescued earlier in the film watching over a series of horses from a nearby ridge. Brendan takes his daughter to the juniper tree Granite Mountain saved, now adorned as a memorial to the hotshots. The end credits dedicate the film to the 19 fallen firefighters, displaying photos of the real hotshots alongside the actors who played them in the film, and notes that the Yarnell Hill Fire remains the largest loss of firefighter life in a single day since the September 11 attacks.