Holly Berenson is the owner of a small Atlanta bakery, and Eric Messer is a promising television technical sports director for the Atlanta Hawks. Their best friends, Peter and Alison, set them up on a blind date that goes horribly wrong and results in both hating each other with a passion. As the years go by, Peter and Alison get married and have a baby girl named Sophie. They also select Holly and Eric – who teasingly tolerate each other – as the godparents. Shortly after Sophie's first birthday, Peter and Alison are killed in a car crash. Holly and Eric learn that their friends named them Sophie's joint guardians. After discovering that none of Peter and Alison's relatives are fit to take care of Sophie, the two put their differences aside and move into Sophie's home. Living together proves to be a struggle. One evening, Holly is away at an important catering job when Eric is given the opportunity to direct a big basketball game. He takes Sophie with him, but her crying distracts him, leading to him making a big mistake on the broadcast. When they get home, Eric and Holly argue, but later they make up. Holly goes on a date with Sam, Sophie's pediatrician. The date is cut short when Eric calls to tell Sam that Sophie has a high fever. When they join him at the hospital, Eric sees Holly kiss Sam. Over time, the guardians discover that raising a child is more expensive than they had expected, so Holly can no longer afford to expand her business. Eric helps by investing in her company, and they cement the new relationship by going on a date, which ends with them having sex and developing strong feelings. Their Child Protective Services caseworker Janine tells them they must make a firm commitment, either to stay together, or break up, as waffling in between would be bad for Sophie. Eric is offered his dream job with the Phoenix Suns, and does not discuss it with Holly. When Holly finds out, she tells him to take the job, accusing him of looking for a way out of raising Sophie. At Thanksgiving break, Eric returns from Phoenix for a visit, hoping to patch things up with Holly. She invites him to a dinner that she and Sam are hosting for neighbors and friends. Eric and Holly argue loudly when he learns she is planning to sell the house soon, as the upkeep is too costly. She accuses him of deserting her and Sophie, while he points out how quickly she replaced him. Eric tells her he loves her, but leaves the dinner, planning to return to Phoenix. Once alone with Holly, Sam says that if he and his former wife had fought in the way that Eric and she did, they would still be together. He tells Holly to work out her feelings for Eric, and leaves. That night, Sophie calls Holly "Mama" for the first time. Janine visits to make her final determination whether Holly and Eric are fit parents. Holly realizes that she cannot take care of Sophie without Eric, and that she loves him. She, Sophie and Janine rush to the airport, but upon reaching the gate, finds that Eric's flight has departed. Returning to the house, Holly finds Eric sitting inside. He tells her he has realized that Peter and Alison chose them to be Sophie's guardians because, together, they are a loving family. A few months later, they host Sophie's second birthday party, with all the neighbors and friends in attendance. Holly has made a second cake, with the number 1 on it, telling Eric, "It's for us, 'cause we made it a year", then they kiss.

A young and naive Englishman, John Truscott (Hugh Dancy), goes to the British protectorate of Sarawak, Borneo (described as a "colony" in the film), to try to apply his father's work to the Iban society. There he meets his boss Henry Bullard (Bob Hoskins) and his wife Aggie Bullard (Brenda Blethyn). John tries to civilize the area, building schools and providing education for the Iban people, and encounters unfamiliar local customs. A girl, Selima (Jessica Alba), becomes his "sleeping dictionary", who sleeps with him and teaches him the language and the habits of the locals. John is sent upriver where a sickness is affecting the Yakata tribe. He and Selima travel inland. John witnesses a nearby mining operation run by Europeans. He notices that the Yakata have rice – which has been given to them by the miners – and he guesses correctly that the miners have poisoned the rice in order to get rid of the Yakata. Knowing that they will exact vengeance, John tells the Yakata what has happened. The Yakata wipe out the miners. Despite their intent, John and Selima find themselves falling into a forbidden love. John is eager to marry Selima despite the longhouse not allowing it. When John tells Henry about his plans to marry her, they lock Selima up. Selima agrees to marry in the longhouse before they part ways. Bullard threatens to send John to trial for the death of the European miners. He makes a deal with John. John has to give up Selima, and go to Britain for a year's vacation and to meet the Bullards' daughter Cecilia (Emily Mortimer). Another local British official, Neville Shipperly (Noah Taylor), a boorish drunk and a man who despises the locals, is jealous of John because he had planned to win Cecilia as his own. A year later, John is seen marrying Cecilia. He still struggles to get over his past with his sleeping dictionary. With Cecilia, he decides the best thing to do is go back to Sarawak to continue his work there. In Sarawak, Cecilia notices John's desire for Selima despite constantly keeping his distance from her. Cecilia demands to know more about Selima; John replies that she is married to Belansai and that the couple have a baby together. While at the lake collecting rocks for research, John sees Selima with her baby. He believes the child to be his and asks Famous to arrange a meeting with the pair. Back at the house, Selima walks in, unaware that John is there. Here, John meets his son Mandar for the first time. When Belansai hears news that John is spending time with his wife, he sneaks in to try to kill John but only manages to hurt him with a razor. The next morning, Henry reveals to John his past about his own 'sleeping dictionary', which resulted in the birth of another child: Selima. Belansai is caught and sentenced to be hanged for trying to kill an officer. Selima is not happy, as Belansai has been a good father to Mandar. Not wanting his friend Belansai to die, John nevertheless goes through with announcing Belansai's hanging, having no other option. Later that night, Selima goes to help Belansai escape, not knowing that John is already there, breaking Belansai out and handing him a gun. As Belansai hurries off, John turns to Selima, asking to meet him at the dock so they can escape on the boat. When Selima expresses fear that he will be caught, he says "Then I'll tell them I'd rather have you than a country... or a language... or a history". They embrace as the rain is pouring behind them. The next day, since the people of the Longhouse have turned on Selima, she is forced to become the sleeping dictionary for Neville. Later Cecilia announces she is pregnant, shocking John. That night, Selima bashes Neville on the head, knocking him out, because he has attempted to attack her and force her. She grabs the baby and runs from the house, heading for the docks. John still has plans to be with Selima and their son, and, as he begins writing a note, is stopped by Cecilia. The couple then talk about John's love for Selima and how Cecilia wants John to be happy. Aggie is not happy that Cecilia and Henry have allowed both John and Selima to run away together because she never left Henry's sight, fearing he'd go with his sleeping dictionary. She encourages Neville to go after them. With the help of Famous and the Yakata, John searches for Selima as she's left believing that John didn't come to the place of arrangement. They reunite as Neville comes through with a gun. He tells them to cuff themselves around the bamboos and tells them of his plans to kill John, Selima and their baby. They're then rescued by the Yakata, who kill Neville. At the end, they decide to live together and migrate with the Yakata.

Joe Moore runs a ring of professional thieves, which includes Bobby Blane, Donnie "Pinky" Pincus and Joe's wife Fran. During a robbery of a New York City jewelry store, Joe takes off his mask in a successful effort to distract the store's last remaining employee, allowing his face to be captured by a security camera; he is unable to retrieve the video evidence before they have to flee. As both the picture and a witness can identify him, Joe retires from crime and plans to disappear on his sailboat with Fran. This does not sit well with Joe's fence, Mickey Bergman, who runs a garment business as a front. Having accrued significant expenses in setting up another robbery, Bergman decides to withhold the payment of the jewelry heist from Joe and his crew, so that they go through with the next job – robbing an airplane carrying a large shipment of gold. Bergman further insists that his nephew, Jimmy Silk, be a part of the crew. Joe accepts, but a series of shifting loyalties changes the complexity of their task, including Jimmy's interest in Fran, along with Bergman and Jimmy's belief that Joe's skills are declining. While setting up an element needed for the robbery, they are stopped by a passing police officer. While Joe and Bobby talk the officer into leaving, an agitated Jimmy draws his gun but is stopped by Pinky. Joe forces the team out of finishing the job by leading Jimmy to believe that Pinky did not destroy the getaway car, covered in the team's fingerprints. The deceit is discovered and Bergman forces them to finish the job. The plane robbery is a series of misdirects. Pinky poses as a guard while Joe, Bobby and Jimmy pose as airport security personnel. They stop the jet, pretending to be responding to an emergency. They fill a van with what they take from the plane, then move the van to a rented garage on the airport grounds, where they re-brand it and call for a tow truck to have it hauled away. Jimmy betrays the others to steal the gold and Fran. He knocks out Joe and tells Fran he knows Joe has changed the plan. He and Fran take the van, but Jimmy finds out that the hidden compartments are filled with metal washers. Joe avoids arrest and returns to the plane in disguise. He and Bobby remove a shipment of goods they had booked on board the same Swiss flight, which they insist now must be driven to its destination due to the plane's delay. Inside the shipment is the stolen gold, which Joe and Bobby melt into numerous 7-foot-long rods. Bergman apprehends Pinky, who is walking his niece to school. Pinky discloses the plan in order to save his niece, but he tips off Joe with a code word during a phone call and is killed. Bergman and his crew arrive at Joe's sailboat along with Jimmy and Fran, where they hold Joe at gunpoint. They assume that the boat's golden railings are the gold. Fran leaves with Jimmy, pleading with Bergman to let Joe go. Just as Bergman discovers that the railings are not the gold, a hidden Bobby opens fire. They kill Bergman's men, then Joe kills Bergman. Bobby gives Joe the address to send his share. Joe waits to meet Fran with a truck filled with black-painted rods, but Fran, having switched sides, holds up Joe with Jimmy, taking that truck. Joe gets into a second truck to leave. A black bar in the truck scrapes the garage door, revealing gold underneath. Joe lifts a tarp in the truck bed, revealing the gold rods. He covers the rods with a tarpaulin and drives away.

At the royal palace in Karlsburg, King Ferdinand counsels his grandson, Prince Karl Franz, on the young man's imminent engagement to the wealthy Princess Johanna of Nordhausen. The king observes that although their country is poor, it has always survived because the men of the royal family marry well. The following evening, Johanna is feted with a ball, but she finds the prince's cold, formal manner off-putting. The king and Johanna's mother, Queen Mathilda, discuss the shaky prospects for an alliance between their heirs, and Mathilda says that Karl must learn to radiate warmth and charm. Karl's teacher, Prof. Juttner, is summoned to the palace in the middle of the night and ordered to instruct the prince in the graces of living. Juttner maintains that such an education comes from being with other people, and recommends that Karl be sent to his own alma mater, the University of Heidelberg. Karl is dispatched to Heidelberg the next day, along with Juttner and the punctilious royal valet, Lutz. They take rooms in an inn owned by Joseph Ruder, and Karl is immediately charmed by Ruder's pretty niece Kathie. When Karl impulsively kisses Kathie, however, she angrily rebuffs him. Classes begin, and the haughty prince bristles at being treated like all the other students. After chastening comments from Juttner and Kathie, however, Karl resolves to adapt to student life, and quickly finds that he enjoys it. On Kathie's recommendation, he joins the Westphalians, a student corps made up of good-natured commoners, and learns to consume prodigious amounts of beer. When Karl again attempts to kiss Kathie one evening, she knocks him down, as Lutz watches, aghast. Lutz orders Ruder to send Kathie away, threatening dire consequences if the incident is reported. The distraught Ruder goes to Kathie's room and finds her already packing, and tells her where to find a job in a nearby town. The following evening, the students protest Kathie's absence, and Ruder confides to Karl the name of the restaurant where Kathie now works. Karl goes to apologize, and when he causes Kathie to break some plates, she loses her job. Karl humbly beseeches Kathie to return to Heidelberg and declares his feelings for her. Now in love, Karl and Kathie return to Ruder's inn. One night, Karl is drinking and singing with the Westphalians when his true identity is accidentally revealed to the imperious Count Von Asterburg, head of the elitist Saxo-Borussian corps. Von Asterburg insists that the prince join their corps, and when Karl refuses to leave his Westphalian friends, challenges him to a duel. Karl defeats Von Asterburg in a sword fight, and the two men shake hands as friends, but Kathie is appalled. The lovers make up, and one night, at a carnival, Karl asks Kathie to go away with him. Before they can leave, however, Prime Minister Von Mark arrives from Karlsburg with the news that the king is ill and wishes to see Karl. After promising Kathie he will return, Karl returns to the palace. The king announces that Karl's marriage to Johanna will take place shortly, and when Karl protests that he is in love with Kathie, the king reminds him of his duty. Karl accuses Von Mark of having tricked him into returning, but the prime minister replies that the king is actually much sicker than he realizes. The king passes away, and preparations are made for Karl's marriage. While traveling to Nordhausen for the wedding, Karl suddenly orders the train to stop in Heidelberg. Karl goes to Ruder's inn, where he and Kathie lovingly say goodbye.

In a near future, many are addicted to Avalon, a virtual reality shooter. In Avalon, solo players or parties raid levels populated with AI-controlled enemies and opposing players. Winners are rewarded with experience points and in-game money, which can be exchanged for cash, allowing skilled players to make a living. As their brains interact with Avalon directly, it places mental strains on players, and sometimes rendered them catatonic. Ash, a famous player, plays solo since her party disbanded. After a Class A mission, the GM (Game Master) warns her of the next level's danger, and suggests that she join a party. The next day, a Bishop-class character breaks Ash's record time on the same mission. Ash tries but fails to learn about him or his avatar. As she leaves the game terminal, the Bishop player watches her. Ash runs into former teammate Stunner. Murphy, their former leader, went after a hidden NPC in Avalon, a young girl nicknamed "ghost," and became comatose. The girl is allegedly the only gateway into the rumored Special A, a mission where players cannot "reset" (a mechanic allowing people to abort mission without their avatars being killed). Players who went after "ghost" never woke up from the game and became "Unreturned". Ash and Stunner visit Murphy at a hospital, where someone looking similar to "ghost" watches her. At home, Ash searches for words regarding Avalon, and the ghost. The search leads her to the "Nine Sisters", another Arthurian legend reference. Upon entering Avalon, Ash receives an invitation to a meeting, and is ambushed by griefers. They lured Ash there to rob her equipment. After she overpowers a player, the griefers' leader reveals that only the real Nine Sisters – Avalon's creators – know how to access Special A. They are interrupted by an attack helicopter which kills most of the players. Due to a lag, its missiles teleport in front of Ash. She "resets" and leaves Avalon, saving her avatar. On the return home, people around Ash seem immobile, with the exception of a dog. At home, after preparing a meal for her dog, she realizes that it has disappeared. She hears the helicopter flying past. The next day, Stunner meets Ash. He relays a rumor that the ghost appears when there's a high-level Bishop present on the battlefield, so Bishop players are sought out by parties seeking to enter Special A. Before becoming an Unreturned, Murphy was a Bishop player. At her house, Ash is visited by the Bishop player. He offers to form a party with her and she accepts. Ash arrives at the game terminal and tells the receptionist that she plans to enter Special A to look for Murphy. Despite warnings from the receptionist and the GM, she enters the game. There, Ash meets the Bishop player, whom she suspects is working for the Nine Sisters. Stunner arrives, revealing that he was helping Bishop recruit Ash all along. The party confronts the Citadel, a boss. Stunner, Bishop and his summoned dummy players distract the Citadel, while Ash attacks its weak point. After the Citadel is destroyed, Stunner spots the ghost. He is then shot by an enemy. Before being forced out of Avalon, Stunner mentions the only way to kill the ghost. Ash kills the ghost, turning it into a gateway. Ash steps into the gateway and disappears. Ash "wakes up" from the game booth, which is put in her apartment, wearing civilian clothing and without equipment. Bishop contacts her, saying that she is in Class Real. The only way to exit Avalon is to complete the objective: defeat the Unreturned staying there. Ash takes a provided gun and proceeds to her destination, an Avalon-themed concert by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. En route, she moves through a bustling world, unlike the previous levels and the real world. At the concert hall, Ash sees Murphy, and they walk outside to talk. As she confronts Murphy about his decision to stay in the game, he states that he prefers the "reality" within Avalon. Ash mortally wounds Murphy, who urges her to stay, then disappears. Ash enters the now empty concert hall, and sees the ghost on the stage. Ash trains her gun on the ghost, who smiles. The words "Welcome to Avalon" appear on screen.

Carter Hayes and Ann Miller are suddenly attacked and beaten by two men. After the men have gone, Hayes calmly tells Ann, "The worst part's over now...." In San Francisco, couple Drake Goodman and Patty Palmer purchase a 19th-century Victorian house in the exclusive Pacific Heights neighborhood. They rent one of the building's two first-floor apartments to the Watanabes, a kindly Japanese couple. Soon after, Hayes visits to view the remaining vacant unit, driving an expensive 1987 Porsche 911 and carrying large amounts of cash, but is reluctant to undergo a credit check. He convinces Drake to waive the credit check in exchange for a list of references and an upfront payment of the first six months' rent, to be paid by wire transfer. Before any of this money is paid, however, Hayes arrives unannounced and shuts himself in the apartment. As the days pass, Hayes' promised wire transfer fails to materialize. From inside the apartment, sounds of loud hammering and drilling are heard at all hours of the day and night; however, the door is seldom answered. When Drake finally attempts to enter Hayes' apartment, he finds that the locks have been changed. Drake cuts the electricity and heat to the apartment, but Hayes summons the police, who side with Hayes and reprimand Drake. Drake and Patty hire a lawyer, Stephanie MacDonald; however, the eviction case is thwarted by Drake's actions. Hayes, safe from eviction for the time being, infests the house with cockroaches, which prompts the Watanabes to move out and pushes Drake and Patty further into debt. The stress takes its toll on the couple; Drake drinks heavily and Patty suffers a miscarriage. Hayes visits the couple, supposedly to offer his condolences, but an infuriated Drake attacks him and is arrested by the police, whom Hayes had already called to the scene in anticipation of an assault. The assault allows Hayes to file a civil lawsuit against Drake and, unbeknownst to the couple, assume control of Drake's possessions and identity. Hayes also files a restraining order, which forces Drake from the building. Once Drake is gone, Hayes begins stalking and harassing Patty. When Drake tries to enter the home to check on Patty, Hayes confronts Drake and shoots him, then plants a crowbar at the scene to prevent any criminal charges. While Drake is in the hospital, the eviction is finally handed down and authorities force entry into Hayes' apartment. By this time, however, Hayes has disappeared, and the apartment has been destroyed and stripped bare. Later, while cleaning out the destroyed apartment, Patty finds an old photograph of Hayes as a young boy. Written on the back is the name "James Danforth". She phones Bennett Fidlow, the Texas attorney whom Danforth had provided as a reference. Fidlow tells her that Danforth has a long history of wrongdoing and has been disowned by his family. Patty travels to Danforth's last-known address, a condominium in Desert Spring. There she finds Ann, his girlfriend and previous co-conspirator who had earlier come looking for him in San Francisco. Ann tells Patty that Carter Hayes is the name of the property's former landlord, and that Danforth assumed Hayes' identity and took possession of the condominium after (the genuine) Hayes hired two thugs to carry out the assault on Hayes and Miller. Ann also shows Patty a postcard from Danforth, written on the letterhead of a hotel in Century City, which had just arrived the day before. Patty tracks Danforth at the hotel, where he has checked in under Drake's name. Patty bluffs her way into his suite by posing as his wife, and while rummaging through his personal effects discovers he is using legal and financial documents in Drake's name. She calls Drake and tells him to cancel all of his credit cards and freeze the couple's joint bank account. She then places an exorbitant order for room service, which leads to Danforth being arrested. Danforth is bailed out of prison by a wealthy widow, Florence Peters, whom he was vetting to be his next victim. Once out on bail, Danforth returns to San Francisco to seek revenge on Patty and Drake, unwilling to accept responsibility for his actions and blaming them for his desires being ruined forever. Upstairs, he bludgeons Drake with a golf club, then attacks Patty in the downstairs apartment where she is busy making repairs. A struggle ensues, and a badly wounded Drake makes his way into the crawl space between the basement and the first-floor apartment. He reaches through a hole in the floor and grabs Danforth by the ankle while Patty pushes him away, causing Danforth to lose his balance and fall backward, landing on a water supply line and getting impaled in the process; a wounded Danforth desperately tries to escape, but is unable to and ultimately dies of his injury. Some time later, Patty and Drake have put their newly repaired building up for sale and show the property to another couple. The story ends with the couple having a private discussion about making an offer of $825,000-$850,000, which is $75,000-$100,000 more than what Drake and Patty had originally paid for it.

An unnamed country is ruled by a petulant tyrant named Maximilian II (often called Junior) whose primary interests include selfish pleasure, micromanaging the country’s schlocky film industry, and enjoying sexual games with his beautiful, yet cruel, wife Josephine. His regime is barely tolerated due to the violence dealt by anti-government terrorists. One such subversive revolutionary, a dissident philosopher and playwright named John Thorne, is held in a state prison, where he is guarded by a man named Joe. Joe comes to learn from Thorne and respect him for his bearing and intellect, if not his message. Junior, trying to quash spiraling dissent, takes the risk of letting Thorne out of jail, hoping to have him become not a great folk hero but another greedy, dishonest politician. Joe, too, is soon promoted to one of the guards at the palace and a position in the country's elite military unit, where he becomes so disgusted by the excesses of Junior and Josephine that he allows Thorne and his followers to enter the palace and kill them. Thorne becomes the new ruler, with an even more totalitarian regime. His government encourages separating children from their parents, imposes veganism, bans action movies, oppresses women, and eliminates imported medicine all while sending the country's professional classes to grim re-education camps. For his assistance in assassinating the dictator, Joe is hailed as a hero by Thorne. Nevertheless, as Joe realizes that his one-time friend is just as bad as, if not worse than, his predecessor, he refuses to ally with the new regime. For this, Thorne sends Joe to a re-education camp.Subjected to numerous beatings and isolation, he continually refuses to sign his loyalty oath. His psyche begins to dramatically deteriorate as he is interrogated and tortured, seemingly discovering layers of bizarre hidden conspiracy within the camp and the broader regime of his former friend. Thorne is killed in his bath by one of his once loyal followers. The revolutionary government is quickly overthrown. Junior's in-laws and nephew are revealed to have escaped during Thorne's revolution and, having lived in exile, have returned to re-establish the old government, and former collaborators and torturers return to civilian life. Joe’s legal case remains in limbo for having destroyed the old government, but also never having 'played ball' with the new one, so he remains in prison indefinitely. Twelve years later, he writes his memoirs while under house arrest, his sanity possibly still shattered.

In March 1943, when the Second World War was at its height, cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, have a problem: the Nazi U-boats have changed one of their code reference books used for Enigma machine ciphers, leading to a blackout in the flow of vital naval signals intelligence. The British cryptanalysts have cracked the "Shark" cipher once before, and they need to do it again to keep track of U-boat locations. The book begins with Tom Jericho returning to Bletchley after a month of recovering from a nervous breakdown brought on by his failed love affair with a coworker named Claire Romilly. Jericho immediately seeks to see her again and finds that she mysteriously disappeared a few days earlier. He enlists the help of Claire's housemate, Hester Wallace, to follow the trail of clues and learn what has happened to Claire. Mr Jericho and Miss Wallace, as they formally address each other, work to decipher intercepts stolen by Claire and determine why she took them. Jericho is closely watched by an MI5 agent, Wigram, who plays cat and mouse with him throughout the film. Meanwhile, U-boats are closing in on a convoy of thirty-seven ships from America, giving the code-breakers less than four days to find a solution to reading the changed Shark cipher. But someone else at Bletchley has a personal interest in the stolen intercepts and may be responsible for Claire's disappearance.

Russia, early 1990s. Sergei Mamontov is looking for where to apply himself and his intellect. And so he orders a mock-up of a security paper with imperial script, rich ornament, watermarks and his own portrait in the center. An active advertising campaign begins. A little more than two weeks is enough to make people line up for the "mamontovs" ("mamontovki" in Russian). Powerful bankers and state structures are in confusion – no one has a clue how to stop it, and the MMM has already accumulated more than 10 million investors. Furthermore, Mamontov is concerned that there are no rich people in the country, and all Soviet industry is exposed to privatization. He accumulates "private greeds" and decides to carry out an honest privatization. His way is blocked by the agent of Western imperialism - Belyavsky (an allusion to Boris Berezovsky) with his MegaVAZ-bank (an allusion to LogoVAZ). Belyavsky comes from the top - he makes connections in the Kremlin and is in charge of television. Belyavsky proposes to share Russia. Mamontov refuses: "I do not trade with Russia!", which attracts the financial inspectorate, who, without checking documents, imposes unthinkable demands for paying taxes upon him, which Mamontov executes. There is still enough money to ruin the bank of Belyavsky. In the country by that time are already 20 million investors and every week the number increases by a million, the "mamontov's" goes on par with ruble. Mamontov threatens to seize power with the help of investors who are facing ruin. During a one-minute audience with the President, Mamontov appears as a guardian for the state amid a corrupt environment and asks for a change in the law - to allow foreigners to be involved in their financial system in order to subordinate the Western oligarchy and thereby make Boris Yeltsin 's Russia leader of the world. But Belyavsky begins to threaten the life of Mamontov's daughter and he eventually falls into a trap. On the Ostankino Tower, the battered Mamontov again refuses to cooperate with Belyavsky, despite the proposed opportunity to become the "head of state". Mamontov hopes to leave with his daughter, defending himself by having a recording of a conversation with a representative of the FCS (where he offered similar "privileges"), from his assistant Vera, but she, escaping from the people of Belyavsky, drops the recording in a park and on charges of non-payment of taxes, Mamontov gets in prison and comes out after 7 years.

Kate, Steve, Mick, and Jenn Jones move into an upscale suburb under the guise of being a typical family relocating because of the changing nature of Kate's and Steve's careers. In reality, Kate is the leader of a team of stealth marketers, professional salespeople who disguise product placement as a daily routine. Their clothing, accessories, furniture, and even food are carefully planned and stocked by various companies to create visibility in a desirable consumer market. While Kate's team is highly effective, Steve is new to the team, Jenn is a closet nymphomaniac with a penchant for hitting on her fake fathers, and a 30-day review is fast approaching. The team quickly ingrains itself into the community, slowly shifting from displaying products to recommending them. Soon, local stores and businesses are stocking products based on the Joneses' trend-setting styles. However, at the end of the 30-day review, Steve discovers that he has the lowest sales numbers of the team and Kate's job is endangered unless he can get his numbers up before the next review in 60 days. Eventually, Steve begins to find a sales tactic that works by playing on the fears of his neighbors and sympathizing with their dull, repetitive, unfulfilled careers. As someone frustrated with his job and disconnected from his fake "family", he turns to their products to keep himself entertained. When Steve recognizes this same pattern in their neighbors, his sales begin to steadily increase. He starts pitching products as the solution for suburban boredom and generating product "buzz" through unwitting ropers. The team's dynamics become more complicated when Kate applies herself to the technique as well. Realizing that they can boost sales by perfecting their fake family dynamic to sell the image of a lifestyle, the lines between acting and reality start to break down. Things also get more complicated when Mick finds himself growing closer to an unpopular girl at the high school, Naomi, in whom he can confide. Jenn's flirtation with Alex Bayner, one of the men in the neighborhood, raises the suspicions of the neighbors. The team's cover is almost blown several times. Once when an old acquaintance of Steve's recognizes him at a restaurant, again when Jenn's indiscretions nearly expose her real age, and after a party where Mick markets alcohol to minors. Eventually, each member of the team finds that the constant pretense slowly erodes their desires. Jenn's dreams of running away with a rich, older man come to a close when she realizes that she is being used by Alex. Mick has a crisis of conscience when Naomi gets into a car accident after drinking too much of a wine cooler they were marketing to teens. Worse, when he makes a pass at Naomi's brother, he gets a black eye in return. After amassing nearly record-breaking numbers, Steve is offered the chance to join an "icon" unit alone. He refuses, knowing that this is Kate's dream and because he believes that the "family" can do it together. When Steve's closest friend in the community, Larry, reveals that he's going to lose his house because he's overextended his credit, Steve tries again to see if Kate wants something more than a pretend marriage and Kate agrees to go Arizona with him during their vacation. The next day Steve discovers to his horror that Larry has committed suicide over the debts. Grief-stricken, Steve confesses to the community about the real nature of his job. With their covers blown, the rest of the Joneses leave quickly and are reassigned to a new home. Steve refuses the offer to join an icon cell and tracks the family down to their new location. There, he reunites with Kate and tries one last time to convince her to leave. Initially, she rebuffs him, and Steve leaves. As he is walking away down the darkened street, Kate pulls up in her car and stops and Steve gets in. When Steve asks "Where to?" Kate says " Arizona ".