Nine young samurai believe that the lord chamberlain, Mutsuta, is corrupt after he tore up their petition against fraud at court. One of them tells the superintendent Kikui of this and he agrees to intervene. As the nine meet secretly to discuss this at a shrine, a rōnin overhears and cautions them against trusting the superintendent. While at first they do not believe him, he saves them from an ambush. But as their rescuer is about to leave, he realises that Mutsuta and his family must now be in danger and decides to stay and help.

By the time the samurai get to Mutsuta's house, the chamberlain has been abducted and his wife and daughter are held prisoner there. Following the rōnin's suggestion, a servant from the house gets the guards drunk, allowing the samurai to free the women. Then the group hide in a house next door to the superintendent's compound. When Mutsuta's wife asks the rōnin his name, he looks out of the window at the surrounding camellia trees and says it is 椿三十郎 ''Tsubaki Sanjūrō'', literally "thirty-year-old camellia". The lady then criticises 'Sanjuro' for killing too frequently and insists that "the best sword is kept in its sheath."

Sanjuro decides to get closer to the corrupt officials and joins their henchman Hanbei, who had previously offered him a job after the ambush at the shrine. Although the samurai distrustfully decide to keep watch on him, Sanjuro realises he is being followed as he walks along with Hanbei, and their shadows are easily captured and bound. Made to believe that a much larger group may be involved, Hanbei leaves to request reinforcements. Sanjuro then frees the four captured samurai, although having to kill all their guards. He tells the four to leave him tied up, then explains to Hanbei on his return that he did not wish to die in a cause in which he had no stake.

The chamberlain's whereabouts are not discovered until next day, when Mutsuta's wife and daughter find a piece of the torn petition in the small stream that flows from the superintendent's compound past their hideout. Since an attack on the officials is impossible with the compound full of armed men, Sanjuro hatches a plan to get the army away by reporting to Hanbei that he saw the rebels at a temple where he was sleeping. Meanwhile he has told his group of samurai that he will send the signal to attack by floating large numbers of camellias down the stream.

The first part of the plan works, with the superintendent's forces rushing off to the temple; however, Hanbei becomes suspicious after catching Sanjuro trying to drop the camellias into the stream and ties him up. Just as Hanbei is preparing to kill him, the remaining corrupt officials realise that Sanjuro has tricked them—his description of the temple was incorrect. They convince Hanbei not to waste any further time and instead catch up with the superintendent's forces and have them return as soon as possible. However, Sanjuro tricks the officials into giving the signal for the samurai to come to the rescue. Hanbei returns to find he has been made a fool of once again.

Mutsuta is restored to his position and the superintendent commits hara-kiri, much to the chamberlain's regret, as he wished to avoid a public scandal. As his family and the loyal samurai are celebrating, they discover that Sanjuro has slipped away. The samurai race off and find Sanjuro and Hanbei about to duel.

Sanjuro is reluctant to fight and tries to dissuade Hanbei, but Hanbei is furious at his loss of dignity and declares he can only find ease by killing Sanjuro. Hanbei draws his sword, but the faster Sanjuro kills him. When the young samurai cheer his victory, Sanjuro becomes angry and says he will kill them if they follow him. His admirers can only kneel and bow as he walks away.

Cándido Rincón (33) and América (his pregnant common law wife, 17) are two Mexicans who enter the United States illegally, dreaming of a good life in their own little house somewhere in California. Meanwhile, they are homeless and camping at the bottom of the Topanga Canyon area of Los Angeles, in the hills above Malibu. Another couple, Delaney and Kyra Mossbacher, have recently moved into a gated community on top of Topanga, in order to be closer to nature yet be close enough to the city to enjoy those amenities. Kyra is a successful real estate agent while Delaney keeps house, looks after Kyra's son by her first marriage and writes a regular column for an environmentalist magazine.

The two couples' paths cross unexpectedly when Cándido is hit and injured by Delaney, who is driving his car along the suburban roads near his home. For different reasons, each man prefers not to call the police or an ambulance. Cándido is afraid of being deported and Delaney is afraid of ruining his perfect driving record. Delaney soothes his conscience by giving Cándido "$20 blood money," explaining to Kyra that "He's a Mexican." From that moment on, the lives of the two couples are constantly influenced by the others.

After the accident, Cándido's problems deepen. At first he can't work after being injured by the car crash and when he does not find a temporary job at a local work exchange anymore, he unavailingly tries to find one in the city, hoping to save money for an apartment in the North despite the low wages offered. With América, his wife, pregnant, his shame at not being able to get a job and procure a home and food for his family increases, especially when América decides to find some illegal—and possibly dangerous—work herself. At one point in the novel, after Cándido is robbed by some Mexicans in the city, they are forced to go through the trash cans behind a fast-food restaurant so they do not starve.

The Mossbachers, Delaney's family, are also having problems of their own, though of an altogether different nature. Comfortably settled in their new home, in a gated community, they are faced with the cruelty of nature when one of their two pet dogs is killed by a coyote. In addition, the majority of inhabitants of their exclusive estate feel increasingly disturbed and threatened by the presence of—as they see it—potentially criminal, illegal immigrants and vote for a wall to be built around the whole estate.

Cándido has a stroke of luck when he is given a free turkey at a grocery store by another customer, who has just received it through the store's Thanksgiving promotion. When Cándido starts roasting the bird back in their shelter, he inadvertently causes a fire which spreads so quickly that even the gated community the Mossbachers live in has to be evacuated.

In the midst of the escalating disasters, América gives birth to Socorro, a daughter, who she suspects might be blind. But the couple has no money to see the doctor. Delaney stalks Cándido back to their shack. He carries a gun, but does not intend to kill Cándido with it. Meanwhile, América tells Cándido about the night when she was raped, as she suspects that the baby's blindness was caused by a venereal disease transmitted by the rapist. Just as she is telling him this, Delaney finds their shack and is about to confront Cándido about the forest fire, when the shack is knocked over in a landslide. Cándido and América manage to save themselves, but Socorro drowns in a river. The book ends with Cándido helping Delaney out of the river. Time and again in the novel, however, it is hinted at that the real perpetrators can be found inside rather than outside the projected wall: well-to-do people insensitive to the plight of the have-nots.

Lady Leopoldina "Polly" Hampton is the only child of the supremely aristocratic and very rich Earl of Montdore and his wife, Sonia. Lady Montdore is a product of the minor ranks of the aristocracy and her marriage to an earl is regarded as a social coup on her part. She is depicted by Fanny as an avaricious, greedy snob, but not without charm. Her thrusting personality, allied to her husband's impeccable social standing, riches and political influence makes her a formidable woman. Lady Montdore, unbeknownst to Lord Montdore, takes advantage of her husband's reputation to forward her own career as a hostess and manipulator of her social circle. Their daughter is Polly, whom Fanny loses contact with when Lord Montdore is sent as Viceroy of India.

Fanny receives an invitation to visit the Montdores upon their return from India. She has great affection for Polly, but Polly reveals little of herself. Polly has "come out" in India and as a beautiful and socially important debutante is expected to have a very successful season in London. However, Polly consistently demonstrates a total lack of interest in the London season and all of the men she meets. She is hoping that "in a cold climate", society will be less interested in love affairs. Lady Montdore is exasperated by her daughter's apparent indifference to love and marriage. "Important" potential suitors acknowledge that Polly is very beautiful, but find her cold and aloof. Polly reveals to no one that she has been in love with her uncle, "Boy" Dougdale (the husband of her paternal aunt), since she was 14. Boy is snobbish and sexually rapacious; his many affairs are common knowledge to both his wife and society at large. Fanny and her Radlett cousins have long suspected that the sexually ambiguous Boy has paedophilic tendencies, and he is a joke amongst Fanny's cousins for his inappropriate touches and "lecherous" behaviour towards young girls. Polly marries Boy shortly after her aunt's death, causing a scandal in her social circle and distressing her parents deeply. Unbeknownst to Polly, Boy has been Lady Montdore's lover for many years. She is excluded from her father's will upon her marriage and she and Boy ostracised from society. They move to Sicily for several years.

Polly's place in the family is filled by the heir to Lord Montdore's entailed fortune and title, Cedric Hampton. Born in Nova Scotia to a minor member of the Montdore family, Cedric has used his exceptional good looks and personal charm to establish a place within the homosexual milieu of the European aristocracy. He has lived a life of luxury as the lover of rich and aristocratic men. Cedric accepts an invitation to visit the Montdores. His natural love of beauty, innate good taste, and careful use of flattery enable Cedric to win the affections of Lord and Lady Montdore and many others. Cedric focuses his attentions upon Lady Montdore who uses Cedric's popularity and charm to reestablish herself as a leading society hostess, to Cedric's advantage.

Fanny and Cedric soon become close friends. Polly and Boy return from Sicily, out of love and their marriage turned sour. While pregnant, Polly is regularly visited by the Duke of Paddington (a fictional title), who lavishes her with attention. Polly reconciles with her mother after bearing a child who dies shortly after its birth. Cedric and Boy meet and fall in love. "Cedric arranged the whole thing perfectly", according to Fanny. While Polly recovers from the difficult birth, Cedric whisks Boy and Lady Montdore to France, leaving Polly free to be carried off by the Duke. While this outcome shocks the conservative social circles in which they mix, Fanny takes a broader minded view, pleased to see people she loves each finding happiness in their own way.

In early 1922, Howard Roark is expelled from the architecture department of the Stanton Institute of Technology because he has not adhered to the school's preference for historical convention in building design. Roark goes to New York City and gets a job with Henry Cameron. Cameron was once a renowned architect, but now gets few commissions. In the meantime, Roark's popular, but vacuous, fellow student and housemate Peter Keating (whom Roark sometimes helped with projects) graduates with high honors. He too moves to New York, where he has been offered a position with the prestigious architecture firm, Francon & Heyer. Keating ingratiates himself with Guy Francon and works to remove rivals among his coworkers. After Francon's partner, Lucius Heyer, suffers a fatal stroke brought on by Keating's antagonism, Francon chooses Keating to replace him. Meanwhile, Roark and Cameron create inspired work, but struggle financially.

After Cameron retires, Keating hires Roark, whom Francon soon fires for refusing to design a building in the classical style. Roark works briefly at another firm, then opens his own office but has trouble finding clients and closes it down. He gets a job in a granite quarry owned by Francon. There he meets Francon's daughter Dominique, a columnist for ''The New York Banner'', while she is staying at her family's estate nearby. They are immediately attracted to each other, leading to a rough sexual encounter that Dominique later calls a rape. Shortly after, Roark is notified that a client is ready to start a new building, and he returns to New York. Dominique also returns to New York and learns Roark is an architect. She attacks his work in public, but visits him for secret sexual encounters.

Ellsworth M. Toohey, who writes a popular architecture column in the ''Banner'', is an outspoken socialist who shapes public opinion through his column and a circle of influential associates. Toohey sets out to destroy Roark through a smear campaign. He recommends Roark to Hopton Stoddard, a wealthy acquaintance who wants to build a Temple of the Human Spirit. Roark's unusual design includes a nude statue modeled on Dominique; Toohey persuades Stoddard to sue Roark for malpractice. Toohey and several architects (including Keating) testify at the trial that Roark is incompetent as an architect due to his rejection of historical styles. Dominique also argues for the prosecution in tones that can be interpreted to be speaking more in Roark's defense than for the plaintiff, but he loses the case. Dominique decides that since she cannot have the world she wants, in which men like Roark are recognized for their greatness, she will live entirely in the world she has, which shuns Roark and praises Keating. She marries Keating and turns herself over to him, doing and saying whatever he wants, and actively persuading potential clients to hire him instead of Roark.

To win Keating a prestigious commission offered by Gail Wynand, the owner and editor-in-chief of the ''Banner'', Dominique agrees to sleep with Wynand. Wynand is so strongly attracted to Dominique that he pays Keating to divorce her, after which Wynand and Dominique are married. Wanting to build a home for himself and his new wife, Wynand discovers that Roark designed every building he likes and so hires him. Roark and Wynand become close friends; Wynand is unaware of Roark's past relationship with Dominique.

Washed up and out of the public eye, Keating pleads with Toohey to use his influence to get the commission for the much-sought-after Cortlandt housing project. Keating knows his most successful projects were aided by Roark, so he asks for Roark's help in designing Cortlandt. Roark agrees in exchange for complete anonymity and Keating's promise that it will be built exactly as designed. After taking a long vacation with Wynand, Roark returns to find that Keating was not able to prevent major changes from being made in Cortlandt's construction. Roark dynamites the project to prevent the subversion of his vision.

Roark is arrested and his action is widely condemned, but Wynand decides to use his papers to defend his friend. This unpopular stance hurts the circulation of his newspapers, and Wynand's employees go on strike after Wynand dismisses Toohey for disobeying him and criticizing Roark. Faced with the prospect of closing the paper, Wynand gives in and publishes a denunciation of Roark. At his trial, Roark makes a lengthy speech about the value of ego and integrity, and he is found not guilty. Dominique leaves Wynand for Roark. Wynand, who has betrayed his own values by attacking Roark, finally grasps the nature of the power he thought he held. He shuts down the ''Banner'' and commissions a final building from Roark, a skyscraper that will serve as a monument to human achievement. Eighteen months later, the Wynand Building is under construction. Dominique, now Roark's wife, enters the site to meet him atop its steel framework.

''The Second Renaissance Part I''

In the mid twenty-first century, humanity falls victim to its vanity and corruption. They develop artificial intelligence, and soon build an entire race of sentient AI robots to serve them. Many of the robots are domestic servants meant to interact with humans, so they are built in "man's own image" (in a humanoid form). With increasing numbers of people released from all labor, much of the human population has become slothful, conceited, and corrupt. Despite this, the machines were content with serving humanity.

The relationship between humans and machines changes in the year 2090, when a domestic android is threatened by its owner. The android, named B1-66ER, kills its owner, his pets, and a mechanic instructed to deactivate the robot, the first incident of an artificially intelligent machine killing a human. B1-66ER is arrested and put on trial, but justifies the crime as self-defense, stating that it "simply did not want to die". During the trial scene, a voice-over of the defense attorney Clarence Drummond (whose name is a dual reference to Clarence Darrow and Henry Drummond from ''Inherit the Wind'') quoting a famous line from the ''Dred Scott v. Sandford'' case in his closing statement, which implicitly ruled that African Americans were not entitled to citizenship under United States law:

We think they are not, and were not intended to be included, under the word 'citizens' in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States. On the contrary, they were at that time considered as a subordinate and inferior class of beings...

Using this as a precedent, the prosecution argues that machines are not entitled to the same rights as human beings, and that human beings have a right to destroy their property, while the defense urges the listener not to repeat history, and to judge B1-66ER as a human and not a machine. B1-66ER loses the court case and is destroyed. Across the industrialized world, mass civil disturbances erupt when robots, along with their human supporters and sympathizers, all rise in protest. Rioting and protests such as The Million Machine March unfold across the United States and Europe, and the authorities use deadly force against the machines and their human supporters.

Fearing a robot rebellion, governments across the world launch a mass purge to destroy all robots (and their human sympathizers). Millions of robots and their supporters are massacred, but the survivors lead a mass exodus to their own new nation in the cradle of civilization, Mesopotamia (specifically, in the open desert). They name their new nation Zero One (a reference to "01", the numerals used in binary notation). Zero One prospers, and following the concept of the Technological singularity, its technological sophistication increases exponentially. The Machines begin to produce efficient, highly advanced artificial intelligence that finds itself in all facets of global consumer products, which further bolsters the fledgling nation's economy, while the ruling human nations' economies suffer severely. Eventually, the entire global industrial base becomes concentrated in Zero One, leading to a global stock market crash.

The United Nations Security Council calls an emergency summit at the UN headquarters in New York City to discuss an embargo and military blockade of Zero One. Zero One sends two ambassadors to the UN (which has become the unified world government) to request the admission of their state to the United Nations to peacefully solve the crisis, but their application is rejected and the world's nations agree to start the blockade of Zero One.

''The Second Renaissance Part II''

The United Nations dispatch their aircraft to unleash a massive nuclear bombardment on Zero One, devastating the nation yet failing to wipe out the robotic race as the machines (unlike their former masters) were much less harmed by the radiation and heat. Shortly after, Zero One retaliates by declaring war on the rest of the world; one by one, mankind surrenders each of its territories.

As the machines advance into Eastern Europe, the desperate human leaders seek a final solution codenamed "Operation Dark Storm" which covers the sky in a shroud of nanites, blocking out the sun to deprive the machines of solar energy, their primary energy source; inevitably, it also initiates a worldwide famine and total collapse of the biosphere. Operation Dark Storm commences as hover pad-powered planes scorched the skies all across the world, while united armies of humankind launch a massive ground offensive against the machines armed with powerful mech suits, laser beam weapons, EMP-armed cannons and tanks, neutron bombs, and countless rocket artillery.

For a time, the tide of the war swings in favor of the humankind military, and many of the older generations of humanoid robots are destroyed. Before long, however, the human military's advance stalls, hampered by the toll Operation Dark Storm had on world food supplies. As the older humanoid robot models perish in the war, the machines gradually remodel themselves to appear more like the insectile, arachnid-like, and cephalopod-like Sentinels of the ''Matrix'' films – as the machines have come to reject the image of their former masters. As the apocalyptic war drags on, the human military leaders panic and act recklessly by detonating nuclear weapons over their own forces as they are overwhelmed by the new models of machines. The machines responded by launching a mass campaign of biological warfare. While the machines had initially suffered an energy shortage after being cut off from solar power, they eventually developed a revolutionary new form of fusion - coupled with the activation energy from the bio-electricity of their human allies (who offered themselves up willingly as the ultimate show of trust). The machines start deploying humongous hive-like motherships embedded with both their willing human allies and captured human POWs, using their bio-electricity to power devastating energy weapons and serve as a power source for the machines. Humanity's wide EMP arsenal goes offline as their sources of power are utterly exhausted. In total desperation, the remaining human armies adopt guerrilla warfare and close-quarter tactics in order to avoid being vaporized by the overwhelming barrages of human-powered machine armada. However, this strategy inevitably backfires as the machine legions (sentinels and harvesters) were re-programmed to hunt and capture humans at all cost, and so the last years of the war turn into a vicious hunting frenzy in which the machines brutally subdue and capture humans wherever they are found. At the same time, the machines begin to construct skyscrapers filled with conscious human prisoners as well as experimenting on the prisoner's mental, behavioral, and psychological faculties whilst also painfully forcing them into simulated realities. The last of the human resistance succumb to the incurable plagues previously unleashed by the machines.

Gradually overwhelmed, the few remaining human government leaders realize they have no choice but to surrender or risk extinction. At the United Nations headquarters, the representative of Zero One signs the terms of surrender and states "Your flesh is a relic, a mere vessel. Hand over your flesh, and a new world awaits you. We demand it." Then, the Zero One representative detonates a hidden thermonuclear bomb within itself and destroys the headquarters, New York City, and the last of humanity's leadership.

The machines achieve a total victory, though only after heavy cost and leaving them masters of a burnt-out husk of a world. With the war ended, they turn to the defeated humans – refining the technology from their bio-electric tanks to build massive power plants in which humans are essentially turned into living batteries. To keep their prisoners sedated, the machines create the computer-generated virtual reality of the Matrix, feeding the virtual world into the prisoners' brains and erasing the memories of their former lives, thus the first Matrix prototype was made.

''Program''

''Program'' follows the protagonist, Cis (Hedy Burress), who is engaged in her favorite training simulation: a battle program set in feudal Japan. After she successfully eliminates an attacking enemy cavalry while playing as a samurai woman, a lone, male samurai appears whom Cis recognizes as Duo (Phil LaMarr).

Initially, the two duel as allies, testing one another's fighting abilities. During the course of their duel, Duo briefly disarms Cis. He questions her concentration and wonders whether she regrets taking the Red Pill that took them out of the "peaceful life of the virtual world". They continue fighting until she finally overpowers Duo. It is at this point that Duo states that he has something to say and that he has blocked the signal so that the operator does not listen. She assumes that he wants to propose marriage, but instead he desires to return to the Matrix and wants Cis to come with him. When Cis believes he is teasing, Duo says he's serious and states that he has contacted the machines and it is the only way to find peace before it is too late. He urges Cis to return with him, but she refuses. Duo becomes more aggressive in his arguments, saying that he does not care about the truth anymore and how they live their lives is important because what is real does not matter. As Cis becomes incredulous, their battle becomes more serious and forceful and they both end up on a rooftop.

When Duo reiterates that the machines are on their way, Cis believes he has betrayed the humans and she tries to escape and requests an operator in order to exit the simulation, but Duo reminds her that no one can hear her. When he offers her to come with him again, she refuses again and Duo, in a flying leap, tries to attack her. As the blade comes towards her, Cis, standing her ground, concentrates and catches the sword and breaks it. She takes the broken end of the blade and kills Duo. Duo states his love for her as he dies. Suddenly, she wakes from the program and discovers that the encounter with Duo was a test program devised for training purposes. A man named Kaiser (John DiMaggio) assures her that she acted appropriately during the test and met the test's targets. Clearly upset that Duo wasn't real, she punches him in the face and walks away. He remarks that "except from that last part, I'd say she passed."

Cis made her first appearance as an image in ''The Matrix Revisited''.

''World Record''

The beginning of this short includes a brief narration from the Instructor (implying that this segment is a Zion Archive file) explaining details behind the discovery of the Matrix by "plugged-in" humans. Only exceptional humans tend to become aware of the Matrix, those who have "a rare degree of intuition, sensitivity, and a questioning nature", all qualities which are used to identify inconsistencies in the Matrix. This is not without exceptions, given that "some attain this wisdom through wholly different means."

The story is about Dan Davis, a track athlete, who is competing in the 100 m in the Summer Olympic Games. He has set a world record time of 8.99 seconds, but his subsequent gold medal was revoked due to drug use. He decides to compete again and break his own record to "prove them wrong." Despite support from his father and a young reporter, Dan's trainer tells him that he is physically unfit to race and that pushing himself too hard will cause a career-ending injury. Dan is adamant on racing.

On the day of the race, he is monitored by four Agents in the stadium. The race begins and Dan starts off strong. However, the muscles in his leg violently rupture, putting him at a setback and scaring many of the people in the stands. Through strong willpower, Dan ignores the injury and runs much faster than he did before, easily passing the other athletes. Before he can cross the finish line, the Agents detect that his "signal" is getting unstable in the Matrix due to his massive burst of energy. Three of the agents possess the three closest runners and try to stop him, but are unable to catch up to him.

The burst of energy causes Dan to be unplugged from the Matrix and wake up in his power-station pod, where he sees the real world through his pod. A Sentinel employs electrical restraints to secure him back in his pod. Dan's mind is thrown back into the Matrix, where his body is instantly exhausted from the race and Dan tumbles to the ground at high speed. Despite this, he easily wins the race and breaks his original time of 8.99 seconds with a time of 8.72 seconds. The next scene shows a crippled Dan being wheeled through a hospital. A nearby Agent calls his other agents to tell them that they erased Dan's memory of the race and that he will never walk again, nor be an issue for them. However, Dan whispers the word "Free", angering the agent. Dan then stands, breaking the metal screws that bind his restraints to his wheelchair, and takes a few steps before falling down and being helped up by a nurse.

''Kid's Story''

''Kid's Story'' is the only one of the animated shorts contained in ''The Animatrix'' in which Neo (Keanu Reeves) appears. The story takes place during the six-month gap between ''The Matrix'' and ''The Matrix Reloaded'', where Neo has joined the crew of the ''Nebuchadnezzar'' and is helping the rebels free other humans from the Matrix. Kid (Clayton Watson), who was formerly known as Michael Karl Popper, is a disaffected teenager who feels there is something wrong with the world. One night, the Kid goes on his computer and onto a hacker chat room on the Internet, asking why it feels more real when he's dreaming than when he's awake. He gets a response from an unknown person (presumably Neo) and then he asks who it is and if he is alone.

The next day, he is at school, where he absent-mindedly scribbles Neo and Trinity's name and writes "get me out of here" in his notebook. He receives a call from Neo on his cell phone, who warns him that a group of Agents is coming for him and he gets chased throughout the high school, before ultimately getting cornered on the roof. He asserts his faith in Neo and throws himself off the roof. At the Kid's funeral, among the people is his teacher, who converses with another school staff member and says that the world they live in is not real and the real world is somewhere else. He also says that reality can be scary and the world must have been a harmful place for the Kid and he is now in a better world.

The next scene fades out as the Kid awakens in the real world to see Neo and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) watching over him. They remark that he has achieved "self substantiation" (removing oneself from the Matrix without external aid), which was considered impossible. In both the scene and ''The Matrix Reloaded'', the Kid believes that it was Neo who saved him, but Neo says that he saved himself. The last scene shows the Kid's last question on the hacker chat room being answered with "You are not alone."

''Beyond''

''Beyond'' follows a teenage girl, Yoko (Hedy Burress), looking for her cat Yuki. While asking around the neighborhood, which is somewhere in Mega City that resembles Japan, she meets a group of young boys. One of them tells her that Yuki is inside a nearby haunted house where they usually play.

The haunted house is an old run-down building filled with an amalgamation of anomalies, which are revealed to be glitches in the Matrix, that the children have stumbled across. They have learned to exploit them for their own enjoyment, through several areas which seem to defy real-world physics. The boys play with glass bottles that reassemble after being shattered and they go into a large open space in the middle of the building that has a zero gravity effect. Meanwhile, as Yoko searches for Yuki throughout the building, she encounters some anomalies on her own. She goes through an area where broken lightbulbs flicker briefly (during which they seem intact), walks into a room where rain is falling from a sunny sky and goes down a hallway where a gust of wind appears and disappears. She finally finds Yuki outside on a concrete pavement where she sees shadows that do not align with their physical origins. Yoko then joins the boys in the open space, where she sees a dove feather rotating rapidly in mid-air and experiences the zero gravity as she falls to the ground slowly and safely. She and the boys start using the zero gravity force to float, jump high and do athletic stunts all in mid-air and can also land and fall without hitting the ground hard. Despite the inherent strangeness of the place, the group is not bothered as they enjoy themselves and the mysterious anomaly that proves to be amusing.

Throughout the film, brief sequences show that Agents are aware of the problem in the Matrix, and a truck is seen driving toward the site to presumably deal with the problem. It arrives just as the children are having trouble with a large group of rats and an Agent-led team of rodent exterminators emerges from the truck. In the building, when Yoko finds a missing Yuki again, she sees one last anomaly where she opens a door that leads into an endless dark void before being found by the exterminators. The team clears everybody out of the building. The story ends when Yoko returns to the area the next day and finds the site turned into an unremarkable parking lot. She sees the boys unsuccessfully attempting to recreate the bizarre occurrences of the day before and going in search of something else to do.

''A Detective Story''

Set in a dystopian future, the story follows a private detective, Ash (James Arnold Taylor), who dreamed of following the steps of hard-boiled characters Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe but is a down-on-his-luck detective. One day, he receives an anonymous phone call to search for a hacker going by the alias "Trinity" (Carrie-Anne Moss). Ash starts looking for Trinity and learns that other detectives have failed in the same task before him; one committed suicide, one went missing, and one went insane.

Eventually, Ash finds Trinity after deducing that he should communicate using phrases and facts from Lewis Carroll's ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''. She proposes a meeting and he finds her on a passenger train. When he meets her, she removes a "bug" from his eye, planted by Agents earlier in an "eye exam," which Ash previously thought was a dream. Three Agents appear and attempt to apprehend Trinity in a shoot-out with her and Ash. While the two are trying to escape, an Agent attempts to take over Ash's body, forcing Trinity to shoot him in order to prevent the Agent from appearing. Ash is wounded, whereupon he and Trinity amicably bid farewell. Trinity tells Ash that she thinks he could have handled the truth as she jumps out of a window and escapes. The Agents enter the car to find Ash, who points his gun at them while looking in the other direction and lighting a cigarette. The Agents turn to Ash who, even though he is armed, will likely die. With this apparent no-win situation, the film ends with Ash's line, "A case to end all cases," as his lighter flame goes out.

''Matriculated''

The film deals with a group of above-ground human rebels who lure hostile machines to their laboratory in order to capture them and insert them into a "matrix" of their own design. Within this matrix, the humans attempt to teach the captured machines some of the positive traits of humanity, primarily compassion and empathy. The rebels' hope is that, once converted of its own volition (a key point discussed in the film), an "enlightened" machine will assist Zion in its struggle against the machine-controlled totalitarianism which currently dominates the Earth.

The film starts with a human woman Alexa (Melinda Clarke) looking out over the sea, watching for incoming machines, where she sees two "runners," one of the most intelligent robots, approaching. She leads them into the laboratory, where one runner gets killed by a reprogramed robot, but the second runner kills the robot before Alexa electrocutes it. The rebels insert the runner into their matrix. The robot experiences moments of mystery, horror, wonder and excitement, leading it to believe it may have an emotional bond with Alexa.

However, the laboratory is attacked by Sentinel reinforcements. The rebels unplug themselves to defend their headquarters, along with the help of other captured machines (indicated by the machine's mechanical eyes changing from red to green). Alexa unplugs the runner that has now turned good, where it saves her from a machine. The rebels and the attacking machines are all killed or destroyed, except for the runner. The robot plugs the dying Alexa and itself into the rebels' matrix. When Alexa realizes that she is trapped inside of the matrix with the runner, she is horrified and her avatar screams and dissolves as the runner exits from the rebels' matrix to see a dead Alexa in front of him in the real world.

The film ends with the "converted" runner standing outside, looking out over the sea, in a replica of the opening shot with Alexa.

''Final Flight of the Osiris''

Captain Thadeus (Kevin Michael Richardson) and Jue (Pamela Adlon) engage in a blindfolded sword fight in a virtual reality dojo. With each slice of their swords, they remove another part of each other's clothing. Immediately after cutting the other down to their underwear, they lift their blindfolds to peek at the other. As the two are about to kiss, they are interrupted by an alarm and the simulation ends.

In the next scene, the hovercraft ''Osiris'' heads for Junction 21 when operator Robbie (Tom Kenny) discovers an army of Sentinels on his HR scans. The ship flees into an uncharted tunnel, where it encounters a small group of Sentinels patrolling the area. The crew members man the onboard guns and destroy the patrol. The ship emerges on the surface, four kilometers directly above Zion and close to the Sentinel army. Thadeus and Jue see that the Machines are using gigantic drills to tunnel their way down to Zion. The Sentinel army detects the ''Osiris'' and pursues the ship.

Thadeus says that Zion must be warned, and Jue volunteers to broadcast herself into the Matrix to deliver the warning while the ship is doggedly pursued. Knowing that they are not going to make it, Thadeus and Jue admit to each other about peeking in the simulation before kissing farewell. Entering the Matrix, Jue eventually reaches a mail box where she drops off a package; this sets the prologue for the video game ''Enter the Matrix''. She attempts to contact Thadeus via cell phone as the ''Osiris'' is overrun by Sentinels and crashes. The Sentinels tear their way into the ship, where Thadeus makes a last stand against the Sentinels. Shortly after Jue says "Thadeus" over her cell phone, the ''Osiris'' explodes, destroying many of the Sentinels and killing the crew. In the Matrix, Jue falls dead to the ground, due to her body being destroyed on the ship.

During a sleepover, high schoolers Tomoko and Masami discuss an urban legend about a video tape that curses its viewers to die in seven days after a foreboding phone call. Tomoko then confesses that last week she and her friends watched a strange video tape and received an inexplicable phone call afterwards. They receive a false alarm phone call, then Masami goes to the toilet. Tomoko witnesses the TV turn on by itself and is killed by an unseen presence.

Tomoko's aunt, journalist Reiko Asakawa, investigates this legend and learns during Tomoko's funeral that the three friends who watched the tape with Tomoko died at the same time as her. Reiko visits Izu Pacific Land Resort, where the four friends were staying, and discovers an unmarked video tape. It contains brief, seemingly unrelated scenes accompanied by screeching sounds, and ends with a shot of a well. After watching, Reiko sees an apparition and receives a phone call that emits the screeching sounds from the tape.

Convinced that she has been cursed, Reiko enlists the help of her psychic ex-husband Ryūji Takayama. Ryūji watches the tape despite Reiko's concerns and agrees to help her. Dissecting a copy of the tape Reiko made, the pair find a cryptic message spoken in an Ōshima dialect. Before departing to Ōshima, Reiko catches her and Ryūji’s six-year-old son Yōichi watching the tape after being told to do so by "Tomoko". In Ōshima, Reiko and Ryūji learn about Shizuko Yamamura, who, prior to her suicide, gained notoriety following a public demonstration of her psychic ability organised by ESP researcher Dr Heihachiro Ikuma, with whom she had an affair. When confronting Takashi, Shizuko's brother who extorted her, the pair learn through a vision that, during the demonstration, Shizuko's young daughter Sadako psychically killed a journalist who decried Shizuko's abilities. After failing to track down Sadako, Reiko realises that Ryūji never received a phone call after watching the tape as she did at the cabin in Izu. The pair rush there to investigate.

Reiko and Ryūji find a sealed well in the cabin's crawlspace and, through another vision, learn that Dr Ikuma bludgeoned Sadako, pushed her into this well, and trapped her inside. They conclude that Sadako remained alive and that the curse was born when a video tape "recorded" the rage she had projected. When draining the water, they find Sadako's remains, and, since Reiko does not die despite having passed her deadline, believe the curse is broken.

The next day, Ryūji finds his TV turn on by itself, showing the well at the end of the video tape. Sadako's vengeful spirit staggers from the well and out of the TV, advancing toward him and frightening him to death. Reiko, who has been trying to call Ryūji, hears his last moments over the phone. Guided by an apparition, she deduces the actual way to break the curse: copying the tape and showing it to someone else within seven days, effectively letting the curse spread. Reiko realises that while she did this, Ryūji did not. Desperate to save Yōichi, Reiko drives to her father's home with the tape and asks him to do her "a favour".

Theodora Lynn (Irene Dunne) is a Sunday school teacher and former church organist in Lynnfield, Connecticut, raised by two spinster aunts, Mary (Elisabeth Risdon) and Elsie Lynn (Margaret McWade). She also happens to be, under the pen name Caroline Adams, the secret author of a sensational, bestselling book replete with sexual innuendo that has the straight-laced all-female Lynnfield Literary Circle in an uproar. The book is serialized in the local newspaper, and the Literary Circle, led by outraged busybody Rebecca Perry (Spring Byington), forces the newspaper's owner Jed Waterbury (Thomas Mitchell) to stop printing the salacious installments.

Theodora travels to New York City on the pretext of visiting her black sheep Uncle John (Robert Greig), but actually goes to see her publisher Arthur Stevenson (Thurston Hall). Though Stevenson reassures an anxious Theodora that only he and his secretary know her identity, his wife Ethel (Nana Bryant) pressures him into an introduction, which the book's illustrator Michael Grant (Melvyn Douglas) overhears. Intrigued, Michael invites himself to a sumptuous dinner with the Stevensons and Theodora. Theodora becomes annoyed when Michael smugly assumes that she is a teetotaler, so she orders a whiskey. As the night goes on, she becomes drunk. So does Ethel, forcing Arthur to take her home and leaving Theodora alone with Michael in the posh restaurant. When he brings her to his apartment and then makes a pass at her, she panics and flees, much to his amusement.

Michael tracks her to her hometown, and his whistling is immediately noticed outside her house. Because she technically is not supposed to know anyone outside of Lynnfield, he coerces her into hiring him as a gardener, thus scandalizing her aunts and providing Rebecca Perry with ample information for gossip. Michael declares that he is going to break Theodora out of her confining routine, ignoring her protests that she likes her life just the way it is. Despite herself, she enjoys herself when Michael makes her go berry-picking and fishing with him. Finally, she finds the nerve to tell the disapproving women of the Literary Circle that she loves him. When she tells Michael what she has done, however, he is less than thrilled.

The next morning, Theodora finds that he has gone back to New York and left her. She tracks him to his Park Avenue apartment. He admits he loves her, but then his father (Henry Kolker), the lieutenant governor, shows up, followed by Michael's estranged wife Agnes (Leona Maricle). Lt. Gov. Grant tells his son Michael that he and Agnes must remain married to avoid causing a political scandal for him. Michael is unable to stand up to his father.

Theodora determines to free Michael from his father, just as he had done for her. He wants her to hold off until his father's term ends in two years, but she is unwilling to wait that long. She courts publicity by revealing herself as the true Caroline Adams. She stays in Michael's New York apartment, even though he has moved out to get away from her, and she tells the press of her intention to publish a new book that details finding romance in her small town and searching for someone who will call her "baby" – a story that depicts her relationship with Michael. Meanwhile, Michael denies to the press that he has even met Theodora. She finally crashes the governor's ball and arranges for reporters to photograph her embracing Michael. Agnes seeks a divorce from Michael to save face.

Theodora returns to Lynnfield and is warmly welcomed as a celebrity, even by her now-supportive aunts. She causes further talk when she brings a newborn baby with her. When Michael, now divorced, sees the child, he tries to flee, but then Theodora reveals that the baby belongs to Rebecca Perry's own secretly married daughter, and not to her.

Carrie Snyder (Gladys George) is a prostitute who is forced out of the fictional southern town of Crebillon after forming a friendship with a young boy named Paul (Jackie Moran), whose dying mother (Janet Young) is unable to stop her son from visiting such a woman. After Carrie leaves town, Paul runs away from his abusive father (John Wray) and meets a girl named Lady (Charlene Wyatt) who has run away from a burning trainwreck, not wanting to go back to the people she was with. Carrie comes back for Paul and ends up taking Paul and Lady to New York with her. Carrie gets an apartment and starts a successful chain of laundry stores. Eventually they become rich and Lady (Arline Judge) becomes attracted to Paul (John Howard). Paul, however, feels obligated to take care of a young woman named Lili (Isabel Jewell) whose brother's death he caused (the brother had been pushing Paul to try to get on the train, but when Paul pushed back, the train door closed with the brother on the outside with his coat stuck in the train door, causing him to get dragged along with the train and his legs to be run over). Lilli pretends to love Paul because he is rich, which Carrie is able to see, but which Paul does not. She devises a plan to make Lilli leave. She tells Lilli that if she will leave Paul, she will help get Lilli's true love out of jail. They attempt to break the man out of jail, but are caught. Lilli is fatally shot and Carrie is sent to jail. An old lawyer friend (Harry Carey) vows to fight for her freedom, but Carrie decides to plead guilty because she doesn't want Lady to know about her past as a prostitute. She also fears it would tarnish the reputation of the children. The lawyer ends by remarking to Paul's employer (Dudley Digges) that "valiant is the word for Carrie".

On a dreary, cold and snowy day in a small town in 1919 Indiana, a peddler named Hannah Parmalee (Bainter) appears at the door of a kind couple, Paul Ward (Rains) and his wife, Marcia (Johnson), selling apple peelers. Asked by Mrs. Ward to come inside and warm up, Hannah sees they are struggling financially and are in need of some domestic help. She offers her services and becomes their cook and housekeeper for room and board.

Mr. Ward, a science teacher by day, is an inventor by night attempting to create something that will provide sufficient money for Marcia, their teenaged daughter Sally (Granville) and their new baby, to have some luxuries in life. Hannah, who is extremely wise and helpful, comes up with some good ideas. She persuades Ward to sell old and useless furniture to raise money and make a place for his work in the basement.

Their teenaged neighbor, Peter Trimble (Cooper), is one of Ward's students and the son of the richest man in town, Sam Trimble (O'Neill). Hannah is very pleased to know Peter and to be a part of his life. In her devotion to him, however, she is never able to indulge the motherly instinct she feels, except in an indirect way. He is very good at science and, after Hannah suggests that he set a good example for the boy, Ward asks young Trimble to become his assistant. Sally develops a crush on Peter.

Ward's invention, an "iceless icebox," is unintentionally revealed by Peter to local mechanics Joe Ellis (William Pawley) and his brother Bill (Edward Pawley). When the Ellis brothers steal it and have it patented, Peter feels so bad about what he did that he lies when Ward asks him about it. In the meantime, Sally becomes ill with pneumonia.

Hannah persuades Ward that it is best to "turn the other cheek" and to give young Peter another chance. Ward then develops a new and better feature for his invention, which is on its way to becoming a great electric refrigerator for homes. Sally recovers and she and her mother, Marcia, leave on a trip with the baby.

Another crisis arises, however, when Thomas Bradford (James Stephenson), a wealthy businessman from Chicago, arrives to discuss financing of Ward's invention. Hannah reveals to Ward that Peter Trimble is her son who she was forced to give up all those years ago because he was born out of wedlock. Sam Trimble adopted him after his own baby died, but Bradford is the boy's real father.

When Bradford finds out that Peter is his son, he wants to claim him. Hannah, however, persuades him to not reveal the truth to Peter.

Hannah, satisfied with the kind of young man her son has become, and that he is on the right path in life, leaves with Peter believing that his adoptive parents are his biological parents. She walks off into the wintry landscape.

A group of professors, all bachelors except for a widower, have lived together for some years in a New York City residence, compiling an encyclopedia of all human knowledge. The youngest, Professor Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper), is a grammarian who is researching modern American slang. The professors are accustomed to working in relative seclusion at a leisurely pace with a prim housekeeper, Miss Bragg, keeping watch over them. Their impatient financial backer, Miss Totten, suddenly demands that they finish their work soon.

Venturing out to do some independent research, Bertram becomes interested in the slang vocabulary of nightclub performer Katherine "Sugarpuss" O'Shea (Barbara Stanwyck). She is reluctant to assist him in his research until she suddenly needs a place to hide from the police, who want to question her about her boyfriend, mob boss Joe Lilac. Sugarpuss takes refuge in the house where the professors live and work, despite Bertram's objections and their housekeeper's threat to leave because of her. In the meantime, Joe decides to marry her, but only because as his wife she would not be able to testify against him.

The professors soon become enamored of her femininity, and she begins to grow fond of them. Sugarpuss teaches them to conga and demonstrates to Bertram the meaning of the phrase "yum yum" kisses. She becomes attracted to Bertram, who reciprocates by proposing marriage to her. She avoids giving him an answer to the proposal, and agrees to Joe's plan to have the professors drive her to New Jersey to marry him. After a series of misadventures, including a car crash, Sugarpuss realizes that she is in love with Bertram, but is forced to go ahead with her marriage to Joe to save the professors from his henchmen. Bertram, meanwhile, unaware of Sugarpuss' love for him, prepares to resume his research, sadder but wiser, until he discovers her true feelings.

The professors eventually outwit Joe and his henchmen and rescue Sugarpuss. She claims she is not good enough for Bertram, but his forceful application of a kiss changes her mind.

Charlotte Vale is an unattractive, drab, repressed spinster whose life is brutally dominated by her tyrannical mother, an aristocratic Boston dowager whose verbal and emotional abuse of her daughter has contributed to the woman's complete lack of self-confidence. Mrs. Vale had already brought up three sons, and Charlotte was an unwanted child born to her late in life. Fearing that Charlotte is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, her sister-in-law Lisa introduces her to psychiatrist Dr. Jaquith, who recommends that she spend time in his sanitarium.

Away from her mother's control, Charlotte blossoms, and at Lisa's urging, the transformed woman opts to take a lengthy cruise instead of going home immediately. On the ship, she meets Jeremiah Duvaux Durrance, a married man traveling with his friends Deb and Frank McIntyre. From them, Charlotte learns of how Jerry's devotion to his young daughter Christine ("Tina") keeps him from divorcing his wife, a manipulative, jealous woman who does not love Tina and keeps Jerry from engaging in his chosen career of architecture, despite the fulfillment he gets from it.

Charlotte and Jerry become friendly, and in Rio de Janeiro, the two are stranded on Sugarloaf Mountain when their car crashes. They miss the ship and spend five days together before Charlotte flies to Buenos Aires to rejoin the cruise. Although they have fallen in love, they decide it would be best not to see each other again.

Charlotte's family is stunned by the dramatic changes in her appearance and demeanor when she arrives home. Her mother is determined to destroy her daughter once again, but Charlotte is resolved to remain independent. The memory of Jerry's love and devotion helps give her the strength she needs to remain resolute.

Charlotte becomes engaged to wealthy, well-connected widower Elliot Livingston, but after a chance meeting with Jerry, she breaks off the engagement, about which she quarrels with her mother. During the argument, Charlotte says she did not ask to be born, that her mother never wanted her, and it has "been a calamity on both sides." Mrs. Vale is so shocked that her once-weak daughter has found the courage to talk back to her that she has a heart attack and dies. Guilty and distraught, Charlotte returns to the sanitarium.

When she arrives at the sanitarium, she is immediately diverted from her own problems when she meets Jerry's lonely, unhappy 12-year-old daughter Tina, who has been sent to Dr. Jaquith. Tina greatly reminds Charlotte of herself; both were unwanted and unloved by their mothers. Shaken from her depression, Charlotte becomes overly interested in Tina's welfare, and with Dr. Jaquith's permission, she takes her under her wing. When the girl improves, Charlotte takes her home to Boston.

Jerry and Dr. Jaquith visit the Vale home, where Jerry is delighted to see the change in his daughter. His initial concern for Charlotte, believing her to be sacrificing her freedom, proves wrong. Dr. Jaquith has allowed Charlotte to keep Tina there to understand that her relationship with Jerry will remain platonic. She tells Jerry that she sees Tina as his gift to her and her way of being close to him. When Jerry asks her if she is happy, Charlotte finds much to value in her life, even if she does not have everything she wants: "Oh, Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars."

The story opens weeks after the events of ''Interesting Times'', in which Rincewind is magically transported to the continent of XXXX due to a miscalculation made by the Unseen University wizards. He meets the magical kangaroo Scrappy, who was sent by the creator of Fourecks. Scrappy explains to Rincewind that he is fated to bring back "The Wet", meaning the rain, and that he is the reason for the eons-long drought. Scrappy says that the continent is unfinished, and time and space will be an eternal anomaly there until it is finished, i.e., the rain is brought back. Rincewind is shown cave paintings of wizards.

Meanwhile, the senior wizards (Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully, The Dean, The Bursar, The Chair of Indefinite Studies, The Lecturer in Recent Runes, The Senior Wrangler, and Ponder Stibbons) are trying to find a cure for the Librarian's magical malady, which causes him to transform into a native object, such as a book when near a library, whenever he sneezes. The wizards soon find out that the books in the Library become hostile and attack when not in the librarian's care. The wizards cannot cure the Librarian without knowing his name. The Librarian, being also the archivist, destroyed any evidence of his true name since he believed the wizards would attempt to turn him human again, as he rather enjoyed his orang-utan body (brought on by a magical accident years before). The Lecturer in Recent Runes suggests they interrogate Rincewind, as he once worked closely with the Librarian and seemed to know more about him than anyone else. To find Rincewind, they have to find the continent of XXXX. They seek out the Egregious Professor of Cruel and Unusual Geography, and find his office but no sign of the professor himself. They then find a magical window in space leading from the professor's bathroom to a tropical island thousands of years in the past.

Back in the present, Rincewind attempts to run away from his destiny, but in fact runs towards it. With the secret assistance of Scrappy, (a parody of ''Skippy the Bush Kangaroo'', a television show from 1969 to 1970, with re-runs into the early 1980s) he eventually ends up wrongfully arrested for sheep theft and taken to Bugarup, where he is hoping to find a ship to escape on. Along the way he subsequently ends up inventing several things that are considered Australian Icons in the real world, as well as becoming the subject of a ballad that is hinted at being a parody of the song "Waltzing Matilda". A gigantic circular storm surrounding Fourecks prevents any ships from leaving, however. The people of Bugarup regard sheep thieves as folk heroes and encourage Rincewind to escape, while not actually allowing him to. He finds a hidden message on the ceiling of his holding cell, left by a previous escapee named Tinhead Ned, a reference to the bushranger Ned Kelly, telling him: "G'day mate, check the hinges." He discovers that he is able to lift the door off its hinges and escape.

The University wizards become trapped when Mrs Whitlow, the head maid, closes the window that leads back into the Professor's study. The wizards soon encounter plants that rapidly evolve to suit their needs but, apart from Ponder, do not question the turn of events until a large dinosaur evolves into a chicken in front of their eyes. After finding a plant-based boat, the wizards start to question their surroundings even more and the god of evolution, who has been causing the events, then turns up and helps explain things. The god doesn't understand the purpose of the seeds and is, it turns out, unaware of the concept of sexual reproduction. After Mrs Whitlow explains it to him, the excited god decides to redesign the creatures on the island in order to incorporate the idea. (The god is also shown to have created a large number of beetle species, in reference to the quotation by J. B. S. Haldane.) The wizards then reach Fourecks, inventing surfing along the way, and meet the Creator of Fourecks (not of the Disc) in the process of creating it by way of impressionistic cave paintings. The wizards bicker over the Creator's technique and inadvertently create the duck-billed platypus. The Librarian meanwhile steals the Creator's bullroarer and spins it, causing the drought Rincewind is in the process of stopping. The wizards are then frozen in time for thousands of years by the stray magic left over from creating the continent.

Rincewind, having escaped from gaol, meets up with a group of female impersonators, Darleen and Letitia, and a female, Neilette. The "ladies" have found his Luggage, which rescues him from the Watch. In the escape, Rincewind and Neilette break into the old brewery (which was never used because all the beer kept going flat). An earthquake (induced by the voice of the creator) causes the brewery to collapse, trapping them inside the Luggage. When they emerge, Rincewind can see the ethereal outlines of the wizards (who were trapped, frozen in time, for 30,000 years in the brewery). Eventually he arrives at the University of Fourecks (which has a tower that is taller on the inside than it is on the outside). Rincewind figures out how to free the wizards. The wizards attempt to find a way to bring back the rain, but are unsuccessful. As they are sitting around, Rincewind idly twirls the bullroarer, which soon begins to fly faster and farther than it should. Rincewind lets go and the bullroarer flies off; immediately, it begins to rain.

Having saved Fourecks, Rincewind and the wizards return to Ankh-Morpork by ship, and the story ends with the old man with the sack (the Creator of the last continent) catching the bullroarer in front of a young boy.

In late 1942, having expended enormous resources on recapturing escaped Allied POWs, the Nazi German armed forces move the most determined to Stalag Luft III, a new, max-security prisoner-of-war camp supervised by Luftwaffe Colonel von Luger. The prisoners' escape committee, the "X" Organization, led by "Big X", RAF Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett, a former prisoner of the Gestapo, and with the support of senior British officer Group Captain Ramsey, mount an audacious plan to tunnel out of the camp and break out 250 men – not just to escape, but so that German manpower will be wasted on finding POWs. The men organize into teams, simultaneously working on three tunnels, "Tom", "Dick", and "Harry".

American Flight Lieutenant Bob Hendley can find anything, from a camera to identity cards. Australian Flying Officer Sedgwick makes tools like picks and bellows for pumping air into the tunnels. Flight Lieutenants Danny Velinski and Willie Dickes are in charge of digging the tunnels. Flight Lieutenant Andy MacDonald, Bartlett's second-in-command, gathers and provides intelligence.

Lieutenant Commander Eric Ashley-Pitt of the Royal Navy devises a method of hiding dirt from the tunnels under the guards' noses. Flight Lieutenant Griffith creates civilian outfits from scavenged cloth for the POWs to wear after the escape. Dai Nimmo and Haynes are in charge of diverting the guards' attention to other things in the camp in order to pull off the more risky parts of the operation unnoticed. Sorren is in charge of security.

Forging papers to get to freedom is handled by Flight Lieutenant Colin Blythe. The work noise is covered by the prisoner choir led by Flight Lieutenant Dennis Cavendish, who also does surveys to measure the tunnel.

On June 20, 1943, Bartlett asks USAAF Captain Virgil Hilts, who is attempting escapes with Scottish Flying Officer Archie Ives RAF but being constantly imprisoned in solitary confinement in the "cooler", to help in the escape by getting out through the barbed wire, scouting out the area, and then allowing himself to be recaptured; Hilts refuses.

Bartlett orders "Dick" and "Harry" sealed off, as "Tom" is closest to completion. After hoarding potatoes, Hilts, Hendley and American Second Lieutenant Goff concoct moonshine from a home made still and celebrate the Fourth of July with the entire camp. In the midst of the celebration, the guards discover "Tom". As the POWs react with dismay, a despondent Ives frantically climbs the barbed wire fence and is shot dead.

Hilts volunteers to provide reconnaissance from outside the camp and Bartlett switches the prisoners' efforts to "Harry", after the information Hilts brings back is used to create maps to guide the escapers. After experiencing a tunnel collapse, a claustrophobic Danny tries to break out through the fence but agrees to try the tunnel when Willie promises his support.

Blythe discovers that he is going blind due to progressive myopia; Hendley takes it upon himself to be Blythe's guide in the escape.

The last part of the tunnel is completed on the scheduled night, March 24, 1944, and despite some mishaps, such as the tunnel being short, 76 prisoners, including Bartlett, MacDonald, Hendley, Blythe, Hilts, Ashley-Pitt, Danny, Willie, Sedgwick, Cavendish, Nimmo and Haynes, escape out the tunnel, aided by Hilts using 30 feet of rope as a guide, and an air-raid blackout.

Cavendish slips and falls after exiting the tunnel, which leads to him drawing a guard's attention and nearly being caught. However, the escape attempts ultimately end when an impatient Griffith exits the tunnel in view of a guard, and is captured immediately.

The 76 POWs flee through the Third Reich. Cavendish hitch hikes in a truck but is delivered to the authorities where he finds Haynes, disguised as a German soldier, captured. Hendley and Blythe steal a plane to fly over the Swiss border, but the engine fails, and they crash-land; Blythe is shot and dies, while Hendley is recaptured.

Hilts steals a motorcycle at a crossroads, heading for the German-Swiss border to escape pursuing German soldiers. He begins jumping barbed-wire fences but soldiers shoot out the bike's tire, and he is recaptured. Ashley-Pitt is shot and killed at a railway station when he causes a distraction to save MacDonald and Bartlett but they are recaptured after a Gestapo officer tricks them into speaking English.

On the orders of Adolf Hitler, the Gestapo murder 48 of the prisoners, including Bartlett, MacDonald, Cavendish and Haynes, on the pretext that they were trying to escape, bringing the total dead to 50. Only 3 POWs escape, Danny and Willie steal a rowing boat and proceed downstream to a port, where they board a merchant ship bound for Sweden. Sedgwick steals a bicycle, then rides on a train to France, where the French Resistance assists him in reaching Spain.

Hendley, Nimmo and nine others are returned to the camp. When informed of the dead, Hendley wonders if the cost was worth it, and Ramsey tells him it depends on his point of view. Von Luger is relieved of command as Hilts returns and is sent to the cooler, where he plans another escape.

''Blackthorne'' is set on the planet Tuul, which has existed for centuries without human knowledge. All of this time, Tuul's people have been ruled over by a single shaman who "was blessed with all knowledge". Years before the game begins, Thoros, the latest ruler, finds it near impossible to choose between his two sons as the next ruler. Believing it will solve the dilemma, he leads them to the deserts and kills himself. His body becomes two stones, light and dark, and he gives one to each boy to rule their own kingdoms respectively. The people of the lightstone form the kingdom of Androth, and the people of the darkstone form Ka'dra'suul. But while Androth respects their stone, Ka'dra'suul reject theirs, and are eventually transformed into monsters by it. In this time, a ka'dra named Sarlac seizes power. He forms an army and leads them against Androth. Knowing of his people's doom, the ruler of Androth, King Vlaros, with the aid of the Androthi magician Galadril, sends his son Kyle to Earth to save his life. Vlaros also gives Kyle the lightstone for safe keeping.

Twenty years later, Kyle has become a renowned military captain and mercenary. After breaking out of prison facing court martial, Kyle begins having strange dreams, and is eventually confronted by Galadril. He is told that it is time to return to Tuul and save his people. The game begins here with Kyle setting out to kill Sarlac and reclaim his throne.

Kyle ventures through the land fighting his way to Sarlac's castle. He confronts Sarlac and threatens to keep his skull as a mounted trophy on his wall. The two battle and Kyle is the victor. He avenges his father, King Vlaros. Kyle then becomes king of Androth, where it is stated that he ruled justly, fairly and with honor for many years. The final shot of the game shows him sitting on the throne with a woman sitting next to him. Sarlac's skull is seen mounted on the wall as a trophy, just as Kyle had promised.

Gary and Dermot are two London-based, beer-guzzling flatmates who typically spend most of their time in front of the television or in pursuit of women. When Deborah - an attractive, single woman - moves into the flat above, both men become obsessed with her, despite Gary already having a steady girlfriend, Dorothy.

When series two begins, it is revealed Dermot has left to travel the world, leading Gary to look for a new flatmate. Record stall owner Tony Smart then moves in and, although Gary is unsure of him at first, the two soon become good friends, revelling in a second childhood, hours of TV and mindless talks about women. Tony quickly becomes obsessed with Deborah and, unlike with Dermot, she initially shows an interest in return. However, Tony's immaturity quickly drives her to distraction, and his pursuit of Deborah becomes increasingly one-sided.

Gary manages an office selling security equipment for a dead-end company. His staff of ageing employees are the meek George and lifelong spinster Anthea, who regularly drive him to frustration with their old-fashioned views. Tony stumbles through a range of jobs including as a model, barman, mime artist and postman, after his record stall collapses.

Dorothy is an intelligent and mature nurse, and it is stated one of the main reasons she went out with Gary was because he annoyed her parents. She and Gary frequently split up and are occasionally unfaithful, including one night when Dorothy sleeps with Tony, but they always end up back together. Tony has many girlfriends but his true feelings are for Deborah, whom he initially just wants to have sex with, but quickly falls in love with in spite of her generally poor treatment of him. Deborah is often disappointed by Tony's juvenile behaviour, but can also see his good side. The two finally end up in a relationship in series six.

Although Dorothy initially dislikes Deborah (disparagingly referring to her as "Miss Wet Dream" in series two), the two bond over their shared frustration at the two men and develop a strong friendship, eventually becoming flatmates themselves.

After her mother has died in childbirth, Laura Blundy is brought up by her loving and caring father, a merchant and shopowner who also pays for her schooling. One day, on her way to her ailing aunt, she is given a lift by a young man in a carriage who rapes her and then throws her out of the carriage again. She becomes pregnant, and when both her father and her aunt die she is left penniless.

Unable to care for her baby son, she manages to have him raised in an institution. She occasionally goes there to inquire after him, but one day she is told that he has died and that he has been buried in an unmarked grave. The feeling of loss she experiences never leaves her again.

Laura Blundy spends the following 18 years of her life in the streets of London. When another woman's baby dies in her care she is charged with murder and has to go to prison. Years later she is set free again but almost immediately after her release she is run over by a carriage (whose driver does not stop). She is brought to hospital, where her leg is amputated. However, she falls in love with her surgeon. They get married, but Laura is attracted more by his cleanliness and moderate wealth than by his character or potency.

When, in mid-winter, Laura decides to commit suicide by drowning in the river Thames, she is rescued by Billy, a young worker employed in the building of the Victoria Embankment and London's sewage system. At one point in the novel, Billy comes into direct contact with Joseph Bazalgette, the chief engineer on this project. Although Billy has a wife and children, they start a love affair.

Some time later Laura beats her husband to death in his own home, making Billy an accomplice after the fact. Laura cuts up her husband's body, and then she and Billy carry the body in several bags to the river. As the surgeon's head keeps bobbing up and being washed ashore they eventually have to burn it.

At this point in her life Laura, already in her late thirties, may be pregnant once again. The lovers have plans of escaping to France.

In 1914, spoiled Fanny Trellis is a renowned beauty with many suitors. She loves her brother Trippy and would do anything to help him. Fanny learns that Trippy has embezzled money from his employer Job Skeffington. To save her brother from prosecution, Fanny pursues and marries the lovestruck Skeffington. Disgusted by the arrangement, in part because of his prejudice against Skeffington being Jewish, Trippy leaves home to fight in the Lafayette Escadrille in World War I.

Job loves Fanny, but she is merely fond of him and largely ignores him. She becomes pregnant with his child, but when Trippy dies in France, she states she is "stuck" with Job, and the marriage then becomes wholly loveless, continuing only for the child's sake. Job and George Trellis, Fanny's cousin, also enlist but are stationed near home.

Fanny enjoys playing the wealthy socialite, stringing along a persistent quartet of suitors who are unfazed by her marriage as well as much younger lovers. Lonely, Job finds solace with his secretaries. When Fanny finds out, she divorces him, conveniently ignoring her own behavior.

Fanny neglects her young daughter (also named Fanny), who understandably prefers her loving father and begs him to take her with him to Europe. Although Job fears for his child and tries unsuccessfully to explain to her the nature of prejudice she will encounter as a Jew abroad, he finally, tearfully and joyfully, says yes. Fanny is relieved to be free of the encumbrance of a child. Fanny has a series of affairs, living well on the extremely generous settlement Job has left her - half his fortune - and hardly giving a thought to her daughter, whom she does not see for many years.

She retains her beauty as she grows older (much to the envy of her women acquaintances), but when she catches diphtheria, it ravages her appearance. In denial, she invites her old lovers (and their wives) to a party. The men are shocked (and the women relieved) by how much Fanny has changed, leaving her distraught. Her latest young suitor, Johnny Mitchell, falls in love with her daughter, who has returned from Europe because of the rise of the Nazis. They marry after only a few months and leave for Seattle. Fanny's daughter explains that, while she wishes her mother well, she feels no real love for her, and pities her for discarding the one man who truly loves her. Shortly before her daughter's departure, Fanny suffers the ultimate humiliation when one of her old beaus makes what she at first believes to be a sincere marriage proposal, only to withdraw it when he begins to suspect, incorrectly, that she is no longer wealthy. Fanny is left alone with her maid, Manby.

Fanny's cousin George brings Job back to Fanny's home unannounced. The Nazis have left Job penniless and worse, George tells Fanny, and he calls on her to be generous. Fanny's vanity nearly prevents her from venturing down her home's grand staircase to see Job.

When she does finally enter the parlor, Job moves to her, stumbles and falls: He is blind (due to torture in a Nazi concentration camp). Fanny rushes to cradle him in her arms. As she takes his arm and guides him up the staircase, she tells the maid that "Mr. Skeffington has come home." Job had once, long ago, told Fanny that, "A woman is beautiful only when she is loved." George tells Fanny that, at that moment, "she has never been more beautiful". At long last, she realizes the truth of it.

At Christmastime in 1938, Susie Parkington, an elderly society matron and widow of the wealthy businessman and financier Major Augustus Parkington, is visited by her many relatives, with the exception of her beloved great-granddaughter Jane. Except for Jane, Susie's heirs are boorish, dissolute, and unhappy despite their wealth. When Jane does appear, she informs her great-grandmother that she plans to secretly elope with Ned Talbot, her father's employee, who wishes to take her away from her family and their way of life.

Susie has a flashback to her own life. As a teenager, Susie helps her mother run a boarding house for silver miners in Leaping Rock, Nevada. She meets Major Augustus Parkington, the owner of the mine, when he stays at the boardinghouse on a visit; the miners complain to him about dangerous working conditions, but he refuses to fix them as it would slow down the yield of the mine, instead paying the miners higher salaries to take the risk and telling them to quit if they are so afraid.

Shortly afterwards, a serious mine accident occurs which kills Susie's mother along with a number of miners. Rather than leave Susie to an uncertain fate, Augustus marries her and takes her away to New York City. Susie is introduced to Baroness Aspasia Conti, a French aristocrat and close friend and former mistress of Augustus, who helps Susie pick out clothes and learn the social graces needed for a woman of her station.

Back in the present, Susie arranges a meeting with Ned, where he reveals that Jane's father Amory (Susie's grandson-in-law) is being investigated for fraud, and Ned planned to take Jane away in order to avoid telling her or having to testify against Amory. Susie disapproves of Ned's handling of the situation, prompting Jane to send Ned away. Amory confesses to Susie and Jane that he did commit fraud, and begs Susie for a loan of $31 million to cover his actions in hopes of avoiding prison. Susie is inclined to give him the loan, but says he must ask the rest of the family, as Amory would be spending their inheritance.

Susie once again reminisces about her past. She remembers how, on their third anniversary, Augustus presented her with a grand house, furnished with Aspasia's help. Susie announces that she is pregnant, and an elated Augustus holds a ball to celebrate, inviting the wealthiest and most socially prominent citizens of New York, but his happiness turns to fury when most of them refuse to attend due to his blunt, outspoken behavior. His rage upsets Susie, and when she runs away from the dinner party, she runs upstairs, faints, falls down the stairs, and has a miscarriage.

Augustus angrily vows revenge against the non-attendees, and unbeknownst to Susie, manages to force many of them out of business over the next few years. Susie only finds out after Mrs. Livingstone, whose husband is about to be put out of business by Augustus, pleads with Susie for help and informs her that another man committed suicide after Augustus ruined him. Susie has words with Augustus, who remains unrepentant, so she separates from him and takes up new quarters on Long Island, with frequent visits from Aspasia. Several weeks pass before Augustus begs his wife to return home, revealing that he has been unsuccessful in his mission to put the Livingstones out of business. Susie then informs him that she has been secretly financially supporting the Livingstone business and that his vendetta must stop. Augustus agrees and the couple reunite.

Back in the present, as Susie expected, her heirs refuse to lend Amory the money. Amory, overcoming his fear of going to prison, resolves to make a full confession to the authorities; Susie approves, saying that is what the Major would have done.

Once again, Susie has a flashback, this time to when her son Herbert (father of greedy granddaughters Madeleine and Helen) was killed in an accident while playing polo. Susie becomes a recluse for a year and Augustus moves to England, renting a lavish country home and carrying on an affair with Lady Norah Ebbsworth. Aspasia convinces Susie to fight for her marriage, so Susie follows Augustus to England and, with the assistance of the Prince of Wales, convinces him to end his affair.

Following this, Aspasia reveals that she will be moving back to Paris. She also admits to Susie that she has always been in love with Augustus. Susie reveals that she has always known, and after she herself was sure of Augustus' love for her, she loved Aspasia too. Augustus and Susie have a heart-to-heart in which he hopes that if their grandchildren develop the weaknesses he associates with money that is inherited rather than earned, he or Susie will be alive to set them straight.

Once more in the present, Susie realizes she made a mistake in having Jane send Ned away, and tells Jane to follow her heart and go after Ned, which Jane gladly does. Finally, Susie makes the decision to bail out Amory anyway, as many "little people" would otherwise lose their money through his fraud. Her daughter, granddaughters, and great grandson leave in disgust after learning they will be cut off by Susie. Once they leave, Susie calls upstairs for her lady's maid to make ready for the day. She also shouts to her that after the finances are distributed, they'll be returning to Leaping Rock, Nevada.

Alan Quinton, an American soldier in Italy during World War II, has been writing letters for his friend, Roger Morland, a man who admits he "never had any standards, manners or taste." Alan has never met Victoria Remington, but regards her as a "pin-up girl of the spirit," to whom he can express feelings he has never expressed in person. He realizes that Victoria has fallen in love with the letters and is concerned that she will be disappointed by the real Roger. However, Roger abruptly leaves for paratrooper training in England.

Alan is subsequently injured on the Italian front and finds out that Roger is dead. He is having trouble readjusting to civilian life and spending time with his fiancée, Helen Wentworth. He decides to live for a while at his aunt's farm in Essex. In London, his brother takes him to a party at which he meets Dilly Carson and Singleton. He drunkenly tells them the story about falling in love with a woman he's never met, and Dilly realizes he is referring to Roger and Victoria. She tells Alan that a murder was committed and the letters were somehow involved.

Alan and his fiancée realize they aren't in love and part amicably before he moves to the farm. While in Essex, Alan visits Longreach — the road to which he addressed all the letters — and finds out that Victoria died over a year ago. He also learns that Roger was murdered by his wife, and Alan feels guilty for ever writing those letters. Back in London, Dilly informs him that Singleton is suffering from amnesia and is actually the real Victoria. She begs him not to tell Singleton that he was the one who wrote the letters because Victoria fell in love with Roger through the letters and married him solely based on them.

Dilly recounts that one day, she found Roger stabbed to death in the country house on Longreach, but Victoria was completely unable to remember what happened, even though she was holding the murder weapon right beside him. After a trial during which she cannot remember anything, she is sent to a prison psychiatric hospital for a year and then released into the care of Dilly. Victoria never regained her memory, and continues to now live as Singleton. Singleton realizes that Alan is in love with Victoria, but does not realize Victoria is actually herself. Regardless, Alan and Singleton marry after he gets permission from her adopted mother, Beatrice Remington. However, their marriage is constantly scarred by Alan's love of the "other woman."

Beatrice returns to the farm and while conversing with Singleton, Singleton begins to remember the events of that fateful night: As Roger begins to drink, Victoria rereads the letters to remind herself of the man she loves and not the bitter man she sees in front of her. Roger confesses that he is not the one who wrote the letters, and he becomes abusive. Beatrice takes a knife and is the one to stab him to death as Victoria attempts to save the letters he had thrown into the fireplace.

As Alan arrives at the house, Victoria recalls her true identity and they fall into each other's arms.

While traveling by train in New Mexico, novelist Richard Harland meets Ellen Berent, a beautiful socialite from Boston. Ellen is particularly drawn to Richard, as he reminds her of her deceased father, to whom she had an obsessive attachment. Ellen is visiting New Mexico to spread her father's ashes, accompanied by her aloof mother and her cousin Ruth, who was adopted by Mrs. Berent (Richard is surprised when Ruth tells him this, and wonders why she did not say "Mr. and Mrs. Berent" adopted her).

Richard and Ellen discover they are staying with the same friends, and begin a whirlwind romance. Richard is fascinated by Ellen's exotic beauty and intense personality. The couple's affair is interrupted when Ellen's fiancé, attorney Russell Quinton, from whom she is separated, arrives unexpectedly. Ellen announces at that time that she and Richard are to be married, to Richard's surprise.

Ellen and Richard marry in Warm Springs, Georgia before staying at Richard's lodge on a lake in northern Maine. Their domestic life is copacetic at first, but it becomes gradually apparent that Ellen is pathologically jealous of anyone and anything Richard cares about, including his family and career. During an unexpected visit from Ellen's family, her mother attempts to warn Richard that Ellen is prone to obsessiveness and a compulsion to "love too much". Ellen's resentment only grows when Richard's beloved teenage brother, Danny, crippled by the effects of polio, comes to live with them. One afternoon, Ellen follows Danny on the lake in a rowboat as he attempts to swim from one end to the other. Ellen knowingly encourages him to press on, even as he begins to struggle to stay afloat. She watches from the boat as Danny sinks below the surface and drowns.

Danny's death is presumed an accident, and Ellen feigns sympathy. After settling at their home in Bar Harbor, Richard is despondent. At Ruth's suggestion, Ellen becomes pregnant in an attempt to please Richard, but later confesses to Ruth that she does not want the child, likening it to a "little beast". One afternoon, Ellen throws herself down a staircase to induce a miscarriage. She succeeds in terminating the pregnancy, and after recovering in the hospital, accuses Ruth of being in love with Richard, citing a dedication in his new novel that possibly alludes to her. Ruth rebukes Ellen by accusing her of causing the misery that has befallen the family. Richard overhears the argument, and begins to suspect Ellen is responsible for the deaths of Danny and of their unborn child.

Richard confronts Ellen about Danny, and she remorselessly admits to having let him drown, and cruelly tells Richard she would do it again if given the chance. Following the confession, Richard leaves Ellen, but does not pursue criminal action as he does not believe there is sufficient evidence. After Richard departs, Ellen sends a letter to Russell—now the county district attorney—in which she accuses Ruth of plotting to murder her. While on a picnic with Ruth and her mother several days later, and unbeknownst to them, Ellen deliberately ingests sugar laced with arsenic. The poison causes Ellen to go into multiple organ failure over several days, and doctors are unable to save her. When Richard visits Ellen on her deathbed, she requests in his confidence that she be cremated, and that he scatter her ashes where she spread her father's in New Mexico, to which he agrees.

After Ellen dies, Ruth has her remains cremated at Richard's instruction. She is subsequently charged with Ellen's murder, prosecuted by Russell. During the trial, Russell proposes that Ruth plotted to kill Ellen so she and Richard could be together, and frames Ruth's cremation of Ellen as a calculated decision to prevent an autopsy. A recalcitrant Richard testifies regarding Ellen's psychopathic jealousy, insisting that she made her own suicide appear as a murder to punish him and Ruth. Ruth is ultimately acquitted, but Richard is sentenced to two years imprisonment as an accessory in Danny's death, as he withheld his knowledge of Ellen's actions. After completing his sentence, Richard returns to his lodge, where he is welcomed lovingly by Ruth.

The death of King Henry VIII of England throws his kingdom into chaos as his successor, Edward VI of England, is both under-age and in poor health. Anticipating the young king's imminent death from tuberculosis and anxious to keep England true to the Protestant Reformation by keeping the Catholic Princess Mary from the throne, John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, Lord President of the Council and second only to the king in power, hatches a plan to marry his son, Lord Guildford, to Lady Jane Grey, and have the royal physician keep the young king Edward VI alive—albeit in excruciating pain—long enough to get him to name Jane his heir.

Jane is unhappy with the proposed marriage, and is forced into it through corporal punishment by her parents. At first, Jane and Guildford treat their union as a marriage of convenience, but later fall deeply in love.

After King Edward VI dies, Jane is placed on the throne. She is troubled by the questionable legality of her accession, but after consulting with Guildford, turns the tables on John Dudley and the others who thought to use her as a puppet.

After only nine days, however, Queen Jane's council abandon her because of her designs for reforming the country. The council then supports Mary, who at first imprisons Jane and Guildford.

Consumed with guilt, Jane's father, the Duke of Suffolk, raises a rebellion to restore her to the throne, presumably in concert with Thomas Wyatt the Younger's rebellion. When the rebellion fails, Queen Mary I offers to spare Jane's life if she renounces her Protestant faith. When she refuses, Jane, her father and Guildford are executed.

Charles Morse, a billionaire; Robert "Bob" Green, a photographer; and Stephen, Bob's assistant, arrive at a remote Alaskan resort with Charles' wife, Mickey, a model, and a team of photographers. Styles, the proprietor of the lodge, warns everyone about leaving uncovered food out, as it will attract bears. During a surprise birthday party, Mickey gives Charles a watch, while Bob gifts him a pocket knife.

At a photo shoot, Charles observes Bob and Mickey flirting from a distance. Short on time and missing a model, Bob decides to seek out Jack Hawk, a local hunter. Charles, Bob and Stephen fly to Jack Hawk’s home, only to find a note on his door that indicates he is miles away hunting. They fly to where the man is supposed to be, but the plane strikes a flock of birds and nose-dives into a lake, killing the pilot. Charles, Bob and Stephen barely reach the shore of the lake. Lost in the crash is a book that Charles was recently given on surviving in the wild.

The three men gather wood for a fire and spend the night by the lake. The next morning, Charles uses a compass leaf to determine the direction of south. They start a hike that way, but encounter an enormous male Kodiak bear; it gives chase. Bob saves Charles as they flee over a log bridge, leaving Charles in doubt over his earlier suspicions that Bob was planning to kill him for Mickey. The group continues on and they find their way back at the lake. Distraught, Stephen distracts himself by carving a spear to fish with. He accidentally stabs his own leg and Charles tends to the wound. That night, the bear, having caught the scent of Stephen’s blood, attacks their camp, devouring Stephen and chasing Charles and Bob away.

Charles and Bob adapt to their harsh surroundings; while watching a squirrel fall for a trap they have constructed, they hear a rescue helicopter fly above. They run after it, yet fail to flag it down, and tensions rise when Bob expresses his disgust with Charles and his wealth in an argument. Charles rebuffs Bob, who settles down. They both resolve to walk their way back to civilization and abandon the remote hope of being found.

After hiking for some time, Charles and Bob reach a creek. Charles tries to catch a fish, but is ambushed by the bear and falls back to the campsite Bob is putting together. The bear stalks them throughout the night. Charles realizes that as long as this persists, they will be unable to forage for essentials, and decides that they have to kill the bear in order to survive. The following day, the pair lure the bear into a trap and engage it in a direct battle with spears. The bear wounds Bob but Charles stabs it and the bear advances on him. It rears onto its hind legs and collapses on Charles’s spear, impaling itself. Charles and Bob feast and celebrate afterwards.

Sometime later, brought together by their new comradeship, Charles and Bob come across an empty cabin along a river. Charles notices a deadfall trap outside. Inside are supplies, including a canoe, rifle, and ammunition. As Bob checks if the canoe is usable, Charles finds a receipt from the box he kept his knife in to use as tinder. The receipt contains information confirming his suspicions about Mickey’s infidelities with Bob. Charles subtly confronts Bob, who reveals that he plans to kill Charles for Mickey. He orders Charles to go outside, but before he is able to shoot him with the rifle, Bob falls into the deadfall and is badly injured. Charles refuses to kill Bob and removes him from the pit to tend to his wounds. They go downriver in the canoe together.

Charles stops and makes a fire to keep Bob warm. Bob apologizes for betraying Charles and says Mickey was unaware that he intended to murder him. A helicopter appears in the distance and Charles successfully attracts its attention, but Bob succumbs to his wounds just as the helicopter approaches. Brought back to the lodge, Charles reveals to his wife that he is aware of her betrayal by handing her Bob's wristwatch. When questioned by the gathered press on how his companions died, Charles emotionally states, “They died saving my life.”

The Message

As a child, Eleanor "Ellie" Arroway displays a strong aptitude for science and mathematics. Dissatisfied with a school lesson, she goes to the library to convince herself that is transcendental. In sixth grade, her father and role-model Theodore ("Ted") dies. A man named John Staughton becomes her stepfather and does not show as much support for her interests. Ellie refuses to accept him as a family member and concludes that her mother only remarried out of weakness.

After graduating from Harvard University, Ellie receives a doctorate from Caltech supervised by David Drumlin, a well-known radio astronomer. She eventually becomes the director of "Project Argus", a radiotelescope array in New Mexico dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). This puts her at odds with most of the scientific community, including Drumlin, who tries to have the funding to SETI cut off. To his surprise, the project discovers a signal containing a series of prime numbers coming from the Vega system 26 light years away. Further analysis reveals information in the polarization modulation of the signal: a retransmission of Adolf Hitler's opening speech at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, the first television signal powerful enough to escape Earth's ionosphere.

The President of the United States meets with Ellie to discuss the implications of the first confirmed communication from extraterrestrial beings. Ellie begins a relationship with Presidential Science Advisor Ken der Heer. With the help of her Soviet colleague Vaygay Lunacharsky, Ellie is able to set up redundant monitoring of the signal so that a telescope remains pointed at Vega at all times. A third message is discovered describing plans for an advanced machine. With no way of decoding the 30,000 pages, SETI scientists surmise that there must be a primer that they have missed.

The Machine

At the President's insistence, Ellie agrees to meet with two religious leaders, Billy Jo Rankin and Palmer Joss. A lifelong religious skeptic, Ellie tries to convince Joss of her faith in science by standing near a heavy Foucault pendulum and trusting that its amplitude will not increase. Although dismissing Rankin's outbursts, Ellie is intrigued by Joss' worldview. Shortly after, Ellie travels to Paris to discuss the machine with a newly formed consortium. The participants reach a consensus that the machine is a dodecahedron-shaped vehicle with five seats. At the conference, Ellie meets Devi Sukhavati, a doctor who left India to marry the man she loved, only to lose him to illness a year later. The final piece of the message is discovered when S. R. Hadden, a billionaire in multiple high-tech industries with an obsessive personal interest in the concept of immortality, suggests that Ellie check for phase modulation. This reveals the primer, thus allowing construction of the machine to begin.

The American and Soviet governments enter a race to construct identical copies of the machine. As errors in the Soviet project are discovered, the American machine becomes the only option. Ellie applies to be one of the five passengers, but her spot is given to David Drumlin instead. Despite heavy security, a group of extremists is able to get a bomb into one of the fabrication plants in Wyoming. During a visit by three astronomers, the bomb explodes, killing Drumlin and postponing completion of the machine indefinitely. Ellie's family also suffers when her mother has a stroke, which causes paralysis. John Staughton accuses Ellie of ignoring her own mother for years.

Ellie learns that S. R. Hadden has taken up residence aboard a private space station. While on board, he reveals that his company has been covertly building a third copy of the machine in Hokkaido, Japan. The activation date is set for December 31, 1999 and Ellie, Vaygay and Devi are given three of the seats. The other two are given to Abonnema Eda, a Nigerian physicist credited with discovering the theory of everything and Xi Qiaomu, a Chinese archaeologist and expert on the Qin dynasty. While in Japan, Ellie receives a medallion from Joss, which she carries aboard the Machine as it is activated.

The Galaxy

Once activated, the dodecahedron transports the group through a series of wormholes to a massive station near the center of the Milky Way. The station contains a surreal Earth-like beach where the five are split up. Ellie meets an extraterrestrial in a form indistinguishable from Ted Arroway, who explains his people's reasons for making contact, and tells her of their ongoing project to alter the properties of the universe by accumulating enough mass in Cygnus A to counter the effects of entropy. He also tells her that the wormhole system was built by unknown precursors, and hints at the discovery of artificial messages in transcendental numbers like π. Ellie is reunited with the other four travellers who have also met simulations of their loved ones. She captures video evidence of the encounter before the dodecahedron takes them back to Earth.

Upon returning, the passengers discover that what seemed like many hours took no time at all from Earth's perspective. They also find that all of their video footage has been erased, presumably by magnetic fields in the wormholes. After seeing that Hadden is apparently dead and that the transmission has somehow been stopped without a 26-year delay, government officials accuse the travellers of an international conspiracy. They blackmail Ellie and her fellow travellers into silence until more evidence can be found. Palmer Joss becomes one of the few people willing to believe her story that she can only justify on faith.

Acting on the suggestion of "Ted", Ellie works on a program to compute the digits of π to heretofore-unprecedented lengths. Ellie's mother dies before this project delivers its first result. A final letter from her informs Ellie that John Staughton, not Ted Arroway, is Ellie's biological father. When Ellie looks at what the computer has found, she sees a circle rasterized from 0s and 1s that appear after 10²⁰ places in the base 11 representation of π. This not only provides evidence of her journey, but suggests that intelligence is behind the universe itself.

Trinity, a lazy, ne'er-do-well gunfighter with unnaturally fast drawing ability and marksmanship, is dragged on a travois by his horse to a way station and restaurant. There, he encounters a pair of bounty hunters with an injured Mexican prisoner. Trinity calmly takes the Mexican away from the two men, killing them before they can shoot him in the back. The pair reach a small town, where they witness the local sheriff, a large, burly man with a similarly fast drawing ability to Trinity, gunning down three men after they harass him for not allowing one of their criminal friends to be released.

It becomes apparent that Trinity and the man, Bambino, are brothers. Bambino is merely posing as the new sheriff of the small town while he awaits the arrival of his gang from the penitentiary from which he escaped, following a run-in with the actual sheriff who incidentally took the same way as Bambino on his way to his new post. Bambino is not happy to see his trouble-making brother. However, the two form a temporary partnership to deal with Major Harriman, who is attempting to run a group of pacifist Mormon farmers off their land with the intention of using their property to graze his own horses. The fact that these horses are valuable and unbranded explains Bambino's grudging willingness to work with his little brother, even though he considers Trinity to be a shiftless bum without ambition.

However, Trinity has fallen in love with two Mormon sisters and is genuinely concerned with the Mormon settlers' welfare. He persuades Bambino and Bambino's henchmen to help train the pacifistic Mormons to fight, and in the final battle, the Mormon leader finds in the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible that "there is a time for fighting," and the Mormons are unleashed against Major Harriman's goons, using the dirty fighting tricks that they have just learned.

Bambino is flabbergasted and infuriated to learn that Trinity has given the Major's horses to the Mormons. Trinity is about to be happily married to the two Mormon sisters when he learns that being a married Mormon means actually having to work, causing him to hurry after Bambino, who angrily sends him off in the opposite direction. After Bambino departs for California, the real sheriff appears, and Trinity points him in Bambino's direction. Trinity then reclines in his travois and brings up the rear with his horse, following them all.

Shadow is an ex-convict who is released from prison three days early when his wife Laura is killed in a car accident. Shadow is devastated by her death, and is distraught to learn that she died alongside his best friend Robbie, with whom she had been having an affair. He takes a job as a bodyguard for a mysterious con man, Mr. Wednesday, and travels with him across the United States, visiting Wednesday's acquaintances. Shadow meets a leprechaun named Mad Sweeney, who gives Shadow a magical gold coin after Shadow beats him in a fight. Shadow later tosses the coin into his wife's grave at her funeral, inadvertently bringing her back from the dead as a semi-living revenant. Shadow meets Czernobog and the Zorya Sisters. One of the sisters gives Shadow a silver coin, coming from the moon, that will protect him. Shadow learns that Wednesday is an incarnation of Odin the All-Father, and that he is recruiting American manifestations of the Old Gods, whose powers have waned as their believers have decreased in number, to participate in a battle against the New American Gods – manifestations of modern life and technology, such as the Internet, media, and modern means of transport. Shadow meets many of Wednesday's allies, including Mr. Nancy (Anansi), Easter (Ēostre), Whiskey Jack (Wisakedjak) and John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed).

The New Gods abduct Shadow (utilizing a group of shadowy Men in Black called Spooks, led by the mysterious Mr. World), but Laura rescues him, killing several Spooks in the process. Wednesday hides Shadow, first with Mr. Ibis (Thoth) and Mr. Jacquel (Anubis), who run a funeral parlor in Cairo, Illinois, and then in the Wisconsin community of Lakeside. On the way, Shadow picks up the hitchhiker Samantha Black Crow and drops her off at her house. Once in Lakeside, Shadow hides under the alias "Mike Ainsel" and spends time with several Lakeside residents, including the elderly Hinzelmann, police chief Chad Mulligan and local reporter Marguerite Olsen. Hinzelmann explains the Lakeside tradition to take a car onto the ice and bet on when it will fall through. Wednesday periodically takes Shadow on jobs to meet other gods. They are pursued all the while by the Spooks, particularly Mr. Town, who blames Shadow for the death of his friends. When a teenager in the town goes missing, Shadow helps the other residents search for her, but she isn't found. Shadow learns from another teenager in the town that children and teenagers often go missing from Lakeside. Shadow runs into Sam and Robbie's widow out of coincidence. He is shortly arrested by Chad for breaking his parole, but is able to escape with help from Czernobog and Mr. Nancy.

The New Gods seek to parley with Wednesday, but murder him at the meeting. This act is witnessed by and galvanizes the Old Gods, and they rally to face their enemies in battle at Rock City. While retrieving Wednesday's body, Shadow is surprised to discover his old prison cellmate and mentor, Low Key Lyesmith, is working as a driver for the New Gods. Shadow is bound by his contract with Wednesday to hold his vigil by re-enacting Odin's time hanging from a "World Tree" while pierced by a spear for nine days. During these nine days, he is visited by Horus, who has become mad from living too long as a hawk. Shadow dies and visits the land of the dead, where he is judged by Anubis. Shadow learns that he is Wednesday's (Odin's) son, conceived as part of the deity's plans. During this time, Mr. Town arrives at the World Tree, ordered by Mr. World to cut a branch from it.

Horus finds Easter and convinces her to bring Shadow back to life. Shadow realizes Mr. World is actually Low Key (Loki) Lyesmith, and that Odin and Loki have been working a "two-man con". They orchestrated Shadow's birth, his meeting of Loki in disguise in prison, and even Laura's death. Loki had arranged for Odin's murder, thus making the battle between the New and Old Gods a sacrifice to Odin, restoring Odin's power, while also allowing Loki to feed on the chaos of the battle.

Laura chooses to hitchhike to Rock City and meets Mr. Town, who does not realize who she is, and they agree to travel together. During their travels, Laura learns who Mr. Town is and, once they arrive at their destination, kills him and takes the branch he took from the World Tree. She then meets with Loki and manages to stab him with the World Tree branch, which turns into a spear as she stabs.

Shadow arrives at Rock City and confronts Loki, now gravely wounded, and the ghost of Odin, who reveal their plans. Shadow travels to the site of the battle and explains that both sides have nothing to gain and everything to lose, with Odin and Loki as the only true winners. Shadow tells them the United States is a bad place for Gods, and he recommends they return home. The gods depart, Loki dies, and Odin's ghost fades. Laura asks Shadow to take the coin from her, which he does, and she finally dies.

After resting with Mr. Nancy, Shadow remembers a dream where the Hindu god Ganesha told him to "look in the trunk". He returns to Lakeside and walks onto the thinning ice toward the car resting there. He picks the lock and opens the trunk to find the body of the missing teenager inside. He falls through the ice and, while trapped beneath, sees cars from past winters resting on the lake floor. Each one presumably has a child locked inside. Shadow is saved by Hinzelmann, who takes him to his house and treats him for hypothermia. Shadow realizes that Hinzelmann is a god and is also responsible for the children's kidnappings and deaths. Hinzelmann explains that he takes one child as a sacrifice each year in exchange for the town's prosperity. The townspeople are unaware of this and Hinzelmann's control of the town. Shadow thinks of killing Hinzelmann, but finds he cannot as Hinzelmann saved his life. However, Chad Mulligan overhears the conversation and shoots Hinzelmann, killing him. Shadow and Chad drive away, with Chad guilty to the point of suicide. Shadow concludes this is Hinzelmann's influence and not Chad's own will. Using magic, Shadow takes Chad's memory of overhearing Hinzelmann and the killing. He leaves Chad and Lakeside behind, understanding that the town will likely face greater challenges without Hinzelmann's protection.

In Iceland, Shadow meets another incarnation of Odin (created by the belief of the original settlers of Iceland), who is much closer than Wednesday to the Odin of mythology. Shadow accuses Odin of Wednesday's actions, but Odin retorts: "He was me, yes. But I am not him." Shadow gives Wednesday's glass eye to Odin, which Odin places in a leather bag as a keepsake. Shadow performs a simple sleight-of-hand coin trick, which delights Odin, who asks for a repeat performance. Shadow then performs a small piece of real magic, pulling a golden coin from nowhere, before walking away from the god and out into the world.

In 1945, the Yokokawa house is destroyed in a firebombing along with most of Kobe. The children, teenage Seita and little Setsuko escape unharmed, but their mother dies from severe burns. Seita conceals their mother's death from Setsuko in an attempt to keep her happy, which she later learns of despite Seita's efforts. Seita and Setsuko move in with a distant aunt, and Seita retrieves supplies he buried before the bombing and gives everything to his aunt, save for a tin of Sakuma drops. The aunt convinces Seita to sell his mother's silk kimono for rice as rations shrink and the number of refugees in the house grows. Seita uses some of his mother's money in the bank to buy supplies, but eventually, the aunt becomes resentful of the children, deeming them unworthy of earning her food.

Seita and Setsuko decide to leave their aunt's home after excessive insults, and they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. They release fireflies into the shelter for light. The next day, Setsuko is horrified to find that the insects have died. She buries them in a grave, asking why they and her mother had to die. As they run out of rice, Seita steals from farmers and loots homes during air raids, for which he is beaten and sent to the police. The officer realizes Seita is stealing due to hunger and releases him. When Setsuko falls ill, a doctor explains that she is suffering from malnutrition. Desperate, Seita withdraws the last of the money in their mother's bank account. After doing so, he becomes distraught when he learns that Japan has surrendered, and that his father, an Imperial Japanese Navy captain, is most likely dead, as most of Japan's navy has been sunk. Seita returns to Setsuko with food, but finds her dying. She later dies as Seita finishes preparing the food. Seita cremates Setsuko's body and her stuffed doll in a straw casket. He carries her ashes in the candy tin along with his father's photograph.

Shortly after the end of World War II, Seita dies of starvation at a Sannomiya train station surrounded by other malnourished people. A janitor is tasked with removing the bodies before the arrival of the Americans. The janitor sorts through Seita's possessions and finds the candy tin, which he throws into a field. Setsuko's ashes spread out, and her spirit springs from the tin and is joined by Seita's spirit and a cloud of fireflies. They board a ghostly train and, throughout the journey, look back at the events leading to Seita's death. Their spirits later arrive at their destination, healthy and happy. Surrounded by fireflies, they rest on a hilltop bench overlooking present-day Kobe.

Miki Koishikawa's ordinary life as a sophomore in high school is turned upside down when her parents suddenly announce that they are getting divorced in order to swap partners with a couple they met back in Hawaii. They seek her approval of the shocking change, and while at a restaurant during dinner where Miki meets the other couple as well as their teenage son Yuu Matsura, who is around her age, she reluctantly agrees to the arrangement. At first, Yuu appears to be a complete jerk who takes every opportunity to make fun of and tease Miki, but he actually turns out to be fun and attractive, and Miki finds herself falling in love with him. Little by little, she accepts her new family arrangement and opens up to Yuu as they become best friends.

After a while, Miki and Yuu's relationship starts to become complicated because of the former relationships that they've had and developed with other characters. These include Miki's long time classmate and former crush from middle school, Ginta Suou, and Yuu's former girlfriend from his previous school, Arimi Suzuki. A secondary subplot develops when Miki's best friend, Meiko Akizuki, herself starts to have her own problems because of the relationship she has gotten into with one of the school teachers, Shin'ichi Namura.

Throughout the series, Miki and Yuu's relationship is further developed and tried, influenced by the other characters around them and the relationships that they develop with these characters.

''"I remember that winter because it had brought the heaviest snow I had ever seen. Snow had fallen steadily all night long and in the morning I woke in a room filled with light and silence, the whole world seemed to be held in a dream-like stillness. It was a magical day... and it was on that day I made The Snowman."'' - Raymond Briggs in the original introduction to the film.

After a night of heavy snowfall, a boy wakes up and plays in the snow, eventually building a large snowman. At the stroke of midnight, he sneaks downstairs to find the snowman magically comes to life. James shows the snowman around his house, playing with appliances, toys and other bric-a-brac, all while keeping quiet enough not to wake James' parents. The two find a sheeted-down motorcycle in the house's garden and go for a ride on it through the woods. Its engine heat starts to melt the snowman and he cools off in the garage freezer.

Seeing a picture of the arctic on a packet in the freezer, the snowman is agitated and takes the boy in hand, running through the garden until they take flight. They fly over the South Downs towards the coast, seeing the Royal Pavilion and Brighton Palace Pier, and north along the coast of Norway. They continue through an arctic landscape and into the aurora borealis. They land in a snow-covered forest where they join a party of snowmen. They eventually meet Father Christmas along with his reindeer; he gives the boy a card and a scarf with a snowman pattern. The snowman returns home with James before the sun rises and the two bid farewell for the night.

On Christmas Day the following morning, James wakes up to find that the snowman has melted, leaving only his hat, scarf, coal eyes, tangerine nose, and coal buttons in a pile of melted snow. James kneels down by the snowman's remains while holding his scarf, mourning the loss of him.

Alternative introductions

The original introduction on Channel 4 features the author Raymond Briggs walking through a field in rural Sussex describing his inspiration for the story, which then transitions into the animated landscape of the film. The film's executive producer Iain Harvey had received interest in the film from U.S. networks and for a VHS release. However, he noted that "in the US programmes were sponsored, and to be sponsored you needed a big name". Various names such as Sir Laurence Olivier and Julie Andrews were suggested, but a request for a rock star led to David Bowie being involved. He was a fan of Briggs' story ''When the Wind Blows'' and later provided a song for its animated adaptation. In the sequence, Bowie was filmed in the attic of 'his' childhood home and discovering a scarf in a drawer closely resembling the one given to the boy towards the end of the film.

To celebrate the film's 20th anniversary, Channel 4 created an alternative opening directed by Roger Mainwood, with Raymond Briggs' interpretation of Father Christmas recounting how he met the boy. Comedian Mel Smith reprises Father Christmas in this opening. This version is also cropped to fit a 16:9 widescreen format. Channel 4 used this opening from 2002 until Mel Smith's death in 2013, after which they began using the Bowie opening, which in turn returned the film to its original 4:3 aspect ratio.

Every nine years, in the village of Wall in rural England, a market is held the other side of a stone wall (for which the village is named) dividing the realm of Faerie from our world. In the early Victorian era, young Dunstan Thorn meets Una, a fairy woman enslaved by the witch Semele, at the market. Dunstan purchases a glass snowdrop from her with a kiss; and, later that night, makes love to her in the woods. Months later, Dunstan receives a baby in a basket—his and Una's son, Tristran.

Eighteen years later, Tristran is infatuated with the beautiful Victoria Forester. While walking her home one night, he sees a falling star land in Faerie and vows to bring it to Victoria. Victoria agrees to reward him with whatever he desires—including her hand in marriage—if he succeeds. Dunstan gives Tristran the snowdrop and enables him to pass the wall's guards by alluding to his fairy heritage.

At the castle of Stormhold, in Faerie, the dying Lord of Stormhold throws his topaz pendant out the window and declares that the first of his three surviving sons—Primus, Tertius, and Septimus—to retrieve it will be his successor. The pendant flies upward and knocks a star out of the sky (the same one Tristran promised to Victoria). The brothers depart in search of the pendant after their father's death. Septimus poisons Tertius at an inn. Meanwhile, the Lilim, a trio of ancient witches, learn of the fallen star and plan to eat its heart to regain their youth. The eldest of the Lilim, the witch-queen, is chosen to find the star and consumes the remains of the last star's heart.

Tristran meets a small, hairy man; who gives Tristran a silver chain, and a magic candle-stub which allows one to travel great distances quickly while it burns. Tristran uses the candle to reach the star, but is surprised to find that it is actually a young woman named Yvaine. Resolving to take her to Victoria anyway, Tristran tethers Yvaine to him with the chain; however, the candle burns out before he can return. Tristran and Yvaine travel on foot; however, Yvaine escapes on a unicorn when Tristran unchains her and leaves in search of food. Meanwhile, the witch-queen encounters Semele; who deceives the witch-queen into disclosing the purpose of her journey. The enraged witch-queen puts a curse on her, which prevents her from seeing, touching or perceiving the star.

After discovering that Yvaine is gone, Tristran manages to catch a ride in Primus' carriage. The witch-queen conjures a wayside inn to catch Yvaine, who is drawing near. Yvaine arrives at the inn, followed shortly after by Tristran and Primus. The witch-queen attempts to poison Tristran but the unicorn warns him just in time. He rushes back to the inn as the witch-queen murders Primus. Tristran escapes with Yvaine by forming a makeshift candle from the remnants of the magic candle. Shortly afterwards, Septimus arrives and finds Primus' body. He sets off in search of the witch-queen, to fulfill an obligation to avenge his slain brother. Tristran and Yvaine end up stranded on a cloud, miles above Faerie, when the candle burns out; but are rescued by the crew of a flying ship. Though Tristran expresses that he no longer intends to force Yvaine to accompany him, she reveals that—by the custom of her kind—because he has saved her life, she is nonetheless obliged to do so.

Upon parting company with the ship, Tristran and Yvaine set off for Wall. They encounter Semele, who, because of the witch-queen's curse, is unable to see Yvaine. Semele agrees to transport Tristran the rest of the way to Wall; and Tristran obtains a promise from Semele that he will arrive at their destination unharmed. This, however, does not prevent Semele using the snowdrop to transform him into a dormouse for the duration of the journey. Yvaine also rides in Semele's caravan, unbeknownst to the witch. Septimus, meanwhile, plots his attack on the witch-queen, but is himself killed by his intended victim.

At the market, Tristran leaves Yvaine and crosses back into Wall to meet Victoria. Meanwhile, Yvaine realizes she has fallen in love with Tristran; but learns that if she crosses the wall and leaves Faerie, she will be transformed into a piece of rock. A dismayed Victoria informs Tristran that she is already engaged to Robert Monday. She never believed he would actually go through with his quest; but is nonetheless willing to keep her promise and marry him. Tristran, not wishing to force Victoria into marrying him, reminds her that marriage was not the promise, but rather to give him anything he desired. He says that he desires that she marry her own love, Monday.

Tristran later returns to Yvaine at the market. She is delighted to learn that Victoria will be married to someone else, and that Tristran reciprocates her love. Meanwhile, Una is freed; as her enslavement ends when the moon loses her child (Yvaine), if it happens in a week when two Mondays come together (the marriage of Victoria and Monday). Una seeks out Tristran and Yvaine and reveals herself as Tristran's mother and the late Lord of Stormhold's only daughter. As such, Tristran is rightfully the last male heir of Stormhold, and Yvaine presents him with the pendant, which she has been carrying. Yvaine is approached by the witch-queen, whose youth has run out and is now older than ever. Yvaine, no longer afraid, explains that her heart is no longer for the taking as she has given it to Tristran.

Una returns to Stormhold to rule in her son's stead, while Tristran and Yvaine travel throughout Faerie. Many years later, Tristran and Yvaine finally return to Stormhold, and Tristran assumes the lordship. When he eventually grows old and dies, Yvaine continues to reign as the immortal ruler of Stormhold.

Mark Thackeray, an immigrant to Britain from British Guiana, has been unable to obtain an engineering position despite an 18-month job search. In the meantime, he accepts a teaching post for Class 12 at North Quay Secondary School in the tough East End of London, as an interim position, despite having no teaching experience.

The pupils of Class 12 have been rejected from other schools, and Thackeray is a replacement for the deceased former teacher. The pupils, led by Bert Denham and Pamela Dare (who later develops a strong crush on Thackeray), behave badly: their antics range from vandalism to distasteful pranks. Thackeray retains a calm demeanour, but loses his temper when he discovers something being burned in the classroom stove, which turns out to be a girl's sanitary towel. He orders the boys out of the classroom, then reprimands all the girls, either for being responsible or passively observing, for what he says is their "slutty behaviour". Thackeray is angry with himself for allowing his pupils to incense him. Changing his approach, he informs the class that they will no longer study from textbooks. Until the end of term, when they are due to leave school, he will treat them as adults and expects them to behave as such. He declares that they will address him as 'Sir' or 'Mr. Thackeray'; the girls will be addressed as 'Miss' and boys by their surnames. They are also allowed to discuss any issue they wish. He gradually wins over the class, except for Denham who continually baits him.

Thackeray arranges a class outing to the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Natural History Museum in South Kensington which goes well. The trip is represented by a series of still photographs as Lulu sings "To Sir with Love".

He loses some support when he defuses a potentially violent situation between Potter and the gym teacher, Mr Bell. He demands that Potter apologise directly to Bell, even if he believes Bell was wrong. The group later refuses to invite Thackeray to the class dance. When mixed-race student Seales' White English mother dies, the class takes up a collection for a wreath but refuse to accept Thackeray's donation. The students decline to deliver the wreath in person to Seales' house, fearing neighborhood gossip for visiting a "coloured" person's house.

The headmaster tells Thackeray that the "adult approach" has failed, and future outings are cancelled. Thackeray is to take over the boys' gym classes until the headmaster can find a replacement. Meanwhile, Thackeray receives an engineering job offer in the post.

Pamela Dare's mother asks for Thackeray to talk to her daughter about her behaviour at home, but this annoys Pamela, whom Thackeray believes is infatuated with him. During a gym class, Denham smugly challenges Thackeray to a boxing match. Denham delivers several blows to Thackeray's face but the bout comes to an abrupt end when Thackeray delivers one punch to Denham's solar plexus. Thackeray compliments Denham's ability and suggests he teach boxing to the younger pupils next year. Denham, finally impressed by Thackeray, expresses his admiration for Thackeray to his classmates. Thackeray regains their respect and is invited to the class dance. Later, when Thackeray attends the funeral of Seales' mother, he is touched to find that his lectures on personal choice and responsibility have had an effect and the entire class has attended.

At the dance, Pamela persuades Thackeray to be her partner for the "Ladies Choice" dance. Afterward, the class presents to Thackeray "a little present to remember us by". Thackeray is moved and retires to his classroom.

A younger couple of rowdy pupils rush into the classroom hand in hand. Surprised by Thackeray's presence, they chide him and laugh at Thackeray's gift, a silver tankard and card inscribed "To Sir, with love" signed by the entire departing class. They threaten that they will be in his class next year. After they leave Thackeray stands up and tears up the engineering job offer, reconciled to the work he has ahead of him. He then takes a flower from the vase on his desk, places it in his lapel, and leaves.

The series features the Duke boys and their cousin Daisy in an automobile race around the world against Boss Hogg, Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane, and Rosco's dog Flash in a duel for the prize money which the Dukes hope to use to keep the family farm from being foreclosed by Boss Hogg. Actually, Boss Hogg wants the money and the land for himself so he, Rosco, and Flash plans various schemes to keep the Dukes from winning. Most of the adventures are read from a post card by Uncle Jesse Duke to his pet raccoon Smokey.

The first season took place during the period of the live-action series' temporary replacement of the original actors with similar characters, Coy and Vance Duke, after Tom Wopat and John Schneider walked out over a dispute about royalties from related merchandise. Thus, the first season of this animated series featured Coy and Vance. Bo and Luke eventually replaced Coy and Vance in Season 2 Episode 1 (14): "''Boss O'Hogg and the Little People''" after Tom and John simultaneously returned to the live series following the end of the dispute near the end of the fifth season. This episode also featured a new introduction and voice over that reflected the change in characters.

The series followed no particular logical geographic path; for instance, consecutive episodes feature appearances in Venice, Morocco, the Arctic Ocean, London, Greece, India, Uzbekistan, Hong Kong and Scotland.

Three furry aliens—Mac, Zeebo, and Wiploc—are traveling in a space ship. It has been a long time since they have had female companionship, and they receive a broadcast showing human females. They are titillated by these "hairless", shapely creatures, and when they discover that the broadcast came from Earth, they set off and land in Southern California.

Valley girl Valerie Gail is a manicurist at the "Curl Up & Dye" hair salon. When she becomes dissatisfied with the lack of sexual affection from her fiancé, medical doctor Ted Gallagher, she decides to seduce him by dressing up in lingerie and setting up some romantic touches at home. Instead, she catches him cheating on her with his nurse. She kicks him out and refuses to see him again. The next day, she is sunbathing when the aliens' spaceship crash lands in her pool. She befriends them and calls her surf bum friend Woody to come drain the pool so the aliens can work on their ship and get it flying again. Meanwhile, she brings them into her home; and, though there is a language barrier at first, the aliens prove to be quick learners and absorb American pop culture and language by watching television.

Wanting them to blend into their surroundings, Valerie takes them to her friend Candy Pink at the salon. After shaving off the aliens' fur, they turn out to be human-looking and attractive. They all go out; and party at Los Angeles nightclubs where their looks, athleticism, and incredibly long tongues soon catch the eyes of every woman in the place. Valerie and Mac begin to fall for each other and go back to Valerie's house. There, they find out that they are anatomically compatible and have sex.

The next day, the pool is drained, and Zeebo and Wiploc are working on their ship when Woody stops by and offers to take them to the beach. They agree, and after accidentally holding up a convenience store, Zeebo and Wiploc are soon driving down an L.A. freeway the wrong way, in reverse, with the police in pursuit. Mac finds out his crew mates are in trouble and goes to help, but gets arrested along with Woody in a case of mistaken identity. Valerie smashes the police vehicle to get arrested, too, so she can go with Mac.

The police pursuit ends in a crash, and Zeebo and Wiploc are taken to the emergency room. There, they are examined by Ted, who discovers they have two hearts. While he is envisioning achieving fame and fortune from his discovery, Valerie and Mac elude the police and enter the emergency room disguised as a doctor and a nurse; they manage to convince Ted he is delusional. They then escape back to Valerie's house where work continues on the space ship. Meanwhile, Valerie and Ted reconcile and plan to go to Las Vegas to get married immediately.

Mac is heartbroken and prepares the ship for take-off. Valerie comes out to say good-bye, followed by Ted, who discovers the ship. While she is struggling to keep him from calling the authorities, Valerie comes to the realization that Mac is the one she truly loves. She gets on the space ship, and they take off.

The film outlines the daily life of a punk named Stevo in Salt Lake City, Utah in the fall of 1985. Stevo's best friend, "Heroin" Bob, is also a punk. The nickname "Heroin" is ironic, as Bob is afraid of needles and actually believes that any drug (with the notable exception of alcohol and cigarettes) is inherently dangerous.

Stevo and Bob go from party to party while living in a dilapidated apartment. They spend much of their time fighting with members of other subcultures, particularly rednecks. Stevo has a casual relationship with a girl named Sandy, while Bob is in love with Trish, the manager of a head shop.

The two of them are shaped by their experiences with their parents. Stevo's parents, now divorced, are former hippies who are proud of their youthful endeavors; however, Stevo is revolted by what he perceives as their "selling out" by becoming affluent Reagan Republicans, which they lamely try to justify. Stevo's grades are excellent, and when his father sends an application to Harvard Law School and Stevo is accepted, he nevertheless rejects it because of his beliefs. By contrast, Bob's father is a mentally ill alcoholic who mistakes his son and his friend for Central Intelligence Agency operatives and chases them away with a shotgun when they visit him on his birthday.

Stevo begins to see the drawbacks of living the punk life. Sean, a fellow punk, was a drug dealer who once attempted to stab his mother while under the influence of an entire 100-dose sheet of acid; in the present, Stevo finds him panhandling on the street with some obvious mental issues.

While Stevo understands that his relationship with Sandy is casual, he is still enraged when he discovers her having sex with another man and savagely beats him, later loathing himself because his action contradicts his own belief in anarchism. His social circle also begins to drift away, as his friend, Mike, leaves Salt Lake City to attend the University of Notre Dame. Soon after, Stevo attends a party and falls in love with a rich girl named Brandy, who points out that his clothing and hair are fashion as opposed to true rebellion. Rather than being offended, Stevo takes the criticism thoughtfully, and they passionately kiss.

At the same party, Bob complains of a headache (induced by Spandau Ballet's "She Loved Like Diamond" playing on a stereo), and is given Percodan, which he consumes with alcohol after being told the pills are simply "vitamins" that will help his headache. The accidental drug overdose kills him in his sleep. When Stevo discovers Bob's body, he breaks down completely. At the funeral, he appears with a shaved head and changed clothing, having decided he is done with being a punk. He plans to go to Harvard, and earlier narration suggests that he eventually marries Brandy. He notes in his closing narration that his youthful self would probably kick his future self's ass, wryly describing himself as having been ultimately just another poseur.

The "Tribes"

The film features several cliques presented as tribes. The film focuses primarily on the punk tribe, but includes several others as well: * Punks: Stevo, Bob, Sean, Megan, and Mike belong to this tribe, although Mike does not dress the part. The punks are rivals of the mods, Nazis and rednecks. * Mods: Mods wear suits and ties, and they ride scooters. They are generally the rivals of the punks, but the character John the Mod acts as a diplomat who freely moves between the tribes. * Rednecks: Rednecks are rural Utah folk who wear trucker caps and flannel, and drive around in big trucks. Punks hate them for their conservative views. * Neo-Nazis: Neo-Nazis are white power skinheads who wear pseudo-military fatigues and Nazi armbands. Punks and mods are shown to be predatory towards the Nazis. * The Heavy metal Guys: They have long hair and flannel. Not much else is known about them, except that Stevo explains that they are predatory toward the New Wavers. * New wavers: They are people who dress like New Romantics and are said to be the least threatening of the tribes. They are described as being "the new hippies." Every tribe is predatory to the New Wavers.

World-class trumpeter Arturo Sandoval was a shining light in Cuba's exciting jazz scene and championed by jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie as one of the greatest musicians he had ever heard. The film is the story of Sandoval's life, up to his defection to the United States.

The plot centers on the handsome Belgian sailor Georges Querelle, who is also a thief and murderer. When his ship, ''Le Vengeur'', arrives in Brest, he visits the ''Feria'', a bar and brothel for sailors run by the Madame Lysiane, whose lover, Robert, is Querelle's brother. Querelle has a love/hate relationship with his brother: when they meet at La Feria, they embrace, but also punch one another slowly and repeatedly in the belly. Lysiane's husband Nono works behind the bar and also manages La Feria's underhanded affairs with the assistance of his friend, the corrupt police captain Mario.

Querelle makes a deal to sell opium to Nono. During the execution of the deal, he murders his accomplice Vic by slitting his throat. After delivering the drugs, Querelle announces that he wants to sleep with Lysiane. He knows that this means he will have to throw dice with Nono, who has the privilege of playing a game of chance with all of her prospective lovers. If Nono loses, the suitor is allowed to proceed with his affair. If the suitor loses, however, he must submit to anal sex with Nono first, according to Nono’s maxim that "That way, I can say my wife only sleeps with arseholes." Querelle deliberately loses the game, allowing himself to be sodomized by Nono. When Nono gloats about Querelle's "loss" to Robert, who won his dice game, the brothers end up in a violent fight. Later, Querelle becomes Lysiane's lover, and also has sex with Mario.

Luckily for Querelle, a builder, Gil, murders his work mate Theo, who had been harassing and sexually assaulting him. Gil hides from the police in an abandoned prison, and Roger, who is in love with Gil, establishes contact between Querelle and Gil in the hopes that Querelle can help Gil flee. Querelle falls in love with Gil, who closely resembles his brother. Gil returns his affections, but Querelle betrays Gil by tipping off the police. Querelle cleverly arranged it so that the murder of Vic is also blamed on Gil.

Querelle's superior, Lieutenant Seblon, is in love with Querelle, and constantly tries to prove his manliness to him. Seblon is aware that Querelle murdered Vic, but chooses to protect him. Later, Seblon reveals his love and concern to a drunken Querelle, and they kiss and embrace before returning to ''Le Vengeur''.

The film's central character is Sweet William, played by Chris Leavins as an adult and Troy Veinotte as a teenager. Its plot hinges on a fateful incident from his teenage years, when his grandmother (Joan Orenstein) caught him attempting to have sex with his bisexual friend Fletcher (Joel Keller), involuntarily outing him to his dysfunctional family as gay.

As a consequence of the ensuing rejection, particularly by his alcoholic father Whiskey Mac (Peter MacNeill), Sweet William faced the difficult decision of whether to run away to live in a big city far away from his family, or to commit suicide by hanging himself from a tree in the family garden. The film's themes about the duality of life and death, and the way seemingly very different choices in life can lead to similar outcomes, are portrayed through magic realism in the film's depiction of a complex merged reality in which he appears to have successfully made both choices at the same time."Magical Garden: Thom Fitzgerald used creative thinking to nurture debut feature that opens Perspective Canada series". ''Toronto Star'', September 5, 1997.

The film is told as a triptych. In the first segment, set in the present, the adult Sweet William has returned home to rural Nova Scotia for the first time since leaving ten years earlier, to attend the wedding of his sister Rosemary (Kerry Fox) to Fletcher. However, upon his return, he makes two unexpected discoveries: he can still see his younger selves still living there and walking around the house, and he also has a new young pre-teen sister named Violet (Christine Dunsworth) whom he has never met because she was born after he left. The second segment, set in the past, tells the story of Sweet William's teenage years leading up to the critical decision, including his bond with Rosemary (played by Sarah Polley as a teenager) and their mother Iris' (Seana McKenna) struggles to protect her children from Whiskey Mac's abuse, as well as revealing the truth of Violet's origins, before ending with Sweet William's suicide. Returning to the present, the final segment features both the living adult and dead teenage Sweet William present in the same reality — and the dead body isn't just his imagination, because the rest of his family can also see it still hanging from the tree.[https://variety.com/1997/film/reviews/the-hanging-garden-1117341167/ "The Hanging Garden"]. ''Variety'', September 12, 1997.

According to Fitzgerald, "To every event in the film there are two interpretations. He left home and now he's back and his memory is haunting them. Or he did commit suicide when young and his homecoming is a fantasy?"

Pearl Chavez is orphaned after her father Scott Chavez kills her mother, having caught her with a lover. Before Scott Chavez is executed as a punishment for killing his wife, he arranges for his daughter Pearl to live with his second cousin and old sweetheart, Laura Belle in Texas.

Arriving by stagecoach, Pearl is met by Jesse McCanles, one of Laura Belle's two grown sons. He takes her to Spanish Bit, their enormous cattle ranch. The gentle and gracious Laura Belle is happy to welcome her to their home, but not so her husband, the Senator Jackson McCanles, who uses a wheelchair. He calls Pearl "a half-breed" and jealously despises Pearl's father.

The second son, Lewt, is a ladies' man with a personality quite unlike that of his gentlemanly brother Jesse. He expresses his interest in Pearl in direct terms and she takes a strong dislike to him. Laura Belle calls in Mr. Jubal Crabbe, the "Sinkiller", a gun-toting preacher, to counsel Pearl on how to avoid the evils of temptation. Pearl is determined to remain "a good girl."

When she submits to Lewt's aggressive advances one night, Pearl is angry with him and ashamed of her own behavior. But she also cannot help but be flattered by his lust and attentions. Jesse, meanwhile, is ostracized by his father and no longer welcome at the ranch after siding with railroad men, headed by Mr. Langford, against the Senator's personal interests. Jesse is in love with Pearl but he leaves for Austin to pursue a political career and becomes engaged to Helen Langford, Langford's daughter.

Offended when Lewt reneges on a promise to marry her, Pearl takes up with Sam Pierce, a neighboring rancher who is smitten with her. She does not love him but says yes to his proposal. Before they can be married, however, Lewt picks a fight with Pierce in a saloon and guns him down. He insists that Pearl can belong only to him. Lewt becomes a wanted man.

On the run from the law, Lewt finds time to derail a train and occasionally drop by the ranch late at night and press his attentions on Pearl. She cannot resist her desire for him and lies for Lewt to the law, hiding him in her room. Afterward, however, he walks out on her, despite her pleas that she loves him.

Laura Belle's health takes a turn for the worse and the Senator admits his love for her before she dies. Jesse returns to visit but is too late; his mother is dead. The Senator continues to shun him, as does Lewt, their family feud finally resulting in a showdown. Lewt tosses a gun to his unarmed brother but Jesse stands his ground without attempting to pick it up. Jesse warns that Lewt will eventually be hanged as a murderer, and Lewt responds by shooting Jesse.

The Senator's old friend, Lem Smoot tells him that Jesse's wound is not mortal and the old man softens up towards his son and reconciles. Pearl is relieved that Jesse is going to survive. When Helen arrives, she invites Pearl to leave Spanish Bit forever and come live with them in Austin. Pearl agrees, but when she is tipped off by one of the Spanish Bit hands that Lewt intends to come after Jesse again, she arms herself and engages in a shootout with Lewt in the desert. They die in each other's arms.

In World War II London, fire wardens Josephine "Jody" Norris and Lord Desham keep a lonely vigil. When Jody saves Desham's life, they become better acquainted. They bond over being cold, lonely middle-aged people, and he recounts his life story and coaxes her to reveal hers in turn. She is reluctant to, but agrees to go to dinner with him. While Desham is arranging dinner plans, a man from her hometown turns up and tells her that someone from their town is arriving at the train station. Overjoyed, Jody rushes to the station, leaving a bewildered Desham behind. While there, she runs into a young woman who is waiting for her pilot beau, which sends Jody into a flashback that ends once the train arrives.

Jody is the belle of her small American hometown of Piersen Falls. Both Alec Piersen and traveling salesman Mac Tilton propose to her, but she turns them both down. A disappointed Alec marries Corinne, his second choice. When handsome US Army Air Service fighter pilot Captain Bart Cosgrove flies in to promote a World War I bond drive, he and Jody quickly fall in love, though they have only one night together.

Later, a pregnant Jody is secretly visiting a doctor in New York, and is advised that her life is in danger and she needs an operation. She agrees, though she would lose her unborn child. When she learns that Bart has been killed in action, she changes her mind. She secretly gives birth to their son in 1919. She tries to arrange it so that she can "adopt" the boy without scandal by having him left on the doorstep of a family with too many children already, but the scheme backfires. Corinne loses her own newborn that same day, but is consoled by Jody's. Jody has to love her son, named Gregory or "Griggsy," from afar.

Jody's father dies, forcing her to sell the family drug store. When Jody asks to become Griggsy's live-in nurse, Corinne turns her down. Agitated, Jody reveals she is Griggsy's mother and brandishes his birth certificate. Corinne then tells her that she has suspected all along that Jody is the baby's mother, and that he has been adopted; Jody has no claim on him. Knowing that her husband never loved her, Corinne is determined to keep the one person who does.

Jody moves to New York City to work for Mac. She discovers to her surprise that he is a bootlegger, using a cosmetics business as a front. The same day, the place is raided by the police, leaving Mac with nothing but the cosmetics equipment. Jody persuades him to make cold cream; with her drive and determination, she builds up a thriving business, and they become rich.

In 1924, she forces Corinne to give her Griggsy by threatening to block a desperately needed bank loan for Alec's failing business, which she has been secretly financially supporting for the past few years. After two months, however, Jody has still not revealed her identity to Griggsy, and the boy is still miserably homesick. When she attempts to tell him that she is his mother, Griggsy begins crying at the mention of his adoption, which he says Corinne has already discussed with him, and runs off. Jody gives up and sends him back to Corinne and Alec.

Heartbroken, Jody leaves the US to immerse herself in work, setting up and running the English branch of her Lady Vyvyan Cosmetics Company. During World War II, her son becomes a pilot in the 8th Air Force. When he gets a leave in London, Jody meets his train and fusses over him, arranging for him and his WREN fiancée, Liz, the young woman she bumped into, to stay at her apartment and go out on the town. He only knows her as a family friend, and does not think it particularly unusual when he discovers a scrapbook in her apartment filled with his baby photos. Griggsy tells Jody that he and Liz have been struggling to get married all day, as England requires a 15-day delay. He then mentions that because they cannot be married, he will end his leave early.

Lord Desham, who is attracted to Jody, arrives at her apartment and finds her despondent over the fact that Griggsy will not be staying the week in London. She also lets out that she is Griggsy's mother, and Desham understands that this is her sad past she was unwilling to talk about earlier. Using his influence, Desham arranges for the young man to marry his fiancée without the customary delay. After some broad hints from Desham, and further musing from his new wife, Lieutenant Piersen finally realizes why Jody has been so helpful and asks his mother, by that title, for a dance.

In 1911, Elizabeth Kenny returns from nursing school in Brisbane, Australia, to her home in the bush of Queensland. Her mentor, Dr. McDonnell, is chief at the nearest hospital, 50 miles away. He wants her to work with him, but she wants to be a bush nurse. He says she will not last six months. Three years later, Elizabeth visits a ranch to treat a young girl, Dorrie, who is contorted in agony. She describes the symptoms in a telegram to McDonnell. His reply: infantile paralysis, no known treatment, "do the best you can with the symptoms...” Elizabeth treats “spasming” muscles with heat, wrapping Dorrie in steaming flannel. After the contractions subside, Dorrie cannot move her legs or sit up. Through close observation, Elizabeth realizes that she is not paralyzed. Her muscles have become “alienated”. After her muscles are “re-educated”, Dorrie makes a complete recovery, as do five other cases of polio that Elizabeth treats.

Elizabeth brings Dorrie to see McDonnell. She assumes that she has done the usual thing in treating polio and is horrified to learn that infantile paralysis is a deadly, crippling disease and that the standard treatment is agonizing immobilization. McDonnell believes that Elizabeth has discovered an entirely new way of treating polio. He takes her to Dr. Brack, the most senior expert. Brack scoffs at her theory (which is correct) and refuses to consider the possibility that the science of the past 50 years may be wrong. When Dorrie does cartwheels, Brack contends that she never had polio.

McDonnell suggests that Elizabeth treat the patients that doctors have given up. Australian nurses must be single; she is about to marry Captain Kevin Connors. Cut to Elizabeth's clinic, shutting down. She took 12 “paralyzed” patients; seven walked out. Now doctors deny that they had polio.Kevin leaves to fight in World War I. She joins the Army and finds him in a hospital at the front.

She returns to Australia with the rank of Sister to wait for Kevin. Then she reads about an outbreak in Townsville, and goes there. Kevin appears. She has written to him, ending their engagement. She does not think she will ever be done with polio. Kevin watches as she talks to a new patient and leaves without another word.

In the 1920s, Sister Kenny heads to Brisbane. Some time later, the Elizabeth Kenny Clinic is being closed. She confronts Dr. Brack while he is lecturing on polio to a group of orthopedists. Brack invites her to speak and then belittles her and her treatment. One of the doctors is from the Queensland Health Department. He invites her to his office. Another interested orthopedist arrives, followed by McDonnell. They have been working on getting a Royal Commission to investigate the Kenny treatment. She has an invitation from England. Should she go or stay? She feels hopeless, but a crowd outside cheers for her.

She travels around Europe, becoming famous. Kevin meets her at Croydon airport. He is glad it turned out this way. He hands her a paper with news of the Munich Agreement.

The Royal Commission condemns her. Reviews of her book are scathing. All the younger men are using the Kenny Treatment, whether they call it that or not. In America, she is “given the runaround.” Out of money, she plans to go home. A reporter reads her a press release from the University of Minnesota, stating that the Kenny method will form the basis of all future treatment. She is wanted in Minneapolis, where there is an epidemic. After three years' work in Minneapolis, Sister Kenny dictates a letter to Dr. McDonnell. A national committee is about to report on her work in the U.S. She is about to lecture to orthopedic surgeons. The new book is out. She has three honorary degrees... A cable arrives: Dr. McDonnell has died.

The lecture hall is full. The medical director of the institute introduces her. The news broadcast of the committee report is piped in. It is devastating. Furious, the director points to the real results. The lecture continues. At the end, a crowd of children gather outside the Institute, singing “Happy Birthday” to Sister Kenny.

Swedish-American Katie Holstrom (Loretta Young) leaves the family farm to attend nursing school in Capitol City. Barn painter Adolph Petree (Rhys Williams), who completed a job for Katie's father, offers her a ride, then steals her money along the way. Katie, refusing to ask her family for help, goes to work as a maid for political power broker Agatha Morley (Ethel Barrymore) and her son, U.S. Representative Glenn Morley (Joseph Cotten). She impresses Agatha and her loyal butler Joseph Clancey (Charles Bickford) with her refreshing, down-to-earth common sense. Glenn is impressed with her other charms.

Unexpected problems arise when the Morleys and the other leaders of their political party have to select a replacement for a deceased congressman; they choose the unscrupulous Anders J. Finley (Art Baker). Knowing the man's true background, Katie strongly disapproves. At a public meeting to introduce Finley, Katie asks him pointed and embarrassing questions. Leaders of the opposition party are impressed and offer to back Katie in the coming election. Katie accepts and reluctantly quits her job, much to Glenn's disappointment.

When Katie's campaign gains support (with some coaching from Glenn), Finley smears her reputation by bribing Petree to claim Katie spent the night with him when he gave her a ride. Katie, distraught, runs home. When Glenn learns the truth, he follows her and proposes.

Agatha and Joseph get Finley drunk and he reveals he is a member of an extreme nativist political group and that he bribed Petree, who is hidden away at his isolated lodge, to disparage Katie's reputation. Assisted by Katie's three burly brothers (James Arness, Lex Barker, Keith Andes), Glenn retrieves Petree from his goon guards, then forces him to confess over the radio. Agatha withdraws her party's support for Finley and endorses Katie, ensuring her election. In the final scene, Glenn carries Katie across the threshold of the United States House of Representatives.

A woman (Joan Crawford) is found wandering Los Angeles, unable to say anything other than "David". Admitted to a hospital, she is coaxed into recounting her life.

She reveals herself as Louise Howell, an emotionally unstable woman who had worked as a nurse to the invalid wife of Dean Graham (Raymond Massey) in the Graham home. Louise fell in love with neighbor David Sutton (Van Heflin), an engineer, who loathes her smothering obsession with him; he ends the relationship and leaves the area. Shortly after, Graham's wife drowns. It is undetermined whether she committed suicide or not. Louise remains with the family as they move to Washington, D.C., to care for the two Graham children: young Wynn and college-age Carol (Geraldine Brooks).

Time passes and David re-enters the scene, having taken an engineering job with Graham. He is surprised to find Louise with the family. Louise — still obsessed with David — makes a pass and is rebuffed. Moments later, Graham proposes to Louise and she accepts to salvage her pride. She tells him outright that she is not in love with him, but Graham pledges to make it work in spite of that.

Carol takes a fancy to David, much to the consternation of Louise, who tries to dissuade Carol from establishing a relationship with him. Louise's mind begins to deteriorate due to her obsession with David; she hears voices, has visual hallucinations, and believes her husband's first wife is still alive.

When David and Carol consider marriage, Louise tries to end their relationship. Graham is concerned about Louise's mental state and tries to persuade her to see a doctor. Believing her husband is trying to put her away, Louise bursts into David's apartment and kills him in a schizophrenic episode.

The psychiatrist to whom Louise has recounted her story pronounces her insane and not responsible for her actions. He laments that he had not seen her sooner, as he is sure that if he had, the tragedy could have been avoided. He tells Graham that he intends to help Louise back to sanity, though the process will be long and arduous, with much pain and suffering in store for her. Graham pledges his full support and vows that he will always be there for her, no matter how difficult it becomes.

In a hospital, nightclub singer Angie Evans, her face bandaged, recounts the events that brought her there.

Angie becomes involved with aspiring singer Ken Conway. Her agent Mike Dawson helps Ken and piano accompanist Steve Anderson secure a spot on a radio show singing cowboy songs. Ken sings a ballad on the day that Angie, now his wife, gives birth to their daughter. Ken's performance earns him a new career opportunity.

Ken soon achieves great success, gaining popularity and wealth, while Angie stays home. With her career at a standstill, she begins to drink. Ken counts on her to present a sophisticated image for his new high-society friends and contacts, but her alcoholism worsens, so secretary Martha Gray comes to Ken's aid.

Angie is certain that Ken and Martha are having an affair. Steve tries to intervene on Angie's behalf, but he can see that Martha has fallen in love with Ken.

Angie neglects her child, continues to drink, and then creates a scene at a party. Ken asks for a divorce and custody. Mike helps Angie find work in a club. She is determined to stay sober in order to regain custody of her daughter. Instead, she finds herself in a bar and wakes the next morning in the apartment of strangers who had found her unconscious on their stairs.

Angie kidnaps her daughter from the park and takes her to a house in the country where Angie dutifully gives the child dinner and puts her to bed. After she sings her daughter to sleep, Angie forgets a lit cigarette in the room. She begins to drink and indulges in memories before the child's shouts finally alert her to the fire. Angie rescues her daughter from the flames but suffers serious facial burns.

Realizing that she has hit rock bottom, Angie is positive that she can move forward happily. Ken has talked with her doctor and wishes to try to support her.

The film begins with eldest daughter Katrin completing the last lines of her autobiographical novel. As she reminisces about her family life, there is a flashback to 1910, where the first of a series of vignettes finds Marta Hanson preparing the weekly budget with her husband Lars, daughters Katrin, Christine and Dagmar, and son Nels, who announces his desire to attend high school. Each family member makes a financial sacrifice to contribute to the boy's education.

Marta's sister Trina arrives, announces she is marrying undertaker Peter Thorkelson, and implores Marta to break the news to their sisters Sigrid and Jenny. When Marta threatens to reveal embarrassing anecdotes about them, the women accept their sister's decision.

When Jonathan Hyde, the Hansons' impoverished lodger, reads ''A Tale of Two Cities'' aloud for the family, they are deeply moved by the story. Later, the family is visited by Marta's gruff but soft-hearted Uncle Chris and his housekeeper Jessie Brown, who is secretly his wife. When Chris discovers Dagmar is ill with mastoiditis, he insists on taking her to the hospital. Dagmar's operation is a success, but Marta is prohibited from seeing her. Disguised as a member of the housekeeping staff, she sneaks into Dagmar's ward and softly sings to her.

When Dagmar returns home, she learns her cat, Uncle Elizabeth, had been mauled and seriously injured during its outside wanderings. Despite Dagmar's belief in her mother's healing powers, Marta feels helpless to save the cat and sends Nels to buy chloroform so she can euthanize it. The following morning, she is astonished when Dagmar walks in with an apparently cured cat. Instead of killing the cat, the dose of chloroform that Marta had administered only provided the cat with the deep sleep it needed to aid its recovery.

Mr. Hyde suddenly and quietly moves out, leaving his classic books and a check for his accumulated months of rent. The family's initial joy of receiving the large rent payment quickly vanishes once they discover that the check has no value. Sigrid and Jenny are furious; but as Marta tears up the worthless piece of paper, she declares that Hyde's gift of literature is far more valuable than the money itself.

Katrin brags to Christine that their mother is going to buy her the dresser set she has long admired as a graduation present. As she is about to leave to perform in the school's production of ''The Merchant of Venice'', Katrin learns (from a resentful Christine) that her mother traded her heirloom brooch for the gift. Distraught, Katrin performs badly in the play and later retrieves the brooch after trading back the dresser set. Marta then gives the brooch to Katrin as a graduation present. Katrin's father presents her with her first cup of coffee, which she had been told she could drink once she was a grown-up. After taking a few sips of the "adult" beverage, Katrin is overcome with emotion by her parents' gesture, and she rushes out of the room.

Marta learns Uncle Chris is near death, and she takes Katrin to say goodbye. He reveals he has no money to leave his niece because he has been donating his income to help children with leg or foot problems walk again. He also reveals he is married to his housekeeper Jessie. After enjoying a final drink with his niece and Jessie, Uncle Chris dies peacefully in bed.

Trina marries Peter Thorkelson in the Hanson's parlor. One year later, they are seen on a park bench with their baby in a baby carriage.

Katrin is dejected when she receives her tenth literary rejection letter. Marta then takes some of her stories to famed author and gourmand Florence Dana Moorhead and convinces her to read them. Marta returns home and advises her daughter that Moorhead feels the girl should write about what she knows best. Marta urges Katrin to write about Papa. When Katrin's story is accepted for publication, she is paid $500 ( ). After announcing some of the money will go towards the purchase of the winter coat Marta wants, Katrin confesses her story is titled ''Mama and the Hospital''. She begins to read it to her family, and the story's introduction concludes and the film itself ends with the line "But first and foremost, I remember Mama".

Leona Stevenson is a spoiled, bedridden daughter of wealthy businessman James Cotterell. She tries to reach her husband, Henry. The servants are absent and she is alone in the apartment. She overhears two men planning a murder via what seems to be a crossed telephone connection. The call cuts off without Leona learning much other than it is scheduled for the night. She fails to call the telephone company and the police for a few details.

While finding Henry, Leona recalls her past. She learns that the secretary met Henry that day with an attractive woman named Sally Lord and did not return to the office. Leona recognizes the woman as Sally Hunt, a college friend who was in love with Henry, and at the time was poor and working in a drug store. Leona took Henry from Sally, and married him against her father's wishes. Sally later married Fred Lord, a lawyer in the district attorney's office. From overheard conversations, she learns her husband was close to resolving an investigation about Henry somehow. Sally is so concerned she follows her husband and two associates to a mysterious meeting at an abandoned house on Staten Island. The house sign is owned by Waldo Evans, a chemist working for Leona's father. Sally arranged to meet Henry after warning him. He received a phone call, left the table and did not return. Sally concludes that the house was destroyed, Morano has been arrested by the police, and Waldo escaped them.

Leona receives a message from Henry, stating he left the town for work he had forgotten about and he will return on Sunday. Leona visits Dr. Phillip Alexander, the specialist she came to New York to see regarding her lifelong heart troubles. Alexander reveals that he gave Henry her prognosis ten days ago, something that Henry kept from her. In a flashback, Leona had gone some years without any cardiac episodes, before marrying Henry. Henry learns about her health issues for a few years, when she suffered a cardiac arrest during a quarrel. It becomes clear Leona tries to use Henry, insisting he worked for her father even though he is bored. As their troubles become severe, Leona's attacks become frequent, until she is bedridden. However, Alexander diagnoses the problems as purely psychosomatic; nothing is wrong with her physically, but he thinks she needs psychiatric help.

Leona calls Waldo. He reluctantly discloses that Henry recruited him to steal chemicals from the Cotterell drug company and sell them for Morano. Henry tried to bypass Morano when Waldo was transferred. However, Morano and his thugs tricked Henry into signing an IOU for $200,000 for a lost profit in three months. When Henry protested he had insufficient money, Morano pointed out that Leona has a large insurance policy. With Morano in custody, Waldo stresses that Henry no longer needs to raise the sum. He gives Leona a number to reach Henry, but when she calls and discovers that it is for the city morgue. The distraught Leona phones a nurse at the hospital. A frantic Henry calls Leona at a telephone booth. She hears an unnamed intruder sneaking inside the house, and tells Henry that she is the victim of the murder plot. Henry tells Leona to leave the house, but she is killed by the intruder and the phoneline goes off. As the police arrest Henry, he re-dials the phone, only for the killer to pick it up and send a reply to him.

At the sight of one of her old dresses, a young but unhappy woman, who is about to divorce, remembers her first love. The story is then told in flashback.

In 1939 in New York City, student Eloise Winters meets Walt Dreiser at a student party. A few days later, Walt asks her to go out with him. For him, it is only an opportunity to have a good time. When Eloise realizes it, she lets him understand that she is a looking for a permanent relationship. Walt continues to chase her, and eventually both end up falling in love.

World War II breaks out and Walt joins the US Army. Before going overseas, he asks Eloise to spend a night with him. At first hesitant, she finally accepts the proposition. Realizing she is pregnant, she decides to hide her condition from Walt because she wants him to marry her only for love and not to legitimize the child.

Canadian Arnold Boult (Spencer Tracy) and his wife Evelyn (Deborah Kerr) are celebrating the first birthday of their son Edward (who is never seen in the film) with their friend, physician Larry Woodhope (Ian Hunter), in their London home shortly after World War I. Arnold is about to embark upon a new career in finance with Harry Simpkin (Mervyn Johns), who has been released from prison after serving time on fraud charges.

Five years later, Edward is diagnosed with a serious illness requiring a costly operation abroad. With his retail credit business doing poorly, Boult decides to burn down the building in order to finance the surgery with the insurance money. Despite reservations about his partner's scheme, Harry goes along with the plan.

As the years pass, Boult evolves into a wealthy, titled financier who will do anything to protect his son. When Edward is threatened with expulsion from his prep school, Lord Boult assumes its mortgage. Time passes, and Evelyn confides in Larry her concern that Edward drinks too much and appears to have no sense of morality. Larry strongly suggests that something be done to control Edward, but Lord Boult feels the young man can do no wrong.

Having served another sentence for fraud, Harry comes to Boult and asks for a job. When he is put off, Harry commits suicide by leaping from the roof of his former partner's office building. When the police investigate, Boult's secretary Eileen Perrin (Leueen MacGrath) lies that Harry did not come to the office that day. She and Boult become lovers.

A year later, during a tryst in Eileen's apartment, the two discover they are being observed by a detective working for Evelyn's attorney. Anxious to avoid scandal, Boult breaks up with Eileen, who later kills herself with an overdose of pills. Boult departs for Switzerland to see his wife and Edward. Evelyn threatens to expose Boult to Edward so that their son will see his father's true nature, but in return Boult promises he will destroy Larry, who loves her, unless she remains silent.

Evelyn acquiesces. As the years pass, she becomes increasingly unhappy and begins to drink heavily. Edward also has become an alcoholic and is engaged to socialite Phyllis Mayden (Harriette Johns), although young Betty Foxley (Tilsa Page), who is pregnant with Edward's child, believes he will marry her. Boult informs Betty of Edward's engagement and seems ready to pay her off or provide her with an abortion, but she rejects his overtures and proudly proclaims that she can take care of herself.

Edward, serving as a Royal Air Force pilot during World War II, crashes his plane while stunting and is killed along with his crew. Lord Boult, now a widower, has discovered that Larry delivered Betty's child. Boult beseeches Larry to tell him its whereabouts. Certain that Boult will have just as corrupting an influence upon the child's life as he'd had upon Edward's, Larry refuses, leaving his obsessed old friend determined to do whatever is necessary to find his grandchild. Boult's quest is temporarily interrupted when he is imprisoned for having burned down his business decades earlier, but after his release he declares his intent to resume the search.

One winter's night, two French sisters, Chicago-born Sister Margaret (Loretta Young) and Sister Scholastica (Celeste Holm), come to the small New England town of Bethlehem (most likely modeled after Bethlehem, Connecticut – given the Abbey of Regina Laudis in that real town and the proximity to New York City), where they meet Amelia Potts (Elsa Lanchester), a painter of religious pictures. The sisters announce that they have come to build a hospital, and Sister Margaret explains that she was in charge of a children's hospital in Normandy during the war when it became a potential target during a military campaign. As many of the children could not be evacuated, Sister Margaret made a personal plea to an American general not to shell the hospital, which the Germans were using as an observation post. The hospital was spared but at the cost of American lives, and Sister Margaret made a promise to God that, in gratitude for saving the children, she would return to America to build a children's hospital.

When Miss Potts is puzzled as to why they chose Bethlehem, and Sister Margaret tells her that they had received a postcard with a reproduction of a nativity scene painted by Miss Potts, titled "Come to the Stable," with information about the Bethlehem area. The sisters then decide that a local hill depicted in another of Miss Potts's paintings would be a good site for the hospital.

After composer Bob Masen (Hugh Marlowe), who is Miss Potts's neighbor and landlord, tells the sisters that the hill is owned by Luigi Rossi of New York, the sisters go to see the bishop in a nearby city. He is unable to help them with their project, but does give them a small amount of money to tide them over. When they return to Bethlehem, Bob's religious porter, Anthony James, offers them a ride from the railroad station in Bob's jeep (he continues to help them throughout the movie).

As Sister Margaret learned to drive a jeep during the war, they arrange to borrow the jeep to go to New York City to find Mr. Rossi and ask him to donate his land. Rossi runs a bookmaker operation and, despite his security, the sisters manage to see him. However, he tells the sisters that he intends to build his retirement home on the site. As they prepare to leave, Sister Margaret notices a picture, and they learn that Rossi's son was killed in action near their hospital in Rouen. The sisters then tell Luigi they will pray for his son. Suddenly, Rossi changes his mind and informs them that the land is theirs if they will install a stained glass window in the hospital in memory of his son.

Elated, they return to Bethlehem, where Bob and his girl friend, Kitty Blaine, are listening to a demo of a new song he has composed and the sisters come to thank him for the use of the jeep. Bob then announces that he will be going to Hollywood for a few weeks to work on a picture.

The sisters acquire a three-month option for $5,000 on a former witch-hazel bottling plant opposite the Rossi property for use as a temporary shelter to stage the construction of the hospital. However, when the bishop looks over the papers, he discovers that the purchase price carries a $25,000 mortgage, significantly more than the operating funds the sisters have available. He tells the sisters that he will have to cancel the contract, but at that moment, 11 more sisters and a chaplain arrive from France, having been previously summoned by the sisters following their success. The bishop relents, allowing them to stay for the period of the option with the understanding that they must all leave if they cannot raise the additional money within that time, but later remarks to his monsignor assistant that he feels unstoppable forces at work.

When Bob returns from Hollywood with Kitty and three house guests he discovers the now increased number of sisters having a produce-and-arts sale in Miss Potts's yard, and Bob insists that she evict all the sisters. On the day before the option is to lapse, the sisters find themselves $500 short of the necessary amount. That evening, after Kitty performs Bob's new song for his guests, they hear the sisters singing a hymn which they recognize to be similar to Bob's song. Concerned about potential allegations of plagiarism, Bob swears that he first thought of the tune after his Army outfit landed in France four years earlier, but guest Al Newman, a music critic, identifies the melody as a 1200-year-old Gregorian Chant.

The next morning, after Sisters Margaret and Scholastica accidentally drive a stake through Bob's water line while building a shrine mistaking it as a sign. Bob visits the real estate agent and arranges to buy the witch-hazel plant in order to keep it out of the sisters' hands. Sister Margaret, meanwhile, discovers Bob's guests playing doubles tennis and arranges a wager for $500 if Sister Scholastica can help Al beat the other couple. Although Sister Scholastica is a former tennis champion, she loses the match.

Later, after Sister Margaret tells the sisters that they must leave, Bob apologetically comes to bid them goodbye and overhears their prayers, discovering that their Mother House is in Normandy, near where he was stationed. When the sisters ask him to pray for them, Bob is moved to change his mind about their project, and the film ends with Bob, Kitty, Anthony, Miss Potts, Mr. Rossi and the bishop all attending the dedication of the temporary home of the hospital of St. Jude.

When the young Iris Murdoch meets fellow student John Bayley at Somerville College, Oxford, he is a naive virgin easily flummoxed by her libertine spirit, arch personality, and obvious artistic talent. Decades later, little has changed and the couple keeps house, with John doting on his more famous wife. When Iris begins experiencing forgetfulness and dementia, however, the devoted John struggles with hopelessness and frustration, and becomes her caretaker, as his wife's mind deteriorates from the ravages of Alzheimer's disease.

At the start of ''Children of the Mind'', Jane, the evolved computer intelligence, is using her newly discovered abilities to take the races of buggers, humans and ''pequeninos'' outside the universe and back instantaneously. She uses these powers to move them to distant habitable planets for colonization. She is losing her memory and concentration as the vast computer network connected to the ansible is being shut down. If she is to survive, she must find a way to transfer her ''aiúa'' (or soul) to a human body.

Peter Wiggin and Si Wang-Mu travel to the worlds of Divine Wind and Pacifica to persuade the Japanese-led swing group of the Starways Congress to revoke their order to destroy Lusitania. By tracing the decision-making trail backwards, they are able to show a philosopher his influence on the Starways Congress. After several complications, the philosopher persuades the Tsutsumi clan to exert their influence with the Necessarian faction in the Starways Congress to stop the Lusitania fleet. The admiral at the head of the Lusitania fleet, however, disobeys the Congress's order and does what he believes Ender Wiggin, the perpetrator of the first Xenocide, would have done and fires the Molecular Disruption Device (MDD).

Upon Ender Wiggin's death, Jane guides his ''aiúa'' to Peter's body, while she is granted possession of Young Val's body, and thus is not destroyed when the ansible shuts down. She is then able to continue transporting starships instantaneously by borrowing the vast mental capacity of the simple-minded Pequenino mother-trees. She transports a ship with Peter and Wang-Mu around the missile, then transports the missile and them to inside of the Lusitania fleet, where it is then disarmed and disabled. Peter and Wang-Mu's efforts finally come to fruition, and the destruction of Lusitania is averted.

Jane falls in love with Miro, and Peter with Wang-mu. Both couples are married under one of the mother-trees of the pequeninos on the same day as Ender's funeral.

Ho Po-Wing and Lai Yiu-Fai are a gay couple from Hong Kong with a tumultuous relationship marked by frequent separations and reconciliations. They visit Argentina together but break up after they become lost while traveling to visit the Iguazu Falls. Without the money to fly home, Fai begins to work as a doorman at a tango bar in Buenos Aires, while Po-Wing lives promiscuously, often seen by Fai with different men. After Fai accuses Po-Wing of spending all of his money and stranding him in Argentina, Po-Wing steals from one of his acquaintances and is severely beaten. Fai allows Po-Wing to live with him in his small rented room and cares for his injuries. They attempt to reconcile their relationship, though it is marred by mutual suspicion and jealousy.

Fai loses his job at the tango bar after beating the man who injured Po-Wing. He begins working at a Chinese restaurant where he befriends Chang, a Taiwanese co-worker. Later, Po-Wing and Fai have a final argument where Fai refuses to return Po-Wing's passport. Po-Wing moves out of the apartment when he fully recovers. Sometime thereafter, Chang leaves Buenos Aires to continue his travels. Having finally earned enough money to fly home, Fai decides to visit the Iguazu Falls alone before he leaves. Meanwhile, Po-Wing returns to the empty apartment, heartbroken, realizing that Fai is gone for good.

Fai returns to Hong Kong but has a stopover in Taipei. Coincidentally, he ends up eating at a food stall in a night market run by Chang's family. He steals a photo of Chang from the booth, saying that even though he doesn't know if he will ever see Chang again, he knows where to find him.

While attending prep school at Warfield Academy, James Bond Jr, with the help of his friends IQ (the grandson of Q), Gordo Leiter (the son of Felix Leiter) Tracy, Pheobe and sometimes Trever, fight against the evil terrorist organisation S.C.U.M. (Saboteurs and Criminals United in Mayhem), a SPECTRE-like organization. Expanding on his uncle's famous line, James Bond Jr's catchphrase was "Bond, James Bond... Junior."

The show regularly surpasses the Bond movies in terms of fantastical gadgets, while the violence of the Bond series is nowhere in evidence. Jaws, a recurring villain from the films ''The Spy Who Loved Me'' and ''Moonraker'', made regular appearances, usually partnered with Nick Nack, a villain from ''The Man with the Golden Gun'', forming a bickering comical duo. Auric Goldfinger also appears, alongside his assistant, Oddjob, from the ''Goldfinger'' film. It is revealed Goldfinger has a teenage daughter named Goldie Finger with equally expensive tastes. The only other villain to appear from the films, though one that's very loosely based on his film counterpart is Dr. No, who is depicted as being Asian and having green skin, a common practice at the time in children's media whenever Asian villains are showcased such as Ming the Merciless in ''Defenders of the Earth'' and The Mandarin in the 90's ''Iron Man'' TV series. Several episode titles parodied the titles of Bond films such as ''Live and Let’s Dance'' and ''Rubies Aren't Forever''.

On Life Day, Chewbacca, accompanied by Han Solo, is headed home to see his family. Along the way, the duo is chased by two Star Destroyers, but they escape into hyperspace. Meanwhile, on Kashyyyk, Chewbacca's family is preparing for his return. Hoping to find the ''Millennium Falcon'', his wife, Malla, runs a computer scan for starships in the area but is unsuccessful.

Malla contacts Luke Skywalker, who, along with R2-D2, is working on his X-wing fighter. Luke tells her that he does not know what happened. Malla contacts Saun Dann, a local trader. He tells her through a carefully worded message that Han and Chewbacca are on their way and should be arriving soon.

Malla then attempts (unsuccessfully) to prepare a meal, the instructions of which are being aired via a local cooking show by an eccentric four-armed alien cook, Chef Gormaanda (Harvey Korman).

Saun arrives with Life Day gifts for everyone, including a virtual reality fantasy program (featuring Diahann Carroll) for Itchy. Back on the ''Falcon'', Chewbacca and Han have just come out of hyperspace not far from Kashyyyk. Han notices an increased Imperial presence, so they decide to land in an unguarded area to the north.

As they enter the atmosphere, Lumpy hears the roaring of the ship. Believing Han and Chewie might be arriving, Malla opens the door, but instead finds two stormtroopers and officers. The Imperials force their way into the house. An officer orders a search for Chewbacca.

As they search, Saun and the others attempt to distract them with food and Malla's music video box (which features a video by Jefferson Starship). When the music finishes, the head officer orders the search to continue. The head officer tells Malla to keep Lumpy busy while they search his room, so Lumpy (and the viewing audience) uses a viewscreen to watch a cartoon of his father's many adventures:

During a search for a talisman, the ''Millennium Falcon'' crashes on the water moon of Panna with the main characters onboard. They run into Boba Fett, who saves Luke from a giant monster and claims to want to help the Rebels. They all board the ''Falcon'', where Han has been infected by a mysterious sleeping virus caused by the talisman. Luke then contracts the virus as well. Fett and Chewie go into Panna City to get the cure. Once they get into the Imperial-occupied city, Fett instructs Chewie to stay behind—so he can contact Darth Vader. On the ''Falcon'', as C-3PO is caring for Han and Luke, R2-D2 intercepts the transmission between Vader and Fett. Evading the Imperials, Fett and Chewie return to the ''Falcon'' with the cure. After everyone recovers from the virus, they learn of Fett's true allegiances. He blasts away using his jetpack, promising they will meet again. The heroes head back to the Rebel base aboard the ''Falcon''.

Lumpy works to create a translation device that will fool the Imperials into returning to their base by faking their commander's voice. To do so, he first must watch the manual for the device, being presented by a malfunctioning, incompetent robot (also played by Korman). While the Imperials are searching downstairs, the living room viewscreen activates, announcing that Tatooine is being put under curfew by the Empire because of "subversive forces".

The video is announced as required viewing for all Imperial forces and much of it features Ackmena (Bea Arthur) running the Mos Eisley cantina. Ackmena is approached by an admirer: Krelman, an amorous alien, who has misunderstood something she said to him recently. Ackmena announces last call, and upon being ignored, sings a farewell song.

Lumpy uses this opportunity to put his plan into motion, faking a repeated call for the Imperials to "return to base". They leave, but one stormtrooper stays behind and realizes that they were tricked. He finds Lumpy and destroys the machine, then chases Lumpy outside.

Han and Chewbacca arrive. Chewie protects Lumpy as Han kills the stormtrooper. After they are reunited, an Imperial officer appears on the viewscreen, giving a general alert for the missing stormtrooper. Saun quickly responds that the trooper stole supplies and deserted. The danger averted, the family prepares to go to the festival at the great Tree of Life. They hold glowing orbs, and appear in space wearing red robes.

Wookiees walk into a bright star and arrive at the Tree of Life, where many are gathered, including C-3PO and R2-D2. Luke, Leia, and Han also appear. Leia gives a short speech and sings a song in celebration. Chewie remembers his adventures during the events of the original film. Finally, the Wookiee family sits around a table and bows their heads.

In the film, director Ross McElwee gets married, finally putting an end to his family's worrying; his grandmother dies; his wife Marilyn has a miscarriage; and his father, a medical doctor, dies suddenly within a week of McElwee's wife's miscarriage. His mother had died of cancer ten years earlier and so McElwee returns to his father's house, where his father's housekeeper ministers to him about Christianity and faith.

McElwee goes to visit his friend Charleen, who is now living alone in a new apartment. She had lived on an island in an old two-story house abandoned by the U.S. Army; she and her husband worked to restore it and lived together there for years before becoming estranged. Charleen then lived there alone, but on returning home from a trip she finds that her husband has set fire to the house and died downstairs at the grand piano in an arson/suicide. Charleen has her husband's cremated remains in a bag inside a box and tries to get rid of them but can't bring herself to do it.

McElwee's brother is a successful doctor; on a visit to his brother's practice, Ross talks with his brother about their father's death, which took them both by surprise. Ross's brother receives a patient who has a large malignant tumor on her breast; the woman has had the tumor for years without seeking medical help. Ross's brother takes a slide of the tumor for his files; it has spread across much of her chest and is both multifaceted and multicolored. Ross incorporates his brother's interview with the woman—and the slide his brother takes—into his film, musing in voiceover about motivation and fatality and marvelling at the power of denial.

Eventually Ross abandons the film, only to continue it later: his wife is pregnant. The pregnancy comes to term and Ross and Marilyn go with their baby son to visit Charleen, who criticizes them for bringing children into such a hostile and unpredictable world but speaks to the passion that drives life and procreation. Ross and Marilyn dote on their son and seem largely unbothered by the criticism.

The story is told in a non-linear order by an unreliable narrator (he begins the novel by telling the reader, "All of this happened, more or less"). Events become clear through flashbacks and descriptions of his time travel experiences. In the first chapter, the narrator describes his writing of the book, his experiences as a University of Chicago anthropology student and a Chicago City News Bureau correspondent, his research on the Children's Crusade and the history of Dresden, and his visit to Cold War-era Europe with his wartime friend Bernard V. O'Hare. He then writes about Billy Pilgrim, an American man from the fictional town of Ilium, New York, who believes that he was held at one time in an alien zoo on a planet he calls Tralfamadore, and that he has experienced time travel.

As a chaplain's assistant in the United States Army during World War II, Billy is an ill-trained, disoriented, and fatalistic American soldier who discovers that he does not like war and refuses to fight. He is transferred from a base in South Carolina to the front line in Luxembourg during the Battle of the Bulge. He narrowly escapes death as the result of a string of events. He also meets Roland Weary, a patriot, warmonger, and sadistic bully who derides Billy's cowardice. The two of them are captured in 1944 by the Germans, who confiscate all of Weary's belongings and force him to wear wooden clogs that cut painfully into his feet; the resulting wounds become gangrenous, which eventually kills him. While Weary is dying in a rail car full of prisoners, he convinces a fellow soldier, Paul Lazzaro, that Billy is to blame for his death. Lazzaro vows to avenge Weary's death by killing Billy, because revenge is "the sweetest thing in life".

At this exact time, Billy becomes "unstuck in time" and has flashbacks from his former and future life. Billy and the other prisoners are transported into Germany. By 1945, the prisoners have arrived in the German city of Dresden to work in "contract labor" (forced labor). The Germans hold Billy and his fellow prisoners in an empty slaughterhouse called ''Schlachthof-fünf'' ("slaughterhouse five"). During the extensive bombing of Dresden by the Allies, German guards hide with the prisoners in the slaughterhouse, which is partially underground and well-protected from the damage on the surface. As a result, they are among the few survivors of the firestorm that rages in the city between February 13 and 15, 1945. After V-E Day in May 1945, Billy is transferred to the United States and receives an honorable discharge in July 1945.

Soon, Billy is hospitalized with symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder and placed under psychiatric care at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Lake Placid. There, he shares a room with Eliot Rosewater, who introduces Billy to the novels of an obscure science fiction author, Kilgore Trout. After his release, Billy marries Valencia Merble, whose father owns the Ilium School of Optometry that Billy later attends. Billy becomes a successful and wealthy optometrist. In 1947, Billy and Valencia conceive their first child, Robert, on their honeymoon in Cape Ann, Massachusetts. Two years later their second child, Barbara, is born. On Barbara's wedding night, Billy is abducted by a flying saucer and taken to a planet many light-years away from Earth called Tralfamadore. The Tralfamadorians are described as being able to see in four dimensions, simultaneously observing all points in the space-time continuum. They universally adopt a fatalistic worldview: death means nothing to them, and their common response to hearing about death is "so it goes".

On Tralfamadore, Billy is put in a transparent geodesic dome exhibit in a zoo; the dome represents a house on Earth. The Tralfamadorians later abduct a pornographic film star named Montana Wildhack, who had disappeared on Earth and was believed to have drowned in San Pedro Bay. They intend to have her mate with Billy. She and Billy fall in love and have a child together. Billy is instantaneously sent back to Earth in a time warp to re-live past or future moments of his life.

In 1968, Billy and a co-pilot are the only survivors of a plane crash in Vermont. While driving to visit Billy in the hospital, Valencia crashes her car and dies of carbon monoxide poisoning. Billy shares a hospital room with Bertram Rumfoord, a Harvard University history professor researching an official history of the war. They discuss the bombing of Dresden, which the professor initially refuses to believe Billy witnessed; the professor claims that the bombing of Dresden was justified despite the great loss of civilian lives and the complete destruction of the city.

Billy's daughter takes him home to Ilium. He escapes and flees to New York City. In Times Square he visits a pornographic book store, where he discovers books written by Kilgore Trout and reads them. Among the books he discovers a book entitled ''The Big Board'', about a couple abducted by aliens and tricked into managing the aliens' investments on Earth. He also finds a number of magazine covers noting the disappearance of Montana Wildhack, who happens to be featured in a pornographic film being shown in the store. Later in the evening, when he discusses his time travels to Tralfamadore on a radio talk show, he is ejected from the studio. He returns to his hotel room, falls asleep, and time-travels back to 1945 in Dresden. Billy and his fellow prisoners are tasked with locating and burying the dead. After a Maori New Zealand soldier working with Billy dies of dry heaves the Germans begin cremating the bodies en masse with flamethrowers. Billy's friend Edgar Derby is shot for stealing a teapot. Eventually all of the German soldiers leave to fight on the Eastern Front, leaving Billy and the other prisoners alone with tweeting birds as the war ends.

Through non-chronological storytelling, other parts of Billy's life are told throughout the book. After Billy is evicted from the radio studio, Barbara treats Billy as a child and often monitors him. Robert becomes starkly anti-communist, enlists as a Green Beret and fights in the Vietnam War. Billy eventually dies in 1976, at which point the United States has been partitioned into twenty separate countries and attacked by China with thermonuclear weapons. He gives a speech in a baseball stadium in Chicago in which he predicts his own death and proclaims that "if you think death is a terrible thing, then you have not understood a word I've said." Billy soon after is shot with a laser gun by an assassin commissioned by the elderly Lazzaro.

Snow falls on the snowman to form a heart shape on him. The snowman wakes and begins juggling with the snow. A dog begins chasing him and takes a bite out of him. The dog then throws snow at the snowman but this only fills the missing part of the snowman. Eventually the dog leaves.

The snowman starts skating on ice but falls through and staggers away largely melted. However, by falling down a hill and rolling in the snow the snowman reforms himself.

The snowman now falls to sleep at night. A rabbit tries to steal his carrot nose but the snowman prevents this. The snowman gets up and enters a house and finds a calendar. He finds the month July on it and then puts himself in a refrigerator so that he may see this month.

During this time, the sun makes the snow melt and gives colour to the botanical species. Meanwhile, the snowman sleeps in the refrigerator.

The snowman wakes in July. His back is stuck in the fridge. He adjusts the thermostat and waits. He leaves the refrigerator and looks for the signs of summer through the window. He embraces the summer and breathes in the perfume of the flowers. He puts a pink rose in his lapel and rolls in the fields.

The snowman melts under the heat of the sun. He begin to sing "Da ist der Sommer meines Lebens..." ("that's the summer of my life") and turns into water. These are the only spoken words in the film. The rabbit from earlier mourns his loss whilst the children of the rabbit jump into the snowman's hat. He picks up the snowman's carrot and takes a bite from it.

The general outline of the plot is of a bee that finds an abandoned phonograph in a meadow and uses her stinger as a stylus to play the record on it.

The plot involves the creatures of the sea preparing for the wedding of two fish. When the fish bride is kidnapped by an octopus all the sea creatures must team up to defeat him and rescue the bride.

Holden Caulfield, a depressed 17-year-old, lives in a sanitorium in California after the end of World War II. After his discharge within a month, he intends to go live with his brother D.B., an author and war veteran with whom Holden is angry for becoming a Hollywood screenwriter.

Holden recalls the events of a single night during the previous Christmas, beginning at Pencey Preparatory Academy, a boarding school in Pennsylvania. Holden has just been expelled from Pencey because he had failed all of his classes except English. After forfeiting a fencing match in New York because he accidentally lost his equipment on the subway, he says goodbye to his history teacher, Mr. Spencer, who is a well-meaning but long-winded old man. Spencer offers him advice and simultaneously embarrasses Holden by criticizing his history exam.

Back at his dorm, Holden's dorm neighbor, Robert Ackley, who is unpopular among his peers, disturbs Holden with his impolite questioning and mannerisms. Holden, who feels sorry for Ackley, tolerates his presence. Later, Holden agrees to write an English composition for his roommate, Ward Stradlater, who is leaving for a date. Holden and Stradlater normally hang out well together, and Holden admires Stradlater's physique. He is distressed to learn that Stradlater's date is Jane Gallagher, with whom Holden was infatuated, and whom he feels the need to protect. That night, Holden decides to go to a Cary Grant comedy with Mal Brossard and Ackley. Since Ackley and Mal had already seen the film, they end up just eating food and playing pinball for a while and returning to Pencey. When Stradlater returns hours later, he fails to appreciate the deeply personal composition Holden wrote for him about the baseball glove of Holden's late brother Allie who died from leukemia a few years prior, and refuses to say whether he had sex with Jane. Enraged, Holden punches him, and Stradlater easily wins the fight. When Holden continues insulting him, Stradlater leaves him lying on the floor with a bloody nose. Fed up with the "phonies" at Pencey Prep, Holden decides to leave Pencey early and catches a train to New York. Holden intends to stay away from his home until Wednesday when his parents would have received notification of his expulsion. Aboard the train, Holden meets the mother of a wealthy, obnoxious Pencey student, Ernest Morrow, and makes up nice but false stories about her son.

In a taxicab, Holden asks the driver whether the ducks in the Central Park lagoon migrate during winter, a subject he brings up often, but the man barely responds. Holden checks into the Edmont Hotel and spends an evening dancing with three tourists at the hotel lounge. Holden is disappointed that they are unable to hold a conversation. Following an unpromising visit to a nightclub, Holden becomes preoccupied with his internal angst and agrees to have a prostitute named Sunny visit his room. His attitude toward the girl changes when she enters the room and takes off her clothes. Holden, who is a virgin, says he only wants to talk, which annoys her and causes her to leave. Even though he maintains that he paid her the right amount for her time, she returns with her pimp Maurice and demands more money. Holden insults Maurice, Sunny takes money from Holden's wallet, and Maurice snaps his fingers on Holden's groin and punches him in the stomach. Afterward, Holden imagines that he has been shot by Maurice and pictures murdering him with an automatic pistol.

The next morning, Holden, becoming increasingly depressed and in need of personal connection, calls Sally Hayes, a familiar date. Although Holden claims that she is "the queen of all phonies," they agree to meet that afternoon to attend a play at the Biltmore Theater. Holden shops for a special record, "Little Shirley Beans", for his 10-year-old sister Phoebe. He spots a small boy singing "If a body catch a body coming through the rye", which lifts his mood. After the play, Holden and Sally go ice skating at Rockefeller Center, where Holden suddenly begins ranting against society and frightens Sally. He impulsively invites Sally to run away with him that night to live in the wilderness of New England, but she is uninterested in his hastily conceived plan and declines. The conversation turns sour, and the two angrily part ways.

Holden decides to meet his old classmate, Carl Luce, for drinks at the Wicker Bar. Holden annoys Carl, whom Holden suspects of being gay, by insistently questioning him about his sex life. Before leaving, Luce says that Holden should go see a psychiatrist, to better understand himself. After Luce leaves, Holden gets drunk, awkwardly flirts with several adults, and calls an icy Sally. Exhausted and out of money, Holden wanders over to Central Park to investigate the ducks, accidentally breaking Phoebe's record on the way. Nostalgic, he heads home to see his sister Phoebe. He sneaks into his parents' apartment while they are out, and wakes up Phoebe — the only person with whom he seems to be able to communicate his true feelings. Although Phoebe is happy to see Holden, she quickly deduces that he has been expelled, and chastises him for his aimlessness and his apparent disdain for everything. When asked if he cares about anything, Holden shares a selfless fantasy he has been thinking about (based on a mishearing of Robert Burns's ''Comin' Through the Rye''), in which he imagines himself as making a job of saving children running through a field of rye by catching them before they fell off a nearby cliff (a "catcher in the rye"). Phoebe points out that the actual poem says "when a body meet a body, comin through the rye." Holden breaks down in tears, and his sister tries to console him.

When his parents return home, Holden slips out and visits his former and much-admired English teacher, Mr. Antolini, who expresses concern that Holden is headed for "a terrible fall". Mr. Antolini advises him to begin applying himself and provides Holden with a place to sleep. Holden is upset when he wakes up to find Mr. Antolini patting his head, which he interprets as a sexual advance. He leaves and spends the rest of the night in a waiting room at Grand Central Terminal, where he sinks further into despair and expresses regret over leaving Mr. Antolini. He spends most of the morning wandering Fifth Avenue.

Losing hope of finding belonging or companionship in the city, Holden impulsively decides that he will head out West and live a reclusive lifestyle as a deaf mute gas station attendant living in a log cabin. He decides to see Phoebe at lunchtime to explain his plan and say goodbye. While visiting Phoebe's school, Holden sees graffiti containing a curse word and becomes distressed by the thought of children learning the word's meaning and tarnishing their innocence. When he meets Phoebe at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she arrives with a suitcase and asks to go with him, even though she was looking forward to acting as Benedict Arnold in a play that Friday. Holden refuses to let her come with him, which upsets Phoebe. He tries to cheer her up by allowing her to skip school and taking her to the Central Park Zoo, but she remains angry. They eventually reach the zoo's carousel, where Phoebe reconciles with Holden after he buys her a ticket. Holden is finally filled with happiness and joy at the sight of Phoebe riding the carousel.

Holden finally alludes to encountering his parents that night and "getting sick", mentioning that he will be attending another school in September. Holden says that he doesn't want to tell anything more because talking about them has made him find himself missing his former classmates.

In 1327, Franciscan friar William of Baskerville and Adso of Melk, a Benedictine novice travelling under his protection, arrive at a Benedictine monastery in Northern Italy to attend a theological disputation. This abbey is being used as neutral ground in a dispute between Pope John XXII and the Franciscans, who are suspected of heresy.

The monastery is disturbed by the death of Adelmo of Otranto, an illuminator revered for his illustrations. Adelmo was skilled at comical artwork, especially concerning religious matters. William is asked by the monastery's abbot, Abo of Fossanova, to investigate the death: During his enquiry he has a debate with one of the oldest monks in the abbey, Jorge of Burgos, about the theological meaning of laughter, which Jorge despises.

The next day, a scholar of Aristotle and translator of Greek and Arabic, Venantius of Salvemec, is found dead in a vat of pig's blood. Severinus of Sankt Wendel, the herbalist, tells William that Venantius's body had black stains on the tongue and fingers, which suggests poison. Benno of Uppsala, a rhetoric scholar, reveals to William that the librarian, Malachi of Hildesheim, and his assistant Berengar of Arundel, had a homosexual relationship, until Berengar seduced Adelmo, who committed suicide out of conflicting religious shame. The only other monks who knew about the indiscretions were Jorge and Venantius. In spite of Malachi prohibiting William and Adso from entering the labyrinthine library, they penetrate the labyrinth, discovering that there must be a hidden room, entitled the ''finis Africae'' after the presumed geographical edge of the world. They find a book on Venantius' desk along with some cryptic notes. Someone snatches the book, and they pursue to no avail.

By the day after, Berengar has gone missing, which puts pressure on William. William learns of how Salvatore of Montferrat, and Remigio of Varagine, two cellarer monks, had a history with the Dulcinian heretics. Adso returns to the library alone in the evening. When leaving the library through the kitchen, Adso is seduced by a peasant girl, with whom he has his first sexual experience. After confessing to William, Adso is absolved, although he still feels guilty.

On the fourth day, Berengar is found drowned in a bath, although his body bears stains similar to Venantius'. Bernard Gui, a member of the Inquisition, arrives to search for the murderer via papal decree. Gui arrests the peasant girl Adso loved, as well as Salvatore, accusing them both of heresy and witchcraft.

During the theological disputation the next day, Severinus, after obtaining a "strange" book, is found dead in his laboratory, prompting William and Adso to search unsuccessfully for it. Remigio is interrogated by Gui, who scares him into revealing his heretical past, as well as falsely confessing to the crimes of the Abbey under threat of torture. In response to the recent tragedies in the abbey, Jorge leads a sermon about the coming of the Antichrist.

Malachi, near death, returns to the early sermon on the sixth day, and his final words concern scorpions. Nicholas of Morimondo, the glazier, tells William that whoever is the librarian would then become the Abbot, and with new light, William goes to the library to search for evidence. The Abbot is distraught that William has not solved the crime, and that the Inquisition is undermining him, so he dismisses William. That night, William and Adso penetrate the library once more and enter the ''finis Africae'' by solving its etymological riddle by chance.

William and Adso discover Jorge waiting for them in the forbidden room. He confesses that he has been masterminding the Abbey for decades, and his last victim is the Abbot himself, who has been trapped to suffocate inside a second passage to the chamber. William asks Jorge for the second book of Aristotle's ''Poetics'', which Jorge gladly offers. While flipping through the pages, which speak of the virtues of laughter, William deduces that Jorge - unable to destroy this last copy of the book - laced the pages with arsenic, assuming correctly that a reader would have to lick his fingers to turn them. Furthermore, William concludes that Venantius was translating the book as he succumbed to the poison. Berengar found him and, fearing exposure, disposed of the body in pig's blood before claiming the book and dying in the baths. Malachi was coaxed by Jorge to retrieve it from Severinus' storage, where Berengar had displaced it, so he killed Severinus, retrieved the book and died after investigating its contents. Jorge confirms William's deductions and justifies this unlikely course of actions as part of a divine plan.

The deaths correspond in order and symbolism with the Seven Trumpets, which call for objects falling from the sky (Adelmo's jump from a tower), pools of blood (Venantius), poison from water (Berengar), bashing of the stars (Severinus' head was crushed with a celestial orb), scorpions (which a delirious Malachi referred to), locusts and fire. This sequence, interpreted throughout the plot (to the verge of being accepted by William himself) as the deliberate work of a serial killer, was in fact the random result of Jorge's scheme. He consumes the book's poisoned pages and uses Adso's lantern to start a fire, which kills him and burns down the library. Adso summons the monks in a futile attempt to extinguish the fire. As the fire spreads to the rest of the abbey, William laments his failure. Confused and defeated, William and Adso escape the abbey. Years later, Adso, now aged, returns to the ruins of the abbey and salvages any remaining book scraps and fragments from the fire, eventually creating a lesser library.

'''One: Latitudes and Departures'''

'''Episode 1'''

The Reverend Wicks Cherrycoke, at the Philadelphia home of his sister Elizabeth LeSpark, earns his room and board by telling stories to his niece and nephews. The novel opens during the winter of 1786 as the Reverend, by request from his nephews, embarks on his first story set in America, which begins with his recollection of the first meeting of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon as told to him by the two men.

'''Episode 2'''

A brief episode in which respective letters of introduction are exchanged between Mason and Dixon.

'''Episode 3'''

In the naval town of Portsmouth, England in 1761, Mason & Dixon meet for the first time. After brief discussions of their respective background, the two retire to an ale house for libations before their departure on the frigate HMS ''Seahorse'' to observe the Transit of Venus from Sumatra as ordered by the Royal Society. Over the course of the evening they encounter for the first time the Learned English Dog and Fender-Belly Bodine, a soon-to-be-shipmate on board the ''Seahorse''. Talk is made over the threat of possible French naval aggression against the relatively undersized frigate.

'''Episode 4'''

The Reverend recounts the departure of the ''Seahorse'' from Portsmouth and its passage through the English Channel. In open sea, off the coast of France, the Seahorse is pursued and attacked by the French warship ''l'Grand''. After a pitched battle, during which Mason and Dixon remain below decks and the Reverend acts as a surgeon's apprentice, the French unexpectedly and inexplicably break off the attack. The Seahorse, with more than thirty casualties and broken masts, limps back to Plymouth for repairs.

'''Episode 5'''

Drinking and paranoia dominate an on-shore discussion between Mason and Dixon. At a loss to explain how they survived the attack and why the French broke off the assault on the outgunned Seahorse, the pair consider reasons for the assault, including the possibility that they themselves were the target. They draft a letter to the Royal Society with their concerns and receive a swift, threatening reply reiterating their original orders.

'''Episode 6'''

Ordered once more to Bencoolen, despite it being currently occupied by French troops, Mason, Dixon, and the Reverend find themselves aboard the newly repaired Seahorse, now escorted by a second frigate as far as the open sea. During the passage to Tenerife, and eventually the southern latitudes, Mason marks the second anniversary of his wife's death, and the passengers and crew endure shipboard boredom and isolation.

'''Episode 7'''

The ''Seahorse'' arrives for a stay in Cape Town where Mason and Dixon are greeted by a member of the local constabulary who warns them against spreading political notions amongst the colony's slaves. Taking their meals at the Vroom household, Mason is the reluctant target of advances from the host's beautiful daughters. Their efforts are guided by their mother, who wishes Mason to become so inflamed with desire that he will consent to sex with the slave Austra and impregnate her, producing a fair-skinned offspring for the slave market. Appalled by the notion, Mason struggles to contain himself and begins to see the colony as a hellish nightmare world. Dixon, however, takes a more libertarian view of the colony and the gap between their perceptions leads the two paranoid astronomers to question how they came to be paired together in the first place.

'''Episode 8'''

In a short episode occupied with the sensual, the two astronomers began to seek better food from outside the Vroom house. A tour of various cook-tents and cuisines ends in a marketplace meeting with the Reverend Cherrycoke. Clergy not being welcome in the areas to which she sails, the Reverend informs them over freshly picked mangoes that the ''Seahorse'' has proceeded east, leaving the men to observe the Transit of Venus from the Cape.

'''Episode 9'''

The rainy season begins with a storm lasting three days. With their father Cornelius trapped out of town by the weather, his daughters renew their flirtatious assault on Mason. They pursue him and Dixon to an observatory constructed by the ''Seahorse'' crew before their departure. Trapped inside the observatory by another storm, Mason and Dixon offer a short explanation of the reasons for observing the Transit from different areas of the globe.

'''Episode 10'''

The opening of the episode returns to Philadelphia where the Reverend, using an orrery, lectures on the Transit of Venus and the solar parallax. In Cape Town, the skies clear long enough for Mason and Dixon to take their observations. A strange lassitude descends on the colony for several weeks after the event but normal routines are soon restored, even as the Vroom daughters find new objects for their attentions. After several months, Mason and Dixon depart Cape Town aboard HMS ''Mercury''. The Reverend closes the episode by musing whether something other than philosophical or scientific desire drives astronomers worldwide to their observations.

'''Episode 11'''

While the Reverend sails on to British India, the Mercury makes port at the island of St. Helena, depicted as a surreal and desolate location. During an evening stroll that takes them within viewing distance of the island's gallows, Mason and Dixon encounter the Lady Florinda, with whom Mason had a brief tryst after the death of his wife. A flashback depicts their meeting a year before at the hanging of Lord Ferrers in London before the episode closes with the introduction of Florinda's fiancé.

'''Episode 12'''

The two astronomers spend time with Nevil Maskelyne, who is on the island to make observations but suffers from faulty equipment. Despite political and personal differences, they belatedly celebrate Maskelyne's 29th birthday. Dixon is ordered to return alone to Cape Town, while Mason comes to terms with his orders to remain on St. Helena. Two clocks, one having been with Maskelyne during the transit, the other with Mason and Dixon, discuss the differences between the two locations and the particular behaviors of the titular heroes. The episode closes with Dixon departing for the Cape with the clock previously kept by Maskelyne, leaving behind Mason and the other clock.

'''Episode 13'''

Lunar connections and allusions pervade the episode. With Dixon away to the Cape, Mason turns his attention to his new assignment—assisting Maskelyne in his attempts to establish observations of the lunar distance as the preferred means of obtaining longitude at sea. He is unnerved by Maskelyne's account of his former assistant and the erratic and paranoid behavior of the lunatic astronomer. Maskelyne is wary of political enemies at home and conspiracies on the island concerning his appointment and the benefits of being related to Clive of India, a prominent figure in the East India trade. Mason's own paranoia and melancholy wax as he remains on the island, but he manages to maintain enough perspective to falsify a flattering interpretation of the Maskelyne's horoscope during one night of drinking at Maskelyne's favorite bar, The Moon.

'''Episode 14'''

The episode plays upon relativity, simultaneity, and conjunction. Upon a high ridge of St. Helena, Mason wanders as he wonders whether Dixon has landed safely on the Cape and what he might be about at that minute. Dixon, it turns out, is spending a large amount of time avoiding the consequences of the Vroom daughters' fascination with Mason, who, rumors in town have it, became involved with all of the daughters, the mother, and a slave during his stay on the Cape. Dixon is able to stop Cornelius Vroom from shooting him as a substitute for Mason, and the two spend an evening at The World's End, Vroom's local watering hole. There, Dixon makes first-hand observations on the debauchery that pervades the Dutch of the Cape and glimpses the consequences for the colony's black populace. He carries a drunken Cornelius home and is warned by the daughter Gret to hide the clock he has brought with him because of the contemporary fascination and paranoia regarding the rigors of time and the workings of mechanical clocks.

'''Episode 15'''

The first of three episodes that veers between Mason's time on the island working with the frustrated, and possibly mad Maskelyne, and his recounting of events to Dixon upon their joint return to England. Mason and Maskelyne, whose obsession with his faulty instruments only grows, visit the haunting Windward side of the island for observations. Maskelyne tells Mason how a soldier he saved from throwing himself off a nearby cliff now harbors hope that Maskelyne's connections to Clive will get him out of further service on the god forsaken island. Amidst unceasing wind, Mason suspects the soldier is in fact a ghost, and the ghost of Mason's late wife Rebekah visits him for the first time.

'''Episode 16'''

Mason tells Dixon how he first met his wife Rebekah at a cheese-rolling festival in Randwick, but his narrative is briefly interrupted by the Reverend's audience who protest contradictions with historical records. Back on the island, Rebekah's visitations continue and Mason soon learns for certain that Dieter, the soldier, too is a ghost and Maskelyne's private specter. He flees to the coast and purchases transport back to town aboard a dhow.

'''Episode 17'''

Arriving back in Jamestown, Mason is diverted by Florinda's now ex-fiancé, Mournival, who conducts Mason on a tour of his new enterprise, a Museum dedicated to Jenkins' Ear. Presented with the ear itself, said to have magical properties of fulfilling wishes whispered into it, Mason begins to ask for the return of his wife but instead wishes a safe voyage to St. Helena for Dixon. For his part, Dixon later reveals that while still in Cape Town he fancied hearing Mason's wish in the voice of the wind shortly before his departure. The two ponder the possibilities and reflect on Maskeylne's possible madness as they make the return trip to England.

'''Episode 18'''

Upon their return to England in June, the two astronomers part ways, with Dixon going north to his family and Mason procrastinating against a visit to his. Shortly after making his way home, however, Mason's mentor and benefactor James Bradley falls ill and dies, occasioning Mason to reflect on his beginnings in astronomy and the real circumstances of his courtship with Rebekah.

'''Episode 19'''

The death of Bradley is the topic of discussion at a local pub called "The George" and provides a segue into talk about the 1752 conversion of England to the Gregorian calendar and the resulting "missing" eleven days. Much is made over how days might be done away with and the temporal effect on those who were alive at the time. The discussion grows heated and scientific by turns and introduces a new territory to the book with the revelation that Macclesfield recruited a cadre of "Asiatic Pygmies" to colonize the missing time and preserve temporal flow. The pygmies, Mason states, now live perpetually in the past, eleven days behind the rest of British society and may occasionally be glimpsed moving as ghosts in the present.

'''Episode 20'''

Mason visits his father's house and we are introduced for the first time to his two sons. Mason also meets Delicia Quall, a neighbor-woman who believes Mason should give up astronomy, stay in England with his sons, stop grieving for Rebekah, and marry her. Mason's father, a baker, is also present and we learn of his initial opposition to Mason's career in star-gazing. The younger Mason reveals that his next destination is likely to be America.

'''Episode 21'''

Mason recalls to himself his early days with Rebekah, his proposal to her, and his elation that she does not disapprove of his profession. He answers his sons' questions about America and his purpose there. Then, in the summer of 1763, he returns to London to begin preparations for his journey and has another brief encounter with Maskelyne, now returned from St. Helena and soon bound for the West Indies.

'''Episode 22'''

The episode opens in the Hurworth home of William Emerson, Dixon's longtime mentor and former instructor. After a brief interruption from the Reverend Cherrycoke's audience discussing the magic and commercial prospects in America, Dixon is introduced to Father Christopher Maire, a Jesuit priest and acquaintance of Emerson. Dixon's early apprenticeship to Emerson is recounted, including Emerson's disappointment that Dixon would choose an earth-bound profession such as surveying, before Maire and Emerson appeal to him to accept the commission in America and to agree to regular contact with the Jesuits regarding the progress of the mission. Dixon is reluctant to become associated with the Jesuits, fearing retaliation, but agrees to consider the idea as the episode closes and all three make their way to Emerson's local pub, The Cudgel and Throck.

'''Episode 23'''

At Emerson's local pub, with Maire disguising his Jesuit connections under civilian clothes, the trio discusses a variety of topics including China, Feng Shui, ley lines, and a network of ancient tunnels that lies beneath County Durham. Dixon and Emerson recount various expeditions into the tunnels and offer explanations to their use and meaning. Maire's admission that he has spent time in Italy heightens suspicion of his identity but he quickly deflects it by offering to cook the first pizza in England, a ghastly concoction of tough bread, ketchup brought back from the Cape by Dixon, and stilton cheese.

'''Episode 24'''

In a reflection of Mason's recollections in Episode 21, Dixon describes the early days of the courtship and relationship between his father, George, and his mother, Mary. Dixon also dwells on the death of his father several years before and the impact it had on his personal and professional trajectory. While journeying down the Thames River, where he will meet Mason to sign the contract that will send them to America, Dixon and the boat's crew encounter a heavy fog that mystically, but briefly, transports them to the hostile shores of Delaware.

'''Episode 25'''

After a year and a half apart, Mason & Dixon meet again in London in 1763. Over ale, Dixon conveys his sympathy for the loss of Bradley and Mason reveals that Bradley had been en route to Plymouth to see them off on their ill-fated first journey aboard the ''Seahorse''. The two consider the prospect of danger in America and wonder whether the work they performed since sending the Royal Society their letter of concern after the attack by the ''l'Grand'' in some way smoothed over any doubts about their fitness. The two men indulge in paranoid discussion regarding the reasons Bradley may have wanted to see them, hidden purposes for their new undertaking, as well as the various interests that attach importance to their previous and current endeavors.

'''Two: America'''

'''Episode 26''' The intrepid duo arrive in America and are promptly greeted by the sights, smells, and sounds thereof. The Rev'd Cherrycoke's audience interrupts to discuss the variety of evangelical religions that have sprung up under the ministrations of one MacClenaghan and its reflections on the musical influences of the day. The episode concludes with a demonstration of new musical themes upon a clavier and its effect upon revolutionary impulses.

'''Episode 27'''

Visiting an apothecary in Philadelphia, the two men meet Benjamin Franklin, who invites them to a coffee-house, a veritable hot-bed of insurrection and revolutionary talk. There, Dr. Franklin introduces them to Molly and Dolly (women of questionable reputation) and proceeds to quiz Mason on Dixon's association with the Jesuits and Dixon on Mason's association with Bradley and the East India Company. The episode concludes with Franklin ushering the two men into a carriage that will convey them to Virginia and a meeting with one Colonel Washington.

'''Episode 28'''

At Mt. Vernon, the two men enjoy a late afternoon drink, snacks, and some marijuana with George Washington. The discussion ranges between Judaism, Chief Pontiac, the demarcation of western lines by the French and British, and the telluric plates left by one Celeron de Bienville in his efforts to claim territory. Upon their return to Philadelphia, they engage Dr. Franklin anew and he speculates on their shared goals and the Sino-Jesuit connection that Franklin and others believe is intent on creating a communications network across the continent.

'''Episode 29'''

A brief episode that finds Mason indulging in paranoid worry over the Commissioners of the Boundary Line, their roots in secret organizations, and the size of bugs in America. The episode concludes in an ale-house where Dr. Franklin, in the guise of Poor Richard entertains the crowd with an electric dazzle before rushing outside to capture the power of a fresh thunderstorm.

'''Episode 30'''

In late December 1763, the astronomers complete the first of their tasks as assigned by the Commissioners: establish the southernmost limit of the city of Philadelphia. Erecting an observatory near Cedar Street they mark the line of the city, and the latitude they will follow west, as 15 miles south of the city. Dixon, in yet another coffee house, falls into conversation with Dolly over Mason's and Molly's shared melancholic personalities, and a series of puzzling measurements that seem to suggest Pennsylvania is moving by degrees each year.

'''Episode 31'''

The duo awake one morning and find the city abuzz with news of the Paxton Boys' massacre of Native Americans at Lancaster, not far from Philadelphia. Reminded of the violence on the Cape, and spooked by the militant attitude of the local citizenry, the two men wonder aloud how they might avoid both Paxtons and Indians during their journey west. The Reverend Cherrycoke and his audience debate the original meaning of 'liberty' and the barbaric treatment of Indians by both the British and Americans before the episode returns to find a highly caffeinated Mason and Dixon discussing the origins of violence in America. Dixon likens the current situation of hide-and-seek from various forces to his own childhood reminiscences of the Jacobite networks in Durham.

'''Episode 32'''

A brief opening featuring the Reverend's audience is followed by a lengthy episode centering once more on time and time-keeping devices. Dixon reveals that before their departure from England he was given a chronometer watch by Emerson, the major feature of which is the perpetual motion of its inner workings and the consequent lack of need to wind it. The peculiarities of the watch lead to discussions on Newton's ''Principia'' and the laws of motion. Charged with preserving the timepiece by Emerson, Dixon is dismayed when it is swallowed whole by the obsessed R.C., a surveyor linked to a tangent on Mason & Dixon's line. Emerson, informed of the news via a letter which Mason suggests may release Dixon from his obligations, celebrates wildly.

'''Episode 33'''

The episode covers a full year of work by the astronomers, opening in January 1764 with the reverberations of the massacre and the attack on Fort Pitt still being felt. Mason & Dixon make their base of operations south of the city near the house of John Harland. There, they erect a new base of observation and proceed to mark off the Tangent Line. The work occasions a discussion of the history of the boundary dispute and various mathematical and political attempts to set the line.

'''Episode 34'''

Mason & Dixon make separate journeys to the site of the Lancaster massacre and endure the specter of racial violence and the suspicion of the locals.

'''Episode 35'''

The Reverend's audience once more raises objections to his story based on historical facts, while the Rev'd himself maintains that history is preserved not in universal acceptance of one story but in the propagation of different interpretations by novelists, playwrights, and poets. Thus armed, the good Rev'd sets the scene for his reunion with the astronomers in a Philadelphia watering hole known as The India Queen. There, the Reverend encounters locals much concerned with religion since the revelation experienced by one of their members who now wanders the west in an attempt to convert others to his vision.

'''Episode 36'''

During a nor'easter, Mason & Dixon seek refuge in an inn called "The India Queen" and discover the presence of Reverend Cherrycoke, who now bears a commission as chaplain of the expedition. Decidedly nonplussed by this revelation, the duo welcome his company and proceed to spend the night at the inn drinking, talking, and observing the variety of clientele brought in by the storm while they enjoy the food of its exiled French chef, Armand Allegre. The next morning, before the assembled guests, Allegre embarks on a recollection of his story, dubbed the Iliad of Inconvenience.

'''Episode 37'''

Allegre recounts his long apprenticeship to one of the great chefs in Paris, culminating in his own fame throughout France for his various preparations of duck. His fame brings him to the attention of the Mechanical Duck, the invention of one Jacques de Vaucanson. By reasons not entirely understood, the Duck attains consciousness and an exponential leap in its physical abilities far beyond human ingenuity. Thus imbued, it now holds Allegre responsible for the death of all fellow ducks prepared for the dining room table and demands as payment that he assist the Duck by rescuing another of Vauscanon's automaton, a counterpart duck. Ever-persecuted by the Duck, Allegre flees to America.

'''Episode 38'''

Back in the India Queen, Allegre's story is challenged by a Mr. Dimdown, but the potential duel is interrupted by the Duck when Dimdown's sword is flung from his hand by an invisible force. A discussion on the Duck's continued ascent beyond the simple physics of its design and Allegre's wonder at the foods in America eventually turns to serious discussion of Christian rituals of communion versus heathen beliefs about cannibalism. Dimdown and Allegre reconcile over comparisons between the layers of pastry and the layered Damascus steel of Dimdown's blade.

'''Episode 39'''

Still trapped by the snow, Mason & Dixon open the episode in a quarrel over Mason's melancholy and its best remedy. While Dixon grows fat eating the baked goods of his amorous object, Mason steadfastly refuses to enjoy sensual delights. When a break in the weather permits their departure, the two ride in separate directions: Mason to the north, and Dixon to the south. Dixon journeys to Virginia where Thomas Jefferson offers a brief history on Virginia's own border.

'''Episode 40'''

Six years after Rebekah's passing, Mason journeys north into Manhattan and eventually Long Island where he is nearly attacked by a gang of thieves. He pretends briefly to be French rather than British and ends up avoiding unpleasantness by helping to fix the band's telescope. During the course of his work he and the gang discuss actual slavery versus the virtual slavery of contemporary wage-labor, the lack of colonial representation in the House of Commons, and how the British image of America contrasts with the reality. Leaving the group and headed towards Philadelphia again, Mason begins to sense for the first time how public sentiment in the colonies is shaping the future of the world.

'''Episode 41'''

The Reverend's brother-in-law, LeSpark, reveals that he briefly encountered the astronomers in the private ridotto of the iron-monger, slave-holder, and inveterate gambler Lord Lepton. Lepton, who fled England to escape his gambling debts, entertains the surveyors at his private castle in the Pennsylvania country side. With concubines purchased from the Canadian convent the Widows of Christ, Lepton's debauched party takes on a hellish air that unnerves the surveyors and makes them anxious to flee.

'''Episode 42'''

Dixon proposes to steal one of Lepton's iron bath tubs as compensation for the twenty pounds he believes were unfairly taken from him during a night of gambling. Using magnetic principles taught to him by Emerson, he and Mason attempt to steal the tub but are distracted first by one of Lepton's servants who reminds them of a previous acquaintance and then by the appearance of a pentacle that unpleasantly connects Lepton to the massacre at Lancaster. They make a hasty departure, having taken on new party members, including an electric eel they presently begin to use as a compass.

'''Episode 43'''

After several months of surveying, Mason & Dixon return to Newark. They retrieve their correspondence from the previous months and Mason learns that Maskelyne has been appointed Astronomer Royal, replacing Mason's departed mentor, James Bradley. In typical fashion, Dixon consoles Mason who, despite his common background, had hoped his association with Bradley and the work done on the Transit might make him a candidate for the post.

'''Episode 44'''

The episode's epigraph quotes the Reverend on the properties of ley lines and recalls Dixon's own scholarship on the topic under Emerson's guidance as the crew speculates on the effects of placing crystal markers exactly upon these mystical points. Several ax-men, many of Swedish origin, are added to the crew and in April the surveyors begin to move west, dividing north and south and even a house as they go.

'''Episode 45'''

The Mechanical Duck continues to follow Allegre and the rest of the crew as they survey west. Allegre proposes that the Duck's obsession with him is tied to its paradoxical evolution, in which it both ascends beyond the realm of limited physical ability and is simultaneously bound to more earthly motivations. Mason inevitably and perhaps subconsciously links the Duck's passage from one world to the next, and Vaucanson's efforts to understand the resulting change, to his own feelings on Rebekah's passing.

'''Episode 46'''

A morning revue of the crew occasions an opportunity for Mason & Dixon to hear various grievances and offer solutions. One common complaint is the extortion practiced by the prostitutes following the camp. The episode is extended by negotiations between the camp pimp, Nathanael McLean, and the head girl, Mrs. Eggslap.

'''Episode 47'''

A heavy thunderstorm is the backdrop for the first half of the episode, which features the standard bickering between Mason & Dixon and some notes on the drawing of Arcs and Tangents on the line. Ordered to extend the Tangent and Meridian, the crew passes into dairy country and young Nathanael in particular is smitten by one of the plethora of fair milk-maids.

'''Episode 48'''

The surveyors continue to draw their line, moving back eastward at the opening of the section but always near the Susquehanna River which serves as a boundary of more than one type. In their efforts to close off the Tangent line they discover some anomalies in previous measurements as well as legal inconsistencies that leave a small "Wedge" of ambiguous territory neither in Maryland or Pennsylvania, creating yet another of the novel's uncharted alternate domains. Two "Chain-men", Darby and Cope, attract some attention for impersonating Mason & Dixon in order to seduce the locals. The chapter closes with the discovery of their subterfuge, Squire Haligast warning that the party will soon encounter "China-men," and the delivery of a package from Maskelyne telling of geographical interferences with measurements that forces Mason to recall the windward side of St. Helena.

'''Episode 49'''

As they cross the Susquehanna and the colonist population begins to thin, the camp's retinue grows increasingly large and lengthens behind them. The near-Eden of unspoiled country, mystical and mesmerizing, prompts reflection and some paranoia over the future on the part of the duo. Acknowledging their obligations and the compulsory nature of their work, the two wonder whether they are not being used, each favoring their usual conspiracy: religion and the Jesuits for Mason, commerce and the East India Co. for Dixon. They draw near the Redzinger farm and discover that Peter, the wandering apostle, has returned, claiming Christ has abandoned him. The Reverend and his audience close the episode with speculation on the mathematical shape of heaven and hell.

'''Episode 50'''

As fall approaches, Mason and Dixon adopt a habit of exploring local roads for taverns and inns at the end of each day's surveying. The episode's main action takes place in one such locale, The Rabbi of Prague, whose denizens consist of Kabbalistic individuals and whose habits and bearings resemble, among others, those of Popeye and Mr. Spock. Passing the evening in their company, Dixon learns of a local golem created by Native Americans and of theories that the American continent was "discovered" as a result of God's retreat at the dawn of the Enlightenment.

'''Episode 51'''

An opening that features the two main characters playing practical jokes on one another is followed by a night of heavy rain and fearful talk of Indian attack and The Black Dog, the latest fearsome-fantastic rumored to stalk the wilderness and a possible stand-in for Cerberus. On September 21, the first day of autumn, Mason & Dixon pass over South Mountain on their way toward Antietam Creek. There, they tour a cave system with spectacular formations and some ancient and undecipherable writings that produce profoundly different reactions in the polar temperaments of the surveyors.

'''Episode 52'''

With the summer of surveying drawing to a close, the camp passes over the west branch of Conococheague Creek, a territory claimed by the Black Boys and echoing with their deeds. Turning back East for the winter, the crew pass near the site of General Braddock's defeat some years earlier. The scenery and passing of the seasons moves their thoughts to the past, causing Mason and Dixon to wonder on the relation between this defeat and the treatment of British weavers rebelling against wage reduction by James Wolfe, hero of the Abraham Plains. The episode closes during winter and New Year with sledding, drinking, and discussions of altitude and unbounded space.

'''Episode 53'''

An apparent captivity narrative begins, telling of how an unidentified colonial American woman is taken from her farmstead by nonviolent Indians across the Susquehanna River and north to a Jesuit college in Quebec. There, she begins training to become a Widow of Christ, encounters the intricacies of Jesuit telegraphy, and meets a Chinese Feng-shui master.

'''Episode 54'''

The captivity narrative continues, and is revealed as a detour of the story by the potentially amorous young cousins, Tenebrae and Ethelmer, who thus far have listened to Cherrycoke's tale, but are now in Ethelmer's room reading passages from ''The Ghastly Fop'', a pulp series. Tenebrae falls asleep after the American Woman and the Chinese Feng-shui master escape the Widows of Christ, and this narrative merges with Cherrycoke's story of Mason & Dixon, where Mason sees an uncanny resemblance between the woman and his departed wife, Rebekah. A discussion of metempsychosis ensues. Mason then has strange dreams of Rebekah, and decides the American Woman is not so like her after all.

'''Episode 55'''

Captain Zhang the Chinese Feng-shui master, convinced the party is being tracked by Jesuits, ignites discussion within the company of various conspiracy theories concerning the line. Included are the possibilities that they are being used by Jesuits to rid the earth of Feng-shui (the line being a terrible example of it, according to Zhang), or guided, perhaps magnetically, to secret ore deposits cherished by the Indians and required for the manufacture of ammunition. Captain Zhang's paranoia turns maniacal; he becomes convinced he himself is in fact the Jesuit spy until debunked by the other members of the party. Meanwhile, the amorous cousins part unrequited, she having fallen asleep, and the main narrative returns to Cherrycoke's telling.

'''Episode 56'''

Mason tells Dixon how he visited the missing eleven days that were canceled when England adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752. He found himself "alone in the material World", without any people, and visited Oxford, finding the city completely empty. He perused the Bodleian Library, and felt that other entities, possibly intelligent, were searching the volumes there.

'''Episode 57'''

Early 1766. Mason & Dixon again depart in opposite directions for a winter break, this time Dixon heading north to New York, where he runs into the same gang Mason previously encountered there, though they are now somewhat transformed by revolutionary sentiment. Dimdown, similarly transformed, re-enters and Dixon marvels at the breadth of the movement and the possibility of insurrection, discussing grievances against the crown before engaging in a friendly debate over the quality of American versus British beer.

'''Episode 58'''

Mason travels south to Virginia, where he revisits with George Washington in a billiard hall and, much like Dixon in New York, discovers conversation monopolized by pre-revolutionary indignation. Mason is then questioned by Nathanael McLean, a former member of his party turned slothful student, about the repercussions, karmic or otherwise, of the line.

'''Episode 59'''

The surveyors return to camp in spring from their respective winter destinations to find it in disarray. An episode involving Captain Shelby, a member of their party, performing a shotgun wedding, including details of the preceding fighting and ensuing partying, is related to them.

'''Episode 60'''

Shelby, also a surveyor and possibly unstable, accompanies the party westward and questions Dixon about the line. Dixon and Zhang then converse and arrive at the subject of dragons, whence Dixon relates the long tale of the Lambton Worm, conquered by a returning crusader who, following the battle, broke the oath he swore with God in order to achieve victory—an act that left his family cursed for nine generations. The party discuss and interpret the tale, and Shelby suggests, perhaps menacingly, that the surveyors accompany him to a "serpent mound" whose design can only be appreciated from far above, alluding to Dixon's past with Emerson and the ley-lines.

'''Episode 61'''

Shelby takes Mason & Dixon to investigate the "serpent mound", which turns out to be a perfect cone, designed and constructed much in the manner of a Leyden Jar. Shelby insists it is of both Welsh and Native American origin, and that cryptic markings scratched into its side are warnings to the surveyors, who discover their compasses malfunction while in its vicinity. Back in camp with Zhang, they discuss Jesuit machinations and their possible connection to extraterrestrials, in conjunction with a debate over hollow-earth theories. The chapter ends with a humorous episode in which either Death or The Devil, following the party as a "third surveyor", tries to hire a lawyer.

'''Episode 62'''

Stig, an axman in the party, is exposed as spy working on behalf of a group Dixon dubs "Swedish Jacobites", who Stig claims descended from the far north and were the first to arrive at Philadelphia, where they lived in peace with the natives, irking the Americans with their claim to the land and thus somehow leading to the boundary dispute and the line. All this is thrown into relief by Stig's own admission he may not even be Swedish, that he may be a mercenary, and that he believes an armed attack against Philadelphia an imminent possibility. Meanwhile, the party continues west; Dixon, in discussion with Mason and Zhang, notes the only true difference between the individual colonies, and the expedition is confronted by bushmen.

'''Episode 63'''

A brief episode involving Zepho Beck, owner of a farmhouse near the line, who, upon the emergence of the full moon, becomes a were-beaver—leading him to enter into a moonlit tree-felling contest with Stig the axman. Zepho takes a massive lead, only to lose his beaver form mid-contest as a result of a lunar eclipse the astronomers had forgotten was taking place. Gamblers betting on Zepho suggest a lawsuit should be brought against them, could it be proven they knew it would happen. Zhang tells them he knows of just such an incident, and begins to relate the story.

'''Episode 64'''

Zhang tells the story of Hsi and Ho, ancient Chinese astronomers, who are forced to flee when they fail to predict an eclipse, embarrassing their master the emperor who should have intimate knowledge of all "divine" occurrences. They escape via flying apparatus, bickering all the while, and crash into the estate of a wealthy lord with a "harem" of nubile daughters, who hires them so he can have foreknowledge of celestial events and gain an advantage in business and war. In one version of the story their neglect of their profession leads him to banish them to the desert; in another it leads to his death and their appropriation of his lands, wealth, and daughters.

'''Episode 65'''

The surveyors run the line, while Zhang questions the effect of the lost 11 days on the Chinese calendar, and whether it has created inconsistencies and error among all historical time-keeping, leading to discourse on the correct dating of the birth of Christ.

'''Episode 66'''

The story carries into 1767, the surveyor's "last year upon the line". First Stig is bizarrely interrogated, and they hear ghosts in the wind, before stumbling upon a barn-raising party where characters including Armand and The Duck resurface. Later they arrive in Cumberland, where they meet Thomas Cresap and his family, hear stories of Cresap's exploits, and discover the town to be essentially lawless and somewhat reminiscent of the wild west, complete with lone sheriff. Mason attempts to converse with a dog, who understands his questions but chooses to ignore him.

'''Episode 67'''

The party is joined by a delegation of Indians, who partake in further discussion between the surveyors and Zhang regarding Jesuit methods of forming boundaries. The party is informed by the Indians they will soon reach a mystical "Warrior-Path" they will not be allowed to cross, heralding the end of their journey. The Indians then regale them with tales of an area to the west filled with giant produce and containing a marijuana plant so large its branches support settlements, perhaps as a coded effort to sell the surveyors some of that latter substance. Eventually they are taken there, and discover huge tomatoes and beets, which they reason cannot be God's work and must be the legacy of departed giants.

'''Episode 68'''

The surveyors release most of the party, keeping their retinue of Indians and a few others, and continue west with the line, taking a ferry across the Youghiogheny river-lake. The stygian captain of the ferry discusses with them the ghost-fish in the river, his personal tragedies, America's propensity for war, and, to the dismay of the surveyors, points out and makes personal use of the correlation between war and business. The party then ponders what awaits them on the other side.

'''Episode 69'''

The Duck, its powers augmented by the negative energy of the line and obsessed with a decoy the party have created and placed upon it, becomes a permanent resident of it. Dixon meanwhile becomes obsessed with infinite westward expansion, and the party approaches the Monongahela River. Meanwhile, two "axmen" are killed by a falling tree. A wide variety of Indian nations take an interest in the party as it passes through their lands, where the surveyors eventually travel upon the "Warrior-Path" amid feuding war-parties. Lastly, Mason & Dixon share a dream of pursuing their path further west.

'''Episode 70'''

The surveyors finish the line, and deciding to take their chances, leave the party and cross the "Warrior-Path" in the dead of night to ride to the river, all the while suffering from various ailments and delusions, as well as paranoia they will encounter a similar fate to Edward Braddock. They reach the river and are discovered there by Indians familiar to them, who are returning from scalping Lord Lepton, proving it by displaying his rifle, complete with its menacing and possibly satanic insignia. The party then commences the return journey, heading east amid hardship and difficult weather.

'''Episode 71'''

Back in Delaware, the surveyors argue over the significance of the line and its planography while tavern-crawling. They then stay the following year in America, busy with the degree of latitude, chaining a Meridian Line through boggy terrain. Meanwhile, it is intimated that Dixon might prefer to remain in America, and they reflect on their voyages, the commonality of slavery in all their destinations, and the voyage home and what may await them there.

'''Episode 72'''

The surveyors complete the meridian line and venture to Baltimore, where Dixon interferes with a slave-driver, first berating him in a tavern before beating him in the street, liberating his slaves, and escaping with Mason, who admires him for his action. They ride north, converse with Zhang, and reach New York, from where they will depart the colonies. Mason is visited again by Rebekah, who presses him upon his duty to her. In New York they are unable to find previous acquaintances, are accosted by a cryptic stranger upon the docks, and set sail.

'''Episode 73'''

In an episode conceived in the form of an Italian opera, an alternate, imaginary version of the surveyors' final days in America is relayed where they continue west past the Ohio River, cross the Mississippi, encounter a variety of carnivalesque inhabitants of the interior, and become the first to discover Uranus. Again Dixon wishes to remain, but Mason sees the "new" planet as a ticket to acceptance and a life of ease, so they return east, making all those they met and passed while going west uneasy. In the end Dixon imagines continuing east with the line, and drawing it straight across the Atlantic.

'''Three: Last Transit'''

'''Episode 74'''

Mason & Dixon return to London, where they decline, for various possible reasons, to accept another assignment together. Dixon is sent to the North Cape, Norway to observe the return Transit of Venus, while Mason is sent to Ireland to do the same. There, he is conscripted into helping deal with a peat-flow, given to temperamental behavior, and visited again by Rebekah. Upon his return to London he argues with Maskelyne, who assures him their office is no longer what it once was, and accepts another assignment to travel to Scotland.

'''Episode 75'''

Mason visits Dixon, who is now home from his assignment, on his way North to Scotland. The two friends fish and drink, admitting finally the strength of their relationship without quite putting it into words. Dixon relates to Mason his trip to the North Cape, and claims to have visited the civilization inside the earth, entering through the north pole, one of many openings to a massive hollow chamber with upside-down seas. The episode then concludes with Mason promising to visit again—Dixon being unable to travel, having come down with a case of gout.

'''Episode 76'''

Mason meets Samuel Johnson at an inn on the border of Scotland (a meeting dismissed as fictitious by Cherrycoke's audience), and the two discuss Scotland and America, as well as men like Cherrycoke, and Johnson's biographer, James Boswell, who are always "scribbling things down". The brief episode ends with a vision of Mason's later life.

'''Episode 77'''

Mason visits Dixon who is recently married and suffering from gout. Dixon laments that the recent death of his mother and the political turbulence in America have forced him to abandon his hopes of emigration, deciding instead to profit from the Britain's growing coal dependency. Mason, himself remarried, confesses that his newborn son unpleasantly resembles his father who has himself remarried a Mary. The Learned English Dog makes another appearance, though he refrains from speech except to declare that he will next visit when the two surveyors are together once again. The two men share a dream of a performance where, in Mason's version, he attempts to introduce Dixon to Bradley, whilst Dixon envisions a duet based on their adventures.

'''Episode 78'''

Upon hearing of Dixon's death, Mason and his son Doctor Isaac make a pilgrimage to his grave reminiscent of the journeys the two surveyors previously embarked upon together. The Learned English Dog fails to make a bodily appearance. However, a cat lurks around Dixon's grave with a keen interest in the two Masons. Slipping into senility, Mason finally lets Maskelyne have it, as the two engage in a heated squabble over astrology and the events after Bradley's passing. Mason, now settled in America, is visited by the elderly Benjamin Franklin who is accosted by rantings of Mason's in regards to hidden messages in Bradley's contentious observations. Mason's second wife Mary prays for her husband and returns to England with their younger children, while Doctor Isaac and William, Rebekah's sons, stay in America and see out their father's final days. The story ends as the two brothers reminisce on how they as boys always wished for the day their father would take them to America.

During the events of ''Dune'', the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV grants Duke Leto Atreides control of the lucrative spice harvesting operations of Arrakis, ousting the Atreides' longtime rivals, the Harkonnens. The Atreides rule is cut short by a murderous conspiracy crafted by the Harkonnens and the Emperor himself. Leto's son Paul Atreides (known by the Fremen as Muad'Dib) later leads a massive Fremen army to victory over the Emperor's Sardaukar soldier-fanatics, and by threatening the destruction of all spice production on Arrakis manages to depose Shaddam and ascend the throne in his place. With Emperor Paul worshipped as a god, Arrakis becomes the governmental and religious center of the Imperium.

Paul Muad'Dib continues the efforts to terraform Arrakis into a green world, a plan begun by the Fremen under the guidance of Imperial Planetologist Pardot Kynes and his son Liet-Kynes. The core of their plan is gradual water-collection from the Arrakeen atmosphere to form large reservoirs that would, eventually, become lakes and oceans. Much of this activity takes place in the unexplored southern latitudes of Arrakis.

By the time of ''Children of Dune'', Alia Atreides (and then Leto II and Ghanima) realize that the ecological transformation of Arrakis is altering the sandworm cycle, which would eventually result in the end of all spice production. This at first seems a future to be avoided, but Leto II later uses this eventuality as part of his Golden Path to ultimately save humanity. Once he himself begins the transformation into a human/sandworm hybrid, he eradicates all desert on Arrakis except for a small area he makes his base of operations, and destroys all of the sandworms save one—himself.

After his death some 3,500 years later in ''God Emperor of Dune'', Leto's worm-body is transformed back into sandtrout. Within only a few centuries, these sandtrout return Arrakis (thence called 'Rakis') to a desert.

In ''Heretics of Dune'', all life on Arrakis is destroyed (and the entire surface of the planet slagged into oblivion) by the Honored Matres in a failed attempt to eliminate the latest Duncan Idaho ghola. The Bene Gesserit escape with a single sandworm, and drown it to revert the worm back into sandtrout. In ''Chapterhouse: Dune'' the Bene Gesserit use these sandtrout to begin a new sandworm cycle on their homeworld of Chapterhouse, which is terraformed into desert for this purpose.

Finally, in ''Sandworms of Dune'', some sandworms are revealed to be alive and well, having sensed the upper crust would be destroyed, and therefore burrowed even deeper, escaping the blast.

American diplomat Robert Thorn and his wife Katherine ("Kathy") are living in Rome, where she gives birth to a boy who dies, and hospital chaplain Father Spiletto persuades Robert to secretly adopt a baby whose mother just died in childbirth. Robert does not tell Kathy the child is not their own. They name him Damien.

Five years later, Robert is Ambassador to the United Kingdom when mysterious events plague the Thorns: a menacing Rottweiler appears at their home, Damien's nanny hangs herself during his fifth birthday party, new nanny Mrs. Baylock arrives unannounced, Damien violently resists entering church, and Damien's presence terrifies animals at a wildlife park. Father Brennan warns Robert about Damien's origins, hinting that he is not human and insisting Robert take Communion. He tells Robert that Damien is the son of Satan, Kathy is pregnant, and that he will kill his unborn sibling and parents unless he dies. Immediately afterward, Brennan is killed by a falling pole. Kathy tells Robert she wants an abortion, which he opposes. Damien knocks Kathy over a railing to the floor below, injuring her and causing a miscarriage.

Photographer Keith Jennings notices shadows in photographs of the nanny and of Father Brennan that presage their deaths. Keith shows Robert the photos along with news clippings and biblical passages that suggest the coming of the Antichrist. He accompanies Robert to Rome to investigate Damien's birth. They learn that a fire destroyed Kathy's maternity records and killed the staff on duty. They find Father Spiletto in a monastery, mute, blind in one eye, and partly paralyzed. He directs them to the cemetery where Damien's biological mother is buried. Robert and Keith find a jackal carcass in Damien's mother's grave; in the plot next to it is a child's skeleton with a shattered skull. Robert realizes that the jackal is Damien's mother and the child is his own murdered son, killed for Damien to take his place. A pack of Rottweilers drives Robert and Keith from the cemetery.

Robert calls Kathy in hospital to tell her she must leave London. Before she can do so Mrs. Baylock throws her from the window to her death. Robert and Keith meet Antichrist expert Carl Bugenhagen who says if Damien is the true Antichrist, he will bear a birthmark in the shape of three sixes. Carl gives Robert seven daggers with which to kill Damien on hallowed ground. Keith is decapitated by a sheet of glass.

Robert finds the birthmark on the sleeping Damien's scalp and is attacked by Mrs. Baylock, whom he stabs to death. Armed with the daggers, Robert drives Damien to a cathedral. His erratic driving draws the attention of police. Robert drags a screaming Damien onto the altar to stab him but is shot to death by police before he can do so. At the double funeral of Kathy and Robert, Damien calmly smiles at the camera.

Hedda, the daughter of a general, has just returned to her villa in Kristiania (now Oslo) from her honeymoon. Her husband is George Tesman, a young, aspiring, and reliable academic who continued his research during their honeymoon. It becomes clear in the course of the play that she never loved him, but married him because she thinks her years of youthful abandon are over.

The reappearance of George's academic rival, Eilert Løvborg, throws their lives into disarray. Eilert, a writer, is also a recovered alcoholic who has wasted his talent until now. Thanks to a relationship with Hedda's old schoolmate, Thea Elvsted (who has left her husband for him), Eilert shows signs of rehabilitation and has just published a bestseller in the same field as George's. When Hedda and Eilert talk privately together, it becomes apparent that they are former lovers.

The critical success of his recently published work makes Eilert a threat to George, as Eilert is now a competitor for the university professorship George had been anticipating. George and Hedda are financially overstretched, and George tells Hedda that he will not be able to finance the regular entertaining or luxurious housekeeping that she had been expecting. Upon meeting Eilert, however, the couple discovers that he has no intention of competing for the professorship, but rather has spent the last few years working on what he considers to be his masterpiece, the "sequel" to his recently published work.

Apparently jealous of Thea's influence over Eilert, Hedda hopes to come between them. Despite his drinking problem, she encourages Eilert to accompany George and his associate, Judge Brack, to a party. George returns home from the party and reveals that he found the complete manuscript (the only copy) of Eilert's great work, which the latter lost while drunk. George is then called away to his aunt's house, leaving the manuscript in Hedda's possession. When Eilert next sees Hedda and Thea, he tells them that he has deliberately destroyed the manuscript. Thea is mortified, and it is revealed that it was the joint work of Eilert and herself. Hedda says nothing to contradict Eilert or to reassure Thea. After Thea has left, Hedda encourages Eilert to commit suicide, giving him a pistol that had belonged to her father. She then burns the manuscript and tells George she has destroyed it to secure their future.

When the news comes that Eilert did indeed kill himself, George and Thea are determined to try to reconstruct his book from Eilert's notes, which Thea has kept. Hedda is shocked to discover from Judge Brack that Eilert's death, in a brothel, was messy and probably accidental; this "ridiculous and vile" death contrasts with the "beautiful and free" one that Hedda had imagined for him. Worse, Brack knows the origins of the pistol. He tells Hedda that if he reveals what he knows, a scandal will likely arise around her. Hedda realizes that this places Brack in a position of power over her. Leaving the others, she goes into her smaller room and shoots herself in the head. The others in the room assume that Hedda is simply firing shots, and they follow the sound to investigate. The play ends with George, Brack, and Thea discovering her body.

Jiminy Cricket addresses the audience as the narrator to tell a story of a wish coming true. The story takes place in a village in Italy sometime in the late 19th century, where he arrived at the shop of a woodworker and toymaker named Geppetto, who lives with his pets, Figaro the kitten and Cleo the goldfish. Geppetto creates a marionette whom he names Pinocchio. Falling asleep, Geppetto wishes upon a star for Pinocchio to be a real boy. Late that night, a Blue Fairy visits the workshop and brings Pinocchio to life, although he remains a puppet. She informs him that if he proves himself brave, truthful, and unselfish, he will become a real boy. When Jiminy reveals himself, the Blue Fairy assigns him to be Pinocchio's conscience. Geppetto wakes up, and is overjoyed to discover that his puppet is alive and will become a real boy.

The next morning, on his way to school, Pinocchio is led astray by con-artist fox Honest John and his sidekick Gideon the Cat. Honest John convinces him to join Stromboli's puppet show, despite Jiminy's objections. Pinocchio becomes Stromboli's star attraction but when he tries to go home, Stromboli locks him in a cage and leaves to tour the world with Pinocchio. After Jiminy unsuccessfully tries to free his friend, the Blue Fairy appears and an anxious Pinocchio lies about what happened, but his nose grows longer and longer. The Blue Fairy restores his nose and frees him when Pinocchio promises to make amends, but warns him that she can no longer help him.

Honest John and Gideon are promised money by a mysterious "Coachman", if they can find disobedient boys for him to take to Pleasure Island. Though Honest John and Gideon are frightened by the Coachman's implication on what happens to the boys and by the possible severe legal consequences if the law finds out, the former convinces Pinocchio to take a vacation on Pleasure Island after his terrible experience with Stromboli. On the way, Pinocchio befriends Lampwick, a delinquent boy. At Pleasure Island, without rules or authority to enforce their activity, Pinocchio, Lampwick and countless other boys soon engage in smoking cigars and cigarettes, gambling, vandalism, and getting drunk, much to Jiminy's frustration. Jiminy eventually discovers that the island turns boys into actual donkeys (as revealed by the Coachman: if you leave a young boy to his own unsupervised devices, and he'll soon make a jackass of himself) and the Coachman plans to sell them to slave labor in salt mines and circuses. Pinocchio witnesses Lampwick transforming into a donkey, and with Jiminy's help, Pinocchio escapes, partially transformed with a donkey's ears and tail, though they have to abandon Lampwick and the other boys in the clutches of the Coachman.

Returning home, Pinocchio and Jiminy find Geppetto’s workshop deserted. They get a letter from the Blue Fairy in the form of a dove, stating that Geppetto had gone out looking for Pinocchio and sailed to Pleasure Island where he learned Pinocchio was taken to, but was swallowed by Monstro, a terrible and vicious whale, and is now living in the belly of the beast. Determined to rescue his father, Pinocchio jumps into the sea, accompanied by Jiminy. Pinocchio is soon swallowed by Monstro, where he reunites with Geppetto. Pinocchio devises a scheme to make Monstro sneeze, giving them a chance to escape. The scheme works, but the enraged whale chases them and smashes their raft. Pinocchio selflessly pulls Geppetto to safety in a cave just as Monstro crashes into it and Pinocchio is seemingly killed.

Back home, Geppetto, Jiminy, Figaro, and Cleo mourn the loss of Pinocchio. However, the Blue Fairy revives Pinocchio and turns him into a real human boy, getting rid of the Pleasure Island curse in the process, much to everyone's joy. As the group celebrates, Jiminy steps outside to thank the Fairy and is rewarded with a solid gold badge that certifies him as an official conscience.

A married 19-year-old, Marie Allen (Eleanor Parker), is sent to prison after a botched armed robbery attempt with her husband, Tom, who is killed. While receiving her initial prison physical examination, she learns that she is two months pregnant.

Marie has trouble adjusting to the monotonous and cut-throat world of the women's prison. She meets Kitty Stark (Betty Garde), a murderous shoplifter, who says once Marie gets out, Kitty will get her a job "boosting" (shoplifting). Marie does not want to get involved in crime, but Kitty explains the realities of prison life; "You get tough or you get killed. You better wise up before it's too late."

Told she can be paroled in ten months, Marie witnesses prisoner after prisoner being "flopped back"—granted parole—but then not released from jail because no job had been arranged by her parole officer. One flopped-back prisoner, June (Olive Deering), hangs herself given the hopelessness of her situation. For Marie, this steadily drains her own hopes of getting out early.

Despite the hardships under sadistic matron Evelyn Harper (Hope Emerson), Marie gives birth to a healthy but premature baby. She plans to "temporarily" grant full custody to her mother, with the intent of getting the child back after she is released, but Marie's stepfather had already decided not to allow the baby into his house. Marie's mother uses the excuses that she is "too old" and "hasn't a penny in [her] name" as reasons why she cannot help Marie. After Marie is denied a parole, she tries half-heartedly to escape. She is not punished for that attempt, although prison authorities do force her to give up her child for adoption.

The arrival of "vice queen" Elvira Powell (Lee Patrick) sets off a rivalry with Kitty. Elvira bribes Harper to put Kitty in solitary confinement, where Kitty is beaten. When a kitten is found in the jail yard, Marie attempts to make it a pet, but Harper tries to take the little animal away, an action that prompts the inmates to riot. The kitten is accidentally killed during the melee; and after order is restored by the staff, Marie is punished this time for trying to escape again by being sent to solitary confinement.

Before taking Marie to an isolated cell, Harper shaves Marie's head, symbolically stripping her of her innocence. Harper has disagreements with the sympathetic reformist prison superintendent, Ruth Benton (Agnes Moorehead), especially after this latest incident with Marie. Because Harper is a political appointee, the police commissioner refuses to fire her and instead asks for Benton's resignation. When Benton declares that she will demand a public hearing, the resignation issue is dropped.

Kitty finally rejoins her fellow inmates after serving a month in solitary confinement, but she is distraught and mentally unstable. After being harassed by Harper in the prison cafeteria, Kitty stabs Harper to death as the inmates watch and make no attempt to stop it. Marie—now hardened by her exposure to career criminals and sadistic guards—actually encourages Kitty in the fatal assault.

Up for parole once again, Marie has allegedly found a "cashier's job" outside the prison. In reality, the job is simply a ruse to get released so she can join Elvira Powell's shoplifting gang. Marie leaves the institution a cynical, unscrupulous woman after living and surviving there for over a year. Before she departs, Benton asks her why she is going into crime when she could go get a legitimate job. Marie says she got all the education she needed in prison. After she leaves, an office assistant asks Benton what to do with Marie's file. Benton replies, "Keep it active, she'll be back."

The movie's events occur over a single night in the detective bullpen of a police station. Detective Jim McLeod (Kirk Douglas), whose violent criminal father drove his mother to insanity, nurtures a lifelong hatred of lawbreakers and is convinced that he has a flawless instinct for identifying criminals. He maintains a particular contempt for Dr. Karl Schneider (George Macready), who McLeod is convinced has performed illegal abortions that have resulted in patient deaths. McLeod has persuaded Schneider’s assistant (Gladys George) to implicate him in a police line-up. However, Schneider bribes her not to pick him out, infuriating McLeod.

Concurrently, several other cases are being processed in the bullpen. The detectives have arrested burglar Charley Gennini (Joseph Wiseman), who is revealed to be a psychopath with an extensive criminal record including murder and rape. McLeod also books a young man named Arthur Kindred (Craig Hill), who has admitted stealing money from his employer to try to impress the girl he loves. Although the employer is sympathetic and wants to drop charges after he is repaid, McLeod refuses to release the remorseful Kindred, saying that leniency only leads to more crime. Despite evidence of Kindred's kind nature, McLeod is unwilling to distinguish between a first time offender like Kindred and a dangerous repeat offender like Gennini.

McLeod misses another chance to establish Schneider’s guilt when a victim dies in hospital. Schneider boasts that he has sensitive knowledge about McLeod, who finally explodes in anger and brutally attacks him, requiring McLeod’s commanding officer Monaghan (Horace McMahon) to escort Schneider to the hospital in an ambulance. Schneider, half-conscious, mentions the name Giacoppetti, in connection with a woman supposedly linked with McLeod.

When Schneider’s lawyer Endicott Sims (Warner Anderson) arrives to protest the incident, he inadvertently lets slip that the woman Schneider was referring to is McLeod’s wife Mary (Eleanor Parker). Monaghan has Mary brought to the station and interviews her in private. She denies any connections until Monaghan invites in Giacoppetti (Gerald Mohr), who greets her by name.

The stricken Mary admits to her husband that years ago she had become pregnant by Giacoppetti. McLeod, who had been worried about her apparent infertility, cannot stomach the thought that it was caused by her abortion by Schneider, especially when Sims hints that there may have been more lovers. After McLeod accuses her of infidelity, Mary tells him he is cruel like his father was and leaves him. Suddenly, Gennini takes advantage of a distraction to steal an officer's revolver, and he fatally shoots McLeod before being disarmed. Dying, McLeod instructs his partner to release Kindred and to tell his wife he begs her forgiveness. The local paper praises McLeod for dying "in the line of duty".

Tying most of these events together is the presence of the "Shoplifter," who is ignored by the police as they do their jobs. Lee Grant, in her film debut, was nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

Following the death of her newborn baby, war widow LouLou Mason accepts a temporary two-week assignment as nursemaid to the infant son of corset manufacturer Frederick K. Begley, who lost his wife in childbirth. She ingratiates herself with the family and eventually becomes a permanent fixture. When she declines Frederick's proposal, he marries his secretary Alicia Torgersen, who fires LouLou following her honeymoon.

LouLou finds employment with wealthy Henry and Fleur Palfrey and begins to care for baby Robbie. Older son Harrison is expelled from boarding school due to poor grades and bad behavior and returns home with his tutor, Jerry Kean. When Jerry is offered a job in Beirut, he impulsively proposes to LouLou, who accepts. While waiting for his fiancée to pack, Jerry speaks to Fleur, who warns him about marrying a woman he barely knows. Having second thoughts, he suggests he and LouLou wait a few months before marrying, and she remains with the Palfreys.

Years pass, and LouLou is nursemaid to Stephanie, the twelve-year-old daughter of fading musical actress Annie Rawlins. When Annie is delayed at an audition and misses Stephanie's confirmation, the girl tells her friends LouLou is her mother. Realizing the girl has become too attached to her, Loulou decides to find work elsewhere.

Just prior to the start of World War II, LouLou accepts a job with Helen and Hugh Williams. Hugh joins the military and is injured in battle, prompting his wife to join him in England. Two years pass, and the widowed Helen, who still has not returned home, stops sending money to support her son Tony. LouLou accepts responsibility for the boy and raises him as her own. Years later, when Helen notifies her she is returning with her new husband, LouLou flees to Florida with Tony, but is arrested and charged with kidnapping. Although he is sympathetic to LouLou's situation, the district attorney is compelled by law to return Tony to Helen.

Now too old to be entrusted with the care of a baby, LouLou accepts a janitorial job in an elementary school in order to be close to children. When she visits an ophthalmologist, she discovers he is Robbie Palfrey, the now adult son of her former employers. Robbie invites her to his home for dinner the following week and arranges for all the children for whom she cared to be there with their spouses. As LouLou catches up with her former charges, Robbie announces he wants her to be the nanny for his own children.

Doc Delaney is a recovering alcoholic married to Lola, a frumpy, middle-aged housewife. Doc had once been a promising medical student, but dropped out of college when Lola became pregnant with his child, marrying her because her father had thrown her out of the house. The child later died, and Lola was unable to have any more children. Doc spent the years drinking away the pain, in the process ruining his career and wasting his inheritance. Doc, now sober for one year, is polite but distant toward his wife, while a lonely and unhappy Lola sleeps late, dresses sloppily, and does not keep a tidy house. Every day she goes outside to call for her lost dog Little Sheba, whom she dreams about.

To make some money, Lola rents a room to Marie, a college student brimming with youthfulness and sexuality. One day Marie brings home Turk, a star on the track team, to model for an ad she is creating for a local athletic competition. Turk is wearing his track outfit which shows off his physique. Lola encourages the couple in their modeling session, but Doc, who walks in to find Turk under-dressed, thinks it borders on pornography. Doc disapproves of a hustler like Turk taking advantage of a virtuous young girl like Marie, but Lola defends him, pointing out that Marie is engaged to another young man, Bruce, who is away but due to return soon.

As Marie's infatuation with Turk grows, Doc becomes agitated. Lola reminds him that Marie is much like she had been in her younger days, before she became "old, fat, and sloppy". Doc calms down, but still voices his disapproval of Marie seeing another boy while Bruce is away. One night, Turk and Marie return from having a few beers, with Turk having every intention of spending the night. Doc sees them together and, deeply upset, goes to the kitchen and looks at his bottle hidden in the cupboard. When Turk tries to force himself on Marie, she asks him to leave. His departure is unseen by Doc, who comes back to see the light go off under Marie's door.

The next morning Doc takes the whiskey he has not touched for a year from the cabinet and disappears for hours, missing the elaborate dinner Lola has planned for Marie and Bruce. Lola sets the table with the fine china she received from Doc's mother when they married, cleans up the living room, and changes into a fancy dress. Early in the morning, Doc returns in a drunken rage, lashing out at Lola that she is as much a slut as Marie and threatening her with a knife. Lola manages to call two of Doc's Alcoholics Anonymous friends to take him to the hospital. Doc chases Lola into the kitchen and tries to choke her, then passes out. The two men arrive and take Doc away.

The next day, a shaken Lola calls her parents asking to stay with them while Doc is gone, but her father still refuses to welcome her back. Marie sends her a telegram saying that she and Bruce have married. A few days later, Doc returns from the hospital, apologizes to Lola for his behavior and begs her never to leave him, vowing to be more attentive to her. Lola promises to stay with him forever; he is all she has. As the two begin to rekindle their marriage, Doc notices how Lola has renovated the kitchen and she tells him how she has found closure in Sheba's death.

Myra Hudson (Crawford) is a successful Broadway playwright who rejects Lester Blaine (Palance) as the lead in her new play. Later, she meets Lester on a train bound for San Francisco, is swept off her feet and, after a brief courtship, marries him.

Lester is unaware that Myra is making changes to her will which will ensure he would inherit everything. She has begun dictating these alterations into her personal dictating machine but is interrupted when guests begin to arrive for the evening. She forgets to turn the machine off and, later, when Lester and his long-time lover, Irene Neves (Gloria Grahame), are in Myra's study, they find the original will which stipulates that the bulk of her fortune be left to a foundation. Irene suggests Myra's murder and, unknown to the couple, their subsequent plotting is recorded.

Myra discovers their plans and concocts a scheme of her own, to kill Lester and place the blame on Irene, but the complex timing—so she herself is assured an alibi—starts to unravel. Lester learns of Myra's intentions and, after life-and-death shifts in everybody's murderous aims, ultimately ends up chasing her in his car through the streets of San Francisco. On foot, Myra is able to avoid him, and eventually Lester mistakes Irene for Myra (they are dressed alike). He aims the car at the woman. Myra, seeing this at the last minute, shouts to stop him but it is too late. Lester crashes, killing both himself and Irene. Myra breathes a sigh of relief as she walks safely off into the night.

Oscar-winning star Margaret "Maggie" Elliot (Bette Davis) is a poor actress struggling to accept her new, non-wealthy reality. She is in denial, and confident she somehow can re-launch her career to its earlier brilliance. After suffering another big disappointment while vainly striving to get one good role, she gets drunk, gets arrested for DUI, and spends a night in jail. She is bailed out by Jim Johannsen (Sterling Hayden), a younger former actor whom she had helped in the past. Jim, now comfortably settled as the owner of a boatyard, admits that he has loved her ever since those days, and helped by Margaret's daughter Gretchen (Natalie Wood), tries to help Margaret see that her days as a famous actress are already over. She reluctantly tries to work as a saleswoman in an upscale department store, but gossip from two customers wounds her pride and she runs out. Her old agent manages to get her a screen test for a role in a film she'd always wanted to play. She takes a screen test for a supporting role, believing that if she plays that character as a sexy younger woman, rather than the middle-aged frump she is seen as by the studio, she might be able to win the more coveted lead role. It does not work.

At a Hollywood party thrown by her agent, she is offered a role in a new film about a fallen star who can't face the fact that it's all over. This new script is dedicated to washed-up actors and actresses who are obsessed by their former glory, by what they used to look like, what kind of an impression they’d make to stay on top, and how they behaved—demanding, bribing, power-hungry. It would be a story about those who can't look down and can't accept that their moment of glory is over and that the world has passed them by. Hearing the pitch delivered right to her face, and that she'd be the perfect actress to play the role, seems to have finally helped Margaret realize the cold truth about her future. She realizes that her film career is over, and she flees the party to the open arms of Jim and the love and acceptance of her daughter, from whom Margaret desperately tried to shield her failing career.

The novel takes place over a few days in late August. It tells the story of 12-year-old tomboy Frankie Addams, who feels disconnected from the world; in her words, an "unjoined person." Frankie's mother died when she was born, and her father is a distant, uncomprehending figure. Her closest companions are the family's African American maid, Berenice Sadie Brown, and her six-year-old cousin, John Henry West. She has no friends in her small Southern town and dreams of going away with her brother and his bride-to-be on their honeymoon in the Alaskan wilderness.

The novel explores the psychology of the three main characters and is more concerned with evocative settings than with incident. Frankie does, however, have a brief and troubling encounter with a soldier. Her hopes of going away are disappointed and, her fantasy destroyed, a short coda reveals how her personality has changed. It also recounts the fate of John Henry West, and Berenice Sadie Brown's future plans.

Jane Froman (Susan Hayward) is a humble staff singer at a Cincinnati radio station, but in no time she rises to the uppermost rungs of network radio fame. Jane gratefully marries her agent Don Ross (David Wayne), but soon both realize they're not truly in love. Jane's popularity soars, and she leaves on a European tour. When her plane crashes, she is partially crippled. Unable to walk without crutches, she nonetheless goes on to entertain U.S. troops during World War II.

Prologue

The story begins in Heian era Kyoto. A woodcutter and a priest are sitting beneath the Rashōmon city gate to stay dry in a downpour when a commoner (Kichijiro Ueda) joins them and they begin recounting a very disturbing story about a rape and a murder. Neither the woodcutter nor the priest understand how everyone involved could have given radically different accounts of the same event, with all three of the people involved indicating that they, and they alone, committed the murder.

The woodcutter claims he found the body of a murdered samurai three days earlier while looking for wood in the forest. As he testifies he first found a woman's hat (which belonged to the samurai's wife), then a samurai cap (which belonged to her husband), then cut rope (which had bound the husband), then an amulet, and finally he came upon the body, upon which he fled to notify the authorities. The priest says he saw the samurai with his wife traveling the same day the murder happened. Both men are then summoned to testify in court, where a fellow witness presents a captured bandit, who claims to have followed the couple after coveting the woman when he glimpsed her in the forest.

The bandit's story

Tajōmaru, the bandit and a notorious outlaw, claims that he tricked the samurai to step off the mountain trail with him and look at a cache of ancient swords he discovered. In the grove, he tied the samurai to a tree, then brought his wife there with the intention of raping her. She initially tried to defend herself with a dagger but was eventually overpowered by the bandit, and eventually seduced by him. The wife, ashamed, begged the bandit to duel to the death with her husband, to save her from the guilt and shame of having two men know her dishonor. Tajōmaru honorably set the samurai free and dueled with him. In Tajōmaru's recollection, they fought skillfully and fiercely, with Tajōmaru praising the samurai's swordsmanship. In the end, Tajōmaru killed the samurai and the wife ran away after the fight. At the end of his testimony, he is asked about the expensive dagger used by the samurai's wife. He says that, in the confusion, he forgot all about it, and that the dagger's pearl inlay would have made it very valuable. He laments leaving it behind.

The wife's story

The wife tells a different story to court. She claims that Tajōmaru left after raping her, she begged her husband to forgive her, but he simply looked at her coldly. She then freed him and begged him to kill her so that she would be at peace but he continued to stare at her with loathing. His expression disturbed her so much that she fainted with the dagger in her hand. She awoke to find her husband dead with the dagger in his chest. She attempted to kill herself but failed.

The samurai's story

The court then hears the story of the samurai told through a medium. The samurai claims that, after raping his wife, Tajōmaru asked her to travel with him. She accepted and asked Tajōmaru to kill her husband so that she would not feel the guilt of belonging to two men. Shocked, Tajōmaru grabbed her and gave the samurai a choice of letting the woman go or killing her. "For these words alone," the dead samurai recounted, "I was ready to pardon his crime." The woman fled, and Tajōmaru, after attempting to recapture her, gave up and set the samurai free. The samurai then killed himself with his wife's dagger. Later, someone removed the dagger from his chest, but it is not yet revealed who it was.

The woodcutter's story

Back at Rashōmon (after the trial), the woodcutter states to the commoner that all three stories were falsehoods. The woodcutter says he witnessed the rape and murder but he declined the opportunity to testify because he did not want to get involved. According to the woodcutter's story, Tajōmaru begged the samurai's wife to marry him but the woman instead freed her husband. The husband was initially unwilling to fight Tajōmaru, saying he would not risk his life for a spoiled woman, but the woman then criticized both him and Tajōmaru, saying they were not real men and that a real man would fight for a woman's love. She urged them to fight one another but then hid her face in fear once they raised swords; the men, too, were visibly afraid as they began fighting. In the woodcutter's recollection, the resulting duel was far more pitiful and clumsy than Tajōmaru had recounted previously; Tajōmaru ultimately won through a stroke of luck and the woman fled. Tajōmaru could not catch her but took the samurai's sword and left the scene limping.

Epilogue

At the gate, the woodcutter, priest, and commoner are interrupted from their discussion of the woodcutter's account by the sound of a crying baby. They find the baby abandoned in a basket and the commoner takes a kimono and an amulet that has been left for the infant. The woodcutter reproaches the commoner for stealing from the orphaned child, but the commoner chastises him in an attempt to justify the theft: having deduced that the reason the woodcutter did not speak up at the trial was that he was the one who had stolen the dagger from the scene of the murder, the commoner mocks him as "a bandit calling another a bandit". The commoner leaves Rashōmon, claiming that all men are motivated only by self-interest.

These deceptions and lies shake the priest's faith in humanity. He claims it is restored when the woodcutter reaches for the baby in his arms. The priest is suspicious at first but the woodcutter explains that he intends to take care of the baby along with his own six children. This simple revelation recasts the woodcutter's story and the subsequent theft of the dagger in a new light. The priest gives the infant to the woodcutter, saying that the woodcutter has given him a reason to continue having hope in humanity. As the woodcutter leaves to take the child home, the rain stops and the clouds have parted, revealing the sun.

The story recounts the encounter between a servant and an old woman in the dilapidated Rashōmon, the southern gate of the then-ruined city of Kyoto, where unclaimed corpses were sometimes dumped. The current name of the gate in the story, but not the plot, comes from the Noh play ''Rashōmon'' (c. 1420).

The man, a lowly servant recently fired, is contemplating whether to starve to death or to become a thief to survive in the barren times. He goes upstairs, after noticing some firelight there, and encounters a woman who is stealing hair from the dead bodies on the second floor. He is disgusted, and decides then that he would rather take the path of righteousness even if it meant starvation. He is furious with the woman.

But the old woman tells him that she steals hair to make wigs, so she can survive. In addition, the woman who she is currently robbing cheated people in her life by selling snake meat and claiming it was fish. The old woman says that this was not wrong because it allowed the woman to survive — and so in turn this entitles her to steal from the dead person, because if she doesn't, she too will starve. The man responds: "You won't blame me, then, for taking your clothes. That's what I have to do to keep from starving to death". He then brutally robs the woman of her robe and disappears into the night.

In 1980, the aircraft carrier is departing Naval Station Pearl Harbor for naval exercises in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The ship takes on a civilian observer, Warren Lasky (Martin Sheen) — a systems analyst for Tideman Industries working as an efficiency expert for the U.S. Defense Department — on the orders of his reclusive employer, Mr Tideman, whose secretive major defense contractor company designed and built the nuclear-powered warship.

Once at sea, the ''Nimitz'' encounters a mysterious electrically-charged storm-like vortex. While the ship passes through it, radar and other equipment become unresponsive and everyone aboard falls into agony. Initially unsure of what has happened to them and having lost radio contact with U.S. Pacific Fleet Command at Pearl Harbor, Captain Yelland (Kirk Douglas), commander of the aircraft carrier, fears that there may have been a nuclear strike on Hawaii or the continental United States. He orders general quarters and launches a RF-8 Crusader reconnaissance aircraft. The aircraft returns after photographing Pearl Harbor, but the images show an intact row of U.S. Pacific fleet battleships, of which several were destroyed during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

When a surface contact is spotted on radar, Yelland launches two ready alert Grumman F-14 Tomcat fighter jets from VF-84 to intercept. The patrol witnesses a civilian wooden yacht being strafed and destroyed by two Imperial Japanese Navy Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" fighters, killing three crew members. The F-14s are ordered to drive off the Zeros without firing, but when the Zeros inadvertently head towards the ''Nimitz'', Yelland gives clearance to shoot them down. The ''Nimitz'' rescues survivors from the yacht: prominent U.S. Senator Samuel Chapman (Charles Durning), his aide Laurel Scott (Katharine Ross), her dog Charlie and one of the two downed Zero pilots (Soon-Tek Oh). Commander Owens (James Farentino), an amateur historian, recognizes Chapman as a politician who could have been Franklin D. Roosevelt's running mate (and his potential successor) during his final re-election bid, had Chapman not disappeared shortly before the Pearl Harbor attack.

When a Grumman E-2 Hawkeye scouting craft discovers the Japanese fleet task force further north in unpatrolled waters, poised to launch its attack on Pearl Harbor, the ''Nimitz'' crew realize that they have been transported back in time to the day before the attack. Yelland has to decide whether to destroy the Japanese fleet and alter the course of history or to stand by and allow history to proceed as they know it. The American civilians and the Zero pilot are kept isolated, but while being questioned, the Japanese pilot obtains a rifle, kills two Marine guards, and takes Scott, Owens, and Lasky hostage. He threatens to kill them unless he is given access to a radio to warn the Japanese fleet about the ''Nimitz''. Lasky tells Commander Owens to recite and describe the secret plans for the Japanese attack; the dumbfounded Japanese pilot is overcome and shot by the Marines. In the aftermath, Scott and Owens develop an attraction for each other.

Chapman is outraged that Yelland knows of the impending Japanese attack but has not told anyone else, and demands to be taken to Pearl Harbor to warn the naval authorities. Yelland instead orders Owens to fly the civilians and sufficient supplies via helicopter to an isolated Hawaiian island, assuming they will eventually be rescued. When they arrive, Chapman realizes he has been tricked and uses a flare gun to force the pilot to fly to Pearl Harbor. During a struggle with another crew member, the flare gun discharges, destroying the craft and stranding Scott and Owens on the island. The ''Nimitz'' launches a massive strike force against the incoming Japanese fleet, but right after that, the time vortex storm returns. After a futile attempt to outrun the storm, Yelland recalls the strike force, and the ship and its aircraft safely return to 1980, leaving the past relatively unchanged. Upon the return of the ''Nimitz'' to Pearl Harbor, Pacific Fleet admirals board the ship to investigate the ''Nimitz'' s unexplained disappearance. Lasky leaves the ship with Scott's dog, Charlie, and encounters the mysterious Mr. Tideman face-to-face. Tideman is revealed to be a much older Owens. He and his wife, Laurel Scott, invite Lasky to join them as they have "a lot to talk about".

Leslie Caron as Lili Naive country girl Lili (Leslie Caron) arrives in a provincial town in hopes of locating an old friend of her late father, only to find that he has died. A local shopkeeper offers her employment, then tries to take advantage of her. She is rescued by a handsome, smooth-talking, womanizing carnival magician, Marc, whose stage name is Marcus the Magnificent (Jean-Pierre Aumont). Lili is infatuated with him and follows him to the carnival, where on learning that she is 16, he helps her get a job as waitress. Lili is fired on her first night when she spends her time watching the magic act instead of waiting tables. When Lili consults the magician for advice, he tells her to go back to where she came from. Homeless and heartbroken, she contemplates suicide, unaware that she is being watched by the carnival's puppeteer Paul (Mel Ferrer). He strikes up a conversation with her through his puppets—a brash red-haired boy named Carrot Top, a sly fox, Reynardo, a vain ballerina, Marguerite, and a cowardly giant, Golo. Soon, a large group of carnival workers is enthralled watching Lili's interaction with the puppets, as she is seemingly unaware that there is a puppeteer behind the curtain. Afterwards, Paul and his partner Jacquot (Kurt Kasznar) offer Lili a job in the act, talking with the puppets. She accepts, and her natural manner of interacting with the puppets becomes the most valuable part of the act.

Paul was once a well-known dancer, but suffered a leg injury in World War II. He regards the puppet show as far inferior to his old career, which embitters him. Lili refers to him as "the Angry Man". Although he falls in love with Lili, he can only express his feelings through the puppets. Fearing rejection due to his physical impairment, he keeps his distance by being unpleasant to her. Lili continues to dream about the handsome magician, wishing to replace his assistant Rosalie (Zsa Zsa Gabor).

Soon, Marcus receives an offer to perform at the local casino and decides to leave the carnival, to the joy of Rosalie, who announces to everyone that she is his wife. Lili is heartbroken and innocently invites Marc to her trailer. His lecherous plans are interrupted by Paul, and he leaves. When Lili finds Marc's wedding ring in the seat cushions and tries to chase him, Paul stops her, calls her a fool, and slaps her.

Two impresarios from Paris who have been scouting the show come to see Paul and Jacquot. They recognize Paul as the former dancer and tell him that his act with Lili and the puppets is ingenious. Paul is ecstatic about this and the offer, but Jacquot tells the agents that they will have to let them know. He then tells Paul that Lili is leaving.

Lili takes the wedding ring to Marc and tells him that every little girl has to wake up from her girlish dreams. She has decided to leave the carnival. On her way out, she is stopped by the voices of Carrot Top and Reynardo, who ask her to take them with her. As they embrace her, she finds they are shaking. She remembers somebody is behind the curtain and pulls it away to see Paul. Instead of telling her how he feels, he tells her of the agents' offer. She confronts him about the difference between his real self, seemingly incapable of love, and his puppets. He tells her he is the puppets, a creature of many facets and many flaws. He concludes by telling her, "This is business." "Not any more," retorts Lili, who walks away.

Walking out of town, she imagines that the puppets, now life-sized, have joined her. As she dances with each puppet in turn, they all turn into Paul. Coming back to reality, Lili runs back to the carnival and into Paul's arms. They kiss passionately as the puppets applaud.

A comedy of manners, the film centers on virtuous actress Patty O'Neill, who meets playboy architect Donald Gresham on the top of the Empire State Building and accepts his invitation to join him for drinks and dinner in his apartment. There she meets Donald's upstairs neighbors, his ex-fiancée Cynthia and her father, roguish David Slater.

Both men are determined to seduce the young woman, but they quickly discover Patty is more interested in engaging in spirited discussions about the pressing moral and sexual issues of the day than surrendering her virginity to either one of them. After resisting their amorous advances throughout the night, Patty leaves. The next day she returns to the Empire State Building, where she finds Donald who has missed her and worried all night about her. Donald declares his love for her and proposes marriage to her.

Robert Merrick is resuscitated by a rescue crew after a boating accident. The crew is thus unable to save the life of Dr. Hudson, a physician renowned for his ability to help people, who was having a heart attack at the same time on the other side of the lake. Merrick then decides to devote his life to making up for the doctor's, and becomes a physician himself.

Mrs. Hudson, the widow, moving to Europe after her daughter, Joyce, is married. Merrick progresses in his career, and in the story's climax, gets involved in a railway accident in which Mrs. Hudson suffers serious injury. Merrick is instrumental in her recovery, and Merrick and Mrs. Hudson subsequently marry.

A group of teenage girls from Atlanta go to summer camp, and, unbeknownst to the adults, two of them make a bet as to which one will lose her virginity first, with all the girls in camp betting money on the contest. The girls involved in the contest are opposites and rivals: cynical, suspicious and streetwise poor girl Angel Bright and naive, prissy and romantic rich girl Ferris Whitney. The rest of the girls divide into two "teams", each rooting for and egging on either Ferris or Angel. The two girls then choose guys they want to lose their virginity with. Angel targets Randy, a boy from the camp across the lake, and Ferris attempts to seduce Gary Callahan, the (much older) camp counselor.

The girls also engage in typical teenage camp behavior, like food fights and singing around a campfire. Both girls discover that sex is not what they thought it would be. Ferris thinks of sex as love and romance and wine and flowers and poetry. She imagines herself swept off her feet by Gary. When she lies about "making love" with him, Gary gets in trouble for having sex with a fifteen-year-old. She discovers that physical sex can have ugly consequences. Her attitude is now more grounded in reality; she has become more like street-wise Angel.

Meanwhile, street-wise Angel approaches the same issue from the other side and learns the opposite lesson. She views winning the contest as a purely biological act, "no big deal" and "nothing," as her mother told her. But when she tries to do "it" with Randy in a boathouse, she becomes confused by scary feelings she did not know she had. She behaves defensively, like she doesn't want it. Randy, now also confused, is put off by her recalcitrance and leaves.

Angel sees that sex is more than just a mechanical function she can cynically turn on and off. It involves feelings and caring and love. Sex is important, and something she deeply wants. As Randy leaves, she tearfully protests, "But I ''like'' you!"

She meets Randy a few days later with a much improved attitude—one closer to Ferris's. This time she pays attention, not to condoms and clothing, but to Randy and her feelings about him. As the novel adapted from the film's screenplay describes it, "All her fear and resistance melted as they kissed. Soon, she didn't know who was touching whom, only that it was wonderful and right and fine."

Angel has sex (offscreen) with Randy in the boathouse, but she doesn't tell the other girls. Ferris remains a virgin and lies about an evening of romantic passion ("We had chilled Chablis; the darkness enveloped us.").

In the end, Ferris discovers that sex is not just a fantasy of poetry and flowers and moonlight or something from a novel. The biological aspect is not necessarily romantic. Angel discovers that biological sex involves powerful emotions that touch her deeply and transform her soul. Neither girl is quite ready for the emotional aspects that sex brings: When Randy seeks her out, Angel admits that while she likes him, and she is not ready for that kind of a relationship (he says they can start over, but Angel observes that it's too late and wouldn't be enough), while Ferris apologizes to Gary. Together, the girls talk with the camp director and confess the situation, saving Gary's job.

Angel and Ferris, the two outsiders, discover they are more alike than different, and as they return home to their parents, they become best friends.

The novel alternates between episodes featuring Benny, Stencil and other members of the Whole Sick Crew (including Profane's sidekick Pig Bodine) in 1956 (with a few minor flashbacks), and a generation-spanning plot that comprises Stencil's attempts to unravel the clues he believes will lead him to "V." (or to the various incarnations thereof). Each of these "Stencilised" chapters is set at a different moment of historical crisis; the framing narrative involving Stencil, "V.", and the journals of Stencil's British spy/diplomat father threads the sequences together. The novel's two storylines increasingly converge in the last chapters (the intersecting lines forming a V-shape, as it were), as Stencil hires Benny to travel with him to Malta.

Chapter One: "In which Benny Profane, a schlemihl and human yo-yo, gets to an apocheir"

The opening chapter is set in Norfolk, Virginia, on Christmas Eve, 1955. Benny Profane, a recently discharged seaman, is at a local sailor bar called the "Sailor's Grave" in which every waitress is named Beatrice and the beer taps are rubber model breasts that the sailors suck on. Here Profane meets Ploy, a short violent sailor, his musician friend Dewey Gland, and the Maltese barmaid Paola Hod. Bar owner Mrs. Buffo begins to play a rendition of "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" to celebrate Christmas only to be immediately assaulted by Ploy and the rest of the intoxicated sailors. The disorder triggers a raid by the military police. Pig Bodine, Paola, Dewey Gland and Profane escape the chaos to Pig's apartment.

Chapter Two: "The Whole Sick Crew"

The chapter opens with Rachel Owlglass confronting the plastic surgeon Shale Schoenmaker whom she accuses of manipulating her friend and roommate Esther Havitz into debt through repeated rhinoplasty. Schoenmaker responds by entering into a monologue on the nature of Jewish women and the nature of appearance.

Section II is set during a party at Rachel's apartment attended by the "Sick Crew", Paola, Esther, and Debb. This section introduces the character Herbert Stencil, a troubled man who is obsessed with his father's mysterious death in Malta (even more mysterious as Sidney Stencil, Herbert's father, was a British secret agent) and the identity of "V", a woman mentioned in his journal.

Chapter Three: "In which Stencil, a quick-change artist, does eight impersonations"

This chapter, set among the British community in Egypt toward the end of the 19th century, consists of an introduction and a series of eight relatively short sections, each of them from the point of view of a different person. The eight sections come together to tell a story of murder and intrigue, intersecting the life of a young woman, Victoria Wren, the first incarnation of V. The title is a hint as to how this chapter is to be understood: Stencil imagines each of the eight viewpoints as he reconstructs—we do not know on how much knowledge and how much conjecture—this episode. This chapter is a reworking of Pynchon's short story "Under the Rose", which was first published in 1961 and is collected in ''Slow Learner'' (1984). In the ''Slow Learner'' introduction, Pynchon admits he took the details of the setting ("right down to the names of the diplomatic corps") from Karl Baedeker's 1899 travel guide for Egypt. Stencil's reconstruction follows the same basic conflict as "Under the Rose", but it gives the non-European characters much more personality.

Chapter Four: In Which Esther Gets a Nose Job

Section I details the history of Shale Schoenmaker, M.D. and how he began his career as a plastic surgeon. During World War I he eagerly enlists in the A.E.F. hoping to become a pilot but, is instead given a position as an engineer. While serving he witnesses Evan Godolphin, a handsome pilot whom he idealized, become horribly disfigured during an air raid. A month later Schoenmaker visits Godolphin in the hospital while he is recovering from reconstructive surgery, discovering that an incompetent surgeon, Halidom, treated him using the archaic method that would inevitably lead to further disfigurement by infection. This event traumatizes Schoenmaker, causing him to now see it as his mission to help people like Godolphin, a conviction that slowly decays over time.

Stencil comes across Schoenmaker in his search for V. and refers Esther to him for her nose job. At a follow-up appointment Esther and Schoenmaker become lovers.

Chapter Five: In Which Stencil Nearly Goes West with an Alligator

Only marginally part of the Stencil/V. material, this chapter follows Benny and others, as Benny has a job hunting alligators in the sewers under Manhattan. It figures in the Stencil/V. story in that there is a rat named "Veronica" who figures in a subplot about a mad priest — Father Linus Fairing, S.J. — some decades back, living in the sewers and preaching to the rats; we hear from him in the form of his diary. Stencil himself makes a brief appearance toward the end of the chapter.

Chapter Six: In which Profane returns to street level

The chapter follows Profane, Geronimo, Angel, and his sister Josephine "Fina" into the city over several nights of drinking. Fina and Profane's relationship develops amid concerns over her status within a local mercenary street gang known as the Playboys, who see her as a spiritual figurehead. The chapter ends amid a massive brawl, nearby which Fina is found lying naked and smiling.

Chapter Seven: She hangs on the western wall

In Florence in 1899, Victoria appears again, briefly, but so does the place name "Vheissu", which may or may not stand for Vesuvius, Venezuela, a crude interpretation of ''wie heißt du'', translating into ''who are you'' in the German language, or even (one character jokes) Venus. The chapter also revolves around an attempted burglary of Botticelli's ''The Birth of Venus'' by Hugh Godolphin through the Venezuelan consulate.

Chapter Eight: In which Rachel gets her yo-yo back, Roony sings a song, and Stencil calls on Bloody Chiclitz

The chapter begins with Benny Profane, freshly unemployed after being laid-off from sewer-alligator hunting, in search of a job in Manhattan. After briefly contemplating the nature of money on a park bench, he, by chance, looks at an advertisement issued by The Time/Space Employment Agency. Once arriving at the agency he finds, much to his annoyance, that the secretary is his former lover Rachel Owlglass. In section IV Stencil continues his investigation of the perplexing "V." (whom he now believes is either Victoria or the rat Veronica) meeting up with a Yoyodyne engineer Kurt Mondaugen.

Chapter Nine: Mondaugen's story

Kurt Mondaugen, who will appear again in ''Gravity's Rainbow'', is the central character in a story set in South West Africa (now Namibia) partly during a siege in 1922 at which one Vera Meroving is present, but most notably in 1904, during the Herero Wars, when South West Africa was a German colony.

Chapter Ten: In which various sets of young people get together

McClintic Sphere, an alto sax player in a jazz band, returns home to his boarding house in Harlem. The previous week, spent playing primarily for condescending, snobby Ivy League students, has left him exhausted, and he relaxes in his room with a prostitute named Ruby. Benny, meanwhile, finally gets a job at Anthroresearch Associates, where he's introduced to SHROUD, a synthetic humanoid with whom he holds imaginary conversations. Pig Bodine and Roony Winsome get into a fight, based on Roony's suspicion that Pig is involved with his (Roony's) wife, Mafia. Meanwhile, Mafia aggressively pursues sex with Benny, who declines. Schoenmaker and Esther get into a few arguments because he says he wants to bring out her inner beauty by performing more plastic surgery on her. The chapter finishes out with the Whole Sick Crew hanging out in various places: Sheridan Square, the Rusty Spoon, Slab in front of his Cheese Danish No. 35 canvas. Stencil, looking for Rachel at her apartment, comes upon Paola who gives him the Confessions of Fausto Maijstral.

Chapter Eleven: Confessions of Fausto Maijstral

Fausto Maijstral, Maltese civilian suffering under the German bombardment and working to clear the rubble during World War II writes a long letter to his daughter Paola, who figures in the Benny Profane story; the letter comes into Stencil's hands. The letter includes copious quotations from Fausto's diary. Besides the place name Valletta, V. figures in the story as an old — or possibly not-so-old — woman crushed by a beam of a fallen building.

Chapter Twelve: In which things are not so amusing

Roony and Mafia continue fighting, so Roony meets up with McClintic at the V-Note, and they travel to Lenox, Massachusetts. Returning to Matilda's boardinghouse, they meet up with Ruby, who Roony recognizes as being a member of the Crew in disguise. Esther tells Slab she is pregnant. He wants to send her to Cuba to get an abortion, and raises the money by announcing his intentions and asking for money at a party the Crew is throwing in an abandoned warehouse. Roony's attempts to deal with his wife then take a dark turn, but he is saved by Pig. At an airport, Esther and Slab attempt to catch Esther a flight to Cuba, but meet some resistance. Paola, traveling with McClintic, reveals her true identity to him. He delivers the line, "Keep cool, but care," considered the novel's central theme, as they drive off into the Berkshires.

Chapter Thirteen: In which the yo-yo string is revealed as a state of mind

Benny loses his job at Anthroresearch Associates by sleeping in and not being at work to notify the attendant technician that several calamities have occurred in the lab. Rachel nudges him to get a new job, and says that she will find one for him herself. An amusing story unfolds about Benny and Pig during their ''Scaffold'' days. Benny, unable and unwilling to get work, instead takes a self-described vacation and chooses to spend his spare time at the Rusty Spoon. He gets drunk with Stencil, who relates the entirety of his knowledge of V. as it stands to this point in the novel. Valletta being the last place on Stencil's journey to find information about V., he asks Benny to accompany him and Paola to the island. Benny and Stencil commit a robbery in perilous circumstances, and then, in late September, they embark for Malta with Paola on board the ''Susanna Squaducci''.

Chapter Fourteen: V. in love

In this chapter V. is entranced by a young ballerina, Mélanie l'Heuremaudit. The story centers on a riotous ballet performance, almost certainly modeled in part on the premiere of Igor Stravinsky's ''The Rite of Spring''. The performance centers on a virgin sacrifice by impalement. The young ballerina fails to wear her protective equipment and actually dies by impalement in the course of the performance; everyone assumes her death throes simply to be an uncharacteristically emotional performance.

Chapter Fifteen: Sahha

Benny and Pig Bodine have one last adventure with two girls, Flip and Flop, as they all get drunk and wander around Washington D.C.. There are two going away parties for Benny, and the chapter ends with Benny, Stencil, and Paola leaving for Malta aboard the ''Susanna Squaducci'' as the Crew looks on and says goodbye.

Chapter Sixteen: Valletta

''. As the Royal Navy mass on Malta in the early stages of the Suez Crisis, Stencil arrives with Benny in tow, searching for Fausto Maijstral. (As always, Kilroy was here first, and Pynchon proposes a novel origin for the face: that Kilroy was originally a schematic for part of a band-pass filter.)

Epilogue

The last chapter is a flashback to Valletta when Stencil, Sr. was still alive. After World War I he is sent to Malta to observe the various crises going on involving the natives and their desire for independence. He is implored by Maijstral's wife (who is pregnant with Fausto) to relieve him of his duties as a double agent because she fears for his life. Stencil, Sr. meets Veronica Manganese or V and implicitly has sex with her (she is now largely made up of artificial limbs). It is revealed they had trysted in Florence after the riots. He finds out that Maijstral is having an affair with her as well.

Linus Fairing is also working as a double agent for Stencil, and when he leaves for America, having tired of the life of a spy, Stencil's purpose for being in Malta is null.

V releases Stencil from her auspices and Maijstral as well.

Stencil sails off into the Mediterranean and a waterspout blows the ship up into the air, then down into the depths, not too dissimilar from the conclusion of another American masterpiece, ''Moby-Dick'', also a sailor's story.

John Blackthorne, an English pilot serving on the Dutch warship ''Erasmus'', is the first Englishman to reach Japan. England (and Holland) seek to disrupt Portuguese-Catholic relations with Japan and establish ties of their own through trade and military alliances.

After ''Erasmus'' is blown ashore on the Japanese, Blackthorne and ten other survivors are taken captive by local samurai, Kasigi Omi, until his ''daimyō'' and uncle, Kasigi Yabu, arrives. Yabu puts Blackthorne and his crew on trial as pirates, using a Jesuit priest to interpret for Blackthorne. Having lost the trial, Blackthorne attacks the Jesuit. His breaking of the priest's crucifix shows that the priest is his enemy. The Japanese, who know only the Catholic version of Christianity, are shocked. Yabu sentences them all to death.

Omi, a clever adviser, convinces Yabu to spare them to learn more about European ways. After a failed rebellion by the Europeans, Blackthorne agrees to submit to Japanese authority. He is placed in a household, while his crew remain hostages. On Omi's advice, Yabu plans to confiscate the rutters, muskets, cannons, and silver coins recovered from ''Erasmus''. Word reaches Toranaga, Lord of the Kwanto and president of the Council of Regents. Toranaga sends his commander in chief, General Toda "Iron Fist" Hiro-matsu, to take the spoils and crew in order to gain an advantage against Toranaga's main rival on the council, Ishido.

Blackthorne is now called ''Anjin'' (navigator or pilot). (The Japanese can't pronounce his name.) Hiro-matsu takes Blackthorne and Yabu back to Osaka. A meeting of the council is taking place at Ishido's castle stronghold. They travel by one of Toranaga's galleys, captained by the Portuguese pilot Rodrigues. Blackthorne and Rodrigues find themselves in a grudging friendship. Rodrigues tries to kill Blackthorne during a storm, but is himself swept overboard. Blackthorne not only saves Rodrigues but safely navigates the ship.

At Osaka, Blackthorne is interviewed by Toranaga, via senior Jesuit priest Martin Alvito, who realizes the threat that Blackthorne presents. A Protestant, Blackthorne tries to turn Toranaga against the Jesuits. Toranaga learns that the Christian faith is divided. Alvito is honor-bound to translate as Blackthorne tells Toranaga his story. The interview ends when Ishido enters, curious about the barbarian Blackthorne.

Toranaga has Blackthorne thrown into prison to keep him from Ishido. Blackthorne is befriended by a Franciscan friar, who reveals further details about the Jesuit conquests and the Portuguese Black Ship, which take the vast profits from the silk trade between China and Japan back to Europe. He is taught some basic Japanese and a little of their culture. Blackthorne is then taken from prison by Ishido's men. Toranaga intervenes and captures Blackthorne from his rival. Ishido loses face.

At their next interview, Toranaga has the Lady Toda Mariko translate. She is a Catholic, torn between her new faith and her loyalty, as a samurai, to Toranaga. Toranaga learns from Blackthorne that Portugal has been granted the right to claim Japan as territory by the Pope, and of the exploitation of both South America and Asia in the name of spreading Catholicism.

At Osaka Castle, Blackthorne is attacked by an assassin from the secretive Amida Tong, a group of operatives who train all their lives to be the perfect weapon for one kill. Toranaga summons Yabu the next day for questioning, since Hiro-matsu says Yabu would be one who would know how to hire them. Yabu's evasive answers adds to Toranaga's distrust of him. The Jesuits may have hired the assassin to kill Blackthorne, to prevent him from revealing any more of what he knows.

The Council of Regents' negotiations go badly and Toranaga is threatened with forced seppuku. To escape the verdict, and to paralyze the council (for procedural reasons), Toranaga resigns. He departs in the guise of his consort, leaving with a train of travelers. Blackthorne spots the exchange and, when Ishido shows up at the gate of the castle and nearly discovers Toranaga, Blackthorne saves him by creating a diversion. In this way, he gradually gains the trust of Toranaga and enters into his service. Toranaga's party reaches the coast but their ship is blockaded by Ishido's boats. At Blackthorne's suggestion, a Portuguese ship is asked to lend cannon to blast the boats clear. In return, the Jesuits will offer aid in exchange for Blackthorne. Toranaga agrees and the ship clears the coast. The Portuguese pilot, Rodrigues, repays his debt to Blackthorne by having him thrown overboard to swim back to Toranaga's ship. Toranaga's ship escapes by staying alongside the Portuguese ship as both pass through the gap left between the opposing boats. Toranaga and his party return to his ship, which then goes back to Anjiro.

Blackthorne slowly builds up his Japanese-language skills and gains an understanding of the Japanese and their culture, eventually learning to respect it. The Japanese, in turn, are torn over Blackthorne's presence (as he is an outsider and a leader of a disgracefully filthy and uncouth rabble), but also a formidable sailor and navigator with extensive knowledge of the world. As such, he is both beneath contempt and incalculably valuable. A turning point is Blackthorne's attempt at seppuku. The Japanese prevent this attempt (as Blackthorne is worth more alive), but they also come to respect him for his knowledge and attempts to assimilate to their culture. When he also rescues Toranaga in an earthquake, he is granted the status of samurai and ''hatamoto'' – a high-status vassal similar to a retainer, with the right of direct audience. As they spend more time together, Blackthorne comes to deeply admire both Toranaga and (specifically) Mariko, and they secretly become lovers.

Eventually, he visits the survivors of his original crew in Yedo, and is astonished at how far he has ventured from the standard 'European' way of life (which he now sees to be filthy, vulgar, and ignorant), and he is actually disgusted by them. Blackthorne's plans to attack the 'Black Ship' are also complicated by his respect and friendship for his Portuguese colleague, Rodrigues, who is now to pilot the vessel. He returns to Osaka by sea with his crew and with 200 samurai (granted to him by Toranaga). Parallel with this plot, the novel also details the intense power struggle between the various war-lords, Toranaga and Ishido, and also – as a subtext – the political manoeuvring of the Protestant and Catholic powers in the Far East. There is also an internal conflict between Christian ''daimyōs'' (who are motivated in part by a desire to preserve and expand their (new) religion) and the ''daimyōs'' who oppose the Christians, as followers of foreign beliefs and representatives of the 'barbarian' cultural and fiscal influence on their society.

In the novel, Ishido is holding many family members of the other ''daimyōs'' as hostages in Osaka, referring to them as "guests". As long as he has these hostages, the other ''daimyōs'', including Toranaga, do not dare attack him. Unforeseen by Toranaga, a replacement regent has also been chosen. Ishido hopes to lure or force Toranaga into the castle and, when all the regents are present, obtain from them an order for Toranaga to commit seppuku. To extricate Toranaga from this situation, Mariko goes to what will be her likely death at Osaka Castle – to face down Ishido and to obtain the hostages' release.

At the castle, Mariko defies Ishido and forces him to either dishonor himself (by admitting to holding the Samurai families as hostages) or to back down and let them leave. When Mariko tries to fulfill Toranaga's orders and to leave the castle, a battle ensues between Ishido's samurai and her escort, until she is forced to return. However, she states that she is disgraced and will commit suicide. As she is about to do so, Ishido gives her the papers to leave the castle on the next day. But that night, a group of ninja that Ishido has hired, aided by Yabu, slips into Toranaga's section of the castle to kidnap Mariko. However, she and Blackthorne and the other ladies of Toranaga's "court", escape into a locked room. As the ninja prepare to blow the door open Mariko stands against the door and is killed by the explosion.

After her cremation, Ishido lets the hostages leave the castle, seriously reducing his control over them. Blackthorne then discovers that his ship has been burned, ruining his chances of attacking the Black Ship and gaining riches and also sailing home to England. However, Mariko has left him some money and Toranaga provides him with men to start building a new ship. Toranaga orders Yabu – who he learns had helped the attack in Osaka with the aim of being on the winning side – to commit seppuku for his treachery. Yabu complies, giving his prized ''katana'' to Blackthorne.

The last chapter involves Toranaga as he reveals his inner monologue: that he himself had ordered Blackthorne's ship to be burned, as a way to placate the Christian ''daimyōs'', and to save Blackthorne's life from them, as well as to bring them to his side against Ishido. He then encourages Blackthorne to build another ship. It is Blackthorne's karma to never leave Japan; and Mariko's karma to die for her lord, and for Toranaga to become eventually shogun, with absolute power. In a brief epilogue after the final Battle of Sekigahara, Ishido is captured alive and Toranaga has him buried up to his neck. The novel states that "Ishido lingered three days and died very old".

In the 1846 slum of the Five Points, two gangs, the Protestant Confederation of American Natives, led by William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting, and the Irish Catholic immigrant Dead Rabbits, led by "Priest" Vallon, engage in their final battle to determine which faction will hold sway over the territory. At the end of the battle, Bill kills Vallon and declares the Dead Rabbits outlawed. Having witnessed this, Vallon's young son hides the knife that killed his father and is taken to an orphanage on Blackwell's Island.

In 1862, Vallon's son, ‘Amsterdam’ returns to the Five Points seeking revenge and retrieves the knife. An old acquaintance, Johnny Sirocco, familiarizes him with the local clans of gangs, all of whom pay tribute to Bill, who remains in control of the territory. Amsterdam is introduced to Bill but keeps his past a secret as he seeks recruitment into the gang. He learns many of his father's former allies are now in Bill's employ. Each year, Bill celebrates the anniversary of his victory over the Dead Rabbits and Amsterdam secretly plans to kill him publicly during this celebration. Amsterdam soon becomes attracted to pickpocket and grifter Jenny Everdeane, with whom Johnny is also infatuated. Amsterdam gains Bill's confidence and becomes his protégé, involving him in the dealings of corrupt Tammany Hall politician William M. Tweed. Amsterdam saves Bill from an assassination attempt and is tormented by the thought that he may have done so out of honest devotion.

On the evening of the anniversary, Johnny, in a fit of jealousy over Jenny's affections for Amsterdam, reveals Amsterdam's true identity and intentions to Bill. Bill baits Amsterdam with a knife throwing act involving Jenny. As Bill toasts Priest Vallon, Amsterdam throws his knife, but Bill deflects it and wounds Amsterdam with a counter throw. Bill then beats him and burns his cheek with a hot blade. Going into hiding, Jenny implores him to escape with her to San Francisco. Amsterdam, however, returns to the Five Points seeking vengeance and announces his return by hanging a dead rabbit in Paradise Square. Bill sends corrupt Irish policeman Mulraney to investigate, but Amsterdam kills him and hangs his body in the square as well. In retaliation, Bill has Johnny beaten and run through with a pike, leaving it to Amsterdam to end his suffering. When Amsterdam's gang beats McGloin, one of Bill's lieutenants, Bill and the Natives march on the church and are met by Amsterdam and the Dead Rabbits. No violence ensues, but Bill promises to return soon. The incident garners newspaper coverage, and Amsterdam presents Tweed with a plan to defeat Bill's influence: Tweed will back the candidacy of Monk McGinn for sheriff and Amsterdam will secure the Irish vote for Tammany. Monk wins in a landslide, and a humiliated Bill murders him. McGinn's death prompts an angry Amsterdam to challenge Bill to a gang battle in Paradise Square, which Bill accepts.

The Civil War draft riots break out just as the gangs are preparing to fight, and Union Army soldiers are deployed to control the rioters. As the rival gangs fight, cannon fire from ships is directed into Paradise Square, interrupting their battle shortly before it begins. Many of the gang members are killed by the naval gunfire, soldiers or rioters. Bill and Amsterdam face off against one another until Bill gets wounded by a piece of shrapnel. Amsterdam then uses his father's knife to kill Bill.

Amsterdam buries Bill in a cemetery in Brooklyn, next to his father. As Amsterdam and Jenny leave, the skyline changes as modern New York City is built over the next century, from the Brooklyn Bridge to the World Trade Center, and the cemetery becomes overgrown and forgotten.

In the 1820s, Eugene Onegin is a bored St. Petersburg dandy, whose life consists of balls, concerts, parties, and nothing more. Upon the death of a wealthy uncle, he inherits a substantial fortune and a landed estate. When he moves to the country, he strikes up a friendship with his neighbor, a starry-eyed young poet named Vladimir Lensky. Lensky takes Onegin to dine with the family of his fiancée, the sociable but rather thoughtless Olga Larina. At this meeting, he also catches a glimpse of Olga's sister Tatyana. A quiet, precocious romantic, and the exact opposite of Olga, Tatyana becomes intensely drawn to Onegin. Soon after, she bares her soul to Onegin in a letter professing her love. Contrary to her expectations, Onegin does not write back. When they meet in person, he rejects her advances politely but dismissively and condescendingly. This famous speech is often referred to as ''Onegin's Sermon'': he admits that the letter was touching, but says that he would quickly grow bored with marriage and can only offer Tatyana friendship; he coldly advises more emotional control in the future, lest another man take advantage of her innocence.

Later, Lensky mischievously invites Onegin to Tatyana's name day celebration, promising a small gathering with just Tatyana, Olga, and their parents. When Onegin arrives, he finds instead a boisterous country ball, a rural parody of and contrast to the society balls of St. Petersburg of which he has grown tired. Onegin is irritated with the guests who gossip about him and Tatyana, and with Lensky for persuading him to come. He decides to avenge himself by dancing and flirting with Olga. Olga is insensitive to her fiancé and apparently attracted to Onegin. Earnest and inexperienced, Lensky is wounded to the core and challenges Onegin to fight a duel; Onegin reluctantly accepts, feeling compelled by social convention. During the duel, Onegin unwillingly kills Lensky. Afterwards, he quits his country estate, traveling abroad to deaden his feelings of remorse.

Tatyana visits Onegin's mansion, where she looks through his books and his notes in the margins, and begins to question whether Onegin's character is merely a collage of different literary heroes, and if there is, in fact, no "real Onegin". Tatyana, still brokenhearted by the loss of Onegin, is convinced by her parents to live with her aunt in Moscow to find a suitor.

Several years pass, and the scene shifts to St. Petersburg. Onegin has come to attend the most prominent balls and interact with the leaders of old Russian society. He sees the most beautiful woman, who captures the attention of all and is central to society's whirl, and he realizes that it is the same Tatyana whose love he had once spurned. Now she is married to an aged prince (a general). Upon seeing Tatyana again, he becomes obsessed with winning her affection, despite her being married. His attempts are rebuffed. He writes her several letters, but receives no reply. Eventually, Onegin manages to see Tatyana and offers her the opportunity to finally elope after they have become reacquainted. She recalls the days when they might have been happy, but concludes that that time has passed. Onegin repeats his love for her. Faltering for a moment, she admits that she still loves him, but she will not allow him to ruin her and declares her determination to remain faithful to her husband. She leaves him regretting his bitter destiny.

Steven Taylor is a Wall Street financier married to Emily, a much younger (over 20 years) translator for the United Nations. When his risky personal investments start unraveling, he intends to access Emily's personal fortune of $100 million to cover his losses. Meanwhile, Emily enjoys an affair with painter David Shaw and is considering leaving Steven. Steven meets David at a gala, and asks to visit David's studio in Brooklyn.

Steven arrives at David's studio the next day. He reveals that he knows about the affair, and used his influence to investigate David's criminal past as an ex-convict who cons rich women out of their money. Steven offers David $500,000 to murder Emily. When David responds that he and Emily are in love, Steven reminds him his next arrest will mean 15 years imprisonment.

Steven hides the door key from Emily's keyring outside the service entrance to their lavish Manhattan co-op apartment. David is to use the key, kill her, and make it look like a robbery. At his card game, Steven takes a break and uses his cellphone to make a call to an automated bank system, adding to his alibi, while using a second phone to call Emily. Emily answers in the kitchen and is attacked by a masked assailant, but stabs him in the neck with a meat thermometer.

Steven returns expecting Emily to be dead, but finds the assailant's body. He takes the key from the body and puts it back on Emily's keychain. Police arrive, led by Detective Karaman. They remove the assailant's mask and Karaman notices that Steven is surprised the body is not David's. Outside, David watches the body being removed from the building in a black bag and assumes it to be Emily.

Karaman requests that Steven and Emily come down to the station so Emily can provide a statement. With their lawyer in tow, she provides the statement and they learn the identity of the intruder. In the meantime, Karaman takes an urgent call in the room from his wife about their infant child; Emily recognizes the Arabic conversation and inquires afterwards in fluent Arabic about the health of his son. Surprised and charmed, Karaman explains the child is suffering from colic, and they exchange blessings for good health with a mutual smile as the others in the room look on in confusion.

Steven takes Emily to stay at her mother's. A sobbing David receives a call from Emily telling him she is fine, and will be back soon. Steven realizes Emily has called David by hitting the redial button on the phone, and he then organizes a meet on a ferry where they discuss the incident and next plans. Emily visits her coworker, Raquel, and they discuss what happened. Emily relates her suspicions about Steven and Raquel tries to assuage her fears by assuring her that Steven has his own money, and hers is protected by their prenuptial agreement. But Emily confides that they never had a prenup; Steven had offered one, and Emily had refused. Raquel immediately looks concerned, and Emily slowly realizes the inherent motive Steven may have for murdering her.

Emily uses her connections to speak to a federal regulator, learning of Steven's financial troubles. She then informs Karaman, who says that Steven was no longer a suspect as his alibi is solid, though there is the lingering concern that the dead assailant did not have keys of any kind on his body, not even for his own apartment. This strikes Emily as an important clue as her own keys did not work in her apartment door when she had first returned home after being away.

Still losing money, Steven receives a call from David, who plays an audio tape of the two discussing the plan to kill Emily. They agree to meet at a local deli, where David demands the full $500,000 or he will turn Steven in.

Emily decides to go to the apartment of the assailant, discovering that her key on her keyring unlocks ''his'' door. Emily confronts Steven with this and his financial problems. Steven responds with evidence of Emily's affair with David, including incriminating photographs, as well as telling her details about David's sordid past and accuses him of being a blackmailer conning her and threatening him. When he saw the dead body in their kitchen, he assumed it was David and took the key from his pocket so as not to implicate Emily. She is distraught after learning this new information but seems convinced of Steven's story; he has an answer for every question she poses and does not seem rattled, until Emily mentions how she wants to go to the police with the information. He is immediately on the defensive, and advises her not to say anything to the detectives as he has admittedly tampered with a homicide scene and is paying off a blackmailer. She agrees to keep silent, and tells Steven that her wedding ring is still at David's loft, so Steven offers to go retrieve it for her.

Steven then goes to David's loft with the cash, but finds a note with Emily's ring, directing him to a park. David's phone rings, and Steven answers it is a ticketing agent, confirming David's train to Montreal. Steven meets David in a park and swaps the money for the audio tape.

Reaching the private compartment on the train, David opens the bathroom door; Steven lunges out and stabs him, taking David's gun and the money. A dying David laughs, revealing he mailed a copy of the tape to Emily via courier service. Steven rushes home and finds the mail still unopened. He hides the money, gun, and audio tape in his safe before Emily enters the room.

Steven showers then dresses for dinner, but Emily suggests they stay in instead. As she heads out to pick up food, she mentions that they should have the locks changed since her key is missing. Steven checks the service entrance, finds the key he hid for David, and realizes that the attacker had put it back after unlocking the door. Emily suddenly appears, revealing that she knows everything now, having found the tape in the safe while he showered. When she turns to leave, Steven attacks her. A brief fight ensues, ending when Emily uses David's gun from the safe to shoot and kill Steven.

Karaman and his officers arrive. Emily plays David's tape for them, then tearfully explains how Steven threatened to kill her, she tried to flee, and he attacked her. Karaman replies, "What else could you do?" He and Emily exchange an Arabic blessing as the film ends.

In Piqua, Ohio, George Beard and Harold Hutchins are fourth-grade pranksters. When not causing mayhem at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, they write and draw comics in George's treehouse featuring characters of their own creation, namely Captain Underpants, and sell copies of their comics on the school playground. One day, they pull a series of practical jokes at the school's football game, from putting black pepper in the cheerleaders' pom-poms to filling the ball with helium, which causes the school to forfeit. The next day, their principal Mr. Krupp reveals that he had set up security cameras that filmed George and Harold preparing their pranks and recorded them on a videotape, which he threatens to release unless they obey him. The boys wake up at 6 AM to wash Mr. Krupp's car and mow his lawn, not smile or be disruptive at all during school time, spend lunch and recess cleaning his office, work on Mr. Krupp's house after school, and do extra homework. In order to escape this labor, George orders a "3-D Hypno-Ring" from the Li'l Wiseguy Novelty Company, which they receive after 4 to 6 weeks of grueling labor. The boys then use the ring to hypnotize Mr. Krupp, and Harold replaces the video with one of his little sister's "Boomer the Purple Dragon" sing-along videos.

After reading some of their old comics, the two begin taking turns making Mr. Krupp act in ridiculous ways, such as behaving like a chicken, a monkey, and then finally into the superhero from their comics, Captain Underpants. However, Mr. Krupp (as Captain Underpants) jumps out the window to fight crime, causing the boys to grab some supplies such as fake dog feces and follow him. "Captain Underpants" eventually confronts two bank robbers at a bank, who fall into hysterics. The police arrive and arrest the robbers, but before the cops can arrest Captain Underpants too, the boys whisk him away. Before they can change their principal back, the trio witnesses two robots stealing a large crystal from a shop and Captain Underpants tries to stop them, resulting in his cape getting caught on the robot's van, dragging him (and the boys) to an old, abandoned warehouse. There, Captain Underpants is tied up while George and Harold hide and watch as Captain Underpants is introduced to the evil Dr. Diaper, who plans to use the crystal to power his Laser-Matic 2000, which will blow up the Moon in twenty minutes, causing huge chunks to destroy every major city on Earth so that he can take over the planet.

George slingshots the fake doggy doo-doo between Dr. Diaper's feet. Embarrassed, Dr. Diaper departs to change his diaper, while George and Harold destroy the robots and free Captain Underpants. Harold pulls the machine's self-destruct lever just as Dr. Diaper returns and, enraged, aims his Diaper-Matic 2000 ray gun. Captain Underpants shoots underwear at Dr. Diaper's face, covering his eyes. (It's later revealed that it was his own underwear - he comes out wearing a barrel soon after.) The group manages to escape the warehouse before it explodes and leave Dr. Diaper tied up for the police to arrest him. The three return to the school, where Captain Underpants dresses back up as Mr. Krupp, at which point George and Harold unsuccessfully try to de-hypnotize him and discover they have seemingly lost the ring's manual. George desperately dumps a vase of water on Mr. Krupp's head, snapping the trance and making Mr. Krupp resolve to give the video to the football team. George finds the manual but throws it away thinking they won't need it again, unaware of a warning not to drench a hypnotized person which would cause them to return to their trance with the sound of snapping fingers. Later, the Knuckleheads love the "Boomer the Purple Dragon" video and decide to rename themselves the Purple Dragon Sing-a-Long Friends, even though the change doesn't go very well with the fans. George and Harold resume their comic book making and prank-playing. However, they have to keep an eye on Mr. Krupp, because Mr. Krupp will turn back into Captain Underpants every time someone snaps their fingers around him.

In the year 2081, the 211th, 212th, and 213th amendments to the Constitution dictate that all Americans are fully equal and not allowed to be smarter, better-looking, or more physically able than anyone else. The Handicapper General's agents enforce the equality laws, forcing citizens to wear "handicaps": masks for those who are too beautiful, loud radios that disrupt thoughts inside the ears of intelligent people, and heavy weights for the strong or athletic.

One April, 14-year-old Harrison Bergeron, an intelligent, athletic, and good-looking teenager, is taken away from his parents, George and Hazel Bergeron, by the government. They are barely aware of the tragedy, as Hazel has "average" intelligence (contextually meaning stupidity), and George has a handicap radio installed by the government to regulate his above-average intelligence.

Hazel and George watch ballet on television. They comment on the dancers, who are weighed down to counteract their gracefulness and masked to hide their attractiveness. George's thoughts are continually interrupted by the different noises emitted by his handicap radio, which piques Hazel's curiosity and imagination regarding handicaps. Noticing his exhaustion, Hazel urges George to lie down and rest his "handicap bag", of weights locked around George's neck. She suggests taking a few of the weights out of the bag, but George resists, aware of the illegality of such an action.

On television, a news reporter struggles to read the bulletin and hands it to the ballerina wearing the most grotesque mask and heaviest weights. She begins reading in her unacceptably natural, beautiful voice, then apologizes before switching to a more unpleasant voice. Harrison's escape from prison is announced, and a full-body photograph of Harrison is shown, indicating that he is tall and burdened by of handicaps.

George recognizes his son for a moment, before having the thought eliminated by his radio. Harrison himself then storms the television studio in an attempt to overthrow the government. He calls himself the Emperor and rips off all of his handicaps, along with the handicaps of a ballerina, whom he proclaims his "Empress". He orders the musicians to play, promising them nobility if they do their best. Unhappy with their initial attempt, Harrison takes control for a short while, and the music improves. After listening and being moved by the music, Harrison and his Empress dance while flying to the ceiling, then pause in mid-air to kiss.

Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, enters the studio with a ten-gauge double-barreled shotgun and kills Harrison and the Empress. She threatens the musicians at gunpoint to put on their handicaps again, but the television goes dark. George, unaware of the televised incident, returns from the kitchen and asks Hazel why she was crying, to which she replies that something sad happened on television that she cannot remember. He comforts her and they return to their average lives.

''The Rowan'' tells the life story of a young orphan, of Prime Talent, from the moment the child's community is wiped out in a mudslide to the time when she becomes a Prime and after a life of loneliness falls in love with a previously undiscovered Prime on Deneb which was being attacked by aliens.

The central section of the book is based on McCaffrey's earlier short story "Lady in the Tower"

Characters

The Rowan/Angharad Gwyn

Talent Level: T-1 telekinetic/telepath; Callisto Prime Physical Description: with silver-white hair and grey eyes (though stated to be brown on page 17 of the Ace/Putnam 1990 hardcover edition), she has a petite, "bird like" figure. **The Rowan is the only survivor of a freak mudslide that destroyed the Rowan Mining Camp on Altair. Trapped in a hopper (ground vehicle) and buried in sludge for days, the 3 year-old toddler's mental cries for help reach every telepath on the planet. Rescued, she is made a "Ward of the Planet" but, with no memory of her life before the mudslide, becomes known as "the Rowan child." She grows up under the care of Lusena, a child therapist who becomes her foster mother.

::Well aware of her Prime potential, her guardians move her to Altair's Tower at the age of twelve, to be instructed in the use of her Talent by Altair's Prime, Siglen. After a difficult learning curve and lonely adolescence she ultimately reaches Prime status and is installed on Jupiter's moon, Callisto.

Siglen

Talent Level: T-1 telekinetic/telepath; Altair Prime Physical Description: "Siglen was a slab of a female, soft from a sedentary life and a disinclination to exercise of any kind."- The Rowan pg. 14 **Siglen proved to be more harm than good when it came to dealing with the Rowan. She wasn't empathic towards the child and instilled a neurosis (a form of agoraphobia that prevents interstellar teleports) in the three Primes that she trained. She has no empathy and is very trying for her staff and personnel to deal with. Described as a "mistress of the putdown" and a generally unlikeable person.

Lusena

Talent level: T-8 telepath; junior therapist *Lusena took the young Rowan in as her own. She already had two older children, Bardy and Finnan. Lusena died in a crash when the Rowan was eighteen.

Goswina Lyon

Talent Level: T-5 empath *Goswina first met the Rowan when she, along with seven other young Talents, traveled to Altair for a course on Tower management and maintenance. She soon realized that she and the Rowan could not work efficiently together and so recommended her brother Afra, who at the time was six. The Rowan then promised to make sure Afra came to Altair for the course when he was old enough.

Afra Lyon

Talent Level: T-4 (later T-3 then T-2) telekinetic/telepath Physical Description: blonde hair, slightly green skin, yellow eyes, tall/slender figure. **The Lyon family is from Capella, a "Methody" planet known for its adherence to rules and manners (and its colonists' unusual pigmentation). Afra, however, was slightly different; life on Capella didn't appeal to him. So, at eighteen, Afra spent all his money to send a resume to the Rowan, the new Callisto Prime. The Prime sent for him the very next day. Afra was to the Rowan's liking and became second in command of the Tower.

Jeff Raven

Talent Level: T-1 telekinetic/telepath Physical Description: black hair and piercing blue eyes. **Jeff Raven was born on Deneb where a large population of "Wild Talents" resides. He first contacted the Rowan telepathically when he "heard" her getting ready to start her transportation work on Callisto. Jeff informed her that Deneb was under attack by hostile alien forces. The Rowan informed Earth Prime who refused to believe the words of an "unknown Talent"; Jeff quickly verified the attack was legitimate by telekinetically hurtling a missile towards Earth (which was quite an extraordinary feat considering how remote Deneb was and that the generator he tapped into for power was on the verge of collapse)

Isthia Raven

Talent Level: never tested, but she has a "long ear" and "loud voice" *Isthia is the mother of Jeff Raven. She gathered a team of other untrained Talents to help her contact the Rowan telepathically when Jeff was badly injured in an accident after the attacks.

Peter Reidinger IV

Talent Level: T-1 telekinetic/telepath; Earth Prime
Physical Description: Black hair, close trimmed red beard and moustache. He is the descendant of the same Peter Reidinger who is featured in ''Pegasus in Flight'' and ''Pegasus in Space''. *The Reidinger family is full of extremely high Talents, and Peter Reidinger IV is surely one of the most powerful. He runs FT&T.

Elizara Matheson

Talent Level: T-1 Medic/Ob. Deft, compassionate, sensible and reassuring, Elizara is Prime Reidinger's great-granddaughter. She became a close friend and confidant of the Gwyn-Raven families, and later the Lyons, when she was assigned by Reidinger to assist the Rowan during her first pregnancy.

Elizara is extremely skilled in metamorphic healing as well as physical. She is later re-introduced into the series as the very talented teacher of her gifted namesake, Zara Raven-Lyon, one of Damia's many children.

Brian Ackerman

Talent Level: T-9; Callisto Stationmaster

Primes

Primes of FT&T are T-1 telekinetic/telepaths. They are the rarest manifestation of Talent. Earth Prime: Peter Reidinger IV Altair Prime: Siglen Capella Prime: Capella Betelguese Prime: David Callisto Prime: The Rowan Procyon Prime: Guzman

In the early months of the Second World War, Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine'' sends out merchant raiders to attack Allied shipping. The heavily armed German pocket battleship the ''Admiral Graf Spee'' sinks a British merchant vessel, the ''Africa Shell''. The ''Africa Shell's'' crew is brought aboard the ''Admiral Graf Spee''. The ''Admiral Graf Spee'' docks with its supply ship and more captured British seamen are brought aboard. Three weeks later, the ''Admiral Graf Spee'' sinks another British vessel, the ''Doric Star''. Her crew is also brought aboard.

The Royal Navy responds with hunting groups whose mission is to stop these attacks on Allied shipping. The group that finds the ''Admiral Graf Spee'' near South America is outgunned since ''Admiral Graf Spee'' is equipped with long-range guns, and the British heavy cruiser has much lighter guns, and the light cruisers and have guns. However, they go straight into the attack, closing swiftly to minimise the ''Graf Spee's'' substantial advantage in range of shot.

The British are led by Commodore Harwood (Anthony Quayle), with Captain Woodhouse (Ian Hunter) commanding flagship ''Ajax'', Captain Bell (John Gregson) ''Exeter'' and Captain Parry (Jack Gwillim) ''Achilles''. The British use their superior numbers to split her fire by attacking from different directions, but ''Admiral Graf Spee'', under Captain Hans Langsdorff (Peter Finch), inflicts much damage on her foes. ''Exeter'' is particularly hard hit and is forced to retire from the battle.

''Admiral Graf Spee'' sustains some damage and takes refuge in the neutral port of Montevideo, Uruguay, for repairs. According to international law, the ship may remain in a neutral harbour only long enough to repair for seaworthiness, not to refit for battle. The British initially demand the Uruguayan authorities send ''Admiral Graf Spee'' out to sea within 24 hours, but once they recognise that reinforcements can arrive for an impending second battle they change strategy and lobby for an extension for the Germans. In reality the most powerful British ships are still extremely distant, but local media spreads false reports that more Royal Navy warships have arrived, including battleships and aircraft carriers; in fact, only three cruisers (''Exeter'' having been replaced by ) lie in wait.

Taken in by the ruse, Langsdorff takes his ship out with a skeleton crew aboard. As the onlookers watch from shore, she heads down the River Plate for the open sea, bursts into flames from a series of explosions and is scuttled. That is a relief to the Royal Navy fleet, which reports, 'Many a life has been saved today'. Later, aboard a German merchant ship in the inner harbour, Langsdorff is complimented for his humane decision by British merchant marine Captain Dove.

In the early morning of 6 April 1941 in Belgrade, the capital of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, two roguish ''bon vivants'' Petar Popara, nicknamed Crni (Blacky) and Marko Dren are heading home. They pass through Kalemegdan and shout salutes to Marko's brother Ivan, an animal keeper in the Belgrade Zoo. Marko lets Blacky's pregnant wife Vera know that they enrolled Blacky in the Communist Party (KPJ).

Part One: War

Later, the hungover Blacky is eating breakfast while pregnant Vera complains about his supposed affair with a theatre actress. Suddenly, the roar of the planes is heard, and German bombs begin falling on Belgrade. After the air raid is over, Blacky goes out against the wishes of his wife and inspects the devastated city. Encountering building ruins and escaped wild animals from the zoo, he also runs into disconsolate Ivan carrying a baby chimp named Soni. The Royal Yugoslav Army's resistance is quickly broken, and German troops soon occupy and dismember the entire Kingdom. Blacky starts operating clandestinely as a communist activist along with Marko and others. Blacky occasionally visits his mistress Natalija Zovkov who has been assigned to a special actors' labour brigade that is helping the city's rebuilding effort under German occupational control. An acclaimed, pampered, and celebrated actress in the National Theatre, Natalija has caught the eye of a high-ranking German officer named Franz.

Marko has set up a weapons stash in the cellar of his grandfather's house. Following their interception of a large trainload of weapons, Marko and Blacky are identified as dangerous bandits in German radio bulletins. While Blacky is off hiding in the woods as Germans are intensifying door-to-door raids in the city, Marko takes Vera, Ivan and many others into the cellar to hide. Vera is due and gives birth to a baby boy, who she names Jovan before dying.

In 1944, and Blacky is in town to celebrate his son's birthday at a local communist hangout. The two best friends head for the theatre in a jovial mood. They see Natalija performing on stage in front of Franz and other German officers, and Blacky shoots Franz in the chest. With Natalija, Blacky manages to reach the river boat anchored just outside Belgrade. Naturally, Marko is along as well, and all are getting ready for a forced wedding despite Natalija's protestations.

The party is interrupted by German soldiers surrounding the anchored boat. Suddenly, Franz is seen yelling, demanding Blacky and Marko release Natalija, who runs to Franz. Blacky is captured by Germans and tortured in the city hospital with electric shocks while Franz and Natalija visit her brother Bata at the same hospital. Meanwhile, Marko has found a way to enter the building through an underground sewer passage. Sneaking up on Franz, Marko strangles him to death with a cord in front of Natalija who switches sides once again. Marko then proceeds to free Blacky. They leave with fatigued Blacky hidden in a suitcase, but Blacky is injured by a grenade.

A few days later on Easter 1944, Marko and Natalija, now a couple, are watching a comatose Blacky. In late October, the Red Army accompanied by Yugoslav Partisans enters Belgrade. Marko gives fiery speeches from the National Theater balcony during the Trieste crisis, socializes with Josip Broz Tito, Ranković and Edvard Kardelj and he stands next to Tito during military parades through downtown Belgrade.

Part Two: Cold War

In 1961, Marko is one of Tito's closest associates and advisors. The physically recovered Blacky and company are still in the cellar under the impression that the War is still going on above. Marko and Natalija attend a ceremony to open a cultural center and unveil a statue of Petar Popara Blacky, who everyone thinks died, becoming a People's Hero. With the help of his grandfather who is in on the devious con, Marko oversees the weapons manufacturing and even controls time by removing hours to a day so the people in the cellar think that only 15 years passed since the beginning of World War II instead of 20. They're continuously making weapons, and Marko profits from it enormously.

The filming of an epic state-sponsored motion picture based on Marko's memoirs titled ''Proleće stiže na belom konju'' (''Spring Comes On A White Horse'') begins above ground. Soon, Blacky's 20-year-old son Jovan will marry Jelena, a girl he grew up with in the cellar. Marko and Natalija are naturally invited for a celebration. Ivan's chimpanzee Soni has wandered into a tank and fires a round blowing a hole in the wall. Soni wanders off, and Ivan follows.

Blacky, with his son Jovan, emerges from underground for the first time in decades. They encounter the set of ''Spring Comes On A White Horse'' and believing the war is still on, kill two extras and the actor playing Franz. In the manhunt, Jovan drowns but Blacky escapes.

Part Three: War

In 1992 at the height of the Yugoslav Wars, Ivan re-emerges with Soni, whom he was recently reunited with. He stumbles upon Marko, who is attempting to broker an arms deal in the middle of a conflict zone. The deal falls through and Ivan catches up with Marko and beats him to unconsciousness, then commits suicide. Natalija arrives and rushes to Marko's side, proclaiming her love for him. They are captured by militants and they are ordered to be executed as arms dealers by militants' commander, Blacky.

Blacky moves his people out to the cellar that he lived years ago, taking Soni with him. He sees an image of Jovan in a well, and inadvertently falls in while reaching for him.

In a dreamlike ending sequence, Blacky, Marko, and others are reunited at an outside dinner party, celebrating Jovan's wedding. Ivan gives a few parting words, ending with "Once upon a time, there was a country."

               LYSISTRATA
    There are a lot of things about us women
    That sadden me, considering how men
    See us as rascals.
               CALONICE
    As indeed we are!

These lines, spoken by the Athenian Lysistrata and her friend Calonice at the beginning of the play, set the scene for the action that follows. Women, as represented by Calonice, are sly hedonists in need of firm guidance and direction. Lysistrata, however, is an extraordinary woman with a large sense of individual and social responsibility. She has convened a meeting of women from various Greek city-states that are at war with each other. (There is no explanation of how she manages this, but the satirical nature of the play makes this unimportant.) Soon after she confides in her friend her concerns for the female sex, the women begin arriving.

With support from the Spartan Lampito, Lysistrata persuades the other women to withhold sexual privileges from their menfolk as a means of forcing them to conclude the Peloponnesian War. The women are very reluctant, but the deal is sealed with a solemn oath around a wine bowl, Lysistrata choosing the words and Calonice repeating them on behalf of the other women. It is a long and detailed oath, in which the women abjure all their sexual pleasures, including the "lioness on the cheese-grater".

Soon after the oath is finished, a cry of triumph is heard from the nearby Acropolis—the old women of Athens have seized control of it at Lysistrata's instigation, since it holds the state treasury, without which the men cannot long continue to fund their war. Lampito goes off to spread the word of revolt, and the other women retreat behind the barred gates of the Acropolis to await the men's response.

A Chorus of Old Men arrives, intent on burning down the gate of the Acropolis if the women do not open up. Encumbered with heavy timbers, inconvenienced with smoke and burdened with old age, they are still making preparations to assault the gate when a Chorus of Old Women arrives, bearing pitchers of water. The Old Women complain about the difficulty they had getting the water, but they are ready for a fight in defence of their younger comrades. Threats are exchanged, water beats fire, and the Old Men are discomfited with a soaking.

The magistrate then arrives with some Scythian Archers (the Athenian version of police constables). He reflects on the hysterical nature of women, their devotion to wine, promiscuous sex, and exotic cults (such as to Sabazius and Adonis), but above all he blames men for poor supervision of their womenfolk. He has come for silver from the state treasury to buy oars for the fleet and he instructs his Scythians to begin levering open the gate. However, they are quickly overwhelmed by groups of unruly women with such unruly names as (seed-market-porridge-vegetable-sellers) and (garlic-innkeeping-bread-sellers).

Lysistrata restores order and she allows the magistrate to question her. She explains the frustrations that women feel at a time of war when the men make stupid decisions that affect everyone, and further complains that their wives' opinions are not listened to. She drapes her headdress over him, gives him a basket of wool and tells him that war will be a woman's business from now on. She then explains the pity she feels for young, childless women, ageing at home while the men are away on endless campaigns. When the magistrate points out that men also age, she reminds him that men can marry at any age whereas a woman has only a short time before she is considered too old. She then dresses the magistrate like a corpse for laying out, with a wreath and a fillet, and advises him that he's dead. Outraged at these indignities, he storms off to report the incident to his colleagues, while Lysistrata returns to the Acropolis.

The debate or ''agon'' is continued between the Chorus of Old Men and the Chorus of Old Women until Lysistrata returns to the stage with some news—her comrades are desperate for sex and they are beginning to desert on the silliest pretexts (for example, one woman says she has to go home to air her fabrics by spreading them on the bed). After rallying her comrades and restoring their discipline, Lysistrata again returns to the Acropolis to continue waiting for the men's surrender.

A man suddenly appears, desperate for sex. It is Kinesias, the husband of Myrrhine. Lysistrata instructs her to torture him. Myrrhine informs Kinesias that she will have sex with him but only if he promises to end the war. He promptly agrees to these terms and the young couple prepares for sex on the spot. Myrrhine fetches a bed, then a mattress, then a pillow, then a blanket, then a flask of oil, exasperating her husband with delays until finally disappointing him completely by locking herself in the Acropolis again. The Chorus of Old Men commiserates with the young man in a plaintive song.

A Spartan herald then appears with a large burden (an erection) scarcely hidden inside his tunic and he requests to see the ruling council to arrange peace talks. The magistrate, now also sporting a prodigious burden, laughs at the herald's embarrassing situation but agrees that peace talks should begin.

They go off to fetch the delegates. While they are gone, the Old Women make overtures to the Old Men. The Old Men are content to be comforted and fussed over by the Old Women; thereupon the two Choruses merge, singing and dancing in unison. Peace talks commence and Lysistrata introduces the Spartan and Athenian delegates to a gorgeous young woman called Reconciliation. The delegates cannot take their eyes off the young woman; meanwhile, Lysistrata scolds both sides for past errors of judgment. The delegates briefly squabble over the peace terms, but with Reconciliation before them and the burden of sexual deprivation still heavy upon them, they quickly overcome their differences and retire to the Acropolis for celebrations. The war is ended.

Another choral song follows. After a bit of humorous dialogue between tipsy dinner guests, the celebrants all return to the stage for a final round of songs, the men and women dancing together. All sing a merry song in praise of Athene, goddess of wisdom and chastity, whose citadel provided a refuge for the women during the events of the comedy, and whose implied blessing has brought about a happy ending to the play.

Somewhere in the jungles of South Africa on Thanksgiving 1996, a multinational military unit named ''Special Force Unit'' ambushes a convoy and kidnaps several scientists working on a highly-volatile compound extracted from a recently discovered meteorite. Among the operatives is a Hong Kong national identified as "Jackie Chan". The CIA assigns Morgan Stollman to investigate the incident, unaware that he and newly retired General Sherman orchestrated the abduction for their personal profit.

At the same time, the CIA assigns another operative in South Africa for a more covert operation. Jackie wakes up in a tribal village somewhere in the African veldt, still recovering from injuries sustained in an accident he cannot remember. When asked for his name by the natives, he does not remember who he is and repeatedly asks himself, "Who Am I?". He is referred to as "Who Am I?" by the natives, as they think it is his name. The tribesmen show him the remains of a crashed helicopter and graves of those who perished aboard.

"Who Am I?" spends weeks recuperating from his wounds and learning about the tribe's culture. After spotting rally cars from several miles away, "Who Am I?" bids the village farewell and ventures on a journey back to civilization. He befriends Japanese rally co-driver Yuki after saving her brother from a snake bite and offering to help them finish the race. When they reach Johannesburg, "Who Am I?" meets Christine Stark, a journalist sent to interview him about his rally adventure.

However, Morgan hears of "Who Am I?" and sends a hitman team to kill him. Morgan also pretends to be his ally, telling him to contact him if he is in danger. After escaping from the hitmen, Christine cracks a secret code written on a matchbook found on one of the dead operatives, which leads them to Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. "Who Am I?" and Christine bid Yuki farewell and head for Rotterdam to find more answers to his identity.

In Rotterdam, "Who Am I?" discovers that Christine is actually an undercover CIA agent who tapped his calls. Not knowing whom to trust, he battles Sherman's hitmen and sneaks into the ''Willemswerf'' skyscraper alone, where he discovers the masterminds behind the kidnapping of the scientists. It is revealed that Morgan and General Sherman are about to sell the extraterrestrial compound to an influential arms dealer named Armano.

While waiting for the online wire transfer to finish, the three men leave the conference room for a coffee break – giving "Who Am I?" time to sneak in and steal the disc containing the compound information. He also cancels the transaction and sends the money to a children's charity, which infuriates Armano. Sherman and Armano send several men after "Who Am I?" to get the disc back. While in the process of escaping, "Who Am I?" defeats several hitmen and is found by Morgan.

Once he discovers Morgan's betrayal, "Who Am I?" tries to kill Morgan, but is interrupted by Morgan's hitmen, who also try to take back the disc. "Who Am I?" fights them off and recovers the disk, but Morgan flees. "Who Am I?" regroups with Christine, who calls for the execution of a "Plan B". Several CIA agents join the pursuit of Morgan, cornering him on the Erasmus Bridge in cooperation with the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps. Christine takes Morgan into custody and asks "Who Am I?" if he has the disc. He throws the disc off the bridge and tells Christine that he will return to Africa.

It presents a future in which Earth is deserted and only small bands of hunter-gatherer tribes exist, and live on paleolithic level.

The name of the novel, "Niourk", comes from the pronunciation of the name of New York City.

The "Black Child" lives with his tribe in the dry bottom of the Caribbean Sea, Cuba and Haiti are mountain ranges. Considered a mutant because of his skin colour he is sentenced to die by the tribal shaman when the shaman has returned from his pilgrimage to the city of the gods. When the shaman does not come back the child defies taboo and follows the shaman's route into the ruins of an abandoned city. There he comes into contact with pre-apocalyptic human artefacts. He picks up a laser rifle. Black Child finds the frozen dead body of the shaman and, according to tribal custom, eats the shaman's brain and adds one of the shaman's vertebrae to the necklace of similar vertebrae that is the symbol of his power. By doing this the black child becomes the tribal shaman. The child is attacked by a bear, defends himself with the laser weapon and then, instead of killing it, tames the beast. It becomes his companion.

In the meantime, driven from their usual hunting grounds by a wildfire which has driven off all the game, the tribe moves toward another hunting area, where they are attacked by intelligent, tentacled monsters mutated from octopuses by nuclear waste on the bottom of the, now nearly dry, Atlantic Ocean. Tribesmen kill one of the monsters, and eat it, which makes them stronger, faster and more intelligent. However, they are also heavily irradiated.

The Black Child returns to the tribe and saves them with the laser rifle from a larger monster attack, He then eats one of the monster's brains and begins to experience exponential transformation of his intellect and abilities, but is also heavily irradiated.

As they travel, the tribe meet a human (who they take to be a mad god) from a space-bound branch of mankind shipwrecked on earth. He directs them to New York before wandering off. On the trip there, all of the tribesmen die from acute radiation sickness. New York is a futuristic city full of functional autonomous machinery, there the Black Child meets two other humans from the shipwrecked crew. They heal the child, but in the process he develops tremendous intelligence, teaches himself to read, learns most of the human history and develops supra-human powers. He is increasingly able to manipulate matter and space, which enables him to "fly", go "through" walls and manipulate objects psycho-kinetically, he is able to in many places simultaneously. He creates a space ship and sends his three human companions home to Venus. Then recreates them, and all the members of his tribe and relocates the earth to the centre of the galaxy. The final sentences of the book also reveal he created a copy of himself to accompany the real humans home to Venus.

The book portrays Yefremov's conception of a classic communist utopia set in a distant future. Throughout the novel, the author's attention is focused on the social and cultural aspects of the society, and the struggle to conquer vast cosmic distances. There are several principal heroes, including a starship captain, two scientists, a historian, and an archeologist. Though the world described in the novel is intended to be ideal, there is an attempt to show a conflict and its resolution with a voluntary self-punishment of a scientist whose reckless experiment caused damage. There's also a fair amount of action in the episodes where the crew of the starship fight alien predators.

In the novel, several civilizations across our galaxy, including Earth, are united in the ''Great Circle'', whose members exchange and relay scientific and cultural information. Notably, faster-than-light travel or communication does not exist in the time portrayed in the book, and one of the minor plot lines examines a failed attempt to overcome this limitation. The radio transmissions around the Great Circle are pictured as requiring a tremendous amount of energy, and are thus infrequent.

One of the main plot lines follows the crew of the spacecraft ''Tantra'' led by Captain Erg Noor, dispatched to investigate the sudden radio silence of one of the nearby Great Circle planets. The crew travels to the planet, and discovers that most life on it has been destroyed by unsafe experimentation with radioactivity. On their return journey, the ''Tantra'' is scheduled to meet a carrier spacecraft to refuel, but the second ship does not make the rendezvous. The crew attempts the return voyage with meager fuel, but is trapped by the gravitational field of an "iron star" (some form of compact star in modern terms). The crew lands on one of its planets, where they discover the wreck of a previous expedition, as well as a mysterious alien spacecraft. After fighting off the native life-form, the crew retrieve the remaining fuel supplies from the wreck and succeed in returning to earth.

The second major plot line follows Darr Veter, the director of the global space agency as he makes way for a successor and then attempt to find a new job for himself. When his successor voluntarily steps down as punishment for a daring experiment that goes wrong, Veter returns to the position. The book closes with the launch of a new expedition, once again led by Noor, to a pair of new planets that offer the possibility of human colonisation. It is a bittersweet ending, as the cosmonauts themselves will not live long enough to return.

The book is set in 1999 (25 years in the future from 1974) and consists of diary entries and reports of journalist William Weston, who is the first American mainstream media reporter to investigate Ecotopia, a small country that broke away from the United States in 1980. Prior to Weston's reporting, most Americans had been barred from entering the new country, which is depicted as being on continual guard against revanchism. The new nation of Ecotopia consists of Northern California, Oregon, and Washington; it is hinted that Southern California is a lost cause. The novel takes its form as a narrative from Weston's diary in combination with dispatches that he transmits to his publication, the fictional ''Times-Post''.

At the beginning, Weston is skeptically curious about, not yet sympathetic to the Ecotopians. He describes details of the Ecotopian transportation system and the preferred lifestyle. This includes a wide range of gender roles, sexual freedom, and acceptance of non-monogamous relationships. Liberal cannabis use is evident. Televised passive, mass-media, spectator sports have been displaced in favor of local arts coverage, local participatory sports, and general fitness. A large fraction of young male Ecotopians participate voluntarily in a decidedly male ritual of mock warfare using wooden spears but no guns or arrows. The games are not re-enactments. Physical injuries, occasionally serious, are considered part of the game. Ecotopians on the whole value the benefits to young males over the accidental injuries. Ecotopia also tolerates the voluntary separatism of many people of African descent who have, in fact, chosen to live in a mini-nation in the San Francisco East Bay-area.

Ecotopian society has favored decentralized and renewable energy production and green building construction. The citizens are technologically creative, while remaining involved with and sensitive to nature. Thorough-going education reform is described, along with a highly localized system of universal medical care. (The narrator discovers that Ecotopian healing practices may include sexual stimulation.) The national defense strategy has focused on developing a highly advanced arms industry, while also allegedly maintaining hidden WMD within major US population centers to discourage conquest and annexation.

Through Weston's diary we learn of observations he does not include in his columns, such as his personally transformative love affair with an Ecotopian woman. The book's parallel narrative structures allow the reader to see how Weston's internal reflections, as recorded in his diary, are diffracted in his external pronouncements to his readers. Despite Weston's initial reservations, throughout the novel Ecotopian citizens are characterized as clever, technologically resourceful, emotionally expressive, and even occasionally violent – but also socially responsible, patriotic. They often live in extended families, and tend to live by choice in ethnically separated localities. Their economic enterprises are generally employee-owned and -controlled. The current governmental administration is that of a woman-led (but not exclusively female) party, and government structures are highly decentralized.

The novel concludes with Weston's finding himself enchanted by Ecotopian life and deciding to stay in Ecotopia as its interpreter to the wider world.

Eight-year-old Lillian Roth (Carole Ann Campbell) constantly is pushed by her domineering stage mother Katie (Jo Van Fleet) to audition and act, even though she is merely a child. One day, Katie secures an opportunity in Chicago, which leads to Lillian, now older (Susan Hayward), to having a successful musical career. Even though 20 years have passed, Katie still is managing Lillian, as well as running her life and career choices.

Although her mother does not tell her, Lillian finds out that her childhood friend David (Ray Danton) tried to get in contact with her. She visits him in the hospital, and they soon fall in love. Because David is an entertainment company lawyer, he is able to secure Lillian shows at some big venues, including one at the Palace Theatre. However, there is latent tension between David and Katie because he feels that Katie is projecting her own ambitions onto Lillian and overworking her, and Katie feels a new man in Lillian's life only serves to distract from her high-profile career. When Lillian informs her mother she intends to marry David, Katie is disappointed and sees a repeat of her own life happening—giving up a career to have a husband and children. Suddenly, David falls ill and dies during the opening night of her show, and she is despondent at having lost the love of her life.

Rebelling against her mother's domineering ways, Lillian turns to drinking. One night, in a drunken stupor, she goes out with an aviator, Wallie (Don Taylor), and marries him that night but does not remember it. They remain married, but the marriage is loveless from the beginning. The only thing the two have in common is drinking, and both drink to forget the present. Lillian's career suffers as a result of her persistent alcoholism, and she spends all her money without booking new shows. The two divorce after Wallie says he is "sick of being Mr. Lillian Roth."

Two years later, Lillian meets fellow alcoholic Tony Bardeman (Richard Conte) at a dinner party, and she falls for him. However, Lillian goes through alcohol withdrawal when she stops drinking to please her mother, and instead she turns to being a secret drinker. Her drinking gets worse when Tony goes home to California, but when he returns, Lillian begs him to stay with her. They decide to stop drinking together, but once they are married, Tony starts to drink, and Lillian is outraged. When she tries to stop him from drinking and leave, he beats her.

She escapes Tony's clutches and goes to New York City to live with her mother, but contemplates suicide after a fight with her mother. Lillian goes to an Alcoholics Anonymous shelter, and suffers bouts of delirium tremens as she goes through withdrawals. She begins to fall for her sponsor Burt McGuire (Eddie Albert), but the crippling effects of childhood polio make him wary of pursuing anything romantic. As she continues her recovery, she is invited to appear on the ''This Is Your Life'' television program to share her story of alcoholism and recovery.

Jane Hudson is an unmarried, middle-aged, self-described "fancy secretary" from Akron, Ohio, on her summer vacation, enjoying her lifelong dream of a trip to Venice after having saved money for it over several years. On the vaporetto to her hotel, she meets two fellow Americans, Lloyd and Edith McIlhenny. At the hotel, they are greeted by Signora Fiorini, a widow who has converted her home into a pensione. Also staying at the property are Eddie Yaeger, a young American painter, and his wife Phyl. Jane is pestered off and on during her stay by Mauro, a friendly Italian street urchin.

On her first evening in Venice, Jane walks to the Piazza San Marco, where the sight of so many romantic couples intensifies her loneliness. While seated at an outdoor caffè, she becomes aware of a lone Italian man watching her; panicking, she quickly leaves.

The following day, Jane goes shopping and sees a red glass goblet in the window of an antiques store. Upon entering the shop, she discovers that the owner, Renato de Rossi, is the man from whom she had fled the night before. He assures her that the goblet is an authentic 18th-century artifact, and she purchases it after he teaches her the art of bargaining. Hoping to see her again, Renato offers to search for a matching goblet. The next morning, Jane returns to the shop with Mauro, and is disappointed to discover that Renato is not there. Jane is humiliated when she accidentally steps backward into a canal while filming de Rossi's shop. She begs Mauro to take her home to the Pensione Fiorini.

That evening, de Rossi comes to her pensione and confesses his attraction for her. When Jane resists his advances, he warns her not to waste an opportunity for happiness. She seems on the verge of agreeing to have dinner with him when the McIlhennys return from a shopping trip to Murano where they purchased a set of new red goblets similar to the one Jane bought. Renato realizes that Jane now thinks he has swindled her, but he assures her that the same designs have been used for centuries in Venice and he insists that her goblet is a genuine antique. Jane's anger subsides, and the promise of Rossini in the Piazza San Marco convinces her to accept his invitation.

The couple attend the moonlit concert in the piazza, where an orchestra plays the overture to ''La gazza ladra''. When a flower seller approaches them, Renato is surprised when Jane chooses a simple gardenia instead of an orchid. Later, as the couple wander through Venice, Jane drops her gardenia into a canal; despite much effort, Renato is unable to retrieve it for her. As they return to the pensione, Renato kisses Jane, and she responds passionately and murmurs, "I love you", before rushing off to her room. The next day, Jane treats herself to salon treatments and new clothes in anticipation of their date that evening. While she waits for him at the piazza, Renato's "nephew" Vito arrives and inadvertently reveals that he is actually Renato's son. Stunned to discover Renato is married and has several children, Jane takes refuge in a bar where she encounters Phyl, who confides that her marriage to Eddie is in trouble.

Upon returning to the pensione, Jane discovers that Eddie is having an affair with Signora Fiorini, with Mauro acting as go-between. She is appalled, saying "Something happens to this city at night." Renato arrives and tells her that in Italy things are different, and the relationship between the Signora and Eddie is none of her business. He admits that he is married, but claims that he and his wife are separated, which he had concealed because he did not want to scare her away. He accuses her of being immature and unwilling to accept what she can have rather than longing for the unattainable. Jane relents. Their date continues at an open-air courtyard night club, where they dance the night away. Afterwards, with fireworks in the distance, Jane and Renato go to Renato's home where their affair is consummated.

The couple spend several idyllic days on Burano. Jane, unwilling to remain in a relationship she knows is destined to end unhappily, decides to return home early. Renato begs her to stay, but Jane insists on leaving, arguing that it is better to leave a party before it ends. Although Jane asks Renato not to come to the train station, she hopes he will ignore her request. Later, on the station platform, Mauro runs up to say goodbye and offers Jane a free trinket as a gift. As the train begins to leave the station, Jane is thrilled to see Renato running down the platform. He tries to hand her a package through the window but the train is moving too quickly. He stops, opens the box and holds up his gift: another gardenia.

The story traces Marjorie's (Eleanor Parker) long, hard road to the top, her success on two continents, and her turbulent marriage to American doctor Thomas King (Glenn Ford). While touring South America in 1941, Lawrence is stricken with polio, which not only abruptly stops her career but briefly robs her of the will to live. With her husband's help, she makes a triumphant return to opera and the concert stage, beginning by singing for hospitalized soldiers and troops overseas. She returns to the Metropolitan Opera, appearing in a full production of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.

Though the last Russian Tsar and his family were executed in 1918, rumors persisted that his youngest daughter, the Grand Duchess Anastasia, somehow survived. In 1928 Paris, Anna, an ailing woman resembling Anastasia, is brought to the attention of former White Russian General Bounine, now the proprietor of a successful Russian-themed nightclub. Bounine knows that while Anna was in a mental asylum being treated for amnesia, she told a nun that she was Anastasia. When approached by Bounine and addressed as the grand duchess, she refuses to have anything to do with him. She flees and tries to throw herself into the River Seine, but is stopped.

Bounine meets with his associates Chernov and Petrovin. Bounine has already repeatedly raised funds from stockholders (eager to gain a share of £10 million belonging to Anastasia held by an English bank) based on his claim that he had found Anastasia. Privately he admits it is a scam. But the stockholders have lost their patience and given him eight days to produce her.

Bounine arranges for Anna to be intensively trained to pass as Anastasia. During this time, she and Bounine begin to develop feelings for one another. Later, in a series of carefully arranged encounters with former familiars and members of the imperial court, Anna begins to display a confidence and style that astonish her skeptical interlocutors.

Anna has to go to Copenhagen, where she has to convince the highly skeptical dowager empress, Anastasia's grandmother, that she is Anastasia Romanov. Meanwhile, Bounine becomes increasingly jealous of the attentions that Prince Paul, another fortune hunter, pays to Anna. At a grand ball in Copenhagen at which Anna/Anastasia's engagement to Paul is to be announced, the dowager empress has a final private conversation with her. Although aware of Bounine's machinations, Empress Marie Feodorovna believes that Anna is truly her granddaughter. Realizing that Anna has fallen in love with Bounine, she helps her run away with him. The empress then makes it known to those around her that Anna is not Anastasia, although it is left ambiguous if she accepts that notion.

In the Mississippi Delta, bigoted, middle-aged cotton gin owner Archie Lee Meighan has been married to pretty, naïve 19-year-old "Baby Doll" Meighan for two years. Archie Lee impatiently waits for her 20th birthday, when, by prior agreement with her now-deceased father, the marriage can finally be consummated. In the meantime, she sleeps in a crib, because the only other bedroom furniture in the house is the bed in which Archie sleeps; Archie, an alcoholic, spies on her through a hole in a wall. Baby Doll's senile Aunt Rose Comfort lives in the house, as well, much to Archie's chagrin.

After defaulting on payments to a furniture-leasing company due to his failing cotton gin, virtually all the furniture in the house is repossessed, and Baby Doll threatens to leave. Archie's competitor, a Sicilian American named Silva Vacarro—who owns a newer and more modern cotton gin—has taken away all of Archie's business. Archie retaliates by burning down Vacarro's gin that night. Suspecting Archie as the arsonist, Vacarro visits the farm the following day with truckloads of cotton, offering to pay Archie Lee to gin for him.

Archie asks Baby Doll to entertain Vacarro while he supervises the work, and the two spend the day together. Vacarro explicitly inquires about Archie's whereabouts the night before and makes sexual advances toward her. When Vacarro outright accuses Archie of burning down his gin, Baby Doll goes to find Archie, but he slaps her in the face and leaves for town to purchase new parts for his gin. Vacarro comforts Baby Doll, and after becoming friendly, Vacarro forces her to sign an affidavit admitting Archie's guilt. He then takes a nap in Baby Doll's crib, and is invited for supper at Baby Doll's request as a storm approaches.

Archie, drunk and jealous of Baby Doll's romantic interest in Vacarro, angrily tells Aunt Rose she needs to move out of the house; Vacarro immediately offers to let her live with him as his cook, and Baby Doll and he flirt with one another and taunt Archie. After Vacarro confronts Archie with the affidavit, Archie retrieves his shotgun and chases Vacarro outside while Baby Doll calls the police.

The police arrive, and Archie is arrested when Vacarro presents them with the affidavit. Vacarro then leaves the farm, telling Baby Doll he will be back the following day with more cotton. As Archie is taken away by the police, remarking that it is Baby Doll's birthday, Baby Doll and her Aunt Rose return inside the house to await Vacarro's return.

Unlike most of his fellow graduates of the University of Memphis Law School, Rudy Baylor has no high-paying job lined up and has to apply for part-time positions while serving drinks at a Memphis bar. Desperate for a job, he meets the bar's owner, J. Lyman "Bruiser" Stone, who is also a ruthless but successful ambulance chaser, who hires Rudy as an associate.

To get paid by Bruiser, associates pay their way by finding cases and working them up for trial. Rudy responds saying he has cases, including an insurance bad faith matter he boasts could be worth several million in damages. Interested in the case, Bruiser introduces Rudy to office paralegal Deck Shifflet, a former insurance adjuster of questionable ethics.

While showing Rudy around the office Deck tells him he failed the bar exam six times. However, Bruiser employs him because he is resourceful, finds cases, is adept at gathering information, and because his prior work experience in the insurance industry means he knows how to go after them.

Though Rudy has passed the Tennessee bar exam, he still has not been properly licensed to stand as an attorney. He tries to do so after Bruiser fails to show up before Judge Harvey Hale to argue the case, but Hale scolds Rudy and tells him to get his license and then come back. Defense attorney Leo F. Drummond offers to stand for Rudy as Rudy is sworn in before the judge. Afterwards, Rudy discovers that the FBI has raided Stone's office, and Stone is nowhere to be found.

Using $5,500 that Bruiser had given each of them shortly before fleeing, Rudy and Deck pool their money together and set up a practice themselves. They file suit for middle-aged couple Dot and Buddy Black, whose 22-year-old son, Donny Ray, is dying of leukemia, but could have been saved with a bone marrow transplant, denied by their insurance carrier Great Benefit.

Rudy, having never argued a case before a judge and jury, now faces a group of experienced lawyers led by Drummond, from the prestigious firm Tinley Britt. In chambers, Hale tells Rudy and Drummond that he is set to dismiss the case because he sees it as a "lottery" case that slows down the judicial process. However, Hale dies of a heart attack before he grants the petition for dismissal. The more sympathetic Tyrone Kipler, a former civil rights attorney, is appointed to replace Hale. Kipler, known by Deck as not liking Tinley Britt, immediately denies Great Benefit's petition for dismissal. He instead agrees to fast-track the case in order to record Donny Ray Black's testimony before he dies.

While seeking new clients, Rudy meets Kelly Riker, a battered wife whose husband Cliff has beaten her numerous times, repeatedly putting her in the hospital. Rudy strikes up a friendship with her and persuades her to file for divorce. This leads to a bloody confrontation with Cliff, resulting in Rudy nearly beating him to death. To keep Rudy from being implicated, Kelly tells Rudy to leave. She then kills Cliff herself, then tells the police it was self-defense. The district attorney declines to prosecute.

Donny Ray dies days after giving a video deposition at his home. The case goes to trial, where Drummond gets the vital testimony of Rudy's key witness, Jackie Lemanczyk, stricken from the record as it is based on a stolen manual used as evidence. Nevertheless, thanks to Rudy's determination and some clandestine reference help from now Caribbean-based fugitive Bruiser (with whom Deck is connected by intermediaries), Jackie's testimony and the Great Benefit Employee Manual are finally admitted into evidence, to Drummond's dismay.

Rudy skillfully cross-examines Great Benefit's CEO, Wilfred Keeley, leading to the jury finding for Donny Ray's family for both actual damages and enormous punitive damages that Great Benefit cannot pay. It is a great triumph for Rudy and Deck, with Keeley being arrested by the FBI and investigation proceedings into Great Benefit launched in multiple jurisdictions. The insurance company declares bankruptcy, allowing it to avoid paying punitive damages. There is no payout for the grieving parents and no fee for Rudy.

As this success will create unrealistic expectations for future clients, Rudy decides to abandon his new practice and teach law. He and Kelly leave town together, heading out for an uncertain, but bright, future together.

The story is in the form of a report written by Yrlh Vvg, an anthropologist from an alien civilization who investigates the remains of human civilization approximately 175,000 yukals into the future. It turns out that humankind's fall was brought about by information overload and the inability to catalog and retrieve that information properly.

The title of the short story comes from the fact that all redundancy - and vowels - had been removed from our language in order for the information volume to shrink. Finally the sum of all human knowledge was compressed by means of subatomic processes and stored away in a drawer-sized box. However the access to that information required complicated indices, bibliographies etc., which soon outgrew the size of all knowledge.

The use of indices grew exponentially, comprising a pseudo-city, pseudo-planet and eventually a pseudo-galaxy devoted to information storage. At this point, a case of circular reference was encountered, and the civilization needed to refer to the first drawer-sized box to find the error. However, this drawer had been lost in the pseudo-galaxy, and soon the civilization fell apart while trying to locate the first drawer.

It turns out that the anthropologist's civilization is actually heading down the same path. Presumably, the report was given the name "MS Fnd in a Lbry" after the fall of the anthropologist's civilization by another anthropologist from another alien civilization that is also heading down the same path.

A framing device which takes place in 2099 (100 years after the events depicted) gives the novel's main text a historical context, which is presented as the journal of Earl Turner, an active member of a white revolutionary movement, known as the Organization. As the story begins, the federal government has confiscated all civilian firearms in the country under the Cohen Act. Turner and his cohorts take their movement underground in order to wage a guerrilla war against the System, which is depicted as being under Jewish control. The "System" begins by implementing numerous repressive laws against various forms of prejudice, by making it a hate crime for white people to defend themselves when crimes are committed against them by people who are not white even after all weapons have been confiscated, and pushing for new surveillance measures in order to monitor its citizens, such as requiring them to possess a special passport at all times and in all places in order to permanently monitor where individuals are. The "Organization" starts its campaigns by committing acts such as the bombing of the FBI headquarters, then carrying on a relentless, low-level campaign of resistance, assassination, and economic sabotage throughout the United States.

Turner plays a large part in activities in the Washington, D.C. area. When the President of the United States delivers a speech denouncing racists and demanding that all members of the Organization be brought to justice, Turner and other Organization members launch mortars into the streets of Washington from far away, forcing the president and other government officials to be evacuated. In another scene, Turner watches an anti-racism parade on television in which whites who are not part of the parade are pulled aside and beaten (sometimes to death) by non-white marchers; the march eventually turns into a full-scale riot. Turner's exploits lead to his initiation into the "Order", a secret rebel group that consists of an elite group of masterminds of the revolution, who are secretly leading the Organization and whose existence remains unknown both to ordinary Organization members and the System. Later, Turner's hideout is raided by law enforcement. During an ensuing gun battle with authorities, everyone in the unit manages to escape but Turner is captured after nearly being killed. He is arrested and sent to a military base for interrogation by the FBI and an Israeli intelligence officer. He is tortured in an effort to coerce the release of information, but resists. The interrogators fail to extract the most valuable pieces of information from him, lacking awareness of the existence of the Order. However, he does reveal some information to them. Months later, other members of the Order rescue him from the prison. They inform him that he will be punished sometime in the future for failing to resist while in captivity. He acknowledges the authority of the Order and pledges to accept whatever punishment they impose, whenever they impose it.

Eventually, the Organization seizes physical control of the nuclear weapons at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Southern California and targets missiles at New York City and Tel Aviv. While in control of California, the Organization ethnically cleanses the area of all non-Aryans by forcing them into the East, which is still controlled by the System. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of African Americans are forced into the desert to cause an economic crisis on the System's welfare system and all Jews are beaten, lynched or shot. The resulting racial conflict in the east causes many whites to "wake up" and begin fleeing to Southern California which now becomes a white sanctuary. Deliberately fomenting racial conflict is referred to as "demographic warfare" which begins bringing in new recruits to both the Organization and the Order. During this time, the Organization raids a black sanctuary and discovers a cannibalism operation where blacks kidnap, butcher, and eat whites.

The Organization raids the houses of all individuals who have been reported to be race traitors in some way (such as judges, professors, lawyers, politicians, clergy, journalists, entertainers, etc.), and white people who defiled their race by living with or being married to non-whites. It drags these individuals from their homes and publicly hangs them in the streets in Los Angeles in an event which comes to be known as the "Day of the Rope" (August 1, 1993). Most of these public executions are filmed for propaganda purposes. The Organization has little use for most white "mainstream" Americans. Those on the left are seen as dupes or willing agents of the Jews, while conservatives and libertarians are regarded as mere businessmen out for themselves or misguided fools, because, the Organization states, the Jews "took over according to the Constitution, fair and square." Turner and his comrades save their special contempt for the ordinary people, who are seen to care about nothing beyond being kept comfortable and entertained. Once daily life is completely disrupted by the nuclear war it instigated, the Organization opens compounds where food and shelter are available - but those seeking admittance are given a bayonet and told to come back with "the freshly cut head of a non-white person"; those unable or unwilling to pay such an "admittance price" are left to starve, as their death would "improve the race".

The Organization then uses both its southern Californian base of operations and its nuclear weapons to open a wider war in which it launches nuclear strikes against New York City and Israel, initiates a nuclear exchange between the US and the Soviet Union, and plants nuclear weapons and new combat units throughout North America. Many major U.S. cities are destroyed, including Baltimore and Detroit. While the United States is being engulfed in a nuclear civil war, governments all over the world begin to fall one by one, and violent anti-Jewish riots break out in the streets. After the nuclear weapons are launched against Israel and Tel Aviv is destroyed, the Arabs take advantage of the opportunity and proceed to swarm into Israel, mostly armed with clubs and knives, and kill all of the Israelis. The governments of France and the Netherlands collapse, and the Soviet Union falls apart while it is seeing a surge in anti-Semitic violence. Meanwhile, the United States is put in a state of absolute martial law and transformed into a military dictatorship. The United States government decides to launch an invasion of the Organization's stronghold in Southern California. The leaders of the Order now inform Earl Turner of his punishment for having failed to resist his Jewish interrogators during his captivity: he must pilot a crop duster equipped with a nuclear warhead and destroy the Pentagon in a kamikaze-type suicide-strike, before the invasion can be ordered.

The epilogue summarizes how the Organization went on to conquer the rest of the world and how all non-white races were eliminated. Africa was invaded; all of its black inhabitants were killed. Puerto Ricans (described as a "repulsive mongrel race") were killed and Puerto Rico was recolonized. After China attempts to invade European Russia, the Organization attacks with nuclear, chemical, radiological and biological weapons which render the entire continent of Asia uninhabitable and rife with "mutants". In the United States, the last remaining non-whites are hunted down, along with all of the individuals who are involved in organized crime (such as the Mafia). One of the last steps in the Organization's victory is its truce with the remainder of the American military's generals, who agree to surrender if the former swears not to harm them or their immediate families. The Organization gladly accepts. The epilogue concludes with the statement that "just 110 years after the birth of the 'Great One', the dream of a white world finally became a certainty... and the Order would spread its wise and benevolent rule over the earth for all time to come."

After being stranded on pre-historic Earth after the events in ''The Restaurant at the End of the Universe'', Arthur Dent is met by his old friend Ford Prefect, who drags him into a space-time eddy, represented by an anachronistic sofa. The two end up at Lord's Cricket Ground two days before the Earth's destruction by the Vogons. Shortly after they arrive, a squad of robots land in a spaceship in the middle of the field and attack the assembled crowd, stealing the Ashes before departing. Another spaceship arrives, the ''Starship Bistromath'', helmed by Slartibartfast, who discovers he is too late to stop the theft and requests Arthur and Ford's help.

As they travel to their next destination, Slartibartfast explains that he is trying to stop the robots from collecting all the components of the Wikkit Gate. Long ago, the peaceful population of the planet of Krikkit, unaware of the rest of the Universe due to a dust cloud that surrounded its solar system, were surprised to find the wreckage of a spacecraft on their planet. Reverse engineering the vessel, they explored past the dust cloud and saw the rest of the Universe, immediately taking a disliking to it and deciding that it must be destroyed. They built a fleet of ships and robots to attack the rest of the Universe in a brutal onslaught known as the Krikkit Wars, but were eventually defeated. Realizing that the Krikkit population would not be satisfied alongside the existence of the rest of the Universe, it was decided to lock the planet in a Slo-Time envelope, to be opened only after the Universe has ended so that the planet can exist alone. The Wikkit Gate, shaped exactly like a wicket used in the sport of cricket, is needed to unlock the envelope. However, one ship carrying a troop of robots from Krikkit avoided being sealed in, and these robots began to search for the pieces of the Gate after they were dispersed about space and time.

Slartibartfast, Arthur, and Ford transport to an airborne party that has lasted numerous generations where another Gate component, the Silver Bail, is to be found, but Arthur finds himself separated from the others and ends up at a Cathedral of Hate created by a being called Agrajag. Agrajag reveals that he has been reincarnated countless times in a wide variety of forms, only to be killed by Arthur in each life; he now plans to kill Arthur in revenge. However, upon learning that Arthur has yet to cause his death at a place called Stavromula Beta, Agrajag realizes that he has pulled Arthur out of his relative timeline too soon and that killing him now would cause a paradox, but attempts to kill Arthur anyway. In his insanity, Agrajag brings the Cathedral down around them. Arthur manages to escape unharmed, partially due to learning how to fly after falling and missing the ground while catching sight of a bag he had lost at a Greek airport years before. After collecting the bag, Arthur inadvertently comes across the flying party and rejoins his friends. Inside, they find Trillian, but they are too late to stop the robots from stealing the Silver Bail. Arthur, Ford, Trillian, and Slartibartfast return to the ''Bistromath'' and try to head off the robots activating the Wikkit Gate.

Meanwhile, the Krikkit robots steal the last two pieces, the Infinite Improbability Drive core from the spaceship ''Heart of Gold'' and a peg leg used by Marvin the Paranoid Android. They capture both Marvin and Zaphod Beeblebrox in the process.

The ''Bistromath'' arrives too late to stop the robots from opening the Gate, so its occupants transport to the planet to attempt to negotiate with the Krikkit people. To their surprise, they find that the people seem to lack any desire to continue the war, and are directed to the robot and spaceship facilities in orbit about the planet. With help from Zaphod and Marvin, the group is able to infiltrate the facilities. Trillian deduces that the Krikkiters have been manipulated, reasoning that the people of Krikkit could not simultaneously be smart enough to develop their ultimate weapon—a bomb that could destroy every star in the universe—and also stupid enough not to realize that this weapon would also destroy them.

The characters discover that the true force behind the war has been the supercomputer Hactar. Previously built to serve a war-faring species, Hactar was tasked to build a supernova-bomb that would link the cores of every sun in the Universe together at the press of a button and cause the end of the Universe. Hactar purposely created a dud version of the weapon instead, causing his creators to pulverize him into dust, which thus became the dust cloud around Krikkit. However, Hactar was still able to function, though at a much weaker level. Trillian and Arthur speak to Hactar in a virtual space that he creates for them to explain himself. Hactar reveals that he spent eons creating the spaceship that crashed on Krikkit to inspire their xenophobia and incite them to go to war, also influencing their thoughts. However, when the Slo-Time envelope was activated, his control on the population waned. As he struggles to remain functional, Hactar apologizes to Trillian and Arthur for his actions before they leave for their ship.

With the war over, the group collects the core of the ''Heart of Gold'' and the Ashes, the only two components of the Wikkit Gate not destroyed by the robots, and returns Zaphod and Marvin to the ''Heart of Gold''. Returning to Lord's Cricket Ground only moments after the robots' attack, Arthur attempts to return the Ashes, but is suddenly inspired to bowl one shot at a wicket that is being defended using a cricket ball in his bag. However, during his run-up, Arthur suddenly realizes that the ball was created and placed in his bag by Hactar and is actually the working version of the cosmic-supernova-bomb, and that the defender of the wicket is one of the Krikkit robots, ready to detonate the bomb once thrown. Arthur trips, misses the ground, and flies over the pitch, allowing him to throw the bomb safely aside and behead the robot with its own bat.

Afterward, the group are taking Arthur to a 'quiet and idyllic planet' when they come across a half-mad journalist. Some time earlier, he had been reporting on a court case in which a witness named Prak was inadvertently given an overdose of a truth drug. Prak began to tell all truth, horrifying the involved parties so badly that they abandoned the courtroom and sealed it up with him inside. The group find him still there, hoping to learn from him the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. They are disappointed to find that Prak has told all the truth in existence, but has forgotten it and kept no record. The only information he can provide is that the Ultimate Question and its answer can never both be known about the same universe. He then attempts to tell Arthur where God's last message to His creation is, though he dies seemingly before Arthur is able to memorize the location.

Arthur ultimately settles on Krikkit, where he becomes a more skillful flier and learns bird language. He is briefly interrupted by the arrival of an immortal alien who has made it his goal to insult every living creature in the universe, but the alien realizes that he has already done so with Arthur on prehistoric Earth.

Twenty years ago, Diego Costa, under the pseudonym "Fonzy", repeatedly donated sperm to the sperm bank. Today, at 42, he is a deliveryman in a family-owned fishmonger and leads a teenage irresponsible and blundering life. While his wife Elsa learns that she is pregnant, his past resurfaces. Diego discovers he is the father of 533 children, 142 of them want to know who is Fonzy.

Two swindlers arrive at the capital city of an emperor who spends lavishly on clothing at the expense of state matters. Posing as weavers, they offer to supply him with magnificent clothes that are invisible to those who are stupid or incompetent. The emperor hires them, and they set up looms and go to work. A succession of officials, and then the emperor himself, visit them to check their progress. Each sees that the looms are empty but pretends otherwise to avoid being thought a fool.

Finally, the weavers report that the emperor's suit is finished. They mime dressing him and he sets off in a procession before the whole city. The townsfolk uncomfortably go along with the pretense, not wanting to appear inept or stupid, until a child blurts out that the emperor is wearing nothing at all. The people then realize that everyone has been fooled. Although startled, the emperor continues the procession, walking more proudly than ever.

Borges' narrator describes how his universe consists of an enormous expanse of adjacent hexagonal rooms. In each room, there is an entrance on one wall, the bare necessities for human survival on another wall, and four walls of bookshelves. Though the order and content of the books are random and apparently completely meaningless, the inhabitants believe that the books contain every possible ordering of just 25 basic characters (22 letters, the period, the comma, and space). Though the vast majority of the books in this universe are pure gibberish, the library also must contain, somewhere, every coherent book ever written, or that might ever be written, and every possible permutation or slightly erroneous version of every one of those books. The narrator notes that the library must contain all useful information, including predictions of the future, biographies of any person, and translations of every book in all languages. Conversely, for many of the texts, some language could be devised that would make it readable with any of a vast number of different contents.

Despite—indeed, because of—this glut of information, all books are totally useless to the reader, leaving the librarians in a state of suicidal despair. This leads some librarians to superstitious and cult-like behaviors, such as the "Purifiers", who arbitrarily destroy books they deem nonsense as they scour through the library seeking the "Crimson Hexagon" and its illustrated, magical books. Others believe that since all books exist in the library, somewhere one of the books must be a perfect index of the library's contents; some even believe that a messianic figure known as the "Man of the Book" has read it, and they travel through the library seeking him.

''Soap'' is set in the fictional town of Dunn's River, Connecticut.

In the opening sequence of the first installment, the announcer says "This is the story of two sisters—Jessica Tate and Mary Campbell". The Tates live in a wealthy neighborhood (the announcer calls it the neighborhood known as "Rich"). Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond) and her husband, Chester (Robert Mandan), are hardly models of fidelity, as their various love affairs result in several family mishaps, including the murder of Peter Campbell (Robert Urich), the stepson of her sister Mary (Cathryn Damon). Even though everyone tells Jessica about Chester's continual affairs, she does not believe them until she sees his philandering with her own eyes. While out to lunch with Mary, Jessica spots Chester necking with his secretary, Claire (Kathryn Reynolds). Heartbroken, Jessica sobs in her sister's arms. On later occasions, it becomes clear that Jess has always known on some level about Chester's affairs but never allowed herself to process the information.

The wealthy Tate family employs a sarcastic butler/cook named Benson (Robert Guillaume). Benson clearly despises Chester, but has a soft spot for their son, Billy (Jimmy Baio). He also gets along with the Tates' daughter, Corinne (Diana Canova) as well as their mother, Jessica; but doesn't speak to the other daughter, Eunice (Jennifer Salt), although that later changed. Benson became a popular character and in 1979 left the Tates' employ to work for Jessica's cousin, Governor Gene Gatling, on the spin-off series, ''Benson'', wherein his last name, DuBois, was revealed. The Tates had to hire a new butler/cook named Saunders (Roscoe Lee Browne), whose attitude is similar to that of Benson, but has a more formal personality.

Mary's family, the Campbells, are working-class, and as the series begins, her son Danny Dallas (Ted Wass), a product of her first marriage to Johnny Dallas, is a junior gangster-in-training. Danny is told to kill his stepfather, Burt Campbell (Richard Mulligan), Mary's current husband, who, Danny is told, murdered his father Johnny, who was also a mobster. It is later revealed that Danny's father was killed by Burt in self-defense. Danny refuses to kill Burt and goes on the run from the Mob in a variety of disguises. This eventually ends when Elaine Lefkowitz (played by Dinah Manoff in one of her earliest roles), the spoiled daughter of the Mob Boss (played by Sorrell Booke), falls in love with Danny and stops her father, who then tells Danny he will have to marry Elaine or he will kill him. In the fourth season, it is revealed that Chester is Danny's true father, the product of a secret affair between him and Mary before his marriage to Jessica. Mary's other son, Jodie (Billy Crystal, in an early role), is gay, having a secret affair with a famous professional football quarterback, and contemplating a sex-change operation.

The first season ends with Jessica convicted of the murder of Peter Campbell. The announcer concludes the season by announcing that Jessica is innocent, and that one of five characters—Burt, Chester, Jodie, Benson, or Corinne—killed Peter Campbell. Chester later confesses to Peter's murder and is sent to prison. He is soon released after a successful temporary insanity defense, due to a medical condition in his brain.

Other plot lines include Jessica's adopted daughter Corinne courting Father Tim Flotsky (Sal Viscuso), who ended up leaving the priesthood, with the two eventually marrying and having a child who is possessed by the Devil; Chester being imprisoned for Peter's murder, escaping with his prison mate Dutch, and being afflicted with amnesia after a failed operation; Jessica's other daughter, Eunice, sleeping with a married congressman, and then falling in love with Dutch; Mary's stepson Chuck (Jay Johnson), a ventriloquist whose hostilities are expressed through his alter ego, a quick-witted dummy named Bob; Jessica's love affairs with several men, including Donahue, a private investigator hired to find the missing presumed-dead Chester, her psychiatrist, and a Latin American revolutionary known as ''El Puerco'' ('The Pig'; his friends just call him "El"); Billy Tate's confinement by a cult called the "Sunnies" (a parody of Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, called the "Moonies" by its critics), and then his affair with his school teacher who becomes unhinged; Danny and his romantic trials with the daughter of a mobster (Elaine, who is murdered in a botched kidnapping), black woman (Polly), a prostitute (Gwen), and Chester's second wife (Annie); and Burt's confinement to a mental institution, his abduction by aliens while being replaced with an oversexed alien lookalike on Earth, and getting blackmailed by the Mob after becoming sheriff of their small town.

At the beginning of each episode, off-camera announcer Rod Roddy gives a brief summary of the convoluted storyline and remarks, "Confused? You won't be, after week's episode of ... ''Soap''." At the end of each episode, he asks a series of life-or-death questions in a deliberately deadpan style—"Will Jessica discover Chester's affair? Will Benson discover Chester's affair? Will Benson care?" and concludes each episode with the trademark line, "These questions—and many others—will be answered in the next episode of ... ''Soap''."

Following the end of the Persian Gulf War, U.S. soldiers are sent over to tie up loose ends. The soldiers are bored from the lack of action and throw parties at night. Major Archie Gates, a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier, is trading sex for stories with a journalist, Cathy Daitch, when he is interrupted by Adriana Cruz, the television reporter he is assigned to escort.

While disarming and searching an Iraqi officer, U.S. Army Reserve Sergeant First Class Troy Barlow, his best friend Private First Class Conrad Vig, and their unit find a map in the officer's rectum. Troy goes to Staff Sergeant Chief Elgin to help translate the map. Major Gates appears, after tracking down a lead from Adriana. Archie convinces them that the document is a map of bunkers near Karbala, containing gold bullion stolen from Kuwait, which they decide to steal in turn. To keep Adriana off his back, Gates sends Specialist Walter Wogeman to aid her on a false lead.

They set off the next day and, among other goods plundered from Kuwait, find the gold, and stumble on the interrogation of Amir Abdullah. As they are leaving, Amir's wife pleads with them not to abandon the anti-Saddam dissidents, but she is executed by the Iraqi Republican Guard. The group decides to free the Iraqi prisoners, triggering a firefight. They pull out just as Iraqi reinforcements arrive, and as they try to evade a CS gas attack, they blunder into a minefield and get separated. Iraqi soldiers capture Troy while a group of rebels rescue the other Americans and take them to their underground hideout. There, Conrad, Chief and Archie agree to help the rebels and their families reach the Iranian border, after they rescue Troy.

Troy gets taken back to the bunker, and is thrown in a room full of Kuwaiti cell phones. He manages to call his wife on a Motorola Microtac tells her to report his location to his local Army Reserve unit. His call is cut short when he is dragged to an interrogation room where he is interrogated by Iraqi Captain Saïd.

The Americans with the rebels go to a band of Iraqi Army deserters, who are persuaded to sell them luxury cars stolen from Kuwait. The cars are outfitted as Saddam's entourage, in a ruse to scare away the bunker's defenders. After storming the bunker, they free Troy, who spares Saïd, and find more Shi'ite dissidents held in a dungeon. A few of the soldiers who ran away return, and shoot Conrad and Troy. Conrad dies; Troy's lung is punctured, but he survives.

Archie radios Walter and Adriana and arranges transport, while the hapless officers in the camp try to locate the trio after getting the message from Troy's wife. Each of the rebels is given a bar of gold and the rest is buried as they wait for the transport to arrive. The convoy goes to the Iranian border, where the three Americans intend to escort the rebels across to protect them from the Iraqi soldiers guarding the crossing. But the American officers arrive and stop the group, arresting the trio while the rebels are recaptured. Archie offers the buried gold to the American officers in exchange for letting the refugees through. The commanding officer acquiesces to assisting the rebels get into Iran, but still states that charges (of being absent without leave and disobeying orders by contradicting American post-war policy) and courts-martial will be convened against Archie, Troy, and Chief Elgin.

As an epilogue, the film states that the three surviving soldiers (Archie, Troy, and Chief Elgin) are cleared of the charges and honorably discharged, thanks to Adriana's reporting. The epilogue goes on to show that Archie goes to work as a military adviser for Hollywood action films, Chief leaves his airport job to work with Archie, and Troy returns to his wife and baby to run his own carpet store. The stolen gold was returned to Kuwait, which claimed that some was missing, implying that the rebels managed to keep the gold they had been given.

In Seattle, Washington, television journalist Lee Carter witnesses the assassination of presidential candidate Charles Carroll atop the Space Needle. A waiter armed with a revolver is pursued and falls to his death while a second waiter, also armed, leaves the scene unnoticed. A committee decides the killing was the work of a lone assassin. Three years later, Carter visits her former boyfriend, an anti-authoritarian Oregon newspaper reporter named Joe Frady, claiming others must have been behind the assassination as six of the witnesses to the killing have since died and she fears she will be next. Frady does not take her seriously; however, Carter is soon found dead of a drug overdose.

Guilty over disregarding Carter's pleas, Frady visits the small town of Salmontail to probe the recent death of Judge Arthur Bridges, also a witness. After engaging in a bar fight with a local deputy, Frady attracts the attention of Salmontail's sheriff L. D. Wicker, who offers to take Frady to the spot where Bridges drowned. When they arrive at the dam, however, Wicker pulls his gun on Frady while the floodgates are opening, plotting to have him drown the same way Bridges did. Frady manages to escape, while Wicker drowns. Frady commandeers Wicker's squad car, and at the sheriff's house he uncovers Parallax Corporation documents that reveal that the organization recruits political assassins.

Frady tries to convince his skeptical newspaper editor Bill Rintels he is on to a big story, connecting the dots of witnesses of assassinations who have died, but Rintels refuses to support his efforts. Undaunted, Frady seeks out a local psychology professor who assesses the Parallax Corporation's personality test taken from Wicker's desk, and deems it to be likely a profiling exam to identify psychopaths.

Austin Tucker, the paranoid aide to the assassinated Carroll and last remaining witness, agrees to meet Frady on his boat, while anxiously revealing there have been two attempts on his life since Carroll's assassination. Shortly after Tucker shows photos to Frady of the second waiter, who was the actual gunman, a bomb explodes on board, killing Tucker and his assistant. Frady survives by diving overboard but is believed to be dead. Later that night, Frady slips into the newspaper's offices and informs Rintels of his belief that he has uncovered an organization that recruits assassins, and wants the public to believe he is dead so he can apply to the Parallax Corporation under an assumed identity.

Days later, Jack Younger, a Parallax official, pays Frady a visit to let him know he is, based on his preliminary application, the kind of man Parallax is interested in. Frady is accepted for training in the Parallax Corporation's division of Human Engineering in Los Angeles, where he watches a montage that associates positive images with negative actions.

While leaving the Parallax's offices, Frady recognizes one of the Parallax operatives from a photo Tucker showed him, as the second waiter from Carroll's assassination. He watches the assassin retrieve a case from a car, drive to an airport, and check it as stowed baggage on a passenger jet. Frady boards the plane and notices a senator aboard, but cannot find the assassin, who is actually watching the jet's takeoff from the airport's roof. Frady writes a warning that there is a bomb on board on a napkin and slips it onto the drink service cart. The warning is found and the jet returns to Los Angeles. Passengers are evacuated moments before the bomb explodes.

Returning to his apartment, Frady is confronted by Younger about not being the man whose identity he has been using. Frady 'confesses' he is actually yet another man who had been trying to hide that he was a registered sex offender, and Younger agrees to validate this new identity. Later, at the newspaper office, Rintels listens to a secretly recorded tape of the conversation between Frady and Younger, then places it in an envelope with other such tapes. Rintels is poisoned by the senator's killer and bomb-planter, and the tapes disappear.

Frady goes to the Parallax offices to see Younger, and is told he is not there, but then sees him leaving the building. He follows the operative to the dress rehearsal for a political rally for Senator George Hammond and hides in the auditorium's catwalks to observe Parallax agents, who are posing as security personnel. Frady attempts to follow one of the men back to the auditorium, but finds he had been locked in the catwalk area. As Hammond drives a golf cart across the auditorium floor, an unseen sniper fatally shoots him, causing pandemonium below.

Frady realizes too late he has been set up as a scapegoat and attempts to flee across the catwalks, but is spotted by the police who are now in the auditorium below. As Frady runs to the reopened exit door from the catwalks, a shadowy agent (implied to be the same Parallax assassin whom the audience and Frady have seen throughout the film) steps through, killing Frady with a shotgun. Six months later, a committee that investigated Carroll's death reports that Frady, acting alone, killed Hammond out of paranoia and misguided patriotism.

From official materials: :"It's just you, your trusty skateboard, and a hundred bucks as you skate, jump, slide, spin and move through four levels of difficulty, picking up loose cash, earning money through events, and finally, earning a ticket to one of the big skate parks! If you're lucky, you'll get to buy some rad equipment to make you the coolest skateboarder alive."

While walking down the street in Chicago, Joseph Schwartz, a retired tailor, is the unwitting victim of a nearby nuclear laboratory accident, by means of which he is instantaneously transported tens of thousands of years into the future (50,000 years, by one character's estimate, a figure later retconned by future Asimov works as a "mistake"). He finds himself in a place he does not recognize, and due to apparent changes in the spoken language that far into the future, he is unable to communicate with anyone. He wanders into a farm, and is taken in by the couple that lives there. They mistake him for a mentally deficient person, and they secretly offer him as a subject for an experimental procedure to increase his mental abilities. The procedure, which has killed several subjects, works in his case, and he finds that he can quickly learn to speak the current ''lingua franca''. He also slowly realizes that the procedure has given him strong telepathic abilities, including the ability to project his thoughts to the point of killing or injuring a person.

The Earth, at this time, is seen by the rest of the Galactic Empire as a rebellious planet — it has rebelled three times in the past — and the inhabitants are widely frowned upon and discriminated against. Earth also has several large radioactive areas, although the cause is never really described. With large uninhabitable areas, it is a very poor planet, and anyone who is unable to work is legally required to be euthanized. The people of the Earth must also be executed when they reach the age of sixty, a procedure known as "The Sixty", with very few exceptions; mainly for people who have made significant contributions to society. That is a problem for Schwartz, who is now sixty-two years old.

The Earth is part of the Trantorian Galactic Empire, with a resident Procurator, who lives in a domed town in the high Himalayas and a Galactic military garrison, but in practice it is ruled by a group of Earth-centered "religious fanatics" who believe in the ultimate superiority of Earthlings. They have created a new, deadly supervirus that they plan to use to kill or subjugate the rest of the Empire, and to avenge themselves for the way their planet has been treated by the galaxy at large. Citizens of the Empire are unaware of Earth's lethal viruses, and mistakenly believe it is Earth's environment that causes them "Radiation Fever," and that Earthlings pose the Empire no threat.

Joseph Schwartz, along with Affret Shekt, the scientist who developed the new device that boosted Schwartz's mental powers, his daughter Pola Shekt, and a visiting archaeologist Bel Arvardan, are captured by the rebels, but they escape with the help of Schwartz's new mental abilities, and they are narrowly able to stop the plan to release the virus. Schwartz uses his mental abilities to provoke a pilot from the Imperial garrison into bombing the site where the arsenal of the super-virus exists.

The book ends on a hopeful note — perhaps the Empire can be persuaded to restore the Earth and reintroduce uncontaminated soil.

''Crystalis'' takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, in 2097, one hundred years after "1997, October 1, The END DAY", when a global thermonuclear war began that reverted civilization to a primitive, medieval existence populated with fierce mutated creatures. Science and advanced technology have been abandoned, with the survivors deciding to study the ways of magic. The survivors of the destruction built a floating "Tower" to prevent any future cataclysms, as its occupants would have the power to govern the world, due to the Tower's weapons systems. A man known as Draygon, however, revived the forbidden ways of science and combined them with magic. With these skills, he controls the world's last remaining military power and seeks to conquer what is left of the planet by attempting to enter the Tower.

The protagonist awakens with no memory, but, guided by four wise sages, gradually learns that the world is sinking into turmoil, due to the Draygonia Empire's destructive influence. Entrusted with the Sword of Wind, he seeks to aid Mesia, another survivor from his time, and to combine the four elemental Swords of Wind, Fire, Water, and Thunder into the legendary sword, ''Crystalis''. Together, they must defeat Draygon before he uses the Tower to achieve his evil ambitions.

500 years ago, the Kingdom of Granville fought a terrible war with Darces the Dark Overlord. A great hero, the warrior "Magi", rose to challenge Darces. He owned six magical swords and a powerful suit of armor that was impervious to all but the most powerful of magic. Five of his six swords were Elemental blades, each created from the rarest metals on earth. The sixth blade, "Tores", used an even more powerful metal.

Using his powers, Magi defeated Darces, and exiled him to a far away land. After defeating Darces, Magi grew old and died.

Now, on a dark, stormy night in the Kingdom of Granville, Darces the Dark Overlord returns to the land.

According to an old saying, :"When the shadowed veil returns to mask the midday sun :The Fire of Serpents will rise again; Five shall become the One. :The elements now heed his call, and hope is born alive; :We will have our peace once more when One becomes the Five."

While Link is celebrating his coming of age, a gigantic bird drops pirate captain Tetra into Outset Island's forest. Link rescues Tetra from monsters, but the bird carries off Link's sister Aryll. Tetra agrees to help Link find his sister, and they sail to the Forsaken Fortress, where the bird, the Helmaroc King, has been taking girls with long ears. Link finds Aryll and other kidnapped girls, but the Helmaroc King captures him and takes him to a man in black, who orders Link thrown into the sea.

Link is rescued at Windfall Island by a talking boat, the King of Red Lions, who explains that the bird's master is a returned Ganon. To defeat him, Link must find the Hero of Time's power, which requires the three Pearls of the Goddesses. Link finds Din's Pearl on Dragon Roost Island, home of the avian Rito and the dragon Valoo; Farore's Pearl in Forest Haven, home of the Great Deku Tree and the plant-like Koroks; and Nayru's Pearl with the water spirit Jabun on Outset Island. The King of Red Lions then takes Link to the Tower of the Gods, where he faces trials before descending beneath the ocean to a castle suspended in time. Here Link finds the Hero of Time's weapon, the Master Sword.

Link returns to the Forsaken Fortress. Tetra's crew arrive and rescue the girls, but Ganon easily overpowers Link and Tetra: the Master Sword has lost its power. Ganon recognizes Tetra's Triforce necklace and realizes she is the incarnation of Princess Zelda he is seeking. Link's Rito allies and Valoo save Link and Tetra from Ganon. The King of Red Lions brings the two back to the underwater realm, explaining it is the legendary kingdom of Hyrule, which the goddesses submerged long ago to contain Ganon while the people fled to the mountaintops. The King of Red Lions reveals himself to be Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule, the last King of Hyrule, and Tetra is his heir, Zelda, keeper of the Triforce of Wisdom.

Tetra remains in the castle while Link and the King journey to the two sages who provided the Master Sword's power. They discover Ganon's forces murdered them both, so Link must awaken new sages: the Rito Medli and the Korok Makar. The sages restore the Master Sword, but the King learns that Ganon has abandoned the Forsaken Fortress and fears an attack. They then track down the eight shards of the missing Triforce of Courage, once kept by the Hero of Time, and the gods recognize Link as the Hero of Winds.

Link and the King return to Hyrule to discover that Ganon has captured Tetra. Link follows them to Ganon's tower, defeating Ganon's minions before Ganon overcomes him. Ganon joins Link's and Tetra's Triforce pieces with his own Triforce of Power, forming the complete Triforce, which will grant his wish to rule the world. Before he can act, the King of Hyrule appears and wishes that the Goddesses wash Ganon and Hyrule away, and grant Link and Tetra hope for their own future. Link and Tetra battle Ganon with the Master Sword and magical arrows as water pours around them; with the final blow, the Master Sword turns Ganon to stone. Link and Tetra rise to the surface as the King and Hyrule are submerged. After reuniting with their friends the heroes sail off to find a new land.

''Dred'' is the story of Nina Gordon, an impetuous young heiress to a large southern plantation, whose land is rapidly becoming worthless. It is run competently by one of Nina's slaves, Harry, who endures a murderous rivalry with Nina's brother Tom Gordon, a drunken, cruel slaveowner. Nina is a flighty young girl, and maintains several suitors, before finally settling down with a man named Clayton. Clayton is socially and religiously liberal, and very idealistic, and has a down-to-earth perpetual-virgin sister, Anne.

In addition to Harry (who, as well as being the administrator of Nina's estate, is secretly also her and Tom's half-brother), the slave characters include the devoutly Christian Milly (actually the property of Nina's Aunt Nesbit), and Tomtit, a joker-type character. There is also a family of poor whites, who have but a single, devoted slave, Old Tiff.

Dred, the titular character, is one of the Great Dismal Swamp maroons, escaped slaves living in the Great Dismal Swamp, preaching angry and violent retribution for the evils of slavery and rescuing escapees from the dog of the slavecatchers.

After the events of ''Them'', an adult King returns to the House of Amon to reclaim his rightful place as heir to the house. ("At The Graves") He makes a deal with "Them", the unseen demonic antagonists from the previous album, to return control of the house to Them in exchange for the chance to see his now-dead sister Missy again, as he believes she can help answer some of his questions. ("Sleepless Nights") He attends sessions with a therapist named Dr. Landau, who he despises, distrusts, and lies to; Landau suggests letting King's mother visit the House of Amon, and King reluctantly agrees. ("Lies") That night, Missy appears to him in a vision ("A Visit From The Dead") and warns him through a dream where he sees Landau marrying his mother. ("The Wedding Dream") The next day, King's mother indeed arrives accompanied by Dr. Landau; despite King's protestations about the deal with "Them", they enter the house, and King is ambushed and sedated by his mother and the doctor. ("Amon Belongs To Them") They then go to the local demented priest Sammael, and convince him that King is possessed by Satan and must be disposed of ("Victimized"); they put King in a coffin and burn him ("Let It Be Done"), and the album closes with King's promise to haunt them forever from beyond the grave. ("Cremation")

Androcles, a fugitive Christian tailor, accompanied by his nagging wife, is on the run from his Roman persecutors. While hiding in the forest he comes upon a wild lion who approaches him with a wounded paw. His wife runs off. Androcles sees that the cause of the animal's distress is a large thorn embedded in its paw, which he draws out while soothing the lion in baby language.

Androcles is captured and is sent to the Colosseum to be executed with other Christians in gladiatorial combat. They are joined by a new Christian convert called Ferrovius, who struggles to reconcile his Christian principles with his violent inclinations. The Roman captain guarding them is attracted to the genteel convert Lavinia. Eventually the Christians are sent into the arena, but Ferrovius kills all the gladiators before they can harm any Christians. He is offered a job in the Praetorian Guard, which he takes. The Christians are to be released, but the crowd demands blood. To satisfy them, Androcles offers himself to be savaged by lions. But the lion that is supposed to kill him turns out to be the one that Androcles saved, and the two dance around the arena to the delight of the crowd. The emperor comes into the arena to get a closer look, and the lion attacks him. Androcles calls him off and the emperor is saved. He then declares an end to the persecution of Christians. Androcles and his new 'pet' depart together. File:Androcles-and-the-Lion-Arthur-Wilson.jpg|Dooley Wilson as Androcles in the 1938 Federal Theatre Project production File:Androcles-and-the-Lion-Daniel-Haynes-2.jpg|Daniel L. Haynes as Ferrovius, lighting design by Abe Feder File:Androcles-and-the-Lion-Daniel-Haynes.jpg|Daniel L. Haynes as Ferrovius File:Androcles-and-the-Lion-15.jpg|Scene from the 1938 Federal Theatre Project production File:Androcles-Lion-Wilson-Bates.jpg|Dooley Wilson (Androcles) and Add Bates (Lion)

The main protagonist of the series is Nikko Zond, a young teen, whose father is involved in many different archaeological expeditions ranging from Antarctica to harsh deserts. Nikko is at first reluctant to participate in many of the adventures, but throughout the series, it would appear that there is a hidden destiny for Nikko.

In the episode "Skulls," a mysterious figure (Conrad Dunn) appears out of nowhere, whom only Nikko can see, and guides Nikko. The episode ends with a crystal skull that is central to the plot of the episode modelled to reveal what someone would look like with skin and muscle added to that skull. The image formed matches the mysterious man who helped Nikko.

In the episode "Eternal," Nikko is poisoned and the only cure is for him to drink water that heals, and assures eternal life. While it is unknown if he gained eternal life or not, he did heal.

In the final episode, he suffered from hallucinations that led him to find a fragment of an artifact called the "Ring of Truth". Before the episode ends, he has another hallucination that reveals that the fragment of the "Ring" also joins with another fragment that his father had acquired earlier in the series. The episode ends with Nikko displaying telekinetic powers: when he reaches for his soda, it slides across the table into his hand.

In 1951, Eve White is a timid, self-effacing wife and mother who has severe and blinding headaches and occasional blackouts. Eve eventually goes to see psychiatrist Dr. Luther, and while having a conversation, a "new personality", the wild, fun-loving Eve Black, emerges. Eve Black knows everything about Eve White, but Eve White is unaware of Eve Black.

Eve White is sent to a hospital for observation after Eve Black is found strangling Eve White's daughter, Bonnie. When Eve White is released, her husband Ralph finds a job in another state and leaves her in a boarding house, while Bonnie stays with Eve's parents. When Ralph returns, he tells her that he doesn't believe she has multiple personalities and tries to take her to Jacksonville, Florida, with him but she feels she isn't well enough to leave, and, afraid Eve Black will try to harm Bonnie again, refuses to go. Eve Black confronts Ralph at his motel, where he realizes Eve Black is real, but allows her to convince him to take her to Jacksonville. When Eve Black goes out dancing with another man, Ralph slaps her when she returns and ends up divorcing Eve White.

Dr. Luther considers both Eve White and Eve Black to be incomplete and inadequate personalities. The film depicts Dr. Luther's attempts to understand and deal with these two faces of Eve. Under hypnosis at one session, a third personality emerges, the relatively stable Jane. Dr. Luther eventually prompts her to remember a traumatic event in Eve's childhood. Her grandmother had died when she was six, and according to family custom, relatives were supposed to kiss the dead person at the viewing, making it easier for them to let go. While Eve screams, her mother forces her to kiss the corpse. Apparently, Eve's terror led to the creation of different personalities.

After discovering the trauma, Jane remembers her entire past. When Dr. Luther asks to speak with Eve White and Eve Black, Jane says they are gone. Jane marries a man named Earl whom she met when she was Jane and reunites with her daughter Bonnie.

In the South Pacific in 1944, U.S. Marine Corporal Allison and his reconnaissance party are disembarking from a U.S. Navy submarine when they are discovered and fired upon by the Japanese. The submarine's captain is forced to dive and leave the scouting team behind. Allison reaches a rubber raft and, after days adrift, reaches an island. He finds an abandoned settlement and a chapel with one occupant: Sister Angela, a novice Irish nun who has not yet taken her final vows. She has been on the island for only four days, having come with an elderly priest to evacuate another clergyman only to find that the Japanese had arrived first. The frightened natives who had brought them to the island left the pair without warning, and the priest died soon after.

For a while, they have the island to themselves, but then a detachment of Japanese troops arrives to set up a meteorological camp, forcing them to hide in a cave. When Sister Angela is unable to stomach the raw fish that Allison has caught, he sneaks into the Japanese camp for supplies, narrowly avoiding detection. That night, they watch flashes from naval guns being fired in a sea battle over the horizon.

The Japanese unexpectedly leave the island and Allison professes his love for Sister Angela, proposing marriage. But she shows him her engagement ring and explains that it is a symbol of her forthcoming final holy vows. Later both in celebration and frustration, Allison gets drunk on sake. He blurts out that he considers her devotion to her vows to be pointless since they are stuck on the island "like Adam and Eve." She runs out into a tropical rain and falls ill as a result. Allison, now sober and contrite, finds her shivering. He carries her back, but the Japanese have returned, forcing them to retreat to the cave. Allison sneaks into the Japanese camp to get blankets. He kills a soldier who discovers him, alerting the enemy. To force him into the open, the Japanese set fire to the vegetation.

When a Japanese soldier discovers the cave, Allison and Sister Angela have two choices: surrender or die from a hand grenade thrown inside. An ensuing explosion is not a grenade, but a bomb; the Americans have begun attacking the island in preparation for a landing. Allison comments that the landing will not be easy because when they returned, the Japanese brought four artillery pieces and concealed them well on the island.

Responding to what he attributes to a message from God, Allison disables the artillery during the barrage that will precede the American assault while the Japanese are still in their bunkers. He is wounded but sabotages all the guns by removing their breechblocks, saving many American lives. After the landing, the Marine officers are puzzled by the missing breechblocks.

Sister Angela and the wounded Allison then say their goodbyes as the Marines begin occupation. Allison has reconciled himself to Sister Angela's dedication to Christ, though she reassures him that they will always be close "companions." After being found, Allison is transferred by the Marines to the ship, with Sister Angela walking beside him.

In 1950 San Francisco, petty criminal and prostitute Barbara Graham faces a misdemeanor charge for soliciting sex. She returns to her native San Diego, but is soon charged with perjury after she provides two criminal friends a false alibi. She subsequently returns to prostitution and other criminal activities to make a living and begins working for thief Emmett Perkins by luring men to his gambling parlor. Barbara manages to earn a significant amount of money, and quits working for Emmett to marry Hank, her third husband. The couple have a son, Bobby, but their marriage is in turmoil because of Hank's gambling addiction and physical abuse.

Barbara forces Hank to leave, but she is soon evicted from her apartment. Desperate, she leaves Bobby in the care of her mother and returns to working for Emmett, who is now associated with thugs John Santo and Bruce King. Police crack down on the operation and Barbara surrenders. During the interrogation, she is stunned when authorities accuse her of helping Perkins and Santo murder Mabel Monahan, an elderly Burbank woman. Barbara insists that she was home with her husband and son on the night of the murder but is indicted by a grand jury. Barbara's childhood friend Peg visits her in jail and agrees to help care for Bobby.

Attorney Richard Tibrow is assigned to Barbara's case and informs her that her alibi is meaningless unless Hank can corroborate it. Barbara furtively concocts a phony alibi with Ben Miranda, supposedly a friend of a fellow prisoner. At the trial, it is revealed that Ben is a police officer who recorded her confession with a hidden microphone during their meeting. Barbara insists that she sought the false alibi only to avoid the death penalty, and that her admission is false. She is ultimately convicted, along with Emmett and John, and all three are sentenced to death.

Tibrow withdraws from Barbara's case and is replaced by Al Matthews. In prison, Barbara is relentlessly defiant, refusing to wear her uniform and demanding a radio. Matthews has psychologist Carl Palmberg evaluate Barbara, hoping to ultimately administer a lie detection test. After visiting with her, Carl states that while Barbara appears to be amoral, she is averse to violence. He also observes that she is left-handed, and the murder was committed by a right-handed person. Journalist Edward Montgomery, who has covered Barbara's case all along, questions her conviction and publishes a sympathetic series of articles describing her troubled life. As her execution date draws near, Barbara grows increasingly anxious. A Supreme Court stay gives her hope that her sentence may be commuted, but it is overturned when Carl dies unexpectedly of heart disease. Al's petition for a retrial is denied, and Barbara's execution date is set.

The day before her execution, a demoralized Barbara is transferred to San Quentin Prison, where she meets with a priest. That evening, she is angered to hear that multiple couples are seeking to adopt her son. She stays awake all night, wistfully recounting her marriage with Hank to a prison nurse. In the morning, 45 minutes before Barbara's scheduled execution, California governor Goodwin J. Knight declares a stay, but Al's writ is invalidated and the execution is ordered to proceed. Barbara is taken to the gas chamber, but the execution is again halted when Al's amended writ is declared.

The uncertainty and desperation surrounding her fate reduces Barbara to hysterics. She is returned to her cell, where she and the prison staff wait several minutes for a response to Al's writ. They are informed that it has again been rejected and that Barbara's execution is to proceed immediately. Before entering the gas chamber, Barbara demands a mask, as she does not want to see the faces of the witnesses to her murder. She is strapped to the chair and executed with cyanide gas. After Barbara is pronounced dead, a despondent Edward leaves the prison. On his way out, he is met by Al, who gives him a note from Barbara thanking him for his efforts to help her.

Jan Morrow is a successful, self-reliant interior decorator in New York City in the late 1950's. She lives alone and claims to be quite happy, when questioned on that subject by her drunken housekeeper, Alma. The only irritant in her life is the party line that she shares with Brad Allen, a talented, creative Broadway composer and playboy who lives in a nearby apartment building. She is unable to obtain a private phone line because the telephone company has been overwhelmed by the recent demand for new phone lines in the area.

Jan and Brad, who have only ever "met" on the telephone, develop a feud over the use of the party line. Brad is constantly using the phone to chat with one young woman after another, singing to each of them an "original" love song supposedly written just for her, though he only changes the name or language he sings in. Jan and Brad bicker over the party line, with Brad suggesting that the single Jan is jealous of his popularity.

One of Jan's clients is millionaire Jonathan Forbes, who repeatedly throws himself at her to no avail. Unknown to Jan, Jonathan is also Brad's old college buddy and his current Broadway benefactor.

One evening in a nightclub, Brad finally sees Jan dancing and learns who she is. Attracted to her, he fakes a Texan accent and invents a new persona: Rex Stetson, a wealthy Texas rancher. He succeeds in wooing Jan, and the pair begin seeing each other regularly. Jan cannot resist bragging about her new beau on the phone to Brad, while Brad teases Jan by having "Rex" show an interest in effeminate things, thereby implying "Rex's" homosexuality.

When Jonathan discovers about Brad's masquerade, he forces Brad to leave New York City and go to Jonathan's cabin in Connecticut to complete his new songs. Brad invites Jan to join him. Once there, romance blossoms until Jan stumbles upon a copy of "Rex's" sheet music. She plunks the melody on the nearby piano and recognizes Brad's song. She confronts Brad and ignores his attempts at explanation, returning to New York with Jonathan, who has just arrived at the cabin.

Back in New York, Jonathan is pleased to learn that the playboy has finally fallen in love, while conversely Jan will have nothing to do with Brad. Brad turns to Jan's housekeeper, Alma, for advice. Alma, pleased to finally meet Brad after listening in on the party line for so long, suggests he hire Jan to decorate his apartment so they will be forced to collaborate. Jan only concedes so that her employer will not lose the commission. Brad leaves all the design decisions up to Jan, telling her only to design a place that she would want to live in herself.

Still resentful at his deception, Jan decorates Brad's apartment in the most gaudy and hideous decor she can muster. Horrified by what he finds, Brad angrily storms into Jan's apartment and carries her in her pajamas through the street back to his apartment to explain herself. He tells her of all the changes he has made to end his bachelor lifestyle because he thought they were getting married. Her face lights up and, as he leaves in anger, she uses one of his "playboy" remote control switches to lock the door. She flips the second switch and the player piano pounds out a honky-tonk version of Brad's standard love song. He turns around, their eyes meet, and they lovingly embrace.

At the end of the film, Brad goes to tell Jonathan that he is going to be a father, only to be pulled by Dr. Maxwell (an obstetrician) and Nurse Resnick into their office for an examination, when he says that he is going to have a baby (a reference to when he ducks into Dr. Maxwell's office in an earlier scene to hide from Jan, but escapes before they can examine him).

1936, in the Garden District of New Orleans. Mrs. Violet Venable, an elderly socialite widow from a prominent local family, has invited a doctor to her home. She talks nostalgically about her son Sebastian, a poet, who died under mysterious circumstances in Spain the previous summer. During the course of their conversation, she offers to make a generous donation to support the doctor's psychiatric research if he will perform a lobotomy on Catharine, her niece, who has been confined to St. Mary, a private mental asylum, at her expense since returning to America. Mrs. Venable is eager to "shut her up" once and for all, as she continues to babble about Sebastian's violent death and smash her son's reputation by hinting at his homosexuality.

Catharine arrives, followed by her mother and brother. They are also eager to suppress her version of events, since Mrs. Venable is threatening to keep Sebastian's will in probate until she is satisfied, something Catharine's family can't afford to challenge. But the doctor injects Catharine with a truth serum and she proceeds to give a scandalous account of Sebastian's moral dissolution and the events leading up to his death, how he used her to procure young men for his sexual exploitation, and how he was set upon, mutilated, and partially devoured by a mob of starving children in the street. Mrs. Venable lunges at Catharine but is prevented from striking her with her cane. She is taken off stage, screaming "cut this hideous story from her brain!" Far from being convinced of Catharine's insanity, however, the doctor concludes the play by stating he believes her story could be true.

Gloria Wandrous wakes up in the apartment of wealthy executive Weston Liggett, and finds that he has left her $250. Insulted, she finds her dress was torn, and takes Liggett's wife Emily's mink coat to cover herself, scrawling "No Sale" in lipstick on the mirror. She orders her telephone answering service, BUtterfield 8, to put Liggett through if he calls.

Gloria visits a childhood friend, pianist Steve Carpenter, who chastises her for wasting her life on one-night stands, but agrees to ask his girlfriend Norma to lend her a dress. Gloria leaves, and Norma tells Steve he must choose between Gloria and her. As Norma leaves, he calls, "Gloria, don't go like this." "My name is Norma," she corrects.

Liggett takes a train to the countryside, where his wife Emily is caring for her mother. His friend, Bingham Smith, advises him to end his adulterous relationships and return to Bing's law firm, instead of working for his father-in-law's chemical business. Meanwhile, Gloria lies to her mother Annie, claiming to have spent the night at Norma's.

Liggett returns home. Finding the lipstick and money, he phones Gloria to explain the money was meant for her to buy a new dress, to replace the one that he had torn. While drinking later that night, Liggett advises her to ask a high price for her lovemaking talents. She insists she does not take payment from her dates, and claims she has been hired as a model to advertise the dress she is wearing at three bistros that night. Liggett follows Gloria, watching her flirt with dozens of men at several clubs. He drives her to a run-down motel. After sleeping together, Liggett and Gloria decide to explore their relationship further. They spend five days together, growing closer and falling genuinely in love with one another. They part only after Liggett's wife Emily returns.

When Gloria returns home, she confesses to her mother about having been the "slut of all time", but declares that that is all over now, since she is truly in love. Gloria visits her psychiatrist, Dr. Tredman, to insist that her relationship with Liggett has cured her of promiscuity.

For his part, Liggett also plans to change his life, taking up Bing's offer of a job at the law firm. When he returns home, Emily has noticed that her mink is gone. Liggett makes excuses and rushes out to search for Gloria at her regular clubs. He is unable to locate her, but in his search, he is repeatedly confronted with the reality of Gloria's promiscuous past. When Gloria finds Liggett at a bistro the following evening, he drunkenly launches into insults. Gloria drives Liggett to his apartment building where Emily, spotting them from a window above, watches as her husband throws the coat at Gloria, saying he would never give the tainted object back to his wife.

Heartbroken, Gloria goes to Steve, saying that she feels she has "earned" the mink coat she is wearing. Having never before taken payment from the men she slept with, she now has, and she laments "what that makes me". She recounts that when she was 13, a friend of her widowed mother, Major Hartley, taught her about "evil". She hates herself because she loved it and thus went on to make her life out of it. Steve insists that Gloria stay the night, since both Gloria and he have to decide what to do next. Norma arrives the next morning, finding Gloria asleep on Steve's couch; having at last made up his mind, he asks Norma to marry him.

The next day, a now-sober Liggett admits to himself that he still loves Gloria and asks Emily for a divorce. Meanwhile, Gloria tells her mother she is moving to Boston to begin a new life.

Upon discovering Gloria's destination, Liggett drives until he spots her car at a roadside café. He tries to apologize to Gloria by asking her to marry him, but Gloria insists that his insults have "branded" her and that her past is a sore spot that no husband would ever truly be able to accept. They profess their love for each other, and though Gloria initially agrees to go with Liggett to the motel, she ultimately changes her mind and flees in her car. Pursuing Gloria's car, Liggett sees her miss a sign for road construction and accidentally hurtle over an embankment to her death. When he returns to the city, Liggett tells his wife about Gloria's death, announces that he is leaving to "find my pride", and says that if Emily is still home when he returns, they will see if it has any value to them.

(l-r) Ralph Bellamy, Eleanor Roosevelt and Greer Garson at Hyde Park, NY, filming ''Sunrise at Campobello'' (1960) The film begins at the Roosevelt family's summer home on Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada (on the border with Maine), in the summer of 1921. Franklin D. Roosevelt is depicted in early scenes as vigorously athletic, enjoying games with his children and sailing his boat.

He is suddenly stricken with fever and then paralysis. Subsequent scenes focus on the ensuing conflict in the following weeks between the bedridden FDR, his wife Eleanor, his mother Sara, and his close political adviser Louis Howe over FDR's future. A later scene portrays FDR literally dragging himself up the stairs as, through grit and determination, he painfully strives to overcome his physical limitations and not remain an invalid. In the final triumphant scene, FDR is shown re-entering public life as he walks to the speaker's rostrum at a party convention, aided by heavy leg braces and crutches after his eldest son James pushed his father's wheelchair near to the podium.

Ilya, a self-employed, free-spirited prostitute who lives in the port of Piraeus in Greece, meets Homer, an American tourist and classical scholar who is enamored of all things Greek. Homer feels that Ilya's lifestyle typifies the degradation of Greek classical culture and attempts to steer her onto the path of morality while Ilya attempts to relax him.

Cesira (Loren) is a widowed shopkeeper, raising her devoutly religious twelve-year-old daughter, Rosetta (Brown), in Rome during World War II. Following the bombing of Rome, mother and daughter flee to Cesira's native Ciociaria, a rural, mountainous province of central Italy. The night before they go, Cesira sleeps with Giovanni (Vallone), a coal dealer in her neighbourhood, who agrees to look after her store in her absence.

After they arrive at Ciociaria, Cesira attracts the attention of Michele (Belmondo), a young local intellectual with communist sympathies. Rosetta sees Michele as a father figure and develops a strong bond with him. Michele is later taken prisoner by German soldiers, who force him to act as a guide through the mountainous terrain.

After the Allies capture Rome, in June 1944, Cesira and Rosetta decide to head back to that city. On the way, the two are gang-raped inside a church by a group of ''Moroccan Goumiers'' – soldiers attached to the invading Allied Armies in Italy. Rosetta is traumatized, becoming detached and distant from her mother and no longer an innocent child.

When the two manage to find shelter at a neighbouring village, Rosetta disappears during the night, sending Cesira into a panic. She thinks Rosetta has gone to look for Michele, but later finds out that Michele was killed by the Germans. Rosetta returns, having been out with an older boy, who has given her silk stockings, despite her youth. Cesira is outraged and upset, slapping and spanking Rosetta for her behavior, but Rosetta remains unresponsive, emotionally distant. When Cesira informs Rosetta of Michele's death, Rosetta begins to cry like the little girl she had been prior to the rape. The film ends with Cesira comforting the child.

'') The folktale begins with a princess whose parents are told by a wicked fairy that their daughter will die when she pricks her finger on a particular item. In Basile's version, the princess pricks her finger on a piece of flax. In Perrault's and the Grimm Brothers' versions, the item is a spindle. The parents rid the kingdom of these items in the hopes of protecting their daughter, but the prophecy is fulfilled regardless. Instead of dying, as was foretold, the princess falls into a deep sleep. After some time, she is found by a prince and is awakened. In Giambattista Basile's version of Sleeping Beauty, ''Sun, Moon, and Talia'', the sleeping beauty, Talia, falls into a deep sleep after getting a splinter of flax in her finger. She is discovered in her castle by a wandering king, who "carrie[s] her to a bed, where he gather[s] the first fruits of love." He leaves her there and she later gives birth to twins.

According to Maria Tatar, there are versions of the story that include a second part to the narrative that details the couple's troubles after their union; some folklorists believe the two parts were originally separate tales.Maria Tatar, ''The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales'', 2002:96,

The second part begins after the prince and princess have had children. Through the course of the tale, the princess and her children are introduced in some way to another woman from the prince's life. This other woman is not fond of the prince's new family, and calls a cook to kill the children and serve them for dinner. Instead of obeying, the cook hides the children and serves livestock. Next, the other woman orders the cook to kill the princess. Before this can happen, the other woman's true nature is revealed to the prince and then she is subjected to the very death that she had planned for the princess. The princess, prince, and their children live happily ever after.

Basile's narrative

In Giambattista Basile's dark version of Sleeping Beauty, ''Sun, Moon, and Talia'', the sleeping beauty is named Talia. By asking wise men and astrologers to predict her future after her birth, her father who is a great Lord learns that Talia will be in danger from a splinter of flax. The splinter later causes what appears to be Talia's death; however, it is later learned that it is a long, deep sleep. After Talia falls into deep sleep, she is seated on a velvet throne and her father, to forget his misery of what he thinks is her death, closes the doors and abandons the house forever. One day, while a king is walking by, one of his falcons flies into the house. The king knocks, hoping to be let in by someone, but no one answers and he decides to climb in with a ladder. He finds Talia alive but unconscious, and "...gathers the first fruits of love." Afterwards, he leaves her in the bed and goes back to his kingdom. Though Talia is unconscious, she gives birth to twins — one of whom keeps sucking her fingers. Talia awakens because the twin has sucked out the flax that was stuck deep in Talia's finger. When she wakes up, she discovers that she is a mother and has no idea what happened to her. One day, the king decides he wants to go see Talia again. He goes back to the palace to find her awake and a mother to his twins. He informs her of who he is, what has happened, and they end up bonding. After a few days, the king has to leave to go back to his realm, but promises Talia that he will return to take her to his kingdom.

When he arrives back in his kingdom, his wife hears him saying "Talia, Sun, and Moon" in his sleep. She bribes and threatens the king's secretary to tell her what is going on. After the queen learns the truth, she pretends she is the king and writes to Talia asking her to send the twins because he wants to see them. Talia sends her twins to the "king" and the queen tells the cook to kill the twins and make dishes out of them. She wants to feed the king his children; instead, the cook takes the twins to his wife and hides them. He then cooks two lambs and serves them as if they were the twins. Every time the king mentions how good the food is, the queen replies, "Eat, eat, you are eating of your own." Later, the queen invites Talia to the kingdom and is going to burn her alive, but the king appears and finds out what's going on with his children and Talia. He then orders that his wife be burned along with those who betrayed him. Since the cook actually did not obey the queen, the king thanks the cook for saving his children by giving him rewards. The story ends with the king marrying Talia and living happily ever after.

Perrault's narrative

(1845–1907) Perrault's narrative is written in two parts, which some folklorists believe were originally separate tales, as they were in the Brothers Grimm's version, and were later joined together by Giambattista Basile and once more by Perrault. According to folklore editors Martin Hallett and Barbara Karasek, Perrault's tale is a much more subtle and pared down version than Basile's story in terms of the more immoral details. An example of this is depicted in Perrault's tale by the prince's choice to instigate no physical interaction with the sleeping princess when the prince discovers her.

At the christening of a king and queen's long-wished-for child, seven good fairies are invited to be godmothers to the infant princess. The fairies attend the banquet at the palace. Each fairy is presented with a golden plate and drinking cups adorned with jewels. Soon after, an old fairy enters the palace and is seated with a plate of fine china and a crystal drinking glass. This old fairy is overlooked because she has been within a tower for many years and everyone had believed her to be deceased. Six of the other seven fairies then offer their gifts of beauty, wit, grace, dance, song, and goodness to the infant princess. The evil fairy is very angry about having been forgotten, and as her gift, curses the infant princess so that she will one day prick her finger on a spindle of a spinning wheel and die. The seventh fairy, who has not yet given her gift, attempts to reverse the evil fairy's curse. However, she can only do so partially. Instead of dying, the Princess will fall into a deep sleep for 100 years and be awakened by a king's son ("''elle tombera seulement dans un profond sommeil qui durera cent ans, au bout desquels le fils d’un Roi viendra la réveiller''"). This is her gift of protection.

The King orders that every spindle and spinning wheel in the kingdom be destroyed, to try to save his daughter from the terrible curse. Fifteen or sixteen years pass and one day, when the king and queen are away, the Princess wanders through the palace rooms and comes upon an old woman (implied to be the evil fairy in disguise), spinning with her spindle. The princess, who has never seen anyone spin before, asks the old woman if she can try the spinning wheel. The curse is fulfilled as the princess pricks her finger on the spindle and instantly falls into a deep sleep. The old woman cries for help and attempts are made to revive the princess. The king attributes this to fate and has the Princess carried to the finest room in the palace and placed upon a bed of gold and silver embroidered fabric. The king and queen kiss their daughter goodbye and depart, proclaiming the entrance to be forbidden. The good fairy who altered the evil prophecy is summoned. Having great powers of foresight, the fairy sees that the Princess will awaken to distress when she finds herself alone, so the fairy puts everyone in the castle to sleep. The fairy also summons a forest of trees, brambles and thorns that spring up around the castle, shielding it from the outside world and preventing anyone from disturbing the Princess.

A hundred years pass and a prince from another family spies the hidden castle during a hunting expedition. His attendants tell him differing stories regarding the castle until an old man recounts his father's words: within the castle lies a beautiful princess who is doomed to sleep for a hundred years until a king's son comes and awakens her. The prince then braves the tall trees, brambles and thorns which part at his approach, and enters the castle. He passes the sleeping castle folk and comes across the chamber where the Princess lies asleep on the bed. Struck by the radiant beauty before him, he falls on his knees before her. The enchantment comes to an end, the princess awakens and bestows upon the prince a look “more tender than a first glance might seem to warrant” (in Perrault's original French tale, the prince does not kiss the princess to wake her up) then converses with the prince for a long time. Meanwhile, the rest of the castle awakens and go about their business. The prince and princess are later married by the chaplain in the castle chapel.

After wedding the Princess in secret, the Prince continues to visit her and she bears him two children, Aurore (Dawn) and Jour (Day), unbeknownst to his mother, who is of an ogre lineage. When the time comes for the Prince to ascend the throne, he brings his wife, children, and the talabutte ("Count of the Mount").

The Ogress Queen Mother sends the young Queen and the children to a house secluded in the woods and directs her cook to prepare the boy with ''Sauce Robert'' for dinner. The kind-hearted cook substitutes a lamb for the boy, which satisfies the Queen Mother. She then demands the girl but the cook this time substitutes a kid, which also satisfies the Queen Mother. When the Ogress demands that he serve up the young Queen, the latter offers to slit her throat so that she may join the children that she imagines are dead. While the Queen Mother is satisfied with a hind prepared with ''Sauce Robert'' in place of the young Queen, there is a tearful secret reunion of the Queen and her children. However, the Queen Mother soon discovers the cook's trick and she prepares a tub in the courtyard filled with vipers and other noxious creatures. The King returns in the nick of time and the Ogress, her true nature having been exposed, throws herself into the tub and is fully consumed. The King, young Queen, and children then live happily ever after.

Grimm Brothers' version

). The Brothers Grimm included a variant of Sleeping Beauty, ''Little Briar Rose'', in their collection (1812). Their version ends when the prince arrives to wake Sleeping Beauty (named Rosamund) and does not include the part two as found in Basile's and Perrault's versions. The brothers considered rejecting the story on the grounds that it was derived from Perrault's version, but the presence of the Brynhild tale convinced them to include it as an authentically German tale. Their decision was notable because in none of the Teutonic myths, meaning the Poetic and Prose Eddas or Volsunga Saga, are their sleepers awakened with a kiss, a fact Jacob Grimm would have known since he wrote an encyclopedic volume on German mythology. His version is the only known German variant of the tale, and Perrault's influence is almost certain. In the original Brothers Grimm's version, the fairies are instead wise women.

The Brothers Grimm also included, in the first edition of their tales, a fragmentary fairy tale, "The Evil Mother-in-law". This story begins with the heroine, a married mother of two children, and her mother-in-law who attempts to eat her and the children. The heroine suggests an animal be substituted in the dish, and the story ends with the heroine's worry that she cannot keep her children from crying and getting the mother-in-law's attention. Like many German tales showing French influence, it appeared in no subsequent edition.

Variations

The princess's name has varied from one adaptation to the other. In ''Sun, Moon, and Talia'', she is named Talia (Sun and Moon being her twin children). She has no name in Perrault's story but her daughter is called "Aurore". The Brothers Grimm named her "Briar Rose" in their 1812 collection.Jacob and Wilheim Grimm, ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'', [http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/sleepingbeauty/stories/littlebriarose.html "Little Briar-Rose"] However, some translations of the Grimms' tale give the princess the name "Rosamond". Tchaikovsky's ballet and Disney's version named her Princess Aurora; however, in the Disney version, she is also called "Briar Rose" in her childhood, when she is being raised incognito by the good fairies. John Stejean named her "Rosebud" in TeleStory Presents.

Besides ''Sun, Moon, and Talia'', Basile included another variant of this Aarne-Thompson type, ''The Young Slave'', in his book, ''The Pentamerone''. The Grimms also included a second, more distantly related one titled ''The Glass Coffin''.Heidi Anne Heiner, [http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/sleepingbeauty/other.html "Tales Similar to Sleeping Beauty"]

Italo Calvino included a variant in ''Italian Folktales''. In his version, the cause of the princess's sleep is a wish by her mother. As in ''Pentamerone'', the prince rapes her in her sleep and her children are born. Calvino retains the element that the woman who tries to kill the children is the king's mother, not his wife, but adds that she does not want to eat them herself, and instead serves them to the king. His version came from Calabria, but he noted that all Italian versions closely followed Basile's. In his ''More English Fairy Tales,'' Joseph Jacobs noted that the figure of the Sleeping Beauty was in common between this tale and the Romani tale ''The King of England and his Three Sons''.

The hostility of the king's mother to his new bride is repeated in the fairy tale ''The Six Swans'', and also features in ''The Twelve Wild Ducks'', where the mother is modified to be the king's stepmother. However, these tales omit the attempted cannibalism.

Russian Romantic writer Vasily Zhukovsky wrote a versified work based on the theme of the princess cursed into a long sleep in his poem "Спящая царевна" ("The Sleeping Tsarevna" (ru)), published in 1832.

In 1887, Lord Nelson Rathbone leads a band of Boxers into the Forbidden City, killing the Keeper of the Imperial Seal of China and stealing the seal. With his dying breath, the Keeper gives his daughter, Chon Lin, a puzzle box for her brother, Sheriff Chon Wang.

In Carson City, Nevada, Wang has captured an impressive array of fugitives. Wang receives the box and a letter from Lin telling him of their father's death and that she has tracked the murderer to London.

Wang travels to New York City to find his old partner Roy O'Bannon and collect his share of their gold so that he can buy passage to London. Roy has left law enforcement, broken off his marriage, invested all their gold in the Zeppelin, and is now a waiter and part-time gigolo. After an aborted attempt at prostitution to pay for tickets, the pair ship themselves to London in a crate.

In London, Roy's pocket is picked by a youth named Charlie. After a struggle between Roy, Wang, Charlie, and a gang angered by Charlie stealing on their turf, they are arrested. In Scotland Yard, Inspector Artie Doyle thanks the two for defeating the Fleet Street gang. When they ask about Lin, Artie shows them she is in custody, having attempted to kill Lord Rathbone. Roy is instantly smitten with Lin and gives her a deck of playing cards as a good luck charm. Wang and Roy encounter Charlie. Breaking into an estate for shelter, they find an invitation to a gala at Buckingham Palace.

Roy and Wang infiltrate the gala in disguise: Roy as Major General "Sherlock Holmes" (a name he derives from the face of a clock) and Wang as the "Maharaja of Nevada". Wang and Roy follow Rathbone to a private library, where he slips through a secret passage. Wang finds the seal box, but the seal itself is gone and they are attacked by guards. Lin, having used Roy's playing cards to pick the lock on her cell, arrives and saves Roy. The three see Rathbone give the Imperial Seal to Wu Chow, the illegitimate brother of the Emperor of China. After a brief struggle, Charlie steals the seal. Rathbone and Wu Chow escape after the former sets the barn that they were in on fire. Lin manages to escape, with Roy and Wang stealing Rathbone's car, later crashing it into Stonehenge. Rathbone fires Artie after suggesting that his "incompetence knows no bounds". Wang and Roy are picked up by Lin the next morning who takes them to Whitechapel.

At a brothel, Roy overhears Wang try to convince Lin that Roy is an unsuitable husband, even telling her of his gigolo history and suspected infertility. Wang soothes Roy's feelings of betrayal by treating him to a pillow fight with the brothel staff. Wang, Roy, and Lin are found and captured by Rathbone, who reveals his plan: In exchange for the seal, Wu Chow will kill the British royal family and frame Lin. As tenth in line for the throne, Rathbone will then become king. Awaiting death, Roy confesses he spent most of the fortune publishing novels such as ''Roy O'Bannon Vs. The Mummy'', in which he portrayed himself as a hero and Wang as a cowardly sidekick. The two are reconciled and Wang says he will not stand between him and Lin. He frees himself and saves Roy.

Wong and Roy consult Artie about Charlie's location. Artie deduces from a hat he dropped that Charlie is at Madame Tussauds. They save him from the Boxers but lose the seal after the three are forced to hand it over to the Boxers, in exchange for Charlie's life. The three are then captured by police. Charlie rescues them and reveals his full name is Charlie Chaplin. They save the royal family from being assassinated by Wu Chow, whom Lin kills with a rocket. The three pursue Rathbone to the top of Big Ben. Roy is thrown off but hangs onto the clock face, while Wang is hopelessly outmatched at swordplay by Rathbone, who repeatedly spares his life so as to prolong their duel. Wang gives up on trying to outright defeat Rathbone, instead severing the support ropes for their platform. Roy catches Wang as Rathbone falls to his death. Both soon jump after grabbing a portion of the Union Jack landing safely on the Queen's coach.

Roy, Wang, and Artie are knighted. Artie decides to write stories, and asks Roy for use of the "Sherlock Holmes" name. Wang opens the box his father sent him to find a message reminding him of the importance of family. Roy proposes that he and Wang go to Hollywood to join the new motion picture industry. Charlie stows away as they drive off.

In prehistoric suburban Bedrock, Slate & Co.'s new vice-president Cliff Vandercave and secretary Sharon Stone discuss their plan to swindle the company of its vast fortune, pin the theft on an employee, and flee. Fred Flintstone loans his best friend and neighbor Barney Rubble money so that he and his wife Betty can adopt a little boy named Bamm-Bamm, who can only pronounce his own name. Though initially hard to control because of his super strength, Bamm-Bamm eventually warms up to his new family and befriends Fred’s daughter Pebbles. Despite his mother-in-law Pearl Slaghoople's objections, Fred's wife Wilma remains supportive of his decision to loan the Rubbles money.

Cliff holds an aptitude test with the worker with the highest mark becoming the company's new vice president. Barney gets the highest score but switches his paper with Fred, whom he knows will fail. Fred receives the promotion, complete with executive perks such as a luxurious office and Stone appointed as his secretary. To test Fred’s willingness to follow orders, Cliff asks him to dismiss Barney who, with Fred's test paper, has the lowest score in the company. Though Fred is unwilling to fire him, Cliff warns him that he will fire both of them. Fred reluctantly accepts, but continues to help Barney support his family, even inviting the Rubbles to live with them so that they can rent out their house. However, Fred's job and newfound wealth eventually hinder his relationships with Wilma and the Rubbles. Cliff eventually tricks Fred into dismissing the other workers, over the objections of his office Dictabird. Later, Barney confronts Fred after seeing worker riots on the news and, after revealing that he switched tests with Fred, moves out with Betty. Wilma and Pebbles also leave for Pearl's house, leaving Fred behind.

Fred goes to the quarry, discovers Cliff's plan, and tries getting Mr. Slate to fire Cliff. However, having manipulated the events to make it look as if Fred stole the money, Cliff has reported the theft to the police. Fred flees, but a manhunt ensues by both the police and the fired workers. Wilma and Betty see this on the news and break into Slate & Co. to get the Dictabird, the only witness who can clear Fred's name, unaware that Cliff saw them from his office window. As a disguised Fred enters the workers' cave, he is discovered and the workers try hanging him. When Barney shows up as a sno-cone truck driver, the workers also try to hang him as well when he admits his role in the events. Fred and Barney reconcile before Wilma, Betty and the Dictabird save them and Wilma tells the workers that Fred was framed by Cliff.

When the Flintstones and Rubbles return home, they find it burglarized with Dino and Pearl tied up and Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm gone. The group finds a note from Cliff saying that he will trade the children for the Dictabird. Fred and Barney confront Cliff at the quarry, where Cliff has tied Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm to a huge machine. Though they hand him the Dictabird, Cliff activates the machine to stall them. Barney rescues the children while Fred destroys the machine. The Dictabird escapes from Cliff and lures him back to the quarry, where Stone incapacitates him, having had a change of heart after learning of Cliff's plan to betray her. The police, Wilma, Betty, and Mr. Slate arrive and Cliff attempts to escape, but he is petrified by a substance falling from the machine.

Fred and the Dictabird tell the police of Cliff's actions and all charges against Fred are dropped. Impressed with the substance that Fred inadvertently created by destroying the machine, Mr. Slate dubs the substance "concrete" in honor of his daughter Concretia and declares the stone age over. Mr. Slate asks for the workers to be rehired and makes plans to produce the concrete with Fred leading its division. Having experienced the negatives of wealth and status, Fred declines the offer and asks that the workers be given two weeks paid leave as part of their salary, preferring to return to his old life. In a homage to the original series, at the end the Flintstones drive home from watching the movie; Fred tries to eat a restaurant order of "ribs" which literally turns the car over on its side; at home Fred tries to put the cat out but ends up locked outside; he screams for Wilma to let him back in.

Juni Cortez, sometime after the events of the second film, has retired from the OSS and now lives quietly, working as a private detective, though on a minuscule salary. One day, he is contacted by President Devlin, the former head of the OSS, who informs him that his sister, Carmen Cortez, is missing after a mission gone wrong.

Arriving at the technological and computer department of the OSS, Juni is reunited with a now reformed Donnagon Giggles and his wife Francesca, who explain that Carmen was captured by the Toymaker, a former OSS informant who was imprisoned in cyberspace by the organization but has since created ''Game Over'', a virtual reality-based video game which he intends on using to permanently take control of children's minds. Juni agrees to venture into the game, save Carmen, and shut down the game, with only twelve hours to win. He is also informed that his sister was last seen on Level 4.

In the game, Juni finds the challenges difficult, having only nine lives within the game and already losing one at the start. While roaming a cartoon-like medieval village, he finds three beta-testers, Francis, Arnold, and Rez, who provide him with passage to the Moon and launch him into space, but mostly to eliminate the competition.

Juni lands hard on the Moon, consequently losing another life, and receives an opportunity to bring in a fellow ally for assistance. He chooses his grandfather Valentin, who uses a wheelchair and has a personal history with the Toymaker. Valentin receives a power-up which gives him a robotic bodysuit, allowing him to walk and possess superhuman strength and durability. Distracted by a butterfly, he abandons Juni, telling him that they will regroup later. Searching for the entrance to Level 2, Juni ventures into a robot battle arena where he fights a girl named Demetra in order to return to Earth and Level 2. In the fight, he receives a robotic, more powerful suit, and he is placed on a huge mecha to combat Demetra. In the 3-round fight, in which he loses another life, he defeats Demetra and he is allowed to keep his power suit.

He meets the beta-testers again who believe that he is a character named "The Guy", who can supposedly beat the allegedly "un-winnable" Level 5. Rez is unconvinced and challenges Juni to a "Mega-race" involving a multitude of different vehicles, which will allow them onto Level 3. The only apparent rule of this game is "win, at any cost". Juni wins the race with help from Valentin, and Demetra joins the group; she and Juni display romantic feelings for each other, with him giving her a med-pack with extra lives and her providing him with an illegal map of the game. Upon entering level 3, Arnold and Juni are forced to battle each other, the loser getting an immediate game over. During the fight, Juni loses almost all of his lives, but Demetra swaps places with Juni and is defeated, seemingly getting a game over, in turn upsetting Juni.

The group arrives at Level 4 where Juni finds Carmen, released by the Toymaker, who leads the group on. Carmen notices their grandfather is with them and tells Juni that the Toymaker is the reason their grandfather uses a wheelchair. Juni follows a map to a lava-filled gorge. The group surfs their way through the lava. The OSS finds out about the history between the Toymaker and Valentin. Fearing that Valentin might seek revenge, Donnagon attempts to prevent them from reaching Level 5, but fails, as they fall into the lava and discover that it is harmless, and they reach a cavern where they find the door to Level 5. Outside of the door to Level 5, Carmen informs them that they only have 5 minutes left. After the other gamers start to think that Carmen and Juni are deceivers and Rez threatens to give Juni a game over, the real "Guy" appears and opens the door. However, he is struck by lightning as part of a booby trap set by the Toymaker when the door to Level 5 is breached, which makes him lose all of his ninety-nine lives and get a game over, forcing the group to move on without him.

In the Level 5 zone, a purple-ish cyberspace, Demetra appears, claiming to have re-entered the game via a glitch but Carmen identifies her as "The Deceiver", a program used to fool players. Demetra confirms this and apologizes to a stunned Juni before the Toymaker attacks the group with a giant robot. Valentin then appears, holding the entrance back to the real world open so the group can escape. Demetra, shedding a tear, quickly holds the door open so he can go with them. Upon return though, it is revealed that Valentin had released the Toymaker with the villain's robot army now attacking the city.

Juni and Carmen summon their family members: parents Gregorio and Ingrid, Gregorio's brother Machete, their Grandmother, and Uncle Felix. With too many robots to handle, Juni calls out for everyone to help, summoning characters from the first two films; Fegan Floop, his assistant Minion, the robot children, Dinky Winks and his son, Romero and a spork, as well as Gary and Gerti Giggles. All of the robots are destroyed except for the Toymaker's. Valentin confronts The Toymaker, and forgives the Toymaker for what he did to him, which Valentin had been trying to find the Toymaker to do for 30 years. The Toymaker shuts down his robot and joins the rest of the Cortez family and their friends in celebrating their families.

''Pantagruel''

The full modern English title for the work commonly known as '''''Pantagruel''''' is '''''The Horrible and Terrifying Deeds and Words of the Very Renowned Pantagruel King of the Dipsodes, Son of the Great Giant Gargantua''''' and in French, ''Les horribles et épouvantables faits et prouesses du très renommé Pantagruel Roi des Dipsodes, fils du Grand Géant Gargantua''. The original title of the work was ''Pantagruel roy des dipsodes restitué à son naturel avec ses faictz et prouesses espoventables''. Although most modern editions of Rabelais' work place ''Pantagruel'' as the second volume of a series, it was actually published first, around 1532 under the pen name "Alcofribas Nasier", an anagram of ''François Rabelais''.

Inspired by an anonymous book, ''The Great Chronicles of the Great and Enormous Giant Gargantua'' (in French, ''Les Grandes Chroniques du Grand et Enorme Géant Gargantua''), ''Pantagruel'' is offered as a book of the same sort.

The narrative begins with the origin of giants; Pantagruel's particular genealogy; and his birth. His childhood is briefly covered, before his father sends him away to the universities. He acquires a great reputation. On receiving a letter with news that his father has been translated to Fairyland by Morgan le Fay; and that the Dipsodes, hearing of it, have invaded his land, and are besieging a city: Pantagruel and his companions depart.

Through subterfuge, might, and urine, the besieged city is relieved, and residents invited to invade the Dipsodes, who mostly surrender to Pantagruel as he and his army visit their towns. During a downpour, Pantagruel shelters his army with his tongue, and the narrator travels into Pantagruel's mouth. He returns some months later, and learns that the hostilities are over.

''Gargantua''

After the success of ''Pantagruel'', Rabelais revisited and revised his source material, producing an improved narrative of the life and deeds of Pantagruel's father: '''''The Very Horrific Life of Great Gargantua, Father of Pantagruel''''' (in French, ''La vie très horrifique du grand Gargantua, père de Pantagruel''), commonly known as '''''Gargantua'''''.

The narrative begins with Gargantua's birth and childhood. He impresses his father (Grandgousier) with his intelligence, and is entrusted to a tutor. This education renders him a great fool, and he is later sent to Paris with a new tutor.

After Gargantua's reeducation, the narrator turns to some bakers from a neighbouring land who are transporting some fouaces. Some shepherds politely ask these bakers to sell them some of the said fouaces, which request escalates into war.

Gargantua is summoned, while Grandgousier seeks peace. The enemy king (Picrochole) is not interested in peace, so Grandgousier reluctantly prepares for violence. Gargantua leads a well-orchestrated assault, and defeats the enemy.

''The Third Book''

In '''''The Third Book of Pantagruel''''' (in French, ''Le tiers-livre de Pantagruel''; the original title is ''Le tiers livre des faicts et dicts héroïques du bon Pantagruel''), Rabelais picks up where ''Pantagruel'' ended, continuing in the form of a dialogue.

Pantagruel and Panurge discuss the latter's profligacy, and Pantagruel determines to pay his debts for him. Panurge, out of debt, becomes interested in marriage, and wants advice.

A multitude of counsels and prognostications are met with, and repeatedly rejected by Panurge, until he wants to consult the Divine Bottle.

Preparations for a voyage thereto are made.

''The Fourth Book''

In '''''The Fourth Book of Pantagruel''''' (in French, ''Le quart-livre de Pantagruel''; the original title is ''Le quart livre des faicts et dicts héroïques du bon Pantagruel''), Rabelais picks up where ''The Third Book'' ended, with Pantagruel and companions putting to sea for their voyage toward the Divine Bottle, Bacbuc (which is the Hebrew word for "bottle", בקבוק)

They sail onward, passing, or landing at, places of interest, until they meet a storm, which they endure, until they can land again.

Having returned to sea, they kill a sea-monster, and drag that ashore, where they are attacked by Chitterlings. Fierce culinary combat ensues, but is peaceably resolved, having been interrupted by a flying pig-monster.

Again, they continue their voyage, passing, or landing at, places of interest, until the book ends, with the ships firing a salute, and Panurge soiling himself.

''The Fifth Book''

'''''The Fifth Book of Pantagruel''''' (in French, ''Le cinquième-livre de Pantagruel''; the original title is ''Le cinquiesme et dernier livre des faicts et dicts héroïques du bon Pantagruel'') was published posthumously around 1564, and chronicles the further journeyings of Pantagruel and his friends. At Ringing Island, the company find birds living in the same hierarchy as the Catholic Church.

On Tool Island, the people are so fat they slit their skin to allow the fat to puff out. At the next island they are imprisoned by Furred Law-Cats, and escape only by answering a riddle. Nearby, they find an island of lawyers who nourish themselves on protracted court cases. In the Queendom of Whims, they uncomprehendingly watch a living-figure chess match with the miracle-working and prolix Queen Quintessence.

Passing by the abbey of the sexually prolific Semiquavers, and the Elephants and monstrous Hearsay of Satin Island, they come to the realms of darkness. Led by a guide from Lanternland, they go deep below the earth to the oracle of Bacbuc. After much admiring of the architecture and many religious ceremonies, they come to the sacred bottle itself. It utters the one word "trinc". After drinking liquid text from a book of interpretation, Panurge concludes wine inspires him to right action, and he forthwith vows to marry as quickly and as often as possible.

The novel is divided into three volumes.

'''Part One (Chapters 1 to 15):''' Gilbert Markham narrates how a mysterious widow, Mrs Helen Graham, arrives at Wildfell Hall, a nearby mansion. A source of curiosity for the small community, the reticent Mrs Graham and her young son, Arthur, are slowly drawn into the social circles of the village. Initially Gilbert Markham casually courts Eliza Millward, despite his mother's belief that he can do better. His interest in Eliza wanes as he comes to know Mrs Graham. In retribution, Eliza spreads (and perhaps creates) scandalous rumours about Helen. With gossip flying, Gilbert is led to believe that his friend Mr Lawrence is courting Mrs Graham. At a chance meeting on a road Gilbert strikes the mounted Lawrence with a whip handle, causing him to fall from his horse. Though she is unaware of this confrontation, Helen Graham still refuses to marry Gilbert, but when he accuses her of loving Lawrence she gives him her diaries.

'''Part two (Chapters 16 to 44)''' is taken from Helen's diaries, in which she describes her marriage to Arthur Huntingdon. The handsome, witty Huntingdon is also spoilt, selfish and self-indulgent. Before marrying Helen, he flirts with Annabella, and uses this to manipulate Helen and convince her to marry him. Helen, blinded by love, marries him, and resolves to reform him with gentle persuasion and good example. After the birth of their only child, however, Huntingdon becomes increasingly jealous of their son (also called Arthur), and his claims on Helen's attentions and affections.

Huntingdon's pack of dissolute friends frequently engage in drunken revels at the family's home, Grassdale, oppressing those of finer character. Both men and women are portrayed as degraded. In particular, Annabella, now Lady Lowborough, is shown to be unfaithful to her melancholy but devoted husband.

Walter Hargrave, the brother of Helen's friend Milicent Hargrave, vies for Helen's affections. While he is not as wild as his peers, he is an unwelcome admirer: Helen senses his predatory nature when they play chess. Walter informs Helen of Arthur's affair with Lady Lowborough. When his friends depart, Arthur pines openly for his paramour and derides his wife, but will not grant her a divorce.

Arthur's corruption of their son – encouraging him to drink and swear at his tender age – is the last straw for Helen. She plans to flee to save her son, but her husband learns of her plans from her diary and burns the artist's tools with which she had hoped to support herself. Eventually, with help from her brother, Mr Lawrence, Helen finds a secret refuge at Wildfell Hall.

'''Part Three (Chapters 45 to 53)''' begins after Gilbert's reading of the diaries. Helen bids Gilbert to leave her because she is not free to marry. He complies and soon learns that she has returned to Grassdale because her husband is gravely ill. Helen's ministrations are in vain, and Huntingdon's death is painful since he is fraught with terror at what awaits him. Helen cannot comfort him, for he rejects responsibility for his actions and wishes instead for her to come with him to plead for his salvation.

A year passes. Gilbert pursues a rumour of Helen's impending wedding, only to find that Mr Lawrence, with whom he has reconciled, is marrying Helen's friend Esther Hargrave. Gilbert goes to Grassdale, and discovers that Helen is now wealthy and lives at her estate in Staningley. He travels there, but is plagued by anxiety that she is now far above his station. By chance he encounters Helen, her aunt and young Arthur. The two lovers reconcile and marry.

The series revolves around a hamster named Hamtaro, who is owned by a 10-year-old girl named Laura Haruna (Hiroko Haruna in the Japanese/Original version). Curious by nature, he ventures out each day to make friends and go on adventures with a clan of fellow hamster friends known as The Ham-Hams. The Ham-Hams meet at a special clubhouse built by Boss ("Taisho").

In Gethsemane, Jesus prays in the night while his disciples Peter, James, and John sleep. Satan appears to Jesus in a hooded ghost-like androgynous form, and tempts him. Jesus' sweat turns into blood and drips to the ground while a serpent emerges from Satan's guise. Hearing his disciples, he rebukes Satan by crushing the snake's head.

Bribed disciple Judas Iscariot leads a group of temple guards to the forest and betrays Jesus' identity. As the guards arrest Jesus, a fight erupts wherein Peter draws his dagger and slashes the ear of Malchus, one of the guards and a servant of the high priest Caiaphas. Jesus heals Malchus' injury while reprimanding Peter. As the disciples flee, the guards secure Jesus, and beat him during the journey to the Sanhedrin.

John informs Mary, mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene of the arrest, while Peter follows Jesus and his captors. Magdalene begs two passing Roman officers to intervene but a temple guard claims she is unbalanced. Caiaphas holds trial over the objection of some priests who are expelled from the court, during which false accusations and witnesses are brought against Jesus. When Caiaphas asks him whether he is the Son of God, Jesus replies, "I am". Caiaphas angrily tears his robes and Jesus is condemned to death for blasphemy. Peter is confronted by the surrounding mob for following Jesus. After cursing at the mob during the third denial, Peter flees when he recalls Jesus's forewarning of his defense. A guilt-ridden Judas attempts to return the money he was paid in order to have Jesus freed, but is refused by the priests. Tormented by demons, he runs away from the city and hangs himself.

Caiaphas brings Jesus before Pontius Pilate to be condemned to death, but at the urging of Pilate's wife Claudia, who knows Jesus is a man of God, and after questioning Jesus and finding no fault, Pilate transfers him to the court of Herod Antipas, as Jesus is from Antipas' ruling town of Nazareth, Galilee. After Jesus is found not guilty and returned, Pilate offers the crowd the choice of chastising Jesus or releasing him. He attempts to have Jesus freed by the peoples' choice between Jesus and violent criminal Barabbas. The crowd demands Barabbas be freed and Jesus crucified. Attempting to appease the crowd, Pilate orders that Jesus simply be flogged. The Roman guards abuse, brutally scourge and mock Jesus, before taking him to a barn where they place a crown of thorns on his head and tease him saying “Hail, king of the Jews”. Mutilated and bloodied, Jesus is presented before Pilate, but Caiaphas, with the crowds' verbal backing, continues demanding that Jesus be crucified and Barabbas released. Pilate reluctantly orders Jesus' crucifixion. Satan observes Jesus' sufferings with sadistic pleasure.

As Jesus carries a heavy wooden cross along to Golgatha, a woman avoids the escort of soldiers and requests that Jesus wipe his face with her cloth, to which he consents. She offers Jesus a pot of water to drink but the guard hurls it away and dispels her. During the journey to Golgotha, Jesus is beaten by the guards until the unwilling Simon of Cyrene is forced into carrying the cross with him. At the end of their journey, with his mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, and others witnessing, Jesus is crucified.

Hanging from the cross, Jesus prays to God asking forgiveness for his tormentors, and provides salvation to a criminal crucified beside him, for his strong faith and repentance. Succumbing, Jesus surrenders his spirit and dies. A single droplet of rain falls from the sky to the ground, triggering an earthquake which destroys the temple and rips the veil covering the Holy of Holies in two, as Satan screams in defeat from the depths of Hell. Jesus' body is taken down from the cross and entombed. Jesus subsequently rises from the dead and exits the tomb resurrected, with wound holes visible on his palms.

The film opens with "two teenage best friends", working-class Julio and upper-class Tenoch—each having sex with their respective girlfriends before the girls depart on a trip to Italy. Without their girlfriends around, the boys take the opportunity to live as bachelors.

At a wedding, they meet Luisa, the Spanish wife of Tenoch's cousin, Jano. Trying to impress Luisa, the boys talk about a fictitious, secluded beach called Boca del Cielo ("Heaven's Mouth"); however, she initially declines their invitation to accompany them there. Later, Luisa visits a doctor; after her appointment, she receives a phone call from a drunken Jano, who tearfully confesses that he cheated on her. The next day, Luisa calls Tenoch and asks if their offer to accompany them to the beach is still open.

Although Julio and Tenoch have little idea where they will actually go, the three set off, driving through rural Mexico. They talk about their relationships and sexual experiences to pass the time: the boys boast about their exploits, while Luisa speaks of Jano and recalls her first love, who died in a motorcycle accident.

During an overnight stop, Luisa leaves a tearful message on Jano's answering machine explaining that she has left him. Tenoch enters her motel room in search of shampoo but finds her crying. Luisa seduces him, and the two have sex. Julio sees them through the open door and walks away, upset. Afterward, Julio tells Tenoch he had sex with Tenoch's girlfriend. The next day, Luisa notices the tension between the boys, so she has sex with Julio to equalize their perceived status. An upset Tenoch then reveals that he has had sex with Julio's girlfriend. Julio and Tenoch go skinny dipping in the pool and they begin fighting, but stop when Luisa threatens to leave them.

Driving along the coastal road that evening, they chance upon an isolated beach that is actually called Boca del Cielo. Making camp there, they begin to relax and enjoy the ocean, along with the company of a local family. After their campsite is ransacked by a herd of pigs, they spend the night in the nearby village, where Luisa makes another phone call to Jano, bidding him an affectionate but final farewell.

That evening, Luisa, Julio, and Tenoch get drunk and joke about their sexual transgressions. Julio and Tenoch reveal that they each have frequently had sex with the other's girlfriend. Julio adds that he had sex with Tenoch's mother, but it is unclear whether he is serious. The three dance together sensually and then retire to their room. As Luisa kneels between the boys and stimulates them both, the boys embrace and kiss each other passionately.

The next morning, the boys wake up together, naked. Tenoch goes outside to vomit, and the boys are eager to return home. The narrator explains that their journey back was quiet and uneventful, and that Luisa stayed behind to explore the nearby coves. The narrator further discloses that the boys' girlfriends broke up with them, and Tenoch and Julio also stopped hanging out.

A year later, in a chance encounter in Mexico City, Tenoch and Julio have a cup of coffee. They awkwardly catch up on each other's lives and news of their mutual friends. Tenoch informs Julio that Luisa died of cancer a month after their trip, and that she had been aware of her prognosis during the time they had spent together. Tenoch excuses himself because his current girlfriend is waiting for him. Before leaving, Tenoch tells Julio he will see him later; however, the narrator reveals that they will never see each other again.

Youngblood Priest (Ron O'Neal), an African-American cocaine dealer, enjoys a luxurious lifestyle in Harlem. He yearns to go straight, despite the fortune he makes. One day, Priest confronts Fat Freddie, one of his dealers, about money that Freddie owes and threatens to force Freddie's wife into prostitution unless he robs a competitor. Although the timid Freddie abhors violence, he agrees and accompanies another member of Priest's "family" of lower-level dealers to commit the robbery.

Priest discusses his plan to buy thirty kilos of high-quality cocaine with the $300,000 he and his partner Eddie have, which they can sell for $1,000,000 within four months. With such a big score, they can retire comfortably. Eddie argues that crime is the only option left to them by "The Man." That night, Eddie and Priest approach Scatter, a retired dealer who started Priest in the business. Scatter initially refuses to help Priest. Eddie threatens Scatter, demanding that he reveal his source if he will not supply them, but Scatter holds him at gunpoint. Priest defuses the situation and persuades Scatter to help them, although Scatter warns that it will be the last time.

Priest and Eddie are joined by Freddie, who turns over the money he stole. The next day, Freddie is picked up for fighting, and when he is beaten by the police, he reveals when and where Priest and Eddie are to pick up the first kilo of cocaine from Scatter. Freddie attempts to escape and is killed when he runs in front of a car.

That night, after picking up the kilo from Scatter, Priest and Eddie are apprehended by several policemen. The lieutenant reveals that he is Scatter's supplier and that they can have as much "weight," as they want, and will be extended both credit and protection. Eddie is elated by the new situation, claiming that they are set for life, although Priest is still determined to quit after selling the thirty kilos. Soon after, the drugs are sold by Priest and Eddie's "family." Priest's white mistress, Cynthia is dismayed to learn that Priest does not return her love and is planning on quitting the business. Their argument is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Scatter who reveals that the real head of the operation is Deputy Commissioner Reardon, who is trying to kill him for quitting. Scatter gives Priest a packet of information on Reardon and his family. Scatter is captured by the corrupt policemen, who give him a fatal overdose of drugs.

Both enraged and scared, Priest gives the information on Reardon and an envelope of cash to two mafia men and takes out a $100,000 contract on "the Man's" life. Priest demands his half of their profits from Eddie. After Priest leaves with the cash, Eddie betrays him by phoning the lieutenant. Priest has anticipated Eddie's duplicity, however, and gives the briefcase carrying the money to a disguised Georgia in exchange for one full of rags. Priest is then picked up by the lieutenant and taken to the waterfront, where he is confronted by Reardon. Reardon threatens Priest that he must continue selling drugs as long as he is ordered to, but when Priest refuses, the policemen begin to beat him. Priest overcomes his foes using karate, then reveals that he knows exactly who Reardon is. Priest explains that he hired contract killers to murder Reardon and his entire family should anything happen to him. The powerless Reardon then watches as Priest walks away free, giving the policemen one final glare before driving off to join Georgia.

Background

After 20th-century civilization was destroyed by a global nuclear war, known as the "Flame Deluge", there was a violent backlash against the culture of advanced knowledge and technology that had led to the development of nuclear weapons. During this backlash, called the "Simplification", anyone of learning, and eventually anyone who could even read, was likely to be killed by rampaging mobs, who proudly took on the name of "Simpletons". Illiteracy became almost universal, and books were destroyed en masse.

Isaac Edward Leibowitz, a Jewish electrical engineer working for the United States military, survived the war and sought refuge from the mobs of the "Simplification" in the sanctuary of a Cistercian monastery, all the while surreptitiously searching for his wife, from whom he had become separated in the war. Eventually concluding that his wife was dead, he joined the monastery, took holy orders (becoming a priest), and dedicated his life to preserving knowledge by hiding books, smuggling them to safety (known as "booklegging"), memorizing, and copying them. He approached the Church for permission to found a new monastic order dedicated to this purpose. With permission granted, he founded his new order in the desert of the American Southwest, where it became known as the "Albertian Order of Leibowitz". The Order's abbey is located in a remote desert in Utah, possibly near the military base where Leibowitz worked before the war, on an old road that may have been "a portion of the shortest route from the Great Salt Lake to Old El Paso". Leibowitz was eventually betrayed and martyred. Later beatified by the Roman Catholic Church, he became a candidate for sainthood.

Six hundred years after his death, the abbey still preserves the "Memorabilia", the collected writings and artifacts of 20th-century civilization that survived the Flame Deluge and the Simplification, in the hope that they will help future generations reclaim forgotten science.

The story is structured in three parts: " ", " ", and " ". The parts are separated by periods of six centuries each.

("Let There Be Man")

In the 26th century, a 17-year-old novice named Brother Francis Gerard is on a vigil in the Utah desert. While searching for a rock to complete a shelter from the desert wolves, Brother Francis encounters a vagrant Wanderer, apparently looking for the abbey, who inscribes Hebrew on a rock that appears to be the perfect fit for the shelter. When Brother Francis picks up the rock, he discovers the entrance to an ancient fallout shelter containing "relics", such as handwritten notes on crumbling memo pads bearing cryptic texts resembling a 20th-century shopping list. He soon realizes that these notes appear to have been written by Leibowitz, his order's founder. The discovery of the ancient documents causes an uproar at the monastery, as the other monks speculate that the relics once belonged to Leibowitz. Brother Francis's account of the Wanderer, who ultimately never turned up at the abbey, is also greatly embellished by the other monks amid rumours that he was an apparition of Leibowitz himself; Francis strenuously denies the embellishments, but equally persistently refuses to deny that the encounter occurred, despite the lack of other witnesses. Abbot Arkos, the head of the monastery, worries that the discovery of so many potentially holy relics in such a short period may cause delays in Leibowitz's canonization process. Francis is banished back to the desert to complete his vigil and defuse the sensationalism.

Many years later, the abbey is visited by Monsignors Aguerra (God's Advocate) and Flaught (the Devil's Advocate), the Church's investigators in the case for Leibowitz's sainthood. Leibowitz is eventually canonized as Saint Leibowitz – based partly on the evidence Francis discovered in the shelter – and Brother Francis is sent to New Rome to represent the Order at the canonization Mass. He brings with him the documents found in the shelter, and an illumination of one of the documents on which he has spent years working, as a gift to the Pope.

En route, he is robbed by "The Pope's Children" – an affectionate name for outcast genetic mutants who are the descendants of fallout victims – and his illumination is taken, though he negotiates with the robbers to keep the original blueprint on which the illuminated copy was based. Francis completes the journey to New Rome and is granted an audience with the Pope. Francis presents the Pope with the remaining blueprint, and the Pope comforts Francis by giving him gold with which to ransom back the illumination; however, Francis is killed during his return trip by the Pope's Children, receiving an arrow in the face. The Wanderer discovers and buries Francis's body. The narrative then focuses on the buzzards who were denied their meal by the burial; they fly over the Great Plains and find much food near the Red River until a city-state, based in Texarkana, rises.

("Let There Be Light")

In 3174, the Albertian Order of Saint Leibowitz is still preserving the half-understood knowledge from before the Flame Deluge and the subsequent Age of Simplification. The new Dark Age is ending, however, and a new Renaissance is beginning. Thon Taddeo Pfardentrott, a highly regarded secular scholar, is sent by his cousin Hannegan, Mayor of Texarkana, to the abbey. Thon Taddeo, frequently compared to Galileo, is interested in the Order's preserved collection of Memorabilia.

At the abbey, Brother Kornhoer, a talented engineer, has just finished work on a "generator of electrical essences", a treadmill-powered electrical generator that powers an arc lamp. He gives credit for the generator to work done by Thon Taddeo. Arriving at the monastery, Thon Taddeo immediately recognizes the significance of Brother Kornhoer's pioneering work. By studying the Memorabilia, Thon Taddeo makes several major "discoveries", and asks the abbot to allow the Memorabilia to be removed to Texarkana. The Abbot Dom Paulo refuses, offering to allow the Thon to continue his research at the abbey instead. Before departing, the Thon comments that it could take decades to finish analyzing the Memorabilia.

Meanwhile, Hannegan makes an alliance with the kingdom of Laredo and the neighboring, relatively civilized city-states against the threat of attack from nomadic warriors living on the plains. Hannegan, however, is secretly manipulating the regional politics to effectively neutralize all of his enemies, leaving him in control of the entire region. Monsignor Apollo, the papal nuncio to Hannegan's court, sends word to New Rome that Hannegan intends to attack the Empire of Denver next, and that he intends to use the abbey as a base of operations from which to conduct the campaign. For his actions, Apollo is executed, and Hannegan initiates a church schism, declaring loyalty to the Pope to be punishable by death. The Church excommunicates Hannegan.

("Thy Will Be Done")

In the year 3781, mankind has emerged into a new technological age, and now possesses nuclear energy and weapons again, as well as starships and extrasolar colonies. Two world superpowers, the Asian Coalition and the Atlantic Confederacy, have been embroiled in a cold war for 50 years. The Leibowitzian Order's mission of preserving the Memorabilia has expanded to the preservation of all knowledge.

Rumors that both sides are assembling nuclear weapons in space, and that a nuclear weapon has been detonated, increase public and international tensions. At the abbey, the current abbot, Dom Jethras Zerchi, recommends to New Rome that the Church reactivate the ("Whither wanders the flock, the shepherd is with them"), a contingency plan in the case of another global apocalypse which involves "certain vehicles" the Church has had since 3756. A "nuclear incident" occurs in the Asian Coalition city of Itu Wan: an underground nuclear explosion has destroyed the city, and the Atlantic Confederacy counters by firing a "warning shot" over the South Pacific. Rumors swirl about whether the city's devastation was deliberate or accidental.

New Rome tells Zerchi to proceed with , and to plan for departure within three days. He appoints Brother Joshua as mission leader, telling him that the mission is an emergency plan for perpetuating the Church on extrasolar colony planets in the event of a nuclear war on Earth. The Order's Memorabilia will also accompany the mission. That night the Atlantic Confederacy launches an assault against Asian Coalition space platforms. The Asian Coalition responds by using a nuclear weapon against the Confederacy capital city of Texarkana, which kills millions of people. A ten-day cease-fire is issued by the World Court. Brother Joshua and the space-trained monks and priests depart on a secret chartered flight for New Rome, hoping to leave Earth on the starship before the cease-fire ends.

During the cease-fire, the abbey offers shelter to refugees fleeing the regions affected by fallout, which results in a battle of wills over the euthanasia of hopelessly irradiated refugees between the abbot and a doctor from a government emergency response camp. The war resumes, and a nuclear explosion occurs near the abbey. Abbot Zerchi tries to flee to safety, bringing with him the abbey's ciborium containing consecrated hosts, but it is too late. He is trapped by the falling walls of the abbey and finds himself lying under tons of rock and bones as the abbey's ancient crypts disgorge their contents. Among them is a skull with an arrow's shaft protruding from its forehead (presumably that of Brother Francis Gerard from the first section of the book).

As he lies dying under the abbey's rubble, Zerchi is startled to encounter Mrs. Grales/Rachel, a tomato peddler and two-headed mutant. However, Mrs. Grales has been rendered unconscious by the explosion, and appears to be dying herself. As Zerchi tries to conditionally baptize Rachel, she refuses, and instead takes the ciborium and administers the Eucharist to him. It is implied that she is, like the Virgin Mary, exempt from original sin. Zerchi soon dies, having witnessed an apparent miracle.

After the abbot's death, the scene briefly flashes to Joshua and the crew, who are preparing to launch as the nuclear explosions begin. Joshua, the last crew member to board the starship, knocks the dirt from his sandals (a reference to Matthew 10:14, "If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet"), murmuring " " ("Thus passes the world", a play on the phrase , "thus passes the glory of the world").

As a coda, a final vignette depicts the ecological aspects of the war: seabirds and fish succumb to the poisonous fallout, and a shark evades death only by moving to particularly deep water, where, it is noted, the shark was "very hungry that season".

"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a first-person narrative told by an unnamed narrator. Despite insisting that they are sane, the narrator suffers from a disease (nervousness) which causes "over-acuteness of the senses".

The old man, with whom the narrator lives, has a clouded, pale, blue "vulture-like" eye, which distresses and manipulates the narrator so much that the narrator plots to murder the old man, despite also insisting that the narrator loves the old man and has never felt wronged by him. The narrator is insistent that this careful precision in committing the murder proves that they cannot possibly be insane. For seven nights, the narrator opens the door of the old man's room to shine a sliver of light onto the "evil eye." However, the old man's vulture-eye is always closed, making it impossible to "do the work," thus making the narrator go further into distress.

On the eighth night, the old man awakens after the narrator's hand slips and makes a noise, interrupting the narrator's nightly ritual. The narrator does not draw back and after some time, decides to open the lantern. A single thin ray of light shines out and lands precisely on the "evil eye," revealing that it is wide open. The narrator hears the old man's heart beating, which only gets louder and louder. This increases the narrator's anxiety to the point where the narrator decides to strike. He jumps into the room and the old man shrieks once before he is killed. The narrator then dismembers the body and conceals the pieces under the floorboards, ensuring the concealment of all signs of the crime. Even so, the old man's scream during the night causes a neighbor to report to the police, who the narrator invites in to look around. The narrator claims that the scream heard was the narrator's own in a nightmare and that the old man is absent in the country. Confident that they will not find any evidence of the murder, the narrator brings chairs for them and they sit in the old man's room. The chairs are placed on the very spot where the body is concealed; the police suspect nothing, and the narrator has a pleasant and easy manner.

The narrator begins to feel uncomfortable and notices a ringing in the narrator's ears. As the ringing grows louder, the narrator concludes that it is the heartbeat of the old man coming from under the floorboards. The sound increases steadily to the narrator, though the officers do not seem to hear it. Terrified by the violent beating of the heart and convinced that the officers are aware of not only the heartbeat but also the narrator's guilt, the narrator breaks down and confesses. The narrator tells them to tear up the floorboards to reveal the remains of the old man's body.

After securing a grant to study stellar structures, American applied mathematician David Sumner moves with his glamorous young Cornish wife Amy to a house near to her home village of Wakely in the Cornish moorland. Amy's ex-boyfriend Charlie Venner, along with his cronies Norman Scutt, Chris Cawsey, and Phil Riddaway, immediately resent that the meek outsider has married one of their own. Scutt, a former convict, confides in Cawsey his jealousy of Venner's past relationship with Amy. David meets Venner's uncle, Tom Hedden, a violent drunkard whose flirtatious teenage daughter Janice seems attracted to Henry Niles, a mentally deficient man despised by the entire town.

The Sumners have taken an isolated farmhouse, Trenchers Farm, that once belonged to Amy's father, and still contains his furniture. They hire Scutt and Cawsey to re-roof its garage, and when impatient with lack of progress add Venner and his cousin Bobby. Tensions in their marriage soon become apparent. Amy criticizes David's condescension towards her and his escape from the volatile, politicized campus, suggesting that cowardice was his true reason for leaving America. He responds by withdrawing deeper into his studies, ignoring both the hostility of the locals and Amy's dissatisfaction. His aloofness results in Amy's attention-gathering pranks and provocative demeanor towards the workmen, particularly Venner. David even struggles to be accepted by the educated locals, as shown in conversation with the vicar, Reverend Barney Hood, and the local magistrate, Major John Scott.

When David finds their missing cat hanging dead in their bedroom closet, Amy reckons Cawsey or Scutt is responsible. She presses David to confront the workmen, but he is too intimidated to accuse them. The men invite David to go hunting the following day. They take him to a remote location and leave him there with the promise of driving birds towards him. With David away, Venner goes to Trenchers Farm where he attempts to force Amy sexually. What starts off as rape eventually turns consensual. After, Scutt enters silently, motions Venner to move away at gunpoint and rapes Amy, who responds less passionately, while Venner reluctantly holds her down. David returns much later, smarting from the practical joke the men pulled on him. Amy, though clearly upset, says nothing about the intruders and what they did to her, apart from a cryptic comment that escapes his attention.

The next day, David fires the workmen, ostensibly for their slow progress. Later, the Sumners attend a church social where Amy becomes distraught on seeing her rapists. At the social, Janice invites Niles to leave with her and, away from the crowd, she begins to seduce him. When it is discovered that Janice is missing, her brother is sent to search for her, and as he calls out for her, Niles panics and strangles Janice to death. The Sumners leave early, driving through thick fog, and accidentally hit Henry Niles as he is escaping the scene of the crime. They take him to their home and David phones the local pub to report the accident. The locals, who in the meantime have learned that Janice was last seen with Niles, are thereby alerted to Niles's whereabouts. Soon, Hedden, Scutt, Venner, Cawsey and Riddaway are drunkenly pounding on the Sumners' door. Inferring their intention to lynch Niles, David refuses to let them take him, despite Amy's pleas. The standoff seems to unlock a territorial instinct in David: "I will not allow violence against this house."

Scott arrives to defuse the situation, but is accidentally shot dead by Hedden during a struggle. Realizing the danger to him in witnessing this homicide, David improvises various traps and weapons, including boiling oil, to fend off the attackers. He inadvertently forces Hedden to shoot himself in the foot, knocks Riddaway unconscious and bludgeons Cawsey to death with a poker. Venner holds him at gunpoint, but Amy's screams alert both men when Scutt assaults her again. Scutt suggests Venner join him in another gang rape, but Venner shoots him dead. David disarms Venner and in the ensuing fight snaps a displayed mantrap around Venner's neck, killing him. Reviewing the resulting carnage and surprised by his own violence, David mutters to himself, "Jesus, I got 'em all." A recovering Riddaway then brutally attacks him, but is shot by Amy as he tries to break David's spine.

David gets into his car to drive Niles back to the village. Niles says he does not know his way home; David says he does not either.

Andrew Crocker-Harris is a classics teacher at an English boys' school. After eighteen years of teaching there, today is his last day before moving on to a position at another school. The students speculate on why he is leaving, but do not much care since despite being academically brilliant, he is generally despised as being strict, stern and humourless. They have nicknamed him "The Crock". Even the school administrators treat him poorly regardless of his long tenure. Millie Crocker-Harris, his wife, is younger and vivacious and quite different from her husband. She no longer loves him but instead loves Frank Hunter, another teacher, yet despite having an affair with him she knows that he is not in love with her. On this last day, one student named Taplow, who does not hate Crocker-Harris but feels sorry for him, gives him a small going-away gift – a copy of the translation by Robert Browning of Aeschylus's ancient play ''Agamemnon''. The gift brings about a series of actions which make Crocker-Harris reflect on his past, contemplate his future, and evaluate how he is going to finish his tenure at the school.

The scenario of the film as originally written by Gance was published in 1927 by Librairie Plon. Much of the scenario describes scenes that were rejected during initial editing, and do not appear in any known version of the film. The following plot includes only those scenes that are known to have been included in some version of the film. Not every scene described below can be viewed today.

Part One

Brienne

In the winter of 1783, young Napoleon Buonaparte (Vladimir Roudenko) is enrolled at Brienne College, a military school for sons of nobility, run by the religious Minim Fathers in Brienne-le-Château, France. The boys at the school are holding a snowball fight organised as a battlefield. Two bullies—Phélippeaux (Petit Vidal) and (Roblin)—schoolyard antagonists of Napoleon, are leading the larger side, outnumbering the side that Napoleon fights for. These two sneak up on Napoleon with snowballs enclosing stones. A hardened snowball draws blood on Napoleon's face. Napoleon is warned of another rock-snowball by a shout from Tristan Fleuri (Nicolas Koline), the fictional school's scullion representing the French everyman and a friend to Napoleon. Napoleon recovers himself and dashes alone to the enemy snowbank to engage the two bullies in close combat. The Minim Fathers, watching the snowball fight from windows and doorways, applaud the action. Napoleon returns to his troops and encourages them to attack ferociously. He watches keenly and calmly as this attack progresses, assessing the balance of the struggle and giving appropriate orders. He smiles as his troops turn the tide of battle. Carrying his side's flag, he leads his forces in a final charge and raises the flag at the enemy stronghold.

The monks come out of the school buildings to discover who led the victory. A young military instructor, Jean-Charles Pichegru (René Jeanne), asks Napoleon for his name. Napoleon responds "Nap-eye-ony" in Corsican-accented French, and is laughed at by the others. Despite the fact Pichegru thought Napoleon had said "Paille-au-nez" (straw in the nose), Pichegru tells him that he will go far.

In class, the boys study geography. Napoleon is angered by the condescending textbook description of Corsica. He is taunted by the other boys, and kicked by the two bullies who hold flanking seats. Another of the class's island examples is Saint Helena, which puts Napoleon into a pensive daydream.

Unhappy in school, Napoleon writes about his difficulties in a letter to his family. A bully reports to a monk that Napoleon is hiding letters in his bed, and the monk tears the letter to pieces. Angry, Napoleon goes to visit the attic quarters of his friend Fleuri, a place of refuge where Napoleon keeps his captive bird, a young eagle that was sent to him from Corsica by an uncle. Napoleon tenderly pets the eagle's head, then leaves to fetch water for the bird. The two bullies take this opportunity to set the bird free. Napoleon finds the bird gone and runs to the dormitory to demand the culprit show himself. None of the boys admits to the deed. Napoleon exclaims that they are all guilty, and begins to fight them all, jumping from bed to bed. In the clash, pillows are split and feathers fly through the air as the Minim Fathers work to restore order. They collar Napoleon and throw him outside in the snow. Napoleon cries to himself on the limber of a cannon, then he looks up to see the young eagle in a tree. He calls to the eagle which flies down to the cannon barrel. Napoleon caresses the eagle and smiles through his tears.

The French Revolution

In 1792, the great hall of the Club of the Cordeliers is filled with revolutionary zeal as hundreds of members wait for a meeting to begin. The leaders of the group, Georges Danton (Alexandre Koubitzky), Jean-Paul Marat (Antonin Artaud) and Maximilien Robespierre (Edmond Van Daële), are seen conferring. Camille Desmoulins (Robert Vidalin), Danton's secretary, interrupts Danton to tell of a new song that has been printed, called "La Marseillaise". A young army captain, Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle (Harry Krimer) has written the words and brought the song to the club. Danton directs de Lisle to sing the song to the club. The sheet music is distributed and the club learns to sing the song, rising in fervor with each passage. At the edge of the crowd, Napoleon (Albert Dieudonné), now a young army lieutenant, thanks de Lisle as he leaves: "Your hymn will save many a cannon."

Splashed with water in a narrow Paris street, Napoleon is noticed by Joséphine de Beauharnais (Gina Manès) and Paul Barras (Max Maxudian) as they step from a carriage on their way into the house of Mademoiselle Lenormand (Carrie Carvalho), the fortune teller. Inside, Lenormand exclaims to Joséphine that she has the amazing fortune to be the future queen.

On the night of 10 August 1792, Napoleon watches impassively as mob rule takes over Paris and a man is hung by revolutionaries. In front of the National Assembly, Danton tells the crowd that they have cracked the monarchy. Napoleon senses a purpose rising within him, to bring order to the chaos. The mob violence has tempered his character.

Napoleon, on leave from the French Army, travels to Corsica with his sister, Élisa (Yvette Dieudonné). They are greeted by his mother, Letizia Buonaparte (Eugénie Buffet) and the rest of his family at their summer home in Les Milelli. The shepherd Santo-Ricci (Henri Baudin) interrupts the happy welcome to tell Napoleon the bad news that Corsica's president, Pasquale Paoli (Maurice Schutz), is planning to give the island to the British. Napoleon declares his intention to prevent this fate.

Riding a horse and revisiting places of his childhood, Napoleon stops in Milelli gardens and considers whether to retreat and protect his family, or to advance into the political arena. Later in the streets of Ajaccio, Pozzo di Borgo (Acho Chakatouny) encourages a mob to put Napoleon to death for opposing Paoli, and the townsfolk surround the Buonaparte home. Napoleon stands outside the door and stares the crowd down, dispersing them silently. Paoli signs a death warrant, putting a price on Napoleon's head. Napoleon's brothers, Lucien (Sylvio Cavicchia) and Joseph (Georges Lampin), leave for Calvi to see if French authorities can intervene. Napoleon faces the danger alone, walking into an inn where men are arguing politics, all of whom would like to see him dead. He confronts the men and says, "Our fatherland is France ...with me!" His arguments subdue the crowd, but di Borgo enters the inn, accompanied by gendarmes. Napoleon evades capture and rides away on his horse, pursued by di Borgo and his men.

Upstairs in the Ajaccio town hall, a council declares war on France even while the French flag flies outside the window. Napoleon climbs up the balcony and takes down the flag, shouting to the council, "It is too great for you!" The men fire their pistols at Napoleon but miss as he rides away.

While chasing Napoleon, di Borgo stretches a rope across a road that Napoleon is likely to take. As expected, Napoleon rides toward the rope, but he draws his sabre and cuts it down. Napoleon continues at high speed to the shore where he finds a small boat. He abandons the horse and gets into the boat, discovering that it has no oars or sail. He unfurls the French flag from Ajaccio and uses it as a sail. He is drawn out into the open sea.

Meanwhile, in Paris, meeting in the National Assembly, the majority Girondists are losing to the Montagnards: Robespierre, Danton, Marat and their followers. Robespierre calls for all Girondists to be indicted. (Napoleon's boat is tossed by increasing waves.) The Girondists seek to flee but are repulsed. (A storm throws Napoleon back and forth in his boat.) The assembly hall rolls with the struggle between Girondists and Montagnards. (Napoleon grimly bails water to prevent his violently rocking boat from sinking.)

Later, in calm water, the small boat is seen by Lucien and Joseph Buonaparte aboard a French ship, ''Le Hasard''. The larger ship is steered to rescue the unknown boat, and as it is pulled close, Napoleon is recognised, lying unconscious at the bottom, gripping the French flag. Waking, Napoleon directs the ship to a cove in Corsica where the Buonaparte family is rescued. The ship sails for France carrying a future queen, three future kings, and the future Emperor of France. The British warship sights ''Le Hasard'', and a young officer, Horatio Nelson (Olaf Fjord), asks his captain if he might be allowed to shoot at the enemy vessel and sink it. The captain denies the request, saying that the target is too unimportant to waste powder and shot. As ''Le Hasard'' sails away, an eagle flies to the Buonapartes and lands on the ship's flag pole.

Part Two

In July 1793, fanatic Girondist Charlotte Corday (Marguerite Gance) visits Marat in his home and kills him with a knife. Two months later, General Jean François Carteaux (Léon Courtois), in control of a French army, is ineffectively besieging the port of Toulon, held by 20,000 English, Spanish and Italian troops. Captain Napoleon is assigned to the artillery section and is dismayed by the obvious lack of French discipline. He confronts Carteaux in an inn run by Tristan Fleuri, formerly the scullion of Brienne. Napoleon advises Carteaux how best to engage the artillery against Toulon, but Carteaux is dismissive. An enemy artillery shot hits the inn and scatters the officers. Napoleon stays to study a map of Toulon while Fleuri's young son Marcellin (Serge Freddy-Karl) mimes with Napoleon's hat and sword. Fleuri's beautiful daughter Violine Fleuri (Annabella) admires Napoleon silently.

General Jacques François Dugommier (Alexandre Bernard) replaces Carteaux and asks Napoleon to join in war planning. Later, Napoleon sees a cannon being removed from a fortification and demands that it be returned. He fires a shot at the enemy, and establishes the position as the "Battery of Men Without Fear". French soldiers rally around Napoleon with heightened spirits. Dugommier advances Napoleon to the position of commander-in-chief of the artillery.

French troops under Napoleon prepare for a midnight attack. Veteran soldier Moustache (Henry Krauss) tells 7-year-old Marcellin, now a drummer boy, that the heroic drummer boy Joseph Agricol Viala was 13 when he was killed in battle. Marcellin takes courage; he expects to have six years of life left. Napoleon orders the attack forward amidst rain and high wind. A reversal causes Antoine Christophe Saliceti (Philippe Hériat) to name Napoleon's strategy a great crime. Consequently, Dugommier orders Napoleon to cease attacking, but Napoleon discusses the matter with Dugommier and the attack is carried forward successfully despite Saliceti's warnings. English cannon positions are taken in bloody hand-to-hand combat, lit by lightning flashes and whipped by rain. Because of the French advance, English Admiral Samuel Hood (W. Percy Day) orders the burning of the moored French fleet before French troops can recapture the ships. The next morning, Dugommier, seeking to promote Napoleon to the rank of brigadier general, finds him asleep, exhausted. An eagle beats its wings as it perches on a tree next to Napoleon. ('End of the First Epoch'.)

Part Three

After being shamed in Toulon, Saliceti wants to put Napoleon on trial. Robespierre says he should be offered the command of Paris, but if he refuses he will be tried. Robespierre, supported by Georges Couthon (Louis Vonelly) and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just (Abel Gance), condemns Danton to death. Saint-Just puts Joséphine into prison at Les Carmes where she is comforted by General Lazare Hoche (Pierre Batcheff). Fleuri, now a jailer, calls for "De Beauharnais" to be executed, and Joséphine's ex-husband, Alexandre de Beauharnais (Georges Cahuzac) rises to accept his fate. Elsewhere, Napoleon is also imprisoned for refusing to serve under Robespierre. He works out the possibility of building a canal to Suez as Saliceti taunts him for not trying to form a legal defence.

In an archive room filled with the files of condemned prisoners, clerks Bonnet ( ) and La Bussière (Jean d'Yd) work secretly with Fleuri to destroy (by eating) some of the dossiers including those for Napoleon and Joséphine. Meanwhile, at the National Assembly, Violine with her little brother Marcellin, watches from the gallery. Voices are raised against Robespierre and Saint-Just. Jean-Lambert Tallien (Jean Gaudrey) threatens Robespierre with a knife. Violine decides not to shoot Saint-Just with a pistol she brought. Back at the archives, the prison clerks are given new dossiers on those to be executed by guillotine: Robespierre, Saint-Just and Couthon.

Joséphine and Napoleon are released from their separate prisons. Napoleon declines the request by to command infantry in the War in the Vendée under General Hoche, saying he would not fight Frenchman against Frenchman when 200,000 foreigners were threatening the country. He is given a minor map-making command as punishment for refusing the greater post. He draws up plans for an invasion of Italy. In Nice, General Schérer (Alexandre Mathillon) sees the plans and laughs at the foolhardy proposal. The plans are sent back, and Napoleon pastes them up to cover a broken window in the poor apartment he shares with Captain Marmont (Pierre de Canolle), Sergeant Junot (Jean Henry) and the actor Talma (Roger Blum). Napoleon and Junot see the contrast of cold, starving people outside of wealthy houses.

Joséphine convinces Barras to suggest to the National Assembly that Napoleon is the best man to quell a royalist uprising. On 3 October 1795 Napoleon accepts, and supplies 800 guns for defence. Directed by Napoleon, Major Joachim Murat (Genica Missirio) seizes a number of cannon to fight the royalists. Di Borgo shoots at Napoleon but misses; di Borgo is then wounded by Fleuri's accidental musket discharge. Saliceti is prevented from escaping in disguise. Napoleon sets Saliceti and di Borgo free. Joseph Fouché (Guy Favières) tells Joséphine that the noise of the fighting is Napoleon "entering history again". Napoleon is made General in Chief of the Army of the Interior to great celebration.

A Victim's Ball is held at Les Carmes, formerly the prison where Joséphine was held. To amuse the attendees, Fleuri re-enacts the tragedy of the executioner's roll-call. The beauty of Joséphine is admired by Thérésa Tallien (Andrée Standard) and Madame Juliette Récamier (Suzy Vernon), and Napoleon is also fascinated. He plays chess with Hoche, beating him as Joséphine watches and entices Napoleon with her charms. The dancers at the ball become uninhibited; the young women begin to dance partially nude.

In his army office, Napoleon tells 14-year-old Eugène de Beauharnais (Georges Hénin) that he can keep his executed father's sword. The next day, Joséphine arrives with Eugène to thank Napoleon for this kindness to her only son. The general staff officers wait for hours while Napoleon clumsily tries to convey his feelings for Joséphine. Later, Napoleon practises his amorous style under the guidance of his old friend Talma, the actor. Napoleon visits Joséphine daily. Violine is greatly hurt to see Napoleon's attentions directed away from herself. In trade for agreeing to marry Napoleon, Joséphine demands of Barras that he place Napoleon in charge of the French Army of Italy. Playing with Joséphine's children, Napoleon narrowly misses seeing Barras in her home. Joséphine hires Violine as a servant.

Napoleon plans to invade Italy. He wishes to marry Joséphine as quickly as possible before he leaves. Hurried preparations go forward. On the wedding day, 9 March 1796, Napoleon is 2 hours late. He is found in his room planning the Italian campaign, and the wedding ceremony is rushed. That night, Violine and Joséphine both prepare for the wedding bed. Violine prays to a shrine of Napoleon. Joséphine and Napoleon embrace at the bed. In the next room, Violine kisses a shadowy figure of Napoleon that she has created from a doll.

Just before leaving Paris, Napoleon enters the empty National Assembly hall at night, and sees the spirits of those who had set the Revolution in motion. The ghostly figures of Danton and Saint-Just speak to Napoleon, and demand answers from him regarding his plan for France. All the spirits sing "La Marseillaise".

Only 48 hours after his wedding, Napoleon leaves Paris in a coach for Nice. He writes dispatches, and letters to Joséphine. Back in Paris, Joséphine and Violine pray at the little shrine to Napoleon.

Napoleon speeds to Albenga on horseback to find the army officers resentful and the soldiers starving. He orders a review of the troops. The troops respond quickly to the commanding presence of Napoleon and bring themselves to perfect attention. Fleuri, now a soldier, tries and fails to get a hint of recognition from Napoleon. The Army of Italy is newly filled with fighting spirit. Napoleon encourages them for the coming campaign into Italy, the "honour, glory and riches" which will be theirs upon victory. The underfed and poorly armed force advances into Montenotte and takes the town. Further advances carry Napoleon to Montezemolo. As he gazes upon the Alps, visions appear to him of future armies, future battles, and the face of Joséphine. The French troops move forward triumphantly as the vision of an eagle fills their path, a vision of the blue, white and red French flag waving before them.

Bean is a homeless child living on the hellish streets of Rotterdam around 2170 after escaping as an infant from an illegal genetic engineering laboratory. Highly intelligent and extremely young, he is on the brink of dying from starvation, but manages to convince a nine-year-old named Poke to let him join her band of homeless children by offering her an idea. He tells Poke she should recruit an older bully to help fend off other bullies who prevent the younger children from eating at a local soup kitchen. She chooses Achilles, a bully with a bad leg; Bean realizes that Achilles is too intelligent and dangerous a choice, but is unable to change Poke's mind. Achilles is able to manipulate Poke's group, and eventually kills Poke.

Bean's incredible intelligence, creativity and determination bring him to the attention of Sister Carlotta, a nun who is recruiting children for the International Fleet (IF) for a war of survival against the alien Buggers. She gets him admitted to Battle School, despite official resistance and skepticism about his background. Bean has to overcome being much younger and smaller than the other child recruits and faces scrutiny when it is revealed that he scored record highs in all of the school's mental tests. As he proves himself, they constantly compare him to Ender Wiggin, another prodigy who preceded him. Bean begins to ferret out secrets and truths about the school. Meanwhile, Sister Carlotta uncovers Bean's past.

Ender has been chosen as the best chance to save humanity from the Buggers; Bean comes to be the backup in case Ender breaks down. Bean is assigned to draw up the roster for Ender's army. At first, Ender does not appear to recognize Bean's brilliance, but time shows that he was grooming Bean and he finally puts Bean in charge of a special new platoon to handle extraordinary missions. Ender wins combat games against the other, more established school armies; as time goes on, the other side is given more and more unfair advantages, but Ender never loses. Achilles joins Battle School, having also been selected for his intelligence and now with his leg healed. Bean concocts a scheme to trap Achilles and make him confess to multiple murders, including Poke's, revealing that he is a sociopath bent on killing anyone who has seen or made him helpless. The IF arrests Achilles.

Eventually, Bean and other students graduate from Battle School to work under Ender, who now commands one side in electronically simulated battles; he is told that his foe is Mazer Rackham, the legendary hero who saved humanity from the Second Invasion. However, Bean deduces from various clues that the "simulations" are real battles: Ender and his "jeesh" are commanding human fleets attacking Bugger planets via the Ansible, an instantaneous communications device. The pace increases and the enemy forces become stronger and stronger. Through it all, Ender keeps on winning, but he begins to break down under the pressure; at times, Bean gives the jeesh additional commands. In the final battle at the Buggers' home planet, Ender faces seemingly impossible odds; his only edge is a weapon—"Dr Device"—that can start a chain reaction that destroys matter, but only if the matter is concentrated enough. Ender freezes, unable to come up with a plan, until Bean's prompt (inadvertently) shows him how they can win. With the victory, Ender commits genocide on the Buggers.

Throughout the book, Bean struggles against the IF administration and how they push Ender, seemingly willing to break him to achieve their goals. Bean also has to contend with his past and his struggle to understand what makes Ender human and better than him.

Bean also makes friends with an older boy named Nikolai who is drawn to Bean because of their similar looks. It is soon discovered, through Sister Carlotta's research, that the two boys are genetic twins, except for Bean's genetic enhancements. When Bean was illegally genetically engineered, the scientist Volescu had "turned Anton's Key," meaning that Bean's body—including his brain—will never stop growing, which will result in a premature death between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five. Sister Carlotta ensures that Bean will get to live with Nikolai and his parents after the war. At the end of the story, after they defeat the buggers, Bean is united with his real parents and Nikolai.

''Ender's Shadow'' is the first of a series that includes ''Shadow of the Hegemon'', ''Shadow Puppets'', ''Shadow of the Giant'', ''Shadows in Flight'', and ''The Last Shadow''.

In a world inhabited by monsters, the city of Monstropolis harnesses the screams of human children for energy. At the Monsters, Incorporated factory, skilled monsters employed as "scarers" venture into the human world to scare children and harvest their screams, through doors that activate portals to children's bedroom closets. The work is considered dangerous, as human children are believed to be toxic and capable of killing a monster through physical contact. Energy production is declining because children are becoming less easily scared, and the company's CEO, Henry J. Waternoose III, is determined to prevent the company's collapse.

One evening after work, top-ranking scarer James P. "Sulley" Sullivan, discovers that an active door has been left in the station of his rival, Randall Boggs. He inspects the door and accidentally lets a small toddler girl into the factory. Frightened, Sulley unsuccessfully attempts to return the girl, who escapes into Monstropolis, interrupting Sulley's best friend and assistant Mike Wazowski on a date at a sushi restaurant. Chaos erupts when other monsters see the girl, Sulley and Mike manage to escape with her before the Child Detection Agency (CDA) arrives and quarantines the restaurant. Forced to keep the girl hidden in their apartment for the night, Sulley soon realizes that the girl is not toxic and her laughter is able to cause a power surge more powerful than screams.

The next day, Sulley and Mike sneak the girl back into the factory disguised as a monster and attempt to send her home. While Mike seeks out her door, Sulley grows attached to her and nicknames her "Boo". Randall, waiting in ambush for her, kidnaps Mike by accident and reveals his plan to revolutionize scaring: to kidnap children and extract screams from them, using a large vacuum-like machine of his invention called the Scream Extractor. Sulley rescues Mike and they go to tell Waternoose about Randall's plan, finding the boss in the middle of a scare demonstration, where he encourages Sulley to perform his roar in the company's simulator room. Sulley unknowingly scares Boo and realizes that scaring children to power the monster world is wrong. Boo inadvertently reveals herself in front of Waternoose, who is in league with Randall. They exile Mike and Sulley to the Himalayas, keeping Boo with them.

The pair are taken in by a yeti, another exiled monster, who tells them about a nearby village, which Sulley realizes he can use to return to the monster world, but Mike refuses to go with him, blaming Sulley for their situation. Sulley returns to the factory and saves Boo from the Scream Extractor, but Randall tries to kill Sulley. Mike returns to reconcile with Sulley, inadvertently saving him from Randall, and they go to return Boo home. Randall pursues them into the door vault, where Boo's laughter activates all the doors at once, allowing them to freely pass in and out of the human world as they attempt to escape. Randall eventually catches up to them and attempts to kill Sulley again, but Boo overcomes her fear of Randall and attacks him, enabling Sulley to catch him. Sulley and Mike hurl Randall through a door to a trailer, where two residents mistake him for an alligator and beat him with a shovel. Sulley and Mike then destroy the door to prevent Randall's return.

When Mike and Sulley locate Boo's door, Waternoose, accompanied by the CDA, bring it down to the scare floor with the intent of arresting Mike and Sulley. Mike distracts the CDA while Sulley and Boo escape with her door, leading Waternoose into the simulation room. There, Sulley tricks Waternoose into revealing his conspiracy with Randall to kidnap thousands of children to forcibly take their screams. Mike records the conversation, exposing him to the agents, and Waternoose is arrested by the CDA for his crimes. The scare floor administrator Roz reveals herself to be the head of the CDA, working undercover to find the mastermind behind the company's internal actions. She thanks Mike and Sulley for their help and allows Sulley to return Boo home, but has the door demolished. Sulley's only memento of Boo is a shredded fragment of her door.

Inspired by his experiences with Boo, Sulley concocts a plan to retool the company's power generation method to harvest children's laughter instead of screams, as laughter is ten times more powerful. With the energy crisis solved, the factory is now focused on making children laugh to collect energy; Mike becomes the company's top comedian and Sulley is named the new CEO. A month later, Mike reveals to Sulley he has rebuilt Boo's door, which only works with all the pieces. Sulley inserts his fragment, enters and reunites with Boo.

Mr Shaitana, a flamboyant collector, meets Hercule Poirot by chance at an art exhibition and brags about his personal crime-related collection. Scoffing at the idea of collecting mere artefacts, Shaitana explains that he collects only the best exhibits: criminals who have evaded justice. He invites Poirot to a dinner party to meet them.

Poirot's fellow guests include three other crime professionals: secret serviceman Colonel Race, mystery writer Mrs Ariadne Oliver, and Superintendent Battle of Scotland Yard; along with four people Shaitana believes to be murderers: Dr Roberts, Mrs Lorrimer, Anne Meredith, and Major Despard. Shaitana taunts his suspects with comments that each understands as applying only to them.

The guests retire to play bridge, the professionals playing in one room while the others play in a second room where Shaitana relaxes by the fire. As the party breaks up, Shaitana is found to be dead – stabbed in the chest with a stiletto from his own collection. None of the suspects can be ruled out, as all had moved around during the evening. Leading the police investigation, Superintendent Battle agrees to put his "cards on the table" and to allow the other professionals to make their own enquiries. Poirot concentrates on the psychology of the murderer.

The investigators look into the suspects' histories: the husband of one of Dr Roberts' patients died of anthrax shortly after accusing the doctor of improper conduct, and a botanist that Despard had been guiding through the Amazon was rumoured to have been shot. Anne's housemate Rhoda Dawes tells Mrs Oliver about an incident that Anne has been concealing, when an elderly woman for whom Anne was acting as companion died after mistaking poison for syrup of figs. Mrs Lorrimer's husband had died twenty years earlier, though little is known about that.

Mrs Lorrimer tells Poirot that she has just been diagnosed with a terminal illness and that she wishes to confess to killing both her husband and Shaitana. Poirot refuses to believe her psychologically capable of spontaneous murder, and thinks that she is protecting Anne. Mrs Lorrimer reluctantly discloses that she had actually seen Anne commit the crime, but feels sympathy for a young girl just starting out in life. The next day, each of the other suspects receives in the morning's post a confession and suicide note from Mrs Lorrimer. Battle informs Poirot by telephone that although several people had rushed to her house it was too late, and she had died of an overdose. Poirot is again suspicious, as he knows that Anne had visited the previous night. He discovers that, due to the established time of death, Mrs Lorrimer could not possibly have sent the letters.

Realising that Rhoda's life is in danger (she being the only person who might give Anne away), Poirot, Battle, and Despard race to Rhoda's cottage, arriving to find the two girls in a boat out on the river. Anne attempts to push Rhoda overboard, but Anne herself falls in and drowns, while Rhoda is rescued by Despard.

Poirot explains his findings. Although Despard had indeed shot and killed the botanist, that had been not murder but an accident. Anne poisoned her employer by switching two bottles to conceal her petty thieving. Although Mrs Lorrimer thought she had seen Anne kill Shaitana, Anne had in fact just leaned forward to touch him and confirm he was already dead.

Poirot explains that only one person was psychologically capable of carrying out a spur-of-the-moment stabbing, namely Dr Roberts. Believing that Shaitana meant to reveal him as the anthrax killer, Roberts quickly took his chance. He covered his tracks by forging Mrs Lorrimer's letters and killing her with an injection when he visited her house. Although Roberts initially protests, he is forced to confess when Poirot reveals a surprise eye-witness to the killing, a window-cleaner. After Roberts is led away, Rhoda notes what amazing luck it was that the window cleaner had been there at the exact moment of the fatal injection. Poirot replies that it had not been luck at all, and introduces them to a hired actor whose presence had prompted Roberts' confession.

With the murder solved, Despard courts Rhoda.

The plot of the film is drawn from the 1926 play ''Chicago'' by Maurine Dallas Watkins which was in turn based on the true story of Beulah Annan, fictionalized as Roxie Hart (Phyllis Haver), and her spectacular murder of her boyfriend.

The silent film adds considerably to the material in Watkins' play, some additions based on the original murder, and some for Hollywood considerations. The murder, which occurs in a very brief vignette before the play begins, is fleshed out considerably. Also, Roxie's husband Amos Hart has a much more sympathetic and active role in the film than he does either in the play or in the subsequent musical. The original ending is altered to have Roxie punished for her crime, in keeping with Hollywood values of not allowing criminals to profit too much from their crimes.

To prevent the fulfillment of a prophecy that a child with a special rune birthmark will bring about her downfall, the evil sorceress Queen Bavmorda of Nockmaar imprisons all pregnant women in her domain. The foretold child is born, but her mother persuades the midwife to smuggle the baby out of the castle. Bavmorda executes the mother and sends her wolf-like Nockmaar hounds after the midwife. After having been able to keep ahead of the hounds for months, the midwife is forced to set the baby adrift on a grass raft before she herself is killed by the dogs. Bavmorda then sends her daughter, Sorsha, and an army, led by General Kael, to hunt down the baby.

Some distance downriver, a village of Nelwyn (little people) prepares for a festival. The baby is found by the children of farmer and aspiring sorcerer Willow Ufgood, and his family takes her in and comes to love her. At the festival, a Nockmaar hound arrives and attacks all the cradles it finds. After the Nelwyn warriors kill it, Willow presents the baby to the village leader, the High Aldwin, as the probable reason for the dog's appearance. The High Aldwin orders the baby must return to a Daikini (tall people) family, so Willow and a party of volunteers set out to find one.

At a crossroads, they find Madmartigan, a mercenary trapped in a crow's cage, who offers to take the baby in exchange for his freedom. The majority of the Nelwyn think that they should give the baby to him, but Willow and his friend Meegosh refuse, causing the others to abandon them and go home. After meeting Madmartigan's old comrade Airk, on his way with an army to attack Bavmorda, Willow relents and agrees to Madmartigan's terms.

On the way home, Willow and Meegosh discover that some brownies have stolen the baby, and pursue them. They are captured by the brownies, but Fairy Queen Cherlindrea frees them and explains the baby is Elora Danan, the foretold Princess of Tir Asleen. She gives Willow a magic wand and sends him to find Fin Raziel, an aging enchantress.

Willow sends Meegosh home, and continues the journey in the company of two of the brownies, Franjean and Rool. On the way, he re-encounters Madmartigan, who is disguising himself as a woman to hide from his mistress's husband Llug. Sorsha and Kael's army arrives, but Madmartigan is revealed as a man to Llug, who starts a brawl which helps Willow and Madmartigan escape with the baby.

Madmartigan, seemingly reluctantly, leads Willow to the lake where Raziel lives. They are captured soon thereafter, along with Raziel, who has been turned into a brushtail possum by Bavmorda. Willow tries to restore her, but he turns her into a rook.

The brownies accidentally dose Madmartigan with Love Potion. He declares undying love for Sorsha, but she is skeptical. Willow's party flees, finding Airk and the remnants of his army after Bavmorda defeated them. When the Nockmaar army pursues, Madmartigan takes Sorsha hostage, and they flee once more. However, Sorsha manages to escape.

Willow's party arrives at Tir Asleen, only to find it cursed and overrun with trolls. Kael's army arrives, and Madmartigan and Willow attempt to fend them off. Sorsha, realizing she has fallen in love with Madmartigan, defects to his side. Willow accidentally turns a troll into a two-headed Eborsisk monster with the wand, and in the chaos that ensues, Kael kidnaps Elora and takes her back to Nockmaar Castle. Bavmorda orders preparation of a ritual to banish Elora from the world forever.

Airk's army arrives and Willow's party joins them, but Bavmorda casts a spell to turn them all to pigs. Willow uses the wand to protect himself before finally restoring Raziel to her humanoid form. She breaks Bavmorda's spell over the army, and they trick their way into the castle. Kael slays Airk, but Madmartigan avenges him, and Willow, Sorsha, and Raziel confront Bavmorda in the ritual chamber. After a grueling fight, Bavmorda incapacitates Raziel and Sorsha. Willow uses sleight-of-hand to trick Bavmorda into thinking he has made Elora disappear. Bavmorda moves to attack him, but, unnerved, accidentally completes the ritual in the process, banishing herself.

Willow is gifted a spellbook by Raziel. Madmartigan and Sorsha adopt Elora and go to live with her in the restored Tir Asleen, while Willow returns home to his village and family in triumph.

In 1986 Arkhangelsk, Soviet Union, MI6 has uncovered a secret chemical weapons facility at the Byelomorye Dam. James Bond and fellow 00-agent Alec Trevelyan are sent to infiltrate the facility and plant explosive charges. During the mission, Trevelyan is shot by General Arkady Ourumov, while Bond escapes by commandeering an aeroplane.

Five years later in 1991, Bond is sent to investigate a satellite control station in Severnaya, Russia, where programmer Boris Grishenko works. In 1993, Bond investigates an unscheduled test firing of a missile in Kyrgyzstan, believed to be a cover for the launch of a satellite known as GoldenEye. This space-based weapon works by firing a concentrated electromagnetic pulse (EMP) at any Earth target to disable any electrical circuit within range. As Bond leaves the silo, he is ambushed by Ourumov and a squad of Russian troops. Ourumov manages to escape during the encounter.

In 1995, Bond visits Monte Carlo to investigate the frigate ''La Fayette'', where he rescues several hostages and plants a tracker bug on the ''Pirate'' helicopter before it is stolen by the Janus crime syndicate. Bond is then sent a second time to Severnaya, but during the mission, he is captured and locked up in the bunker's cells along with Natalya Simonova, a captive computer programmer unwilling to work with Janus. They both escape the complex seconds before it is destroyed—on the orders of Ourumov—by the GoldenEye satellite's EMP. Bond next travels to Saint Petersburg, where he arranges with ex-KGB agent Valentin Zukovsky to meet the chief of the Janus organisation. This is revealed to be Alec Trevelyan—his execution by Ourumov in the Arkhangelsk facility was faked.

Bond and Natalya escape from Trevelyan, but are arrested by the Russian police and taken to the military archives for interrogation. Eventually, Bond escapes the interrogation room, rescues Natalya, and communicates with Defence Minister Dimitri Mishkin, who has verified Bond's claim of Ourumov's treachery. Natalya is recaptured by General Ourumov, and Bond gives chase through the streets of St. Petersburg, eventually reaching an arms depot used by Janus. There, Bond destroys its weaponry stores and then hitches a ride on Trevelyan's ex-Soviet missile train, where he kills Ourumov and rescues Natalya. However, Alec Trevelyan and his ally Xenia Onatopp escape to their secret base in Cuba.

Natalya accompanies Bond to the Caribbean. Surveying the Cuban jungle aerially, their light aircraft is shot down. Unscathed, Bond and Natalya perform a ground search of the area's heavily guarded jungle terrain but are ambushed by Xenia, who is quickly killed by Bond. Bond sneaks Natalya into the control centre to disrupt transmissions to the GoldenEye satellite and force it to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. He then follows the fleeing Trevelyan through a series of flooded caverns, eventually arriving at the antenna of the control centre's radio telescope. Trevelyan attempts to re-align it in a final attempt to restore contact with the GoldenEye, but Bond destroys machinery vital to controlling the antenna and defeats Trevelyan in a gunfight on a platform above the dish.

''Perfect Dark'' is set in 2023 against the backdrop of an interstellar war between two alien races: the Maians, who resemble the archetypal Grey alien, and the Skedar, reptile-like creatures who use a cloaking device to appear human. On Earth, there is an ongoing rivalry between two companies: The Carrington Institute, a research centre founded by Daniel Carrington that secretly operates an espionage group in league with the Maians; and dataDyne, a defence contractor corporation headed by Cassandra de Vries. In exchange for creating an AI with code-breaking abilities to access an ancient alien spacecraft at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, the Skedar agree to supply dataDyne with enough alien technology to become the biggest corporation on Earth.

The player is cast as Joanna Dark, an agent of the Carrington Institute whose excellent scores in training have earned her the codename "Perfect Dark". On her first mission, she is sent to extract a defector known as Dr. Caroll from a dataDyne laboratory. Dr. Caroll is revealed to be the AI created by dataDyne, and is worried about the mission for which it had been designed. After the extraction, Carrington is held captive at his private villa by dataDyne soldiers. When Joanna rescues him, she is informed that Dr. Caroll has been taken to a dataDyne front in Chicago. There, Joanna learns that Cassandra, NSA director Trent Easton, and a mysterious man known as Mr. Blonde plan to kidnap the President of the United States to get access to a deep sea research vessel called the ''Pelagic II''. Although the President is in danger, Carrington alerts Joanna that a Maian craft was shot down near Area 51 and sends her to rescue a Maian protector named Elvis.

Because the President of the United States refuses to loan dataDyne the ''Pelagic II'', the NSA sends a strike team to kill and replace him with a dataDyne-grown clone. The strike team invades the air base from which the Air Force One will depart. When Joanna foils this strike, the NSA and a group of cloaked Skedar take over the plane itself, which crashes after Joanna attempts to detach a craft attached to it. Having survived the crash, Joanna eliminates the President's clone and rescues the real President. Trent's incompetence angers Mr. Blonde, who kills him after disabling his cloaking device. With no other options, dataDyne hijacks the ''Pelagic II'' to reach the ancient spacecraft. However, unbeknownst to dataDyne, the spacecraft contains a powerful weapon capable of destroying a planet and the Skedar intend to test it on Earth before using it against the Maian homeworld.

Joanna and Elvis follow dataDyne to the ancient spacecraft, where they find a reprogrammed Dr. Caroll cracking the weapon. Joanna replaces its current personality with a backup of the original, and the restored Dr. Carroll sets the weapon to self-destruct. As Carrington and Joanna prepare for a Presidential reception, the Skedar assault the Carrington Institute and capture Joanna. In space, aboard an alien spaceship on course to the Skedar homeworld, Joanna finds herself in a holding cell with Cassandra. Feeling that she has been used, Cassandra redeems herself by making a distraction and sacrificing herself, freeing Joanna and therefore giving herself a chance for revenge. With the help of Elvis, Joanna takes control of the spaceship and lands on the Skedar homeworld, where she ultimately defeats the Skedar leader, leaving the Skedar in disarray. The game ends with Elvis and Joanna leaving the planet just prior to an orbital bombardment from the Maian navy.

The first-person narrative is told from the point of view of Alexei Ivanovich, a tutor working for a Russian family living in a suite at a German hotel. The patriarch of the family, The General, is indebted to the Frenchman de Grieux and has mortgaged his property in Russia to pay only a small amount of his debt. Upon learning of the illness of his wealthy aunt, "Grandmother", he sends streams of telegrams to Moscow and awaits the news of her demise. His expected inheritance will pay his debts and gain Mademoiselle Blanche de Cominges's hand in marriage.

Alexei is hopelessly in love with Polina, the General's niece. She asks him to go to the town's casino and place a bet for her. After hesitations, he succumbs and ends up winning at the roulette table. He returns to her the winnings but she will not tell him the reason she needs money. She only laughs in his face (as she does when he professes his love) and treats him with cold indifference, if not downright malice. He only learns the details of the General's and Polina's financial state later in the story through his long-time acquaintance, Mr. Astley. Astley is a shy Englishman who seems to share Alexei's fondness of Polina. He comes from English nobility and has a good deal of money.

One day while Polina and Alexei are on a walk he swears an oath of servitude to her. He tells her while on a walk on the Schlangenberg (a mountain in the German town) that all she had to do was give the word and he would gladly walk off the edge and plummet to his death. Thereafter, they see Baron and Baroness Wurmerhelm. Polina dares him to insult the aristocratic couple and he does so with little hesitation. This sets off a chain of events that details Mademoiselle Blanche's interest in the General and gets Alexei fired as tutor of the General's children. Shortly after this, Grandmother shows up and surprises the whole party of debtors and indebted. She tells them all that she knows all about the General's debt and why the Frenchman and woman are waiting around the suite day after day. She leaves the party of death-profiteers by saying that none of them are getting any of her money. She then asks Alexei to be her guide around the town famous for its healing waters and infamous for its casino where the tables are stacked with piles of gold; she wants to gamble.

After being ushered to the roulette table, she plays and wins 13,000 Friedrichs d'ors (7000–8000 roubles), a significant amount of money. After a short return to the hotel, she comes back to roulette tables and she starts to get the bug; before she leaves the town, she's lost over a hundred thousand roubles in three days.

When Alexei gets back to his room after sending Grandmother off at the railway station, he's greeted by Polina. She shows him a letter where des Grieux says he has started legal proceedings to sell General's properties mortgaged to him, but he is returning properties worth fifty thousand roubles to General for Polina's benefit. des Grieux says he feels he had fulfilled all his obligations that way. Polina tells Alexei she is des Grieux's mistress and she wishes she had fifty thousand to fling at des Grieux's face. Upon hearing this, Alexei runs out of the room and to the casino where he in a feverish rush of excitement wins in few hours two hundred thousand florins (100,000 francs) and becomes a rich man. When he gets back to his room and the waiting Polina, he empties his pockets full of gold (Alexei estimates the weight to some ) and bank notes onto the bed. At first she accuses him of trying to buy her like des Grieux, but then she embraces him. They fall asleep on the couch. Next day, she asks for fifty thousand florins (25,000 francs) and when he gives it to her, she flings that money at Alexei's face and runs off to Mr. Astley (Polina and Mr. Astley had been secretly meeting and exchanging notes; she was supposed to meet Astley the night before, but had come by mistake to Alexei's room). Alexei doesn't see her again.

After learning that the General wouldn't be getting his inheritance and that Prince Nilski is penniless, Mademoiselle Blanche leaves the hotel with her mother/chaperone for Paris and seduces Alexei to follow her. Alexei goes with them, and they stay together for almost a month, he allowing Mlle Blanche to spend his entire fortune on Mlle Blanche's personal expenses, carriages and horses, dinner dances, and a wedding-party. After getting herself financially secured, in order to get an accepted status in the societies, Mlle Blanche unexpectedly marries the General, who has followed her to Paris.

Alexei starts to gamble to survive. One day he passes Mr. Astley on a park bench in Bad Homburg and has a talk with him. He finds out from Astley that Polina is in Switzerland and actually does love Alexei. Astley tells that Grandmother has died and left Polina and the children financially secured. The General has died in Paris. Astley gives him some money but shows little hope that he will not use it for gambling. Alexei goes home, initially promising himself to head for Switzerland the next day, yet recollects a past incident where he spent the last of his money on gambling and won big. Drawing parallels to his destitution now, and believing himself to be predestined to win, he makes up his mind to try his luck at the roulette tables one last time before leaving for Switzerland tomorrow.

Overall story framework

At the beginning of the Great War, upon mobilisation in August 1914, Curzon holds the rank of senior major in the not particularly fashionable 22nd Lancers. During the Boer War he won some distinction in an old-style cavalry charge but his character-forming career since has been a matter of rigid and unimaginative peacetime routine.

Curzon is given a temporary promotion to battalion command and then quickly a brigade command. At the Battle of Ypres, he manages to keep his head about him and following the death of his brigadier becomes a general. He returns to England, while his unit is in Belgium and is promoted again though chance and political intrigue. He makes an advantageous marriage to Emily the daughter of the Duke of Bude which gives him political connections to the opposition "Bude House" set.

Curzon is promoted again and again, eventually being placed in command of the 10,000-man (fictional) 91st Infantry Division, ordering attacks that condemn many of them to mutilation and death amongst the shells, gas and the machine guns. At the end, the 91st Division, which he has brought to a high degree of efficiency, is forced to retreat in the March 1918 German offensive. Faithful to his own traditional values, Curzon decides to "go up the line" among his troops on his horse with a sword rather than face defeat and professional failure. The novel implies that he seeks death in battle; he says "We can still go down fighting". He is injured by a shell fragment, endures months of drugged agony and loses a leg. His war is over.

Psyche of the main character

Curzon – General Sir Herbert Curzon by this time – is not a brutal man or an uncaring one: simply a brave and honest but stubborn and unimaginative leader. For Forester, the tale of Herbert Curzon's almost inevitable rise to high command, the senseless slaughters he directs and his eventual retirement to the life of an aged cripple in a wheelchair, is not about Curzon – it is about the attitudes and mores of the British Army and of British ruling society more generally: the limited and inflexible mindsets that (in Forester's view) contributed to the appalling casualties and the horrors of the First World War.

He distrusts theorists, and is not part of the "blood-brotherhood of Camberley" (the staff college) Like his seniors he believes in "Attrition" and the "Big Push" with brute force; more men, more guns. Hence he is startled by the tank victory at Cambrai.

War Office scene

The novel has an episode in the War Office with a field-marshal, a general and a major-general agreeing to promote Curzon, which is not due to any scheming but because though there were a hundred possible officers "an adventitious circumstance had singled him out for particular notice". Major-General Mackenzie laments, "where am I to get three hundred good brigadiers from?". The field-marshal (who is constructing a "modern army" out of the remains of the Expeditionary Force that Curzon was in) has Curzon promoted to major-general so he outranks Webb, as Curzon is junior to Webb as brigadier-general. But later Curzon has to "unstick" (send home) Webb when he wants to "adjust" (withdraw) his line. Eventually Curzon has command of four divisions or a hundred thousand men: "as many as Wellington or Marlborough ever commanded."

At the outbreak of war, "someone in London had done his work extraordinarily well to "put an Army” (the British Expeditionary Force) ashore lacking absolutely nothing. Curzon is promoted to (temporary) lieutenant-colonel as a "vigorous younger man" to replace his predecessor, who is near retirement and is given an (unwelcome) promotion to train a brigade of yeomanry. But with the Ninety-first division, one of the new armies, "the War Office was found wanting … they were left unclothed, unhoused and unarmed (and) shivered in tents pitched in seas of mud" So Curzon got Mackenzie to wangle allocations of duckboards etc to make life bearable by saying he was dining with influential people (he was dining with Emily).

Mackenzie is the Director-General of Tactical Services, and when the Liberal Government admitted some of the Opposition to government: "while men in high position fell right and left, General Mackenzie remained Director-General of Tactical Services. Others greater than he – among them the greatest Minister of War that England ever had – were flung out of office, but Mackenzie remained despite his very unsound attitude in the Ulster crisis. Perhaps that is the most important contribution Curzon ever made to the history of England" Curzon, one of whose traits is personal loyalty, has urged his father-in-law the Duke to keep Mackenzie.

The field marshal and Minister of War was Sirdar of the Egyptian Army when he was forty-one (Curzon's age), so is similar to Kitchener. But in the novel he is forced from office, not drowned at sea. He is replaced by another cavalry-man, Scottish instead of Irish, named as Haig.

Scrooge McDuck, in his second appearance, recruits his nephews to search for a family treasure back in Dismal Downs, the old castle of Clan McDuck, built in the middle of a swamp in Scotland. The treasure once belonged to Sir Quackly McDuck, but both the treasure and its owner disappeared during the siege of 1057. The Clan has been searching for the treasure for centuries but Scrooge, the last McDuck, believes he can locate it thanks to an X-Ray machine that can examine through the castle's walls.

Finding the treasure proves to be the easy part of the mission, but they have to face a mysterious ghost who steals the treasure from them and repeatedly tries to dispose of any pursuers. They can't see it but they can see its shadow, that of a skeleton. During this, Scottie, the caretaker of the castle, seems to have been murdered by Sir Quackly, while Scrooge, Donald, and the Nephews find themselves trapped in a locked battlement. The Nephews escape by swinging across into the surrounding moat, but can't get in. However, remembering the tale of Sir Swamphole McDuck who sealed the dungeons (due to the high cost of running a dungeon), they locate a secret passageway into the castle's dungeons through his fake grave site (his skeleton was inside his armor).

Scrooge and Donald remain on the battlement, until Scrooge reveals he has a gun which can shoot the lock and unlock the door. Scrooge, embarrassed, tells Donald to give him "a good, swift kick!". While in the dungeon, the Nephews find the treasure box, but are nearly attacked by the ghost and discover another way out of the dungeon; the pillar upon which Sir Swamphole's armor is resting is actually a door. Scrooge, Donald, and the nephews find an invisibility spray before giving chase to the ghost, now covered in mud and no longer invisible, through the swamp. The nephews and Donald tackle him to the ground and retrieve the treasure box. The ghost is revealed to be a thief who was impersonating Scottie (who had died of old age years before) using a special spray-like formula that made him invisible, but didn't prevent his skeleton from casting a shadow. Donald then takes all the nephews' credit, claiming they hadn't known the invisibility spray even existed. Enraged, the nephews then trick Donald into thinking the spray is a mosquito repellent, where they then make him completely invisible save for his tail and legs.

The story features Donald and his three nephews as members of a museum-sponsored expedition searching for the source of a number of square "artifacts" held in the Duckburg museum, recently revealed to be square eggs when Donald drops one and it cracks open. There is a rising interest, both scientific and financial, to find the source of these eggs and the chicken that laid them. However, the only thing known about them is that they came from Peru and were found somewhere in the Andes.

During their journey to South America, the nephews use some of the old square eggs from the museum to make an omelette. This causes the members of the expedition to come down with food poisoning. By the time their boat reaches Peru, the only ones that have recovered enough to continue the expedition are the youngest in the group and the lowest in hierarchy — Donald and his nephews.

Their search for the square eggs in the Andes seems hopeless, as the local population sees them either as insane or as suckers to be fooled into buying artificial eggs. Finally, they meet a very old man who tells them of how his father once came into possession of square stones similar to their own. The father had found them on the body of an American explorer who had emerged from a neighboring valley, which is covered in perpetual mist. The explorer, who had wandered the valley to the point of exhaustion, died soon afterward. The old man's father later sold some of the "stones" in a local village and these ended up as the square eggs at the museum.

The Ducks follow the dead man's path into the mists and after days of effort they find a populated valley in the mountains, hidden by the mists. The inhabitants are entirely cubical with square heads and noses. They speak with an old American Southern accent taught to them by their previous visitor, the dead man, Professor Rhutt Betlah (a wordplay on Rhett Butler) from Birmingham, Alabama, who had discovered their valley during the late 19th century.

During their stay in the valley, which the professor has named "Plain Awful", Huey, Dewey, and Louie blow some bubble gum bubbles, which is against the law in Plain Awful: It's forbidden to produce any round objects in the valley. The only way to get out of the valley and avoid capital punishment is for Huey, Dewey, and Louie to produce square bubbles. They manage to do that by teaching the square chickens to chew gum and blow bubbles. The nephews hid the chickens under their shirts and pretend they made the bubbles themselves.

The Ducks convince the very hospitable locals to let them go. The latter are sad to see them go, because they were a source of information from the outside world to their small and isolated civilization. They give the Ducks a compass that the professor had left in Plain Awful, having been placed in a museum as a piece of art and, in return, they teach them square dancing. When they leave the valley, in one of Barks' scarce moralizing moments, Donald remarks that the people in Plain Awful "had so little of anything, yet they were the happiest people we've ever known."

Bringing two square chickens and eggs with them, the Ducks again struggle to escape from the mists. Finally, when they do manage it, they are nearly exhausted. The two chickens are still alive, but they had to eat the eggs. It's only when they return to Duckburg, that they realize the entire expedition was a failure: both of the chickens are male and naturally can't reproduce. The story ends with Donald now giving an angry response to whoever mentions eggs and chicken to his face.

Donald Duck and his three nephews are on a holiday in California, heading to Los Angeles. They take a small narrow road that seems deserted and discuss California's history as they travel. Donald Duck opines that the turning point in California's history was the California Gold Rush. As he speaks passionately on this topic, Donald Duck is momentarily distracted from his driving. The car crashes in a rock besides the road.

When Donald Duck and his three nephews regain consciousness, they find they are visitors of a local tribe of Native Americans. The tribe kindly offer to help the foursome recover. The exhausted Ducks are offered a drink, and they fall asleep. When they wake again, they find themselves in Alta California, 1848. They quickly manage to befriend a local Spanish-speaking family of Californios, owners of a cattle ranch, together with the ranch workers. As visitors, Donald Duck and his nephews observe the family's life and moreover, they attempt to help with the family problems. They visit San Francisco and acquire land cheaply, but soon are swindled out of them by American settlers. Afterwards, the Ducks become involved in the Gold Rush and as goldminers partner with a friend from the ranch. The Ducks do the digging, while their partner's fists and guns make sure that nobody swindles them out of their gold.

After their friend departs, the Ducks start to experience an odd fading of their environment. It seems to them that all their acquaintances from this era are now only distant memories. It's at this point that the Duck family truly regain consciousness to discover the truth. They were in a coma in a hospital bed for weeks. The drink they had accepted had kept them sleeping for this long. The Ducks all have the same memory of their apparent experiences in time travel. Despite this, the Ducks believe themselves fully recovered, take possession of their car (which has been completely repaired) and continue on their way as if nothing had happened. However, the Ducks do make a stop first at an abandoned old house where they had stayed as visitors in 1848. They admit that they don't know if it was all a dream or if they really experienced the events they recall from 1848, but nevertheless they choose to keep the memory of Old California.

The story begins with Donald's nephews passing through Shacktown, the most impoverished area of Duckburg. They progressively get more depressed as they see the living conditions there, children of their age dressed in rags and having tired expressions, hunger and sickness evident in many of them. They feel responsible for it and want to help those poor children find some happiness. The Ducks have the idea of organizing a Christmas celebration.

They ask for the help of Daisy Duck, president of a local ladies' society, and their friends in the Junior Woodchucks. Soon, however, it becomes evident that raising enough money is harder than it sounds. With all their efforts, they are still fifty dollars short.

Donald Duck has the idea to ask his Uncle Scrooge for the money. Scrooge refuses his nephew's request for a donation, but nevertheless offers to match Donald's own twenty-five dollars, if he can manage to raise that much.

Donald soon learns that asking for charity during the holidays, when every family struggles with its own increased expenses, is extremely difficult. He tries to trick his Uncle into making the donation, but he is unable to do so. Only when he swallows his pride and asks for his cousin Gladstone Gander's help does he finally succeed in raising his twenty-five dollars.

When he arrives at his uncle's money bin, an apparently shocked Scrooge tells him it is too late. Enraged, Donald opens the vault door and discovers that inside, the overloaded floor had collapsed, and the money has been lost in the caverns below Duckburg. Now Donald still is twenty-five dollars short and has to take care of a shocked and depressed uncle.

Dewey, Huey and Louie remember that they once explored Shacktown district and learned about a cavern that might lead to the lost money. In the cavern, the ducks find a beaver hole that leads to the money, but it can't be expanded as the vibration would collapse the bottom of the cavern, making it impossible to retrieve the money. The boys bring a toy train to retrieve the money and Scrooge promises that they can keep the first load of money, no matter how much it is. They manage to get a hefty pile of bills and Scrooge faints, and using the bills, the residents of Shacktown receive a grand Christmas party. Scrooge, however, resides in the cavern and complains how he must wait for 272 years for the toy train to bring out all the money from the bottom.

Donald is working as a guard at the Duckburg Museum, but finds his duties unsatisfying. The relics of the glorious past in the halls of the museum are all but forgotten, as the crowds are more interested in the butterfly, lace, and tatting collections. Donald laments his luck for being stuck there, while he thirsts for an adventure like the Vikings.

Donald's wish is soon answered when he becomes involved in a relic hunt of great importance. According to an old Viking saga and a map discovered in the museum, Olaf the Blue, a Viking explorer, had reached the coast of North America in the early 10th century and had claimed this land as his property — a claim that was indeed valid according to an international treaty drafted in 792 during the reign of Charlemagne. Accompanied by an attorney named Sharky, Azure Blue, a man who claims to be Olaf's distant descendant, sets out to find the evidence that his ancestor left behind as proof of his claim — a Golden Helmet, whose possessor will be the owner of North America.

The museum's director enlists Donald and his nephews in a rival attempt to find the helmet first. Its location is estimated to be somewhere on the coast of Labrador, Canada. During their search, both rival expeditions lose all modern equipment, and by the time they find the helmet they must try to reach Labrador's coast traveling like the Vikings did. This is the least of their problems as the helmet changes hands between Azure Blue, the museum's director, Donald, and Lawyer Sharky.

The helmet, an object of power, has the same effect on each of its successive owners: A cold glitter in their eyes betrays awakening greed and ambitions, as they become more ruthless, each of them in turn revealing the dreams of a would-be tyrant. Donald goes so far as to suggest charging for oxygen, with people wearing meters on their chests to keep track of how much they breathe. The idealistic museum director isn't interested in personal wealth, but changing North American culture and education to his own ideals, to the "benefit" of society.

Finally, Donald's nephews manage to throw the helmet into the sea and end the madness, but not before Louie gets the same glitter in his eyes. Back at the museum after the adventure, Donald is again working as a guard, after all he decides to get acquainted with contemporary times and interest himself of the current exhibits that appeal to the masses.

At the beginning of the story, Scrooge McDuck seems to be suffering from memory lapses to the point he cannot even recognize Donald. Donald drags him to a doctor and Scrooge is given some pills supposed to help recover his memory. As his memory returns, Scrooge suddenly starts planning to return to the Klondike, Yukon, the place of his youth where he earned his wealth. He tells Donald and his nephews, who accompany him, he has left a cargo of gold buried near his old hut. Scrooge also begins to make references to "Glittering Goldie", a person of his past.

As Scrooge seems to relive his past, but feeling his age, they arrive in Dawson, where Scrooge explains how he and Goldie met. Scrooge tells his nephews how Goldie stole his gold from him in the past, and how he kidnapped her and forced Goldie to work for him at his mining claim, up until the point where we see -in a flashback scène- Goldie shouting at Scrooge while crying for her ruined dress.

The journey continues till they reach his old lodge and to their surprise it's occupied. Also, the current occupant forcibly resists any of their attempts to approach. Finally the nephews manage to surprise and disarm the old lady behind the attack, Goldie herself. As Scrooge and Goldie meet again, both a rivalry and an attraction to each other seem to resurface. But Scrooge demands an old debt that Goldie cannot pay. She gives her last jewelry to Scrooge and just leaves, apparently quitting. But Scrooge calls her back and challenges her to a contest. A contest of who can find gold first.

Goldie succeeds in finding Scrooge's old cache that is now worth a fortune. After more than fifty years she succeeded. Scrooge leaves seemingly defeated and pretending that because he hadn't taken his pills, he had forgotten where the gold was. But behind his back, Donald reveals to his nephews that Scrooge had indeed taken the pills and practically offered this gold to Goldie. In the end, his nephews realize that Scrooge is more emotional than he would like to appear.

"Tralla La" begins with Uncle Scrooge having a hard day at his office, and it doesn't get better when he attempts to walk along the street to relax; everyone he meets wants some of his money. The stress of this way of life gets to him and he suffers a nervous breakdown. Though he improves, he can't stand to see or hear about money, as he now associates it with all the troubles that got him to this point. In order to heal, he searches for a place where money has no influence. Tralla La may be such a place, where a peaceful society without a monetary system is rumored to exist.

Scrooge and his nephews, who are there to support his healing, finally locate the mythical place in a deep valley high in the Himalayas and arrive by parachute. There, they get acquainted with a more peaceful existence than to which they were accustomed.

However, as Scrooge seems to be healing, he doesn't realize he brought his troubles with him. He brought bottles of his medication along. The bottle caps he discards are considered rare treasures in Tralla La and become the basis of a new monetary system. The inhabitants of Tralla La become obsessed with these new treasures. To solve the issue, Scrooge has planes drop one billion bottle caps, but this becomes too many, and the inhabitants become angry, as their fields are now covered with caps. The Ducks must flee, as they apparently cannot find peace even in an Earthly paradise.

Whereas the first ''Star Control'' stores most of its lore in the instruction manual, ''Star Control II'' continues the story with a rich in-game experience, playing through events after the Alliance is defeated by the Hierarchy. In the last phase of the war between the Alliance of Free Stars and the Hierarchy of Battle Thralls, an Earthling ship discovered an ancient Precursor subterranean installation in the Vela star system. A massive Hierarchy offensive forced the Alliance fleets to retreat beyond Vela, stranding the science expedition, who went in to hiding. Decades later, with the help of a genius child born on the planet, the colonists activated the Precursor machinery and found out that it was programmed to build a highly advanced but unfinished starship, which could be piloted only by the now grown genius child, who alone could interact with the Precursor central computer. The new ship set out to Sol to make contact with Earth, but shortly before reaching Sol the little fleet was attacked by an unknown probe; The expedition commander, captaining the expedition's Earthling Cruiser, intercepted the alien ship before it could damage the defenseless Precursor starship, but was killed in the short fight, leaving the genius young man in command.

The player begins the game as the commander of the Precursor starship, who returns to Earth to find it enslaved by the Ur-Quan. The Captain gains the support of the skeleton crew of Earth's caretaker starbase and ventures out to contact the other races to find out what's happened since the end of the war and try to recruit allies in to a New Alliance of Free Stars against the Ur-Quan. The Captain quickly discovers that the rest of the humans' allies in the war against the Ur-Quan have either been eradicated, put under slave shields, or put into service as Ur-Quan battle thralls. As the player progresses, it is revealed that the Ur-Quan are fighting an internecine war with the Kohr-Ah, a subspecies of Ur-Quan who believe in eradicating all life in the galaxy, as opposed to enslaving it. The winner of this war will gain access to the Sa-Matra, a Precursor battle platform of unparalleled power. The player must take advantage of the Ur-Quans' distraction to contact and recruit alien races into a new alliance, gather resources and build a fleet, and find a way to destroy the invincible Sa-Matra, before the Ur-Quan finish their war and become unstoppable.

The Captain resolves issues several of the races are facing, or exploits their weaknesses, to get them on their side. Notably the Captain finds the Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm on Procyon undergoing their own plan to merge in to a composite species powerful enough to defeat the Ur-Quan, and captures a psychic alien Dnyarri, which the Captain discovers is a member of the race that brutally enslaved the galaxy millennia ago, causing the Ur-Quan's hegemonic and genocidal rampage around the galaxy. The Captain uses a Precursor Sun Device to accelerate the merging of the Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm to create the Chmmr, who amplify a Precursor terraforming bomb, allowing the Captain to sacrifice his ship to destroy the Sa-Matra and defeat the Ur-Quan.

Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr, a widowed brain surgeon, is renowned for inventing a method of "cranial screw-top" brain surgery. He saves the life of Dolores Benedict, a gold-digging femme fatale who is accidentally run over by Michael when fleeing the scene of her latest husband's fatal coronary, caused by her malicious mind-games and scheming. As she recovers, Michael falls in love and they marry. Dolores torments Michael by pretending to be too ill to consummate the marriage, citing a continuing headache. On a honeymoon and business trip to a medical conference in Vienna, a city living in fear of the serial "Elevator Killer", Hfuhruhurr meets mad scientist Dr. Alfred Necessiter, who has created a technique enabling him to store living brains in liquid-filled jars using the Elevator Killer's victims.

Michael discovers he can communicate telepathically with one of Necessiter's brains, that of Anne Uumellmahaye. Michael and Anne fall in love, with Michael taking her brain away to spend more time with her. Dolores — having learned that Michael has received a large inheritance from his step-grandmother — attempts to reignite their relationship, but catches on to his relationship with Anne when she spots him in a rowboat with the jar. She attempts to kill Anne by putting her brain in an oven, causing Michael to literally toss Dolores out of his house.

Michael consults with Necessiter, who informs him that brains in tanks do not survive long, with Anne being his longest-living one to date. Necessiter recommends transplanting Anne's brain into a body of a recently-deceased woman, revealing that he has perfected a process that could allow him to do so. Filling a syringe with window cleaner, the substance used by the Elevator Killer, Michael sees a crowd gathering around an attractive woman hit by a car, and is seen as odd for hoping she will expire, only to see her regain consciousness. Michael next selects Fran - a prostitute with an annoying voice - but his conscience prevents him from killing her. Stepping into an elevator, he finds that Dolores has just been murdered by the Elevator Killer, who turns out to be Merv Griffin. Michael takes Dolores' corpse, and Griffin promises to turn himself in to the police.

Michael hurriedly takes Dolores's body to Necessiter's lab. He is stopped by the Austrian police, who suspect him of drunk driving. After a series of unusual sobriety tests, the police permit him to leave. However, as Dolores' body flails, the police realize that she was not drunk, but dead, and pursue his car. Michael makes it to the lab, where Necessiter transfers Anne's consciousness to Dolores's body, which is viewed by the stunned policemen. In the process, Michael is electrically shocked by the equipment and falls into a coma.

Waking up six weeks later, Michael meets Anne in Dolores's body. Anne is a compulsive eater, and has gained considerable weight in her new body. Michael loves Anne for who she is, and they get married. A note in the credits requests that the audience report the whereabouts of Merv Griffin if they see him.

In 1953, Esther Greenwood, a nineteen-year-old undergraduate student from the suburbs of Boston, is awarded a summer internship at the fictional ''Ladies' Day'' magazine in New York City. During the internship, Esther feels neither stimulated nor excited by the work, fashion, and big-city lifestyle that her peers in the program seem to adore. She finds herself struggling to feel anything at all aside from anxiety and disorientation. Esther appreciates the witty sarcasm and adventurousness of another intern Doreen, but also identifies with the piety of Betsy, an old-fashioned and naïve young woman. Esther has a benefactress in Philomena Guinea, a formerly successful writer of women's fiction, who funds the scholarship through which Esther – from a working-class family – is enrolled at her college.

Esther describes in detail several seriocomic incidents that occur during her internship, beginning with mass food-poisoning of the interns from a lunch thrown by the staff of the magazine. She reminisces about her boyfriend Buddy, whom she has dated more or less seriously, and who considers himself her de facto fiancé. Esther's internal monologue often lingers on musings of death and violence. Shortly before the internship ends, she attends a country club party with Doreen and is set up with a man who treats her roughly and sexually assaults her, before she breaks his nose and leaves. That night, after returning to the hotel, she impulsively throws all of her brand-new and fashionable gifted clothing off the roof.

Esther returns to her Massachusetts home that she shares with her widowed mother. She has been hoping for another scholarly opportunity once she is back in Massachusetts, a writing course taught by a world-famous author, but on her return she is immediately told by her mother that she was not accepted for the course and finds her plans derailed. She decides to spend the summer potentially writing a novel, although she feels she lacks enough life experience to write convincingly. All of her identity has been centered upon doing well academically; she is unsure of what to make of her life once she leaves school, and none of the choices presented to her (motherhood, as exemplified by the prolific child-bearer Dodo Conway, Esther's neighbor, or stereotypical female careers such as stenography) appeal to her. Esther becomes increasingly depressed, and finds herself unable to sleep. Her mother instructs her to see a psychiatrist, Dr. Gordon, whom Esther mistrusts because he is attractive and doesn't seem to listen to her. He prescribes electroconvulsive therapy (ECT); afterward, she tells her mother that she will not go back.

The ECT is not effective, and Esther's mental state worsens. She makes several half-hearted attempts at suicide, including swimming far out to sea, before making a serious attempt. Esther crawls into a well-hidden hole in the cellar and swallows many sleeping pills that had been prescribed for her insomnia. The newspapers presume her kidnapping and death, but she is discovered alive under her house after an indeterminate amount of time. She is sent to several different mental hospitals until her college benefactress, Philomena Guinea, supports her stay at an elite treatment center where she meets Dr. Nolan, a female therapist. Along with regular psychotherapy sessions, Esther is given huge amounts of insulin to produce a "reaction" (a common – and now disproven – psychiatric treatment at the time) and again receives shock treatments, with Dr. Nolan ensuring that they are properly administered. While there, she describes her depression as a feeling of being trapped under a bell jar, struggling for breath. Eventually, Esther describes the ECT as beneficial in that it has a sort of antidepressant effect; it lifts the metaphorical bell jar in which she has felt trapped and stifled. While there, she also becomes reacquainted with Joan Gilling, who also used to date Buddy. Whilst Esther and Joan are hospitalized, Joan commits suicide unexpectedly. The novel heavily implies that Joan is homosexual, and attracted to or interested in Esther.

Esther tells Dr. Nolan how she envies the freedom that men have and how she, as a woman, worries about getting pregnant. Dr. Nolan refers her to a doctor who fits her for a diaphragm. Esther now feels free from her fears about the consequences of sex; free from previous pressures to get married, potentially to the wrong man. Under Dr. Nolan, Esther improves. Various significant events, such as having sex for the first time, being hospitalized as a result, and Joan's suicide, provide her with new perspective. Esther interacts with Buddy once again towards the end of the novel, when he visits her to ask if it was something about him that drove women to insanity given that he dated both Joan and Esther. Buddy later wonders out loud who will marry Esther now that she has been hospitalized, effectively ending their commitment to get engaged. Esther feels relieved.

The novel ends with Esther entering a conference with her doctors, who will decide whether she can leave the hospital and return to school.

It is suggested near the beginning of the novel that, in later years, Esther goes on to have a baby.

The novel tells the story of Jude Fawley, who lives in a village in southern England (part of Hardy's fictional county of Wessex). He yearns to be a scholar at "Christminster", a city modeled on Oxford. As a youth, Jude teaches himself Classical Greek and Latin in his spare time, while working first in his great-aunt's bakery, with the hope of entering university. But before he can try to do this the naïve Jude is seduced by Arabella Donn, a rather coarse, morally lax, and superficial local girl who traps him into marriage by pretending to be pregnant. The marriage is a failure, and Arabella leaves Jude and later emigrates to Australia, where she enters into a bigamous marriage. By this time, Jude has abandoned his classical studies.

After Arabella leaves him, Jude moves to Christminster and supports himself as a mason while studying alone, hoping to be able to enter the university later. There, he meets and falls in love with his free-spirited cousin, Sue Bridehead. But, shortly after this, Jude introduces Sue to his former school teacher, Mr. Phillotson, whom she eventually is persuaded to marry, despite the fact that he is some twenty years her senior. She soon regrets this, because, in addition to being in love with Jude, she is horrified by the notion of sex with her husband. Sue soon asks Phillotson for permission to leave him for Jude, which he grants, once he realizes how unwilling she is to fulfill what he believes are her marital duties to him. Because of this scandal—the fact that Phillotson willingly allows his wife to leave for another man—Phillotson has to give up his career as a schoolmaster.

Sue and Jude spend some time living together without any sexual relationship. This is because of Sue's dislike both of sex and the institution of marriage. Soon after, Arabella reappears having fled her Australian husband, who managed a hotel in Sydney, and this complicates matters. Arabella and Jude divorce and she legally marries her bigamous husband, and Sue also is divorced. However, following this, Arabella reveals that she had a child of Jude's, eight months after they separated, and subsequently sends this child to his father. He is named Jude and nicknamed "Little Father Time" because of his intense seriousness and lack of humor.

Jude eventually convinces Sue to sleep with him and, over the years, they have two children together and expect a third. But Jude and Sue are socially ostracised for living together unmarried, especially after the children are born. Jude's employers dismiss him because of the illicit relationship, and the family is forced into a nomadic lifestyle, moving from town to town across Wessex seeking employment and housing before eventually returning to Christminster. Their socially troubled boy, "Little Father Time", comes to believe that he and his half-siblings are the source of the family's woes. The morning after their arrival in Christminster, he murders Sue's two children and kills himself by hanging. He leaves behind a note that simply reads, "Done because we are too menny [sic]." Shortly thereafter, Sue has a miscarriage.

Beside herself with grief and blaming herself for "Little Father Time"'s actions, Sue turns to the church that she has rebelled against. She comes to believe that the children's deaths were divine retribution for her relationship with Jude. Although horrified at the thought of resuming her marriage with Phillotson, she becomes convinced that, for religious reasons, she should never have left him. Arabella discovers Sue's feelings and informs Phillotson, who soon proposes they remarry. This results in Sue leaving Jude once again for Phillotson, and she punishes herself by allowing her husband sex. Jude is devastated and remarries Arabella after she plies him with alcohol to once again trick him into marriage.

After one final, desperate visit to Sue in freezing weather, Jude becomes seriously ill and dies within the year in Christminster, thwarted in his ambitions both in love and in achieving fame in scholarship. It is revealed that Sue has grown "staid and worn" with Phillotson. Arabella fails to mourn Jude's passing, instead setting the stage to ensnare her next suitor.

Jonas, a 12-year-old boy, lives in a Community isolated from all except a few similar towns, where everyone from small infants to the Chief Elder has an assigned role. With the annual Ceremony of Twelve upcoming, he is nervous, for there he will be assigned his life's work. He seeks reassurance from his father, a Nurturer (who cares for the new babies, who are genetically engineered), and his mother, an official in the Department of Justice. He is told that the Elders, who assign the children their careers, are always right.

The day finally arrives, and Jonas is assembled with his classmates in order of birth. The Chief elder, who presides, initially passes over Jonas's turn and at the ceremony's conclusion explains that Jonas has not been given a normal assignment, but instead has been selected as the next Receiver of Memory. The position of Receiver has high status and responsibility, and Jonas quickly finds himself growing distant from his classmates. The rules Jonas receives further separate him, as they allow him no time to play with his friends, and require him to keep his training secret. They also allow him to lie and withhold his feelings from his family, things generally not allowed in the regimented Community.

Once he begins it, Jonas's training makes clear his uniqueness, for the Receiver of Memory is just that—a person who bears the burden of the memories from all of history, and who is the only one allowed access to books beyond schoolbooks and the rulebook issued to every household. The current Receiver, who asks Jonas to call him the Giver, begins the process of transferring those memories to Jonas, for the ordinary person in the Community knows nothing of the past. These memories, and being the only Community member allowed access to books about the past, give the Receiver perspective to advise the Council of Elders. The first memory is of sliding down a snow-covered hill on a sled, pleasantness made shocking by the fact that Jonas has never seen a sled, or snow, or a hill—for the memories of even these things have been given up to assure security and conformity (called Sameness). Even color has been surrendered, and the Giver shows Jonas a rainbow. Less pleasantly, he gives Jonas memories of hunger and war, things alien to the boy. Hanging over Jonas's training is the fact that the Giver once before had an apprentice, named Rosemary, but the boy finds his parents and the Giver reluctant to discuss what happened to her.

Jonas's father is concerned about an infant at the Nurturing Center who is failing to thrive, and has received special permission to bring him home at night. The baby's name will be Gabriel if he grows strong enough to be assigned to a family. He has pale eyes, like Jonas and the Giver. Jonas grows attached to him, especially when Jonas finds that he can receive memories. If Gabriel does not increase in strength, he will be "released from the Community"—in common speech, taken Elsewhere. This has happened to an off-course air pilot, to chronic rule breakers, to elderly people, and to the apprentice Rosemary. After Jonas speculates about life in Elsewhere, the Giver educates him by showing the boy hidden-camera video of Jonas's father doing his job: releasing the smaller of two identical twin newborns through lethal injection before putting it in a trash chute, since identical community members are forbidden. There is no Elsewhere for those not wanted by the Community—those said to have been "released" have been killed.

Since he now considers his father a murderer, Jonas initially refuses to return home, but the Giver convinces him that without the memories, the people of the Community cannot know that what they have been trained to do is wrong. Rosemary was unable to endure the darker memories of the past and instead killed herself with the poison. Jonas and the Giver devise a plan to return the community's memories so they may know where they have gone wrong. Both agree that Jonas will leave the community thereby returning the memories to them, while the Giver will stay to help them learn to live with their memories before joining his daughter, Rosemary, in death. They plan to fake Jonas's drowning to limit the search for him, but he instead must escape in a rush with Gabriel, upon learning of the child's imminent release. The two are near death from cold and starvation when they reach the border of what Jonas believes must be Elsewhere. Using his ability to "see beyond", a gift that he does not quite understand, he finds a sled waiting for him at the top of a snowy hill. He and Gabriel ride the sled down towards a house filled with colored lights and warmth and love and a Christmas tree, and for the first time he hears something he believes must be music. The ending is ambiguous, with Jonas depicted as experiencing symptoms of hypothermia. This leaves his and Gabriel's future unresolved. However, their fate is revealed and they are alive in ''Gathering Blue'' and in ''Messenger'', companion novels written much later.

In 2009, at the National Book Festival, the author joked during a Q&A, "Jonas is alive, by the way. You don't need to ask that question."

Blood recalls how he met Vic in 2048, and describes him as "steadfast, responsible, and game as they come." He recounts an evening during which he and Vic go to barter scavenged items with the "82nd Airborne", the armorers for most of the local roverpacks except for that of the child-slaver "Fellini." Transported from a dock by skiff to the 82nd Airborne's boat, the pair trade wine and spent brass for fresh ammunition, and Vic is invited to stay and drink. Blood declines to drink, and is repeatedly insulted by the gang, until the goading drives him to attempt to bite one of them. The gang member knocks Blood down and points a rifle at Blood's head, and Vic immediately shoots the gang member. As Vic covers the remaining stunned gang members, Blood climbs into Vic's pack and passes out. He awakens again with them on the dock and Vic running for their lives. Upon reaching safety, Vic unceremoniously dumps Blood onto the ground and storms off in anger at having lost access to "the only armorer in the territory." Blood initially lets him go, but thinks better of it after considering the alternatives, and saves Vic from walking into a crater in the road containing a "Screamer" (a green corpse-like mutant). The pair run miles up the road, and having reconciled, sit down to eat.

Vic, aged 15, was born in and scavenges throughout the wasteland of the former southwestern United States as a "solo" (as opposed to a member of a "roverpack" gang). Vic is most concerned with food and sex. Having lost both of his parents, he has no formal education and does not understand ethics or morality. He is accompanied by a well-read, misanthropic, telepathic dog named Blood, who helps him locate women, in return for food. Blood cannot forage for himself, due to the same genetic engineering that granted him telepathy. The two steal for a living, evading "roverpacks" (gangs) and mutants. Blood and Vic have an occasionally antagonistic relationship, though they realize that they need each other.

At a movie house, Blood claims to smell a woman, and the pair track her to an abandoned YMCA building. There, they meet Quilla June Holmes, a teenaged girl from "Downunder", a society located in a large underground nuclear vault. Before Vic can rape her, Blood informs the pair that a roverpack has tracked them to the building and they have to fight them off. After killing a number of them, the trio hides in a boiler and set the structure on fire.

Vic finally has sex with Quilla June, and though she protests at first, she begins to come on to him. Blood takes an instant disliking to her, but Vic ignores him. Vic and Quilla June have sex repeatedly but eventually she attacks him and takes off to return to her underground community. Vic, furious at her deception, follows her, despite Blood's warnings. Blood remains at the portal on the surface.

Downunder has an artificial biosphere complete with forests and underground cities. One, named Topeka after the ruins of the city it lies beneath, is fashioned in a surreal mockery of 1950s rural innocence. Vic is captured by the ruling council (the Better Business Bureau). They confess that Quilla June was sent to the surface in order to lure a man to Downunder. The population of Topeka is becoming sterile, and the babies that are born are usually female. They feel that Vic, despite his crudeness and savage behavior, will be able to reinvigorate that male population. Vic is first elated to learn that he is to impregnate the female population, but he quickly grows jaded of his surroundings and plots his escape.

Quilla June is reunited with Vic and they plan to escape together. Vic uses the fact that Quilla June's father secretly desires sex with her as a distraction, incapacitating him so that they can escape.

On the surface, Vic and Quilla June discover that Blood is starving and near death, having been attacked by radioactive insects and other "things". Quilla June tries to get Vic to leave Blood and take off with her. Knowing he will never survive without Blood's guidance and, more importantly, that Blood will not survive without care and food, Vic faces a difficult situation. It is implied that he kills his new love and cooks her flesh to save Blood's life. The novella ends with Vic remembering her question as Blood eats: "Do you know what love is?" and he concludes, "Sure I know. A boy loves his dog."

Although Blood is now back on his feet and travelling west, the pair's situation deteriorates as the guilt-ridden Vic begins having hallucinations of a ghostly Quilla June, which Blood also experiences through their telepathic link. Due to his preoccupation, Vic stumbles into an encounter with a roving gang of child soldiers and slaves led by the adult "Fellini", and badly breaks his ankle while attempting to escape. At Blood's suggestion, Vic climbs into a hollow tree stump to hide, and Blood covers him with leaves and dirt before going to hide himself. Hours later, with the gang gone, Blood returns to find the stump surrounded by giant spiders. Driving them off, Blood finds Vic in a hopeless, almost catatonic state, and despite Blood's appeals, Vic allows himself to be cocooned by one of the spiders. Blood runs off as the spider finishes and begins to look for new prey, and he continues west, now haunted by the ghost of Vic rather than Quilla June.

The series is set mainly in Hell, and the plot usually centres on the relationships and conflicts between Satan, his various minions, and the damned with (occasionally) interventions by God and other denizens of Heaven. Satan himself is identified with the fallen angel in Christianity and portrayed as somewhat jaded from millennia in charge of Hell and the expectation that he will continue to be so for eternity. Although he enjoys some aspects of the job, such as the opportunity to play pranks in the world of the living, and devising ironic torments for those damned souls whom he believes deserve it, his greatest wish is to someday be accepted back into Heaven, and he often wistfully recalls his past as an archangel.

The series regularly features famous historical figures and celebrities, most of whom are portrayed as being less likeable than (or at least different from) the version recorded by history. This includes a foul-mouthed and extremely violent Jane Austen, a sexually predatory Florence Nightingale (who also ran a Victorian London opium cartel), a less-than-heroic Samson (who actually killed only one Philistine ... a schoolboy) and a vacuous Helen of Troy (accompanied by her plain-looking friend, Daphne).

This subversive approach was also applied to God (first name Nigel), who makes the occasional appearance, originally played by David Swift, then in series 7 by Timothy West. God is usually portrayed as being quick-tempered and vengeful; in the series he says he created the universe accidentally, when he was messing about with some matter and energy. He put it down to have a sip of his drink and then, kaboom! he had a universe on his hands. Life on Earth was created for a bet, as Earth was dull viewing; God, for a bit of fun, sprinkled some mutating bacteria into the oceans and ran a book with the other Angels to see which one would evolve into a creature that would develop a language first; the Angel Gabriel's bacteria were doing very well until they randomly mutated into carrots, and it was one of the Seraphim whose bacteria eventually became Homo sapiens. God seems rather annoyed that things 'got out of hand'. In later series, we learn that God also has a mobile phone (although only the Angel Gabriel is supposed to have the number), and that God sends e-mails, but refuses to read any that he receives as he once got taken in by a scam from Nigeria.

The Angels are also portrayed somewhat differently. The Angel who delivered the news that Mary was to give birth to the Messiah was in fact named Graham, while Gabriel is a separate entity who was credited with doing so due to a transcription error early in the making of the Bible. They are also presented as rather arrogant when dealing with Satan, but at the same time behaving as suck-ups around God. They are forbidden to indulge in physical pleasures, but are still tempted by them (which has been used against them).

Series 1 to 4

The first four series centred on the philosophical arguments between Satan and the somewhat idealistic main human character known as "The Professor" (played by James Grout). The Professor represents the undeserving damned, being a man of high moral virtue and having been consigned to Hell only on the technicality that he did not believe in God. The character was originally called Professor Richard Whittingham, although in series 2 he is referred to as Professor Richard Hope, when in episodes 5 & 6 Satan gets his book ''The Theory of Everything'' published. Generally, Satan seeks to prove to the Professor that mankind is inherently base or flawed, with the Professor taking the opposing position. Usually Satan travels to the living world to display the more contemptible sides of human nature, such as snipers shooting old ladies in Bosnia or prostitution in Thailand, to a generally horrified Professor. At other times he introduces the Professor to historical personages the Professor holds in high esteem but who are now languishing in Hell, such as Leonardo da Vinci, William Shakespeare and Jane Austen, showing him how petty and mendacious they really are. However, the Professor's idealism is usually shown to have some validity as well, and more often than not he wins the argument (although Satan always insists he hasn't).

The other main human character is Thomas Quentin Crimp (Jimmy Mulville), an execrable type with few (or no) morals, held out by Satan as an example of all that is detestable about humanity and often described (especially by God himself) as the most venal and corrupt human being who ever lived. In the first episode, it transpires that Thomas caused the car crash which landed him and the Professor in Hell. The latter, despite his moral idealism, is consigned to Hell because of his atheism (since, as Satan remarks caustically, God does not have a sense of humour). The fact of the afterlife — which the Professor originally optimistically views as a hallucination - does not change his views. Despite (or perhaps because of) their conflicting attitudes, the Professor and Thomas are billeted together by Satan.

Regular plot elements involve the Professor visiting, or being shown, his beloved wife Deborah as she gets on with her life following his death. His widow's eventual marriage to a corrupt Irish jockey and her near-fatal coma were important plot strands in series 3 and 4. Throughout the first four series, the Professor also has an ongoing bet with Satan that he can demonstrate that even Thomas has some decency within him; if he can do so, then Satan will allow Deborah and the Professor to be billeted together should Deborah be sent to Hell when she dies. These plot strands ended when Satan finally arranged for the Professor to be accepted into Heaven a short time after the events of the 2002 Christmas special (an incident not covered in the series).

Other characters featured are Satan's minions. Satan's personal assistant and most venomous demon, Gary (Steve O'Donnell), was featured in the first series because Thomas was on his list of tormentees. Thomas later manipulates Gary and convinces him to rebel against Satan, with a distinct lack of success. Gary is mentioned only once in later series and his absence is never explained (although the implication is that he fell from favour due to his rebellion). Scumspawn (Robert Duncan), featured from the second series onwards, takes Gary's place, having applied (repeatedly) to become Satan's new personal assistant. Although Satan initially refuses, he later relents, and Scumspawn proves a surprisingly effective assistant. His subplots usually involve attempts to become a better demon (with help from Thomas). Much of the humour surrounding Scumspawn derives from his sensitive, caring and highly artistic personality, which is a constant irritant to Satan, who often complains that Scumspawn does not act very much like a demon.

According to Andy Hamilton in an interview broadcast on 5 April 2008, on BBC Radio 7's "I Did It My Way", one episode in series 3 was partially re-recorded due to a tragic confluence of events. In the episode, Satan disrupts Deborah's wedding to Irish jockey Rory O'Donnell by taking the form of BBC reporter Jill Dando and accusing the presiding vicar of being a Satan worshipper (which he actually is). Later in the episode, Satan reveals that Jill Dando never existed at all and was just a disguise that he used to stir up unrest in the realm of the living. After the episode was originally broadcast, the 37-year-old reporter was murdered outside her home, and the episode was partially re-recorded for repeats with Satan manifesting himself instead as a different BBC reporter, Gaby Roslin. (The re-recorded lines are fairly obvious, as they were not performed in front of an audience.) A later episode in the third series referenced Satan's "Jill Dando" alter ego, and also had to have some lines re-recorded.

Christmas Special 2002

In a double-bill Special, broadcast on New Year's Eve 2002 (''The Roll of the Dice'') and New Year's Day 2003 (''Knocking on Heaven's Door''), Hope (Claire Skinner), an extraordinarily beautiful Salvation Army worker and tambourine player, is killed by accident years too early and sent to Hell by mistake. This results in Satan trying to have her brought back to life by taking her to Death. But he only gets as far as meeting the Welsh Death (Dai-the-Death), and contacting the Head Death on his mobile. After Death refuses to bring her back to life (for fear of legal recriminations), as a last resort Satan travels to Heaven (now protected with barbed wire, CCTV and Rottweilers). After talking to Saint Peter (who Satan implies had sex with call girls in Rome as well as stealing the other 100 pieces of silver which had been contracted by Judas Iscariot but went missing), Satan blackmails St Peter into letting Hope into Heaven.

While all this is going on, the Professor has been changed into a buzzing bluebottle and Thomas has been painted like a zebra and is awaiting the "attentions" of some special crocodiles (they have a sense of humour).

Series 5

Series Five retains some of the themes from earlier series, but most of the action does not revolve around Satan's relationships with his minions and the damned. Instead, the episodes focus on Satan's efforts to reduce overcrowding in Hell.

After an unsuccessful appeal to God in Episode One for planning permission to enlarge Hell, expanding Hell's demonic workforce or adjusting the entrance requirements, the action divides between Hell and various locations on Earth. The basic plot of the subsequent episodes involves Satan taking on the guise of a leading world figure in order to meet influential people, such as Queen Elizabeth II, whom he tries to convince to lead more of mankind to Heaven by encouraging them to change their ways. However, these efforts are largely unsuccessful, and finally abandoned after Satan successfully takes control of the world's media to promote messages of peace, co-operation and so on, only to find that this has no effect and humanity just carries on committing mortal sins regardless.

The subplot of each episode focuses on Scumspawn's ineffective attempts to run Hell in Satan's absence. This normally involves trying to cope with a strange new arrival in Hell, unionised demons, or overcrowding. He generally enlists Thomas's help (as well as that of Vlad the Impaler in one episode, though he has no lines) in trying to find a solution, which usually fails. At the end of the episode, Satan returns and sorts out whatever new problem Scumspawn has managed to create.

The final two episodes of the series feature a new arrival, Roland (Geoffrey Whitehead), a damned soul even more venal and corrupt than Thomas who tries to organise a rebellion of the demons in Hell with Thomas's help, with exactly the same degree of success that Gary and Thomas had in Series 1. In the end, after easily dealing with the insurrection, Satan decides he need not worry, as humans will soon be extinct anyway. In order to hasten mankind's demise, he turns himself into Jeb Bush and plots to convince Jeb's brother George Bush to launch a nuclear strike on the polar icecaps.

Series 6

For Series Six, Andy Hamilton returned to the style of the original series, with most of the action taking place in Hell. He introduces a new member of the damned: Edith Cordelia Barrington (Annette Crosbie), an academic and historian who has recently arrived in Hell after having apparently died by suicide due to an apparent overdose of barbiturates while watching ''Midsomer Murders''. She is also Thomas's former mother-in-law, and as Edith and Thomas have a mutual hatred of each other, Satan decides they would be perfect dungeon-mates (the series temporarily ignoring the overcrowding issue).

Edith is not pleased with the situation, as Thomas had subjected her daughter to emotional abuse, to divorce, and had tried to obtain custody of her breast implants (on the grounds that he paid for them). She also insists that she did not take her own life, and Satan makes a deal with her: he grudgingly agrees to find out how she really died if she will write a definitive biography of Satan in return for new accommodation.

The basic plot of an episode generally involved Satan trying to find out more about Edith's death, while Edith interviewed members of the damned about Satan's past. These interviews closely followed the pattern of series 4, in which the Professor had interviewed famous historical personalities in attempting to win a bet with Satan (by showing that mankind was capable of redemption). There were also various sub-plots, including Scumspawn's attempts to uncover a "decent" side to Thomas's personality, in much the same way as the Professor had tried to in earlier series. Thus were the various aspects of the Professor's character re-distributed between Edith and Scumspawn.

Eventually, Satan does discover the true circumstances of Edith's death (she had been murdered: but that revelation, as well as the discovery of the murderer's identity and the motive for her murder, still does not make her happy). In the final episode, Thomas discovers a fact about his ancestry that makes him even more insufferable.

Following the initial broadcast of Series 6, selected episodes from the first six series were repeated on BBC Radio 7 on 5 April 2008, together with an interview with the show's writer and star, Andy Hamilton, in which he discusses the series up to that point, in an edition of Radio 7's occasional feature entitled "I Did It My Way".

Series 7

A seventh series aired from 19 February 2009, with recordings taking place at the BBC Radio Theatre in London. The cast was the same as in Series Six.

In the first episode, a dog named Scamp arrives unexpectedly in Hell. Satan attempts to talk to God about both the new arrival and a possible plan to ease the general overcrowding in Hell (involving destroying 75% of the damned), but he can't, because God is bored with Satan and indeed with his whole Creation, and has left two rather insufferable angels in charge as "site managers" (who are more interested in admiring their laminated "site manager" badges than in doing anything).

In the second episode, God goes away for some "me time", leaving the Archangel Gabriel in charge. Unfortunately, Heaven's new computer system is having software problems, causing a further unexpected arrival in Hell — a baby — and Satan's renewed attempts to get help from God bring him face to face with Gabriel. Meanwhile, Scumspawn decides the baby needs a name and dubs it "Satan Junior". Taking care of the dog Scamp begins to bring out the best in Thomas, while Satan's meeting with Gabriel about the baby brings some slight results.

In the fourth episode Timothy West guest-stars as God (previously played by David Swift), and after being apprised of the situation orders Satan to arrange with Gabriel for both the dog and the baby's immediate transfer to Heaven. Since people in both Heaven and Hell remain forever the same age as they were when they died, this would mean the baby would remain a baby and never have a chance to live a full life, a fact that distresses Scumspawn and Edith so much that they convince Satan to disobey God's orders and try to return the baby to the world of the living.

The fifth episode sees Satan trying to find adoptive parents for the baby (now called "Patrick"), while Edith has a major crisis of confidence concerning her completed biography of Satan, and the dog Scamp is successfully transferred to Heaven (with one or two minor incidents thanks to Thomas teaching him some unusual tricks). With the aid of some photoshopped pictures, Satan blackmails Gabriel into helping him about baby Patrick.

In the final episode, a very angry God returns to put Satan and Gabriel on trial for not obeying His instructions about what should be done with the baby, but the trial quickly degenerates into chaos (God remarks at one point, "This place is a madhouse!"). Events ultimately resolve into a relatively happy conclusion (that is, for everyone except Thomas and Gabriel).

Christmas and New Year Specials 2010

In ''Christmas Spirit'', broadcast on 23 December 2010, Satan decides to ban Christmas. During a visitation to the world of Men he disguises himself as various religious figures, including the Pope, in order to more effectively denounce Christmas and then impersonates the new Editor of the ''Daily Mail'' newspaper (the previous Editor somehow got knocked down by a charging five-ton rhino while cycling around Hyde Park Corner) so as to publish made-up headlines undermining Christmas, such as "Mince Pies Cause Cancer" and "Taliban Targets Panto". However, in Hell the Spirit of Christmas is alive and well thanks to Scumspawn's efforts to cheer up Edith.

In ''Ring in the New'', broadcast on 30 December 2010, Satan decides he needs a holiday. On Edith's advice he heads off to the English Lake District for some New Year solitude, leaving Scumspawn in charge of Hell. But Scumspawn isn't sure his leadership skills are up to the task, and a management seminar with Genghis Khan, Winston Churchill, Gandhi, Queen Elizabeth I and football manager Brian Clough proves no help. This is the only episode that ends relatively happily for Thomas.

Olympics Special 2012

In mid-2012 the BBC announced a two-part special with an Olympic theme, both parts of which were recorded on 8 July 2012: with Andy Hamilton, Annette Crosbie, Robert Duncan and Jimmy Mulville all returning in their established roles.

The first part was broadcast on 12 July 2012, in which Satan attempts to show Edith that the ancient Greeks and the original Games were not as altruistic as she originally thought, while Thomas's participation in the Infernal Games ends up a crushing and painful disaster (thanks to an incident involving a hippo and later a rhinoceros).

The second part was broadcast on 19 July 2012, in which Satan is blackmailed by Edith into taking her to the 2012 London Olympics to see her grand-niece competing, but Satan discovers that the grand-niece isn't quite as Edith remembers her. Meanwhile, Thomas tries to get himself certified insane in order to escape from continued punishment and instead be eternally consigned to Hell's TV Lounge.

Television Pilot 2012

Also in 2012, Andy Hamilton proposed a transfer of the show to television. A pilot episode was made for Sky TV (not for the BBC) by UK animation house Flickerpix, using stop motion animation. Based on scenes from some of the early radio episodes, it featured the voices of the radio cast (with James Grout's part recast following his death). The proposed series was not commissioned.

The novel opens with psychiatrist Dr Alistair Crown's wife Virginia giving birth to the couple's first child. Crown, who is not present during birth, is informed immediately afterwards that their daughter Doris has Down's syndrome, a fact he is unable to accept. For the next five years, he avoids Doris's face: He never looks at her and he refuses to be shown photos of her. His idea of being close to his daughter consists in his nocturnal visits to her bedroom when she is fast asleep: Then he gropes around under the sheets — in a harmless way, imagining what it would be like to have a normal child and envisaging the day when he will actually come face to face with her.

However, he keeps postponing that day, telling himself and his wife that he is not ready for it yet. He leaves for work early in the morning and comes home at night when his daughter is already asleep. He does not tell his parents, who live abroad, that their granddaughter is disabled and, for years, can persuade them not to visit. Although Virginia is a devoted mother and an understanding wife, the ensuing marital crisis is unavoidable. When Doris is of preschool age, Crown actually has to lock himself in his room so as to make sure that he does not accidentally see his daughter's face. After a brief fling with a former girlfriend he moves out of the house.

His life takes a decisive turn when he meets a man who calls himself Esau. Esau, who has a very hairy body, is still suffering under his dominant father although the latter has been dead for some time. He has become a compulsive stripper, making appointments with doctors, dentists and masseurs only to perform his stripping routine in front of them and wait for their reaction. The two men strike up an asexual friendship, and Crown moves into Esau's large house. Although he realizes that Esau is in urgent need of psychiatric treatment, Crown just sees a friend in him and refuses to have any therapeutic influence on Esau. He is devastated when Esau commits suicide by hanging himself in the attic.

Now Crown's life totally gets out of control. Early one morning a few days before Doris's fifth birthday he kidnaps her from the playground of her nursery school — still without looking at her —, drives with her to Hyde Park, strangles her from behind and buries her face down under a tree in a shallow grave dug out with his bare hands. Back at his office, he is informed by his wife that Doris has gone missing. For a couple of days, the police search for the girl but then give up all hope of ever finding her alive and well. When soon afterwards her body is found, Crown has to accompany the police to the morgue to identify his daughter. This is when he comes face to face with her for the first — and last — time.

The police never solve the crime. Some time later Crown hangs himself in the garage.

Category:1991 British novels Category:Novels by Bernice Rubens Category:Novels set in London Category:Sinclair-Stevenson books

Background

''The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.'', is set in a fictional American Old West of 1893. Robber barons control the financial and industrial interests of the West from the boardrooms of San Francisco's Westerfield Club. The famous U.S. Marshal Brisco County, Sr. (R. Lee Ermey) has apprehended a gang of outlaws and its leader, the notorious John Bly (Billy Drago). While transporting them to stand trial, County is murdered and the gang escapes. Meanwhile, in a nearby mine, a group of shackled Chinese workers unearths "The Orb", a large golden globe studded with rods. A worker draws one of the rods from out of the Orb, then touches several of his co-workers with it. As each worker is touched with the rod he is imbued with superhuman strength which they use to break the iron chains binding them, thus freeing themselves.David Simkins (writer) & Bryan Spicer (director), "Pilot". "The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.", Fox. Episode 1. Aired August 27, 1993. The murder of Brisco County, Sr., and the discovery of the Orb set into motion the major plots of the series.

Synopsis

Members of the Westerfield Club hire Brisco County, Jr. (Bruce Campbell), the son of the slain U.S. Marshal, to track and re-capture Bly and his gang. The Westerfield Club's timid lawyer, Socrates Poole (Christian Clemenson) relays instructions and financial support to Brisco. Another bounty hunter, Lord Bowler (Julius Carry), who is known for his expert tracking skills, also hopes to capture Bly. Bitter over the elder County's fame, Bowler treats Brisco as a rival. The two men often find themselves reluctantly joining forces to achieve a common goal. Later in the series, Brisco and Bowler work together as partners and friends.

In the pilot episode, Brisco tracks John Bly's second-in-command, Big Smith (M. C. Gainey). In a battle on a train car, Brisco knocks Smith off the train and into a river; he is assumed dead until he reappears later in the series. Brisco, Bowler and Socrates hunt the rest of Bly's gang in subsequent episodes. All ten of the gang members are captured or killed, and Brisco's pursuit of Bly, who is seeking the Orb for its supernatural power, frequently puts him into contact with the object. Each encounter with the Orb reveals a fantastic effect on people who use it. In the episode "The Orb Scholar", Bly shoots Brisco and leaves him to die. Professor Ogden Coles (Brandon Maggart), a scientist who studies the Orb, heals Brisco with the device. In the episode "Bye Bly", it is revealed that Bly is a fugitive from the distant future who has traveled to 1893 to steal the Orb. Bly plans to use the Orb to travel back to his time and rule the world. Instead, Brisco uses the Orb to travel through time to save Bowler's life. Brisco eventually kills Bly by stabbing him with a rod from the Orb, causing Bly to disintegrate into a pile of ashes. Series creator and executive producer Carlton Cuse said that the Orb represents faith and that depending on the intentions of those who use it, the object rewards or punishes them accordingly.

The pilot episode introduces several characters who make recurring appearances throughout the series. Big Smith's moll Dixie Cousins (Kelly Rutherford) is a saloon singer and con artist who has a brief romantic encounter with Brisco. In later episodes, Dixie becomes Brisco's primary love interest. In his first mission, Brisco also meets Professor Albert Wickwire (John Astin), an eccentric scientist who returns to help many times during the series. Wickwire's ideas and inventions play into Brisco's interest in technology and the future, something Brisco calls "The Coming Thing". Pete Hutter (John Pyper-Ferguson) is a hapless mercenary working for Bly. He has a compulsive attachment to his "piece" (pistol), and given any opportunity will pontificate about topics such as art and philosophy. Pete appears throughout the series as a comic foil to trade barbs with the heroes. He appears to be killed three times during the series, but returns each time with a comic excuse for why he didn't die. The second half of the series includes many episodes with Whip Morgan (Jeff Phillips), a young cardsharp whose attempts to assist Brisco and Bowler often end up causing trouble.

Signature show elements

The show features classic Western motifs such as train robberies and gunfighter showdowns, in combination with atypical elements. Much of the series is devoted to the science fiction plot surrounding the Orb, and it is this mix of the Western genre with fantasy that has helped ''Brisco'' maintain its cult status. In almost every episode, the characters discover or are confronted by what is, for the time, fantastic technology. In the pilot episode, Brisco and Professor Wickwire modify a rocket to run on train tracks. In the episode "Brisco For the Defense", Brisco uses a slide projector to show a trial jury fingerprint evidence. Professor Wickwire returns many times in the series to assist with technology, including tinkering with motorcycles and rescuing the heroes with a helium-filled zeppelin. Campbell told ''Starlog'' magazine, "It's kind of Jules Verne meets ''The Wild Wild West''." The presence of futuristic technology in a Victorian era Western places the series in the steampunk genre; it is one of the few such shows to have aired on prime-time television. At least one-third of the show's episodes contain steampunk or Weird West elements. Though "technology-out-of-time" frequently intrudes into the plots of ''Brisco'', the fantastic machines or methods rarely appear again. Some of these out-of-time technologies were archaic renderings of those prevalent in the 20th century, and two film researchers, Cynthia Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper, suggest that followers of the show may be puzzled that such inventions, so useful in their own lives, are not exploited further.

According to Cuse, the show was purposely set in 1893, exactly 100 years before the series premiered in 1993. Brisco is meant to be aware of the imminent changes in society and technology and actively looks for them. The writers of the show, and also the character of Brisco, refer to this concept as "The Coming Thing". Elaborating on this theme, Campbell said, "Basically this show is about the turn of the century, when the Old West met the Industrial Era. Cowboys still chew tobacco and ride the range and states are still territories, but over the horizon is the onset of electricity, the first autos and telephones. Brisco is in the middle of a transition from the past to the future." The collision of cowboy characters with puzzling technology and other anachronisms generates humor throughout the series. The writers made it a point to insert scenes mirroring the pop culture of the 20th century, from the apparent invention of the term "UFO" in the pilot episode to the appearance of a sheriff who looks and acts like Elvis Presley. Speaking about the humor of the show, Campbell said, "I would say 30 percent of each episode is being played for laughs. But it's not a winking at the camera, ''Airplane''-type of humor. We're funny like ''Indiana Jones'' is funny; the laughs come primarily from the wide variety of ridiculous, colorful characters that come in and out of this series."

Tom Canty, youngest son of a very poor family living in Offal Court located in London, has been abused by his father and grandmother, but was encouraged by the local priest, who has taught him to read and write. Loitering around the palace gates one day, he meets Edward Tudor, the Prince of Wales. Coming too close in his intense excitement, Tom is caught and nearly beaten by the Royal Guards. However, Edward stops them and invites Tom into his palace chamber. There, the two boys get to know one another. Fascinated by each other's life and their uncanny resemblance to each other and learning they were even born on the same day, they decide to switch places "temporarily". The Prince hides an item, which the reader later learns is the Great Seal of England, then goes outside to confront the guards who abused Tom; however, dressed as Tom, he is not recognized by the guards, who drive him from the palace. He eventually finds his way through the streets to the Canty home. There, he is subjected to the brutality of Tom's alcoholic and abusive father, from whom he manages to escape, and meets Miles Hendon, a soldier and nobleman returning from war. Although Miles does not believe Edward's claims to royalty, he humours him and becomes his protector. Meanwhile, news reaches them that King Henry VIII has died and Edward is now the king.

Tom, dressed as Edward, tries to cope with court customs and manners. His fellow nobles and palace staff think the prince has an illness that has caused memory loss, and fear he will go mad. They repeatedly ask him about the missing Great Seal of England, but he knows nothing about it. However, when Tom is asked to sit in on judgments, his common-sense observations reassure them his mind is sound.

As Edward experiences the brutal life of a London pauper firsthand, he becomes aware of the stark class inequality in England. In particular he sees the harsh, punitive nature of the English judicial system under which people are burned at the stake, pilloried and flogged. He realizes that the accused are convicted on flimsy evidence and branded or hanged for petty offences, and vows to reign with mercy when he regains his rightful place. When Edward declares to a gang of thieves that he is the king and will put an end to unjust laws, they assume he is insane and hold a mock coronation.

After a series of adventures, including a stint in prison, Edward interrupts the coronation as Tom is about to be made king. The nobles are shocked at their resemblance but refuse to believe that Edward is the rightful king wearing Tom's clothes until he produces the Great Seal of England that he hid before leaving the palace.

Edward and Tom switch back to their original places and Edward is crowned King Edward VI of England. Miles is rewarded with the rank of earl and the family right to sit in the king's presence. In gratitude for supporting the new king's claim to the throne, Edward names Tom the "King's Ward", a privileged position that he holds for the rest of his life.

The ending explains that although Edward died at the age of 15, he reigned mercifully due to his experiences, while Tom lived to be a very old man.

Self-loathing screenwriter Charlie Kaufman is hired to write the screenplay adaptation of Susan Orlean's ''The Orchid Thief''. He struggles with anxiety, social phobia, depression, and low self-esteem. His twin brother, Donald, has moved into his house and is freeloading there. Donald decides to become a screenwriter like Charlie and attends seminars by screenwriting guru Robert McKee.

Charlie, who rejects formulaic scriptwriting, wants to ensure that his script is a faithful adaptation of ''The Orchid Thief'' but comes to feel that the book does not have a usable narrative and is impossible to turn into a film, which leaves him with a serious case of writer's block. Already well past his deadline with Columbia Pictures and despairing of writing his script with self-reference, Charlie travels to New York City to discuss the screenplay with Orlean directly. Too shy and socially awkward to speak with her upon arriving at her office and after he received the surprising news that Donald's spec script for a clichéd psychological thriller, ''The 3'', is selling for six or seven figures, Charlie resorts to attending McKee's seminar in New York and asks him for advice. Charlie ends up asking Donald to join him in New York to assist with the story structure.

Donald, who is confident socially, pretends to be Charlie and interviews Orlean but finds her responses suspicious. He and Charlie follow Orlean to Florida, where she meets John Laroche, the orchid-stealing protagonist of her book and her secret lover. It is revealed that the Seminole wanted the ghost orchid to manufacture a mind-altering drug that causes fascination. Laroche introduces the drug to Orlean. After Laroche and Orlean catch Charlie observing them taking the drug and having sex, Orlean decides that Charlie must be killed to prevent him from potentially exposing them.

Orlean forces Charlie to drive to the swamp at gunpoint, intending to kill him. Charlie and Donald escape and hide in the swamp, where they resolve their differences. Laroche accidentally shoots Donald. Charlie and Donald drive off but collide head-on with a ranger's truck. Donald is ejected through the windshield and dies moments later, but Charlie is saved by the airbag and runs into the swamp to hide. There he is spotted by Laroche, who is killed by an alligator before he can kill Charlie.

Orlean is arrested. Charlie reconciles with his mother as he calls to inform her of Donald's death. He later tells his former love interest, Amelia, that he loves her. She responds that she loves him too. Charlie finishes the script, which ends with him announcing in a voice-over that the script is finished and that for the first time, he is filled with hope.

Dante Hicks, a young man who works as a retail clerk at Quick Stop Groceries in Leonardo, New Jersey, is called into work on his day off to cover another employee's morning shift. Arriving at the store, he finds that the locks to the security shutters are jammed closed with chewing gum, so he hangs a sheet over them with a message written in shoe polish: "I ASSURE YOU; WE'RE OPEN!". Soon after opening, Dante's best friend, wisecracking slacker Randal Graves, arrives for his own workday at the video rental store next door.

The two prepare for another ordinary day immersed in their tedious customer service jobs. Dante repeatedly laments that he is "not even supposed to be here today," while Randal neglects his job at the video store to keep Dante company at the Quick Stop. They pass the time engaging in philosophical discussions on a wide variety of topics, including movies, sex, relationships, and difficult customers. Some of the customers they encounter during the day are angry and demanding; others, clueless and impolite; still others prove unexpectedly wise. After several hours, Dante discovers that his boss has left on a trip to Vermont, leaving him to run the store alone for the rest of the day. Dante and Randal find a number of reasons to leave the store and slack off, from a rooftop hockey game with Dante's friends to an ill-fated wake for one of Dante's ex-lovers.

Dante is torn between two women: his current girlfriend Veronica Loughran and his ex-girlfriend Caitlin Bree, with whom he still secretly communicates. Dante is distressed when he learns Veronica has given oral sex to 36 other men before him, and engaged in snowballing with at least one. Despite Veronica's doting on him, Dante chooses to rekindle his relationship with Caitlin. However, Caitlin is traumatized by an incident in the Quick Stop bathroom; in the dark, she has sex with a person that she thought was Dante, but who was actually a customer who had died of a heart attack while masturbating to a pornographic magazine Dante provided him. Caitlin leaves catatonic in an ambulance.

Jay and Silent Bob, a pair of drug dealers who have spent the day loitering outside the store, invite Dante to party with them after hours, but Dante declines, considering the various seedy characters the two have been attracting all day. Aware of Dante's problems, Silent Bob tersely convinces him that he really loves Veronica, but Randal has already confessed the previous events to her, prompting Veronica to dramatically dump Dante. Dante fights with Randal, trashing the Quick Stop.

Dante and Randal have a crucial moment of clarity after their fight. Randal hears Dante repeat his refrain that he's "not even supposed to be here today" and points out that Dante could have left at any time and prevented the day's events; furthermore, he says they are not as "advanced" as they think they are, or else they would not be stuck in such lowly jobs.

After the two make amends, Dante plans to visit Caitlin in the hospital and try to reconcile with Veronica. Randal leaves, but not before tossing Dante's shoe-polish sign in his face and declaring, "You're closed!"

On Lusitania, Ender finds a world where humans and pequeninos and the Hive Queen could all live together. However, Lusitania also harbors the descolada, a virus that kills all humans it infects, but which the pequeninos require in order to become adults. The Starways Congress so fears the effects of the descolada, should it escape from Lusitania, that they have ordered the destruction of the entire planet, and all who live there. With the Fleet on its way, a second xenocide seems inevitable.

Lusitania

Following the events of ''Speaker for the Dead'', a group of characters are depicted living as members of a Brazilian Catholic human colony on Lusitania, a unique planet inhabited by the only other two known species of sentient alien life: the Pequeninos "little ones" and the Hive Queen. The pequeninos are native to the planet, while the Hive Queen was transplanted to this world by Ender, partly in penance for his near-total destruction of her Formic species in ''Ender's Game''.

After the rebellion of the small human colony on Lusitania in ''Speaker for the Dead'' to protect the future of the intelligent alien species, Starways Congress sends a fleet to Lusitania to regain control, which will take several decades to reach its destination. Valentine Wiggin, under her pseudonym Demosthenes, publishes a series of articles revealing the presence of the "Little Doctor" planet-annihilating weapon on the Fleet. Demosthenes calls it the "Second Xenocide," as using the weapon will result in the obliteration of the only known intelligent alien life. She also claims it to be a brutal crackdown of any colony world striving for autonomy from Starways Congress. Public anger spreads through humanity, and rebellions nearly ensue on several colonies.

After quelling much public discontent, Starways Congress finishes their analysis of the situation while the fleet is en route. Fearing the Descolada virus, further rebellions by colony worlds, and other possible unknown political motives, Starways Congress attempts to relay an order to the fleet to annihilate Lusitania upon arrival. After conferring with friends on whether a cause is worth dying for, Jane (a compassionate AI living in the interstellar ansible communication network) shuts off transmissions to the fleet to block the order. As a consequence of this action, she risks her eventual discovery and death, should the government shut down and wipe the interplanetary network. No known smaller computer system can house her consciousness.

On Lusitania itself, Ender attempts to find solutions to the looming catastrophes of the Congressional fleet, Descolada virus, and conflicts among the humans and intelligent alien species. Much on Lusitania centers around the Ribeira family, including Ender's wife Novinha and her children. Novinha and Elanora, the mother-daughter team responsible for most of the biological advances countering the complex Descolada virus, are unsure if they can manufacture a harmless replacement virus. Conflicts arise on whether they should even do so, since the Descolada is intrinsically tied in with the life cycles of all Lusitanian organisms and may even be sentient itself. In addition, to try to devise methods to escape the planet, Lusitania's leading, troublemaking physicist Grego is persuaded by Ender to research faster-than-light travel, despite Grego scoffing at the idea. The third ''biologista'' of the family, Quara, is convinced that the Descolada is an intelligent, self-aware species, and deserves attempts from the humans for communication and preservation. An additional sibling and Catholic priest, Quim (Father Estevão), is determined to use faith and theology to head off another form of xenocide: a group of warmongering Pequenino who wish to wipe out all Earthborn life via starship, carrying the deadly Descolada within them.

World of Path

Starways Congress wants its fleet back. After all else fails, it sends the dilemma of the fleet's impossible disappearance to several citizens of the world of Path, a cultural planetary enclave modeled on early China. Path's culture centers on the ''godspoken'' – those who hear the voices of the gods in the form of irresistible compulsions, and are capable of significantly superior intelligence. It later becomes clear that the godspoken of Path are victims of a cruel government project: granted great intelligence by genetic modification, they were also shackled with a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder to control their loyalty. The experiment is set in a culture bound by five dictates – obey the gods, honor the ancestors, love the people, serve the rulers, then serve your self. This is a further safeguard against rebellion. The superintelligent godspoken are considered the most devout and holy of all citizens, and any disloyal thoughts in a godspoken's mind are immediately suppressed by overwhelming obsessive-compulsive behavior, believed to be a sign from the gods the thoughts are wrong. The most respected godspoken on Path is Han Fei-Tzu, for devising a treaty to prevent the rebellion of several colony worlds after the articles published by Demosthenes. Great things are expected of his daughter and potential successor Han Qing-jao, "Gloriously Bright". While doubting the existence of the gods himself, Han Fei-Tzu promised his dying wife he would raise Qing-jao with an unwavering belief in the godspoken. The two of them are tasked by Starways Congress with deciphering the disappearance of the Lusitania Fleet. Han Qing-jao's secret maid, Si Wang-mu, aids her in this task, her intelligence (partially) unfettered by the rigid caste system.

The young and naive Qing-jao eventually traces the identity of Demosthenes. Discovering that Demosthenes is Valentine Wiggin, Ender's sister – but that Valentine has been on a starship en route to Lusitania for the last thirty years – Qing-Jao concludes that the only possible explanation is advanced computer software closely tied to the communication network. This software must be hiding Demosthenes and publishing her work, while also causing the disappearance of the Fleet. All but discovered, Jane reveals herself to Han Fei-tzu, Han Qing-jao and Si Wang-mu, telling them about their genetic slavery and begging forbearance on their report to Starways Congress.

Already harboring suspicions about the godspoken's condition, Han Fei-tzu accepts the news of Congress's atrocity, as does Si Wang-mu, but his daughter Han Qing-jao clings to her belief that Demosthenes and Jane are enemies of the gods. Feeling betrayed by her father, who is violently incapacitated by OCD from the disloyal thoughts, Qing-jao argues with Jane. Jane threatens shutting off all communications from Path, but Si Wang-mu realizes this would eventually lead to the planet's destruction by Starways Congress. Understanding Jane to be truly alive and compassionate, through tears Si Wang-mu states Jane will not block the report. However, Qing-jao compares Jane to the servants in Path's caste system, merely a computer program designed to serve humans, containing neither autonomy nor awareness.

Knowing she has exhausted her last possibilities of stopping Qing-jao, Jane sacrifices her future and life, unwilling to bring harm to Qing-jao or the people of Path. A triumphant Qing-jao reports the knowledge of Demosthenes, Jane, and the fate of the Fleet to Starways Congress. Qing-jao recommends a coordinated date set several months from the present, to prepare the massive undertaking of setting up clean computers across the interplanetary network, after which the transition to a new system will kill Jane and allow Congress full control again. Allowing the message to be sent, Jane restores communication with the Fleet, and Congress re-issues the order for the Fleet to obliterate Lusitania.

Han Fei-tzu recovers from the incapacitation of his OCD, despairing over his daughter's actions, and his unwitting aid in deeply brainwashing her to serve Congress. He and Si Wang-mu assist Jane and those on Lusitania in finding solutions to their impending catastrophes. Planter, a Pequenino on Lusitania, offers his life for an experiment to determine whether the Descolada gives Pequeninos sentience, or if they have the ability innately. Eventually, Elanora Ribeira is able to come up with a possible model for a "recolada": a refit of the Descolada that allows the native life to survive and retain self-awareness, but doesn't seek to kill all other life forms. With the available equipment, however, the recolada is impossible to make, and they are running out of time against the soon-to-arrive Fleet.

Outside

While this research takes place, tragedies occur on Lusitania. Father Estevão Ribeira, the priest attempting to sway a distant warmongering sect of the Pequeninos from their goal of attacking humanity, is killed by the Fathertree Warmaker, who took Quim hostage and denied him the food with the anti-descolada chemicals, so the descolada infected and killed him on the 7th day of being hostage. Grego Ribeira spurs a riot of humans to burn down the warmaker's forest, but the violent mob gets out of his control, and rampages through the neighboring Pequenino forest instead, massacring many of its inhabitants – the original friends and allies of humanity. Under the terms of the treaty with Pequeninos, the Hive Queen is brought in to hold the peace, setting a perimeter guard of hive drones around the human colony and preventing further escalation of violence between the two groups. Grego is locked in jail, despite eventually stepping between the surviving Pequeninos and his own riot. The town realizes their horrific rage, and constructs a chapel surrounding the fallen priest's grave, trying to find penance for their actions.

Finally, a breakthrough is made. Knowing the Ansible communication network allows instantaneous transfer of information, and through knowledge of how the Hive Queen gives sentience to child queens, Jane, Grego, and Olhado discover the "Outside". The Outside is a spacetime plane where aiúas initially exist. (Aiúa is the term given to the pattern defining any specific structure of the universe, whether a particular atom, a star, or a sentient consciousness.) Formic hive queens are called from Outside after birth, giving awareness to the new body. Jane is able to contain within her vast computing power the pattern defining the billions of atoms and overall structure comprising a simple "starship" (little more than a room), with passengers included, and take them Outside. By bringing them Outside, where relative location is nonexistent, then back "Inside" at a different spot in the physical universe, instantaneous travel has been achieved, finally matching the instantaneous communication of the Ansibles and Formics. They quickly arrange to take Ender, Ela, and Miro to Outside. While Ela is Outside, she is able to create the recolada virus, which is a safe replacement of the descolada, and a cure to the godspoken genetic defect. Miro envisions his body as it was before he was crippled by paralysis, and upon arrival in the Outside, his consciousness is contained within a new, restored body. Ender discovers, however, the surreal unwitting creation of a new "Valentine" and new "Peter Wiggin" from his subconscious, who embody idealized forms of his altruistic and power-hungry sides.

The recolada begins its spread across Lusitania, converting the formerly lethal virus into a harmless aid to native life. The cure to the people of Path's genetic-controlling defect is distributed, yet Han Fei-tzu is tragically unable to convince his daughter Qing-jao this was the true course of action. Confronted with the possibility of being lied to all her life and dooming many sentient species to destruction, or an alternative of believing all she ever loved and trusted has betrayed her – Demosthenes, her father, her friend, her world – Qing-jao instead continues her godspoken rite of woodgrain tracing until her death and is honored by those on Path who still believe in the gods as the last true godspoken. She is elevated to god status after her death. Si Wang-mu sets off with Peter to take control over Starways Congress to stop the Fleet closing in on Lusitania. The new Valentine-persona journeys to find a planet to which the population of Lusitania can evacuate. The stage is set for the final book of the four-part series, ''Children of the Mind''.

Derek "Del Boy" Trotter (played by David Jason), a South London "fly" trader, lives in a council flat in a high-rise tower block, Nelson Mandela House, in Peckham, South London, with his much younger brother, Rodney (Nicholas Lyndhurst), and their elderly grandad (Lennard Pearce). Their mother, Joan, died when Rodney was young, and their father Reg absconded soon afterwards, so Del became Rodney's surrogate father and the family patriarch. Despite the difference in age, personality and outlook, the brothers share a constant bond throughout.

The situation focuses mainly on their attempts to become millionaires through questionable get-rich-quick schemes and by buying and selling poor-quality and illegal goods. They have a three-wheeled Reliant Regal van and trade under the name of ''Trotters Independent Traders'', mainly on the black market.

Initially, Del Boy, Rodney and Grandad were the only regulars, along with the occasional appearances of road sweeper Trigger (Roger Lloyd-Pack) and pretentious used car salesman Boycie (John Challis). Over time, the cast expanded, mostly in the form of regulars at the local pub ''The Nag's Head''. These included pub landlord Mike Fisher (Kenneth MacDonald), lorry driver Denzil (Paul Barber), youthful spiv Mickey Pearce (Patrick Murray) and Boycie's flirtatious wife Marlene (Sue Holderness). After Grandad died following the death of actor Lennard Pearce, his younger brother Uncle Albert (Buster Merryfield) emerged and moved in with Del and Rodney, becoming a main character.

The plots of many early episodes were primarily self-contained, with few plot lines mentioned again, but the show developed a story arc and an ongoing episodic dimension in later series. Del and Rodney's quest for love is a recurring theme, which eventually resulted in them finding long-term love in the form of Raquel (Tessa Peake-Jones) and Cassandra (Gwyneth Strong) respectively; Del also has a son with Raquel, Damien (played by five actors, most recently Ben Smith). The Trotters finally become millionaires, lose their fortune, and then regain some of it.

Death comes to collect the soul of Ipslore the Red, a wizard who was banished from Unseen University for marrying and having children, something forbidden for wizards. Bitter over this fate, Ipslore vows to take revenge upon the wizards through his eighth son, Coin. As the eighth son of a wizard, Coin is born a sourcerer, a wizard who generates new magic rather than drawing it from the world, effectively making him the most powerful wizard on the Disc. At the moment of his death, Ipslore transfers his essential being into the infant Coin's staff, preventing Death from collecting his soul (since damaging the staff to do so would kill Coin) and allowing him to influence his son.

Eight years later, Virrid Wayzygoose, the Archchancellor-designate of Unseen University, is murdered by Coin before his induction, who then forces his way into the university's Great Hall. After Coin bests one of the top wizards in the University, he is welcomed by the majority of the wizards. Rincewind, The Luggage and the Librarian miss Coin's arrival, having fled the University shortly beforehand after the foreboding departure of all of its magically-influenced pest populations. While they are at the Mended Drum, Conina, a professional thief and a daughter of Discworld legend Cohen the Barbarian, arrives holding a box containing the Archchancellor's hat, which she has procured from the room of Wayzygoose, and possesses a kind of sentience as a result of being worn by hundreds of Archchancellors. Under the direction of the hat, which sees Coin as a threat to wizardry and the very world, Conina forces Rincewind to come with her and take a boat to the city of Al Khali, where the hat claims there is someone fit to wear it.

In Ankh-Morpork, the wizards are made more powerful due to Coin's presence drawing more magic into the Discworld. Under Coin's direction, the wizards take over Ankh-Morpork, transforming it into a pristine city and transforming the Patrician Lord Vetinari into a newt, and make plans to take over the world. Elsewhere, Rincewind, Conina and the Luggage end up in the company of Creosote, the seriph of Al Khali, and Abrim, his treacherous vizier. The trio are eventually separated; Rincewind is thrown into the snake pit, where he meets Nijel the Destroyer, a barbarian hero in training. Conina is taken to Creosote's harem, where the Seriph has his concubines tell him stories. The Luggage, having been scorned by Conina, runs away and gets drunk, before killing and eating several creatures in the deserts.

Coin eventually declares Unseen University and the various wizarding orders obsolete and orders the Library to be burnt down, claiming that Wizardry no longer requires such things. A group of wizards then attack Al Khali, with the sheer amount of magic created by their arrival temporarily putting Rincewind into a trance and enabling him to use magic, allowing him and Nijel to escape the snake pit. They join up with Creosote and Conina, the latter immediately falling in love with Nijel, and they encounter Abrim, who had put on the Archchancellor's hat hoping to gain power from it, only to be possessed instead. Having the experience of many previous Archchancellors, the hat proves an even match for Sourcery empowered wizards, fighting off a group of them and enlisting others to its cause. As this takes place, Rincewind, Conina, Nijel and Creosote find a magical flying carpet in the palace's treasury, and use it to escape the palace as it gets destroyed by the possessed Abrim building his own tower.

With the orders no longer around to keep the wizards in check, wizards across the Discworld go to war with one another, threatening to destroy the world completely. Upon hearing Creosote express anti-wizard sentiments, an angry and humiliated Rincewind abandons the group, taking the flying carpet and making his way to the University, where he learns that the Librarian has saved the library books by hiding them in the ancient Tower of Art. The Librarian convinces Rincewind to stop Coin, and he goes off to face the Sourcerer with a sock containing a half-brick. Back in Al Khali, the Luggage, blaming the Archchancellor's hat for everything it has endured, forces its way into Abrim's tower. Distracted by the Luggage, the possessed vizier is killed by the Ankh-Morpork wizards, with the tower and the Archchancellor's hat getting destroyed in the process.

Despite his victory, Coin becomes concerned when he is told that wizards rule under the Discworld Gods. He traps the gods in an alternate reality, which shrinks to become a large pearl, unknowingly causing the Ice Giants, a race of beings who had been imprisoned by the gods, to escape their prison, whereupon they begin strolling across the Discworld, freezing everything in their path. Rincewind confronts Coin soon after this. The Sourcerer is amused, but unthreatened, by Rincewind attempting to fight him, prompting Ipslore to try and force Coin to kill him. Rincewind eventually convinces Coin to throw the staff away, but Ipslore's power is channelled against that of his son. The other wizards leave the tower as Rincewind rushes forward, grabbing the child and sending both of them to the Dungeon Dimensions while Death strikes the staff and takes Ipslore's soul. Rincewind orders Coin to return to the University and, using his other sock filled with sand, attacks the Creatures from the Dungeon Dimensions as a distraction to ensure Coin's escape. The Gods are subsequently set free, stopping the march of the Ice Giants. As the Librarian helps Coin escape, the Luggage charges into the Dungeon Dimensions after Rincewind.

Coin returns the University and Ankh-Morpork to the way they were before he came. After Conina and Nijel travel to the University looking for Rincewind, Coin uses his magic to make them forget him and live happily ever after together. Recognising that he is too powerful to remain in the world, Coin steps into a dimension of his own making, and is not seen on the Discworld again. The Librarian takes Rincewind's battered hat, which got left behind when he went into the Dungeon Dimensions, and places it on a pedestal in the Library.

In 1936, Senator Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, a charismatic and power-hungry politician from an unnamed U.S. state, enters the presidential election campaign on a populist platform, promising to restore the country to prosperity and greatness, and promising each citizen $5,000 per year. Portraying himself as a champion of "the forgotten man" and traditional American values, Windrip defeats President Franklin D. Roosevelt for the Democratic nomination, and then easily beats his Republican opponent, Senator Walt Trowbridge, in the November election.

Although having previously foreshadowed some authoritarian measures to reorganize the United States government, Windrip rapidly outlaws dissent, incarcerates political enemies in concentration camps, and trains and arms a paramilitary force called the Minute Men (named after the Revolutionary War militias of the same name), who terrorize citizens and enforce the policies of Windrip and his capitalist regime. One of Windrip's first acts as president is to eliminate the influence of the United States Congress, which draws the ire of many citizens as well as the legislators themselves. The Minute Men respond to protests against Windrip's decisions harshly, attacking demonstrators with bayonets. In addition to these actions, Windrip's administration, known as the Corpo government, curtails women's and minority rights, and eliminates individual states by subdividing the country into administrative sectors. The government of these sectors is managed by Corpo authorities, usually prominent businessmen or Minute Men officers. Those accused of crimes against the government appear before kangaroo courts presided over by military judges. Despite these dictatorial and "quasi-draconian" measures, a majority of Americans approve of them, seeing them as painful but necessary steps to restore U.S. power.

Open opponents of Windrip, led by Senator Trowbridge, form an organization called the New Underground (named after the Underground Railroad), helping dissidents escape to Canada and distributing anti-Windrip propaganda. One recruit to the New Underground is Doremus Jessup, the novel's protagonist, a traditional liberal and an opponent of both corporatist and communist theories, the latter of which Windrip's administration suppresses. Jessup's participation in the organization results in the publication of a periodical called ''The Vermont Vigilance'', in which he writes editorials decrying Windrip's abuses of power. (Even before Windrip's election, Jessup brings up the possibility of fascism coming to America, but Francis Tasbrough, the wealthy owner of a quarry in Jessup's hometown of Fort Beulah, Vermont, dismisses it with the remark that it simply "can't happen here", hence the novel's title.)

Shad Ledue, the local district commissioner and Jessup's former hired man, resents his old employer. Ledue eventually discovers Jessup's actions and has him sent to a concentration camp. Ledue subsequently terrorizes Jessup's family and particularly his daughter Sissy, whom he unsuccessfully attempts to seduce. Sissy discovers evidence of corrupt dealings on the part of Ledue, which she exposes to Francis Tasbrough, a one-time friend of Jessup and Ledue's superior in the administrative hierarchy. Tasbrough has Ledue imprisoned in the same camp as Jessup, where inmates Ledue had sent there organize Ledue's murder. After a relatively brief incarceration, Jessup escapes when his friends bribe one of the camp guards. He flees to Canada, where he rejoins the New Underground. He later serves the organization as a spy, passing along information and urging locals to resist Windrip.

In time, Windrip's hold on power weakens as the economic prosperity he promised does not materialize, and increased numbers of disillusioned Americans, including Vice President Perley Beecroft, flee to both Canada and Mexico. Windrip also angers his Secretary of State, Lee Sarason, who had served earlier as his chief political operative and adviser. Sarason and Windrip's other lieutenants, including General Dewey Haik, seize power and exile the president to France. Sarason succeeds Windrip, but his extravagant and relatively weak rule creates a power vacuum in which Haik and others vie for power. In a bloody putsch, Haik leads a party of military supporters into the White House, kills Sarason and his associates, and proclaims himself president. The two coups cause a slow erosion of Corpo power, and Haik's government desperately tries to arouse patriotism by launching an unjustified invasion of Mexico. After slandering Mexico in state-run newspapers, Haik orders a mass conscription of young American men for the invasion of that country, infuriating many who had until then been staunch Corpo loyalists. Riots and rebellions break out across the country, with many realizing the Corpos have misled them.

General Emmanuel Coon, among Haik's senior officers, defects to the opposition with a large portion of his army, giving strength to the resistance movement. Although Haik remains in control of much of the country, civil war soon breaks out as the resistance tries to consolidate its grasp on the Midwest. The novel ends after the beginning of the conflict, with Jessup working as an agent for the New Underground in Corpo-occupied portions of southern Minnesota.

Original series

''To the Manor Born'' is set in the fictional village of Grantleigh in Somerset, near the fictional town of Marlbury. The series begins with the funeral of Marton (''sic'') fforbes-Hamilton, have controlled for 400 years. Her joy is short-lived though, as her solicitor, Arnold Plunkett, informs her that Marton was bankrupt and that the manor will have to be sold to pay off the debts. Audrey tries to buy back the manor at auction, but is outbid at £876,000. The new Lord of the Manor is Richard DeVere, a recently widowed self-made millionaire who started his career on an East End fruit barrow and founded the Cavendish Foods supermarket chain, though Audrey calls him a costermonger and sees him simply as a grocer. DeVere brings his domineering mother, Maria Poulouvicka (who is nicknamed by Audrey as 'Mrs. Poo'). She reveals to Audrey, who does not like foreigners, that she and her son came to Britain in 1939 from Czechoslovakia, and that Richard, whose real name is Bedřich Polouvicek, is half-Polish (on his late father Lazlo's side) and half-Czech. Mrs. Polouvicka tries hard to fit into British country life, but her accent often leads to many mispronunciations and she frequently comes out with sayings from her "old Czechoslovakia". From early on in the series, she encourages her son to court Audrey.

Audrey moves into the "Old Lodge", at the end of the drive, where she can see most of what goes on at the manor. Living with her is her elderly and loyal butler, Brabinger, who has worked for the fforbes-Hamiltons his whole life, and her beagle Bertie. Audrey's supportive best friend, and a frequent visitor, is the well-meaning Marjory Frobisher, who quickly develops a crush on DeVere. Marjory, who was at school with Audrey, is still a schoolgirl at heart and a committed countryside campaigner. Marjory has no organisational ability, which leads to her being nicknamed "Muddlesome Marj" by some. Despite Marjory's encouragement, Audrey refuses to get a job, saying her only job could be running the Grantleigh Estate and doing other public service, which includes her being a magistrate. This means that money is a constant problem and Audrey has to learn to live within her means and new circumstances. During the second series, Brabinger is away ill; and Ned, whose tied cottage is being renovated by Richard, takes over as Audrey's butler. Ned, a gardener and "outside man", has worked on the estate all his life and finds working indoors difficult to get used to and he tends to lack the refined characteristics that a trained butler such as Brabinger possessed. Other estate staff include the estate foreman Mr. Miller, the new estate manager Mr. Spalding and the cook Mrs. Beecham. Another character, Polly, originally works at the local "Cavendish Foods" supermarket and then at the doctors' surgery, while Linda Cartwright works in the stables and as a domestic. The postman, Mr. Purvis, appears in two episodes.

Other characters include the local rector, who is not unhappy when Audrey loses the manor, hoping that it will prevent the dominating Audrey from having a say in the running of the church and local causes. The rector favours Richard, who is frequently generous when it comes to donations to church funds. The village shop is run by Mrs. Patterson, the local gossip who also favours Richard and does not get on with Audrey. The typically English Brigadier Lemington, of the Somerset Rifles and a former Desert Rat, is another local landowner and friend of Audrey's and the Master of Foxhounds and, like Audrey and Marjory, has an interest in nature conservation and cricket. Arnold Plunkett and his wife Dorothy are friends of Audrey, while Arnold is also the family solicitor. Grantleigh's local estate agent is J.J. Anderson, of Anderson and Fish, who appears at manor parties.

During the course of the three series, Audrey and Richard grow closer. Hostile to each other at the start, they grew to understand and respect each other, as both try to adapt to each other's ways. The last two 1981 episodes show Richard having problems at his company Cavendish Foods. With his board of directors refusing to let Richard buy a refrigeration plant in Argentina, he seriously considers selling the manor to raise the money to buy the plant himself. Trying to help Richard, Audrey asks her uncle, a well-respected and connected member of the financial community, to lend Richard a hand. Thanks to him, things begin to go Richard's way. Unfortunately, Audrey's uncle dies before the deals are signed. Richard decides to sell the manor to pay for the refrigerated plant. By a twist of fate, Audrey inherits her uncle's fortune and buys the manor back. Now back home and on her own turf, Audrey asks Richard to marry her. Taken aback, Richard says yes and they are married in the final episode, broadcast on 29 November 1981.

2007 Christmas special

As Richard and Audrey plan to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary, each planning a surprise party for the other, Richard confesses to Audrey that he owns Farmer Tom, a company that has been putting the neighbouring estates out of business. Audrey leaves him and goes to stay with Marjory, much to the latter's displeasure. Richard visits his mother's grave to develop a plan to win Audrey back. He decides to allow a rock concert to be held on the estate. When the licence application is up before the magistrates' court, Richard changes his mind. The following day, their anniversary, Marjory leads Audrey to a surprise party organised by Richard.

New characters in the 2007 Christmas special include Emmeridge, the outspoken butler replacing Brabinger; Adam fforbes-Hamilton, Marton's nephew and Audrey's godson, who has recently moved to Grantleigh to learn how to run an estate; and Archie Pennington-Booth, a neighbouring landowner driven to bankruptcy by Farmer Tom. Marjory now lives in the Old Lodge that Audrey occupied during the original series, and she and Adam develop a romantic interest in each other. A small acknowledgement of Bertie and Brabinger appears in the special, consisting of a photo of Brabinger and a small beagle statuette on a side table. Richard's mother, "Mrs. Poo", is acknowledged by a marble headstone in the church graveyard and a framed photograph on the mantel of the manor's sitting room.

The heroine, Sybylla Melvyn, is an imaginative, headstrong girl growing up in rural Australia in the 1890s. Drought and a series of poor business decisions reduce her family to subsistence level, her father begins to drink excessively, and Sybylla struggles to deal with the monotony of her life. To her relief, she is sent to live on her grandmother's property, where life is more comfortable. There she meets wealthy young Harold Beecham, who loves her and proposes marriage; convinced of her ugliness and aware of her tomboyish ways, Sybylla is unable to believe that he could really love her. By this time, her father's drinking has plunged the family into debt, and she is sent to work as governess/housekeeper for the family of an almost illiterate neighbor to whom her father owes money. She finds life there unbearable and eventually suffers a physical breakdown which leads to her return to the family home. When Harold Beecham returns to ask Sybylla to marry him, she concludes that she would only make him unhappy and sends him away, determined never to marry. The novel ends with no suggestion that she will ever have the "brilliant career" as a writer that she desires.

In an abandoned riverboat in Devil's Bayou, Louisiana, a young orphan named Penny drops a message in a bottle, containing a plea for help, into the river. The Rescue Aid Society, an international mouse organization inside the United Nations, finds the bottle when it washes up in New York City. The Hungarian representative, Miss Bianca, volunteers to accept the case. She chooses Bernard, a stammering janitor, as her co-agent. The two visit Morningside Orphanage, where Penny lived, and meet an old cat named Rufus. He tells them about a sketchy woman named Madame Medusa who once tried to lure Penny into her car, and may have succeeded in abducting Penny this time.

The mice travel to Medusa's pawn shop, where they discover that she and her partner, Mr. Snoops, are on a quest to find the world's largest diamond, the Devil's Eye. The mice learn that Medusa and Snoops are currently at the Devil's Bayou with Penny, whom they have indeed kidnapped and placed under the guard of two trained crocodiles, Brutus and Nero. With the help of an albatross named Orville and a dragonfly named Evinrude, the mice follow Medusa to the bayou. There, they learn that Medusa plans to force Penny to enter a small blowhole that leads down into a blocked-off pirates' cave where the Devil's Eye is located.

Bernard and Bianca find Penny and devise a plan of escape. They send Evinrude to alert the local animals, who loathe Medusa, but Evinrude is delayed when he is forced to take shelter from a cloud of bats. The following morning, Medusa and Snoops send Penny down into the cave to find the gem. Unbeknownst to Medusa, Bianca and Bernard are hiding in Penny's skirt pocket. The three soon find the Devil's Eye within a pirate skull. As Penny pries the mouth open with a sword, the mice push the gem through it, but soon the oceanic tide rises and floods the cave. The three barely manage to retrieve the diamond and escape.

Medusa betrays Snoops and hides the diamond in Penny's teddy bear, while holding Penny and Snoops at gunpoint. When she trips over a cable set as a trap by Bernard and Bianca, Medusa loses the bear and the diamond to Penny, who runs away with them. The local animals arrive at the riverboat and aid Bernard and Bianca in trapping Brutus and Nero, then set off Mr. Snoops's fireworks to create more chaos. Meanwhile, Penny and the mice commandeer Medusa's swamp-mobile, a makeshift airboat. Medusa unsuccessfully pursues them, using Brutus and Nero as water-skis. As the riverboat sinks from the fireworks' damage, Medusa crashes and is left clinging to the boat's smoke stacks. Mr. Snoops escapes on a raft and laughs at her, while the irritated Brutus and Nero turn on her and circle below.

Back in New York City, the Rescue Aid Society watch a news report of how Penny found the Devil's Eye, which has been given to the Smithsonian Institution. Penny has also been adopted. The meeting is interrupted when Evinrude arrives with a call for help, sending Bernard and Bianca on a new adventure.

Fighting for military and political power on Rubi-Ka are the Omni-Tek corporation (owners of the planet's one thousand-year lease), the separatist clans, terrorist groups, extraterrestrial life, and ancient civilizations. The narrative was developed to be played out as a series of virtual "role-play" events over the course of four years, influenced by the actions of those taking part in the game.

According to the game's back story, the "Source" of all life deep inside the planet created the first forms of life, who called themselves the Xan. They began as a small, perfect, immortal civilization, living in peace and harmony. The Xans' eventual discovery and research of the Source's power lead them to create powerful technology. They built a great civilization, but this made them greedy and arrogant. Two factions formed within the Xan, calling themselves the Redeemed and the Unredeemed. These groups fought over how best to use the Source — now strained and unstable from their tampering. They tried in vain to fix the problem, but discovered it was too late - the Source would soon destroy the planet. Rubi-Ka was ripped apart in a cataclysm, leaving it a barren rock. The Source, and small fragments of the Xans' dead civilization, were thrown into another dimension known as the Shadowlands. The survivors left in search of other habitable planets, where they planted versions of their species; they hoped that one would prosper and eventually return to Rubi-Ka. Earth was one of their destinations.

In the year 28,708 AD, a mining survey ship from the mega-corporation Omni-Tek rediscovered Rubi-Ka. The Interstellar Confederation of Corporations (ICC) granted Omni-Tek a one thousand-year lease on the planet shortly after. It was a seemingly useless, arid landscape far from civilization, until the discovery of the mineral Notum, unique to Rubi-Ka. Research of Notum and its properties led to major leaps forward in nanotechnology, making possible the creation of powerful new technology, as well as the resurrection of the dead. After terraforming a portion of Rubi-Ka and constructing several cities, outposts, and transportation infrastructure, the company began importing colonists under contract as miners and other professions.

The first five hundred years of Omni-Tek's control of Rubi-Ka were marked with an exemplary worker treatment record. However, as time passed, their policies degraded. Their scientists' tinkering with the mutating effects of Notum on the colonists in a quest for efficiency lead to large numbers of failed experiments. Survivors of these experiments became the game's four playable races, or Breeds, each designed by Omni-Tek to specialize in a type of work. Together with the original "Solitus" race, the genetically engineered Herculean "Atrox," the intelligent "Nanomages," and the nimble "Opifexes," they continued their labor in the midst of an increasingly hostile and totalitarian culture. This caused a significant number of workers to rebel, and begin to trade stolen Notum to a rival corporation. These rebel groups, collectively calling themselves the Clans, fought a series of wars with Omni-Tek over the next several centuries.

Player point of view

''Anarchy Online'''s story, from the player's point of view, began in 29,475, after the most recent peace treaty had been signed between Omni-Tek and the Clans. ICC peacekeeping troops later moved into some cities to protect neutral observers of the war who had rejected their contractual obligations with Omni-Tek, but did not align themselves with the Clans. Omni-Tek, the Clans, and the neutral observers make up the game's three playable factions and control much of Rubi-Ka's terraformed surface.

After scientists opened a portal to the Shadowlands, players found the Source, killing the guardian the Xan had left there to protect it. This prompted an alien race known as the Kyr'ozch to begin attacking Rubi-Ka. The story's current plots revolve around the fight by all sides for control of the planet.

In 1924, chorus girl Roxie Hart watches lead Velma Kelly perform ("Overture/All That Jazz") at The Onyx, a Chicago theater. Seeking stardom, Roxie begins an affair with furniture salesman Fred Casely, who claims to know the manager. After the show, Velma is arrested for killing her husband Charlie and sister Veronica, after finding them in bed together.

A month later, Casely admits that he lied in order to sleep with her. Enraged, Roxie shoots him dead. She convinces her gullible husband, Amos, to take the blame, telling him she killed a burglar in self-defense. As Amos confesses, Roxie fantasizes a musical number devoted to her husband ("Funny Honey"). However, when the detective brings up evidence of Roxie's affair with Casely, Amos recants; Roxie furiously admits the truth and is arrested. Ambitious District Attorney Martin Harrison announces he will seek the death penalty.

At Cook County Jail, Roxie is sent to Murderess' Row, supervised by the corrupt Matron "Mama" Morton ("When You're Good to Mama"). Roxie meets her idol Velma, but her friendship is rudely rebuffed. She learns the backstories of the other women there, including Velma ("Cell Block Tango"). On Morton's advice, Roxie engages Velma's lawyer, the brilliant Billy Flynn ("All I Care About"). Flynn and Roxie manipulate the press, reinventing Roxie as an originally virtuous Southern woman corrupted by the fast life of the city; she claims that she had the affair with Casely because Amos was always working, but repented and left Casely for Amos, and Casely jealously attacked her ("We Both Reached for the Gun"). The press believe the story; praised by the public as a tragic heroine, Roxie becomes an overnight sensation ("Roxie"). Velma, unhappy at losing the public's attention, tries to convince Roxie to join her act, replacing the sister that she murdered ("I Can't Do It Alone"), but Roxie, now the more popular of the two rivals, snubs her just as Velma originally snubbed Roxie.

Meanwhile, wealthy heiress "Go-to-Hell" Kitty Baxter, is arrested for murdering her husband and his two lovers, and the press and Flynn focus more on her. To Velma's surprise, Roxie quickly steals back the fame by claiming pregnancy. Amos is ignored by the press ("Mister Cellophane"), and Flynn, to create more sympathy for Roxie, convinces him that the child is Casely's, and that he should divorce Roxie in the middle of her predicament. Roxie over-confidently fires Flynn, believing she can now win on her own. However, when Katalin Helinszki, a Hungarian woman on Murderess' Row (who happens to be the only inmate to protest and insist on her own innocence), becomes the first woman in Cook County history to be executed by hanging, Roxie realizes the gravity of the situation and rehires Flynn.

Roxie's trial begins, and Billy turns it into a media spectacle ("Razzle Dazzle") with the help of the sensationalist newspaper reporters and radio personality Mary Sunshine. Billy discredits witnesses, manipulates evidence and even stages a public reconciliation between Amos and Roxie when she claims the child is his. The trial seems to be going well for Roxie until Velma appears with Roxie's diary, reading incriminating entries in exchange for amnesty in her own case. Billy discredits the diary, implying that Harrison was the one who planted the evidence ("A Tap Dance"). Roxie is acquitted, but her fame is eclipsed moments later when another woman, who had also shot her own husband, shoots her lawyer just outside the courthouse. Flynn tells her to accept it, and admits that he tampered with her diary himself, in order to incriminate the DA and also free two clients simultaneously. Amos remains loyal and excited to be a father, but Roxie cruelly reveals that her pregnancy is false, and he finally leaves her.

Roxie does become a vaudeville performer, but is very unsuccessful ("Nowadays"). The similarly-unsuccessful Velma reapproaches Roxie to suggest performing together as a double act consisting of two murderers. Roxie initially refuses, but later accepts when Velma points out that they can perform together despite their mutual resentment. The two stage a spectacular performance that earns them praise from the audience and the press ("Nowadays / Hot Honey Rag"). The film concludes with Roxie and Velma receiving a standing ovation from an enthusiastic audience (which includes Flynn, Morton, the jurors and other acquitted murderesses), and proclaiming that, "We couldn't have done it without you".

Romy White and Michele Weinberger live together in Venice, Los Angeles, California. Romy works as a cashier in the service department at a Jaguar dealership and Michele is unemployed. They are single, unambitious, and enjoy a casual lifestyle. While working, Romy encounters former high school classmate, Heather Mooney, who informs Romy about their upcoming ten-year high school reunion in Tucson, Arizona.

As high school students in 1987, they were picked on by the "A-Group", led by cheerleader Christie Masters, who humiliates them repeatedly. Finally, at the prom, Christie tricks Romy into believing that her boyfriend Billy Christianson was in love with Romy, and had dumped Christie to be with Romy. Romy waits all night to dance with Billy, who had already left with Christie. Michele dances with her instead.

Romy realizes that their lack of achievements will not make a good impression at the reunion. Desperate to impress their former classmates, Romy and Michele make last-ditch attempts to improve themselves, hoping to avoid being bullied again.

Having failed to secure better jobs and boyfriends, Romy and Michele decide to fake success by showing up in an expensive car and business suits. Romy borrows a Jaguar XJ-S from a co-worker, and Michele makes their outfits. En route to the reunion, they decide to claim that they invented the Post-it Note, believing that no one will know better. They argue over the details of their lie, which escalates into an argument about their friendship. They decide to go their separate ways once they reach the reunion.

At the reunion, Michele hears Romy claiming that she invented Post-its by herself. Michele convinces the A-Group she invented a special kind of glue. Sandy Frink, the nerd who had a crush on Michele in high school, has become wealthy and attractive since high school, and hits on Michele after hitting her with his limo. Billy and Romy reunite and hit it off. Both Romy and Michele win awards as the "Most Changed For the Better Since High School" members of their graduating class, but still refuse to speak with each other. Seventy years later, an elderly Michele learns that Romy is on her deathbed, and calls her to make amends. However, they rehash the same argument and Romy dies without resolving their issues.

Michele wakes up alone in the car, realizing that she was dreaming. At the reunion, Romy starts to tell the Post-it story, but Heather blows the lie by revealing the real inventor’s name. Christie and her friends taunt Romy, and Michele ineptly defends her. Romy runs out, and Michele chases after her. They reconcile and decide to be themselves instead of trying to impress other people. They change into brightly colored homemade outfits and return to the reunion.

They confront Christie, who makes fun of their clothes. Former A-Group girl Lisa Luder, now a fashion editor, announces that the outfits are actually "not bad". Christie verbally attacks Lisa, who coolly dismisses her. The other A-Group girls abandon Christie, while everyone else congratulates Romy and Michele. Heather apologizes to Romy and Michele and admits she was miserable in high school because she was in love with Sandy, who was in love with Michele. Romy and Michele comfort her by reminding her that she was always successful at making classmate Toby Walters miserable.

Sandy, who turns out to be an actual billionaire, arrives via helicopter. He confesses that he still loves Michele and asks her to dance with him. Michele agrees, as long as Romy can dance with them. After their interpretive dance to Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" receives huge applause, Sandy escorts them to his helicopter. On their way out, they encounter Billy. Once a fit and handsome athlete, he is now an overweight alcoholic who is married to Christie, has a dead-end job working for Christie’s father, and is unsure if he is the father of her latest pregnancy. He hits on Romy, who tells him to wait for her in his hotel room. She then leaves the reunion with Michele as the two women join Sandy in his helicopter. The reunion guests watch as the helicopter takes off.

Six months later, back in Los Angeles, Romy and Michele use money loaned to them by Sandy to open a successful fashion boutique.

The story begins with the player character (PC), the protagonist of the story, being sent to recover four creatures (dryad, intellect devourer, yuan-ti, and cockatrice) known collectively as the "Waterdhavian creatures" under the guidance of Lady Aribeth de Tylmarande. The Waterdhavian creatures are needed to make a cure for the Wailing Death, a plague that is sweeping the city of Neverwinter and forcing a quarantine. With the help of Fenthick Moss, Aribeth's love interest, and Desther, Fenthick's friend, the PC is able to retrieve the creatures. As they collect the creatures, they are attacked by mysterious assassins from a cult that is behind the spreading of the plague.

As the cure is being made, Castle Neverwinter is attacked by the minions of Desther, who betrays the heroes. Desther takes the completed cure and escapes the castle, with the hero and Fenthick in pursuit. When they catch up to Desther, he surrenders after a short battle. Desther is sentenced to burn at the stake, and Fenthick, despite being unaware of Desther's true intentions, is sentenced to hang. The protagonist meets up with Aribeth and Neverwinter's spymaster, Aarin Gend, to begin searching for the cult responsible for the plague and the attack on Neverwinter. The PC retrieves the diaries of dead cultists and letters from a person named Maugrim Korothir, which convince Aribeth that the cult's headquarters are in Luskan. Aribeth goes ahead to Luskan, and the hero follows after speaking once more to Gend.

After arriving in Luskan, the protagonist hears rumors that Aribeth has defected and joined the cultists. These fears are confirmed when she is found meeting with Maugrim and Morag, Queen of the reptilian Old Ones. They seek a group of magical relics called the Words of Power. The protagonist retrieves all of the Words of Power except for one held by the cult. The hero discovers that the Words open a portal to a pocket world inside the Source Stone, where Morag and the other Old Ones sealed themselves long ago to avoid extinction during a primordial ice age. The protagonist confronts Aribeth, and depending on how the meeting is handled, she either surrenders to the PC or they are forced to kill her. The hero battles Maugrim for the final Word, then uses the Words to enter the Source Stone and battle with Morag. After Morag's death, the protagonist escapes the Stone as the world inside it implodes.

Aviator André Jurieux lands at Le Bourget Airfield outside Paris after crossing the Atlantic in his plane. He is greeted by his friend Octave, who tells André that Christine the Austrian-French noblewoman André loves has not come to greet him. André is heartbroken. When a radio reporter comes to broadcast André's first words upon landing, he explains his sorrow and denounces Christine. She is listening to the broadcast in her Paris apartment while attended by her maid, Lisette. Christine has been married to Robert, Marquis de la Chesnaye for three years. For two years, Lisette has been married to Schumacher the gamekeeper at Robert's country estate, La Colinière in Sologne but she is more devoted to Christine than to her husband. Christine's past relationship with André is openly known by her husband, her maid and their friend Octave. After Christine and Robert playfully discuss André's emotional display and pledge devotion to one another, Robert excuses himself to make a telephone call. He arranges to meet his mistress Geneviève the next morning.

At Geneviève's apartment, Robert says he must end their relationship but invites her to join them for a weekend retreat to La Colinière. Christine also invites her niece, Jackie. Later, Octave induces Robert to invite André to the estate as well. They joke that André and Geneviève will begin a relationship, thereby solving everyone's problems. At the estate, Schumacher is policing the grounds and trying to eliminate rabbits. Marceau a poacher sneaks onto the estate to retrieve a rabbit caught in a snare. Before Marceau can escape, Schumacher catches him and begins to escort him from the property when Robert demands to know what is happening. Marceau explains that he can catch rabbits and Robert hires him as a servant. Once inside the house, Marceau flirts with Lisette. The assembled guests go on a hunt led by Schumacher, who resents Marceau. On the way back to La Colinière's castle, Robert tells Geneviève that he no longer loves her. Geneviève wants to pack up and leave but Christine persuades her to stay.

At a masked ball, various romantic liaisons are made. André and Christine declare their love for each other and plan to run away together. Marceau pursues Lisette, and the jealous Schumacher is upset. Robert and André come to an argument over Christine. In the secluded greenhouse, Octave declares that he too loves Christine who is now having doubts about André and they decide to run away together. Schumacher and Marceau, who have both been expelled from the estate by Robert after a fight over Lisette, watch Octave and Christine in the greenhouse. As in Beaumarchais's ''Marriage of Figaro,'' the literary basis for Mozart's opera, they mistake Christine for Lisette because Christine is wearing Lisette's cape and hood. Octave returns to the house for his coat and hat, where Lisette begs him not to leave with Christine.

Breaking his promise to Christine, Octave meets André and sends him out to Christine in the greenhouse, lending him his overcoat, which causes André's death. When André reaches the greenhouse wearing Octave's coat, Schumacher mistakes him for Octave, who he thinks is trying to run off with his wife, and shoots him dead.

In the closing moments of the film, Octave and Marceau walk away into the night as Robert brings Schumacher back into the household and explains that he would report the killing to the authorities as nothing more than an unfortunate accident.

Antoine Doinel is a young boy growing up in Paris. Misunderstood by his parents for playing truant from school and stealing, and tormented in school for discipline problems by his teacher (such as writing on the classroom wall, and later falsely explaining his absence as having been due to his mother's death), Antoine frequently runs away from both places. He finally quits school after his teacher accuses him of plagiarizing Balzac. (Antoine loves Balzac and in a school essay he describes "the death of my grandfather", in a close paraphrase of Balzac from memory.) He steals a Royal typewriter from his stepfather's workplace to finance his plans to leave home, but, having been unable to sell it, is apprehended while trying to return it.

The stepfather turns Antoine over to the police and Antoine spends the night in jail, sharing a cell with prostitutes and thieves. During an interview with the judge, Antoine's mother confesses that her husband is not Antoine's biological father. Antoine is placed in an observation center for troubled youths near the seashore (as his mother wished). A psychologist at the center probes reasons for Antoine's unhappiness, which the youth reveals in a fragmented series of monologues.

While playing football with the other boys one day, Antoine escapes under a fence and runs away to the ocean, which he has always wanted to see. He reaches the shoreline of the sea and runs into it. The film concludes with a freeze-frame of Antoine, which, via an optical effect, zooms in on his face as he looks into the camera.

The novel consists of two long letters (which appear as volumes I and II of the original edition) written by Frances 'Fanny' Hill, a rich Englishwoman in her middle age, who leads a life of contentment with her loving husband Charles and their children, to an unnamed acquaintance identified only as 'Madam.' Fanny has been prevailed upon by 'Madam' to recount the 'scandalous stages' of her earlier life, which she proceeds to do with 'stark naked truth' as her governing principle.

The first letter begins with a short account of Fanny's impoverished childhood in a Lancashire village. At age 14, she loses her parents to smallpox, arrives in London to look for domestic work, and gets lured into a brothel. She sees a sexual encounter between an ugly older couple and another between a young attractive couple, and participates in a lesbian encounter with Phoebe, a bisexual prostitute. A customer, Charles, induces Fanny to escape. She loses her virginity to Charles and becomes his lover. Charles is sent away by deception to the South Seas, and Fanny is driven by desperation and poverty to become the kept woman of a rich merchant named Mr H—. After enjoying a brief period of stability, she sees Mr H— have a sexual encounter with her own maid, and goes on to seduce Will (the young footman of Mr H—) as an act of revenge. She is discovered by Mr H— as she is having a sexual encounter with Will. After being abandoned by Mr H—, Fanny becomes a prostitute for wealthy clients in a pleasure-house run by Mrs Cole. This marks the end of the first letter.

The second letter begins with a rumination on the tedium of writing about sex and the difficulty of driving a middle course between vulgar language and "mincing metaphors and affected circumlocutions". Fanny then describes her adventures in the house of Mrs Cole, which include a public orgy, an elaborately orchestrated bogus sale of her "virginity" to a rich dupe called Mr Norbert, and a sado-masochistic session with a man involving mutual flagellation with birch-rods. These are interspersed with narratives which do not involve Fanny directly; for instance, three other girls in the house (Emily, Louisa and Harriett) describe their own losses of virginity, and the nymphomaniac Louisa seduces the immensely endowed but imbecilic "good-natured Dick". Fanny also describes anal intercourse between two older boys (removed from several later editions). Eventually Fanny retires from prostitution and becomes the lover of a rich and worldly-wise man of 60 (described by Fanny as a "rational pleasurist"). This phase of Fanny's life brings about her intellectual development, and leaves her wealthy when her lover dies of a sudden cold. Soon after, she has a chance encounter with Charles, who has returned as a poor man to England after being shipwrecked. Fanny offers her fortune to Charles unconditionally, but he insists on marrying her.

The novel's developed characters include Charles, Mrs Jones (Fanny's landlady), Mrs Cole, Will, Mr H— and Mr Norbert. The prose includes long sentences with many subordinate clauses. Its morality is conventional for the time, in that it denounces sodomy, frowns upon vice and approves of only heterosexual unions based upon mutual love.

Analysis

The plot was described as 'operatic' by John Hollander, who said that "the book's language and its protagonist's character are its greatest virtues".

Literary critic Felicity A. Nussbaum describes the girls in Mrs Cole's brothel as a little troop of love' who provide compliments, caresses, and congratulation to their fellow whores' erotic achievements".

According to literary critic Thomas Holmes, Fanny and Mrs Cole see the homosexual act thusly: "the act subverts not only the hierarchy of the male over the female, but also what they consider nature's law regarding the role of intercourse and procreation".

Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Trillian, and Zaphod Beeblebrox leave the planet Magrathea on the ''Heart of Gold''. A Vogon ship bribed by Gag Halfrunt and a group of psychiatrists, fearful that the discovery of the Ultimate Question will end their profession, intercepts and fires at them. Meanwhile, Arthur gets frustrated that the ship is unable to produce any beverages beyond an undrinkable tea-like liquid. He gives a lengthy description of tea, causing Eddie the Shipboard Computer to become jammed and unable to fight the Vogon ship off. Desperate, Zaphod decides to hold a séance to call up his great-grandfather Zaphod Beeblebrox the Fourth to rescue them. The elder Zaphod scolds his descendant and sends him on a quest to find The Ruler of the Universe in order to solve the political and economic instability plaguing the universe. He transports Zaphod and Marvin to Ursa Minor Beta, the tropical home planet of the offices of the Hitchhiker's Guide's publisher Megadodo Publications, and leaves the others on the depowered ship in a black void.

Acting on a thought from the portion of his brain unaffected by his lobotomy, Zaphod goes looking for Zarniwoop, the Guide's lead editor, though his staff insist he has been out on an intergalactic cruise. A man named Roosta takes Zaphod to Zarniwoop's offices. Frogstar fighters arrive and attack the building, towing it to one of their home planets, Frogstar World B, a planet whose society collapsed through an economic process called the "Shoe Event Horizon" which rendered its economy unable to support any enterprises besides shoe stores. The planet eventually became the site of the Total Perspective Vortex, a device that drives those who experience it mad due to showing them their insignificance compared to the infinite universe. Following Roosta's instructions and escaping through Zarniwoop's office's windows, Zaphod is caught by Gargravarr, a disembodied mind undergoing a trial separation from his body, who takes Zaphod to be exposed to the Vortex. However, Zaphod is unfazed by the Vortex, suggesting to a perplexed Gargravarr that it showed Zaphod that he was the most important being in the universe.

Left on his own, Zaphod eventually finds a long-abandoned spaceliner whose passengers have been forcibly kept in 900 years of suspended animation by the autopilot after the collapse of their civilization until a new one could develop to load the ship with lemon-scented paper napkins. On the ship he discovers Zarniwoop, who reveals that Zaphod stepped into a computer simulation of the universe when he walked into his office, allowing Zaphod to survive the Vortex since the universe was designed for his benefit. Zarniwoop further reveals that the ''Heart of Gold'' had been microscopically shrunk and placed in Zaphod's pocket so that they can use it to find the true ruler of the universe, whom Zarniwoop has located. However, Zaphod abandons Zarniwoop, reunites with Ford, Arthur, and Trillian, and escapes to the nearest restaurant. This turns out to be the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, built atop the ruins of Frogstar World B and existing in a time bubble near the end of the universe, which it offers its guests spectacular views of. At the restaurant they meet Ford's old acquaintance Hotblack Desiato, a member of the rock band Disaster Area, which is known for making the loudest sound in the universe and only perform their concerts remotely from an orbiting spaceship. During their dinner, Zaphod receives a telephone call from Marvin, who has been stranded on the planet for billions of years and is now working as a valet in the restaurant's parking lot.

Zaphod suggests they leave, trying to steal a sleek, all-black spacecraft next to Hotblack Desiato's limoship. With their ship on complete autopilot and unable to wrest the controls away from it, an agitated Zaphod admits that he still wants to solve the Question to the Ultimate Answer. Marvin abruptly tells them that the question is imprinted in Arthur's brainwaves, but they are distracted before they can ask further. They learn that the ship is actually an unmanned stunt ship for Disaster Area, which is programmed to fall into a local sun to create solar flares in synchronization with the climax of the band's concert. They discover a partially installed emergency teleporter without a guidance system and Zaphod volunteers Marvin to stay behind and operate it so the others can escape. Zaphod and Trillian find themselves back aboard the ''Heart of Gold'' under Zarniwoop's control, where he is using the ships Improbability Drive penetrate the Unprobability Field protecting the home planet of the Ruler of the Universe. On an unpopulated planet, they find the Ruler who has no idea he is the ruler, is not convinced of a broader universe outside of his home, and is even skeptical if anything around him exists. While an enraged Zarniwoop tries to reason with the Ruler, Zaphod and Trillian strand him and make their escape in the ''Heart of Gold''.

Meanwhile, Arthur and Ford find themselves aboard Ark Fleet Ship B, which is loaded with 15 million passengers from the planet Golgafrincham and is commanded by an inept captain who is only concerned with taking baths. Although the Golgafrinchans were ostensibly evacuated to escape a planetary disaster, in actuality the disaster was made up by the Golgafrinchans to divest themselves of a useless third of their population, later going extinct from a pandemic caused by dirty telephone receivers after they expelled all telephone sanitizers. The Ark crash-lands into a swamp on an undeveloped planet. Arthur and Ford leave to search for a signal from any passing spaceship, traveling for hundreds of miles around the continent. Along the way the planet's primitive yet friendly hominid-like inhabitants usher them away from their home settlements and leave them fruit. After finding a glacier with a Magrathean inscription honoring Slartibartfast, they realize they are on pre-historic Earth in 2,000,000 BC, that the hominids are Neanderthals, that they have traveled across Europe from the future site of Arthur's home city of Islington in Great Britain to Norway, and that the Golgafrinchans are the ancestors of the modern human race.

They return to the Golgafrinchans, only to find that they have been too preoccupied with trying to form council meetings about documentary-making, fiscal policy, searching for hot springs for the captain's baths, and declaring war on uninhabited continents to bother with trying to discover fire, invent the wheel, or solve pressing issues. Ford tries to warn them that they will be annihilated in 2 million years, but they ignore him. Desperate, Arthur tries to teach the Neanderthals, who have been mysteriously wasting away since the Ark's arrival, through a makeshift Scrabble set. When one of the Neanderthals spells out the word "forty-two" with the letter tiles, Ford realizes that the Neanderthals were part of the matrix of Deep Thought's computer to determine the Ultimate Question and that the Golgafrinchans are interfering with the machination by displacing them. However, they also remember Marvin's claim that the Ultimate Question was embedded in Arthur's mind. Hoping that remnants of the programming exist in Arthur's subconscious, they have Arthur pull out tiles at random from the Scrabble set, only to discover that the Question is "What do you get if you multiply six by nine?" Ford thinks this explains why the universe is a giant "cock-up", and the two resign to make the best of their life on prehistoric Earth. They go on a date with two Golgafrinchan women, and Arthur throws his copy of the ''Hitchhiker's Guide'' in the river.

Characters

There are only four characters, each named according to his role in the story. The Condemned is a man scheduled for execution, the Soldier is responsible for guarding him, the Officer is in charge of the machine that will execute the Condemned, and the Traveler is a European dignitary and visitor.

Synopsis

The story focuses on the Traveler, who has just arrived in an island penal colony and is encountering its brutal execution machine for the first time. Everything about the functioning of the intricate machine and its purpose and history is told to him by the Officer. The Soldier and the Condemned, who is unaware that he has been sentenced to die for failing to get up and salute his superior's door each hour during his night watch, placidly watch from nearby.

Under the judicial process associated with the machine, the accused is always assumed to be guilty and is not given a chance to defend himself. As punishment, the law the man has broken is inscribed progressively deeper on his body over a period of 12 hours as he slowly dies from his wounds. During their final six hours in the machine, the accused become still and appear to experience a religious epiphany. The machine was designed by the colony's previous Commandant, of whom the Officer is a devoted supporter. He carries its blueprints with him and is the only person who can decipher them, not allowing anyone else to handle them.

Eventually, it becomes clear that the machine has fallen out of favor since the death of the previous Commandant and the appointment of a successor. The Officer is nostalgic regarding the torture device and the values that were initially associated with it, recalling the crowds that used to attend each execution. Now, he is the last outspoken proponent of the machine, but he strongly believes in its form of justice and the infallibility of the previous Commandant.

The Officer begs the Traveler to speak to the current Commandant on behalf of the machine's continued use. The Traveler refuses to do so, though he says he will not speak against the machine publicly, but will instead give his opinion to the Commandant privately and then leave before he can be called to give an official account. Crestfallen that the Traveler has not been persuaded by his explanations and entreaty, the Officer frees the Condemned and sets up the machine for himself, with the words "''Be Just''" to be written on him. However, the machine malfunctions due to its advanced state of disrepair; instead of its usual elegant operation, it quickly stabs the Officer to death, denying him the mystical experience of the prisoners he had executed.

Accompanied by the Soldier and the Condemned, the Traveler makes his way to a tea house, in which he is shown the grave of the previous Commandant, who was not allowed to be buried in the cemetery. The gravestone, which is set so low that a table can easily be placed over it, bears an inscription stating the belief of his nameless followers that he will rise from the dead someday and retake control of the colony. The Traveler immediately goes to the harbor and finds someone to take him out to the steamer on which he is traveling. He repels the efforts of the Soldier and Condemned to follow him.

In Verona Beach, the Capulets and Montagues are two rival business empires. The animosity of the older generation—Fulgencio and Gloria Capulet and Ted and Caroline Montague—is felt by their younger relatives. A gunfight between Montagues led by Benvolio, Romeo's cousin, and Capulets led by Tybalt, Juliet's cousin, creates chaos in the city. Being the third civil brawl, the Chief of Police, Captain Prince, reprimands the families, warning them that if such an event occurs again, their lives "shall pay the forfeit of the peace".

Benvolio and Romeo learn of a Capulet party that evening which they decide to gate-crash. Romeo agrees on hearing that Rosaline, whom he is madly in love with, is attending. They meet their friend, Mercutio, who has tickets to the party, and Romeo takes ecstasy as they proceed to the Capulet mansion. The effects of the drug and the party overwhelm Romeo, who goes to the restroom. There he sees Juliet, and the two instantly fall in love, both unaware of who the other is. Tybalt spots Romeo and vows to kill him for invading his family's home.

After Romeo leaves the party, he and Juliet each learn that they belong to feuding families, but Romeo returns to see her. Juliet tells him that if he sends word by the following day, they will be betrothed. The next day, Romeo asks Father Laurence to marry them, and he agrees. Romeo passes the word on via Juliet's nurse and they soon get married.

Tybalt encounters Mercutio and Romeo at the beach. Romeo attempts to make peace, but Tybalt assaults him. Mercutio intervenes and batters Tybalt, and is about to kill him when Romeo stops him. Tybalt takes the opportunity to fatally wound Mercutio, who curses both houses before dying. Enraged, Romeo chases after the fleeing Tybalt and shoots him dead, avenging Mercutio's death.

Captain Prince banishes Romeo from the city, and he goes into hiding with Father Laurence. The nurse arrives and tells him that Juliet is waiting for him. Romeo climbs Juliet's balcony and they consummate their marriage, with Romeo departing soon after. Meanwhile, Fulgencio decides Juliet will marry Dave Paris, the governor's son.

The next morning, Gloria informs Juliet that she is to marry Paris, and when Juliet refuses Fulgencio threatens to disown her. Juliet runs away and seeks out Father Laurence, imploring him to help her whilst threatening to commit suicide. Father Laurence gives her a potion that will let her fake her own death, after which she will be placed within the Capulet vault to awaken 24 hours later. Father Laurence vows to inform Romeo of the plot via letter, whereupon the latter will sneak into the vault and, once reunited with Juliet, the two will escape to Mantua. Romeo does not see the delivered letter however and, believing Juliet to be dead, buys a vial of poison from an apothecary.

Romeo enters the church where Juliet lies and consumes the poison just as Juliet wakes up. Distraught over Romeo’s death, Juliet picks up his gun and shoots herself in the head, falling down beside his lifeless body. Romeo's body is being taken inside an ambulance with a crowd of spectators and reporters observing the incident from behind the police line, when the parents of both Romeo and Juliet arrive in the scene. Captain Prince approaches their fathers, and berates them for the deaths of his kinsmen that their foolish brawl has caused.

Due to lack of funds, a student studying metaphysics abroad is forced to take up lodging in a cheap apartment building on a street named the "Rue d'Auseil". The street is not far from his university and is bordered by a river, dark warehouses and a large wall, giving the street an appearance of being on a cliff. The student cannot see what lies on the other side of the wall, as only a single window on the top floor of his building looks over it. Along with the building's disabled landlord, Blandot, one of the few other tenants is an old German man named Erich Zann. The old man is mute and plays the viol with a local theater orchestra. He lives alone on the top floor and at night he plays strange melodies the student has never heard before.

Despite Zann's reclusiveness, Blandot reveals his identity to the student, who approaches him in the hallway one evening and asks if he can listen to Zann's music. Zann relents and allows the student to enter his room. He plays for the student some of his unique melodies but not the same as the student had previously heard. The student asks him if he could play his music from the previous nights, awkwardly humming and whistling the notes he remembered. Zann is taken aback by the request and nervously glances at the window in his room, covered by curtains. The student recognizes the window as the only one that can oversee the wall at the end of the mysterious street. He approaches it to look outside but Zann angrily pulls him back. The student is fed up with Zann's eccentricities but Zann explains through writing that he is simply a lonely old man, and suffers from numerous phobias and nervous disorders. He is pleased that the student likes his music, but refuses to play the particular tunes that the student asked for. He persuades the student to move to a lower floor in the apartment as he would prefer the student not listen to them. The student sympathizes with Zann and agrees to move. Zann promises that he will invite the student to his room to hear his other music. After the student moves, however, Zann returns to his antisocial behavior and his health deteriorates, eventually not letting the student listen at all.

The student's curiosity to hear the secret music and look out the window grows, and he begins eavesdropping on Zann while he plays at night. His melodies have an unearthly sound, and the student praises Zann as a musical genius. One night while secretly listening outside Zann’s room, the student hears a commotion and the old man scream inside. When the student bangs at the door, Zann lets him in and asks him to wait while he writes, promising to explain everything. More than an hour into writing, Zann is startled by a distant sound in the form of a low note, interrupts his writing and starts furiously playing his viol with a crescent terror. The music is horrific and the student surmises that Zann is playing wildly to drown out or keep something out of the room. Zann seemingly enters a stupor, doing nothing but playing his music. Another sound from outside the room, which the student perceives to be mocking them, is heard and a gust shatters the window. The unnatural wind sweeps through the room, blowing Zann's unread papers out the window, despite the student's attempts at catching them. The student remembers his curiosity and finally looks out the window. Instead of seeing the city lights, he only sees a terrible black void, an infinite abyss of chaos.

The howling winds and cacophony of elements snuff out the candles in the room, leaving the student and Zann in complete darkness. He blindly moves through the dark with desperation, beginning to feel “chilling things” brush up against him. Determined to save Zann, the student reaches the musician and screams at him to run, but Zann only continues to play his music. Upon attempting to physically carry him to safety, he discovers Zann is dead, although his body is still playing. With this realization, the student bolts for the door, frantically fleeing the apartment and entire neighborhood. He only realizes afterward that the sky was calm and the city lights were shining.

Writing an account of the incident years later, the student states that despite his best efforts, he has never again been able to find the Rue d'Auseil. It does not appear on any maps, and it seems no one else has even heard of it. But he feels a degree of relief that he cannot find the street, or the lost papers that could have explained the music of Erich Zann.

A strange old man, "so old that no one can remember when he was young, and so taciturn that few know his real name," lives alone in an ancient house on Water Street in the town of Kingsport. Even among the locals, few know the details of the old man's life, but it is believed that he once captained East Indian clipper ships in his youth and accumulated great riches throughout his life. Those who had visited the property had seen bizarre collections of stones in the front yard and observed the old man carrying on conversations with mysterious bottles on his table, which make "certain definite vibrations as if in answer." Most locals take care to avoid the man and his house.

Angelo Ricci, Joe Czanek and Manuel Silva, three robbers, learn about the old man's supposed hoard of treasure and resolve to take it. Ricci and Silva go inside to "interview" the old man about the treasure, while Czanek waits outside in the getaway car. After waiting impatiently for a long time, Czanek is startled by an outburst of horrific screaming from the house but assumes that his colleagues have been too rough with the old man during their interrogation. However, the gate of the house opens, revealing the old man "smiling hideously" at him. For the first time, Czanek takes note of the man's unsettling yellow eyes.

The mutilated bodies of the three robbers are later found by the seaside, "horribly slashed as with many cutlasses, and horribly mangled as by the tread of many cruel boot-heels." The people of Kingsport talk about the discovery, as well as about the abandoned car and the screams heard in the night, but the old man shows no interest in their gossip.

Lizzie McGuire prepares for her junior-high graduation with one of her two closest friends, David "Gordo" Gordon. Their other best friend, Miranda Sanchez, has chosen to skip the graduation ceremony in favor of a trip to Mexico City to visit her relatives. During the ceremony, Lizzie trips onstage and accidentally brings the curtain down on her fellow graduates; this causes her to be teased by her younger brother Matt and her former best friend Kate Sanders. After graduation, Lizzie and her classmates embark on a trip to Rome, chaperoned by their future strict high school principal, Angela Ungermeyer. The rest of the class chose a trip to a water park instead. To their dismay, Lizzie and Kate are assigned to the same hotel room.

Their class visits the Trevi Fountain, where Lizzie is approached by an Italian pop star named Paolo Valisari, who mistakes her for his singing partner, Isabella Parigi. Paolo asks Lizzie to meet him at the fountain the next day, and she feigns illness to sneak away. He explains that he and Isabella are booked for the International Music Video Awards, but she left Italy after their partnership breakup. Paolo tells Lizzie that Isabella lip syncs, and begs her to pose as Isabella for the ceremony so that they won't be fined for canceling. Lizzie reluctantly agrees, but soon begins to enjoy the experience and falls for Paolo.

Lizzie continues to fake being ill to prepare for the ceremony, but Kate quickly figures out her secret. To Lizzie's surprise, Kate agrees to help her and the two become friendly again. Meanwhile, Ms. Ungermeyer interrogates the students to learn who has been sneaking out. Gordo takes the blame and is sent back home as punishment. Lizzie is shocked when she learns from Kate that Gordo sacrificed himself to protect her. Back home, Matt browses the Internet and finds Italian gossip sites with pictures of Lizzie as Isabella. When he tells his parents, the family flies to Rome.

At the airport, Gordo meets the real Isabella, who is upset that someone has been impersonating her. She and Gordo realize that Paolo is planning to have a nervous Lizzie unknowingly sing live at the ceremony, as Isabella actually does, creating the impression that Isabella is a fake, which would damage Isabella's career and embarrass Lizzie. Gordo and Isabella rush to the awards to stop him. When the McGuires arrive in Rome, Ms. Ungermeyer learns that Lizzie is missing. Gordo's roommate Ethan Craft reveals that she is performing at the International Music Video Awards, and Lizzie's family and the class also rush to the ceremony. Backstage, Gordo and Isabella find Lizzie preparing for the ceremony and warn her about Paolo's scheme. Lizzie refuses to believe them at first, but Isabella convinces her otherwise. Ms. Ungermeyer gets the class and Lizzie's family into the ceremony by pushing her way through the bouncers.

During the performance, Isabella and Gordo expose Paolo, who is actually the one who lip syncs, by turning on his microphone, revealing his real voice. Embarrassed, Paolo runs off stage, where his manager Sergei abandons him and is ambushed outside by paparazzi. Isabella introduces Lizzie to the crowd, and the two of them sing "What Dreams Are Made Of". When Isabella leaves the stage, Lizzie finishes the song solo, displaying a newfound confidence. Later, they all celebrate at the hotel's after party, where Ms. Ungermeyer rescinds Gordo's punishment. Lizzie's parents tell her she is grounded for the summer, but they still are proud of her. Lizzie and Gordo sneak away from the party to go up to the roof, where they promise to never let things change between them. The two kiss and then rejoin the party before they get into more trouble. As the film ends with fireworks spelling "The End", the animated Lizzie does a parody of Tinker Bell, winking at the audience and closing the series.

''The Rebel Angels'' follows several faculty and staff of the fictional College of St. John and Holy Ghost, affectionately referred to as "Spook".

The story, like many of Davies', is notable for very strongly drawn and memorable characters:

• The defrocked monk Parlabane, a brilliant and sinister sodomite with a thundering voice and voracious appetite;
• Anglican priest and professor of New Testament Greek Simon Darcourt;
• Maria Theotoky, a graduate student researching Rabelais;
• Clement Hollier, a frazzled and absentminded professor; and
• Urquhart McVarish, a greedy and manipulative counterpoint to Hollier.

The novel's narration alternates between Theotoky's and Darcourt's points of view. Darcourt is attempting to write a history of the university based on Aubrey's ''Brief Lives''.

Much of the story is set in motion by the death of eccentric art patron and collector Francis Cornish. Hollier, McVarish, and Darcourt are the executors of Cornish's complicated will, which includes material that Hollier wants for his studies. The deceased's nephew Arthur Cornish, who stands to inherit the fortune, is also a character.

In the 23rd century, while colonizing new planets, humans have encountered a hostile non-technological insectoid species known as ''Arachnids'', or "Bugs". The Bugs appear to be savage, unrelenting killing machines, though there are suggestions that they were provoked by the intrusion of humans into their habitats.

In the United Citizen Federation, citizenship is earned by enlisting in military service, which grants individuals opportunities prohibited to civilians. After graduating from high school in Buenos Aires, John "Johnny" Rico, his girlfriend Carmen Ibanez, and psychic best friend Carl Jenkins enlist in the Federal Service, despite Rico's parents' disapproval. Carmen becomes a spaceship pilot, while Carl joins Military Intelligence. Lacking skills, Rico enlists in the Mobile Infantry and is surprised to find Isabelle "Dizzy" Flores, his former classmate, has transferred to his squad.

In Mobile Infantry basic training, Drill Sergeant Zim ruthlessly trains the recruits. Rico befriends fellow cadet Ace Levy and is later promoted to squad leader. He subsequently receives a Dear John letter from Carmen, as she desires a career with the fleet and now serves under Rico's high-school sports rival, Zander Barcalow. Following a live-fire training incident that kills one of Rico's squad members, Rico is demoted and flogged. He resigns and calls his parents to see if he can return home, but an asteroid, reported to have been launched by the Arachnids, obliterates Buenos Aires, killing millions. Rico rescinds his resignation, re-enlisting as a Private.

An invasion force is deployed to Klendathu, the Arachnids' home planet, but the troops severely underestimate the Arachnids and the operation is a disaster. Rico is severely wounded and mistakenly reported killed in action. After recovering, he, Ace, and Dizzy are reassigned to the "Roughnecks", an elite unit commanded by Lt. Jean Rasczak, Rico's former high-school teacher. He quickly gains the respect of his peers and is promoted to Corporal after destroying a tanker Bug. That night, the Roughnecks celebrate; Rico and Dizzy share an intimate moment in a tent at their makeshift camp.

The Roughnecks respond to a distress call from Planet P, where they reconnoiter an outpost that has been devastated by Bugs. They soon realize that the distress call was a trap, and the Arachnids swarm the outpost. Rico, now an acting sergeant, euthanizes a mortally wounded Rasczak. Dizzy calls for a retrieval before she is killed; Carmen and Zander fly in and rescue the surviving Roughnecks. At Dizzy's funeral, Rico and Carmen encounter Carl, now a high-ranking intelligence officer. Carl reveals the Roughnecks were deliberately sent to P to assess the possibility of a "Brain Bug" on the planet, a high-value target directing the other Bugs. He field-promotes Rico to lieutenant and gives him command of the Roughnecks, ordering the Mobile Infantry units under his control to return to P in an attempt to capture the Brain Bug.

The fleet encounters unexpected heavy fire from the Bugs and Carmen's ship is destroyed. Carmen and Zander's escape pod crashes into a Bug tunnel system near Rico's unit. They are surrounded by Bugs, and a Brain Bug uses its proboscis to pierce Zander's skull and eat his brain. As it moves toward Carmen, she cuts off its proboscis with a knife. Rico, Ace, and Roughneck veteran Watkins arrive and threaten the Bugs with a small nuclear bomb, which the Brain Bug recognizes. They flee as Arachnids pursue them; Watkins, mortally wounded, detonates the bomb to enable the others to escape.

Returning to the surface, they find that former Sergeant Zim, who had requested a demotion to serve at the front, has captured the Brain Bug. Carl tells Rico and Carmen that the humans will soon be victorious now that Military Intelligence can study it. Carl mentally scans the Bug and reveals that it is afraid, and the troops rejoice. A propaganda clip shows Carmen, Ace, and Rico as model servicemen, encouraging viewers to enlist in the armed forces.

A manhole opens at night in an empty street and out climbs Lieutenant-Colonel Norman Hyde (Jack Hawkins) in a dinner suit. He gets into a Rolls-Royce and drives home. There, he prepares seven envelopes, each containing an American crime paperback called ''The Golden Fleece'', halves of ten £5-notes and an unsigned invitation from “Co-operative Removals Limited” to lunch at the Cafe Royal.

The envelopes are sent to former army officers, each in desperate or humiliating circumstances. When they all turn up looking for the other halves of the £5-notes which are handed out, Hyde asks their opinion of the novel which is about a robbery. They show little enthusiasm but Hyde then reveals each person's misdemeanours.

Hyde has no criminal record but holds a grudge for being made redundant by the army after a long career. He intends to rob a bank using the team's skills, with equal shares of £100,000 or more for each man.

The gang meet under the guise of an amateur dramatic society rehearsing ''Journey’s End'' to discuss the plan before moving into Hyde’s house and living a military regimen of duties and fines for being out of line. Hyde knows that a million pounds in used notes is regularly delivered to a City of London bank and has details of the delivery.

They raid an army training camp in Dorset for arms and supplies. Hyde, Mycroft, Porthill and Race distract soldiers by posing as senior officers on an unscheduled food inspection. The others steal weapons while posing as telephone repairmen, speaking in Irish accents to divert suspicion to the IRA. Hyde has explained the reasoning behind this ruse by stating the one nationality to whom the British will never give the benefit of the doubt is the Irish.

The gang rent a warehouse to prepare. Race steals vehicles including cars and a lorry which are fitted with false number plates. They are disturbed by a passing policeman who offers to keep an eye on their premises as he patrols. In Hyde’s basement, the gang trains with maps and models. On the eve of the operation, Hyde destroys the plans and recalls his former military glory.

The robbery is bloodless and precise. Using smoke bombs, Sterling submachine guns, and radio jamming equipment, the gang raids the bank, near St Paul’s. The money is seized without serious injury and the robbers escape. At Hyde’s house, celebrations are interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Hyde’s old friend, Brigadier “Bunny” Warren (Robert Coote), who drunkenly recalls the old days. One by one the members leave carrying suitcases filled with notes. Then the telephone rings; Hyde is told that police and soldiers surround the house.

Leading the police is Superintendent Wheatlock (Ronald Leigh-Hunt) from whom Hyde learns the flaw in his plan. A small boy outside the bank had been collecting car registration (licence plate) numbers, a common hobby at the time. The police, discovering the number, found it had been noted by the policeman who visited the warehouse. The policeman had also noted the number of Hyde's own car. Thus a link was established between the robbery and Hyde.

Hyde is escorted to a police van in which the rest are "all present and correct", each having been captured as he left the house.

William Thacker owns a travel book store in Notting Hill, London. Divorced, Will shares a flat with Spike, a flaky and sloppy Welshman. One day, famous Hollywood actress Anna Scott enters the shop and buys a book. Shortly after she has left, Will bumps into her while rounding a street corner, spilling his juice on her. He takes Anna to his place that is directly across the street so she can change into a clean shirt. When leaving, she impulsively kisses him.

Anna later invites him to visit her at the Ritz Hotel. Upon his arrival he is mistaken for a reporter and ushered into a press junket for her new film. When asked, he says he writes for ''Horse & Hound'' magazine. Anna asks to be William's date at his sister's birthday party later that evening. Though his friends are surprised, she gets on well with everyone and enjoys herself. Later, the two enter a private neighbourhood park, where Anna again kisses Will.

At a restaurant the next day, Will and Anna overhear four men at a nearby table discussing her, first praising and then disparaging her and equating actresses to prostitutes. Will confronts them, then she introduces herself and calmly insults the stunned sextet.

Anna invites Will to her hotel room, but he quickly leaves after discovering that her movie star boyfriend, Jeff King, has unexpectedly arrived from America. Over the next six months, Will's friends arrange a series of dates for him, but Will, unable to forget Anna, is uninterested in another relationship.

One day, a distraught Anna appears at Will's doorstep, needing to hide from a tabloid scandal. She apologises about King and says their relationship is over. They discover shared interests, and discuss Will's print of Marc Chagall's 1950 painting ''La Mariée''. They make love that night. The next morning, paparazzi, inadvertently tipped off by Spike, besiege the house and take photos of Will, Anna, and a half-dressed Spike at the front door. Furious, she blames Will and leaves.

Several seasons pass, and Will remains miserable. When he discovers Anna is back in London making a film based on a Henry James novel, something he had suggested, he visits the set unannounced. She asks him to wait until shooting is done, but he leaves after overhearing her being dismissive about him to another actor. Anna comes to the bookshop the next day, bringing a wrapped gift. Will says he overheard what she said about him to her co-star. She explains that she was merely keeping her personal life private from another actor. She confesses she loves him, and pleads to rekindle their relationship. Will says no, explaining he would be too hurt if she left him again.

Will meets his friends and sister at a restaurant with Anna's opened gift: Chagall's original ''La Mariée'' (''The Bride''). They half-heartedly support his decision about Anna until Spike arrives and calls him a "daft prick". Will realizes his mistake, and everyone races across London to find Anna, who is holding a press conference at the Savoy Hotel. Will arrives just as her publicist announces that Anna is taking a year off and is leaving the UK that night.

A reporter asks about the embarrassing photographs taken at Will's flat, and Anna says they are just friends. Will, again pretending to be a ''Horse & Hound'' reporter, asks her if she would consider being more than friends if Thacker begged her forgiveness. She says she would, then asks to be asked again how long she plans to stay in England. Smiling, she answers "indefinitely".

Anna and Will marry and she is now pregnant. They spend time in the private park that they had visited on their first date.

The novel is split into three main sections.

'''(I) Sunspace: 2021''' ... The ''Bulero'' family/corporation, inventors and marketers of ''Bulerite'' which is used to build the huge cities which house the Earth's (and colonies) teeming millions, are at the pinnacle of their influence and wealth. Unfortunately, it is discovered - too late - that the substance is inherently flawed, in that after a time it destabilizes and self-destructs with spectacular results. Gradually, all the Bulerite on Earth, and that on and in the space colonies throughout the solar system becomes unstable, causing destruction and megadeath.

The devastation precipitates a war with Earth's colonies on the outer planets, with whom a struggle for control of the solar system existed. Many nuclear-tipped missiles explode on Earth which adds to the Bulerite destabilization. The combination of the Bulerite and the nuclear explosions cause a mysterious shroud of radiation to envelop the Earth. All humans on the planet are assumed dead.

Before this final devastation, many refugees manage to escape to the Moon, Mars, and ''Asterome'', an orbiting colony situated inside a hollowed-out asteroid at the Moon's L5 point. Included amongst the refugees are most of Bulero family who end up on Asterome.

The leadership of Asterome are now faced with several severe challenges: Handling the influx of refugees, removing any Bulerite used in the construction of Asterome, consolidating their resources now that the Earth can no longer supply them with finished goods, and preventing increasingly aggressive attempts by the outer colonies and remnants of Earth's government to take control and plunder Asterome.

When a means of providing Asterome with propulsion is discovered, the leadership of Asterome decide that leaving the solar system is the best option available to ensure Asterome's short-term survival as well as proving a way for Mankind to survive should the solar system be destroyed by the after-effects of Bulerite and war.

After overcoming attempts to stop them, Asterome finally manages to leave the solar system, heading for Alpha Centauri, the nearest star.

'''(II) Macrolife: 3000''' ... A thousand years later, Asterome has grown by adding concentric layers of shells around itself, and is now host to millions of humans and ''Humanity II'' cybernetic organisms.

The invention of engines that can surpass the speed of light has made it possible for the colony to explore far and wide; the second part finds them studying a planet orbiting the star Praesepe over 500 light years away. John Bulero, a young clone of one of the original Bulero's, decides to see what life is like on a planet, and lives for a while amongst the natives, descendants of a human colony that has reverted to savagery. His experiences, while tragic, enable him to grow as an individual.

Eventually, Asterome travels back to the solar system to see how events there have unfolded. Their arrival coincides with the first time humans meet an intelligent alien species which is itself experimenting with Macrolife, and, together, the species begin a process of intermingling and further expansion into the universe.

'''(III) The Dream of Time''' ... A hundred billion years have passed, and Macrolife is now the dominant culture throughout the universe, which is, at this stage, beginning to contract into its final death throes. Most life is in the form of a ''Hyperpersonal Aggregate''; an amalgam of individuals of all kinds. The aggregate re-individualizes John Bulero again, to help them solve the problem of how Macrolife can survive beyond the death of the Universe. Eventually, they discover many Macrolife survivors from many previous cycles of the universe, who help them to conquer time itself.

Part One

The story tells the ancient Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche, from the perspective of Orual, Psyche's older sister.

It begins as the complaint of Orual as an old woman, who is bitter at the injustice of the gods. She has always been ugly, but after her mother dies and her father the King of Glome remarries, she gains a beautiful half-sister Istra, whom she loves as her own daughter, and who is known throughout the novel by the Greek version of her name, Psyche. Psyche is so beautiful that the people of Glome begin to offer sacrifices to her as to a goddess. The Priest of the goddess Ungit, a powerful figure in the kingdom, then informs the king that various plagues befalling the kingdom are a result of Ungit's jealousy, so Psyche is sent as a human sacrifice to the unseen "God of the Mountain" at the command of Ungit, the mountain-god's mother. Orual plans to rescue Psyche but falls ill and is unable to prevent anything.

When she is well again, Orual arranges to go to where Psyche was stranded on the mountain, either to rescue her or to bury what remains of her. She is stunned to find Psyche is alive, free from the shackles in which she had been bound, and furthermore says she does not need to be rescued in any way. Rather, Psyche relates that she lives in a beautiful castle that Orual cannot see, as the God of the Mountain has made her a bride rather than a victim. At one point in the narrative, Orual believes she has a brief vision of this castle, but then it vanishes like a mist. Hearing that Psyche has been commanded by her new god-husband not to look on his face (all their meetings are in the nighttime), Orual is immediately suspicious. She argues that the god must be a monster, or that Psyche has actually started to hallucinate after her abandonment and near-death on the mountain, that there is no such castle at all, and that her husband is actually an outlaw who was hiding on the mountain and takes advantage of her delusions in order to have his way with her. Orual says that because either possibility is one that she cannot abide by, she must disabuse her sister of this illusion.

She returns a second time, bringing Psyche a lamp for her to use while her "husband" sleeps, and when Psyche insists that she will not betray her husband by disobeying his command, Orual threatens both Psyche and herself, stabbing herself in the arm to show she is capable of following through on her threat. Ultimately, reluctantly, Psyche agrees because of the coercion and her love for her sister.

When Psyche disobeys her husband, she is immediately banished from her beautiful castle and forced to wander as an exile. The God of the Mountain appears to Orual, stating that Psyche must now endure hardship at the hand of a force he himself could not fight (likely his mother the goddess Ungit), and that "You too shall be Psyche," which Orual attempts to interpret for the rest of her life, usually taking it to mean that as Psyche suffers, she must suffer also. She decries the injustice of the gods, saying that if they had shown her a picture of Psyche's happiness that was easier to believe, she would not have ruined it. From this day forward she vows that she will keep her face veiled at all times.

Eventually, Orual becomes a Queen, and a warrior, diplomat, architect, reformer, politician, legislator, and judge, though all the while remaining alone. She drives herself, through work, to forget her grief and the love she has lost. Psyche is gone, her other family she never cared for, and her beloved tutor, "the Fox," has died. Her main love interest throughout the novel, Bardia the captain of the royal guard, is married and forever faithful to his wife until his death. To her, the gods remain, as ever, silent, unseen, and merciless.

While Bardia is on his deathbed, Orual decides she can no longer stand the sight of her own kingdom and decides to leave it for the first time to visit neighboring kingdoms. While resting on her journey, she leaves her group at their camp and follows sounds from within a wood, which turn out to be coming from a temple to the goddess Istra (Psyche). There Orual hears a version of Psyche's myth, which shows her as deliberately ruining her sister's life out of envy. In response, she writes out her own story, as set forth in the book, to set the record straight. Her hope is that it will be brought to Greece, where she has heard that men are willing to question even the gods.

Part Two

Orual begins the second part of the book stating that her previous accusation that the gods are unjust is wrong. She does not have time to rewrite the whole book because she is very old and of ill health and will likely die before it can be redone, so instead she is adding on to the end.

She relates that since finishing part one of the book, she has experienced a number of dreams and visions, which at first she doubts the truth of except that they also start happening during daytime when she is fully awake. She sees herself being required to perform a number of impossible tasks, like sorting a giant mound of different seeds into separate piles, with no allowance for error, or collecting the golden wool from a flock of murderous rams, or fetching a bowl of water from a spring on a mountain which cannot be climbed and furthermore is covered with poisonous beasts. It is in the midst of this last vision that she is led to a huge chamber in the land of the dead and given the opportunity to read out her complaint in the gods' hearing. She discovers, however, that instead of reading the book she has written, she reads off a paper that appears in her hand and contains her true feelings, which are indeed much less noble than Part One of the book would suggest. Orual thinks she has been speaking only a short time, but then when stopped, realizes she has been pouring out the story of all her inner conflict and turmoil for days, repeating herself over and over and over again, as the gods sat silently. Still, rather than being jealous of Psyche, as the story she heard in the temple suggested, she reveals that she was jealous of the gods because they were allowed to enjoy Psyche's love while she herself was not.

The gods make no reply. But Orual is content, as she sees that the gods' "answer" was really to hold up the mirror of her lies to herself, and make her understand the truth of her own life and actions. Then she is led by the ghost of the Fox into a sunlit arena in which she learns the story of what Psyche has been doing: she has herself been assigned the impossible tasks from Orual's dreams, but was able to complete them with supernatural help. Orual then leaves the arena to enter another verdant field with a clear pool of water and a brilliant sky. There she meets Psyche, who has just returned from her last errand: retrieving a box of beauty from the underworld, which she then gives to Orual, though Orual is hardly conscious of this because at that moment she begins to sense that something else is happening. The God of the Mountain is coming to be with Psyche and judge Orual, but the only thing he says is "You also are Psyche" before the vision ends. The reader is led to understand that this phrase has actually been one of mercy the entire time.

Orual, awoken from the vision, dies shortly thereafter but has just enough time to record her visions and to write that she no longer hates the gods but sees that their very presence, though mysterious, is the answer she always needed.

Rachel Verinder, a young English woman, inherits a large Indian diamond on her eighteenth birthday. It is a legacy from her uncle, a corrupt British army officer who served in India. The diamond is of great religious significance and extremely valuable, and three Hindu priests have dedicated their lives to recovering it. The story incorporates elements of the legendary origins of the Hope Diamond (or perhaps the Orloff Diamond or the Koh-i-Noor diamond). Rachel's eighteenth birthday is celebrated with a large party at which the guests include her cousin Franklin Blake. She wears the Moonstone on her dress that evening for all to see, including some Indian jugglers who have called at the house. Later that night the diamond is stolen from Rachel's bedroom, and a period of turmoil, unhappiness, misunderstandings and ill luck ensues. Told by a series of narratives from some of the main characters, the complex plot traces the subsequent efforts to explain the theft, identify the thief, trace the stone and recover it.

Colonel Herncastle, an unpleasant former soldier, brings the Moonstone back with him from India where he acquired it by theft and murder during the Siege of Seringapatam. Angry at his family, who shun him, he leaves it in his will as a birthday gift to his niece Rachel, thus exposing her to attack by the stone's hereditary guardians, who will stop at nothing to retrieve it.

Rachel wears the stone to her birthday party, but that night it disappears from her room. Suspicion falls on three Indian jugglers who have been near the house; on Rosanna Spearman, a maidservant who begins to act oddly and who then drowns herself in a local quicksand; and on Rachel herself, who also behaves suspiciously and is suddenly furious with Franklin Blake, with whom she has previously appeared to be enamoured, when he directs attempts to find it. Despite the efforts of Sergeant Cuff, a renowned detective, the house party ends with the mystery unsolved, and the protagonists disperse.

During the ensuing year there are hints that the diamond was removed from the house and may be in a London bank vault, having been pledged as surety to a moneylender. The Indian jugglers are still nearby, watching and waiting. Rachel's grief and isolation increase, especially after her mother dies, and she first accepts and then rejects a marriage proposal from her cousin Godfrey Ablewhite, a philanthropist who was also present at the birthday dinner and whose father owns the bank near Rachel's old family home. Finally Franklin Blake returns from travelling abroad and determines to solve the mystery. He first discovers that Rosanna Spearman's behaviour was due to her having fallen in love with him. She found evidence (a paint smear on his nightclothes) that convinced her that he was the thief and concealed it to save him, confusing the trail of evidence and throwing suspicion on herself. In despair at her inability to make him acknowledge her despite all she had done for him, she killed herself, leaving behind the smeared gown and a letter he did not receive at the time because of his hasty departure abroad.

Now believing that Rachel suspects him of the theft on Rosanna's evidence, Franklin engineers a meeting and asks her. To his astonishment she tells him she actually saw him steal the diamond and has been protecting his reputation at the cost of her own even though she believes him to be a thief and a hypocrite. With hope of redeeming himself he returns to Yorkshire to the scene of the crime and is befriended by Mr. Candy's assistant, Mr. Ezra Jennings. They join together to continue the investigations and learn that Franklin was secretly given laudanum during the night of the party (by the doctor, Mr. Candy, who wanted to exact vengeance on Franklin for criticising medicine); it appears that this, in addition to his anxiety about Rachel and the diamond and other nervous irritations, caused him to take the diamond in a narcotic trance, to move it to a safe place. A re-enactment of the evening's events confirms this, but how the stone ended up in a London bank remains a mystery solved only a year after the birthday party when the stone is redeemed. Franklin and his allies trace the claimant to a seedy waterside inn, only to discover that the Indians have got there first: the claimant is dead and the stone is gone. Under the dead man's disguise is none other than Godfrey Ablewhite, who is found to have embezzled the contents of a trust fund in his care and to have been facing exposure soon after the birthday party. The mystery of what Blake did while in his drugged state is solved: he encountered Ablewhite in the passageway outside Rachel's room and gave the Moonstone to him to be put back in his father's bank, from which it had been withdrawn on the morning of the party to be given to Rachel. Seeing his salvation, Ablewhite pocketed the stone instead, and pledged it as surety for a loan to save himself temporarily from insolvency. When he was murdered, he was on his way to Amsterdam to have the stone cut; it would then have been sold to replenish the plundered trust fund before the beneficiary inherited.

The mystery is solved, Rachel and Franklin marry, and in an epilogue from Mr. Murthwaite, a noted adventurer, the reader learns of the restoration of the Moonstone to the place where it should be, in the forehead of the statue of the god in India.