The paper reviews the behavior of accretion flows in X-ray binaries, focusing on black holes and neutron stars. It discusses how recent X-ray and radio data, combined with theoretical advances, provide a coherent picture of the physics of accretion in strong gravity. The model suggests that at low luminosities, the outer accretion disc is truncated, replaced by a hot, inner flow that also acts as the jet launching site. This model explains the observed spectral transitions and variability in these systems. Neutron stars are also consistent with this model, though with an additional surface component. The paper also reviews alternative models for accretion flows that do not involve a truncated disc, but the most successful models converge on a similar geometry with a transition between a standard disc and an inner, jet-dominated region. The observed uniformity of properties between black holes at different inclinations suggests that even weak beaming of X-ray emission may be constrained by data. The paper also discusses the role of irradiation in disc stability and the different spectral states observed in systems like Cyg X-1, including the hard, soft, and very high states. The paper concludes that high Eddington fraction flows are key to understanding various astrophysical phenomena, including ULXs, Narrow Line Seyfert 1s, and the growth of the first black holes in the early universe.The paper reviews the behavior of accretion flows in X-ray binaries, focusing on black holes and neutron stars. It discusses how recent X-ray and radio data, combined with theoretical advances, provide a coherent picture of the physics of accretion in strong gravity. The model suggests that at low luminosities, the outer accretion disc is truncated, replaced by a hot, inner flow that also acts as the jet launching site. This model explains the observed spectral transitions and variability in these systems. Neutron stars are also consistent with this model, though with an additional surface component. The paper also reviews alternative models for accretion flows that do not involve a truncated disc, but the most successful models converge on a similar geometry with a transition between a standard disc and an inner, jet-dominated region. The observed uniformity of properties between black holes at different inclinations suggests that even weak beaming of X-ray emission may be constrained by data. The paper also discusses the role of irradiation in disc stability and the different spectral states observed in systems like Cyg X-1, including the hard, soft, and very high states. The paper concludes that high Eddington fraction flows are key to understanding various astrophysical phenomena, including ULXs, Narrow Line Seyfert 1s, and the growth of the first black holes in the early universe.