"A Small Act" centers on the life story of Chris Mburu, who as a small boy living in a mud house in a Kenyan village had his primary and secondary education paid for by a Swedish woman. This cost her $15 a month. They had never met. He went on to the University of Nairobi, graduated from Harvard Law School, and is today a United Nations Human Rights Commissioner.

"The Insider" is the story of two whistle blowers. The first, Dr. Jeffrey Wigand, was a highly placed tobacco industry executive. (Dr. Wigand has a Ph.D. in biochemistry and is not a medical doctor.) The tobacco industry at that time denied that nicotine was addictive and claimed that the evidence that tobacco use impaired health was inconclusive. In 1995, Dr. Wigand was the first tobacco company executive to come forward with information that, for decades, the tobacco companies had known that smoking caused cancer and that cigarettes were a delivery device for an addictive drug (nicotine).

The story takes place over a 36-hour period at a large Wall Street investment bank and highlights the initial stages of the financial crisis of 2007–08. In focus are the actions taken by a group of employees during the subsequent financial collapse.

The once-successful steel mills of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, have shut down and most of the employees have been laid off. Former steel workers Gary "Gaz" Schofield and Dave Horsefall have resorted to stealing scrap metal from the abandoned mills to sell.

Rob Gordon is a self-confessed music loving everyman with a poor understanding of women. After getting dumped by his latest girlfriend, Laura he decides to look up some of his old partners in an attempt to figure out where he keeps going wrong in his relationships.