Jarmusch shows us moments most filmmakers don't even notice as he tells us five stories which occur simultaneously in locations around the world. In Los Angeles a chain-smoking taxi driver gets a movie agent in the back of her cab and inadvertently persuades her she'd be right for a role she's casting. At the very same time, in New York, an inept East German exile hands over the wheel to his young passenger. In Paris, an immigrant discusses sight and sex with his blind, belligerent customer. In Rome, a raving driver confesses a carnal past to a priest. And in Helsinki, a melancholy cabbie calms three drunks.