“Thirteen Conversations About One Thing” is another spin on the proverbial beating of butterfly wings that causes a hurricane on the other side of the world.

Except this cause-and-effect scenario is more psychic than meteorological. It’s about how one person’s actions unwittingly affect the destiny of another, then another, and so on.

The wheel of destiny, causality or coincidence depending on what you believe begins as Troy (Matthew McConaughey), a jubilant lawyer, approaches a bar to buy a round of drinks for his colleagues.

They’ve just won a court case and Troy’s on top of the world. But claims adjuster Gene (Alan Arkin), sitting at the bar with a colleague (Frankie Faison), is having no part of this elation.

“Show me a happy man and I’ll show you a disaster waiting to happen,” sneers Gene loudly. Troy is amused by this apparent misanthrope, who seems so sure of himself. But it’s only moments before Troy’s life will be radically diverted.

We also meet:

l A physics professor named Walker (John Turturro), obsessed with the irreversibility of action, who’s having an affair with Helen (Barbara Sukowa), a teacher.

l Patricia (Amy Irving), Walker’s wife, who suspects her husband’s affair.

l Two beatific souls who believe in the inherent goodness of human nature: a young woman named Beatrice (Clea DuVall), who cleans houses, and Wade (William Wise), a cheery claims adjuster who gets genuinely excited when a claim proves to be bona fide.

Filmmakers (and sisters) Jill (co-writer and director) and Karen (co-writer) Sprecher, inspired by Bertrand Russell’s book “The Conquest of Happiness,” have made a piquant meditation on the things that prevent people from reaching happiness.