A research scientist (William Hurt) explores the boundaries and frontiers of consciousness. Using sensory deprivation and hallucinogenic mixtures from native American shamans, he explores these altered states of consciousness and finds that memory, time, and perhaps reality itself are states of mind.

With the help of the singer and dancer Dixie Leonhard US-Entertainer Eddie Sparks wants to bring some fun to the soldiers during World War II. Becoming a perfect team they tour from North Africa to the Pacific to act for “the boys”. Later they continue their work but when the author Silver gets involved into McCarthy’s campaign and is being fired by Eddie, Dixie turns away from him, too.

A female skiing champion is paralyzed in a tragic skiing accident. Her girlfriend is taken out of competition when she contracts polio.

An aspiring Jewish actor moves out of his parents’ Brooklyn apartment to seek his fortune in the bohemian life of Greenwich Village in 1953.