A frustrated, despairing housewife and young mother of two, imprisoned by her domestic world and ignored by her succesful husband, becomes increasingly bereft of hope and a means of escape.
The film centers on Joanna, a “total nut” who is wearing new motherhood so awkwardly that she remarks candidly “I’m not really a mom, I just have a baby, you know?” This new mom is also an artist who isn’t making any art, and feels truly terrible at taking care of her newborn, as she stumbles through her days. She can’t get her old job back, her old friends have moved on without her, her husband thinks he’s a better mother than she is, she’s terribly sleep deprived, and her baby won’t look at her. On her desperate search for a friend, she tumbles into an unlikely bond with an estranged aunt-in-law she never knew.
Halberstadt, the summer of 1990: Maren, Robert, and Volker come across millions of East German marks in an old tunnel. Although the money is technically worthless, the three friends smuggle it out in their backpacks and involve their neighbors in a clever scheme to cheat capitalism by exchanging it for goods.
曾经荣获奥斯卡人道主义奖的大编剧史蒂文(艾伯特·布鲁克斯 Albert Brooks 饰),如今却沦为了无人问津的无名小卒,个中滋味,他只有自己默默咀嚼。在好友杰克(杰夫·布里吉斯 Jeff Bridges 饰)的引荐下,史蒂文结识了美丽性感的莎拉(莎朗·斯通 Sharon Stone 饰),杰克告诉史蒂文,当初正是由于莎拉这位“缪斯”的存在,他才取得现今如日中天的地位。
莎拉乖僻又古怪的性格惹得史蒂文十分恼火,她不断的向史蒂文提出各种各样的要求,也逐渐侵蚀着史蒂文的生活。史蒂文正在写一个剧本,当他向莎拉请教情节走向时,莎拉却要求史蒂文带她去水族馆,而正是在那里,史蒂文获得了巨大的灵感,也开始明白了莎拉并非招摇撞骗之徒。在莎拉的影响之下,史蒂文逐渐在工作中找回了自信,再一次抵达了事业的顶峰。