Anton Çehov'un Vanya Dayı adlı oyununu beyaz perdeye uyarlayan Vanya 42.Caddede, oyunun, harcanmış hayatlar, yalnızlık, umut ve umutsuzluk temasını öne çıkartan bir yapım. Eski dostlar bir araya gelir ve Manhattan sokaklarından geçerek ilk buluşmalarına giderler. Daha biz ne olduğunu anlamadan oyun sahnelenmeye başlar. Oyuncular hâlâ sokak kıyafetleri içindedir ve fakat seyirci kendini bir anda Rusya'da bulur. Vanya Dayı, yıllardan beri ölmüş kızkardeşinin kocası Serbryakov'un malikanesini idare etmiştir. Şimdi, yeni karısı Yelenayla eve gelmektedir.
Michel is a young technician in the fledgling TV industry and is due for military service in two months at the time of the Algerian War. Juliette and Liliane are inseparable best friends, and aspiring actresses, who hang around outside the TV studio. Michel invites them in to watch, flirts with them both, and dates them separately and together. When Michel goes on a holiday to Corsica, just before he is drafted, the girls follow.
In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.
South America, 1960. A lonely and grumpy Holocaust survivor convinces himself that his new neighbor is none other than Adolf Hitler. Not being taken seriously, he starts an independent investigation to prove his claim, but when the evidence still appears to be inconclusive, Polsky is forced to engage in a relationship with the enemy in order to obtain irrefutable proof.