Años 60. Rachel Flax (Cher), una excéntrica y sexy madre soltera, tiene dos hijas. La mayor, Charlotte (Winona Ryder), una adolescente que se avergüenza de las extravagancias de su madre, se propone ser la mejor católica del mundo. La pequeña (Christina Ricci) sueña con llegar a ser nadadora olímpica. Rota su última relación sentimental, como de costumbre, Rachel se muda con sus hijas a una nueva ciudad. Allí, Charlotte descubre el primer amor, y Rachel conoce a un peculiar vendedor de zapatos (Bob Hoskins).
Single dad Richard meets Christine, a starving artist who moonlights as a cabbie. They awkwardly attempt to start a romance, but Richard’s divorce has left him emotionally damaged. Meanwhile, Richard’s sons—one a teenager, the other 6-years-old—take part in clumsy experiments with the opposite sex.
An ambitious shoe salesman, Harold, unknowingly meets the boss' daughter and tells her he is a leather tycoon. The rest of the film he spends hiding his true circumstances, in the store and later on a ship. Trying to deliver a letter, he later finds himself dangling high above the street on a building's scaffolding.
The wealthiest man in the world, John P. Merrick, is a private person who likes to stay anonymous. One of his many assets is Neeley's Department Store. There is labor unrest at the store, and the employees' anger is directed at him, who they hang in effigy outside the store despite not knowing what he looks like. Merrick, not happy at what he sees going on, decides to mete out the rabble-rousers. So he goes undercover as a sales clerk in the shoe department.
During a summer vacation, Ok-ju and Dong-ju move into their grandpa's house. While Dong-ju adapts to his new home, Ok-ju feels awkward about this new environment. Once their soon-to-be-divorced aunt also moves in, and as Ok-ju spends time with her family, the house and her grandpa start to grow on her.
At 60 years old, Johnny Libertella has lived his entire life in the Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie district. Like his parents before him, he lives just above his business on Plaza St-Hubert. This introvert has chosen to devote himself body and soul to his business. For more than three decades, he has stood religiously behind the counter of his boutique specializing in cowboy boots and only ventures outside the Plaza to see his only daughter every Sunday. This seemingly gloomy way of life nevertheless symbolizes happiness in Johnny's eyes: the freedom to lead an existence imbued with wisdom and humility where he can open up to the world in the comfort of his shop. His passion for sales is his way of opening up to life.
Out of the three-part burlesque, the only surviving one is the one called Pufi would buy a pair of shoes, with Hungarian inserts. The film is shot on a real-life location, in a Budapest shoe shop, and it portrays the mutual efforts of a puny sales assistant and Pufi, the bladder-of-lard customer, to find him a suitable pair of shoes. The content of the other two parts is not known.