The story is based on an old Chinese proverb that breaks life down into four emotional cornerstones: Happiness (Whitaker), Pleasure (Brendan Fraser), Sorrow (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Love (Kevin Bacon). The proverb speaks of these emotions, not as isolated framents of feelings, but as elements that make up the whole of the human existence.

Happiness centers on the plight of a spiritually bereft banker who finds himself only after he loses everything and resolves to rob a bank. Sorrow follows the story of a reckless female pop star who is at a turbulent point in her career. Pleasure follows the tale of a gangster who can see the future. And Love tells the story of a frantic doctor desperately trying to save a patient's life.

Their stories - shocking, suspenseful and searing - intersect dramatically.