A scientific exploration of how hedonistic impulses have been integral to progress explores the work of cutting-edge innovators while examining how their pursuits raise philosophical questions about what it means to be happy.

CRIME & MYSTERY. Pleasure is the highest good: the group who called themselves the Cyrenaics practised the principle until the death of one from an overdose and the apparent suicide of another. Sobered, the group went their several ways. One heads to Canada, another disappears and a third is believed to have committed suicide, at least until his body turns up two years later in the wreck of a car swept up on to the Solway mud flats. The murky relationships...

Equipped with platinum blond hair and a winning smile, NYC college girl Leah seeks out pleasure in any form. Between getting high with her roommate and snorting lines with her boss, Leah falls for Blue, a young man dealing drugs on her corner. Within days, the two are selling dime bags to her boss and his downtown friends, and living the high life. Summer love crashes to a halt when Blue is arrested and Leah is left with a serious bag of his coke....

A journalist ventures into the decadent society of modern Rome and finds that his values are being destroyed, leaving him totally disillusioned.