Ace of Hearts

Bob, John, and Edward--three young boys growing up in the same neighborhood--have vastly-different experiences with sex. Bob's father patiently explains "the birds and the bees" to him, and even takes him to a hospital to see the effects of venereal disease. John's and Edward's parents don't tell them anything, leaving the boys to find out "on the streets". Consequently, when they become adults, John--who's been "playing the field"--contracts syphilis and is stopped from marrying and infecting his sweetheart. Edward, on the other hand, has become addicted to "self-love" and masturbates himself into an insane asylum. Wholesome Bob marries and, naturally, lives happily ever after.

A young man works in the port of Buenos Aires translating the love letters that prostitutes receive and seeks inspiration for his works in them.

Somewhere on the outskirts of Berlin, a self-proclaimed priest is preaching to a group of people with addiction and mental-health problems in a run-down building that houses a psychosocial support group.

In NY city, surrounded by candles and rose petals, a tired-of-life woman carefully prepares her death place on a bathtub, turning her death into a ritual. While she floats, every single blood drop comes out from her veins and mixes with the warm water, and she starts to remind her nonsense life in little fragments. By the time the end of her life gets closer, she remembers the good and the bad times, her joys and shames, and the simple and complex facts that makes life be the life. These are the memories that make her choose between go on with her life or finish it.

At the end of the war, Raul is hit by the last of the bombs and looses his memory. He meets Elena and crossing the border to marry her becomes his only wish.