The show is primarily set on Foxearth Farm, a fictional farm based in the English countryside in the West Midlands, which is dominated by a variety of animals, particularly the chickens. The Foxbusters are three chickens, Ransome, Sims, and Jeffries, who have the unlikely ability to fly. Each has a different personality; Ransome is the best flyer, Sims is the smartest and Jeffries is the comic relief. The Foxbusters also have the ability to spit grit like machine guns, and drop hard-boiled eggs like they were bombs - and these are used to effect among other methods to keep the hungry pack of foxes in Foxearth Forest at bay.

Picking up after the events of ''Grim Tuesday'', Arthur discusses Drowned Wednesday's invitation to meet for lunch with Leaf while he is hospitalized. The two are skeptical as to whether Wednesday can be trusted, but then the hospital room is suddenly filled with water and the two find themselves transported to the Border Sea, Wednesday's domain. Leaf and Arthur are separated when Leaf is picked up by the ''Flying Mantis,'' a large ship, and Arthur is left behind. Arthur uses the Mariner's medallion to summon help but his call goes unanswered. A buoy marking the pirate Elishar Feverfew's treasure floats toward him, which Arthur opens. His hand is then marked with a bloody red color, the Red Hand, which he later learns is a spell created by Feverfew so that he may identify who has touched his treasure.

Arthur is eventually picked up a scavenging ship called the ''Moth''. On board, Arthur (going by the name of Arth) is introduced to Sunscorch, the First Mate, and to Captain Catapillow. As they travel through the Border Sea, the ''Moth'' is attacked by Feverfew's ship, the ''Shiver''. Sunscorch commands Dr. Scamandros, an Upper House Sorcerer and the ship's navigator, to open a transfer portal to elsewhere in the Secondary Realms. Scamandros' spell fails and he accuses Arthur of interfering with his magic. He advocates for throwing Arthur overboard, but Arthur shows them the Mariner's medallion and the crew agrees to keep him. With Arthur's help, the ''Moth'' successfully travels through a transfer portal to a safe spot. Arthur asks Scamandros to find out what happened to Leaf and using sorcery, Scamandros reports that Leaf has been conscripted to work on the ''Flying Mantis'' but is otherwise safe.

Arthur admits his identity to the crew and Scamandros helps Arthur contact Dame Primus and Wednesday's Dawn, so he may meet with Wednesday. Before Arthur leaves, Scamandros gives Arthur his transfer watch.

Arthur meets with Wednesday, who explains that she regretted her part in defying the Will, especially since doing so afflicted her with gluttony and turned her into a leviathan with an insatiable appetite. She attempted to convince Superior Saturday to allow Wednesday to relinquish her part of the Will but instead, Saturday and the other Trustees (with the exception of the then-slothful Mister Monday) ambushed Wednesday and revoked most of the Third Key's power. As such, Wednesday can only use her Key to maintain a human form but only temporarily. She tells Arthur that she will relinquish the Key once he has reclaimed the third part of the Will, which has been hidden by Feverfew.

Wednesday's Dawn takes Arthur to the Triangle to begin his search for the Will. He meets the Raised Rats, a group of anthropomorphic rats brought to the House by the Piper, and makes a deal with them to take him Feverfew's hideout, which is a worldlet located within Drowned Wednesday's stomach when she is in her leviathan form. On the Raised Rats' ship, Arthur inadvertently summons Scamandros with the transfer watch but Scamandros is grateful. He explains that Feverfew has taken the ''Moth'' and Scamandros was briefly poisoned by Nothing in the scuffle. Arthur checks in on Leaf using Scamandros' scrying mirror and learns that Feverfew has captured the ''Flying Mantis'' and he has discovered Leaf's connection to Arthur. Feverfew deduces Arthur is looking for the Will and sets about to catch him, led by the Red Hand.

Suzy Turquoise Blue joins Arthur on the Raised Rats' submersible and Scamandros provides Arthur and Suzy with disguises in order to sneak into the worldlet. Although they experience navigational difficulty, they are eventually able to enter Wednesday's stomach and the worldlet therein, which is in the form of an island. There, Arthur and Suzy, disguised as rats, find several of Feverfew's escaped slaves, who have been hiding in a remote cave on the island and formed a religion around a Carp. The exiles take them to the Carp, which is the third part of the Will.

They attempt to take the Will out of the worldlet but Feverfew catches up to them, holding Leaf as prisoner. He proposes a fight between him and Arthur wherein each may try to kill the other with one strike. Arthur goes first and fails, but he successfully dodges Feverfew's attack and severs his head. But because Feverfew is a Denizen, he begins to regenerate. Thinking quickly, Leaf kicks his head into a mud puddle containing Nothing, thus destroying him. Upon Feverfew's death, the worldlet begins to collapse. Via the ''Moth'', Arthur and his friends are able to escape. Lady Wednesday is healed from her gluttony but she dies, having been poisoned by the worldlet, which had opened a void to Nothing.

Dame Primus reunites with Arthur and absorbs the third part of the Will. Arthur, now Duke of the Border Sea, appoints Sunscorch as his Noon and Scamandros as his Dusk and for them to run the Sea while he and Leaf return to the Secondary Realms.

While returning to Deep Space Nine, a runabout carrying Odo and Chief Miles O'Brien is boarded by an unfamiliar Changeling. This Changeling, who calls himself Laas, has no knowledge of the Dominion or its Founders, but is eager to learn from Odo about his kind. Odo infers that Laas, like himself, is one of 100 Changelings the Founders sent into the galaxy as infants in order to learn about the universe.

On DS9, the two Changelings discuss their past. Laas tells Odo that although he does not support the Founders' agenda of conquest, he does not trust humanoids and just wishes to avoid them. Odo introduces Laas to the practice of "linking": physically joining their liquid bodies, a very fulfilling experience for Changelings. Laas guesses that Odo would have returned to join the Founders and experience their Great Link had he not fallen in love with Bajoran officer Kira Nerys.

Laas attempts to convince Odo to embrace his potential as a Changeling rather than trying to blend in with humanoids, and behaves rudely and condescendingly toward Odo's humanoid friends. He suggests that Odo join him to travel the galaxy in order to find more of the Hundred and form their own Great Link. Odo is tempted, especially when Laas demonstrates his skill at shapeshifting into unusual forms.

Laas causes a disturbance when he transforms into a fog in the station's Promenade district, drawing the attention of two Klingon officers. Seeing what they assume is a Founder, they confront Laas violently; by shapeshifting he is able to escape the attack and kill one of the Klingons.

Laas is arrested for killing the Klingon, although Odo protests that he acted in self-defense. Laas doubts he will receive a fair trial, given humanoids' inherent mistrust of Changelings. Kira, who loves Odo and wants to give him the opportunity to travel with his own kind, frees Laas and tells everyone that he escaped. Privately, she lets Odo know that Laas is waiting on Koralis III. Odo meets Laas on Koralis, but tells him that he is wrong to believe that "solids" cannot be trusted, and that he is staying with Kira. Back on DS9, Kira tells Odo that he doesn't have to pretend to be a humanoid with her. He shows his love for her by transforming into a glowing golden mist, surrounding her.

Joey does an interview with ''Soap Opera Digest'', wherein he claims that he makes up most of his lines on ''Days of Our Lives''. When the writers get wind of this, they kill off Joey's character, Dr. Drake Ramoray, by having him fall to his death down an elevator shaft. Joey is devastated, and his friends rush to his apartment to comfort him as he mulls over losing the greatest opportunity he ever had.

Chandler is having trouble bonding with his new roommate Eddie as he spends most of his time in his room. Phoebe tricks them into spending time drinking beers and talking to each other about their ex-girlfriends. Later, Eddie's ex-girlfriend Tilly stops by the apartment to drop off Eddie's fish tank and meets Chandler briefly before Eddie walks out to greet her. Despite their meeting only being brief, Eddie accuses Chandler of sleeping with Tilly and killing his goldfish, especially since the tank was already empty, and steals Chandler's insoles in retaliation. After comforting Joey, Chandler comes home to find Eddie serving him weird "raisin" cookies and having replaced the goldfish with a goldfish cracker, and then goes to bed, dumbfounded.

After playing at Central Perk while Monica and Richard are on a double date with Rachel and Ross, Phoebe claims that Monica has had sex with many boyfriends, leaving Richard curious about the number. They take the argument back to Monica and Rachel's apartment while Ross and Rachel retreat to Rachel's bedroom. Monica is stunned when Richard says he has only been with two women – her and his ex-wife Barbara – and those two women he has been in love with. Touched, Monica admits she loves him, too. Meanwhile, Ross asks Rachel to list her own sexual conquests, but when she mentions Paolo as meaningless animal sex, Ross gets upset at her. Rachel manages to assuage him by telling him that their own relationship is so much better as they have tenderness and intimacy, and they connect. When Rachel claims he is the best sex she has ever had, Ross promptly decides to up the ante with animal sex of his own.

Monica and Rachel head to the bathroom to celebrate but argue with each other when they find out they have only one condom, while Ross and Richard awkwardly talk to each other in the living room. Rachel gets the condom after she wins a game of rock, paper, scissors against Monica and promptly has animal sex with Ross, forcing Monica and Richard to delay their plans.

On another night, Ross, wearing Rachel's bathrobe, sneaks toward the bathroom to retrieve a condom. Richard then appears from Monica's room with the same objective, while wearing ''her'' robe. They have a brief, awkward exchange before agreeing never to speak of it.

Tom Ward has lived his whole life in the County (loosely based on the English county of Lancashire). Because he is the seventh son of a seventh son and thus has the ability to see ghosts and fight other supernatural beings, his parents have apprenticed him to the Spook, a cloaked man named John Gregory (because only seventh sons of seventh sons have the aforementioned abilities, all spooks are seventh sons of seventh sons). Tom's mother, referred to as Mam, sent a letter to the Spook shortly after Tom's birth alerting him to his status as a seventh son of a seventh and promising that Tom would be "the best apprentice [the Spook will ever have, who will] also be [his] last." The Spook travels the County fighting troublesome creatures such as boggarts, ghosts, ghasts, and witches for the people who need these things gone. Tom will have to learn how the Spook fights "the Dark", so that he may one day become a Spook as well.

The Spook tells Tom that most of his other apprentices have failed due to their being cowardly, disobedient, or unluckily killed. It is revealed that one of the deceased was Billy Bradley, who had his finger bitten off and died from loss of blood while fighting a particularly dangerous boggart. Tom goes to live in the Spook's house in Chipenden. This house is protected from unwanted visitors by a boggart, with whom the Spook has made a contract. The contract states that as long as the roof is standing, the boggart must guard the home and kill intruders (as well as cook and clean for the Spook and his apprentices). It kills any visitors not invited in by the Spook (such as his apprentices), and as such potential clients wait outside and alert the Spook via a bell system. The boggart is promised in return the blood of creatures in the home after dark, as well as any hostile creatures of the dark.

Tom is sent out on an errand to pick up some food for the house (as the boggart kills guests, provisions are supplied by having someone go to the town grocer). He is given a strict warning by the Spook: do not talk to women wearing pointy shoes, something characteristic of witches, whom spooks oppose. On his way home, some boys about the same age as Tom threaten to beat him unless he gives them some food. Tom refuses and the boys are about to beat him when suddenly a girl in pointy shoes shows up and scares them away by telling them a certain person is back. The mysterious girl's name is Alice Deane, and she is a relative of some of the most dangerous witches in the county: Mother Malkin and Bony Lizzie. The two are powerful witches in Pendle, a town conducive to the use of dark magic, and members of the Malkin clan, one of three Pendle witch clans along with the Deanes and Mouldheels (Alice's father was supposedly a Deane and her mother was Bony Lizzie, so her last name remains Deane despite her Malkin allegiance/membership).

Alice tricks Tom into giving cakes, which he does not know contain blood, to Mother Malkin, a powerful witch Gregory has imprisoned in his garden. The blood empowers Malkin to escape, fulfilling in part Lizzie's plan, which also calls for Gregory's killing. Lizzie, a bone witch, works with her supposed niece and reluctant witchcraft student Alice, whom she abuses, and Tusk, a large and powerful abhuman (the offspring of a union between a human witch and the devil, referred to in the series as the Fiend).

Dissatisfied with the cruelty of her relatives and fellow Pendle witches, Alice tentatively aligns herself with Tom, whom she befriends. However, Gregory remains distrustful of the young witch and his principles keep him in steadfast opposition to the use of dark magic, in which Alice still participates. This conflict over Alice leads to tension between Tom and Gregory in future installments.

Gregory kills Tusk in battle by stabbing him through the forehead. Tom manages to "kill" Malkin at one point through a combination of his rowan wood staff, the staff's silver-alloy blade, and a furious river. Rowan wood, silver, and running water are all extremely dangerous to witches. However, as an extremely powerful witch, Malkin is able to live on as a dead witch, oozing into people's heads to control them. The Spook advises Tom that a witch can only be truly killed and sent to the Dark (an afterlife for creatures of the Dark and malicious humans roughly analogous to Hell) in one of two ways: either one must eat the witch's heart, or one must burn the witch's body.

The book ends as the undead Malkin chases Tom back to his family's farm. He greatly weakens her with salt and iron, greatly effective against witches and other creatures of the Dark, and she flees into a pig pen. Malkin is then wholly eaten by pigs and thus goes to the Dark. Ward is firmly positioned as Gregory's apprentice, with Alice as an ally tolerated by the Spook.

The play is divided into eight scenes.

• Scene 1:
  In the firemen's forecastle of a cruise ship that has just sailed from New York for a trip across the Atlantic Ocean. Off-duty men are talking and singing drunkenly. Yank, portrayed as a leader among the men, is confident in his strength to fuel the machinery of the ship and the world. He shows particular contempt toward two other firemen: Long, an Englishman with socialist leanings, and Paddy, an old Irishman who reflects wistfully on the days of wind-powered sailing ships.
• Scene 2:
  Mildred Douglas (a steel tycoon's daughter) and her aunt are talking above deck on the ship whilst sunbathing. They argue over Mildred's desire to do social work, ending only when two officers come to escort her below decks for her planned visit to the ship's stokehole. Her aunt does not understand why Mildred desires to help the poor. She ends up going below deck regardless.
• Scene 3:
  In the stokehole, Yank and the other firemen take pride in their daily work. Yank does not notice Mildred when she enters, and instead shouts threats toward the unseen engineer ordering the men to keep coaling the engines. The men stop to turn when she enters. Confused as to why they have stopped working, he turns to see Mildred; she is so shocked by his attitude and appearance that she calls him a filthy beast and faints.
• Scene 4:
  In the firemen's forecastle yet again. Yank is mulling over the incident in the stokehole. The other men try to understand his fury by questioning him and asking if he is in love. Yank is infuriated at Mildred for claiming that he resembles a hairy ape. He becomes enraged and tries to charge after Mildred in revenge. However, his men wrestle him to the ground before he can even reach the door.
• Scene 5:
  Three weeks later, on Fifth Avenue in New York, the ship has returned from its cruise. Yank and Long argue over how best to attack the upper class while admiring how clean the city is. Still obsessing with avenging himself against Mildred, Yank rudely accosts several churchgoers that come out into the streets as Long flees the scene. Yank punches a gentleman in the face and is arrested shortly thereafter.
• Scene 6:
  The following night at the prison on Blackwell's Island, Yank has begun serving a 30-day sentence. Seeing the prison as a zoo, he tells the other inmates of how he wound up there. One of them tells him about the Industrial Workers of the World and suggests that he think about joining. Enraged by the thought of Mildred and her father again, Yank starts to bend the bars of his cell in an attempt to escape, but the guards retaliate in force.
• Scene 7:
  A month later, Yank visits the local IWW office upon his release from prison and joins the group. The local members are happy to have him in their ranks at first because not many ship's firemen have joined. However, when he expresses his desire to blow up the Steel Trust, they suspect him of working for the government and throw him out. In the streets, Yank comes in contact with a policeman, who shows no interest in arresting him and tells him to move along.
• Scene 8:
  The following evening, Yank visits the zoo. He sympathizes with a gorilla, thinking they are one and the same. He releases the animal from his cage and approaches it to introduce himself as if they were friends. The gorilla attacks Yank, fatally crushing his ribs, and throws Yank into the cage where he dies.

A rich novelist, Stephen Byrne, who lives and works by a river, accidentally kills his attractive maid after she begins screaming when he makes a drunken pass. The writer manipulates his brother, John, who is physically impaired with a limp, to help him dispose of the body. Making use of a sack, which Stephen has borrowed from John for carrying firewood, they stuff the maid inside and dump her into the river. Days later, the sack and body float up and pass Stephen's house. He goes onto the water and desperately tries to retrieve it, but fails. The police recover the bundle and, because John's initials have been stencilled on the sack, it is all traceable to him.

An inquest is held and, to Stephen's great pleasure, a cloud of suspicion hangs over John, who is tortured by his role in the situation and contemplates suicide. He and Stephen's wife, Marjorie, harbour feelings for each other. Stephen, meanwhile, has used the maid's disappearance and death as publicity for his books. Looking to reap great financial gain, he begins writing a novel specifically about the crime; in it he implicates himself.

The circumstances are resolved after Stephen resorts to deliberate attempts at murder.

Isobel's ghost wanders around lost, in a playground. "Is my house but is not my house is my street but is not my street my people is gone I am lost." (Thompson, Lion in the Streets, line 11–13) A women named Sue comes to her rescue from other kids picking on her. Before Isobel follows Sue home she sees her father, and recalls that he is dead. After Sue's son Tommy makes some depressing comments, Isobel follows Sue on to a dinner party with her husband. Sue calls him to come home and find out he's been having an affair with a woman at the party. Isobel realizes Sue's inability to care for her and calls to the audience for someone to take her home.

Isobel stays with Laura, the dinner party hostess, and witnesses a flashback to when Isobel's mother, Maria, found out about Isobel's father's suicide. As Maria tells of her vision of her husband dying, Isobel dramatically acts out her father falling onto the train tracks. As Laura goes on to a day care meeting, she gets into a heated conversation with Rhonda, the child care provider. After all the drama, Isobel points her finger at each member of the meeting and "shoots" them individually, though real shots are heard.

Isobel clings to Rhonda's feet as they move onto the next scene, where Rhonda meats a friend, Joanne, at a bar. Joanne shares that she has cancer, and asks Rhonda to help her plan out an Ophelia-like suicide. As they leave the bar, Isobel realizes her purgatorial state and that she wants to go to heaven. She follows the bartender, David, to confession with his childhood priest. At confession, David realizes he is also long dead.

In Act Two, Isobel starts looking to protect rather than be protected. It begins with Isobel in a playground again, warning the people around that the Lion in the Streets is coming. She follows Christine from the park to an interview with a young women with cerebral palsy named Scarlet. Scarlet shares a private topic but is betrayed by Christine, who threatens to publish it. Scarlet begins to provoke Christine, who then attacks and kills Scarlet. Isobel calls Christine a "slave" of the Lion, and follows her to the next scene, where she hopes to find the Lion.

Christine's assistant, Rodney, has an unpleasant conversation with her and then receives an unexpected visit from an old friend. The friend, Michael, alludes to their youthful sexual experimentation and accuses Rodney of being queer. They fight, and Rodney "kills" Michael. After Michael leaves, Rodney has a monologue about his interactions with Michael growing up. Sherry, his coworker, bursts in, tries to calm him down, and gives him some chocolate before she goes home. Isobel watches a conversation between Sherry and her boyfriend quickly escalate into a fight where he makes her relive a rape that happened to her years before. He makes her say that it was her fault, to satisfy his own fantasies. The scene ends with Sherry continuing to talk about preparing for their wedding.

Sherry and Isobel then walk over to the graveyard where Ben, Isobel's murderer, (a.k.a. the Lion) is sitting. Sherry lays down at her grave, and as Ben continues to tell his story of justification of why he killed Isobel, she confronts him. She tells her part of the story and has an internal battle between vengeance and forgiveness. Forgiveness wins: she tells Ben "I love you" and asks him for her life back. Now appearing as an adult, Isobel tells the audience that though he took her heart, her heart was never silent, and she urges the audience to take back their lives.

Structure

''La Mujer De Mi Hermano'' ( "My Brother's Wife") could be considered in a category of films that critic Alissa Quart calls 'hyperlink movies', in which multiple stories take place, each affecting the other in ways that characters are unaware of, all the while using radically different aesthetic and cinematic techniques to define the ''mise en scène'' of each storyline.

An archeologist named Dr. Condor discovers the coffin of a demon in ancient ruins. During a press conference announcing his discovery, he decides to open the coffin for the first time, only to be transported into another world alongside a reporter named Labryna and another archeologist named Zorlock. The three heroes must now fight their way out of the Devil World in order to defeat the evil Demon King who is keeping them trapped and return to the human world.

In 1924, Jeremy Hartwood, a noted artist and owner of the Louisiana mansion Derceto (named after the Syrian deity), has committed suicide by hanging himself. His death appears suspicious yet seems to surprise nobody, for Derceto is widely reputed to be haunted by an evil power. The case is quickly dealt with by the police and soon forgotten by the public. The player assumes the role of either Edward Carnby—a private investigator who is sent to find a piano in the loft for an antique dealer—or Emily Hartwood, Jeremy's niece, who is also interested in finding the piano because she believes a secret drawer in it has a note in which Jeremy explains his suicide. Whether Carnby or Hartwood, the character goes to the mansion to investigate.

Upon entering the house, the doors mysteriously slam shut behind the player character. He or she continues up to the attic, but is attacked by monsters. The player character progresses back down through the house, fighting off various creatures and hazards. The player character finds documents throughout the house indicating that Derceto was built by an occultist pirate named Ezechiel Pregzt, and that beneath the house are caverns that were used for dark rituals meant to increase Pregzt's fortunes and unnaturally extend his life. Pregzt was shot and Derceto was burned down by encamped Union soldiers during the American Civil War. However, Pregzt's spirit lived on, and his corpse was placed by his servants in an old tree in the caverns underneath Derceto. Jeremy Hartwood committed suicide to prevent his body being used as a host for Pregzt, so Pregzt now focuses on the player character. If the player character is incapacitated, their body is subsequently dragged to a sacrificial area and possessed by Pregzt, whereupon the game ends with an image of supernatural horrors being unleashed from the house into the world at large.

The player character finds a passage into the caverns in Hartwood's study, and makes his or her way to the tree where Pregzt resides. The player character hurls a lighted lantern at the tree, then flees the collapsing cavern. Pregzt is consumed by the flames, and the house is purged of supernatural creatures and other effects caused by his influence. The player can finally open the front doors and leave the house, which is now completely safe to explore (except for physical hazards such as falling to one's death through chasms or rotten floorboards, and two magical books in the library which remain lethal to read). The driver is outside to take the character home, but is revealed to be a zombie. The zombie drives the car back to civilization.

The story is heavily influenced by the works of Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft. The setting for the story is inspired by Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher". Grimoires found in the mansion's library include the ''Necronomicon'' and ''De Vermis Mysteriis'', both taken from Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Other Mythos references include books that feature the narrated history of Lord Boleskine, a direct reference to another Infogrames Cthulhu Mythos-based game, ''Shadow of the Comet'', and the last name of player character Edward Carnby, a reference to John Carnby, a character in the mythos tale ''The Return of the Sorcerer'' by Clark Ashton Smith. Several of the supernatural opponents are recognizable creatures from the Mythos, including Deep Ones, Nightgaunts and a Chthonian.

John McClane decides to visit his wife Holly in Nakatomi Plaza, only to discover that she is taken hostage on the 30th floor, along with a number of other hostages. The terrorist leader, Hans Gruber, is after the money locked away in a safe on the 30th floor. His hacker, Theo, is slowly breaking the locks into the vault. McClane decides to fight the terrorists on his own, ascending the building as he does so.

In February 1975, Apollo 19 lands near the Aitken Basin near the lunar south pole (called "Marlow" in the novel) following a discovery of a vast quantity of water ice at that location. (Observation data from the 1994 unmanned spacecraft ''Clementine'' has indicated the existence of subsurface water ice mixed with lunar soil, as confirmed by ''Lunar Prospector'' and subsequent missions, but exposed water ice on the Moon's surface has not been recognized by the scientific community.) There the crew tests an experimental heavy Lunar rover, launched to their location earlier by a Saturn 1B and delivered to the Moon using a stand-alone Apollo Lunar Module descent stage called the "LM Truck." (Both of these vehicles might have been actually used on the Moon, according to Johnson, had not Project Apollo been cut short.)

All goes well until the astronauts are ready to lift off to return to the orbiting Apollo CSM. Unfortunately, their LM ascent engine fails to fire. Repeated attempts to restart that engine—the only part of the LM system without a backup—all end in failure. Finding themselves stranded, the mission commander and LM pilot say goodbye to their wives. The commander peremptorily orders his CM pilot, in orbit around the Moon, to return home. He and the LM pilot then abandon the LM and strike out on their own, driving their rover to the limit of its remaining driving range "to see what we can see." In their last message to Earth, they ask their colleague and Capsule Communicator to help their returning crewmate understand that he must not blame himself for their deaths.

Before their oxygen runs out entirely, they find a vast and incredible Out-of-place artifact that might save their lives - or kill them. It is an ancient, abandoned, but fully functioning Lunar base - which they find immediately before the last seconds of their air run out. The base contains technology far beyond the reach of human science and engineering, best exemplified in the "war room" that they find immediately upon entry. This leads the two men to argue whether extrasolar visitors built it. LM Pilot Charlie Shepherd, a fundamentalist Christian, refuses to admit the possibility, because the Bible contains no warrant for it. Both men agree, however, that whoever the base builders are (or were) would be able to conquer Earth easily, had they chosen to attack—though why they never did attack remains a mystery.

The two men soon find EVA suits that are one-third again as tall as human EVA suits are. Shortly thereafter, they find many members of the base crew—dead of various acts of violence, and in at least one case, a suicide. The suicide's living quarters contains multiple artworks depicting various scenes of torture, indicating that the base builders were a thoroughly evil people whose mania for causing suffering is incomprehensible.

Subsequently, Mission Commander Gary Lucas vanishes into an apparent journey into the past—specifically to the builders' home world. His friend, left on the base, searches it in vain for his friend, not realizing that his friend has entered a machine that can simulate events stored in its historical memory, based on input from a base-wide and planet-wide surveillance system. Shepherd finds a means of sustenance, and then finds a hangar—which turns out to be empty. Angered and desperate, Shepherd activates all the base' systems in the war room, except for one system that refuses to activate. In the process, he activates the base computer system, which regards him as non-human and starts broadcasting a distress signal to Earth.

That signal will turn out to be the salvation of the two astronauts—because Congress, on the point of cancelling Project Apollo completely, reverses itself and authorizes Apollo 20 in direct response to the signal, which clearly is coming "from the Marlow Basin". They cannot read the message, but—at least subconsciously—they realize that its activation after the men of Apollo 19 were supposed to have died cannot be coincidental.

Gary Lucas has many perilous adventures in the "home world" simulation, which he accepts as entirely real. They begin with his rescue of a woman being assaulted, and continue with his capture by men bent on offering him as a human sacrifice and by his rescue by the woman's husband and brother-in-law. In gratitude, Lucas offers to join the workforce that is now applying the finishing touches to a vast granary that his hosts have been building and stocking. Meanwhile, Shepherd tries again to activate the last war-room system—and realizes, too late, that he has in fact started a self-destruct sequence. One by one, various base systems—gravity, climate control, and ultimately the food dispensary—begin to shut down.

Lucas is injured during the storehouse construction project and, after the householders have an apparent argument concerning him, is given a sedative. He awakes to find himself in an empty house and steps outside in time to hear the roar of an onrushing wall of water, which lifts the storehouse off its foundations (incredibly, without damaging it) and threatens to sweep Lucas to his death.

But then Lucas finds himself back on the base, in time to watch its crew destroy one another in mutiny, mayhem, murder, human sacrifice, and the eventual suicide of the base commander, who is the crew's last survivor. Following this, Lucas experiences an attack of vertigo. In fact the simulator machine has run its program, sounds three piercing alarm tones, and ejects him into the waiting arms of Shepherd just as the crew of Apollo 20 arrive to rescue them. That rescue is just in time—because after Apollo 20 completes trans-Earth injection, the self-destruct sequence runs its course, and the base destroys itself, apparently in a thermonuclear detonation.

Back on Earth, the mission commander studies the Bible—and realizes that he actually witnessed the Noachic Flood and even ate at Noah's table. Also, the base builders never attacked Earth, because they were from Earth originally—from Antediluvian Earth. He and Shepherd further realize that God has entrusted him with a warning, which he must convey to anyone who will listen.

The novel ends when it shifts to somewhere on the surface of Mars, where another base similar to the one found on the Moon, ominously activates by itself.

Two years after the events of the first film, Jon Arbuckle plans to propose to his girlfriend, veterinarian Dr. Elizabeth "Liz" Wilson, who is going on a business trip to London. Jon follows Liz to the United Kingdom as a surprise; after escaping from a kennel, Jon's two pets, Garfield and Odie, sneak into Jon's luggage and join him on the trip. Garfield and Odie break out of the hotel room due to boredom, and subsequently get lost in the streets of London.

Meanwhile, at Carlyle Castle in the English countryside, the late Lady Eleanor Carlyle's will is read by the solicitors, Mr. Hobbs, Mr. Greene and Mrs. Whitney. She bequeaths Carlyle Castle to Prince XII, her beloved cat who lives a strong life of luxury, and bears a strong resemblance to Garfield. This enrages the Lady's greedy nephew, Lord Manfred Dargis, who will now only receive a stipend of £50 a week and inherit the grand estate once Prince passes away. Lord Dargis traps Prince in a picnic basket and throws him into the river. Garfield inadvertently switches places with Prince after Jon finds Prince climbing out of a drain and takes him to the hotel after mistaking him for Garfield, while Prince's butler, Smithee, finds Garfield in the street and takes him to Carlyle Castle after mistaking him for Prince.

In the grand estate Garfield is residing in, he receives a great deal of special treatment, including a butler and a group of four-legged servants and followers, including Prince's loyal bulldog servant, Winston. Garfield teaches his new animal friends how to make lasagna, while Prince learns to adapt to his new life with Jon. Dargis also confused Garfield for Prince, fearing that the solicitors will not sign the estate over for him to demolish the area, slaughter the animals and build a SPA resort, tries to remove him again, causing Miss Abby Westminster, another solicitor, to get suspicious of him. Dargis makes many attempts to kill Garfield, including one involving a merciless yet dim-witted Rottweiler named Rommel.

Eventually, Garfield and Prince meet each other for the first time and they convince the animals to help them defeat Dargis. Jon and Odie discover the mix-up and go to the castle, which Liz is coincidentally visiting. Garfield and Prince taunt Dargis, whose plan is exposed, and they are seen by the solicitors. Dargis barges in, holding a blunderbuss and threatening the solicitors if they do not sign the papers giving him ownership of the estate, and also taking Liz hostage. Jon attempts to force Dargis to release Liz by holding a crossbow at him, only for Dargis to threaten to kill Jon for getting involved in the first place. Garfield and Prince, with the help of Odie and Jon, save the day while Smithee alerts the authorities and Dargis is arrested for his crimes. Garfield, who had been trying to stop Jon from proposing to Liz, has a change of heart: He helps Jon propose to Liz, and she accepts.

In 1936, Madariaga is the 80-year-old patriarch of a cattle ranch in Argentina. His two grandsons are Julio, whose father Marcelo is French, and Heinrich, whose father Karl is German. When Heinrich returns home from studying in Germany to reveal he has become a Nazi, Madariaga slaps him and predicts that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Conquest, War, Pestilence, and Death) will soon devastate the earth. He runs outside into a storm with visions of the four horsemen and then dies in Julio's arms.

In 1938, Julio goes to Paris with his family and befriends Marcelo's anti-Nazi friend Etienne Laurier. Julio falls in love with Laurier's wife, Marguerite, and becomes her lover after war breaks out and Laurier is sent to a prisoner-of-war camp. He takes advantage of his status as a neutral to live a pleasant life with Marguerite in German-occupied Paris, where his cousin Heinrich is an important official in the SS. When Marguerite becomes the object of German General von Kleig's lust, Julio defies him and incurs his personal enmity. Julio's younger sister Chi Chi becomes active in the French resistance and makes Julio uncomfortable about his own neutrality. Laurier is released from prison an apparently-broken man, and Marguerite leaves Julio to care for him. When Julio discovers that Laurier is an important figure in the resistance, he joins it as well.

Eventually, both Chi Chi and Laurier are tortured and murdered by the Gestapo, and Laurier reveals to von Kleig that Julio is working for the resistance and on an important mission: guiding Allied bombers to destroy a Nazi headquarters in Normandy. Heinrich, realizing that Julio is probably a French agent, captures him just as the bombs are falling on them and kill both.

The final scene, the most important one in the film, is missing from several versions shown. In it, the grandchildren's parents listen helplessly on the telephone as the deaths happen. The final words are from one set of parents to another: "Our children have killed each other." In other prints, the film ends with the four horsemen riding on to create future havoc for other generations.

Chapter one

The campaign takes place at the same time as the events of the original campaign. The protagonist is an apprentice of the dwarven adventurer Drogan Droganson in the small village of Hilltop located in the Silver Marches who is studying along with fellow apprentices Xanos, Dorna, and Mishca. The campaign begins with a kobold attack on the village and Drogan himself, leaving him poisoned and barely alive. During the attack, certain valuable artifacts are stolen from Drogan's laboratory.

Soon after the attack, Ayala, an elven Harper arrives and uses her magic to sustain Drogan. She then reveals that she and Drogan are members of the Harper order and that Drogan was assigned by the Harpers to guard four magical artifacts: the mummified hand of the dead lich Belpheron, the tooth of a dragon, a mask which once belonged to a high priest of the Lord of Shadows, and a statue of a tower that was found in a desert tomb. Being Drogan's favorite apprentice, the hero is placed in charge of recovering the artifacts.

As the search progresses, it is discovered that a mage named J'Nah desires to collect the artifacts on behalf of a mysterious hooded woman whom she serves. She had originally been in alliance with a dragon named Tymofarrar, who led the kobolds. She had her gnolls attack the kobolds, after they had left Hilltop, in order to try to take all of the artifacts for herself. Upon the collection of all four artifacts, it is discovered that the tower statue, which was believed to be the least powerful of the artifacts, actually contains a crystal of tremendous magical power. Drogan, who has by now recovered from the effects of the poison, requests that the hero visit an archeologist named Garrick who is investigating some Netherese ruins in the Anauroch Desert, believing that he may be able to identify the crystal.

Interlude

Upon Drogan's request, the hero sets out across Anauroch with a halfling caravan on the way to an encampment of Ao worshipers at which Garrick is located. Upon meeting up with Garrick and showing him the crystal, Garrick reveals that it is a mythallar, a crystal containing incredible magical energy akin to those that were used by the Netheril Empire to levitate their flying cities. He also mentions that he and a party of fellow archeologists were exploring some ruins to the north located in a certain Valley of the Winds when they were attacked by a mysterious hooded woman who led a horde of demonic creatures who was trying to open some kind of portal, The hero takes this woman to be the master of J'Nah. After entering these ruins, the protagonist sees this woman travel through a portal which disappears soon after. At this point, Drogan uses magic to teleport to the protagonist's side and aids him/her in reactivating the portal. After the portal is reactivated, it is discovered that the woman had placed some kind of trap on it which causes the ruins to begin to collapse when triggered. Drogan uses a magical shield to sustain the weight of the collapsing ruins long enough for the hero to enter the portal, but he himself is crushed soon afterwards.

After passing through the portal the hero emerges back in the desert and pursues the hooded woman to another area of ruins. Upon confronting her, she removes her hood, revealing herself to be a medusa and uses the medusas' petrifying gaze to turn him/her to stone. While in this state, she takes the mythallar from him/her, and speaking to him/her in this state, identifies herself as a powerful sorceress by the name of Heurodis, and claims to have sought the mythallar so that she could use its power to raise the ancient Nether flying city of Undrentide, the ruins of which she is located on, and use it to gain power over Faerûn.

Chapter two

The hero returns to normal form after Ashtara, a reptilian merchant and slaver who is searching the ruins of Undrentide for treasure, uses a magical potion to restore him/her. He afterwards clamps a magical collar around the hero's neck with which he can force him/her to do his bidding by sending electrical charges through the collar. Upon destroying the city's guardian golems who were hindering Astara's slaves in their search for treasure, Astara frees the hero, allowing him/her to search the ruins for Heurodis, who at this moment is in the process of completing a ritual which will restore Undrentide to the skies. It is discovered that she is atop a certain Tower of the Winds located in the center of the city and has used a magical force field to prevent anyone from entering the tower. By using three magical artifacts, the Wise Wind, the Dark Wind, and the Death Wind, known collectively as the Three Winds, the force field can be broken. The hero collects these artifacts, opening the force field, and climbing the tower, to find that Heurodis has already succeeded in raising the flying city. Heurodis, who is now a lich, has set up a circle of crystals through which the power of the mythallar flows in order to keep the city in the air. In the ensuing battle, one of the crystals is destroyed just as the mythallar's energy is passing through it, causing the energy to escape and the city to plummet. Knowing that as a lich Heurodis might be able to survive the fall, the hero kills her with his/her own hands, and afterwards uses a magical mirror which was found within Undrentide to escape to a plane of shadows and avoid impending death.

The central character of the story is Tokiko Mima (nicknamed "Key"), who believes herself to be a robot crafted by her scientist grandfather, Murao Mima. Every year, on her birthday, Key believes Dr. Mima builds her a new body, each one size larger. Upon his deathbed, Mima records his will on audio tape, revealing that Key can become human with the aid of 30,000 friends. Key believes she must do this quickly before her battery runs down. The series details the slow unraveling of Key's identity and a secret conspiracy bent on controlling her unique supernatural abilities she develops over the course of the narrative.

The main character, Ronan Chantry, who is of Irish ancestry, is going into the West away from his troubles. Chantry's wife and son are dead, burned to death in the fire that consumed his home, for which he is blamed. He takes with him a Ferguson rifle, given to him by Major Ferguson himself. He meets up with an outfit of trappers after crossing the Mississippi River.

Although never stated directly, Chantry quickly becomes the leader of the group. Main members of the group are an Irishman, Davy Shanagan, and Solomon, who by the end of the book is revealed to be very well known throughout the wilderness. Early on the outfit's journey west, they encounter the Spanish Captain Fernandez accompanied by Ute Indians. The Captain attempts to arrest the outfit for trespassing on Spanish colonies. The outfit informs him that the land was bought under the Louisiana Purchase.

That night it is believed that Captain Fernandez attacks them but fails with two Utes being killed. The outfit presses on. Another night Chantry hears gunshots ring out in the distance after being awakened by a wolf who was trying to steal bacon. The next morning Chantry discovers the dead body of a man in a Mexican uniform. He searches the body and recovers a medallion. Chantry and Walks-by-Night back-track him and come to the realization that he was with a woman and boy and they had been chased and he had been killed. Chantry goes off by himself and encounters the girl and the boy.

The player assumes the role of James Chase, an American who has volunteered to serve as a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force starting in May 1940. After displaying above-average skill and bravery during the evacuations at Dunkirk, he is transferred to the Battlehawks: a special unit in the RAF that operates under Prime Minister Winston Churchill's Special Operations Executive. The Battle of Britain, North Africa, China, the Battle of Midway, the Eastern Front, Norway, and Germany are all featured in one or more missions. The final mission of the campaign is on June 6, 1944, with the Battlehawks flying air support as Operation Overlord begins.

The overall goal of the Battlehawks throughout the campaign is to "halt the most insidious plans of the Third Reich". The player's principal opponent is the Luftwaffe, in particular the Battlehawk's counterpart, the elite squadron of top German pilots known as Nemesis (similar to the real KG 200), commanded by Oberst Krieger. The player will also face off against the forces of the Japanese Empire.

Captain Pausert is a well-intentioned but inexperienced merchant traveler from the planet Nikkeldepain, voyaging solo on the old pirate chaser ''Venture''. While on the planet Porlumma, the captain is moved by sympathy to purchase three young sisters – Maleen (about 14 years old), Goth (9 or 10), and the Leewit (5 or 6) – who had been enslaved while visiting another planet on a jaunt of their own. In getting clear of Porlumma, the ''Venture'' escapes pursuit when the girls desperately use what they call the Sheewash Drive, which enables far faster transit than is possible with primary or secondary space drives available either in or outside the Empire. The girls reveal that they are witches from the planet Karres, with (psionic) powers. The girls' powers, but especially the possibility of this incredibly fast drive, draw the unwelcome attention of planets and ships they pass. After taking the three sisters to their homeworld of Karres, the captain attempts to return to his home planet but is stunned when faced with a barrage of criminal charges, many relating to his encounter with the witches and his brief stay on the prohibited planet of Karres; in addition, the planetary government avidly want the suspected new space drive. Captain Pausert escapes the Nikkeldepain police and military with the help of the middle sister, Goth, who had stowed away on the ship.

The two head for the planet Uldune, formerly a pirate stronghold but now a place to buy anything, where they rebuild the ship and assume new identities in preparation for starting a trading business. The captain also finds himself developing minor powers. The pair run afoul of both the planetary government and the Imperium, including industrial espionage and even kidnapping. Finally the newly renamed ''Evening Bird'' lifts off for the planet Emris via a shorter but far more dangerous route through an area of space called the Chaladoor. Aboard are the captain, Goth, a hired ship-hand named Vezzarn, two paying passengers, the passengers' cargo, and a mystery: the ruler of Uldune, believing that the captain and the girl are both witches, asks them to also transport a frightening rocky mass and the catatonic witch found with it.

All is not as it seems aboard the ''Evening Bird''. Vezzarn and one of the passengers, Hulik do Eldel, are spying and creeping around the ship in an attempt to locate the Drive. Unfortunately, Vezzarn uncovers the mystery mass, thereby attracting ominous yellow tendrils of insanity called Worm Weather. The captain is having increasingly odd interactions with an immensely powerful alien presence called a , which seems to be manipulating events and watching with glee. Then the second passenger, Laes Yango, drugs everyone on board and redirects the ship for his purposes: he is actually the leader of a feared fleet of space pirates in the Chaladoor, and he is also after the Sheewash Drive. When the Worm Weather attacks, the decides to interfere and they are able to land the ship on a seemingly deserted red planet. The captain, Goth, Vezzarn, and Hulik defeat Yango and his murderous giant spider-robot before taking off once again for space.

The is delighted in the captain's cleverness, and sends him on the next leg of what it calls a game. As a ghost-like projection, the captain is sent to talk to Cheel, the leader-in-hiding of an enormous interdimensional space ship that has been taken over by its insane computer. The captain learns that the computer wants to conquer all known space, using the Worms as its advance guard, and their only salvation is that mystery mass. The group is reunited when the transports them all to Karres, but 50,000 years in the past. The captain continues to refine his powers, including how to grab and manipulate small amounts of the black energy. When the Leewit shows up – thrown through space and time by the – Goth and the captain learn that the witches of Karres have attacked the Worm World. The two girls and the captain are transported by the to the mad computer's temple/throne room. There they use their witch powers to destroy the computer and its machine minions. Cheel then emerges to retake the Worm World space ship using the mystery mass, but he has no intention of returning to his home dimension and instead proclaims his intent to conquer all. The is elated by the trick, until the captain hooks and manipulates its energy in order to send the former Worm World back to its own dimension, send himself and the witches back to his ship, and send the ship to its rightful time and place. They arrive on the planet Emris in time to rejoice about the victory with the young witches' parents.

Testing shows that the captain does indeed possess klatha powers: two rare talents for now, with a strong overall capacity for future development. The witches' father recruits the captain as a special courier for the Empress, with the understanding that Goth accompany him because the witches have foreseen it. The captain and Goth are only hours into their first courier mission when Vezzarn and Hulik enter the control room, admitting that they stowed away and asking to join his crew. When the Leewit suddenly appears – once again thrown through space but by an unknown force this time – the captain can only mutter, “here we go again!”

Story

The story of ''Snow'' starts when the main protagonist Kanata Izumo revisits a small village from his childhood called . He is revisiting Ryūjin-mura to help manage a local inn with hot springs, , alongside his cousin Tsugumi. In the village, there is an old legend: In ancient times, Ryūjin-mura was protected by the dragon goddess. However, one day the goddess fell in love with a human, which is strictly forbidden, and this incident caused the village to be always covered by snow after that. The game then tells the daily life of Kanata interacting with the village girls and ultimately links the story to the legend. ''Snow'' follows a branching plot line with multiple endings, and depending on the decisions that the player makes during the game, the plot will progress in a specific direction.

Main characters

The player assumes the role of , who is visiting Ryūjin-mura as a part-time worker of the local inn owned by his cousin. During his stay, he meets his childhood friend and the main heroine of the game , a soothing and gentle girl whose father has died. She loves anman (a kind of mantou) and claims that it's a source of life. Kanata also encounters a young energetic girl with a tomboy personality called , suddenly appearing before Kanata and claiming that she will repulse the evil from him.

In the outskirts of the village, Kanata meets the mysterious ; Shigure has a shy personality and is extremely silent. The protagonist also finds a little girl called waiting around the jinja for her parents. She likes to play with her cat called . The physician of Ryujin-mura has a daughter called , who is a close friend of Sumino. She likes to tease Kanata, and acts bizarrely in front of him. In ''Snow: Plus Edition'', a new character referred to as is introduced, bearing many secrets.

Daryl Zero is the world's greatest detective, but is also a socially maladroit misanthrope. Among his quirks is that he never meets or has direct contact with his clients, instead conducting business through his assistant, Steve Arlo. Throughout the movie, Zero provides narration as he reads lines from his proposed autobiography.

Zero and Arlo are hired by Portland area millionaire Gregory Stark, who has lost the key to a safe deposit box and is being blackmailed by an unknown person who forces him to follow elaborate instructions to deliver the cash payments. Zero quickly discovers that the blackmailer is Gloria Sullivan, an EMT with a mysterious past. Zero becomes attracted to Gloria and they sleep together, compromising his trademark objectivity. He lets his guard down and tells her that his abusive father killed his mother and himself.

Stark pressures Arlo to reveal the blackmailer's identity so that he can have that person killed. Arlo must also deal with Zero's absurd demands on his time, which increasingly interfere with Arlo's relationship with his girlfriend Jess.

Zero eventually discovers that Stark had raped Gloria's mother after she broke up with him. She later blackmailed Stark with the threat of exposing him as a rapist, so he had her killed. However, she had already given birth to their daughter Gloria, who was discovered and raised by the hitman who killed her mother. Gloria grew up knowing that Stark was behind her mother's murder, and when her adoptive father (the hitman) contracted a terminal illness, she used the information to blackmail Stark, using the money to pay for medical treatment.

At the meeting to deliver the final blackmail payment, Stark collapses from a heart attack and Gloria is compelled to save his life. She then flees the country with Zero's assistance.

Sally Cambridge is the divorced mother of two sons, 16-year-old Jack and 9-year-old Leo. As the film opens, she is arrested on suspicion of child abuse, and during questioning, she reveals the story of what actually happened, told via flashback.

One evening, a call to Jack's basketball coach reveals that he has been given a two-week suspension from the team due to poor grades, which Jack did not tell her. Compounded with the fact that he stayed out past curfew that night, Sally attempts to talk to Jack about his problems, but he angrily orders her out of his bedroom, slightly shoving her in the process. A short time later, while hanging out with his friend Luke, Jack is arrested for shoplifting at the local mall, and when Sally attempts to question him afterwards, he again becomes furious and smashes a glass. She later tries to ask Jack what caused this outburst, but he tells her he doesn't know and tearfully apologizes.

Not long afterwards, Sally goes on a date with a colleague named Frank, who is also divorced. While Leo warms up to him immediately, Jack is outright rude when Frank arrives to pick Sally up, and when she reprimands Jack for his behavior, he shouts at her and then pushes her aside. Later that night, Jack receives a phone call from Luke, and although entrusted with watching his little brother, he leaves Leo alone to go to a party. Furious, Sally grounds Jack for a month and takes the phone to call Luke's mother. A confrontation ensues, which soon turns physical, and when Sally slaps Jack in retaliation, he attempts to punch her, but she ducks and he ends up putting his hand through a window, cutting his arm in the process.

A couple of nights later, Sally has Frank over for dinner, but Jack is once again rude, and when Sally tries to talk to him afterwards, it escalates into another physical confrontation, which is cut short by a visit from the police. Both Sally and Jack claim that nothing's wrong, which satisfies them, but the next day sees Leo discovering Gus, the family cat, with a broken leg. After he and Sally return home from the vet, she finds Jack crying in his room, holding Gus and apologizing to him repeatedly.

Realizing her son has a problem, Sally seeks advice at a women's shelter, where a counselor suggests she take out an order of protection against Jack. Though she goes to the police station, Sally changes her mind and instead goes to her ex-husband Brad's office and attempts to explain what happened the night of Jack's "accident", but Brad blames her for not having control over the situation, and takes custody of the boys. While at Brad's, an argument ensues between Leo and his stepmother Marcia, with Leo taking an angry tone not unlike Jack's. Later that night, Jack decides to go back home and apologize to his mother, but is greeted upon his arrival by the sight of his mother in an embrace with Frank, which sets off another physical confrontation between Jack and Sally. Having followed his brother there, Leo attempts to stop Jack, but gets pushed in the struggle and inadvertently strikes his head as he falls to the floor.

After Sally's arrest, she is brought to the hospital to see Leo, where Jack and Brad are waiting; realizing the charges his mother faces, Jack finally owns up to his misdeeds, confessing to the accompanying officers and his father that he was the one responsible for everything. As a result, Sally is released and Jack gets arrested for assault. Although the prosecutor is unwilling to drop the charges against Jack, an offer is made to defer them if Sally and Brad file an at-risk youth petition, which mandates that Jack be placed in a treatment program, during which time he will also be put in temporary foster care, and that his parents undergo individual counseling. Afterwards, Brad takes responsibility for his own anger issues, which Sally points out that their sons have picked up on, and informs him they need to work together to get Jack the help he needs.

During his group counseling sessions, Jack comes to understand that his violent outbursts were learned behavior, rooted in the verbal abuse his father often dealt towards his mother, while Sally's individual sessions gives her the opportunity to acknowledge her own father's verbally abusive behavior toward her mother, as well as her own tendency to back down on enforcing discipline in an effort to avoid a verbal showdown, and what she perceives as having failed at her marriage. However, her therapist points out that Sally did not fail at her marriage; she simply couldn't tolerate the verbal abuse from Brad, and getting out of it was the best thing she could have done.

After returning home, Jack admits to his mother about having felt relief when Brad left and knowing she felt the same, while Sally acknowledges she had no idea how to make Brad stop behaving the way he did towards her, and Jack adds that he didn't either. The two then embrace, with Jack apologizing to Sally as she assures him that things are going to be OK and they're both getting the help they need.

The film and book tell the story of Eddie (David Wenham), a principled man with a seemingly stable and happy life. He has a wife, the academic Tanya (Frances O'Connor), a daughter, Abby (Joanna Hunt-Prokhovnik), is paying off a house and has a job as a government land assessor. Yet when the forces of economic and social change threaten this, he realises just how fragile his reality and security is. After losing his job, he checks his bank balance and realises he has only the 'three dollars' of the title to his name.

Eddie's life also becomes entwined with that of childhood friend Amanda (Sarah Wynter), whom he unfailingly runs into every nine-and-a-half years, and every time he has just three dollars.

The novel and film are set largely in Melbourne, at a time when the policies of economic liberalisation were gaining credence in Australian politics and were arguably affecting many lives similarly to Eddie and Tanya. They explore the choices we make between what we have and what might be.

In 2057, the Sun is dying and Earth is freezing. Eight international astronauts pilot a colossal stellar bomb aboard the spaceship ''Icarus II'', with the intent of jump-starting the Sun and then returning to Earth. As they pass near Mercury, ''Icarus II'' picks up the distress beacon of ''Icarus I''. That ship was the first to attempt a similar mission, and disappeared seven years earlier. The ship's proximity to the sun kept its signals from reaching Earth. The iron core of Mercury acts as an antenna, amplifying the signal and allowing ''Icarus II'' to intercept it. Reasoning that two payloads have a better chance of success than one, and that the last of Earth's fissile materials had been used to make their bomb, the ship's physicist Capa recommends to captain Kaneda that they change course and attempt to commandeer ''Icarus I''. Mace, the ship's engineer, opposes the deviation as risky. Navigator Trey calculates and implements a trajectory to intercept ''Icarus I'', but forgets to realign the shields that protect the ship from the sun, causing damage to four shield panels which if not repaired could destroy the whole ship and kill the crew.

Kaneda and Capa embark on a spacewalk to make repairs, assisted by the pilot, Cassie, who angles the damaged portion of the shield away from the Sun. As expected, this leads to the loss of two protruding communications towers; however, reflected light also destroys the ship's oxygen garden and oxygen reserves, much to the horror of botanist Corazon. As ''Icarus II'' s autopilot returns the shield to its original alignment, Kaneda orders Capa to retreat to safety as he repairs the final panel himself, and is burned to death moments later. Trey is unable to cope with the loss of Kaneda, and the ship's psychiatrist Searle assesses him as a suicide risk and places him under heavy sedation.

Without enough oxygen to reach the release point for its explosive payload, ''Icarus II'' has no choice but to dock with ''Icarus I''. Capa, Searle, Mace, and communications officer Harvey, now the acting captain, search the vessel, leaving Cassie and Corazon onboard ''Icarus II'' with Trey. They discover that despite the ship's systems being mostly operational, including a lush, overgrown, oxygen garden, the mainframe has been sabotaged, rendering delivery of the payload impossible. The ship's log contains a rambling message from Pinbacker, its captain, who abandoned his mission and has severe burns on his face. Mace deduces that the transmission was made six and a half years ago, around the time when the crew should have delivered their payload. The crew of ''Icarus I'' is found in the solar observation room, burned to death long ago by unfiltered exposure to the Sun.

Suddenly, the two ships explosively decouple, destroying ''Icarus I'' s outer airlock and stranding the four crewmembers. With only one spacesuit available, Capa wears it due to being the only crewmember able to operate the payload, while the rest wrap themselves in salvaged insulation material from the walls of the ship and then jettison between airlocks, using the vacuum release for propulsion. Searle realizes that one of them must stay behind to manually operate the airlock and volunteers himself. Searle releases the airlock, shooting Capa, Harvey and Mace out into open space. Harvey misses the airlock, freezes, and dies from asphyxiation, while Capa and Mace make it back to ''Icarus II''. Searle, having spent the mission obsessed with looking into the shielded sun, voluntarily exposes himself to its full, deadly force in the observation room, killing himself in the process.

Corazon calculates that there is only enough oxygen left for four of the five survivors to reach the Sun. The group reluctantly decides to have Mace kill Trey, but discovers Trey has already committed suicide. With the remaining crew somewhat relieved that they will now at least make the trip to the Sun, Capa is informed by ''Icarus'' that there is still not enough oxygen to complete the mission because an unknown fifth person is on board the ship. Capa investigates and discovers an insane and disfigured Pinbacker, who is revealed to have been behind the decoupling of the airlocks. Pinbacker attacks, wounds, and pursues Capa into the airlock, who seals it from his side. Pinbacker locks his side of the airlock to trap Capa, then kills Corazon and removes the four mainframes from their coolant baths, shutting down the ship's computer, before going after Cassie.

Mace manually lowers two of the computers back into the freezing coolant, but when his leg catches on the third descending mainframe, he becomes trapped, and the computer system is disabled. As he freezes to death, he begs Capa to complete the mission. Capa blows the airlock and separates the bomb from the ship, which is burned away by the sun. He then enters the bomb, where he finds Cassie, but they are ambushed by Pinbacker, who claims he spent the last seven years "conversing" with God (the sun) and was told to send all humanity to Heaven. As they hurtle into the Sun, Capa escapes Pinbacker by ripping the skin off one of his arms. Cassie encourages Capa to ignite the bomb, and he manages to reach the controls. Unsure if it will work under these extreme conditions, he watches as the bomb begins to ignite at the edge of the Sun, killing Cassie and Pinbacker. As time and space distort, Capa uses his final moments to blissfully reach out and touch the surface of the Sun. On Earth, at the frozen Sydney Harbour, Capa's sister and her children listen to Capa's last transmission and witness the Sun's light starting to shine again.

The story begins at Thanksgiving in 1973, with five-year-old Danny Kowalski (Cory Buck) ringing the doorbell to the Swan's house. Danny is there with his military doctor father to see family friend Grace (Brenda Blethyn) and her family. Grace is expecting her fourth baby, and goes into labor while they are visiting. The baby won't wait for the hospital meaning Danny's father has to deliver it. As the umbilical cord is snagged and as he's been enjoying Thanksgiving wine all day, the father fears he may not be sober enough to reach in and untangle. Danny is asked to use his smaller hands to unwrap the cord from the baby's neck. The girl is born, and Grace names her Anna. Danny is astounded by the whole event and happily announces "I'm going to marry her!" Everyone chuckles while Grace pensively looks at him.

Because his dad finds new work in England they move away. Twenty-five years later, Danny, (Jude Law) moves back to his hometown after his dad's death. He is a mosaic tile restorer hoping to become a master tiler, and is interviewing for a recommended restoration. He finds a modest apartment owned by a bakery shop couple, who also offer him a delivery job until the tile work starts. Getting lost on his first delivery, Danny stops for directions at house with a distinctive swan bell. It is still Grace Swan's house and before he leaves, he sees Nina (Jennifer Tilly) and the Anna (Gretchen Mol) who he helped bring into the world. He then continues to complete the delivery, mystified at the coincidence. He tells his kind baker boss and his wife about the chance reunion, and they fill him in a bit on their story.

Soon, the Swan family order a cake from the bakery and Danny leaves to deliver it, hoping to see Anna. He crashes his bike into a car outside the home and loses consciousness. He wakes up inside the house, meeting Grace and her family. Nina reveals her lifelong blindness and the fears that keepi her from a normal life. He meets the brother Billy (Jeremy Piven) and Billy's wife, Irene (Jane Adams) who is distraught over her husband's infidelities and exhibits bizarre behaviors. Danny reacquaints with Anna's father Richard (Bruce Jarchow), her sister Karen (Martha Plimpton) and Anna's boyfriend Eric (Jon Tenney). He is invited to stay for dinner during which he learns of Anna's recent engagement to Eric. They converse about love and when asked what love is like, Danny states it is like hearing music from another room and it being so beautiful that you hum along.

Danny begins his job as a mosaic tiler artist at the local museum. He confesses his love for Anna to his coworkers who give him a trick, two-headed coin, instructing him to tell Anna: "Heads you love me, tails I leave you alone." Danny uses it the next time he is alone with Anna, but she claims the right to read the result and calls "tails". A few days later he is with Anna again and asks her to run away and marry him. Anna rejects him kindly and rides off, with Danny chasing her.

He is now friends with the family, failing in attempts to help Nina with her self-imposed fears. He sees that Anna's motherly way with her siblings is a bit stifling, and works at helping her lighten her grip. Danny do enjoy some success with Nina, even getting her to go with him to a local dance where she meets Jesus, a young tradesman. By the time it's clear they are a pair, Grace has been ill and is dying. Anna is jealous of the love between Nina and Jesus (Vincent Laresca), and rushes to Danny's home to actualize her passion as well, confessing she lied and that the coin flip read "heads." The two sleep together, then part so Anna may tell her mother about her love for Danny. Irene and Billy have another or their confrontations, ending in her shooting him in the foot.

Nina and Jesus elope at night and his family and friends celebrate their union. Nina returns home to tell her mother, and Grace is thrilled because she can now die in peace concerning Nina. Later that night, Grace dies in Richard's arms. Anna arrives home to tell her mother about her relationship with Danny only to find that she is too late. At Grace's funeral, Anna tells Danny that she has already told Eric about their affair. Danny tells Anna he is leaving in a couple of days, and says goodbye. He ties up business at the tile site, making something special for the wall and packs, painting over Anna's name he's been having over his bed. That night, Eric announces he and Anna are going to Paris to get married in a few days. Nina is convinced that this direction for Anna is all wrong. The next day, Nina has Anna meet her on the site of Danny's tile work which turns out to be swans, and carrying a message to Anna. Nina insists that Anna belongs with Danny and advises her to go after him.

First rejecting her sister's viewpoint, Anna is soon inspired by the swan tile work. She rushes to the train station and begs Danny to take her with him, no matter where he is going. Danny says this adventure won't last but Anna holds up a regular coin and says if it lands heads, she will go with him. Tails, she'll leave him alone. Anna flips the coin and Danny puts his foot over it when it lands. Without looking at the coin he then declares it is heads, the two kiss.

A group of scientists discover that an asteroid, named ''Flora'' (which may or may not be the real asteroid 8 Flora, although the mass of 6,000,000 tons or tonnes given for ''Flora'' is orders of magnitude less than the mass of 8 Flora),is on a collision course with Earth. The space program summons Commander Jack Rankin to take command of space station Gamma 3 and destroy the asteroid, stating that if he should fail to not bother coming back because the asteroid collision would cause an extinction level event.

Rankin goes to Gamma 3 where he runs into an old comrade Commander Vince Elliot, with whom he has a history. Nevertheless, Rankin carries out the mission Commanding a shuttle onto the surface of Flora to set bombs to destroy it. While on the surface, they discover a strange amoeba like creature attaching to their vehicles and sucking the energy out. The science officer Dr Halversen tries to bring a sample of the green substance aboard the shuttle but Rankin angrily throws it to the ground causing it to shatter and some of the green slime to attach to Halversen's space suit.

The detonation is a success and Flora is destroyed. The crew returns to Gamma 3 to celebrate while their suits go through decontamination. The energy from decontamination causes the green slime to evolve and grow and in the middle of the celebration and alarm goes off indicating trouble in the decontamination chamber. An officer opening the door is quickly killed by an unknown assailant.

When the senior officers arrive to investigate, they find the crew member electrocuted to death and a strange one-eyed tentacled creature that discharges lethal amounts of electricity. When they attempt to kill it with their laser weapons, they find that the creature's electricity causes the blood to multiply their numbers and there are quickly more creatures. Despite the attempts to contain the creatures, they quickly multiply even more to the point where they will soon overrun the station. Dr. Halversen is killed trying to contain the creatures.

Rankin, refusing to leave until the mission is completed, stays in command and decides to evacuate the station on shuttles and set the station to burn up in Earth's atmosphere. Elliott returns to help his friend and is killed trying to save him. Rankin manages to set up the crash landing and escapes with Elliott's body onto the shuttle as the station burns up and destroys all of the green slime creatures. Rankin logs the mission success and recommends the highest citation for Vince Elliott posthumously.

A 16-year-old American boy calling himself Billy approaches Tom Ripley in the French village near the latter's residence, asking for a job. Ripley agrees to give him a small amount of gardening work and puts him up in the guest room, but he believes that he recognizes the youth from a newspaper. Further investigation reveals that "Billy" is actually Frank Pierson, the son of a recently deceased American tycoon who has fled the United States. Frank soon confesses to Ripley that he did in fact murder his own father by pushing him off a cliff. Ripley recognizes a kindred spirit in Frank, discovering that he deliberately sought him out for advice after learning of his questionable reputation. Ripley commissions a false passport for Frank and they travel to West Berlin, where they stay with a friend of Ripley's erstwhile partner in crime, Reeves Minot.

Frank is kidnapped while strolling through a wooded area in West Berlin. Ripley communicates with the Pierson family and with a private detective the family has sent to Paris. The Piersons wire the ransom to West Berlin, and Ripley takes it to an appointed drop-off point where he impulsively kills one of the kidnappers. The other three drive off. Ripley returns with the money and arranges a rendezvous at a gay bar, which he infiltrates by dressing in drag. He identifies the kidnappers, who again leave empty-handed, and follows them back to the flat where they are keeping the boy. Ripley scares the amateur thugs into dashing out of the apartment, and he single-handedly rescues the semi-conscious hostage.

Ripley then dispatches the money back to the Pierson family, encourages Frank to return to his family in Kennebunkport, and accompanies him there besides. Despite Ripley's coaching and reassurances, Frank is overwhelmed by guilt as well as by his unrequited love for a teenaged girl named Teresa, and eventually commits suicide by throwing himself over the same precipice from which he pushed his father. Shaken and, much to his own surprise, saddened by Frank's death, Ripley returns to Belle Ombre after securing a former possession of the boy's as a memento.

Eck and Saleh play two police constables in a rural village, 'Gary' and 'Akmal' who lead fairly unremarkable lives. Gary's main aim is to be crowned line dancing champion of the village, having always been the runner-up. A series of horrific murders, involving the mutilation of bodies, rock the town, and 'Tony' (Mir), a detective from the city, is called in reluctantly to investigate. Whilst the young Akmal is in awe of the dashing detective, Tony's aggressive methods clash with the uptight Gary, and 'Chief Carter' (Richard Carter), the officer in charge of the station. Tony is eventually sent back to the city, after shooting a French male stripper.

Gary and Akmal soon discover that the murders have a Village People theme, with those murdered having been in one of the occupations of a Village Person, or resembling one. They fearfully deduce that either a policeman or a dentist (Akmal is uncertain, as he doesn't clearly remember the Village People, although Gary quickly deduces that it is, in fact, a policeman) will be next to die, as does Tony, who rushes back from the city.

It's 1925 and after Edward Carnby's success in his previous two investigations, a journalist has nicknamed him the 'Supernatural Private Eye'. This time, he is called to investigate the disappearance of a film crew at a two-bit ghost town known by the name of Slaughter Gulch located in the Mojave Desert in California. Among the disappeared crew is Emily Hartwood, Jeremy Hartwood's niece from the original. Edward soon discovers that a curse has gripped the town, and an evil cowboy from the Badlands named Jed Stone is the villain who is responsible for the crew's disappearance. Lurking around town are many trigger-happy sharpshooters, deranged prospectors, and bloodthirsty lost souls whom Edward must ward off with both his strength and his wit.

A man in Central America finds his brother's murdered body. It turns out that his brother has been murdered because he knows the whereabouts of a lost city in the jungle. The man teams up with a search expedition and goes off to hunt for these ancient ruins. Unfortunately, almost every member of the group has plans to double-cross the others. All is resolved in bloody fashion in the middle of the jungle wilderness.

The novel tells the tale of the planet Zyrgon, ruled by the galactic police called The Law-Enforcers. They are after Mortimer, who has cheated the government lottery for the 27th time in a row. His family is governed by the youngest daughter, 12-year-old X, who wants to save her father from the detention centre.

The family also includes Mother, who would rather design clothing and leave all worries to her daughter X. The oldest sister Dovis is a cosmic flier who writes poetry and levitates. The youngest is a boy genius, Qwrk who is a professor at age 8.

X is the lead character: a stressed girl who has to balance between strange Earth customs such as school and her duty to take care of her family.

Zyrgonians have special powers such as levitation, simulations, and kinetics. They love gambling and live on an ultra-modern and dystopian planetoid.

The city of San Francisco is pushed into a state of terror and fear as a deranged murderer stalks the city. The police are baffled by the case and are led to extremes by a lunatic whose victims all have something in common: their hearts have been skillfully and surgically removed. Meanwhile, across town, a man must make a difficult decision regarding his wife, who needs a transplant.

The story begins with Shah Jahan, known as Prince Khurram when he is about nineteen years old. Khurram was Emperor Jahangir's favourite son, whom Jahangir wanted to be the future Emperor of India, along with his wife Nur Jahan, who was well aware of this fact. Noor Jahan was married once previously, but when her first husband died, Jahangir married her. Ladli Begum is Noor Jahan's daughter from her first marriage. Noor Jahan is a shrewd lady, who wants the best for herself and her daughter and she aspires for Ladli Begum to marry Prince Khurram so she that she will become the Empress of the Mughal Dynasty.

Khurram's passion for hunting leads him into a jungle, and one day while hunting he meets Arjumand Bano. Their meeting was love at first sight, with Khurram attracted to Arjumand Bano's innocence and beauty while Arjumand was impressed by Khurram's great personality. Arjumand Bano is Asaf Khan's (Aly Khan) daughter, Empress Noor Jahan's brother. Khurram and Bano again meet at the Meena Bazaar, where finally both of them declare their love for each other. Ladli Begum learns of their love, but she keeps on wooing Prince Khurram. Noor Jahan sees this love as a hindrance to her plans of making her daughter the future Empress of India and she succeeds in turning Emperor Jahangir against his own son, Khurram.

Noor Jahan sends her secret lover and the warrior Mahabat Khan to fight Khurram and to kill Arjumand Bano. As a result, a war takes place in which forces are also sent by Emperor Jahangir against Khurram. When Khurram meets Jahangir, he declares that Arjumand Bano was more superior to him than the Mughal Dynasty. As a result, relations become even more bitter between the father and the son. However, Arjumand Bano, who was a peace-loving person, agreed to forget Khurram and asked him to marry Kandahari Begum, an Iranian princess, who was chosen by Emperor Jahangir for Khurram. Khurram, due to Arjumand's insistence, marries Kandahari Begum while on the other hand, Ladli Begum marries to Khurram's brother. After Emperor Jahangir dies, Khurram becomes Prince Shah Jahan and ruler of the Mughal dynasty. He finally marries the love of his life, Arjumand Bano, who becomes Mumtaz Mahal. The couple lives happily for a while until misfortune occurs.

Khurram must leave for war, but a pregnant Aarjumand chooses to also go with him, as she used to accompany Shah Jahan in all his battles. Khurram tries to return to the camp from the battle but takes a long time to return as he forgets his way. While he is lost, Mumtaz Mahal dies while giving birth to her nineteenth child. During her last breath, Mumtaz Mahal asks Shah Jahan to construct her tomb in a beautiful mausoleum, describing one which would be so beautiful it would express their love for each other to all who visit the mausoleum. Mumtaz's death is the greatest tragedy for Shah Jahan, and as a result, he becomes a completely reformed person. Shah Jahan then starts off to fulfill his wife's last wish, to build Taj Mahal, a beautiful mausoleum to honour the also beautiful Mumtaz Mahal. The Taj Mahal goes on to become the Seventh Wonder of the World.

Time passes, and in future Shah Jahan's sons and daughter grow up. The sons are greedy and eager to inherit their father powers, and as a result, they imprison him in a room from where he can easily see Taj Mahal. He watches his sons fighting against each other to become the Emperor of India and the Mughal Dynasty. Everywhere around him there is violence and warfare, with the beheading of slaves and even brothers are no longer uncommon. In the end, Khurram dies while looking at Taj Mahal, the Taj Mahal that took an astonishing twenty-two years to be made, a tribute showing Shah Jahan as the greatest lover of all time. At his death, his body is laid down next to his love, hence resulting in the culmination of their love after death.

Because the actions of the High Ridge government in ''War of Honor'' led to the Republic of Haven successfully attacking key Alliance shipyards, the Star Kingdom of Manticore finds itself decidedly on the short end of the strategic balance between the two warring star nations. Admiral Honor Harrington is placed in command of Eighth Fleet, the Manticoran Alliance's primary offensive force, which is the sole heavy formation available for operations against Haven. Queen Elizabeth and her senior advisors project it will be at least two "T-years" (Terran years, i.e. Earth years) before any significant numbers of new construction can begin bolstering their thin wall of battle; this while Haven's progress under Admirals Theisman and Foraker have given them an even larger force advantage, and smaller technological disparity, than Haven suffered before the beginning of hostilities in ''Short Victorious War''.

Strategically, the Eighth Fleet plans to instill enough operational caution and sensitivity to losses in Haven to force redeployments of starships in defensive postures, reducing Haven's offensive resources. To expedite this, they are assigned most of Manticore's cutting-edge warfighting hardware, including the new "Apollo" self-guided missile system and "Keyhole" platforms that increase the efficacy of their own counter-missiles. Their first two raids indeed frighten the Havenite populace somewhat, but on the third, at Solon, a defensive ambush led by Admiral Javier Giscard is waiting for them. Honor is sorely trounced, losing several ships and being forced to abandon a vessel captained by her best friend, Admiral Michelle "Mike" Henke, Countess Gold Peak, to its own devices; Henke is believed killed in action.

Honor continues to work closely with Hamish Alexander, now First Lord of the Admiralty, on the military and political challenges facing the Alliance, and they fall into the very romantic relationship the High Ridge government tried to insinuate during ''War of Honor''. She and Hamish are married and conceive a son, Raoul, who is "tubed" while his mother goes into combat and is born before the end of the novel. Emily, assisted by Honor's mother Allison, a leading geneticist, also becomes a mother with Hamish.

Republic of Haven President Eloise Pritchart continues to work towards peacefully ending the war. She and her administration discover her Secretary of State, Arnold Giancola, sabotaged the peace talks. Unfortunately, both Arnold and his accomplice, Yves Grosclaude, are killed before questioning. This lack of proof prevents Pritchart from coming forward and accepting culpability for the current war, but she nonetheless sends Mike Henke—actually a POW—back to Manticore with an offer for a peace conference.

Queen Elizabeth accepts, but several more cases of the nanotechnology are deployed in assassination attempts on other noteworthy Manticoran figures, including Queen Berry of Torch and her Head of Intelligence. This forces Elizabeth to resume the war, ordering the Eighth Fleet to attack the Lovat System. Honor does so, and this time defeats Giscard's ambushers, resulting in his death and the destruction of most of his fleet.

Pritchart, with few options and devastated by her lover Giscard's death, realizes that if Haven cannot conclude the war peacefully, they must conclude it violently. She authorizes "Operation Beatrice," a direct strike at the Manticore System itself. The result is the largest space battle in recorded history: Haven's Second and Fifth fleets against the Manticoran Home, Third and Eighth Fleets. After several engagements, Harrington arrives and obliterates the Fifth Fleet, and Tourville surrenders the remainder of Second.

The fictional protagonists are a proto-Germanic tribeswoman, Auriane, daughter of a Chattian war leader; and Marcus Arrius Julianus, a Roman senator and imperial advisor whose character and circumstances are loosely based on the Roman philosopher Seneca, as well as another contemporary in the reign of Nero, Stoic philosopher and statesman Helvidius Priscus, a man known for his outspokenness in public life. Rome’s interference in tribal affairs compel Auriane to take the warrior’s oath and lead her father’s retinue after his death. In Rome, Stoic humanist Marcus Julianus reaches the highest levels of government, where he is taken into the confidence of the Emperor Domitian. Through political maneuvering, he attempts to check the excesses of the increasingly corrupt Emperor Domitian. Auriane is captured in Domitian's Chattian War and taken to Rome. As Domitian's reign of terror begins, Julianus orchestrates a plot to assassinate the Emperor; here the author has inserted a fictional character into a gap left by history. The Emperor Domitian, who according to Suetonius, was fond of pitting women against dwarfs in the arena, condemns Auriane to a gladiatorial school. Here Auriane discovers the tribesman who betrayed her people in war. As Julianus’ assassination plot reaches its conclusion, Auriane must carry out the tribal rite of vengeance in the Colosseum.

Part I

The congregation of The First Methodist Episcopal Church of Tecumseh sits in their exquisite sanctuary, awaiting the decision of whom they are going to appoint as the new pastor for their church. The members of the congregation regard their time at the church with such high importance that they pay hundreds of dollars to rent the front pews. When the new pastor is announced, Abram G. Tisdale, members of the congregation began leaving upset and selling their pews for sixty dollars. The man they wanted to be appointed, Theron Ware, was appointed to the church in Octavius. After the ceremony, Theron and his wife are disappointed, but Theron tells her there is nothing more they can do.

In their new home in Octavius, the Wares are surprised that the milk delivery boy informs them that they will be pressured by the congregation to not have milk delivered on Sundays. Theron reminisces about how he arrived in Octavius. A young minister who changed his first parish in Tyre into an over-capacity congregation, met his wife Alice in Tyre and had a quick marriage. However, the Wares found themselves eight hundred dollars in debt, not knowing how to budget the church and their own lives. As they trimmed down the spending both in the church and in their personal lives, by selling possessions and their piano, the clergy once again began to dwindle. Their third year at Tyre, a man named Abram Beekman gave them a loan. Theron, determined to show that he could do better in a bigger congregation, went to the conference at Tecumseh to prove his abilities, only to be placed in Octavius.

Theron meets with three trustees from the church — Pierce, Winch, and Gorringe — in his house. Pierce tells Ware that he is not to use "dictionary words" because he does not want people to be redirected to one of the two Catholic churches in Octavius. They discuss the church finances and they try to make him take a pay cut and pay for his gas bill. Theron refuses, and Gorringe is the only level headed of the trustees as they get angrier and nearly threaten him. They agree to bring in a "debt-raiser" to reduce the church's debt, and after the meeting Theron tells his wife that he nearly thought he should go out and learn a trade.

After a good first sermon at his church in Octavius, Theron ponders his next move as minister, and how to help his overworked wife, as he takes a walk. While on his way back home, he comes upon a procession of people carrying a man. The man, Mr. MacEvoy, is injured and is taken to his house where the people await for the Catholic priest Father Forbes to give the man his last rites. Theron observes the man and other people chanting in Latin and is intrigued.

After the last rites, Father Forbes introduces himself to Theron while they walk away from MacEvoy's house. Forbes leaves and Celia Madden, also at the last rites, introduces herself to Theron. She is the daughter of the owner of the wagon shop where MacEvoy worked, and explained that if she did not attend the last rites, Mrs. Ann MacEvoy would no longer speak to her. She also tells Theron that she is an organist at Forbes' church. When she leaves, Theron ponders how he has never interacted with Catholics before, but that they are not as foreign as he originally thought.

That night at dinner, Theron and his wife talk about their new estate and that it is adequate, but not as nice as they'd like. Theron forgets to tell Alice his thoughts about hiring an aide for her, but talks to her about Father Forbes and asks her why she thinks there is a separation between the Methodists and the Catholics. Alice expresses her dislike for Catholics.

The next day, Alice tells Theron that she won't need a hired girl until winter. Theron goes out to buy a piano for the church and a book for himself, and is upset at the store Thurston's which only carries the most recently popular books and has such low prices that it is putting specialty stores out of business. At the piano store, Theron realizes he is not qualified to pick out a piano and decides to ask Celia to help him pick one out. Back at home, Theron struggles to begin writing a book of his own and is distracted by the fact that he does not own very many books. He suddenly leaves his dinner with Alice to go ask Father Forbes for help.

Theron admires the new, yet-unfinished Catholic cathedral, which he remarks is the finest building in Octavius. When he arrives at Father Forbes' residence, he is greeted by an ugly helper, who leads him into a dimly lit dining room, where Forbes and a stranger are eating. The stranger is Dr. Ledsmar, an elderly man who is nonreligious. Theron talks about his book which he hopes to write about Abraham, and Father Forbes seems to know quite a bit more about Abraham than Theron can comprehend.

Alone, Theron and Dr. Ledsmar talk about why Father Forbes rarely gives a sermon at his church, and Theron discovers it is because the parish need him to participate in the traditions of the church rather than preach. Theron hears organ music from the church, and Ledsmar tells him that it is Celia Madden practicing. Ledsmar doesn't seem to be moved by the music, and he reveals to Theron that he thinks all art is "decay." He invited Theron over to see his collection of books, and Theron finds out that he has a Chinese servant living with him. When Theron leaves, he passes the Catholic Church and the organ music makes him walk inside the church, something he has never done before.

The narration of the novel takes a different turn in the ninth chapter by giving the back story of Celia Madden and her father Jeremiah Madden. Jeremiah, a very rich man, has had multiple wives and multiple children. Celia had been quite the talk of Octavius for her past actions, but Theron knew none of this when he first met her and decided to enter the Catholic Church, where Celia notices him and approaches him to talk.

Celia tells Theron that she hates Dr. Ledsmar for disliking art. She inquires Theron if he likes music, poetry, and books, and he says that he does. Celia tells Theron that she won't like him as a person if he likes Dr. Ledsmar, and that she is upset that Ledsmar is friends with and has influence of Father Forbes. Theron continues to walk Celia home, and she reveals that she is not religious at all, but subscribes to the Greek philosophy of her ancestors, claiming to be Greek herself. Theron forgets to ask her about the piano until after she is inside her house. At the Ware household, Theron wakes up Alice who was sleeping in a chair. He tells her about Ledsmar, whom Alice is very wary of. Alice also complains about their neighbors who are playing the piano so late at night, but Theron enjoys it.

Part II

Theron had not seen Forbes, Ledsmar, or Celia for several weeks because of various events with his church, including the advent of automobiles, a circus, and the scorn from some of the trustees over his style of sermons. Overall, he has been getting good reviews from the parish, but he still wants to improve the church. Alice seems to be more depressed in Octavius than previously. The Wares discuss Gorringe, and how Theron wishes he were a more active member in the church because of his understandings of Theron's activities and motivations.

Finding a spare moment four days before another Methodist conference, Theron gets around to reading some books he borrowed from Dr. Ledsmar. He reads nearly all day long, and when Alice enters the room she is surprised to find him researching his book on Abraham that she thought he abandoned. He tells her that he has a headache, and she is concerned that he is getting sick. When she leaves, he is pleased by his solitude and ability to read the books. He suddenly has a realization that he envies Forbes and Ledsmar, who are able to live with their own theories and ideas, and that Forbes can still work in the religious field. He contemplates leaving his job as a pastor when Alice returns home and introduces him to Sister Soulsby, a debt-raiser whom she hired so the congregation would not take away from the Ware's income and so they can possibly afford a new house.

Sister Soulsby talks with the Methodists in Octavius and after a couple of days proposes a "love-feast" for the congregation. Her idea is confirmed when her husband, Brother Soulsby, arrives. Alice and Theron disagree that springing a debt-raiser on the congregation after a festival is an appropriate way to make money, but the Soulsby argue that they have been raising funds for churches and organizations for a long time, and that they know what they are doing. All the while, Theron worries about his wife. He doesn't seem to care for her as much, and thinks that Forbes and Ledsmar wouldn't regard her very well. He does take note that she has made good friends with Gorringe.

The love-feast occurs at 9:00AM on the next Sunday. The feast includes singing, praying, and speeches. Sister Soulsby gives a particularly good speech that motivates the people of the Methodist church. The presiding elder also speaks, and Alice gets up from her pew to kneel at the front of the sanctuary in prayer, and is joined by the lawyer Gorringe. Theron reads the list of stewards is upset that Gorringe's name is not on the list and feels alienated from the church.

Theron awakes inside his home and remembers that he fainted inside the church due to the heat. He goes outside and finds that the Soulsbys are threatening to "close down" the church until funds are raised to get the church out of debt and a little extra for things that need money. In the end, they raise enough money to give the Wares an extra $100 per year and for themselves to be paid. Later, Theron talks with Gorringe, who is now religiously invested in the church as well as financially. The trustees must vote to see if Erastus Winch will have to pay what he pledged to the church after going bankrupt. The vote comes down to Theron, who votes that he should have to pay.

Sister Soulsby and Theron discuss Erastus Winch's case and how Theron feels bad about forcing him to pay what he cannot afford. Sister Soulsby notes that it is not her place to be moral, but that she did what she was hired to do. She and Theron continue to talk about separating people from their money, and Sister Soulsby tells Theron that he would be terrible at conning anyone.

Part III

Theron and Alice take a walk, and Alice wonders what the congregation will think that they are not at a prayer. She leaves, and Theron begins to think about what Sister Soulsby said about Catholics. He finds himself nearby the Catholic Church and realizes that he probably ended up there because he wanted to run into Celia. He hears her voice and they meet and talk. She invites him into the church so she can play the organ for him. Later, he walks her home and she invites him in. She shows him her workroom and a private room that is "[her] very own."

Celia's room was full of candles, sculptures, art, and a piano. Celia offers Theron a cigarette, which he usually does not smoke, and he accepts. She plays him songs on the piano and later slips into a robe. After she plays more and more songs on the piano, Theron stands up and walks closer to her. They talk softly, and Theron tells her that he wants to experience her Greek philosophy, hinting toward her bedroom. It is late so he has to leave, but Celia knows he will be back and laughs at the situation when he is gone.

The next morning, Theron Ware recognizes that he has in fact gone through an illumination and will never be the same again. Alice notices it too, at breakfast, but thinks that it is because he is overworked by the new parish. Theron decides to write a letter to Celia, but at the end of it cannot think of a good enough word to close his letter. He visits the specialty book store and buys a book entitled George Sand which included information about Chopin, one of Celia's favorite composers. He then hurries off to meet Celia at the piano store where she helps him pick out a piano. He agrees on a cheaper model than Celia originally recommends. They part ways.

Theron meets with Dr. Ledsmar at the doctor's house. He is surprised that the doctor greeted him at the door instead of his "Chinaman". Dr. Ledsmar and Theron talk about women, and Theron thinks of Celia during their conversation. Ledsmar discusses how men have been studying women for ages and that sex is relatively not understood. They talk about the use of flowers, Ledsmar looking at them scientifically instead of aesthetically. Ledsmar then shows Ware his Chinaman, who the doctor is doing experiments on. Theron pries for more information about the rumored relationship between Father Forbes and Celia. The doctor avoids the question by claiming that his shoulder pains him and bids Ware farewell.

Time has passed and Theron is starting to look healthier due to his new outlook on life. His church is thriving because he is following Sister Soulsby's advice. It is time for a conference at the Methodist church in Octavius, and people have come and are camping out for the event. Theron walks among the tents. He continues walking into the woods and comes out at a Catholic picnic. They are drinking beer and he is interested in trying it but doesn't want to approach the bar for himself. Father Forbes and Celia walk up to him as he thinks about how to get a beer.

A young man fetches Theron a beer, and Theron, Forbes, and Celia discuss their respective religions. Forbes convinces Ware that their beliefs aren't too different. After more drinks of lager and talking about how one day there may be one "Church of America", Celia introduces Ware to her brother Michael. Theron and Celia excuse themselves from their company and decide to talk a way in the woods away from the party.

As Celia and Theron walk through the forest, Celia falls to her knees and begins crying. She quickly stops and explains that she doesn't want people to think she is being improper for spending time with Theron. They sit and he comforts her, but their conversation quickly turns to Theron's desire to be free from what holds him down. Celia claims he will never be truly free as he fiddles with a ribbon on her dress. He proclaims himself a Catholic, at which Celia laughs. They get up and leave, but the garden boy for Theron's garden sees them walking together in the woods and Theron and Celia are frightened of what gossip might happen. Celia allows Ware to give her a brief goodbye kiss.

Part IV

The kiss haunts Theron throughout the next weeks. He contemplates leaving his job, but knows that it is currently safe for him to occupy it. He wonders if Celia loves him. He overhears some women talking about how Gorringe bought $30 worth of flowers for his garden. He meets with him and asks him about the flowers, but their conversation becomes coded and Theron attempts to find out if the boy had told Gorringe about Theron and Celia in the forest. Eventually, Theron leaves but not before asking Gorringe if he knows of any scandal about Alice, which the lawyer does not understand due to Alice's purity.

Theron has convinced himself that Gorringe and Alice are having an affair or are somehow conspiring against him. He has dinner with Father Forbes, and tells Forbes that he has decided that he won't be a minister for much longer. The conversation turns to Michael, who is deathly ill, and then to Celia. Forbes doesn't seem to find her as interesting as Ware does, but Theron falls victim to how articulate of a speaker Forbes is. The priest retires for the night and Theron leaves. Father Forbes makes it clear to his housekeeper that the Rev. Theron Ware should not be permitted to visit again. Because of his tendency to try and pry into the friendship between Celia, Forbes, and Ledsmar, Theron angers Forbes and Ledsmar and is no longer welcome in their homes.

The next morning at breakfast, Theron attempts to get a confession out of his wife about her relationship with Gorringe. Nothing arises, but Alice gets very upset and claims that she doesn't like how Theron has changed ever since they moved to Octavius. Theron blames it on the book he is writing, but Alice doesn't fully believe him. He leaves breakfast, and she cries.

Theron starts thinking about why Father Forbes always has pleasant things to say about Celia even though she makes it clear that she is not Catholic. Theron puts the pieces together in his head and thinks that Celia and Father Forbes are sexual partners. He decides to talk to Celia and figures she is with her brother. He visits Michael, who is doing quite well, but warns Theron that if men seek what they want it doesn't always work out best for everybody. Theron then learns from a maid that Celia is heading to New York, and Forbes happens to be there as well. He contemplates going to Albany himself.

Theron boards a train to Albany and is intrigued by the sights he sees outside of his car. He is surprised that a yacht can voyage across the ocean, and thinks that he should travel across the ocean with Celia one day. In New York, Theron is surprised at how much of a hurry some people are in just in their normal lives. He follows Father Forbes meets Celia at the station and Theron follows them to a hotel and to a restaurant for breakfast without detection.

Sitting in the lobby of the hotel, Theron goes up to Celia's room after he sees Forbes leave. She greets him and tells him that she knew he was following her. She tells him to go away but eventually invites him when he is stubborn. Celia reveals that the kiss they shared was meant as a good-bye kiss, and that Dr. Ledsmar and Father Forbes are upset that Theron has constantly talked about Celia with them and attempting to find out something scandalous. During the conversation, Theron imagines killing Celia but he is not disturbed by the thought. There is a knock at the door and Forbes enters and tells Theron that they came to New York so he could introduce the upset Celia to a friend to calm her down.

Reverend Ware has been in New York for two days now, and shows up at the residence of the Soulsbys at five in the morning. They welcome him in tiredly, and urge him to get some sleep. He would rather explain his situation to them than sleep, and after explaining why he is in New York, tells them that he stole money from the church to pay for his experience in the city. Theron eventually falls asleep and Brother Soulsby goes to telegraph Alice.

Back in Octavius, Candace and Alice talk about the changes that are happening in the Wares' lives. Just one year ago they moved to Octavius, and Alice blames the town for changing Theron but Sister Soulsby disagrees. Alice has convinced Theron to leave the ministry and Brother Soulsby has arranged a job in real estate for him in Seattle. As he is ready to leave his house in Octavius for the last time he mentions that he might get in politics and become a senator, of which Alice replies that she has no intention of being a part.

The film opens with the cast gathering after the funeral of Jude to see a film he had been working on for two years. It turns out that the film is secret videos of all those gathered together in their most despicable moments including thievery, spousal abuse, adultery, etc. The revelations remove the masks from the so-called close friends.

Christine Riverton Duncan (Esther Williams) attempts to play matchmaker for her lovelorn friend Ellen (Paula Raymond) by pursuing Douglas J. Morrissen, Jr. (John Lund), the man Ellen loves, all the way to Idaho. There, Christine decides to play a joke on Douglas. After boarding his train to Sun Valley, Christine wins the man's affections and then shocks him with hints that she expects a commitment. Once she's in Sun Valley, however, things become problematic when Christine falls in love with hotel bandleader Dick Layne (Van Johnson). During her time in Sun Valley, Christine wins the title of "Duchess of Idaho" in a dance contest.

Neil Klugman is an intelligent, working-class army veteran and a graduate of Rutgers University who works as a library clerk. He falls for Brenda Patimkin, a wealthy Radcliffe student who is home for the summer. They meet by the swimming pool at Old Oaks Country Club in Purchase, New York, a private club that Neil visits as a guest of his cousin Doris. Neil phones Brenda and asks her on a date. She does not remember him, but agrees. He waits as she finishes a tennis game that ends only when it gets too dark to play.

They face obstacles from Brenda's family (particularly her mother), due to differences in class and assimilation into the American mainstream. Brenda's family are ''nouveau riche'', their money having come from the successful plumbing supply business owned and run by her father. Brenda herself is old enough to remember "being poor". Other conflicts include propriety and issues related to premarital sex and the possibility of pregnancy, and Mrs. Patimkin's envy of her daughter's youth.

After a few dates, Brenda persuades her father to allow Neil to stay with them for two weeks, angering her mother, who feels that she should have been asked instead. While Neil enjoys being able to sneak into Brenda's room at night, he has misgivings over her entitled outlook, echoed by her spoiled and petulant younger sister, and her naïve brother Ron, who misses the hero worship he enjoyed as a star basketball player at Ohio State University. Neil is astonished when Brenda reveals that she does not take birth control pills or use any other precautions to avoid pregnancy, angrily waving off Neil's concerns. He prepares to leave, but she decides to persuade him to stay by agreeing to get a diaphragm.

At the end of his stay, Neil attends Ron's wedding to Harriet, his college sweetheart from Ohio. Brenda returns to Radcliffe in the fall, keeping in touch by telephone. She invites Neil to come up to spend a weekend at a Boston hotel. However, once they're in the hotel room, Brenda tells Neil she just received letters telling her that her mother found her diaphragm and that her parents know about their affair. They argue, with Neil asking why she left it to be found unless she wanted it discovered. Siding with her parents, Brenda ends the affair as abruptly as she allowed it to commence. Neil walks out of the hotel, leaving her crying in the room.

Jacey Jeffries (Danielle Panabaker) is a 16-year-old high school student and the mother of a baby boy named Charley. Instead of giving him up for adoption as planned, she chose to keep the baby. Her mother, Terry (Mercedes Ruehl) pretends the infant is hers to allow Jacey to finish high school and lead a relatively normal life and graduate.

When Jacey attends a new school, she criticizes several of the students for their promiscuous behavior during a class discussion. Jacey's opinions lead Donna Cooper (Jane Krakowski), the Health teacher, to take a special interest in Jacey. Jacey's comments are unique in that she does not have an interest in following what her classmates say. The teacher's husband, the swim coach Bob (Colin Ferguson), convinces Jacey to join the swim team. Jacey passes out after taking tranquilizers stolen from her mother and ends up in the hospital. Donna and Bob are unable to conceive and are devastated when they discover their latest round of In-Vitro Fertilization has failed.

Jacey feels that matters are unresolved with Charley's father, Brad. It is apparent that Jacey was and still is in love with him. Jacey feels guilty because Brad is unaware that Jacey gave birth. Brad currently attends college. When Jacey attempts to call him, she becomes nervous upon hearing his voice and hangs up.

Donna sees Jacey with Charley, and asks if Jacey is his mother. Although Jacey lied, many students from the school witnessed the interrogation and believe Jacey is really the mother. She begins to get teased at school for her behavior. Her secret is found out at school, when the students were asked about how guys react to what girls wear. When other students criticize her for her hypocrisy, she goes to a mothers meeting for teen mothers.

After being teased at school, she leaves abruptly to see Brad. They spend the day together, and are about to have sex, when Jacey announces that the reason she left him was because she got pregnant. Brad takes the news badly and leaves. Jacey returns home and has a huge argument with Terry who hands her Charley and tells her to handle things on her own, angry that Jacey doesn't understand the sacrifices she has made to help Jacey have a normal life. Exhausted and confused, she turns to Donna for help and advice. Donna advocates for Jacey telling her mother that she wants to be Charley's mom to which Terry gives a speech about the sacrifices it takes to be a 'real Mom'.

A few weeks later, Brad arrives at Jacey's house to apologize and tells Terry that he will make it work between Jacey and him. However, when Jacey makes a surprise visit to his school, she finds out Brad's parents will only help if a DNA test is done to prove Brad is the father; Jacey feels betrayed and leaves him.

At school, Jacey gives a speech on pregnancy and teen sex, using examples from her friends from the teen mother's meeting. She gets applause and respect from her former bullies for being honest and sensible. Afterwards, Macy, her sister, gives her a DVD she had put together for Charley for him to watch when he is older. Watching it together with Terry, the two reconcile.

Later, Donna receives a call that there is a baby waiting to be adopted. Overjoyed, Donna and Bob go to adopt the child, only to find that it is Terry and Jacey who have decided to give him up to give him his best chance.

She apparently remains a part of Charley's life, as five years later she's there at Charley's first day at kindergarten, Donna and Bob have a new baby daughter, and Bob is shown recording Charley and asks Charley to talk about himself. "I'm Charley Cooper and I'm 5 years old, I got a new baby sister." Charley tells the camera that he has two mommies and that Jacey is his special mommy and Bob asks why. Charley replies, "because I'm the only one who knows how her heart feels from inside her." It is indicated in one scene that this is in fact the couple that was originally going to adopt him before Jacey changed her mind.

The film is a semi-historical narrative and depicts the real-life courtship, marriage, and forced breakup of Jérôme Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon, and his wife from the American South, Elizabeth Patterson. Napoleon did not approve of the union (despite the fact that her family was one of the wealthiest in America), and the marriage was annulled. Jérôme was subsequently forced to marry Catharina of Württemberg. They had one child, depicted in the film, Jérôme Napoleon Bonaparte. In order to provide a "happy ending", Jérôme in the film leaves France to be with his wife. However, in historical fact he remained in Europe.

Francie "Gidget" Lawrence (Deborah Walley) and Jeff "Moondoggie" Matthews (James Darren) have just gotten pinned when Gidget's father announces that they are going to Hawaii for two weeks; the remainder of Moondoggie's summer break. Gidget refuses to go and leave Jeff alone. However, when Jeff encourages Gidget to go to Hawaii, an angry and disappointed Gidget gives him back his pin and tells her folks she has changed her mind.

On the plane en route to Hawaii, Gidget meets Abby Stewart (Vicki Trickett) and her parents, popular dancer Eddie Horner (Michael Callan), and several more boys. In recounting her break-up to Abby, Gidget dramatically describes having gone overboard and "surrendered herself completely," which Abby misinterprets as "she went all the way".

As heart-broken Gidget mopes in her room, her father feels badly and decides to send for Jeff, suggesting that he come to Hawaii to surprise Gidget. Jeff immediately accepts. That night, Abby visits Gidget and invites her to join her and Eddie and the rest of the gang. Gidget declines at first, but her mother persuades her to change her mind. When Gidget makes a big hit with the boys and dances with Eddie, she inadvertently becomes Abby's rival.

Gidget makes an even bigger impression surfing the next day, leading to an unexpected kiss from Eddie just as Jeff arrives. The two argue and finally decide to go their separate ways. That night at dinner, Jeff arrives with Abby (who is unaware that he is Gidget's boyfriend "Moondoggie") and Gidget retaliates by flirting with Eddie. The contest continues through water-skiing and other activities until Abby, fed up and jealous, decides to spread a wanton rumor that Gidget has slept with Eddie and other guys. Abby's mother relays this gossip to Gidget's mother, quickly leading to arguments between the two, between Gidget and her parents, and finally between both married couples. Gidget's father finds himself drinking with Abby's mother in the hotel bar, while Abby's father and Gidget's mother also make peace. The two mismatched couples eventually meet and resolve their respective disputes.

At the Luau that night, Eddie runs into Gidget and confesses he's in love with her. A crestfallen Gidget tells him that she doesn't love him but they agree to be friends. However, Gidget still can't bring herself to go to the Luau since she doesn't know how far Abby's rumor has spread, so she goes for a walk alone on the beach and in a series of musical vignettes, pictures herself as a tramp, a fan dancer, and an unwed mother.

Back at the Luau, Abby tells Jeff about the rumor that Gidget sleeps around, admitting that it's a lie and that Gidget only had one affair with a guy named "Moondoggie". Jeff then realizes how much he cares about Gidget, so he puts Abby in her place by telling her to call him what everyone at home calls him: "Moondoggie". Jeff and Gidget reconcile on the beach and head back to the hotel to straighten everything out with the adults. Through a few mix-ups, Gidget believes her parents are cheating on each other with Abby's parents, and Gidget's parents believe Gidget's gone missing and alert all of her friends, including Abby who deeply regrets the trouble she has caused. Soon, everybody is gathered in Gidget's room, deeply worried and unaware that Gidget is just down the hall in her parents' suite with Jeff waiting for them.

As Gidget kisses Jeff on the couch, her father finally enters and expresses shock, then relief. Gidget tries desperately to cover for each of her parents' apparent indiscretions, but soon all misunderstandings are cleared up. Gidget and Jeff also explain their relationship to Eddie and the rest of the gang. The next day, as punishment for spreading the rumor, the guys drag a terrified Abby into the ocean and place her on Gidget's surfboard. When the surf comes rolling in, Abby frantically clings on for dear life while Gidget and Jeff enjoy riding the waves.

On her twentieth wedding anniversary, Maggie receives a diamond necklace and a price on her head; both from her husband, Jack. While waiting for the signal, all the way from Connecticut, to do the murder, the hitman Tony starts bonding with Maggie instead. Later, Jack shows up himself, complicating the entire situation.

Twelve years have passed since Scott Calvin took on the mantle of Santa Claus and married Carol Newman, who is now a teacher in the North Pole. On Christmas Eve, she tells a group of young elves a story from her life with Scott while expecting their first child. Scott invites his in-laws, Sylvia and Bud Newman, to the North Pole, along with Scott's ex wife Laura, her husband Neil, their daughter Lucy, and Scott's son Charlie. Meanwhile, he is summoned to a meeting of the Council of Legendary Figures, consisting of Mother Nature, Father Time, the Easter Bunny, Cupid, the Tooth Fairy, and the Sandman, concerning the behavior of Jack Frost, who is jealous that he has no holiday or special occasion in his honor. Because he has been promoting himself during the Christmas season, Mother Nature suggests sanctions against him. As Scott is attempting to get the in-laws to come without revealing that he is Santa, Jack Frost negotiates a light sentence of community service at the North Pole, helping Scott and the elves put up various Canadian-themed paraphernalia, as Carol's parents believe Scott is a toy-maker in Canada; Scott consents.

However, Frost's ultimate goal is to trick Santa into renouncing his position. When now Head elf Curtis inadvertently reveals the "Escape Clause", Frost sneaks into The Hall of Snow Globes and steals Scott's one containing Scott as Santa. If Scott holds the globe and wishes to have "never been Santa at all," he will go back in time and undo his career as Santa. When Lucy discovers this, Frost freezes her parents and locks her in a closet. He then orchestrates situations that make Scott think he must resign to make things better.

Frost tricks Scott into invoking the Escape Clause and both are sent to Scott's front yard in 1994, when Scott caused the original Santa to fall off his roof and had to replace him. Frost causes the original Santa to fall off the roof and grabs Santa's coat before Scott can. Scott is sent to an alternate 2006, where he has been CEO of his old company for the last twelve years and business takes priority over family. Scott also learns that Laura and Neil divorced and Carol moved away years ago.

Scott goes to find Lucy and Neil, who are vacationing at the North Pole, which Frost has turned into a theme park. Christmas is now "Frostmas", the elves are miserable, the reindeer are confined to a petting zoo, and parents can pay for their kids to be placed on the nice list. Scott finds Lucy and questions Neil about Laura; he states that Scott’s workaholic absence in Charlie’s life put all the pressure on Neil, and Charlie didn't want him to be his father, causing the divorce between him and Laura.

Scott confronts Frost and causes a distraction, and convinces Lucy to steal Frost's snow globe for him. Lucy throws the snow globe to Scott but Frost catches it. Scott plays a recording of Frost saying "I wish I'd never been Santa at all" from a novelty North Pole pen Frost gave him earlier, invoking the Escape Clause, sending both Scott and Frost back to 1994. Scott restrains Jack long enough to let his 1994 counterpart get the coat, making him Santa Claus again, sending both back to the present in the original timeline.

Scott reconciles with his family and Jack is arrested by elf police. He reveals he cannot unfreeze his victims unless he unfreezes himself, something he says he'll never do. Scott convinces Lucy via a snow globe he had given her earlier of her warmly hugging a snowman, to give Frost a "magic hug" to unfreeze and reform him. It works, Laura and Neil unfreeze and Frost becomes a new person. The "Canada" ruse is dropped and Scott appears as Santa to Carol's parents. With two hours remaining before Santa must leave for his Christmas deliveries, Carol goes into labor.

Months later, while Carol is telling the tale to her students, Scott walks in to reveal their son, Buddy Claus.

Peter's devout Catholic father, Francis, visits Quahog. Upon arrival, he insists that Stewie be baptized as a Catholic. After visiting a church with Peter and Stewie, Francis is informed that the holy water is tainted and he will have to wait. Francis is in disbelief, and baptizes Stewie himself. Stewie soon becomes unwell and is informed that he must be quarantined and kept in a germ-free environment by a doctor for the time being until his immune system's strength recovers at the end of the episode. Then Lois discovers that Francis coaxed Peter into having Stewie baptized without her knowledge, and tells Peter to choose his own religious beliefs and not allow himself to be a slave to his father's religion. Peter initially converts to Mormonism to take advantage of polygamy, but then discovers that Mormons cannot drink alcohol. He then tries Jehovah's Witnesses and attempts door-to-door preaching. However, when he finds someone who is actually interested in hearing what he has to say, he realizes he has no idea what to teach them. As a last resort, Peter tries Hinduism but gets himself kicked out after tackling the guru to the floor, believing the red dot on his head to be a laser spot from a sniper rifle. Unable to find a religion suited to him, Peter decides to create his own religion, based on ''Happy Days'', calling his newly founded church the "First United Church of the Fonz".

To the Griffins' (mainly Lois') surprise, many people turn up for the first worship service, much to the annoyance of Brian, who dislikes the idea that Peter is a religious leader (likely due to Brian being an atheist). In order to stop Peter from continuing his new religion, Brian joins forces with Francis to find a way to deter people from worshiping the Fonz. Three actors — serving as representatives from other religions — show up to the services of the Church of the Fonz. The first, Sherman Hemsley, informs people that he has formed the Church of George Jefferson (from ''All in the Family'' and ''The Jeffersons'') and a good portion of the congregation leaves with him. The second person is Gavin MacLeod, who claims to have created the Church of Captain Stubing (from ''The Love Boat'') and another chunk of the congregation leaves with him. The third person is Kirk Cameron and Peter assumes that Cameron is there to announce the formation of the Church of Mike Seaver (Cameron's character on ''Growing Pains''), but Cameron lets him know that he's only here to convert people back to Christianity and the remainder of the congregation leaves with him. Back at home, Lois comforts Peter, who is upset at the failure of his Church, by telling him that if his church embraced the Fonz's values of friendship, it is worthwhile, but Peter highly doubts it and Peter converts back to Christianity, however the scene shifts and Francis is shown looking at a picture of the Fonz, puts it down on a table, gets on his knees as if to pray, and claps to the beat of "Rock Around the Clock" as the episode ends.

Background

Arthur Penhaligon is a young boy who has gotten involved with the 'House', a magical world. This world comprises seven parts, each containing a 'Key' (powerful magical objects) and a part of the 'Will' (a being that holds the wish of the absent 'Architect'), under control of a villainous 'Trustee'. Arthur is on a quest to defeat the 'Trustees' and fulfill the 'Will'.

In the preceding four books, Arthur has captured four parts of the House.

This book

On Earth, the fifth Trustee, lady Friday, is masquerading as a doctor, whom everybody likes because she is very beautiful and refined. It is later revealed that Friday has kidnapped thousands of people and taken them to another world. There, she drains from them their emotions and memories, which she drinks in order to experience them (being a House creature, she cannot have these experiences herself).

Arthur, the sixth trustee Saturday and another powerful House creature called the Piper all receive a message from lady Friday that she has abdicated the rule of her part of the House, called the 'Middle House', and that the first of them to reach her scriptorium can claim the fifth Key and her domain as their own. Along with each message is sent a 'transfer plate' that sends whoever touches it straight to the Middle House (which is a giant, terraced mountain). Arthur accidentally uses the plate.

The Piper is the boss of a group of children, among which are Arthur's friends Suzy and Fred; these two friends along with Ugham, a servant of the Piper who is loyal to them, take the Piper's plate and are also transported to the Middle House. At first, Arthur does not trust them because of their allegiance to the Piper, but they convince him. He uses the fourth Key to remove their bindings, which bound them to the Piper's will.

They come upon a fight between Friday's flying troops and Saturday's troops. Arthur helps defeat the latter, and in return Friday's servants take him to their nest, where they find the fifth part of the Will, which takes the form of a creature with body parts of different animals. Then they go to Friday's scriptorium, where the Piper orders Ugham to take what looks like the fifth Key. It turns out to be a trap that opens a 'void' that starts to grow. Arthur is forced to use all four Keys in his possession to close it.

They eventually get to the world where Friday has kidnapped the people; Friday has lost her self-control and is about to "experience" thousands of people at once using her Key. As Arthur has succeeded Friday as ruler of the Middle House, he is able to stop her. It turns out that Arthur's friend Leaf was among the kidnapped people. The book ends with a note that Suzy got from Ugham before his death, which reads: "For the last time, I do not wish to intervene. Manage affairs in the House as you wish. It will make little difference in the end. S".

The plot follows the quest of Art Chew (Michael Chow) to retrieve the ancient peach. The movie starts with Art Chew traveling to America, after briefly showing Art's training at the Shur-li temple, showing many kung-fu clichés such as grabbing the pebble from the master's hand (at which Art succeeds without effort), fighting on trees (in this case small potted palms) and "listing" for elements (Earth, Wind & Fire play a funky tune). After the montage is shown, Art meets up with his cousin Wayman (Darryl Fong), a Chinese adult who tries to act American so he isn't embarrassed by stereotypes, and foster cousin Roy Lee (Colman Domingo), an African American who sincerely believes he is a reincarnation of Bruce Lee.

Not long after Art arrives, Helen Hu (Joyce Thi Brew), a dealer of Monosodium glutamate (MSG) portrayed with unscrupulous motivations like a cocaine dealer, forces Art's stereotypical Uncle Wong (Wallace Choy) into buying more MSG. Art intervenes and tries to fight Helen's muscle, the overweight and strong One Ton (perhaps a play on the Chinese wonton), the wise cracking "brains" of the outfit Lo Fat, and the Kung-Fu fighter Non Fat. After blocking One Ton's attack, Art reels to attack showing a smiley face on his arm which Lo Fat points out as a symbol of a Shur-li monk and they run away.

Art asks his uncle where the Ancient peach is and is told that it is in the restaurant owned by Helen Hu; in a brief humorous spectacle, Art and the others mix the name Hu with the article "who". Art's uncle had sold the restaurant to Hu a few years ago. Art, Wayman and Roy Lee go to Helen's restaurant and are taken to her by a waiter that is badly dubbed because "This is how all Hong Kong actors talk". Helen claims to know nothing about the peach and gets One Ton to escort Art and his friends to leave. On the way out, Roy Lee tries to kick Non Fat but misses and breaks a hole in the wall.

After Art and crew are thrown out Lo Fat notices a glowing coming out of the hole in the wall and looks in and finds the ancient peach. Subsequent events include the peach changing hands multiple times and the appearance of a romantic interest, Sue Shi (Karena Davis), who is later revealed to be an agent of the Shur-li temple.

Shepard stars as Howard Spence, an aging, hard-living Western movie star, who, disgusted with his life & washed up, flees by horse from the set of his latest western filming in the desert outside Moab, Utah. He hits the road looking for refuge in his past, traveling to his hometown of Elko, Nevada to visit his mother, who he hasn't seen in 30 years. And, eventually, to Butte, Montana, looking for a woman (Jessica Lange) he left behind twenty years before when he was filming a movie there. Also converging on Butte is a young woman named Sky (Sarah Polley), returning her late mother's ashes to her hometown and conducting a search of her own. Spence is doggedly pursued by Mr. Sutter (Tim Roth), a humorless representative of the company insuring Spence's latest film, whose mission is to return Spence to the set to finish filming the movie.

An oil tanker runs aground, spilling millions of gallons of oil on Baby Seal Beach. Lisa begs Marge to help celebrities scrub oil tar from shorebirds and sea mammals. Marge, Lisa and Maggie drive to the beach, leaving Bart and Homer home alone. Soon the house becomes a filthy mess, so Bart goes outside to play with his friends.

Milhouse's toy airplane crashes atop the roof of a Gothic house. While Bart is retrieving it, he accidentally falls, destroying a stone gargoyle. Belle, the owner of the house, grabs Bart by the ear and takes him home, much to his friends' horror. At the Simpson home, Belle demands that Homer punish Bart for trespassing on her property. Belle sees that Homer is wearing a grocery bag. Homer balks until Belle threatens to come back and speak with Marge if he won't discipline Bart. Homer forces Bart to perform chores for Belle at the ''Maison Derrière'', which the boy soon learns is a burlesque house. Bart does his job with enthusiasm and becomes indispensable to Belle.

Marge and Lisa arrive at the beach but discover that cleaning beach tar from animals is a task reserved only for celebrities. Instead, they are put to work scrubbing rocks, a job they soon abandon to return home.

After Homer learns the truth about the burlesque house, he does nothing to stop Bart from working there. Principal Skinner visits the house and sees Bart is the door greeter. He reports it to the Lovejoys and the Flanderses, who confront Homer about Bart's workplace. As Homer crows that he has no problem with Bart working at a burlesque house, Marge returns home unexpectedly and is upset to learn this.

Marge asks Belle to close the house, but Belle refuses, saying it is a part of Springfield. Marge presses the matter at a town meeting and shows slides of several prominent citizens leaving the ''Maison Derrière''. Marge's campaign convinces the town to form a mob to destroy the house.

The mob arrives at the house and starts smashing property. Homer tries to stop the mob's rampage by singing a musical number, accompanied by Belle and her burlesque dancers. The townfolk join in singing and are persuaded to let the house stay. However, Marge arrives with a bulldozer, having missed the song. As she starts a song about her stance on the house, she accidentally puts the bulldozer in drive and destroys a wing of the ''Maison''. She apologizes profusely to Belle and the townsfolk for wrecking their beloved house. To pay for the damage, Marge performs a ventriloquist act at the house, where she is heckled by Homer — who is promptly removed by the bouncer, Bart.

Joey is up for a role in a movie directed by Warren Beatty. The role calls for him to kiss another man – something Joey has trouble doing. At first he asks the girls to kiss him and let him know if he is really a bad kisser; Phoebe agrees on grounds that she had already kissed Joey once before. Phoebe judges that Joey has a firm and tender kiss and she would recommend him to a friend. Monica suggests that Joey has a problem kissing men, and which makes him very uncomfortable. He tries to get Ross and Chandler to help him, but with little success. Ross finally relents and surprises Joey with a kiss. Joey then reveals that they had already picked someone else for the role but thanks Ross for helping out.

Rachel reluctantly agrees to be maid of honor at her ex-fiancé Barry's wedding, but inadvertently steals the couple's thunder when she walks up the aisle with her dress tucked into her orange panties. She is even angrier to find out that when she dumped Barry at the altar, his parents told everyone that she ran away because she was insane because she had syphilis. Rachel is about to leave, but stops when she learns that Barry was betting on her to leave before 9:45. She tells Barry that she promised herself she would make it through at least one of his weddings. She then sings "Copacabana" at the wedding, a song she was unable to perform at high school.

Monica is anxious to find out what the future has in store for her and Richard. They talk, and realise they want different things in life. Monica wants to have children of her own, but Richard does not want to have any more kids. Later, Richard says he will have kids with her if that is what Monica wants, but she tells him that she cannot have kids with someone who does not really want them, and they reluctantly agree to break up.

Chandler has met a woman online – they chat late into the night. Things go well until she reveals that she is married and that her husband is cheating on her. At Phoebe's urging, Chandler decides to look past that. They agree to meet in person at Central Perk – and his online girlfriend turns out to be Janice. The two immediately get back together, much to the others' chagrin.

At the beginning of the book Beck goes to a peaceful mission with colleague Ahlberg in Motala. His colleagues are meanwhile looking for a handbag robber who makes the Stockholm parks unsafe. In the same park, which hosted his last robbery, a child's body is discovered soon after by two tramps. The 9-year-old girl has been abused and strangled. Shortly thereafter, another child befalls the same fate. As Beck returns, the machinery of the police investigation is already running.

The police are initially lacking any clues as the abduction of the second girl was only viewed by a three-year-old boy. Only an elderly exhibitionist is briefly detained, but has nothing to do with the murders.

Only a coincidence brings the investigation continues: Gunvald Larsson, who first appears in this novel, has telephoned at the very beginning of the investigation with an elderly lady who complained about a man in an opposite flat, standing all day on his balcony and looking at the road and playing with the children, among others. After Martin Beck recalled this call; with difficulty the note written by Larsson is found and by a mixture of obstinate investigating and the coincidence that the caller had the common name Andersson is the killer found, just before he can attack a child again.

At Mayor Quimby's Easter egg hunt, Homer gets into a fight with the Easter Bunny mascot. Marge takes a tour of the mayor's mansion, and she and her friends are embarrassed by Homer's antics. That night, Homer feels guilty and unsuccessfully tries to find Marge new friends. Going for a walk, Marge meets a group of women called the Cheery Red Tomatoes. She befriends the leader, Tammy, and is inducted into the group.

Marge learns that the Cheery Red Tomatoes plan to steal Fabergé eggs from Mr. Burns's mansion, after he ruined their fundraiser by backing out on a promised donation. She goes along with this to stay in the group, while Homer finds the heist plans and follows Marge. He mistakenly alerts the police on his way over, who catch the Cheery Red Tomatoes stealing the eggs. They flee the mansion seemingly empty-handed, but Marge reveals that she has hidden one egg in her hair, allowing the Cheery Red Tomatoes to replace the money Burns did not donate. They agree to go their separate ways and stay safe, while Homer reassures Marge that she will always have him as a special friend.

Meanwhile, Lisa seeks summer opportunities and decides on studying abroad in Rome. The only requirement Lisa has not met is to speak fluent Italian, so she hires a tutor, who turns out to be Milhouse. To Lisa's surprise, Milhouse is fluent in Italian from having spent summers with his abusive xenophobic Italian grandmother, who beat him for speaking English (because an American WWII soldier left her pregnant with Milhouse's uncle). Lisa enjoys the special time spent during her lessons and learning Italian culture, and begins to like Milhouse more, but soon comes across Milhouse tutoring another girl in the same way he taught her. Lisa berates him in perfect Italian, chasing him with a stick in the same manner his grandmother did.

At Rachel's request, Ross tells her one of his sexual fantasies: the scene from ''Return of the Jedi'', where Princess Leia is in the gold bikini. He then gets upset when he finds out Rachel told Phoebe about the fantasy. Rachel tells Ross that girls tell each other everything, and she is surprised that guys do not do the same. He and Chandler later decide to try it, but Chandler overshares when he reveals that sometimes he sees his mother's face when he is with a woman. Ross gets back at Chandler by sharing this news to Joey, who reveals to Chandler that he always pictures Chandler's mom when he is having sex, much to his embarrassment. Rachel borrows a gold bikini outfit much like Princess Leia's to fulfill Ross's fantasy but, thanks to Chandler, Ross cannot stop picturing his own mother.

Joey is annoyed to learn that Chandler has resumed his relationship with Janice and has no intention of breaking up with her this time. When Chandler buys tickets to the Rangers for the three of them, he confiscates the tickets because Joey cannot stand Janice, which is now a problem for Chandler as he is now crazy about her. Janice decides what Joey needs to get over his intense dislike of her is some bonding time and the two spend the day together. At the end of the day, Joey still cannot stand Janice but he tells Chandler he can now tolerate being in the same room as her, much to his relief.

Monica tries to get over her breakup with Richard but she has not slept for three days and keeps finding things and going to places that remind her of their relationship. Phoebe tries to help her relax, but with minimal success. After she breaks down in tears at the post office her father comes to comfort her. He reveals that Richard is also suffering as a result of the breakup, worse than his divorce. The fact that Richard misses her too is enough for Monica to finally fall asleep.

Chandler (Matthew Perry) tricks Joey (Matt LeBlanc) into drinking chicken fat from a glass in Monica's (Courteney Cox) fridge as he admits after Joey drinks it that he fell for the same thing and drank the chicken fat earlier. Ross (David Schwimmer) arrives to gather everyone together for an important function at his museum. Despite only 22 minutes remaining for them to don their formal attire, no one else is ready, apart from Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) who arrives fully dressed and ready to go.

When Monica returns, she checks her answering-machine messages and hears a message from her ex-boyfriend Richard (Tom Selleck). She is unable to determine whether the message was left before or after they broke up. After Chandler comes back from the bathroom, he is dismayed to find that Joey took his chair while he was up. They argue over the chair until Joey accidentally flings hummus onto Phoebe's dress. She tries to ask Monica what gets out hummus, but Monica is too distracted with her own problems. Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) then tries to find something else for Phoebe to wear, but is unsuccessful.

In a fit of insecurity, Monica breaks into Richard's voicemail, and hears a message left by another woman, leading her to believe that Richard has already begun seeing someone else. Chandler suggests the woman might be Richard's daughter Michelle, and Monica confirms this by prank-calling her. Michelle calls her back, and Monica admits her indiscretions. She is unable to secure Michelle's silence on the matter, so Chandler and Phoebe are left yanking her off the second phone in her bedroom.

Ross orders Chandler to get dressed. When he does, Joey surrenders the chair but takes its cushions with him. Phoebe eventually finds a Christmas ribbon meant to garnish a present in Rachel's room and wears that on her dress to cover the stain. Rachel is the only one almost ready to go, but she cannot decide on what to wear, trying Ross's patience. Eventually he snaps and yells at her in front of everyone, demanding that she pick out ''any'' outfit at all so that they can go. In response, Rachel emerges in sweat pants, having lost interest in attending the function.

Unbeknownst to Joey, Chandler has already taken his revenge by hiding all of Joey's underwear, forcing him to go commando in a rented tux. Joey promises to do the "opposite" of Chandler hiding his underwear, and emerges wearing everything Chandler owns (and still sans underwear). Ross finally steps in and bans them from the function, and apologetically asks Rachel what he can do to make it up to her, to which Joey suggests that he drink the glass of chicken fat. Ross agrees, but Rachel stops him just in time. Overwhelmed by the depths of his love for her, she dresses in record time while Ross sorts out Joey and Chandler's argument, and Monica makes her final disastrous access to Richard's answering machine. She breaks into his voicemail again to erase all his messages and record a new one. However, she accidentally deletes and re-records his ''outgoing'' message, humiliating herself.

Finally, Rachel and Ross are the only ones in the apartment, with five seconds to spare. They kiss, but Rachel hurries them out the door to make sure they are not late—but not before telling him she is going commando too.

Over the credits, Professor Sherman Whitfield (Peter Dennis) joins Ross' table to congratulate him. When Chandler returns, he declares that Whitfield is in his seat, culminating in his demanding the professor's underwear.

Scrooge (played by Yosemite Sam) is counting money in the counting house of his firm when Bob Cratchit (Porky) comes in, wanting to borrow a lump of coal as he is freezing. Scrooge refuses ("I gave you one last Tuesday," he says; "You should've made it last.") and tells him to just work faster so he'll keep warm. Then Scrooge's nephew Fred (Bugs) comes in with Christmas decorations and mistletoe. He is tossed out, and decides that "somebody oughta teach that little humbug some Christmas spirit". Fred then borrows a piece of coal and places it in the office of Cratchit, who graciously thanks him.

However, Scrooge's cat Sylvester notices this and warns him. Scrooge takes back the coal and fires Cratchit...throwing him out along with carolers (Elmer Fudd, Pepé Le Pew and Foghorn Leghorn) whom Fred let into the office. Cratchit invites Fred to dinner and introduces him to his youngest son Tiny Tim (Tweety Bird). "Kinda puny, isn't he?" Bugs notes. "If you had to live on birdseed, you'd be puny too!" Tim retorts. Scrooge sends the light company to take the last candle (as Cratchit is past due) and a notice that the house is being foreclosed, forcing Cratchit to move out by midnight. Fred decides this is the last straw, remarking Bugs's catchphrase "Of course, you realize that this means war."

First, Fred annoys Scrooge with more carolers. When Scrooge goes out to deal with this, he slips into a pile of snow. Next, he puts snow into Scrooge's hot bath, turning it ice-cold as Scrooge jumps in. Fred then dresses up as a ghost - specifically, Scrooge's late business partner Jacob Marley. As Marley, he drags around chains and beats a drum. Investigating, Scrooge accidentally slips down the stairs and into the cold along with Sylvester. When they return to bed, Marley reappears. Sylvester promptly flees, slamming the door behind him and cutting off Scrooge. Marley threatens to take Scrooge to see "the man in the red suit" (the Devil, though Scrooge first guesses Santa Claus).

Scrooge promptly changes his ways for the better. To prove himself reformed, he dresses up as Santa Claus and runs through the streets at night - giving money to the poor, widows, orphans, and the like. He also rehires Bob Cratchit by making his new partner in the firm, succeeding Marley. Tweety raises a toast to him, and Fred kisses him. Scrooge (now going by the name of Sam) still hates kissing, though.

This story is the first part of ''Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales''. As the second one featuring Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner (''Freeze Frame'') begins, Bugs congratulates Sam for making Scrooge a charitable character, but Sam tells Bugs that it was all a play, and demands Porky and the gang give all his money back to him.

3,000 years ago, a warlord named Yaotl opens a portal into a parallel universe. The portal's energies grant Yaotl and his four sibling generals immortality, but the generals are turned to stone. The portal also releases 13 immortal monsters that destroy his army and his enemies while becoming the famous mythical monsters of legend as the centuries pass.

In the present, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have grown apart after defeating the Shredder; Master Splinter has sent Leonardo to Central America for training, where he protects a village from local bandits. Donatello works as an IT specialist, Michelangelo works as a birthday party entertainer called "Cowabunga Carl", and Raphael continues to fight crime at night as a masked vigilante known as the Nightwatcher, which he keeps a secret from his family and friends. The Turtles' old friend April O'Neil now operates a shipping company that locates and acquires relics for collectors, assisted by her boyfriend, Casey Jones.

April travels to Central America for work and finds Leo, telling him that his brothers have drifted apart. She returns to New York City with a statue for wealthy tycoon Max Winters. Leo also returns, and April and Casey deliver the statue to Winters. Winters hires Shredder's former second-in-command, Karai and her ninja Foot Clan to search the city for the 13 monsters before the portal opens again. Raph encounters Casey, who reveals his knowledge of Raph's double identity and joins him in hunting criminals. Winters, who is actually Yaotl, reanimates his four stone generals using technology created by his company.

Leo returns to the Turtles' sewer lair, reuniting with Splinter and his brothers. Splinter forbids the Turtles from fighting crime until they can act as a team again. While training, the Turtles encounter one of the 13 beasts, Bigfoot. The Turtles engage Bigfoot, going against Leonardo and Splinter's orders, and coming into conflict with the Foot Clan in the process. While the Turtles and Foot ninja fight, a fleeing Bigfoot is captured by the generals. The next day, Splinter sees a news report of the destruction left in the wake of the battle and sharply reprimands his sons for disobeying him. Raphael later visits Casey, and they encounter Vampire Succubor, another of the monsters. They witness its capture by the Foot and the Stone Generals but are spotted. Despite a successful escape, Raph is injured and knocked out. Casey takes Raph back to the apartment while April calls the other Turtles for help and realizes the identities of Yaotl and his generals. After being revived, Raph suggests they pursue Yaotl, but Leonardo forbids him to go until Splinter gives his permission. Raphael angrily quits the team and investigates alone.

Leo, Donnie and Mikey plan their next move, and Donatello discovers the next portal will open over Winters' tower. Splinter tells Leonardo that his team is incomplete and that he knows what he must do. After 11 monsters have been captured, General Aguila questions Yaotl's plans for them and the portal. Yaotl reveals that he wishes to free his generals from their stone prisons and break the curse that keeps them alive. The generals conspire to betray Yaotl, wanting to remain immortal. As the Nightwatcher, Raph encounters the Jersey Devil, one of the remaining monsters, but drives it off. Leo, not recognizing his brother, pursues the Nightwatcher across the city, believing him to be nothing but an arrogant thug. After a brief fight, Leo discovers that Raph is the Nightwatcher. The brothers argue about how much things have changed since Leo left. Another fight breaks out, but when Raph breaks Leo's swords and almost runs his brother through with his sais, he flees in a fit of guilt and shame. The generals seize a weakened Leo, intending to substitute him for the 13th missing beast, and Raph decides to make amends by rescuing Leo. As the portal opens, Yaotl discovers his generals' treachery, while Splinter and the Turtles, accompanied by Casey and April, fight their way through the Foot Clan cordon and breach the tower. Yaotl admits to the heroes that he only wants to send the monsters back to where they came from, and the generals reveal that they intend to use the portal to bring in more monsters to conquer the world.

Refusing to betray Yaotl in exchange for serving the Generals, Karai, April, Casey, and the Foot Clan work together, searching for the final monster, the Sea Monster, while the Turtles fight the generals. Splinter and Yaotl fight off numerous monsters emerging from the portal. April, Casey, and Karai arrive at the tower with the Sea Monster. The Sea Monster crashes into the Generals, dragging them into the portal before it closes. Karai warns them to enjoy their victory while it lasts, cryptically claiming they will soon contend with faces from their past before vanishing. A now-mortal Yaotl honors Splinter and the Turtles, thanking them for fulfilling his wish before dissipating into the afterlife. Splinter places Yaotl's helmet among his trophy collection, as well as Raph's Nightwatcher helmet and Mikey's "Cowabunga Carl" head. As they return to their roles as the shadowy guardians of New York City, Raph says that the Turtles will always be brothers.

The film's protagonist, Ryan (Ryan Dunn) is devastated and depressed after his girlfriend Glauren (Jenn Rivell) breaks up with him. Ryan believes she is seeing someone else and attempts to call Glauren several times, to which she finally returns his calls to reveal that she is in fact seeing someone named Hellboy (Rake Yohn), but denies sleeping with him; however Ryan does not believe her. He runs to the local coffee house where he finds his friend, Valo (Bam Margera), to explain what happened. After he attacks a customer for "taunting" him, Ryan requests that Valo vandalize Glauren's house, and he will pay him and Falcone (Brandon DiCamillo) 100 dollars each to do it. Valo then suggests that he should try and talk to some other girls. Ryan tries his luck with a girl in the coffee house, but after he insults her, she stabs him in the eye with a fork, which leaves him screaming in pain and he passes out on the floor. He now has to wear an eyepatch until his eye heals.

Valo seeks out Falcone, who is in his basement working on the "Reverse Microwave" (a microwave oven that now cools things down) for an upcoming Invention of the Future contest. After Valo explains Ryan's request, Falcone agrees to vandalize Glauren's house only because he needs the 100 dollars to buy Freon to get the invention working. At Glauren's house, Falcone defecates in the gas tank of Glauren's car and has Valo duct tape Don Vito's (Vincent Margera) feces to her garage door. They are interrupted by the sudden arrival of Glauren and Hellboy, forcing Valo to hide in some nearby bushes. Hellboy ends up urinating into the bushes, onto Valo's face, as Falcone watches from the roof in amusement. After returning to collect their reward from Ryan, they discover that he got a pathetic tattoo of a rhino, only because Glauren loves rhinos. Over the next few days, he sinks deeper into depression, much to the annoyance of Don Vito, whose house Ryan lives in.

While Falcone picks up his idiot cousin Raab (Chris Raab) from the train station, Valo seeks advice from Dooli (Brandon Novak) and Naked Dave (David DeCurtis) about some stress-relief solutions for Ryan. Naked Dave suggests that Ryan should break bottles behind a Wawa convenience store. Ryan gets arrested for it, but after hearing about his problem, the arresting cop (Tony Hawk) gives him a break (as the cop is going through the same problem as Ryan with his "soon-to-be-ex-wife").

Still depressed and not convinced that Glauren didn't sleep with Hellboy, Ryan gives Valo a video camera and asks for him to break into Glauren's house to find and record any evidence of her sleeping with Hellboy. Falcone agrees to go along with the break-in, and suggests that Raab be the getaway driver. Valo reluctantly agrees (as he hates Raab because of his voice, his laugh, his stupidity, and a grunting noise he makes throughout the film). In an attempt to patch up their relationship, Ryan and Glauren meet for a date and decide to get back together, but Ryan is unable to contact Valo to call off the break-in.

Right after Ryan leaves from escorting her home, Glauren runs off with Hellboy to a bonfire with his friends. At that time, Valo and Falcone break in and start recording their findings with the video camera, such as a dildo in her drawers and pages of her diary which Falcone reads aloud. Unfortunately, Glauren and Hellboy return home early, forcing Valo and Falcone to hide in her closet and watch as they have sex. Upon Hellboy noticing the video camera left on the dresser, Valo and Falcone make a speedy escape with the camera to Raab's car and get away, but not before Falcone sustains a beating from a pursuing Hellboy. Meeting them at Valo's place, a happier Ryan tells them he is convinced that his relationship with Glauren is restored. They show him the footage from the break-in (including Hellboy and Glauren having sex), at which point, he becomes angry at Glauren's betrayal. Valo and Falcone tell him not to worry, as they have a plan set up to get revenge on Hellboy.

After Falcone (in disguise) falsely informs Hellboy that a new album from the band Gnarkill was released at the music shop Record Bin, Falcone prank calls the Record Bin owner, Cactus (Jason Ellis), insulting the band (which Cactus loves). Upon arriving at the shop, Hellboy gets attacked by an enraged Cactus, thinking that it was Hellboy who called him, while Ryan, Valo, and Falcone look on through the shop's door. Hellboy spots them and engages the trio in a lengthy chase which forces them to split up. Ryan hides in a taxi with Heather (Angie Cuturic), who eventually becomes his new girlfriend, Valo barely escapes with the timely intervention of a skateboard arranged by Dooli, Falcone ends up in a junkyard full of refrigerators (containing the Freon he's been looking for), and Hellboy is run over by the taxi holding Ryan and Heather.

While Ryan and Heather's romance blossoms, Falcone is able to finish the Reverse Microwave to enter for the invention contest, winning the first place prize of a mountain bike covered with diamonds. At the after-party, while Falcone shows off his bike, Glauren arrives in an attempt to seduce Ryan; Ryan rejects her with a simple dismissal of "fuck off". She storms off angrily, but not before she randomly slaps Valo and pushes and shoves a few men. Glauren is then accompanied by a lesbian, while Ryan remains happily with his new lover. Upset that his date didn't show up and everything is working out fine for his friends, Valo finds an acquaintance from the contest, Ali (Olivia Hammond), who invites him back to her house, where they begin to make out. During this time, Ryan makes out with Heather and Glauren and the lesbian make out as well, with Glauren becoming a lesbian herself. Unfortunately for Valo, an injured and heavily bandaged Hellboy arrives, revealing himself to be Ali's brother, and Valo hastily escapes through a window. The next day, Valo and Falcone are seen sitting on a park bench, where they laugh about Valo's experience with Hellboy and Ryan going through the same exact problem with Heather. They then walk away, happy that everything is as it should be.

It is 1989 and the United States is in an economic decline because "From Franklin Roosevelt on, every chief executive has played a game of tag, pinning a multiplying financial burden on the office of his successor" (said by the POTUS in part 1), and by increasing scarcity of oil.

CIA estimates put the depletion of the Middle East oilfields at just two years away. The total worldwide demand for oil is more than 50% of estimated supplies and while nuclear and other alternative energies are trying to make up the difference they are coming up short. Canada is now the exclusive supplier of electricity to several states in the Northeastern U.S. after investing billions in a massive new hydro-electric power plant in Quebec. To make matters worse, a top-secret experimental sub developed by NUMA has recently discovered a stratigraphic trap, potentially the richest kind of oil deposit, which lies just across the border in the territorial waters of Quebec.

Radicals in Quebec resembling the FLQ, secretly led by French Canadian MP Henri Villon, are pushing for a referendum on the independence of Quebec from Canada. Newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Charles Sarveux fears that if Quebec declares independence Canada will disintegrate as the other provinces either follow Quebec into independence or possibly petition the U.S. for statehood.

Heidi Milligan, a U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander, is working on her PhD in history by researching the naval policies of President Woodrow Wilson between assignments. She stumbles across a reference to a "North American Treaty" in a long forgotten letter and is intrigued when she finds out that all traces of the treaty appear to have been erased from the National Archives.

The North American Treaty, it is later revealed, was a landmark agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom. In 1914, the U.K. had found itself in economic hard times with a world war looming on the horizon. Fearing that the nation will not survive without a large infusion of capital, the British Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, with the cooperation of King George V, quietly approached the United States government and offered, for the sum of one billion dollars, to sell Canada to the United States. President Wilson quickly agreed and paid a down payment of $150 million to seal the deal. Tragedy strikes when, on the same day in May 1914, the American copy of the treaty plunges to the bottom of the Hudson River when the ''Manhattan Limited'' express passenger train attempts to cross a downed railroad bridge and the British copy plunges to the bottom of the St. Lawrence River when the liner RMS ''Empress of Ireland'' is accidentally rammed by the Norwegian collier SS ''Storstad''. With both nation's copies of the treaty lost and the British cabinet outraged at having Canada sold off without their knowledge, Wilson orders all records of the treaty destroyed and records the $150 million payment as a war loan.

Now that knowledge of the treaty has once again emerged, the President of the United States orders NUMA and Dirk Pitt to attempt to recover the copies of the treaty, which have both lain submerged for more than 70 years. The treaty becomes the cornerstone in the President’s plan to save the United States from national bankruptcy by proposing an audacious plan, to merge the United States and Canada into one nation, "the United States of Canada."

The British see the loss of Canada to the United States as the start of the unacceptable and unthinkable disintegration of their Empire. If Canada is allowed to leave the Empire, so too might Australia, or even Wales and Scotland. The British Secret Intelligence Service recalls one of their best former agents, Brian Shaw, from retirement and orders him to keep an eye on the American salvage efforts and to ensure the destruction of the North American Treaty at all costs.

The salvage team decides to try for the St. Lawrence copy of the treaty on the grounds that this copy would have been packed in waterproof material to guard against the risk of damage on the sea voyage. Despite efforts by Shaw and hired thug Foss Gly to sabotage the project, the treaty is recovered, but it transpires that the waterproof covering was unable to withstand several decades of immersion and the document has turned to pulp.

They then try to recover the Hudson copy, hoping that some freak of chance will have saved it from a similar fate. The atmosphere becomes increasingly panicked as extensive searches fail to discover any trace of the wrecked train, either in the wreckage of the bridge or elsewhere in the river. Extra suspense is provided by the mystery of the "ghost train" which on stormy nights howls up the abandoned trackbed and suddenly vanishes on reaching the site of the bridge.

Pitt solves this particular mystery by chance—walking along the trackbed one night the "ghost train" passes him and he sees that it is faked by means of a locomotive headlight and a PA playing locomotive sounds running along a cableway strung above the trackbed. This gives him the clue as to the whereabouts of the real train—it was in fact the victim of an elaborate scheme to rob it of a cargo of bullion. One group of robbers demolished the bridge with black powder charges, then staged a holdup of the nearest station; while one of them kept the stationmaster at gunpoint on the floor, another, who remained outside, played a gramophone record of train sounds and flashed a lantern through the windows to give the impression of a passing train, misleading the stationmaster into thinking that he had failed to prevent the train tumbling off the downed bridge. In fact another group of robbers had hijacked the train further up the line, diverted it along a disused spur into an abandoned underground quarry, and then blown up the entrance to the quarry. concealing the train and allowing them to remove the heavy load of bullion at their leisure through the quarry's old ventilation tunnels.

Pitt locates the quarry and discovers that the robber gang had failed to ascertain whether the ventilation tunnels were actually passable; in fact they were flooded, trapping both robbers and train passengers in the quarry to starve to death. Pitt passes through the tunnels by means of diving equipment and finds the train. Shaw, meanwhile, has mined into the quarry from above and arrives at almost the same moment. There is a fight for the possession of the treaty—which is intact—and Pitt is victorious.

Pitt races desperately to deliver the treaty to the President before he delivers a crucial address in which possession of the treaty will be decisive. He makes it by the skin of his teeth. The President receives the treaty, announces that from now on Canada and the U.S. will be united as "The United States of Canada".

Heidi Milligan and Pitt say goodbye at John F. Kennedy Airport, where Pitt has arranged for Shaw (who is currently under arrest as an enemy agent) to also say goodbye. After Heidi leaves to board her plane, Pitt informs Shaw that he has arranged for Shaw's release and departure on the same plane with Heidi, claiming that "The President owes me a favor." Shaw releases himself from his handcuffs and Pitt remarks, "James Bond would have been proud of you ... I hear you two were quite close."

The first and last parts of the novel are set in Tep's Town, on the site of modern Los Angeles. The town consists of three classes: the Lords, the ruling class, who live in a separate area of the town; the kinless, essentially a slave class forbidden to carry weapons, descendants of a people conquered by the allied ancestors of the Lords and the Lordkin; and the Lordkin, proud, uneducated, undisciplined and indolent knife fighters organised into street gangs, who live by "gathering" whatever they wish from the kinless. The Lords supervise the kinless and placate the Lordkin. The kinless are unarmed and untrained in the use of weapons, and cannot resist the Lordkin. Some leave the town, but the surrounding vegetation is malevolent. The town is the base of a fire god, Yangin-Atep, who possesses the Lordkin every few years to burn the town down and rape any kinless woman they can catch.

The main character, Whandall, is an 11-year-old Lordkin boy severely beaten unto scarring and broken bones by Lordsmen (police) for associating with a Lord girl and illegally entering the segregated Lord's Hills. As an adult he becomes a product of his culture — a thief, a rapist, and a murderer, but, strangely, not without regret, not without honor, and not without the reader's sympathy. He teams up with an ex-Atlantis wizard and some kinless and they escape from the city. Beyond the city they find traders and Whandall founds a successful trading empire. Eventually, he returns to the city to establish a trade route there, and defeats Yangin-Atep.

In the epilogue the authors add further information to the timeline of the described reality: long after the described events, the savage people who became the "so-called Native Americans" appear on the stage and wipe out the existing civilization, including horses (and presumably cats and wheels) in their conquest of the Americas.

Riiko Izawa has never had a boyfriend and she has been rejected by every boy she has ever had a crush on. When she returns a lost cell phone to an oddly dressed salesman, she mentions wanting a boyfriend. To thank her, he directs her to his company's website, Kronos Heaven. When she visits the site, Riiko finds it's a site to create your perfect lover. Thinking it's a game, she customizes and accidentally orders one. The next day, her new lover arrives. Following the instruction manual, she kisses him to wake him up, which configures him to be in love with only her. She names him "Night". Three days later, she is shocked to learn that she only had him for a free trial for 72 hours. The salesman, Gaku Namikiri, tells her that she must now pay for Night, however, they will waive the fee if she helps them to collect data about how women think and feel to help perfect future models.

Riiko must now keep Night's true nature a secret from everyone around her. She also soon finds herself in a love triangle between Night and her childhood friend Soshi, who declares his love for her out of fear he will lose her. As the series progresses, Night begins to develop real human emotions, enabling him to truly love Riiko but also resulting in system malfunctions. When Riiko almost loses Night due to the malfunctions, she realizes that he is the one she really loves. She apologizes to Soshi, who moves to Spain with his brother to live with their dad. Night and Riiko spend a few happy weeks together, during which they go on dates, get their picture taken together, and purchase matching rings as symbols of their undying love.

As the series ends, Night begins to grow sleepier and sleepier. The problems developed by him exceeding his abilities eventually causes his machinery to stop working, resulting in his "death". Before he died, he wrote a letter directed to Soshi telling him what was happening and asking him to take care of Riiko. He also sends his ring, which Riiko noticed he has not been wearing immediately prior to his death. In the letter, he tells Riiko that she doesn't have to cry for him any more but to always smile. So she laughs and forever treasures her rings and memories of Night.

As it opens, tensions are rising between the Oldtimers, those dragonriders who came forward in time 400 turns (Pernese years) to help the undermanned contemporary dragonriders protect the planet Pern and its inhabitants from the destructive Thread. F'nor (rider of Canth, a Brown dragon that rivals the size of the Bronze dragons) attempts to mediate, but things escalate to the point that an Oldtimer, T'reb (who is disturbed by his green dragon being in heat), stabs F'nor. F'nor is sent to the Southern Continent to recover, where he falls in love with Brekke and discovers the wicked deeds of Weyrwoman Kylara. F'lar, F'nor's half-brother, is eventually forced into a duel with T'ron, the leader of the Oldtimers, which ends in banishment for the Oldtimers who will not accept F'lar's leadership and in a grave injury for F'lar. Brekke's queen dragon (Wirenth) rises in mating flight but is attacked by Kylara's queen dragon (Prideth), and both dragons die, leaving their riders in near-catatonic states. Only Brekke recovers, mostly because she can hear other dragons (besides her own queen, Wirenth).

With the Lords Holder adamant that the dragonriders attempt to eliminate Thread at its source, F'nor attempts to direct himself and his dragon, Canth, to the Red Star, but they find the atmosphere inhospitable, and they fall back to Pern, badly injured. Brekke's cry for F'nor not to leave her was also the inspiration for a song by Menolly, after she found that a certain guitar chord sounded amazingly like Brekke's voice when she screamed. This is chronicled in ''Dragonsinger''.

The story follows immediately from the final scene of ''Renegades of Pern'', in which the Admin building from Pern's first generation of colonists is discovered, along with an advanced computer called ''AIVAS'' (Artificial Intelligence Voice Address System), at the Landing site that is being excavated. AIVAS has remained undisturbed since the events of ''Dragonsdawn'' some 2500 years earlier and, in addition to holding a huge volume of stored information long since lost to the Pernese society, claims to be able to eliminate the threat of Thread forever.

The Weyrs, led by Lessa and F'lar, enthusiastically embrace this possibility, and with the support of the Holds (led in particular by Jaxom) and the Crafthalls (championed by Masterharper Robinton) proceed to implement the ambitious plan under the careful guidance of AIVAS. Aivas itself had been programmed to speak with a masculine-analogue, inquisitive, somewhat humorous personality, which gave the impression of a light-hearted counsellor to the Pernese, who have no real concept of what artificial intelligence entails.

Over the course of the next four years, Pernese society systematically regains much technology that was lost to the colonists in early attempts to survive Threadfall, including marvels such as electricity, plastics manufacture, heating & cooling, printing presses, and surgery. Although most technological development focuses on the tools and knowledge needed to eliminate the threat of Thread, there are huge developments in the areas of Medicine and Science, and along the way new Crafthalls are created, including the Print Hall, Paper Hall, Computer Hall, and Dolphin Hall (this last occurs in a parallel story later in the series ''The Dolphins of Pern'').

The phenomenal advancements in technology lead to a kind of culture shock, manifesting in certain traditionalist elements among the Pernese who label AIVAS an "Abomination" that is corrupting their society. This dissenting opinion results in attempts to sabotage AIVAS itself and the projects it initiates, culminating in the kidnapping of the beloved Masterharper Robinton in an attempt to ransom his life for the destruction of AIVAS. When the conspirators responsible for the kidnapping are brought to justice, two Lords Holder and a Craftmaster are among those sentenced to exile for the crime.

The Weyrs, Holds, and Halls are successful in carrying out AIVAS's plan to transfer the anti-matter engines from the ships used to colonize Pern to the Red Star, and detonate them. The explosion alters the Red Star's orbit, eliminating the configuration that allowed Thread to land on Pern.

AIVAS earlier reveals to Jaxom that in order for the project to succeed, he must lead the other Dragonriders into using the lesser-known Draconic capability to transfer ''between'' time to deposit two of the three engines 1800 and 600 years in the past. Only the cumulative effect of three interspersed explosions will provide sufficient force to alter the planet's orbit. Jaxom's Ruth, who has an unusually precise ability to know exactly his location in time, is the only Dragon capable of performing this feat.

In parallel to the primary task to alter the Red Star's orbit, a team of medical researchers led by Masterhealers Oldive and Sharra develop an improved parasitic vector which is capable of infecting the space-born Ovoids that are the precursors to Thread. During the course of the three engine-transfer missions, Green Dragons are deployed to seed the surface of the Red Star with these infected Ovoids so that they can be dragged back to infect the Oort Cloud, which is the origin of Thread in the Pernese system. The combination of Jaxom's time travel and this infestation is responsible for the two Long Intervals in the history of Pern wherein Thread failed to appear.

The book concludes with a final conversation between AIVAS and Masterharper Robinton, with AIVAS expressing both satisfaction that its objective of eradicating future Threadfall has been achieved and concern over the possibility that Pernese society could come to idolize the facility as an all-knowing Oracle, thereby stifling further development. To prevent the latter, AIVAS deactivates its artificial intelligence functions, leaving its wealth of knowledge available to the Pernese via computer access, but without the crutch of AIVAS' direct guidance. Robinton, whose health has declined since the kidnapping, and himself satisfied that Pern has a promising future ahead, passes away in his sleep alongside his fire-lizard Zair.

Three years after the death of a young man, Liam Lombard (Jeremy Brennan), the story flashes forward to assess the toll it has taken on his parents, brother, and ex-girlfriend, all set against the backdrop of suburban Sydney.

Jordan Lombard (Steve Rodgers) is a broken man, now hideously obese and unable to function. His once happy marriage is skidding hopelessly out of control. His wife Penelope (Noni Hazlehurst) is trapped in routine, devoid of self-respect. Her pain only deepens with the onset of menopause. This humiliation has driven her straight into the arms of another, younger, man.

Their surviving son Ben (Christopher Weekes) has developed a peculiar relationship with the local boy Matt (Matthew Newton). Though an unlikely pair, a romance has begun to blossom. As Ben’s sexuality comes further into question, he turns his attentions to the girl next-door Indigo (Leeanna Walsman), his dead brothers former lover. Never quite the same since his death, her destructive relationship with a married man, Greg (Gary Sweet), is fading as is her relationship with her mother Jackie (Penne Hackforth-Jones). As Ben sets out to woo her in his own twisted fashion, including dressing like an old neighbour, Indigo comes to find he might be her one true friend.

Then history repeats. Jordan suffers a heart attack, shaking his family to their core. In the middle of a night, three years on from the death of her son, Penelope fights for her husband at a hospital bedside. Desperate to reclaim his life, Jordan races to quit his oppressive job in spectacular and uncharacteristic fashion on his bosses doorstep. When Jordan finally gets home that night – he crumbles in his wife’s arms - a second chance now awarded.

Meanwhile, Ben makes his way to a lonely bus, planning to skip the city with Indigo. While there, he impulsively reaches over and kisses her, hoping all his questions might finally be answered. But there’s nothing.

Liam is no longer the driving force of their lives. So as Ben races off to Matt, Penelope kisses her loving husband goodnight and Indigo begins her adventure from the back seat of a bus, they all finally see a road promised ahead, one with hope and the lessons learnt of living.

Two old brothers, Moe and Pa, have lived together for their whole life and are content with their daily and weekly routine. This is disturbed later by the arrival of Pa's grown-up and disabled son Konrad, whose existence (due to a two-day trip of Pa to Småland, the only time Pa and Moe were separated) was unknown to Moe. The weirdness of Konrad and the jealousy of Moe and Konrad then disturb the routine, and Moe leaves home in the end.

Mega-City One (in the year 2121 during the rectovirus vampire and zombie pandemic) is filled with 400 million people, each holding the potential for criminal activity. Judge Dredd is the city's law enforcer, respected by all Judges and feared by all crooks. The Psi Judges sense a horrible plague approaching the city, and the Dark Judges are their prime suspects. The release of viruses that change the host into a "Vampire" or a "Zombie" is blamed on Dr. Icarus and Judge Death. Judge Dredd is forced to fight the insane Dr. Icarus (who almost becomes immortal, his original plan was to find a way to become immortal, not make vampires) and the Dark Judges. The last time Dredd fights Death, Death uses Icarus's immortal body to fight Dredd, but is ultimately defeated and Death flees into Judge Anderson's body, who had been held there against her will.

In a fairy tale, Princess Moanna, whose father is the king of the underworld, visits the human world, where the sunlight blinds her and erases her memory. She becomes mortal and eventually dies. The king believes that eventually, her spirit will return to the underworld, so he builds labyrinths, which act as portals, around the world in preparation for her return.

In 1944 Francoist Spain, ten-year-old Ofelia travels with her pregnant but sickly mother Carmen to meet Captain Vidal, her new stepfather. Vidal, the son of a famed commander who died in Morocco, believes strongly in Falangism and has been assigned to hunt down republican rebels. A large stick insect, which Ofelia believes to be a fairy, leads Ofelia into an ancient stone labyrinth, but she is stopped by Vidal's housekeeper Mercedes, who is secretly supporting her brother Pedro and other rebels. That night, the insect appears in Ofelia's bedroom, where it transforms into a fairy and leads her through the labyrinth. There, she meets a faun, who believes she is the reincarnation of Princess Moanna. He gives her a book and tells her she will find in it three tasks to complete in order for her to acquire immortality and return to her kingdom.

Ofelia completes the first task — retrieving a key from the belly of a giant toad — but becomes worried about her mother, whose condition is worsening. The faun gives Ofelia a mandrake root, instructing her to keep it under Carmen's bed in a bowl of milk and regularly supply it with blood, which seems to ease Carmen's illness. Accompanied by three fairy guides and equipped with a piece of magic chalk, Ofelia then completes the second task — retrieving a dagger from the lair of the Pale Man, a child-eating monster. Although warned not to consume anything there, she eats two grapes, awakening the Pale Man. He devours two of the fairies and chases Ofelia, but she manages to escape. Infuriated at her disobedience, the faun refuses to give Ofelia the third task.

During this time, Ofelia becomes aware of Vidal's ruthlessness in the course of hunting down the rebels. After he murders two local farmers detained on false suspicion of aiding the rebels, Vidal interrogates and tortures a captive rebel. He asks Doctor Ferreiro to tend to the captive, whom Ferreiro then euthanises at the rebel's own urging. Realising that Ferreiro is a rebel collaborator, Vidal kills him. Vidal later catches Ofelia tending to the mandrake root, which he considers delusional. Carmen agrees and throws the root into the fire. She immediately develops painful contractions and dies giving birth to Vidal's son.

Mercedes, having been discovered to be a spy, tries to escape with Ofelia, but they are caught. Ofelia is locked in her bedroom, while Mercedes is taken to be interrogated and tortured. Mercedes frees herself, and stabs Vidal non-lethally in her escape to re-join the rebels. The faun, having changed his mind about giving Ofelia a chance to perform the third task, returns and tells her to bring her newborn brother into the labyrinth to complete it. Ofelia successfully retrieves the baby and flees into the labyrinth. Vidal pursues her as the rebels launch an attack on the outpost. Ofelia meets the faun at the centre of the labyrinth.

The faun suggests drawing a small amount of the baby's blood, as completing the third task and opening the portal to the underworld requires the blood of an innocent, but Ofelia refuses to harm her brother. Vidal finds her talking to the faun, whom he cannot see. The faun leaves, and Vidal takes the baby from Ofelia's arms before shooting her. Vidal returns to the labyrinth's entrance, where he is surrounded by rebels, including Mercedes and Pedro. Knowing that he will be killed, he hands the baby to Mercedes, asking that his son be told about him. Mercedes replies that his son will not even know his name. Pedro then shoots Vidal dead.

Mercedes enters the labyrinth and comforts a motionless, dying Ofelia. Drops of Ofelia's blood fall down the centre of the spiral stone staircase onto an altar. Ofelia, well dressed and uninjured, then appears in a golden throne room. The King of the underworld tells her that, by choosing to spill her own blood rather than that of another, she passed the final test. The faun praises Ofelia for her choice, addressing her once more as "Your Highness". The Queen of the underworld, her mother, invites Ofelia to sit next to her father and rule at his side. Back in the stone labyrinth, Ofelia smiles as she dies in Mercedes' arms.

The epilogue completes the tale of Princess Moanna, stating that she returned to the Underworld, ruled wisely for many centuries, and left quiet traces of her time in the human realm "visible only to those who know where to look."

In Toronto, Ontario, Peter is an 18-year-old boy who dislikes the middle-class comfort of his family life, headed by his father, who sells cars for $300 per commission, and what he perceives as society's general fixation on profit. He has a girlfriend, Julie, whose parents dislike him, and his own parents feel he spends too much time with her, at the expense of his school work. Peter steals his father's company car and rides with Julie, only to be arrested for dangerous driving without a licence. He starts meeting with a probation officer weekly, and also leaves home to rent his own place, and finds work.

Unable to make much money, he pressures Julie to find a job. She comes to his residence after a fight with her parents and demands they leave Toronto, telling Peter to borrow money from his father. Peter meets his father at the car dealership, only to find him incensed with Peter's appearance. His father tells him he is a bad investment and he does not want to see him any more. Peter subsequently steals money and a car to leave with Julie. When Julie realizes the truth about Peter's theft, she tells him she is pregnant and that she cannot raise her baby with him.

(After spending a short amount of time 2001, the film uses a non-linear structure through extensive use of flashbacks and timeskips of indeterminate duration, including flashbacks within flashbacks. However, each of the sequences, 2001 and 1996, occur roughly in order.)

'''Summer of 1996'''

Ji-hwan is an amateur photographer working part-time at his older friend's cafe. Two young women enter and when they leave Ji-hwan chases after them, declaring his love for Soo-in. Soo-in feels uncomfortable and Ji-hwan leaves only to shortly return holding a clock over his face with a note saying he has wound back time so that in the future they can meet again as friends as if his declaration of love never happened.

The girls turn up at his workplace unannounced and they bond. After Ji-hwan stands up for Soo-in against two men disturbing her at the movie, all three quote a line from the movie (Il Postino) "I'm in love. It hurts but I want it to go on hurting." with both the girls appearing to be developing feelings for Ji-hwan.

Ji-yoon enlists Ji-hwan's help in dating the guy who works at a manhwa store, only she later tells Ji-hwan she has changed her mind as the man is insincere. (However, near the end of the film the guy is seen re-reading a note she wrote to him and he has a photo of her taped to his army bunk.) The trio take a magazine personality test and unseen by either of the other two, Gyung-hee is secretly happy when her personality and Ji-hwan's are seen as a good match. However, the cafe owner comes along and says how lucky the other two to have found love, a sentiment that hurts Gyung-hee. Gyung-hee and Soo-in fight which confuses Soo-in. They soon reconcile and runaway to go on a road trip, asking Ji-hwan along.

During the trip, Soo-in watches Ji-hwan sleep and caresses a mole on his ear. In the morning she is absent and Ji-hwan nearly kisses a sleeping Gyung-hee. Going outside he asks Soo-in about her first love. She says it was a young boy at hospital when she was a young girl. They both spent a long time there but he never complained and kept her spirits up. She told the boy they would swap names so that even if they separated they would still be connected. Admiring the scenery in the rain trio promise to return in winter. Soo-in becomes ill due to the rain. While she rests alone in a hotel room, Gyung-hee cries, scolds Ji-hwan for being disturbed by seeing her cry (she is normally cheerful) and then she leans in and kisses him.

After returning to Seoul, Soo-in is still ill and the other two go out with Ji-hwan commenting it's like a date. Gyung-hee becomes uncomfortable, insists they change plans and go drinking, then scolds Ji-hwan for acting like her boyfriend when he isn't. She storms off.

Later, the girls attend a party at Ji-hwan's work. Ji-hwan comments that it is taking forever for her to get over her cold. Soo-in sings a love song about the three of them and then leaves early, asking Ji-hwan to walk with her. She touches his face to remember it. Before Gyung-hee leaves, Ji-hwan writes a note addressed to Soo-in declaring his love for Gyung-hee. He expects Gyung-hee to read it and includes lines written to her. He gives it to Gyung-hee to give to Soo-in. Thinking it is a love letter to Soo-in, when he has gone Gyung-hee starts to open it but then tears it up.

Some time later, Gyung-hee visits Soo-in in the intensive care unit. Soo-in reads aloud a letter that she wrote to Gyung-hee. She says she has been brave while receiving treatment and that she was expecting Gyung-hee and Ji-hwan to come to her as a couple. It gets too much for Gyung-hee who says she'll read it later. Soo-in gives Gyung-hee a wax-sealed letter to be given to Ji-hwan.

'''Late autumn or winter 1996'''

Ji-hwan has not seen his friends for months and he is chided by his boss for not getting their addresses or phone numbers despite all the time they spent together. Ji-hwan receives a phone call and meets Gyung-hee for a drink. He immediately asks about her injured right hand which she dismisses as just an injury. When he asks about Soo-in she tells him they became uncomfortable around him, he says the same about them, and tells her to go if she has nothing else to say. She leaves, he stays and gets drunk. When he leaves he falls down, punches the ground in anger and falls asleep. He awakes in his bedroom with his hand bandaged. (A brief flashback occurring later shows Gyung-hee tending to his injury in his bedroom while he is asleep, kissing him, then leaving.)

'''2001'''

Ji-hwan opens yet another handmade envelope containing only a black and white photo with no sender information on or in the envelope. He visits his former workplace, a cafe, where his friend the owner returns to him a box of photographs. Ji-hwan decides to track down his former friends, Gyung-hee and Soo-in, two young women whom he has not seen for five years. Going to their high school, a teacher who was their classmate tells him that both girls missed a lot of school as they were very sick. She says Gyung-hee died five years ago and Soo-in left Seoul after that.

Ji-hwan goes to the small town where the envelopes are postmarked but the postman denies any knowledge of the sender. (However, in a brief flashback the postman is seen to sneak into a woman's house and take one of the envelopes from under her bed. In voiceover, the postman says he is in love with the woman, that he wonders why she has a suitcase full of the letters, and that he will deliver the letter because he's a postman.) Walking around the town Ji-hwan hears children calling his name, only to find it is the name of their dog. A neighbour of the woman from whose house the envelopes are taken from tells her they have found Ji-hwan. The woman goes out expecting to see her dog but instead she is greeted by her former friend and Ji-hwan sees that Gyung-hee is still alive, albeit not looking as vibrant as she did five years ago. They touch each others' faces as Soo-in had touched Ji-hwan's face when they last met.

She accompanies Ji-hwan to the wedding of the cafe owner where they make a wonderful couple.

'''Other flashbacks'''

• When Soo-in dies, Gyung-hee hops onto her bed and hugs her friend. ** A flashback inside the flashback shows that the young boy in the hospital in Soo-in's story was actually a young girl, Gyung-hee, and that Soo-in hid in Gyung-hee's bed prior to Gyung-hee's surgery.
• The two girls swapped names as children, but the school used their official names. So, when the teacher said Gyung-hee died she was referring to the woman Ji-hwan (and the rest of the movie) called Soo-in.
• Immediately following Soo-in's funeral, Gyung-hee punched a clock to break its glass cover and wind it back like Ji-hwan had done, injuring her right hand prior to calling Ji-hwan.

'''After the wedding'''

Alone, Ji-hwan opens another envelope. It contains the sealed letter Soo-in wrote on her deathbed, saying she thinks she will be dying soon and giving him advice on how to date Gyung-hee.(In the flashback showing the letter being written, Soo-in draws a mark on her father's ear to match Ji-hwan's so that her dad will look more handsome.) The envelope also contains a letter from Gyung-hee. She confesses that she tore up his letter to Soo-in. She thanks him for his kindness and for passing on the love of photography to her. She thanks him for accepting her awkward kiss a long time ago. Then she says that she has been feeling very weak and has told her dad about what she wants at her funeral, including her beloved Ji-hwan. The camera pans to the beautiful blue sky, her voiceover says that she will be seeing Soo-in soon. "Goodbye Ji-hwan. I loved you before and I love you now. Goodbye."

The last shot is the trio in happier times, a photo taken on their road trip.

Farmer Vincent Smith and his younger sister Ida live on a farm with an attached motel, named "Motel Hello". Vincent's renowned smoked meats are actually human flesh. He sets traps on nearby roads to catch victims. He buries the victims up to their necks in his "secret garden", then cuts their vocal cords to prevent them from screaming. They are kept in the ground and fed until they are ready for "harvest". Ida helps Vincent, as they both see the victims as animals.

Vincent shoots out the front tire of a couple's motorcycle. The male, Bo, is placed in the garden, but Vincent brings the female, Terry, to the motel. Sheriff Bruce, Vincent's naive younger brother, arrives the next morning. Vincent tells Terry her boyfriend died in the accident and was buried. A trip to the graveyard shows his crude grave marker. With nowhere to go, Terry decides to stay at the motel. She gradually becomes attracted to Vincent's honest manner and folksy charm, much to Bruce's dismay, who tries to woo her without success.

Vincent captures more victims by placing wooden cardboards of cows in the middle of the highway to cause his victims to stop, allowing him to capture them. He also places a fake ad and lures in a pair of swingers, believing the hotel to be a swing joint. The next day, Vincent suggests he teach Terry to smoke meat. Ida becomes jealous and attempts to drown Terry, but Vincent arrives to save her. This causes Terry to fall in love with him completely, and she tries to seduce Vincent. Vincent denies her advances, saying they must marry first. She agrees to marry the following day.

Bruce visits the motel to protest Terry's choice. He tells Terry that Vincent has "syphilis of the brain". Vincent arrives and drives off his brother with a shotgun. Vincent, Terry, and Ida drink champagne, but Ida drugs Terry's glass and she faints. Ida and Vincent then prepare some victims for the wedding. Meanwhile, Bruce investigates the disappearances and becomes suspicious of his brother.

Vincent and Ida kill three victims and take them to the slaughterhouse. As they remove the victims' bodies, the dirt around Bo loosens and he begins to escape. Bruce sneaks back to the motel to rescue Terry, but Ida returns. She ambushes Bruce and knocks him out, then holds Terry at gunpoint to the meat processing plant where Vincent reveals his secret. Terry is horrified by the prospect of smoking human flesh. Meanwhile, Bo escapes and frees the other victims from the garden. Ida goes back to the motel to get something to eat, but the victims attack her and knock her out. Terry tries to escape, but Vincent gases her and ties her to a conveyor belt. He is interrupted by Bo, who crashes through a window, but Vincent strangles the weakened Bo.

Bruce awakens and finds one of his brother's shotguns. He goes to the plant but finds that his brother has armed himself with a giant chainsaw and placed a pig's head over his own as a gruesome mask. Vincent disarms his brother, but Bruce grabs his own chainsaw and duels Vincent. During the fight, the belt restraining Terry is activated, sending her slowly to a cutting blade. Despite his wounds, Bruce drives the chainsaw deep into Vincent's side. Bruce frees Terry and returns to Vincent. He gasps his final words, leaving the farm and "secret garden" to Bruce and lamenting his own hypocrisy for using preservatives.

Bruce and Terry go to the "secret garden" and find only Ida, who is buried head first. As they leave the motel, Bruce comments he is glad he left home when he was eleven. Terry suggests burning the motel, claiming it is evil. The neon sign saying "Motel Hello" fully short-circuits, permanently darkening the "O".

A crew of heroes is determined to save the lost arts of hip hop: break dancing, graffiti, MCing, and DJing from total extinction. The lost arts are being oppressed throughout inner-space by lord Ook and his evil minions the Chinheads. DJ and dentist The Dental Commander, graffiti artist Honey Drips, robotic MC Rubbish, and breakdancer Grandpa have a series of adventures, synchronized to the music. Armed with the ancient relic known as the Wave Twister (a small turntable/wristwatch, the only weapon powerful enough to defeat the enemies), they travel to the far ends of inner-space for a final confrontation with the sinister army of oppressors. The film ends with the team teaching the liberated the lost fundamentals of hip hop.

A bumblebee named Lieutenant Grumblebee is woken from his sleep by the arrival of a large sinister-looking ship. A man named Puppetino, a puppet-master, remarks that this is the ideal spot for the carnival. Stakes and ropes fly from the ship and a circus tent forms. Grumblebee hastily leaves the area.

A year after being made human by his Fairy Godmother, the boy Pinocchio celebrates his first birthday with Mister Geppetto. The Good Fairy appears and teaches Pinocchio that love is his most powerful gift. She brings to life one of Pinocchio's own carvings, a wooden glow-bug, to act as Pinocchio's conscience. Pinocchio, surprised, exclaims "Gee willikers!" and the bug takes the name "Willikers". After the party, Pinocchio offers to deliver a jewel box to the mayor for Geppetto. En route he encounters con men Sylvester J. Scalawag the raccoon and Igor the monkey, who trick him into trading the box for the "Pharaoh's Ruby". The ruby turns out to be a fake and Geppetto is furious. Pinocchio runs away in shame, leaving Willikers behind.

Pinocchio looks for work at the carnival and is entranced by a blonde marionette named Twinkle. Puppetino recognises Pinocchio and uses Twinkle to lure him into joining the carnival. Puppetino starts playing an organ grinder, causing Pinocchio to dance uncontrollably and slowly transform back into a puppet. Puppetino attaches strings to Pinocchio's hands and feet, completing the transformation, and hangs the now lifeless Pinocchio alongside Twinkle. The Good Fairy appears and awakens Pinocchio, explaining that he lost his freedom because he took it for granted. She reminds him of the importance of choice before restoring him to human form.

Pinocchio decides to retrieve the jewel box. Willikers objects, so Pinocchio sets him aside and travels alone. Willikers encounters Grumblebee again, whom takes him to his home in Bugsburgh. Pinocchio encounters Scalawag and Igor again, whom inform him that the box is at the carnival, which has returned to the ship. The trio pursue the carnival ship by boat. Unbeknownst to Pinocchio, they plan to hand him over to Puppetino in return for a reward, but after Pinocchio saves them from a giant barracuda, they change their minds and begin to genuinely bond with Pinocchio. As they travel, the carnival ship arrives, capturing the boat. Willikers, carried to the river by Grumblebee, latches onto Pinocchio's pocket as they drift into the ship.

Scalawag recognizes the ship as the ''Empire of the Night''. A boatman offers Pinocchio a ride to the jewel box, leaving Scalawag and Igor behind. The boatman says the box is in the opposite, darker end of a cavern. Pinocchio prefers the brighter path, and they row to the "Neon Cabaret". A doorman says that Pinocchio can play inside if he signs a contract. He impulsively agrees, runs inside and finds a room full of partying children. Pinocchio drinks from a fountain of green liquid that causes him to hallucinate and black out. He awakens on a stage; a ringmaster tells him his fans are waiting and he begins dancing. Scalawag and Igor, who have followed Pinocchio, try to get his attention, but are drawn offstage while he is distracted by Twinkle. Pinocchio bows to thunderous applause.

Puppetino appears and Pinocchio turns to find the boatman, who transforms into the doorman and then the ringmaster. He tells Pinocchio that he has reached the "Land Where Dreams Come True" and then morphs into a floating being with four arms called the Emperor of the Night. He demands Pinocchio sign a contract that will make him a puppet again, a choice that will weaken the Good Fairy to her death. Pinocchio refuses and is imprisoned with Scalawag and Igor. Scalawag laments that they have succumbed to their desires without considering the consequences. The Emperor reveals to Pinocchio that Geppetto has been shrunk to fit inside the jewel box. Pinocchio offers to sign the contract if the Emperor frees Geppetto and the others. Pinocchio signs away his freedom, transforming back into a living puppet.

The Emperor betrays Pinocchio, telling him that the freedom of choice gives him his power. Pinocchio turns on the Emperor and a blue aura – the light of the Good Fairy – surrounds him. The Emperor shoots bolts of flame at Pinocchio, but the blue light protects him as the ship catches fire. Pinocchio escapes with his friends while the Emperor shoots Puppetino in the back with a bolt of magic for his instant cowardice while he runs for his life. Puppetino turns into a lifeless puppet, and burns to death immediately thereafter.

The evil Emperor promises to make Geppetto pay for Pinocchio's choices, but he runs and forms into a blue shining orb and plunges into the Emperor's flaming figure, destroying him and his ship. On the shore, Geppetto has returned to his original size. Scalawag and Igor find Pinocchio, who is once again a real boy. The Good Fairy appears, proudly telling Pinocchio that he no longer needs her. She presents the jewel box to Geppetto. She reveals the now human Twinkle awakening nearby before fading away to the sunrise, leaving the group to celebrate.

In 500 CE, Hrothgar, king of Denmark, and a group of warriors chase a large and burly man, whom they consider a troll, and his young son, who already bears cheek and chin whiskers, to the edge of a steep seaside cliff. The father directs his young son, Grendel, to hide from the attackers' view; whereupon The Danes shoot the father dead, and his dead body plunges onto the beach far below. The Danish king sees the young Grendel, but spares him. Later, Grendel finds his father's body and cuts the head off to take it home. Many years later, the severed (and mummified) head is inside a cave, apparently the centerpiece of a primitive memorial. The boy Grendel has now become as large and powerful as his father, and contemplating the head, he plans revenge.

When Hrothgar finds twenty of his warriors killed inside his great hall, the Danish king falls into a depression. Beowulf, with the permission of Hygelac, king of Geatland, sails to Denmark with thirteen Geats to slay Grendel for Hrothgar. The arrival of Beowulf and his warriors is welcomed by Hrothgar, but the king's village has fallen into a deep despair and many of the pagan villagers convert to Christianity at the urging of an Irish monk. While Grendel does raid Hrothgar's village during the night, he flees rather than fight. Selma the witch tells Beowulf that Grendel will not fight him because Beowulf has committed no wrong against him.

A villager, recently baptized and thus now unafraid of death, leads Beowulf and his men to the cliff above Grendel's cave. However, the Geats do not enter, having no rope to climb down the cliff. When the villager is found dead, Beowulf and his men return with a rope and gain entry to Grendel's secret cave, where one of Beowulf's men mutilates the mummified head of Grendel's father. That night, Grendel invades Hrothgar's great hall, kills the Geat who desecrated his father's head, and leaps from the second story, but is caught in a trap by Beowulf. Grendel, refusing capture, escapes by severing his captive arm. He flees to the beach and collapses into the water, where his body is claimed by a mysterious webbed hand. Thereafter Hrothgar admits to Beowulf that he had killed Grendel's father for stealing a fish but had spared the child Grendel out of pity. Grendel's severed arm is kept by the Danes as a trophy. In revealing more about Grendel, Selma recounts that Grendel had once clumsily raped her and has protected her since that day; and Beowulf becomes her paramour. The Geats and Danes proceed to nail Grendel's arm to the rafters of the hall as a trophy.

At night, the Danes are later attacked by Grendel's mother, the Sea Hag, who kills some men and reclaims her son's arm. Beowulf and the Geats return to Grendel's cave a third time to investigate. They find an underwater passage hidden in a pond within the cave. Beowulf dives through this passage and find Grendel's body in the cave on the other end. When examining the body, he is suddenly attacked by the Sea Hag and slays her with a sword from among her treasure. He then notices that the battle had been observed by the child of Grendel and Selma. Later Beowulf, with Grendel's son watching, buries Grendel with ceremony. Shortly thereafter, Beowulf and his band of Geats leave Denmark by ship, having warned Selma that she must hide her son, lest the Danes destroy him.

In Edinburgh in 1831, Mrs. Marsh (Rita Corday) visits the house of Dr. Wolfe "Toddy" MacFarlane (Henry Daniell), seeking a cure for her paraplegic daughter Georgina (Sharyn Moffett). MacFarlane suggests surgery for the girl, but insists that he cannot perform the operation himself because his teaching position keeps him too busy. Later that night, MacFarlane's prized student Donald Fettes (Russell Wade) tells the doctor he cannot afford to continue his studies. MacFarlane offers Fettes a job as a lab assistant to help with an experiment he is planning.

Fettes is awakened in the middle of the night by John Gray (Karloff), a cab driver and graverobber, who has arrived to deliver a corpse to MacFarlane to dissect in one of his classes. Later, MacFarlane and Fettes go to an inn and run into Gray, who threatens to reveal MacFarlane's "dark secret" if he does not operate on Georgina. MacFarlane initially agrees, but later tries to renege on his promise. Fettes asks Gray to get another human specimen so Georgina might have hope of walking again. After visiting Gray, Fettes gives a coin to a blind street singer (Donna Lee). He is shocked when Gray arrives later at the lab with the corpse of the singer.

Fettes shows MacFarlane the body and accuses Gray of murder. The conversation is overheard by Joseph (Lugosi), MacFarlane's other assistant. MacFarlane tells Fettes that he could be arrested as an accomplice and advises him not to notify the police. Georgina recovers from the surgery, but she is still unable to walk. MacFarlane is tortured by his failure, and goes to the inn to drown his sorrows. Gray shows up and torments him about their "secret".

Joseph visits Gray and attempts to blackmail him to keep quiet about his body-snatching operation. Gray tells Joseph the story of the infamous murderers Burke and Hare, and reveals that they procured bodies for Dr. Knox, MacFarlane's mentor. Gray promises to pay Joseph, but smothers him to death when the other man allows him to get too close. Later, he delivers the body to MacFarlane's lab as a "gift". Meg Camden (Edith Atwater), MacFarlane's housekeeper and secret wife, tells Fettes that Gray admitted to robbing graves during the Burke and Hare trial to shield the real perpetrator - MacFarlane. Later, MacFarlane offers Gray money to stop tormenting him. Gray refuses to take the bribe, and vows that the doctor will never be rid of him. Enraged, MacFarlane beats Gray to death.

Fettes meets with Mrs. Marsh and Georgina. The girl hears horses nearby and stands up to see them; the operation was a success after all. Fettes rushes to tell MacFarlane the good news, but Meg tells him that the doctor has gone to another town to sell Gray's horse and carriage.

Fettes finds MacFarlane at a tavern. He tells Fettes that he plans to rob a freshly dug grave. Fettes sees no alternative than to assist the doctor, and they load the unearthed corpse onto Gray's carriage. As they drive through a storm, MacFarlane hears Gray taunting him from the back of the carriage. He stops the carriage and orders Fettes to check the body. When he uncovers the body and shines a light on it, MacFarlane sees Gray's corpse. The horses, spooked by the storm, bolt. The carriage breaks loose and falls over a cliff with MacFarlane and the corpse. Fettes looks down at the wreck and sees MacFarlane's corpse, next to that of a woman.

One month after the events of ''Metal Slug 3'', the threatening presence of General Morden looms over the world once again. Marco Rossi and Tarma Roving of the Peregrine Falcon unit reunites with Eri Kasamoto and Fio Germi of SPARROWS as the quartet is ordered to investigate Morden's latest plan, being joined by two new allies named Ralf Jones and Clark Still of the ''Ikari Warriors''. Together, they proceed into the mountains where Morden's Rebel Army has established an outpost. After destroying their latest war machine in a long hillside battle, the six soldiers confront Morden and discover that he has rebuilt his alliance with the Martians. However, it is soon revealed that the Martians themselves are being invaded and eaten by a new dangerous race of aliens called Invaders and they have turned to Morden for help.

As the Invaders invade Earth's cities, the soldiers fight them off and chase them into the desert, where the Invader King has established a nest. With help from the Rebels, they rescue the captured Martians and succeed in destroying the Invader King.

Ovidiu Gorea is a jaded high-school teacher and novice writer in his mid-40s who is still living with his parents. He has just published a collection of short stories titled ''Nobody Dies for Free'' that the bookstores reject because no one buys it.

The high school principal asks him to deal with a problem-student, Robert. Ovidiu has Robert call one of his parents for talks, but the boy sends his sister, Diana, a gorgeous teenager, instead. Ovidiu is smitten. He convinces Diana to go on a date with him, but what he thinks will be a quiet evening over coffee turns into a bar-hopping binge that leaves him nearly broke.

One night, he meets a shabby-looking drunk beggar who offers to recite poems in exchange for vodka. The two start talking and Ovidiu learns that the guy makes two or three times more money than him in a month out of this. He asks for an explanation and the beggar refers him to the Filantropica Foundation.

Located in a desolate basement, the Filantropica Foundation is actually the lair of Bucharest's beggars' leader, Pavel Puiuț. A former convict, he realized that begging leads nowhere "unless there is a touching story behind the hand that begs", so he created an organized network of beggars, each with an invented, tear-jerking, background story that yields millions. Puiuț listens to Ovidiu's story and thinks he is perfect for his new "project".

He pairs Ovidiu with Miruna, his secretary, and sends them to high-profile restaurants, where, in collusion with a waiter, they pose as a couple of poor teachers celebrating their wedding anniversary who find, at the end of their dinner, that they don't have enough money to cover the check; Ovidiu is responsible with making a scene that would strike a chord with one of the rich people present, who would pick up their check out of pity; later, out in the back, Ovidiu, Miruna, and the waiter would split the money.

After several such performances, Ovidiu makes enough money to impress the materialistic Diana. He rents a roadster, takes her to lakeshore clubs, and impresses her friends, his sole purpose being sleeping with her. The reluctant Puiuţ even gives him access to the foundation's "show-house" (a day-rental house meant to impress third parties), but a poorly timed customer call gives Ovidiu's cover away and an angry Diana leaves him.

Meanwhile, Miruna falls for her partner in crime and is angry that he keeps "bitching" about that "bimbo", instead of going for a "real woman". She manages to get him into her bed and Ovidiu is surprised to find out she is a former prostitute.

The next day, an enamored Miruna convinces Ovidiu to play the scam for their own benefit and actually enjoy a dinner out. The ploy goes terribly wrong when they go to a karaoke bar, where due to the loud music, their scene has no effect and the waiter, who is not in on it, takes Ovidiu to the back and beats him. Puiuț then unveils the grand purpose of his "project": he sets the unsuspecting Ovidiu to appear with Miruna "in character" on (a popular TV night show) and tell the karaoke bar beating story; he then calls, pretends of being revolted and announces that his foundation has opened an account for people who want to offer money for the "poor teachers".

Meanwhile, in school, Ovidiu is visited by two thugs who ask him about Robert, who owes $3,000 to "a person" and who only has two days to make good. Ovidiu withdraws the amount from the foundation's account, calls Diana and gives her the money for her brother. She pretends being impressed and teases Ovidiu by telling him to visit her later that night. Naturally, she deceives him once more, by leaving the city in the afternoon. To top it off, Ovidiu finds Robert in a park, turned into a beggar, who tells him that "Diana" was not his sister, just "some chick".

Now $3,000 short, Ovidiu goes home to find the media and Puiuț claiming he has just won the big prize in the lottery. It is again one of Puiuț's scams, who reminds Ovidiu he "has him" because of the $3,000. Ovidiu accepts his fate and Miruna as his wife.

The movie has an ominous ending, with Puiuț finding Robert in the street, convincing him to join his operation and then breaking the fourth wall: "Do you feel pity for this piece of trash? Hah! Got your money!".

''Silver Canyon'' takes place in modern-day San Juan County, just east of the Colorado River, in what is today the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and the Canyon Rims Recreation Area, not many miles upstream from Hite, Utah, which is mentioned in the story. The plot revolves around a young rider and gunfighter, Matt Brennan, who drifts into the town of Hattan's Point and immediately falls in love with a local rancher's daughter, Moira Maclaren. The town and the area around it are dominated by two large ranches, the Boxed M owned by Rud Maclaren, Moira's father, and the CP Ranch owned by the Pinder brothers. With a reason to stay in the area, Brennan buys into the Two-Bar Ranch, owned by old man Ball. The Two-Bar is sandwiched between the Pinder and Maclaren Ranches, and being squeezed out, as the two bigger ranches prepare for their showdown with each other.

Old Earth is dead, devastated by the nuclear holocausts. New Earth lives on as a shadow world, inhabited by the vestiges of humanity, divided into tyrannical petty kingdoms, wracked by fear, superstitions, and barbaric poverty. Strange, fearsome mutated beast roam the blasted lands and waters, while on the cold northern frontiers, a race of malformed men with strange mental powers plot the eventual conquest of the planet from the fortress of Psi-Keep.

Zeph the Tinker travels with his young wife Marnie from Country Clayro through Country McCall and the Demon Waste. While Zeph is hunting game, Marnie is startled by two riders fleeing pursuers. The riders — the dying wizard-king Amarix and his companion Balzamo — make the barren woman a deal to not only transfer the post-holocaust knowledge in his head to Marnie, but to make it possible for that information to be passed onto her unborn child

That child, Blackmark, eventually becomes a gladiator slave.

In 1958, Erik Ponti, a 15-year-old boy, lives with his mother and sadistic stepfather in Stockholm. At home, his stepfather beats him every day after dinner. His docile mother ignores her husband's sadistic nature and allows the violence to proceed. At school, Erik is violent and frequently engages in fights, as a result of his violent upbringing. After a particularly vicious fight, Erik is expelled. The headmaster labels him vicious and accuses him of being pure evil. In an attempt to provide her son with a fresh start and last chance to finish school, his mother sells some of her valuable family heirlooms and sends Erik to an affluent boarding school.

Upon arriving in Stjärnsberg, realising the boarding school is his final chance at reaching Sixth Form, Erik attempts to forgo his violent tendencies. At the prestigious school twelve members of the Sixth Form form a Student's Council. They exercise a sadistic rule over the school and punish disobeying students physically and psychologically, which is completely ignored by the school staff members who opt to leave the students to their own ways of governing one another's behaviour. When Erik refuses to obey the ludicrous requests of two councilmen, Silverhielm and Dahlén, he becomes the target of relentless bullying. His refusal to demean himself by obeying their humiliating punishments lands him a number of weekend detentions. Erik befriends his intellectual roommate Pierre, who flies below the radar in order to avoid bullying.

Whilst in the school kitchens one weekend, after a particularly grueling day of labour, Erik meets Marja, a pretty cafeteria staff member on a work visa from Finland. The two begin a romantic relationship as Marja admires Erik's resistant and righteous personality. Meanwhile, Erik joins the swimming team. A swimming match approaches and Erik is determined to win, but soon realises that in order to win he must defeat the current school champion and son of the most prominent donor to the school. He knows that winning would make him more of a target than ever, but his fair and dedicated swim coach assures him that it is a matter of honour and he must not lose. Erik wins, breaking a number of school records and humiliating a number of Sixth Formers who sarcastically clap when his accomplishments are vocalised by the swim coach.

For Christmas break Erik goes home. His stepfather beats him mercilessly, whilst his mother plays the piano to disguise the sounds of the cane. When he arrives back at school, the student council begins targeting Erik's intellectual friend Pierre. Pierre does not stand up for himself. Pained to see his friend humiliated Erik leaves the swim team as he believes this will save his friend from the relentless bullying. But that doesn't seem to be enough. A while later, Erik is called up to the council president, Silverhielm's room. There Pierre has been made to strip and Dahlén threatens to put out a cigarette on his chest, but Erik volunteers instead and unflinchingly endures the pain. The next day, Pierre is challenged to fight the councilmen. He gets severely beaten but does not obey their requests.

The following day, Erik is ambushed when walking back from detention. They tie him to the ground and pour boiling water over him followed by cold water and leave him outside to freeze. However, he is rescued by Marja. The two sleep together and Erik returns to his room to find Pierre has left the school. Erik, bitter and fed up, challenges Dahlén and von Schenken to a fight. He quickly defeats both, and then goes in search of Marja, who has left for Finland after being fired for unknown reasons.

The headmaster is given an intercepted love letter by Silverhielm from Marja to Erik, resulting in Erik's expulsion for having sexual relations with a staff member. Erik searches for and finds Silverhielm for revenge in the woods and threatens to kill him. As Silverhielm begs for his life on his knees after being scared into hysteric crying and vomiting, Erik catches himself about to exploit his violent tendencies but stops himself and assures Silverhielm he won't kill him because he is not like him. Erik returns to the school with his mother's family friend, Mr. Ekengren, who is a lawyer. Ekengren confronts the headmaster with the fact the school's interception of Marja's letter constitutes a serious breach of Sweden's secrecy of correspondence laws and threatens to publish the culture of loose law and intentional ignorance of the headmaster and other staff members in the school. Erik is then reinstated, given back the letter from Marja, and is allowed to finish his last semester in relative peace.

The school year ends and Erik returns home to find his mother has been beaten by his stepfather. His stepfather tries to beat him again, but Erik warns him that it is over. He tells his mother, who was in shock, that it is the last time there will be violence in the household and closes the door behind himself as he prepares to get payback for years of violence and beats his stepfather off screen, it is unknown if his stepfather changed or if he left his stepson and wife after Erik beat him. He reconciles with Pierre, who is about to leave for Geneva to continue his education, and sets out to contact Marja and realise his dream of becoming a lawyer.

The story is told as a narrative by an unnamed veteran who participated in the Battle of Dorking. He is recounting the final days before and during the invasion of Britain. It is addressed to his grandchildren as an event fifty years earlier. Beginning sometime after an event similar to the Franco-Prussian War, concerns grow with the mobilisation of armed forces near the Netherlands. The Royal Navy is destroyed by a wonder-weapon ("fatal engines"), and an invasion force suddenly lands near Worthing, Sussex.

Demilitarisation and lack of training means that the army is forced to mobilise auxiliary units from the general public, led by ineffective and inexperienced officers. The two armies converge outside Dorking, Surrey, where the British line is cut through by the advancing enemy and the survivors on the British side are forced to flee.

The story ends with the conquest of Britain; the ransom the victors impose makes the country destitute (special comparison is made to France; likewise humiliated, but able to rise from the blow due to its wealth being in its fields and size, rather than colonies and business). The British Empire is broken up, with only Gibraltar and Malta being kept by the victorious Germans. Canada and the West Indies are ceded to the United States, and Australia, India and Ireland are all granted independence. Ireland enters a lengthy civil war as a result.

SpongeBob acquires Mermaid Man's powers when he wears his belt. Unfortunately SpongeBob accidentally puts the Dirty Bubble into a washing machine with the belt, which causes him to split into countless dirty bubbles. SpongeBob has to stop villains such as Man Ray, The Sinister Slug, Jumbo Shrimp, Atomic Flounder, and the Dirty Bubble, using Mermaid Man's powers to save Bikini Bottom. The story is divided into Acts, each with a different villain trying to wreak havoc on Bikini Bottom: Man Ray wants to flood Goo Lagoon; Sinister Slug has an evil plan to stop the talent show; Jumbo Shrimp, with the help of Plankton, creates a machine to shrink people; The Atomic Flounder causes chaos in Industrial Park; and The Dirty Bubble returns with the machine the Jumbo Shrimp used in the third act. He plans to hit SpongeBob with more Little Dirty Bubbles.

The novel alternates between Jaimie describing his journey by wagon train and commentary by his father, a Scottish doctor with an effervescent personality whose judgment is often clouded by his weakness for gambling and strong drink.

The novel contains, in graphic detail, some intense Native American customs, especially rite of passage.

Dale, who is held on remand, is awaiting a court hearing and yet to be sentenced, highlighting the horrific injustice of the repeated beatings he's subjected to. Although the first depicted beating lasts less than 3 minutes of screen time, the actual beating it was based on allegedly lasted a gruelling 7 hours.

Initially Dale submits to the psychological and physical traumas of his situation. By day they attempt to break his spirit and sanity by forcing him to smash blue-stone with a pick, invoking images of Australia's convict heritage, while another inmate is compelled to perform more demeaning behaviour such as licking faeces off toilet doors. Gradually Dale becomes indifferent to the bashings and horrors of prison life and develops an alternative, subversive way to exist and express his rage.

At one point Dale is depicted pacing his cell naked and mumbling incoherently. It seems as if the ego shattering experience has forced him to the verge of insanity. It's not until he claims : "I've resigned from this life" and urges the other inmates to do so as well, that we see method in his madness. By refusing to play the dehumanising prison game anymore the guards have lost their threat of psychological and physical suppression over him and he in turn has reaffirmed the power of the simple utterance of which he can never be deprived. Although contact between the inmates is strictly forbidden at night they manage to shout and finally communicate through the prison walls. "Unity in adversity!", Dale shouts beginning a chant which reverberates throughout the cells. Meanwhile, Berriman, realising the threat of pure violence or psychological abuse is no longer effective starts to panic.

As Dale walks defiantly from the prison in the last scene to be tried, the failure of the correctional system to produce docile, disciplined bodies pulls its last punch. Even if the system has enframed Dale he has maintained his sanity and his voice.

When an Amacore oil rig in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia proves unproductive, Captain Frank Towns and co-pilot A.J. are sent to shut down the operation and transport the crew (Amacore executive Ian, rig supervisor Kelly, Rodney, Davis, Liddle, Jeremy, Sammi, Rady, Kyle, Newman, and Dr. Gerber) out of the desert. However, en route to Beijing, a major dust storm disables one engine, forcing them to crash land their C-119 Flying Boxcar in an uncharted area of the Gobi Desert. Kyle falls to his death and the crash kills Dr. Gerber and Newman. Their cargo consists of used parts and tools from the rig, the rig's crew, and Elliot, a hitchhiker. When the dust storm ends, it becomes apparent that they are off course with only a month's supply of water. Jeremy thinks about walking to get help, but Rady explains that July is the hottest month in the Gobi, and that he won't make it.

In the middle of the night, Davis goes out to urinate without informing anybody, trips, gets lost in a sandstorm, and dies. The group panics after a failed search for him, and Kelly argues with Frank, who says that walking out of the desert would fail and that their only option is to await rescue. The group initially agrees but reconsiders after Elliot, claiming to be an aeronautical engineer, pitches a radical idea: rebuild the wreckage of their C-119 into a functional aircraft. Frank initially refuses, which causes Liddle to wander off on his own in protest. Frank attempts to find him. He comes across a valley littered with debris, cargo from the aircraft, which dropped out when the tail was torn open. Among the debris he discovers the bullet-ridden and stripped body of Kyle. Liddle says he will only go back with him if they build the plane, and Frank agrees.

They struggle for several weeks building the new aircraft, through dust storms, lack of water, and fighting amongst the group. Rady christens it ''Phoenix'' after the legendary bird. A problem evolves when a group of smugglers camp nearby; when Ian, A.J., and Rodney attempt to communicate, the bandits kill Rodney and try to kill the group to prevent them from exposing their smuggling operations, but they are killed in a short, fierce skirmish when ambushed by Frank. Later, it is revealed that Elliot's aircraft design experience has been restricted to the design of model aircraft, much to the anger of everyone, especially Ian, who threatens to shoot Elliot. However, they eventually are able to construct the new aircraft and take off, barely in time to escape a larger group of bandits seeking revenge for the murdered smugglers.

Through a series of photos, we see what became of the survivors when they made it back to civilization. All have been revitalized by the experience and have happy lives: Frank and A.J. start their own airline (appropriately named Phoenix Aviation), Sammi and his wife start their own restaurant (Jeremy and Rady are there to celebrate), Liddle is reunited with his wife and kids, Ian becomes a professional golfer, Kelly is boss on an ocean oil rig, and Elliot is wearing a flight suit on a ''Flight International'' magazine cover with the headline: "NASA's New Hope?"

The novel is the story of John Johnson and Susan Colgate. It begins with a meeting between Susan and John after their yearlong absences from the world, and then progresses to tell the stories of their disappearances through flashbacks. The flashbacks have no temporal order. Each chapter is a different flashback, intermixed with chapters of temporally present plot.

; Susan Colgate : A former child pageant star, a 1980s television family daughter, a closeted rock star's wife, and a B movie actress. She was on a plane heading across the United States that crashed, but she survives without a scratch. She takes this opportunity to disappear into the night, leaving behind her identity. ; John Johnson : A decadent film producer. His life is composed of drugs and women. He dies from the flu, but his death is only temporary. While dead, he has a vision of Susan Colgate. Once revived, Johnson decides to give away his decadent lifestyle and to live on the road like Jack Kerouac.

The novel tells their stories, the stories of the characters that they encounter, and the story of their lives after they meet. The novel is written in the third person.

The boys are at Sea Park where they are watching the antics of an orca whale named Jambu. While Stan, Cartman and Kenny go elsewhere, Kyle stays behind. While getting a closer look at Jambu, Kyle is surprised to hear the whale speak, unaware the voice is really coming from Brian, a show announcer, and his co-announcer Mike. Jambu tells Kyle about his dream to one day go to space in a big rocket ship. Kyle brings the other boys back to the tank, but for a while, Jambu remains silent. A few minutes later, when the announcers notice the boys' return, Jambu starts to speak again. The boys think that Jambu, whose real name is "Willzyx", will die unless he returns to his family's home on the moon.

The boys rally some of their classmates to help them liberate Jambu. They put together a plan that involves the pool from Clyde's backyard, Timmy's wheelchair, the Russian government and all of their skateboards. The boys sneak into Sea Park, dressed in dark clothing and wearing blackface (except for Tolkein, who is actually black and wearing whiteface instead), manage to free Jambu. The next morning at the Sea Park, Mike and Brian find that the boys stole Jambu, and Mike starts panicking knowing that their prank has gotten out of hand, but Brian tries to calm him down by saying what they have done was funny. Rather than tell their colleagues about the prank and risk being fired, Mike and Brian decide that they must find the boys and retrieve Jambu before the police do.

In Russia, the government is looking for a way to raise money and they take a call from Kyle who wants to hire them to take Willzyx to the moon. When they give their price of $20 million, Kyle tries to explain what they are really trying to do, but the Russians assume that this is a prank call from George Bush. The boys decide to shop around for another Third World country with a cheaper space program, and they need to hide the whale. At the Sea Park in Denver, protesters from the Animal Liberation Front have gathered to applaud the whale liberators. Brian and Mike are in South Park looking for the whale; they find the pool behind Clyde's house, along with a broken fence. While looking at the pool, they find whale feces, but see that the whale and the boys are gone. The whale is inside, in Kyle's bedroom to be exact, where the boys are keeping him wet. Kyle is on the phone with the Japanese government, while Jimmy, Timmy and Tweek are at the Chinese embassy, but everyone's prices are too high. Stan and Craig are in Mexico, where they find that ''Mexicano Aeronáutica y Spacio Administración'' (MASA) will take their whale to the moon for $200.

Kyle, Kenny, Cartman, Butters and Clyde are on the road to meet Stan and Craig in Tijuana to get the whale home when Brian and Mike stop their truck. Just as the hosts are about to tell the boys the truth, the police arrive and demand that they give the whale back. However, the ALF comes to their rescue as the whale is saved in a hail of gunfire, killing Mike, the police officers and possibly the truck driver the boys hired. The ALF leader drives the van for the boys as they resume their trip to Tijuana, while Brian sadly exclaims to a dying Mike the past times were always funny. In Tijuana, the rocket is being prepared. The ALF leader and the boys crash through the Mexican border, and the boys work on getting the whale into the water. Just before they do, Kyle says a tearful goodbye to him, which also brings tears to Clyde's and Butters' eyes. The whale finally gets into the water, and the ALF declares victory when the manager of Sea Park arrives with the police. The rocket is finally launched, with the whale in tow, much to the horror and disbelief of the ALF members. The boys celebrate their victory back home, seeing the night sky of a black speck on the Moon of the whale; meanwhile, on the surface of the moon, the asphyxiated orca lies dead.

One day Emil Sinclair, an eleven-year-old boy, returns from school and as nobody is at home he goes upstairs into his father’s room where he steals sugared and dried figs out of his dad’s chest of drawers. Although he has pangs of conscience and thinks a lot about his deed, he does not confess it to his father. Sinclair pretends to have bought the figs at the cake shop in Calw. That is why his father punishes him by taking him there; but before entering the shop, the boy tells that he did not get them there. At home he finally admits that he stole the figs. The book ends with the phrase: ''"Als ich im Bett lag, hatte ich die Gewissheit, dass er mir ganz und vollkommen verziehen habe – vollkommener als ich ihm."'' ("As I lay in bed I had the certainty that he had completely forgiven me - more completely than I had him.")

Hesse himself made a comment on his book in a letter to his sister Adele, in which he stated that the way described in ''Kinderseele'' was one of extremely straight psychology and love of truth.

Every year, widower Christy Byrne (Tate Donovan) has traveled from Nova Scotia with his children to sell their homegrown Christmas trees in New York City. His teenage son Danny (Michael Mitchell) is not into his father's business, but instead has a true passion for photography. One year in New York City, Danny and Christy get into an argument and Danny runs away, leaving Christy and his 10-year-old daughter Bridget (Courtney Jines) to return home without him. The next year, the two return to New York City to sell the trees while Christy goes out every night looking for Danny.

Catherine (Anne Heche) lives in the same New York neighborhood and hasn't celebrated Christmas since the year her husband died. Every year Christy has tried to sell her a tree, but Catherine politely refuses. Neither of them realize that their lives are connected by Danny. While Christy is back in Nova Scotia with Bridget, Catherine pays Danny for photographs that he takes and puts them in the newspaper. When Christy comes back the following year, Catherine does not tell him that she knows where Danny is because Danny made her promise not to. Catherine does tell Christy afterwards when Danny injures himself by falling off the roof of the Belvedere Castle and into a frozen pond. In the hospital, Christy tells Danny that he is allowing him to stay in New York City to become a photographer.

The story begins in the New Radius Slums, where Trane, against the will of his grandmother, runs away from home to establish himself as a Graffiti artist. His first goal was to set himself as a notorious graffiti artist within the New Radius slums. His exploits reveals the state of New Radius, as a result of Sung's attempts at Gentrification of the city to make it look prosperous. He has oppressed the lower class societies by eliminating the budget of liberal arts for more "prosperous" enterprises in the city, using the C.C.K to keep the slums and the city's seedy reputation suppressed through violence. Trane soon butts heads with the Vandals of New Radius led by Gabe who constantly paints over his works. Realizing he needs to make his crew well known, he successfully tags the city monorail which allows him to show his graffiti around New Radius in the face of both the C.C.K and the VaNR and then defeating Gabe in a Graffiti battle which forces an alliance between both Crews.

Soon enough, however, Trane is incapacitated by Decoy, who tells him about his father's past and how it all connects to Sung's rise to power. He also tells Trane that the anti-graffiti campaign was a smokescreen to prevent artists such as Decoy from revealing the truth: Sung paid Trane's father to assassinate a rival candidate. Decoy had been tagging posters with the phrase "9/06", the day that Sung ordered the murder of Trane's father to cover up his involvement. Taking his revolution to the next step, Trane begins tagging upper New Radius, the pristine part of the city which Sung upheld as the bastion of progress. Amongst the tagging campaign, however, Gabe betrays Trane under the threat of being killed by Shanna, an assassin in the employ of Mayor Sung who uses recent events to make interesting news. This leads to Lower New Radius being attacked by C.C.K death squads, and Decoy's death at the hands of Shanna, (on orders from Sung). Swearing revenge, he plans a smear campaign against Sung by planting flyers which incriminate Sung for his role in the murder of the other candidate. Sung's second-in-command is accidentally killed during a confrontation with Trane. Trane is framed for his "murder" From this point Trane can unleash the "Tag 'n' Bag" attack when his hype meter fills by pressing the X button. Trane defeats Shanna (although she appears to be killed by the fall, she in fact survived, as a helicopter was waiting for her below). While the fight to overthrow Sung has ended, the fight for freedom is never finished for Trane, as he is still wanted by the law.

The title ''A Hazard of New Fortunes'' is a reference to William Shakespeare's ''King John''. ''King John'' portrays the themes of uncertainty, change, and violence, all of which are also important to ''A Hazard of New Fortunes''.

The book, set in late 19th-century New York City, tells the story of Basil March, an affable literary man who provides the main perspective throughout the story. March takes a senior job at a New York magazine and eventually finds himself in the middle of a fierce dispute between his beloved old mentor and the magazine's wealthy owner.

At the beginning of the book, March is residing in Boston with his wife and children. Then he is persuaded by his entrepreneurial friend Fulkerson to move to New York to help him start a new magazine, where the writers benefit from a primitive form of profit sharing. After some deliberation, the Marches move to New York and begin a rather extensive search for a perfect apartment. After many exhausting weeks of searching, Basil finally settles on an apartment full of what he and his wife refer to as "gimcrackery" — trinkets and decorations that do not appeal to their upper-middle-class tastes. While in New York, March renews the acquaintance of Berthold Lindau, a German-born intellectual who taught March the German language decades earlier. A strong abolitionist, Lindau fought in the American Civil War and lost a hand. He is now an elderly, impoverished widower. Though Lindau is still as warm-hearted and idealistic as ever, his socialist views often cause him to speak bitterly about what America has become under capitalism. March worries that people who do not understand the old man will misjudge him as unpatriotic or violent.

Work at the new magazine, titled ''Every Other Week'' begins. The magazine is bankrolled by a millionaire named Dryfoos, who became wealthy after discovering natural gas on his farm in the Midwest, and who is now making money on Wall Street. Dryfoos gives his unworldly son, Conrad, the job of business manager for the magazine in order to try to dissuade him from becoming an Episcopalian priest. An artist by the name of Angus Beaton, an old friend of Fulkerson's, is chosen to head the art department. Beaton chooses Alma Leighton, for whom he has feelings, to illustrate the cover of the first issue. March recruits Lindau, who knows several languages, to translate articles from Europe for the magazine, giving him a modest income. Colonel Woodburn, a wealthy Southerner, and his daughter move to New York and become involved with the magazine when their social circle connects them with Alma Leighton; they board with her and her mother. Fulkerson decides that he would like to publish some of Colonel Woodburn's pro-slavery writings in ''Every Other Week'', because he believes they would create controversy and sell more copies of the new magazine.

At a banquet for people associated with the magazine, the political views of Dryfoos the capitalist, Lindau the socialist, and Colonel Woodburn the pro-slavery advocate clash. Though Lindau has no use for Woodburn, he is even more fierce in his comments about Dryfoos the capitalist, and is not mollified by the millionaire's recollections of having avoided service in the war while paying for other men to fight. Lindau switches to German to express to March how much he loathes Dryfoos, because he thinks no one else at the table knows the language. Later it is revealed that Dryfoos (of Pennsylvania-Dutch background) speaks German, and he was insulted by Lindau's comments.

In the end of the book, the New York City streetcar drivers strike. The strike, similar to the Haymarket affair, turns into a riot. Conrad Dryfoos, already a humanitarian helping the poor and working class, is charmed by the lovely Margaret Vance, who shares his values of charity. She encourages Conrad to try to end the strike by telling all sides to desist. While attempting to stop a policeman from beating the aged and disabled Lindau, Conrad is fatally shot. March emerges from a streetcar to see the fallen men lying on the street next to each other. Dryfoos mourns the loss of his son. After further amputation of his already disabled arm, Lindau dies with Margaret Vance at his side. Dryfoos sells the magazine to Fulkerson and March for an extremely low price and takes his remaining family to Europe. Fulkerson moves into the apartment above the magazine with his new wife, Colonel Woodburn's daughter. The Marches pass Margaret Vance on the street; she has become an Episcopalian nun.

The book begins in 1922. The title character is Ibrahim, who becomes the chieftain of a fictitious Palestinian village in that year. He is friendly with Gideon Asch, the Haganah leader who watches over the nearby kibbutz. ("He respected a fairness in Gideon that he was not able to practice himself.") But Ibrahim rejects "Gideon's offers of aid and friendship."

In his ''New York Times'' review, Anatole Broyard wrote that "The other 'good' Arab character, as Mr. Uris has it, is Dr. Nuri Mudhil, a badly crippled archeologist. He, too, despairs of traditional Arab attitudes. 'We are a people living in hate, despair and darkness,' Mudhil says. 'The Jews are our bridge out of darkness.'''

As depicted in the book, in 1947, in the runup to the Arab-Israel War of 1948, Arab nations spread false rumors of Jewish atrocities to cause mass flight. ''Kirkus Reviews'' recounted in its review that in the novel, "the women of Ibrahim's family are raped by rival Arab henchmen. And though the family survives, thanks to Gideon and a 'very sympathetic' Irgun officer, their arrival in Arab territory on the West Bank is greeted by Arab disdain, neglect, cruelty."

The books ends as "Ibrahim slips back into primitivism" and kills his daughter.

Polly Adler is a poor Polish immigrant who works in a sweatshop. She loses her job after she is sexually assaulted by her boss, for which her housemates blame her. She then is forced to move out.

Her next apartment is in a building owned by Frank Costigan, a gangster. Frank approves of Polly's attractive girlfriends and pays her to have the ladies go out socially with his friends.

One thing leads to another, and soon Polly is the madam of a bordello. She has genuine feelings for musician Casey Booth, but does not reveal her true occupation to him.

Costigan becomes the top enforcer for mob boss Lucky Luciano and backs Polly's business, which ends up on Park Avenue offering high-class call girls. Casey proposes marriage, so Polly finally confesses what she does for a living. He is willing to overlook it, but Polly feels it is for the best if they part.

The ''Enterprise'' comes to the assistance of the USS ''Yosemite'', a science vessel from which several crewmen disappeared in a transporter accident. The ''Enterprise'' is unable to transport crew members directly to the ''Yosemite'' due to interference. Lt. Reginald Barclay suggests linking the transporter systems of both ships, which allows them to transport one by one to the ''Yosemite'' but requires a lengthy dematerialization/materialization process. Barclay, assigned as part of the team, hesitates to transport and instead walks away.

Barclay discusses the matter with Counselor Deanna Troi, who teaches him Betazoid meditation techniques to help calm himself. Transporter Chief Miles O'Brien provides Barclay with advice on dealing with his fears, relating his own fear of spiders. Barclay is safely transported to the ''Yosemite'', where he helps the crew investigate. On his return trip, Barclay believes he sees wormlike creatures in the matter stream that attempt to approach him and touch his arm, but he materializes on the ''Enterprise'' without harm. He decides that he is suffering from transporter psychosis, a rare affliction. His paranoia forces Troi to declare him unfit for duty. Barclay asks O'Brien to review the transporter logs, and O'Brien agrees there was a strange surge during Barclay's transport. Barclay asks O'Brien to transport him again, recreating the surge, and Barclay again sees the creatures in the matter stream.

Barclay calls a meeting with the senior staff and explains his observations. Captain Picard orders a thorough review of the transport systems and those that have used it recently. Barclay's arm is found to be out of phase, and further examination reveals microbes that were not detected by the biofilter. To remove the microbes, Barclay is put through the transport again, holding him in the matter stream for a longer duration to allow the biofilters to work. While in the stream, Barclay sees one of the creatures approach him and at the last moment reaches out to grab it to his body. When he materializes one of the missing ''Yosemite'' crew materializes alongside him. Barclay quickly explains that the remaining worm creatures in the matter stream are the missing crew members, who are then quickly rescued. The ''Enterprise'' crew determine that an explosion near the ''Yosemite'' during the transport caused the people to become trapped. Later, Barclay and O'Brien meet at Ten-Forward to discuss the nature of fear, and O'Brien shows a visibly frightened Barclay his pet spider Christina.

The ''Enterprise'' is in the process of transporting Mikulak biological tissue samples intended for use in combating an epidemic of Correllium fever on Nahmi IV. The transport of the samples is delicate, and when they find one of the sample containers is leaking, they are forced to destroy it to prevent the contamination of the other samples. La Forge tells Riker he is concerned that one of his engineers, Reginald Barclay, has been underperforming and notes that he is late to help with the sample transport. What La Forge does not recognise is that Barclay has been in the holodeck acting in a simulation of other ''Enterprise'' crew members, avoiding contact with their real counterparts. La Forge requests that Barclay be transferred from the ''Enterprise'' but Picard recommends that La Forge take Barclay on as a "pet project".

La Forge works at supporting Barclay as their team works to investigate the failure of unconnected systems around the ship. Picard invites Barclay to a bridge meeting to review the investigation, but slips up and accidentally calls him "Broccoli", a nickname given to him by Wesley Crusher, due to Barclay's tendency to 'veg out'. Barclay later returns to the holodeck to seek refuge in the simulated version of the bridge members. In talking to La Forge, Guinan suggests that Barclay is simply imaginative and that La Forge keep a more open mind towards him. On her advice, La Forge visits Barclay on the holodeck and discovers the exaggerated simulation of the bridge crew. La Forge suggests Barclay has counseling from Troi, whose counterpart on the holodeck displays clear signs of sexual attraction towards Barclay. Barclay attempts to undergo a real counseling session with Troi, but loses control when she tries to relax him with the appearance of actions his holodeck version of her would do, and ends the counseling session to flee back to the holodeck.

When Barclay cannot be located to attend a briefing with Riker, Riker storms into the holodeck with La Forge and Troi to locate him. They find comical versions of the senior staff, with bumbling versions of Picard and La Forge, a slothful idiot version of Wesley Crusher, and an extremely short, comical version of Riker. Riker attempts to stop the program angrily, but Troi stops him saying it might traumatize Barclay and exploring this world can help them understand Barclay better. However, when they come across the sexed up version of her, it's her turn to want to immediately stop the program, but Riker stops her, sarcastically throwing her own words in her face. They finally locate Barclay sleeping in the lap of a fantasy Dr. Crusher.

Suddenly, the ''Enterprise'' mysteriously accelerates to warp speeds, and Riker, La Forge and Barclay go to Engineering to discover the matter/anti-matter injectors have jammed; the ship will continue to accelerate until its structural integrity collapses unless the injectors are cleared. The team is unable to come up with any immediate solutions that will work in the limited time they have, but Barclay realizes all the failures they have seen have been connected by a human element: a member of La Forge's Engineering team has been present at each incident, so he surmises that somehow they became carriers of an undetectable contaminant. Using a process of elimination, they reduce the possible contaminants from 15,525 to 2. The contamination that has been interfering with the systems is quickly discovered to be invidium, which was used as part of the Mikulak samples. They are able to quickly repair the injectors, stop the ship, and set course for a nearby starbase to remove the rest of the invidium contamination. La Forge commends Barclay for his contribution in saving the ship.

Barclay returns one more time to the holodeck and addresses the simulated bridge crew, believing it best he leave them, and then deletes all of his holodeck programs but one, program #9.

The story is about three friends growing up in Stockholm in the early 1990s. The youths are rebellious with a passion for money and crime. They dream about having money and living the life of superstars. To achieve this lifestyle they commit certain misdemeanors, property crimes, and various violent crimes; especially against Nazi skinheads, a subculture whose movement had a renaissance in Sweden in the early 1990s.

After participating in a raid of a clothing warehouse, Joakim Wahlåås (Liam Norberg) gets arrested and sentenced to a few years in a Swedish penitentiary. While in jail, Joakim gets exposed to inmate brutality, and associates with the heavily criminal Tony (Thorsten Flinck), who introduces Joakim (also called Jocke, or Jocke-pojken) to cocaine.

Shortly after being released from Jail Joakim and Tony team up with Joakim's old friends and begin to commit more violent crimes: bank robberies, and drug distribution. The friends quickly become rich, and spend thousands of crowns on Versace clothes, champagne, drugs, and women.

A few years, many women, and plenty of free-base pipes later, their lavish lifestyle begins to take its toll. The friends become dependent on cocaine and heroin. They also begin to distrust each other, and subsequent to an argument about the division of profit from a drug trade, Tony kidnaps Joakim's longtime girlfriend Helen. As Joakim becomes aware of the kidnapping, he begins searching for Tony.

The film ends in a deadly confrontation, between Tony and Joakim. Joakim survives the confrontation with Tony, but a few minutes later Joakim is arrested by the police.

Josh's main talent lies in the piano, having been taught by his mother. He and his friend Howie are praised by their teacher, Miss Crowne. However, tired of the continual ridicule and temper of his father, he decides to leave Chicago and find a living on his own. His mother, Mary, supports his decision against her will, realizing that Josh's conflicts with his father, Stefan, and their entire family's lack of food would eventually lead to deeper problems.

Howie convinces the reluctant Josh to bring his brother Joey along, which later turns out to be a good decision. With the hope that their musical talents can earn them a living, they set out. Howie brings his banjo, and Joey is a great singer. On the first day, Joey's singing combined with Howie's talented playing allows the trio to gain 78 cents. Josh realizes Joey's importance and no longer regrets bringing him along.

However, while trying to get to Nebraska by riding on a freight train, a tragedy falls upon the trio. Howie, while running alongside a train which the brothers had already boarded, is struck by a train coming from the opposite direction. Though quite grieved, Josh and Joey continue, even declining the hospitality of a kind man. The two manage to survive by begging, despite Josh's humiliation at doing such a thing. Finally, in a stroke of luck, the two receive the warmth of a woman who persuades Joey to write home to their mother. They also become acquainted with Lonnie Bromer, a truck driver. Lonnie lost a child named David who would be as old as Josh if he were alive. Lonnie brings the brothers to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. There, Josh and Joey receive a job at a carnival run by Pete Harris. Lonnie leaves the two with his address and they promise that they will write to him.

At the carnival, Josh befriends a dwarf named Edward C., who helps Josh by introducing him to the other carnival people. Josh takes a special interest in a clown named Emily. Josh finds Emily extremely attractive despite the differences in their ages; he is 15 years old and she is 30. Josh feels certain desires towards her and accompanies her whenever possible. Josh wants to buy Emily earrings for Christmas. When he discovers that Emily is engaged to Pete Harris, he almost completely throws away any relations with her. They later reconcile.

Unfortunately, the carnival burns down, so Josh and Joey leave Baton Rouge with $18 Josh saved up and $2 that Pete Harris gives them. The pair ends up traveling with a bootlegger named Charley, who is transporting beer in his car. Charley gives Josh a $20 bill in exchange for his smaller bills. Josh passes a store that sells shoes and he goes in, planning to buy some overshoes for Joey. He tries to pay for the $1.50 shoes with the twenty dollar bill, but the shopkeeper takes all of it, instead of giving him the change.

Once the money is gone the two then resort to begging again. One of the women they meet at first refuses to help them, but then changes her mind out of guilt and invites the two to have soup. Joey repays her the next day by offering her half of a loaf of bread he had gained while begging.

Furious at Joey for giving away their hard-earned food, and hampered by his own sickness of pneumonia, Josh strikes Joey. Joey vows to leave him, and indeed does leave, taking along Howie's banjo. When Josh is unable to find him, he falls unconscious from the cold and sickness. He is discovered with Lonnie's contact information in his wallet. When Josh wakes up, he finds himself at Lonnie's home in Omaha, Nebraska. Josh discovers that Joey has not been found, and describes to Lonnie what happened.

Josh also meets Janey, Lonnie's niece. The two soon become fond of each other and fall in love. Josh finds renewed hope in the new president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Lonnie, worried about Joey and sends postcards to both Mary and Stefan, as well Emily. When Mary responds, Josh is surprised that Stefan is having sleepless nights over Josh and Joey. Joey is found after being described in a radio announcement and a happy reunion occurs. They find a new job working at a restaurant as a pianist and singer, and immediately become popular, despite Joey's occasional offtune singing.

Josh and Janey part ways, leaving sorrow in their hearts. Josh and Joey return to Chicago and back to their father, who, surprisingly, comes to meet them at the train station and breaks down into tears, after which Josh notices he and his dad share many things in common.

Tomás Tomás, a womanizing bachelor who works in advertising, is having an affair with his boss Gloria. After visiting his doctor Mateo, who is also his friend and neighbor, he is struck by the new nurse Silvia and starts an affair with her too. When she finds out about Gloria, she falsifies the results of his blood test, notifying him that he has AIDS. He meanwhile has been struck by his neighbour Clarisa, a flight attendant engaged to a pilot Carlos, but realizes he cannot pursue her now.

In despair at his fate, he decides to commit suicide. While contemplating various methods, Clarisa bursts in in despair. She has found Carlos in bed with another woman and wants to end her life, so the two decide to go to the Torre Latinoamericana and jump from the top. Tomás leaves a voice message for Mateo and in the middle of the night the pair set off. When Mateo gets the message among friends at a party, he rushes to the Torre with the whole group, including his wife Teresa, Carlos, and Silvia.

At the top, Tomás tells Clarisa he loves her but can go no further because he has AIDS. She says, since they are both about to die, that does not now matter and the two make ecstatic love. Climbing the emergency stairs, Silvia calls out that the blood test was not positive. Instead of jumping, the lovers think about marrying.

This romantic story is told through the viewpoint of the children in the story, the adults playing only supporting roles. Daniel Latimer befriends the troublesome Ornshaw. However, when Daniel falls in love with Melody Perkins, the boys' friendship becomes jeopardized, as Ornshaw grows jealous of the amount of time that Daniel gives her. Initially embarrassed by the attention, Melody comes to return Daniel's feelings, and the couple announce to their parents that they want to get married. Not sometime in the future, but now. The adults attempt to dissuade them, but Daniel and Melody's determination leads Ornshaw to have a change of heart. Their classmates gather together at one of the children's hideouts to 'marry' the couple, with their discovery leading to a final showdown between children and teachers.

Teenage outcast Angela Franklin and her best friend Suzanne are throwing a party at Hull House, a mortuary abandoned from its gruesome past and rumored to be cursed by evil spirits. On the way there, Stooge, Helen and Rodger drive past an elderly man who is carrying apples and razor blades. When Stooge taunts him by showing his buttocks out of the passenger window, the elderly man curses at them and says that "they'll get what they deserve".

Judy Cassidy and her boyfriend Jay Jansen pick up their friends, Max and Frannie, for the party. When they arrive, Judy's ex-boyfriend Sal Romero crashes the party. They start the party by dancing, but the radio dies out. Angela then holds a séance as a party game, but Helen screams when she sees a demon in the mirror foreshadowing her demise; and the mirror falls to the ground in pieces. The group suddenly hears thuds below them, and the demon frees itself from the crematorium it was sealed in to possess a distracted Suzanne. The group searches around the house, and the possessed Suzanne forcefully kisses Angela for the demon to manifest in her too.

When Judy discovers that Jay only invited her to have sex, he abandons her in a room only for her to be apparently locked in. Rodger and Helen find no exit outside, but as Helen disappears and the demons call out Rodger's name he locks himself in the car. Stooge wanders with Suzanne to find a bathroom and he gets locked outside, where her face transforms and she smashes a mirror before disappearing. A confused Stooge finds Angela seductively dancing in front of the fireplace and begins to dance with her, but when they kiss she possesses him as she bites off his tongue. Meanwhile, Jay wanders off to find Suzanne in a bathroom with her breasts out and distorted lipstick all over her face and nipple. While they have sex, she reveals her inner demonic appearance to him and gouges his eyes. The possessed Stooge find Max and Frannie having sex in a coffin, and murders them both.

As Sal becomes horrified when he sees Angela putting her hands in the fire, Rodger (who had fallen asleep) is awoken from Helen's body crashing on the car. The two manage to free Judy, but are split up when the now openly demonic Angela chases after them. Hiding from Angela, Sal and Judy discover Suzanne with Jay's body before Sal is thrown out of a window. Judy escapes and she evades the demons throughout the house. When she attempts to climb down and Angela tries to kill her, Sal appears to fight her off and they both fall off the roof; with Sal impaled on a spike. Judy and Rodger are chased by the demons, and they lock themselves in the crematorium where they discover the truth of the demonic force. Just as Angela and Stooge break down the door, she uses a pipe funneling gas and ignites it to torch them which drives them away.

They escape upstairs and are cornered by the demons, including a burnt Angela and Stooge, and the demon possessed undead bodies of Suzanne, Jay, Max, Frannie and Sal. Rodger smashes through a window that leads them outside and they begin to climb up a wall by grabbing on the barbed wire around it, but the demons try to drag down Judy by her ankles. Rodger successfully pulls Judy up and they escape over the wall as the sun rises to destroy the possessed corpses and banish the demons back to hell. A severely shaken Judy and Rodger walk home together and they pass by the elderly man who watches them with contempt. He then enters his home to eat one of his wife's homemade pies for breakfast, only to realize too late she used the apples that he placed the razor blades in which he intended to use on Trick-or-Treaters. The blades graphically slice through his throat, killing him; his wife then casually approaches his dead body to kiss his head, saying "Happy Halloween, dear."

The five DigiDestined find their respective Human Spirits and merge with them to "Spirit Evolve" into Digimon themselves. While finding each of their Beast Spirits, they meet five other Legendary Warriors, who serve Cherubimon. After defeating them (the rest of them destroy one and Koji takes another Beast Spirit), Koji notices that Cherubimon and Koichi are opposing them. Takuya and his friends free Koichi, restore his power, and allow him to join them. They rescue Ophanimon. However, she sacrifices herself to save them. Ophanimon upgrades Takuya and Koji's D-Tectors, with the last of her strength to allow them to Unity Spirit Evolve. After defeating Cherubimon, the DigiDestined learn that Lucemon is sealed within the Digital World's core. Two Royal Knights, Dynasmon and Crusadermon, steal all of the world's data to awaken Lucemon. Takuya and Koji defeat the knights, just as they scan the Digital World. When Lucemon frees himself, he opens a portal to the real world. When Koichi sacrifices his power, Lucemon leaves the Digital World. While all spirits combine to form into the ultimate Legendary Warrior Digimon Susanoomon, Lucemon arrives at the real world. After reviving Ophanimon, Cherubimon and Seraphimon, Susanoomon destroys Lucemon, restoring the data and the Digital World. The children return to the real world and realize that an hour did not pass. They save Koichi by using the power of D-Tectors, before they revert into cell phones. Takuya and his friends embrace their future.

The three main characters are Sandry, a Lord of Tep's Town, Sandry's cousin Regapisk, also a Lord, and Burning Tower, a daughter of Whandall, the main character of the previous book. Regapisk is an incompetent Lord and his family arrange for him to be shanghaied to become an oarsman on a coastal ship. Sandry and Burning Tower are romantically linked throughout the book.

Large flightless birds attack trading caravans, but Sandry fights them off. He is sent by the Lords with the caravan, of which Burning Tower is also a part, to discover the source of the birds. They travel to the southern city of Condigeo and then to Crescent City, defeating terror bird attacks along the way. In Crescent City, they are joined by Regapisk, who has escaped from his ship. The three of them travel on to the high-magic city of Aztlan, where Regapisk redeems himself.

The authors researched Aztec culture for the book, and many aspects of the culture depicted in the book are based on that research. This is explained in a brief note at the end of the book. Also mentioned is that within the described timeline, the terror birds continued to exist until long after humans spread through the Americas; this is based on the North American phorusrhacid ''Titanis walleri'' (but see McFadden ''et al.'' 2007).

In London in the year 1907, a British aristocrat, industrialist and millionaire named Sir Anthony Ross (Donald Sinden) hastily arranges an expedition to the Arctic to search for his lost son Donald. Donald has become lost on a whaling expedition to find the fabled island where whales go to die.

Sir Anthony employs the talents of a Scandinavian-American archaeologist Professor John Ivarsson (David Hartman) and Captain Brieux (Jacques Marin), a French inventor/aeronaut who pilots the expedition in a French dirigible named the ''Hyperion'', which Captain Brieux invented. Upon reaching the Arctic, they meet Oomiak (Mako Iwamatsu), a comically cowardly/brave Eskimo friend of Donald's, and trick him into helping them join in the search.

Ultimately, the expedition becomes (temporarily) separated from Captain Brieux, and discovers an uncharted island named Astragard, occupied by a lost civilization of Norsemen, cut off from the rest of the world for centuries. They capture Sir Anthony and Ivarsson, but Oomiak escapes. Shortly thereafter they find Donald, but are nearly put to death by the outrageous fanatical and pugnacious judgmental Godi (pronounced [ɡəʊdi], a lawspeaker/authority figure.

The three men (Sir Anthony, Ivarsson and Donald) are saved from being burned alive by a brave and beautiful girl named Freyja, with whom Donald is deeply and mutually in love with her. They escape, and are rejoined by Oomiak and eventually find the Whale's Graveyard, but are attacked by killer whales. Here they are saved by the sudden reappearance of Captain Brieux, but they are still being pursued by the angry Godi and his rather unwilling warriors.

Finally, the Godi is killed by the explosion when he shoots a fiery arrow at the ''Hyperion'', but the Vikings feel sorry to the four adventurers for their prejudice hatred led by the Godi who made the Norse gods angry for shockingly bad behavior and scheming crime against the newcomers so they will not let the expedition return to their world unless one of them remains behind as a hostage in peace to prevent them for telling the outsiders that secret world of Astragard. Ivarsson however, willingly volunteers to stay, because this is a chance to relive history. Ivarsson also points out that if someday mankind is ever foolish enough to destroy itself, places like Astragard may become humanity's final refuge.

Sir Anthony, Donald, Freyja, Captain Brieux and Oomiak, are allowed to depart in peace, promising not to tell the outside world about Astragard. As Ivarsson heads back to Astragard, he turns to look back just in time to see his four friends move further and further away until they vanish into the Arctic mist.

Volume 1

Introduction

The story begins with Horace Holyoke remembering Oldtown as he had known it when he was young. He describes the town and then his father's life as a teacher at the local academy where he met Horace's mother, Susy Badger, who was his prettiest student. Life and parenthood were hard on the couple. His mother's beauty faded and his father's health was weakened by his attempts to provide for his family while trying to continue his studies. His father then died of consumption when Horace was only ten and his brother Bill was about twelve.

Horace and his mother were going to live with his grandparents so that he could continue his studies. His brother went to work on the farm with their uncle Jacob Badger. Deacon Badger, Horace's grandfather is a farmer and miller in Oldtown and is a fairly important figure in the community. Horace finds comfort from his grandparents and also from Sam Lawson, the town bum, handyman, and gossip. The Badgers' kitchen is a type of meeting place for people in the town. While there, Horace hears stories of the town and also intellectual discussions on religion and philosophy. This causes his hunger for knowledge to grow even more.

New folks

Harry and Eglantine (Tina) Percival come into the story a few years later when they walk into a nearby town with their sick mother. They are on their way to Boston because their father, Sir Harry Percival, an English officer, deserted his family when his regiment returned to England. He took his wife's wedding certificate with him and left behind only a note denying the legality of their marriage. The children come into the care of the nice Mrs. Smith. However her husband, Caleb (Old Crab) Smith, is a very unhappy man and decides they needed to be put to work immediately and separated. He intends to keep the boy as a field hand, and Tina is taken in by Caleb's sister, Miss Asphyxia. The children are treated so harshly that they run away with the help of Miss Asphyxia's hired help, Sol. They are told to walk to the neighboring Oldtown. On the way they spend a night in the reportedly haunted Dench Mansion on the outskirts of Oldtown where they are discovered the next day by Sam.

Harry and Tina are brought to Deacon Badger and his wife to be looked after. Within a few days, it is decided that Harry is to remain with the Badgers. The minister's wife, Mrs. Lothrop's, decided she would pay for the boy's clothing and education to help out the Badgers. Miss Mehitable Rossiter, who lived a sad, deprived life after the disappearance of her half sister Emily, adopts Tina. Horace, Harry, and Tina become best friends from that time on.

Mrs. Lothrop takes the children to Boston with her for Easter. They visit the very kind and wealthy Madame Kittery, Mrs. Lothrop's mother. Madame Kittery became very interested in Horace and learned of his desire to attend college and also of his lack of funds. She decided to pay for his and Harry's attendance to Harvard when they were old enough. While in Boston they meet Ellery Davenport, Mrs. Lothrop's cousin, who had served in the Continental army and had several diplomatic posts abroad. He was very handsome and charming but had a mad wife. Over Thanksgiving, Ellery Davenport and Mrs. Lothrop's sister, Deborah, went to Oldtown for a visit. Ellery paid particular attention to the pretty, young Tina. On the departure of the visit, Ellery promises Miss Mehitable that he will look for her lost sister in France when he is next there.

Volume 2

Cloudland Academy

The three children are older now. Horace and Harry are eighteen and Tina is about fifteen and she had become even more beautiful. The schoolmaster and then Miss Mehitable's cousin, Mordecai, fall in love with her. It is decided that she, along with Horace and Harry, will attend the academy at Cloudland where Jonathan Rossiter, Miss Mehitable's half brother, is master of the academy. The boys live with Mr. Rossiter, and Tina with the minister, Mr. Avery. Mr. Avery's daughter, Esther, becomes the newest addition to the group of best friends.

Harvard

Harry decides to study for the ministry after graduation. He also falls in love with Esther while at Cloudland. Horace simply wants to live his life with Tina, whom he has loved since they first met. Shortly before their graduation from the academy, Ellery Davenport returns from England with important news for Harry. He found Sir Harry Percival and was able to get the marriage certificate from him because young Harry was now his only heir. During Ellery's visit, Tina is strangely shy and Horace could tell she was smitten with him.

Horace and Harry soon enter Harvard as sophomores. Tina visits often when she stays with the Kitterys or writes letters to them when she is in Oldtown. A change in the letters causes Horace to begin to worry about Ellery Davenport's influence on her. A short time later, he hears that Ellery's insane wife has died. Then they learn that Harry's father has also died and Harry is now Sir Harry Percival, an heir to a large estate. The two friends return to Oldtown for the spring vacation where they find out that Tina is engaged to marry Ellery.

Marriage

Since Ellery has to return to his job in London so quickly, the wedding occurs very shortly after the engagement. After the ceremony, Ellery and Tina were going to spend a short time in the fixed-up Dench mansion. However, when they arrive, they find a woman waiting for them in the house. The woman is Emily Rossiter, whom Ellery had contacted in France as asked, but then he seduced her. Emily followed him to America in refusal of his bribe to keep her quiet. Emily has also had a child with Ellery who she brought with to America.

Tina decides that she can not leave Ellery, so she goes to England with him and brings the young, bastard girl along to raise as her own. She gives money to Miss Mehitable to buy a house and live with Emily near Boston. She writes often, but her letters become increasingly unlike her. Emery is being driven mad by his career and it takes its toll on Tina.

What came of it

Meanwhile, Harry marries Esther and they moved to England to take over his father's estate. Horace feels very alone at this point.

After eight years, Ellery and Tina move back to Massachusetts. Tina seems to be a completely different person. Horace is now a successful lawyer and visits them often. He witnesses Ellery becomes more reckless until he is killed in a political duel. Two years after that Horace and Tina finally get married. They visit Oldtown often to visit family and friends and to reminisce.

Strieber is in New York City in October 1988 when it is attacked by Soviet nuclear weapons. He experiences the initial blast while riding a bus, and witnesses the flooding of the subway system by a tsunami in the wake of a nuclear detonation at sea. Strieber is reunited with his family at his son's school and shelters there, but experiences radiation sickness. Upon his recovery, he and his family leave New York for San Antonio which they soon discover was destroyed as well. They eventually settle in Dallas, where he becomes a farmer.

Five years later, Strieber and Kunetka decide to document the effects of Warday on the United States; they travel first through devastated southeast and southwest Texas. They then visit the new nation-state of Aztlan in the former American Southwest, and conduct interviews with its foreign minister and citizens. They then conduct interviews while trying to evade the omnipresent police in Los Angeles, California. California, physically not touched by the attack, has become a self-governing, authoritarian police state which treats outsiders as "illegal immigrants." In San Francisco they reunite with an old friend of Strieber's, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, but then are captured, arrested, and sentenced to years of hard labor in prison.

En route to prison they escape by train and continue their interviews across the Midwest, taking refuge periodically from the highly radioactive dust storms now ubiquitous in the dustbowl conditions of the Midwest (created by the nuclear bombing of the Dakotas). After visiting Chicago, they continue east into Pennsylvania and into what remains of New York City, where Strieber, overcome with emotion, returns to his old apartment in the very dangerous ruins of Manhattan. The book ends with Strieber and Kunetka back in Texas facing an uncertain future.

The war

The former Undersecretary of Defense tells Strieber that the United States was deploying Spiderweb, an advanced anti-ballistic missile system which could use an orbiting particle beam to destroy both land and submarine launched missiles. To prevent its deployment, the Soviets destroyed the Space Shuttle ''Enterprise'' with a hunter-killer satellite. The Soviets then detonated a set of six large nuclear warheads in space above the United States, causing a massive electromagnetic pulse that crippled electronics across the country. The Soviets then launched a limited first strike using satellites to deploy their warheads. In response, the U.S. president, aboard Boeing E-4 NEACP, authorized a counterattack, destroying Moscow, Leningrad, Sevastopol, and the capitals of the Soviet Republics. Shortly afterwards, the NEACP, crippled by the electromagnetic pulse, crash-landed in North Carolina, killing the President but leaving other survivors including the Undersecretary.

The "limited attack" by the Soviets destroyed Washington, D.C., San Antonio, and most of Long Island, and ICBM missile fields and major air bases in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming, killing about 7 million people. The subsequent firestorms and fallout destroyed most of Brooklyn, Queens, Baltimore, and most of southwest Texas. The Soviet Navy also launched nuclear attacks that destroyed about 90 percent of the United States Navy. The duration of the war was 36 minutes.

Post-war United States

Manhattan and the remaining undamaged boroughs are evacuated, cordoned off, and eventually fall into ruin, without water, electrical, or transit systems. Water in New Jersey is contaminated by runoff from damaged petrochemical industries. Philadelphia and Houston are evacuated because of heavy fallout from the D.C. and San Antonio bombings. Radioactive dusting of the Midwest and Central Plains causes a famine that kills millions. Less than a year after the war, a new strain of influenza known as the Cincinnati Flu quickly reached epidemic levels, killing 21 million throughout the United States and millions more worldwide. The remaining US citizens remain in danger from radiation poisoning and from a new incurable disease of unknown origin, Non-Specific Sclerosing Disease.

Soon there is no longer a single United States; California and Texas form ''de facto'' independent nations, with autonomous military forces and currencies. The now-nearly-powerless federal government is re-established in Los Angeles.

West Coast

Having suffered no direct attacks or fallout, California has recovered from the EMP to a prewar standard of living, with heavy Japanese and British investment and influence. Fearful that millions of refugees from the rest of the U.S. would deluge the state and greatly damage its enviable standard of living, California closed off its borders, suspended ''habeas corpus'', and became overtly authoritarian in both outlook and operation. Suspected illegal immigrants are immediately imprisoned or deported, or even executed. Other regions, such as the Pacific Northwest and the Deep South that also escaped the worst of Warday, have adopted similar but less draconian measures. Though it hosts the President and remnants of the Federal Government, California in practice is a sovereign nation, hosting ''de facto'' embassies of the world's surviving powers in Sacramento.

Aztlan

A new Hispanic/Native American nation named Aztlan emerges through secession. Its government claims all of the area from West Texas to the California border up to Nevada, has forcibly expelled almost all white residents, and has set up a libertarian socialist country that grants total autonomy to the Native American tribes within its borders. It welcomes Mexican immigrants, and announces plans to form a Hispanic nation along the Mexican border that includes California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas west of the Pecos. The Japanese provide economic aid to Aztlan in exchange for exploitation of natural resources such as soy and uranium, and there is evidence that in reality, Aztlan has become a client state of Japan. Aztlan is recognized by most nations in Africa and Latin America, but the Governor of Texas plans to retake Aztlan by force.

Economy, culture, and society

The EMP destroyed most bank accounts, 401ks, pension funds, financial records, the stock market, the credit system and other electronically stored assets in the United States and Canada. Money had undergone a rapid deflation and the economy reverted to a Gold Dollar system. Most electronic machinery and devices are also irretrievably damaged. Oil falls to 12 cents a barrel, while many other nations have called in loans and debts owed them by the United States.

The Catholic and Episcopal churches reunite, and assisted suicide in the face of painful terminal illness is accepted and sanctioned by religious leaders including the Holy See. Wicca, "alternative" medicine, and organic medicine become common. Many Americans become Destructuralists, anarchists, and Luddites, rejecting civic authority and returning to a primitive lifestyle. Damaged communication systems mean that the American people remain isolated, and many believe that the USSR had won the war.

Foreign companies move into the unaffected regions of the US to sell electronics, machinery, and investments, while exploiting it for natural resources, leading to fears that the United States will be reduced to Third World dependency. In spite of this, most Americans believe that the United States will recover its status as a great power.

The USSR

Through their interviews Strieber and Kunetka hear many reports and rumors on the current state of the Soviet Union. It is certain that the USSR collapsed, with almost half its population killed on Warday or dead by the time the authors are writing the book five years later. Yet whether the Soviet Premier and the Politburo survived remains a mystery. Some former Soviet republics (such as the "Kingdom of Azerbaijan" as well as a White Russian enclave) have declared themselves independent states. It has been reported, though unconfirmed, that mysterious "purple bombs" destroyed Ukraine's wheat fields. Although the Soviet Army units stationed in the Warsaw Pact nations disbanded due to the lack of orders or direction from Moscow, rogue Soviet submarines still roam the Arctic, raiding Alaskan and Canadian coastal towns for supplies. These are actively hunted by the Royal Navy, and their remaining warheads are still targeted on the United States.

The rest of the world

As the conflict escalated between the U.S. and the Soviets, the United Kingdom, France, and West Germany signed a secret "Treaty of Coventry", that declared themselves neutral to the Soviets while they seized U.S. military facilities in their respective countries. In exchange, the Soviets spared Western Europe from invasion and nuclear attack.

In the vacuum left by the destruction of the Soviets and the U.S., the United Kingdom and Japan have become superpowers. West Germany and East Germany have reunited, the United States is dependent on the British and Japan for aid and financial support, and many Americans hope to emigrate to the United Kingdom. An intergovernmental aid organization called "British Relief", backed by British military units stationed in the United States, plays a large role in the governing of the country. The British occupy strategic seaports along the East Coast, such as Boston—in effect, a restoration of British America, but includes areas that had never been under British rule before 1775. A large Japanese military presence also exists, especially in the Aztlan region around El Paso. Important technological resources, such as the Los Alamos National Laboratory, have been seized by the Japanese, with scientists being shipped to Japan in a similar manner to Operation Paperclip after World War II. Many interviewees mention the potential of a future Cold War between Britain and Japan.

Mexico, while escaping immediate destruction, without U.S. aid and trade quickly collapsed into anarchy with revolutions reported in Mexico City, mass death from famine, and outbreaks of the Cincinnati Flu. Canada, despite escaping direct hits from nuclear weapons, was affected by the electromagnetic pulse attack on the United States and its economy was destroyed as a result. The country has closed its borders to U.S. refugees, expelling many people from North Dakota who had sought shelter in the days following the war. The Canadians blamed the United States for having sparked the war without thinking of the consequences to neighboring countries. The U.S. sold Alaska to the Canadians, with the oil of Prudhoe Bay being diverted to Vancouver.

Argentina and most of Latin America, though undamaged, was occupied and partitioned among Western nations to stabilize food stocks allocated to Europe and to prevent a fate similar to Mexico's. What remains of the Soviet Union has lost control of its former satellite states in the Eastern Bloc. Elsewhere, Poland invaded the Ukraine to retake territory ceded to the Soviet Union during World War II, while South Africa is at war with Zimbabwe. In the Middle East, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict continues. The developing world, particularly the Indian subcontinent, Latin America, Asia, and Africa, experienced severe population declines due to famine.

The curtain opens on Domenico Soriano, 50, a wealthy Neapolitan shop-keeper who is raging against Filumena, 48, a former prostitute. They lived together for 26 years as husband and wife (but with his frequently having trysts with other women) and she has tricked him, pretending to be near death, and convincing him to marry her ''in extremis''. Domenico, however, would rather marry Diana, a young girl, who is already in the house pretending to be a nurse. Filumena reveals the real reason for the marriage to Domenico: She wants to create a family for her three children (Umberto, Michele and Riccardo) who have no idea of who their mother really is.

Domenico is not going to allow this and asks his lawyer Nocella to annul the marriage. Filumena speaks to the young men telling them that she is their mother. Filumena accepts the defeat of the annulment, but tells Domenico that one of the three children is actually his. All attempts to find out who his son is fail, and Domenico, after 10 months, remarries Filumena accepting to be the father of all three.

In the play, Filumena memorably tells Domenico that "children are children, and they're all equal" (''I figli sono figli e sono tutti uguali'').

Jack Curtis and Troy Alexander, new recruits of the LightStormer Corps, receive psionic implants upon completing their training missions. Through his training performance, Jack has placed comparably to his elder brother and commanding officer Blake Curtis – and their late father, a revered LightStormer who was a personal friend of United Nations President Krieger. Blake gets an emergency call: a crew of Cryo-Pirates have commandeered a space station in Jupiter's orbit. At Blake's orders, Jack goes to the station and activates the self-destruct sequence. A mysterious girl named Eve monitors Jack in action.

President Krieger has taken notice of Jack and ordered an endorphine boost for him. They talk briefly with Troy, who is being sent on a "special assignment" by President Krieger. Another emergency call comes in, this time from Triton, one of Neptune's moons, where a colony of scientists was established ten years ago to terraform the moon. The colony has been overrun by hostile aliens, so Jack is dispatched to eradicate them. Returning from Triton, Jack learns that Troy has been killed in action on Mars while attempting to locate a mysterious psionic orb. Blake hopes Jack will succeed where Troy failed. Jack comes through, despite having little more than his psionics to fight with.

Jack is unhappy that he is not allowed some R&R to clear his head given the orb's vast enhancement of his psionic abilities. Blake reminds him that President Krieger has final say on all such decisions. Jack is sent to Antarctica to wipe out the test subjects recovered from the Triton incident that got loose and stole a batch of Cyclone weapons. Jack's objective is to retrieve their genetic databank. After this, Jack is sent to Jupiter's moon Io, retaking the colony from Jovian gangsters who commandeered a sulfate mine and production plant. President Krieger personally congratulates Jack upon his triumphant return. He then dispatches Jack to New Atlantis, to join Blake for some R&R. Blake calls in from New Atlantis. The colony has been overrun with hostile mechs and a reactor coolant leak is about to destroy the whole place.

Jack rushes over, outfights the mechs and kicks in the backup coolant to find it disabled. New Atlantis explodes, killing Blake and thousands of innocents. Jack alone survives because Eve beamed him out. She explains that President Krieger used Jack to locate and bring back the psionic orb and the Triton alien soldiers' genetic databank, because this will give him all but unlimited psionic power and a private military company staffed with physically superior extraterrestrial soldiers. Eve is the head of the rebel faction the Alliance Of Democracy, which is attempting to overthrow Krieger's presidency and replace it with their own regime. She convinces Jack of their cause. Jack takes on Krieger's private army as he infiltrates the president's headquarters, but he is captured by a teleporter in his office and restrained to a chair.

Krieger is unnerved by Jack's flippant defiance and reveals Jack's father got wise to Krieger's pursuit of the orb and threatened to expose his then commanding officer, promting Krieger to send a group of "terrorists" to kill Jack's father. Krieger uses his Extractor torture device to try to retrieve the Terrablast implant from Jack's skull while putting him under an induced hallucinatory nightmare to erode his will. Jack resists and battles his way free of the hallucinations. He then storms through Krieger's secret base and the president's forces, at last taking out Krieger. There are two different endings depending on the difficulty level. In easy mode, Eve becomes President of the U.N., and Jack head of the LightStormer Corps. In hard mode, Jack himself becomes the U.N.'s new president.

On Christmas Eve in London, Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly moneylender at a counting house, does not share the merriment of Christmas. He declines an offer from recently widowed Mr. Smythe and his daughter Grace to pay for Mrs. Smythe's funeral, voicing his support for the prisons and workhouses for the poor, declining his nephew Fred's invitation to Christmas dinner, and reluctantly accepts his loyal employee Bob Cratchit's request to have Christmas Day off since there will be no business for Scrooge on the day. As Scrooge leaves for home, he encounters three individuals—a candle-lighter, a barker and an old blind woman—and declines their offers to collect money for charity. In his house, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley, who warns Scrooge to repent or be condemned in the afterlife like he was, informing him that three spirits will visit him during the night.

At one o'clock, Scrooge is visited by the fairy-like Ghost of Christmas Past, who takes him back in time to his childhood and early adult life. They visit the time when his father John William was sentenced for not paying debts, his lonely days as a boot factory worker, and then his time as an employee under Mr. Fezziwig. Fezziwig throws a Christmas party, where Scrooge befriends and is engaged to a young woman named Emily. However, the Ghost shows Scrooge how he and Marley chose money over Fezziwig and how Emily later left Scrooge after realising how hard-hearted he has become. The Ghost finally shows him when Marley dies after overworking himself. A devastated Scrooge dismisses the Ghost as he returns to the present.

At two o'clock, Scrooge is visited by the merry Ghost of Christmas Present who shows him the joys and wonder of Christmas Day. Scrooge and the Ghost next visit Bob Cratchit's house, learning his family is content with their dinner, as Scrooge takes pity on Bob's ill son, Tiny Tim. The Ghost then comments that Tiny Tim might not survive until next Christmas. Scrooge and the Ghost visit Fred's house, where Fred hopes that someday his uncle will join them as family. The Ghost shows him the evils of "Ignorance" and "Want" before he disappears and Scrooge finds himself back in his house.

At three o'clock, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Be approaches Scrooge, appearing as a silent woman under a beggar's robes. The Ghost takes Scrooge into the future of 1850. In a cemetery, Scrooge recognizes his deceased self as his housekeeper Mrs. Mopps trades his possessions to a fence named Old Joe. Scrooge then discovers Tiny Tim has died and when the Ghost points out his own grave, he vows to change his ways. Scrooge is surrounded by the Cratchits, Grace and the spirits of his mother and sister, which encourage him to feel love and compassion again. Scrooge's grave begins to crack, hinting the future already has begun to change, and Scrooge, misunderstanding this to be a sign he is doomed, tries to run as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come throws his bed curtains over him to return him to his bed.

Finding it is Christmas Day, a gleeful Scrooge decides to surprise Bob's family with a turkey dinner, and ventures out to spread happiness and joy throughout London. After paying off Mr. Smythe's debt, Scrooge once again encounters the candle-lighter, barker, and blind woman—who are the Ghosts in their human forms—and thanks them. Scrooge goes to the Cratchit house, at first putting on a stern demeanor, and then revealing he intends to raise Bob's salary and pay off his mortgage. Scrooge then goes to Fred's house to celebrate Christmas with the neighborhood and the Cratchits.

Friedrich Mergel is the only son of Hermann Mergel, a violent alcoholic, and his second wife Margreth. He grows up in the village of B. ("Dorf B."), a small, isolated village in 18th century Westphalia, whose inhabitants work mostly as farmers, some of which are involved in illegal logging. After his father's death, twelve-year-old Friedrich is adopted by Simon Semmler, his mother's younger brother and her only surviving relative, who lives in the nearby village of Brede.

Over the years, Friedrich turns from a silent, pensive boy into an ostentatious young man. When a forester is killed with an axe after Friedrich deliberately sent him in the wrong direction, he is questioned by the authorities, but no charges are brought against him and the other townspeople. He later notices a missing axe in his uncle Simon's household, who gives a flimsy excuse upon his request. At a village festivity, Friedrich tries to impress the bystanders with a silver watch, but is ridiculed when Jew Aaron publicly declares that Friedrich still owes him the money for the watch. Shortly after, Aaron is found murdered, blungeoned to death. Friedrich, the main suspect, flees the village with Johannes, Simon's workhand. The local Jewish community acquires the Beech where Aaron's body was found, and marks it with the words Half a year later, an arrested criminal confesses of having slain a person named Aaron in the woods, but it remains unclear if he refers to the Aaron killed by the Beech.

28 years later, on 24 December 1788, a frail elderly man appears in Brede, claiming to be Johannes, who had escaped together with Friedrich. After both had enlisted in the Austrian army, he was taken prisoner by the Turks and held as a slave, until he returned to Europe on a Dutch ship. Since Simon has long died, the man is taken in by a widow in the village, and the local landlord sees to it that he is given new clothes and regular meals.

A few months later, the man disappears. His decomposed body is eventually found at the site of Aaron's murder, where he hanged himself in the Beech. The landlord examines the corpse and, upon discovering a scar on the body, identifies him as the missing Friedrich Mergel, not Johannes. The novella closes with a translation of the Hebrew words carved into the tree: "If you approach this spot, what you did to me will happen to you."

The day before Christmas, miserly Ebenezer Scrooge refuses to contribute to the Charity Relief Committee, and then rudely rejects his nephew Fred when he visits Scrooge in his office. When Scrooge returns home, he sees the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley, who warns him of the punishment he will suffer in the next life if he does not change his ways. That night, Scrooge is visited by three more spirits, who show him his past, present, and future.

Characters

Seven returning characters from previous ''Crash'' titles star in ''N-Tranced''. The protagonist of the game, Crash Bandicoot, is a bandicoot who must rescue his friends from the hypnosis of the main antagonist Doctor Nefarious Tropy and his ally N. Trance. Aiding Crash is Aku Aku, an ancient wooden mask who can temporarily protect Crash from harm. Crash's friends, who have been captured and hypnotized by the main antagonists, consist of Coco Bandicoot, Crash's spirited genius sister and Crunch Bandicoot, a "super-bandicoot" who joined Crash's family after the events of ''Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex''. The main antagonist of the story, Doctor Nefarious Tropy, is the self-proclaimed master of time who teams up with Aku Aku's evil twin brother Uka Uka. A new character in the series is N. Trance, an egg-like being from the Fifth Dimension who uses his mastery of hypnotism to command Crash's friends. Also aiding the villains is Fake Crash, an deformed alter ego duplicate of Crash.

Story

After the failure of Doctor Neo Cortex's previous scheme to shrink the Earth, Uka Uka entrusts Doctor Nefarious Tropy with the task of aiding him in universal domination. Tropy peers into the future and sees himself standing amongst the Bandicoots and concludes that since the Bandicoots keep thwarting them, their only solution is to bring them to their side. With this, he recruits N. Trance, master of hypnotism. Meanwhile, back on N. Sanity Island, Crash Bandicoot sleeps away while his friends Crunch and sister Coco are abducted by a strange vortex. Aku Aku alerts Crash of the situation and tells him to bring him a Power Crystal so that he can see into what's going on. But when he does, Crash begins to be sucked in by the vortex. While Aku Aku tries to rescue Crash, he uses the Power Crystal's power to discover that N. Tropy is behind this. With the last of his power, he rescues Crash. N. Tropy ends up abducting Crash's alter ego clone named Fake Crash, but he doesn't seem to notice and has N. Trance successfully hypnotise the Bandicoots into doing his every whim.

Meanwhile, somewhere else in hyperspace, Crash and Aku Aku plan to collect more Power Crystals so that Aku Aku can open more areas of hyperspace, free Coco and Crunch, and foil N. Tropy's plan. Crash frees Crunch after a battle in the skies of Baghdad and Coco is freed after a battle inside a volcano. After Crash defeats Fake Crash inside an Egyptian tomb, N. Tropy and N. Trance realize that they've captured the wrong Crash, but assure themselves that the Bandicoots will never find their hideout. However, with a few more Power Crystals, Crash and Aku Aku enter the hideout. When Crash and Fake Crash defeat N. Trance, N. Tropy flees into one last vortex. Crash defeats N. Tropy after a long and tough battle. With N. Tropy's defeat and capture, Aku Aku decides they should take a picture to celebrate. The Bandicoots group around N. Tropy as Fake Crash takes a picture. This turns out to be the future N. Tropy saw. Meanwhile, Uka Uka, upset over N. Tropy's defeat, promises a real adversary in the future.

The opening letters between Thomas Harrington and Jack Worthy reveal that Thomas has fallen for Harriot Fawcet, despite the reservations of his father. Harriot resists Thomas's initial advances, as he intends to make her his mistress; readers also find that Jack encourages Thomas to abandon his licentious motives in favor of properly courting Harriot. However, when Thomas and Harriot become engaged, Eliza Holmes becomes alarmed and exposes a deep family secret to Thomas's sister Myra: Harriot is in fact Thomas and Myra’s illegitimate half-sister. Mr. Harrington's one time affair with Maria Fawcet resulted in Harriot's birth, which had to be kept a secret to maintain the family’s honor. Thus, Eliza’s mother-in-law, the late Mrs. Holmes, took Maria, Thomas and Harriot into her home. After Maria’s death, Harriot was raised by a family friend, Mrs. Francis.

Upon receiving the news of this family secret, Harriot and Thomas are devastated, as their relationship is incestuous and thus forbidden. Harriot falls into a grief-stricken consumption (a condition now referred to as tuberculosis), from which she is unable to recover. Thomas spirals into a deep depression and commits suicide after learning of Harriot's death.

In the waning years of the Cold War, Nicholas Foley, a Soviet sleeper agent and a survivor of the World War II siege of Leningrad, is a scientist and technological genius quietly working in American academia. He develops an ultrasonic gadget with which he can indetectably control the minds of others. His wife knows his secrets, but loves him too much to turn him over to Federal authorities. When both the Americans and the Soviets find out what Foley has invented, his wife is kidnapped, and he is forced to flee the CIA and the KGB. He must save his wife, elude capture in a massive manhunt and, at a summit meeting between the President of the United States and the Soviet premier, make a daring masterstroke for peace in our time, and for all time.

Childhood

The first section of the book deals with the lives of protagonists as children and teenagers. It reveals some of the events that proved formative in the life of the children.

Waldo is initially presented as a deeply devout Christian, a philosophy he appears to have inherited from his widower father Otto, the kindly German farm-keeper. As the narrative progresses, Waldo becomes increasingly disillusioned with his faith, a crisis brought on by a series of traumatic events, as well as his growing interest in wider philosophical works.

Lyndall has no such qualms. Apparently a freethinker, she seems uninterested in religion as a whole. Instead, her focus is more on the status of women in the late 19th century. A seeker after knowledge and autonomy, she is frustrated by the limited choices offered to her as a woman. Lyndall is a sceptic by nature, a strong-willed and independent child who does not hesitate to disobey even her adult supervisors whenever she deems them unworthy of respect.

Em, the stepdaughter of Tant (Aunt) Sannie and cousin to Lyndall is presented as a cheerful, friendly but somewhat ignorant child. Em serves as a character foil to Waldo and Lyndall; she is content to believe whatever she is told by the adults in her life. Em often becomes the scapegoat for Lyndall's rebellion.

The English South African Bonaparte Blenkins is an inveterate liar and confidence trickster. He arrives at the farm spinning a tale of woe, presenting himself as a successful businessman who has fallen on hard times. Tant Sannie reluctantly agrees to allow Bonaparte to remain on the farm, under the care of Otto. Bonaparte welcomes the opportunity – he is, after all, only interested in winning the heart of Tant Sannie, and thereby her farm.

Bonaparte's cruelty towards the children borders on sadism. He is especially hard on Waldo whom he seems to despise. Bonaparte's actions towards Waldo provide a number of the events that lead to his crisis of faith. On the other hand, Bonaparte appears to be unsure of Lyndall, and even somewhat cowed. When Lyndall directly confronts Bonaparte regarding one of his many lies, he punishes Em in Lyndall's place. Bonaparte continues in his attempts to woo Tant Sannie, until her younger, richer niece Trana comes to visit. Tant Sannie eventually catches Bonaparte attempting to court Trana and ejects him from the farm.

Otto, the German farm-keeper and Waldo's father, is a deeply religious person. He is unceasing in his efforts to convert the native farm workers, much to their amusement. Otto is gregarious, compassionate and friendly, unwilling to think ill of anyone. He even defends Bonaparte on more than one occasion. Bonaparte repays him by contriving to have Tant Sannie terminate Otto's employment as the farm-keeper. Bonaparte succeeds, but Otto succumbs to a heart attack and dies before leaving the farm.

Times and Seasons

Although technically the first chapter of Part II of the book, "Times and Seasons", differs in style and narrative from those that surround it. This section deals with Waldo – his name appears just once in the chapter – in the first sentence.

"Times and Seasons" follows the journey of faith from infancy through adulthood. Although ostensibly revolving around Waldo, the frequent use of plural pronouns may indicate that the author is including herself in Waldo's journey, making this section the most personal of the book.

The first year, infancy, is marked by an innominate thirst for something to worship and a wonder at the beauty of nature. This is followed by the beginnings of a coalescence of dogma – Angels – but the wonder at the beauty of nature remains and indeed appears to increase.

The next section is marked by a specific age – seven years old. The Bible has become the primary focus, and it is read avidly. New concepts are found in its pages. These are brought to the attention of adults, who appear uninterested. At the same time, the beginnings of doubt begin to creep in. Questions are answered in a diffident manner, and the answers reluctantly accepted.

Two years pass, and in that time the natural world recedes, to be replaced by a bittersweet relationship with God and the Bible. The concept of Hell looms ever larger; doubt in the form of the Devil assails the child. He asks difficult questions – and the superficial answers of the supposedly wise adults no longer suffice. And yet at the same time, a sense of ineffable peace, the feeling of sins forgiven is felt. But this feeling does not endure – before long, the Devil again appears with snide questions and the threat of Hell and Damnation looms again. And so the cycle continues – alternating doubt and serenity.

There is no indication of how much time has passed, but the next section finds the child apparently at ease with a Universalist concept of God. There is no threat of wrath, no Hell, no Damnation. The "Mighty Heart" loves all its children, regardless. The old, questioning Devil has been silenced.

The dream cannot continue – reality rudely awakens the dreamer. He sees the World as it really is, unjust, evil – no evidence of a supernal, all-consuming love. As a consequence, the one-time believer becomes the Atheist. An allusion is made here to the grave of a loved one – whether this refers to Otto or Lyndall (or both) is not clear. The Realist now goes through life uncaring, finding some measure of peace in manual labour and the Sciences. The wonder and beauty of Nature again reasserts itself, greatly increased. The rationalist becomes enamoured with the natural world, taking delight in its many mysteries and revelations. In a sense, the old worship of musty religion is replaced by a new and vital worship of nature in all its intricacy. With this worship comes the realisation that all is interconnected, and the section ends with Waldo beginning to live again, at ease with his new world and his place in it.

Adulthood

The third section of the book (technically the second chapter of Part II) opens with Waldo on the farm, making a wood-carving. Contextual clues place the time somewhere after the end of Chapter 1 ("Times and Seasons"), when Waldo has entered his rational-universalist phase and appears to be content. Em (who is said to be sixteen years old) visits Waldo with tea and cakes, and announces that the new farm-keeper has arrived, an English immigrant (the book later reveals) by the name of Gregory Rose. Sometime after she leaves, a stranger on horseback appears and converses with Waldo. After inquiring about the nature and meaning of Waldo's carving, the stranger relates the Hunter's Allegory.

The Hunter's Allegory is somewhat similar to "Times and Seasons" in theme, tracing the journey from blind superstition to the painful search for Truth, this time using the literary device of Allegory. Once done with his tale, the stranger leaves after handing Waldo an unnamed book of Philosophy.

This is followed by a recounting of a letter which the new Farm-Keeper, Gregory Rose writes to his sister. From the contents of the letter, Rose is revealed as something of an arrogant misogynist, believing himself destined for higher things than farming, but denied his calling by circumstances beyond himself. Gregory also reveals that he has fallen in love with Em, and intends to marry her.

Upon taking the letter to the farm, Gregory proposes and Em, after some misgivings, accepts. Em also reveals that Lyndall will be returning from Finishing School in six months time, and is eager to introduce Gregory to her cousin.

The following chapter picks up with Lyndall having returned from boarding-school. Em shares her news, but is surprised to discover that Lyndall seems unmoved, even pitying. A little later, Lyndall accompanies Waldo as he performs his chores about the farm. It is here that Schreiner inserts something of a Feminist Manifesto – she discourses at length upon her experiences at school, and rails at the limited status that Society expects of her as a Woman. Waldo is her foil – he asks trenchant questions of her which lead to still further expositions. With some irony, Lyndall ends her diatribe with the observation that Waldo is the only person with whom she can converse – others simply bore her.

With Tant Sannie engaged to yet another husband, a Boer-wedding is planned. Gregory takes some time off to write another letter, in which he apparently denigrates Lyndall and her independent ways. From the tone of the letter, however, it is clear that Gregory somehow finds Lyndall fascinating.

At the Wedding, Gregory contrives excuses to be near Lyndall, she acknowledges him, but appears diffident. It is evident that Gregory is now deeply infatuated with Lyndall. For her part, when Lyndall finds herself in need of company, she seeks out Waldo and again converses with him beneath the stars. However, when Gregory offers to take her back to the farm, she unexpectedly accepts his invitation. Waldo drives Em home, where, we are told, she sits in the dark.

Some time passes, and Waldo has decided to leave the farm to find work. Em says her goodbyes, and then seeks out Gregory. She finds him at his usual occupation: with Lyndall, pretending to read a newspaper. Lyndall hardly acknowledges him. Once Lyndall leaves, Em tells Gregory that she wants to end their engagement. Gregory half-heartedly attempts to change her mind, but quickly agrees. He leaves Em, whistling to himself.

It is Lyndall's turn to bid farewell to Waldo. She tells him that she will never forget him, and muses upon what they may have become when they are reunited. Waldo leaves the farm; Lyndall watches him go until he is out of sight.

The next vignette finds Gregory Rose wandering the farm. It is clear that he is trying to find Lyndall, but is taking great pains to appear nonchalant. Having located Lyndall, he attempts to strike up a conversation, akin to the discourses that Lyndall and Waldo would share. Lyndall answers him, but it is clear that she is subtly mocking Gregory. After enduring no small amount of verbal abuse, Gregory confesses that he loves Lyndall, and would like nothing more than to serve only her, expecting nothing in return. Lyndall agrees to marry him, if he promises to remember his vow – he is to serve her completely, with no expectations of anything in return. From Gregory, Lyndall wants only his name – nothing else. The once-proud Gregory Rose has been shattered against the force of Lyndall's will.

The following chapter reveals some of Lyndall's motivations. A stranger has come to the farm – Lyndall suggests that he be put up in Otto's old cabin for the night. The man is, in fact, Lyndall's lover, who has come in answer to a letter that she sent to him stating that she intends to marry Gregory Rose. She refuses the offer of marriage from her lover because, she explains, she does not consider him to be a fool, as she does Gregory. She fears losing herself if she were to marry the stronger man, whereas a marriage to Gregory Rose would leave her autonomy intact. It is here that the author hints that some other matter may be pressing—it is explicit in later parts of the story: Lyndall is pregnant.

Lyndall then offers her paramour an alternative – she will leave the farm in his company, that very night, on the condition that he releases her whenever she asks. They plan to go to the Transvaal.

Lyndall returns to her room to gather her belongings. On the way there, she stops at Otto's grave to bid him farewell. It is here that she reveals that she is tired and lonely – aching for something to love. After much weeping, she returns to her room and prepares to leave the farm forever.

Time passes: Gregory is performing chores about the farm. He is a broken man – meekly accepting whatever menial work Em assigns to him. While cleaning out the loft, he comes across a chest of women's clothing. He surreptitiously tries on one of the dresses and a ''kapje'' (hooded bonnet). He appears to reach some sort of decision. Gregory descends from the loft, finds Em and tells her that he can no longer live on the farm – everything reminds him of Lyndall. He states that will search for her, whatever it may take. Gregory is under no illusions. He is fully aware that Lyndall would more than likely throw him aside should he find her. He wants only to see her again; to stand where she once stood. Gregory leaves the farm.

Seven months later, Em is startled when Waldo returns without warning one windy night, some eighteen months after he had left. While Em prepares a meal for Waldo, he begins to write a letter to Lyndall. He tells of his experiences and changes that he has undergone in his travels. Waldo continues to write throughout the night, until Em awakes and stops him. Em explains that Waldo cannot write any longer: Lyndall is dead.

Some time later, Gregory returns to the farm, alone. He relates his tale to Em.

At first, the search was without difficulty, from Bloemfontein and North to the Transvaal, from farm to farm he traced the path left by Lyndall and her lover. Eventually, however, the trail runs cold – it has not occurred to Gregory that Lyndall and her stranger may have parted ways. Unwilling to give up, Gregory travels from hotel to hotel, always without success. Nearing the end of his options, he finds himself at yet another unnamed hotel. He overhears a conversation between the landlady and a Mozambiquian nurse. The Nurse must leave – her husband wants her back home. The landlady frets that "the lady" is still unwell. While watching the half-closed door of the patient, Gregory catches a glimpse of Doss – Waldo's dog which he bequeathed to Lyndall. Asking the landlady for more information, Gregory is told that a young, delicate lady arrived at the hotel six months earlier. A few days after her arrival, she gave birth, but the infant died less than two hours later. The Mother, herself extremely weak, sat near the grave in the cold rain for hours. When she retired to her bed, the hotel doctor declared that she would never again rise from it.

Gregory hatches a plan. Fetching his belongings, he changes into a dress and a ''kapje''. He shaves himself. Later that day, he returns to the hotel, hoping that the landlady will not recognise him. She does not. Gregory tells her that he is a nurse looking for work. The landlady leads him into the room where he finds Lyndall and Doss. Lyndall agrees that Gregory will be her new nurse. She is very weak.

While Gregory watches over Lyndall, she grows weaker by the day. Although she makes a few half-hearted attempts to eat, or read or leave her bedroom, she never quite manages to shake off the pain that plagues her.

Eventually, Gregory and Lyndall agree to return to the farm. Gregory makes the arrangements, although he knows that Lyndall will not survive the journey. His fears are realised: a few days into the journey, Lyndall wakes one night to find that the fog has lifted from her mind. She sees clearly for the first time. She knows what is about to happen to her. There, under the stars with her eyes fixed on her reflection in a hand-mirror, Lyndall dies.

The news devastates Waldo. Throughout the following night, he searches desperately for some philosophy, some tenet of some religion that will assure him that he and Lyndall will one day be reunited. He can find none – none but the cold, unsatisfying realisation that both he and Lyndall will one day be absorbed into the great universal whole from which they sprang. With this he must be content.

The final vignette takes place at some unspecified point after Gregory's return. Tant Sannie is visiting the farm with her new husband and baby. She relates that she almost caught hold of Bonaparte while attending Church, but the shyster slipped from her fingers. Gregory sits outside, absorbed in his own pain. In a leather bag hung around his neck, he carries the only letter that Lyndall ever wrote to him, just four words: "You must marry Em." After Tant Sannie leaves, Em visits Waldo – he is in his old cabin, building a table for Em. She tells him that she and Gregory are to be married. She leaves Waldo to his work.

Waldo packs away his tools for the day, and goes outside to sit in the sunshine. He carries one of Lyndall's old dancing-slippers in his breast pocket. He appears to be content, once again aware of the wide plains that surround him, and the warmth of the sun on his hands. Em finds him there, hat drawn low, apparently asleep. She leaves a glass of milk for him, thinking that he will be glad to find it when he awakes. But Waldo will not wake again.

Many years before the events in ''Beyond Oasis'', the warrior Ordan gives his young pupil Leon the Golden Armlet, so that he can become the Spirit King of Oasis. This can only be achieved by obtaining the loyalty of the six elemental spirits of the land, which are called Dytto (the spirit of water), Efreet (the spirit of fire), Bawu (the spirit of earth), Brass (the spirit of sound), Shade (the spirit of darkness), and Airl (the spirit of air). Leon's nemesis is the evil wizard Agito who has the Silver Armlet and threatens to destroy the land.

Background

The world of Krynn became a very different place with the disappearance of the gods. Dragons, much larger and more malicious than any native to Krynn, appeared and claimed much of the continent of Ansalon, calling themselves Dragon Overlords. Most of the native dragons are either dead or enslaved. The metallic dragons have disappeared. With the loss of the gods comes the loss of magic, and the Wizards' Conclave had been disbanded years ago. Although sorcery, discovered by Palin Majere, was adopted, it is slowly fading for reasons unknown. Everyone, including the Dragon Overlords, experience the effect. The Knights of Takhisis, with the loss of their Queen, became the Knights of Neraka, a somewhat less honorable outfit than their predecessors, led by Lord of the Night Morham Targonne. Goldmoon, one of the few remaining Heroes of the Lance, has established the Citadel of Light on the island of Schallsea. In the elven realm of Qualinesti, Gilthas, the "puppet king", rules only in title, while the nation is truly run by the occupying Knights of Neraka. Their cousins, the Silvanesti, have banished their heir, Silvanoshei, his mother, and his father. With the gods gone, the time period, fittingly, is known as the "Age of Mortals" as said by Fizban in chapter 32 (''title: Rain. Autumn. Farewell.'')

Story

''The War of Souls'' begins in 421 AC, 38 years after the events of ''Dragons of Summer Flame''. A small band of Knights of Neraka meet Mina, a mysterious woman who appeared during a freak storm. Through incredible feats, she convinces them to pledge themselves to "the One God" and follow her to march on the besieged city of Sanction .

Over and over, Mina is able to convert her opponents and save the day. The city of Sanction is retaken by the Solamnic Knights, and the old gods return to the world. The elven nations, now under the reign of Gilthas, seek a new home. Paladine, now mortal, takes on the name Valthonis and joins with Gilthas' fate. Her new followers all return to their lives with a new outlook.

Three friends, Lewis McBride, Sheriff and Tony, are seen having a fun vacation in a Malaysian paradise. Their adventures include being almost run over by a car while riding a bicycle, and being pressured into buying some rhinoceros horn from Malaysian locals. They also purchase a large bag of hash from a drug dealer. The three men wind up at their beach front house on the ocean pondering their future in the island paradise.

Tony and Sheriff decide to return to New York, while Lewis, being a "greeny", wishes to travel to Borneo to save endangered orangutans. On the last day, they toss the remaining hash in the garbage. As time passes in New York, Sheriff is working as a limo driver and Tony as an architect.

A young lawyer named Beth informs them that their friend Lewis has spent the last two years in Penang prison in Malaysia, because of hash found at their Malaysian house. She reveals that he will receive the death sentence unless one or both of the men return to share responsibility. Beth assures both of them that they will not suffer in prison, be tortured, or harmed in any way. After a gruelling eight days, during which they must make a decision, Beth and Sheriff begin a heated love affair, and both men decide to return to Malaysia. Upon their arrival, all seems well until they visit the prison to see Lewis.

Lewis appears to have suffered psychological damage from the harsh imprisonment, although it is reported that he has not been tortured or starved as is the case with other prisoners. Beth subsequently reveals that she is Lewis' sister and has been blatantly manipulating the two men. Her lie makes Tony fearful of the Malaysian justice system and he abandons Lewis and flies back to the United States. Sheriff initially follows Tony, but decides to face jail to save his friend and returns to the courtroom in which Lewis is being tried.

The judge seems heartened by this act of courage, until he discovers a news clipping from an American newspaper blaming the Malaysian justice system and condemning them for their harsh sentencing of Lewis. Because of this, the judge becomes infuriated and gives Lewis a death sentence, despite Sheriff's decision to accept his share of the responsibility. He also gives Sheriff an unknown period of jail time.

As Lewis is taken to his execution, Sheriff hears his screams and struggles. From a window, he is able to call to him, to assure him repeatedly that he is not alone. Just before he is hanged, Lewis calms in response to these assurances and dies quietly.

Sheriff assures Beth that Lewis, despite his emotional deterioration, seemed at peace in his final moments. Beth becomes emotional and kisses Sheriff as a sign of their love and connection. She tells him that the attorney general has said that the Malaysian government will quietly release him within six months, once the media attention dies down, to save face. As the guard takes Sheriff out, Beth says that she will take her brother back home and then return to Malaysia to wait for his release.

Princess Ling Moy lives next door to the Petrie family, and is romantically involved with Ah Kee, a secret agent determined to thwart Fu Manchu. It is revealed that Fu Manchu is Ling Moy's father. At her Chinese father's bidding, Princess Ling Moy goes to murder an enemy and meets a Scotland Yard detective.

The South Park children build a church-shaped shack to live in sinlessness, skip school, avoid home as much as possible, and listen earnestly to Cartman, who acts like a televangelist Protestant preacher. Kenny calls from Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, where the bus that hit him in the previous episode dragged him. However, the boys believe that he is in Hell and that he is calling from "beyond the grave". Cartman uses Kenny's description of Mexico as his profile of Hell for his next sermon.

In the real Hell, Satan's love triangle situation with his former lover, Saddam, and his present one, Chris, has taken a turn for the worse. Chris and Saddam repeatedly murder each other, only to resurrect since they are already in Hell. Satan wonders if he should be with Saddam, whom he finds sexually attractive, or Chris, who is kinder and gentler. JonBenet Ramsey suggests that he ask God for help.

The Hell director welcomes a group of new arrivals to Hell. Many of them are observant people practicing different religious faiths who express surprise at being there, but they are told that they picked the wrong religion, and that the Mormons were the right answer.

Satan goes to visit God for advice. God berates Satan for being so emotionally dependent on romantic relationships and is not at all like he was when God first cast him out of Heaven. God suggests that Satan dump both lovers, spend time alone, and learn to appreciate himself, stating that this is how good relationships develop. Satan agrees and thanks God for his counsel before returning to Hell.

Meanwhile, Cartman has turned the children's church into an Evangelical-type cult and attempts to perform miracles during his services by slapping demons and curses out of his patients. Soon, Stan and Kyle discover Cartman swimming in cash in the church rectory. Cartman confesses easily that the whole situation has merely been his latest scheme to make ten million dollars by conning the other kids. Stan and Kyle are disillusioned by this, but they can't do anything about it as long as other children keep giving their money to Cartman. Sister Anne, however, asks Jesus to visit. Jesus tells the kids that God does not want them to fear obsessively over Hell, or to spend every waking minute worshiping all day, but to help others and live good, happy lives. The children, touched by this, agree with Jesus and decide to leave and return to their normal lives. Jesus punishes Cartman for defrauding his friends by sending him to somewhere "worse" than Hell - Ensenada, Baja California - to think about his sins. Upon arriving there, he is greeted by Kenny.

Satan tells Saddam and Chris that he does not want to be with either of them and asks them to leave him alone. Chris agrees and leaves Satan, but Saddam refuses to go, and continues harassing him. Satan blasts a hole in Saddam's abdomen, and when Saddam taunts Satan that he will eventually regenerate and reappear whole as is commonplace with people injured in Hell, Satan informs him that this will not occur, as he asked a favor of a "friend". With that, Saddam finds himself suddenly transported in Heaven, where to his horror, he is greeted by Mormons.

In the early 1950s, Lily Kawamura tells her pre-adolescent daughter Mini about her father and the life that she barely remembers, as the two of them are walking to a rural train station.

In 1936, Jack McGurn is a motion picture projectionist, involved in a campaign of harassment against non-union theaters in New York City. One such attack turns fatal, as one of his fellow union members starts a fire. McGurn's boss, knowing that the feelings of guilt would likely cause Jack to go to the police, urges him to leave the city. Jack moves to Los Angeles where his brother Gerry lives. Jack's role as a "sweatshop lawyer" strains an already-rocky relationship with Gerry who is willing to have any job, barely keeping his family afloat during the Great Depression.

Taking the name McGann, Jack finds a job as a non-union projectionist in a movie theater run by a Japanese American family by the name of Kawamura. He falls in love with Lily, his boss' daughter. Forbidden to see one another by her Issei parents and banned from marrying by California law, the couple elopes to Seattle, where they marry and have a daughter, Mini.

When World War II breaks out, Lily and their daughter are caught up in the Japanese American internment, rounded up and sent to Manzanar, California. Jack, away on a trip, is drafted into the United States Army with no chance to help his family prepare for their imprisonment.

Finally visiting the camp, he arranges a private meeting with his wife's father, telling him that he has gone AWOL and wants to stay with them, whatever they have to go through. They are ''his'' family now and he belongs with them. The older man counsels him to return to the Army, and says that he now believes that Jack is truly in love with Lily, and a worthy husband.

Returning, ready to face his punishment for desertion, he is met by FBI agents, who have identified "McGann" as being the McGurn wanted for his part in the arson of years before.

Finally, in the 1950s, the train arrives and Lily and Mini reunite with Jack, who has served his time in prison and is now returning to his family.

After a period of harsh rain, the Great Valley is partially flooded and covered in debris. Littlefoot tries to play with his friends, but they are preoccupied: Cera and her father are removing a large log from their nesting area, Ducky and Spike are relocating their nest with their family, and Petrie has gotten a cold. A bored Littlefoot wishes for a brother, but eventually explores on his own and discovers a large area flooded by the rains. The adults advise their children to stay away, fearing that dangerous creatures from the outside may have been washed into the Valley. However, Littlefoot returns and meets Mo, a playful young ''Ophthalmosaurus'' that had been caught in the floodwater.

Littlefoot quickly strikes a friendship with Mo and describes him as his ''mud brother''. His other friends also eventually befriend him. Mo explains that he is from the ''Big Water'', and he swam into the Valley during the flooding. He confirms that he is alone, but soon after, a ''Liopleurodon'' attacks the group. Littlefoot requests help from the adults to help Mo return home, but they refuse, not wanting to risk leaving the Valley to aid an outsider. A subsequent earthshake separates the children and Mo from the rest of the Valley, but it also imprisons the Sharptooth in an underwater cavern. Unable to return, they decide to take Mo home on their own.

The children follow a river that they believe leads to the ocean. A ''Diplodocus'' mother allows them to take refuge at her nest for the night, and the friends are present to witness the hatching of her offspring. The next day, Littlefoot and the others realize that they are near the ocean, as they have begun to taste salt in the water. Suddenly, the Sharptooth – who has escaped from the cave – attacks them that night. The land – which surrounds the river – is steep and slick with mud, and the children are unable to escape. Mo distracts the Sharptooth and lures it further down the river. Reappearing the next day, Mo explains that the Sharptooth had smelled the ocean in the distance and abandoned the chase, choosing to return to the sea.

The children reach the ocean, but Mo is saddened to learn that his friends must depart. He wishes to remain with them, but the others explain that he cannot, and Littlefoot reminds Mo that the two will always be brothers. Mo reunites with his family and asks them for directions to the ''smoky mountains'', as the children know how to find the Valley from that location. Before leaving, Mo offers to show Littlefoot his home. Littlefoot accepts the offer, and is amazed by the underwater world's beauty. Littlefoot and his friends say goodbye to Mo and return home, where they are greeted by the adults.

Janice asks the group if any of the six of them have almost slept with each other. The episode then flashes back.

Three years earlier, Phoebe is tired of roommate Monica's obsession with cleanliness, so she moves out of their apartment a little at a time. Monica does not notice – Phoebe explains her missing things by saying she has taken them to get repaired; and Phoebe sneaks away at night and sneaks back in before Monica wakes.

One night, (exactly one year before the pilot) while hanging out at their favorite bar, Monica mentions to Chandler that the bar is closing down to make room for a coffee shop (which would later become Central Perk). While there, she sees old high school friend Rachel, celebrating her recent engagement to orthodontist Barry Farber with friends Betsy and Kiki. Rachel mentions to her friends that she wants to have "one last fling" with the next guy she sees. Chandler, overhearing this, throws a pool ball near her table and goes to pick it up; but she ignores him. Monica and Rachel briefly catch up and promise to have lunch the next time Rachel is in the city. Later while driving back, Rachel fantasizes about making out with Chandler in the empty bar.

Chandler is looking for a new roommate after his previous one, Kip, gets married and moves out. He has been doing several interviews and has two more candidates – a photographer and Joey, an Italian-American actor. When the photographer, Eric, mentions that there may be models in the apartment and that his sister is a porn star, Chandler immediately jumps at the chance for the guy to move in, and rushes through his interview with Joey, whom Monica has a crush on.

However, when Eric comes to move in, the girls' downstairs neighbor Mr. Heckles claims he is Chandler's new roommate. Thinking Eric was a no-show, Chandler lets Joey move in with him. As Joey is moving in, he and Monica flirt, and she invites him in for a glass of lemonade. Joey, however, believes she wants to have sex with him, so he strips naked before she gives him his lemonade. After realizing she did not want sex after all, he apologizes and hurriedly dresses. Things get worse for Monica when she is cleaning and notices Phoebe's bed is gone. Phoebe then finally admits she has moved out, because she needs to "live in a land where people can spill" but hopes that they can still remain friends.

Monica is sad that Phoebe moved out, and wonders why she does not have a boyfriend. Chandler tells her she should have a boyfriend, and offers a hug. He says she is one of his favorite people, and the most beautiful woman he knows in real life. He convinces her that she will find someone, and they hug tenderly for a while until he diffuses the tension by asking about the fabric of Monica's towel. He then goes back to his place to watch ''Baywatch'' with new roommate Joey.

Ross is glad that his wife, Carol, has finally made a friend – a woman she met at the gym named Susan. It does not take Ross long to realize that Carol likes Susan as more than "just a friend". Late at night in the empty bar, he mourns over the end of his marriage; Phoebe consoles him and they start making out. They almost have sex on the pool table in the bar, but Ross hits his head on the light above the table, then his foot gets stuck in a pocket, then the pool balls get in the way. They decide that sleeping together would not solve anything, and are content to just remain friends. The rest of the gang walk in and Chandler introduces Joey to Ross.

After Mr. Hankey fails to show up on Hanukkah, Kyle leads Stan, Cartman and Kenny into the sewers to investigate. When they find him, Kyle questions him, stating that nobody seems to have the Christmas spirit anymore. Mr. Hankey reveals that he has not surfaced due to issues with his family: his dissatisfied alcoholic wife Autumn, and their children (which he calls "nuggets") Cornwallis, Amber and Simon. Cornwallis wears glasses, scarf, and hat; Amber wears a hair bow and a dress; and Simon has a peanut sticking out from the top of his head (which renders him as being not too smart).

The boys, along with Mr. Hankey's kids, attempt to revive the Christmas spirit by singing carols on the sidewalk, but are totally ignored. While they lament not getting any presents, Cornwallis begins to wonder about his significance in the world as a piece of poo.

While watching a ''Peanuts'' Christmas special, where Snoopy is seen beating a naked Charlie Brown with a board, the boys get the idea to create a short animation to show the townspeople at the local drive-in which they would call ''The Spirit of Christmas''. With backing from Mayor McDaniels, worried about South Park's economic state, the boys set about using cut-out animation to create their cartoon.

Meanwhile, Cornwallis, who has sunk further into depression, reveals his feelings to his father, who comforts him by singing "The Circle of Poo". This shows how poo is the lifeblood of the whole planet, and the song even finishes with Mr. Hankey holding up Cornwallis atop a cliff. Rejuvenated, Cornwallis and the others begin preparing the dilapidated drive-in for the screening.

After Cartman accidentally destroys a frame of the cartoon and quits the project, and Kenny is run over by a car, Stan and Kyle proceed with the project themselves, with Stan dubbing Cartman's voice over (taking extra opportunities to poke fun at his weight in the meantime), Kenny being killed off in the cartoon as well, and sending their cut outs to get made in South Korea. Finally, the film is ready and the whole town gathers to see it, including Cartman, who joins in getting credit for the movie, and claims he never quit in the first place. Only a few seconds in, though, the film breaks up.

As everyone sits at home, forcing the children of South Park to celebrate a Christmas with no presents, Cornwallis and Mr. Hankey fix the projector and the film restarts playing. (The film is made using excerpts of ''The Spirit of Christmas'' aka "Jesus vs. Santa".) Upon seeing the film, the townsfolk finally come to realize that the true spirit of Christmas is commercialism, and rush to the shops for last minute presents. Finally content, the boys head off to open their presents, turning down an offer to make a TV series out of their film.

In 1959, the bodies of the Clutter family are discovered on their Kansas farm. While reading ''The New York Times'', Truman Capote is riveted by the story and calls ''The New Yorker'' magazine editor William Shawn to tell him that he plans to document the tragedy.

Capote travels to Kansas, inviting childhood friend Nelle Harper Lee to come along. He intends to interview those involved with the Clutter family, with Lee as his go-between and facilitator. Alvin Dewey, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation's lead detective on the case, brushes him off. Still, Dewey's wife Marie is a fan of Capote's writing and persuades her husband to invite Capote and Lee to their house for dinner.

Capote's stories of movie sets and film stars captivate Marie. Over time, her husband warms to Capote and allows him to view the photographs of the victims. The Deweys, Lee, and Capote are having dinner when the murder suspects, Perry Smith and Richard "Dick" Hickock, are caught. Flattery, bribery, and a keen insight into the human condition facilitate Capote's visits to the prison where the accused are held.

Capote begins to form an attachment to Smith. He informs Shawn of his intent to expand the story into a full-length book. Following the trial and conviction, after which both Smith and Hickock are sentenced to death, Capote gains continued access to the murderers by bribing Warden Marshall Krutch.

Capote spends the following years regularly visiting Smith and learning about his life, excepting a year-long stint when he goes to Morocco and Spain to write the "first three parts" of the book, accompanied by his romantic partner Jack Dunphy.

The story of Smith's life, his remorseful manner, and his emotional sincerity impress Capote, who becomes emotionally attached to him despite the gruesome murders. Capote aids Smith and Hickock by obtaining expert legal counsel for them and initiating an appeal. Still, he is frustrated, as Smith declines to relate exactly what happened the night of the murders.

Though initially an effort to provide proper representation and extend Capote's opportunity to speak with the killers, the appeals process drags on for several years. Without the court case being resolved, Capote feels he is stuck with a story without an ending, and he is unable to complete his book. Eventually, he gets Smith to describe the killings and his thoughts at the time in great detail. He has what he wants from Smith, but he sees a callousness and selfishness in his own actions in the process.

Now with everything in hand, Capote still must wait for the appeals process to conclude before he feels he can publish his work. Over time, Lee's best-selling novel ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' is turned into a movie, but Capote is unable to share in the joy of his friend's success, too caught up in drinking through his own misery.

With the last appeal rejected, Smith pleads for Capote to return before he is executed, but Capote cannot bring himself to do so. A telegram from Smith to Harper Lee ultimately compels Capote to return to Kansas. There he is an eyewitness as Smith and Hickock are executed.

Capote talks to Lee about the horrifying experience and laments that he could not do anything to stop it. She replies, "Maybe not. The fact is you didn't want to." While returning home, Capote looks through photos from the case and at the writings and drawings given to him by Smith.

An epilogue points out that ''In Cold Blood'' turned Capote into the most famous writer in America, also noting that he never finished another book. A postscript gives the epigraph he would have chosen for the title of ''Answered Prayers'': "More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones", a quote from Saint Teresa of Ávila.

''Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader'' begins in the final hours of the Clone Wars, just before the implementation of Order 66 as depicted in ''Revenge of the Sith''. When a contingent of clone troopers on the planet Murkhana refuses to open fire on Jedi masters Roan Shryne and Bol Chatak, along with Padawan Olee Starstone, the Jedi with whom it has fought alongside during the war, Emperor Palpatine orders Darth Vader to investigate the matter. Vader's query soon becomes a hunt for the fugitive Jedi, and takes him back to Coruscant, and from there to Alderaan and Kashyyyk. During the course of Vader's search, the whereabouts of several characters from ''Revenge of the Sith'', including Bail Organa, Princess Leia, R2-D2, , and Chewbacca are revealed. The beginning of Vader's partnership with Grand Moff Tarkin is also depicted.

Much of Vader's role in the book concerns the internal conflict he undergoes as he tries to shed his former identity as Anakin Skywalker and relearn to master the Force. Palpatine intends for these early missions that he sends Vader on to be as much about learning what it means to be a Sith as they are about consolidating the rule of the nascent Empire.

The final chapters depict the beginning of the Imperial enslavement of the Wookiees of Kashyyyk, featuring Chewbacca.

The epilogue focuses depicts Obi-Wan Kenobi on Tatooine learning that Vader is alive. Fearing for safety of the infant Luke Skywalker, whom he is watching over, Kenobi communes with the spirit of his late master Qui-Gon Jinn, who tells him that Luke will learn his father's identity when the time is right and that Vader will never return to Tatooine, as it represents a past the Sith lord wants to forget forever.

The book establishes that the galaxy's general public believes that Anakin Skywalker perished in the attack on the Jedi Temple (which Skywalker led as Darth Vader).

Bart and Milhouse attend a Spinal Tap concert, but the poor condition of the arena (the stage is flooded, the huge inflatable Devil the band ordered was replaced by a pathetic and small model, and misfiring lasers blind one of the members) lead the Tap to angrily end their concert after only 20 minutes. A riot breaks out afterwards.

Bart decides he wants to become a rock guitarist, so Homer and Marge buy him an electric guitar, but he struggles to learn how to play it. On the school bus, Bart tells the driver, Otto, that his guitar must be broken, but Otto plays it in an impromptu performance that wows the bus passengers. After his rendition of "Free Bird" makes the children late for school, Otto drives recklessly and crashes the bus. It lands on its side in the town square, smashing into the statue of Jebediah Springfield. Otto admits to Officer Lou he does not have a driver's license and is suspended without pay.

Principal Skinner takes over his route but, being a less aggressive driver than Otto, is trapped at a busy intersection for an entire day. Otto fails the driver's test administered by Marge's sister, Patty, after he asks her if she was born male. Unable to pay his rent, he is evicted from his apartment. Homer and Marge reluctantly let him stay in their garage after Bart pleads with them, but Otto soon makes a nuisance of himself and Homer demands that he leave.

Marge and Bart encourage Otto to give the driving test one last try. Patty is annoyed to see Otto again but after he angrily says he wants to pass the test so he can "staple my license to Homer Simpson's big bald head", Patty immediately cottons to him over her own intense hatred of Homer. Patty gives him the correct answers to the written test and ignores his careless driving on the test route. Patty is so amused by Otto's account of Homer's crude behavior that she gives him a passing grade and offers to buy him margaritas. License in hand (albeit a probationary one), Otto regains his job and Skinner returns to his job as principal of Springfield Elementary.

The story is set on the "Planet of Endless Illusion", a place where rogues of all sorts gather. The protagonist, Van, travels the world searching for a man with a clawed right hand who killed his bride. He is joined by several other travelers along the way, each linked to the clawed man by a personal loss.

Dante Remus Lăzărescu (Ioan Fiscuteanu), a cranky retired engineer, lives alone as a widower with his three cats in a Bucharest apartment. In the grip of extreme pain, Lăzărescu calls for an ambulance, but when none arrives, he asks for his neighbors' help. Not having the medicine Lăzărescu wants, the neighbors give him some pills for his nausea. A neighbor reveals that Lăzărescu is a heavy drinker. His neighbor helps Lăzărescu back to his apartment and to bed. They call again for an ambulance.

When the ambulance finally arrives, the nurse, Mioara (Luminița Gheorghiu), dispels the idea that Lăzărescu's ulcer surgery over a decade before could cause this pain. While taking the patient history, she suspects that Lăzărescu has colon cancer. After informing his sister, who lives in a different city, that the condition could be serious and she should visit Lăzărescu in the hospital, the nurse decides to get him to a hospital. His sister makes arrangements to come the following day; his only child, a daughter, lives in Toronto, Canada.

The film follows Lăzărescu's journey through the night, as he is carried from one hospital to the next. At the first three hospitals, the doctors, after much delay, reluctantly agree to examine Lăzărescu. Then, although finding that he is gravely ill and needs emergency surgery, each team refuses to admit him and sends him to another hospital. Meanwhile, Lăzărescu's condition deteriorates rapidly, his speech is reduced to babbling, and he slowly loses consciousness. The hospitals are jammed with injured passengers from a bus accident, but some doctors appear to reject him out of fatigue or because they do not feel like taking care of a smelly old drunkard. During the night, his only advocate is Mioara, the paramedic who stubbornly stays by him and tries to get him hospitalized and treated, while passively accepting verbal abuse from the doctors who look down on her.

Finally, at the fourth hospital, the doctors admit Lăzărescu. The film ends as they prepare to perform an emergency operation to remove a blood clot in his brain.

The three titular ninjas of the story, 14-year-old "Rocky", 13-year-old "Colt", and 8-year-old "Tum-Tum" are brothers experiencing the pressures of growing up. They frequently spend time training in the ninja arts with their grandfather, Mori Shintaro (Mori Tanaka in the previous film). Mori plans a trip for the four of them to Japan to take them to a martial arts tournament of which he was the champion fifty years ago. Only Tum-Tum seems interested in going, and even then, only out of interest in seeing sumo wrestlers due to how much food they get to eat. Mori tells the boys he hopes to return a dagger awarded to him at the tournament when he defeated a boy named Koga, so that it may be presented to the new winner. In Japan, a man later revealed to be Koga breaks into a museum and steals a sword before escaping via hang glider. At a baseball game, Rocky seems too focused on a cute girl to pitch properly, Tum-Tum causes constant breaks due to getting snacks, and Colt's temper causes a fight with the opposing team that causes the umpire to call off the game until the next week, driving a nail into the boys' plans to travel.

Meanwhile, back at Mori's cabin, a trio of thugs led by Koga's nephew, Glam, try to break into the house to steal the dagger. The boys manage to drive them off and dismiss it as an ordinary robbery attempt. Mori leaves for Japan alone, but the boys' father, Sam, accidentally gives him Tum-Tum's bag. Once he arrives in Japan, Mori's taxi is rear-ended by Glam and his friends, who steal his bag. After hearing from Mori at the hospital, the boys discover the bag mix-up and realize that they have the dagger. They arrange a trip with Mori's credit card and meet him in Japan. He instructs the boys to give the dagger to the Grand Master of the tournament. Glam and his friends record the conversation and deliver it to Koga, who punishes them for not retrieving the dagger. At the tournament, Colt takes the place of a fallen competitor but is promptly beaten by a girl named Miyo Shikigawa, wounding his pride. She helps them deliver the dagger to the Grand Master, and allows the boys to stay with her and her mother. She has a love of baseball, she is a good power hitter, but is not very good at catching. The boys offer to train her in baseball if she trains them in martial arts.

Koga attempts to trap the boys and retrieve the dagger himself by pretending to be the Grand Master, but the boys and Miyo catch onto his scheme and flee. They face several adversaries before they are finally captured. Meanwhile, Mori is kidnapped from the hospital by Ishikawa after fleeing Glam and the others. Koga forces Mori to tell him the location of the Cave of Gold, an urban legend which the sword and dagger are the keys to open. Fearing the safety for his grandsons, Mori agrees to aid Koga. Soon after, the children come up with a plan and escape Koga's fortress on hang gliders, arriving at the cave shortly after the adults. Inside, Koga and Mori realize the legend is true after they encounter walls and monuments of gold within. While the two battle each other, the boys and Miyo drop in on them and Koga pulls a gun. Using Mori's lesson on focus, Colt throws a ball bearing into the muzzle of the gun, causing it to backfire and start a cave-in. The group flees the cave, and Koga, now realizing the price of his greed, apologizes and leaves the group unharmed. Rocky realizes that they are a day ahead of America and that they can still make it home by the championship game.

At the game, the boys overcome their flaws. Down by two in the 9th inning, an opposing batter gets a hit off Rocky's pitch, until a new player, Miyo, catches the ball. In the bottom of the inning, Colt focuses and hits a home run, allowing all three boys to score and win the game. Members of the opposing team confront them after the game, and Darren (their leader) picks Miyo to fight for ruining his home run. Miyo politely agrees and Darren screams as she readies to attack him. The screen cuts to black as the fight begins.

13-year-old Rocky (Michael Treanor), 12-year-old Colt (Max Elliott Slade), 8-year-old Tum Tum (Chad Power) defend "Truth, Justice and the American Way", once more - this time, protecting a Native American village and the rest of society against a Toxic Waste Company.

During a summer, the boys are staying with Grandpa Mori (Victor Wong) when they encounter a group of men harassing and assaulting a girl named Jo (Crystle Lightning) at a pizza parlor. Colt, Tum-Tum and Rocky step in to protect her, cheered on by the admiring customers. After fending off the men with their martial arts techniques, they are praised as heroes which gives them big heads. However, they are put to work by Mori and the owner of the pizza parlor to work off damages. Mori tries to teach them a lesson in humility, but the reference of a flower blooming goes over their heads. Jo comes to the boys later and explains that the men are under the employ of Jack Harding (Charles Napier), an industrialist who is illegally dumping toxic contents into the reserve. Without proof, they can do nothing. Jo's father had gone to investigate but had not returned. Colt, who is seemingly attracted to Jo, says that they will help, and they mount an escape plan for her father that night, which is successful. They spend the night celebrating with the tribe and getting thanks for helping them. Jo's father appeals for a court date with significant evidence to put Jack out of business for good, undeterred. Jack arranges to have Jo kidnapped by the Bikers and convince her father to falsify his evidence, which he has no other choice.

Rocky and the others get information to where Jo is being held, drive out to free her and return before the court case is dismissed and all of her father's hard work accounts for nothing at all. After fighting through a small band of armed men, they find Jo and return her to the court house just before her father turns the real evidence over to Jack. He admits his mistake and hands the evidence to the EPA representative who deems the case and shuts down the company producing the waste. Jo looks around for the 'heroes' of the day, but they are nowhere to be found. Rocky realizes the point of Mori's earlier lesson: that a flower is content to bloom quietly, without clamoring for attention. The film ends with Grandpa Mori and the boys somersaulting into the air in victory.

Leaving off where Season 3 ended, Ross is in the hallway between two bedrooms. One is the room he is sharing with Bonnie; the other, Rachel's room. He picks a door – and finds both Rachel and Bonnie sitting on Rachel's bed. Bonnie's bald head got sunburned, so Rachel is helping her rub some aloe on. After Bonnie leaves, Ross and Rachel kiss – and Ross leaves to break up with Bonnie. Rachel writes Ross a long letter ("Eighteen pages! Front and back!") about their relationship and asks him to read it – but he falls asleep while doing so. After he wakes up, Rachel asks him if he agrees with what she wrote. Ross says he does, and the two reconcile. He later finds the part in the letter she is asking about – for him to accept full responsibility for their breakup and sleeping with Chloe – and immediately disagrees with it, still stuck on the fact that she was the one who suggested they "were on a break." After Rachel goes on about how Ross is so great for accepting responsibility, Ross cannot hide his feelings anymore. He reveals he never finished the letter, and ends up criticizing her grammar before they angrily break up again.

Phoebe is upset after Phoebe Abbott told her the truth about being her mother. Older Phoebe explains she was in a three-way sexual relationship with Lily and Frank, and after Frank (Phoebe's father) had gotten her pregnant, she was so young and scared and ultimately believed Ursula and younger Phoebe would be better off with Frank and Lily. An angry Phoebe declares she never wants to see her real mother again, and soon goes to Ursula's apartment to tell her about their mom – but Ursula already knows. She even produces a "suicide note" supposedly left by Lily – that Ursula herself writes while Phoebe is waiting in the hall. Phoebe Sr. comes into Central Perk to try and reconcile with Phoebe – who is not having any of it. Phoebe Sr. finally gets younger Phoebe to change her mind, by pointing out that she came to the beach looking for family – and found it. Phoebe then softens up to her birth mother upon finding out they have similar interests and they go off to have dinner together.

While Chandler, Monica and Joey are enjoying the beach now that it has finally stopped raining, Chandler still tries to convince Monica he would make a great boyfriend. Chandler and Monica go check out Joey's hole – and Monica gets stung by a jellyfish. Joey, remembering a documentary he saw on jellyfish that mentions a cure for jellyfish stings – urine – and prompts Monica to try peeing on herself. After being uncomfortable around each other for a couple of days and refusing to talk about it afterwards, Joey, Chandler, and Monica reveal what happened after Monica got stung by the jellyfish. Monica tried to pee on her wound, but could not bend that way – so Joey stepped up. Unfortunately, Joey got stage fright – leaving Chandler to do the dirty work. At the end of the episode, Chandler again asks why Monica will not consider going out with him. She says that while she thinks he is a great guy, he will always be "the guy who peed on me."

It tells the story of a cold hearted man named Jack Kells who falls in love with Miss Joan Randle, a girl his legion has taken captive near the Idaho border.

After two female strip club workers disappear and are found dead later on, a team of reporters including Jesse St. Clair (Rachael Leigh Cook) and her camera operator Rob Latrobe (Kip Pardue) unearth a mysterious tape which shows the women being followed and later murdered by the cameraman. After investigating the cases further, the pair's producer Jane Berger (Annabella Sciorra) notify the police, the sheriff refuses to help. The reporters on the team become targeted by the murderer and have other chilling tapes sent to them. The team are joined by the host of the hit television show ''American Crime'', who assists them on their journey to uncover the true murderer, as a man was already sent to jail for the killings. With a disbelieving sheriff ignoring the case, the reporters must solve the crime themselves before they themselves are killed.

The novel described the Yacoubian Building as one of the most luxurious and prestigious apartment blocks in Cairo following its construction by Armenian businessman Hagop Yacoubian in 1934, with government ministers, wealthy manufacturers, and foreigners residing or working out of offices there. After the revolution in 1952, which overthrew King Farouk and gave power to Gamal Abdel Nasser, many of the rich foreigners, as well as native landowners and businessmen, who had lived at the Yacoubian fled the country. Each vacated apartment was then occupied by a military officer and his family, who were often of a more rural background and lower social caste than the previous residents.

On the roof of the ten-story building are fifty small rooms (one for each apartment), no more than two meters by two meters in area, which were originally used as storage areas and not as living quarters for human beings, but after wealthy residents began moving from downtown Cairo to suburbs such as Medinet Nasr and Mohandessin in the 1970s, the rooms were gradually taken over by overwhelmingly poor migrants from the Egyptian countryside, arriving in Cairo in the hopes of finding employment. The rooftop community, effectively a slum neighborhood, is symbolic of the urbanization of Egypt and of the burgeoning population growth in its large cities in recent decades, especially among the poor and working classes.

In the distant future, human governments, across the planet Earth, construct a massive supercomputer, named "Con-Human". The purpose of this computer is to govern the planet's environmental systems, verifying proper nutrients and care is provided to ensure the culture of humans and animal alike.

However, disaster strikes when, after a cloned human's mind is linked with the system, Con-Human becomes sentient and insane. It begins to induce calamities across the planet, constructing corrupt clones of existing organisms, destroying its human masters and exterminating the nature it was intended to protect, apparently intending to replace everything with what Con-Human considers improved versions of themselves.

After prolonged war, Con-Human has succeeded in exterminating 99.8% of humankind, with the remnants fleeing to space colonies. Meanwhile, Con-Human remakes the very interior of Earth. As a result, Earth, as humanity knew it, has utterly ceased to exist, transformed into a planet-sized mobile fortress that is in fact Con-Human's body. Con-Human intends to use the transformed Earth to seek out and destroy the colonies, erasing all remaining traces of old life from the universe and leaving only the new life that it personally created. Now, taking the full-scale offensive, mankind develops powerful ships, one of them the RVA-818 X-LAY starfighter, to fight the oppressive machine by destroying the now-infected Earth entirely.

After being released from his time with Ta-Kumsaw, an Indian leader who taught Alvin the ways of Indian people, the young boy sets out to start his apprenticeship as a Smith in the town where he was born.

While there he meets a young half-black boy by the name of Arthur Stuart, the son of a slave and a slave-owner who has been adopted by the owners of the local guesthouse.

Another new friend comes in the form of Miss Margaret Larner, who he later discovers to be the "torch" who helped him to be born so many years ago, and with whom he has been strangely linked since that day.

Eventually, Alvin is forced into helping Arthur to escape some slave-hunters, something that requires him to slightly change Arthur's DNA enough to prevent the hunters' knacks from identifying the runaway child. Alvin also creates a plow of living gold, which is bestowed with magical properties, as his journeyman piece to release himself from his apprenticeship as a Smith (and also as a Maker).

The story ends with Alvin and Arthur leaving the town and returning to Alvin's home in the west.

The series focuses on Thowra, a silver colt, his brothers Storm and Arrow and their friends the bush animals in their continued quest to resist the Men's efforts to capture them. The series is very loosely based on the books.

Perfume magnate Hillary Kramer (Streisand) loses her company and is financially ruined when her accountant embezzles from her and flees to South America. Among her few remaining assets she finds a management contract with an inactive boxer, purchased as a tax write off. She decides to force Eddie "Kid Natural" Scanlon (Ryan O'Neal), who is now a driving instructor, back into the ring to recover her losses. Eddie thinks this will only get him killed and resists. As Eddie's unconventional comeback progresses, he finds himself drawn into conflict and romance with his unlikely manager.

Hillary attempts to train the Kid, although she displays a total ignorance of his sport. She reads a ‘how to’ book on boxing to Kid Natural while he is practices in the ring. Finding a passage referring to footwork she says, “I think that means kick him.”

Hillary schemes to make a fortune by staging "the match that never was" with Hector Mantilla. Hector and the kid were both disqualified years before at the Pan Am Games for misconduct before the match. Hector has since become a successful pro. In the final scene, the Kid takes on Hector and is defeating him when Hillary suddenly realizes that if the Kid wins, their partnership will end and she will not see him again. So she shockingly ends the match by throwing in the towel, runs into the ring, declares her love for the Kid and kisses him as the credits begin to roll.

The poem tells of a lazy (Russian Orthodox) priest who is wandering around a market looking for a cheap worker. There he meets Balda (Балда in Russian means a stupid or just simple, or not very serious person) who agrees to work for a year without pay except that he be allowed to hit the priest three times on his forehead and have cooked spelt for food. The priest, being a cheapskate, agrees. But then, after he gets a chance to observe Balda at work, he sees that he is not only very patient and careful, but also very strong. That worries the priest greatly and he starts giving Balda impossible missions to accomplish.

The Priest asks Balda to collect a fabricated debt from sea devils. Balda troubles the sea with rope and forces the leader of the devils, an "old Bies", to come out. He agrees to pay the debt if Balda will defeat his grandson at running and weight carrying. Balda tricks the "little Bies", first by getting a hare, whom he proclaims his "younger brother" to run in his stead, and then by "carrying" a horse between his two legs by riding on it.

The story ends when Balda gives the priest three blows to the forehead which results in the priest losing his mind. The final line is, "You shouldn't have gone rushing off after cheapness."

A tsar goes on a voyage and leaves his beautiful tsarina behind. She spends days and nights waiting for him by the window, and in nine months gives a birth to their daughter. Next morning her husband returns, and she dies from happiness and exhaustion the same day. In a year the tsar marries another woman — not only smart and beautiful, but also arrogant and jealous. She has a magic mirror in her possession that talks back to the tsarina, complimenting her beauty.

As the time passes by, the young tsarevna grows up and gets engaged to the prince Yelisei. The night before the wedding the tsarina asks her magic mirror whether she is still the sweetest and prettiest of them all, but the mirror points at the tsarevna which drives the woman mad. She orders the servant girl Chernavka to take her stepdaughter into the heart of the forest, tie her down and leave her to the wolves. Chernavka follows the orders, but as they go deep into the forest, the tsarevna starts begging Chernavka to spare her life. Chernavka, who sympathizes with the girl, leaves her untied and lies to the mistress on return. Soon the news of the missing bride reaches the prince who immediately goes on a quest to find her.

Meanwhile, the tsarevna wanders through the forest and stumbles across a terem guarded by a dog which she immediately befriends. She enters the hut, but doesn't find anyone inside, so she cleans everything up and goes to sleep. After a while seven bogatyrs arrive for a dinner. They kindly greet and feed the girl, calling her their sister, and from the way she talks deduce that she must be a tsarevna. The tsarevna stays with her newly found brothers, looking after the house while they hunt in the forest or fight foreign invaders.

After some time the evil tsarina discovers that her stepdaughter is still alive with the help of the magic mirror. She orders Chernavka to get rid of the tsarevna under pain of death. The servant girl dresses as a nun and travels to the house of the seven bogatyrs. She is met by the barking dog who refuses to let her approach, but the tsarvna throws her some bread anyway. In return the nun throws her an apple and disappears. As soon as the tsarevna bites the apple, she gets poisoned and dies. The dog leads the bogatyrs to her, bites the poisoned apple in anger and also dies, revealing the cause of the tragedy. They put the girl into a crystal coffin and bring her to a cave. The same day, the tsarina learns of her death.

Meanwhile, the prince Yelisei rides around the world, asking everyone whether they saw his lost bride. At the end he decides to ask the Sun, which aids him to the Moon. He then asks the Moon, which aids him to the wind. As he asks the wind, it tells him about the cave with the crystal coffin where his bride lies. Yelisei finds the cave and hits the coffin with all his strength, causing it to break into pieces and his bride to come alive. They ride to the palace and meet the tsarina who is already aware of the wonderful resurrection of her stepdaughter. But as she sees the tsarevna, she falls dead in agony. Right after her burial the couple gets married in a grand ceremony.

There also exists Pushkin's own outline of the story which he planned to write, but which does not much resemble the version he ultimately published.

The film is a retelling of the story of Hercules (Lou Ferrigno) battling the wizard King Minos (William Berger), who uses "science" in an attempt to take over the world. Hercules must stop him and rescue his princess love in the process.

The main character, Toshio Tamura, was once a grand prix champion who finds himself to be one of many people on a jungle island where he goes through a series of survival tests. He discovers that the purpose of the cruel and deadly games was to find people worthy enough to hunt down alien parasites that hid inside corpses, turning said corpses into zombies. Toshio initially rejects the offer to become a zombie hunter since he sees his would-be boss as a dangerous and sick man, but soon finds himself forced into the role when his loved ones are endangered.

Morris Bober, the 60-year-old proprietor of an old-fashioned grocery store, faces destitution as his customers abandon him in favor of more modernized shops. The situation is aggravated late one night when he's held up at gunpoint in his deserted store by a pair of masked thugs. The gunman beats him, leaving Bober with a debilitating head injury. Just at this time, Frank Alpine makes his appearance: a 25-year-old vagrant from the West Coast, raised in an orphanage after his father abandoned him. Leaving an abusive foster home to live as a drifter, he makes his way East in hopes of finding opportunities to turn his life around. (Later he berates himself for having had many opportunities but inevitably doing something to botch them.)

Frank begins to haunt Morris' store and offers to work without pay as his assistant, claiming that this will give him experience he can use in a future job search. The grocer, weakened by the assault and trying to recuperate without benefit of medical care, accepts and arranges for him to have room and board with the upstairs tenants, a young Italian-American couple, and provides him some pocket money. Only at this point is it revealed to the reader that Frank was the accomplice to the gunman in the holdup.

Frank works industriously to improve the store's upkeep, and his attentive service wins customers. The resulting increased income is being supplemented by Frank's surreptitiously returning, in discreet amounts, his share of the holdup take. Simultaneously, however, he begins pilfering from the till. He justifies this to himself by claiming it as recompense for his contribution to the store's improved situation, and keeps an account of his petty theft with the intention of eventually returning it all. Morris and his wife Ida, the latter particularly uncomfortable with the gentile's presence, attribute the improvement to the customers' "preferring one of their own," and Morris insists on offering Frank more money. During lulls in the work day the men's conversations touch upon philosophical and personal matters, and Frank privately struggles with his own ethical quandary.

While Morris is notably tolerant of others, Ida is worried by the young ''Italyener'''s proximity to the couple's 23-year-old daughter, Helen, single and living at home. Helen is courted by the sons of the only other two Jews in the neighborhood, both young men with good financial prospects, but her dreams of a better life include true love. She also aspires to higher education, but has set aside her own plans in order to take a job as a secretary, as her wages are needed to supplement the family's meager income from the store.

Helen and Frank begin to notice each other, and a romance develops between them. They share an interest in books and discuss their dreams for the future. Their clandestine meetings grow in physical intimacy, yet at Helen's request stop short of intercourse. Just when she realizes she loves Frank and is committed to their relationship, Morris catches his assistant in the act of stealing. He dismisses Frank on the spot, despite the latter's confession and revelation that he "was paying it back." (His confession to Morris of his role in the holdup will follow.) When Frank arrives late to a rendezvous in the park initiated by Helen, he finds her being raped and rescues her. Helen is overcome by relief and clings to Frank, declaring her love for him. In his fear that he's bound to lose her when she learns of his thieving and dismissal, Frank forces himself upon her, despite her repeated protest. Disgusted with herself for ever having trusted him despite her initial misgivings, Helen curses Frank and refuses to see him again. Frank obsessively berates himself with remorse and contemplates ways to make things up to her. He apologizes to Helen profusely at every opportunity, smothering her with his need for redemption.

Meanwhile, the prospects for the store have remained bleak due to several turns of events, and Morris considers desperate measures. When he is hospitalized after inhaling gas from a radiator he failed to light (claiming afterwards that this was not deliberate), Frank comes back to run the store over Ida's protests.

Frank resolves to be a good person, stop stealing and somehow win back Helen's love. He takes on a second job at a diner. But, when Morris decides to leave his sick bed, he throws Frank out for good, or so he thinks.

Morris grows anxious about his life—his wife is miserable, his daughter on her way to spinsterhood and his poor business no more than a prison. Morris turns down an arsonist's offer to burn his home and store for the insurance money, but then builds a fire himself. As the flames catch on his apron, Morris is saved by Frank. After being saved, Morris sends Frank away again.

Then, through tragedy, things begin to look up for the Bobers. A competing grocer on the block falls on hard times, and Bober's store benefits. Then, one night, Ward Minogue breaks into the liquor store owned by Bober's rival, Karp. Minogue smashes liquor bottles, then he lights a cigarette. A tossed match starts a fire that burns the store and the apartment upstairs to the ground. Minogue dies attempting to escape the fire.

Morris is ashamed that he wished for his rival's comeuppance. Even so, Karp, knowing that he will lose his business while it is being rebuilt, offers to buy out the Bobers. For a few brief days, they are happy. It is the last day of March and thick snow is falling. Morris, in a burst of energy, goes out to shovel the sidewalk, despite Ida's many objections. Still weak from the gas incident, he dies three days later of double pneumonia.

Morris is remembered at his simple service as an honest man and a good Jew. But Frank and Helen are alienated. Frank returns to run the store while Helen and Ida mourn privately. Money from a second job allows Frank to pay rent to Ida but ruins his health.

Frank then settles on a plan to clear his debt with Helen. He will give over all his earnings so that Helen can go to college. After several painful and awkward confrontations, Helen reinterprets the night that Frank sexually assaulted her, concluding that she would have given herself to Frank that night had not Ward Minogue attacked her. She softens towards Frank, forgiving him for raping her.

As the book closes, Frank is working in the store. He studies Judaism. He gets a circumcision. And, after Passover, becomes a Jew.

After relocating to Weimar-era Berlin in order to work on his novel, an English writer explores the decadent nightlife of the city and becomes enmeshed in the colorful lives of a diverse array of Berlin denizens. He acquires modest lodgings in a boarding house owned by Fräulein Schroeder, a caring landlady.

At the boarding house, he interacts with the other tenants, including the brazen prostitute Fräulein Kost, who has a Japanese patron, and the divinely decadent Sally Bowles, a young English flapper who sings tunelessly in a seedy cabaret called "The Lady Windermere". Due to a mutual lack of funds, Christopher and Sally soon become roommates, and he learns a great deal about her sex life as well as her coterie of "marvelous" lovers.

When Sally becomes pregnant after a brief fling, Christopher facilitates an abortion, and the painful incident draws them closer together. When he visits Sally at the hospital, the hospital staff assume he is Sally's impregnator and despise him for forcing her to have an abortion. Later during the summer, Christopher resides at a beach house near the Baltic Sea with Peter Wilkinson and Otto Nowak, a gay couple who are struggling with their sexual identities. Jealous of Otto's endless flirtations with other men, Peter departs for England, and Christopher returns to Berlin to live with Otto's family, the Nowaks.

During this time, Christopher meets teenage Natalie Landauer whose wealthy Jewish family owns a department store. After the Nazis smash the windows of several Jewish shops, Christopher learns that Natalie's cousin Bernhard is dead, likely murdered by the Nazis. Ultimately, Christopher is forced to leave Germany as the Nazis continue their ascent to power, and he fears that many of his beloved Berlin acquaintances are now dead.

''Mr Norris Changes Trains''

While traveling on a train from the Netherlands to Germany, British expatriate William Bradshaw meets a nervous-looking man named Arthur Norris. As they approach the frontier, Bradshaw strikes up a conversation with Norris, who wears an ill-fitting wig and carries a forged passport. After crossing the frontier, Norris invites Bradshaw to dinner and the two become friends. In Berlin, they see each other frequently. Over time, several oddities of Norris's personal life are revealed, one of which is that he is a masochist. Another is that he is a communist, which is dangerous in Hitler-era Germany. Other aspects of Norris's personal life remain mysterious. He seems to run a business with an assistant Schmidt. Norris gets into more and more straitened circumstances and has to leave Berlin.

Norris subsequently returns with his fortunes restored and apparently conducting communication with an unknown Frenchwoman called Margot. Schmidt reappears and tries to blackmail Norris. Norris uses Bradshaw as a decoy to get an aristocratic friend, Baron Pregnitz, to take a holiday in Switzerland and meet "Margot" under the guise of a Dutchman. Bradshaw is urgently recalled by Ludwig Bayer one of the leaders of the communist groups, who explains that Norris was spying for the French and both his group and the police know about it. Bradshaw observes they are being followed by the police and persuades Norris to leave Germany. After the Reichstag fire, the Nazis eliminate Bayer and most of Norris's comrades. Bradshaw returns to England where he receives intermittent postcards from Norris, who has fled Berlin, pursued by Schmidt. The novel's last words are drawn from a postcard that Norris sends to Bradshaw from Rio de Janeiro: "''What'' have I done to deserve all this?"

''Goodbye to Berlin''

After relocating to Berlin in order to work on his novel, an English writer explores the decadent nightlife of the city and becomes enmeshed in the colorful lives of a diverse array of Berlin denizens. He acquires lodgings in a boarding house owned by Fräulein Schroeder, a caring landlady. At the boarding house, he interacts the other tenants including the frank prostitute Fräulein Kost who has a Japanese patron and the divinely decadent Sally Bowles, a young Englishwoman who sings in a seedy cabaret. The narrator and Bowles soon become roommates, and he learns a great deal about her sex life as well as her coterie of "marvelous" lovers.

When Sally becomes pregnant after a brief fling, the narrator facilitates an abortion, and the painful incident draws them closer together. When he visits Sally at the hospital, the hospital staff assume he is Sally's impregnator and despise him for forcing her to have an abortion. Later during the summer, he resides at a beach house near the Baltic Sea with Peter and Otto, a gay couple who are struggling with their sexual identities. Jealous of Otto's endless flirtations with other men, Peter departs for England, and the narrator returns to Berlin to live with Otto's family, the Nowaks. During this time, he meets teenage Natalie Landauer whose Jewish family owns a department store. After the Nazis smash the windows of several Jewish shops, he learns that Natalie's cousin Bernhard is dead, likely murdered by the Nazis. Ultimately, the narrator is forced to leave Germany as the Nazis continue their ascent to power, and he fears that many of his beloved Berlin acquaintances are now dead.

Pete Garrison is a Secret Service agent and one of the personal bodyguards for First Lady of the United States Sarah Ballentine, with whom he is having an affair. He is one of the oldest and most experienced agents, having been involved in saving Ronald Reagan's life. His close friend and fellow agent, Charlie Merriweather is murdered. Garrison is told by a reliable informant that the killing of Merriweather is linked to an assassination plot against the President. The intelligence given by the informant reveals the existence of a mole with access to the President's security detail.

The Secret Service Protective Intelligence Division, led by Garrison's estranged friend and former protégé David Breckinridge with rookie partner Jill Marin, is tasked with investigating the plot. Breckinridge orders every agent to be subjected to a polygraph test. Meanwhile, the mole discovers the discussion with the informant and Garrison's affair with the first lady, and attempts to blackmail Garrison by luring him to a coffee shop known to be a meeting point for a Colombian cartel. After delaying for some time, Garrison is subjected to a polygraph. The agent in charge of the Presidential Protective Division, William Montrose decides to randomly select the means of transporting the president using a coin toss. As the President and first lady visit Camp David, Garrison's informant calls, demanding that his payment be made at a shopping mall food court. Garrison goes to meet him, but he disappears in the crowd, and an assassin tries to kill Garrison. The agents pursue the assassin, but he escapes. Simultaneously, the presidential helicopter is shot down by a surface-to-air missile outside of Camp David, though neither the President nor his wife were aboard (due to Montrose's coin "deciding" to use the motorcade instead).

Garrison failed the polygraph test due to concealing his affair with the First Lady. Breckinridge confronts him at his home and interrogates him, pinning him as the prime suspect. The source of rancor between them comes to light: Breckinridge believes Garrison had an affair with his wife and caused the breakup of their marriage, which Garrison denies. Garrison escapes capture and conducts his own investigation of the assassination plot. He tries to contact the informant who gave him the tip, but finds that he has been killed. In pursuit, Breckinridge gets the drop on Garrison but is unable to kill him, despite having given other agents "shoot to kill" orders. Using his contacts with sympathetic agents and family members, Garrison tracks down the location of one of the assassins, whom he kills in a firefight. He searches his apartment, finding evidence that shows the perpetrators are headed to Toronto to attack the president at a G8 summit. He leaves it in the apartment and tells Marin about it, but the Secret Service find that the evidence and body of the assassin were removed before they arrived.

The President's wife discloses her affair with Garrison to Breckinridge, who now understands why Garrison failed his polygraph test. Together in Toronto, Garrison and Breckinridge learn that the assassins are former KGB operatives hired to kill the president by a Colombian cartel and the mole, William Montrose, who was never polygraphed. Montrose is in charge of directing security at the summit. The leader of the assassins blackmails Montrose into helping him, threatening the agent's family. Emotionally torn, Montrose is instructed to jam Secret Service's radios, and leave the summit with the President via a specific route; the assassins will handle the remainder of the work.

On the night of the President's speech, Breckinridge and Garrison race to the summit. The assassins, posing as Royal Canadian Mounted Police Emergency Response Team officers, kill several agents and corner Montrose and the President in a tunnel. Montrose reveals his treason to the President and purposely steps in front of one of the assassins, who kills him. Garrison, Breckinridge and Marin arrive, rescuing the President and the First Lady and killing the assassins. As they reach the ground level, Montrose's handler comes forward dressed as an RCMP officer to personally perform the killings. He takes Sarah hostage and aims his pistol at the President, but Garrison shoots him dead. In spite of these events, Garrison is forced to take an early retirement due to the disclosure of his affair with the first lady, who looks on sadly from her window as Garrison leaves the White House. He does, however, make peace with Breckinridge, who finally realizes that Garrison did not sleep with his wife. Breckinridge tells Garrison that he has a date with her that evening.

Goody Goblin, the only nice male goblin, goes to see the Good Magician Humphrey so he can get his question answered. As the Magician charges a year's service or the equivalent, Goody has to find a good home for a pet peeve. The pet peeve is a very annoying bird who can mimic the voice of the person carrying it.

Goody starts out with the bird and Hannah Barbarian, whose service is to accompany the goblin on the quest and protect him. Throughout the journey, we discover that Goody is nice because he had to take reverse wood and disguise himself as a girl to avoid being captured by an invading goblin tribe. He was also married, but his wife is dead because she was fated to die young.

On the trip, Goody and Hannah meet various people. They all refuse to adopt the pet peeve, or in the case of Princesses Melody, Harmony, and Rhythm, are not allowed to by their mother. Goody and Hannah travel to Robot World, one of the moons of Princess Ida, and bring back some robots to live in Xanth. Unfortunately, the robots decide to take over Xanth, which means all of Xanth must unite to fight the menace.

Goblins, ogres, dragons, and other creatures come to combat the robots, which have been expanding, and the harpies feed the armies with lunch boxes from their lunch box plantation. Eventually the robots are defeated, In the process, Goody finally gets over his late wife's death and falls in love with Gwenny Goblin, the first female goblin chief. She in turn, falls in love with him, as her time spent with a family of winged centaurs cause her to like only polite goblins. The pet peeve finally gets a home with Grundy Golem, Rapunzel, and their daughter, Surprise Golem.

Stressed from doing household chores and running errands for her family, Marge hears DJs Bill and Marty make a cruel prank call during their radio show. She suddenly snaps when Maggie accidentally breaks her baby bottle, splattering milk everywhere, and blocks traffic by parking her car across both lanes of a bridge. When the police are unable to convince her to move, Homer persuades her to surrender and she is arrested. Since the town's women sympathize with Marge's plight, Mayor Quimby orders her release over Chief Wiggum's objections.

Marge vacations alone at a health spa called Rancho Relaxo. She leaves Bart and Lisa with Patty and Selma; Maggie stays at home with Homer. Marge enjoys her much-needed rest while the rest of the family find it hard to adapt to life without her. Homer finds himself lonely and unable to care for Maggie. Bart and Lisa dislike living with Patty and Selma because they snore loudly, watch ''MacGyver'' and ''Divorce Court'', and serve meals of tongue sandwiches, Clamato, Mr. Pibb and soy milk.

Upset by her mother's absence, Maggie leaves the house to find Marge. When Homer and Barney are unable to find her, Homer calls a missing baby hotline. Maggie is found atop the roof of an ice cream shop and returned to Homer as Marge leaves the spa. Marge finds her forlorn and disheveled family waiting for her on a train platform when she arrives home. While Homer and the kids are sleeping next to her that night, Marge tells them she needs their help around the house; they assure her she has nothing to worry about.

''Dog Soldiers'' deals with the fall of the counterculture in America, the rise of mass cynicism and the end of the optimism of the 1960s.

California has moved on from the Summer of Love to post-Manson paranoia. Converse, a once-promising writer now unable to do more than observe, waits for artistic inspiration as a war correspondent in Vietnam. Symbolic of his moral corruption is his decision to traffic in heroin, which the 1960s counterculture never embraced, as they did marijuana and LSD.

Converse involves a former friend, Ray Hicks, in the smuggling deal. Hicks will hide the heroin on the Merchant Marine vessel he works on when he ships from Vietnam to Oakland, California and deliver the dope to Converse's wife Marge in Berkeley, California. The novel's primary complication unfolds when Hicks arrives in the States and realizes that he was discovered before he arrived and is being aggressively followed. Unsure whether Converse was double-crossed by his suppliers or Converse himself betrayed him, Hicks elects to go on the run with the heroine, taking Marge as insurance. The novel's action follows Hicks and Marge's evasion of Converse and his suppliers, and Hicks's attempts to sell the dope, south through California to the desert.

Once an all-American marine, now a lone wolf, Hicks is a survivalist and an autodidact trying to apply to himself Zen Buddhism, martial arts and the philosophy of Nietzsche. Marge is a painkiller junkie and guilt-ridden mother who takes tickets at a porn theater because it is ironic; she presents herself as an advocate of freedom, both sexual and of speech. She had agreed with Converse to do the heroin deal. Their pursuer may intend to arrest them and keep the drugs off of the street, or allow his associates to kill them and keep the swag for himself, but no one can tell for sure. His thugs may be merely well-informed drug thieves or legitimately on the fringe of the law enforcement world.

In the future, in 2977 AD, humanity has achieved a vast starfaring civilization, but is slowly and steadily succumbing to ''ennui'' or despair, often due to defeat and subjugation by a foreign invader. Rising against the general apathy, Harlock denies defeat and leads an outlaw crew aboard his starship ''Arcadia'' to undertake daring raids against Earth's oppressors. Their primary oppressors are the Mazone, a race of organic plant-based alien women who explored Earth in the mythic past and are now back to reclaim it.

''The Golden Notebook'' is the story of writer Anna Wulf, the four notebooks in which she records her life, and her attempt to tie them together in a fifth, gold-coloured notebook.

The book intersperses segments of an ostensibly realistic narrative of the lives of Anna and her friend, Molly Jacobs as well as their children, ex-husbands and lovers—entitled ''Free Women''—with excerpts from Anna's four notebooks, coloured black (of Anna's experience in Southern Rhodesia, before and during World War II, which inspired her own best-selling novel), red (of her experience as a member of the Communist Party), yellow (an ongoing novel that is being written based on the painful ending of Anna's own love affair), and blue (Anna's personal journal where she records her memories, dreams, and emotional life).

Each notebook is returned to four times, interspersed with episodes from ''Free Women'', creating non-chronological, overlapping sections that interact with one another. This post-modern styling, with its space for "play" engaging the characters and readers, is among the most famous features of the book, although Lessing insisted that readers and reviewers pay attention to the serious themes in the novel.

During a general British and Portuguese retreat from the French after the First Battle of Porto, Captain Hogan orders Lieutenant Richard Sharpe and his men to help find and escort to safety 19-year-old Englishwoman Kate Savage, the daughter of a recently deceased prominent port merchant. For some unknown reason, she ran away from her home in Oporto. Hogan also tells Sharpe to "keep a close eye" on Colonel James Christopher, who has been staying with the Savages and was the one who requested help in retrieving her. After Horgan leaves, however, Christopher dismisses Sharpe and his men.

Sharpe and his detachment, orphaned from the 95th Rifles, are trapped when the French seize Oporto, but are unexpectedly saved by a small detachment of Portuguese soldiers led by Lieutenant Jorge Vicente, a law student in civilian life. Despite his hatred of lawyers, Sharpe gradually comes to respect Vincente.

Christopher was sent by the British Foreign Office to Portugal to evaluate the situation in Portugal. He has instead decided to use the situation to enrich himself. French Marshal Soult would like to declare himself King of Portugal, but his royal ambition does not sit well with many of his officers. Christopher contacts and encourages the potential mutineers, but intends to betray them to Soult. Just in case the French do not conquer Portugal, he also "marries" Kate in a sham ceremony for her substantial inheritance, despite already having a wife in England.

Seen openly collaborating with the French, he assures Sharpe that he is simply on a secret mission for Britain. Sharpe is suspicious of his motives, but Christopher shows him his orders from General Cradock, the commander of the British forces in southern Portugal. Christopher orders Sharpe to wait for him, for perhaps a week, and entrusts Kate to him. Christopher then negotiates with the French, offering the identities of the mutineers and other information in return for a monopoly on the port trade in Oporto. Christopher's Portuguese servant deserts him and tells Sharpe that Christopher has betrayed Sharpe to the French as a token of good faith. Fortunately, Sharpe defeats the French detachment sent to kill him and his men. The riflemen escape and seek to rejoin the main British force.

Sharpe spots three barges and a small boat overlooked by the French, who have burned all the boats they can find. He makes contact with a senior British officer. General Wellesley, Cradock's replacement, has been seeking a way across the Douro River. The British are delighted to be able to send a division and artillery across to occupy a seminary dominating Soult's lines of communications. The French make desperate, but futile attempts to seize it. The British position is far too strong, and the French are slaughtered.

In the aftermath of the British victory and the French retreat, Sharpe informs Wellesley and Foreign Office dignitary Lord Pumphrey of Christopher's treason. He is ordered to dispose of Christopher before he can divulge more secrets.

Portuguese forces cut off one retreat route, forcing the French to abandon their heavy equipment and plunder as they flee along a mountain road. Sharpe, Vicente, and their men race ahead of the French, seeking Christopher. The French manage to capture both bottleneck bridges from Portuguese irregulars and escape, but Sharpe finds and kills Christopher (and one of his riflemen who deserted) and rescues Kate.

Nianankoro's father Soma is a part of the order of Komo, who practice magic, but he uses his powers for self-gain. He becomes determined to kill his son after receiving a vision that his son will cause his death. Aided by his mother, Nianankoro steals several of his father's sacred fetishes and leaves his village to seek out his uncle for help. Soma pursues him with the aid of an enchanted pylon that tracks his son's location and breaks all barriers that deter it.

As he travels, Nianankoro encounters a hyena who tells him his destiny is to be great. Passing through the territory of the Fulas, he is thought to be a thief and captured. Their king Rouma Boli orders him killed, but Nianankoro creates magic that freezes his guards and declares they cannot kill him. Impressed, King Rouma offers Nianankoro his freedom in exchange for aid against a rival tribe. When the tribe attacks, Nianankoro summons a swarm of bees and a fire that drives their attackers away. The king thanks Nianankoro and asks him to cure his wife Attou's infertility. Nianankoro creates an enchantment, but he and Attou are overcome by lust and sleep together. That night they return to Rouma to confess their crime, and the king reluctantly orders them married and to leave.

Nianankoro and Attou continue their travels while his father remains in pursuit. Soma sacrifices an albino man and a wild dog to appease the gods who grant him power to hunt his son. He then meets with the Komo and warns them that Nianankoro intends to disperse their magic for all the people to use. Nianankoro and Attou reach his uncle Djigui, who was blinded long ago when he chose to use the artifact of Kore's Wing for his people. He gives the relic to Nianankoro and tells him and Attou, who is pregnant, that their children will become a nation who will face hardship and be sold in slavery, but ultimately prosper. Taking Kore's wing, Nianankoro leaves to confront his father and gives his cloak to Attou to in turn give to his son. She takes refuge with Djigui as they prepare for incoming devastation.

Reaching his father, Nianankoro attempts to reason with him but is dismayed to find his father cannot bear to share his power and only wants him dead. They call upon the power of their artifacts, Soma with his pylon and Nianankoro with Kore's Wing, turning themselves into an elephant and a lion, respectively. The power of Kore creates a blinding wave that kills them both and transforms the land around them into sand. After their deaths, Attou and her young son come to the site and find two eggs. Her son takes the egg of his father and his mother gives him Kore's Wing, and they leave the desert.

Gene Autry (Gene Autry) is a singing cowboy who runs Radio Ranch, a dude ranch from which he makes a daily live radio broadcast at 2:00 pm. Gene has two kid sidekicks, Frankie Baxter (Frankie Darro) and Betsy Baxter (Betsy King Ross), who lead a club, the Junior Thunder Riders, in which the kids play at being armored knights of an unknown civilization, the mysterious Thunder Riders who make a sound like thunder when they ride. The kids, dressing up in capes and water-bucket helmets, play at riding "To the rescue!" (their motto).

A chance to become real heroes occurs when Betsy, Frankie, and Gene are kidnapped by the real Thunder Riders from the super-scientific underground empire of Murania, complete with towering buildings, robots, ray-guns, advanced television, elevator tubes that extend miles from the surface, and the icy, blonde, evil Queen Tika. On the surface, criminals led by Professor Beetson plan to invade Murania and seize its radium wealth, while in Murania, a group of revolutionaries plots to overthrow Queen Tika.

The inhabitants of Murania are the lost tribe of Mu, who went underground in the last glacial period 100,000 years ago, and now live in a fantastically advanced city 25,000 feet below the surface. They cannot now breathe the air at ground level and must wear oxygen masks. (Surface dwellers have no trouble breathing Muranian air.) The Thunder Guard emerges to the surface world from a cave with a huge rock door that swings up like a garage door. Both Muranians and Professor Beetson want to get rid of Autry, so he loses his radio contract and Radio Ranch is vacated.Magers 2007, pp. 23–24.

In 1840s Madrid, Spain, Don Diego de la Vega is in bed with a married woman. They are caught by her husband, Garcia, and Diego must sword fight with him and his five brothers. During the altercation, Diego's mute servant Paco reads (via gestures) a letter from Diego's father ordering Diego's return to California. Diego and Paco jump from a high wall into a waiting carriage.

When the two arrive in Los Angeles, they are met by Diego's childhood friend Esteban, who is now capitán of the guard. He has married Florinda, for whom the men competed when they were boys. Diego learns that his father was killed in a riding accident, his horse "frightened by a turtle". Esteban is the acting alcalde until the Dons elect a replacement.

Esteban is elected by acclamation and then gives a speech to the assembled peasants. He is interrupted by Charlotte Taylor-Wilson, a wealthy political activist from Boston. She and Diego meet, and despite their political differences, Diego is smitten.

Diego is invited to a masked ball celebrating Esteban's elevation. He also receives his inheritance: Zorro's black cape, hat, and sword, along with a letter from his late father revealing that he was Zorro. That legacy now falls to Diego. He decides the masked ball is the perfect place to announce Zorro's return. On his way there, Zorro witnesses a peasant being extorted. He confronts and defeats Esteban's tax collector, then instructs the peon to spread the word that El Zorro has returned.

Diego, in Zorro costume, dances with Florinda at the ball. Velasquez, the tax collector, reports the theft to Esteban, pointing to Diego as Zorro. A duel ensues with Esteban, and Zorro escapes by again jumping from a high wall, but this time injuring his foot and hobbling away.

Later that night, a drunk Florinda attempts to seduce Diego at his hacienda, but Esteban arrives to speak about the evening's events. He suspects that Diego might be Zorro, but Diego convinces him that his foot is uninjured.

A reign of terror begins, including torture and increased taxation. Diego is frustrated because, being injured, he cannot fight Esteban's tyranny. Fate intervenes when Diego's gay, foppish, and British-educated twin brother Ramón de la Vega, a Royal Navy officer, having adopted the name "Bunny Wigglesworth", comes home for a visit. Diego brings him up to date, and Bunny assumes the guise of Zorro, using a whip instead of a sword, while wearing flamboyant Zorro attire in a variety of coordinated colors.

The colorful Zorro always eludes capture. Esteban hatches a plan to lure Zorro to the alcalde's residence with another ball to show off Florinda's expensive new necklace. Seeing through the plan, Diego arrives dressed as Zorro. So do the rest of the Dons and male party guests, saying that a message from Esteban instructed them all to dress that way. Adding to the confusion, Bunny appears in drag, masquerading as "Margarita" Wigglesworth, Diego's cousin from Santa Barbara. Esteban is smitten upon meeting her. Bunny spills a drink on Florinda, and in the resulting chaos attempts to clean her dress, and makes off with the necklace. As Bunny leaves to return to the Royal Navy, he tells Diego that Charlotte Taylor-Wilson has confessed her love for Zorro.

At the plaza, Diego as Zorro and Charlotte meet again, falling into each other's arms, but they are observed and Esteban is informed. As a ruse to lure Zorro, he has Charlotte arrested, and she is sentenced to be executed. Don Diego as Zorro surrenders to Esteban to save her, and he is sentenced to death.

Seconds before the firing squad opens fire, Bunny, this time wearing a bright metallic gold costume, announces the return of Zorro with a rhyme, "Two bits, four bits, six bits, a peso. All for Zorro, stand up and say so!" With Charlotte's and Diego's aid, Zorro incites the assembled peasants to rebellion. Esteban's guards also rebel, joined by Florida, and Esteban stands alone, defeated. Later, Bunny finally rides off to catch his ship back to England, waving goodbye, after which Diego and Charlotte ride off to plan their wedding. As her wedding gift, Charlotte suggests that Diego donate all his family lands to the people, so they can settle down and raise a family in Boston.

The Logan family goes through hard times trying to raise their children the correct way. T.J. Avery, Stacey's friend, is accused of murdering a white man, Jim Lee Barnett. Although he is innocent, he is tried by an all-white jury and convicted. Stacey does everything in his power to help his friend, but in the end, T.J. is sentenced to death.

A man makes a file to join blacks and whites together so the cotton fields can be shared. The union does not succeed and the man who wanted to start it is beaten. Some people are told that they need to pull up the acres that were already planted because they planted too much. The plantation owners lied, claiming the government ordered it, but the plantation owners did it in order to receive money that was supposed to go to the sharecroppers.

Mama's cousin Bud's daughter Suzella, who has a black father and a white mother, lives with the Logans. Suzella is venerated for being attractive and mixed, making her seem like a prize to all the males in the town because she is technically black and therefore accessible, but still has the lighter skin, hair, and eyes; she can be assumed as white. Suzella struggles with identity issues that put a strain on her relationships with others. She catches the eye of Stuart Walker, a white boy who flirts with pretty colored girls to start trouble. When Stuart approaches her he genuinely respects her, assuming she is white. This takes a great toll on Stacey; he believes he must take care of his family before they lose their land. He and his best friend Moe run away to a sugarcane field to work. With the help of Mr. Jamison, a white lawyer who is kind and fair to black people, Mama, Papa and Caroline Logan (Big Ma) contact police stations in the next couple of towns. They address the letters in Mr. Jamison's name so that when the sheriffs receive the letters they will respond. Mr. Jamison says that if they see a black family name on the letters they probably will not respond. Seven months later, they find Stacey several hours away, jailed in a small town in Louisiana. Stacey and Moe were accused of stealing which put them in jail, where they became ill. While Stacey was at the cane field a pole rolled over his foot and broke it. Before they drive home, they stop by the house of a lady who took care of Stacey and Moe while they were in jail and thank her. They stay the night there and the next morning return home.

Ron Archer and his son Trevor decide to buy an old decrepit pier, with Midbourne Council having put it up for sale for just five shillings. After visiting his brother-in-law Richard Talbot, manager of the local bank, Ron asks for a £2000 loan for maintenance costs, which he must guarantee to pay once he buys to pier. Richard is aghast at the prospect of giving someone a £2000 pound loan, especially a man like Ron. However, Ron has expected this to happen, so he blackmails Richard into giving him the loan. With financial costs all sorted, Ron and Trevor, with an uneasy Richard acting as financial advisor, meet with Midbourne Council to discuss the pier. When Richard starts having second thoughts again, Ron blackmails him further, and forms a solution for paying off the loan. With that all sorted, the council and the new owners of Midbourne Pier raise their glasses in celebration. Midbourne Pier is theirs.

It is a complicated and politically dangerous period in Westmark. The country's ruler, King Augustine IV, has slipped into dementia, depression and illness since the supposed death of his only child, Princess Augusta, over six years ago. Despite the efforts of the queen, Caroline, and the court physician, Dr. Torrens, the King is increasingly manipulated by his chief minister, Cabbarus, who has designs on the throne. While the ill king is kept distracted by a series of mystics and charlatans who claim to be able to speak to his dead child, Cabbarus increases his control over Westmark, restricting freedoms and abusing the king's powers.

Young Theo, an orphan, has been raised in a small town, Dorning, by a printer named Anton. After the pair accepts a job from a travelling salesman they are investigated by Cabbarus' men, who declare their job illegal and proceed to destroy their press. In the ensuing scuffle and chase, Theo attacks a soldier and Anton is shot and killed.

With no one else to turn to, Theo takes to the countryside, eventually meeting up with the men who hired him and Anton for the printing job: Count Las Bombas, a con artist, and his dwarf driver/partner Musket. Theo joins up with them, rather reluctantly, and ends up participating in their money-making schemes. They eventually discover a girl named Mickle, a poor street urchin, who has a talent for throwing her voice and mimicry. The count builds a charade around Mickle, dressing her up as the Oracle Priestess and putting her on display, claiming that she can speak to the spirits of the dead.

Theo, despite his growing affection for the bright but vulnerable Mickle, begins to find his new life too dishonest for his tastes and abandons the group, eventually falling in with Florian, an anti-monarchist and rebel who plans revolution with his band of loyal followers whom he calls his "children". Meanwhile, Mickle, Las Bombas, and Musket have been arrested for fraud, Cabbarus has attempted to have Dr. Torrens assassinated and a politically minded journalist, Keller, goes into hiding to save himself from Cabbarus' wrath.

Events come to a head when Theo plots to break his old companions out of prison, with help from Florian and his friends. Their reunion, however, does not last long; Cabbarus has tracked them down and has them all arrested. He brings the group to the Old Juliana, the palace of King Augustine IV and Queen Caroline, where reveals his plans to the group and of how the "Oracle Priestess" will be his pawn to his uprising to the throne. While in Old Juliana, Mickle comes across a trapdoor leading to a water canal, and her memories race in her mind as she remembers her childhood. This leads to her high fever and Theo's worry of her having to act. Cabbarus presents the group to the King and Queen and the courtiers as the Oracle Priestess, and suddenly Mickle's long-repressed childhood memories come to the surface, revealing treason, attempted murder and corruption in the heart of the Westmark government. It is later revealed that Mickle is the long-lost Princess Augusta and that chief minister Cabbarus was responsible for her disappearance.

Eventually, on the subject of Cabbarus's punishment, Theo, on behalf of his conscience, sends him into exile, instead of killing him. This decision will have a major effect on the final book of the Westmark trilogy, The Beggar Queen.

A meteor made entirely out of clay crash-lands on the grounds of a humble American circus. The goo from the interstellar object contaminates all of the circus's attractions, transforming them into bizarre caricatures of their former selves, with new superpowers.

Professor Charles Grimaud's meeting with friends at a London tavern is interrupted by the illusionist Pierre Fley, who threatens Grimaud and warns of an even more dangerous brother who seeks Grimaud's life. Grimaud tells him to send his brother and be damned.

A few nights later, a visitor concealing his identity with a false face arrives at Grimaud's house and is shown up to his study by the housekeeper, Mme Dumont. Grimaud's secretary, positioned with a view of the study door, sees Grimaud greet the visitor and let him in; he continues to watch until a shot is heard. Inside the room, Grimaud is found to be dying; but neither visitor nor weapon can be found, and there is unbroken snow outside the only window. On his deathbed, Grimaud makes a confusing statement stating that his brother was responsible.

Gideon Fell discovers that before Grimaud settled in London he was known as Koroly Grimaud Horváth, and that he had two brothers, one of whom now calls himself Fley. The three had, years earlier, tried to escape a Transylvanian labour camp by faking their own deaths and being buried alive in their coffins.

A newspaper reports that minutes after Grimaud's shooting witnesses saw Fley walking alone down a snow-covered cul-de-sac, and heard a voice shout "The second bullet is for you!" followed by a gunshot. Fley is found dead in the snow with the revolver that killed him (and Grimaud) lying nearby. There are no tracks in the snow but his.

Fell receives word from Transylvania that the three brothers had been imprisoned for bank robbery, and that after escaping his coffin Grimaud had deliberately left the other two to die. Fley had been saved and returned to prison, but the third brother had perished.

Fell concludes that Fley had been blackmailing Grimaud and threatening to disclose his part in the third brother's death. It was Grimaud who had in retaliation been planning to kill Fley, not vice versa. Grimaud had carefully constructed the illusion that Fley had gone into the study, fired at him, then escaped from the window and returned to his own flat to commit suicide.

In fact, Grimaud had gone to Fley's flat, shot him, posed him as a suicide with the gun in his hand, then put on a cardboard overcoat and mask ready to impersonate his own visitor. But his plan went awry as Fley had not been killed outright, and managed to get out into the street to seek a doctor. When Grimauld accidentally showed himself, Fley screamed "The second bullet is for you!" and fired, dying from the effort. Though wounded, Grimaud managed to return to his own house and proceeded with his plan. He had previously positioned a large mirror just inside the study door, and as the door was opened he removed his hat and mask making it appear to the watching secretary that he was already in the room and was coming forward to greet his visitor. Once inside, he burned the cardboard items and hid the heavy mirror up in the chimney, the effort bringing on a final haemorrhage. He had just enough time to set off a firecracker to fake a gunshot.

The seeming impossibility of the crimes arose entirely by accident. Fley's shooting appeared to happen some minutes after Grimaud's because of an incorrectly-set clock in a shop window; and Grimaud had not anticipated snow, making Fley's purported escape from the window impossible.

Mme Dumont (now revealed to be Grimaud's accomplice and lover) confirms the correctness of Fell's solution, and kills herself.

Set in the 13th-century court of England's King Henry III, the novel centers around the wedding of the title character. The wedding is interrupted by a merchant who claims to have been wronged by Gaston, in that Gaston murdered his kinsman. Henry is forced to hold a trial to determine the validity of the claims. The plot is further complicated by the machinations of an abbot who tries to suppress the truth, and by ghosts who want to expose the truth.

Neglected by her workaholic parents, Coraline Jones struggles to adapt to her new life in the Pink Palace Apartments in Ashland, Oregon. She meets the landlady's grandson, Wyborne "Wybie" Lovat, and a stray black cat. Later, Wybie retrieves a button-eyed ragdoll that eerily resembles Coraline from his grandmother's trunk and gives it to her. The doll guides Coraline to a small door in the apartment's living room that has a bricked up wall behind it.

That night, a mouse wakes Coraline up and guides her to the door, which is now a portal leading to a parallel universe that resembles the real world. Coraline then meets her Other Mother and Father, button-eyed doppelgängers of her parents who appear more attentive and caring. She returns home the next morning, where Wybie recounts the disappearance of his great aunt. Coraline's neighbors, Sergei Alexander Bobinsky, an eccentric Chernobyl liquidator-turned-gymnast who owns a mouse circus, and retired burlesque actresses April Spink and Miriam Forcible, cryptically warn her about imminent danger.

Despite the warnings, Coraline visits the Other World twice more. There, she, accompanied by the mute Other Wybie, is entertained by the dimension's doppelgängers of her neighbors and meets the cat, who has the abilities to traverse between the real world and the Other World and speak in the latter. On the third visit, the Other Mother offers Coraline the opportunity to stay in the Other World permanently, in exchange for having buttons sewn over her eyes. Horrified, Coraline tries to escape back to her world, but the Other Mother prevents her from doing so and imprisons her in a room behind a mirror. There, she meets the ghosts of the Other Mother's victims, one of them being Wybie's great aunt, who all call her the Beldam. They recount how the Beldam used the ragdoll, each time designed after the victim in question, to spy on them and lure them into the Other World. After they accepted the Beldam's offer of having buttons sewn over their eyes, she robbed them of their souls. The ghosts tell Coraline that the only way they can be freed is by retrieving the essences of the souls, which the Beldam has hidden throughout the Other World. After Coraline promises to do so, she is rescued by the Other Wybie, who helps her return home.

Upon her return, Coraline discovers that the Beldam has kidnapped her parents, forcing her to return to the Other World. Accompanied by the cat, Coraline proposes a game to the Beldam: if she can find her parents and the essences of her past victims' souls, they will all go free; if not, she will finally accept the Beldam's offer. The Beldam agrees and Coraline searches for the souls' essences, during which she discovers that the Beldam murdered the Other Wybie for his defiance. As she finds each of the soul's essences, parts of the Other World turn lifeless, leading to the entire dimension, except for the living room, eventually disintegrating.

Coraline then encounters the Beldam in her true arachnid-like form. One of the ghosts tell Coraline that the Beldam will not honor their bargain. Using this advice, Coraline tricks the Beldam into opening the door to the real world by claiming that her parents are behind it. After Coraline distracts the Beldam by throwing the cat at her, she rescues her parents, who are trapped in a snow globe. Coraline narrowly escapes through the door with the Beldam in pursuit and severs the Beldam's right hand in the process.

Back home, Coraline reunites with her parents, who have forgotten about their capture. That night, the ghosts appear in Coraline's dream and thank her for freeing them, but warn her that the Beldam is still after the key needed to unlock the door. Coraline decides to drop the key down an old well, but the Beldam's severed hand attacks her. Wybie soon arrives and, after a struggle, destroys the hand by dropping a large rock on it. The duo then toss the key and the hand's remnants into the well and seal it. The next day, Coraline and her parents host a party for their neighbors, including Wybie's grandmother, whom Coraline and Wybie prepare to tell her about her missing sister's fate.

''Money'' tells the story of, and is narrated by, John Self, a successful director of adverts who is invited to New York City by Fielding Goodney, a film producer, to shoot his first film. Self is an archetypal hedonist and slob; he is usually drunk, an avid consumer of pornography and prostitutes, eats too much and, above all, spends too much, encouraged by Goodney.

The actors in the film, which Self originally titles ''Good Money'' but which he eventually wants to rename ''Bad Money'', all have some kind of emotional issue which clashes with fellow cast members and with their roles — the principal casting having already been done by Goodney. As examples: the strict Christian Spunk Davis (whose name is intentionally unfortunate) is asked to play a drugs pusher; the ageing hardman Lorne Guyland has to be physically assaulted; the motherly Caduta Massi, who is insecure about her body, is asked to appear in a sex scene with Lorne, whom she detests.

While in New York, Self is stalked by "Frank the Phone", a menacing misfit who threatens him over a series of telephone conversations, apparently because Self personifies the success Frank was unable to attain. Self is not frightened of Frank, even when he is beaten by him while on an alcoholic bender. (Self, characteristically, is unable to remember how he was attacked.) Towards the end of the book Self arranges to meet Frank for a showdown, which is the beginning of the novel's shocking denouement. ''Money'' is similar to Amis's five-years-later ''London Fields'' in having a major plot twist.

Self returns to London before filming begins, revealing more of his humble origins, his landlord father Barry (who makes his contempt for his son clear by invoicing him for every penny spent on his upbringing) and pub doorman Fat Vince. Self discovers that his London girlfriend, Selina, is having an affair with Ossie Twain, while Self is likewise attracted to Twain's wife in New York, Martina. This increases Self's psychosis and makes his final downfall even more brutal.

After Selina carries out a plot to destroy any chance of a relationship between him and Martina, Self discovers that all his credit cards have been blocked, and, after confronting Frank, the stars of the film angrily claim that there is no film. It is revealed that Goodney had been manipulating him; all the contracts signed by Self were loans and debts, and Goodney fabricated the entire film. He is also revealed to be Frank. He supposedly chose Self for his behaviour on the first plane to America, where Goodney was sitting close to him. Felix, a bellhop, helps Self escape the angry mob in the hotel lobby and fly back to England, only to discover that Barry is not his real father.

Amis writes himself into the novel as a kind of overseer and confidant in Self's final breakdown. He is an arrogant character, but Self is not afraid to express his rather low opinion of Amis, such as the fact that he earns so much yet "lives like a student". Amis, among others, tries to warn Self that he is heading for destruction, but to no avail. Felix becomes Self's only real friend in America and finally makes Self realise how much trouble he has: "Man, you are out for a whole lot of money."

The novel's subtitle, "A Suicide Note", is clarified at the end of the novel. It is revealed that Barry Self is not John Self's father; his father is in fact Fat Vince. As such, John Self no longer exists. Hence, in the subtitle, Amis indicates that this cessation of John Self's existence is analogous to suicide, which, of course, results in the death of the self. ''A Suicide Note'' could also relate to the novel as a whole, or money, which Self himself calls "suicide notes" within the novel.

After learning that his father is Fat Vince, John realises that his true identity is that of Fat John, half-brother of Fat Paul. The novel ends with Fat John having lost all his money (if it ever existed), yet he is still able to laugh at himself and is cautiously optimistic about his future.

The player plays as Jill, known as in the Japanese version. She is the daughter of Doug, the leader of a bandit gang known as The Red Dozers. Doug was ambushed by a rival gang known as the Skullkers. They attacked the Red Dozers to steal the powerful Red Diamond, a gift from Jill's dead mother. To retrieve it, Jill mounts the powerful vehicle, the Drill Dozer.

On the way, she also comes across four other diamonds: the Yellow Diamond, which was kept in the Art Museum and drove Carrie insane; the Blue Diamond, which was floating about Kuru Ruins and stirring things up (it brought a stone statue to life and even took control of a swarm of fish); the Green Diamond, which the unnamed police warden used to animate his massive robot, with which he battles Jill; and the Dark Diamond, which gave Croog his alien appearance and unimaginable power. At the end, the Dark Diamond shatters and Croog's alien face falls off, revealing it to be a mask. Croog's true face is unknown, as a head of long blond hair drops over his eyes and he runs off-screen, sobbing and concealing his appearance with his hands. At the game's conclusion, two of the Diamonds- the Blue and Green Diamonds- are stolen by the Magnet Sisters (both serve as a recurring boss), the Yellow Diamond is returned to the Art Museum and Jill keeps the Red Diamond. Afterwards, Jill is appointed the new boss by her father, and they drive away.

Maria's story begins as she is recovering from a mental breakdown in a psychiatric hospital in the Los Angeles area, but soon flashes back to her life before the hospital. A not-quite lurid view of life in Hollywood follows. Didion's late 1960s Los Angeles is a mix of grimness and glamour. Maria's journey oscillates between dizzying and domestic, as her acting career slows and her personal life collapses.

Maria contrasts her life in Los Angeles with her childhood in Silver Wells, Nevada, a small town so inconsequential that it no longer exists. The daughter of a neurotic mother and a gambling father and who bet on a mine and lost, Maria moved to New York to become an actress. In New York, Maria works temporarily as a model and meets Ivan Costello, a psychopathic blackmailer who has no hesitation exploiting Maria for her money or her body.

In New York, Maria receives news of her mother's death in a car wreck, possibly a suicide. Her father dies soon after, leaving useless mineral rights to his business partner and friend Benny Austin. Maria withdraws from acting and modeling, splits up with Ivan, and eventually meets Carter and moves to Hollywood. Later, we find that she and Carter have a four-year old daughter Kate, who is under mental and physical "treatment" for some "aberrant chemical in her brain". Maria truly loves Kate, as indicated by her tender descriptions, her frequent hospital visits, and her determination "to get her out".

An inevitable divorce, and the ensuing social chaos bring Maria to indulge in self-destructive behavior. She plunges into long nights of compulsive driving, wandering Southern California's freeways, through motels and bars, drinking and chancing sexual encounters with actors and ex-lovers. After a series of disasters for Maria, infidelity among her friends adds further chaos to her life. Her friend BZ commits suicide and Maria is institutionalized. From her hospital, Maria turns her visitors away, and plans for a day she might see her daughter again.

The novel is a satirical epic of the colonization of Maryland based on the life of an actual poet, Ebenezer Cooke, who wrote a poem of the same title. ''The Sot-Weed Factor'' is what Northrop Frye called an ''anatomy'' —a large, loosely structured work, with digressions, distractions, stories within stories, and lists (such as a lengthy exchange of insulting terms by two prostitutes). The fictional Ebenezer Cooke (repeatedly described as "poet and virgin") is a Candide-like innocent who sets out to write a heroic epic, becomes disillusioned and ends up writing a biting satire.

The novel is set in the 1680s and 90s in London and on the eastern shore of the colony of Maryland. It tells the story of an English poet named Ebenezer Cooke who is given the title "Poet Laureate of Maryland" by Charles Calvert. He undergoes many adventures on his journey to Maryland and while in Maryland, all the while striving to preserve his innocence (i.e. his virginity). The book takes its title from the grand poem that Cooke composes throughout the story, which was originally intended to sing the praises of Maryland, but ends up being a biting satire based on his disillusioning experiences.

Ebenezer Cooke is the son of Andrew Cooke, an English merchant who owns a tobacco (or 'sot-weed') plantation at the settlement of Malden in the colony of Maryland. Along with his twin sister Anna, Ebenezer is tutored privately by a young man named Henry Burlingame III. Later, while Ebenezer is studying at Cambridge University, he is reunited with Henry who reveals his past life as an orphan, travelling musician and seaman. Henry recounts a tale of saving a mother and daughter from pirates, and then persuades Ebenezer to travel to London, where Ebenezer decides that his true vocation is to be a poet.

While ill, Andrew Cooke grants power of attorney to Ebenezer and reveals that, after the death of their mother, Ebenezer and Anna were nursed by a woman named Roxanne Edouarde.

In London, Ebenezer declares his love for the prostitute Joan Toast, but refuses to pay her fee, and confesses to being a virgin. Joan's pimp and lover, John McEvoy, subsequently informs Andrew that Ebenezer has been leading a dissolute life, so Andrew sends Ebenezer and a servant, Bertrand Burton, to Maryland. From devotion to Joan, Ebenezer swears to remain a virgin. Before his departure, Ebenezer visits Charles Calvert, Lord Baltimore, who is the Governor of Maryland, and offers his services as a Poet Laureate of the colony. Calvert is bemused, but grants the commission. Ebenezer decides to write an epic poem entitled "Marylandiad".

On the coach to Plymouth, Ebenzer encounters one Peter Sayer, who is really Henry in disguise. Henry reveals that, while trying to ascertain his true identity, he has become embroiled in the politics of Maryland, but has discovered that he was adopted as an infant by one Captain Salmon, after being found floating on a raft in Chesapeake Bay. He has also obtained part of a journal which reveals that his grandfather, Henry Burlingame I, took part in an expedition led by Captain John Smith that was attacked by Indians. In order to save his own life, and that of Burlingame, Smith undergoes a sexual trial with Pocahontas, the daughter of the Indian chief Powhatans. At this point, the journal breaks off, and Henry explains that he is searching for the remaining sections of the document.

In Plymouth, Henry leaves Ebenezer, who is terrified by a sinister pair of seamen called Slye and Scurry who declare that they are pursuing a man by the name of Ebenezer Cooke. Ebenezer boards his ship, the Poseidon, only to find that his identity has been assumed by Bertrand, who is fleeing London because of an affair with a married woman. In order to escape detection, Ebenezer agrees to exchange places with Bertrand on the voyage. Bertrand then loses Ebenezer's savings by gambling with the Reverend Tubman and a young woman named Lucy Rowbotham. The Poseidon is captured by pirates led by a Captain Pound, and Ebenezer and Bertrand are taken on board their ship, which then attacks another ship, the Cyprian, which is loaded with prostitutes. The pirates rape the female passengers, and Ebenezer is tempted to rape a woman who reminds him of Joan. Captain Pound has Ebenezer and Bertrand thrown overboard, telling them that he has heard that someone by the name of Ebenezer Cooke has already arrived in Maryland.

Expecting to drown, Bertrand tells Ebenezer that he has wagered away to Tubman the whole of the Malden estate. The pair make it to shore where they free a bound black man named Drepacca, and treat the wounds of an elderly Indian chief named Quassapelagh. They meet Susan Warren, a female swineherd who also reminds Ebenezer of Joan. Susan claims that she has been debased by Captain William Mitchell, and that she is acquainted with Joan. Ebenezer meets both Captain Mitchell and his son Tim, who turns out to be Henry Burlingame III in another disguise. Ebenezer and Henry visit Father Smith, a Jesuit priest who owns part of the journal sought by Henry. Smith relates how he was told by an Indian named Charley Mattasin the tale of Father Fitzmaurice, a missionary who fathered three children on Indian women of the same tribe. The journal gives further details of the capture of Captain Smith and Henry's grandfather, but in order to discover more, Henry turns next to locating a cooper by the name of William Smith.

At the next settlement, Ebenezer witnesses a chaotic outdoor court in session. He hears how William Smith was once indentured to a man named Ben Spurdance and how Spurdance tried to swindle Smith out of his share of land upon expiry of his indenture. The court is about to find in favour of Spurdance, but an outraged Ebenezer insists that the court punish Spurdance by signing the rights to Spurdance's land over to Smith. The judge agrees and gets Ebenezer to sign a document, whereupon Ebenezer discovers that Spurdance is the overseer of Malden, and that his father's estate has now passed to Smith. Ebenezer meets Mary Mungummory, a prostitute who was once the lover of the Indian Charley Mattasin. He hears that John McEvoy has travelled to Maryland in search of Joan Toast, and meets Thomas Tayhoe, a man who has been indentured to William Smith because of trickery on the part of McEvoy. Ebenezer offers to exchange places with Tayhoe, and this plan is accepted by Smith on the condition that Ebenezer marries Susan Warren. After the marriage, Susan reveals that she is really Joan Toast.

Upon hearing that his father is due to arrive at Malden, Ebenezer flees in the company of one Nicholas Lowe, who turns out to be Henry in yet another disguise. Henry reveals that Anna is in Maryland and Ebenezer resolves to find her. Upon arrival in the town of St Mary's, Ebenezer encounters Bertrand, who has again been posing as Ebenezer. Bertrand has become the lover of Lucy Rowbotham, who had married the Reverend Tubman only to discover that Tubman was already married. Because of the wagers made on board of the Poseidon, Tubman and Lucy both believe they have a claim on Malden.

After deciding to return to Malden, Ebenezer and Bertrand commission a boat skippered by Captain Cairn. During a storm, they shelter upon Bloodsworth Island, where they are captured by a community of rogue slaves and rebellious Indians that is dedicated to waging war against white men. Another prisoner is John McEvoy. They meet Drepacca and Quassapelagh, but are threatened with execution by Chicamec, king of the Ahatchwoop people. Ebenezer mentions the name of Henry Burlingame, whereupon Chicamec suspends their execution. Ebenezer is allowed to read a journal that gives a further account of the adventures of John Smith and Henry Burlingame I. The journal relates how Burlingame became chief of the Ahatchwoops by winning an eating contest. Furthermore, Burlingame—who has a remarkably small penis—uses Smith's egg-plant recipe in order to impregnate the wife he marries as chief. The child is Chicamec himself, who then takes as his bride a young woman who is the descendant of Father Fitzmaurice. He has three sons; one of whom is white-skinned; another golden skinned; and a third dark-skinned. The first he names Henry Burlingame III and places on a raft. The second and third, Chicamec states, fell in love with white women, and betrayed the Ahatchwoops. Ebenezer calculates that the dark-skinned son became Charley Mattasin, who loved Mary Mungummory and was executed for murder.

Ebenezer strikes a deal with Chicamec whereby, after leaving Bertrand and Captain Cairn as hostages, he will attempt to trace Chicamec's surviving sons and bring them to Bloodsworth Island. After leaving the island, they encounter Mary who, along with the trapper Harvey Russecks, explains that a golden-skinned Indian by the name of Billy Rumbly is living with a white English woman. They then encounter Harvey's brother, Harry, a crooked and violent miller who is jealous of his wife, Roxanne, and daughter, Henrietta. McEvoy plays a trick on Harry that results in Harry becoming gravely injured. It transpires that Roxanne and Henrietta are the mother and daughter who were saved from the clutches of pirates by Henry years earlier. Billy Rumbly arrives and is astonished to hear that his father and lost brother are still alive, but is reluctant to take steps to prevent the imminent conflict with the Indians and slaves. Rumbly leads Ebenezer to his cabin where it transpires that Rumbly's partner is Anna. After hearing of Anna's affection for Henry, Rumbly decides to return to Bloodsworth Island, accompanied by McEvoy. Ebenezer and Anna discover that Roxanne is their former nurse and that Henrietta is their half-sister.

McEvoy returns with Bertrand and Captain Cairn but claims that Rumbly has now sided with the Indians and slaves. Ebenezer and Anna decide to return to Malden along with McEvoy, Henrietta, Bertrand and Roxanne. Their boat is seized by the pirate Ben Avery and the men forced to swim to shore. The women are freed after Ben Avery recognizes Roxanne as a former lover. At Malden, the ownership of the Cooke estate is decided by a court presided over by Governor Nicholson. The claim by Lucy Rowbotham and her father are rejected. By way of a legal nicety, Malden passes back to the Cooke family because of Joan Toast's marriage to Ebenzer. William Smith and his lawyer Sowter are threatened with imprisonment, but are released after presenting Henry with more of the journal that tells of his ancestor's fate. Together with a fragment held by Joan, this reveals the egg-plant recipe by which Smith and Burlingame increased their penis size and enabled them to fulfil their sexual challenges.

Ebenezer and Joan consummate their marriage, and Joan falls pregnant. Burlingame leaves for Bloodsworth Island in order to quell the rebellion. He returns in Indian guise with the intention of marrying Anna but leaves once more and does not return. Anna falls pregnant, but is saved from disgrace when Joan and her child die in childbirth and Anna's child is reared as Ebenezer's.

The Jashinka Empire rises from the depths of the Earth to conquer the world. To stop them, Dr. Kyutaro Yumeno assembles five inventors to his laboratory, Yumeno Invention Laboratory and gives them the power to become Dynamen. Each member has their own goal, but as the Kagaku Sentai Dynaman, they are united to stop the Jashinka Empire in their tracks.

46-year-old former high school dropout and self-described "junkie whore" Jerri Blank is released from prison and returns to her childhood home. She discovers her mother has died, her father, Guy, has remarried to the hateful Sara Blank, and she has an arrogant half-brother Derrick. To make matters worse, her father is in a "stress-induced coma". Taking the suggestion of the family doctor literally, Jerri decides to pick her life back up where she left it, beginning her high school all over again as a freshman at Flatpoint High.

Jerri joins Chuck Noblet's science fair team, the Fig Neutrons, along with her new friends, Megawatti Sucarnaputri (a spoof on Megawati Sukarnoputri) and Tammi Littlenut. Noblet is not pleased to learn that Principal Onyx Blackman has hired a ringer for their team, Roger Beekman, to ensure that Flatpoint wins, and so Noblet creates a second team. As she struggles to fit in and make her teammates proud, Jerri discovers that though the faces may have changed, the hassles of high school are just the same.

Following a Health convention held in Springfield, the children of Springfield (including Bart) are deemed to be overweight. To help them stay in shape, their parents enroll them in pee-wee football. The coach, Ned Flanders, helps keep the team undefeated, but Homer heckles him relentlessly. Ned finally snaps and turns the job over to Homer, who then admits that Flanders was doing a good job.

Homer initially acts tough towards Bart, but when he is reminded of how his father Abe was hard on him as a child, he decides to be nicer to Bart. The next day, he decides to cut many players from the team, and replaces star quarterback Nelson with Bart, causing the team to criticize him. Bart is unable to play the position well and causes the team's first loss. While training at night Bart meets Joe Namath, who promises to help him, but soon after Joe's wife fixes the car, which had broken down due to vapor lock, Joe leaves without helping Bart.

Lisa suggests that Bart pretend he is injured to get out of quarterbacking, which he eagerly does, but Homer claims that without Bart the team must forfeit. This causes Bart to become angry and quit the team. The next game, Nelson is made quarterback again and the team wins, but Homer has nobody to celebrate with and becomes lonely. Afterwards, Homer finds Bart and persuades him to rejoin the team. The next day, during the championship game, the score is tied when Chief Wiggum comes to arrest Nelson. Bart decides to pretend he is Nelson and the team finally wins the championship.

One week before her vaginoplasty, a trans woman named Sabrina "Bree" Osbourne receives an unexpected phone call from a young man named Toby Wilkins, a 17-year-old jailed in New York City. He asks for Stanley Schupak (Bree's deadname), claiming to be her son. Bree was previously unaware she had a son; she now wants to break with her past and renounce him. However, Bree's therapist refuses to sign off for her operation if she does not face up to her past ties.

Bree flies from Los Angeles to New York City to bail Toby out of jail. Toby is a foul-mouthed runaway who is a small-time drug user and male "hustler". His mother committed suicide when he was a child after which he was raised by his stepfather, whom he says he does not want to see. Bree pretends to be a Christian missionary and persuades Toby to ride with her back to the West Coast, secretly planning to leave him at his stepfather's along the way. When they arrive in the town of Callicoon, Kentucky, it turns out that Toby's stepfather was very abusive and he molested him several times in his youth. Bree and Toby continue driving to Los Angeles together. They also stop by a house in Dallas where a group of transgender women (many of whom are old friends of Bree's) are hosting a gender pride gathering. Later on in the trip, when Bree goes to the restroom, Toby accidentally discovers that Bree has male genitalia. He tries to be open-minded about it but is angry that Bree had not told him prior.

After their car and money are stolen by a young hitchhiking hippie who calls himself a "peyote shaman", Toby makes some money by prostituting himself to a truck driver. To Bree he pretends that he got the money from selling some drugs he had taken along for his own use. They get a ride with a kindly rancher, Calvin Many Goats to Bree's parents' house in Phoenix, Arizona. Calvin and Bree hit it off and flirt a little, which disturbs Toby. Here they find her pampered and self-centred mother Elizabeth, her Jewish father Murray who seems to be dominated by Elizabeth, and her rebellious and sarcastic sister Sydney. Elizabeth disapproves of Bree's transition (it is mentioned that she has been estranged for some time), but is astonished to find out she has a grandson. She is kind to Toby and invites him to stay and live with them. Toby enjoys the luxury and kindness, but hesitates because he does not like how disrespectful they are to Bree. Misunderstanding his feelings for Bree, he tries to seduce her, saying that he will marry her if she wants. Bree realizes she must tell Toby the truth immediately, saying that she was his real father. Toby is appalled and infuriated that Bree had not disclosed this earlier. Overnight he steals money and valuable antiques from the house and disappears. Heartbroken, Bree returns to Los Angeles via a plane ticket bought by her parents. Her family finally accepts her calling herself Bree and she has a successful surgery, but is unhappy because she feels she will never again see or hear from Toby. The therapist visits Bree in recovery. After she confesses she made a mistake, Bree sobs on her shoulder.

Some months later, Bree is surprised to see Toby at her front door. Bree invites him inside and he reveals to her he has turned 18, bleached his hair blonde, and has become an adult actor in gay pornographic films in Los Angeles. Bree is also vibrant, happy, and enjoying her job as a waitress at the restaurant where she was formerly a busser; She has also dyed her hair blonde and now wears more colorful clothes. Bree and Toby reconcile, seemingly happy to have each other.

The play chronicles the adult lives of two African-American brothers as they cope with poverty, racism, work, women, and their troubled upbringings. Lincoln lives with Booth, his younger brother, after being thrown out by his wife. Booth reminds Lincoln that his presence was meant to be a temporary arrangement. But Lincoln, who works at an arcade as a whiteface Abraham Lincoln impersonator, is their sole source of income.

While the work is honest, both brothers find it humiliating. Booth repeatedly attempts to persuade Lincoln to return to running games of Three-card Monte. Lincoln had sworn off the hustle after one of his crew had been shot dead, believing he would be next. Idolizing his brother's former glory, Booth aspires to become a Three-card Monte card shark, frequently practicing the routine in his apartment, although his act is awkward; his own talent lies in shoplifting.

Booth is preoccupied with a woman named Grace whom he tries to impress with shoplifted luxuries. He boasts to his brother about their relationship, but in truth she spurns his advances. Lincoln reveals that his wife Cookie had misread his depression as lack of interest in her, before she threw him out and slept with Booth. In the present, Lincoln is about to be laid off, replaced at his job by a wax model. Booth suggests that Lincoln save his job by vividly acting out Abraham Lincoln's death throes after the customers shoot him with the provided blank—an idea they rehearse before abandoning.

The brothers reflect on their past together: Their parents deserted them as teenagers. Each parent, before leaving with a new lover, left one brother $500 in cash, which they refer to as their "inheritance". Lincoln spent his; Booth saved and hid his, never even opening the stocking that held it.

After losing his job at the arcade, Lincoln returns to Three-card Monte the next day and comes home exuberant. Meanwhile, Booth boasts that Grace has proposed marriage to him. Lincoln suggests that Booth find employment in order to keep Grace, calling his card shark abilities "double left-handed." Insulted, Booth challenges him to a game of Three-card Monte. Lincoln leads him to believe that he can win, inducing Booth to wager his $500 inheritance on the game before beating him. Laughing, Lincoln explains that the conceit behind Three-card Monte is that the dealer always decides when he wins. Over Booth's protests, he tries to open the stocking containing the inheritance. An agitated Booth reveals that he had shot Grace. Lincoln attempts to return the inheritance, but Booth dares him to open it instead.

As Lincoln cuts the stocking, Booth brings a gun to Lincoln's neck and shoots him. Booth rants at his brother's corpse for mocking him and stealing his inheritance, before crumpling and sobbing over the dead body.

Book One

The 35th Maine sets up a camp inside the land of Rus, outside a boyar's city, Suzdal. They are thrown into an intricate network of political feuds where the boyar, Ivor, struggles against the church for power. Both sides wish to exploit Keane and his men. The men of the 35th befriend peasants and the ideas of liberty, democracy, and freedom spread. Most of the 35th are ardent supporters of Lincoln and many abolitionists among them wish to change the order of the feudal society.

The men learn of the human-eating enemies called Tugars, seeing them depicted in a church. Keane allows for a vote to either stay and fight with Rus or to leave and try and mass strength elsewhere while avoiding the horde. The church's prelate, Rasnar, convinces Ivor to attack Keane and steal the guns on the night of the vote. The peasants revolt and are led particularly by one man, Kalencka (Kal), who befriends the Maine men and becomes an interpreter for Ivor. On the night Ivor masses his armies to crush Keane, Kal starts the rebellion. As the peasants are crushed, Keane calls off the vote instead letting the men place their votes by choosing whether or not to march to the aid of the peasants. Keane manages to come to the aid of peasants in time, and shortly after Rasnar and Ivor kill each other. The peasants are now free, but trouble looms.

Tugar race

The Tugars are a horde of alien humanoids that devour humans as "cattle", circling the world and devouring one-fifth of the people in each city-state roughly every 20 years. However the men of the 35th have a substantial advantage over the beings of this world: guns.

The Tugars are biologically very close to humans, and can contract some of the same diseases. They evolved on another world and resemble humans due to convergent evolution. They spread from world to world by "tunnels of light", which are wormholes their ancestors built. They are proportioned like humans, but are eight- to ten-feet (2.4–3.0 m) tall. Their bodies and almost noseless faces are covered with short hair and they have large canine teeth. Though their faces are somewhat apelike and in other ways resemble the wolfman, their bodies are Herculean in build and of handsome appearance. They ride horses of very large breed due to their stature. Tugar society is ruled by males with their females taking no significant social, political, or military role, quite unlike human nomads. They are very good mounted archers, shooting four-foot-long (1.2 m) arrows. It is revealed that the Tugars are a fallen race that once had a great interstellar civilization. The Tugars no longer understand how their ancestors invented the "tunnels of light", of which Earth seems to have several that operate sporadically, one Tugar in the series jokes to a human that he will show him the location of one, "for a price." There are other hordes of the same aliens, called the Merki and Bantag. Many humans just call all the aliens "Tugars" by definition.

They received their horses and perhaps some of their nomad culture from the Earth. The Tugars say that in the past they have visited the Earth, and they vaguely resemble the Bigfoot. The Tugars do not understand why Colonel Keane wants to fight them; in a conference the Tugar ruler told Keane that they protected the "cattle" when they first were settled on Valennia, and in any event the Tugars eat only 20% of the humans before they move on. The Tugars rely on humans for all the food and manufactured goods to maintain their nomadic way of life. Human "pets" follow the Tugar hordes, and are expected to eat what their masters do, and fight alongside their masters while seeing men, women, and children butchered and devoured as a routine matter. Most Tugars think that humans are simply inferior and have no souls, and cannot imagine that they would revolt rather than accept the status quo.

The Tugars are very conservative. They know they rely on the human "cattle" for all their needs, make nothing by themselves and are far outnumbered by humans. Some think their dependence on the human "cattle" threatens them with eventual extinction, but the rank-and-file Tugar would rather keep matters exactly as they are. The Tugars have encountered at least two other alien races on Valennia, brought there via the tunnels of light. One was a human-sized, Tugar-like hairy humanoid, and became "cattle" like humans; the other was non-humanoid with very advanced weapons. Once the Tugars destroyed the advanced aliens by force of numbers they refused to copy their weapons and threw them into the sea. The Tugars also encountered two human pirate ships brought through the tunnel of light. They captured one and said "they killed many Tugars before we feasted on them" but likewise refused to copy the pirate's guns.

Book Two

In book two, Keane and his men prepare for the coming of the Tugars. Kal estimates that there are hundreds of thousands compared to only one regiment of the 35th. They estimate years before the Tugars arrive, but unknown to them, the Tugars are force-marching across the northern lands because a smallpox epidemic is killing off their "cattle". The Maine men, being of many skills and crafts, set about trying to create a modern industry in only a year or so. They work to train and arm Rus soldiers and militia. Factories are created and a railroad is built. They fortify the city, but soon the Tugars come.

A Tugar agent, called the "Namer of Time" is the first alien leader to show up, with his escort and some Rus "pets" who have not seen their homes for twenty years. He knows about the Yankees and demands they disarm and provide 20% of their men as food. He tells them that other humans in the past have revolted, only to be totally exterminated. A confrontation ensues in which a Union soldier and Tugar warrior are killed. Keane tells the Namer of Time that the only tribute he will pay will be in lead.

They defeat an advance force of Tugars by setting up an ambush, but the bulk of the army is not far behind. The 35th and their Rus counterparts are battling for their lives. Many men sacrifice themselves, particularly the train conductor, Malady, who blows himself up taking hundreds of Tugars with him. The Tugar losses are staggering but they begin to overwhelm the city. The Qar Qarth of the Tugars, Muzta, faces opposition within his horde so he does not listen to the advice of his advisor Qubata to draw out the attack and starve the Yankees into submission. They make a suicidal charge, which begins to work as they break into the city. With little hope left, some of the men abandon the rest on the Ogunquit and sail away.

By now Keane finds that the Tugars have become a little less conservative and are forcing their human pets and slaves to make guns for them. However, the Tugars themselves still will do no labor of any kind and remain warriors.

The remaining men of the 35th Maine form near the center of the city. Keane prepares his men for the onslaught as they had at Gettysburg. They fix bayonets and prepare to charge. At the last minute, Keane's protegee, Vincent Hawthorne, commandeers their scouting balloon and daringly flies it to the dam the men constructed. Hawthorne sets the dam to blow and Qubata sees Hawthorne's intent and tries to stop him. Qubata is blown away in the explosion trying to save the horde, but it is futile. A torrent of water envelopes the city and drowns the horde. The remaining Tugars are captured or retreat. What is left of Suzdal is saved and the Tugar horde is decimated, a skeleton of its former self. The Tugar horde makes peace with the Union soldiers and rides away.

The main character Ray and his party of Aqutallion warriors embark on a quest to find and destroy Homncruse, the evil power threatening their world. Ray begins his journey alone on a tiny island, but eventually he meets his friends and fellow Aqutallion warriors: Tina, Cody, Leona and Dan, and even creates a town for the victims of Homncruse's evil to live. Villains encountered along tend to range from comical, such as Cat Boo and Badbad, to the more sinister elite generals of Homncruse.

Initially all the teens are considered Pennon, the lowest rank of warrior. Before they can destroy Homncruse each of them must undergo a trial at their respective temples hidden around the world to receive the secondary powers of Banalet. Dan is an exception because he is the descendant of the Prosperous Wise Man clan of Aqutallion. When Ray, Tina, Cody, and Leona achieve the status of Banalet and are united by the powers of Dan, Aqutallion is reborn and the group gains incredible powers.

The Aqutallions are not alone: eleven members of Kustera can be recruited to fight for the young warriors in their place for a time being. The Kustera are mostly meant to serve as a supplement to the Aqutallions, but their role in the story is vital to its progression. From the same temples where the Aqutallions gain their Banalet status, there is a Kustera only warp icon that sends the group to a dungeon where great treasures are hidden.

The film is about an extraterrestrial (played by Brad Dourif) who came to Earth several decades ago from a water planet (The Wild Blue Yonder) after it experienced an ice age. His narration reveals that his race has tried through the years to form a community on our planet, without any success.

The alien also tells the story of a space mission he found out about through his job with the CIA. In the late 1990s, debris from the Roswell UFO crash was unearthed and examined. Scientists incorrectly believed that they had contracted an infectious alien disease from the debris. An exploratory mission was launched to Blue Yonder (represented using archive footage from the STS-34 Space Shuttle mission and Henry Kaiser's diving expedition in Antarctica) to explore the possibility of establishing a new, uninfected human colony on the planet. After finding Blue Yonder suitable for human habitation, the astronauts returned home 820 years later, only to discover that Earth had been abandoned in their absence.

In the fictional African nation Zambeze, American mining engineer Rick Morgan is conned into an illegal operation involving toxic waste by his old friend, Jim Scott. Immediately after, the mine is attacked by a team of mercenaries, led by a rogue agent called Chang. Scott attempts to flee, but is supposedly killed by Chang. The mercenaries leave right as the army arrives. The government assumes Morgan is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of villagers, apparently caused by toxic waste. Due to the CIA, Morgan is allowed to return to America.

One year later, Morgan is approached by Maurice Dupont for a mission to clear his name and prevent further deaths. Morgan reluctantly agrees upon finding out that Scott is alive. Morgan is introduced to World Health Organization researcher Dr. Kim Woods. The two are teamed up. After searching a mine, Morgan and Kim are captured by rebel forces. Morgan and Kim are almost executed until Scott reveals himself to be their secret leader. Not long after, Chang's mercenaries attack and lay waste to the camp. Scott gives Morgan a code and the last clue he needs to find the barrels. Chang then murders Scott as Morgan and Kim escape.

Back at their hotel rooms, Kim is confronted by Dupont who reveals his duplicity. Morgan subdues Dupont, only for him to be rescued by Chang and another mercenary. Satisfied that he fulfilled his purpose, Chang shoots Dupont while Morgan and Kim make a run for it. Morgan reaches a contact who tells them the location of the barrels. Morgan recognizes the location as being an old hangout of his and Scott's. Chang arrives, kills the contact, forcing Morgan and Kim to flee.

The two finally reach the old hangout which is a cavern. Upon retrieving the uranium rod, Chang corners them and reveals he had been tracking them the whole time. Chang takes the uranium rod, kidnaps Kim and attempts to leave Morgan to die of radiation. Morgan survives due to a prototype protective powder developed by the WHO.

Morgan escaped the cavern and meets with Madumo, a rebel leader. Chang attempts to escape on a freight train headed to Point City. Morgan rallies the rebels to launch a massive assault against the train. The rebels are defeated by the government troops. Morgan and Madumo infiltrate the train. They are attacked by Chang's remaining mercenaries. After killing both of them, Morgan drops in, frees Kim and fights Chang. Morgan throws Chang off the train. Kim manages to detach the forward cars, leading them to a track in which the rebels sabotaged, killing all the soldiers. Scott's uncle, a CIA agent, arrives to provide extraction. However Morgan opts to save the uranium rod first. The second half of the train stops at a bridge where Chang reveals himself and attempts to drown Kim. Morgan arrives an sets Chang on fire, where he explodes along with the explosives on board the train. Morgan fishes Kim out of the water and drags her onto shore. Madumo arrives with the remaining rebels as Morgan and Kim kiss.

An African warrior is seen observing all that has transpired.

The film is set in 1820 (at the start of the reign of King George IV, as mentioned by Pengallan in his first scene).

Over and above its function as a hostelry, Jamaica Inn houses the clandestine rural headquarters of a gang of cut-throats and thieves, led by innkeeper Joss Merlyn. They have become wreckers. They are responsible for a series of engineered shipwrecks in which they extinguish coastal warning beacons, causing ships to run aground on the rocky Cornish coast. They then kill the surviving sailors and steal their cargo.

One evening, a young Irish-woman, Mary Yellan, is dropped off by coach near the inn, at the home of the local squire and justice of the peace, Sir Humphrey Pengallan. She requests the loan of a horse so she can ride to Jamaica Inn to re-unite with her Aunt Patience (the wife of Joss Merlyn). Despite Pengallan's warnings, she intends to live at Jamaica Inn with her late mother's sister. It transpires that Pengallan is the secret criminal mastermind behind the wrecking gang; he learns from his well-to-do friends and acquaintances when well-laden ships are passing near the coast, determines when and where the wrecks are to be caused, and fences the stolen cargo. He uses the lion's share of the proceeds to support his lavish lifestyle and passes a small fraction of them to Joss and the gang.

In another part of the inn, the gang convenes to discuss why they get so little money for their efforts. They suspect Jem Trehearne, a gang member for only two months, of embezzling goods. They hang him from one of the rafters of the inn, but when they leave, Mary cuts the rope and saves his life. Trehearne and Mary flee the gang, narrowly avoiding capture by swimming for their lives. The next morning, they row a boat ashore to seek the protection of Pengallan, unaware that he is the gang's benefactor. Trehearne reveals to Pengallan that he is actually an undercover law-officer on a mission to investigate the wrecks. Pengallan is alarmed but maintains his composure and pretends to join forces with Trehearne. Mary overhears their conversation and goes to the inn to warn Patience that she must flee in order to avoid being arrested as an accomplice. However, Patience refuses to leave her husband.

Meanwhile, Pengallan learns of a ship full of precious cargo which is due to pass the local coastline. He informs Joss and the gang, who go to the beach, and there extinguish the coastal warning beacon, as they wait for the ship to appear. However, Mary re-lights the warning beacon, and the ship's crew avoid the treacherous rocks and sail by unharmed. The gang angrily resolves to kill Mary as revenge for preventing the wreck, but Joss, who has developed a reluctant admiration for her, rescues her and the two escape by horse-cart. Joss is shot in the back and collapses when they reach Jamaica Inn. As Patience is about to tell Mary that Pengallan is the secret leader of the wrecking gang, Pengallan shoots and kills Patience from off-camera. Joss dies of his wound as well. Pengallan then takes Mary hostage, ties and gags her, and tells her that he plans to keep her now that she has no one else in the world. He drives her, still tied up and covered by a heavy cloak, to the harbour, where they board a large ship going to France.

Back at Jamaica Inn, Trehearne and a dozen soldiers take Joss's gang into custody. Trehearne then rides to the harbour to rescue Mary and capture Pengallan, who attempts to escape. During the chase, he climbs to the top of the ship's mast, from which he jumps to his death, shouting "Make way for Pengallan!"

John Bowman, a wealthy farmer, is kidnapped one night after two mysterious men lure his car off the road. When the wreckage is discovered the next day, constable Russ Mason (Charles Sellon) forms a search party with Amos Rugg (Hallam Cooley) and Johnny Goodlittle (Johnny Arthur). Johnny has just graduated from crime school, receiving a diploma as an amateur detective.

Amos and Johnny both work at the general store in Danburg. They are both in love with Betty Watson (Gertrude Olmstead), the storeowner's daughter. Attempting to woo Betty, Amos invites her on a drive in the country. Meanwhile, Johnny has followed a mysterious stranger to the country. The strange man has lured Amos' car off the road and kidnapped the couple. Johnny accidentally enters a hidden tunnel, and all three end up at Dr Edwards' Sanitarium.

Once inside, they are greeted by Dr. Gustave Ziska (Lon Chaney), who introduces Rigo (George Austin), Caliban (Walter James), and Daffy Dan (Knute Erickson), his three patients. Ziska explains that he took control of the asylum after it had closed. After many attempts to expunge the three hostages, they are captured and sent to a dungeon, wherein Johnny finds Dr. Edwards and John Bowman have been kidnapped by Dr. Ziska and his cronies.

Dr. Edwards tells Johnny that Ziska, Caliban, Rigo and Daffy Dan were once his patients in the sanitarium. Ziska had been a great surgeon who went mad and began to perform unorthodox operations. He now intends to perform experiments on Betty and Amos, attempting to discover the secret of eternal life.

Amos and Johnny are captured and brought to Ziska's laboratory, where Betty lies fastened to a surgical bed. Amos is strapped to the "death chair" and connected to Betty through a transducer, which will exchange their souls. Johnny eludes Ziska's henchmen and escapes up to the roof, sending up flares which are seen by policemen investigating the wreckage of Amos' car.

Having escaped, Johnny disguises himself as Rigo and begins to assist the doctor. He frees Betty and Amos and straps Ziska to his own death chair. Caliban appears and, mistaking the figure in the chair for Amos, activates the transducer, removing Ziska's soul from his body. Because there is no one on the surgical bed, there is no soul to complete the exchange, and Ziska is rendered completely lifeless.

Realizing his mistake, Caliban is distracted and Johnny captures him by hooking a winch to the monster's feet and hoisting him upside down. The policemen enter the laboratory to find that Johnny has successfully apprehended the madmen and located the kidnapped people. This is enough to gain him the police department's respect as a detective, and to win Betty's heart and hand.

In Las Vegas for a quickie divorce, a just-paroled ex-cop and his wife wander into the Cowboy Country Casino, run by the shady Charles Atlas. They win big, right as the casino is being robbed. The police believe their big win was a staged diversion, and the two of them become suspects. Over the course of the evening and next morning, the two attempt to escape the surrounded casino and prove their innocence, as well as save their marriage.

Mary Yellan, 23 years old, was brought up on a farm in Helford. After her father's and later her mother's death and with the subsequent decay of their farm, she is forced to sell it and their surviving animals, and as a promise to her, Mary goes on a day at the end of November in a coach trip with her only belongings in one simple chest to live with her only surviving relative: her mother's sister, Patience Merlyn, in a coaching inn called Jamaica Inn. Patience's husband, Joss Merlyn, is a local bully, stands almost seven feet tall and is a drunk. On arriving at the gloomy and threatening inn, Mary finds her formerly pretty, merry and friendly aunt, who had once been proposed to by a prosper and honest farmer who loved her, in a ghost-like state under the thumb of the vicious Joss, and soon realises that something unusual is afoot at the inn, which has no guests and is open to the public only to serve food and mostly drink. She tries to squeeze the truth out of her uncle during one of his binges, but he tells her, "I'm not drunk enough to tell you why I live in this God-forgotten spot, and why I'm the landlord of Jamaica Inn".

Mary and Joss's younger brother Jem leave the moors on a jingle for Christmas Eve and spend a day together in the town of Launceston, during which Jem sells a horse he stole from Squire Bassat of North Hill back to his unwitting wife. With the money earned in other sales, Jem offers Mary a pair of gold earrings and a red shawl. He confesses her that he has many "wives" in Cornwall. Despite Jem's offer to spend the night together with her at a local inn, Mary refuses. When it comes time to return to Jamaica Inn, Jem leaves Mary to get the jingle, but never returns. Mary has no way to get home except by walking but when she attempts this realises the weather and distance make it impossible. At this point Francis Davey passes her on the road in a hired coach and offers her a lift home. During the voyage, he explains her he has just come from a meeting where it was settled that His Majesty's Government is going to create a patrol system for the British coasts from the beginning of the new year and end with the shipwrecks. He leaves the coach at the crossroads to walk to Altarnun. The coach is then waylaid by her uncle's band of wreckers and the coach driver is killed. Almost raped by Harry when trying to escape back, Mary resists him but is caught, forced to go along with the wreckers and has to watch as they 'wreck' - tricking a ship into steering itself on to the rocks and then murdering the survivors of the shipwreck as they swim ashore - despite her vain attempt to warn the ship's crew.

A few days later, Jem comes to speak with Mary, who is locked in her room at the inn. With Jem's help, Mary escapes and goes to Altarnun to tell the vicar about Joss's misdeeds but he isn't at home. She leaves him a written note and then goes to the squire's home and tells his wife her story but Mrs. Bassat tells Mary that her husband already has the evidence to arrest Joss and has gone to do so. Mrs. Bassat has her driver take Mary to Jamaica Inn, where they arrive before the Squire's party. Mary goes inside and finds her uncle stabbed to death; the squire and his men arrive soon thereafter and discover Patience similarly murdered.

The vicar arrives at the inn, having received the note Mary left for him that afternoon and offers her refuge for the night. The next day, Mary finds in his desk drawer a drawing by the vicar; she is shocked to see that he has drawn himself as a wolf while the members of his congregation have heads of sheep. The vicar returns and tells Mary that Jem was the one who informed on Joss. When he realises that she has seen the drawing, the vicar reveals that he was the true head of the wrecker gang and directly responsible for the murders of Joss and Patience. He then flees the vicarage, taking Mary as his hostage under the threat of violence. The vicar explains that he sought enlightenment in the Christian Church but did not find it and instead found it in the practices of the ancient Druids. As they flee across the moor by horses to try to reach a ship to sail to Spain, Squire Bassat and Jem lead a search party with dogs that closes the gap, eventually coming close enough for Jem to shoot at the vicar, who throws himself down a cliff, and rescue Mary.

Mary has an offer to work as a servant for the Bassats and their two children, but instead plans to return to Helford. On her home returning day trip, in the beginning of January, as she drives a cart on the moor, she comes across Jem, leading a cart with all of his possessions, headed in the opposite direction. After some discussion, Mary decides to abandon her plans to return to Helford to go with Jem out of Cornwall.

The game features three singleplayer campaigns, two storyline campaigns, and a general conquest campaign. The first of the storyline campaigns dealt with the return of the Organians and their bringing the Interstellar Concordium in to 'pacify' the existing empires. The existing factions resist this pacification attempt, and a new war ensues. The other story campaign, only playable by the Mirak, Lyrans, Hydrans, and Klingons, deals with the discovery of artifacts belonging to an ancient race of telepaths.

An elderly man, his death rapidly approaching, takes his young grandson up onto a hill behind his house and gives the boy his pocket watch. Then, standing among falling apple blossoms, the man also "gives instruction" on the nature of time: how when you grow up, it begins to move faster and faster, slipping away from you in great chunks if you don't hold tightly onto it. Time is a pretty pony, with a wicked heart.

Commercial director Ian, Hollywood producer Will, three extreme sports enthusiasts Chloe, Kittie and Silo, cinematographer Mark, and Ian's boss, Jeffery, take their trip to the Alps for seasonal practice and stunt filming in preparation for filming a daring, yet dangerous big-league advertisement against an actual avalanche. They are flown to a resort under construction for comfort by their helicopter pilot Zoran. On the first night of their stay, as Will and Silo are bluffing, they spot a man with a woman entering a room. Will and Silo, on a dare, secretly videotape the beginning of their affair, but are chased away by a pair of dogs. Will and the team are unaware that the man they videotaped is Serbia's most wanted war criminal, Slobodan Pavlov, who was believed to be killed in a plane crash, and that the resort the enthusiasts are residing is actually his hideout; the woman with Pavlov is his love interest, Yana (whom Jeffery had encountered on the train en route to the mountain). Pavlov is also accompanied by his henchmen, Ivo, Ratko, Goran, Jakša and Pavlov's son, Slavko. Will states later in the film that he read about Pavlov in a newspaper article. On the second day of filming, the enthusiasts proceed to film the first controlled avalanche. At nightfall, as Will, Chloe, Kittie and Silo play truth or dare in a hot tub Will had heated up using coal, Slavko spies on them. Deducing they had videotaped his father and mistaking them to be members of the CIA, he reports this to Pavlov, and recommends killing them swiftly, which Pavlov agrees to do.

On the third day of filming, after Ian, Will, Chloe, Kittie, Silo, and Mark head to the mountain again, Jeffery is kidnapped by Slavko and Ivo and is brought before Pavlov. After finding Will's camera and seeing the footage containing the start of the affair, Slavko and Ivo hijack Zoran's helicopter when he returns to the resort, and force Zoran to tell where the group is filming. Once they land on the mountain, Slavko and Ivo confront and hold the group at gunpoint. However, when a perverted Slavko attempts to force Chloe and Kittie to engage in foreplay, a disgusted Ivo pulls a gun on him, which escalates into a Mexican standoff between the two. Mark, who had planted explosives high up the mountain, detonates them on Ian's cue, startling Slavko and Ivo, and causing them to accidentally shoot each other dead. After narrowly escaping an avalanche in the helicopter, the group realize that by accidentally videotaping Pavle, they have jeopardized their own lives and plan an escape.

They return to the resort, but they find Ratko, Goran and Jakša roving the compound. They manage to subdue Ratko and attempt to escape on a cable car, but Pavlov, having been alerted of the group's presence, takes control of the cable car and has it sent back to the dock. The group make a quick escape and ski further down slope as Pavlov and his henchmen open fire, during which Kittie is nearly shot when they shoot her snowboard apart. They are blocked off by a very steep cliff, and decide to tether down to a gap they intend to use as an escape route. As Will is trying to tether down, Pavlov and his henchmen, after recapturing and killing Zoran, arrive in his helicopter. After throwing Zoran's body out, they open fire upon Will, who parachutes to safety, before concentrating their fire on the rest of the group. Silo manages to throw his snowboard into the helicopter, hitting Jakša and causing him to fall to his death, but not before he shoots Silo in the abdomen. The remaining henchmen attempt to continue shooting at them, but the helicopter's low fuel lines and the time remaining until nightfall force them to return to the hideout to refuel and wait out the night. Kittie stays behind to tend Silo's wounds, armed with a rocket launcher with only one round while Ian, Chloe and Mark split up to escape.

At the hideout, Pavlov tells Yana he is determined to kill them in an effort to avenge Slavko and Ivo, but then slaps her, threatening to kill her when she negatively mentions his son. After Pavlov leaves the room, Yana double crosses him and pleads with Jeffery to take her to New York. Jeffery agrees and they decide to wait until Pavlov and his remaining henchmen leave to track down the team again. Will, who has landed on a tree and stayed hidden throughout the day, manages to free himself and escape. As morning rises, Pavlov and his henchmen resume their objective. Hearing the helicopter approaching them, Ian and Chloe escape through another gap while Mark stays behind to set a trap. At the same time, Kittie attempts to fire the rocket into the helicopter, but it misses and nearly hits a cable car carrying Jeffery and Yana. As the helicopter hovers below the edge of a cliff, Mark takes out a string of cable and when he ski-jumps off the cliff, jams the tail rotors with the cable in mid-air before safely landing his jump. This causes the helicopter to spiral out of control and crash on the ledge of a cliff, killing everyone on board. The sound of the explosion causes a massive avalanche, and Ian and Chloe ski for their lives while also successfully video taping it for the commercial by having Chloe ski in front of it. They narrowly manage to take cover behind a rock as the snow nearly engulfs them.

Back in the States, after viewing the commercial to Mr. Imahara and his assistant, Kana, the commercial is met with a positive response and agree to air it on television. Ian then receives a phone call from Kittie, and tells him to look out the window. When he does, he sees that Will, Chloe, Kittie and Silo are on top of a train performing stunts, something they also did at the beginning of the film when they were en route to the Alps. The film ends when the four enthusiasts let go of their skateboards and let them fly through the commercial's billboard, one of which goes through Chloe's mouth as Ian says "There we go again" while smiling.

A clan of terrorists, of all backgrounds and types, seize the "Thunderblast" top-secret super tank, hiding it in Mexico. The task of recovering it is entrusted to "Bulletproof" Frank McBain, a former secret agent and current cop.

As the novel opens, Kris and his cronies are doing an unprecedented and revolutionary thing – they are robbing a bank. Although the Nidorians use paper money, it is always backed by reserves of precious metal, in this case cobalt. The gang removes all the cobalt from one of the regional banks, making its scrip worthless. The plan is to use their cash reserves from other banks to buy up the worthless notes at a steep discount, then let the cobalt be re-discovered, multiplying their funds overnight.

The scheme appears to succeed, but in the process Nidorian society becomes ever more fractured. Del Vyless, the radical leader of Norvis' party, is assassinated. His place is taken by Kris who, as a Yorgen and direct descendant of the Lawgiver, is an ideal figurehead for the movement to restore the old ways.

Kris spreads a rumor that the Earthmen are responsible for the theft of the cobalt, and when the Earthmen refuse to deny this rumor, he foments a riot that results in the sacking of the school. The cobalt is discovered there, where Kris had planted it. The Earthmen do nothing – they stand and watch the destruction, then float up into the sky, surrounded by a blue glow. As far as the Nidorians can tell, they have been driven off Nidor.

Things progressively get worse until mass starvation, food riots and breakdown of the law result in the destruction of the main Temple. Norvis confronts his grandfather, who collapses and dies as his world crumbles around him. Norvis' party appears to have won, but it is a Pyrrhic victory, with new religious sects appearing and more economic problems. Kris is appointed executive officer by the remnants of the High Council, the first autocratic leader in the history of Nidor.

Norvis sets out on a quest – his mother had told him how she happened across an encampment of Earthmen in the mountains, and he wants to know if they are still there. He finds the camp, but it is abandoned. However, he has company – the Earthman he knows as Smith, who caused his downfall. Smith has been waiting for Norvis. Norvis pulls out a weapon to exact revenge, but holds off long enough for Smith to persuade Norvis to come with him to a place where all will be explained.

Rising together, just as the Earthmen did when the school was sacked, they enter a spaceship, which rises above the atmosphere. Norvis is shown what the Great Light really is, and how far away it is. He sees his planet from above, the first Nidorian to do so. Smith explains that when the Earthmen first encountered Nidor, it was the first time they had found a species they had anything in common with, albeit one that had no inkling of other worlds, because they never saw the sun or stars.

Intelligent life is rare, and previous encounters with aliens had been hostile and traumatic. Nidor promised humans something they thought they lacked – stimulating companionship and competition. However, Nidorian society was locked in stasis. It could never provide a challenge to humans, and any significant interactions would destroy it through culture shock. Instead the humans adopted the role of the beneficent Earthmen, with a distinctive appearance, for instance wearing beards, and created institutions like the School of Divine Law, which, over the years, would result in the disruption of the static society. They also created the conditions for intelligent, outward-looking Nidorians to meet and marry, thus breeding a new Nidorian who would lead the new society.

Norvis realizes that he is a result of that breeding program. Smith explains he was kicked out of the school because they knew what problems the hormone would cause. Indeed, the tactic proved so successful they have been kicking out other students of Norvis' calibre so they would be just as motivated as Norvis himself.

Smith returns Norvis to the surface of the planet, but not before telling him "see you in a couple of centuries". Humans and Nidorians will not meet again until Nidor lifts itself into space, as it must. When that happens, humans will not look like the hated Earthmen, and the two species will become friends.

Back on the surface, Norvis has an epiphany. He has been trying to get rid of the Earthmen for what they did to Nidor, but everything they did, even partly causing the glut, was minor. The person really responsible for ruining Nidor, by killing Del , by starting heretical religious sects, by creating the Merchants Party itself in opposition to the priests, is Norvis himself. The Earthmen did not need to ruin Nidor. They simply bred a Nidorian to do it for them. Now there is no going back.

Norvis returns to his own kind. He is shocked to find that Kris has been assassinated while he was gone. He nominates a new leader, and prepares to do, behind the scene, what he must, starting with rebuilding the school.

The film follows four families, with different nationalities (French, German, Russian, and American) but with the same passion for music, from the 1930s to the 1980s. The various story lines cross each other time and again in different places and times, with their own theme scores that evolve as time passes.

In Moscow, 1936, an aspiring dancer Tatiana marries a man, Boris, who will give her a son just before he is killed during World War II. In Berlin, Karl Kremer's success as a pianist is confirmed when he receives praise from Hitler – something which will haunt him throughout his life. In Paris, a young violinist Anne falls in love with a Jewish pianist, Simon Meyer; they marry and produce a son, but they end up on a train bound for a Nazi concentration camp. In New York, Jack Glenn is making his name with his popular jazz band. Twenty years on, their children are reliving their experiences, and Anne Meyer continues her hopeless quest to find the son she was forced to abandon.

The main event in the film is the Second World War, which throws the stories of the four musical families together and mixes their fates. Although all characters are fictional, many of them are loosely based on historical musical icons (Édith Piaf, Josephine Baker, Herbert von Karajan, Glenn Miller, Rudolf Nureyev, etc.) The ''Boléro'' dance sequence at the end brings all the threads together.

''Glass Mask'' is a saga depicting the devotion of Maya Kitajima to the performing arts as a professional stage actress, and her competition with her skilled rival, Ayumi Himekawa. They are both pursuing the degree of acting proficiency and career success required to play the lead role of the legendary stage play "The Crimson Goddess" ("Kurenai Tennyo"). Maya is not particularly beautiful or smart in school, but her passion for acting is all-consuming, to the point where she literally puts her own life on the line several times for the sake of a role. Always told by her mother that she was good for nothing, Maya wants to prove to the world and to herself that she has worth. On the other hand, everyone expects the gifted and multi-talented Ayumi to succeed, so she is determined to reach the top on her own without the help of her prestigious parents.

As the story unfolds it encompasses the tangled human relationships of many characters, including Maya's mentor, Chigusa Tsukikage, who discovered Maya's tremendous talent for acting during her search for a successor capable of performing the role of "The Crimson Goddess", and Masumi Hayami, the young president of Daito, who often interacts with Maya as a crafty and cold-hearted entrepreneur, while giving her faithful support and warm encouragement in the disguise of an anonymous fan ("The Purple Rose Person", or "murasaki no bara no hito" as Maya calls him for his trademark gift of purple roses). Hajime Onodera, a director for Daito, wants the rights to "Kurenai Tennyo," which were given to Tsukikage by the playwright; since Tsukikage refuses to sell him the rights, Onodera tries to drive Tsukikage's acting school out of business through a series of nefarious schemes. Since Onodera is working for Hayami, Maya (unaware that Hayami is "The Purple Rose") hates him. Though there is an age difference of eleven years, Masumi falls in love with Maya and gives her encouragement in subtle ways.

Jin Fei, played by Ti Lung, known as the King Eagle, stumbles into conflict within the Tien Yi Tong clan when he falls in love with the clan's 7th chief, Yuk Lin, played by Li Ching.

The story takes place during the third spring since Belldandy's arrival. Celestin, a former mentor of Belldandy, is released by Morgan Le Fay, and erases all memories of Keiichi from Belldandy to use her as a virus to hack the Yggdrasil computer in the heavens.

Morgan le Fay heads to the Lunar Prison on the Moon and releases the seal. She is able to make contact with a small mask that reveals that they must unite for their common goal.

On Earth, it is the start of the New Year at Nekomi Institute of Technology, and various clubs seek to recruit new members. The Motor Club is one of them, and tries to lure new applicants with a display of the vehicles they race with, including the new two-seater Keiichi Morisato and Belldandy will be using in an upcoming race. Many new members initially join, including Morgan in human form. However, most of them are scared away by Toraichi Tamiya and Otaki Aoyama.

That night, while the club members celebrate, Keiichi inadvertently finds himself in a compromising situation with club member Hasegawa. Belldandy runs outside, with Keiichi in pursuit. When Keiichi catches up to her, she apologizes; Keiichi simply smiles and comments upon the arrival of spring. Comforted, Belldandy smiles back and tells him in a flurry of cherry blossoms that she hopes she can spend all of her springs with him. Celestin, a former mentor of Belldandy, then appears. Urd flies in and angrily orders Celestin to step away from Belldandy. Refusing to step away, he turns Belldandy around and gives her a kiss on the lips, whereupon Belldandy collapses, much to everyone's shock. Urd then attacks him with a lightning bolt, but he has disappeared. At the temple, Urd finds out that Belldandy has been infected with a virus. Peorth calls to inform Urd that Yggdrasil has also been compromised by the virus, and isolates The Heavens from Earth as a security measure until it is stopped, meaning that Belldandy cannot receive treatment until the matter is resolved.

When she finally regains consciousness, Belldandy can not recall memories of Keiichi, even though she can identify Skuld and Urd immediately. Urd recognizes the symptoms as selective amnesia and informs Keiichi that all of Belldandy's memories after their first encounter must have been sealed. Proving Urd's speculation, Belldandy informs Keiichi that she may grant him one wish. After Skuld reprimands him, Keiichi craftily wishes that Belldandy's memories be restored, but as Yggdrasil is down, Belldandy finds that she cannot process the request. Skuld attempts to restore Belldandy's memory with a number of inventions, but the most they do is remind Belldandy to give Keiichi her business card. Unable to find an immediate solution, Keiichi decides to accept the current situation for the moment, and try to live as normally as possible.

When the Motor Club is told about Belldandy's condition, they are shocked, but also concerned about their upcoming race; the competition is a mixed-gender race. When Sora declines the opportunity, Morgan offers to take Belldandy's place. Unsure about her skill, the club gives her a trial-run with Keiichi; seeing them ride the bike causes some traces of memory to return to Belldandy.

Up to this point, Keiichi has managed to remain surprisingly stoic despite Belldandy's condition. However, as he drives back to the temple that night at dangerously high speeds, he is so immersed in his troubles that he subconsciously expects Belldandy to aid him in making a sharp turn, without realizing that those memories remain locked and this almost causes an accident. Realizing Keiichi's guilt stirs something in Belldandy's heart, perhaps a faint reminder of the love they once shared.

When Belldandy accidentally uncovers a photo album filled with pictures of the two at the temple, she realizes just how deeply her amnesia has affected Keiichi. Realizing the recent emptiness in his smiles inspires Belldandy to get to know him better, starting by opting to remain as Keiichi's partner in the upcoming race despite her amnesia. When an irritated Morgan hears about Belldandy's renewed resolve, she challenges Keiichi and Belldandy to a race, teaming up with Megumi at Keiichi's request. Despite Morgan's best efforts however, they are no match for the two, and what's more, the experience apparently unlocks more of Belldandy's memories.

That night, Belldandy accidentally overhears a discussion between Keiichi and her sisters regarding Celestine's role in the current crisis. Realizing that Celestine erased her memories and inserted the virus, Belldandy stumbles out into the night, shocked and confused. Taking advantage of the situation, Celestine lures Belldandy away and when Urd arrives, he uses the virus to turn Belldandy against her elder sister in combat. Keiichi and Skuld's arrival causes a massive amount of uncontrollable energy from Belldandy as she struggles to reaffirm her sense of self, knocking out everyone in the vicinity. Successfully finding the side of her that she hid away after Celestine's betrayal allows her to safely dissipate the energy, though she faints in the process. Skuld wakes up to find the locality ravaged in the aftermath of the battlefield. When she spots Celestine calmly stepping down the stairs, she summons Noble Scarlet and angrily knocks Celestine with a thunderbolt into a screen, causing water to flood. Keiichi awakens just in time to notice the oncoming wave, and rushes to cover Belldandy, so that he will take the brunt of the blow for her. Belldandy awakens to find Keiichi comatose on the ground and hysterically tries to revive him.

Back at the temple, Belldandy comes to her senses, but her heart is uneasy and believes that she has only served to bring suffering to Keiichi. Skuld assures her that, regardless of present circumstances, in all of the friends they have made and all the experiences they have been through, Keiichi and Belldandy have weathered all with smiles. Reassured, Belldandy falls into Skuld's lap, sparking concern from her, but Urd assures her that Belldandy is merely exhausted from the battle.

When Keiichi walks into the empty Motor Club clubhouse alone the next morning, he finds Morgan bleeding on the stairway from the battle. Disregarding her attempts to decline, Keiichi insists that she come with him to the hospital wing. While he treats the wound on her arm, Morgan cryptically asks him whether he could love her, telling him that in the world that is coming Belldandy will belong to Celestine. Before he can reply, she forcibly kisses him; unbeknownst to them, Belldandy sees them through the door. Due in part to her upset over this (seeing Morgan and Keiichi kissing) Belldandy prepares herself to accept the vaccine, which will destroy the virus in her, at the risk of erasing all her memories. In coordination with Heaven, the ceremony of administering the vaccine commences, but something goes wrong.

The virus inside Belldandy has been using her as a Trojan horse; since Goddesses are connected to Yggdrasil, it was able to infect the main system through her, although without direct access it was only able to make slow progress. The Heavens made direct access with Belldandy to administer the vaccine, unwittingly allowing it even deeper into the system. More seriously, while usurping this direct link, the virus rewrites itself using the vaccine, turning itself into a program that bypasses all of Yggdrasil's security measures. Exploiting the direct link between Belldandy and Yggdrasill, Celestin hacks deep into the system mainframe, accessing an enigmatic program that to this point is referred to only as top-secret. He possesses Keiichi and pulls the program through Belldandy, incorporating it into the vaccine mandala. This creates an enormous magical field that swallows the temple and the surrounding forest. Three enormous tree trunks spiral from the ground into the sky, and a gargantuan being slowly materialized.

In Belldandy's past, Celestin, concerned that the Gods were not listening to the suffering of those of the lower worlds, tried to rise up against them, first by destroying the Gate of Judgment. Heaven's agents are sent against him, but Belldandy manages to stop them, protecting her mentor. More people are sent, and both are restrained. Celestin was sentenced to eternity in the Lunar Prison, while Belldandy's memories of the events were to be erased by Urd.

If Celestin destroys Yggdrasil and the entire Earth, a new Earth, free of suffering, will have to be created. The three Goddesses stand united against Celestin and Morgan, trying to stop them. Back in the Heavens, Peorth authorizes the use of Gungnir to stop Celestin. She launches the attack, but Belldandy manages to protect him at the last minute: they may be attacking Celestin, but it is Keiichi that would be killed. Keiichi then helps Belldandy block the attack by borrowing Celestin's power (with his permission). Realizing he was wrong, Celestin finally concedes, and releases Keiichi from his body.

Soon after, Belldandy, Keiichi and Morgan are transported to the Gate of Judgement. Having once lost her love when trying to pass this test of the Gods, Morgan warns the two to not pass through it, but they move forward, with complete confidence they will pass through safely and not be separated. Upon stepping through the gate, they return to Earth. As they return, Morgan tells them that she will stay and tell couples who come in the future the story of how they passed the test. The two return, but back in the Heavens, Yggdrasil is critically damaged. The three goddesses and their angels come together to sing and rapidly restore The World Tree, before dematerializing it. Finally by herself, Belldandy informs Keiichi that the virus deleted Yggdrasil's records, meaning that he is once again free to ask for any wish. Smiling softly, he replies, "That's easy," sparking their love for one another once more. Up on a tree, Skuld wistfully wishes that she too will one day fall in love, just like Belldandy, only for Urd to state that she is a hundred years (then a million years, then a day) too young.

Jean-Claude and Pierrot harass and sexually assault an older woman in a banlieue, steal her purse and run away. After they evade their pursuers, they loot the purse but are disappointed to find almost no money. They steal a Citroën DS for a joyride. When they bring it back at night, the owner awaits them with his gun drawn. Pierrot runs away but is shot in the groin. Jean-Claude overpowers the owner, stealing the gun and the car and also kidnapping Marie-Ange, the woman the owner was with. After picking up Pierrot, they drive to a car mechanic they know to exchange the stolen DS for another car, offering the mechanic the chance to rape Marie-Ange, who seems apathetic. Leaving with the other car, Jean-Claude and Pierrot force a doctor at gunpoint to treat Pierrot's wounds, which are only superficial. They steal the doctor's money and flee.

When they come back to the mechanic, he is angry that Marie-Ange was totally passive and apathetic during the rape. Pierrot fears that he has become impotent because of his wounds and suggests sabotaging the steering of the DS before giving it back to the owner, imagining him having an accident on a winding road. They go through with the plan and let Marie-Ange go, but not before getting her address.

Jean-Claude and Pierrot go to the country, stealing bicycles and a car from locals. When they have to stop at a train crossing and see police arriving, they flee their car and enter the almost empty train. They encounter a young woman who is breastfeeding her child and force her to let Pierrot suckle on her breasts. This arouses all three and they begin to have sex, before the woman notices that she has to leave the train at the station, where her husband is waiting.

After encountering police on the train station, Jean-Claude and Pierrot decide to lay low and go to a deserted coastal resort, where they break into a vacation home to stay there. They notice that the home belongs to a family of three, with a daughter named Jacqueline. After finding Jacqueline's bathing suit, they smell it gleefully and estimate that she must be around 16 years old.

They return to Marie-Ange and force her to have sex with both of them, Pierrot again being able to get an erection. She again is totally passive, frustrating both. She also tells them that the car owner has sold his sabotaged DS.

With the help of Marie-Ange, they break into the hair salon she works at. When she requests to be kissed and begins screaming and throwing things, they shoot her in the leg and leave her bound in the salon.

When their plan of seducing young women fails, Jean-Claude suggests that an inmate in a women's prison would be sexually starving. They wait at the entrance of a prison and see Jeanne be released. They follow her and suggest helping her, which confuses Jeanne. While they are arguing at a roadside, Jean-Claude scares away a driver with his gun, which amuses Jeanne. Jean-Claude hands her his gun, saying that she can trust them. They give her money to buy some clothes, bring her to the beach and have a lavish oyster dinner with her. On the car ride, Jeanne passionately kisses both. All three check into a hotel and have passionate sex. When Jean-Claude and Pierrot are sleeping, Jeanne, seemingly content, commits suicide by shooting herself in the groin. Jean-Claude and Pierrot take the gun and Jeanne's belongings and flee the hotel.

When going through her belongings, they notice through her correspondence that she has a son named Jacques, who is also in jail. When he is released several weeks later, Jean-Claude and Pierrot tell him that Jeanne asked them to help him. They bring him to a cottage where Marie-Ange is waiting and suggest that he should have sex with her. They are upset when they hear Marie-Ange seemingly reaching orgasm. Afterwards, she explains that it was the timidity and awkwardness of the virgin Jacques which aroused her.

Later, Jacques suggests robbing an elderly person and asks for their gun to do it. Jean-Claude and Pierrot accompany him. They are shocked when the person is one of Jacques' prison wardens. Jacques berates and shoots the warden and Jean-Claude and Pierrot flee with Marie-Ange. After stealing another car, Marie-Ange has sex with each of them while driving, now seemingly enjoying it very much.

After Jean-Claude and Pierrot learn that they are wanted for the murder, they want to leave Marie-Ange so that she is not connected to this crime, but she refuses. So the three continue on the road, stealing cars and trying to hitch-hike. When they encounter a family in the countryside, they force them to exchange cars, their old stolen Citroën Traction Avant against a new DS, identical to the sabotaged one. The daughter of the family is amused by the situation and suggests their parents accept the deal. When she is hit by her father she breaks down and requests the three to take her with them, which they do. When they find out that she is still a virgin, they deflower her with her consent. They note that her name is Jacqueline and when they smell her vagina they are sure that this is the Jacqueline whose bathing suit they found in the vacation home.

Later they drop her off on the roadside and continue on. The film ends with the three driving at high speed with the DS along a winding road climaxing with the sounds of an automobile crash.

The story revolves around three teenagers: Nomiya Tomomi, a high school dropout, Togawa Kiyoharu, an ex-sprinter who now plays wheelchair basketball and Takahashi Hisanobu, a popular leader of the high school's basketball team who now finds himself a paraplegic after an accident.

''Real'' features a cast of characters who find themselves being marginalized by society, but are all united by one common feature: a desire to play basketball, with no place to play it in. Nomiya, being a high school dropout, has no future in his life. Togawa, being a difficult personality, finds himself constantly feuding with his own teammates. Takahashi, once a popular team leader, now finds himself being unable to move from the chest down.

''Real'' also deals with the reality of physical disabilities, and the psychological inferiority that the characters struggle against. The characters break through their own psychological barriers bit by bit.

One day, Mickey and his friends went for a walk in a forest. They became so distracted by all the natural beauty surrounding them, they got lost. Pretty soon, they discovered a haunted castle that belongs to the evil witch Yashja. The castle is full of tricks and traps and even magic wands to create ice and fire. Suddenly, a gaping hole opened up under Mickey's friends and they all fell in. Now Mickey has to save his friends, who are now being held captive by the witch.

In the ending, Mickey runs to the center of a long room and calls out for Minnie, who eventually answers. They meet and embrace each other. Then they go meet their Disney friends. Everyone says it's good they could return. Minnie thanks Mickey for saving her and the rest of their friends. Goofy then decides to take a picture of all the friends. After the picture snaps, the Disney characters are seen together in a big portrait.

''Akademik Vladislav Volkov'', a Russian research vessel in the South Pacific, communicates with the orbiting space station ''Mir''. A large energy source traveling through space strikes ''Mir'', killing the cosmonauts and beaming itself down to ''Volkov''. The electrical surge takes over the ship and attacks the crew.

Seven days later, the tugboat ''Sea Star'', captained by alcoholic Robert Everton (Donald Sutherland), loses its uninsured cargo while sailing through a typhoon. ''Sea Star'''s crew, led by navigator and ex-Navy officer Kelly Foster (Jamie Lee Curtis) and engineer Steve Baker (William Baldwin), discover the engine room taking on water. When ''Sea Star'' takes refuge in the eye of the storm to make repairs, ''Volkov'' appears on their radar. Realizing that it could be worth millions in salvage, Everton orders his crew aboard.

On ''Volkov'', most of the electronics have been destroyed and the Russian crew are seemingly missing. Everton orders Steve to help a fellow crewman, Squeaky (Julio Oscar Mechoso), restore power to the ship. Immediately afterward, the ship's anchor drops on its own, sinking ''Sea Star'' with deckhand Hiko (Cliff Curtis) and first mate J.W. Woods, Jr. (Marshall Bell) on board. Steve leaves Squeaky to guard the engine room, where he is lured to his death by a robotic, spider-like creature. Steve rescues an injured Hiko, while Woods comes out unscathed.

As Foster treats Hiko in the sick bay, Chief Science Officer Nadia Vinogradova (Joanna Pacuła)—the sole surviving member of ''Volkov'''s crew—shoots at the crew and is subdued by Steve. Nadia is hysterical about "it" needing power to travel through the ship and implores the crew to shut down the generators. She attacks Everton and Foster, who subdues her and takes her to the bridge. Steve, Woods, and crewman Richie Mason (Sherman Augustus) go to the engine room to look for Squeaky, but instead stumble upon an automated workshop producing more of the strange robots.

The three are attacked by the robots and what appears to be a gun-wielding Russian crew member. The Russian is revealed to be a cyborg, but the three bring it down with salvaged munitions from the ship's small arms locker and take its seemingly dead body to the bridge. Nadia explains that the sentient electrical energy beamed from the ''Mir'' took over the ship eight days prior, scanned the ship's computers to find information on killing humans, then used the automated workshops to convert ''Volkov'''s crew into cyborgs; the one brought to the bridge was the ship's captain and Nadia's husband.

As the storm resumes, the crew head for the computer room. On the way, they are ambushed by a converted Squeaky and a giant robot that kills Woods. The survivors barricade themselves in the communications room, where Richie sends out a mayday; however, Everton shoots out the radio, unwilling to give up his salvage. Foster punches Everton and removes him from command. Richie uses the computers to talk to the alien (credited as The Intelligence); it tells them that it is "aware" and sees mankind as a "virus" which it plans to use as "spare parts." This drives Richie insane, causing him to gun down Squeaky and flee. When the remaining crew leave the room, Everton takes the opportunity to talk to the Intelligence, which recognizes him as the "dominant lifeform."

The crew discovers that the Intelligence has moved ''Volkov'' s computer elsewhere in the ship. Realizing that the ship is moving, they return to the bridge by going outside, where Hiko is lost to the typhoon. Meanwhile, Everton is guided to one of the workshops, where he makes a bargain with the Intelligence. Foster identifies Lord Howe Island as ''Volkov'''s destination, with Nadia surmising that the Intelligence wishes to seize a British intelligence station from which it could seize control of the world's military forces. As they decide to sink ''Volkov'', the survivors are confronted by the now-cyborg Everton, which they defeat with a thermite hand grenade. They empty the ship's fuel tanks and set explosive charges.

Foster, Steve and Nadia run into Richie. A giant robot (piloted by the Intelligence) suddenly appears and attacks Nadia, Richie and Steve. The Intelligence captures Foster and tortures her for the location of the detonator. A mortally wounded Richie informs Steve that he prepared a jury-rigged ejection seat that can be used for escape. Nadia and Steve rescue Foster, and Nadia sacrifices herself by shooting a flaregun at nearby gas tanks to kill the Intelligence. Foster and Steve make it out safely by using Richie's ejection seat, which triggers an explosion and sinks ''Volkov'', causing the sentient electricity to disperse in the seawater. Foster and Steve are rescued by a U.S. naval ship.

Unmarried English couple Colin and Mary are vacationing in Venice for a second time, in an attempt to rekindle their passionless relationship. As they meander through the city visiting landmarks, they are surreptitiously photographed by a stranger. Over dinner, Mary questions Colin as to whether he likes her two children, whom she conceived during her last marriage. While wandering through the streets, the couple get lost. They encounter Robert, an elegant British-Italian man who offers to take them to his bar. Over several bottles of wine, Robert regales the couple with intimate, bizarre details of his life, including stories about his sadistic father, an Italian diplomat, as well as cruel pranks his younger sisters played on him during his childhood. He also recounts how he met his wife, Caroline, the daughter of a Canadian diplomat. Colin and Mary attempt to return to their hotel after their night with Robert, but become lost. Mary suffers a migraine and the two end up sleeping on the streets.

At dawn, the couple awaken and visit a cafe in the square at St Mark's Basilica. There, Mary expresses unease and wishes to abort their vacation. The two are again met by Robert, who apologizes after learning the couple slept on the street. He offers to have them over for a meal at his home, which they accept. The three are taken by a water taxi to Robert's spacious, Moorish-styled apartment, and the couple take a nap. They awaken and are met by Caroline. She tells them Robert has left to work at his bar, and offers Mary food. As Mary spends time with Caroline, she notices that she appears to have a back injury. Caroline confesses to having looked in on the couple while they were sleeping, and remarks their beauty.

When Robert returns, he continues to unfurl anecdotes about his domineering father and grandfather. When Colin insults Robert in the library, Robert punches him in the stomach. Colin does not tell Mary about the incident. After dinner, Colin and Mary return to their hotel, where they have passionate sex. Later, Mary has a nightmare, and upon waking, admits to Colin that she saw a photograph of him in Robert and Caroline's apartment. While the couple visit the beach later, Colin confesses to Mary how Robert hit him. The two subsequently discuss getting married when they return to England.

While walking through the city, Colin and Mary stumble upon Robert and Caroline's residence by happenstance. Caroline, out on a balcony, notices them, and calls out for them to come and visit. Caroline and Robert inform the couple that they will be leaving the next day to visit Caroline's family in Canada. Robert insists Colin accompany him on a short trip to tend to his bar, to which he agrees. Caroline stays with Mary at the house, and finds the home is mostly packed. Caroline tells Mary that she and Robert plan to sell it when they return. Over tea, Caroline tells Mary her back injury stems from years of sadomasochistic sex that she and Robert engage in. Meanwhile, Robert tells Colin he is selling his bar. Colin asks Robert why he took photographs of him, but Robert continues to steer the conversation toward anecdotes relating to his family.

Mary begins to suffer vertigo, and suspects she has been drugged. She is escorted by Caroline to a bedroom, where she finds the walls covered in photographs of her and (mostly) Colin taken over the course of their vacation. Caroline explains that Robert has been stalking the couple since the day they arrived, having passed them on the street. Robert and Colin return to the house, and Colin is alarmed to find Mary unable to speak. Realizing that he and Mary have been lured there to take part in Robert and Caroline's twisted sex game, Colin attempts to fight the couple off, but they slash his throat with a razor as Mary helplessly watches. As Colin bleeds to death, Robert and Caroline begin to have sex.

Later, Mary is questioned by the Italian police before she goes to view Colin's body. As she escorted out of the police station, Robert and Caroline are interrogated. As the detectives commence their interview with Robert, he begins telling another story about his father.

The story concerns Marshall Zebatinsky, a Polish-American nuclear physicist. He is concerned that his career has stalled, and in desperation consults a numerologist for advice on restarting it. The numerologist advises him to change the first letter of his name to "S": Sebatinsky.

A complicated series of events ensue in which Sebatinsky is investigated by the Security establishment, who feel that he must be trying to hide something. His Polish origins lead them to suspect that he is trying to distract attention from relatives in the Eastern Bloc. They discover that he does have a distant cousin who is also a physicist, which leads to the discovery that the Soviet Union is working on gamma ray-deflecting shielding as a nuclear defense.

The Americans immediately start to develop their own counter-defense. They still have no real reason to suspect Sebatinsky, but just in case they look for a discreet way to get him out of the classified project in which he is engaged. Much to his surprise (and delight), Sebatinsky is appointed to a senior professorial post, which is exactly what he hoped for when he went to the numerologist.

At the end of the story, it is revealed that the numerologist is actually an extraterrestrial and that he was involved in a bet with another extraterrestrial as to whether he could avert a nuclear war on Earth with a minor stimulus. The story concludes with the same two beings making another bet to put everything back the way it was with another minuscule alteration, with the likely consequence that the world will end in nuclear holocaust after all.

Asimov comments that the last section of the story was put in as an afterthought. Despite the original happy ending, Asimov was not satisfied, because the numerologist had not been accounted for. So he put in the last part to explain the numerologist, giving the story a sad ending after all.

NATO operative Jacques Kristoff is summoned into action by his superior, General Zakev. His objective to track down Galina Konstantin, who has stolen an extremely valuable and dangerous top-secret container from the Slovakian Government. and extract her to Munich by train. Kristoff is given assistance by Lars, who is working with NATO.

Jacques is able to locate Galina. After a car chase they are forced to advance to the train station on foot, having to constantly evade soldiers. They are able to reach the train and it departs.

During the trip, Galina attempts to seduce Jacques, but is rejected. After one instance, Galina goes to change. Jacques is surprised to discover his wife, Madeline, and his two kids, Bailey and Ethan, have boarded the train planning to surprise him for his birthday. Galina, unaware of the Madeline's presence, comes out of the bathroom. The kids soon leave, and Madeline, believing Jacques to have been secretly having an affair, storms out and tells him that she and the kids will get off the train at the next stop.

During Jacques' encounter with his wife, the train's engine compartment is hijacked by two men who take control of the train. They install a cellphone jammer to prevent people from calling authorities. They are working with a man by the name of Mason Cole, an infamous international criminal, who has boarded the train.

After the train has departed, Cole initiates a hostile takeover of the train, killing all of the train's engine and baggage staff, with the exception of the conductor, who hid in a cabinet after being shot in the leg. He orders his henchmen to corral the passengers to the bar room, where he reveals his intention is to locate Galina, as she has something he wants.

Jacques, upon discovering Cole's plans, takes out one of his henchmen and runs to the back of the train, where Galina is hiding. When asked why she is being hunted by Cole, Galina reveals the top-secret cargo she is carrying is a set of 3 vials containing a mutated smallpox virus that was mixed with other deadly pathogens, with the capability to kill millions. Jacques takes the vials.

The two climb on the outside of the train to spy on Cole and the other passengers. However, they are detected, and a fight ensues. Jacques is able to take out some of the henchmen before being knocked off the train, presumed dead. However, he survives and discovers Galina has been captured by Cole. Cole is able to retrieve the vials from Jacques. When Galina attempts to take the vials back one breaks, exposing everyone on the train to the virus. In the fiasco, Jacques is able to escape.

The two men controlling the train announce they need to check the hydraulics, and stop the train. While one of them is examining the parts, Jacques ambushes him, and takes out his partner, re-taking control of the train. He disables the cell jammer, but is discovered by two more henchmen, whom he takes out. He then starts the train back up after getting help from the conductor. They start the train and rupture the brake lines, preventing the train from stopping.

Soon, Madeline, a doctor, discovers that the virus that infected everyone is smallpox, and that everyone born after 1973 is likely to be infected, as vaccinations for smallpox stopped being administered due to its eradication. She, with help from passenger Angus, treats the infected passengers, including Bailey and Ethan.

Cole, now in possession of the virus, plans to be extracted from the train via helicopter. However, they miss the rendezvous point due to Jacques not stopping the train, forcing the helicopter to follow. As Cole attempts to escape while the train is in motion, Jacques ambushed him and ties the helicopter's ladder to the train, causing it to crash as the train goes through the tunnel. He also steals the remaining virus back.

Jacques hides at the tail end of the train and notifies General Zakev of the events that transpired. However, he is discovered by two henchmen. He is able to take out one of them, and evades the other by getting off the train with a motorcycle.

Zakev soon alerts the rest of NATO, along with the World Health Organization. They send Dr. Reno and a group of quarantine specialists to the German railway authority, where they meet with Zakev. Due to the deadliness of the virus aboard the train, along with the fact that everyone on board is infected, Zakev announces that, should the train come close enough to Germany, they will be required to detonate a bridge along the train's path using thermonuclear missiles.

Jacques soon re-boards the train, and discovers Cole has captured his family and threatens to kill them if he does not return the vials. He does, but Cole attempts to shoot Ethan anyway. However, Ethan is able to disorient Cole and steal the vials. He runs towards the back of the train, as a henchman follows. However, the train is hit by another train, killing the henchman. Cole is forced to fall back, and Jacques runs to the back of the train to discover it has been taken clean off. Ethan is nowhere to be found and is presumed dead, with the vials in his possession.

Jacques then meet back up with the conductor, and they attempt to separate the engine car from the rest of the train. As they are about to separate, they are ambushed by Cole, who kills the conductor and gets in a fight with Jacques. During the fight, the train detaches, and Jacques is able to kill Cole by trapping his feet to one car and his tie to another.

The train is now significantly close to the detonation bridge, and Zakev orders the train to be destroyed upon its arrival. In order to stop the train, Jacques, along with other passengers, initiate the hand brake and try to stop the train. As they get closer, the bridge is destroyed and the separated engine car falls of the bridge and explodes. However, the passengers are able to stop the train just before it is about to fall off. Realizing this, the passengers jump cars seconds before the car they were in falls off the bridge, and Ethan suddenly appears, vials in hand.

The train is then put under quarantine and everyone is removed to a medical tent, as infected people are treated. General Zakev, Dr. Reno, and Lars show up in hazmat suits to assess and treat the infected. When they approach Jacques, Jacques reveals that Lars had to have been behind the hijacking, claiming Cole's plan would have been impossible without insider information, which Lars denies. Zakev is convinced, however, and orders Lars to be arrested.

Madeline and Jacques reconcile, and they soon wonder where Galina disappeared, before quickly coming to the conclusion that she will turn up again. In the final scene, Galina is discovered to be alive and uninfected, and stealing diamond necklaces.

Megan Pierce is a suburban mum living in the fictional suburb of Livingstone, and is hiding a murky past. She has found her soulmate in Dave, and they have three great kids. Ray Levine was once a talented documentary photographer. Losing the woman he loved changed him. Now he is in a dead-end job, playing a paparazzo-for-hire, pandering to rich kid pseudo-celebrities. Michael Broome is a detective still haunted by a cold case from seventeen years ago, when local husband and father, Stewart Green, disappeared without any trace. Green's wife still waits for Stewart to return.

When another man goes missing on the anniversary of Stewart’s disappearance, Broome takes the case in the hope of exorcising his demons. Lives are in danger of being ruined, relationships splintered, as Broome’s investigations open old wounds, stir up past memories, and threaten to expose the truth. Weaving their way through the spaces of what binds these three lives together are a couple of colourful psychopaths, intent on completing their own agenda.

Young director Alex Morrison feels compelled to follow his recent box-office hit with another blockbuster. While mulling over this dilemma, the director's mind wanders to his past, his present, and probable future.

The infamous English pirate Captain Red, and his cabin boy Jean-Baptiste, nicknamed "Frog", are lost on a raft without supplies in the ocean. They are picked up by the galleon ''Neptune'' and thrown into the brig, where they meet the ship's cook Boomako. Boomako has been imprisoned after being attempting to steal a golden Aztec throne that is being secretly transported in the hold. Captain Red becomes obsessed with capturing the throne for himself. Meanwhile, Frog falls in love with Maria-Dolores, the niece of Maracaibo's governor, who is travelling on the ''Neptune'' as a passenger.

Captain Linares dies and the command of the ship is taken over by his ruthless and ambitious first mate, lieutenant Don Alfonso de la Torré who is also in love with Maria-Dolores, though she does not reciprocate his feelings. Red and Frog, put to work along with ''Neptune's'' crew, make an attempt at instigating a mutiny. In response, Don Alfonso has them sentenced to death along with a few other mutineers. Captain Red launches an open rebellion, which proves successful.

Putting himself in command of the ''Neptune'', Captain Red directs the ship to a pirate cove, led by his old associate Dutch. Meeting his former crewmates, Captain Red throws a party and imprisons Don Alfonso and his officers. However, one of Dutch's hostages releases them while the pirates are partying. Don Alfonso and his men return to the ''Neptune'' and retake the ship, sailing away with the golden throne in the morning. Using the money he has gained from Dutch, Captain Red purchases an old brig and pursues the ''Neptune'' to Maracaibo.

At night, Captain Red, Frog, and Boomako sneak into the governor's residence with Maria-Dolores as their hostage. Red plans to use her as a bargaining chip and force her wealthy uncle to exchange her for the golden throne. Although the governor proves to be unsympathetic for his niece's fate, he becomes more cooperative after Captain Red tortures him instead, finding out that he is suffering from gout. As Red demands, the governor provides him with a document that entitles him to confiscate the golden throne, posing as the governor's secret messenger. However, Red and Frog fail to carry the throne out of the bay and are later captured by Don Alfonso, who puts them in prison. Maria-Dolores visits them in their cell. She reveals her feelings toward Jean-Baptiste as the two embrace and share a kiss. Maria-Dolores returns to the ''Neptune'', which soon sets off to Spain again, with Don Alfonso promoted to captain.

The pirates, informed by Boomako of what has happened, assault the prison the following night, releasing Red and Frog. Captain Red pursues the ''Neptune'' and launches an assault on the galleon. Red sinks his own ship, making retreat impossible, and secretly orders Boomako to prepare a boat in order to make off with the golden throne. In the heat of battle, Frog finds Maria-Dolores and duels with Don Alfonso over her. However, in the end, he remains loyal to Captain Red, abandoning the fight with Don Alfonso in order to aid his leader in capturing the throne. With the ''Neptune'' burning and beyond repair, her remaining crew and passengers flee on the boat, while Red, Frog, and Boomako make off in one of their own with the golden throne in their possession. With Maria-Dolores out of his reach now, a furious Frog throws insults at Don Alfonso, who tries to shoot him in retaliation. However, Maria-Dolores intervenes desperately, disrupting his aim, and Boomako is shot dead instead. Red and Frog then leave the scene, abandoning their surviving crewmates in the water.

With the love and unconditional support of his wife Lucía (Laura Flores), Ramón Mendoza (Sergio Goyri) has progressed in his work to achieve an excellent economic position. Their two children, Liliana (Florencia de Saracho) and Miguel Ángel (Franco Gala), attend the best schools and never endured the shortages that their parents suffered at the beginning of their marriage.

However, Lucía isn't happy; Ramón has become materialistic and cruel. He constantly humiliates her and has made it so that their children have lost respect for her. Liliana, spoiled and capricious, goes as far as to follow her boyfriend to Spain, where the boy gets her pregnant and abandons her.

Hiding the secret of her maternity, Liliana leaves her daughter Natalia in the care of some nuns and returns to Mexico, where she must steal money from her father in order to care for the baby. Miguel Ángel, for his part, is a lazy and irresponsible boy who believes that he deserves everything.

Lucía has become a shadow, sad and doesn't know where her dreams have gone. Her only happy moments are when, alone before her computer, she opens her heart to a twin soul who understands her, advises her, and with whom, little by little and in silence, she has been falling in love — that mysterious man whose face she can only imagine, whose voice she hasn't heard, and signs his messages simply as "wind".

Her friend Rosario (María Marcela) also carries a heavy cross. She had to flee with her children because her husband is a psychopath that beat her constantly. Eduardo (Jorge de Silva) and Gabriela (Andrea Torre) don't remember how Víctor (Manuel Landeta) was in reality; Rosario let them believe that their father was a loving and responsible man who died when they were small.

This lie creates a rift between Rosario and her children when Víctor finds them. He wins the friendship of the young adults; Gabriela eventually leaves to live with him, and Rosario lives in a constant terror for her daughter's life.

The story of Triana (Raquel Olmedo) is a great story of love. Having left Spain three decades ago after discovering her husband in the arms of her best friend, she arrives in Mexico and meets Martín, with whom she lived for many years in love and happiness.

But after her beloved Martín's death, Triana finds out that she will be reunited with him when she is diagnosed with terminal cancer. When she receives the news that her husband in Spain has died and she's inherited his entire fortune, Triana laughs at the irony of fate.

Before dying, she makes her will and leaves Rosario her apartment in Mexico City and Lucía her inheritance in Spain. Rosario and Lucía feel great pain for the loss of their dear friend, and gratitude for her generosity.

One day, by coincidence, Lucía finds out that Liliana has a daughter, and wants to give her up for adoption. Lucía, who spent her childhood in an orphanage, will not allow her granddaughter to suffer as she did.

Determined, Lucía confronts Liliana, who refuses to admit the existence of the little girl. Lucía goes to Ramón to ask for his help, but she finds him with Rebeca (Sabine Moussier), his lover.

Destroyed, Lucía receives the final blow when her son Miguel Ángel blames her for his break-up with his most recent conquest and stops talking to her. With a shattered soul and feeling that she is a hindrance for her family, she packs her things and goes to Spain to start a new life and try to find little Natalia.

In Spain she meets three of Triana's friends: Santiago (René Strickler), a distinguished painter, and Jordi (Luis Javier) and Mayte (Yolanda Ventura), who welcome her with care and offer her a home. Santiago and Lucía feel attracked to one another immediately, but, although her heart is consumed with love for Santiago, turns out to be "Wind", Lucía is still married and offers him her friendship.

In short time, Ramón asks for a divorce and annuls their marriage. Lucía is able to restart her life with Santiago and her love for him becomes stronger, which causes the love that she had for Ramón to dissolve. While Ramón's company collapses from debts and their children's lives sink further into vice and emptiness, Lucía transforms into a new, elegant woman who is sure of herself.

Lucía discovers her talent for finance upon becoming Mayte's associate and her fortune increases. Furthermore, her happiness is immense when, with Santiago's help, she finally finds Natalia.

Now, Lucía knows that in order to be completely happy, in order to be able to turn over her body and soul to her passionate love for Santiago, she must return to Mexico one more time and confront the fears and pain she left behind so that she can finally take out all of her illusions out of the drawer of memories and take the reins of her destiny.

The love that Santiago has shown her has reinvigorated her autumn skin, and love never arrives too late.

Although the plot of the story is modelled on the classic ratiocination stories of Conan Doyle, there are two separate mysteries in the book, only one of which the Holmes character is able to solve by the end. The story opens with the description of a chance encounter between the old man and the young boy Linus Steinman, who, we find out moments later, is a German-Jewish refugee staying with a local Anglican priest and his family. Because the parrot sitting on the boy's shoulder is in the habit of rattling off German numbers in no obvious order — "zwei eins sieben fünf vier sieben drei" ("two one seven five four seven three") — the old man quickly deduces the boy's reason for being in England. After we are introduced to the priest, his wife, son and two lodgers sitting at dinner, we find out that the numbers may have some significance. One lodger speculates that the numbers are a military code of some kind and seeks to crack it. The other lodger, a Mr. Shane, from the British foreign office, pretends at dinner not to even notice the bird, which the family and Linus call Bruno. But because everyone else around the table is intensely interested in it, Shane's behavior only heightens their suspicions.

After Mr. Shane is found murdered the next morning and the parrot Bruno has gone missing, the local inspector, Michael Bellows, recruits the old man to help solve the mystery. The old man, his interest piqued by the boy's strange attachment to his bird, agrees only to find the parrot — "If we should encounter the actual murderer along the way, well, then it will be so much the better for you," he says (ending chapter 3). Although the Holmes character succeeds in that endeavor, neither he nor anyone else in the book discovers what the true meaning of the numbers are, though there are clear implications of a solution. One hint, given by the author Chabon, is that the numbers are often recited in the presence of trains: the implicit suggestion is that they are the numbers of the cars and indeed, the parrot calls it "the train song." In the final scene, the boy is reunited with the parrot in a train station and starts to speak at last as he watches a military transport train pass, reciting "sieben zwei eins vier drei," "sieben acht vier vier fünf." Another hint, revealed in the book's penultimate chapter, which is told from the perspective of Bruno, is that the boy and his parrot used to visit an Obergruppenführer while still in Germany, where it is implied he learned the song. But the biggest hint of all is the book's title and the boy's dumbness. Added to that, neither the parrot nor the boy ever voice the German numeral "null."

The plot revolves around Max, an 11-year-old boy who ends up having the power to see ghosts. He meets two kids who are turned into ghosts named Nicky and Tara who are trying to find their parents. The ghosts make Max a deal: if he can help them find out how they died and what happened to their parents, they'll help make his life better. But they usually end up ruining things. Nevertheless, Max still tries to help them solve the mystery, and the three encounter various villains and somewhat silly adventures.