A serial murderer is strangling women with a necktie. The London police have a suspect, but he is the wrong man.

Stephen is a professor at Oxford University who is caught in a rut and feels trapped by his life in both academia and marriage. One of his students, William, is engaged to the beautiful Anna, and Stephen becomes enamored of the younger woman. These three people become linked together by a horrible car crash, with flashbacks providing details into the lives of each person and their connection to the others in this brooding English drama.

A burned-out British police detective finally snaps while interrogating a suspected child molester.

The film tells the story of a young man who leads a promiscuous lifestyle until several life reversals make him rethink his purposes and goals in life.