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Tod Hackett is the novel's protagonist. He moves from the east coast to Hollywood, California in search of inspiration for his next painting. The novel is set in the 1930s during the Great Depression. Most of the characters exist at the fringes of the Hollywood film industry, but Hollywood is merely the backdrop for Tod Hackett's revelation. Tod is employed by a Hollywood studio "to learn set and costume designing." During his spare time, Tod sketches scenes he observes on large production sets and studio back lots. The novel details Tod's observation of the filming of the Battle of Waterloo. His goal is to find inspiration for the picture he is getting ready to begin, a work titled "The Burning of Los Angeles." Tod falls in love with Faye Greener, an aspiring starlet who lives nearby but Faye only loves men that are good looking or have wealth. Tod is simply a "good- hearted man," the kind Faye likes. He imagines that loving her would compare to jumping from a skyscraper and screaming to the ground. Tod wants to "throw himself [at her], no matter what the cost." Throughout the novel, Tod fantasizes about having a sexual encounter with Faye as an act of rape. Every time he imagines raping her, reality interrupts his fantasy before he can complete the act. Scenes are interrupted prior to their climax frequently throughout the novel. A patron jokes that it is "the old teaser routine," when a film viewing at Mrs. Jenning's parlor ends unexpectedly due to technical difficulties. Between his work at the studio and his introduction to Faye's friends, Tod interacts with numerous Hollywood hangers-on. Characters like Abe Kusich, the dwarf; Claude Estee, the successful screenwriter; and Earle Shoop, the fake California cowboy, all of whom have difficulty changing their personas from the characters they play to who they are. As a result, there is a clear sense of acting that spills beyond the confines of Hollywood studios, into the streets of Los Angeles. Shortly after moving into a neighborhood in the valley, Tod befriends Homer Simpson, a simple-minded bookkeeper from Iowa who moved to California for health reasons. Homer Simpson's "unruly hands" operate independently from his body, and their movements are often mechanical. "They demanded special attention, had always demanded it." When Homer attempts to escape California he is distracted not only by the crowd but his inability to leave the street despite Tod's help and insistent encouragement. Young neighbor Adore Loomis finds Homer and torments him until Homer lashes out against the boy. The novel's climactic riot ensues and the chaos over the latest Hollywood premiere turns violent outside Mr. Khan's Pleasure Dome. Tod vividly revises "The Burning of Los Angeles" in his mind, while being pushed around in the waves of the riot. The final scene plays out, uninterrupted. The conclusion of the novel can be read as a moment of enlightenment and mental clarity for the artist, or a complete "mental breakdown" and Tod's "incorporation into the mechanized, modern world of Los Angeles." 

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For more than a year, James Bond, British Secret Service operative 007, has been involved in "Operation Bedlam": trailing the private criminal organisation SPECTRE and its leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. The organisation had hijacked two nuclear devices in an attempt to blackmail the western world, as described in Thunderball. Convinced SPECTRE no longer exists, Bond is frustrated by MI6's insistence that he continue the search and his inability to find Blofeld. He composes a letter of resignation for his superior, M. While composing his letter, Bond encounters a beautiful, suicidal young woman named Contessa Teresa "Tracy" di Vicenzo first on the road and subsequently at the gambling table, where he saves her from a coup de deshonneur by paying the gambling debt she is unable to cover. The following day Bond follows her and interrupts her attempted suicide, but they are captured by professional henchmen. They are taken to the offices of Marc- Ange Draco, head of the Unione Corse, the biggest European crime syndicate. Tracy is the daughter and only child of Draco who believes the only way to save his daughter from further suicide attempts is for Bond to marry her. To facilitate this, he offers Bond a dowry of £1 million (£ million in pounds); Bond refuses the offer, but agrees to continue romancing Tracy while her mental health improves. The College of Arms building in London. Afterwards Draco uses his contacts to inform Bond that Blofeld is somewhere in Switzerland. Bond returns to England to be given another lead: the College of Arms in London has discovered that Blofeld has assumed the title and name Comte Balthazar de Bleuville and wants formal confirmation of the title and has asked the College to declare him the reigning count. On a visit to the College of Arms, Bond finds that the family motto of Sir Thomas Bond is "The World Is Not Enough", and that he might be (though unlikely) Bond's ancestor. On the pretext that a genetically-inherited minor physical abnormality (a lack of earlobes) needs a personal confirmation, Bond impersonates a College of Arms representative, Sir Hilary Bray to visit Blofeld's lair atop Piz Gloria, where he finally meets Blofeld. Blofeld has undergone plastic surgery partly to remove his earlobes, but also to disguise himself from the police and security services who are tracking him down. Bond learns Blofeld has been curing a group of young British and Irish women of their livestock and food allergies. In truth, Blofeld and his aide, Irma Bunt, have been brainwashing them into carrying biological warfare agents back to Britain and Ireland in order to destroy the agricultural economy, upon which post-World War II Britain depends. Believing himself discovered, Bond escapes by ski from Piz Gloria, chased by SPECTRE operatives, a number of whom he kills in the process. Afterward, in a state of total exhaustion, he encounters Tracy. She is in the town at the base of the mountain after being told by her father that Bond may be in the vicinity. Bond is too weak to take on Blofeld's henchmen alone and she helps him escape to the airport. Smitten by the resourceful, headstrong woman, he proposes marriage and she accepts. Bond then returns to England and works on the plan to capture Blofeld. Helped by Draco's Union Corse, Bond mounts an air assault against the clinic and Blofeld. Whilst the clinic is destroyed, Blofeld escapes down a bobsled run and although Bond gives chase Blofeld escapes. Bond flies to Germany where he marries Tracy. The two of them drive off on honeymoon and, a few hours later, Blofeld and Bunt drive past, machine gunning them: Tracy is killed in the attack. 

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Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny are four recently orphaned siblings (in the 1924 version of the tale, the children are orphaned in the first few pages; in the heavily revised and simplified 1942 revision, they have evidently been orphaned for some time). Not wishing to live with their hard-hearted grandfather, whom they have never met because of his disapproval of their parents' marriage, the children strike out on their own. On a cold night, the children stop at a bakery to ask for food. They are invited to stay the night, but while there, the children overhear the baker and his wife discussing a plan to keep the older children as labor while sending young Benny to an orphanage (in the 1924 version, they plan to send the children to their grandfather). The children escape and flee to the woods. There they find an abandoned boxcar and renovate it into their new home. They find useful items such as kitchenware at the junkyard, use a stream for water, and collect blueberries for their meals. Realizing they cannot live on water and blueberries, Henry walks to a nearby town called Silver City for work. There he meets a young doctor, Dr. Moore, who hires Henry for odd jobs, often paying him in spare food and clothing as well as money. Suspecting that Henry is not telling the full truth about himself, Dr. Moore follows Henry home in secret and sees the children's living conditions. He decides that they are safe for now and that he should allow Henry to tell the truth when he feels comfortable. However, when Violet falls seriously ill, the doctor intervenes. He takes her to his own home to recover and invites the other children to stay there as guests. Meanwhile, the children's grandfather, a wealthy steel baron named James Henry Alden, has been offering a reward for news of his missing grandchildren. The doctor connects the missing grandchildren with the ones in his care and goes to speak to Alden, warning him that his grandchildren are afraid of him and encouraging him to befriend the children before revealing who he is. Alden is introduced to the children as a friend of the doctor's. The children find him warm and friendly, so that by the time they learn the truth, they are surprised to learn that he is really their "cruel" grandfather and are more than willing to come live with him. At their grandfather's house, the children are happy and well-cared for, but speak fondly of their days in the boxcar. As a surprise, Alden arranges to have the boxcar completely restored, repainted, and moved into his backyard where the children can visit it whenever they like. 

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Mike Peters is a struggling comedian who left New York to find success in Los Angeles, and is still upset over his girlfriend of six years, Michelle, breaking up with him six months prior. To help Mike with his depression, his womanizing friend Trent and some other aspiring actor friends try and get him back into the social scene. The movie opens with Mike telling his friend Rob about how desperately he misses Michelle and that she has not called him. Rob explains that "somehow" girls "know" not to call their ex- boyfriends until they have completely moved on from them. To help Mike recover, Trent coaxes him into an impromptu trip to Las Vegas. Trent succeeds in picking up two waitresses, but Mike's obsession with Michelle ruins Trent's plans. Back in Los Angeles, Mike, Rob and other friends go bar hopping, stopping at a party, and later an after-hours spot, where Trent demonstrates his prowess in handling the opposite sex. Inspired by this, Mike meets a girl named Nikki and gets her phone number. Back at his apartment, however, he leaves a series of increasingly anxious and desperate messages on her answering machine until she picks up the phone and disgustedly orders him not to call her again. Missing Michelle more than ever, he contemplates moving back to New York until Rob comes over and consoles him. Out again for swing night at a Hollywood night club, Mike spots a woman named Lorraine. He summons all his courage to approach and connect with her. The following morning, Mike receives a call from Michelle, and finds that he no longer misses her. When Lorraine calls him, Mike ends his call with Michelle to connect further with Lorraine. 

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In the year AD 3017, humanity is slowly recovering from an interstellar civil war that tore apart the first Empire of Man. The Second Empire is busy establishing control over the remnants of its predecessor, by force if necessary. After a rebellion on the planet New Chicago is quashed, Captain Bruno Cziller of the Imperial battlecruiser INSS MacArthur remains behind as Chief of Staff to the new governor, while Commander Roderick Blaine is given temporary command of the ship, along with secret orders to take Horace Hussein Bury, a powerful interstellar merchant suspected of instigating the revolt, to the Imperial capital, Sparta. Another passenger is Lady Sandra Bright "Sally" Fowler, the niece of an Imperial senator and a traumatized former prisoner of the rebels. New Caledonia is the capital of the Trans-Coalsack sector, on the opposite side of the Coalsack Nebula from Earth. Also in the sector is a red supergiant star known as Murcheson's Eye. Associated with it is a yellow Sun-like star, which from New Caledonia appears in front of the Eye. Since some see the Eye and the Coalsack as the face of God, the yellow star is known as the Mote in God's Eye. Human ships use the Alderson Drive, which allows them to travel instantaneously between "Alderson points" in specific star systems. Approaching New Caledonia, MacArthur is ordered to investigate when an alien spacecraft, propelled by a solar sail, is detected. After the spacecraft fires upon MacArthur, Blaine has its main capsule detached from the sail and taken aboard. Its sole occupant, a brown and white furred creature, is found dead. After much debate, MacArthur and the battleship Lenin are sent to the star from which the alien ship came, the Mote. MacArthur carries civilian researchers to make first contact with the aliens, or "Moties" as they are quickly nicknamed. Admiral Kutuzov, aboard Lenin, has strict orders to avoid all contact with the aliens and ensure that human technology does not fall into their hands. The Moties seem friendly and have advanced technology that they are willing to trade, much to Bury's delight. Although they also possess the Alderson Drive, none of their ships have ever returned. This is because, unknown to the Moties, the Mote's only Alderson exit point lies within the outer layers of the star Murcheson's Eye. Human warships can survive there for a limited time because of their protective Langston Fields, which the Moties do not have. The Moties are an old species, native to a planet that the humans label Mote Prime, that has evolved into many specialized subspecies. The first taken aboard MacArthur is an "Engineer", possessing amazing technical abilities, but limited speech and free will. It brings along a pair of tiny "Watchmakers" as helpers. Some days later, a delegation of "Mediators" (like the dead pilot of the probe ship) arrive. Their specialty is communication and negotiation. The Mediators invite the humans to send a party to Mote Prime. After some debate, the invitation is accepted. Each person in this group acquires a "Fyunch(click)", a Mediator who studies their human subject and tries to learn how to think like them. Back on MacArthur, the Watchmakers escape, and although it is assumed they have died, they have actually been breeding furiously out of sight. Undetected by the crew, they modify parts of MacArthur to suit their needs. When they are discovered, several attempts to rid MacArthur of the infestation fail, and a battle for control of the ship erupts. The crew is eventually forced to abandon ship after suffering casualties. The party on Mote Prime is quickly recalled without explanation and told to rendezvous with Lenin. Once MacArthur is evacuated, Lenin fires on her to prevent the potential capture of human technology. This reveals that the Watchmakers have improved MacArthurs Langston Field. Nevertheless, MacArthur is destroyed. During the evacuation, MacArthur midshipmen Staley, Whitbread and Potter are cut off and forced to escape in Watchmaker-modified lifeboats. The lifeboats automatically land in a sparsely populated area of Mote Prime. There the midshipmen find a fortified museum. It provides evidence of a very long and violent history, though the Moties had carefully portrayed themselves as completely peaceful. Following this discovery, the midshipmen are tracked down by Whitbread's Mediator Fyunch(click), who reveals that Moties (other than the short-lived, sterile Mediators) must become pregnant periodically or die. This inevitably results in overpopulation ... and civilization-ending wars. The Masters, whom the Mediators obey, have also concealed the existence of one Motie subspecies from the humans: Warriors more deadly than any human, even Sauron supersoldiers. The museums exist to help restore civilization after a collapse. The "Cycles" of civilization, war, and collapse have gone on for hundreds of thousands of years, leaving the Moties fatalistically resigned to their destiny. Only a mythical character called "Crazy Eddie" believes there is a way to change this, and any Motie who comes to believe a solution is possible is labeled a "Crazy Eddie" and deemed insane. The current civilization utilizes a type of industrial feudalism, with coalitions of Masters governing the planet. One faction, led by "King Peter", wanted to reveal the truth to the humans, but was overruled. Colonization of other planets would inexorably bring about conflict with humans, as the inevitable Motie population explosion would force them to seek to take over human worlds. Nonetheless, the more powerful coalition sees this temporary solution as preferable to the impending collapse. Both factions send Warriors after the midshipmen, one to capture them, the other to rescue them. The stronger group's Warriors trap the midshipmen, but the trio refuse to surrender and die as a result. Unaware of the midshipmen's fate, Lenin leaves the Mote system, taking with it three ambassadors, a sterile Master and two Mediators, whose mission is to open the galaxy to their species while concealing their terrible secrets. An Imperial Commission is on the verge of granting colonies to the Moties, but MacArthur Sailing Master/Lieutenant Kevin Renner figures out the truth just in time. It is the passengers on the original probe, ejected into space and burned up by solar radiation, that give the game away. Not only is there a Warrior among the group, but several are visibly pregnant, demolishing any argument about them being statues or religious icons. The decision is made to gather a battle fleet to either disarm or try to annihilate the Moties. The ambassadors are faced with the extinction of their species, knowing that the Masters would never submit. However, a Mediator comes up with a third option: a blockade of the system's only Alderson exit point. This plan is adopted, over the strenuous opposition of Bury, who views the Moties as the greatest threat humanity has ever faced. 

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The plot is predicated on the Vatican being controlled by the Mafia boss Vittorio Corelli (Herbert Lom). The movie opens with the death of the previous Pope followed by a deadlocked conclave that lasts for 25 days. The conclave is ended by the Mafia's tame Cardinal Rocco (Alex Rocco), who successfully persuades the College of Cardinals to elect in absentia the Mafia's favoured candidate to the papacy, Albini (Janez Vajevec), a priest in the service of the Mafia, whom Rocco passes off as an absent "Cardinal Albini". Unfortunately for the Mafia, the secretary of the College of Cardinals Fr. Rookie (Adrian Edmondson) is hard of hearing, and while recording the official results of the election, he misheard the pope-elect's name and instead of writing "Cardinal Albini" he writes down "Cardinal Albinizi" and "Albinizi" happens to be the surname of an honest parish priest, C. David "Dave" Albinizi, (Robbie Coltrane). As a result, Fr. Albinizi becomes Pope and takes the name of Pope David I. Father Albinizi is an unorthodox priest, interested in cars, women and Rock and Roll. However, his interests in those are rather benign and not overly carnal. Prior to his ascent to the papacy, Albinizi had been a priest in an Italian orphanage, where he took a genuine interest in the children's welfare and wished them to grow up enjoying the gospel, as opposed to the curmedgeonly nuns who believe misery is deserved. Inside the Vatican, the Pope gets along with Bish (Peter Richardson), a priest in charge of coordinating the pope's security and an unnamed nun (Mirta Zecevic) assigned to bring him his meals. The pope initially considers abdicating due to a failed assassination attempt against him but is convinced by the nun to stay. As the plot develops, one of the journalists at the press conference asks the Pope to explain the corruption inside the Vatican bank. The Pope demands to see the Vatican accounts. Bish had previously received a disk upon the previous pope's death containing information about the financial irregularities and when Pope David looks into the Vatican accounts, Bish gives the disk to the pope. With Bish's help, the Pope discovers the gun-smuggling and stolen merchandise operations, and confronts Cardinal Rocco. Albinizi immediately has Rocco defrocked as punishment and to help put an end to the corruption. In revenge, Rocco persuades his mafia backers to intensify the assassination efforts against Pope David. Together with the papal chamberlain Monsignor Fitchie (Paul Bartel), Cardinal Rocco decides to find any affair to blackmail the Pope. They find out that before joining the priesthood, Albinizi fathered a son with Veronica Dante (Beverly D'Angelo), an American tourist. Albinizi had joined the priesthood because Veronica did not want to marry him or stay with him. Consequently, Veronica had given birth to their son, but never informed Albinizi of this. Their son is now a rock star, Joe Don Dante (Balthazar Getty), dating Corelli's daughter Luccia (Khedija Sassi). Corelli doesn't approve this relationship and sends thugs to kill Joe. However, the bomb which destroys Joe's trailer kills Luccia and seriously wounds Joe who is then revealed the truth about his father. Albinizi, now Pope David I, learns about his son from Veronica and subsequently visits him before Joe dies. Pope David learns the Vatican Bank is a tool of the Mafia, and has it dissolved. Soon after that the Pope's affair is revealed and he is forced to resign and Corelli's candidate Albini is elected Pope. Corelli and Fr. Albini move into the papal apartments. Out in the streets, Albinizi gets back with Veronica. He also finds out that the orphanage where he previously worked before becoming pope had closed. Albinizi reads the news about Albini becoming pope and rushes back to the Vatican to ask Bish to help him stop the coronation. On the way to the papal apartments the two encounter a dying Cardinal Rocco who had just been shot by Corelli. While Bish continues to the papal apartments, Rocco confesses to Albinizi who grants him absolution in his dying moments interrupted by a phone call to Rocco from his female partner. Rocco subsequently dies and Albinizi having completed the absolution rite goes to the papal chamber and finds Bish bound. Bish however tells Albinizi that the coronation was about to take place and tells him to get there fast instead of freeing him. Albinizi rushes off to the Sistine Chapel. Mons. Fitchie who had previously overheard Corelli shoot Cardinal Rocco eventually comes and frees Bish. Albinizi manages to get into the Sistine Chapel just before the end of the ceremony and reveals to the public that the man in the chapel called Albini is really Corelli in disguise. Corelli admits that there was no Cardinal Albini, declares himself as "Pope Vittorio I, Emperor of the Vatican" and draws the gun to hold Albinizi at gunpoint. He fires a few shots which hit the ceiling, causing it to collapse and bury Corelli. After Corelli is defeated, a nun (the one who served Albinizi when he was pope) is chosen to become the first female Pope in history. The new Pope (or Popess) announces that she will give the Vatican's gold to the world's poor. She also gives her blessing for Albinizi to take a bride. Albinizi and Veronica marry (with Bish as the priest), adopt the children from the orphanage and have children of their own as well. 

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An old legend tells of a fortune in gold hidden in the "Cañon del Oro", later called "The Lost Adams", guarded by the Apache spirits. A man named Adams is said to have found it when he was young, only to have the Indians capture and blind him and kill his companions. Years later, Marshal MacKenna (Gregory Peck), a one-time gold prospector himself, wounds an old Indian shaman named Prairie Dog (Eduardo Ciannelli) who tried to ambush him. Prairie Dog subsequently dies despite MacKenna's attending to him. MacKenna thereby comes into possession of a map that supposedly shows the way to the treasure. Though sceptical, he memorises the directions before burning the map. Mexican outlaw John Colorado (Omar Sharif) and his gang have been tracking Prairie Dog to get the map, all the while being chased by the US Cavalry. They take shelter in the house of the old judge of the town of Hadleyburg, kill the judge and kidnap his daughter, Inga Bergmann (Camilla Sparv), to use as a hostage in case the cavalry catches up with them. Colorado finds MacKenna digging a grave for Prairie Dog. When he sees that MacKenna has burned the map, he takes Mackenna captive, intending to force him to lead them to the gold. They return for the night to Colorado's secret hideout to be safe from both the cavalry and marauding Apaches, who are also seeking the gold. The gang is made up of outlaws, including Colorado's right-hand man, Sanchez (Keenan Wynn), and several Indians, among them a hulking Apache warrior named Hachita (Ted Cassidy) and a fiery Apache woman, Hesh-ke (Julie Newmar). Colorado and his companions feel vengeful towards MacKenna: he had previously run them out of the territory; and Hesh-ke and MacKenna were once lovers. The next morning Ben Baker (Eli Wallach), a gambler from the town of Hadleyburg, arrives with assorted townsmen who have caught "gold fever". They have learned about Colorado's plans, including his hideout, when one of his men got drunk in town and said too much. Colorado is forced to allow them to join his party. The townsmen include two wandering Englishmen (Anthony Quayle and J. Robert Porter) who overheard Baker's conversation with the others; a newspaper editor, (Lee J. Cobb); a storekeeper, (Burgess Meredith); a preacher, (Raymond Massey), who has convinced himself that God wants him to get a share of the gold and do great religious deeds with it; and blind Adams (Edward G. Robinson) himself, of the legend. Colorado persuades old Adams to retell the story of how he discovered the canyon. The tale further raises the hopes of the gold-seekers, but later, when MacKenna sneaks off and warns a few of them to return home and that they will just get themselves killed searching for gold that does not exist (he says the tale Adams told is just a story he uses to get free drinks), they hesitate. However, when Colorado steps in and reveals that MacKenna shot Prairie Dog, the townsmen, who never liked MacKenna, are convinced to continue the quest. The cavalry, led by the cunning Sergeant Tibbs (Telly Savalas), has been following Colorado's party closely, and has unbeknownst to them camped just outside his hideout. The party bypasses the cavalry by an ingenious diversion, during which MacKenna tries unsuccessfully to escape with Inga. But shortly thereafter the cavalry ambushes the party at a water hole, and most of the supporting members of the gang are killed. The remaining gold hunters continue on their way, and as they near the canyon MacKenna and Inga begin to fall in love. A jealous Hesh-Ke, who now wants MacKenna back, twice tries to kill Inga but each time she is prevented from doing it. The cavalry is continuing its pursuit, and Sergeant Tibbs periodically sends messengers back to his base to keep it informed of his whereabouts. Eventually, the patrol is whittled down to just Tibbs and two others. Tibbs kills them and persuades Colorado he should be allowed to join the gang. After another shoot-out with the Apaches, and crossing dangerous river rapids, they reach "Shaking Rock", the location where according to the map the gold is. MacKenna tells Colorado they will see the canyon the next morning. That night the two of them talk in almost a friendly way about what Colorado plans to do with his share of the gold. Later Tibbs tries to enlist MacKenna in a conspiracy against Colorado, but MacKenna wants no part of it. He tells Inga to be alert for any opportunity to escape. When she protests that she too wants some gold he tells her emphatically there is no gold, that he has just been bluffing. MacKenna and Inga embrace, with Hesh-ke looking on enviously. Hachita spends the night looking at the moon. The next morning everyone is up and mounted before sunrise. When the first beam of sunlight shines down, it sets off an optical reaction that startles the horses. Then the shadow of the pinnacle of "Shaking Rock" starts to move. Watching this, MacKenna for the first time believes in the legend. The shadow eventually ends at a hidden passageway cutting into a mountainside. They ride through it and emerge on the other side. They see below them a large vein of pure gold. As all race to the canyon floor, Hesh-ke tries to kill Inga, but Inga fights back and Hesh-ke falls to her death. Once on the floor, while Colorado and Tibbs celebrate their great fortune, MacKenna, realising that Colorado does not intend to leave any of the party alive, tries to escape with Inga up the canyon wall. Tibbs, his attention diverted while stuffing his saddle bags with gold nuggets, is killed by Hachita with a thrown tomahawk. Colorado then pulls his gun on Hachita, only to find that his weapon is unloaded. Hachita tells him that during the night he took the bullets out of Colorado's gun, as the spirits had told him to do, and that Colorado also has to be killed because he is not Apache. However, Hachita turns his back on Colorado, who kills him with a knife he had earlier taken from Hesh-ke. Colorado pursues MacKenna and Inga, catching up to them at an ancient Indian dwelling high up the cliff. They fight. Colorado has Hachita's tomahawk so is the early aggressor, and would kill MacKenna but for Inga's desperate intervention. MacKenna gains the advantage over Colorado with some punishing blows, rendering him helpless. At that moment the marauding Apaches, presumably having followed the party's tracks into the mountain, enter the canyon and shoot up at the three. The Apaches thunder down to the canyon floor, shouting excitedly. However, the noise and the pounding of the horses causes a rockfall which in turn causes the valley floor to buckle and quake. The Apaches flee, and the three survivors descend the cliff and scramble for horses, barely escaping the collapse of the canyon walls, which buries the gold beyond reach. This is followed by the crash of "Shaking Rock". Stunned and exhausted, Colorado and MacKenna face each other. Colorado tells MacKenna to stay away from him. MacKenna tells Colorado to go far away and hide, and that he will be coming after him. MacKenna and Inga ride off together. The camera tilts down to the left side of MacKenna's mount, which happens to be Sgt. Tibbs' horse, its saddle bags stuffed with gold nuggets. 

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MacDonald begins her book with a summary description of her childhood and family. Her father was an engineer, and moved frequently with his family throughout the West. Her mother's theory that a wife must support her husband in his career comes into play when the author marries a friend of her brother ("Bob") who soon admits that his dream is to leave his current office job and start a chicken ranch. Knowing nothing about ranching, but eager to support her husband, the author encourages the dream but is unprepared for the primitive conditions that exist on the ranch he purchases. From this "set up" the book turns to anecdotal stories that rely upon the proverbial "fish out of water" tales that pit MacDonald against her situation and her surroundings, such as the struggle to keep up with the need for water, which needs to be hand carried from a pond to the house until a tank is installed, or keeping a fire going in "Stove", or the constant care that chicks need. At one point a guest expresses envy of MacDonald and her husband, as she thinks they live a life full of fresh air and beautiful scenery, which is then followed by MacDonald pointing out that while the guest had lounged in bed that morning, she and her husband had been up before sunrise working for several hours, and then again the couple had stayed up long into the night after the guest had gone to bed. 

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A detective named Fisher, who has become an expatriate living in Cairo, undergoes hypnosis in order to recall his last case. The Europe of his dreamlike recollection is a dystopia, dark and decaying. Fisher remembers pursuing an elusive killer called the "Lotto Murderer", who was strangling and then mutilating young girls who were selling lottery tickets. He attempts to track down the killer using the controversial methods outlined in a book entitled The Element of Crime, written by his disgraced mentor, Osborne. He is joined in his search by a prostitute named Kim, who, it turns out, has had a child by his target. Fisher's search is based on a tailing report written by Osborne when trying to track down a murderer who had been killing in the same way as the "Lotto Murderer", but who, supposedly, has since died in a crash. The Osborne method requires the detective to try to identify with the mind of the killer. This he does, but, in so doing, begins to behave more and more like a serial killer himself. 

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A bourgeois couple, the Thévenots (Frankeur and Seyrig), accompany M. Thévenot's colleague Rafael Acosta (Rey), who is the ambassador from the fictional South American nation of Miranda, and Mme. Thévenot's sister Florence (Ogier), to the house of the Sénéchals, the hosts of a dinner party. Once they arrive, Alice Sénéchal (Audran) is surprised to see them and explains that she expected them the following evening and has no dinner prepared. The would-be guests then invite Mme Sénéchal to join them for dinner at a nearby inn. Ariving at the inn, the party finds it locked. They knock and are reluctantly invited in by a waitress who mentions that the restaurant is under new management. Inside, there are no diners, and the prices on the menu are disconcertingly low. The party hears wailing from an adjoining room and discovers a vigil for the corpse of the manager, who died a few hours earlier. The party is told that the coroner is coming soon, but they hurriedly depart. Later, at the Embassy of Miranda, Acosta meets with MM. Thévenot and Sénéchal to discuss the proceeds of a large cocaine deal. During the meeting, Acosta sees a young woman selling clockwork-animal toys on the footpath outside the embassy. He shoots one of the toys with a rifle and the woman runs off. He explains that she is part of a terrorist group. Two days later, the bourgeois friends attempt to have lunch at the Sénéchals', but Henri and his wife escape to the garden to have sex instead of joining them. One of the friends takes this to mean that the Sénéchals know the police are coming and left to avoid arrest for their involvement in drug trafficking. The party again leaves in a panic. When the Sénéchals return from the garden, their friends are gone, but they meet a bishop who has donned their gardener's clothing. They throw him out, but when he returns wearing his bishop's robes, they embrace him with deference. The bishop asks to work for them as their gardener. He tells them about his childhood — that his parents were murdered by arsenic poisoning and that the culprit was never apprehended. (Later in the film, he goes to visit a dying man who turns out to be his parents' murderer; after blessing the man, the bishop kills him with a shotgun.) The women visit a teahouse just as it has run out of all beverages – tea, coffee, and milk – although it finally turns out they do have water. While they are waiting, a soldier tells them about his childhood: how after his mother's death his cold-hearted father sent him to military school. The ghost of the soldier's mother informed him that the man was not his real father, but his father's killer; they had dueled over his mother. Following the ghost's request, the soldier killed the culprit with poison. Mme. Thévenot meets Acosta at his apartment. They are having an affair but are interrupted by a visit from her husband, whereupon she makes a convenient excuse and leaves with him. Acosta is next visited by the young Maoist terrorist who has come to kill him. He ambushes and chastises her, then tells her to leave when she refuses his advances; his agents capture her and take her away. Several abortive dinner parties ensue; interruptions include the arrival of a group of army officers and enlisted men who join the dinner only to be called away for alarmingly close military maneuvers, the revelation that a colonel's dining room is a stage set in a theatrical performance for an audience that is angry with the actors for not knowing their lines, the ambassador's shooting of the colonel after he insults the nation of Miranda and slaps the ambassador, the arrest and release of the bourgeois friends, and their summary execution by a hit squad. Most if not all of these scenes turn out to be dream sequences in which ghosts make frequent appearances. A recurring scene throughout the film, of the six people walking silently and purposefully on a long, isolated country road, is also the final sequence. 

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In order to appear superior, a miller lies to the king, telling him that his daughter can spin straw into gold (some versions make the miller's daughter blonde and describe the "straw-into-gold" claim as a careless boast the miller makes about the way his daughter's straw-like blond hair takes on a gold-like lustre when sunshine strikes it). The king calls for the girl, shuts her in a tower room filled with straw and a spinning wheel, and demands she spin the straw into gold by morning or he will cut off her head (other versions have the king threatening to lock her up in a dungeon forever, or to punish her father for lying). When she has given up all hope, an imp-like creature appears in the room and spins the straw into gold in return for her necklace (since he only comes to people seeking a deal/trade). When next morning the king takes the girl to a larger room filled with straw to repeat the feat, the imp once again spins, in return for the girl's ring. On the third day, when the girl has been taken to an even larger room filled with straw and told by the king that he will marry her if she can fill this room with gold or execute her if she cannot, the girl has nothing left with which she can pay the strange creature. He extracts from her a promise that she will give him her firstborn child, and so he spins the straw into gold a final time. (In some versions, the imp appears and begins to turn the straw into gold, paying no heed to the girl's protests that she has nothing to pay him with; when he finishes the task, he states that the price is her first child, and the horrified girl objects because she never agreed to this arrangement.) The king keeps his promise to marry the miller's daughter, but when their first child is born, the imp returns to claim his payment: "Now give me what you promised." She offers him all the wealth she has to keep the child, but the imp has no interest in her riches. He finally consents to give up his claim to the child if she can guess his name within three days (some versions have the imp limiting the number of daily guesses to three and hence the total number of guesses allowed to a maximum of nine). Her many guesses fail, but before the final night, she wanders into the woods (in some versions, she sends a servant into the woods instead of going herself, in order to keep the king's suspicions at bay) searching for him and comes across his remote mountain cottage and watches, unseen, as he hops about his fire and sings. In his song's lyrics— "tonight tonight, my plans I make, tomorrow tomorrow, the baby I take. The queen will never win the game, for Rumpelstiltskin is my name"— he reveals his name. When the imp comes to the queen on the third day, after first feigning ignorance, she reveals his name, Rumpelstiltskin, and he loses his temper and their bargain. Versions vary about whether he accuses the devil or witches of having revealed his name to the queen. In the 1812 edition of the Brothers Grimm tales, Rumpelstiltskin then "ran away angrily, and never came back." The ending was revised in an 1857 edition to a more gruesome ending wherein Rumpelstiltskin "in his rage drove his right foot so far into the ground that it sank in up to his waist; then in a passion he seized the left foot with both hands and tore himself in two." Other versions have Rumpelstiltskin driving his right foot so far into the ground that he creates a chasm and falls into it, never to be seen again. In the oral version originally collected by the Brothers Grimm, Rumpelstiltskin flies out of the window on a cooking ladle. 

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Heather Langenkamp lives in Los Angeles, California, with her husband Chase and their young son Dylan. She is recognized for her role as Nancy Thompson from the A Nightmare on Elm Street film series before focusing her career on television. One night she has a nightmare that her family is attacked by a set of animated Freddy Krueger claws from an upcoming Nightmare film, where two workers are brutally killed on set. Waking up to an earthquake, she spies a cut on Chase's finger exactly like the one he had received in her dream, but she quickly dismisses the notion that it was caused by the claws. Heather receives a call from an obsessed fan who quotes Freddy Krueger's nursery rhyme in an eerie, Freddy-like voice. This coincides with a meeting she has with New Line Cinema where she is pitched the idea to reprise her role as Nancy in a new Nightmare film, which, unbeknownst to her, Chase has been working on. When she returns home, she sees Dylan watching her original film. When she interrupts him, he has a severely traumatizing episode where he screams at her. The frequent calls and Dylan's strange behavior cause her to call Chase. He agrees to rush home from his workplace at Palm Springs as the two men from the opening dream did not report in for work. Chase falls asleep while driving and is slashed by Freddy's claw and dies. His death seems to affect Dylan even further, which concerns Heather's long-time friend and former co-star John Saxon. He suggests she seek medical attention for Dylan and herself after she has a nightmare at Chase's funeral in which Freddy tries to take Dylan away. Dylan's health continues to deteriorate. He becomes increasingly paranoid about going to sleep, and fears Freddy Krueger, even though Heather has never shown Dylan her films. She visits Nightmare creator Wes Craven, who admits to having precognitive nightmares that the films captured an ancient supernatural entity. The entity is freed after the film series ended with the release of Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare. In the guise of Freddy it now focuses on Heather, as Nancy, its primary foe, as killing her will allow it into the real world. Freddy actor Robert Englund also has a strange knowledge of it, describing the new Freddy to Heather, and then disappearing from all contact shortly after. Following another earthquake, Heather takes a traumatized Dylan to the hospital, where Dr. Heffner, suspecting abuse, suggests he remain under observation. Heather returns home for Dylan's stuffed Tyrannosaurus while his babysitter Julie tries unsuccessfully to keep the nurses from sedating the sleep-deprived boy. Dylan falls asleep from the sedative. Freddy brutally kills Julie in Dylan's dream. Capable of sleepwalking, Dylan leaves the hospital of his own accord while Heather chases him home across the interstate as Freddy taunts and dangles him before traffic. On returning home, Heather realizes that Saxon has established his persona as Don Thompson, and her street, the exterior of her house, and her clothes have transformed into Nancy's as reality starts to overlap with Freddy's make-believe realm. When Heather embraces Nancy's role, Freddy emerges completely into reality and abducts Dylan to his world. Heather finds a trail of Dylan's sleeping pills and follows him to a hellish construct of Freddy's boiler room. Freddy fights off Heather and chases Dylan into a furnace. Dylan escapes the furnace, doubles back to Heather, and together they push Freddy into the furnace and light it. This destroys both the monster and his reality. Dylan and Heather emerge from under his blankets, and Heather finds a copy of the film's events in a screenplay at the foot of the bed. Inside is written thanks from Wes for defeating Freddy and playing Nancy one last time. Her victory helps to imprison the entity of the film franchise's fictitious world once more. Dylan asks if it is a story, and Heather agrees that it is before opening the script and reading from its pages to her son. 

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An omniscient being known as the Eternal Champion predicts that mankind will soon fade from existence due to the untimely and unjust deaths of key individuals throughout history who were destined for greatness. Seeking to restore balance to the world, the Eternal Champion gathers these souls from time moments before their deaths. The Eternal Champion only has enough power to restore life to one of these individuals, so he organizes and holds a fighting tournament between them, where the victor will be able to regain their life and change his or her fate while bringing balance to the universe, whilst the losers will be forced to "live out" their deaths just as history intended. Unlike most fighting games, or video games in general, there are no characters in this game who are "bad" or "evil". Each character has been chosen because he or she is either inherently good or has the potential to do great good and change the course of history for the better. Despite the ability to kill opponents in this game, it is not relevant to the story. Much like games such as Mortal Kombat (which pioneered finishing moves in fighting games), the game's "Overkills" are not canon and are simply a gameplay element for the enjoyment of the player. It is actually revealed in a few character endings that some of the fighters had become allies or friends during the course of the tournament. 

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The story begins seven years after the broken engagement of Anne Elliot to then Commander Frederick Wentworth. Anne, then 19 years old, fell in love and accepted a proposal of marriage from the young naval officer. Wentworth was considered clever, confident, ambitious, and employed, but his low social status made Anne's friends and family view the Commander as an unfavorable partner. Anne's father, Sir Walter, and her older sister, Elizabeth, maintained that Wentworth was no match for an Elliot of Kellynch Hall, the family estate. Lady Russell, acting in place of Anne's late mother, persuaded Anne to break the engagement, which Lady Russell saw as imprudent for one so young. The family members are the only ones who knew about the short engagement, as Anne's younger sister Mary was away at school. In the name of heaven, who is that old fellow! illustration by Hugh Thomson. Several years later, the Elliot family is in financial trouble, so they let Kellynch Hall, and decide to settle in Bath until finances improve. The Baronet Sir Walter, his daughter Elizabeth, and Elizabeth's new companion Mrs Clay look forward to the move. Anne is less sure she will enjoy Bath. Mary is married to Charles Musgrove of nearby Uppercross Hall, the heir to a respected local squire. Anne visits Mary and her family, where she is well-loved. As the war against France is over, the tenants of Kellynch Hall, Admiral Croft and his wife Sophia, who is the sister of Frederick Wentworth, now a wealthy naval captain, have returned home. Captain Fredrick Wentworth visits his sister and meets the Uppercross family and Anne Elliot. The Musgroves, including Mary, Charles, Charles' sisters Henrietta and Louisa, welcome the Crofts and Captain Wentworth. Wentworth makes it known that he is ready to marry. Henrietta is engaged to her clergyman cousin Charles Hayter, who is away for Captain Wentworth's introduction to their social circle. Both the Crofts and Musgroves enjoy speculating about which sister Captain Wentworth might marry. Once Hayter returns, Henrietta turns her affections to him again. Anne still loves Captain Wentworth, so each meeting with him requires preparation for her own strong emotions. She overhears a conversation in which Louisa tells Captain Wentworth that Charles Musgrove first proposed to Anne, who turned him down. This news startles Captain Wentworth. Anne realizes that Captain Wentworth has not yet forgiven her for letting herself be persuaded years ago. Anne and the young adults of the Uppercross family accompany Captain Wentworth on a visit to see two of his fellow officers Captains Harville and James Benwick in the coastal town of Lyme Regis. Captain Benwick is in mourning over the death of his fiancée, Captain Harville's sister, and he appreciates Anne's sympathy and understanding. They both admire the Romantic poets. Anne attracts the attention of William Elliot, her cousin and the heir to Kellynch Hall, who broke ties with Sir Walter years earlier. On the last morning of the visit, Louisa sustains a serious concussion. Anne coolly organizes the others to summon assistance. Captain Wentworth is impressed with Anne, but feels guilty about his actions with Louisa, causing him to re-examine his feelings for Anne. Following Louisa's accident, Anne joins her father and sister Elizabeth in Bath with Lady Russell while Louisa and her parents stay at the Harvilles' in Lyme for her recovery. Captain Wentworth visits his older brother Edward in Shropshire. Anne finds that her father and sister are flattered by the attentions of Mr William Elliot, recently widowed, who has reconciled with Sir Walter. Elizabeth assumes that Mr William Elliot wishes to court her. Although Anne likes Mr William Elliot and enjoys his manners, she finds his character opaque. Admiral Croft and his wife arrive in Bath with the news that Louisa is engaged to Captain Benwick. Wentworth travels to Bath, where his jealousy is piqued by seeing Mr William Elliot courting Anne. Wentworth and Anne renew their acquaintance. Anne visits Mrs Smith, an old school friend, who is now a widow living in Bath under strained circumstances. From her, Anne discovers that beneath Mr William Elliot's charming veneer, he is a cold, calculating opportunist who led Mrs Smith's late husband into debt. As executor to her husband's will, Mr William Elliot takes no action to improve Mrs Smith's situation. Although Mrs Smith believes that Mr William Elliot is genuinely attracted to Anne, Mrs Smith feels that his first aim is preventing Mrs Clay from marrying Sir Walter as a new marriage might mean a new son, displacing him as heir to Kellynch. The Musgroves visit Bath to purchase wedding clothes for Louisa and Henrietta, both soon to marry. Captains Wentworth and Harville encounter them and Anne at the Musgroves' hotel in Bath, where Wentworth overhears Anne and Harville discussing the relative faithfulness of men and women in love. Deeply moved by what Anne says about women not giving up their feelings of love even when all hope is lost, Wentworth writes her a note declaring his feelings for her. Outside the hotel, Anne and Wentworth reconcile, affirm their love for each other, and renew their engagement. Mr William Elliot leaves Bath, followed by Mrs Clay, who joins him in London as his mistress; the danger of her marrying Sir Walter is avoided. Lady Russell admits she was wrong about Wentworth and befriends the new couple. Once Anne and Captain Wentworth marry, Wentworth helps Mrs Smith recover her lost assets. Anne settles into life as the wife of a Navy captain. 

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The story is set in 2010, mostly in the United States. A number of plots and many vignettes are played out in this future world, based on Brunner's extrapolation of social, economic, and technological trends. The key main trends are based on the enormous population and its impact: social stresses, eugenic legislation, widening social divisions, future shock and extremism. Certain of Brunner's guesses are fairly close, others not, and some ideas clearly show their 1960s mindset. Many futuristic concepts, products and services, and slang are presented. A supercomputer named Shalmaneser is an essential plot element. The Hipcrime Vocab and other works by the fictional sociologist Chad C. Mulligan are frequent sources of quotations. Some examples of slang include "codder" (man), "shiggy" (woman), "whereinole" (where in hell?), "prowlie" (an armoured police car), "offyourass" (possessing an attitude), "bivving" (bisexuality, from "ambivalent") and "mucker" (a person running amok). A new technology introduced is "eptification" (education for particular tasks), a form of mental programming. Another is a kind of interactive television that shows the viewer as part of the program ("Mr. & Mrs. Everywhere"). Genetically modified microorganisms are used as terrorist weapons. The book centres on two New York men, Donald Hogan and Norman Niblock House, who share an apartment. House is a rising executive at General Technics, one of the all-powerful corporations. Using his "Afram" (African American) heritage to advance his position, he has risen to vice-president at age twenty-six. Hogan is introduced with a single paragraph rising out of nowhere: "Donald Hogan is a spy". Donald shares an apartment with House and is undercover as a student. Hogan's real work is as a "synthesist", although he is a commissioned officer and can be called up for active duty. The two main plots concern the fictional African state of Beninia (a name reminiscent of the real-life Benin, though that nation in the Bight of Benin was known as the Republic of Dahomey when the book was written) making a deal with General Technics to take over the management of their country, in a bid to speed up development from third world to first world status. A second major plot is a break-through in genetic engineering in the fictional South East Asian nation of Yatakang (an island nation and a former Dutch colony, like Indonesia), to which Hogan is soon sent by the US Government ("State") to investigate. The two plots eventually cross, bringing potential implications for the entire world. 

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A millennium ago on the planet Thra, two new races appeared when a shard was shattered from the Crystal of Truth: the malevolent Skeksis whose continued corruption of the Crystal to extend their lives ravaged Thra, and the gentle urRu, more commonly known as the Mystics, who made their home in the Valley of Stones to await for their destiny. The leader of the urRu, the Master UrSu, raised a young Gelfling named Jen whose clan were slaughtered by the Skeksis. As the Great Conjunction of Thra's three suns draws near, a dying UrSu instructs Jen to fulfill a prophecy to heal the Crystal by first retrieving the Shard from Aughra. As UrSu passes, the Skeksis' Emperor also dies, with the Chamberlain skekSil exiled after losing a duel of succession against the General SkekUng. When the Skeksis learn of Jen's existence, they send their army of giant crab-like Garthim to capture him, with skekSil following. Jen meets Aughra and enters her orrery, which she uses to predict the motions of the heavens as she explains about the Conjunction before having Jen select the Shard from a box full of shards. Aughra was about to explain Jen's mission before the Garthim arrive and destroy the orrery, taking Aughra prisoner as Jen flees. Hearing the call of the Crystal, the urRu leave their valley to travel to the Skeksis' Castle. On his journey through the swamp, Jen meets Kira, another surviving Gelfling who can communicate with animals. The two learn more about each other when they accidentally "dreamfast", seeing into each other's memories. They stay for a night with the Podlings who raised Kira, only for them and Kira's pet Fizzgig to flee when the Garthim raid the village, with skekSil keeping the Garthim from pursuing then. Jen and Kira discover a ruined Gelfling city with ancient writing describing a prophecy: "When single shines the triple sun, what was sundered and undone shall be whole, the two made one by Gelfling hand or else by none." They are interrupted by skekSil, revealing the prophecy was the reason for the Gelfling genocide while trying to trick them into coming with him to the castle under false pretenses. But the Gelflings run off and reach the Castle of the Crystal on Landstriders, intercepting the Garthim that attacked Kira's village. While trying to free the captured Podlings, Kira, Jen, and Fizzgig descend to the bottom of the Castle's dry moat and use a lower-level entrance to gain access. But they are intercepted by skekSil, who buries Jen in a cave-in after being refused and takes Kira to the Skeksis. skekSil is reinstated while giving Kira to the Skeksis' Scientist skekTek to be drained of her life essence for skekUng to drink so that he can regain his youth. Aughra, imprisoned in the Scientist's laboratory, tells Kira to call for help from the captive animals; they break free in response and free Kira while causing skekTek to fall down the crystal shaft to his death. One of the urRu vanishes. Aughra frees herself soon after Kira left and before Jen arrived. The three suns begin to align as the Gelflings reunite at the Crystal Chamber as the Skeksis gather for the ritual that will grant them immortality. Jen leaps onto the Dark Crystal but drops the Shard, with Kira taking it after Fizgig is knocked down the crystal shaft by skekUng and is saved by Aughra. Kira throws the Shard back to Jen as she is fatally impaled by the Skeksis' Ritual-Master skekZok, with an enraged Jen inserting the Shard into the Crystal and fulfilling the prophecy. The Garthim disintegrate and the Podling slaves regain their essence while the dark stone covering the Castle crumbles away to reveal a crystalline structure. The urRu arrive and use the Crystal to merge themselves and the Skeksis into tall glowing beings known as urSkeks. The urSkeks' leader explains to Jen they had mistakenly shattered the Crystal long ago, splitting them into two races and decimating Thra, and that Jen's actions have restored them. The urSkeks revive Kira in gratitude for her sacrifice and Jen's courage, and then ascend to a higher level of existence, leaving the Crystal to the Gelflings on the now-rejuvenated Thra. 

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The novel focuses on Molly Bolt, the adopted daughter of a poor family, who possesses remarkable beauty and who is aware of her lesbianism from early childhood. Her relationship with her mother is rocky, and at a young age her mother, referred to as "Carrie", informs Molly that she is not her own biological child but a "bastard". Molly has her first same-sex sexual relationship in the sixth grade with her girlfriend Leota B. Bisland, and then again in a Florida high school, where she has another sexual relationship with another friend, the school's head cheerleader Carolyn Simpson, who willingly has sex with Molly but rejects the "lesbian" label. Molly also engages in sex with males, including her cousin Leroy when the two were younger. Her father, Carl, dies when she is in her junior year of high school. Molly pushes herself to excel in high school, winning a full scholarship to the University of Florida. However, when Molly's relationship with her alcoholic roommate is discovered, she is put into their psychiatric ward and denied a renewal of her scholarship. Possessing little money, she hitchhikes to New York to pursue an education in filmmaking. In New York, Molly has her first experiences in lesbian communities. She is critical of most of the circles she meets and, as she always has done, continues to define herself and go down her own path. Molly appears to notice environmental differences between the countryside and the city, and she also notices similarities of American culture-at-large. At film school, she continues to observe and ignore the heterosexual culture that appears to saturate the world around her. Molly takes a trip home to have her mother Carrie star in her short documentary that will be her final project for her film degree. After a quiet but successful graduation from film school, Molly runs into all of the roadblocks she expected to in looking for a job in her field. She is offered secretary jobs. She does not take any of the jobs and states that if it takes her until she's 50 years old then so be it. 

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The setting and story remains largely the same as Pokémon Gold and Silver. 

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Daniel Hillard is a freelance voice actor living in San Francisco. Though a devoted father to his three children, Lydia, Chris, and Natalie, his estranged wife Miranda considers him unreliable. One day, Daniel quits his job after a disagreement over a questionable script and returns home to throw a chaotic birthday party for Chris, despite Miranda’s objections. This infuriates Miranda to the point where she files for divorce. At their first custody hearing, the court grants sole custody of the children to Miranda; shared custody is contingent on whether Daniel finds a steady job and a suitable residence within three months. As Daniel works to rebuild his life, securing himself an apartment and a new job as a shipping clerk at a TV station, he learns that Miranda is seeking a housekeeper. He secretly alters her classified ad form, then calls Miranda while using his voice acting skills to pose as a series of undesirable applicants. He finally calls Miranda as "Mrs. Euphegenia Doubtfire", a Scottish-accented nanny with strong credentials. Miranda is impressed and invites Mrs. Doubtfire for an interview. Daniel asks his brother Frank, a makeup artist, and Frank's partner, Jack, to create a Mrs. Doubtfire costume, including a prosthetic mask to make him appear as an older woman. Miranda hires Mrs. Doubtfire after a successful interview. The children initially struggle under Mrs. Doubtfire's authority but soon come around and thrive and Miranda learns to become closer with her children. Daniel learns several household skills as part of the role, further improving himself. However, this later creates another barrier for him to see his children, as Miranda puts more trust into Mrs. Doubtfire than him and cannot bring herself to dismiss her. One night, Lydia and Chris discover that Mrs. Doubtfire is actually Daniel; thrilled to have their father back, they agree to keep his secret. While working one day, Daniel is seen by the station's CEO Jonathan Lundy playing with toy dinosaurs on the set of a poorly-rated children's show. Impressed by his voice acting and imagination, Lundy invites Daniel for a dinner to discuss his plans for the show. Daniel discovers this is to be at the same place and time as a planned birthday dinner for Miranda by her new boyfriend Stuart Dunmeyer, to which Mrs. Doubtfire is invited. Unable to change either appointment, Daniel changes in-and-out of the Mrs. Doubtfire costume to attend both events. Becoming drunk, Daniel slips up when he accidentally returns to Lundy in his costume, but he quickly claims that Mrs. Doubtfire is his idea for the new show. After overhearing that Stu is allergic to pepper, Daniel sneaks into the kitchen and seasons Stu's order of jambalaya with powdered cayenne pepper. Stu chokes on his dinner, and Daniel, feeling guilty, administers the Heimlich maneuver as Mrs. Doubtfire. The action causes the prosthetic mask to partially peel off Daniel's face, revealing his identity and horrifying Miranda, who storms out of the restaurant with the kids. At their next custody hearing, Daniel points out that he has met the judge's requirements, then explains his actions. The judge considers Daniel's ruse as Mrs. Doubtfire unorthodox, and grants Miranda full custody, further restricting Daniel's rights to supervised Saturday visits, which devastates him. Without Mrs. Doubtfire, Miranda and her children become miserable, acknowledging how much "she" improved their lives. They are then surprised to discover that Daniel, as Mrs. Doubtfire, is hosting a new children's show called Euphegenia's House, which becomes a nationwide hit. Miranda visits Daniel on set after filming and admits that things were better when he was involved with the family. She then arranges joint custody, allowing Daniel as himself to take the children after school. As Daniel leaves with the kids, Miranda watches an episode of Euphegenia's House in which Mrs. Doubtfire answers a letter from a young girl whose parents have separated, saying that no matter what arrangements families have, love will prevail. 

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Jackie Chan, a professional archeologist, enjoyed his job working for the local university until fate dealt him another hand. After finding a shield containing a talisman he encounters The Dark Hand, a criminal organization led by a man called Valmont that serves the demon sorcerer Shendu. Jackie and his family must cooperate with a secret law enforcement organization, Section 13, to counter the threat, and must face dangers that will demand all of Jackie's daring and skill in martial arts to overcome. While Chan did not perform the voice of his animated character, he appeared in live-action inserts at the end of the program, in which Chan presented notable aspects of Chinese history, culture and philosophy. 

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On Fifth Avenue, an orphaned kitten named Oliver is left abandoned after his fellow orphaned kittens are adopted by passersby. Wandering the streets by himself in search of someone to adopt him, Oliver meets a laid-back mongrel named Dodger who assists the kitten in stealing food from a hot dog vendor. Dodger then flees the scene without sharing his bounty with Oliver. Oliver follows Dodger all throughout the streets until they eventually arrive at a barge, where Dodger shares his meal with a gang of fellow strays: Tito the chihuahua, Einstein the Great Dane, Rita the Saluki, and Francis the bulldog. Oliver sneaks inside and is discovered by the dogs. After a moment of confusion, he is received with a warm welcome. The barge's owner, a pickpocket named Fagin, is indebted to Sykes, a nefarious shipyard agent and loan shark accompanied by his Dobermans Roscoe and DeSoto. Sykes gives Fagin an ultimatum of repaying the money he had borrowed within three days under the threat of imminent violence. Fagin and the gang, now including Oliver, hit the streets the next morning to carry out petty theft so that Fagin may pawn the stolen goods for money. Through a theatrical ruse, the dogs manage to stop a luxurious limousine owned by the wealthy Foxworth family. The attempt to pillage the limousine fails and Oliver finds himself in the embrace of the Foxworth daughter Jenny, who adopts Oliver to assuage the loneliness brought about by the absence of her vacationing parents. Oliver makes himself at home in Jenny's house, much to the disgust of Georgette, the Foxworth family's pompous and pampered purebred poodle. Dodger and the others manage to steal Oliver from the Foxworth household and return him to the barge. Fagin recognizes from Oliver's new collar that he had been adopted by a wealthy family and desperately decides to hold Oliver for ransom. His anonymously written ransom note reaches Jenny, who sets out to get Oliver back at the pier. Jenny meets with Fagin, who is shocked that he had been dealing with a little girl. Bothered by his conscience after seeing Jenny distraught over losing Oliver, Fagin gives Oliver back freely. Sykes, whom Fagin had informed of the deal beforehand and was watching from the shadows, drives by and kidnaps Jenny, intending to ransom her and declaring Fagin's debt paid. Dodger rallies Oliver and the other dogs to rescue Jenny from Sykes, but the animals are confronted by Sykes and his Dobermans after they free her. Fagin saves the group with his scooter and a chase ensues throughout the streets and into the subway tunnels. Oliver and Dodger attempt a rescue and struggle with Roscoe and DeSoto, who fall off the car and are electrocuted on the subway's third rail. Sykes is killed when his car drives straight into the path of an oncoming train. Later, Jenny celebrates her birthday with the animals, Fagin and the family butler Winston, who receives a phone call from Jenny's parents saying that they will be returning from Rome the next day. Oliver opts to stay with Jenny, but he promises to remain in contact with Dodger and the gang. 

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A group of puppies are stolen from a pet store by two thieves. A St. Bernard puppy escapes and sneaks into the Newton family's home. The workaholic father, George Newton, doesn't want the responsibility of owning a dog, but his wife, Alice, and their children, Ryce, Ted, and Emily, convince him. They give him the name “Beethoven” when Emily plays a portion of Ludwig van Beethoven's Fifth Symphony on the piano and the dog barks along to it. Beethoven grows into a full grown, adult dog and helps the children overcome their problems: he helps Ryce talk to her crush, scares off bullies for Ted, and saves Emily's life when she falls into an irresponsible babysitter's swimming pool. George, jealous of the affection Beethoven receives, feels neglected as his family fawns over him. The dog's antics ruin a barbecue he is hosting for Brad and Brie; unpleasant venture capitalists looking to invest and swindle him out of his car freshener firm. The Newtons take Beethoven to a veterinarian, Dr. Herman Varnick, for a routine medical examination and immunizations. They are unaware that he is involved in unethical and deadly animal experiments. He speaks to George and tells him of a supposed mental instability among St. Bernards making them potentially dangerous to humans and advises him to watch Beethoven closely for any sign of viciousness. He actually requires large- skulled dogs such as St. Bernards for an ammunition test. Dr. Varnick visits the Newton home under the guise of doing a follow-up exam on Beethoven. He puts fake blood on his arm and hits Beethoven until he leaps on him. He pretends to be in agony, warning George that Beethoven may be turning aggressive and must be euthanized or he will have no choice but to press charges. Emily, who saw Dr. Varnick hit him, protests that the attack was fake, but George, fearing for his family's safety, reluctantly takes him to Dr. Varnick's office. It is on the way there that George discovers his own affections for him: he remembers his father had to take their dog to the vet to be euthanized and he never forgave him for it. He fears that his own family will hate him now for taking Beethoven to be euthanized. When he returns home with the empty leash and collar, his family leaves the dinner table rather than remain with him, proving his fears true. After seeing his family upset, the Newtons go to Dr. Varnick's office, but he tells them that Beethoven has already been euthanized. However, George remembers that Varnick's receptionist told him that Beethoven would not be euthanized until the next day. George then notices that Dr. Varnick has no bite marks on his arm and assaults him. The Newtons follow him to his warehouse. Beethoven breaks free but is recaptured by Dr. Varnick's two associates, Harvey and Vernon, while Alice calls the police. George crashes through the skylight just as Dr. Varnick prepares to shoot Beethoven. Before he can, however, a captive Jack Russell Terrier bites him in the crotch, causing him to fire a shot in the air. After hearing the gunshot, Ted drives the car through the door and runs it into a cart, launching numerous syringes into Dr. Varnick and sedating him. As the Newtons reunite with Beethoven and free all the captive dogs, they notice Harvey and Vernon trying to escape and send the dogs after them. They escape into a junkyard, only to be attacked by a pack of Dobermans guarding it. Dr. Varnick, Harvey, and Vernon are arrested for animal abuse. The Newtons are praised as heroes by the news and George takes a new liking to Beethoven. Ryce also gets a phone call from her crush. The Newtons then go to sleep, saying good night to Beethoven and all of the dogs they rescued, who are all sleeping in their bedroom. 

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Santiago, a widowed man visits his wife at the cemetery. Near the location of the filming of a movie, Santiago meets a mysterious woman. She is very pleasant, and talks to him. They exchange gifts, but then upon saying their good-byes, she doesn't tell him her name and he wonders if he'll ever see her again. They bump into each other again and the woman continues to be pleasant and tells him her name is Angelina. Angelina informs him that she has been watching him and saw when he mailed a letter to someone. Santiago, the widowed man and his daughter often argue, mainly because his daughter is going through a divorce and her father, Santiago prefers she not divorce. Later as the daughter and her husband argue over divorce matters in the presence of their young son, Santiago engages the boy in conversation about snow: that the only time he saw snow was when it was bought to Puerto Rico by plane. Santiago, looks for employment but is interviewed by someone who is obviously not interested in hiring him because of his age. The third time Santiago and Angelina meet they listen to traditional guitar music and dance. Following that, they go to a park and row a boat through a waterway. Angelina is always smiling and happy. Then Santiago's daughter continues to be argumentative. At the airport, she and her father Santiago are talking about her move to New York City for 3 months and that she was planning to leave her son with her husband, Gerard, but her husband has not shown up at the airport. Frustrated, she leaves her son with her father telling the boy to behave and obey his (father). As Santiago is leaving with his sad grandson, the boy's father shows up to take him. One day while sitting at home, Santiago unexpectedly receives a call on his landline from Angelina. Santiago had never given her his phone number and she explains that she had to call every person in the phone book with his name to find him. They make plans to meet in San Juan. Eddie, Santiago's son is depressed and tells his father that he has given away his guitar because of his depression. In a pep talk, Santiago tells his son they have to make it, and that they'll travel together because traveling will be therapeutic. Then when Eddie notices the scenic beach painting on his father's wall, the gift from Angelina and asks him about it, Santiago tells his son that he's very happy because he has met Angelina. However, worried about a lack of information about Angelina, Santiago has secretly hired an investigator to help him learn more about her. Early the next morning, Santiago and Angelina are at her home, a big, beautiful, Spanish style home and upon entering Santiago finds the home is immaculate, with large majestic windows, and a functioning old phonograph. As the phonograph music plays, Santiago peruses the black and white photos around her home. She prepares and they have breakfast while they share more about themselves. She tells him her grandfather fought for Spain in the Spanish- American war, and built the home. In turn, he tells her no one in his family was famous, except maybe his great-aunt who was a bootlegger during prohibition; in summary that he's widowed, and retired after having worked as an accountant for forty years, that he has three children, and is now here with her. They walk through the fields enjoying the day until they get caught in a rainstorm. They change into bathrobes and proceed to her bedroom and she offers him a massage with rubbing alcohol, preferably on the bed. They remove their bathrobes and later as they lay together she tells him that he should keep his eyes closed because were he to open them he would know that she's a ghost. They depart after professing their love for each other. Santiago gets lost driving in the rain in the dark while reflecting on the fact that he has seen Angelina's home, and the flowers in her garden before, in his dreams. His car gets stuck in the mud and upon existing his car, he slips down a ravine, but finds the perfect stick to get his car out of the mud. As his son paces back and forth, before a ticking grandfather clock, Santiago finally arrives home and let's him know what happened, explaining that Angelina's house is the most beautiful house on the most spectacular land he's ever seen. After leaving the hospital for a bout of pneumonia, Santiago is met, at his home, by the investigator who shares surprising information about Angelina's real life. It turns out she had a tragic life and after hearing it Santiago says he remembers reading the story in the papers. As a daughter of an important an influential family, Lela (Angelina's real name) was forced to give up her baby daughter who'd been born out of wedlock. For this reason she shot her father, paralyzing him, then she ended up in and out of mental institutions. After hearing the news Santiago is saddened. In his next visit, he finds her elegantly dressed, as always. Santiago doesn't let Angelina know that he knows the truth about her and they, presumably, continue their relationship. 

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The Sea Wolf tells the story of a soft, domesticated protagonist — an intellectual man named Humphrey van Weyden — forced to become tough and self-reliant by exposure to cruelty and brutality. The story starts with him aboard a San Francisco ferry, called Martinez, which collides with another ship in the fog and sinks. He is set adrift in the Bay, eventually being picked up by Wolf Larsen. Larsen is the captain of a seal-hunting schooner, the Ghost. Brutal and cynical, yet also highly intelligent and intellectual (though highly biased in his opinions, as he was self-taught), he rules over his ship and terrorizes the crew with the aid of his exceptionally great physical strength. Van Weyden adequately describes him as an individualist, hedonist, and materialist. Larsen does not believe in the immortality of the soul, he finds no meaning in his life save for survival and pleasure and has come to despise all human life and deny its value. Being interested in someone capable of intellectual disputes, he somewhat takes care of Van Weyden, whom he calls 'Hump', while forcing him to become a cabin boy, do menial work, and learn to fight to protect himself from a brutal crew. A key event in the story is an attempted mutiny against Wolf Larsen by several members of the crew. The organizers of the mutiny are Leach and Johnson. Johnson had previously been beaten severely by Larsen, and Leach had been punched earlier while being forced to become a boat-puller, motivating the two. The first attempt is by sending Larsen overboard; however, he manages to climb back onto the ship. Searching for his assailant, he ventures into the sleeping quarters, located beneath the main deck, the only exit being a ladder. Several, at least seven men, take part in the mutiny and attack Larsen. Larsen however, demonstrating his inhuman endurance, strength, and conviction, manages to fight his way through the crew, climb the ladder with several men hanging off him, and escape relatively unharmed. Van Weyden is promoted as mate, for the original mate had been murdered. Larsen later gets his vengeance by torturing his crew, and constantly claiming that he is going to murder Leach and Johnson at his earliest convenience, being the hunting season is done, as he can't afford to lose any crew. He later allows them to be lost to the sea when they attempt to flee on a hunting boat. During this section, the Ghost picks up another set of castaways, including a poet named Maud Brewster. Miss Brewster and van Weyden had known each other previously—but only as writers. Both Wolf Larsen and van Weyden immediately feel attraction to her, due to her intelligence and "female delicacy". Van Weyden sees her as his first true love. He strives to protect her from the crew, the horrors of the sea, and Wolf Larsen. As this happens, Wolf Larsen meets his brother Death Larsen, a bitter opponent of his. Wolf kidnapped several of Death's crew and forced them into servitude to fill his own ranks, lost previously during a storm. During one of Wolf Larsen's intense headaches, which render him near immobile, van Weyden steals a boat and flees with Miss Brewster. The two eventually land on an uninhabited island, heavily populated with seals. They hunt, build shelter and a fire, and survive for several days, using the strength they gained while on the Ghost. The Ghost eventually crashes on the island, with Wolf Larsen the only crew member. As a revenge, Death Larsen had tracked his brother, bribed his crew, destroyed his sails, and set Larsen adrift at sea. It is purely by chance that van Weyden and Miss Brewster meet Larsen again. Van Weyden obtains all of the weapons including firearms left on the ship, but he cannot bear to murder Larsen, who does not threaten him. Van Weyden and Miss Brewster decide they can repair the ship, but Larsen, who intends to die on the island and take them with him, sabotages any repairs they make. After a headache, Larsen is rendered blind. He feigns paralysis and attempts to murder van Weyden when he draws within arm's reach but just then is hit with a stroke that leaves him blind and the right side of his body paralyzed. His condition only worsens; he loses usage of his remaining arm, leg, and voice. Miss Brewster and van Weyden, unable to bring themselves to leave him to rot, care for him. Despite this kindness, he continues his resistance, setting fire to the bunk's mattress above him. Van Weyden finishes repairing the Ghost, and he and Miss Brewster set sail. During a violent storm, Wolf Larsen dies. They give Larsen a burial at sea, an act mirroring an incident van Weyden witnessed when he was first rescued. The story ends with the two being rescued by an American revenue cutter. 

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In August 1949, in the South African village of Ndotsheni ("The Hills of Ixopo"), the black Anglican priest of St. Mark's Church, the Rev. Stephen Kumalo, learns from a letter from his brother (John Kumalo, who lives in Johannesburg) that their sister is in trouble. Stephen decides to travel to Johannesburg to help his sister; he will also seek his son, Absalom, who works in the mines ("Thousands of Miles"). In Johannesburg, Stephen learns that his sister will not leave but she asks him to take care of her young son, Alex. He finally locates his son Absalom, who had been in jail. Absalom now plans with his friends to steal, so they can get enough money to avoid a life in the gold mines. Absalom's pregnant girlfriend Irina tries to convince him not to take part, but he goes ahead with his plan ("Trouble Man"). During the robbery, Absalom kills Arthur Jarvis, a white friend of his father, Stephen. As Absalom is jailed, Stephen wonders how to tell his wife, Grace, and he realizes he is facing a crisis of faith ("Lost in the Stars"). Stephen knows that his son could either tell a lie and live or tell the truth and die. He prays for guidance ("O Tixo, Tixo, Help Me"). At the trial, Absalom's two friends lie to the court and are freed, but Absalom, truly repentant, tells the truth and is sentenced to hang ("Cry, the Beloved Country"). Stephen performs a wedding between Absalom and Irina in prison and then returns home to Ndotsheni with Irina and Alex. Alex and the child of Arthur Jarvis meet and start to become friends ("Big Mole"). Stephen tells his flock he can no longer be their minister, and their faith is now also shaken ("A Bird of Passage"). On the still-dark morning of the execution, Stephen waits alone for the clock to strike ("Four O'Clock"). Unexpectedly, the father of the murdered man pays him a visit. He tells Stephen that he has realized that they have both lost sons. Out of recognition of their mutual sorrow, and despite their different races, he offers his friendship, and Stephen accepts. 

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Seven years after the events of Neuromancer, strange things begin to happen in the Matrix, leading to the proliferation of what appear to be voodoo gods (hinted to be the fractured remains of the joined AIs that were Neuromancer and Wintermute). Two powerful multinational corporations, Maas Biolabs and Hosaka, are engaged in a battle for control over a powerful new technology (a biochip), using hackers and the Matrix as well as espionage and violence. 

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As with later Gibson works, there are multiple story-line threads which eventually intertwine: Thread One: In the southwestern US, Turner, a corporate mercenary soldier, has been hired by former partner Conroy to help Christopher Mitchell, a brilliant researcher and bio-hacker, make an illegal career move from Maas' corporate fortress built into a mesa in the Arizona desert to Hosaka, a rival corporation. The attempt is a disaster, and Turner ends up escaping with the scientist's young daughter, Angie Mitchell instead. She carries the plans, implanted in her brain by her father, of the secrets of construction of the extremely valuable "biosoft" that has made Maas so influential and powerful. This "biosoft" is what multibillionaire Josef Virek (see thread three) desires above all else, so that he can make an evolutionary jump to something resembling omniscience and immortality. During their flight from both Maas and Hosaka agents, Turner and Angie stay with Rudy, the former's estranged brother, and Sally, his partner and caretaker. Rudy identifies a device implanted in Angie's skull: her father had apparently altered her nervous system to allow her to access the Cyberspace Matrix directly, without a "deck" (a computer with an interface directly into the user's brain), but she is not conscious of this. During their stay, Turner has a one-night stand with Sally, and then leaves for the Sprawl with Angie where he meets with Bobby's group in a shopping mall besieged by agents of Maas and Conroy. Thread Two: In Barrytown, New Jersey a young amateur computer hacker, Bobby Newmark, self-named "Count Zero", is given a piece of black market software by some criminal associates "to test". When he plugs himself into the matrix and runs the program, it almost kills him. The only thing that saves his life is a sudden image of a girl made of light who interferes and unhooks him from the software just before he flatlines. After fleeing his house (which is immediately thereafter destroyed) he meets Lucas, Beauvoir and Jackie, a group fascinated by and dedicated to the recent appearance of voodoo deities in Cyberspace, who take him into their protection as they are collectively targeted by various corporate agents. It is eventually revealed that Bobby's mysterious savior is Angie (see Thread One); the two only meet physically at the very end of the book. Thread Three: Marly Krushkova, the former owner of a Paris art gallery whose reputation was destroyed when she was tricked into trying to sell a forgery, is recruited by ultra-rich, reclusive art patron Josef Virek to find the unknown creator of a series of futuristic collage boxes styled after the work of Joseph Cornell. Unbeknownst to her, the reason behind Virek's interest in these boxes is related to indications of biosoft construction in the design of one, which he suspects may be contained in the others. All of these plot lines come together at the end of the story and Virek – the hunter of his immortality and unlimited power – becomes the hunted. It is hinted that multiple AIs secretly inhabiting cyberspace are the fragmented, compartmentalized remains of two AIs, Neuromancer and Wintermute, having joined together (introduced in Neuromancer, and designed by the head of this Rockefeller-like family, the Tessier-Ashpools). These AI units now interface with humanity in the form of different Haitian voodoo gods, as they have found these images to be the best representations of themselves through which they can communicate with people. Hackers worldwide are becoming aware that there is something weird loose in the cyberspace matrix, but most are understandably reluctant to talk about (or deal with) "voodoo spooks" supposedly haunting cyberspace. The "voodoo gods" have constructed the elaborate series of events in the novel, having originally given Mitchell the information for developing the biosoft, instructing him to insert a biosoft modification in his daughter's brain, and then sent the Cornell boxes into the world to attract, and enable the disposal of, the malicious Virek. A pair of epilogue chapters resolve the fates of the protagonists, at least until Mona Lisa Overdrive. Angie has attained celebrity status as a simstim star, and has entered a relationship with Bobby who is employed as her 'bodyguard'. Marly has returned to Paris and now curates one of the largest art galleries in the city. Turner has returned to his childhood home (the same one occupied by Rudy and Sally earlier in the book) to raise the child conceived during his affair with Sally; Rudy was killed by Conroy's agents when they were trailing Turner and Angie. The Cyberspace Matrix, a synergistic linked computer database that encompasses all information on Earth, has become home to sentient beings. But most of humanity remains unaware. 

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A young Dutch couple, Rex and Saskia, are on holiday in France. As they drive, Saskia shares a recurring dream in which she is drifting through space in a golden egg. In the most recent dream, another egg containing another person appeared; she feels the collision of the two eggs would signify the end of something. Their car runs out of petrol and they stop at a rest area, where a man in another car dons a false sling and orthopedic cast. Rex promises to never abandon Saskia and they bury two coins at the base of a tree as a symbol of their romance. Saskia enters the petrol station to buy drinks and does not return. Rex frantically searches for her. Some time earlier, Raymond, a wealthy family man, secretly plots to abduct a woman. He buys an isolated house, experiments with chloroform, and rehearses methods of enticing women into his car. When his initial attempts at abduction fail, he poses as an injured motorist in need of assistance and goes to the rest area out of town, where he will not be recognised. Three years after Saskia's disappearance, Rex is still searching for her. He has received several postcards inviting him to meet the kidnapper at a cafe in Nîmes, but the kidnapper never comes. Unknown to Rex, the cafe is directly opposite Raymond's apartment, where he watches Rex wait. Rex's new girlfriend, Lieneke, reluctantly helps him search for Saskia. One day, Rex has a dream similar to Saskia's in which he is trapped in a golden egg. Unable to endure his obsession, Lieneke leaves him. Rex makes a public appeal on television, saying he only wants to know the truth about what happened to Saskia. Raymond confronts Rex and admits the kidnapping; he says he will reveal what happened to her if Rex comes with him. As they drive, Raymond says that he has known from a young age that he has no conscience, and is therefore capable of anything. After saving a young girl from drowning, he resolved to commit the worst crime he could imagine to learn whether doing something good felt better. He describes how he kidnapped Saskia at the rest stop by posing as a traveling salesman and enticing her into his car. Raymond takes Rex to the rest area. He dismisses Rex's threats of police action, saying there is no evidence connecting him to the crime. He pours Rex a cup of drugged coffee, and tells him the only way to learn what happened to Saskia is to experience it himself. As Raymond waits in the car, Rex rages, unsure of what to do. After digging up the coins he and Saskia buried years earlier, he drinks the coffee and awakens buried in a box underground. Raymond relaxes at his country home, surrounded by his wife and children. A newspaper sitting in Raymond's car features a headline about the double disappearance of both Saskia and Rex. 

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Edward Jessup is a psychopathologist who, while studying schizophrenia, begins to think that "our other states of consciousness are as real as our waking states." Edward begins experimenting with sensory deprivation using a flotation tank, aided by two like-minded researchers, Arthur Rosenberg and Mason Parrish. At a faculty party, he meets fellow "whiz kid" and biological anthropologist Emily, and the two eventually marry. Seven years later, Edward and Emily have two daughters, are on the brink of divorce, and reunite with the couple who first introduced them. When Edward hears of a Mexican tribe that experiences shared illusion states, he travels to Mexico to participate in what is apparently an Ayahuasca Ceremony. During the walk into the bush, his guide says that the indigenous tribe they are meeting works with Amanita muscaria, which they are collecting for next year's ceremonies. The tribe calls one of the ingredients of the mixture they use "First Flower." An indigenous elder is seen with Banisteriopsis caapi root in his hand before cutting Edward's hand, adding blood to the mixture he is preparing. Immediately after consuming the mixture, Edward experiences bizarre, intense hallucinations. He returns to the U.S. with a tincture and continues taking it to trigger altered states of consciousness. When toxic concentrations of the substance make increased dosage dangerous, Edward returns to sensory deprivation, believing it will enhance the effects of the substance at his current dose. Repairing a disused tank in a medical school, Edward uses it to experience a series of increasingly drastic visions, including one of early Hominidae. Monitored by his colleagues, Edward insists that his visions have "externalized". Emerging from the tank, his mouth bloody, frantically writing notes because he is unable to speak, Edward insists on being X-rayed before he "reconstitutes." A radiologist inspecting the X-rays says they belong to a gorilla. In later experiments, Edward experiences actual, physical biological devolution. At one stage he emerges from the isolation tank as a feral and curiously small-statured, light-skinned caveman, going on a rampage through some streets in town before returning to his natural form. Despite his colleagues' concern, Edward stubbornly continues. In the final experiment, Edward experiences a more profound regression, transforming into an amorphous mass of conscious, primordial matter. An energy wave released from the experiment stuns Edward's colleagues and destroys his tank. Emily arrives to find a swirling maelstrom where the tank had been. She searches the vortex for Edward, finding him as he is on the brink of becoming a non-physical form of proto-consciousness and possibly disappearing from our version of reality altogether. His friends bring Edward home, hoping that the transformations will end. Watched over by Emily, Edward begins to uncontrollably regress again, the transformations no longer requiring the intake of "first flower" or sensory deprivation. Urging Edward to fight the change, Emily grabs his hand, immediately being enveloped by the primordial energy emanating from Edward. The sight of his wife apparently being consumed by the energy stirs the human consciousness in Edward's devolving form. He fights the transformation and returns to his human form. In the final scene, Edward embraces Emily, and she returns to normal. 

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Four friends who recently graduated from college live together in Houston, Texas. Coffee-house guitarist Troy Dyer and budding filmmaker Lelaina Pierce are attracted to each other, although they have not acted on their feelings except for one brief, drunken encounter. Troy is floundering, having lost several minimum wage jobs—the last of which he loses early in the film for stealing a candy bar from his employer. Lelaina was valedictorian of her university and has aspirations to become a documentarian, although initially having to settle for a position as production-assistant to a rude and obnoxious TV host. Lelaina meets Michael Grates when she throws a cigarette into his convertible, causing him to crash into her car. The two soon begin to date. He works at an MTV-like cable channel called "In Your Face" as an executive, and after learning about a documentary she's been working on, wants to get it aired on his network. Lelaina's roommate Vickie has a series of one-night stands and short relationships with dozens of guys; her promiscuity leads her to confront a very real risk of contracting HIV after a former fling tests positive for the virus. Vickie works as a sales associate for The Gap, and is later promoted to manager and seems content with her new job. Her friend Sammy Gray is gay; he remains celibate, not because of a fear of AIDS, but because forming a relationship would force him to come out to his conservative parents. After an impulsive act of retribution, Lelaina loses her job, which causes some tension with her roommates. Eventually, Vickie's HIV test comes back negative and Sammy comes out to his parents (and he even starts dating) and the two manage to resume their lives. Meanwhile, Lelaina's relationship with Michael dissolves after he helps her sell the documentary to his network, only to let them edit it into a stylized montage that she feels compromises her artistic vision. Lelaina and Troy have a heart-to-heart which leads to them sleeping together and confess their love. The morning after, he avoids her, and after a messy confrontation, leaves town. After Troy's father dies, he forces himself to reevaluate his life, deciding to attempt a relationship with Lelaina. Troy and Lelaina reunite and make amends after Troy returns from his father's funeral in Chicago. While we do not see what happens to Michael, during the credits there is an abrupt break where two characters, "Elaina" and "Roy", who are obvious parodies of Lelaina and Troy, have an argument about their relationship. As the "show's" credits roll, Michael's name is revealed as the creator, implying that he has turned the relationship between Lelaina and Troy into the subject of a new show on his network. 

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In Edwardian England, Louis D'Ascoyne Mazzini, 10th Duke of Chalfont, is in prison, awaiting his hanging for murder the following morning. As he writes his memoirs, the events of his life are shown in flashback. His mother, the youngest daughter of the 7th Duke of Chalfont, eloped with an Italian opera singer named Mazzini and was disowned by her family for marrying beneath her station. The Mazzinis were poor but happy until Mazzini died shortly after Louis, his son, had been born. In the aftermath, Louis's widowed mother raises him on the history of her family and tells him how, unlike other aristocratic titles, the dukedom of Chalfont can descend through female heirs. Louis's only childhood friends are Sibella and her brother, the children of a local doctor. When Louis leaves school, his mother writes to her kinsman Lord Ascoyne D'Ascoyne, a private banker, for assistance in launching her son's career, but is rebuffed. Louis is forced to work as an assistant in a draper's shop. When his mother dies, her last request, to be interred in the family vault at Chalfont Castle, is denied. Then Sibella ridicules Louis's marriage proposal. Instead, she marries Lionel Holland, a former schoolmate with a rich father. Soon after, Louis quarrels with customer Ascoyne D'Ascoyne, the banker's only child, who has him dismissed from his job. Louis resolves to kill Ascoyne D'Ascoyne and the other seven people ahead of him in succession to the dukedom. After arranging a fatal boating accident for Ascoyne D'Ascoyne and his mistress, Louis writes a letter of condolence to his victim's father, Lord Ascoyne D'Ascoyne, who employs him as a clerk. Upon his later promotion, Louis takes a bachelor flat in St James's, London, for assignations with Sibella. Louis then targets Henry D'Ascoyne, a keen amateur photographer. He meets Henry and is charmed by his wife, Edith. He substitutes petrol for paraffin in the lamp of Henry's darkroom, with fatal results. Louis decides the widow is fit to be his duchess. The Reverend Lord Henry D'Ascoyne is the next victim. Posing as the Anglican Bishop of Matabeleland, Louis poisons his after-dinner port. From the window of his flat, Louis then uses a bow and arrow to shoot down the balloon from which the suffragette Lady Agatha D'Ascoyne is dropping leaflets over London. Louis next sends General Lord Rufus D'Ascoyne a jar of caviar which contains a bomb. Admiral Lord Horatio D'Ascoyne presents a challenge, as he rarely sets foot on land. However, he conveniently insists on going down with his ship after causing a collision at sea. When Edith agrees to marry Louis, they notify Ethelred, the childless, widowed 8th Duke. He invites them to spend a few days at Chalfont Castle. When Ethelred casually informs Louis that he intends to remarry in order to produce an heir, Louis arranges a hunting "accident". Before murdering the Duke, he reveals his motive. Lord Ascoyne D'Ascoyne dies from the shock of learning that he has become the ninth duke, sparing Louis from murdering his kindly employer. Louis inherits the title, but his triumph proves short-lived. A Scotland Yard detective arrests him on suspicion of having murdered Lionel, who was found dead following Louis's rejection of his drunken plea for help to avoid bankruptcy. Louis elects to be tried by his peers in the House of Lords. During the trial, Louis and Edith are married. Sibella falsely testifies that Lionel was about to seek a divorce and name Louis as co-respondent. Ironically, Louis is convicted for a murder he had never even contemplated. Louis is visited by Sibella, who observes that the discovery of Lionel's suicide note and Edith's death would free Louis and enable them to marry, a proposal to which he agrees. Moments before his hanging, the discovery of the suicide note saves him. Louis finds both Edith and Sibella waiting for him outside the prison. When a reporter tells him that Tit-Bits magazine wishes to publish his memoirs, Louis then suddenly remembers that he has mislaid the compromising document; it is sitting in his cell, available for anyone to read. 

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This book tells of the escape of two dogs, Rowf and Snitter, from a government research station in the Lake District in England, where they had been horribly mistreated. They live on their own with help from a red fox, or "tod", who speaks to them in a Geordie dialect. After the starving dogs attack some sheep on the fells, they are reported as ferocious man-eating monsters by an opportunistic journalist. A great dog hunt follows, which is later intensified with the fear that the dogs could be carriers of a dangerous bioweapon, such as the bubonic plague. 

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In Pamplona, Spain, Mitch Robbins, an account executive for a radio station, participates in the annual San Fermín festival, along with friends Ed Furillo and Phil Berquist. Back in New York City, Mitch has turned 39 years old and realizes his trips are to escape the reality of going through a midlife crisis. Phil and Ed have problems of their own: Phil is trapped in a 12-year loveless marriage to his shrew wife, Arlene, while also managing her father’s supermarket; and Ed is a successful sporting goods salesman and playboy who has recently married an underwear model but is reluctant to settle down and have children. At Mitch's birthday party, Phil and Ed present a gift of a two-week cattle drive from New Mexico to Colorado. Phil is confronted by a co-worker, Nancy, who accidentally reveals a pregnancy and thus her affair with Phil, which leads to his separation from Arlene. Despite Mitch's plans to go to Florida with his wife Barbara to visit her parents, Barbara makes him go instead with his friends to search for a purpose in his life. In New Mexico, Mitch, Phil and Ed meet the ranch owner, Clay Stone, and their fellow drivers: Barry and Ira Shalowitz, a comical pair of ice cream entrepreneur brothers, Bonnie, a young beauty with a recent romantic break-up, and father and son dentists Ben and Steve Jessup. Mitch develops a rift with the ranch's abusive professional cowboys, Jeff and T.R., when they make Bonnie uncomfortable while she is practicing her roping skills. The standoff is stopped by the trail boss, Curly, who inadvertently humiliates Mitch in front of his friends. During the drive, as Mitch, Phil and Ed begin to change their outlook on life, Mitch accidentally causes a stampede which wrecks most of the camp. In retribution, Curly orders him to help gather the lost cows, and over time the two develop a bond when Mitch learns that Curly, despite his tough exterior, is actually a very wise and heartfelt man. Curly advises Mitch to discover the "one thing" in his life which is the most important to him, which will solve all of his problems. Along the way, Mitch helps deliver a calf from a dying cow, which Curly kills out of mercy. Mitch adopts the calf and names him Norman. Curly suddenly dies of a heart attack, leaving the drive under Jeff and T.R.. Trouble begins when the cook, Cookie, gets drunk and accidentally destroys their food supply, breaking his leg in the process. After the Jessups volunteer to take him back to the ranch, Jeff and T.R. intoxicate themselves with Cookie's hidden stash. A fight ensues when they threaten to kill Norman and assault Mitch. Phil and Ed intervene and a fight ensues which culminates when Phil holds Jeff and T.R. at gunpoint and unleashes withheld stress on them, after which he breaks down in tears when consoled by Mitch and Ed. Jeff and T.R. abandon the group to avoid reprisals from Clay Stone. Though Bonnie tries to assist the cattle, the Shalowitzes decide to leave the herd to seek out civilization. Ed, with Phil's assistance, decides to remain behind and try to finish the drive. Mitch, at first adamant in leaving them on their own, has a change of heart and joins them while the others continue to Colorado. After braving a heavy storm, they finally manage to drive the herd to Colorado, but Norman gets stuck in the river. Mitch saves him but they are both swept away with the current. Phil and Ed only barely manage to save them both and finally overcome their crises while resting on the bank. They reach Clay Stone's ranch in Colorado shortly afterwards. Clay Stone offers to reimburse everyone's money for their troubles, but when the Jessups ask instead for another chance to drive the cattle again Clay reveals that he is selling the herd to a meat company. Despite the fact that they initially believe that they saved the cattle for nothing, Mitch, Phil and Ed decide to rebuild their lives, and Mitch purchases Norman from Clay Stone to save him from slaughter. When the two weeks are up, Mitch returns to New York City with Phil and Ed as a happier man, and reunites with his wife Barbara and his children while bringing Norman home for a few days until he can be placed in a petting zoo. Phil begins a relationship with Bonnie, and Ed becomes open to the idea of having children. Mitch drives the freeway, ready to start life with a new vision. 

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The miniseries featured James Brolin as Ronald Reagan and Judy Davis as Nancy Reagan, and covers the period in time from 1949 when Reagan was still in Hollywood, through his governorship of California until Reagan's last day in office as President in 1989. In 1968, Reagan loses the Republican primary selections to Richard Nixon. At the end of his 8 years of service as the California governor in 1975, Reagan vies for the Republican party nomination in 1976. Then-President Gerald Ford wins the nomination. Patti Davis, one of the daughters of Ronald Reagan, is portrayed as a drug addict. After the assassination attempt on Reagan in 1981, American jets are shot down by Libya later that year. 

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Illustration of an 18th-century chapbook. Moll's mother is a convict in Newgate Prison in London who is given a reprieve by "pleading her belly," a reference to the custom of staying the executions of pregnant criminals. Her mother is eventually transported to Colonial United States, and Moll Flanders (not her birth name, she emphasizes, taking care not to reveal it) is raised from the age of three until adolescence by a kindly foster mother. Thereafter she gets attached to a household as a servant where she is loved by both sons, the elder of whom convinces her to "act like they were married" in bed. Unwilling to marry her, he persuades her to marry his younger brother. After five years of marriage, she then is widowed, leaves her children in the care of in-laws, and begins honing the skill of passing herself off as a fortuned widow to attract a man who will marry her and provide her with security. The first time she does this, her "gentleman- tradesman" spendthrift husband goes bankrupt and flees to the Continent, leaving her on her own with his blessing to do the best she can to forget him. (They had one child together, but "it was buried.") The second time, she makes a match that leads her to Virginia Colony with a kindly man who introduces her to his mother. After three children (one dies), Moll learns that her mother- in-law is actually her biological mother, which makes her husband her half- brother. She dissolves their marriage and after continuing to live with her brother for three years, travels back to England, leaving her two children behind, and goes to live in Bath to seek a new husband. Again she returns to her con skills and develops a relationship with a man in Bath whose wife is elsewhere confined due to insanity. Their relationship is at first platonic, but eventually develops into Moll becoming something of a "kept woman" in Hammersmith, London. They have three children (one lives), but after a severe illness he repents, breaks off the arrangement, and commits to his wife. However, he assures Moll that their son will be well cared for, so she leaves yet another child behind. Moll, now 42, resorts to another beau, a bank clerk, who while still married to an adulterous wife (a "whore"), proposes to Moll after she entrusts him with her financial holdings. While waiting for the banker to divorce, Moll pretends to have a great fortune to attract another wealthy husband Lancashire, assisted by a new female acquaintance who attests to Moll's (erroneous) social standing. The ruse is successful and she marries a supposedly rich man who claims to own property in Ireland. They each quickly realize that they were both conned and manipulated by the before mentioned new acquaintance. He discharges her from the marriage, telling her nevertheless that she should inherit any money he might ever get. After enjoying each other's company for about a month, they part ways, but Moll soon discovers that she is pregnant. She gives birth and the midwife gives a tripartite scale of the costs of bearing a child, with one value level per social class. She continues to correspond with the bank clerk, hoping he will still have her. Moll leaves her newborn in the care of a countrywoman in exchange for the sum of £5 a year. Moll marries the banker, but realizes "what an abominable creature I am! and how this innocent gentleman is going to be abused by me!" They live in happiness for five years before he becomes bankrupt and dies of despair, the fate of their two children left unstated. Truly desperate now, Moll begins a career of artful thievery, which, by employing her wits, beauty, charm, and femininity, as well as hard-heartedness and wickedness, brings her the financial security she has always sought. She becomes well known among those "in the trade," and is given the name Moll Flanders. She is helped throughout her career as a thief by her Governess, who also acts as receiver. (During this time she briefly becomes the mistress of a man she robbed.) Moll is finally caught by two maids whilst trying to steal from a house. In Newgate she is led to her repentance. At the same time, she reunites with her soulmate, her "Lancashire husband", who is also jailed for his robberies (before and after they first met, he acknowledges). Moll is found guilty of felony, but not burglary, the second charge; still, the sentence is death in any case. Yet Moll convinces a minister of her repentance, and together with her Lancashire husband is transported to the Colonies to avoid hanging, where they live happily together (she even talks the ship's captain into not being with the convicts sold upon arrival, but instead in the captain's quarters). Once in the colonies, Moll learns her mother has left her a plantation and that her own son (by her brother) is alive, as is her husband/brother. Moll carefully introduces herself to her brother and their son, in disguise. With the help of a Quaker, the two found a farm with 50 servants in Maryland. Moll reveals herself now to her son in Virginia and he gives her her mother's inheritance, a farm for which he will now be her steward, providing £100 a year income for her. In turn, she makes him her heir and gives him a (stolen) gold watch. At last, her life of conniving and desperation seems to be over. After her husband/brother dies, Moll tells her (Lancashire) husband the entire story and he is "perfectly easy on that account... For, said he, it was no fault of yours, nor of his; it was a mistake impossible to be prevented." Aged 69 (in 1683), the two return to England to live "in sincere penitence for the wicked lives we have lived." 

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A satire of film and television production, the series revolves around fictional Pyramid Productions – a company where greed and backstabbing thrive. Pyramid produces lucrative (but terrible) television and films for the domestic and international markets, with creative decisions made by non-creative people. Company head Alan Roy is obsessed with appearances and staying ahead of trends, whether this means owning his own cable channel or having the largest yacht at Cannes. His often-idiotic decisions lead to extra work for his employees, who must fulfill his wishes or deal with the consequences. The employees – Richard, Victor, Veronica and Wanda – manipulate each other and sabotage each other's projects to earn more money, gain promotions or work on better projects. None of them appear to have issues with breaking the law, and they seem to have no sense of morality. They generally only cooperate when they have an opportunity to destroy another company or a mutual enemy. Each episode deals with one major problem (or event), which normally does not carry over to the next episode. Pyramid projects also provide storylines for the series, as the company's staff try to manage the inevitable complications created by the casts and crews of their film and television productions. Its cash cows are two series: The Sword of Damacles , a parody of mythological adventure series such as Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and Beaver Creek, a parody of Canadian period dramas such as Anne of Green Gables and Road to Avonlea. The staff also face complications with their low-budget, poorly-made films, such as Vigilante's Vengeance. Many of their movies fail; they are not produced, or go direct-to-video in foreign countries. 

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10-year-old Michael and his family have recently moved into a house. He and his parents are nervous, as his new baby sister was born earlier than expected and may not live because of a heart condition. When Michael goes into the garage, he finds a strange emaciated creature hidden amid all the boxes, debris and dead insects. Michael assumes that he is a homeless person, but decides to look after him and gives him food. The man is crotchety and arthritic, demanding aspirin, Chinese food menu order numbers 27 and 53 and brown ale. Michael hears a story that human shoulder blades are a vestige of angel wings. Meanwhile, his friends from school become more and more distant as Michael stops attending school and spends less time with them. He meets a girl named Mina from across the road and over the course of the story they become close. Mina is home-schooled. Nature, birds, drawing, the poems of William Blake and her relationship with Michael interest her. Often drawing or sculpting at home, she invites Michael to join in. She takes care of some baby birds who live in her garden and teaches Michael to hear their tiny sounds. Michael decides to introduce her to the strange creature. Michael's friends, Coot and Leaky, become skeptical about Michael and try to find out what he is hiding from them. Michael and Mina try to keep it a secret from them, and have to move "Skellig" to a safer space. Michael asks about arthritis and how to cure it, talking to doctors and patients in the hospital where his baby sister is being treated. Grace, an old woman, took a run through the hospital and came to see her. The creature whom Michael had moved from the garage—revealing a pair of wings at his shoulders—introduces himself as "Skellig" to Michael and Mina. Michael's baby sister comes dangerously close to death, necessitating heart surgery. His mother goes to the hospital to stay with the baby and, that night, "dreams" of seeing Skellig come in, pick the baby up, and hold it high in the air, saving her. He subsequently moves from the garage after saying goodbye to Michael and Mina, answering their questions about his nature by saying that he is 'something,' combining aspects of human, owl and angel. The baby, after a while establishing what she was going to be called, they settled on Joy, after considering calling her Persephone. 

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While a new hotel opens on Amity Island, a great white shark kills two scuba divers photographing the wreckage of the Orca before heading into Amity waters. Their camera, which took pictures during the attack, is recovered the next day. The shark then kills a female water skier. The driver of the boat tries to kill the creature using a gas tank and flare gun, but the boat explodes, killing her and severely burning the right side of the shark's face. A killer whale carcass bearing fatal wounds is found beached. Police Chief Martin Brody believes a shark is responsible. Brody explains his concerns to Mayor Larry Vaughn, who expresses doubts that the town has another shark problem. Brody then finds floating debris from the destroyed speedboat and the boat driver's burnt remains. Brody calls Matt Hooper for assistance, but he is in Antarctica on a research expedition. Brody prohibits his son Mike from boating out of concern for his safety and instead lands him a job on the beach, much to Mike's dismay. The following day, Brody watches a beach from an observation tower and causes a panic after mistaking a school of bluefish for a shark, and shooting at it. However, his fears are confirmed when photos from the diver's camera are processed, and one of them shows a close-up of the shark. When he presents it to the Amity Town Council, they refuse to believe it is a shark, and vote Brody out as police chief with the sole dissent coming from the Mayor. The next morning, Mike disobeys his father's orders by going sailing with his friends, taking his younger brother Sean with him to silence him. Marge, another teen, takes Sean with her, and they head out on six separate boats, going past a team of divers led by instructor Tom Andrews. Moments after submerging, Andrews encounters the shark. Panicking, he rushes to the surface, causing an embolism. Soon after, the shark hits the boat of teenagers Tina and Eddie, who have strayed from the others; Eddie falls into the water and is devoured. Brody and his wife Ellen witness Tom's evacuation by ambulance and hear that the other divers suspect something scared him. Len Hendricks, who has taken over as Brody's replacement, tells them that Mike went sailing with his friends, so Brody and Ellen commandeer the police boat, aided by a reluctant Hendricks, to rescue them. They come across Tina's boat and find her hiding in the bow; she confirms the shark's presence. Brody hails a passing boat to take Hendricks, Ellen, and Tina to shore while he goes searching for the kids. Meanwhile, the shark attacks the group, striking one of their boats and causing most of them to capsize or crash into each other. Mike is knocked unconscious and falls in the water. The only pair whose boat is still seaworthy retrieve Mike and leave the others to take him ashore and get help; Sean and the others remain adrift upon the wreckage of tangled boats. A Coast Guard marine helicopter that Brody contacted arrives to tow them to shore, but the shark latches onto the chopper's pontoons, capsizing it and drowning the pilot. The shark knocks Sean into the water, and Marge is eaten while saving him. Brody finds Mike, who informs him of the situation before Brody sends him to safety. Brody finds the others at Cable Junction, a small island housing an electrical relay station that supplies power to Amity. The cheering and jumping that greet him attract the shark, which attacks again, causing Brody to maroon the police boat. He tries pulling them in with a winch but instead hooks an underwater power cable. The shark hits the boat wreckage, sending most of the teenagers into the water, and they swim to the edge of Cable Junction; Jackie, Mike's love interest, and Sean remain on the boats. Using an inflatable raft, Brody taps the power cable with an oar to lure the shark toward him. The shark bites the cable, electrocuting it to death. Brody collects Sean and Jackie and they join the others on Cable Junction to await rescue. 

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Part I – “Sensei and I” As the novel opens, the narrator has been left on his own in Kamakura after his friend, who invited him to vacation there, is called home by his family. One day, after finishing his usual swim in the sea, he takes notice of a man in the changing house who's there with a foreign guest, preparing to head for the water. He sees the same man each day thereafter, though no longer with his foreign companion. After some days, he finds occasion to make the man's acquaintance. As they grow closer, he comes to refer to the man as “Sensei.” On parting in Kamakura, as Sensei prepares to return home to Tokyo, the narrator asks if he can call on Sensei at his home sometime. He receives an affirmative, though less enthusiastic than hoped for, response. Several weeks after his own return to Tokyo, he makes an initial visit, only to find Sensei away. On his next visit, when he again finds Sensei away, he learns from Sensei's wife that Sensei makes monthly visits to the gravesite of a friend. Over subsequent months and years, through periodic visits, the narrator comes to know Sensei and his wife quite well. At the same time, Sensei insists on maintaining a certain distance. He refuses to talk of his deceased friend and is reluctant to explain his own reclusion and lack of occupation. He also cautions the narrator that intimacy and admiration will only lead to future disillusionment and disdain. However, he does promise that one day, when the time is right, he will divulge in full the story of his past. Part II – “My Parents and I” The narrator returns home to the country after graduation. His father, who had been in ill health, is up and about, enjoying a respite from his illness. They set a date for a graduation celebration, only to have their plans put on hold by news of the Meiji Emperor falling ill. As the weeks go by, the narrator's father gradually loses his vigor and becomes bedridden. From his bed, he follows the papers as the Emperor declines and then passes away. After the Emperor's passing, the narrator is pressured by his mother to secure employment to put his father at ease. At the same time, his father's condition holds him close to home in the country. At his mother's urging, he writes to Sensei to request assistance in finding a position in Tokyo. While not expecting any favorable response on the matter of employment, he does at least expect some reply and is disappointed when none arrives. Summer wears on, and the rest of the family is summoned home in anticipation of the father's final hour. All are moved when news comes of the suicide (junshi) of General Nogi Maresuke, who takes his own life to follow his Emperor (the Meiji Emperor) in death. Shortly thereafter, a telegram from Sensei arrives, summoning the narrator to Tokyo. Unable to leave his father, the narrator refuses Sensei's request, first by telegram and then by a letter detailing his situation. Some days later, a thick letter arrives by registered mail from Sensei. Stealing away from his father's bedside, the narrator opens the letter to find it's the previously-promised accounting of Sensei's past. Leafing through the pages, a line near the end catches his eye. “By the time this letter reaches you, I’ll be gone from this world. I’ll have already passed away.” Rushing to the station, the narrator boards the first train for Tokyo. Once on board, he takes out Sensei's letter and reads it through from the start. Part III – “Sensei’s Testament” The latter half of the novel is entirely in Sensei's voice, in the form of his long written testament that the narrator is reading aboard the train as he steams toward Tokyo. Sensei begins by explaining his reticence over the summer as he wrestled with the problem of his own continued existence. He then explains the motivation for his current actions. The remainder of the letter is an accounting of Sensei's life. Sensei grows up in the countryside and loses both of his parents to illness while still in his late teens. As an only child, he inherits the family's considerable wealth, which his uncle steps in to help manage during the years over which, as previously planned, he pursues his education in Tokyo. Each summer Sensei returns home to the country. On each such return, his uncle suggests that Sensei should marry soon and establish himself in the community as the family heir. Uninterested yet in marriage, Sensei declines to commit. As the years go on, pressure from the uncle intensifies. Then finally, the uncle proposes his own daughter, Sensei's cousin, as the bride. After Sensei's continued refusal, it comes to light that the uncle's businesses are struggling, and much of Sensei's wealth has been poured into losing ventures. Sensei, now learning the truth of his situation, salvages what remains, arranges for the sale of his house and possessions, visits his parents’ gravesite one last time, and turns his back on his home town, severing all ties with his relations. Back at his studies in Tokyo, and now with his own assets in hand, Sensei decides to trade his boisterous student lodgings for calmer quarters. Walking the surrounding hills, he's referred by a local shop owner to the home of a widow looking to take in a boarder. The household is quiet, with just the widow, her daughter, and a maidservant. After a brief interview, the widow accepts Sensei as her boarder. Sensei is smitten with the daughter at first sight, but at the same time the deceit of his uncle has left him generally distrustful. The widow takes to him and treats him as family, helping to sooth his nerves and draw him out. After some time, he thinks to ask the widow for her daughter's hand but still holds back for fear that the widow, or the widow and her daughter in collusion, are playing him just as his uncle had. Sensei has a friend and classmate, whom he refers to simply as K, who hails from the same home town and with whom he shared a common dormitory during his first years of study in Tokyo. K is the second son of a Buddhist priest but was sent to the family of a prominent local physician as an adoptive son. His adoptive family funds his study of medicine in Tokyo, but contrary to their wishes, K pursues his own passions of religion and philosophy. After his third year in Tokyo, he confesses his deception and is disowned as a result. Sensei feels some obligation to assist his friend, who is struggling to maintain an aggressive course of study while at the same time supporting himself. K views himself as an ascetic and strongly declines any form of financial assistance. Finally, Sensei convinces K to join him in his lodgings, arguing that K's presence there will serve toward his own spiritual betterment. After some persuasion on Sensei's part to win the widow's approval, K joins Sensei in the widow's home as a second boarder. After a while, with Sensei working behind the scenes, K warms to his new surroundings, emerges from his ascetic shell, and grows more sociable. Sensei is pleased with the improvement he's worked in his friend's demeanor but also begins to see K as a rival for the daughter's affection. In the summer before their final year of studies, Sensei and K set out together on a walking tour of the Boshu peninsula. They follow the shoreline from village to village, trudging under the hot sun and cooling themselves from time to time in the sea. All the while, Sensei is tormented by suspicions. He wonders if K might not have his eye on the daughter, and he fears that the daughter may in fact favor K. He longs to divulge to K his feelings for the daughter, but he lacks the courage to do so. Sensei and K return to Tokyo, blackened by the sun and haggard from days of trekking. Autumn comes and classes begin again. Sensei returns home at times to find K and the daughter conversing amiably, and he worries they’re growing close. He thinks again to ask the widow for her daughter's hand, but again holds back, this time for fear that K holds the daughter's affection. Finally, during the New Year's holiday, things come to a head when the widow and her daughter leave home for the day to call on a relative. K comes into Sensei's room, joins him at his hibachi, and after a pained silence forces out a confession of his love for the daughter. Sensei, shocked and dismayed, is unable to muster a response. Sensei kicks himself for not at least having countered K's confession with his own. Through subsequent conversation, though, he finds some solace in learning that K's sentiments are known only to the two of them and not to the ladies. In the days that follow, K either cannot or will not articulate his intentions, and Sensei's anxiety persists. Finally, K seeks out Sensei's counsel, confiding that he's torn between his long-held ideals and his newfound passion. Sensing K's vulnerability, and at the same time seeking to serve his own interest, Sensei berates K, throwing back at him his own words on discipline and servitude to a cause. K asks that Sensei speak no more on the subject and withdraws into reticence. Sensei fears that K is preparing to shift his life's course out of love for the daughter. Resolving to preempt K's actions, he feigns illness, staying home for time alone with the widow. After confirming that K has not yet approached her, Sensei asks the widow for her daughter's hand. She acquiesces, and the matter is easily settled. That same day, the widow talks to her daughter. Within the household, only K remains unaware of what's transpired. Days pass, with Sensei loathe to disclose to K what he's done. Finally, it comes to light that the widow has spoken to K and been surprised by his reaction. She scolds Sensei for leaving his friend in the dark. Sensei resolves to talk with K the next morning, but he never gets the chance. During the night, K takes his own life. K leaves behind a note, but absent the rebuke that Sensei dreads. K's feelings for the daughter, along with Sensei's betrayal of his friend's trust, are forever safe from the world. Sensei notifies K's family and proceeds to settle affairs as requested in K's final note. He suggests that K be interred in the nearby Zoshigaya cemetery, and K's family agrees. Sensei and the ladies relocate shortly thereafter to a new house. Sensei finishes his studies, and half a year later weds the daughter. Sensei makes monthly pilgrimages to K's grave. His betrayal of K, and K's death, continue to cast a shadow over his married life, yet he remains unable to burden his wife with his secret. Having lost faith in humanity in general, and now in his own self, Sensei withdraws from the world to lead an idle life. As the years pass and he reflects further on K, he comes to realize that K's suicide was less about lost love and more about alienation and disappointment in oneself. Sensei feels himself drawn, more and more, to follow K's path. With the ending of the Meiji era and the passing of General Nogi, Sensei decides that he's outlived his time and must part from the world. His final request to the narrator is that his wife never know his story, that it be held private until after she's gone. 

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From the age of thirteen, on the eve of the Great War, Millicent King keeps her journals in a series of exercise books. The diary records the dramas of everyday life in an ordinary English family touched by war, tragedy, and money troubles in the early decades of the century. She struggles to become a teacher, but wants more out of life. From bohemian literary London to Rome in the twenties, her story moves on to social work and the build-up to another war, in which she drives ambulances through the bombed streets of London. She has proposals of marriage and secret lovers, ambition and optimism, but then her life is turned upside down once more by wartime deaths. 

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Graphic novel panels are used in place of cutscenes as narration, an element common to neo-noir The story is told in medias res and consists of three volumes: "The American Dream", "A Cold Day in Hell", and "A Bit Closer to Heaven". The game begins in January 2001, as New York City finishes experiencing the worst blizzard in its history. The intro sequence shows Max Payne (voiced by James McCaffrey), a renegade DEA agent and former NYPD officer, standing at the top of a damaged skyscraper building as police units arrive. He experiences a flashback from three years ago. Back in August 1998, Max returned home in New Jersey to find that a trio of apparent junkies had broken into his house while high on a new designer drug called Valkyr. Max rushed to aid his family but was too late: his wife Michelle (Haviland Morris) and their newborn daughter Rose had already been brutally murdered, sending him into a deep despair. After their funeral, Payne transferred to the DEA. Three years later, Max is employed as an undercover operative inside the Punchinello Mafia family responsible for the trafficking of Valkyr. His DEA colleague B.B. gives Max a message asking him to meet Alex Balder (Chris Phillips), his handler and best friend, in a subway station at Roscoe Street. Max's arrival at the subway results in a shoot-out after he encounters mobsters working for Jack Lupino, a Mafia underboss in the Punchinello crime family, attempting a bank robbery by breaking through from the station. Working his way back to the surface, Max encounters Alex, who is killed by an unknown assassin. Payne becomes the prime suspect in Alex's murder because he is still undercover to the media and the fact that he fled the crime scene. Additionally, the Mafia find out that he is a cop and want him dead. While searching for Lupino in businesses owned by him, Max busts a Valkyr drug deal and discovers that the Russian mobster Vladimir Lem is engaged in a fierce turf war against Punchinello's men. While searching, Max gets a phone call from a man named Alfred Woden, stating that the police have been tipped off as to his location, and he escapes. Max eventually finds Vinnie Gognitti, Lupino's right-hand man; he wounds and chases Gognitti through the city and learns the location of Lupino's hideout, a nightclub named Ragna Rock. After gunning down the insane Lupino, Payne meets Mona Sax (Julia Murney), a contract assassin, who pours him a drink which turns out to be laced with a sedative. While sedated and experiencing a nightmare about his deceased family, Max is found by the Mafia and is dragged away to be tortured. After coming to, Max manages to escape from the Mafia-owned slaughterhouse and enters a brief alliance with Lem. He agrees to kill one of Vladimir's traitors, Boris Dime, and his men aboard the cargo ship Charon at the Brooklyn waterfront. The ship is carrying a shipment of high-powered firearms belonging to the Russian mob, which Max keeps in exchange for the favor. Despite this fact, Max is still skeptical about taking down Don Angelo Punchinello, and decides to cut a deal with him; the Don tells Max to meet him at his Mafia restaurant, Casa di Angelo. However, upon entering, he escapes a bomb ambush. Max then uses the Russian weapons to storm the Punchinello manor. There, he finds the body of Lisa Punchinello, the Don's wife and Mona's twin sister, and discovers that the Don is only a puppet in the Valkyr market when the mafioso is killed in front of Payne by agents of Nicole Horne (Jane Gennaro), the ruthless CEO of the Aesir Corporation. Horne injects Max with an overdose of Valkyr, leaves him for dead, and orders her men to take her to 'Cold Steel'. Max overhears this at the last moment before falling unconscious, as he experiences another drug-induced nightmare and suffers internal torment from his feelings of guilt for not being able to save his family. After surviving the overdose and awakening, Payne pursues his only lead to a steel foundry located over a hidden underground military research complex. Inside, he discovers that Valkyr is the result of the Valhalla Project, an early 1990s U.S. military attempt to improve soldiers' stamina and morale following earlier Ladder experiments. The project was sharply halted due to poor results but was later secretly restarted by Horne through Aesir. He discovers that his wife accidentally found out about the project, and Horne let loose the crazed Valkyr test subjects into his house. Aesir initiates 'Operation Dead Eyes' to get rid of evidence and witnesses, including their scientists. Max escapes the bunker at the last moment just as it self destructs. Max gets a call from B.B., who arranges a meeting at an underground parking lot. At this point, Max has already figured out that it was B.B. who shot Alex and framed him for his murder. The meeting turns out to be an ambush, and a running gun fight commences as Max chases B.B. through the garage. After killing the traitor, Max gets another phone call from Woden asking him to come to the Asgard Building. Alfred reveals himself to be part of a powerful secret society called the Inner Circle, which has strong ties to the U.S. government. The Inner Circle members inform Max about Horne's identity but cannot pursue her themselves because 'their hands are tied'. They ask Max to kill Horne in exchange for dropping any criminal charges against him. Suddenly, Asgard is overrun by Aesir gunmen who kill everyone in the meeting room except for Max, who escapes, and Woden, who pretends to be shot. Max fights his way out of the building. Max arrives at the main office of Aesir Corporation and makes his way through the high-tech security building while avoiding strafing runs by a mini-gun-armed helicopter. Along the way, he runs into Mona again in an elevator but Horne's men shoot her in the head after she refuses to kill Max, though her body has vanished when Max later returns to the elevator. On the top floor, Max confronts Horne, who escapes to the roof and boards the helicopter. Max shoots the guy wires of the building's antenna which snap off, causing the antenna t crash into the helicopter, killing Horne. The game's storyline comes back to the point where it first started: the NYPD ESU arrives at the scene, arresting Max and leading him out of the Aesir building. Once at the floor level, he notices Woden grinning from a crowd that had formed at the scene, and, knowing that Woden will ensure his safe passage through the judicial system, Max smiles as well. 

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While Dorothy Gale is at home in Kansas one day, she and her pet dog Toto meet the Shaggy Man who comes walking past the Gale farm. He is a friendly, yet slightly senile hobo with an optimistic, care free mentality. He politely asks Dorothy for directions to Butterfield, which is the nearest town on the prairie. The girl agrees to show him the way, bringing her dog with her. Further on, the road splits into seven paths. They take the seventh one and soon find themselves lost in what appears to be another dimension. The trio meets Button-Bright, a cute and wealthy little boy in a sailor's outfit who is always getting lost. Later, the companions encounter Polychrome, the beautiful and ethereal Daughter of the Rainbow who is stranded on earth. Polychrome explains that she accidentally fell off her father's bow while dancing on it. The bow ascended into the atmosphere and back into the clouds before she was able to climb her way back on it, thus being left behind. Dorothy, Toto, the Shaggy Man, Button-Bright, and Polychrome eventually come to the peculiar town of Foxville, where anthropomorphic foxes live. With prompting from King Dox of Foxville, Dorothy deduces that she and Toto are obviously on another "fairy adventure" that will ultimately lead them to magical Land of Oz, just in time for Princess Ozma's royal birthday party, (which is now acknowledged as August 21 by Oz fans, even though the book only refers to the 21st of the month), Dorothy having mentioned that the current month is August in another passage. The king takes a particular liking to Button Bright, whom he considers astute and clever due to his tabula rasa-like mind. Believing that the human face does not suit one so clever, Dox gives him a fox's head. A similar event subsequently happens to the Shaggy Man, when King Kik-a-Bray of Dunkiton confers a donkey's head upon him — also in reward for cleverness, even though it is implied that Foxville and Dunkiton exist at odds with one another. After meeting the Musicker, who produces music from his breath, and fighting off the Scoodlers, who fight by removing their own heads and throwing them at the travelers, Dorothy and her companions reach the edge of the fatal Deadly Desert completely surrounding Oz. There, the Shaggy Man's friend Johnny Dooit builds a "sand-boat" by which they may cross. This is necessary, because physical contact with the desert's sands, as of this book and Ozma of Oz (1907), will turn the travelers to dust. Upon reaching Oz, Dorothy and her companions are warmly welcomed by the mechanical man Tik-Tok and Billina the Yellow Hen. They proceed in company to come in their travels to the Truth Pond where Button Bright and the Shaggy Man regain their true heads by bathing in its waters. They meet the Tin Woodman, the Scarecrow, and Jack Pumpkinhead who journey with them to the imperial capital called Emerald City for Ozma's grand birthday bash. Dorothy meets up with Ozma as her chariot is pulled in by the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger. As preparations for Ozma's birthday party are made, the guests include Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, Cowardly Lion, the Wizard of Oz, Jack Pumpkinhead, Sawhorse, Tik-Tok, Billina, Jellia Jamb, Woggle-Bug, Hungry Tiger, the Good Witch of the North, Shaggy Man, Button- Bright, Polychrome, and characters from all over Nonestica (such as Santa Claus, a band of Ryls, and a bunch of Knooks from the Forest of Burzee, Queen Zixi of Ix, the Queen of Merryland, four wooden soldiers, and the Candy Man from Merryland, the Braided Man from Boboland's Pyramid Mountain, the Royal Family of the Land of Ev, King Bud and Princess Fluff from Noland, and John Dough, Chick the Cherub, Para Bruin the Rubber Bear from Hiland and Loland) as well as invitations to King Dox, King Kik-a-Bray, and Johnny Dooit. The Shaggy Man receives permission to stay in Oz permanently. He is given, in addition to this, a new suit of clothes having bobtails in place of his former costume's ragged edges, so that he may retain his name and identity. After everyone has presented their gifts and feasted at a lavish banquet in Ozma's honor, the Wizard of Oz demonstrates a method of using bubbles as transportation by which to send everyone home. Polychrome is finally found by her rainbow family and she is magically lifted into the sky when she climbs back onto her bow. Button-Bright goes home with Santa Claus in a soap bubble. Dorothy and Toto are finally wished back home to Kansas again by Ozma's use of the Magic Belt. 

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In the north of Narnia, a clever and greedy ape named Shift persuades a well-meaning but simple-minded donkey called Puzzle to dress in a lion's skin (an echo from Aesop's story of The Ass in the Lion's Skinp. 359, fn. Paul Ford. 1986. Companion to Narnia. New York: Collier Books.p. 55. David Downing. 2005. Into the Wardrobe. Jossey- Bass) and pretend to be the Great Lion Aslan. Using Puzzle as his pawn, Shift deceives many of the Narnians into serving the Calormenes and cutting down Talking Trees for lumber. The money will be paid into "Aslan's" treasury, held by Shift, on the pretext that it will be used for the good of the Narnians. Narnia has had peace and prosperity since the reign of King Caspian X, but Roonwit the Centaur warns Tirian, the latest king of Narnia, that strange and evil things are happening to Narnia and that the stars portend ominous developments. Tirian and his friend Jewel the Unicorn hear word of the death of the Talking Trees and rashly set out to confront the danger, giving Roonwit instructions to go and gather a small army to join them. Finding two Calormenes abusing a Narnian Talking Horse, they kill them both in a blind rage; ashamed, they give themselves up to "Aslan". Awaiting judgement, Tirian recognises the farce that Shift has fabricated in league with the talking cat Ginger and the Calormene warlord Rishda Tarkaan: the lie that Aslan and the Calormene god Tash are one and the same. When he accuses the ape of lying, Tirian is tied to a tree for the night and will face judgment the following morning. He is treated by some of the woodland creatures, who are sympathetic to his suffering, but they can't bring themselves to go against "Aslan." Tirian calls on Aslan for help and receives a vision of the "Friends of Narnia" gathered in our world – Professor Kirke, Polly Plummer, Peter Pevensie, Edmund Pevensie, Lucy Pevensie, Eustace Scrubb, and Jill Pole, though he does not know who they are. They also see Tirian and, though Tirian can't speak to them, they guess he is a messenger from Narnia. A few minutes later by Narnian time – but a week later from their perspective – Jill and Eustace arrive in Narnia. They release the King and rescue Jewel. Jill also finds Puzzle in the stable and with the King's permission, allows him to join them on their mission. A band of Dwarfs are also rescued, but their faith in Aslan has been shattered and they refuse to help, proclaiming "the dwarfs are for the dwarfs". Only one Dwarf named Poggin is still faithful to Aslan and joins the group. Tirian learns that Shift and Rishda have unintentionally summoned the actual Tash to Narnia when he and the others see him travelling north. Farsight the Eagle arrives bearing grim news: Roonwit and the Narnian army have all been killed in battle and the Calormenes have taken Cair Paravel in Tirian's absence. Tirian and his small force advance on the stable to expose the truth of Shift's deception. Shift and Rishda plan to weed out the troublemakers by forcing them into the stable to "meet Tashlan." But Ginger, sent in to aid in the deception, runs out in terror, having lost his ability to speak. Emeth, one of Rishda's men and a devout follower of Tash, insists on seeing his god. Rishda tries to dissuade him, but Emeth enters the stable. Angry at the deception in the name of Tash, he kills another soldier who was stationed in the stable to murder the rebellious Narnians, but then disappears. Outside the stable, Tirian's group engages Shift and the Calormenes, but most of the remaining Narnians are all either killed or captured and sacrificed to Tash, by being thrown into the stable. Tirian throws Shift into the stable, and Tash, who has haunted the stable since Ginger briefly entered it, swallows the ape whole. This event frightens Rishda, who offers the remaining Narnians as sacrifices to Tash to avoid his god's wrath. But Tirian, left alone and fighting for his life, drags Rishda into the stable and finds himself in a vast and beautiful land. Tash appears, seizing Rishda, and advances on Tirian just as the Friends of Narnia appear, all dressed as kings and queens. (Susan does not appear, they explain, because she has stopped believing in Narnia, thinking it only a silly childhood game.) Peter in the name of Aslan orders Tash to return to his realm, and Tash vanishes with Rishda in his clutches. The faithless Dwarfs are present but cannot see they are in Aslan's country; they perceive themselves to be locked in an actual stable. Aslan demonstrates that, without faith, even he cannot help them. The kings and queens bear witness to the end of the Narnian world. All the inhabitants, living and dead, gather outside the barn to be judged by Aslan; the faithful enter Aslan's Country while those who have opposed or deserted him become ordinary animals and vanish. The vegetation is eaten by dragons and giant lizards, and Father Time calls the stars down from the skies into the sea as it rises to cover Narnia. The land freezes when Father Time puts out the sun and the moon. Peter closes the door, and Aslan leads them to his country, telling them to go further up and further in. Soon they encounter Emeth; Aslan has accepted his faithful service to Tash because it was good and therefore truly done to Aslan, whereas Tash is only served by evil. They find they are in a new, "real" version of Narnia. (Digory mentions Plato, whose Allegory of the Cave describes multiple levels of reality.) They move up a waterfall to gates where they are greeted by Reepicheep and meet/reunite with other characters from the earlier novels. They find they can see a real England, including the Pevensies' parents, parallelling the real Narnia. Aslan tells them that the English friends of Narnia and the Pevensies' parents have all died in a train wreck. (Susan, who was not on the train, is the only surviving member of the family.) The series ends with the revelation that this was only the beginning of the true story, "which goes on for ever, and in which every chapter is better than the one before". 

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Following the funeral of Richard Abernethie, his family assemble at Enderby Hall for the reading of the will by his lawyer, Mr Entwhistle. His wealth is to be divided up between his surviving family: his brother Timothy Abernethie and his wife Maud; his sister Cora Lansquenet; his nephew George Crossfield; his first niece Rosamund Shane, and her husband Michael; his second niece Susan Banks, and her husband Gregory; and Helen Abernethie, the wife of his brother Leo before his death during the war. Although Richard died of natural causes and his death was expected, Cora makes a chance remark that he was murdered. The day after the funeral, she is found dead, having been violently murdered in her sleep. No motive is obvious in Inspector Morton's investigations - while Cora's life income reverts to the Abernethie estate, her property goes to Susan, while her companion Miss Gilchrist receives a number of her paintings she made. However, doubts soon arise about Richard's death in the wake of her murder. Seeking help, Entwhistle contacts his friend, Hercule Poirot, to resolve the matter. Poirot contacts his old friend Mr Goby to investigate the family. Each family member had their own reason for wanting Richard's wealth, and thus become a suspect in the murder. On the day of the inquest, Susan visits Cora's home to clean up her possessions for auction. She learns from Gilchrist that her aunt always painted from life, and that she collected paintings from local sales in the hopes of finding a valuable piece. The day after Cora's funeral, art critic Alexander Guthrie arrives to look through Cora's recent purchases as previously scheduled, but finds nothing of value there. That evening, Gilchrist is poisoned with a slice of arsenic-laced wedding cake sent in the post; she survives, mainly from eating a small portion. Gathering to select items from Richard's estate before its sale, the family are joined by Poirot and Gilchrist. During discussions, Helen comments about believing there was something odd on the day of the funeral, Gilchrist makes a remark about one of the decorations in Enderby, while Susan recalls finding a painting in Cora's possession, which she believed had been copied from a picture postcard and not painted from life, Cora's usual style. Early the next morning, Helen telephones Entwhistle to inform him what she had realised was odd during Richard's funeral, but is struck savagely on the head before she can say more. Helen suffers concussion, and is taken away for her safety. As Morton prepares to ask each family member about their movements on the day of Cora's murder, Poirot startles everyone by revealing to them that her murderer was Miss Gilchrist. She had recognised a Vermeer amongst Cora's recent purchases that her employer had not, and knew it was her chance to rebuild her beloved tea shop that she lost in the war. She painted over the Vermeer painting with a scene of a pier from a postcard, unaware it had been destroyed in the war. Afterwards, she put a sedative in Cora's tea so she would be asleep, while Gilchrist posed as her at the funeral. None of the family had seen Cora for more than two decades, which made her deception easier. After leaving suggestions that Richard had been murdered, Gilchrist killed Cora the following day so that police would believe it was connected to Richard's death. To divert suspicion from herself, Gilchrist faked the attempt on her life. Gilchrist had to copy Cora's characteristic turn of her head, but failed to realise one of these was wrong when she rehearsed it in front of a mirror. Helen was attacked because she eventually realised this. Furthermore, Poirot knew she had posed as Cora because she made a reference to a piece of decoration, which could only have been seen within Enderby Hall on the day of Richard's funeral. The Vermeer was hidden by Gilchrist so that Guthrie did not find it during his scheduled visit. Her claim that Cora painted the pier scene from life was countered by Susan finding a pre-war postcard of the pier in the cottage, along with Entwhistle recollecting that he smelt oil when he visited Cora's home after her murder when he contacted Poirot for help. Morton then reveals that two nuns visited Cora's cottage on the day of the funeral, who believed someone was inside. Once accused, Gilchrist breaks down into a flood of complaints about the hardships of her life, but quietly goes with the police. During legal proceedings before her trial, she eventually becomes insane, planning one tea shop after another, though Poirot and Entwhistle have no doubt she was in full possession of her faculties during her crime. 

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Captain Ivan Danko and Lieutenant Yuri Ogarkov of the Moscow Militia lead a sting operation against Georgian drug kingpin Viktor Rostavili. However, Rostavili manages to evade capture, and in an ensuing firefight, kills Ogarkov and flees to the United States. As Danko is recovering from his injuries, Rostavili is arrested for a minor traffic violation in Chicago, and Danko is subsequently dispatched to America to retrieve the felon, under strict orders not to reveal the true nature of Rostavili's extradition. Upon arriving in Chicago, Danko is met by Police Detective Sergeant Art Ridzik and Detective Max Gallagher. As he is interrogating Rostavili, Danko confiscates a mysterious key hidden on his person. While he is being transported to the airport, the group is ambushed by his men and Gallagher is shot and killed, allowing the prisoner to escape. Against the wishes of local authorities, Danko resolves to remain in Chicago to apprehend Rostavili, and Ridzik is assigned to be his minder. Through an informant, Danko and Ridzik learn that Rostavili is working with local street gangs to purchase and smuggle uncut cocaine into the Soviet Union. The duo confront Rostavili's American wife Cat Manzetti, but are led into an ambush where Rostavili demands Danko return his key, forcing the two to flee. Danko and Ridzik go to a hospital to interrogate one of Rostavili's men, injured during the earlier ambush, but he is killed by another of Rostavili's accomplices disguised as a nurse. Danko subsequently shoots and kills the assassin. Ridzik's superiors confiscate Danko's sidearm, as he isn't licensed to carry one in the United States, and order him to cease the investigation. However Ridzik, who still wants to avenge his partner's murder, secretly gives Ivan his spare gun. Returning to his hotel, Ivan is attacked by Rostavili's men. While Ivan fights them off, Rostavili sneaks into his room and steals the locker key. Art takes Ivan to visit a locksmith, where they match the key to ones produced for lockers at a bus terminal. Rostavili uses the key to retrieve his drug shipment, and steals an empty bus just as Ivan and Art arrive. Chasing him in another bus, Ivan and Art cause Rostavili to crash into an oncoming train. As Rosta crawls out of the wreckage, Ivan kills him. Later, Art takes Ivan to the airport. As a token of their new friendship, they exchange wristwatches. 

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In Western Australia, May 1915, Archy Hamilton, an 18-year-old stockman and prize-winning sprinter, longs to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force. He is trained by his uncle Jack and idolises Harry Lasalles, the world champion over 100 yards. Archy wins a race with a bullying farmhand, Les McCann, Archy running bare- foot and Les riding his horse bareback. Frank Dunne is an unemployed ex- railway labourer who has run out of money. He's an accomplished sprinter and hopes to win the prize money at the athletics carnival; he also bets a lot of money on himself winning. Archy and Uncle Jack journey to the athletics carnival. Frank is surprised when Archy defeats him, and is bitter at first and feels robbed of his bet. Eventually Frank approaches Archy in a cafe after getting over his loss and they both decide to travel to Perth to enlist. Before leaving, Archy gives all the prize money he won at the race to Jack and tells him that he will not be coming home for he has decided to enlist. As Archy and Frank are penniless, they secretly hop on a freight train. However, as they awoke the next morning, they discover the train had stopped at a remote desert station instead of Perth. The station attendant informs them that they could either wait two weeks for the next train or walk 50 miles across the dry lake bed to reach a location with more frequent service. Archy immediately sets off while Frank chases behind in an attempt to persuade him to stay, reminding him that they could die in the desert much as members of the Burke and Wills expedition did. With Archy's navigation skills, the pair eventually reach a cattle station in safety. Upon arriving in Perth, they arrange to stay with Frank's father, an Irish immigrant. Due to Frank's Irish heritage and general cynicism, he has little desire to fight for the British Empire. However, Archy persuades him to try to enlist in the Light Horse. Failing to ride a horse, Frank enlists in the infantry with three co-workers from the railway: Bill, Barney, and Snowy. Many of the motivations for enlistment are revealed: wartime anti-German propaganda, a sense of adventure and the attraction of the uniform. All soldiers embark on a transport ship bound for Cairo. Frank and Archy are separated and embark on different troopships. Some months later, Frank and his fellow soldiers train near the Pyramids and spend their free time in Cairo, drinking and visiting brothels. During a training exercise, Frank and Archy meet once again; Frank is able to transfer to the Light Horse, as they are now being sent to the Gallipoli peninsula as infantrymen. They arrive at Anzac Cove and endure several days of hardships and boredom in the trenches. Frank's infantry friends fight in the Battle of Lone Pine on the 6 August. Afterwards, a traumatized Billy tells Frank what happened to the others: Barney has been shot and killed, and Snowy is in a hospital, but in such bad condition that he is denied food and water. The following morning, Archy and Frank are ordered to take part in the charge at the Nek, a diversion in support of the British landing at Suvla Bay. Archy is ordered by Major Barton to be the message runner. He declines the offer and recommends Frank for the role. The Light Horse are to attack in three waves across a stretch of ground defended by Turkish machine gunners. The first wave is to go at 4:30 AM, after an artillery bombardment. Unfortunately, the commanders' watches are unsynchronized and the bombardment ends too early. The brigade's commander, Colonel Robinson, insists the ANZAC attack proceed; the first wave is cut down by the Turks within seconds. The second wave goes over, to a similar fate. Major Barton wants to halt the attack to end the carnage, but the Colonel says that somebody told him ANZAC marker flags were seen in the Turkish trenches, indicating that the attack was partially successful. The phone line goes dead. Barton gives Frank a message to carry to Brigade HQ but, when he arrives, the Colonel insists the attack continue. Lieutenant Gray, Major Barton's second-in-command, admits to Barton that he was the soldier who said that he saw marker flags, though he did not remember who told him. Frank suggests to the Major that he go over the Colonel's head to General Gardner. Frank hurries to Gardner's headquarters down on the beach. The General is informed that, at Suvla, the British landing party is brewing tea on the beach. He tells Frank that he is reconsidering the attack. Frank sprints back to convey this news, but the phone lines are repaired and Colonel Robinson orders the attack to continue. Barton joins his men in the attack, climbs out of the trench pistol in hand, and signals his men to charge. Archy joins the last wave and goes over the top. Frank arrives seconds too late and lets out a scream of anguish and despair. As Archy's companions are cut down by gun fire he drops his rifle and runs as hard as he can. The final frame freezes on Archy being hit by bullets across his chest, head back, as if breaking the tape at the finish of a 100-yard sprint, and falling backwards. 

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Burmese Days is set in 1920s imperial Burma, in the fictional district of Kyauktada, based on Kathar (formerly spelled Katha), a town where Orwell served. Like the fictional town, it is the head of a branch railway line above Mandalay on the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) River. As the story opens, U Po Kyin, a corrupt Burmese magistrate, is planning to destroy the reputation of the Indian, Dr Veraswami. The doctor hopes for help from his friend John Flory who, as a pukka sahib (European white man), has higher prestige. Dr Veraswami also desires election to the town's European Club, of which Flory is a member, expecting that good standing among the Europeans will protect him from U Po Kyin's intrigues. U Po Kyin begins a campaign to persuade the Europeans that the doctor holds anti- British opinions in the belief that anonymous letters with false stories about the doctor "will work wonders". He even sends a threatening letter to Flory. John Flory, a jaded 35-year-old teak merchant with a birthmark on his face in the shape of a ragged crescent, spends three weeks of every month acquiring jungle timber. Friendless among his fellow Europeans and unmarried, but with a Burmese mistress, he has become disillusioned with life in an expatriate community centred round the local European Club in a remote provincial town.Orwell for Beginners, David Smith and Michael Mosher. At the same time, he has become so embedded in Burma that it is impossible for him to leave and return to England. Flory has one good friend, the Indian, Dr Veraswami, whom he often visits for what the Doctor delightedly calls "cultured conversation". But when Flory dismisses the British as mere moneymakers, living a lie, "the lie that we're here to uplift our poor black brothers instead of to rob them," he provokes consternation in the doctor, who defends the British as the efficient administrators of an unrivalled empire. Toward his mistress, Flory is emotionally ambivalent: "On the one hand, Flory loves Burma and craves a partner who will share his passion, which the other local Europeans find incomprehensible; on the other hand, for essentially racist reasons, Flory feels that only a European woman is acceptable as a partner". Flory's wish seems to be answered with the arrival of Elizabeth Lackersteen, the orphaned niece of Mr Lackersteen, manager of the local timber firm. Flory rescues her when she believes she is about to be attacked by a small water buffalo. He is immediately taken with her and they spend some time together, culminating in a highly successful shooting expedition. Flory shoots a leopard, promising the skin to Elizabeth as a trophy. Lost in romantic fantasy, Flory imagines Elizabeth to be the sensitive object of his desire, the European woman who will "understand him and give him the companionship he needed". He turns Ma Hla May, his pretty, scheming Burmese mistress, out of his house. However, whereas Flory extols the virtues of the rich culture of the Burmese, the latter frighten and repel Elizabeth, who regards them as "beastly." Worse still is Flory's interest in high art and literature, which reminds Elizabeth of her pretentious mother who died in disgrace in Paris of ptomaine poisoning as a result of living in squalid conditions while masquerading as a Bohemian artist. Despite these reservations, of which Flory is entirely unaware, she is willing to marry him to escape poverty, spinsterhood, and the unwelcome advances of her perpetually inebriated uncle. Flory is about to ask her to marry him, but they are interrupted first by her aunt and secondly by an earthquake. Mrs Lackersteen's interruption is deliberate because she has discovered that a military police lieutenant named Verrall is arriving in Kyauktada. As he comes from an extremely good family, she sees him as a better prospect as a husband for Elizabeth. Mrs Lackersteen tells Elizabeth that Flory is keeping a Burmese mistress as a deliberate ploy to send her to Verrall. Indeed, Flory had been keeping a mistress, but had dismissed her almost the moment Elizabeth had arrived. Elizabeth is appalled and falls at the first opportunity for Verrall, who is arrogant and ill-mannered to all but her. Flory is devastated and after a period of exile attempts to make amends by delivering to her the leopard skin. A bungled curing process has left the skin mangy and stinking and the gesture merely compounds his status as a poor suitor. When Flory delivers it to Elizabeth she accepts it regardless of the fact that it stinks and he talks of their relationship, telling her he still loves her. She responds by telling him that unfortunately the feelings aren't mutual and leaves the house to go horse riding with Verrall. When Flory and Elizabeth part ways, Mrs Lackersteen orders the servants to burn the reeking leopard skin, representing the deterioration of Flory and Elizabeth's relationship. U Po Kyin's campaign against Dr Veraswami turns out to be intended simply to further his aim of becoming a member of the European Club in Kyauktada. The club has been put under pressure to elect a native member and Dr Veraswami is the most likely candidate. U Po Kyin arranges the escape of a prisoner and plans a rebellion for which he intends that Dr Veraswami should get the blame. The rebellion begins and is quickly put down, but a native rebel is killed by acting Divisional Forest Officer, Maxwell. Uncharacteristically courageous, Flory speaks up for Dr Veraswami and proposes him as a member of the club. At this moment the body of Maxwell, cut almost to pieces with dahs by two relatives of the man he had shot, is brought back to the town. This creates tension between the Burmese and the Europeans which is exacerbated by a vicious attack on native children by the spiteful arch-racist timber merchant, Ellis. A large but ineffectual anti-British riot begins and Flory becomes the hero for bringing it under control with some support by Dr Veraswami. U Po Kyin tries to claim credit but is disbelieved and Dr Veraswami's prestige is restored. Verrall leaves Kyauktada without saying goodbye to Elizabeth and she falls for Flory again. Flory is happy and plans to marry Elizabeth. However, U Po Kyin has not given up. He hires Flory's former Burmese mistress to create a scene in front of Elizabeth during the sermon at church. Flory is disgraced and Elizabeth refuses to have anything more to do with him. Overcome by the loss and seeing no future for himself, Flory kills first his dog, and then himself. Dr Veraswami is demoted and sent to a different district and U Po Kyin is elected to the club. U Po Kyin's plans have succeeded and he plans to redeem his life and cleanse his sins by financing the construction of pagodas. He dies of apoplexy before he can start building the first pagoda and his wife envisages him returning to life as a frog or rat. Elizabeth eventually marries Macgregor, the deputy commissioner, and lives happily in contempt of the natives, who in turn live in fear of her, fulfilling her destiny of becoming a "burra memsahib", a respectful term given to white European women. 

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The story is told in five distinct chapters. 

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After the killing of his father (Count Dracula, the King of the Netherworld), by a mysterious assassin, Count Downe (Harry Nilsson) is summoned from his travels abroad by family advisor Merlin (Ringo Starr) in order to prepare him to take over the throne. Baron Frankenstein (Freddie Jones) is also on hand to help in any way he can. Problem is, Downe wants no part of this responsibility, and instead wishes to become human and mortal − especially after meeting a girl named Amber (Suzanna Leigh), with whom he falls in love. He approaches old family nemesis Dr Van Helsing (Dennis Price), who agrees to enable the Count's transformation, much to the dismay of the residents of the Netherworld. Despite the best efforts of a host of monsters, as well as one traitorous figure who is dealt with by the trusted Merlin, Van Helsing performs the operation and removes Downe's fangs. He then informs the Count that he can now live out his days in the sunlight, with Amber at his side. Keith Moon of The Who and John Bonham of Led Zeppelin both appear in the film, alternating as drummer in Count Downe's band.Badham, The Beatles Diary Volume 2, p. 80. Other band members include Klaus Voormann (another old friend of Starr's), Peter Frampton, an uncredited Leon Russell, and the regular Rolling Stones horn section of Bobby Keys and Jim Price. 

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A single human narrator from England is transported out of his body via unexplained means. He realizes he is able to explore space and other planets. After exploring a civilization on another planet in our galaxy at a level of development similar to our own that existed millions of years ago thousands of light years from Earth (the "Other Earth") in some detail, his mind merges with that of one of its inhabitants, and as they travel together, they are joined by still more minds or group- minds. This snowballing process is paralleled by the expansion of the book's scale, describing more and more planets in less and less detail. The disembodied travelers encounter many ideas that are interesting from both science-fictional and philosophical points of view. These include the first known instance of what is now called the Dyson sphere; a reference to a scenario closely predicting the later zoo hypothesis or (Star Treks Prime Directive); many imaginative descriptions of species, civilizations and methods of warfare; descriptions of the Multiverse; and the idea that the stars and even pre-galactic nebulae are intelligent beings, operating on vast time scales. A key idea is the formation of collective minds from many telepathically linked individuals, on the level of planets, galaxies, and eventually the cosmos itself. A symbiotic species, each individual composed of two species, both non-humanoid, is discussed in detail. Normally detached from the galaxy's turmoil, they intervene in a deus ex machina to end the threat of a civilization dedicated to the idea of total insanity trying to force its mentality onto one stellar civilization after another. The climax of the book is the "supreme moment of the cosmos", when the cosmical mind (which includes the narrator) attains momentary contact with the titular "Star Maker". The Star Maker is the creator of the universe, but stands in the same relation to it as an artist to his work, and calmly assesses its quality without any feeling for the suffering of its inhabitants. This element makes the novel one of Stapledon's efforts to write "an essay in myth making". After meeting the Star Maker, the traveler is given a "fantastic myth or dream," in which he observes the Star Maker at work. He discovers that his own cosmos is only one of a vast number, and by no means the most significant. He sees the Star Maker's early work, and he learns that the Star Maker was surprised and intensely interested when some of his early "toy" universes — for example a universe composed entirely of music with no spatial dimensions — displayed "modes of behavior that were not in accord with the canon which he had ordained for them." He sees the Star Maker experimenting with more elaborate universes, which include the traveler's own universe, and a triune universe which closely resembles "Christian orthodoxy" (the three universes respectively being hell, heaven, and reality with presence of a savior). The Star Maker goes on to create "mature" universes of extraordinary complexity, culminating in an "ultimate cosmos," through which the Star Maker fulfills his own eternal destiny as "the ground and crown of all things." Finally, the traveler returns to Earth at the place and time he left, to resume his life there. 

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In a post- ice age Alaska, the local tribesmen believe all creatures are created through the Great Spirits, who are said to appear in the form of an aurora. A trio of brothers, Kenai, the youngest; Denahi, the middle; and Sitka, the eldest, return to their tribe in order to receive their totems, necklaces in the shapes of different animals. The particular animals they represent symbolize what they must achieve to call themselves men. Unlike Sitka, who gained the eagle of guidance, and Denahi, who gained the wolf of wisdom, Kenai receives the bear of love. He objects to his totem, stating that bears are thieves, and believes his point is made a fact when a Kodiak bear steals their basket of salmon. Kenai and his brothers pursue the bear, but a fight ends on top of a glacier, during which Sitka gives his life to save his brothers by dislodging the glacier, although the bear survives the fall. After Sitka's funeral, an enraged Kenai blames the bear for Sitka's death. He hunts down and chases the bear up onto a rocky cliff, fighting and eventually slaying it. The Spirits, represented by Sitka's spirit in the form of a bald eagle, show up and transform Kenai into a bear after the dead bear's body evaporates and joins them. Denahi arrives and, believing that Kenai was killed by the bear from earlier, vows to avenge Kenai by hunting it down. Kenai falls down some rapids, survives, and is healed by Tanana, the shaman of his tribe. She does not speak the bear language, but advises him to return to the mountain to find Sitka and be turned back to a human, but only when he atones for his actions; she vanishes without an explanation. Kenai quickly discovers that the wildlife can now speak to him, meeting a pair of moose brothers named Rutt and Tuke. He gets caught in a trap, but is freed by an outgoing bear cub named Koda. They make a deal: Kenai will escort Koda to an annual salmon run and then the cub will lead Kenai to the mountain. As the two eventually form a brother-like relationship, Koda reveals that his mother is missing. The two are hunted by Denahi, who is still determined to avenge Kenai, unaware that the bear he is pursuing is actually Kenai himself. Eventually, Kenai and Koda reach the salmon run, where a large number of bears live as a family, including the leader Tug. Kenai accepts his new surroundings and is comfortable living with the other bears. During a discussion among the bears, Koda tells a story about his mother recently fighting human hunters on a glacier, reminding Kenai of his and his brothers' fight with the bear that lead to Sitka's death and making him realize that the entire time, the bear he killed was Koda's mother herself. Shocked and horrified at his actions, Kenai runs away in a fit of guilt, but Koda soon follows him. Crestfallen, Kenai confesses the truth to Koda, who runs away, grief-stricken. An apologetic Kenai leaves to reach the mountain. Meanwhile, Rutt and Tuke, having had a falling-out, reform their brotherhood in front of Koda, prompting him to forgive Kenai. On the mountain, Kenai is cornered by Denahi, but their battle is interrupted by Koda, who steals Denahi's spear. Kenai sacrifices himself for Koda, out of love, prompting Sitka to appear and turn him back into a human, much to Denahi and Koda's surprise. However, upon realizing that Koda needs him because of his own mistake, Kenai asks Sitka to transform him back into a bear with Denahi's support. Sitka complies, and Kenai is transformed back into a bear. Koda is reunited briefly with the spirit of his mother, before she and Sitka return to the spirit world. In the end, Kenai lives with the rest of the bears and gains his title as a man, through being a bear. 

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Sir Ambrose Abercrombie visits housemates Dennis Barlow and Sir Francis Hinsley to express his concern about Barlow's new job and how it reflects on the British enclave in Hollywood, which is also taken as an announcement of Barlow's impending exclusion from British society. Barlow reports to his job at the Happier Hunting Ground, a pet cemetery and funeral service, and picks up a couple's dead Sealyham Terrier. Because of the difficulty he is having rebranding actress Juanita del Pablo as an Irish starlet (having previously rebranded Baby Aaronson as del Pablo), Hinsley is sent to work from home. After his secretary stops showing up, he ventures to Megalopolitan Studios and finds a man named Lorenzo Medici in his office. After working his way through the bureaucracy he finds he has been unceremoniously fired. In the next scene, Abercrombie and other British expatriates are discussing Hinsley's suicide and the funeral arrangements. Barlow, given the task of making Hinsley's funeral arrangements, visits Whispering Glades. There he is transfixed by the cosmetician Aimée Thanatogenos, though he has yet to learn her name. Barlow continues with the funeral arrangements while Hinsley's body arrives at Whispering Glades and is tended to by Thanatogenos and the senior mortician Mr. Joyboy. Barlow visits Whispering Glades seeking inspiration for Hinsley's funeral ode. While touring a British-themed section of the cemetery, he meets Thanatogenos and begins his courtship of her when she learns he is a poet. Six weeks later, Thanatogenos is torn between her very different affections for Barlow and Joyboy. She writes to the advice columnist "The Guru Brahmin" for advice. Joyboy invites her over for dinner and she meets his mother. The office of the Guru Brahmin consists of "two gloomy men and a bright young secretary". Tasked with responding to Thanatogenos' letters is Mr. Slump, a grim drunk who advises that she marry Joyboy. She instead decides to marry Barlow. Joyboy learns that the poems which Barlow has been using to woo Thanatogenos are not his own, and arranges that Thanatogenos, who still does not know Barlow works for a pet cemetery, attend the funeral of his mother's parrot at the Happier Hunting Ground. Sometime after Thanatogenos' discovery of Barlow's deceptions, Barlow reads the announcement of her engagement to Joyboy. Barlow meets her and she is again torn between the two men. She tracks down Mr. Slump to seek the advice of the Guru Brahmin and finds him, via telephone, in a bar after he has been fired. Slump tells her to jump off a building. She commits suicide by injecting herself with embalming fluid in Joyboy's workroom at Whispering Glades. Joyboy discovers Thanatogenos' body and seeks assistance from Barlow. Then Barlow meets Abercrombie, who, fearing Barlow's plans to become a non- sectarian funeral pastor will further damage the image of the British enclave, pays his return passage to England. Joyboy returns, unaware of Barlow's impending departure, and in exchange for all his savings, Barlow says he will leave town so it will appear that he ran away with Thanatogenos. After cremating the body, Barlow registers Joyboy for the Happier Hunting Ground annual postcard service so every year Joyboy will receive a card reading "Your little Aimée is wagging her tail in heaven tonight, thinking of you." 

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The film is about a couple from Madrid, Elena (Ariadna Gil) and Alberto (Jordi Molla). They have a happy marriage, professional success and a loving son. But later, Elena finds a hotel receipt in Alberto's pocket and discovers that he has been unfaithful to her. To her surprise, the one who has been involved is another man, Diego (Javier Bardem). 

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The story falls broadly into three parts. In post-World War II London, Jean Paget, a secretary in a leather goods factory, is informed by solicitor Noel Strachan that she has inherited a considerable sum of money from an uncle she never knew. But the solicitor is now her trustee and she only has the use of the income until she inherits absolutely, at the age of thirty-five, several years in the future. In the firm's interest, but increasingly with personal interest, Strachan acts as her guide and advisor. Jean decides that her priority is to build a well in a Malayan village. The second part of the story flashes back to Jean's experiences during the war, when she was working in Malaya at the time the Japanese invaded and was taken prisoner together with a group of women and children. As she speaks Malay fluently, Jean takes a leading role in the group of prisoners. The Japanese refuse all responsibility for the group and march them from one village to another. Many of them, not used to physical hardship, die. Jean meets an Australian soldier, Sergeant Joe Harman, also a prisoner, who is driving a lorry for the Japanese and they strike up a friendship. He steals food and medicines to help them. Jean is carrying a toddler, whose mother has died, and this leads Harman to believe that she is married; to avoid complications, Jean does not correct this assumption. On one occasion, Harman steals five chickens from the local Japanese commander. The thefts are investigated and Harman takes the blame to save Jean and the rest of the group. He is beaten, crucified, and left to die by the Japanese soldiers. The women are marched away, believing that he is dead. When their sole Japanese guard dies, the women become part of a Malayan village community. They live and work there for three years, until the war ends and they are repatriated. Now a wealthy woman (at least on paper), Jean decides she wants to build a well for the village so that the women will not have to walk so far to collect water: "A gift by women, for women". Strachan arranges for her to travel to Malaya, where she goes back to the village and persuades the headman to allow her to build the well. While it is being built, she discovers that, by a strange chance, Joe Harman survived his punishment and returned to Australia. She decides to travel on to Australia to find him. On her travels, she visits the town of Alice Springs, where Joe lived before the war, and is much impressed with the quality of life there. She then travels to the (fictional) primitive town of Willstown in the Queensland outback, where Joe has become manager of a cattle station. She soon discovers that the quality of life in "Alice" is an anomaly, and life for a woman in the outback is elsewhere very rugged. Willstown is described as "a fair cow". Meanwhile, Joe has met a pilot who helped repatriate the women, from whom he learns that Jean survived the war and that she was never married. He travels to London to find her, using money won in the Golden Casket lottery. He finds his way to Strachan's office, but is told that she has gone travelling in the Far East. Disappointed, he gets drunk and is arrested, but is bailed out by Strachan. Without revealing Jean's actual whereabouts, Strachan persuades Joe to return home by ship and intimates that he may well receive a great surprise there. While staying in Willstown, awaiting Joe's return, Jean learns that most young girls have to leave the town to find work in the bigger cities. Having worked with a firm in Britain that produced crocodile-leather luxury goods, she gets the idea of founding a local workshop to make shoes from the skins of crocodiles hunted in the outback. With the help of Joe and of Noel Strachan, who releases money from her inheritance, she starts the workshop, followed by a string of other businesses; an ice-cream parlour, a public swimming pool and shops. The third part of the book shows how Jean's entrepreneurship gives a decisive economic impact to develop Willstown into "a town like Alice"; also Jean's help in rescuing an injured stockman, which breaks down many local barriers. The story closes a few years later, with an aged Noel Strachan visiting Willstown to see what has been done with the money he has given Jean to invest. He reveals that the money which Jean inherited was originally made in an Australian gold rush, and he is satisfied to see the money returning to the site of its making. Jean and Joe name their second son Noel, and ask Strachan to be his godfather. They invite Noel (Strachan) to make his home with them in Australia, but he declines the invitation, returns to Britain and the novel closes. 

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Samus Aran brings the last Metroid to the Ceres space colony for scientific study. Investigation of the specimen, a larva, reveals that its energy-producing abilities were actually harnessed for the good of civilization. Shortly after leaving, Samus receives a distress call alerting her to return to the colony immediately. She finds the scientists dead, and the Metroid larva stolen by Ridley, leader of the Space Pirates. Samus escapes from the colony during a self-destruct sequence and follows Ridley to the planet Zebes. She searches the planet for the Metroid and finds that the Pirates have rebuilt their base there. After defeating four bosses in various regions of Zebes, Samus enters Tourian, the final area of the game, and fights several Metroids which have somehow reproduced. A single Metroid which has grown to enormous size attacks and nearly destroys Samus, but relents at the last moment. It is the larva that was stolen from Ceres; because Samus was present at its birth on SR388, the Metroid has imprinted on Samus, recognizing her as its "mother". Samus fights Mother Brain, a biomechanical creature which controls the Zebes systems. Mother Brain overpowers Samus and again she is nearly killed, but the Metroid larva intervenes, attacking Mother Brain and healing Samus, confirming the scientists' findings. Mother Brain kills the Metroid, but upon death, it gives Samus the Hyper Beam, a powerful weapon strong enough to kill Mother Brain. Samus escapes Zebes as it self-destructs. 

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