".hack//Roots" follows the tale of Haseo, a black 'Adept Rogue'(a class that can use multiple types of weapons) and member of the "Twilight Brigade", a small guild created within "The World R:2." In the year 2015, the CC Corporation's building burned down, and with it, most of the existing data for "The World." By splicing in data from what would have potentially been another game with what remained of "The World" after the fire, CC Corp. created "The World R:2" and released it in 2016, which is when the anime takes place. The main revisions in this release were that the game allowed for guild and PvP (player vs player) play.

Haseo logs into The World R:2 for the first time and falls victim to the PKers (player-killers) that reside within the game. He is saved by Ovan, who prompts him to join the Twilight Brigade alongside Sakisaka, Tabby and Shino, who are in search of finding "The Key of the Twilight." However, a popular guild named "TaN" obstructs the Twilight Brigade in its mission and is attempting to obtain Ovan's unique character data. The Twilight Brigade has discovered special items, known as 'Virus Cores', and believed them to be the path to finding "The Key of the Twilight" and went to find them all. Once the Twilight Brigade had acquired all 6 cores, the guild headed out to use them in one of the "Lost Ground"s, after figuring out that the two were connected to one another.

However, the group discovers that this was all a trap laid by the members of TaN in order to capture Ovan. With Ovan gone and no sign of the Key of the Twilight, the Twilight Brigade disband and previous members, such as B-set and Gord, quit the game entirely. Soon after, Shino is killed within the game by a mysterious PKer named "Tri-Edge". This somehow puts her into a coma in the real world, which devastates Haseo. Haseo then begins training in order to get strong enough to defeat Tri-Edge and save Shino from her real-life coma. Through this ordeal, Haseo becomes obsessed with power and ends up as a Player-Killer-Killer(PKK), in an effort to find information on Tri-edge. When Haseo competes in a special event that promises a special reward, he gains a new power, but his mind is corrupted and he begins to kill PKers with yet more aggression, gaining him the title of "The Terror of Death."

Nick and Angie have just had a baby, and to help them financially they decide to rent out the basement. Both Nick's father, Sam Tyler, and Angie's mother, Daphne Trenchard, want the basement apartment and the only solution is to share. Sam is a Cockney, while Daphne is Cheltenham-bred and has not forgiven her daughter for marrying Nick, a 'common' photographer. Both Sam and Daphne are widowed, and stubborn. There is mutual contempt between Nick and Daphne: however, Angie is fond of Sam and is forever trying, against all the odds, to keep the peace between him and Daphne. The situation is exacerbated, from Series Two onwards, by the presence of Sam's gloomy and pessimistic zoo-keeper friend Wilf Perkins, who, after being thrown out by his mother, ends up having to share Sam's room, much to Daphne's icy displeasure. Further complications arise through Daphne's brief and disastrous romance with a neighbour, the suave and crooked Major Giles Bradshaw, who is eventually sent to prison for acts of theft and fraud.

The comedy came from the clashes between Sam and Daphne, and the eventual romance that develops between them. The next-door neighbour, Rhonda, was a catalyst for bringing them together.

Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) visits Monica (Courteney Cox) at her kitchen at Alessandro's, where she meets Tim, Monica's sous-chef. Phoebe and Tim really like each other, and Monica sets them up on a date. Monica wants to fire Tim because he lit her pastry chef on fire and is a really slow worker, but Phoebe convinces her to give him another chance. One day later, Monica still wants to fire him, and Phoebe wants to dump him because he is too anxious. Initially agreeing not to dump and fire him on the same day, they then argue about who should dump or fire him that day. When Phoebe meets with Tim at Central Perk to dump him, he gets paged by Monica for a meeting at work. This then results in Phoebe storming into Monica's workplace, interrupting the meeting. Left with no other options, Phoebe dumps Tim and Monica fires him simultaneously. However, when Tim says that Monica is the best chef he knows, she gives him another chance.

Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) visits Joey (Matt LeBlanc) on the set of ''Days of Our Lives'', where she meets Kash, another actor on the soap opera. She asks Joey to set them up on a date. Joey is at first pessimistic because of Rachel's pregnancy. Rachel convinces him and then struggles to persuade Ross, who is fearful about what impact the date would have on the baby. The date ends early when Rachel accidentally tells Kash that she is pregnant. Rachel is reassured by Ross after she bumps into him on the street. Having initially declined an offer to join Ross at Central Perk for a coffee, Rachel changes her mind, but then notices he is getting acquainted with Mona (Bonnie Somerville), whom he met at Monica and Chandler's wedding reception, and leaves, unseen.

Whilst picking up Chandler (Matthew Perry) from his office for dinner plans, Ross meets Bob (Chris Parnell), a co-worker of Chandler who has always called him Toby for the last five years. While putting this into perspective, Chandler accidentally reveals that his middle name is Muriel, and Ross and Rachel make fun of him. When Chandler's boss wants Chandler's opinion about adding Bob to his team, Chandler is negative about it. When Bob finds out it was Chandler who blocked his promotion, he vents his anger to Chandler, who he still thinks is called Toby. Chandler then attempts to reveal his true identity to Bob, but cannot go through with it when he realises that Bob will be even angrier at him for it. Bob finally finds Chandler's office and starts trashing it. When Bob asks Chandler for help, he happily joins in destroying his own office.

The plot concerns a Korean War veteran who comes home from the war depressed. With deep psychological wounds, he only feels alive in the world of boxing.

The novel is set in the 32nd century, in a communistic Utopian future. Humanity has colonized all of the Solar System, and is now making its first attempt at interstellar travel.

Aboard a vessel called ''Gaia'', 227 men and women leave the Earth for the Alpha Centauri system.

After almost eight years of travel, they find signs of organic life on a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, possibly originating on another planet within the Centauri system.

The expedition meets an old artificial war satellite of the United States and its NATO allies. It was carrying still active biological weapons and nuclear warheads, which had accidentally left Earth orbit and got lost in space during the Cold War era, and the team destroys it.

Gaia detects a radar signal directed at it, coming from one of the planets of Alpha Centauri. "Gaia" approaches this planet and tries to contact its civilization, but all messages remain unanswered. When they attempt to land on a planet, they are unexpectedly attacked, and 10 astronauts are killed. Nevertheless, the crew of Gaia does not strike back, supposing the inhabitants of the planet mistook a peaceful landing for aggression. Eventually the contact was established.

Matthew Price, a university lecturer in economic history, returns from London to visit his sick father in South Wales. The novel is set in the fictional village of Glynmawr in the Black Mountains, a rural area but closely connected to the nearby coal mining valleys of the South Wales coalfield. His father had been a railway signalman, and the story includes lengthy flashbacks to the 1920s and 1930s, including the General Strike and its impact on a small group of railway workers living in a community made up mostly of farmers. It also describes Matthew Price's decision to leave his own community, studying at Cambridge before becoming a lecturer in London.

Musical teacher Miss Hinklefink receives criticism from her student Lee Watson at Whitney High School, because of the poor plot of famous operas.

Later during the lecture, when Miss Hinklefink is away for a few minutes, the students learn about meter from Harry "The Hipster" by listening to swing.

When Lee as so often is in the principal's office, a local businessman enters the room and offers to pay for the football team's new uniforms if his son, Jimmy Forrest, is elected as student body president. The principal, Townley, rejects the offer.

However, when Jimmy's opponent in the election, Freddie Trimball, hears of Mr Forrest's generous offer, he drops out of the race. Things get more complicated when Jimmy asks Freddie's girlfriend, Dodie Rogers, to go to the prom with him. She rejects him, even though he tells her he's going to be elected student body president for certain.

When Freddie hears of this he is mad with anger, and decides to run against Jimmy anyway. Lee agrees to be his campaign manager, and Dodie and her sister Addie agree to help as well.

Controversy ensues, when Jimmy's campaign manager, Roy Dunn, courts Dodie's other sister Betty, and Dodie thinks she has crossed over to the enemy. Betty claims that Freddie won't be able to be president and head of the school show during the year.

The sisters start feuding, and their quarrel affects the rest of the family. Their visiting wealthy uncle Daniel notices. The campaigning gets tougher too, and Jimmy gains a lot of popularity from Betty's great speeches on his behalf. Freddie finally decides to use his show talent to help him win, and Betty is bought back on the right side with a new sweater.

Freddie and his pals start singing to the other students to get votes. The winner in the election is to be disclosed on the day of the prom. Betty is without a date since she changed sides during the campaigning, and Roy is still angry with her.

During prom, Betty and Roy still appear together and her two sisters feel much less guilty. The sisters all become friends again and Freddie wins the election. Uncle Daniel is happy for the sisters and decide to give the family a deed to a new house. Mr Forrest changes his mind and decides to give the football team its uniforms even though Jimmy didn't win. In the end, Jimmy and Freddie make a truce.

Harold Owen, his brother Gwyn, son Peter and wife Kate all experience the contrasts. The book is based on the actual situation in Oxford of the 1960s, where the ancient university was right next to Morris Motors, as it then was.

The story tells about Nina, a mother of two, planning to go on holidays with her new boyfriend. However, the road away from the isolated winter bleakness of Sandling Island seems to be littered with obstacles, frustrating her plans at every turn. Most pressingly of all, her fifteen-year-old daughter, Charlie, has yet to return from a night out.

Minute by minute, as Nina's unease builds to worry and then panic, every mother's worst nightmare begins to occur. Has Charlie run away? Or has something more sinister happened to her? And why will nobody take her disappearance seriously? As day turns to night on the island and a series of half-buried secrets lead Nina Landry from sickening suspicion to deadly certainty, the question becomes less whether she and her daughter will leave the island for Christmas and more whether they will ever leave it again.

Matthew Price and Peter Owen both have their roots within the borders of Wales. They each have contributed to a decision on the idea of building a new town, Manod, in the depopulated valleys of South Wales. A splendid idea - or is there more going on behind the scenes than is admitted?

In the late 20th century, at the start of a war between the European nations and the United States, a US Army AI directing weapons overcame its programming to become self-aware. Then followed the "Hard Rapture", an explosive expansion and evolution of computer systems that left most of humanity dead or devoured while the AIs and assimilated persons progressed into posthumanity beyond human comprehension and departed for parts unknown, leaving behind artifacts on a number of worlds.

With the Earth now populated by varyingly dormant, partially sentient war machines, humanity lives offworld. The three main sects are America Offline (AO), the Knights of Enlightenment (KE) and Demokratische Kommunistbund (Democratic Communist Union) (DK). Examination of the posthuman relics has resulted in deep but sporadic knowledge of such things as FTL travel.

The main character is Lucinda Carlyle, a member of a Scottish family of entrepreneurs/thugs that controls a system of traversable wormholes known as the Skein. Lucinda is a "combat archeologist", leading a team to the unexplored world of Eurydice to salvage posthuman technology and deal with whatever it tries in response. Not only does she find a motherlode of an artifact, but a lost colony of humans that escaped Earth in the Hard Rapture and are living in a post scarcity society (with cosmic string weapons far beyond those of other groups). Each side is as surprised as the other, having thought themselves the only survivors. Then the Knights of Enlightenment discover that the artifact, originally the crashed colony ship of the Eurydiceans, is the focal point of the Skein.

The story centers around an apparently supernatural case taken by a family of investigators who make up the Veritas Project. About seventy years after the suicidal hanging of Abel Frye, a student at a high school who hanged himself after being unable to cope with the pressures of bullying, Jocks from the school's football team begin to lose their sanity after seeing what they believe to be Abel's ghost, which is rumored to be under the control of a group of witches out for revenge. Abel's ghost makes them go into a coma like feeling.

After successfully initiating a drug bust, Nate and Sarah Springfield and their teenage children, Elijah and Elisha, are handpicked to investigate an outbreak of strange occurrences in an otherwise typical high school. Elijah and Elisha become students at the school and quickly make names for themselves when they debate their teachers on the lesson plans regarding humanism and evolution while their father confronts the tolerated bullying in the school.

After several of the football players are injected, Elijah and Elisha quickly learn that a group of gothic cult members have been blamed for the plague; they were bullied as Abel was, and it is believed that the curse is their means of revenge. The assumed leader of the group, Ian Snyder, takes credit at first, but his followers turn on him when he "loses control" of the ghost of Abel; his friend, and a few classmates each die after having hallucinations. Ian drops out of the cult and turns to Elijah for spiritual help.

Later, Sarah discovers straws filled with a sugar-like substance in the lockers of the stricken students, their dog, Max, recognizes the scent all over the school. An eccentric scientist named Algernon Wheeling is called into the investigation, and determines that the sugar is actually to keep a male poisonous cross-breed of the African Spotted wolf spider and brown recluse in the straw till he smells the female pheromone on the victim because of the dollar bill, he eats his way out and bites the victim after being agitated at not finding the female. The spiders were trapped in the straws, and the pheromone was spread through dollar bills, that circulated around the school to attract the spiders to the intended victims, who hallucinated and were later hospitalized after being bitten. However, as the dollars were spread around the school, unintended sympathizers of the cult were bitten and suffered from the poison. The mastermind of the entire project, a boy named Norman Bloom, led the cult and allowed them to believe that witches were responsible (Ian Snyder and some others).

Due to unbelievably fast reproduction, the school is overrun by the deadly spiders, and, as the school is evacuated, Elisha finds herself trapped under the school and bitten repeatedly, but is saved by Algernon Wheeling's antidote AT490. The hospitalized students recover, and the case is declared closed.

Dave Randall, a jaded, womanizing, reality dating TV producer, runs into his old college crush, Kelly, and soon realizes his bar-hopping, bed-hopping ways are leaving him unfulfilled. Dave has Kelly — the only woman he's ever loved — re-train him to become the nice guy he used to be.

Two emotionally estranged sisters, Ester and Anna, and Anna's son, Johan, a boy of 10, are on a night train journey back home. Ester, the older sister and a literary translator, is seriously ill. Anna coldly assists her, seemingly resenting the burden. They decide to interrupt the journey in the next town called "Timoka", located in a Central European country on the brink of war. Although Ester is a professional translator, neither she nor her relatives speak the language of this country.

The sisters rent a two-room-apartment in a once-grandiose hotel. Ester suffers in her room, self-medicating with vodka and cigarettes while trying to work. Johan soon begins wandering around the hotel's hallways, encountering the elderly hotel porter and a group of Spanish dwarfs who are part of a traveling show. Meanwhile, Anna ventures into the city and is openly advanced upon by a waiter in a cafe. Later, she watches a show in an uncrowded theatre, and is both repelled and fascinated when a young couple begin to have sex in a seat nearby. Anna returns to the cafe, brushes past the waiter, and returns to the hotel in time.

Left with Johan while his mother is out, Ester attempts to form a more intimate bond with him, but Johan avoids her attempts to stroke his hair and face. On Anna's return, Ester is eager for an account of what her sister has done after seeing her soiled dress. Provoked, Anna spitefully fabricates a sexual encounter with the waiter to her sister. Anna also reveals her intention to meet him again that evening, which Ester, not wanting to be left alone, begs her not to do. Anna meets the man in their hotel, and Johan witnesses them kissing and entering a room down an adjacent hall. Upon returning to the room, he asks Ester, why his mother dislikes being with them, as she always departs as soon as she gets the chance. Ester tells him that she has learned a few words of the local language, and she promises to write them down for him. Johan, instinctively knowing Ester is seriously ill, embraces her in a show of concern and compassion.

After Johan has fallen asleep, Ester sobs at the door of Anna and her lover, asking to come in. Anna lets her in and turns on the lights so that Ester can fully see the two of them in bed together. Anna tells Ester that she once aspired to be like her, morally elevated, but realized that her apparent goodness was actually a reflection of Ester's hatred of Anna and all that belonged to her. Ester insists that she loves her and that Anna is wrong. Anna gets furious and asks her to leave the room. On leaving, Ester says "poor Anna", enraging her even more. Anna's lover advances upon her again. Anna is laughing hysterically, but it turns into sobs. The next morning, Anna announces that she and Johan are going to leave the hotel after breakfast. Ester deteriorates while they are gone, having painful spasms of suffocation. She is helped by the elderly porter, who attempts to comfort her. She reveals her fear of death and loneliness but also her loathing for sexual contact. When Johan returns to say good-bye, Ester gives him a note. After he and Anna have boarded the train, Johan reads the title: "To Johan – words in a foreign language". Uninterested, Anna opens the window and cools herself with the outside rain while Johan continues to read the letter.

Cornelius is a musical critic who visits the summer estate, Villa Tremolo, of the famed cellist, Felix, to write the musician's biography. Cornelius is greeted by Jillker, Felix's impresario, and Tristan, the chauffeur, but Felix himself remains chiefly unseen. Cornelius glimpses Felix heading for a bedroom with a woman whom he presumes to be Felix's wife. Cornelius meets Adelaide and tells her Felix has retired with his wife, but Adelaide reveals she is in fact Felix's wife. It turns out Felix is unfaithful and has several lovers. Aside from Adelaide, each is given a special nickname. The self-proclaimed "official" mistress is Ms. Bumblebee, who meets and has sex with Cornelius.

While Cornelius is in bed with Miss Bumblebee, a woman enters the room with a pistol and fires several shots. No one is harmed, but Cornelius believes the shots were meant for Felix. Cornelius becomes concerned someone is trying to murder Felix and tells Jillker, who is unconcerned, as everyone must die. Cornelius remains unable to meet with Felix and finds it difficult to write a biography without an interview. He tells Adelaide that though the threat of murder might add interest to the biography, he hoped Felix's safety would be guarded.

Jillker, citing Felix's total moral decline, resigns as his impresario. Felix emerges to perform in front of his lovers and Cornelius. During the performance, a woman takes out a pistol. However, Felix collapses, dead, during his performance without any shots fired. Four days after Cornelius' arrival to Villa Tremolo, the lovers, one by one, look over Felix in his coffin, each one remarking on how he looks the same, yet different.

The film is about the customers and personal lives of Greet (Ronnie Bierman) and Nel (Sylvia de Leur), two female prostitutes in Amsterdam. Greet and Nel are friends and live on different floors of the same canal house at the Prinsengracht. In this house they also receive customers.

Sexual fantasies

Greet roleplays the customers' sexual fantasies. These incidents are recounted in the form of anecdotes throughout the film. The roleplaying involves Greet being a wicked witch, a schoolteacher, a feathered chicken, a corpse, a woman commanding her cleaner, and a surgeon. Sometimes Nel assists her by playing a part in the roleplaying.

Nel and Sjaak

Nel lives with Sjaak (Jules Hamel), a guy who likes fishing and who lives on Nel's money. Nel and Sjaak are continuously fighting. Greet convinces Nel to respond to a personal ad. The following blind date in a restaurant ends up in throwing cakes. Nel wants to clean her dress and then she meets Bob (Bernhard Droog) and they fall in love. In another fight Sjaak almost kills Nel with a knife, and Nel decides to move in with Bob in Eindhoven. Bob turns out to be boring, and Nel visits Greet in Amsterdam. Nel no longer wishes to work as a prostitute, and she turns out to be pregnant. Nel and Bob marry in Amsterdam, and all of Nel's former colleagues pretend that she worked as a seamstress.

Greet and Piet

Greet meets a married man, Piet (Piet Römer), in the bar where she hangs out. He takes her to a striptease club, and afterward they have sex at her house. Unlike the other men, he doesn't have to pay. Piet brings Greet a bouquet of red roses. The next time they meet, they create a romantic atmosphere and he stays overnight with her. Later, he takes her to a classical concert. She dislikes it and makes a scene in the concert hall. When Piet finds out his wife is pregnant he stops seeing Greet. At the end of the film they meet again, and Greet says he should name his child "Greet" if it is a girl.

The film ends when Greet makes the customer that plays the cleaner clean up Nel's marriage party.

The film begins in 1881 at Stavoren, a small Dutch rural town, and follows Katie's family to Amsterdam, where they hope to escape grinding poverty by finding work. Upon their arrival Katie secures employment at a dye-works, but is fired when she refuses to have sex with the director. She finds a job at a hat shop, where, during a business trip to a brothel, she discovers her older sister Mina working there. Later that evening, back at the hat shop, she is brutally raped by the owner and, in revenge, smashes the shop window.

Weeks go by, during which Katie's father works in a factory on low pay and Mina descends into alcoholism. While attempting to steal bread, Katie is knocked unconscious by a policeman and taken to a sanitorium. It becomes apparent that her body is her only asset as a doctor diagnoses tuberculosis, but refuses treatment unless she sleeps with him. It is unclear whether this occurs, but on her discharge Katie rejoins her family and discovers her father has been sacked and her sister is too drunk to sleep with clients. Katie's mother decides that, rather than the family starve, Katie must also go into prostitution.

Her first client is a gentleman, who Katie does not satisfy due to her inexperience. Her second client, an artist called George, takes her to his studio to pose for a painting depicting a Socialist revolution. He pays her the rate they negotiated for her services, but tells her he only wants her to model. He introduces Katie to Hugo, a banker, and Andre, a wealthy socialist, and they head to a nightclub for a meal. Katie's re-education has begun. Andre is attracted to Katie, but she seems enamoured with Hugo, with whom she goes home and sleeps. Hugo provides Katie with money for a new dress and they arrange to meet in the park. It is here that Katie's former life threatens to catch up with her when the gentleman she approached a few days earlier recognises her and informs Hugo he knew Katie when she only cost fifty pence. Hugo punches him, refusing to believe his story and promises Katie that she can move in with him "forever." Katie goes to see her family, informing them she intends to leave. Her mother asks how she will feed the children if Katie's not there to provide. Katie tells her mother she "should have fucked less" and storms out, kicking her hysterical mother out of the way.

Once at Hugo's, Katie settles into the life of the bourgeoisie but is soon troubled at having to go spying on some of Amsterdam's less affluent shop owners to see who Hugo should refuse credit to. After being exposed in a coffee shop, and as a result, hot chocolate is thrown in her face, Katie tells Hugo she will not do his dirty work anymore. Very soon Hugo informs Katie that he intends to marry his fiancée and Katie must leave, stressing that their relationship was just a bit of fun that went too far. Katie, with nowhere to go, runs out onto the street and joins in a socialist march. The police arrive to break it up, opening fire on the marchers. During the confusion, Katie is reunited with George and Andre who are also present. Andre is shot in the arm and collapses, hitting his head. George takes them to a carriage waiting nearby and Andre and Katie board it, taking them to Andre's country mansion. Katie stays with him and, when he awakes, it becomes apparent that romance will blossom between the two. They discuss the subject of money, Katie telling Andre that "money turns people into bastards." When Andre's headwound begins to bleed, Katie informs Andre that the best cure is to suck the blood. "That's better," she says, a sliver of blood running from the corner of her mouth. The picture freezes and a roller-caption appears informing us that the film is based on true events from the life of Neel Doff and that "her indomitable spirit lives on in this film."

Touma Inaba is a high school graduate who is trying to get into the prestigious Keio University. After dismissing a weird call girl the night before, he meets and falls in love with a red-headed woman named Mieko Yotsuba on the day of the entrance exam. When Mieko is listed for Keio, but Touma is not, he pretends to have been accepted, while having to enroll in cram school. In the meantime, he lives together with his cousin Urara Kasuga, who has a crush on him and is willing to do anything to help him (including being that call girl in the first chapter). Urara encounters Mieko and Touma at karaoke, but pretends to be his sister. However, romance rival Tatsuhiko Mashu suspects something is up, and after sleeping with Urara's friend Komi Natsuki, learns that Touma is not a university student. Mashu tricks Touma into revealing the truth to Mieko.

The heartbroken Touma starts a sexual relationship with Urara. The "happy couple" angers cram school teacher Kugenuma, who conspires to break the two up by framing Touma with harassment. The rumors force Touma to leave cram school, but Urara tries to work a deal with Kugenuma for him to return. But when Touma learns about the deal and that it involved sexual favors, he breaks up with Urara.

When Urara discovers that she is pregnant, she joins Natsuki at an escort service to raise extra money. Suspsecting that Mashu has cheated on her, Mieko makes advances on Touma, and they finally have sex. Urara, Natsuki and another girl named Mizuki hustle a client, but it backfires when the client then beats Urara up (and gang rapes Natsuki). Urara suffers a miscarriage, but reunites with Touma. When Mashu sees Mieko with Touma, he tells Touma to back out, but when he refuses, Mashu hatches a scheme where he has Natsuki give Touma a "memory-enhancing" incense as a study-aid. The incense is actually speed, to which Touma becomes addicted as he prepares for his next mock exam. Urara gives him an ultimatum to stop using the drug.

When Mizuki collapses and is hospitalized, Touma learns that she is his best friend Kouji's little sister and that she has been battling leukemia. When Kouji gets in trouble for shoplifting, Touma talks some sense into him. Urara takes on extra jobs to get a Christmas present for Touma, but when one of the hostess club patrons gets raunchy, she is saved by Ryuichi Kazama, a childhood friend who is ordered by Urara's father to be her home tutor and to secretly spy on them. When Ryuichi learns that Touma and Urara are living together, he kicks Touma out without telling Urara, and then tries to make a move on her. After Urara declines, Ryuichi conspires with Mashu to kidnap and to beat up Touma, but the plan goes awry when he pushes Touma in front of Mashu's car. Touma survives with a broken arm, but Urara does not know about it until later, as she breaks ties with Ryuichi. While Touma tries to recover, Akimoto learns Mashu is involved and attacks him, however, he is stabbed in the back and is hospitalized as well.

Touma's arm heals in time for the real exams; his test scores place him with S Shuu University, but he misses the school's deadline to enroll because of his attention to Akimoto's hospital bills. That leaves him with K Sawa and eventually Keioh, both of which reject him. Frustrated with his bad luck, he smashes the windows of his middle school, but the police arrest Urara, whose student ID was found at the scene of the crime. Urara agrees to take the blame and declines her college admission. Touma's "little sister" childhood friend Momoe Shimizu visits for spring break. Touma sleeps with the big-breasted cram school receptionist Etsuko Koiwai. He encounters Kotomi Hayashibara, a twin-tailed high school student who idolizes Urara; she sleeps with Touma in order to frame him for infidelity. After the resulting fallout with Urara, Touma meets and sleeps with a shy, glasses-wearing Mieko Hotta. He eventually returns to Urara, who challenges him to ascend and descend the temple stairs a hundred times before agreeing to take him back. They must deal with her father's return.

Each story takes place in the year 2010, in a futuristic city named Neo-Acropolis on an artificial island in Japan. Among the city's residents are 11 girls, each facing a different dilemma.

Terumi ( ) is a lonely high school girl, teased for being mousy and homely by her classmates. Her childhood friend Kouichi ( ) is oblivious to her being in love with him. An ancient dragon lord offers to make her beautiful and popular in exchange for allowing him to possess her. Desperate, she agrees, and later rips apart the souls of the girls who once bullied her. Meanwhile, Kouichi is approached by another god, Susano ( ), who wants to possess his body, so he can defeat the dragon. Reluctantly, Kouichi agrees and later meets a priestess named Sayoko ( ) who explains more to him about the current war between the gods. However, in order to kill the dragon, his host must die too leaving Kouichi struggling to figure out how to defeat the dragon spirits while also trying to save Terumi's life.

On the evening of November 14, 1970, Southern Airways Flight 932, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 chartered by Marshall University to transport the Thundering Herd football team back to Huntington, West Virginia following their 17–14 defeat to the East Carolina University Pirates, clips trees on a ridge just one mile short of the runway at Tri-State Airport in Ceredo, West Virginia, and crashes into a nearby gully, killing all 75 people on board.

The deceased include the 37 players; head coach Rick Tolley and five members of his coaching staff; Charles E. Kautz, Marshall's athletic director; team athletic trainer Jim Schroer and his assistant, Donald Tackett; sports information director and radio play-by-play announcer Gene Morehouse; 25 boosters; and five crew members.

In the wake of the tragedy, University President Donald Dedmon leans towards indefinitely suspending the football program, but he is ultimately persuaded to reconsider by the pleas of the Marshall students and Huntington residents, and especially the few football players who didn't make the flight, led by Nate Ruffin. Dedmon hires Jack Lengyel as head coach who, with the help of Red Dawson (one of two surviving members of the previous coaching staff) manages to rebuild the team in a relatively short time, despite losing many of their prospects to the West Virginia University Mountaineers. Dedmon travels to Kansas City, where he pleads with the NCAA to waive their rule prohibiting freshmen from playing varsity football (a rule which had been abolished in 1968 for all sports except for football and basketball, and would be permanently abolished for those sports in 1972). Dedmon returns victorious.

The new team is composed mostly of the 18 returning players (three varsity, 15 sophomores) and walk-on athletes from other Marshall sports programs. Due to their lack of experience, the "Young Thundering Herd" ends up losing its first game, 29–6, to the Morehead State Eagles. The loss weighs heavily on Dawson and Ruffin, who had been hurt on the first play of the game. The Herd's first post-crash victory is a 15–13 win against Xavier University in the first home game of the season. Hours after the victory a grief-stricken Coach Dawson remains in the team's locker room, in disbelief over the Herd's first win since the crash. He walks out to a still-full stadium of Marshall fans who share his astonishment and don't want to leave the stadium either.

In the film's closing credits, we learn of the futures of each of the film's main characters: Coach Jack Lengyel, Coach Dawson, Nate Ruffin, Reggie Oliver, President Dedmon, Keith Morehouse, and others; and of the eventual success of Marshall football in the decades following the tragedy.

''TRAVA FIST PLANET episode 1'' tells the story of Trava (voiced by Kanji Tsuda) and Shinkai (voiced by Yoshiyuki Morishita) as they travel to finish surveying an unknown and possibly dangerous planet. Trava is an ex-military Power user, which is a form of mech-ship that enhances the pilot's abilities. Shinkai, the engineer, maintains the survey ship and Trava's Power. They hope to earn enough cash to enter Fist Planet, a Power fighting tournament with a grand prize of credits measured in billions. Before they can get to that, they must first deal with an amnesiac girl named Mikuru (voiced by Shie Kohinata), a giant named Reiter (voiced by Yūji Shimoda), and a horde of insectoid killer-robots.

Trava and Shinkai also appear as racers in Madhouse's 2009 film ''Redline''.

'''Triangle Heart''': Years ago, professional bodyguard Shirō Fuwa and his client Albert Crystela were killed by a terrorist organization that is known by the symbol of a clover leaf. Albert's daughter Fiasse blamed herself, but then grew closer to the Fuwa (now Takamachi) children, Kyōya and Miyuki, and decided to use her gift of singing to help the world. But now that they have grown up, Fiasse herself is being targeted by the same organization. Kyōya and Miyuki, swearing to protect Fiasse, become professional bodyguards like their fathers.

'''Triangle Heart 2: Sazanami Joshiryō''': Kosuke Makihara works as a substitute janitor of a huge boarding house called Sazanami Dormitory mostly consisting of young girls from grades of elementary school through high school, while the regular janitor and the dorms owner, who is his brother in law Keigo and his aunt Kana respectively, are traveling abroad in Hong Kong, China. The story follows the lives of Kousuke and the girls and introduces each them one by one.

'''Triangle Heart 3: Sweet Songs Forever''': A mysterious organization keeps sending intimidating letters to Fiasse Christella, the principal of British Christella Music Academy. The purpose is to find the whereabouts of Fiasse's inheritance; although Fiasse already has a bodyguard, Ellis McGaren, she asked her childhood friends, the siblings Takamachi Kyouya and Miyuki to help Ellis. This of course is received by Ellis, as a professional bodyguard, with a cold shoulder. Kyouya remembered an incident that was happened several years ago, when he was about ten years old. This incident was actually aimed at Fiasse's father, senator Albert Christella.

After Ross accidentally says Rachel's name instead of Emily's during their wedding vows, a livid Emily agrees to continue with the ceremony but locks herself in the bathroom at their wedding reception, refusing to accept Ross' continual apologies. When Rachel talks to Ross about what has happened they agree that his saying "Rachel" was just a mistake, and there are no underlying romantic feelings. After realizing that Emily has escaped out the bathroom window, Ross searches for her in vain before deciding to wait for her at their hotel room. Instead, Emily's parents come to collect her things, and Ross convinces Mr Waltham (Tom Conti) to give Emily a message to meet him at the airport for their honeymoon.

Meanwhile, Monica and Chandler are afraid their friendship may suffer following their night together before resolving to only continue a sexual relationship whilst in London for the wedding. However their efforts to have another sexual encounter are continually disrupted by others and they return to New York City alongside Joey without having had sex again. Once in New York they are reunited with a heavily pregnant Phoebe and, despite their agreement, Chandler and Monica decide to continue sleeping together, justifying that they are still on "London time".

At the airport Rachel is still trying to get a flight back to New York, and runs into Ross who is still hoping that Emily will come and join him on their flight to Athens for their honeymoon. After Emily fails to show before the final boarding call Ross asks Rachel if she would like to come with him to Athens, since he does not want to be alone. She agrees, and the two are just about to board the plane when Ross notices Emily, who had just arrived. Emily, having seen Rachel board, leaves again and Ross tries to catch her in the airport, leaving Rachel on the flight to Athens by herself.

Events take place in a fictional country called Laurania, located somewhere on the Mediterranean sea, which is similar to Italy or Spain, but with an overlay of Victorian England. Laurania has an African colony which can be reached via the Suez Canal. It has been a republic for many years, and has a well established constitution. Five years previously (stated to be in 1883) the country was split by a civil war, as a result of which General Antonio Molara became president and Dictator. Unrest has arisen because of Molara's refusal to restore parliamentary rule, and the final events of his dictatorship are described in the book.

The story opens with a description of the capital and fast-moving political events there. Molara has bowed to popular pressure for elections, but intends to do so on the basis of a grossly amended electoral register. Savrola is seen as the leader of the revolutionaries, deciding what they are to do, and presiding over conflicting factions with differing aims. Despite the unrest, society still proceeds on the surface in a genteel course, with state balls and society events. Molara decides to ask his young and beautiful wife, Lucile, to attempt to seduce Savrola and discover anything she can about his plans. Unfortunately for him, Lucile finds herself attracted to Savrola and her loyalties become confused.

Events move from political manoeuvring to street fighting when a rebel army invades Laurania. While Savrola knows about the army and intended invasion, he has poor control over it, so the invasion has started without his knowledge or proper preparations. Both sides scramble for a fight, as Molara finds the country's regular troops refuse to obey his orders. He is obliged to despatch most of the loyal Republican Guard from the capital to oppose the invaders, leaving him with a much reduced force to hold the capital. Fierce street fighting takes place in the capital between the revolutionaries of the Popular Party and the Republican Guard. The revolution culminates in the storming of the Presidential Palace and the death on the steps of his palace of General Molara. The revolutionary allies start to break apart in the face of a threat by the Lauranian navy (which remains loyal to the president), to bombard the city unless Savrola is handed over to them. The council of public safety decides the most expedient position would be to agree to this, but Savrola escapes attempts to arrest him and flees with Lucile. The city is subsequently bombarded when Savrola is not produced, and the last scene is of Savrola watching the destruction from outside the city.

The story starts when the narrator, aged 15, experiences the physical side of young love with his twelve-year-old friend Kevin O'Brien. Although he is the younger boy, Kevin takes the lead in the sexual activity. Kevin's remoteness keeps the relationship one-sided; he forgets all about it once each session is over, whereas the narrator gets more and more worried about his deep feelings. As the book progresses, he starts to have cravings for anal penetration. The encounters between the two adolescents become infrequent and are pushed to the background as the narrator's soul-searching about his homosexuality continues.

Scrooge McDuck takes Donald Duck and his three grandnephews on an expedition to find the Philosopher's Stone, a mythical artifact that would turn common metals into gold. The stone is eventually found, and works. But it has some rather unpleasant side effects.

Scrooge is eventually forced to give up the stone and gives it to Monsieur Mattressface of the International Money Council.

Louis Lamb is a twelve-year-old boy who lives in Kansas City in 1958. A new homosexual teacher, Jack Forster, takes an interest in Louis, an attractive but vulnerable child who likes playing with china animals rather than joining in the ball games the other boys love. He gives Louis one-on-one softball coaching and helps him develop his writing talent.

Parents in the community, however, are suspicious of the teacher who lives with another man. Forster doesn't do anything in any way inappropriate with the boy, just occasionally squeezing his shoulder, but they do spend quite a lot of time together. Eventually, some of the children's parents start a witch-hunt against Forster, assuming that, because he is gay, his interest in Louis must be sexual. He is fired, and effectively blacklisted. Louis is devastated by losing his favourite teacher, a man who improved the boy's self esteem and developed his latent talents. Louis does not understand, nor does he feel it fair that Mr. Forster, who is such a good teacher and brings out the best in him, has been fired.

Louis goes round to Mr. Forster's house to talk to him. Forster immediately rings Louis' Aunt Zona and asks her to come and collect him. In the meantime he sits and talks with Louis. Mr. Forster explains to him that life isn't always fair and that sometimes people just don't understand how other people love each other. On the way home, Aunt Zona says "I think your Mr. Forster is really good at heart. Maybe the Lord will forgive him for being ''that way''."

On the last page of the novel, when the children have been asked by their new teacher to write a thought for the day, Louis knew what to do: 'Then I took out my pen, but not to write down the Thought for the Day. I wrote about Mr. Forster.'

Rival London-based American newspaper correspondents Michael "Mike" Anthony (Clark Gable) and Barnabas "Barney" Pells (Franchot Tone) flip a coin to determine who will cover which of two boring assignments. Mike gets to cover the wedding of millionairess Sally Parker (Joan Crawford) to fortune-seeking Prince Igor (Ivan Lebedeff), while Barney has to interview aviator Baron Otto Spandermann (Reginald Owen) and his wife, Baroness Hilda (Mona Barrie).

When Mike sees Sally running out of the church, he follows her, hoping to get a story. At her hotel, Mike runs into the suspicious Barney, but does not tell him what just happened. He then sneaks into Sally's hotel room, tells her that he has admired her for years, and suggests that he help her "get away from it all." When the gigolo prince comes to the hotel, Mike slugs him when the prince recognizes him as a reporter. He and Sally run away, using the Baron and Baroness's flying suits as disguises. Barney chases them to the airport, but is too late. They fly away, though neither is a pilot. Just before they crash land in France, they find a munitions map in a bouquet of flowers intended for the Baroness and realize that the aviators are spies.

Although Mike has sent a secret cablegram about Sally to his editor, Lees Berger (William Demarest), in New York, he is even more excited about the spy story. In Paris, Mike and Sally are found by Barney, then are spotted by the Baron and Baroness. Barney comes along when they flee, but Mike pushes him into the back of the truck they steal and convinces Sally that Barney is a lowlife reporter. By nightfall, they arrive at the Palace of Fontainebleau and sneak in to spend the night. During the evening, they realize that they are in love, and Mike tries to tell her that he is a reporter, but cannot. Next morning, Barney finds them again, but Sally does not believe him when he accuses Mike of being a reporter too. Soon, however, an ashamed Mike gives her a newspaper with his byline. He apologizes and tells her he loves her, but she sends him away. When Barney arrives, she says she will give him the greatest story of his career, and they go off to make headlines.

A short time later, while they are traveling by train to Nice, Sally realizes that she still loves Mike and wants to go to him, but just then the Baron and Baroness come into their compartment with guns and demand that Sally give them the map. When they do not find it, after pushing Barney off the train, they leave. Barney catches up with Mike at a cafe in Paris and tells him what happened, Mike decides to save Sally. In Nice, Mike is reunited with Sally, and they go to the train station. In the station, the Baroness switches clothes with Sally in the ladies room, then goes with Mike, posing as Sally. The Baron finds Sally and takes her to a restaurant. She tries to alert the police, but when two policemen arrive, they believe the Baron's story that she stole his aircraft.

The Baron then kidnaps Sally and the policemen and takes them to his chateau, where the Baroness has Mike bound and gagged. Having followed Mike and the Baroness (thinking that she was Sally), Barney at first laughs at Mike, then frees him. Using various ruses, Mike, Sally and the policemen eventually overwhelm the spies. Sally and Mike go off, leaving Barney tied up, but Mike has a change of heart and returns, once again finding Barney trying to get his story first by using the chateau phone to cable his editor. They finally agree to file a joint byline. Sally and Mike agree that they will soon be married.

The SS ''Claridon'' is an aging trans-Pacific ocean liner, scheduled to be scrapped after just a few more voyages. Cliff (Robert Stack) and Laurie Henderson (Dorothy Malone), and their daughter, Jill (Tammy Marihugh), are relocating to Tokyo and decide to sail there on board the ship. A fire in the boiler room is extinguished, but not before a boiler fuel supply valve is fused open. Before Chief Engineer Pringle (Jack Kruschen) can manually open a steam relief valve, a huge explosion rips through the boiler room, the many decks situated above it, and the side of the ship. Pringle and a number of passengers are killed, and Laurie is trapped under a steel beam in their cabin.

Cliff runs back there and can't get Laurie out alone. He then finds Jill trapped on the other side of the cabin. He tries to use a shattered piece of the bed to get to the other side, but it falls into the hole made by the explosion. Third Officer Osborne believes that the crew should start loading the passengers into the lifeboats, but Captain Robert Adams (George Sanders) is reluctant, as he never lost a ship. Cliff rescues Jill by placing a board for her to crawl across the hole on. Down in the boiler room, Second Engineer Walsh (Edmond O'Brien) reports to Captain Adams that a seam to the bulkhead has broken away. Cliff tries to get a steward's help, but to no avail. A passenger states that he overheard his conversation and wants to help.

Osborne (George Furness) reports that the boiler room is now half full. The ship then begins to transmit an SOS, on orders of Captain Adams. Cliff and a few other men return to his cabin to try to help free Laurie but find that they need a cutting torch.

The carpenter reports to the crew that the boiler room is now two-thirds full. Captain Adams makes an announcement to the passengers to put on their life jackets, and soon after orders they begin loading and launching the lifeboats.

Cliff finds a torch and tries to rush back to Laurie with the help of crewman Hank Lawson (Woody Strode), but they still need an acetylene tank. On instruction from Cliff, Lawson puts Jill in a lifeboat and asks him to return with an acetylene tank. The boiler room then floods, causing the ship to sink lower. On top of that, a second explosion occurs in the cargo hold.

Captain Adams is looking at his promotion letter to commodore of the line while Laurie holds a piece of a shattered mirror in her hand, contemplating suicide to free Cliff from risking his life to save her. She chooses not to do so and tosses it away.

When Cliff and Lawson are in the dining room, it also floods, causing water to burst through the large windows. Captain Adams returns to his office to retrieve the ship's logbook and papers but is killed when the forward smokestack falls on him. Meanwhile, Cliff finally gets the acetylene tank and gets Laurie out from under the steel beam with the help of Lawson and Walsh. They get up to the boat deck along with Osborne and Ragland. As they proceed to the stern where a lifeboat is standing by, Walsh jumps off the ship and swims away from it. Cliff, Laurie, Osborne, Ragland, and Lawson jump into the water and find a lifeboat just as the ship sinks. Cliff personally helps Lawson aboard, in thanks for his devotion to assisting Laurie's rescue, and the narrator concludes with, "This was the death of the steamship ''Claridon''. This was her last voyage."

After they kissed at the end of the previous film, ''Bed and Board'', Antoine and his wife Christine were reconciled. But his affections keep wandering and, on a summer holiday, she finds him in bed with her friend Liliane. They divorce by mutual consent, sharing custody of their son Alphonse, and the autobiographical novel he has been writing for years is at last published.

In a phone booth he finds a torn-up photograph of Sabine, a pretty girl who looks quite like Christine, and decides to track her down. Eventually spotting her in a record shop, they start an affair. But, as with Christine, there are upsets and separations. At his work he is traced by Lucien, a lover of his mother, who takes him to her grave, which Antoine had never looked for.

At a railway station he sees Colette, his first love, who is now an advocate travelling to a court case, He jumps on her train, and they talk over old times, She has read his book, but soon becomes annoyed by his lack of veracity or interest in her life, and as they part Antoine accidentally drops the photo, .

When she arrives back in Paris, Collette decides to return Sabine's photograph to her, and while on the stairs to Sabine's apartment she meets Christine. The two discuss not just Antoine, but their lives and children. Colette's son has died in an accident, she then divorced, but now hopes to form a permanent relationship with book store owner Xavier. Collette is delighted to learn that Xavier is the brother of Sabine. The film ends with Antoine being taken back by Sabine.

The story occurs over the span of a year. On a rainy Spring day, She finds Chobi outside and brings him home with her. Chobi falls in love with his owner because of her kindness and beauty. During the summer Chobi gets a girlfriend, Mimi. Mimi loves Chobi and wants to marry him, but he refuses because he is in love with Her. On an autumn day, She has a long conversation over the phone. When it is over She cries and becomes depressed. Chobi does not understand what the conversation was about or what happened but concludes that it was not her fault. He stands by Her and comforts her. Time goes on and it becomes winter. She continues going to work and moves on with her life. In the end, She and Chobi are happy with their life together and say in unison, "I think that the both of us probably like this world."

''Higurashi: When They Cry'' takes place in the fictional village of in June 1983. Shortly before then, the main character, Keiichi Maebara, moves to the village and befriends classmates Mion Sonozaki, her twin sister Shion, Rena Ryūgū, Rika Furude and Satoko Hōjō. Keiichi soon learns of the village's annual Watanagashi Festival, a celebration to commemorate and give thanks to the local deity ''Oyashiro''. Hinamizawa initially seems calm and peaceful, but shortly before the festival, Keiichi learns that from 1979-1982, after the festival, one villager would die and another would disappear. This series of mysterious incidents remains unsolved, and is named the "Oyashiro Curse" by the superstitious villagers.

With the exception of the fourth chapter, all of the first 6 chapters feature a different scenario showing what unfolds in June 1983. In all of them, the day after this year's festival, police discover the corpse of visiting freelance photographer Jirō Tomitake, who appears to have torn his throat out with his bare hands, and the charred body of Miyo Takano, a nurse in the village clinic. Keiichi, or one of his friends, attempts to investigate the mysteries of Hinamizawa and the Oyashiro Curse, only to fall into paranoia and homicidal rage. In some of the timelines, a few days after the festival, Rika's body is found in the family shrine dedicated to Oyashiro, and on the same day, a cataclysmic release of swamp gas wipes out the village's population.

The answer arcs reveal that each of the preceding arcs were alternate realities in which Rika tried and failed to save her and her friends. As a priestess of the Furude Shrine, Rika can communicate with the spirit Hanyū, who served as the prototype for Oyashiro and is the ancestress of the Furude clan. Each time Rika died, Hanyū would transfer her to another reality; however, the very ending of Rika's life is not retained in her memories when she transfers, obstructing her from knowing the cause of her death. In the final two chapters, ''Minagoroshi-hen'' and ''Matsuribayashi-hen'', it is revealed that the village's local clinic is secretly a government institute investigating a mysterious parasite in the village that causes Hinamizawa Syndrome; a disease that induces paranoia, delusion and homicidal rage in its victims before causing them to tear out their own throats. This disease is responsible for instigating the characters to commit murders in the previous arcs, and some of the incidents in the previous years were caused by it.

The rest of the incidents were caused by Miyo, who had killed Tomitake and faked her own death. She used the Oyashiro Curse as a cover for the incidents. Hinamizawa Syndrome manifests in those experiencing extreme stress or those who move a distance away from the "Infection Queen", who releases a pheromone that prevents the aggravation of the villagers' condition. The women of the Furude clan have all acted as Infection Queens, and Rika is the sole remaining member of the clan after the death of her parents in 1981's incident. The theory by Miyo's adoptive grandfather, Hifumi Takano, is that if there is not an Infection Queen, then all of the village will succumb to the syndrome and a mass outbreak of violence will occur.

In some of the realities, Shion, succumbing to Hinamizawa Syndrome, kills Rika; however, life in Hinamizawa goes on as normal, showing that Hifumi's theories had been exaggerated. In most of the realities, Miyo kills Rika, and the threat of the mass outbreak convinces the government to massacre the village, with the release of swamp gas being a cover story. Miyo's motive is to vindicate the work of Hifumi and force his work to be recognized, after he was mocked and shamed by the government and scientific community for his thesis about the disease.

After several hundred loops, Keiichi becomes either vividly or subconsciously aware of the previous ones, allowing him to avoid several critical points where various characters would be murdered or driven insane. In the final loop, ''Matsuribayashi-hen'', the group asks Hanyū to join them, and the spirit manages to manifest a physical body. With her assistance, and all of the knowledge and allies they have formed along the way, they thwart Miyo's plan, and go on to live happy lives afterwards.

In the secret ending, Rika travels back to the past to prevent Miyo from suffering the traumatic childhood that led her to becoming who she was.

Story arcs

In the ''Higurashi'' games, there are several story arcs. Of the original eight, the first four form the "question arcs", and the last four form the "answer arcs". The answer arcs generally serve as answers to a corresponding question arc. Each of the eight original games for the PC represented separate arcs of the overall storyline. Apart from the main question and answer relationship, the story of the arcs are not directly connected, although a multitude of parallels exist - noting these parallels allows an observant reader to gain extra insight into the mystery.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

The games form what are referred to as the question arcs. These first four games of the series were meant to give the player a sense of the world where the story takes place and introduce the mysterious circumstances surrounding the village of Hinamizawa. Since there are no concrete answers given to the questions that the story presents in these arcs, the question arcs allow the player to form their own opinions about the events taking place in the village. Each question arc game contains all of the previous question arcs.

; : The chapter introduces the player to the world of ''Higurashi no Naku Koro ni''. The player is shown the simple rural life of the village, the after-school club activities, and the friendships of the main characters. However, things take a sinister turn after the Watanagashi Festival, when Keiichi discovers what his new friends have been concealing from him and breaks off from them. Mion and Rena are portrayed as the villains in this chapter; at the end of it, Keiichi kills them, believing they were about to murder him, before later tearing out his own throat.

; : The player should have an overall idea of how life in the village resembles. This episode heavily focuses on the twin Sonozaki sisters, Mion and Shion (the latter debuting). During this chapter, the history of Hinamizawa and the Watanagashi Festival is expanded upon. This chapter's bad events are once again marked by the Watanagashi Festival; shortly after it, several members of the village go missing. Mion is once again portrayed as the villain in this chapter.

; : This episode stars Satoko, who develops a very close brother-sister relationship with Keiichi. Unfortunately, Satoko's abusive uncle returns to the village, and efforts to get his custody removed fail. After Satoko suffers a breakdown from his abuse, Keiichi snaps and murders the uncle, hoping for a return to normalcy, but the exact opposite occurs when more people die before all of Hinamizawa is wiped out in a gas disaster.

; : This episode takes place five years before the first three chapters. Tokyo police investigator, Mamoru Akasaka, investigates a kidnapping of a politician's grandchild around the village. The chapter focuses on Rika Furude as being the key part of the mystery, as she is mysteriously able to predict the incidents that happened in the subsequent years. Kuraudo Ooishi, otherwise a supporting character, plays a major role as Akasaka's trusted ally and senior in this chapter.

Kai

The games form what are known as the answer arcs. The last four games released in the series, were, in contrast to the question arcs, meant to answer all of the questions presented in the first half of the series. These arcs can be considered the "solutions" of the previous arcs. Each answer arc game contains all of the previous answer arcs.

; :''Meakashi-hen'' is the answer arc corresponding to ''Watanagashi-hen''. The chapter consists of events very similar to those of ''Watanagashi-hen'' told from the perspective of Shion. In this chapter, it is revealed that Shion and Mion had been pretending to be each other in the second half of ''Watanagashi-hen'', and that Shion was actually the killer then.

; :''Tsumihoroboshi-hen'' is the answer arc corresponding to ''Onikakushi-hen''. Unlike ''Meakashi-hen'', ''Tsumihoroboshi-hen'''s story is drastically different from the plot of its question arc. Keiichi suddenly remembers the events of ''Onikakushi-hen'', and realizes that he had been delusional and mistaken in his suspecting of Rena and Mion. With this knowledge, he is able to help Rena, who falls into the same trap that he did and succumbs to paranoia and distrust as well. This is the first chapter with a (seemingly) happy ending since Keiichi stops Rena from murdering any of her friends, although the epilogue reveals that the gas disaster still occurred.

; :On the surface, ''Minagoroshi-hen'' is the solution to ''Tatarigoroshi-hen''; however, it answers most of the major common mysteries of the previous arcs. It is told from the perspective of Rika Furude and reveals her ability to travel between worlds. ''Minagoroshi-hen'' primarily shows Keiichi working tirelessly to end the abuse Satoko faces at the hands of her uncle, without resorting to murder; after rallying the town behind him, he is successful. ''Minagoroshi-hen'' finally reveals that the true antagonist is Miyo Takano; however, occupied by Satoko's predicament, the group is not able to defeat her in the end, so one more effort is needed to seal the story into a happy ending.

; :With all pieces of the puzzle in place, it's up to the characters to join forces in order to defeat Miyo and stop her from destroying the village. ''Matsuribayashi-hen'' is a "Good End" in which the tragic events that occurred during June 1983 in the previous arcs are averted. It also features many "Fragments" that detail the events in the previous years to resolve any mysteries not yet answered.

Rei

Three extra chapters were included in a fan disc named , two of which were newly created. ''Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei'' was released on December 31, 2006.

; :''Saikoroshi-hen'' is an epilogue of ''Matsuribayashi-hen'', which takes place two months later in August 1983. Rika is apparently killed by a truck and wakes up in a different world, where none of the tragic events occurred in the main series: Keiichi is absent from the village, Rena's parents did not divorce, the dam project was resolved smoothly, Satoshi stays with Satoko and Rika's parents are alive. However, the club never formed, meaning Rika has no friends, she gets bullied by Satoko, Hanyū is absent, Rika is not revered as the reincarnation of Oyashiro, and the village will soon be submerged underwater. Rika has to choose between staying in that world or killing her own mother, which will enable her to leave that sinless world.

; : A slapstick dream story in which Keiichi and the Soul Brothers fight against the girls through the club punishment games. The chapter was originally an epilogue titled ''Otsukaresama'' which came with ''Meakashi-hen'', but it was deemed too irrelevant and silly and was removed from subsequent chapters.

; :''Hirukowashi-hen'' is based on ''Higurashi Daybreak''. Keiichi and Rena spent time together, until Rena accidentally swallows something during her usual treasure hunting. According to Rika, the seal of the sacred "Fuwarazu Magatama" pairs was broken, and Rena had one of them. The magatama holds a mysterious magical powers in which a person that has the red magatama will blindly fall in love with anyone with the white one.

Matsuri

Three original chapters were created for the PlayStation 2 version , by Alchemist.

; : An alternate beginning chapter, at first glance, this additional "question arc" is a retelling of ''Onikakushi-hen''. However, this chapter, in fact, contains the events of ''Watanagashi-hen''. After learning the secrets of Hinamizawa, Keiichi decides to ignore everything and enjoy his peaceful school life; this action leads to a tragic series of events. Shion Sonozaki is the villain of the chapter, while Mion becomes the victim. Mion survives and is shown Rena's blood stained hat. Mion talks to Ooishi about the incident, but dies shortly after. The scenario is actually a "punishment", given when you deliberately try and avoid getting into any of the scenarios in the story (except one, as it is actually difficult to get into on purpose), and makes it clear to the player that they cannot simply avoid the tragedies around them and expect a happy ending.

; : Although ''Tsukiotoshi-hen'' does not provide many answers since it relates what went wrong in ''Watanagashi-hen/Meakashi-hen'' and ''Tatarigoroshi-hen'', it is still considered an answer arc. In order to save Satoko, Shion, Keiichi and Rena decide to kill Teppei. But after the murder is done, Rena starts to act strangely, and Keiichi thinks he hears Oyashiro talking to him. Mion notices the change in her friends' behavior and takes Shion's place to find out why they are acting this way. Later on, Satoko develops Hinamizawa Syndrome and kills Shion, before killing herself.

; :An alternate ending to the main series, the chapter name ''Miotsukushi'' is a pun on and , a conjugation of . The pun is known in Japanese poetry such as Man'yōshū and Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. After finding out who the real murderer is, Rika and Keiichi decide to put an end to the whole mystery, but they are in a different situation than ''Matsuribayashi-hen''. Before they can do anything, they have to solve other people's problems first. The problems of ''Watanagashi/Meakashi-hen'', ''Tatarigoroshi-hen'', and ''Tsumihoroboshi-hen'' are met here, and all of them must be solved. The arc solves all the mysteries of the series, adds a few new ones, and gives the origins of both Hanyū and Hinamizawa syndrome. The story development of this arc in the fourth Nintendo DS game ''Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kizuna'' has slight differences from the original PlayStation 2 version. The conclusion of Tomoe's story, continued from the third DS game ''Rasen'', was added to ''Miotsukushi-hen'', but had no connection with the PlayStation 2 version's ending. While there were very few choices in the previous answer arcs, this arc contains several choices that can lead to a bad ending if the wrong ones are picked.

Kizuna

Four original chapters were created for the Nintendo DS version , by Alchemist.

; : The new question arc reveals in ''Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kizuna''. It seems to be a retelling of ''Onisarashi'' with new characters and a few minor differences. In this chapter, the events of ''Onisarashi'' play out with the exception of Tomoe added to the equation, and Akasaka and Oishi being absent, although Oishi is mentioned, resulting in a different ending. The major difference is that this chapter's ending is a "bad ending" instead of a "good ending" like in the original storyline, with Natsumi dying at the end instead of being saved by Akira.

; :A new chapter in ''Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kizuna Dai Ni Kan Sō''. The version of ''Onisarashi-hen'' is told through the eyes of Tomoe Minami, a policewoman that is investigating the strange occurrences happening all over Japan. Akasaka and Oishi are present in this chapter, as well as Tomoe's younger sister, who is also a police officer, and another male officer. The chapter has a "good ending" like the original manga chapter, but with different events causing it. Natsumi attacks Chisato, one of her friends, putting her in the hospital, where she later talks with Akasaka. After the seemingly unpreventable murder of Natsumi's family, Chisato meets Natsumi on the hospital roof, and after a little struggling, manages to calm Natsumi down, and comforts her.

; : A new chapter in ''Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Kizuna Rasen''. Tomoe Minai and her sister make another appearance, along with a new blue haired girl named Nagisa Ozaki. Ōishi Kuraudo and Rena Ryūgū return in this chapter. The chapter explores Rena's past in Showa 57 (1982).

; : A new chapter in the final installment of ''Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kizuna Dai Yon Kan Kizuna''. The chapter explores Hanyū's past as Hai-Ryūn Yeasomūru Jeda and the origin of Hinamizawa. Characters appeared in this arc such as Riku Furude, one of Rika's ancestor and the Shinto Priest of Furude House, who fell in love with Hai-Ryūn; and Ōka Furude, the child of Hai-Ryūn and Riku Furude.

Manga arcs

These side stories are original chapters serialized in manga form which supplement the games and partially continue the story.

; : In ''Onisarashi-hen'', a young girl named Natsumi is haunted by the aftermath of the Hinamizawa Disaster. Soon after her grandmother — a former Hinamizawa resident — tells her of Oyashiro's curse, Natsumi finds that her own hands have become covered in blood. Akasaka and Oishi also feature in the story. ''Onisarashi-hen'' was later included as part of the Nintendo DS remake ''Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kizuna'' as ''Someutsuhi-hen'', with some changes.

; : This chapter is an epilogue of one of the "possible outcomes" of ''Tsumihoroboshi-hen'', in which Rena burned the school and killed Mion and her friends. Many years later, in 2006, the lock has been lifted and a group of five meet by coincidence, one of them claiming to be Mion, and get dragged into the supernatural aspects of the "Village of the Dead." Tips for this chapter can be read via mobile phone at Gangan Mobile. This chapter was included as part of ''Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Kizuna: Dai-San-Kan Rasen'' for the Nintendo DS.

; : A prequel to ''Meakashi-hen''. Shion is sent away to the all-girls school, St. Lucia Academy, for confinement. One day, a male teacher's body was found in the school swimming pool and the first discoverer, Mizuho Kōsaka, is summoned to the chairman's office to report the details. Shion hears rumors about how Mizuho's grandmother is after Mizuho's life and the girl is taking refuge in the school, so Shion approaches the aloof Mizuho. The chapter started serialization in the December 2006 issue of ''Comp Ace''.

; : A collection of award-winning reader-submitted stories compiled by Ryukishi07. Some of the stories have been adapted into manga and drama CDs.

; : An epilogue to ''Matsuribayashi-hen'' where Rika and the others, including Hanyū, go on a summer vacation to heal their hearts, so to speak, after everything they have been through.

Anime arcs

; :The arc was introduced in the second season, airing before ''Minagoroshi-hen'' and ''Matsuribayashi-hen''. Ryukishi07 requested the staff to include important plot details that were left out from the first season so as to tie the two seasons together. The issue of Hinamizawa's secrets is resolved early in this scenario, allowing the other characters to attend school without further issue. The story is told from the perspective of Satoko as she grows increasingly concerned about Rika, including speaking with Hanyū alone about her own inevitable murder, and her vain attempts to change her fate. Satoko later undergoes a situation containing elements from ''Tatarigoroshi-hen'' and ''Taraimawashi-hen'', from discovering Rika's body to surviving the Great Hinamizawa Disaster, and dying in the hospital after understanding the secret behind Rika's murder.

Gou

The anime series ''Gou'' introduces five new arcs that parallel the initial chapters while posing a new mystery for the characters to overcome. ; :At first, ''Onidamashi-hen'' appears to be a retelling of ''Onikakushi-hen''. However, it is revealed that the events of this arc take place several years after ''Matsuribayashi-hen'', and that Rika has mysteriously been sent back to June 1983. When Keiichi begins to become suspicious that others are hiding things from him, Rika encourages him to trust his friends.

; :Similarly to ''Watanagashi-hen'' and ''Meakashi-hen,'' this question arc focuses on the Sonozaki twins and their relationship with Keiichi. When Shion and Keiichi sneak into a sacred place on the night of the Watanagashi Festival, people close to them begin to disappear. Rika attempts to intervene and change her fate.

; :This scenario is meant to parallel ''Tatarigoroshi-hen'' and ''Minagoroshi-hen'' as Satoko's abusive uncle returns to Hinamizawa. Keiichi and his friends attempt to bring the village together to save her.

; :This arc is told from Rika's perspective as she endures several tragedies in several different worlds. ''Nekodamashi-hen'' provides answers to some of the mysteries and reveals the identity of the culprit.

; :This arc follows Satoko and Rika, during the period between ''Matsuribayashi-hen'' and ''Onidamashi-hen''. The arc has a large emphasis on the relationship between Satoko and Rika as they grow older and the world around them begins to change. It answers many mysteries introduced in the previous arcs.

Sotsu

The anime series ''Sotsu'' contains arcs that provide new perspectives and answers to the mysteries from ''Gou''. ; :''Oniakashi-hen'' is the answer arc corresponding to ''Onidamashi-hen'', showing the events of the latter chapter from the perspectives of Rena and Satoko. After taking drastic measures to ensure her family's happiness, Rena becomes increasingly suspicious that her friends know more than they let on.

; :''Watakashi-hen'' follows the events of ''Watadamashi-hen'' from the perspectives of Mion and Satoko. Upon discovering that Keiichi's life may be in danger, Mion investigates Oyashiro's curse and the village families that may be behind it.

; :''Tatariakashi-hen '' provides the solution for ''Tataridamashi-hen'', following Satoko as she moves in with Teppei and grapples with internal conflict over her actions. Ōishi takes drastic measures to investigate the truth behind the curse of Oyashiro.

; :With the true natures of Satoko and Rika revealed to one another, the two engage in a final showdown to decide the fate of their future. Hoping for a miracle, Hanyū confronts Eua in the Sea of Fragments. ''Kagurashi-hen'' concludes the story of ''Gou'' and ''Sotsu''.

The 24-minute episodes are essentially anthologies of shorts centered on a common, easily digested topic word such as "slippery" or "sticky". While each short draws from the same pool of characters, they are produced in a variety of animation techniques. Animation styles include stop-motion, clay animation, traditional 3-D and 2-D cel animation, and 3-D CGI, along with live-action segments mostly narrated by Bob the Ball. Some of the shorts are designed to fit more than one topic, and are re-used in different episodes.

In 1936 in Porto Venere, Fascist Italy, the government kidnaps a child prodigy, Tadzio De Santis, and kills his family, to use him for an experimental project to create a Fascist supersoldier. The procedure's inventor Dr. Maria Vaselli, objects to this cruelty and flees to the United States to offer her services to the Americans.

Seven years later, the American government finds a volunteer in Steve Rogers, a frail soldier who is excluded from the draft due to being partly crippled by polio. The formula successfully cures Rogers' ailments and gives him superior strength and endurance; but before any more supersoldiers can be created, Vaselli is murdered by a Nazi spy secretly working with Lieutenant Fleming before Rogers manages to kill him. Meanwhile, the now adult de Santis—whose skin was burnt to a scarred red texture by the earlier version of Vaselli's procedure, but has physical prowess equal to Rogers—has become the Red Skull, and is planning to launch a prototype intercontinental ballistic missile at the White House. Rogers, now code-named Captain America, is sent in to neutralize the Red Skull and the missile. He penetrates the Nazi launch compound, but the Red Skull defeats Captain America and ties him to the missile. As it is about to launch, Captain America grabs the Red Skull's arm and forces him to cut off his own hand to avoid being taken along. While the missile is over Washington, D.C., a young boy named Tom Kimball takes a photograph as Captain America kicks one of the missile's fins, changing its course mere yards from the White House and ultimately crashing somewhere in Alaska, burying itself and Rogers under the ice.

In 1992, Tom Kimball is elected President of the United States. A year into his first term, he pushes for aggressive new pro-environmentalist legislation that angers the military-industrial complex headed by now-general Fleming. At a secret conference in Italy, Fleming meets with the Red Skull and other leaders of a global shadow organization. Following the war, the Red Skull had extensive plastic surgery to partially alter his disfigured features, raised a hitwoman daughter, Valentina, and became the leader of a powerful crime family. In the 1960s, the shadow organization hired the Red Skull and his thugs to murder various Americans who were against militarism and fascism, such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., President John F. Kennedy, and Robert Kennedy. This time, the Red Skull disapproves murder and instead organizes Kimball's kidnapping and subsequent brainwashing.

In Alaska, a team of researchers accidentally find Rogers' body frozen in a block of ice, and he awakens still thinking that it is the 1940s. His mysterious reappearance makes international headlines, alerting both Kimball and the Red Skull. After escaping from some of the Red Skull's thugs, Rogers brushes off Sam Kolawetz, a reporter and childhood friend of Kimball who has long hounded the Skull, and hitchhikes his way back to his wartime girlfriend, Bernice, in Redondo Beach, California. While Bernice still lives at her old residence, she has long since married and raised her own daughter, Sharon, who gives Rogers a series of history videos to help him catch up. Red Skull's thugs, led by Valentina, break into Bernice's house and kill her during their efforts to find Rogers. While visiting Sharon's father in the hospital, Rogers and Sharon learn from the news that Kimball has been kidnapped, and vow to rescue him from the Red Skull. Rogers and Sharon visit the secret underground base where he gained his superpowers to recover Vaselli's diary and learn the original name of Red Skull. They are ambushed by Red Skull's thugs, who are defeated by Rogers. They travel to Italy and, in the Red Skull's childhood home, locate an old recording of the murder of his parents. Sharon gets kidnapped as a distraction to allow Rogers, who once again dons his costume, to enter the Red Skull's castle.

Kimball escapes from his cell, is rescued by Captain America and teams up with him in laying siege to the castle. In the midst of their battle, the Red Skull pulls out a remote trigger for a nuclear bomb, but Rogers uses the recording of the De Santis family's murder to distract him. Just as Red Skull recovers, Captain America uses his shield to send him off a cliff, killing him, and as Valentina prepares to kill Rogers, she is hit from behind by his returning shield. The United States Marines arrive to save the President and arrest the conspirators involved in the kidnapping. Rogers and Sharon embrace, and a news voiceover announces the passing of Kimball's new environmental pact as agreed upon by dozens of other countries around the world.

Harry and Nan, a middle-aged couple, are constantly at odds. Harry is having an affair with his emotionally unstable secretary. "Your secretary, Harry?" snipes Nan. "You're past cliché and into archetype." This tone of acid comedy is replaced, however, by deep anguish, when their adult son, Isaac, announces that he has fallen in love with a child. He wants to return home and live with his parents, who have to struggle between their love for him and their guilt and horror at his transgression. They finally come to a compromise, which is almost as shocking as Isaac's offense: he can live with them, but must be blinded first, to keep him from ever being attracted to another boy.

June 30, 2008: Boxer Santaros (Dwayne Johnson) wakes up alone in the Nevada desert, he takes out a red syringe and injects himself in the neck. He begins walking through the desert.

Fortunio Balducci (Will Sasso) is on a houseboat with Tab Taverner-Former Mayor of Hermosa, his son Ronald Taverner (Seann William Scott) nephew, Jimmy Hermosa and friend, Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar). Fortunio is currently in an online-poker game with several American soldiers in Syria and loses, but the connection is lost because the soldiers were attacked – which means Fortunio is still going to lose his money anyway.

Fortunio owes some bookies in Las Vegas $100,000 so Tab suggests that Fortunio get out of Nevada before the holiday weekend begins; this should buy him some time. Fortunio can't get across the border because he has no interstate visa to get across and will take some time for him to get one.

Krysta Now tells Fortunio that she can get him a visa and to meet her at a bar called Buffalo Bill's situated at the border.

Fortunio leaves the boat and drives towards the border. On his way, he finds Boxer passed out on the road. He pulls over and approaches him. Boxer stirs and says:

‘I am a pragmatic prevaricator, with a propensity for oratorical seniority, which is too pleonastical to be expeditiously assimilated by any of your unequivocal veracities.’

Fortunio puts him inside the car and they begin to drive off again. Fortunio asks Boxer how and what he was doing out in the middle of the desert. Boxer doesn't know and asks the date. He seems to suffer from amnesia.

At the same time, a Nevada park ranger is tipped off about the whereabouts of an abandoned SUV with a burned-up dead body inside. The SUV is a prototype vehicle belonging to Treer which is powered by ‘Fluid Karma’. The vehicle and corpse is taken away to a facility nearby. The facility is broken into by armed-men, killing everyone inside and taking the SUV and corpse.

Fortunio asks Boxer can he remember anything. The only thing he seems to remember is a maze made of sand. Fortunio says that he is a big fan of Boxer's. Boxer is confused and doesn't know what he's talking about. Fortunio tells him that he is Boxer Santaros-a very famous action star and ex-pro-football player. He then tells him of the incidents that occurred on July 4, 2005.

The two make it to Buffalo Bill's where Krysta Now is performing on stage but instead of stripping, she begins to sing poetry. Fortunio explains the situation to Krysta, that he found Boxer lying in the desert, picked him up and that he has amnesia, so now he needs two visas.

Krysta will get the visas on one condition-play along a game she has created. Using Boxer's amnesia to her advantage, she will tell Boxer that the two of them were together in Vegas for the weekend, partying and working on a script that she wrote called ‘The Power’, she was researching a character at Buffalo Bill's (her character in the movie is an intelligent dancer interested in astrophysics). She then goes on to say that Fortunio has to pretend that he is a private detective and was hired to find Boxer and bring him to Krysta, if he doesn't do it, she will deliver him to the bookies in Vegas.

She ends up convincing the naive Boxer.

Apparently, the script (‘The Power’) was written solely by Krysta, and that Boxer never had anything to do with it to begin with, but she has convinced him that he is starring in and directing the film also.

He asks what it is about and who he plays. Krysta says that Boxer plays a renegade L.A.P.D. cop called Jericho Cane and that it revolves around the end of the world. She gives him a copy of the script to read.

Krysta begins talking to Fortunio outside her hotel room. She tells him to contact a lawyer and have him draw up a short form contract for himself for ‘The Power’ and to give himself $100,000 to settle his debt with the bookies.

While Boxer is reading the script, the phone begins to ring. He answers and the woman on the other end tells him:

‘is this the Pragmatic Prevaricator?-Stay with the girl, she is your only chance for survival, We saw the Shadows of the Morning Light, The Shadows of the Evening Sun, Until the Shadows and Light were One. Cross the Border At Dawn, Stay with the Girl, and whatever she says, Keep Taking the Injections, and whatever you do-do not board the rollercoaster.’

Krysta enters the room and asks about the script. Boxer says he likes it but there is lots of work to be done on it.

Later, Boxer signs the contract given to him by Fortunio and Krysta. He goes to get a check from the bank, he places his thumb on the scanner, which is fed back to US-IDent (who are looking for Boxer).

Boxer tells Krysta about the phone call and of his dream in the desert, she was in his dream and he remembers the song she sang in Buffalo Bill's in the dream also. She tells him that they have to ride the rollercoaster across the road from Buffalo Bill's. Boxer is hesitant at first but agrees. He takes an injection before they go on. Once they get to the top, Boxer has a vision...a vision of 1902, a Native-America tribe standing there. Boxer waves at one of them. He seems to have created a rupture in the fourth dimension. He goes back to 2008 all of a sudden and he tells Krysta about his vision. The two of them exit the rollercoaster together....

The book takes on a classical storyline and the title, "Two Roads Diverge" derives from Robert Frost's famous poem "The Road Not Taken". The cover also contains a quote from T. S. Eliot, stating that our world will not go out with a bang as we expect, but with a whimper.

A visible narrator introduces the film and explains that he will be interjecting to explain the inexplicable.

Sal and Chester Hooton, an old married couple, are visited by their equally old friend Duke Johnson, and the three reminisce about their previous adventure in the Klondike.

The film flashes back to the turn of the century. Hooton and Johnson are doing a variety act as "Prof Zambini and Ghost-O". Their trick cons people out of money and they run when the hall is raided by the police. They escape and Johnson wants to head for Alaska. Hooton wants to go to New York. They part at the embarkation quay, but Johnson cheats Hooton out of money and when he runs back to challenge him he gets stuck on the ship going to Alaska. They have to work for their passage. While doing housekeeping duties in a cabin, Chester finds a map to a gold mine. McGurk and Sperry enter behind them, but Duke and Chester overpower the thugs and take their place (and their beards) to get off the boat.

Meanwhile in Alaska, Sal van Hoyden goes to see the owner of the Last Chance dance hall, Ace Larson. She has a story of a map of a gold mine stolen by two men: McGurk and Sperry. Instead of going to the police, Larson assures Sal that he will take care of things. He gives her a job performing in his saloon, an act which infuriates Larson's girlfriend, Kate. Larson tells Kate how he really plans to take Sal's gold mine for the two of them and passionately kisses her.

Arriving in Alaska, Chester and Duke find that the entire town is terrified of their personas. They see Sal's singing routine and are both instantly smitten. Sal plays up to both of them in turn: first Chester, then Duke. She invites each to her room at midnight. She doubts they are the real killers, but Ace's lackey, Lebec, reminds her to get the map at all costs.

Chester and Duke argue over who gets to hold the map and decide to tear it in half and each man keep his for safekeeping.

Duke and Chester manage to escape by dog sled; initially pulling the sled themselves with the large dog they found acting as passenger. En route, they meet Santa Claus on his sled going in the opposite direction. They find Sal in the snow. She and Kate have a cabin nearby and all four stay together. She chats up first Chester then Duke to establish where the map is. Duke confesses he is not McGurk.

Sal, now realizing how much she loves Duke, refuses to go along with the plan. But Kate warns her that only Ace can keep them from being killed and the only way to get to him is to give up the map. Sal reluctantly agrees to steal the map while the men sleep, and does so. The two girls leave the next morning with Lebec.

Duke and Chester are confronted by the real McGurk and Sperry and they realize the girls had stolen the map. They still manage to escape and, after a merry chase through the mountains, head back to town. They readopt their McGurk and Sperry personas but are distressed to find the latter are likely to be hanged. They scare off the posse with a stick of dynamite and rescue Sal who is tied in a back room. They leave the lit dynamite in a candlestick just as the real McGurk and Sperry arrive, and they get blown up while the three escape. They escape by dog sled, but the sled overturns.

The ice splits with Duke and Chester each having one leg on each side as the gap widens. Eventually, this leaves Sal and Chester on opposite sides, with Duke on the side of the mob. He throws the map, wishes them well, and turns to face the mob.

The movie flashes back into the present, with aged Duke telling Sal and Chester how he escaped the mob. He is then surprised to hear that Chester and Sal have a son. They call for him, and he bears a striking resemblance to Duke. Chester looks into the camera and says, "We adopted him."

Introduction

D'Hai/Walt Shepherd's (Louis Gossett Jr.) dialogue over the opening theme tells the tale of E'Hawke/Matthew Star (Peter Barton):

First half of series

The first half of the series' run dealt with Matthew Star attending Crestridge High School and trying to survive his teenage years while dodging assassins, all under the watchful eye of his guardian, Walt Shepherd, who stayed nearby as a science teacher at the school. Those in their lives who had no idea about the truth were girlfriend Pam Elliot (Amy Steel), friend Bob Alexander (Chip Frye), and the merry principal, Mr. Heller (Michael Fairman).

General Tucker (John Crawford), a U.S. Air Force officer specializing in extraterrestrial investigations, had tracked the two of them across the country as they evaded alien agents intent on exterminating them. From time to time, he enlisted their specialized aid in solving monumental problems.

The first dozen episodes dealt with the daily troubles of high school students, although in the episode "The Triangle," a chance trip to the Bermuda Triangle resulted in the discovery of Quadrian messengers, who told the pair that the king had been executed. E'Hawke/Matthew was crowned the new king in a torch-lit cave.

In the episode "Mother," a strange carnival gypsy is revealed to be Matthew's mother, Nadra, who had been traveling the galaxy and hiding from assassins. This reunion was bittersweet; due to Nadra's health problems, she was forced to leave Crestridge for an undisclosed location at a higher elevation.

Finally, in the "Fugitives" episode, Walt, trying to elude a nosy doctor, comes into contact with a substance in the hospital that causes him to have a deadly allergic reaction. At the same time, Matthew is being booked into jail and needs Walt to bail him out. At the last minute, Matthew manages to save Walt as he has done many times throughout the series.

Matthew's powers during this season were mainly telekinetic, being able to move objects with the power of his mind. This power was illustrated in the opening credits as moving a book back into a slot on the shelf. In episodes, he used telekinesis to manipulate a football, raise rocks that had buried an experimental Air Force flying unit and then its simulation. The opening title suggests that members of his family had other powers that probably expanded after achieving physical maturity (and practice).

Second half of series

The series took a sudden turn from a dramatic adventure series to a by-the-book adventure series, with Walt and Matthew having to deal with government assignments. Major Wymore (James Karen) replaced General Tucker (John Crawford) and met with the Quadrians in all sorts of strange locations where he briefed them on the missions. Gone were Pam and Bob and references to the high school. Matthew was being portrayed as older, and not much was said about their true mission, which was returning to Quadris to take back their world from the enemy.

Matthew had previously used the nickname "Shep" for his guardian, but with the sudden format change, Matthew started calling him Walt.

In the gap between episodes 12 and 13, Matthew apparently developed or perfected additional powers, including separating his intelligence into an "astral," a simulation of his current appearance that could walk through walls (as in astral projection). Another power was transmutation of objects.

The evil Prince Ancar of Hardorn, while experimenting with magic, accidentally draws the equally evil man-cat Mornelithe Falconsbane from his prison in the Void. Meanwhile, Heralds Elspeth and Skif witness the reunion of Clan k'Leysha, a tribe of Hawkbrothers which was divided because of a magical mishap. The two Heralds, together with Elspeth's lover Darkwind k'Sheyna, Skif's lover Nyara (Falconsbane's estranged daughter), the magical sword Need, the gryphons Treyvan and Hydona, the k'Treva mage Firesong, and the kyree Rris, are leaving for Valdemar, where the non-Heralds will be ambassadors for their various clans.

Firesong's Gate (a magical portal enabling the person to cross large distances in a single step) is co-opted by the ghost of Herald Vanyel, a Herald-Mage who died saving the kingdom. The party find themselves in the Forest of Sorrows near Valdemar's northern border. Vanyel explains that he 'abducted' them because he is about to remove the magical protections around Valdemar. He feels he must warn them because Ancar of Hardorn may take advantage of the lowered defenses and magically attack. Vanyel then makes a Gate to send the party to his ancestral manor near the western border. They head to Haven with all speed, though the gryphons create a minor sensation along the way.

Elspeth discovers that rumors have been circulating that she has been murdered by her stepfather, or that she intends to take the throne from her mother by force. Upon arrival in Haven, she renounces her claim to the monarchy so that she can pursue her new job as the first Herald-Mage since Vanyel. The mages in the group begin finding and training potential mages among the Heralds as quickly as possible.

Ancar, prompted by Falconsbane, launches an attack immediately, using magic-controlled troops. Valdemar responds with an assassination team composed of Elspeth, Skif, Darkwind, Nyara, Need, and Firesong, intending to eliminate Ancar, Falconsbane, and Hulda, an evil witch who tried to corrupt Elspeth in her youth. Disguised as a traveling show, they move towards the capital.

The situation is complicated somewhat when the assassination team learns that Falconsbane has a secret agent in his head; the evil Adept had found a way to cheat death by arranging to 'take over' the bodies of any member of his bloodline with Adept potential. The victim of the most recent takeover, An'desha, a boy of the Shin'a'in, survived; his personality took refuge in a hidden corner of Falconsbane's mind. Two Avatars of the Shin'a'in Goddess come to him to help him, and he is able to pass information to the assassination party through the Avatars and Need. He slowly becomes aware that it might not be possible to kill Falconsbane without also killing him.

Firesong, Nyara, Skif, and Need lure Falconsbane out of the palace. Need deals the body a mortal wound, causing Falconsbane's spirit to flee into the Void. Firesong pursues him there and destroys him for good. Need is able to heal the damage she has caused and allow An'desha to have his body back. Darkwind, Elspeth, and her Companion attack Ancar and Hulda, who both perish, but Darkwind is injured and Elspeth also kills an envoy from the powerful Eastern Empire, causing it to turn its eye on Valdemar.

With the death of Ancar, Valdemar has little difficulty repelling the Hardornen army. At the close of the book, An'desha and Nyara are healed from the damage Falconsbane had done to their bodies, and the party settles in to live in Haven.

Category:1993 American novels Category:American fantasy novels Category:Valdemar Universe Category:DAW Books books

Blues vocalist and petty criminal Jake Blues is released from prison after serving three years, and is picked up by his brother Elwood in his Bluesmobile, a battered former police car. Elwood demonstrates its capabilities by jumping an open drawbridge. The brothers visit the Catholic orphanage where they were raised, and learn from Sister Mary Stigmata that it will be closed unless $5,000 in property taxes is collected. During a sermon by the Reverend Cleophus James at the Triple Rock Baptist Church, Jake has an epiphany: they can re-form their band, the Blues Brothers, which disbanded while Jake was in prison, and raise the money to save the orphanage.

That night, state troopers attempt to arrest Elwood for driving with a suspended license due to 116 parking tickets and 56 moving violations. After a high-speed chase through the Dixie Square Mall, the brothers escape. The next morning, as the police arrive at the flophouse where Elwood lives, a mysterious woman detonates a bomb that demolishes the building, but leaves Jake and Elwood unharmed, and saves them from being arrested.

Jake and Elwood begin tracking down members of the band. Five of them are performing as "Murph and The MagicTones" at a deserted Holiday Inn lounge, and quickly agree to rejoin. Another turns them down as he is the maître d' at an expensive restaurant, but the brothers refuse to leave the restaurant until he relents. On their way to meet the final two band members, the brothers find the road through Jackson Park blocked by an American Nazi Party demonstration on a bridge; Elwood runs them off the bridge into the East Lagoon. The last two band members, who now run a soul food restaurant, rejoin the band against the advice of one's wife. The reunited group obtain instruments and equipment from Ray's Music Exchange in Calumet City, and Ray, as usual, takes an IOU.

As Jake attempts to book a gig, the mystery woman blows up the phone booth he is using; once again, he is miraculously unhurt. The band stumbles onto a gig at Bob's Country Bunker, a honky-tonk in Kokomo, Indiana. They win over the rowdy crowd but run up a bar tab higher than their pay, and infuriate the Good Ol' Boys, the country band that was actually booked for the gig.

Realizing that they need one big show to raise the necessary money, the brothers persuade their old agent to book the Palace Hotel Ballroom, north of Chicago. They mount a loudspeaker atop the Bluesmobile and drive around the Chicago area promoting the concert—and alerting the police, the neo-Nazis, and the Good Ol' Boys of their whereabouts. The ballroom is packed with blues fans, police officers, and the Good Ol' Boys. Jake and Elwood perform two songs, then sneak offstage, as the tax deadline is rapidly approaching. A record company executive offers them a $10,000 cash advance on a recording contract—more than enough to pay off the orphanage's taxes and Ray's IOU—and then shows the brothers how to slip out of the building unnoticed. As they make their escape via a service tunnel, they are confronted by the mystery woman: Jake's vengeful ex-fiancée. After her volley of M16 rifle bullets leaves them once again miraculously unharmed, Jake offers a series of ridiculous excuses that she declines, but when she looked in his eyes she took interest in him again, allowing the brothers to escape to the Bluesmobile.

Jake and Elwood race back toward Chicago with dozens of state and local police and the Good Ol' Boys in pursuit. They eventually elude them all with a series of improbable maneuvers, including a miraculous gravity-defying escape from the neo-Nazis. At the Richard J. Daley Center, they rush inside the adjacent Chicago City Hall building, soon followed by hundreds of police, state troopers, SWAT teams, firefighters, Illinois National Guardsmen, and the Military Police. Finding the office of the Cook County Assessor, the brothers pay the tax bill. Just as their receipt is stamped, they are arrested by the mob of law officers. In prison, the band plays "Jailhouse Rock" for the inmates.

Chan plays Kuo Cheng-Wah, a kind-hearted country boy who is quickly cheated out of all his money by Tung (Bill Tung) when he arrives in Hong Kong. Depressed and destitute, he encounters Madame Kao (Gua Ah-leh), a poor woman selling flowers on the street; she urges him to buy a red rose, saying it will bring him luck. He disagrees at first but after looking at his suitcase, he finally agrees.

His fortunes immediately take a dramatic turn when he stumbles into a gang war, and renders assistance to a dying gang leader. When Fei (Lo Lieh) asks who will take his spot, the gang leader unwittingly makes Kuo his successor and dies. Kuo, awed, attributes his luck to Madame Kao's rose, and takes to buying one from her every day thereafter. This does not sit well with the gang, especially Fei, who feels that he was next in line to be the boss. Uncle Hoi (Wu Ma), the boss' right-hand man, helps Kuo adjust to being the boss. In a fight to test his toughness, Kuo wins the gang's respect, with the exception of Fei.

Kuo reluctantly accept being a gangster boss and tries to find a different way to legitimately make a living for himself and his gang. When singer Yang Luming (Anita Mui) comes to him with money to pay off a debt the previous boss had loaned to her dad, Uncle Hoi comes up with the idea to open a nightclub. At the opening of the nightclub, rival boss Tiger comes to enjoy the nightclub, being introduced to Kuo. Before the music starts, the police and Inspector Ho (Richard Ng) interrupts the show. In Kuo's office, Ho privately tells him his plan to bring both gangs to jail. Ho leaves Kuo with Uncle Hoi, who tells Kuo everyone knows what they talked about since Ho always uses the same lines.

Before a meeting with Tiger, Kuo goes to buy his usual rose from Madame Kao, but she is not at her post. Because of this, he is caught up at a fight in a restaurant. The fight ends when Tiger stops a fan from falling on Kuo, who dives out of his way to grab a rose. About to be taken for ransom by Tiger, he is saved again by Inspector Ho. Afterwards, Kuo searches for Madame Kao, and finds her terribly upset over a letter she has just received. The letter is from her daughter, Belle (Gloria Yip), a student in Shanghai whom Madame Kao has been supporting, all the time while concealing her sufferings and leading her to believe that she is a rich society woman in Hong Kong.

She now comes to visit, bringing her wealthy fiance and his father, but Madame Kao is afraid that her poverty will bring disgrace to her daughter. Through Luming's persuasion, Kuo offers to help, buying Madame Kao expensive new clothes and arranging a lavish party for her, to which he invites some of his disreputable friends, including Tung as her husband (that he almost didn't remember), on the condition that they impersonate the local dignitaries. Also Kuo accidentally agrees to the wedding in which he later on decides to get the gangs to act as rich dignitaries with mixed results. Most importantly, his gang ties up photographers and business people, fearing that they might reveal Kao's sad true nature.

Meanwhile, Fei has manipulated Tiger into thinking Kuo had some of his men killed when they were trying to bring him in for a negotiation. In reality, they were simply being held captive. On the eve of the party, Kuo tries to get to Inspector Ho but is instead captured by Tiger and taken to a rope factory run by Fei. It is clear to Kuo now that Fei has been behind the scenes of all the strife, but as Tiger is about to shoot Kuo, Tiger's missing men return, proving Kuo's innocence. Tiger sees this as an internal struggle and lets Kuo and Fei sort things out on their own with assurance from Tiger that there is no foul play. After a fight in the factory with Fei's men, Kuo triumphs. Fei is ready to fight Kuo himself, but Kuo wants to solve their issues peacefully, and more importantly get back to Madame Kao's situation, winning Tiger's respect in the process.

After canceling the party and getting rid of the gangs that will play the rich dignitaries, Kuo tries to convince the real dignitaries of Hong Kong to help him. Madame Kao is about to confess to Belle's fiance and her father the truth when the real dignitaries come in for the party, Kuo having convinced them that he could not do this without them. This leaves everyone crying in relief, pulling off the illusion till the end.

As Belle and her fiance take a ship back to Shanghai, everyone is there to see them off. Inspector Ho, wanted for embezzlement and abuse of power when he was conned by Tung, is also on the ship, denouncing Tung as they ship off. Happy with how things turned out, Kuo yells for Belle, her fiancé and his father to come back anytime, much to the horror of everyone who want to go back to their normal lives.

Under threat of execution after his conviction by the Time Lords at the end of ''The War Games'', the Doctor is granted a reprieve if he agrees to undertake missions for the Celestial Intervention Agency. Accompanied and supervised by the ambitious Lady Serena, their first mission is to halt attacks upon three key figures in Earth's past: Napoleon Bonaparte, The Duke of Wellington, and Charles Maurice de Talleyrand.

The Doctor re-encounters the Player known as the Countess and struggles to end her Grand Plan to allow Napoleon to win his various European campaigns. Her plan to set the City States of Europe against each other is stopped by the Doctor, despite her setting a Raston Warrior Robot and a vampire on him and Serena. In preventing the Countess's assassination scheme on Wellington, Serena is killed. The Countess has many back up plans, and at the Battle of Waterloo, her plan to prevent the Prussians coming to the English army's relief is thwarted when the Doctor imitates Napoleon himself to get through the French lines and deliver new orders to the Prussian commander Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.

After returning to Gallifrey and discovering a traitor in the CIA who had been using the time scoop to assist the Countess, the Doctor is sent on a mission to investigate the time travel experiments of Kartz and Reimer.

Aging minor league pitcher Gus Cantrell, who plays for the Fort Myers Miracle, is ejected from the game following the "frozen ball trick". Roger Dorn, now the owner of the Minnesota Twins, recruits Gus to be the manager of the Buzz, the Twins' AAA minor league affiliate. Gus's mission is to make a real team out of a bunch of players who include ballet dancer turned ballplayer Lance "The Dance" Pere, minor league lifer Frank "Pops" Morgan, Rube Baker, Taka Tanaka, Pedro Cerrano, pitcher Hog Ellis, home run hitter Billy "Downtown" Anderson, and pitcher Carlton "Doc" Windgate, a medical school graduate who throws the slowest fastball in the minors.

However, Gus clashes with Leonard Huff, the snobby manager of the Twins. One night in Minnesota, Gus and his fiancee Maggie Reynolds are having dinner with Roger and Huff at an upscale restaurant, where Huff challenges Gus to a game between the Buzz and the Twins. Gus accepts the challenge.

The game is scheduled to take place at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minnesota. The Twins take a 3-0 lead in the 6th inning, but Downtown hits a home run that ties the game at 3-3 in the 8th inning. But with two outs in the bottom of the 9th inning, and with Doc one strike away from striking out home run hitter Carlos Liston, Huff has the stadium's lights turned off so the game can end with a tie rather than give the Buzz a chance to win in extra innings. However, the media reports that the Twins were still outplayed by the Buzz.

Huff now wants to bring Downtown up to the Twins, even though Gus believes that he is not yet ready. However, Anderson jumps on the opportunity, turning his back on Gus. Without Downtown, the Buzz start losing again. With the Twins, Anderson starts hitting poorly, proving Huff wrong. Gus manages to get the Buzz back on track, and Downtown is sent back down to the Buzz, where Gus teaches him how to be a more well rounded hitter. Gus leads the Buzz to a division title in their league.

Gus issues a challenge for Huff to bring the Twins to Buzz Stadium for another game. If the Twins win, Gus will give his salary for the year to Huff. If Gus and the Buzz beat the Twins, Gus can take over as the manager of the Twins. Huff accepts the challenge and takes the Twins to play against the Buzz. This time, the Twins take a 4-0 lead in the 6th inning, but the Buzz still manage to come from behind with three runs, and then win the game, 5-4, thanks to a game-winning two-run home run by Downtown. Gus decides that he wants to stay with the Buzz so he can continue to work with minor league players on their skills and hopefully turn them into stars.

After gaining amazing power over genetics and technology, three sects of humanity have developed and split after a civil war on earth forced them apart. Now, far into the future, the deported sect has returned to force their rule on the remaining citizens of earth.

The film takes place in England in 1865. Having been grotesquely disfigured in an African voodoo ceremony for a transgression against the native populace, Sir Edward Markham (Alister Williamson) is kept locked in his room by his guilt-ridden brother, Julian (Vincent Price).

Tiring of his captivity, Sir Edward plots to escape by faking his death. With the help of the crooked family lawyer, Trench (Peter Arne), they hire witchdoctor N'Galo (Harry Baird) to concoct a drug to put Sir Edward into a deathlike trance. Before Trench has time to act, Julian finds his "dead" brother and puts him in a coffin (the title's "oblong box"). Embarrassed by his brother's appearance, Julian asks Trench to find a proxy body for Sir Edward's lying in state. Trench and N'Galo murder landlord Tom Hacket (Maxwell Shaw) and offer his corpse to Julian. After the wake, Trench and his young companion Norton (Carl Rigg), dispose of Hacket's body in a nearby river, while Julian has Sir Edward buried. Now free of his brother, Julian marries his young fiancée, Elizabeth (Hilary Dwyer).

Instead of being dug up by his associates, Edward is exhumed by graverobbers and delivered to Dr. Newhartt (Christopher Lee). Newhartt opens the coffin and is confronted by the resurrected Sir Edward. With his first-hand knowledge of Newhartt's illegal activities, Sir Edward blackmails the doctor into sheltering him. Suspecting his associates have betrayed him, Sir Edward then conceals his face behind a crimson hood and, searching for the witchdoctor, embarks on a vengeful killing spree.

Norton is first on Sir Edward's list and has his throat slit when he fails to tell him the witchdoctor‘s whereabouts. In between killings, Sir Edward finds time to romance Newhartt's maid Sally (Sally Geeson), but when Newhartt finds out about their affair, he discharges Sally and she goes to work for Julian. While searching for Trench, he is sidetracked by a couple of drunks who drag him into a nearby tavern. Here he ends up with prostitute Heidi (Uta Levka), who tries to steal his money, but Sir Edward kills her. The police get involved, and the hunt is on for a killer in a crimson hood.

Meanwhile, Julian has become suspicious about the body that Trench supplied to him, after his friend Kemp (Rupert Davies) finds it washed up on a riverbank. Julian confronts Trench, who tells him the truth about Sir Edward's "death". Soon after, Trench is dispatched by Sir Edward, but not before he tells him the whereabouts of N'Galo. Hoping he will cure him of his disfigurement, Sir Edward asks N'Galo for his help. Here Sir Edward learns the truth about his time in Africa: in a case of mistaken identity he was punished for his brother's crime of killing an African child. N'Galo fails to cure Sir Edward, and they fight; N'Galo stabs Sir Edward in the chest and Sir Edward retaliates by throwing hot liquid in his face. Sir Edward then returns to Newhartt's home, where Newhartt tends to his wound. Mistrusting Newhartt's medical treatment, Sir Edward slits his throat and sets off to confront his brother.

Back at the Markham ancestral home, Julian learns the whereabouts of his brother from Sally and leaves for Dr. Newhartt's home, only to find him near death. Meanwhile, Sir Edward arrives back home to find Sally, who is repulsed by her former lover's killing. Sir Edward drags her out onto the grounds of the house, pleading for her love. Julian arrives back home and gives chase with a double-barrelled shotgun. Out in the woods, Sally snatches Sir Edward's hood from him and his deformed face is revealed for the first time. She screams. Julian catches up and Sir Edward confronts him about his crime. As Sir Edward lurches forward, Julian shoots him with both barrels. Leaning over the dying Sir Edward, Julian is bitten by him on the hand.

Once again in his "oblong box", Sir Edward is resurrected by a vengeful N'Galo, but this time he is six feet under with no hope of escape. Meanwhile, back at the Markham mansion, Elizabeth finds Julian in Edward's old room. When she asks him what he's doing in there, he tells her it is ''his'' room, and turns to reveal that his face is becoming disfigured – Edward's bite has passed on the horrible disease to Julian. Elizabeth is flushed with fear, and the end credits roll over a close-up of her eyes widened with shock.

Set in a small Italian town rife with petty intrigue and gossip, it begins with Daniele, a minor civil servant, leaving town, ostensibly to attend a professional conference in Bologna. Actually, however, he is headed toward the border, planning to desert his wife Nina, who he finds insufferable. His plans are frustrated, however, by the appearance of a mysterious stranger, who introduces himself as a doctor, and begins to delve into the real dynamics of Daniele's marriage. Though the stranger urges Daniele to proceed with his plan, the young man is increasingly drawn back to his wife. When he returns home, he finds that Nina seems to have killed his supervisor, who had tried to coerce her sexually. Nina involves her husband in the murder plot, and eventually accuses him of the murder.

Although Daniele could easily wash his hands of the entire matter, his continuing conversations with the mysterious 'doctor' lead him to discover the sexual, ethical, and even spiritual dimensions of his bond to Nina. When she is mysteriously wounded while trying to flee the town, Daniele helps her to the border, and confronts an invisible God, and challenges Him to justify Nina's suffering. In a final confrontation, Daniele repudiates the cynical nihilism of the 'doctor.'

The novel is divided in two parts, separated by more than 1000 years.

The first part takes place during the rule of the pharaoh Djedefra (26th century BC), who decides to send an expedition to the South, in order to seek the famous and fabled Land of Punt and to seek the limits of the land and the start of the ''Great Arc'', the circular ocean encompassing the entire world in Egyptian cosmology.

The second part starts in Ancient Greece during its Aegean Period (no precise dates are provided, but one can assume a date c. 1000–900 BC). A young sculptor named Pandion sets off on a journey to Crete, but he ends up on Phoenician Trading Ship ( while trying to escape captivity from some local wild Crete people), and after 4 days, he jumps the ship in the middle of the storm ( while escaping sacrifice from frightened sailors), and a storm finally lands him in Egypt, where he is enslaved. He manages to win his freedom and after a long and perilous journey comes back home. On the way, he carves a cameo which portrays his friends and some details of their adventures.

In a short framing narrative, modern researchers examine the cameo and contemplate its possible origins.

The series begins with the story of Lady Glencora (Susan Hampshire), fiancée of the dry, aristocratic Plantagenet Palliser (Philip Latham) who will inherit the title of the Duke of Omnium and Gatherum from his uncle (Roland Culver). Although they marry, Lady Glencora still pines for her unsuitable but handsome admirer Burgo Fitzgerald (Barry Justice).

Palliser becomes aware of this situation and takes his wife on a long tour of Europe, even though he had recently been offered the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer, the one political position he craves. While on their grand tour, the newlyweds come to a better understanding, and upon their return to London Glencora becomes an ambitious society hostess.

Whilst Plantagenet succeeds in his political aspirations, Irish barrister Phineas Finn (Donal McCann) is elected to Parliament for the family seat of Loughshane. In London, Finn rises quickly in high society and falls in love with Lady Laura Standish (Anna Massey) who is struggling to maintain her lifestyle after paying off the debts of her brother, Lord Chiltern (John Hallam).

Lady Laura marries Robert Kennedy (Derek Godfrey), a wealthy Scottish MP and Finn is forced to resign after a defeat on the Irish Tenant Right. Lady Laura's marriage collapses and she moves to Germany. Finn spends Christmas with Lady Laura only to be accused of adultery by Kennedy. Finn is later arrested for murder but the Pallisers finance his defence.

Bert Wheeler plays Chick Bean, a New York bootlegger who comes to the Mexican town of San Lucas to get a divorce so he can marry Dolly (Dorothy Lee). After the wedding, Ned Lovett (Robert Woolsey), Chick's lawyer, informs Chick the divorce was invalid, and advises Wheeler to stay away from his bride.

The Wheeler-Woolsey plot is actually a subplot of the film, and the main story features Bebe Daniels (in her first "talkie") as Rita Ferguson, a south-of-the-border beauty pursued by both Texas Ranger Jim Stewart (John Boles) and local warlord General Ravinoff (Georges Renavent). Ranger Jim is pursuing the notorious bandit Kinkajou along the Mexico–United States border, but is reluctant to openly accuse Rita's brother, Roberto (Don Alvarado), as the Kinkajou because he is in love with Rita.

Ravinoff successfully convinces Rita to spurn Ranger Jim on the pretext that Jim will arrest Roberto. Rita unhappily agrees to marry Ravinoff to prevent him from exposing Roberto as the Kinkajou. Meanwhile, Wheeler's first wife, Katie (Helen Kaiser), shows up to accuse him of bigamy, but conveniently falls in love with Woolsey.

At this point, the film switches into Technicolor. During the wedding ceremony aboard Ravinoff's private gambling barge, Ranger Jim cuts the craft's ropes so that it drifts north of the Rio Grande. The Texas Rangers storm the barge, arrest Ravinoff as the real Kinkajou just in time to prevent the wedding, and Roberto is revealed to be a member of the Mexican Secret Service. Jim takes Rita's hand in marriage and Roberto escorts Ravinoff back to Mexico for trial.

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Zed, a 15-year-old boy who lives in a city called "Calm", is frustrated by his current situation in life; he feels that somewhere out there is a place where he can live more fully. One day, at the invitation of a mysterious wind, he dives into a space-time crevasse (portal), seeking the answers that might be there. Riding on the wind, he is transported to a war-torn world where magic users called "Shard Casters" fight endlessly with each other, using spells in the form of marble-like "Shards". He is transported to a country known as Templar.

With the power of the Shards, the Shard Casters are able to use spells and control monsters called "Spirits". Fascinated by that power, Zed aims to become a Shard Caster. However, he still doesn't know that residing in his body is "Amil Gaoul", a mighty Spirit with the power to influence the world's future. Amil Gaoul is one of the "Key Spirits" that, when together with the other Key Spirits, can destroy or save the world. There are a total of six Key Spirits: Amil Gaoul, Pronimo, Sachura, Monadi, Dynamis and Shadin.

Zed undergoes countless trials in order to find out who he really is and what is most important to him.

In Lenfell's far past, its population is decimated by the Waste Wars, and the ruling class has emerged based on the ability to have healthy children. This leads to a very matriarchal society in which many of the traditional gender roles are reversed, with women holding nominal power with men used as marriage tools with little autonomy (much like women prior to the early 20th century and the onset of modern feminism)

The plot centers around a war between two rival magical and political factions, the Mage Guardians and the Lords of Malerris, one who seeks to guide and guard, and one that seeks to rule. In the midst of this war are the four primary characters, Glenin, Sarra, and Cailet Ambrai, sisters who were torn apart after the destruction of Ambrai, their home, and Collan Rosvenir, a Minstrel with no memory of his past.

The book starts with Collan, a young man with no memory of his life prior to being enslaved by Scraller Pelaris. Due to his beautiful singing voice, Col is set to be castrated in order to preserve it, an act from which he is rescued by Gorynel Desse, who then takes him to a cabin in the forest of Sheve Dark, where he serves as nurse and student to Bard Falundir, the worlds most famous Bard, who was crippled by the First Councillor Avira Anniyas when he wrote the Long Sun, a satire that would have exposed her as a Malerissi. Once he comes of age is and deemed sufficiently trained, Gorynel Desse appears to wipe his memory and send him out into the world as an itinerant Minstrel.

The three girls are descendants of the Ambrai line. After a political confrontation, the father, Auvry Feiran, takes Glenin to Ryka Court. The mother, Maichen Ambrai, takes Sarra to Ostinhold, where Maichen gives birth to Cailet, but then dies. Sarra is then taken to live in Roseguard with Lady Agatine and Orlin. Cailet stays in Ostinhold as a relative of the Ostins

The ''Mageborn Traitor'' continues the story of Glenin, Sarra, and Cailet. Divided into two parts, the first part is separated into three sections: 'Wraiths', 'Twins', 'Prentices'; as is the second part: 'The Hunt', 'The Chase', 'The Kill'.

Continuing from the end of 'The Ruins of Ambrai', the beginning sees little change in the characters' circumstance. However, this is quickly amended. After the first section, 'Wraiths', time lapses at a much faster pace. From Cailet's dreams of building the Mage Hall, this is quickly seen to be her reality. Similarly, Sarra's children become the focus of the story and the respective sections 'Twins', 'Prentices' sees their rapid maturation from children to young adults.

As characteristic of her works, Melanie Rawn deftly handles the multiple story lines. Whereas 'The Ruins of Ambrai' established her world-building, 'The Mageborn Traitor' extends it. It is difficult to pin down the exact main storyline of the story - there are many - or the true meaning of the title 'The Mageborn Traitor', though the obvious idea is that it is one of Cailets Mages who happens to betray them all near the end of the novel, unravelling all that Cailet has worked for.

However, the overriding plotline to the story is the battle between the Mage Guardians and the Malerrisi. The former is represented by Cailet and Sarra and the latter by the eldest sister, Glenin Feiran.

The film begins with a prologue, showing Asif and Nabi, a fictional portrayal of two of the Flight 11 hijackers during the 9/11 attacks, debating the number of virgins they get as a reward for carrying out the attacks. After a long debate, they decide to call Osama bin Laden, their leader, to find out the exact amount. Osama tells them that there "are not enough virgins to go around", and upon hearing this, the two hijackers abandon the attack in dismay and happily change their flight path to the Bahamas. At this moment, however, the passengers of the plane storm the cockpit and attempt to retake the plane (this was based on what happened on Flight 93, one of the other hijacked aircraft during 9/11). In the struggle, the terrorists try and reason with the passengers, but to no avail, and ultimately, the plane inadvertently flies into the North tower of the World Trade Center.

Five years later, in the town of Paradise, Arizona (a ghost town in real life), where the volatile Postal Dude, after being mocked at a job interview, kicked out of his local unemployment office and discovering that his morbidly obese wife is cheating on him with various and skinny townsmen, is more than a little angry and is desperate to get enough cash to finally leave his dead-end town. He decides to team up with his Uncle Dave, a slovenly con artist turned doomsday cult leader who owes the US government over a million dollars in back-taxes. With the help of Uncle Dave's right-hand man Richie and an army of big-breasted, scantily clad cult members, the Dude devises a plan to hijack a shipment of 2,000 Krotchy Dolls, a rare, sought-after plush toy resembling a giant scrotum. Uncle Dave plans to sell them online, where their prices have reached as high as $4,000 a doll.

Unbeknownst to them, Osama bin Laden and his group of Al-Qaeda terrorists, who had been secretly hiding in Paradise since the 9/11 attacks, under the watchful eye of bin Laden's best friend President George W. Bush, are after the same shipment, but for entirely different reasons. Hoping to outdo the catastrophe of 9/11, they plan to instill the dolls with Avian influenza and distribute them to unsuspecting American children. The two groups meet at the shipment's destination, German-themed amusement park called Little Germany. A fight between ''Postal'' creator Vince Desi and ''Postal'' director and park owner Uwe Boll (which ends with Boll being shot in the genitals, confessing "I hate video games"), sparks a massive shootout between the cult, the terrorists and the police, resulting in the deaths of dozens of innocent children. The Dude and the cult are able to get away with both the shipment and the park's opening day guest, Verne Troyer, pursued by Al-Qaeda, the police and a mob of angry citizens.

Upon returning to their compound, which has been overtaken by the terrorists, the Dude, Uncle Dave and the rest covertly sneak into the compound's underground bunker, where Richie reveals that he must now fulfill the prophecy foretold in Uncle Dave's fictional Bible: to bring about the extinction of the human race. As per Uncle Dave's Bible, the event initiating the apocalypse is the rape of a "tiny entertainer" by a thousand monkeys. After Verne Troyer is quickly thrown into a pit of chimpanzees, Richie shoots and kills Uncle Dave, then imprisons the Dude. The Dude manages to escape the compound with a plethora of weapons, deciding to wage a one-man war against al-Qaeda, his uncle's murderer, his cheating wife, the police and the many people who want him dead. On the way to his trailer (where he plans to blow up his spouse), he meets up with an attractive young barista, Faith, who joins forces with him after an explosive gunfight followed later by the Dude's heartfelt but futile monologue about war. The two of them then proceed to kill all the terrorists, all the bloodthirsty townspeople, the remains of the now-mad cult, his wife, and her multiple lovers. In the midst of the shootout, bin Laden is wounded but escapes to a payphone, where he calls Bush for help. Bush sends a helicopter to save him and plans for the two to rendezvous.

Having won their war, the Dude, his dog Champ and the barista drive away in a stolen police car. They casually turn on the radio, only to learn that Bush has blamed the day's shootouts and explosions on China and India, and has been "forced to destroy both countries with extreme nuclear force". The United States then launches thirty nuclear missiles at China and India each. In retaliation, China and India launch thirty nuclear missiles each as well towards America, all missiles are scheduled to hit their targets in under two minutes.

The film's final shot features Bush and bin Laden skipping through a field together, hand-in-hand. As mushroom clouds explode on the horizon, bin Laden laughs and says, "Georgie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship". At that moment, all of the nuclear missiles hit, and the country, and possibly the world is destroyed.

The game is set in the Greek mythological fantasy world Angel Land that is ruled by the goddess Palutena. Palutena has a nightmare, which a soothsayer interprets as a foreshadowing of an invasion by the demon Orcos and his minions. The goddess summons Pit—the leader of her army—and commands him to enter a special training that will give him the power to use Angel Land's three sacred treasures. To keep these safe from Orcos while Pit is on his mission, Palutena has them protected by three fortress guardians. After Pit has finished his training and defeated the guardians, the goddess equips him with the sacred treasures. Orcos appears and turns Palutena to stone, but Pit defeats him and saves her, restoring peace to Angel Land. In the ending, Pit soars into the sky. As in the Greek myth of Icarus, he flies too close to the sun and loses his wings.

In March 1957, commander Dr. Eldon Galbraithe (Nelson Leigh), engineer Henry Jaffe (Christopher Dark), radioman Herbert Ellis (Rod Taylor) and scientist John Borden (Hugh Marlowe), are returning to Earth from the first spaceflight, a reconnaissance trip around Mars. Suddenly, their spaceship is somehow accelerated to incredible velocities, and they are knocked unconscious. Their ship crash lands on a snow-covered mountain. When they venture out, they discover that they have become victims of time dilation and are now in the future.

They theorize, from seeing time-worn gravestones and after their ship's instruments register heightened residual radiation, that a devastating atomic war had broken out in 2188, and that they are at least 200 years past that date. (They later learn that the year is 2508). Jaffe is particularly hard hit, as he realizes that his wife and children have long since died.

After surviving an ambush by giant, mutant spiders, they are attacked by one of the two remnants of human society. The "mutates" (as the astronauts label them) are violent, primitive surface dwellers. They have mutated due to generations of exposure to heightened radioactivity. (However, the background radiation has decreased to tolerable levels, and the men later learn that normal humans are often born to the mutates. These, however, are enslaved.)

Seeking shelter from the attacking mutates in a cave, the four men discover the entrance to an underground city, whose residents are the descendants of those who fled there from the atomic war. These people live in a high-tech, sophisticated culture. They are a peaceful group led by Timmek (Everett Glass), the president of the ruling council. Underground, the men have grown less virile, and there are fewer and fewer children born each generation. In contrast, the women remain physically vital (and ready for romance). Elain (Shirley Patterson), admires a shirtless Herbert Ellis, commenting that the astronauts are "more muscular than our men". Deena (Lisa Montell), rescued from the surface as a child, falls in love with Ellis.

The astronauts try to persuade the underground people to arm themselves and reclaim the surface, but they are content with their comfortable existence.

When Timmek's daughter Garnet (Nancy Gates) shows she is attracted to John Borden, Mories (Booth Colman), an already hostile member of the council, becomes jealous. He retrieves the astronauts' confiscated pistols, but has to kill a man when he is caught in the act. Mories plants the guns in the astronauts' quarters. Finding the weapons, Timmek orders the astronauts expelled, but Deena testifies that she saw Mories hide the guns. Mories flees to the surface, where he is killed by mutates.

With Timmek now cooperative, the astronauts manufacture a bazooka and head back to the surface. Fleeing the deadly bazooka fire, the mutates take shelter in caves. Borden offers to fight their chief, Naga (Mickey Simpson), in single combat for leadership of the mutates after Naga threatens to slaughter the unmutated slaves. Borden slays Naga and orders the remaining deformed mutates to leave. The astronauts then establish a thriving settlement, including members of both groups.

Ibira initially pictured ''Karas'' as a horror story with a vengeance theme. It had a simple plot similar to the manga, ''Dororo''. The protagonist ''karas'' is on a quest, slaughtering ''mikuras'' to recover the body parts of his murdered lover. Until he recovers all the parts, he assembles them into a katana to kill the ''mikuras''. The final version of ''Karas'' was more of a superhero action story, and originally intended for three leading heroes in the same vein as the Japanese period drama, ''Sanbiki ga Kiru!''. The characters Otoha, Nue, and the human detective Kure were the leads but the final version primarily focused on Otoha.''Karas'' Vol. 2 (DVD), Project K. The presentation of ''Karas'' differs in several ways from typical anime. The show maintains a serious tone and never indulges in slapstick, exaggerated facial expressions, or super deformed characters. It avoids heavy expositions. Dialogue tends to be short and viewers have to infer what is going on based on very little presented information. The team had left out substantial amounts of information from the show, printing them in a booklet of the final DVD package.

Setting

''Karas'' is set in a fictional version of Shinjuku, Tokyo. The show initially showcased larger areas of Tokyo, but the production team felt other animations have featured these areas too many times.''Karas'' Vol. 3 (DVD), Project K. Art designer Hajime Satō created a modern version of the ward infused with a mixture of East Asian cultures. Fictional lettering, resembling Chinese and Hangul characters, fill the billboards and signs. Western gargoyles and Singapore's Merlion statues decorate the streets, and the buildings are modeled on Shinjuku structures of 2003 while blending influences from the Shōwa period.''Karas'' Vol. 2 (説二), Staff Interview — 01 Keiichi Sato, p. 6 This Shinjuku is populated by humans and Japanese folklore spirits, ''yōkai''. The humans have become indifferent to the ''yōkai'' s presence, and fail to see them as they go about their lives.

The production team envisioned Japanese cities as entities, who require physical agents to execute their will and regulate the activities within them. The concept behind the health of a city is based on traditional Chinese medicine in which the smooth flow of a body's fluids nourishes its internal organs. The team equates ''yōkai'' with ''qi'', humans with water, and agents of the city (''karas'') with blood. They integrated Celtic mythology into their concept for further symbolisms, treating the city as the male (yang); and , the manifestation of its will as female (yin). In contrast, their theory treats the humans and agents as the children of the city and its will, and classifies them as the reproduction system's five major organs. Following the team's vision, the ''mikuras'' (evil ''yōkai'') represent the five elements in this system. This idea forms the basis of the relationship between cities and their inhabitants in the show.''Karas'' Vol. 6 (説六), 鴉辭典, pp. 9–10.

Story

The main plot centers around the confrontation between Otoha and Eko. After a cold open that announces Eko's plan to remake Tokyo, the story moves ahead three years. Nue arrives in Shinjuku to free his brother from Eko's hold, while Otoha is in a hospital from heavy injuries. The early parts of the show proceed in a "''mikura'' of the week" fashion as Otoha (as a ''karas'') and Nue separately fight against Eko's minions. When the ''mikuras'' attack hospitals across the ward to locate Otoha's body, Otoha and Nue work together but when they separate Otoha's Yurine is abducted and he is deprived from the power to turn into a ''karas''. Nue then goes to Eko's base, where Eko kills Yurine and reveals capturing Nue completes the final part of his plan. Meanwhile, Otoha gets into a yakuza fight only to be rescued by Homura, another city's ''karas''. When Eko launches the last stage of his plan and ravages Tokyo with metal tentacles, Otoha ends up among human refugees in a shelter the chief of police had commissioned.

A side story takes place within the main plot, focusing on the humans affected by the ongoing events. Sagisaka Minoru and Narumi Kure are detectives in Shinjuku's Intervention Department who investigate serial murders for supernatural evidence. ''Mikuras'' kill and suck the blood of these victims to replenish their strength, but no one except Sagisaka seriously believes in supernatural involvement. Sagisaka is bent on vindicating his daughter, Yoshiko who has been committed to a psychiatric hospital for claiming a ''mikura'' committed the mass murder she had survived. Sagisaka's and Kure's investigation brings them to the survivor of another attack, . Director Sato had created her to represent the best qualities of rural migrants looking for better opportunities in the big cities. When Eko starts the last part of his plan; Kure, Hinaru, and the Sagisaka arrive in the shelter Otoha is in.

The chief of police reveals himself as Ushi-oni and starts eating the humans trapped in the shelter. Sagisaka sacrifices himself to push his daughter away from Ushi-oni's attack. Otoha confronts and, in a climatic sequence, his conviction resurrects his Yurine,''Karas: The Revelation''. Event occurs at 0:52.50. "Homura's Yurine: A Yurine is about to be born. [...] It is happening. Watch closely. The will of the city is born through a human soul, one that is right for that city" which restores Otoha as a ''karas'' and he slays Ushi-oni. While ''karas'' from other cities observe the showdown between Otoha and Eko, Homura steps in to help Otoha. Otoha carries out Nue's request to kill him and his brother, depriving Eko of his new power source and stopping his entire scheme.''Karas: The Revelation''. Event occurs at 1:10.30. "Nue: I need you to do me a favor. You're gonna have to kill me with that sword of yours. [...] This is the only way we can stop my younger brother. Please you've got to do it now, or Eko will become even more powerful." Confronting the depowered Eko on equal terms, Otoha finally defeats him. Eko claims Otoha will understand his reasons after 400 years as a ''karas''. Despite defending his human body and Yurine from soldiers ordered by the Deputy Governor to shoot them, Otoha proclaims himself as Tokyo's appointed agent, who will protect all its inhabitants. While Hinaru stays behind in Shinjuku as it is being rebuilt, Kure and Yoshiko have had enough and leave for the countryside.

In a post-credits scene, Eko's boot is found by an unknown character.

Characters

The production team intended Karas to be more than a mere henshin (transforming) hero. Unlike the vengeful protagonist in ''Mazinger Z'', the hero of ''Karas'' embodies the spirit of the city, and acts for the city's interest instead of his own. Screenwriter Shin Yoshida sets up a dualism of this idea in the form of two Karas characters; one who believes events are leading to a revolution, and the other viewing them as simply the passing of an era. Manga Entertainment also promoted the hero in ''Karas'' as "a cross between a cyberpunk version of the Crow and Batman".

Karas is the title for the city's appointed agents. Capable of transforming into automobiles and aircraft, they are suits of armor animated by human souls infused into them through Yurine's chanting of a Shinto prayer. Director Sato told his animators to enhance the Karas dark nature by drawing their faces in shadows. Fight scenes involving Karas take place mostly in dark settings shrouded with steam or lit with spotlights. Animators touched up film frames by hand, creating an effect different from cel-shaded animation. To make the Karas more menacing, they highlighted the eyes as if light bulbs were shining through them, a technique inspired by the suitmation practice of using light bulbs for the eyes of costumes.''Karas'' Vol. 6 (説六), Interview — Keiichi Sato, p. 14. Producer Takaya Ibira explained the presence of ravens in Tokyo and the Tower of London, inspired him and Sato to model the agents of the city after them. He stated ravens are believed to be omens of good and bad in superstitions, and they always seem to be watching over the cities. This resonated with his view of the raven in the story ''Noah's Ark'', which cursed Noah as it scouted for land. The presence of ravens all over Tokyo led Ibira to notice the same of cats and conceive the Yurines as catgirls.

is the protagonist of ''Karas''. Yoshida wrote out Otoha Yosuke as a character dark in history and actions, breaking the traditional mold of a Japanese hero. He based his idea on his observation of Shinjuku, questioning what sort of a hero a ward exuding an aura of terror and happiness would produce. He portrayed Otoha as the product of incest between his mother and his brother who is the local yakuza boss. Otoha's back-story states him as suffering from congenital insensitivity to pain which lends the character a merciless reputation as his brother's enforcer. The initial concept of Otoha was much darker, casting him as a serial killer who hunts down ''mikuras'' to retrieve his lover's body parts.''Karas'' Vol. 6 (説六), 祕初期企畫書, pp. 11–12. This was the first project that worked on.

The main antagonist to Otoha is . His back-story states he was the Karas of Tokyo since the Edo period. In events before the start of the show, Eko turned his back on his duties and started a plan to revitalize the city and its ''yōkai''. He attracted several ''yōkai'' to be his cybernetic followers and intended to subjugate the humans. An Oedipus complex forms the basis for his motive. He views Tokyo as a father figure, and his Yurine as a mother figure; and aims to supplant the city's role in this relationship. Eko was a nameless character in the initial draft and known as "Another Karas" with a different appearance, although his prosthetic left leg is retained for the final version.

are ''yōkai'' who became Eko's minions and replaced their bodies with machinery. Ibira and Sato chose them to be villains, linking the act of the Karas as agents of the city killing these folklore creatures to traditional Japanese exorcism. The chimera-like Nue, however, is a tragic anti-hero who learned of Eko's plans and turned against him.''Karas'' Vol. 6 (DVD), Project K. Sato thought up the cybernetic angle to surprise the Japanese who perceive immaterial ''yōkai'' to lack physical threat. Creature designer Kenji Andō adapted the ''yōkai'' designs from artist Toriyama Sekien's illustrated folklore books, ''Gazu Hyakki Yakō''. The few ''yōkai'' with prominent roles in the show underwent greater changes. Andō pictured ''mikuras'' as direct cybernetic versions of Toriyama's portrayals, and made Suiko the Kappa and Nue look like robotic versions of their illustrated forms. Sato, however, was dissatisfied with two of Andō's designs, and redesigned them based on the concept behind the ''yōkai'' instead of on their appearance. The ghostly head in a flaming wheel, Wanyūdō became a heavily armed skull-on-wheels; and the bull-headed spider, Ushi-oni became a big-mouth, bug-eye, hungry-for-humans predator.

Flashbacks

Flashbacks begin directly after Ana Lucia Cortez (Michelle Rodriguez) shooting Jason (Aaron Gold) in "Collision". Upon arriving at the police station the following day, Ana Lucia's mother Teresa Cortez (Rachel Ticotin) is suspicious of her daughter and questions her, causing Ana Lucia to quit the police department. While working at an airport, she meets Christian Shephard (John Terry) who hires her as a bodyguard for his trip to Australia. One night, Ana Lucia and a drunk Christian go to a home, where Christian demands to see his daughter from a blonde woman (Gabrielle Fitzpatrick). After seeing that the argument is getting out of control, Ana intervenes and pulls Christian back into the car. Ana Lucia eventually gets tired of Christian's antics and leaves him at a bar, where they briefly encounter Sawyer when Christian opens his car door. Ana goes to the airport , about to board Flight 815 and calls her mother, apologizing and telling her that she wishes to make things right. Teresa says she will be waiting for Ana Lucia in Los Angeles.

On the Island

In the present, Ana Lucia starts questioning Henry Gale in the hatch, but suddenly he attacks her, and is only stopped when John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) knocks him unconscious. Locke asks Henry why he attacked Ana Lucia, but has never tried to hurt him. Henry says that Locke is "one of the good ones". Although Libby (Cynthia Watros) advises Ana Lucia not to try to get revenge on Henry, she is determined and asks James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway) for a gun, but is rejected. Ana Lucia returns and after Sawyer still refuses to give her a gun, she has sex with him, and is able to distract him long enough to steal the gun. Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) and Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly) return with Michael Dawson (Harold Perrineau). Michael wakes up and tells everyone in the hatch that he tracked the Others down and found out that they are living worse off than the survivors. He also says that once he is healthy, he will organize a rescue mission to reclaim his son Walt Lloyd (Malcolm David Kelley). After Locke and Jack begin to plan a rescue mission for Walt, they realize that they need more guns, and go to Sawyer, who realizes that Ana Lucia has stolen his. Elsewhere, Hugo "Hurley" Reyes (Jorge Garcia) has planned a romantic picnic for himself and Libby, but Hurley gets lost and leads them back to the survivors' beach. There, he realizes that he forgot to pack a blanket and Libby offers to go back to the hatch to retrieve one. She also suggests that Hurley ask Rose and Bernard for some wine for the picnic, a suggestion that Hurley is delighted to hear. Meanwhile, back in the hatch, Michael asks Ana Lucia what is going on and she explains a few things: Sawyer has all the guns, Jack, Locke, and Kate left to get the guns, and they currently have one of the Others, Henry, in captivity inside the armory. She mentions that Henry tried to kill her earlier in the day and that although she was about to kill Henry, she was not able to pull the trigger. Michael offers to do it, but after she hands him the gun he turns around and shoots her dead. Libby walks in with the blankets and startles Michael causing him to shoot her too. Michael then walks into the armory where Henry is being held. Instead of shooting Henry, Michael shoots himself in the arm.

One night, Bagular enters a junkyard inside of his UFO. He finds the bodies of the five Dastardly Bombers, and then sucks them into his UFO. Upon doing that, he sets all five on tables, and begins working on reviving them! Upon hearing this, White Bomber and Black Bomber set out to stop the five Dastardly Bombers, and ultimately defeat Bagular himself. The two set out to save the day once again!

Albino bat Bartok arrives in Moscow and makes himself known by performing for the locals. His grand finale involves defeating a savage grizzly bear. Delighted with Bartok's bravery, the young czar Ivan Romanov gifts Bartok with a royal ring, much to the chagrin of Ivan's assistant, Ludmilla. After the show, Bartok counts his earnings and is startled by the stirring bear, revealed to be his business partner, Zozi. Although Zozi is apprehensive about the ring and tells Bartok that he should return it, Bartok refuses stating that it was a gift.

When Ivan is captured by the witch Baba Yaga, there is an immediate investigation. In seeking a rescuer, two children nominate Bartok, who, with Zozi, was already on his way to St. Petersburg when spotted by Cossacks. Bartok is brought before the townspeople, who are relying on his courage to save Ivan. Reluctantly, Bartok accepts, and he and Zozi set out for the Iron Forest. Upon arriving at Baba Yaga's hut, the duo must answer a riddle given by the entrance, a giant skull. With the riddle solved, Bartok is then captured by Baba Yaga, who explains that, in order to save Ivan, Bartok must retrieve three artifacts from the forest, without any assistance: her pet Piloff, Oble's Crown and the Magic Feather. However, Bartok quickly finds that these tasks are difficult, as Piloff is frozen to a boulder; Oble, a giant blacksmith surrounded by an aura of fire, must be tricked into letting his crown be stolen; and the Magic Feather must be obtained without flight, utilizing only the previous two items.

Returning to Baba Yaga with the objectives completed, the witch reveals that she needs something from Bartok himself. Baba Yaga rejects all his offers and, outraged, Bartok lashes out at her, accusing her of lying and cheating, and claiming that everyone hates her. Suddenly stricken with guilt, Bartok apologizes and cries, allowing Baba Yaga to obtain the most important ingredient: tears from the heart. She conjures up a potion from the objects, and reveals that she never kidnapped Ivan and that the potion was intended for Bartok himself; it will make whatever he is in his heart ten times on the outside. Bartok and Zozi return to town and lead Ludmilla and Vol, the Captain of the Guard, up to the top of the tower, where Ivan is imprisoned.

Ludmilla locks Bartok and Vol in with Ivan, revealing that she had Vol kidnap the prince while she framed Baba Yaga as part of her plan to steal the throne. She steals Bartok's potion and leaves her prisoners in a well tower, which quickly floods with water. Ludmilla consumes the potion, thinking that her beauty will become tenfold. The potion, in fact, causes her to transform into a dragon, as it unveils her true wickedness. After seeing her reflection, Ludmilla's mind degrades to a mere beast, and she goes on a rampage, burning the town with her fiery breath.

Zozi comes and rescues Bartok, Ivan and Vol. Bartok battles Ludmilla and tricks her into climbing the tower. When she reaches the top, the tower crumbles, crushing Ludmilla and unleashing a wave of gushing water that douses the flames. As the townsfolk gather around the wreckage, Zozi hails Bartok as a true hero, not only for defeating Ludmilla but also for showing Baba Yaga compassion. Bartok returns Ivan's ring and Bartok bids Baba Yaga and Piloff goodbye, undoubtedly counting on seeing him again someday.

The tale starts in the Tokugawa shogunate when Yui Shōsetsu meets the old Mori Sōiken, who, in the story, had survived to the Shimabara rebellion and learned the dark arts of ninpou in order to get his revenge. Knowing they both wish for the dethroning of the shōgun, Soiken forms an alliance with Shosetsu and reveals a spell devised by him, the Makai Tensho, which can rise dead people as his puppets. They soon gather an undead army of legendary warriors and sorcerers, among them Amakusa Shirō Tokisada, Miyamoto Musashi, and Araki Mataemon, and plan to use their supernatural skills to destroy the shogunate. However, the crown of their army, Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi, breaks free from their control and becomes determined by his own reasons to stop their rebellion before it starts.

Azumi and her only remaining colleague Nagara find themselves hunted by ninjas hired by General Kanbei for the assassinations they have carried out. One of which is the killing of his master. They hid temporarily in a temple so Nagara can heal his wounds sustained from their recent encounter. Azumi comes across some bandits led by Ginkaku, a young bandit who bears a striking resemblance to Azumi's former friend (and love interest) Nachi. Later, Azumi and Nagara are found by the allied ninjas working for the priest Tenkai, upon whose orders the assassins initially began their mission. After discussing it with Tenkai, Azumi and Nagara leave to seek out their final target, Sanada Masayuki. On their mission they are accompanied by a government ninja, a young woman named Kozue.

Meanwhile, Kanbei Inoue assembles a large force of mercenary soldiers, ninja and bandits to try to avenge the death of his master Kiyomasa Kato. Amongst them are Ginkaku and his brother, Kinkaku. Azumi and the others then return to Ginkaku's village, where they are looked upon with distaste for their occupation. Azumi is torn by her attachment to Ginkaku, but on Nagara's urging they separate paths.

While travelling, Kozue convinces Nagara that Azumi no longer wishes to fulfill her mission and should be talked out of it. Nagara tells Azumi he is fed up and wants to start a new life with Kozue, and that Azumi should go and live with Ginkaku, and they part ways. Azumi, still intent on carrying out the mission, attempts to locate Masayuki in his mountain temple, only to discover he has left with his army to kill Gessai. He and his entourage have departed for safety, but are soon tracked down by the brutal giant Roppa (a character similar to the ''Ninja Scroll'' character Tessai), a member of the dangerous Uenokagashu ninja clan working for Masayuki. Most of Gessai's guards are killed until Azumi arrives, as do Ginkaku and his brethren who had been following her. Roppa is killed (by his own weapon), as are Kinkaku, several of Ginkaku's band and most of Kasumi's ninja squad.

Meanwhile, once Nagara and Kozue are alone, Kozue reveals herself to be a spy for the Uenokagashu clan and kills Nagara. Coming across Azumi later, she tells her that she and Nagara were separated, but when she attempts to kill Gessai, they fight and Kozue is killed by Azumi. Azumi then states she will go after Masayuki alone. Soon she comes upon the enemy ninja named Tsuchigumo, whose weapon are razor-sharp poisoned wires. Azumi manages to cause his wires to rebound back at him and he is sliced apart, but Azumi is cut and falls into a paralytic sleep. Sanada's concubine and the true leader of Uenokagashu ninja clan, Kunio, steps out of hiding to tell Azumi she feels that Azumi, who has killed so many, knows nothing of life. With the poison incapacitating Azumi, it soon came to a finishing blow, but Ginkaku appears, taking the fatal thrust and in the process mortally injuring Kunio. Ginkaku managed to dampen the poison's effect upon Azumi, shortly before dying. Kunio makes her way back to her camp, only to die in Sanada's arms.

Shortly after this, Azumi appears on a hill in the distance. Fighting her way through many of Sanada's troops, she is met by the man she intends to kill. Sanada's son Yukimura and Gessai both arrive at the same time, both wanting Sanada to retreat, but Sanada is eager to kill Azumi by himself. He decides to challenge her to a duel and he tells Kanbei to leave. At the acceptance of these terms, the last member of Ginkaku's band is killed, as he declares the decision is unjust. Sanada states that regardless of the result of the duel, they will no longer bother the Tokugawa shogunate ever again. Azumi, questioning whether she had ever been following a path of her own or if she and her friends had always been being used, accepts the duel. Azumi slays Sanada in their duel. Out of respect for his father, Yukimura tells their forces to allow Azumi to leave unmolested, and talks Kanbei out of avenging his master. Upon confirming from Tenkai that the war is over and her mission has concluded, Azumi silently departs the battlefield, ignoring Kanbei when he inquires where she's going.

A group of friends play the Japanese game Kokkuri to summon Kokkuri-san, a spirit who can answer any question as a pastime but apparently reveals dark secrets that will make these girls turn against each other.

On New Year's Eve in Liverpool, Michael becomes the new manager of the Charleston Club, a run-down function hall on an industrial wasteground which, he later discovers, is owned by an organised crime syndicate. He also discovers that the previous manager, MacArthur, in an attempt to spite the hall's owners, has hired it out to two groups of senior citizens for New Year's Eve; one group are hardline Catholics and the other are hardline Protestants, and the entertainment consists of a magician with stage fright, a gay comedian and his boyfriend, a talentless punk band, and a fancy dress competition with a non-existent prize.

The two parties arrive and are joined by another group of senior citizens who are mentally handicapped and suffering from senile dementia. After discovering MacArthur being tortured in a back room by the hall's owners, Michael, along with bouncer Bernard and kitchen porter Cheryl, attempts to keep things in order amid the threat of violence in the air. As the night goes on, however, things start to go wrong; the comedian's routine is badly received, the magician has to pull out because of the death of his rabbit, and the band's poor performance prompts the groups to throw missiles at the stage while the band members fight amongst themselves. Meanwhile, things begin to boil over when former Loyalist boxer Billy McCracken strangles on-the-run terrorist Norman Donohue to death in a toilet cubicle after Norman makes comments about McCracken's daughter "marrying out", and an Orange Order marching band arrives playing sectarian tunes, leading to a mass brawl in the toilets and the discovery of Norman's body. Meanwhile, Michael and Cheryl begin singing "If You Need Me" together on stage while Bernard phones the police, who arrive and defuse the situation.

The situation dies down by midnight, and the groups all go their separate ways peacefully. Michael and Cheryl share a kiss, before going back to Cheryl's house together. The film ends with McCracken phoning his daughter and asking to speak to his son-in-law, before wishing him a happy New Year.

Polish defector Leiser is offered a chance of UK citizenship by MI6, but only if he agrees to undertake a highly dangerous espionage mission behind the "iron curtain" in East Germany. Leiser's role is to replace an MI6 agent who has already been murdered, and to gather photographic intelligence on a covert East German rocket system - in violation of international agreements. The mission goes wrong from the start when, shortly after arriving in East Germany, Leiser is forced to kill a young East German guard, and later murders a lorry driver who makes homosexual advances. Leiser's objective is further undermined when he falls in love with an East German woman looking for a way out of the country.

''The Mummy's Shroud'' is set in 1920 and tells the story of a team of archaeologists who come across the lost tomb of the boy Pharaoh Kah-To-Bey (Toolsie Persaud). The story begins with a flash back sequence to Ancient Egypt and we see the story of how Prem (Dickie Owen), a manservant of Kah-To-Bey, spirited away the boy when his father (Bruno Barnabe) was killed in a palace coup and took him into the desert for protection. The boy dies and is buried.

The story then moves forward to 1920 and shows the expedition led by scientist Sir Basil Walden (André Morell), and businessman Stanley Preston (John Phillips) finding the tomb. They ignore the dire warning issued to them by Hasmid (Roger Delgado), a local Bedouin about the consequences for those that violate the tombs of Ancient Egypt and remove the bodies and the sacred shroud. Sir Basil is bitten by a venomous snake just after finding the tomb. He recovers, but has a relapse after arriving back in Cairo.

Preston takes advantage of this and commits him to an insane asylum to take credit for finding the tomb and the Prince's mummy himself. Meanwhile, after being placed in the Cairo Museum, the mummy of Prem is revived when Hasmid chants the sacred oath on the shroud. The mummy then proceeds to go on a murderous rampage to kill off the members of the expedition, beginning with Sir Basil after he escapes from the asylum. One by one, those who assisted in removing the contents of the tomb to Cairo are eliminated by such grisly means as strangulation, being thrown out of windows, and having photographic acid thrown in their face. Greedy Stanley Preston, the real villain of the piece, after repeated attempts to evade the murder investigations and flee for his own safely, is murdered in a Cairo side street by the avenging mummy. The remaining members of the party, Stanley's son Paul Preston (David Buck) and Maggie Claire de Sangre (Maggie Kimberly), succeed in destroying the mummy.

The title character Nathan Never is a special agent in a semi-dystopian near future where crime-fighting is shared between the police and corporate detective agencies such as Never's employer Agenzia Alfa.

Stories typically merge classic urban crime, noir, and drama, with occasional forays into political thriller, survival horror, and space opera. Many issues quote classic science fiction film and literature, for example in names, locations, technology, etc. Primary sources of inspiration are ''Blade Runner'' and Isaac Asimov's ''Foundation'' series.

While most plots are self-conclusive within one or two issues, some storylines span five, ten, or even twenty issues, such as Alfa's quest to capture arch-villain Aristoteles Skotos, the Mutants' struggle to obtain equal rights, and the Earth's war with the rebelling space stations over food supplies. Continuity is a cornerstone of the series, with the effects of previous storylines accounted for and considered in subsequent plots.

Spike is a young black man from Suriname who lives in the Bijlmermeer. He is a student first, but drops out. In order to have enough money to impress his white girlfriend Rosalie (Sophie van Oers) he joins a gang led by Delano (SugaCane) and commits various robberies.

A related gang operates a cocaine smuggling route from Suriname to the Netherlands with mules swallowing cocaine pellets. As a mule, Spike is arrested on departure from Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport (Zanderij) near Paramaribo, and incarcerated at Santo Boma prison.

Rosalie volunteers as mule also, in order to be able to visit Spike. The film ends after this visit, it does not show whether she actually swallows and smuggles cocaine pellets.

Set in and around Bath, Somerset immediately after the First World War, the story opens at an expensive mental clinic in the country where the young and recently widowed Lady Franklin is being discharged. The owner of a smart hire car, former sergeant-major Ledbetter, chauffeurs her to her unsympathetic mother in Bath. Hired to take her on outings, he becomes the only person she can talk to as she slowly lifts out of deep depression.

When he takes her to a boxing night at a boys club that he helps to run, she meets another committee member, the young former officer Cantrip. Like Ledbetter he is struggling to return to normal, in his case politics, after his traumatic experiences in the war. Cantrip starts wooing the wealthy Lady Franklin while still sleeping with his lover Connie, who is probably a war widow.

Ledbetter's mental equilibrium becomes progressively more fragile. His business is failing, his casual relationship with the waitress Doreen brings no joy, his deepening affection for Lady Franklin is no longer returned and his rage against his more successful rival is intensified by Cantrip's concealed involvement with Connie.

When he finally confronts Cantrip and Lady Franklin together, they tell him that he has no place in their lives because they have become engaged. Leaping into his Rolls-Royce and swigging frequently from a bottle of alcohol, he drives blindly back to his garage and proceeds to run amok in the little courtyard, driving heedlessly back and forth into the walls and reversing and on and on like an animal in a frenzy in a cage.

Lulu Massa is a highly productive worker at a factory paying piece work but is disliked by his colleagues as his efficiency is used by management to justify their demands for higher output. While employees are told to care for and rely on their machines, they see radical students outside the factory campaigning for higher pay rates and less work. Lulu lives with Lidia and her son. He puts his lack of interest in sex with her down to the pressures of the job.

Lulu loses a finger in a work accident, which the workers blame on the faster times. Shocked, he adopts the students' analysis and takes strike action to end piece work, against the unions' policy, which is for simply an increase in piece work rates.

Lulu pursues an affair with a female co-worker but finds that having sex with her in an automobile is difficult. Lidia, unhappy with his new far left sympathies, moves out with her son, who cries, but is told that Lulu never really cared for him, and reminded that Lulu would slap him occasionally.

When the employees go back to work, Lulu is fired for promoting the students' extremist views. Lidia and her boy return to the apartment, to find that Lulu has destroyed their inflatable Scrooge McDuck doll. Syndicalists arrive to inform Lulu that they have agreed a deal with the employers on work regulations and won Lulu's job back.

Macarthy is a country football player who is kidnapped by the South Melbourne Football Club and made a star player in the city. The Club Chairman, Colonel Ball-Miller, gives Macarthy a job in one of his companies and makes him attend night school. He is seduced by his English teacher, Miss Russell, and has an affair with Ball-Miller's daughter, Andrea.

Macarthy and Andrea get married but then divorce. Macarthy goes on strike to claim the family fortune.

Sixteen years after the end of World War II, Thérèse Langlois owns a pub in Puteaux, Paris. Wrapping up the season, she plans her annual vacation in Chaulieu with her lover, but is growing emotionally distant towards him. At the pub, a tramp walks by daily singing ''The Barber of Seville'' aria and other opera songs. Intrigued, Thérèse has her bartender Martine call the tramp in for a drink. The tramp, who says he lives by the river, reveals he is suffering from amnesia but carries identification indicating his name is Robert Landais. After the tramp leaves, Thérèse follows the tramp to the river and studies his face and movements; she becomes convinced he is in fact her long-lost husband Albert Langlois.

Determined to make the tramp remember his past identity, Thérèse brings Albert's aunt Alice to the pub, along with Albert's nephew. While the tramp is sitting at another table, the three Langlois loudly recount Albert's story; During the war Albert had been arrested by the French police in Chaulieu in June 1944 and turned over to the Gestapo in Angers, and spent time in a camp with his friend Aldo Ganbini. Thérèse herself (née Ganbini) was originally from Chaulieu but stayed in Puteaux, they recount. The tramp leaves the pub without acknowledging himself as Albert. Alice discloses to Thérèse she did not recognize the tramp and that she believes he is not a physical match for Albert, also pointing out Albert had no knowledge of the opera. Thérèse disagrees, arguing Albert could have learned the songs while imprisoned with Aldo.

Thérèse ends her relationship with her lover. She meets with the tramp for dinner, after which they dance. The tramp still does not indicate he remembers anything about a past life as Albert. As the tramp leaves, Thérèse loudly calls out the name Albert Langlois and other friends join in. Overwhelmed, the tramp stops, raises his hands in a pose of surrender, and flees. As he runs, he narrowly avoids a traffic accident. Thérèse's friends tell her the tramp is unharmed but that he is gone, and try to persuade her to give up on bringing his memories back. Thérèse is unconvinced by them, deciding that it will be easier to try to restore the tramp's memories in the upcoming winter season.

The story concerns the romance between Carmela (Fiore) and Antonio (Musolino). The ardor is one-sided at first, but Carmela is a determined young woman, willing to scale and conquer any obstacle in pursuing her heart's desire. Once he's "hooked," Antonio scurries from job to job to prove his financial viability. Faced with the hostility of their parents, Carmela and Antonio symbolically shed themselves of all responsibilities to others in a climactic act of stark-naked bravado.

Having spent time abroad, Tom Yately (Stanley Baker) seeks work as a truck driver with Hawletts, a transport company. Mr. Cartley (William Hartnell), the depot manager, informs Tom that his drivers convey their ten-ton loads of gravel fast over bad roads. They are expected to deliver a minimum of twelve loads a day; if a driver falls behind, he is fired. Each run is round-trip; the top driver makes eighteen runs a day. Tom goes on a trial run with the depot mechanic, in truck no. 13. He narrowly avoids colliding head-on with two other Hawletts trucks speeding the other way.

Cartley hires Tom, and he's assigned truck 13. Tom meets the other drivers, including Irishman Red (Patrick McGoohan), the foreman and head driver. Lodging at the same house as various other drivers, Tom is befriended by Gino (Herbert Lom), an Italian driver who is in love with Lucy (Peggy Cummins), Cartley's secretary. Red offers a £250 gold cigarette case to anyone who can make more runs than him in a day, and Tom is determined to try; however, he soon learns that Red has kept his place at the top by taking a dangerous shortcut that none of the other drivers are willing to risk.

One evening, the drivers go to a dance at a nearby hall and start a fight. When the police are called, Tom flees the scene. Red calls him a coward and, from then on, the other drivers (except Gino) turn on Tom, bullying him incessantly, impeding his runs, and calling him "yellow belly". Despite this, Tom doesn't retaliate.

Tom visits his brother Jimmy (David McCallum) and mother (Beatrice Varley) in their tobacconist's shop. His mother refuses to accept money from Tom, blaming him for Jimmy's life-changing leg injury that requires him to use crutches.

When the drivers collect their pay packets, Tom realises he's been underpaid. A gleeful Red informs Tom his wages were docked to replace equipment damaged as a result of the drivers' bullying. A fistfight ensues, in which Tom beats Red. Gino offers to switch truck numbers with Tom the next day, so that the others can unwittingly harass Gino and therefore help Tom to win the cigarette case.

That night, Lucy breaks up with Gino. Expressing her feelings for Tom while he performs a vehicle check, Tom confesses that he hadn't actually been abroad but was instead serving a year-long prison sentence. Lucy drops off Tom at the drivers' digs, both unaware that Gino has seen them from his bedroom window.

The next day, Tom purchases a one-way train ticket to London. Lucy rushes into the waiting room and tells him that Gino has been seriously injured in a crash. Distraught, they rush to the hospital. While they wait anxiously outside Gino's room, Lucy tells Tom that Cartley and Red have been scamming money by hiring five fewer drivers than the company pays for and pocketing the difference. They're interrupted by a doctor, who informs them Gino is dying. Gino had switched the truck numbers as arranged, and tells Tom "I threw them off like we planned, for you to win. Crazy. You don't even come." Tom asks him if it was Red who caused his crash, but Gino dies without answering.

Tom returns to the depot and confronts Cartley. He tells him that Gino has died and he knows why, and that he knows about the scam. Cartley offers him a share of the stolen money and Red's place in truck no. 1. Tom is having none of it, but takes truck no. 1 to pick up a load. When Red turns up, he forces Cartley to join him in what they think is truck no. 3 and sets out to silence Tom. Red guesses that Tom will take the dangerous shortcut through the quarry, and they lie in wait there. When Tom appears with his truck full of ballast, Red sideswipes him several times, finally forcing him off the road and onto the edge of the quarry, where the truck dangles precariously, with Tom knocked unconscious. But the brakes on Red's truck, which Red finally realises is Tom's no. 13, fail and he and Cartley drive off the edge and are killed. Tom wakes up and escapes just before his own truck tumbles into the quarry. Lucy (who followed them in a jeep) runs to him.

The film is set in a Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn barbershop where customers come to hang out, discuss various issues, and get a haircut. The manager, Zack, took over after Joe was killed by a gangster who used the shop as a front for a numbers racket. Zack wants to keep the shop legitimate but the gangster wants to continue the deal he had with Joe.

The difference from actual history starts with the participation of Harriet Tubman in Brown's uprising in 1859; her sound tactical and strategic advice helps Brown avoid mistakes which in real history led to his downfall. As a result, instead of the American Civil War, the U.S. faces a full-scale slave revolt throughout the South helped by a handful of white sympathizers and various European revolutionaries such as Giuseppe Garibaldi, and an invasion by Mexico, which seeks to regain the territory it lost in 1848.

After a great deal of bloody fighting and an increasing dissatisfaction in the North which is required to send troops to fight the rebellious slaves, the blacks succeed in emancipating themselves and create a republic in the Deep South, led by Tubman and Frederick Douglass. (Brown himself did not survive to see the victory of what he started.) Abraham Lincoln – a Whig politician who never got to be President – tries to start a war to bring back the secessionist black states into the Union, but he fails and is himself killed in that war. Blacks remember him as their archenemy.

Later, the black state (named "Nova Africa") becomes Socialist, touching off a whole string of revolutions and civil wars in Europe. The Paris Commune wins out in 1871 instead of being crushed by the French Third Republic, Ireland breaks away from British rule in the 1880s, and the Russian Revolution is just one of many similar revolutions in different countries. Finally Socialism also wins out in the rump U.S., following a revolutionary outbreak in Chicago. Socialism works out as predicted by the German philosopher Karl Marx, bringing happiness and prosperity to all of humanity. (Marx himself is mentioned in the book as an enthusiastic supporter of the rebellious slaves, though he does not personally come to America to help them.)

The book has two levels. The overt plot takes place in 1959, in a Utopian Socialist world far in advance of ours in all ways. To mark the centennial of Brown's raid, black astronauts lead a mission to land on Mars. However, the story of the protagonist, a young black woman grieving the death of her husband on an earlier Mars mission, is mainly the framework for excerpts from the vivid diaries of two people who lived through the stirring events of 1859 and its aftermath – her ancestor, who was then a young black slave, and a white Virginian doctor who sympathized with the rebellion. In this world, an alternate history book is published called ''John Brown's Body'', which describes a world in which Brown failed and was executed, the slaves were emancipated by Lincoln rather than by themselves after a war between two white factions, and capitalism survived as a political and economic system. It is considered a dystopia, describing a horrible world in all ways inferior to the one which the people in the book know.

In the year 2000, the CDC discovers a meteorite-borne virus known as M34 that alters the molecular structure of the human body and turns its victims into violent creatures. In 2002, the World Health Organization establishes an internal organization called the "Committee of the Universal Resolution of Ecocatastrophe" (CURE), with several international branches, in order to eradicate the virus, which has infected three percent of the human population. CURE creates an elite unit of soldiers called "NOA", an acronym for the "Nano Osmolar Armor" they wear, and units of unmanned robots called "Multi-purpose Operative Beings" (MOB) that assist NOA in the field. CURE's branches also begin secret work on special superhuman weapons, codenamed UNIT and each given an alphabetic suffix.

In 2004, as the missions begin to take their toll on NOA's ranks, NOA soldier (voiced by Joe Odagiri in Japanese and Joey Hood in English) becomes angry when he learns of CURE's Japanese branch's UNIT project, known as UNIT-i, and that they're not using it. UNIT-i is a girl named (voiced by Yukari Tamura in Japanese and Christa Kimlicko Jones in English) who is able to create a projected being that can destroy the creatures.

During the next outbreak, several victims of the virus fuse together into a larger creature that overwhelms the NOA soldiers. CURE decides to put Ai's ability to the test, and the projected being destroys the creature.

Yuuji is quarantined after coming into contact with one of the creatures, but is released when he recovers from his injuries. However, his blood tests later indicate that the virus has evolved and is attacking the nanomachines in his body. CURE orders Yuuji's arrest, but he escapes and takes Ai hostage. When his condition worsens during their journey, Ai heals him with her powers. Other NOA soldiers catch up with Yuuji and Ai and help them escape, but they are soon found by CURE units and are taken to the NOA facility.

At the NOA facility, the NOA soldiers become victims of the virus as their nanomachines are destroyed. Yuuji is forced to fight them and the CURE units at the same time. Ai uses her powers to eliminate all traces of the virus in the facility, curing the infected NOA soldiers.

A larger outbreak occurs elsewhere in the city, and the virus further evolves to mimic the nanomachines' abilities. Yuuji delays the creatures' advance as Ai creates the projected being and uses all of her power to purge the infected area of the virus. Yuuji and Ai are later discharged from CURE and spend time together, free from their duties at last.

Princess Lenore suffers from "a surfeit of raspberry tarts" — eating too many sweets. She insists she is gravely ill, but if her father brings her the moon she'll be well again.

Her father, the king, asks the wisest men in his court how he can give his daughter the moon, and becomes outraged when they all claim that it is too large, too far away, and composed of unstable or dangerous substances.

Despairing, the king confides in his court jester. The jester then asks the princess what ''she'' thinks the moon is made of, how big it is, and how far away. According to the princess, the moon is as big as her thumbnail and made of gold. She says it's so close that he could climb a tree and pluck it from the sky. He promises to do just that, that very night.

Instead, the jester takes the princess's specifications to the royal goldsmith, who creates a necklace with a moon-like pendant. It is presented to the princess and she becomes well again.

The next day, the King fears she'll see the moon in the sky and realize that the necklace is a forgery. He consults the wisest men in his court, who propose outrageous schemes to prevent her from seeing it in the sky.

Ultimately, the jester visits the princess, who is fondly gazing at the newly-risen moon. He asks her how the moon can be in two places, and she tells him the moon always grows back: like a child's tooth, a unicorn's horn, or flowers.

Prelude

Following the events of ''Issola'', Vlad wants some respite and asks to be sent to his favorite restaurant in South Adrilankha, Valabar's. Shortly after he is seated, he is joined by Telnan, a Dzur and Sethra Lavode's apprentice to restart the Lavode order that was destroyed following the events detailed in The Viscount of Adrilankha. Notably, Telnan is also a holder of one of the Great Weapons, Nightslayer. As they prepare to start their multi-course meal, they are joined by the legendary Mario Greymist, who informs Vlad that Cawti, Vlad's estranged wife, had lost control of the underworld elements throughout South Adrilankha which threatens to start a House war between the Dragons and Jhereg.

Investigation

After his meal, Vlad returns to Dzur mountain and requests through multiple channels to speak to Cawti to get a better understanding of what happened in his absence. She confirms that she neglected the underworld organization Vlad left to her when he went on the run from the Jhereg, and that the Left Hand of the Jhereg, a coven of sorceresses who normally operate autonomously from the Right Hand (the crime organization run by the male Jhereg), have made an unprecedented move of taking over the crime holdings and try to force Cawti into retirement. Cawti's friend, Norathar, the Dragon heir to the Imperial Throne, doesn't want to see control taken away from Cawti, which is setting the stage for the possible House war. Vlad takes on the responsibility to get to the bottom of the Left Hand's involvement and prevent further chaos. He sets up base in South Adrilankha in disguise and through following runners finds the house where the Left Hand is operating. Despite his magic blocking stones, one of the sorceresses discovers him and attempts to kill him. However, Lady Teldra, Vlad's Great Weapon, deflects the attack spell back to the sorceress and kills her.

Vlad now knows he must be more careful to mask his actions, but he needs more information about what is going on and who is involved, but he lacks the resources he had when he was a crime boss. He then realizes that while he lacks an organization, he does not lack resources as he is tremendously rich. He contacts an old Eastern friend of his who knows people that Vlad could use as paid information gatherers, and puts in place an information network. As details start coming in, Vlad uses the pieces he is gathering at the Imperial Library to flesh out what is going on. In the course of this research, he comes to find out that the head of the Right Hand council had died and there is an ongoing power struggle to fill the empty position. One of the men vying for the position is the lover of the head of the Left Hand, and it's her intervention of trying to take over South Adrilankha that would give him enough leverage to become the head of the council. Vlad also finds out that the sorceress that he killed was the sister of the head sorceress, and that the death was Morganti, an unexpected power of Lady Teldra as normally Morganti deaths require the weapon to come into physical contact with the victim.

Conclusion

Vlad sets plans in motion to stop the Left Hand without getting himself killed. He calls upon Mario to assassinate the head sorceress, and while that is going on, Vlad successfully makes moves to interfere with the Left Hand's ability to take over the South Adrilankha operations, which would make them unable to give their choice for council head the ability to ascend. He also, at great risk to his life, contacts The Demon, one of the Right Hand council members, and makes a deal to help The Demon ascend to the head of the council in exchange for all Jhereg influence in South Adrilankha to cease until the end of Norathar's reign. Vlad then confronts the Left Hand at their base of operations to force them to take the same deal. However, they believe he doesn't have enough power to make them comply, and threaten to destroy him. But before they can attack, Telnan, having been influenced by a dream sent by Verra, the Demon Goddess, appears with Nightslayer out and displaying its power. Under the threat of not one, but two Great Weapons, the Left Hand reluctantly agrees to Vlad's demands, but swear to destroy him if ever the opportunity presents itself. With order restored, Vlad prepares to leave Adrilankha and go back into hiding, but not before Cawti finally reveals that they now have a son. He stays a little longer to finally meet his son.

While deciding what to do with the fortune he made after the events of ''Jhereg'', Vlad is alarmed to discover that his wife has joined a group of revolutionaries consisting of Easterners and Teckla from the ghetto of South Adrilankha. One of their members, Franz, has been murdered. Fearing for Cawti's safety, Vlad resolves to investigate the matter. After some aggressive investigation, Vlad learns that the Jhereg boss of South Adrilankha, Herth, ordered the assassination after the revolutionaries attacked his businesses. By getting involved, Vlad becomes a target in the ongoing feud.

Vlad takes the information back to Kelly, the leader of the revolutionaries, but he is unafraid. He plans to not only revolt but to break the Cycle itself. Several of his followers tell Vlad their stories, including a Teckla sorcerer named Paresh, but Vlad is unmoved. He accuses them of parroting Kelly's slogans, which put impossible ideals ahead of individuals. Vlad's relationship becomes strained as Cawti's changing values pull her away from his lifestyle.

Distraught over his failing marriage, Vlad lets his guard down and gets captured by Herth's men. They torture him for information about Cawti and the revolutionaries until Vlad's men rescue him. Jarred by his brush with total helplessness, Vlad becomes temporarily suicidal, but Cawti drugs him before he can harm himself. After awakening, Vlad remains troubled by the incident, but reaffirms his desire to save Cawti and destroy Herth.

Vlad suspects that Herth has sent an assassin after him. He begins casing Kelly's headquarters to watch events unfold and draw out the assassin. The revolutionaries attempt to barricade South Adrilankha and the Phoenix Guards are called in to restore order. Amidst the chaos, the assassin strikes, but Vlad fights him off. Vlad identifies the assassin as Quaysh and hires his own assassin, Ishtvan, to kill Quaysh.

Vlad decides that the only way to save Cawti is to end the revolution by killing Kelly and his top-ranking followers. He sneaks into Kelly's headquarters, but Franz's ghost appears before he can start the job. After conversing with the ghost, Vlad becomes unnerved and abandons the plan. He returns the next day looking for Cawti, but winds up in an ethical debate with Kelly over their respective lifestyles. Kelly's accusations closely mirror Vlad's own self-doubts.

Still committed to saving Cawti from self-destruction with the revolutionaries, Vlad concocts a plan to solve all his problems at once. During another altercation between the revolutionaries and the Phoenix Guard, Vlad tricks Herth into entering Kelly's headquarters. He hopes that Herth would kill Kelly, the revolutionaries would kill Herth, and the Phoenix Guards would kill the revolutionaries. Vlad teleports into the headquarters and recklessly decides to kill Herth himself. Miraculously, Vlad disables all of Herth's bodyguards while Ishtvan kills Herth's assassin and disappears. Kelly convinces Vlad against his better judgment to allow Herth to live.

The next day, Vlad has an epiphany on how to solve his problems. He offers to buy all of Herth's holdings in South Adrilankha, using the remainder of his fortune. Herth agrees and retires from the Organization, thus ending all of his conflicts with Vlad and the revolutionaries. Vlad breaks the news to Cawti and they tearfully embrace. Though many unresolved issues still loom between them, Vlad feels relieved that the most pressing dangers are gone.

Bonnie Adams is told by her father Professor Adams on his death bed of his discovery of a radium deposit on an island off the coast of Africa. Ben Arnold and his girlfriend Aileen Chandos want the radium for themselves and befriend Bonnie for that purpose. The captain of the boat taking them to their destination, Harry Drake, falls in love with Bonnie en route.

The rings around Thotmess, a gas giant in the system of the star Niletus where planets are called for Ancient Egyptian gods, is a completely lawless place. The only human inhabitants are rugged miners, riding small "donkey ships", who need to contend with both the harsh natural environment and fierce human competitors. "Claim jumping" is frequent and miners must be ready at any moment to take up a gun or a bazooka to defend their finds of "grey matrix in which abyssal crystals occur". (The reader is not told what this may be, except that it is evidently valuable enough to kill for.)

The extra-solar environment is chosen by Leinster in order to convey the feeling of an ever-expanding frontier - Sol's own Asteroid Belt has become "tame", as did the rings of Saturn, and the rough adventurous types move further on. (Leinster's historical model is the recurring Gold Rush of the Nineteenth Century, drawing adventurers in 1840s from the settled East Coast to wild California, and in 1890s from settled California to the wild Klondike.)

Category:1967 American novels Category:1967 science fiction novels Category:Novels by Murray Leinster

The background story to the game is that Zack has resurrected "Zack Island" from the depths of the sea, where it was buried following a previous volcanic eruption. He has re-dubbed it "New Zack Island". The instruction manual details the differing reasons for why each girl has come to the island, while cut-scenes further flesh out the plot details.

Following the events of ''Hostel'', Paxton suffers from PTSD and lives in seclusion with his girlfriend Stephanie. After an argument where Stephanie denounces Paxton's paranoia as exaggerated and insufferable, she wakes to find his headless corpse in their kitchen. An unmarked box containing Paxton's severed head is delivered to Elite Hunting boss Sasha.

In Rome, Italy, three American art students, Beth, Whitney, and Lorna, are convinced by Axelle, a nude model they are sketching, to join her on a luxurious spa vacation in Slovakia. The four check into a hostel, where the desk clerk surreptitiously uploads their passport photos to an auction website. American businessman Todd and his best friend Stuart win the bids on Whitney and Beth. They then travel to Slovakia.

Later that night, at the village's harvest festival, Lorna discovers Beth has inherited a vast fortune from her mother. Stuart and Todd attend the festival; Todd remarks that Beth "looks like her", and then Stuart approaches Beth and the two share a friendly conversation although strange. Meanwhile, Lorna is invited by Roman, a local man, on a boat ride. In a secluded area downstream, Roman kidnaps Lorna. Beth and Whitney leave the festival while Axelle volunteers to wait for Lorna.

Lorna wakes up naked and hung upside down above a bathtub. A woman enters the room and slashes at her with a scythe to collect her blood in the bathtub. She then bathes in the blood before slashing Lorna's throat. Meanwhile, Beth, Whitney, Axelle, and a local man, Miroslav, head to a spa to relax. Beth dozes off, and wakes up alone without her belongings. While looking for her friends, she is pursued by several men and flees the spa. In the woods, she is ambushed by a gang of violent gypsy street children, but is saved by Sasha and Axelle; Sasha executes one of the boys as punishment.

Later at Sasha's remote mansion, Beth is pursued by the men from earlier and she realizes that they are associated with Sasha and Axelle. Looking for a hiding place, she discovers a room filled with human trophy heads (one of which is Paxton's). Beth is captured and taken to an abandoned factory and tied up in a room.

Beth is soon joined by Stuart, who is supposed to kill her; it turns out Todd, who is wealthy while Stuart is not, paid for Beth for Stuart. Stuart appears to have second thoughts, unties Beth, explains the situation, and says he is "not that guy." Beth goes to the door to try to leave, but someone knocks her out.

In another room, Todd terrorizes Whitney with a power saw but loses his nerve after accidentally scalping her without killing her. Horrified, Todd tries to leave, but is informed that he has to kill Whitney to leave. After Todd refuses, the guards unleash several dogs, which maul him to death.

Meanwhile, Stuart, who was the one who knocked out Beth, has completely changed his mind and revealed to be psychotic, is now intent on torturing and killing Beth. He reveals that Beth bears an extremely close resemblance to Stuart's wife, whom Stuart hates but cannot kill because it is against the law and he would be the prime suspect. Stuart then begins to torture Beth.

With Todd now dead, the Elite Hunting Club offers the maimed Whitney to the other clients to kill, including an old Italian who is eating Miroslav alive. Stuart, after discovering Todd's death, shows Beth the pictures of the maimed Whitney to frighten her, then accepts the club's offer, leaves Beth, and beheads Whitney.

When Stuart returns, Beth seduces him into untying her from the chair. Stuart attempts to rape her, but she fights him off and chains him to the chair. Sasha and the guards arrive at her cell. Beth offers to buy her freedom with part of her inheritance, and though Stuart tries to outbid her, Sasha reveals that he knows that Stuart cannot afford to do so. Sasha tells her in order to leave, she must also kill someone. When Stuart insults Beth, she cuts off his entire genitalia and then feeds them to dogs, an act that gives pause to even the jaded guards, and leaving Stuart emasculated and bleeding to death. Satisfied, Sasha gives Beth an Elite Hunting tattoo, making her an official member.

That night, Axelle is lured by the Gypsy street children into the woods, where Beth ambushes and beheads her. Shortly after, the children start playing football with Axelle's severed head.

Hopalong and his sidekicks are Texas Rangers who set out to find how 25 Mexicans have disappeared after being hired by the "Silver Bullets" mine. They ride into town and find that the mine owner is a one-man government, played by Russell Simpson as "Orestes Krebes." Hopalong and his friends are arrested on trumped-up charges and are tried before a kangaroo court and sentenced to swing but not until after lunch. With the help of the girl, they escape, free the captive mine workers and together defeat the evil gang.

The story is a melodrama concerning two lovers who are kept apart by the woman's strict parents, who lock her in her house.

Beginning

''City of the Beasts'' begins with the story of Alexander Cold, who is 15 years old and going through a family crisis. While his parents leave for Texas to try to treat his mother's cancer, Alex and his sisters are sent to live with their grandmothers. Despite his desperate pleading, Alex is sent off to New York City to stay with his eccentric grandmother Kate Cold, a reporter for ''International Geographic Magazine''. His sisters, however are sent to live with their other grandmother. Meanwhile, Kate announces that she will be taking Alex with her to the Amazon rainforest during his visit. Once Alex arrives in New York City, and finds out that his grandmother had no intentions of collecting him at the airport he is forced to find his own way to her apartment. In the process he meets a girl named Morgana, a homeless girl in her mid-20s. She offers him pot and steals his backpack that contained his clothes, his money and his flute. He is greatly saddened by the loss of his precious flute, but Kate gives him the flute belonging to his grandfather, musician Joseph Cold. Soon, they pack off to go to the Amazon with a professor and some photographers. The reason Kate goes is to write an article about the Beast.

Arrival at the Amazon

When Alex and his Grandmother Kate reach the jungle, they join the rest of the expedition group: Timothy Bruce (photographer); and his assistant Joel Gonzalez. Accompanying them is the famous anthropologist, Ludovic Leblanc, the beautiful Venezuelan physician Dr. Omayra Torres, who is coming along to vaccinate natives, and Cesar Santos, their Brazilian guide. Alex soon befriends Nadia Santos, Cesar's twelve-year-old daughter. They overhear parts of a conspiracy between their expedition's co-sponsor, greedy entrepreneur Mauro Carías, and Captain Ariosto, the commander of the village military. An encounter with a caged black jaguar reveals that this is Alex's totem animal, according to Nadia. Through Nadia, Alex also meets an ancient shaman named Walimai, who warns Alex and Nadia of coming danger.

The Expedition

The group leaves by boat, traveling upriver toward their destination in Eye of the World. Everyone in the group feels uncomfortable, as if someone were watching them constantly. One of the soldiers who is with them dies when he is shot by a poisoned dart. Later, Joel Gonzalez, the photographer's assistant, is attacked and nearly killed by an anaconda. After another soldier's death, this time at the hands of a Beast, they decide to send several people back with the wounded Joel Gonzalez; those are given the task to send help back to the expedition.

When they are left alone, Alex plays his grandfather's flute to relieve the tedium. The music attracts the mysterious ''People of the Mist'', who kidnap the two children. They travel farther into the forest and arrive at a waterfall which they must climb to reach Eye of the World, the village of the People of the Mist. Due to Alex's skills in rock climbing, this isn't much of a problem for him; however, Nadia is afraid of heights. After they reach the top, Alex is sent back down again to rescue their chief, Mokarita, who had fallen and been mortally wounded. When everyone arrives at the top, they set off for the home of the ''People of the Mist''.

The People of the Mist

When they reach the village, they are welcomed by the Natives - but their happiness is tempered by the death of Mokarita, which follows shortly after. He is given a traditional funeral, which unfortunately sends up a great amount of smoke from the pyre. During the funeral, everyone is given a drug which reveals to Nadia her totem of the eagle. Jaguar and Eagle are initiated into the clan. Alex, being fifteen, is put through a rite of passage into manhood; during the ceremony, unusual things happen. Firstly, he turns into a jaguar, his totem; secondly, he receives a vision of his mom on her hospital bed and he talks briefly with her. After the ceremonies, the Shaman takes them to visit the Beasts, who live in a lair city deep within the forest. These Beasts are considered gods by the People of the Mist. Jaguar correctly assumes their city to be the famous El Dorado which is really made from fool's gold. Jaguar and Eagle embark on a journey to visit El Dorado and its inhabitants with the help of Walimai, the mystic's spirit wife who will serve as their guide. The city is located inside of an inactive volcano, and the only entrance is a confusing labyrinth of lava tunnels and caves.

The Beasts of the Amazon

Upon arrival, Alex and Nadia meet with the “Beasts”. The creatures, which look something like giant sloths, function as the living memory of the tribe by remembering long epic poems recited by Walimai and his predecessors. Fearing the capture of these ancient creatures by western scientists, they warn them to be careful of foreigners (such as the expedition group they both belonged to). In exchange for protecting them, the two children ask for gifts: Nadia the "crystal eggs" and Alex the water of life to save his mother. They both manage to get them, but only by giving up that which was really important to them. Nadia gives up the protective necklace given to her by Walimai, and Alex gives up the flute given to him. Upon returning to the village, they discover that it has been taken over by the Expedition, Carias, and Ariosto. Just as Nadia convinces the Indios to receive vaccinations, the children realize that the vaccines are actually deadly doses of the measles virus, part of Carias's plan to destroy the Amazonian Indians. By a hair, they stop the vaccinations before the first dose is given. Karakawe, an expedition member, is revealed to be an officer of the Department for the Protection of Indigenous Peoples; he is shot by Ariosto. The Indios flee into the woods as a full-fledged gunfight breaks out. Luckily, it ends quickly. Ariosto and his soldiers take captive all of the members of the expedition. Some soldiers return with the gravely injured Carias and Dr. Torres. At night, Nadia and Alex manage to escape. With Walimai's help, the rest of the men are knocked unconscious by the smell of two of the Beasts, who also kill Ariosto. The tribe brings the rest of the expedition to safety. After the People of the Mist reach an agreement with the remaining members of the expedition (they will protect that area with all the power, influence, and money they can muster), they leave.

Last part

In the end, Eagle and Jaguar must part. She gives Alex the three "crystal eggs", which turn out to be giant diamonds. With the money gained from their sale, it was hoped that they would be able to fund a foundation to keep the World's Eye safe. Alex tells her that the best thing about the trip was meeting her, and they agree that they will be best friends forever.

A group of people have joint ambitions to establish an unprecedented scientific theory. They called it the "crystalline substance transfer theory in dimensional physics." This helped to accomplish the rapid progress in recent years. The fear of leaks of confidential material is a huge expense that the leaders could not possibly afford. As a result, all the research was done on expansive grounds in a nationally sponsored facility that was built behind the rocks.

However, because the near future also demands practical research, the people lost contact with the scientists working at the facility. Defense forces are immediately dispatched to an elite survey of troops. A sky reconnaissance plane was shot down last; forcing the area to go into a state of emergency.

Player character

;HIRO/Agent Logan :The protagonist of the game. He is assigned the code name "HIRO" after being recruited. HIRO is a warrior whose capabilities are far beyond the limits of normal humans. Through enhancements, he has become an excellent soldier. He is resistant to red bullets while wearing heat-resistant suits that wrap his body and his nervous system.

:He is called Agent Logan in the Western release of the game.

Supercriminal Dr. Fu Manchu plots to freeze the world's oceans with a diabolical new device. With his beautiful but evil daughter, Lin Tang, his army of dacoits, and the help of the local crime organization led by Omar Pasha (whom Dr. Fu Manchu double-crosses), Dr. Fu Manchu takes over the governor's castle in Istanbul, which has a massive opium reserve, to control the largest opium port in Anatolia, since the drug is an important ingredient for the fuel for his machine. Dr. Fu Manchu needs the help of an intelligent scientist with an ailing heart whom he has imprisoned. In order to keep the scientist alive, he kidnaps a doctor and his wife to give the scientist a heart transplant from one of his obedient servants. Opposing him from Britain's branch of Interpol are his nemeses, Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie.

In ''Kaka Ferskur'', Pippi meets Age, a Swedish ghost at the beach. He challenges her by saying if she can prove to him that she isn't growing up, she may remain a child, living with her pets in her grand mansion "Villa Villekulla". But if she loses the bet, she must admit to Age in the end that she is coming of age and must leave childish things behind.

She later catches up with her friends Annika and Tommy, and they go to Hollywood. There, Tommy loses the girls, and they embark on a journey to find him. In the journey, they see a man nude, enjoy hot, fresh rolls (hence ''Kaka Ferskur''), and do other things like get drunk and throwing rolls at adults.

The Menno Meyjes directed drama stars Adrien Brody as Spanish bullfighter Manolete, in a film that covers his late life love affair with actress Lupe Sino (Penélope Cruz) before he was gored to death in the bull ring. Sino's communist politics turned their affair into a scandal in the early 1940s, especially after discovering her previous marriage to a PCE member. The film begins with Manolete's last day in Linares.

Sid, Russ and Jerry are three wannabe criminals looking for easy money to break out of their nowhere lives. Despite a bungled jewelry store heist which exposes their incompetence, they are convinced they can pull off an armored-truck robbery. While plotting their caper, their dysfunctional families spin out of control all around them.

Matt, a six-year old boy, is kidnapped by his father, Denny, whom he had never met. Though he has always dreamed of meeting him, nothing is the way he thought it would be, given his father is only using Matt to impress his sister who often brags about her two well-raised sons. Denny has also taken Matt's dog, Pookie, and then dropped him off in a park. With few clues to follow, Matt's mother, sister, and the police, are doing everything they can to find him. Some old folks found Pookie and later gave him back to Matt's mom and sister. Matt's sister, Bonnie, sees Matt at a Mariner's baseball game, but is caught by Denny. Now both captive, the siblings attempt to escape. On the ferry, Bonnie signals to Matt to throw his hardest pitch. The baseball hits Denny, which allows the two to escape. Denny is arrested, and the children return home safely.

Ace is a young man living with his mom and sister in the Harlem ghetto working a dead-end job at a dry cleaning shop. His sister's boyfriend, Calvin, is a successful cocaine dealer while Ace's close friend Mitch is a flashy, popular drug dealer. Despite both of them promising a life of easy money, expensive cars and women, Ace decides to live a law-abiding life. While at work, Ace finds some cocaine in one of his customers’ pants. The customer, Lulu, is a cocaine supplier who lets Ace keep the drug. When Calvin gets arrested on drug charges, Ace runs into one of his customers and easily sells him the cocaine for $100. Impressed, Ace goes back to Lulu for more cocaine to sell.

Lulu has a top-quality supply of cocaine which Ace sells on the street at a cheap price, quickly luring away customers from other drug dealers. Ace starts wholesaling his product to other dealers in the neighborhood, believing everyone can make money and be happy. Meanwhile, Mitch is arrested for killing a stickup man who robbed one of his workers. When a fight breaks out between Mitch and another inmate, Mitch is aided by East Harlem inmate Rico who impresses Mitch by his ferocity and show of support. Mitch is able to beat his murder charge and both him and Rico join Ace's drug empire when released from prison. The trio become wealthy, buying foreign cars, jewelry and expensive champagne. Ace maintains a low profile, Mitch returns to his life as the popular hustler while Rico is a ruthless enforcer who worries Ace with his overzealous, high-profile behavior.

When Calvin is released from prison, Ace agrees to give him product to sell in his old drug spot, but Calvin quickly becomes dissatisfied with what he feels is a marginal position. When Ace refuses to let Calvin run his old block, Calvin retaliates by attempting to rob Ace at his Aunt June's apartment, holding June and Dora hostage. When Ace is unable to open the safe, June and Dora are executed by Calvin as another associate shoots Ace in the head, leaving him for dead. Despite his wounds, Ace survives as baby is born the same night. Feeling the physical and psychological effects of the shooting, Ace decides to quit the drug trade.

Rico tries to assuage Ace's concerns by revealing that he killed Calvin to show potential enemies that the organization is strong. Ace strongly disagrees with Rico's initiative and remains steadfast in his position to retire. Mitch understands Ace's perspective that the drug game does not reciprocate any love or generosity. Mitch decides to stay in the drug game because he loves the hustle, comparing himself to professional basketball players that continue to chase glory despite having enough money to retire. Ace decides to let Mitch and Rico take over, vowing to introduce Mitch to his drug supplier.

While Ace is recovering, Mitch's kid brother Sonny is kidnapped for ransom. Mitch reaches out to Ace who provides him with enough cocaine to pay Sonny's ransom and allow Mitch and Rico to resume business. Mitch enlists Rico to help sell the cocaine to pay the ransom, but Rico instead kills Mitch and steals the cocaine. Suspicious, Ace questions Rico who claims he had not seen Mitch the day he was killed. Ace knows he's lying and settles the issue by giving him the contact to a pair of undercover FBI agents he had spoken to and avoided previously. Rico is arrested and is last seen in custody giving up information on his drug connections in Washington D.C. in order to avoid a 25-to-life sentence. He refuses to inform on anyone in Harlem, intending on reclaiming his position when he is eventually released from prison. Sonny's kidnapping and subsequent murder were orchestrated by his own uncle who resented Mitch for not providing him with money and for kicking him out of his family's apartment. Ace retreats from the criminal underworld and makes a new life for himself and his family using diamonds that he previously found in Lulu's apartment.

Mitochondria are the "power house" of biological cells. It is thought that they were originally separate organisms, and a symbiotic relationship between them and early cellular life has evolved into their present position as cell organelles with no independent existence (see endosymbiotic theory).

The novel's plot supposes that mitochondria, which are inherited through the female line of descent, form the dispersed body of an intelligent conscious life-form, dubbed Eve, which has been waiting throughout history and evolution for the right conditions when mitochondrial life can achieve its true potential and take over from eukaryotic life-forms (i.e. humans and similar life) by causing a child to be born that can control its own genetic code.

Eve is able to control people's minds and bodies by signaling to the mitochondria in their bodies. She can cause certain thoughts to occur to them and also make them undergo spontaneous combustion.

The conditions Eve has waited for have arrived; she has found the perfect host in the body of Kiyomi Nagishima. At the start of the book, Eve is the mitochondria in Kiyomi's body. She causes Kiyomi to crash her car; Kiyomi survives but is brain dead. Kiyomi's husband is Toshiaki, a research assistant teaching and researching biological science. Eve influences Toshiaki and a doctor to ensure that one of Kiyomi's kidneys is transplanted into the teenage girl Mariko Anzai as an organ donation. As part of Kiyomi's body, the kidney is also a part of Eve; this prepares Mariko to be a suitable host for giving birth to mitochondrial life, as her immune system would otherwise rebel.

Eve influences Toshiaki to grow some of Kiyomi's liver cells in his lab in sufficient quantities to provide Eve with an independent body, he thinks that he is doing this as an experiment using different cultures of the liver cells. Forming some of the cells into a body, Eve possesses Toshiaki's assistant Sachiko Asakura and intermittently takes control of Asakura to work upon the cultures. Eventually, she takes control of Asakura during a conference presentation speech and announces her presence. Leaving Asakura's body, she returns to the lab. Toshiaki pursues her, and she rapes him in the form of Kiyomi to capture some of his sperm, which she uses to fertilize an egg of her own production. Moving to the hospital, she implants this egg in Mariko's womb. The egg develops into a child that is born almost immediately.

Eve anticipates that her child will be able to consciously change its genetic code, thus being an infinitely adaptable "perfect life form" capable of replacing humanity and similar life-forms. Mariko's body will be host to a new race of these life-forms.

The experiment fails, since Toshiaki's sperm carry a separate line of "male" mitochondria (inherited through sperm) that will be wiped out in the new order; these resist the change by fighting for control of the child's body, causing it to switch between male and female forms. The child dies; Toshiaki also dies, merging his body with the child's to control the bursts of psychokinetic-like power it gives out in its death throes that threaten to kill many people.

In the novel's epilogue, it is revealed that some samples of the Eve cells in Toshiaki's lab survived. However, they are destroyed shortly after being found.

The novel is set in modern times against the background of the legendary Medieval Welsh colonization of Mobile, Alabama under the prince Madoc in the 12th century. The modern Pendragon, King Arthur's secret successor, must recover Arthur's famed sword Excalibur.

The film is a cinematic work of historical fiction, taking as its premise the idea that Jones was murdered by Frank Thorogood, a builder who had been hired to renovate and improve Jones's house Cotchford Farm in East Sussex, though there is a curious ghost-epilogue where Jones comes back to earth to thank chauffeur/minder Tom Keylock – not Thorogood – for making him into an immortal martyr. The film also paints a picture of Jones's use of alcohol and drugs, his estrangement from his bandmates, and his relationships with Anita Pallenberg and Anna Wohlin.

Phoebe arrives at the hospital with the group, where she tells the nurse at the desk that she is in labor. In Phoebe's hospital room, Ross and Rachel enter with bad news: her doctor fell and hit her head in the shower, meaning she is unable to make it to the birth. The replacement doctor, Dr. Harad, assures Phoebe that she is in good hands, until he spontaneously declares his admiration for Fonzie, from ''Happy Days'' several times. Phoebe demands that Ross find her another doctor, but when the replacement Dr. Oberman (T. J. Thyne) is too young for her liking, Dr. Harad returns. She moreover begs Rachel to talk to her brother Frank, to try and convince him to let her keep one of the triplets, after having second thoughts over the surrogate process. In the delivery room, Phoebe gives birth to a boy and two girls. Rachel breaks the news to Phoebe that she will not be able to keep one of the babies. Phoebe asks her friends to leave, in order to have a moment alone with the triplets. She tells the babies she wishes she could take them home and see them every day, but she will settle for being their favorite aunt, and the four of them cry together.

Rachel informs Monica that she has found two male nurses who are interested in going out on date with them. Monica declines the offer at first, not wanting to jeopardize her secret relationship with Chandler, but when he annoys her by assuming that she is willing to go out with nurse Dan (Patrick Fabian), Monica decides to date him after all. After Phoebe gives birth, Chandler approaches Monica in a hallway to ask if she is really going to date Dan. She replies to him that since both of them are just "goofing around", she figured why not "goof around" with Dan too; Chandler asks if Monica had checked the term in the dictionary, noting the technical definition is "two friends who care a lot about each other, and have amazing sex, and just want to spend more time together". Monica, smitten by Chandler's words, kisses him and goes to call off her date with Dan.

Meanwhile, Joey is in a hospital room of his own, where a doctor informs him that he is suffering from kidney stones. As they are too close to his bladder, Joey is given two options: wait until he passes them naturally, or have a procedure, which he finds too invasive. Opting for the former, he gives 'birth' to the kidney stones, concurrent with Phoebe's birth.

In space, the only source of income to space pirates, are hunting "whales", which are giant robotic spaceships drifting in space that are rich in resources when successfully captured. Ahab, a pirate captain was obsessed on a particular white whale, Moby Dick. But things change when Lucky joined his motley crew of pirates and refugees.

The series takes place in the town of Gamebridge where, through the accidental opening of a portal from the fictional Mix Master video game world of Atreia, the peaceful little town is invaded by the funny and sometimes dangerous game creatures, known as "hench", as well as the game world's evil Prince Brad. The main protagonist, 11-year-old Ditt Lee, is given a card shuffler by the eccentric Dr. Joeb, and now must "mix" those hench (as learned from the fictional video game) to achieve peace and safety, while he grows into his destiny to become the one true "Mix Master".

The series presented over two hundred henches from different species. They can be fused or 'mixed' together to form a new, stronger hench. Henches are ranked from 1 (low) to 7 (high) depending on their power. Animals and plants are present. To be mixed, henches must be of the same rank and species. Henches are shown to be like humans, as they can sleep, eat, talk and tire out if they are overused. They bond with humans who show honesty and friendship. They have to obey the orders of the person who owns their card shuffler, even against their will. They seem to grow old and die.

Although Henches are ranked as high as 7, above level 7 one hench is known as the Ultimate Hench and is the most powerful. Ultimate Hench exists when all the 8 Henches of Rank 7 are fused with the help of the Mix Master and The Master Hench. According to legend, the Master Hench has to find one human friend whom it trusts above all else, and that human becomes the Mix Master. It appears that the Master Henches are somehow related, as Pachi's brother was the previous Master Hench. The Master Hench can be mixed to become the ultimate Hench that can defeat Giara.

The series was followed by a sequel season, ''Final Force''.

José Luis Torrente is a lazy, rude, drunkard, sexist, racist, right-wing ex-policeman turned fake cop who lives in a decrepit apartment in a slum neighbourhood of Madrid with his wheelchair-bound father, whose disability checks are Torrente's only real income.

One day, a new family of neighbours who owns and operates a fish store moves into the apartment below Torrente's and he becomes attracted to the young, nymphomaniac niece of the family, Amparo. In order to get close to her, he befriends her nerdy weapon enthusiast cousin, Rafi, by taking him to target practice and on his nightly patrol rounds through the neighbourhood. During their patrols, Torrente begins to suspect that criminal activity is occurring in the new local Chinese restaurant. His suspicions are confirmed when his father accidentally overdoses after eating a stolen food roll which was filled with packets of heroin. Torrente decides to crack the drug ring in order to regain his former status within the Police Force.

Simultaneously, Torrente successfully attempts to seduce Amparo, who has sex with him after his father's overdose. Amparo's aunt, Reme, misreads her relationship with Torrente and believes that they are engaged.

Torrente and Rafi sneak into the restaurant at night and witness El Francés, the underboss of the drug trafficking outfit run by a mobster named Mendoza, torturing and executing a delivery boy named Wang, who had lost a shipment of the heroin (which in reality was unwittingly taken by Torrente's father) and they overhear that the outfit will soon be receiving a major drug shipment from a mobster known as Farelli. The pair accidentally make their presence known and flee the restaurant on Rafi's fish delivery van while being chased by armed delivery boys.

Torrente enlists the help of Rafi's equally nerdy friends: Malaguita, a martial artist, Bombilla, an electronics expert, and Toneti, a James Bond aficionado. The crew picks up Torrente's father from the hospital (while drunk) and then prepare a reconnaissance mission to discover the location of the drug deal. Toneti goes to the Chinese restaurant while wearing a wire but quickly blows his cover and winds up revealing Torrente's name to El Francés before trying to escape through a window and falling to his death.

El Francés and some of his goons raid Torrente's apartment but are attacked by Torrente's father, who wields a taser and some pliers, before the father suffers a heart attack and plummets down a flight of stairs. Nonetheless, they kidnap Amparo when she arrived to the apartment looking for Torrente.

After discovering his father's death and Amparo's kidnapping, Torrente becomes despondent but soon after Lio-Chii, Wang's girlfriend and a waitress at the Chinese restaurant who had once waited on a drunken Torrente, arrives and reveals the location of the drug deal, claiming she wants revenge for her boyfriend's death.

Torrente, Rafi, Malaguita, Bombilla, Lio-Chii and Torrente's friend and informant Carlitos head over to the drug deal on an old warehouse outside town. The crew plan a very complex plot to bring down the deal and take the 50 million pesetas that Mendoza brought but the plan goes raw from the start when Bombita accidentally blows himself and Farelli up with a bomb he'd set up as a distraction. Farelli's men and Mendoza's men begin shooting at each other and in the aftermath, most of the mobsters and Carlitos end up dead. Torrente guns down El Francés and ends up getting shot in the stomach himself, while Rafi goes to rescue Amparo (who had been providing oral service to Mendoza's men in a back room). Rafi gets cornered by Mendoza but he's rescued when Lio-Chii shoots him in the back.

In the aftermath of the shootout, Rafi and Malaguita get congratulated by police commissioner Cayetano for helping in bringing down one of the most vicious local drug rings and Rafi begins a relationship with Lio-Chii. Torrente gets taken away on an ambulance for his wounds. Cayetano sweeps the scene and discovers that the money is gone. In the ambulance speeding away, Torrente bribes the ambulance drivers and flees to Torremolinos with the 50 million pesetas that he swiped while no one was watching.

Stella Blackstone (Elliot Page) and her best friend Albert (Michael Kanev) are twelve-year-olds with ambitious intentions of creating an extremely spooky Halloween house. While checking for hints online they open up a web link that opens a doorway through which an annoying ghost (Carlos Alazraqui) leaves his world and enters theirs. They find they must help this ghost resolve his problems or put up with him forever.

During a Friday afternoon tryst in a Phoenix hotel, real-estate secretary Marion Crane and her boyfriend Sam Loomis discuss their inability to get married because of Sam's debts. Marion returns to work, decides to steal a cash payment of $400,000 entrusted to her for deposit at the bank, and drive to Sam's home in Fairvale, California. En route, Marion hurriedly trades her car, arousing suspicion from both the car dealer and a California Highway Patrol trooper.

Marion stops for the night at the Bates Motel, located off the main highway. Proprietor Norman Bates descends from a large house atop a hill overlooking the motel, registers Marion under an assumed name she uses, and invites her to dine with him. Returning to his house, Norman has an argument with his mother, overheard by Marion, about Marion's presence. Norman returns with a light meal and apologizes for his mother's outbursts. Norman discusses his hobby as a taxidermist, his mother's "illness" and how people have a "private trap" they want to escape. Remorseful of her crime, Marion decides to drive back to Phoenix in the morning and return the stolen money hidden in a newspaper. As Marion showers, a shadowy figure appears, stabs her to death and leaves. Soon afterward, Norman's anguished voice is heard from the house yelling "Mother! Oh God, Mother! Blood! Blood!" Norman cleans up the murder scene, puts Marion's body, her belongings and the hidden cash in her car, and sinks it in a swamp near the motel.

Marion's sister Lila arrives in Fairvale a week later, tells Sam about the theft, and demands to know her whereabouts. He denies knowing anything about her disappearance. A private investigator named Arbogast approaches them, saying that he has been hired to retrieve the money. Arbogast learns that Marion spent a night at the Bates Motel. He questions Norman, whose nervousness and inconsistency arouse Arbogast's suspicion. When Norman implies Marion had spoken to his mother, Arbogast asks to speak to her, but Norman refuses. Arbogast updates Sam and Lila about his findings, and promises to phone again in an hour. When he enters the Bates home in search of Norman's mother, a figure resembling an elderly woman, emerges from the bedroom and stabs him to death.

When Lila and Sam do not hear from Arbogast, Sam visits the motel. He sees a figure in the house whom he assumes is Norman's mother; she ignores him. Lila and Sam alert the local sheriff, who tells them that Norman's mother died in a murder-suicide ten years earlier. The sheriff concludes that Arbogast lied to Sam and Lila so he could pursue Marion and the money. Convinced that something happened to Arbogast, Lila and Sam drive to the motel. Sam distracts Norman in the office, while Lila sneaks into the house. Suspicious, Norman becomes agitated and knocks Sam unconscious. As he goes to the house, Lila hides in the fruit cellar, where she discovers the mother's mummified body. She screams, and Norman, wearing his mother's clothes and a wig, enters the cellar and tries to stab her. Sam appears, and subdues him.

At the police station, a psychiatrist explains that a jealous Norman murdered his mother and her lover ten years earlier. He mummified his mother's corpse and began treating it as if she were still alive. He recreated his mother in his mind as an alternate personality, as jealous and possessive as she was in life. When Norman is attracted to a woman, "Mother" takes over: He had murdered two other young women before Marion, and Arbogast was killed to hide "his mother's" crime. The psychiatrist concludes "Mother" has now completely taken over Norman's personality. Norman sits in a jail cell, and hears his mother saying that the murders were all his doing. Marion's car is retrieved from the swamp.

In this Depression-era tale, Calef McKinney (John Furlong) is traveling from Michigan to California and stops in Spooner, Missouri, where Lute Wade (Stuart Lancaster) hires him for odd jobs.

McKinney gets involved with Wade's niece, Hannah Brenshaw (Antoinette Christiani). But she is married to Sidney (Hal Hopper), a wife-beating drunk who hopes to inherit his uncle-in-law's money.

Sidney and an eccentric preacher named Brother Hanson (Frank Bolger) plot against McKinney, who finds it difficult to conceal his mysterious past and his growing affection for Sidney's wife.

Sidney winds up burning his farm and attempting to frame McKinney. He rapes and murders the preacher's wife and is killed by the lynch mob.

In 1815, a French merchant ship stops at the island of Elba. A letter from the exiled Napoleon is given to the ship's captain to deliver to a man in Marseille. Before he dies of a sickness, the captain entrusts the task to his first officer, Edmond Dantès (Donat). However, the city magistrate, Raymond de Villefort, Jr. (Calhern), is tipped off by an informer, the second officer, Danglars (Raymond Walburn), and has both men arrested after the exchange.

Dantès' friend Fernand Mondego (Sidney Blackmer) accompanies him to the jail. However, he, Danglars, and de Villefort all stand to gain from keeping Dantès imprisoned: Mondego is in love with Dantès' fiancée, Mercedes (Landi); Danglars wants to be promoted captain in Dantès' place; and the man who accepted the letter turns out to be de Villefort's father (Lawrence Grant). De Villefort consigns Dantès without trial to a notorious prison, the Château d'If, on the false testimony of Danglars.

When Napoleon returns to France, giving Dantès' friends hope for his release, de Villefort signs a false statement that he was killed trying to escape, which Mondego shows to Mercedes. Deceived, she gives in to her mother's deathbed wish and marries Mondego.

Eight years of solitary confinement follow for Dantès. Then one day, the aged Abbé Faria (O. P. Heggie), a fellow prisoner, breaks into his cell through a tunnel he has been digging. The two join forces; Faria calculates it will take five more years to finish. In the meantime, he starts educating Dantès.

However, as they near their goal, a cave-in fatally injures the old man. Before he dies, he bequeaths a vast hidden treasure to his protégé (Faria's enemies had tortured and imprisoned him in an unsuccessful attempt to extract its location). The body is sewn into a shroud, but while the undertaker is away, Dantès substitutes himself for the corpse undetected. He is cast into the sea. He frees himself and is picked up by a smuggling ship.

Dantès later follows Faria's directions and finds the treasure on the uninhabited island of Monte Cristo. With a fortune at his command, he sets in motion his plans for revenge. To begin, he arranges to have Albert (Mercedes and Mondego's son) kidnapped and held for ransom. Dantès "rescues" the younger man in order to gain entry into Paris society, using his purchased title of Count of Monte Cristo.

First to be brought to justice is Mondego. While the French ambassador to Albania, Mondego gained renown for his bravery in an unsuccessful defense of Ali Pasha. Dantès arranges a ball to "honor" his enemy, then arranges to have him exposed publicly as the one who betrayed Ali Pasha to his death at the hands of the Turks. Unaware of the count's role in his disgrace, Mondego goes to him for advice. Dantès reveals his identity and they engage in a duel; Dantès wins, but spares Mondego, who returns home and commits suicide.

Next is Danglars, now the most influential banker in Paris. Dantès uses his services to buy and sell shares, sharing tips he receives from his informants. When these turn out to be infallibly profitable, Danglars bribes a man to send him copies of messages to Dantès. Greed leads him to invest all of his money on the next report, just as Dantès had planned. When the tip proves to be false, Danglars is bankrupted. Dantès reveals his true identity to Danglars, who is left penniless and insane.

However, there are unexpected complications that threaten Dantès' carefully conceived plans. Albert Mondego learns of his involvement in his father's downfall and challenges him to a duel. Mercedes, who had recognized her former lover upon their first meeting, begs him not to kill her son. He agrees. Albert deliberately changes his aim because his mother has told him who Monte Cristo really is, and the duel ends without injury.

De Villefort has risen to the high office of State Attorney. Dantès sends him information about his true identity and activities, which leads to his arrest and trial. At first, Dantès refuses to testify, in order to shield de Villefort's daughter Valentine (Irene Hervey), who is in love with Albert. However, when she learns of it, she urges him to defend himself. Dantès does so, providing evidence of de Villefort's longstanding corruption.

At last, with all of his enemies destroyed, Dantès is reunited with Mercedes.

The series followed Dink, a dinosaur, and his four friends as they explore and dwell in the volcanic landscape of prehistory in a place called Green Meadow. Designed to help children navigate the world of friendship and making friends, the stories fostered positive behaviors such as caring about oneself and others, tolerance, ecology, problem-solving and teamwork.

The second season introduced a weekly segment called "Factasaurus" that taught lessons and fun facts educating children about different dinosaur species.

As he grows up, Gabriel starts to suspect that he is not like other boys, and engages in a series of sexually oriented games with Noel, a young male friend. He is later caught in the act by his childhood friend Fergal. During adolescence, Gabriel is convinced by his cousin Connor to sexually experiment with him, learns he is attracted to his own sex, and tries to fight it by trying to make himself attracted to girls. At sixteen, he is also abused at school by a priest Father Cornelius.

The story ends with Brendan's revelation and Gabriel about to leave Ireland to go to University in England, and the reader has to draw his or her own conclusions about whether Gabriel will continue his relationship with Fiona – with whom he is in love but can't have a sexual relationship – or reconcile with his homosexual leanings.

In 1923, an American named Delapore, the last descendant of the De la Poer family, moves to his ancestral estate of Exham Priory in England following the death of his only son during World War I. To the dismay of nearby residents, he restores the estate. After moving in, Delapore and his cat frequently hear the sounds of rats scurrying behind the walls. Upon investigating further with the assistance of his son's war comrade Edward Norrys and several academics, and through recurring dreams, Delapore learns that his family maintained an underground city for centuries, where they raised generations of "human cattle"—some regressed to a quadrupedal state—to supply their taste for human flesh. This was stopped when Delapore's ancestor Walter killed his entire family in their sleep and left the country in order to end the horror, leaving the remaining human livestock and a surviving relative to be devoured by the rats inhabiting the city's cesspits.

Maddened by the revelations of his family's past, a hereditary cruelty, and his anger over his son's death, Delapore attacks Norrys in the dark of the cavernous city and begins eating him while rambling in a mixture of Middle English, Latin, and Gaelic, before devolving into a cacophony of animalistic grunts. He is subsequently subdued and placed in a mental institution. At least one other investigator, Thornton, has gone insane as well. Soon after, Exham Priory is destroyed and the investigators decide to cover up the existence of the underground city. Delapore maintains his innocence, proclaiming that it was "the rats, the rats in the walls", who ate the man. He continues to be plagued by the sound of rats in the walls of his cell.

Two scientists are attempting to distribute the cure for a demon virus that is affecting people all over Japan, however, things have become complicated. One of them has become infected. So begins his battle with himself, as he attempts to not only control his emerging demon side, but also to save the lives of others by wielding its great strength.

Three porn star triplets are abducted from Lula's house and she decides to rescue them. After finding her keys, Lula leaves her home in Beverly Hills and travels to San Francisco, Las Vegas, and New Orleans to rescue them.

The book is written in the present tense. It's 1978, New Jersey: ''Saturday Night Fever'' and ''Grease'' are big. 13-year-old Robin MacKenzie is caught in a triangular relationship with next-door neighbor Todd Spicer and classmate Scott Schatz.

Robin develops a fascination for 17-year-old neighbor Todd who, despite often teasing him, initiates a sexual relationship with the younger boy, whom Todd invites to a party after which they go swimming on a golf course. Robin further forms a close bond with fellow freshman Scott Schatz, whose father is physically abusive. Robin learns that, two years earlier, Todd and Scott were involved in a sexual relationship. Robin is troubled by this, but his relationship with Scott is ultimately unaffected.

During the novel, Robin's younger brother Jackson dies some time after falling from a slide and breaking his neck, an incident Robin blames himself for although it isn't anyone's fault. As a result, Robin's family begins to break down: his father becomes violent towards Robin, and Robin's longstanding bond with his mother begins to be affected. His younger sister Ruby becomes religious and also closer to Robin.

Ekaterina is an exiled Svanetian princess who arrives at an unnamed city at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela, Pittsburgh. There, she gets a job teaching an introductory mycology class at a university. Meanwhile, she rents a room from a woman, Loretta, who lives there with her twelve-year-old son, Kenny, who immediately takes a precocious liking to her. She befriends the 12-year-old boy called Kenny who reminds her of two young pubertal boys she had relationships with in Russia, Islamber and Dzhordzha. Harington describes the attractive boy as a faunlet, a male counterpart to Vladimir Nabokov's nymphet in ''Lolita''.

After two months, the 27-year-old Ekaterina seduces Kenny and they have sex. During the course of their sexual relationship, Kenny, already a juvenile delinquent, steals contraceptives to avoid pregnancy. When Kenny confesses his sexual relationship with Ekaterina after being caught stealing car parts, his mother forces Ekaterina to leave. She settles in town called Stick Around where she befriends a woman named Sharon, who indirectly introduces her to a boy named Jason. Later, she engages Jason on his twelfth birthday by giving him an all-over massage in the bath while baby-sitting him.

With the help of a novelist and improbable creative writing teacher named Ingraham, Ekaterina matures as a writer, eventually publishing not only a successful autobiography, ''Louder, Engram!'' (invoking Nabokov's revised autobiography, ''Speak, Memory''), but also several works of fiction, one of which, a novel called ''Georgie Boy'', becomes a bestseller, allowing her to move from "Stick Around," this novel's disguise for Stay More, the primal setting for all of Harington's novels except his first, ''The Cherry Pit,'' to a hotel in Arcaty, the novel's counterpart to the real Arkansas Ozarks town of Eureka Springs. In Arcaty, she meets young Travis Coe, another twelve-year-old boy, who moves into her luxurious penthouse apartment as her houseboy. After getting the lice out of his hair, Ekaterina invites Travis into her bed – just twelve days after they meet. Travis turns out to be a considerably more complex presence than his new employer has anticipated, and the relationship does not last. Ekaterina discovers that Travis was not a virgin and kicks him out, becoming obsessed with how he lost his virginity. Travis does go on to star in Hollywood's screen adaptation of ''Georgie Boy''. Ekaterina also benefits by turning her investigation of the girl to whom Travis lost his virginity into a series of short stories that propel her fame further by being published in Playboy magazine.

Ekaterina's relationships with pubescent boys constitute only one facet of this character's ingeniously layered life-story. Donald Harington’s writing is sometimes described as magic realism, but that term hardly begins to suggest the narrative pyrotechnics of Ekaterina, which the author has aptly described as not so much a tribute to Nabokov's ''Lolita'' as an apotheosis of it.

A future post-apocalyptic world is ruled by the good-looking people. A terrorist group of disabled people, who see themselves as mutants, take arms against their oppressors. They plan to rid the world of "beautiful people" and superficiality. They are very inept at what they do and mistrust one another. They assassinate body builders, massacre an aerobics class on live TV and blow up a sperm bank as part of their violent campaign.

Led by their chief Ramón Yarritu (Antonio Resines), they plan their final hit before retirement; the kidnap of Patricia Orujo (Frédérique Feder), the daughter and only heiress of billionaire businessman Lord Orujo (Fernando Guillén), the plan involves kidnapping the girl in the middle of her wedding but the scene becomes a massacre when the girl cuts the cake with a large sharp knife puncturing the chest of one of the terrorists that was hidden inside of it, badly hurt he opens the cake top and open fire on the alarmed and unsuspecting attendees, 2 members of the terrorist group are killed in the middle of the fray but the rest manage to flee with Patricia as their hostage. They staple Patricia's lips together with a special electronic device and escape from the police in their spaceship whose disguised as a gigantic fish merchant ship.

Ramón, planning to keep the ransom money for himself, hides from the group that the amount set for the exchange is 100 million and declares its only 10 million, the gang accidentally watches a news flash report where the correct amount to be delivered by the girl's family is revealed, the gang gets upset and summons Ramón to explain the misinformation but he turns the gang members against each other by convincing them there is a traitor on board the ship and that is part of the crew.

His scheme and plot leads to the deaths of all the crewmen/henchmen of the gang seemingly accidentally each time a member was murdered by Ramón himself, while killing the last one of the terrorists - Juan (Juan Viadas), who has a siamese twin .. Álex (Álex Angulo), he is discovered and a fierce fight starts culminating in the destruction of the guidance system of the ship. They crash on a planet called Axturiax, a brutal and forgotten mining planet inhabited only by male crazed, sex-starved miners because all women had died. Ramón and Patricia, who has developed Stockholm syndrome, are captured by miners but manage to escape, but not before they attempt to gang-rape her, Álex survives the crash too and after he friendlies with a blind experienced miner, he decides to pursue Ramón to avenge his death brother and to rescue Patricia, he must drag the attached dead body of his brother Juan around with him for the rest of the film, A planned ransom drop trick by Orujo turns into mayhem, when a portable nuclear device is activated by lord Orujo to wipe clean the whole area, the event is compounded by live TV coverage for the ransom negotiations when Álex arrives and kills Lord Orujo with a headshot, initiating a dogfight inside the bar that goes to its climax when the police forces join the show and Ramón decides to sacrifice himself to allow Patricia escape and survive the bar fight with the police forces outside ... greeting Patricia with a French kiss and Álex by telling him he is still useless, he uses Lord Orujo mini nuke to evaporate the police army outside entrance while the bar trembles and crumbles due to the mini nuke shockwave.

When the nuclear blast is over Álex finally gets rid of his siamese twin attached body and finds Patricia hidden below a metal cage that saved her, they hold each other in order to ready a machine gun and get outside the destroyed bar.

Paedophilia is at the heart of the story. Oliver Gold's pure thoughts, and seemingly asexual life contrast with the reality of his desires and deeds. Oliver abuses Bobs over a long period.

Category:1998 British novels Category:Novels by A. N. Wilson Category:British philosophical novels Category:Child sexual abuse in literature Category:Pedophilia in literature Category:W. W. Norton & Company books

While exploring a cave in Egypt, Cheng Sinzan discovers a leg armor plate said to be one of six pieces of the Armor of Mars, only to be defeated by Laocorn Gaudeamus and his three henchmen – Panni (who has pink hair and wears red armor), Hauer (who has white hair and wears white armor, as well as the golden mask on his face), and Jamin – before Laocorn attaches the part to his body and destroys the cave. In Japan, Joe Higashi defeats Muay-Thai champion Hwa Jai and reunites with his friends Terry and Andy Bogard, as well as Mai Shiranui. While being chased by a masked assailant, Sulia Gaudeamus - Laocorn's younger twin sister - befriends Terry. After Big Bear is knocked unconscious by the assailant, Kim Kaphwan defeats him, exposing the assailant as Cheng. Sulia reveals that she has searched for Terry since his battle with Wolfgang Krauser. Sulia, Terry, Andy, Mai, and Joe travel to Rhodes, where Sulia reveals that she is a descendant of Gaudeamus, a powerful warrior whose armor drew fear among Alexander the Great. Alexander's generals killed Gaudeamus, but the armor gained life after his death and reincarnated himself as Mars before destroying a city; it was eventually defeated by four warriors. To prevent Mars from destroying cities again, the armor was broken up and hidden in different locations. On the island, the five discover a series of cave paintings that indicate martial arts moves such as Tung Fu Rue's Hurricane Punch and Krauser's Blitz Ball were influenced by Gaudeamus. Sulia reveals that she possesses healing powers due to her heritage and shares a mental bond with Laocorn. After Sulia discovers the locations of two of the three remaining armor pieces, the group divides into two subgroups in an attempt to find them.

While searching for the breastplate in Turkey, Terry, Joe, and Sulia discover an ancient chamber, which was unearthed in the police station's destruction, and realize that the breastplate is in Germany's Stroheim Castle, Krauser's former home. Joe is sent to Baghdad to rendezvous with Andy and Mai. In Iraq, Andy and Mai find out that the site of the leg armor was raided when the Mongolians sacked Baghdad and brought their loot back to China. Realizing that Tung Fu Rue knew the location of the armor piece before he died, their next lead would be Tung's old friend Jubei Yamada. Attempting to find the breastplate, Terry and Sulia encounter Laocorn and Jamin and they escape, but Terry is seriously injured in the process. In Japan, Andy and Mai go to Duck King's nightclub, where they have arranged to meet with Jubei. As Jubei gives Andy the location of the leg armor, Andy encounters Geese Howard's staff-wielding henchman Billy Kane, but are interrupted by Hauer. After unsuccessfully trying to seduce Mai, Hauer accidentally destroys the nightclub.

After healing Terry using part of her life force, Sulia tells him that her and Laocorn's father was leading an expedition to find the Armor of Mars after discovering the first piece - the right gauntlet. However, a business partner shot the twins' father and wounded Laocorn, but Laocorn killed the murderer with the gauntlet. Since then, Laocorn developed an insatiable desire to complete the armor. Hearing the story, Terry vows to fight to protect Sulia from any pain or suffering. In China, Andy retrieves the leg armor when he and Mai are defeated by Hauer, who almost kisses Mai, causing Andy to grow angry, and steals the piece. Meanwhile, Panni defeats Krauser's former henchman Laurence Blood and acquires the breastplate. The five regroup in Rhodes, where Sulia tells them that Laocorn has not found the crown - the sixth armor piece. They discover a secret chamber behind the cave paintings and use Sulia's pendant to reveal the Dead Sea in Israel as the location of the final piece.

In Jerusalem, as Andy practices his techniques, Terry and Joe pass out while Mai and Sulia are cornered by Panni, Hauer, and Jamin. Sulia agrees to go with her older twin brother if he promises not to harm her friends. Sulia and Jamin disappear, while Hauer and Panni are easily defeated by Andy and Mai, who share a kiss after Panni and Hauer's defeat.

The heroes head for the Dead Sea, where Laocorn uses his powers to raise an ancient temple. After being defeated by Terry's Burning Knuckle technique at the temple's entrance, Jamin tells him that he can save Laocorn and Sulia due to their bonds.

Laocorn finds the armor's crown, mounted on a statue of Mars, and crowns himself - causing the armor to encase him in vermeil and augment his powers and abilities. Andy, Joe, and Mai join in the fight, but are overpowered by Laocorn's newly acquired powers. When Laocorn is about to finish the heroes, however, Sulia stabs her arm to injure Laocorn. As his abilities have become more powerful, so has his mental bond with his sister. Sulia stabs herself in the chest, causing more pain to Laocorn. As she dies, Sulia tells Terry to strike Laocorn's breastplate. Terry defeats Laocorn and reduces his armor into four coins, which assimilate into the statue of Mars, reviving it after the heroes mourn over Sulia's death, with Terry kissing Sulia. Realizing that this armor was using him to revive Mars, Laocorn jumps in front of Andy who was shielding Mai, Laocorn dies from Mars' attack by sacrificing himself. Terry combines it with his skills to attack Mars and eventually defeats him. After escaping the temple with Mai, Andy, and Joe, Terry throws his cap into the air as everyone leave.

Whilst travelling in time, the TARDIS suddenly shakes violently. The Eighth Doctor shuts it down, concluding that it is tearing itself apart attempting to escape a force that is forcing it to land. As the Doctor, Anji and Fitz emerge onto a wasteland, they are captured by soldiers. They learn that they have landed on a planet that is host to a war between two factions of humans: the Plutocratic empire and rebels known as Defaulters. Both sides have weapons that can slow the flow of time, or speed it up in small areas, but because of this, both sides have reached a stalemate.

The soldiers take the Doctor to an officer called Lane. She assumes that the Doctor is the time expert the Plutocrats were sending, and the Doctor decides to agree. Lane takes them to a military outpost called Station 40. When they arrive, one of the soldiers, a man called Bishop, who had his arm aged by a time storm, is placed in a decelerated time capsule until his fate is decided.

The commander of the base, Commander Bragg, reveals that one of his scientists, Dr Patterson, has developed a time capsule, which they plan to use to stop the war from ever happening. Two men, Ash and Norton, get inside the machine and go back in time, but the machine spins out of control. The Doctor brings the machine back to the present, and Ash and Norton are placed in quarantine and develop disorientation, anachrophobia, memory loss and physical trauma.

The Doctor finds a breach in the machine's walls, meaning that the machine's interior was exposed to the time vortex. Meanwhile, Norton's condition is getting worse: time is moving more slowly around him and he cannot recognise his own face as his past is slowly being erased. The Doctor decides to travel in the time capsule and Fitz demands to go with him, but Bragg learns that the Doctor is not the time expert and stops Anji from carrying on with controlling the capsule. Meanwhile, inside the capsule, time slows down and something begins banging on the door.

Lane goes to check Ash and Norton, but they attack her and in her rush to leave she tears her time proof suit. Time then jumps back one minute, and lane contacts Bragg, giving Anji the chance to overpower him and return The Doctor and Fitz to the present. However another staff member, Shaw, overpowers Anji and locks the Doctor and his companions away. Time begins to flow more slowly over Lane and time jumps back a minute, confirming that Ash and Norton infected lane, who has now infected Bragg.

A man called Mistletoe arrives at the station, claiming to be an auditor sent to review the experiments. Shaw releases the Doctor, Fitz and Anji and brings them to the lab as Mistletoe moves Bishop to the quarantine ward. Bishop becomes infected and Ash, Norton and Bishop face's all turn into clock faces. The Doctor uses gas to knock out the infected and after examining them, reveals that they are turning into clocks.

Elsewhere, Patterson sees Bragg's face turn into a clock, but when he reaches the Doctor to warn him, his face turns into a clock, and he finds that he can travel throughout his own lifetime. The Doctor warns him not to, as he fears that the infected are offered the chance to change their personal timelines, but if they do, they have their history erased and become empty vessels for the clock creatures to take over. After hearing this, Patterson commits suicide.

Fitz and Shaw go looking for the others, but as they do, a Defaulter bombing causes safety doors to lower. Shaw takes Fitz down to the lower levels, leaving The Doctor and Anji trapped with Bragg. The Doctor opens the door and seals it again, but Bragg rewinds time to get through.

The Doctor and Anji seal themselves in the control room with Mistletoe, but it is too late for the clock creatures to rewind time. Fitz and Shaw are attacked by Lane, but due to her time reversal abilities, he cannot shoot her. Lane releases Ash, Bishop and Norton from the quarantine ward as Doctor, Anji and Mistletoe flee to the medical bay. the Doctor exams battle reports and finds them full of strange tactics. Mistletoe then admits that the war is being prolonged to increase profit for the empire.

The Doctor then decides to use mustard gas on the creatures as it takes an hour to take effect and the clocks will not be able to rewind time far enough to save themselves. Fitz and Shaw retrieve Mustard gas from the stores and release it. Anji cannot find the Doctor, until Fitz brings him back into the medical bay, having found him outside with no gas mask on. The infected people slowly die, but Mistletoe remembers that Bishop was taken to Station One, the main headquarters of the Plutocrats, to study his infection. The station has a population of 60,000, all of whom will be infected.

The survivors sent out in a van in pursuit of Dr. Hammond, only to find his van ambushed by Defaulters, but the whole area has been frozen in time due to Bishop's capsule being smashed. Dr. Hammond reveals himself to be a robot while Shaw reveals that he is a Defaulter agent. As Shaw prepares to shoot everyone, an accelerated time bomb brings time back to normal, and a Defaulter soldier shoots Shaw and injures Bishop. Hammond's power supply explodes, which kills the Defaulter. Bishop uses his powers to rewind time, kill the defaulter and flee from Hammond. however, his face turns into a clock. Plutocratic soldiers mistakenly rescue Bishop, but as the Doctor pursues them, they go through a small patch of decelerated time with broken shielding and arrive at station One months later.

They find that all of station One has been converted, but they are allowed to pass through unharmed. At the central audit bureau, they meet the Actuaries, robot accountants who have been running both sides of the war for profit. However, they cannot remember why they are making money or who for, as they have not received any contact from the Empire for one hundred years. They funded the time travel experiments to try to find their purpose. However Bishop enters and infects the Doctor.

As the clocks try to tempt him, he remembers that as the clocks exist outside of normal time, they depend on the hole in time that the capsule tore. The Doctor travels along his own timeline to the point where he sealed the airlock before the mustard gas was released. He runs to the lab and fills the time capsule with chrononium, the material used to make the time weapons, then he sets up a clockwork timer. After exposing himself to the gas, he returns to the present, without having changed history. The capsule then launches, sealing the hole. the clocks are killed, and the Doctor passes out.

Mistletoe reveals himself as Sabbath (he is not named in the text, but it is clearly him from the description) to Fitz and Anji. Sabbath explains that the clocks were not invading the universe but fleeing Sabbath's allies in the time vortex, and that both the clocks and the Doctor were manipulated into coming here, in the hope that the Doctor would destroy them. Sabbath then leaves, and Fitz and Anji carry the Doctor to the TARDIS.

The novel is set in a public school in England in the 1960s. It deals with the love affair between two boys, together with the internal politics of the school itself. Carleton, a sixth former loves Allen, a boy two years his junior. At the same time, the headmaster is trying to enforce a policy against such liaisons.

Set far in the future, the human race is in the middle of a cold war with an alien race called the Thanatosians. During a target practice by an Earth fleet that will destroy an uninhabited planet, the heavy destroyer ''Jeremiah O'Brien'' is infected with an unknown virus that mutates the crew. No longer recognized due to the changes in their DNA, the ''O'Brien'''s security robot, simply known as "the Ship's Defender", assumes they are invaders and kills them. An apparent technical malfunction has caused the ''O'Brien'''s computer to believe that it was in a real life war situation, and select the planet Calliope as a target for destruction. Like all of the human fleet's ''Cerberus''-class destroyers, the ''O'Brien'' carries a weapon known as "Iron Helix", which is capable of destroying all life on a planet in a single act. An attack on Calliope, a peaceful Thanatosian planet, would cause the war to go "hot".

The player is on board the scientific exploration ship ''Indiana'', and is contacted by the Earth's forces in an attempt to stop the ''O'Brien'', as it was the only ship nearby. As the ship is infected with the unknown virus, the player instead remotely controls a zoological robot that is sent over to explore. As much of the ship's systems are locked out using DNA detectors, the robot must collect uncontaminated samples of the crew's DNA to access different secured areas on board. The robot can also interface with dataports on the ''O'Brien'' to operate its systems, from opening doors to issuing executive commands.

The play takes place in the boudoir of Elizabeth I of England. In the midst of political upheaval aging Elizabeth is eagerly awaiting the arrival of her lover, the Earl of Essex, who is involved in an attempted coup d'etat against the queen. In order to prepare for this tryst, she has summoned her beautician, Dame Grosslady, who speaks primarily in grammelot.

Season 1

The story is spun off of the Korean historical drama Dae Jang Geum, though it is aimed for a younger audience. The plot is basically the same: a girl named Jang Geum with a dream of becoming a palace chef (의녀). However, the complex line of corruption and sometimes even murder present in Dae Jang Geum does not appear in Jang Geum's Dream. Jang Geum's Mother is revealed to have passed in Season 2. The plot is kept light throughout with quite a bit of comedy. Through the story, Jang Geum enters the palace and amazes people with her skills and willingness to learn.

However, after receiving much approval from the royals and upper sang goong, she abandons her thought of cooking to see people's smiles and turns to winning and impressing. Lady Han, a sang goong that has always watched over her, warns her of the path she is taking but Jang Geum continues to strive to impress. Finally she is found out by the sang goongs after stealing a sacred book and thrown out of the palace with her friends, Yeon Shan and Chang Yi. Jang Geum travels with her friends and slowly realizes the mistakes she made and turns back to the train of thought she once had. She realizes that she had forgotten the importance of natural flavor. At the end of this series, Jang Geum wins a competition by preparing food that is beneficial to each individual eating it and is allowed back into the palace. However, she demotes herself to the lowest palace maid because she wants to start over. The story continues with Jang Geum's Dream Season 2 in 2007.

Season 2

Jungjeon, the new hostess of the palace, enters, and Suratgan is also busy. The Choi family gains the trust of the new middle warlord, and moves into action quickly to secure the top spot in Suratgan.

On the other hand, strange events take place around Jang Geum-i and her party, and the appearance of a new character, Yoon-hwan.

Meanwhile, Jang Geum-i is accused of leaking Buwon-gun's illness and is in danger of being kicked out of the palace. Han Sang-gung risked her life to save Jang Geum-i and set out to find a secret to curing Buwon-gun's illness, and the journey of Jang Geum-i and her companions begins.

The film opens at a mid-1950s press conference, where scenes are shown for an upcoming film starring Nina (Liza Minnelli), a popular screen celebrity. While on her way to the conference, Nina looks at herself in an ornate mirror, which triggers a flashback to her arrival in Rome, when she was 19 years old. Her cousin, Valentina (Tina Aumont), has arranged for her to work as a chambermaid in a dilapidated hotel.

In the course of her duties, Nina meets an ailing, eccentric Senora Contessa Sanziani (Ingrid Bergman), who was once the toast of Europe. The Contessa receives a visit from her husband, Count Sanziani (Charles Boyer), from whom she has been estranged for 40 years. Old quarrels are revived and Sanziani leaves the hotel, sadly telling the manager that he does not wish to be informed if anything should happen to his wife.

After having a discussion with Nina, the Contessa decides to take her under her wing and turn her into a lovely and sophisticated woman. Nina is troubled by a birthmark on her forehead, but the Contessa assures her that someday important men will be eager to press their lips to it. One evening, the Contessa summons Nina to her room and shows her a scarlet sari an Indian ambassador had once given her.

She insists that Nina undress and places the sari on her. The Contessa then cuts Nina's long, dark hair and puts makeup on her and transforms the maid into a beautiful woman. Nina tells the Contessa she wishes she could be just like her, but the Contessa says that is a silly desire. While listening to the Contessa's stories, Nina imagines herself living out the Contessa's existence, triggering a series of fantasy sequences, all set in elaborate settings such as casinos and Venetian palazzos.

On a rare day off from work, Nina explores Rome and begins to sense the wonderful possibilities that may lie in store for her. That evening, while she is performing a task for the Contessa, the latter suffers a mental breakdown. The manager of the hotel, angered by the Contessa's wailing, insists that she must leave the hotel within a few days.

The next morning, Nina seeks help from Mario (Spiros Andros), a frustrated screenwriter who lives in the hotel. She has brought with her some of the Contessa's old stock certificates, hoping that Mario will be able to determine their worth. Mario tells her the certificates are worthless and that he feels no pity for the Contessa. Nina reacts angrily and leaves his room.

Later on, Nina goes to a bank and finds that Mario was very nearly right. Most of the certificates are, indeed, worthless, but one, from the Bank of Congo, is worth enough to pay the Contessa's hotel bill for several weeks – ₤150,000 (about US$240 in 1954, the year the film takes place).

She uses part of this money to help pay the Contessa's hotel expenses. That same day, Nina goes to a restaurant to pick up the Contessa's dinner. A screen director, Antonio Vicari (Gabriele Ferzetti), sees Nina in the restaurant and asks Mario, who is writing a screenplay for him, to introduce him to the young woman. The introduction is made, and arrangements are made for Nina to have a screen test.

Before she leaves for the studio, she finds that the Contessa has abruptly checked out of the hotel to find an old flame, Gabriele d'Orazio (Orso Maria Guerrini). The Contessa is no longer thinking clearly; she hurries into the street and is hit by a car. She is taken, unconscious, to a Catholic charity hospital.

Meanwhile, Nina has difficulties with her screen test, until Mario gets her to talk about the Contessa. Her subsequent show of passion impresses Vicari, who decides he wants Nina to star in his next picture.

Nina hurries off the set, and after a search, she and Mario locate the hospital where the Contessa is under the care of Sister Pia (Isabella Rossellini, her real-life daughter, in her first film role). Nina is taken to the Contessa's bedside, but the old woman has just died. Deeply saddened, Nina takes the Contessa's ornate mirror as a remembrance and leaves the hospital.

The film jumps forward to the present time. Nina has become a motion picture star. She arrives at the press conference. As she steps out of her limousine, a girl hurries up and says she wants to be just like Nina when she grows up.

Billy Fox is outwardly a retired Covent Garden market porter, but is involved in crime in London's East End.

Technician Ted is an enthusiastic young computer hacker who works at the chip factory. He begins his work every day at 8.30am and must complete 21 tasks before clocking off at 5.00pm. Unfortunately, his boss has not told him what the tasks are or where they are located. Ted speaks to his mate, who tells him that his first job is to get to his desk, and from there he must make his way to the "Silicon Slice Store".

The Doctor, Steven, and Vicki land in what seems to be Venice in 1609, where they meet a host of major historical figures including Galileo Galilei and William Shakespeare. However, with the arrival of old acquaintance Irving Braxiatel, Vicki's abduction and the framing of Steven for murder, the Doctor soon finds himself embroiled in the sinister machinations of an alien invasion.

The novel opens with a brief history of Vlad Taltos and a description of how he acquired his jhereg familiar, Loiosh. Despite being an Easterner in the Dragaeran city of Adrilankha, Vlad is a minor boss in the criminal activities of the Jhereg Organization. One day he is approached by ''the Demon'', an extremely powerful member of the Organization's ruling Council, and offered an assassination job with a staggeringly large reward. The contract is to kill another Jhereg crime lord, Mellar, who has absconded with a fortune from the Jhereg treasury. Vlad accepts, despite the very short time limit.

Mellar has become the houseguest of the Dragonlord Morrolan e'Drien in his floating fortress, Castle Black. Vlad is a personal friend of Morrolan and has a standing invitation to Castle Black, which would make the assassination quite easy. However Morrolan holds fast to the Dragonlord traditions of hospitality, and will permit no harm to come to his guests for any reason. The last time a Jhereg assassinated a Dragonlord's houseguest, it resulted in a war between the two Houses that decimated both. Morrolan has invited Mellar to stay for seventeen days, but the Jhereg need the hit performed before that time. Vlad is forced to find a compromise between the interests of his House and his friend.

Vlad's other friends, Aliera e'Kieron and Sethra Lavode, are more lax on the rules of hospitality and offer their help. Aliera wants to kill Mellar herself, as it is obvious to everyone, even Morrolan himself, that Mellar manipulated Morrolan and used the Dragonlord's honor as a shield against the Jhereg. This is a grave insult to the House of the Dragon. Sethra, the oldest and wisest of the group, agrees with Aliera's position, but feels that they must still respect Morrolan's wishes and find a way that will not violate his honor.

While Vlad looks for a solution, the Jhereg come up with their own plan. The Demon first interviews Vlad to see if he would go along with it, and when it is clear to him that Vlad would not, he tries to have Vlad assassinated. Vlad manages to escape and guesses the Demon's intentions, but he is too late. He arrives at Castle Black to find Morrolan already assassinated. With Morrolan dead, Mellar would no longer be under his protection, and thus his death would not start a second Dragon-Jhereg war.

Vlad foils this solution by breaking the enchantment preventing Morrolan's resurrection and has his friend brought back to life. The Jhereg, however, are undeterred. They would rather risk another Dragon-Jhereg War than allow Mellar's humiliating theft to become publicly known. An assassin descends on Mellar, but Vlad and his friends thwart him as well.

On reflection, Vlad realizes that Mellar's bodyguards, who are always hovering nearby, were mysteriously absent during the attempt on his life. Vlad manages to deduce, with the help of some other information gathered by his second-in-command, Kragar, that it is Mellar's intention to be assassinated. Mellar is a half-breed—a mix of Dragon, Jhereg and Dzur—and intends, through his death, to get his revenge on all his parent Houses by causing two to erupt into war and leaking information that would forever shame the third. Having solved the mystery of Mellar's crime, Vlad finally realizes how to solve his own dilemma.

With the help of nearly all of his friends, Vlad tricks Mellar into thinking he has killed Aliera, which would nullify his guest-rights with Morrolan. Mellar, believing his plan is ruined, flees Castle Black to avoid a purposeless death at the hands of the Jhereg. This actually takes him out of Morrolan's protection. Vlad follows him and engages the master swordsman in a duel. While near defeat, Vlad uses witchcraft to contact a nearby wild jhereg. With this second jhereg's help, Vlad kills Mellar, earning a vast bounty and saving two Houses in the same stroke. Rocza, the name given by Vlad to his second familiar, mates Loiosh.

''Ironwood'' follows the adventures of Dave Dragavon, a juvenile dragon existing only in human form (not yet having matured enough to take full dragon form) who is hired by the beautiful Pandora Breedlswight to find the wizard Gnaric in order to free her from a curse.

The comics are a mixture of sword and sorcery, sexual situations and adult humor.

Martin Lloyd (Willie Garson), an extraterrestrial turned Hollywood writer, returns to Stargate Command looking for assistance from SG-1 with his script for the movie adaptation of the television show ''Wormhole X-Treme'', based on the exploits of the Stargate Program. The team, especially Lt. Colonel Mitchell (Ben Browder), is reluctant to help. Mitchell is excited about his next off-world mission because it marks his 200th trip through the Stargate. Technical glitches prevent the team from setting off on their mission. General Landry (Beau Bridges) orders SG-1 to help Lloyd, as the government believes a successful science fiction film about intergalactic wormhole travel will serve as a good cover story to keep the real Stargate program a secret.

The notes session devolves into the team members pitching their own versions of a successful sci-fi film, including a zombie invasion (from Mitchell), a previously unseen mission where O'Neill became invisible (from Carter), "tributes" to ''The Wizard of Oz'' and ''Farscape'' (from Vala), and Teal'c as a private investigator (from Teal'c himself). Also featured are a vignette of the team's mental image of a "younger and edgier" SG-1 (sparked by the studio's suggestion to replace the original ''Wormhole X-Treme'' cast), a suggested scene by Martin that turns out to be both scientifically inaccurate and highly derivative of ''Star Trek'', a re-imagined version of the SG-1 pilot episode where all the characters are marionettes in the style of the television series ''Thunderbirds'', and an imagined wedding that features the return of General O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson). The studio decides to cancel the movie in favor of renewing the series. The end of the episode shifts ten years into the future, where the ''Wormhole X-Treme'' cast and crew celebrate their 200th episode, as well as renewed plans for a movie.

The novel opens with a mysterious Lady, who, having grown bored with contemplating the Universe, has decided to bring it to an end. She walks to the beach of the island where she lives alone, and summons a storm. As the storm builds up, a bottle washes up to the shore. The Lady picks up the bottle, takes out a manuscript it contains, and begins to read as the storm stands by and waits for her.

Q is deep-sea fishing (literally standing at the bottom of an ocean) with his wife Q and son q, when the ocean begins draining into a giant whirlpool. Q powerlessly watches as his wife and son are taken in, and is only barely able to escape. He arrives in the Holodeck of the Enterprise, where Picard and Data's fishing simulation had been disturbed by the same disaster.

In order to investigate what happened, Q takes Picard and Data to the Q Continuum, which they perceive as the fictional world of Dixon Hill. There, they learn that the Universe is ending, and that not only is the Q Continuum powerless to stop it, the Continuum actually welcomes the opportunity. Having explored all there is to explore and experienced all there is to experience, the Continuum is old and bored, and the end of the Universe is seen as a welcomed liberation. Q is unwilling to accept this decision, so the Continuum freeze him as a statue. With the help of Q2, Q escapes this punishment and the Continuum.

Q, Data and Picard return to the site of the whirlpool, to find it has calmed down and turned into a long shaft leading underground, which they proceed to explore.

The world down the shaft is actually five superposed worlds, each of which is a level of the Kübler-Ross model of the five stages of grief, populated by members of the multiverse with the appropriate reaction to the end of the universe. Q, Picard and Data go through each level, trying to reach the bottom. While exploring, Q contemplates his existence and that of the Q Continuum, the most powerful beings in existence, since he is convinced God does not exist. He reminisces on a young girl (Melony) he met in Times Square during the 2000 New Year party, in a parallel universe where he was posing as a human. She was insightful and intelligent, and when they kissed, Q thought she could almost feel his true power. In that universe, the celebration in Times Square was the target of a terrorist attack. Q, enraged by this senseless act, immediately puts out the fires and explosions, but not before Melony is killed. He later finds her body amongst the dead.

Level Denial. This level is populated with beings who try to ignore the fact the universe is ending, focusing instead on their more normal daily problems. Everyone is herded onto a train headed for oblivion, but no one believes it. Q, Picard, and Data battle Locutus in a race to uncouple the train before it incinerates every non-believing being on it.

Level Anger. Here, Q briefly encounters a parallel-universe version of Jadzia Dax who, following the events of "Blood Oath", chose not to return to Deep Space Nine but instead to continue fighting with Kang, Kor and Koloth. Together, the four of them are hunting the Romulans also present on this level, believing the whole thing to be some kind of Romulan ploy. However, Q realizes that the real culprit is his rival from the enemy M Continuum, who tries to blame him for the end of the universe. M stages a trial against Q in front of an infuriated jury, but Data wins the case by acting more angered than M and turning the jury against her.

Level Bargaining. This level is dominated by Grand Nagus Zek, who offers to trade whatever the other residents of the level own for empty promises of an afterlife. Q is finally reunited with his son q. However, q is now an adult, who has lived a long and depressed life believing his father had abandoned him to the whirlpool. After much trouble, Q manages to convince q that he never stopped trying to find him. Relieved, q reverts to his normal age.

The fourth level is Despair. On this level, Q finds his wife; however, she is so depressed that even seeing him is not enough for her to find something to live for, and she like the others on the level sinks into the mire.

After she dies, engulfed in despair, Q and the rest of the party enter a small house, which is the fifth and final level, Acceptance. The house consists of a large room with an unopenable door at the far end. When all the members of the party sit down and give up on trying to save the universe, the back wall of the room begins to close in on them. They struggle to push it back, but finally as Q accepts his fate the door flies open and he and q tumble through; Picard and Data are crushed.

Q finds himself and his son back in the Q Continuum, which is now seen as a New Year's Eve party, complete with a countdown to the end of the universe. It is the same as it was when he and Picard first arrived at the beginning of the quest. Q supposes that the whole quest was created to make him accept the inevitable. Q2 neither denies nor confirms this, instead offering that the Q Continuum is very much in the dark about all this and that, possibly, they had nothing to do with his adventure.

When the countdown reaches zero, the whirlpool starts anew, and the Q Continuum is pulled into it without a fight. q tries to hold on to his dad, but he's pulled in too. Q however resists the pull, refusing to accept that it is the end. He creates a written record of his journey and puts it in a bottle, which he throws into the whirlpool.

The story cuts back to the beach, where the Lady finishes reading Q's manuscript. She laughs out loud, and decides to call off the storm. She then finds q, wakes him, and gives him a mud boat to return home. But before he leaves, she writes something on a piece of paper, puts it in Q's bottle and hands it to q, to give to his father.

Back in the holodeck, Picard, Data, Q and his wife awaken in the simulated fishing boat. They spot q's mud boat, and Picard orders the computer to "end program". Everything disappears, except for the five individuals and q's boat. q tells his father of the island and the Lady, whom Q recognizes as the girl he met in Times Square. q then gives Q the bottle containing the Lady's message, but Q is too scared to open it. He hands it to Picard, who opens it and reads the message: "Let there be light".

Set between July 1999 and January 2000, the story revolves around Russian presidential candidate Igor Komarov, head of the right-wing Union of Patriotic Forces (UPF).

A highly popular and charismatic politician, victory is all but guaranteed for Komarov and the UPF in the national elections on 16 January 2000. However, a secret document, later known as the "Black Manifesto", is stolen from his secretary's empty office at UPF headquarters by Leonid Zaitsev, an elderly janitor and ex-soldier who happens to skim through the document while cleaning. The document contains extremely sensitive information regarding Komarov's future policies as president, such as the restoration of slave camps, creation of a one-party state, destruction of political opponents, invasions of the former Soviet republics, and genocide of Russia's ethnic and religious minorities.

Komarov's team capture and kill Zaitsev, but not before he gives the document to the British, who later translate it and show it to influential Western leaders. Sir Nigel Irvine, former head of the SIS, comes up with a plan to thwart Komarov's victory. Searching for a suitable man to carry out this plan, former CIA Deputy Director of Operations Carey Jordan recommends Jason Monk, a former recruiter and runner of Soviet agents for the CIA and Vietnam War veteran.

In parts of the novel, there are flashbacks to earlier years, detailing Monk's background and recruitment of several Soviets as US agents. These include government figures and a physicist. However, CIA mole Aldrich Ames, soon betrays these agents, along with all other CIA agents in the Soviet Union. Nearly all are rounded up by the Soviets, and are either executed or sentenced to hard labour after lengthy interrogation and torture by the ruthless Anatoli Grishin.

Colonel Nikolai Ilyich Turkin, the first Soviet to be recruited by Monk, develops a close friendship with him after Monk saves his son from dying of a tropical disease. He is, however, the last CIA agent caught by the Soviets, with Grishin supervising the capture in Berlin as Monk watches close by after their last meeting. Turkin is interrogated and sent to a labour camp. There, dying of typhoid, he pens a letter to Monk detailing his interrogation and torture at the camps, and bids a final farewell. Monk, filled with anger and grief, attacks a bureaucrat known to have aided Ames, and this leads to his dismissal from the CIA.

In 1999, he leads a quiet life in the Turks and Caicos Islands, taking tourists on fishing trips. Irvine visits him and talks about the plan against Komarov; Monk refuses, having sworn never to return to Russia, but agrees when he is given the chance to take revenge on Grishin, who is working as Komarov's security chief.

He returns to Russia and rounds up a ring of influential figures to his cause by showing them the "Black Manifesto", and, with the aid of the Chechen mafia, whose leader owes Monk his life, he begins a series of schemes aimed at derailing Igor Komarov's presidential campaign.

The story begins with the narrator calling "Halloa! Below there!" into a railway cutting. The signalman standing on the railway below does not look up, as the narrator expects, but rather turns about and stares into the railway tunnel that is his responsibility to monitor. The narrator calls down again and asks permission to descend. The signalman seems reluctant.

The railway hole is a cold, gloomy, and lonely place. The signalman still seems to be in fear of the narrator, who tries to put him at ease. The signalman feels that he had seen the narrator before, but the narrator assures him that this is impossible. Reassured, the signalman welcomes the newcomer into his little cabin, and the two men speak of the signalman's work. His labour consists of a dull monotonous routine, but the signalman feels he deserves nothing better, as he wasted his academic opportunities when he was young, although he has been spending his time during his shifts teaching himself mathematics and learning a foreign language (albeit with questionable pronunciation). The narrator describes that the signalman seems like a dutiful employee at all times, except when he twice looks at his signal bell when it is not ringing. There seems to be something troubling the signalman, but he will not speak of it. Before the narrator leaves, the signalman asks of him not to call for him when he's back on the top of the hill or when he sees him the following day.

The next day, as directed by the signalman, the narrator returns and does not call. The signalman tells the narrator that he will reveal his troubles. He is haunted by a recurring spirit which he has seen at the entrance to the tunnel on separate occasions, and, with each appearance, was followed by a tragedy. In the first instance, the signalman heard the same words which the narrator said and saw a figure with its left arm across its face, while waving the other in desperate warning; he questioned it, but it vanished. He then ran into the tunnel, but found no-one; a few hours later, there was a terrible train crash with many casualties. During its second appearance, the figure was silent, with both hands before the face in an attitude of mourning; then, a beautiful young woman died in a train passing through. Finally, the signalman admits that he has seen the spectre several times during the past week.

The narrator is sceptical about the supernatural, and suggests that the signalman is suffering from hallucinations. During their conversation, the signalman witnesses a ghost and hears his bell ring eerily, but the narrator sees and hears nothing. The signalman is sure that these supernatural incidents are presaging a third tragic event waiting to happen, and is sick with fear and frustration: he does not understand why he should be burdened with knowledge of an incipient tragedy when he, a minor railway functionary, has neither the authority nor the ability to prevent it. The narrator believes that his new friend's imagination has been overtaxed and suggests taking him to see a doctor.

The next day, the narrator visits the railway cutting again and sees a mysterious figure at the mouth of the tunnel. This figure is not a ghost, however; it is a man, one of a group of officials investigating an incident on the line. The narrator discovers that the signalman is dead, having been struck by an oncoming train. He had been standing on the line, looking intently at something, and failed to get out of the way. The driver of the train explains that he attempted to warn the signalman of his danger: as the train bore down on the signalman the driver called out to him, "Below there! Look out! For God’s sake, clear the way!" Moreover, the driver waved his arm in warning even as he covered his face to avoid seeing the train strike the hapless signalman. The narrator notes the significance of the similarity between the driver's words and actions and those of the spectre as the signalman had earlier described them, but leaves the nature of that significance to the reader.

Six months after he took control of his own territory in the criminal Organization, Vlad engages in his first turf war with a rival boss. Each chapter's epigraph is a quote from its chapter.

Vlad narrates this story from a point in his life before the events of ''Jhereg''. He quickly summarizes the series of turf wars and assassinations that led him to rise in the ranks of the Organization from low-rung assassin to the boss of his own neighborhood. As the story begins, Vlad has held his territory for six uneventful months, but then he receives word that a neighboring boss, Laris, has started to move in on his territory. A turf war between Vlad and Laris erupts. Vlad receives indirect help from several of his powerful friends in the House of the Dragon, but remains one step behind the better-prepared and better-informed Laris.

Vlad survives several attempts on his life, but eventually two of his bodyguards betray him and allow him to be attacked by two female assassins, a Dragaeran and an Easterner. Vlad's lieutenant had received timely warning of the attack and sent word to Vlad's friends, Morrolan and Aliera, who teleport to the scene. They kill the assassins but are unable to rescue Vlad, who is killed by the Easterner assassin. Aliera revivifies Vlad as well as the two assassins. Vlad meets the Easterner assassin, Cawti, and the two quickly fall in love. Aliera discovers that Cawti's partner, Norathar, is the former heir of House Dragon, having fallen into disgrace as a bastard some time ago. The current heir, Aliera, is looking for a way out of the position, and does a genetic test to determine the legitimacy of Norathar's claim.

Vlad turns his attention back to his ongoing turf war, now with the help of Cawti. After yet another failed assassination attempt, Vlad begins to suspect that his war with Laris is only a ruse to cover some larger plot. After Norathar is confirmed as the legitimate heir, Vlad reasons out that the genetic test that incorrectly dubbed her a bastard was part of a plot to keep her from the throne. Further investigation suggests that Vlad's whole war with Laris has been orchestrated to get Norathar killed and to discredit Morrolan and Aliera. Vlad quickly reasons out that the Sorceress in Green, a prominent Yendi, has been working in consort with Sethra the Younger, an ambitious Dragonlord, to put a Dragon heir on the throne who will appoint Sethra as Warlord. Sethra wants to invade the Eastern Kingdoms and needs to install a sympathetic Emperor to achieve her ambitions.

Sethra's namesake, Sethra Lavode, learns of her former apprentice's plans and teleports her away to deal with her personally. Morrolan, Aliera, Vlad, Cawti, and Norathar all pursue the Sorceress in Green, who leads them into a trap. Morrolan, Aliera, and Norathar fight through the Sorceress's thirty guards and magical defenses while Vlad and Cawti watch. Once most of the guards are slain, Vlad sneaks behind the Sorceress, destroys her magical wards with Spellbreaker, and threatens to kill her with a Morganti dagger if she does not give him Laris's location. She complies without hesitation. Vlad backs away and allows the battle to reach its conclusion, with Norathar killing the Sorceress.

Vlad summons his enforcers and storms Laris's office, killing him without difficulty. Later, he learns that Aliera revived the Sorceress, believing that her humiliation was sufficient punishment (and also, they have used a mind probe on her and written down all the schemes in which she is involved). Sethra Lavode tells him how she teleported Sethra the Younger to an alternate dimension to do penance. Vlad and Cawti get engaged to be married and visit Vlad's grandfather.

''This Earth of Mankind'' tells the story of Minke, a Javanese minor royal who studies at a ''Hogere Burger School'' (HBS) in an era when only the descendants of the European colonizers can expect to attain this level of education. Minke is a talented young writer whose works are published in several Dutch-language journals and are widely admired. But as a "native", Minke is disliked by many of his fellow-students, who all claim some European descent. He is portrayed as being bold in opposing the injustices imposed upon his fellow Javanese as well as challenging aspects of his own culture.

Minke is introduced to an extremely unusual Indonesian woman, Nyai Ontosoroh, who is the concubine of a Dutch man called Herman Mellema. Though she is a concubine, Nyai Ontosoroh is the actual head of family and company as Herman Mellema lost his sanity in the past. Minke falls in love with their daughter, Annelies, whom he eventually marries in an Islamic wedding in accordance with "native" customs, but which, according to Dutch law, has no legal validity because it was conducted without the consent of the under-aged Annelies' legal, Dutch, guardians.

In that period, it was common for women to become the concubines of Dutch men living in the East Indies. They were considered to have low morals because of their status as concubines, even if, as in Nyai Ontosoro's case, they had no choice in the matter. Their children had uncertain legal status - either considered illegitimate "natives" with a corresponding lack of legal rights, unless legally acknowledged by their father, in which case they were considered "Indos", and their mother lost all rights over them in favor of the father. As a concubine, Nyai Ontosoro suffers because of her low status and lack of rights, but, significantly, is aware of the injustice of her suffering and believes education is the route by which her basic humanity can be acknowledged. She believes that learning is the key to opposing indignity, stupidity, and poverty. However, the decision to have the children of their relationship legally acknowledged as Herman Mellema's children has catastrophic consequences by the end of the book.

For Pramoedya, education is the key to changing one's fate. For instance, Nyai Ontosoro, who had no formal schooling and who was educated by her experiences, from books, and from her daily life, was a far more inspiring educator than Minke's high school teachers. However, ''This Earth of Mankind'' also powerfully portrays the reality of Dutch colonial government in Indonesia through the lives of the characters, where Minke's education and Nyai Ontosoro's success in business count for little when ranged against the unyielding Dutch colonial law.

Pete Dumond, chief make-up artist for 25 years at American International Studios, will be laid off after the studio is purchased by NBN Associates. The new management from the East, Jeffrey Clayton and John Nixon, plan to make musicals and comedies instead of the horror pictures for which Pete has created his remarkable monster make-ups and made the studio famous. In retaliation, Pete vows to use the very monsters these men have rejected to destroy them. By mixing a numbing ingredient into his foundation cream and persuading the young actors that their careers are through unless they place themselves in his power, he hypnotizes both Larry Drake and Tony Mantell (who are playing the characters the Teenage Werewolf and the Teenage Frankenstein, respectively, in the picture ''Werewolf Meets Frankenstein'', currently shooting on the lot).

Through hypnosis, Pete urges Larry, in Teenage werewolf make-up, to kill Nixon in the studio projection room. Later, he orders the unknowing Tony, in Teenage Frankenstein make-up, to attack Clayton after he arrives home at night in his 1958 Lincoln convertible and Tony Frankenstein proceeds to choke Clayton to death. Next day, studio guard Monahan, a self-styled detective, stops in at the make-up room. He shows Pete and Rivero, Pete's make-up assistant, his little black book in which he has jotted down many facts, such as the late time (9:12PM) Pete and Rivero checked out the night of the murder of Jeffrey Clayton. He explains his ambition, saying he hopes to work his way up to chief of the lot. Apprehensive, Pete makes himself up as a terrifying Prehistoric Man, one of his own creations and kills Monahan in the studio commissary while Monhan makes his rounds of the studio lot.

Richards, the older guard, sees and hears nothing of the struggle, but discovers the missing Monahan's body. Police investigators uncover two clues: a maid, Millie, describes Frankenstein's monster (Tony, in make-up), who struck her down as he fled from Clayton's murder and the police laboratory technician discovers a peculiar ingredient in the make-up left on Clayton's fingers from his death struggle with Tony. The formula matches bits found in Pete's old make-up room. The police head for Pete's house. Pete has taken Rivero, Larry and Tony for a grim farewell party to his home, which is a museum of all the monsters that he has created in his 25 years at the studio. Pete, distrusting Rivero, stabs Rivero to death when they are alone in the kitchen. Learning that Larry and Tony are trying to leave the locked living room, he attacks them both with a knife. Larry awkwardly knocks over a candelabra, setting the monster room on fire, and Pete is burned to death, trying in vain to save the heads of his monster "children" mounted on the wall. The police break through the locked door before the flames reach the boys and they save Larry and Tony. The audience will not understand why two grown men/boys couldn't break through the door themselves or why a black and white film suddenly appears in color for the final few minutes within the creepy house of Pete Dumond.

Norman T. Kingsley is a filmmaker who is known as the "American Buñuel," and he is working on a sexually provocative drama about a brothel. Kingsley has his friends, actors, wannabe actresses and others join him on his estate in Upstate New York to audition for and work on his sexual drama. The twelve chapters in ''Maidstone'' are filmed in documentary form, and they depict Kingsley's everyday life as an actor and filmmaker. Kingsley refers to himself as a narcissist. Several attractive women are shown auditioning for a role in his film, and Kingsley is shown criticizing them heavily. He places himself within the film to show the actresses what he is looking for in his film. Kingsley is very realistic and convincing in his own acting. In addition to directing his film, he is also campaigning to become president and in doing so, he attracts journalists, scholars and some African-American radicals who question him about his campaign. Some of the attention that he draws leads to a group of people known as PAX,C discussing the need to have Kingsley assassinated.

Chapter One: A Meeting of High Officials

The film opens with a male voice presenting a series of newscasts by British commentator Jean Cardigan, who is known in England for the intimacy in her portraits of the great and the near-great. She is also described as "the sauciest bite in Britain." Next, Jean Cardigan appears and begins speaking about Norman T. Kingsley running for president. Her purpose is to keep a watch on Kingsley. The next scene is "The Meeting of High Officials," in which a group of people are sitting in a living room and listening to a man describe Kingsley. They say that his dominant nationality is Welsh, and that he went to different schools in pursuit of a degree in architecture. Kingsley is described as "indigenous, original, and a bit bizarre." The film then changes to a clip in which Kingsley begins auditioning women for his film. It then returns to the High Officials discussing Kingsley and his biography.

Chapter Two: The Director

Kingsley continues auditioning women and critiquing them heavily. He asks the women if they would be prepared to take off their clothes if the film called for it. At the same time, the High Officials provide psychoanalytic theories of Kingsley. They mention that Kingsley lives in New York, is separated from his wife and has had no contact with his five children. One official wants to know Kingsley's position on Red China, Soviet Russia, the new African states, Israel and the Arab states, presumably in reference to his presidential campaign. They introduce Mrs. Oswald, who works for Kingsley, because she knows the most about him. She claims that she knows as much about Kingsley as do everyone else. The High Officials mention the Buñuel movie, and then first mention assassination. The chapter concludes with a backyard boxing fight between Kingsley and Raoul Rey O'Houlihan. Kingsley demands to not to be hit in his face because he will appear in his own film.

Chapter Three: PAX,C & Cash Box

Jean Cardigan talks about the new secret elite peace organization called Prevention of Assassination Experiments, Control (PAX,C). Cardigan says that she heard that PAX,C incites assassinations rather than prevents them. She was accused of being a member of the British equivalent of PAX,C, but she denies involvement. The scene changes back to the High Officials discussing the Cash Box. It is explained that Rey is Kingsley's half-brother. The scene changes back to Kingsley, who says that he is on top of the Cash Box and that Rey is right under him. A photographer takes pictures of the potential actresses, and then an older woman speaks with Kingsley about using her estate for filming.

Chapter Four: Instructions to the Cast

Kingsley speaks with his chosen film cast. He explains that the film is about a brothel in which men work to mate women. He explains the sexual nature of the film. The scene changes back and forth between two men fishing and Kingsley speaking to the cast.

Chapter Five: Politicking in the Grass

Chapter five is titled "Politicking in the Grass". It starts with the Cash Box members talking to each other. The scene changes to Ms. Cardigan talking about how Kingsley is receiving political delegations while he is making his "sex movie." She says that she saw one girl undress another while they were filming on the lawn of the estate, with the Cash Box to be seen in the open. She feels that a man running for president should not be associated with something like the Cash Box, and that the film shoot is chaotic. After that, Kingsley speaks to a group of black men about poverty and life. The men are convinced that Kingsley is merely seeking the black vote in his run for president. Then the president of the ladies' college appears and says that she does not want to have a myth in the presidential office, and asks Kingsley about his credentials as a candidate. An argument ensues between a few men, and a shirtless Kingsley is seen lying on a lawn, speaking to a woman about voting. Kingsley engages in a conversation about sexual freedom in America and someone who hangs himself while having an erection.

Chapter Six: A Commencement of Filming

The chapter begins with Kingsley and the cast clearing out a room to start filming. It transitions into a somewhat sexual scene between a male and a female who are presumably cast members of Kingsley's film. Kingsley is next shown speaking to a different female cast member. They discuss the type of men whom she prefers. She talks in depth about her sexual curiosity to be with a black man, stating "I heard they are good." Kingsley kisses her and they get into bed together. Kingsley is next shown talking to a different woman about an Irish poet who said, "The devil is the most beautiful creature God ever created." This is a paraphrase from John Milton's ''Paradise Lost''. Next, Ms. Cardigan says that the latest bulletin from NTK sexual front is that "Ultraviolet," the star of Andy Warhol films, is going to appear in Kingsley's film having sex with a Black man. This is supposed to be a "cinematic first" for Kingsley. More conversation is shown with the cast members. Kingsley is then shown sexually caressing yet another female.

Chapter Seven: Portents

The High Officials discuss the manner in which they think Kingsley should be assassinated. A man from Kingsley's film is then shown making unusual whooping noises with his mouth.

Chapter Eight: Return of an Old Love

A man interrupts Kingsley to tell him that Valarie Bruenelle is at the estate. Kingsley says that the last time he saw her she was very "rapid." Kingsley meets with Bruenelle and they sit at a table smoking, talking and singing. Kingsley asks why Bruenelle came to see him and asks if it was to wish him well. Bruenelle says that she does not know if she wishes him well. Some photos are flashed across the screen showing Ms. Bruenell in her younger years.

Chapter Nine: The Death of A Director

With sexually induced female moaning in the background, a man is shown falling to the floor, and then a man is shown playing the piano. This chapter changes scenes quickly, in a random flashing manner, showing images of back roads, Ms. Cardigan, Kingsley, Kingsley's wife and children, the estate and other miscellaneous events. A sexual scene is shown with Kingsley speaking about his film becoming pornographic. The chapter then transitions into flashes of events occurring during Kingsley's presidential campaign. Several flashes of Kingsley and women are then shown, one with a fully nude woman. Kingsley says that his film is very close to sexual exploitation. Several more sex scenes are shown, one with Ms. Cardigan exposing her almost-bare chest as her dress is open and loose on top. Ms. Cardigan is shown very disheveled, in an almost demonic state, holding a baby doll and screaming, "I hate NTK!" The final scene shows several people walking down a dirt road, away from the camera.

Chapter Ten: The Grand Assassination Ball

The chapter opens with a party for Kingsley's presidential campaign. The High Officials and Kingsley's wife are in attendance. Two cast members say that the "king has been assassinated" and suddenly scream. Kingsley makes his way on stage, where he yells "Silence! The king is ready to speak!" He makes a speech about how much he trusts everyone who is there until they betray him for the first time. As the music continues to play, everyone is dancing and appears to be enjoying themselves, except for the High Officials, who look mad. One of the young black men from the cast tries to attack Kingsley. It takes several men to subdue him to the ground and to escort him out of the ball. After this, the music stops, Kingsley's brother walks up to his brother and yells out to the crowd, "Is my brother for freedom?", to which his wife yells out, "Come on! Play some freedom! Play some freedom! You don't know nothing about freedom!" The scene ends by going completely black into the next scene, in which Kingsley's wife is sitting in his house smoking a cigarette.

Chapter Eleven: A Course in Orientation

This chapter begins with Kingsley entering his home where his wife awaits him. He sits down and she angrily accuses him of getting "even" with her by not calling her into work. He discusses the actors with whom he worked during filming. His wife says that he is afraid of real talent because it might steal something from him. The next scene shows Kingsley, his wife, and his children on a sailboat in the ocean. A yard scene is then shown in which Kingsley is discussing the film with the cast and his crew. He says that they have made a film by a "brand-new process" that is akin to a military operation and that they have been making an attack on the nature of reality. He asks "What is reality?" The cast and crew begin to discuss Kingsley and the film. One of the females did not like the ball because she felt that since the cast trusted him, they had been "manipulated, exploited, developed and educated" by Kingsley. He says that he made the film to show how a man runs for president, and how his character as a complete contradiction with the actor himself. He says that in a fantasy world, his character could run for president. He and his cast and crew give a thankful round of applause to their host throughout the film, Robert Gardiner. The scene ends with the camera crew riding away from the house where the film was shot.

Chapter Twelve: The Silences of An Afternoon

The final chapter shows Kingsley's wife and children walking on a dirt road and some other cast members walking around, relaxing because filming is complete. It then changes to a clip in which Rey grabs his hammer and carries it with him. Another short clip shows Rey talking to one of the High Officials, and then Rey suddenly attacks Kingsley with the hammer, saying that Kingsley must die but not Mailer. Kingsley and Rey both fall into the grass, wrestling. Kingsley says, "No baby, you trust me." He repeats this several times to calm his brother while his hands are pinned to the ground. His wife starts screaming when she sees Kingsley on top of Rey, not because he is trying to hurt Rey, but because Rey tries to strangle Kingsley. Rey bites Kingsley's ear and draws blood. Kingsley's wife hits him and his children are crying. Rey then claims that the film required Kingsley's death. Rey then asks Kingsley why he thinks he returned, but Rey says that he doesn't need to come back. After the two brothers start walking up the dirt road, they call each other offensive names, and soon after Rey proclaims that everything that just happened was a scene from a "Hollywood whorehouse movie." The last scene shows the two dirt roads surrounded by woods.

The year is 1990. Space travel is well-established since humans first landed on the Moon twenty years earlier. At the International Institute of Space Technology, communications expert and astronaut Laura James monitors strange signals being received from outer space. Laura's superior, Dr. Farraday, translates the signal and discovers that it is from an alien race, who are sending an ambassador to Earth. Soon after, however, Laura receives a video log showing that the aliens' starship has crash-landed on Mars.

The Institute launches a rescue mission aboard the spaceship ''Oceano'', which includes Laura and astronauts Anders Brockman and Paul Grant. ''Oceano'' travels through a sunburst, suffering some damage, before completing the journey to Mars and locating the downed alien craft. Anders and Paul investigate and discover a single dead alien aboard. Faraday deduces that the surviving crew may have been rescued, so an observation satellite will be needed to locate the alien rescue ship. Laura's fiancé Allan and fellow astronaut Tony volunteer. They travel on the spaceship ''Meteor'' to Phobos, one of the two moons of Mars, where they launch the observation satellite. Tony finds an alien spaceship on Phobos. He and Allan are able to enter, finding an unconscious but still-living female alien. As their rescue ship holds only two, one of them must stay behind, so they toss a coin and Tony stays.

Allan and the female alien arrive on ''Oceano'', joining Laura, Paul and Anders. The alien regains consciousness and smiles at the three men, but not Laura. The alien refuses to eat all food offered and will not let Anders take a blood sample. That night, as Paul is guarding the alien, she attacks and kills him, draining his blood after first hypnotizing him. The surviving astronauts decide to keep her alive by feeding her blood from the ship's plasma supply. When this supply runs out, she kills Anders and feeds on him, leaving Laura and Allan the only humans aboard.

The alien then attacks Allan, but Laura interrupts her before she can kill again. Laura scratches her in the struggle, and the alien screams in terror, quickly bleeding to death. Laura and Allen then find alien eggs hidden aboard. Allan hypothesizes that she was royalty, likely a queen (assuming human-like inbreeding among royalty, hence her hemophilia), and was being sent to Earth in order to breed. Their spaceship lands safely, but Earth authorities decide to study the alien eggs rather than destroying them outright, as Allan has urged.

A woman from Dallas goes on trial, charged with encouraging her 14-year-old daughter to have sex with a 16-year-old Mexican boy.

Michael (O'Dell) is an African-American teenager in South-Central Los Angeles, being raised by a single mother and beginning to drift away from school. Before long, Michael is running with a tough local street gang, the Kingsmen, who christen him with the nickname "Youngblood". Michael greatly looks up to the gang's leader, Rommel (Hilton-Jacobs), an angry Vietnam War veteran who is beginning to accept the fact that he's getting to be too old to be involved in the street gang lifestyle.

Shortly after Michael joins the Kingsmen, they move from merely battling other similar street gangs to becoming involved in a full-scale war against a local cartel of drug dealers. And, unknown to Michael and the Kingsmen, the head of the organization is Michael's own older brother.

Avalon started its life as a magical seed that beat like a heart, planted by Merlin in earlier books from the Merlin Saga. Soon it grew into a huge tree, having members of every existing species living in its 7 root-realms. Élano, the sap of the Great Tree, is a liquid that has the power to create, with powers far greater than that of Merlin himself.

For the first several centuries of Avalon's existence, the creatures lived in harmony, guided by the religion of Avalon, the Society of the Whole, its followers known as Drumadians, named after a wood in ''The Lost Years of Merlin''. The Society was started by Elen and Rhiannon, mother and sister to Merlin respectively, also characters from ''The Lost Years of Merlin''. The Society promotes harmony between all races, and the upkeep of the Great Tree, which sustains them all. However, sometime after Elen died, Rhiannon, called Rhia, resigned as High Priestess and left, never to be seen again.

Peace is shattered by the War of Storms, a war that included almost all of the races in Avalon and lasted for several centuries. The beginning of the war was heralded by the darkening of the stars in the constellation the Wizard's Staff. The war was only resolved by the Treaty of the Swaying Sea, crafted by the mysterious Lady of the Lake and by Merlin. After the war ended, Merlin said that he would probably not return to Avalon, and that Avalon's problems must be solved by Avalonians. As a parting gift he, with the help of his friend Basilgarrad the dragon, flew up to the stars and rekindled the darkened constellation.

All was well until the Lady of the Lake again appeared, this time to say a prophecy:

A year will come when stars go dark, and faith will fail anon; For born shall be a child who spells the end of Avalon; The only hope beneath the stars to save that world so fair, will be the Merlin then alive, the wizard's own true heir; What shall become of Avalon, our dream, our deepest need?What glory or despair shall sprout from Merlin's magic seed?

During the foretold Dark Year, the majority of creatures in Avalon forbade childbirth, killing all children born in spite of the moratorium. Despite this, rumors persist of a child being born in the Flamelon stronghold in the root-realm Rahnawyn or Fireroot.

17 years after the Dark Year, things are going badly. A drought appears in realms Olanabram, Brynchilla, and El Urien; humans become anthropocentric and arrogant; and the stars in the Wizard's Staff are again darkening, one by one. Characters Tamwyn, Elli, Nuic, Henni, Llynia, and later Batty Lad, must journey to the Lady of the Lake to find out what is happening, and how they can stop it.

Eventually, it is revealed that a sorcerer, Kulwych or White Hands, a servant of the evil spirit Rhita Gawr, has dammed the river that sustains the three realms named above with the sole purpose of collecting enough of the water, which has élano, a powerful life-giving substance, to produce a pure and powerful crystal. For this, he needs Merlin's staff, Ohnyalei, which has been for seventeen years in the keeping of Tamwyn's foster-brother, the eagleman Scree, who was also born in the Dark Year.

A teen-aged intelligence officer from the planet Mars named Go Go (Tommy Kirk) is ordered to Earth to prepare the way for a Martian invasion. Right from the start, he encounters problems. The power-pack he wears on his back malfunctions and he is suspended several feet above ground. However, he is saved by the first Earthling he meets, Aunt Wendy (Elsa Lanchester), an eccentric widow with problems of her own. Her shady neighbor, J. Sinister Hulk (Jesse White) – alongside Chief Rotten Eagle (Buster Keaton) and his Swedish sex-bomb partner Helga (Bobbi Shaw) – concocts a scheme to separate Aunt Wendy from her million-dollar inheritance.

A subplot involves a motorcycle gang led by Eric von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck), a leather-jacketed, middle-aged delinquent with an irrational hatred for buxom beach-babes and their surfer-dude boyfriends. One such character, Connie (Annette Funicello), has a crush on a volleyball nut named Big Lunk (Jody McCrea). Inexplicably, he responds with disinterest. So Connie transmits a few subtle signals toward Go Go, and he gets the message. But later, when she discovers Go Go is a hostile Martian scout, she pouts and calls the whole thing off.

In the meantime, Go Go teleports a squad of Martians from the Red Planet, but he is emotionally depressed by the absence of Connie. At a climactic pajama party, he thus turns informer and prevents Earth from being overrun. He is reunited with Connie, and the world is made safe.

High school students Mainosuke "Mai" Hitomi and Yuu kiss for the first time. Later that same day Mai is hit by a truck and killed. Her scientist father, Toshihiko Hitomi, uses a scan of her memories created before her death to construct an AI copy of her, named "Ai". Soccer, the CEO of the American tech company Digital Ware, wishes to awaken his own AI and sends an agent to shoot Toshihiko and steal his software, but Toshihiko sends Ai through the modem to safety before dying. Ai finds Yuu through a school computer terminal nicknamed "Icon" that has been enhanced by Satoshi Takanaka, Mai's genius half-brother with a terminal brain disease. Yuu transfers Ai to his laptop, through which she interacts with him and Mai's old friends, including Rika, who is jealous of Yuu's love for Ai. Soccer sends Satoshi and others to chase down Yuu and capture Ai.

In an atomic-powered laboratory beneath the mansion of the elderly, unpleasant, and very rich Mrs. Hettie March (Eaton), Dr. Otto Frank (Gerstle) is experimenting with brain transplantation. Things are not going very well, though, as all Dr. Frank has succeeded in creating so far is Hans, a snarling man-beast with a dog's brain, and the "Walking Corpse" - a pretty young woman (Margie Fisco) who wanders about the lab with a brain-dead glassy-eyed stare. Dr. Frank's goal is to carry out the wishes of Mrs. March and transplant her brain into the head of a beautiful younger woman.

To that end, Mrs. March advertises for domestic help and hires Nina Rhodes (Peters) from Austria, Bea Mullins (Judy Bamber) from England, and Anita Gonzales (Lisa Lang) from Mexico. Mrs. March plans to pick out the best-looking of the three and use her as a body donor so that she will become one of the richest and most beautiful young women in the world. She rejects Anita because the birthmark on her back makes her imperfect and chooses the curvaceous blonde Bea instead.

Anita is turned over to Dr. Frank for experimentation, and he transplants the brain of Xerxes the cat into her head. Anita immediately takes on the aspects of cat behavior: purring, hissing, eating mice, etc. Neither Nina nor Bea know what has happened to Anita, and when Bea comes across her, she scratches out one of Bea's eyes. Nina finds Anita on the roof of the mansion and attempts to get her down, but Anita loses her footing and falls to her death.

Because of Bea's injury, Nina becomes by default the choice for Mrs. March's new body. However, Dr. Frank takes pity on Nina and instead transplants Mrs. March's brain into Xerxes. Now a cat, Mrs. March is quite unhappy about this unexpected development, and after scratching Dr. Frank's hand in anger, locks him inside his atomic-powered experimental chamber when he enters it. Xerxes/Mrs. March then starts the chamber, which quickly reduces Dr. Frank to a skeleton, and also begins the chain reaction in the atomic pile below the lab that will cause it to explode, destroying all evidence of the lab and burning the mansion to the ground.

A half-blind Bea stumbles into the lab to rescue Nina. But as the lab starts coming apart, Bea is killed when a piece of machinery falls on her. Nina flees into the night, unaware that following silently behind her is Xerxes/Mrs. March, waiting for a chance to someday, somehow claim Nina's body as her own.

Price plays the titular mad scientist who is working with the Chinese government to use exploding female robots to disrupt a scheduled NATO war-game by blowing up the various generals involved in the exercise (one of whom looks exactly like Goldfoot, and whom Goldfoot later impersonates). Fabian is the hero who works to thwart the plot, that is, when he is not busy chasing women such as Laura Antonelli's character. The film ends with an extended frantic chase through the streets of Rome, and Goldfoot attempting to start World War III between Russia and the United States by dropping a nuclear bomb on Moscow.

''Trading in Danger''

Kylara Vatta, the daughter of the CFO of Vatta Transport Ltd., a space shipping firm based out of the wealthy world of Slotter Key, is forced to resign in disgrace from the Slotter Key spaceforce academy after she is tricked by another cadet. Hoping to get her out of the limelight and make the best of her skills, her family give her the command the old, decrepit freighter ''Glennys Jones'' on its final journey to the scrapyards of Lastway. At the young Belinta colony she is told that a sorely needed shipment of agricultural machinery never arrived and a sizable payment is available to anyone who can bring the goods from the Sabine system. Determined to save the ''Glennys Jones'' from being scrapped, Ky deviates from the mission in an attempt to gain enough credit to refit the ship.

An engine malfunction strands her at Sabine until she can raise funds to replace critical parts, but the two planets in the system are sliding towards open conflict. Just as she prepares to call home to request funds, the ansibles that link Sabine to outside systems are attacked and mercenary warships from the Mackensee Military Assistance Corporation appear in the system. They board the ''Glennys Jones'' and Ky is injured when a young man who had joined her ship at Belinta tries to attack them. After recovering she agrees to host the hostages the mercenaries have taken from the other merchant vessels in the system.

Though conditions aboard ship are crowded and difficult, Ky manages to keep her passengers in line until a group of captains and senior officers mutiny and temporarily gain control of critical ship systems. Ky confronts them and kills the leading mutineers, but only at the cost of her own crewman Gary Tobai. They discover that the mutineers, who have sent the ship off-course, and sabotaged the communications system and the ship's emergency identification beacon, are connected in some way with piracy and the destruction of the ansibles. Help finally arrives with the return of the mercenaries, now co-operating fully with the InterStellar Communications ansible monopoly, and Vatta captain Josiah Furman, the bane of Ky's apprenticeship voyage years ago. He attempts to order her to scrap her ship at Sabine and come with him but she refuses. She quickly get funds for full repairs from ISC, which is grateful for her information regarding the pirates, but has to re-register the ship under a new name because of the sabotage to the identification beacon. She chooses ''Gary Tobai'' in honor of her late cargo master. The return voyage to Belinta is without incident and the agricultural equipment is delivered in fine shape.

''Marque and Reprisal''

(This book is called ''Moving Target'' in the UK and Australia)

While on Belinta, completing the delivery of her shipment and looking for new cargo to take to Sabine, Kylara Vatta is attacked by trained assassins and an attempt is made to bomb the ''Gary Tobai''. The Slotter Key consul provides assistance, but soon word comes that Vatta ships and facilities have been attacked on Slotter Key as well and the government is distancing itself from the corporation. Soon the Slotter Key ansible fails, leaving Ky unable to ascertain the condition of her family back home. Looking for allies, she hires Gordon Martin, a spaceforce sergeant from the Belinta consulate as cargomaster and security chief.

Arriving on Lastway, Ky faces continued attacks but manages to acquire both a personal sidearm and a defensive suite for her ship. She also receives a letter from Master Sergeant MacRobert, an instructor she had known at the Spaceforce Academy. He has sent her a letter of marque and instructions for acquiring some defensive mines to arm her ship.

Meanwhile, on Slotter Key co-ordinated attacks on the headquarters of Vatta transport and the private family compound leave most senior family members, including Ky's parents, dead. Command of the survivors falls to Gracie Lane Vatta who assigns her niece Stella Vatta Constantin to find Ky and give her the cranial implant from her CFO father Gerard Vatta which contains critical family data and codes. Stella heads for Lastway, with the implant concealed in one of Aunt Gracie's infamous fruitcakes, aboard an ISC courier. While stopped briefly at Allray, she discovers young Toby Vatta, who alone has survived an attack on the Vatta ship ''Ellis Fabery''. While dodging assassins on Allray, Toby and Stella run across her old flame Rafael "Rafe" Madestan who agrees to partner with them for the trip to Lastway.

Upon reaching Lastway and finding Ky, they give her an update on the situation and Rafe reveals himself to be the son of ISC president Garston Dunbarger. He agrees that ISC and Vatta interests run together for the present and enters an extended partnership with Ky. She is also contacted by the Mackensee Military Assistance Corporation whose insystem personnel are running dangerously short of funds. She hires them to provide security for herself and ship as she seeks to find and protect surviving Vatta family members. In co-operation with Rafe they assassinate the corrupt local ISC agent and restore ansible functionality in the system. In order to spread the costs of hiring the mercenary force, Ky forms a convoy with three other traders and they set off for Garth-Lindheimer.

At an intermediate jump point in an uninhabited system they detect the ship ''Fair Kaleen'' which is registered to Vatta Transport and captained by family black sheep Osman Vatta. It soon becomes clear that Osman is in league with the enemies of Vatta, and Ky devises a plan to foil his attack on the ''Gary Tobai''. She successfully uses her mines to disable the ''Fair Kaleen'', but Osman attempts to re-enter the airlock and plant a mine of his own. Ky orders her crew to direct an EM pulse to disable it (along with critical ship systems) and kills Osman in single combat in zero-g. The mercenaries arrive in time to destroy the pirate ships that Osman has summoned and assist the ''Gary Tobai'' in the aftermath of the battle. Ky claims the ''Fair Kaleen'' both as stolen property and a prize and transfers over to it along with Martin, Rafe, and a small prize crew.

''Engaging the Enemy''

Arriving in the Garth–Linheimer system together with the convoy, Ky finds her title to the ''Fair Kaleen'' is in question. She refuses to submit to a legal adjudication of her rights and sets off at once for Rosvirein. Stella, left behind as captain of the ''Gary Tobai'', is furious at Ky for putting her in a situation for which she is not trained without an adequate crew. She hires a shipmaster and pilot and follows as soon as the ship is repaired and reloaded.

On Rosvirein, Ky sells off enough of Osman's presumably stolen cargo to pay for repairs of her own ship and hire crewmen qualified to run the ship's missile and beam weapons. She also hires Hugh Pritang, a mercenary veteran with a prosthetic arm, to be her executive officer now that she has decided to use her letter of marque to justify seeking out and destroying the pirates who have attacked her family. When suspected pirate ships appear in the system, she undocks from the station to avoid being trapped in the event of an attack. The Rosvirein Peace Force orders all undocked ships to leave the system to prevent collusion with the pirates and so Ky is unable to wait for Stella.

At Sallyon, Ky's next port of call, she learns that a fleet of pirates led by one Gammis Turek has attacked Bissonet and forced the planetary government to surrender to them. She attempts to convince other ship captains, including Slotter Key privateer N. W. Argelos, that a concerted response along the lines of a true interstellar space navy is required to defend trade against the pirate threat. The Sallyon government interprets this as rabble rousing and demands that she leave the system. On her way out she passes the ''Gary Tobai'' which is inbound and informs Stella of her predicament. Stella, concerned that Ky is no longer focusing on the needs of the Vatta family in her zeal to rid the universe of piracy, is not amused at being left behind again.

In the rigidly formal Moscoe Confederation, gross discourtesy carries the death penalty. Ky delivers medical supplies to the planet Cascadia and waits for Stella to arrive. But before she does, Captain Furman appears and declares that Ky cannot be the real Kylara Vatta, whom he knows to be dead, and must be an impostor planted by Osman. The Cascadian government secures the ''Fair Kaleen'' to prevent it from leaving until Furman docks at the station and his claim can be formally adjudicated. Once Stella arrives in system, she is shocked to hear Furman's accusations, but still angry with Ky for leaving her behind and plotting a wild war rather than the rebuilding of the Vatta business empire. While she is on course for Cascadia, both she and Ky independently uncover evidence that Furman has been in secret, and illegal, cooperation with Osman for years. At the trial genetic testing of Stella, Toby, Ky, and a tissue sample from Osman reveals that Ky is not Osman's daughter (as Furman had alleged) — but that Stella is. The court concludes that there is no evidence that Ky has falsified her identity. Furman explodes in anger cursing both Ky and the court and is arrested for making mortal insults. Ky takes possession of the ''Katrine Lamont'' and manages to convince Stella that she is the one who needs to run Vatta Enterprises while Ky focuses on organizing effective resistance to the pirate threat.

Argelos arrives to tell Ky that Petrea Andreson, a Bissonet privateer, is organizing a force to attempt to retake that system. Ky, in her newly renamed ''Vanguard'', agrees to join her. During their training, however, they are betrayed and attacked. Andreson and her ally Battersea are killed, but Ky manages to organize Argelos and Pettygrew, another Bissonet privateer, into an effective resistance, and they escape.

''Command Decision''

After orchestrating a galaxy-wide failure of the communications network owned and maintained by the powerful ISC corporation, Turek and his marauders strike swiftly and without mercy. First they shatter Vatta Transport. Then they overrun entire star systems, growing stronger and bolder. No one is safe from the pirate fleet. But while they continue to move forward with their diabolical plan, they have made two critical mistakes.

Their first mistake was killing Kylara Vatta's family. Their second mistake was leaving her alive. Now Kylara is going to make them pay.

But with a “fleet” consisting of only three ships – including her flagship, the Vanguard, a souped-up merchant cruiser – Kylara needs allies, and fast. Because even though she possesses the same coveted communication technology as the enemy, she has nowhere near their numbers or firepower.

Meanwhile, as Kylara's cousin Stella tries to bring together the shattered pieces of the family trading empire, new treachery is unfolding at ISC headquarters, where undercover agent Rafael Dunbarger, estranged son of the corporation's CEO, is trying to learn why the damaged network is not being repaired. What he discovers will send shock waves across the galaxy and crashing into Kylara's newly christened Space Defense Force (Third fleet) at the worst possible moment.

''Victory Conditions''

Kylara now has a fleet of significant size, with commitments of additional forces. Stella, on Cascadia, discovers that her ward Toby has become friends with a girl whose father is an agent of Gammis Turek. Realizing that Turek must have more ships to take and hold more systems, Kylara and her team eventually discover that someone has ordered a great many large warships from the shipyards at Moray. This buyer has made progress payments, but Kylara suspects that he intends to steal the ships and rushes to organize her fleet into something that can meet his at Moray. She partially succeeds, denying the pirate lord much of his fleet, but her own flagship ''Vanguard'' strikes a minefield and explodes. Her cousins and friends believe her dead, a fiction she fosters in hopes of catching Turek off guard during a future engagement. Rafael Dunbarger continues to purge ISC of elements in league with Turek or merely incompetent, eventually discovering that this rot reaches into the government of Nexus. His fleet in disrepair due to the machinations of Lewis Parmina, Rafe struggles to salvage enough fighting ships and men to assist in the defense of Nexus. He discovers that his sister, largely recovered from her mistreatment at the hands of Parmina's henchmen, has the strength and wits to assist him in running ISC. He'll need that help, because Turek and his fleet have set their sights on Nexus. If they can conquer it, they will control all galactic communications save for a handful of individuals with semi-portable ansible units. Ultimately, Kylara's new Space Defense Fleet combines with elements of the ISC fleet, Slotter Key Spaceforce, Moscoe Confederation and ships of the Mackensee Military Assistance Corporation in a huge battle for control of Nexus. There are many losses, but ultimately Kylara confronts a desperate Gammis Turek as he sends his doomed flagship in a suicide run towards Nexus. She manages to break the pirate fleet and destroy the pirate leader, but the actions of Turek have forever changed certain aspects of galactic commerce and interplanetary relations. But now Rafe and Ky have the chance to pursue their strong mutual attraction. They celebrate victory by having Rafe 'peel a lime' for her (and prepare to show what he can do with a pear).

''Don't Wait Up'' starts as Tom Latimer splits from his wife Helen. At the same time, his father Toby, also a doctor, announces his intention to divorce his wife of 32 years, Angela. Father and son then move in together and frequently argue about politics and medical practices, Toby being more of a 'Harley Street' type and well to the right of the more liberally-inclined Tom. The latter tries to get his parents back together, while beginning a romance with Toby's secretary Madeleine Forbes, whom he later marries.

The series was a police procedural, written by Derek Ingrey, about a police officer who has been sidelined from regular duties and, having been placed in charge of a records and evidence unit, has begun to specialise in investigating unsolved crimes.

''Kaz the Minotaur'' is a novel that tells the story of Kaz the minotaur.

Professor Kantorek gives an impassioned speech about the glory of serving in the Army and "saving the Fatherland". On the brink of becoming men, the boys in his class, led by Paul Bäumer, are moved to join the army as the new 2nd Company. Their romantic delusions are quickly broken during their brief but rigorous training under the abusive Corporal Himmelstoss, who bluntly informs them, "You're going to be soldiers—and that's ''all''."

The new soldiers arrive by train at the combat zone, which is mayhem, with soldiers everywhere, incoming shells, horse-drawn wagons racing about, and prolonged rain. One in the group is killed before the recruits can reach their post, to the alarm of one of the new soldiers (Behn). The new soldiers are assigned to a unit composed of older soldiers, who are not exactly accommodating.

The young soldiers find that there is no food available at the moment. They have not eaten since breakfast, but the men they have joined have not had food for two days. One of them, "Kat" Katczinsky, had gone to locate something to eat, and he returns with a slaughtered hog he has stolen from a field kitchen. The young soldiers "pay" for their dinner with soaps and cigarettes.

The recruits' first trip to the trenches with the veterans, to re-string barbed wire, is a harrowing experience, especially when Behn is blinded by shrapnel and hysterically runs into machine-gun fire. After spending several days in a bunker under bombardment, they finally move into the trenches and successfully repulse an enemy attack; they then counterattack and take an enemy trench with heavy casualties but have to abandon it. They are sent back to the field kitchens to get their rations; each man receives double helpings, simply because of the number of dead.

They hear that they are to return to the front the next day and begin a semi-serious discussion about the causes of the war and of wars in general. They speculate about whether geographical entities offend each other and whether these disagreements involve them. Tjaden speaks familiarly about himself and the Kaiser; Kat jokes that instead of having a war, the leaders of Europe should be stripped to their underwear and made to "fight it out with clubs".

One day, Corporal Himmelstoss arrives at the front and is immediately spurned because of his bad reputation. He is forced to go over the top with the 2nd Company and is promptly killed. In an attack on a cemetery, Paul stabs a French soldier but finds himself trapped in a hole with the dying man for an entire night. He desperately tries to help him throughout the night, bringing him water but fails to stop him from dying. He cries bitterly and begs the dead body to speak so he can be forgiven. Later, he returns to the German lines and is comforted by Kat.

Going back to the front line, Paul is severely wounded and taken to a Catholic hospital, along with his good friend Albert Kropp. Kropp's leg is amputated, but he does not find out until some time afterward. Around this time, Paul is taken to the bandaging ward, from which, according to its reputation, nobody has ever returned alive. Still, he later returns to the normal rooms triumphantly, only to find Kropp in depression.

Paul is given a furlough and visits his family at home. He is shocked by how uninformed everyone is about the war's actual situation; everyone is convinced that a final "push for Paris" is soon to occur. When Paul visits the schoolroom where he was originally recruited, he finds Professor Kantorek prattling the same patriotic fervor to a class of even younger students. Professor Kantorek asks Paul to detail his experience, at which the latter reveals that war was not at all like he had envisioned and mentions the deaths of his partners.

This revelation upsets the professor, as well as the young students who promptly call Paul a "coward". Disillusioned and angry, Paul returns to the front and comes upon another 2nd Company filled with new young recruits who are now disillusioned; he is then happily greeted by Tjaden. He goes to find Kat, and they discuss the people's inability to comprehend the futility of the war. Kat's shin is broken when a bomb dropped by an aircraft falls nearby, so Paul carries him back to a field hospital, only to find that a second explosion has killed Kat. Crushed by the loss of his mentor, Paul leaves.

In the final scene, Paul is back on the front line. He sees a butterfly just beyond his trench. Smiling, he reaches out for the butterfly. While reaching, however, he is shot and killed by an enemy sniper. The final sequence shows the 2nd Company arriving at the front for the first time, fading out to the image of a cemetery.

"Story of Your Life" is narrated by linguist Dr. Louise Banks the day her daughter is conceived. Addressed to her daughter, the story alternates between recounting the past: the coming of the aliens and the deciphering of their language; and remembering the future: what will happen to her preborn daughter as she grows up, and the daughter's untimely death.

The aliens arrive in spaceships and enter Earth's orbit; 112 devices resembling large semi-circular mirrors appear at sites across the globe. Dubbed "looking glasses", they are audiovisual links to the aliens in orbit, who are called heptapods for their seven-limbed radially symmetrical appearance. Louise and physicist Dr. Gary Donnelly are recruited by the U.S. Army to communicate with the aliens, and are assigned to one of nine looking glass sites in the US. They make contact with two heptapods they nickname Flapper and Raspberry. In an attempt to learn their language, Louise begins by associating objects and gestures with sounds the aliens make, which reveals a language with free word order and many levels of center-embedded clauses. She finds their writing to be chains of semagrams on a two-dimensional surface in no linear sequence, and semasiographic, having no reference to speech. Louise concludes that, because their speech and writing are unrelated, the heptapods have two languages, which she calls Heptapod A (speech) and Heptapod B (writing).

Attempts are also made to establish heptapod terminology in physics. Little progress is made, until a presentation of Fermat's Principle of Least Time is given. Gary explains the principle to Louise, giving the example of the refraction of light, and that light will always take the fastest possible route. Louise reasons, "[a] ray of light has to know where it will ultimately end up before it can choose the direction to begin moving in." She knows the heptapods do not write a sentence one semagram at a time, but draw all the ideograms simultaneously, suggesting they know what the entire sentence will be beforehand. Louise realizes that instead of experiencing events sequentially (causality), heptapods experience all events at once (teleology). This is reflected in their language, and explains why Fermat's principle came naturally to them.

Soon, Louise becomes quite proficient at Heptapod B, and finds that when writing in it, trains of thought are directionless, and premises and conclusions interchangeable. She finds herself starting to think in Heptapod B and begins to see time as heptapods do. Louise sees glimpses of her future and of a daughter she does not yet have. This raises questions about the nature of free will: knowledge of the future would imply no free will, because knowing the future means it cannot be changed. But Louise asks herself, "What if the experience of knowing the future changed a person? What if it evoked a sense of urgency, a sense of obligation to act precisely as she knew she would?"

One day, after an information exchange with the heptapods, the aliens announce they are leaving. They shut down the looking glasses and their ships disappear. It is never established why they leave, or why they had come in the first place.

''Spook's'' follow Thomas "Tom" Ward, the seventh son of a seventh son who is apprenticed to Gregory to become a Spook - a master fighter of supernatural evil. John Gregory is the Spook for "the County" and gives Tom practical instruction on tackling ghosts, ghasts, witches, boggarts, and all manner of other things that serve "The Dark". Tom soon discovers that most of John Gregory's apprentices have failed for various reasons, including being killed in the process of learning how to be a Spook. As the Chronicles progress the focus expands to other characters such as the assassin Grimalkin and the young witch Alice Deane; overall the series develops the plotline of Tom being destined to save the world or be tortured by the Fiend, the father of all evil, for all eternity.

"The County" referenced in the Chronicles is based on Lancashire in the North of England. Various County fictional towns are thinly-veiled modern day cities; for example, the town of Priestown is based on Preston (where author Delaney was born); Caster is Lancaster; Black Pool is Blackpool; Chipenden is Chipping.

The first series, titled ''The Wardstone Chronicles'', concluded in 2014, and was followed by ''The Starblade Chronicles'' in 2015, a trilogy following the continued adventures of Tom Ward, who has finished his apprenticeship and is now a Spook in his own right dedicated to fighting an unparalleled evil threatening the County, and the world.

In San Francisco, private investigator Sam Spade and his partner Miles Archer are approached by Ruth Wonderly to follow a man, Floyd Thursby, who allegedly ran off with her younger sister. The two accept the assignment because the money is good, even though they disbelieve her story.

Later that night, police detective Tom Polhaus informs Spade that Archer has been shot and killed while tailing Thursby, but Spade turns down the opportunity to examine the body at the scene. As he is leaving, he has a brief conversation in Chinese with a man loitering in a doorway. Later, Polhaus and his superior Lt. Dundy visit Spade at his apartment. Thursby has been killed, and they want to know where Spade has been in the last few hours — they suspect him of killing Thursby to avenge the death of his partner. With no real evidence against Spade, they leave.

The next day, Spade calls on Ruth Wonderly in an attempt to find out her real reasons for hiring them. She uses several different ploys to keep Spade on the case in spite of the two murders; and although Spade sees through them, he gets little information from her. Though he doesn't trust her, he agrees to solve the case. At the office, Spade receives a visit from a Dr. Joel Cairo, who offers Spade $5,000 if he can retrieve an enamel figurine of a black bird that he is trying to recover for the "rightful owner". Not knowing anything about this statuette, Spade plays along, overpowering Cairo when he pulls a gun and attempts to frisk him and search the office. Nevertheless, he agrees to try to recover the statuette.

That night, at his apartment, Spade tells Wonderly about Cairo and the black bird. She becomes nervous and attempts to seduce Spade, which interrupted by the arrival of Dundy and Polhaus. The policemen question Spade about his affair with Archer's wife Iva, but are interrupted by the screams of Wonderly, who is holding Cairo at gunpoint after he has broken in. The policemen leave with Cairo in tow. The next morning, as Wonderly sleeps in his bed, Spade lifts her key and thoroughly searches her apartment, finding nothing. Returning to his own place, Spade gets a visit from Iva Archer. Spade tries to get rid of her, but she sees Wonderly in the bedroom doorway and leaves in a huff, threatening to tell everything she knows to Lt. Dundy.

Spade receives a note from Casper Gutman, inviting him to come and talk about the black bird. Over drinks and cigars, Spade learns the history and value of the statuette, which is encrusted with precious jewels covered over with enamel, and that Gutman is the mastermind behind the attempt to steal the bird. Spade lies to Gutman that "for the right price" he can deliver the figurine in a couple of days, and makes a deal which Gutman seals with a $1,000 bill. Just then, Cairo arrives and tells Gutman privately that Spade does not have the falcon, as it is on the ship ''La Paloma'' that arrives from Hong Kong that night. Gutman slips Spade a mickey in a celebratory drink, and retrieves his $1,000.

Later that night, Spade arrives back in his office, where he finds Effie asleep behind his desk. Suddenly, a man staggers in, collapses to the floor and dies — it is Captain Jacoby of the ''Paloma'', having been shot several times. The suitcase he was carrying has the precious black bird in it. Spade checks the bag at a baggage check and sends himself the ticket in the mail. Called in to see the District Attorney because of what Iva has been telling the police, Spade stonewalls them, and is given 24 hours to wrap up the case and identify the real killers.

Wonderly lures Spade into his apartment, where Cairo and Gutman are waiting for him with guns. Knowing that Spade has the falcon, Gutman gives him ten $1,000 bills in an envelope, but Spade insists there also has to be a "fall guy" to give the police to account for the murders; he suggests Gutman's gunman, Wilmer Cook, but Gutman rejects this idea. As Wonderly leaves to make coffee and sandwiches, Gutman accuses her of stealing one of the bills from the envelope, prompting Spade to have her strip. When he finds she does not have the bill on her, he accuses Gutman of palming it, which Gutman admits. Now having the upper hand, Spade tells Gutman that Wilmer will be the fall guy, and as Cairo and Gutman discuss in a whispered conference, he is goaded by Spade into pulling out his gun. Spade knocks him out, and Gutman and Cairo agree to Spade's proposal. Spade calls Effie and asks her to bring the suitcase to them in the morning, while Gutman explains how Wilmer killed Thursby and Jacoby.

When the bag shows up, Wilmer escapes out the window while the conspirators are frantically opening it and examining the black bird. They soon determine that it is a fake — they have been duped by the previous owner — and Gutman and Cairo decide to make another attempt to steal it. As they leave, Gutman takes back his $10,000 from Spade at gunpoint. Spade immediately calls Detective Polhaus and tells him to pick up Gutman, Cairo and Wilmer; he will provide Wilmer's guns as evidence. Confronting Wonderly, Spade accuses her of killing Archer to throw suspicion on Thursby and get him out of the way. She admits it, and Spade tells her that he is going to turn her in for the murder, despite their love for each other.

When Dundy and Polhaus show up, they reveal that Wilmer shot Gutman and Cairo dead before being apprehended. Spade gives them Wilmer's guns, tells them that Wonderly killed Archer, and they take her away. A newspaper article reveals Spade brought the Chinese merchant to testify, and he positively identified Wonderly as Archer's killer.Spade goes to visit Wonderly in prison to tell her that he has been made Chief Investigator for the District Attorney's office. Spade instructs the prison matron to treat Wonderly well and give her whatever she wants. When the matron asks who will pay for the special treatment, Spade tells her to send the bill to the D.A.'s office: "I'll OK it."

In San Francisco in 1941, private investigators Sam Spade and Miles Archer meet prospective client Ruth Wonderly. She claims to be looking for her missing sister, who ran off from their home in New York and came to the city with a man named Floyd Thursby. Archer agrees to follow her that night and help get her sister back. However, later that night, Spade is awakened by a phone call from the police informing him Archer has been killed. He meets his friend, Police Detective Tom Polhaus, at the murder scene, and tries calling his client at her hotel to discover she has checked out. Back at his apartment, he is grilled by Polhaus and Lieutenant Dundy, who tell him that Thursby was also murdered the same evening. Dundy suggests that Spade had the opportunity and motive to kill Thursby, who likely killed Archer. Archer's widow Iva visits him in his office, believing that Spade shot his partner so he could have her.

Later that morning, Spade meets his client, who confesses she created the story and now calls herself Brigid O'Shaughnessy. She is reluctant to reveal the entire truth, but begs Spade to investigate the murders. She explains Thursby was her partner who took advantage of her; she admits he probably killed Archer, but claims to have no idea who killed Thursby. Spade distrusts her, but agrees to investigate the murders. At his office, Spade meets Joel Cairo, who first offers him $5,000 to find a "black figure of a bird" on behalf of its alleged rightful owner. When Spade is skeptical, Cairo pulls a gun on him in order to search the room for it. Spade knocks Cairo out and goes through his belongings. When Cairo comes round, he hires Spade.

As he goes to visit O'Shaughnessy later that evening, he is followed by a young man on the way there, but manages to evade him. When he tells her about Cairo, her nervousness indicates both his clients are acquaintances. He arranges a meeting between the two at his apartment, where Cairo becomes agitated when O'Shaughnessy reveals that the "Fat Man" is in San Francisco. When Spade goes to Cairo's hotel in the morning, he spots the young man following him earlier – Wilmer – and gives him a message for his boss Kasper Gutman. When Spade goes to meet the "Fat Man", Kasper Gutman, in his hotel suite, Gutman will only talk about the Black Falcon evasively, so Spade pretends to throw a temper tantrum and storms out. Later, Wilmer takes Spade at gunpoint to see Gutman; Spade overpowers him, but meets Gutman anyway. Gutman relates the history of the Maltese Falcon, then offers Spade his pick of $25,000 for the bird and another $25,000 after its sale, or a quarter of the proceeds from its sale. After Spade passes out because his drink is spiked, Wilmer and Cairo come in from another room and leave with Gutman.

On coming round, Spade searches the suite and finds a newspaper with the arrival time of the freighter ''La Paloma'' circled. He goes to the dock, only to find the ship on fire. Later, the ship's captain, Jacobi, shot several times, staggers into Spade's office before dying. The bundle he was clutching contains the Maltese Falcon. O'Shaughnessy calls the office, gives an address, then screams before the line goes dead.

Spade stashes the package at the bus terminal, then goes to the address, which turns out to be an empty lot. Spade returns home to find O'Shaughnessy hiding in a doorway. He takes her inside and finds Gutman, Cairo, and Wilmer waiting for him, guns drawn. Gutman gives Spade $10,000 for the Falcon, but Spade tells them that part of his price is someone he can turn over to the police for the murders of Thursby and Captain Jacobi, suggesting Wilmer, who, Gutman confirms, actually did shoot both. After some intense negotiation, Gutman and Cairo agree and Wilmer is knocked out and disarmed.

Just after dawn, Spade calls his secretary, Effie Perine, to bring him the bundle. However, when Gutman inspects the statuette, he finds it is a fake and Wilmer escapes during the tumult. Recovering his composure, Gutman invites Cairo to return with him to Istanbul to continue their quest. After they leave, Spade calls the police and tells them where to pick up the pair. Spade then angrily confronts O'Shaughnessy, telling her he knows she killed Archer to implicate Thursby, her unwanted accomplice. She confesses, but begs Spade not to turn her over to the police. Despite his feelings for her, Spade gives O'Shaughnessy up.

The film is about the residents of Pebbles Court in the Melbourne suburb of Homesville who are the unknowing test subjects for a new variety of "Vimuville" dietary supplement pills that arrive for free in their mailboxes. The pills are designed to produce the ultimate healthy human, but have unexpected side effects including hallucinations and mutations. Despite the attempts made to warn the townsfolk from a previous test subject, who is now undergoing rapid cellular decay, he arrives too late, and crashes his car and is killed by tentacles growing out of his throat. The pills are consumed by the residents, and produce liquefying flesh, elongated tongues, exploding stomachs, exploding penises, imploding heads, monstrous births, tentacles growing out of the face, living mucus, sentient placentas, and other gruesome mutations. Ultimately more and more of the residents of the Pebbles Court mutate or die horrific deaths, until almost every character has been dispatched.

At a Shaolin temple, an evil magician demon is being held prisoner. A drunken shaolin sorcerer, Chan, shirks his duty to go drinking, leading to the demon escaping. At the same time, Ah Yuen, another sorcerer, is being hassled by his grandmother Yau to find a wife. He sets out to find his potential bride, and battles another magician who's using his powers to con local townsfolk. After winning, he finds out there's a competition to wed the bride of a local magistrate. He wins the competition, but it turns out the magistrate is actually being threatened by the evil magician to find lunar-born virgins so he can drink their blood and gain their powers. After avoiding a death-trap to steal his blood and fleeing, he eventually crosses paths with Chan, who recruits him to help re-capture the evil magician.

American naturalist Hank (Noel Marshall) lives on a nature preserve in Tanzania with a collection of big cats to study their behavior. Although he is due to pick up his wife Madeleine (Tippi Hedren) and their children John, Jerry, and Melanie (Melanie Griffith) from the airport to bring them to his home, he is delayed by his friend Mativo (Kyalo Mativo) warning him that a committee is coming to review his grant. As he shows Mativo around his ranch and the rest of the preserve while they wait, Hank explains the nature of the lion pride and their fear of Togar, a rogue lion who often quarrels with the pride's leader, Robbie. Hank asks Mativo to help keep the pride safe.

The grant committee arrives. One of its members, Prentiss (Steve Miller), disapproves of the big cats and threatens to shoot them. A fight between two lions distracts Hank; he breaks it up despite having his hand bitten. While Hank is bandaging his hand, the tigers attack members of the committee and injure some of them, and, although Hank offers assistance, they leave in fear. Mativo expresses his concerns over another attack when Hank brings his family to the ranch. As they leave for the airport on Mativo's boat, two tigers jump aboard, traveling with them. Mativo steers into a log in the water, causing the craft to sink. The two men swim to safety.

Madeleine, John, Jerry, and Melanie are advised by an airport attendant to board a bus. They arrive at the ranch and enter the house, realizing that it has been left unattended. When Madeleine and Jerry open the windows and doors, they are shocked to see the lions eating a zebra carcass in front of the house. The family are frightened when animals enter the house and try to escape but Togar pursues them. Jerry finds a rifle and tries to shoot Togar while he is fighting Robbie. Melanie fears that her father has been killed by the animals.

Hank and Mativo—still pursued by the tigers—take two bikes from a local village. To prevent the tigers from following Hank to the airport, Mativo climbs a tree and distracts them. Hank encounters the airport attendant, who tells him that his family have taken the bus to his ranch. Hank drives back in a friend's car and rescues Mativo from the tree. One of the car's tires is punctured on a rocky road, and Hank runs to the ranch while Mativo fends off the tigers with an umbrella.

The following morning, the family board Hank's boat to try to escape, but an elephant pulls the craft back to shore and destroys it. John goes for help on Hank's motorcycle, but he is chased by the big cats, and drives into the lake. After escaping another elephant, the family swims across the lake and find another house that they use to sleep in. When they awake, they find themselves surrounded by the pride and conclude that, since they are still alive, the animals do not intend to hurt them.

Prentiss tries to persuade the committee to hunt down and kill Hank's lions. Though he is unsuccessful, he and Rick (Rick Glassey), another committee member, shoot many of the big cats anyway. Eventually Togar attacks them and although Hank sees the assault and tries to intervene, the lion kills Prentiss and Rick before returning to the house to battle Robbie. Robbie stands up to Togar and the fight ends. Hank arrives at the ranch to find his family waiting for him. Mativo arrives, and Hank asks him not to mention Prentiss or Rick's death; he is introduced to Hank's family, who agree to stay for the week.

The manga follows three American soldiers (who are anthropomorphic animals) in the Vietnam War named Botasky, Perky and Rats. All three are in the recon team called "Cat Shit One". Each mission (or chapter) shows the daily activities of the reconnaissance group in Vietnam. There are sections of the manga which give brief history and truths behind the war, such as the types of weapons used by different countries and the activities of forces in the war. At the end of volume one there is a chapter called "Dog Shit One"—separate from the main story—showing human characters.

In ''Cat Shit One '80'', the story continues to follow the three main protagonists as they became involved in various low intensity conflicts in the 1980s. Perky, now a member of the elite Delta Force, was attached to the Special Air Service and was involved in various SAS operations while Rats and Bota were involved with the US operation in Afghanistan against the Soviet invasion.

An animated adaptation of ''Cat Shit One'' was released in 2010.

''Ashes to Ashes'' is set in London, England. The film is a surreal journey into the dreams and misadventures of Gabriel Darbeaux, a young screenwriter and martial arts enthusiast who supplements his income by escorting wealthy women. We are introduced to Gabriel's character as he is chased and cornered by a group of Triad thugs armed with swords, sticks and nunchaku. Using his own nunchaku Gabriel manages to fight off the thugs, only to find that the whole episode was an early morning dream. The dream provides inspiration for the opening scene of his latest screenplay entitled "Ashes to Ashes", a thriller involving the Italian Mafia, Chinese Triads and a generous amount of martial arts action. While Gabriel believes that the success of this script will give him financial independence, his best friend Michael has plans of setting up his own escort agency. To fund this project, he resorts to making secret recordings of his sexual encounters with a banker's wife and hopes to earn £100,000 through blackmail. Gabriel receives a call to meet with one of his regular clients at an exclusive restaurant in the West End of London. The woman fails to show and instead Gabriel encounters the beautiful Arabella Simone, who draws him into a world which is disturbingly similar to that featured in his screenplay. Arabella is the former mistress to Valentino Tarantola, a possessive Italian gangster who employs "Laundrymen" Muhammed and Nelson to do his dirty work. When Valentino is apparently castrated and left for dead at Arabella's apartment, she runs to Gabriel for help with the "Laundrymen" close on her tail. Michael is called in to drive the two to a main line station from where they plan to take a train to France. Unfortunately, before the trio get very far, they are captured by the "Laundrymen" and taken to a warehouse where they are introduced to Enrico Tarontola, Valentino's sadistic younger brother. Bound and gagged, they are forced to listen helplessly as Enrico accuses Arabella of castrating and killing his brother Valentino and Michael of blackmailing his financial advisor's wife. All three, including Gabriel are to be put to a violent death. Without warning, henchmen of a rival Triad boss storm the warehouse. In the ensuing battle, Gabriel is forced to fight for his life against Triad enforcers and Mafia hitmen. The film ends with Gabriel waking from a violent dream, blurring the distinction between dream, reality and the fictional account that Gabriel is writing.

Young couple Kevin and Toby arrive in Dante's Cove, home to a sect dedicated to the supernatural religion Tresum. By freeing the charismatic Ambrosius from his magical imprisonment, Kevin reignites a rivalry between Ambrosius and the Tresum Avatar Grace that has simmered for over 150 years. Ambrosius's obsession with claiming Kevin and Grace's own obsession with avenging herself on Ambrosius threaten to tear Kevin and Toby apart forever, with unforeseen collateral damage.

Mythology

Tresum is a supernatural religion within the Dante's Cove universe, similar in all things but name to traditional witchcraft. It's overseen by a council of unknown composition which acts through envoys, although there are rogue practitioners, like those of Dante's Cove, who don't abide by the council's rule. Tresum practitioners are shown to be able to teleport, control minds and kill with a glance.

All practitioners of Tresum are divided into two houses: Moon, related to water and female energy, and Sun related to fire and male energy, each having a book unreadable to non-initiates in which its knowledge is kept. A third house, Sky, is stated to combine both houses, with a book merging the knowledge of both. A fourth house, Shadows, is revealed as a major threat in season three, having previously been imprisoned by the other houses.

Within the mythology of ''Dante's Cove'', Saint is an entheogenic drug local to the Dante's Cove area, obtained from a plant. In non-practitioners it produces a euphoric high, sometimes accompanied by a prophetic trance. For Tresum practitioners, it induces visions of the past and future and enhances their magical abilities.

Momo is a princess of , "the land of dreams in the sky". Fenarinarsa is a dwelling place for fairy tale characters. It was in danger of leaving Earth's orbit and disappearing, because people on the planet lost their dreams and hopes. The king and queen of Fenarinarsa sent their daughter Momo to Earth to help the people regain them. Momo became the daughter of a young childless couple, accompanied by three followers with the appearance of a dog (Sindbook), a monkey (Mocha) and a bird (Pipil). On Earth, Momo takes the appearance of a teenage girl. To help the planet regain its hopes and dreams, Momo transforms into an adult version of herself, with an occupation tailored to fit the situation (airline stewardess, police officer, football manager, veterinarian, and many more). Each time Momo succeeds in bringing happiness to the person affected, the Fenarinarsa crown shines. When it shines four times, a jewel appears in the crown. Once twelve jewels appear, Fenarinarsa will return to Earth.

Later in the series, however, the task is left incomplete as she loses her magical powers and soon gets killed by an incoming truck. She is reincarnated as a baby, the real daughter of the couple on Earth. Now she has her own dream to realize. She also has a pink lizard named Kadzilla who helps her and her allies defeat an evil shadow who had been the source of the troubles of the people she had helped.

The second series follows a similar story structure to the first, but stars a new cast. This Momo came from , the "land of dreams in the bottom of the sea." She's accompanied by Cookbook (dog), Lupipi (bird), and Charmo (monkey) and enjoyed a happy life on the ground. Similar to the previous series, she is adopted by a young childless couple who became her parents on the ground and she used her magic to bring happiness to many people.

Later on, Momo and her family become refugees. She understands that people have few hopes and dreams now. She eventually meets the Momo character from the first series and ultimately decides to save all the remaining hopes and dreams, using her magic against many social issues. Despite her efforts, all magic and fairy tale characters begin to disappear. The King and Queen of Marināsa decide to escape from the Earth. Momo stays behind to fulfill her parents' dream of having a child, believing that hopes and dreams are never really lost.

In a posh London gallery, Carolyn Dalgleish (Carolyn Backhouse) prepares a showing of the latest works by John Bolton: disturbing portraits of beautiful, vicious vampiric women he encountered whilst pot holing. The Interviewer (Marcus Brigstocke) collects information on Bolton, who seems to perplex those who work with him and collect his art (like radio personality Jonathan Ross (playing himself)).

Bolton appears to review the placement of the paintings before the opening. Eccentric and detached, Bolton is uncomfortable with the amount of attention being paid to him. Forced to give a speech at that evening's party (where guests include the ''real'' John Bolton in a cameo appearance), Bolton quietly states that he simply "paints what he sees."

Following the gala, Bolton is interviewed at home by Brigstocke. Bolton again proves elusive with answers about his art, though he does (reluctantly) agree to have his work habits filmed for the first time (though only by the Interviewer, working without his crew).

As dusk approaches, Bolton takes the Interviewer to his studio, located in the basement of an ancient monastery and graveyard. As the hours drag on, Bolton shows no signs of getting started (he says he is waiting), and the Interviewer finally leaves. Filming himself as he walks out of the graveyard, the Interviewer spots two ghostly women (one with zebra stripes running up her leg) moving towards him. The camera falls to the ground, and the film closes on Bolton's latest work: a pale woman, with zebra stripes running up her leg, feasting on human flesh.

Andy Sachs is an aspiring journalist newly graduated from Northwestern University. Despite her ridicule of the fashion industry, she lands a job as junior personal assistant to Miranda Priestly, the editor-in-chief of ''Runway'' magazine, a job that "millions of girls would kill for". Andy plans to put up with Miranda's excessive demands and humiliating treatment for one year in the hopes of getting a job as a reporter or writer somewhere else.

At first, Andy fumbles with her job and fits in poorly with her gossipy, fashion-conscious co-workers, especially Miranda's senior assistant, Emily Charlton. After a dress trial meeting in which Miranda berates her in front of the entire team, she approaches art director Nigel to help her learn the ropes in the world of fashion. She begins to dress stylishly and makes an effort to accommodate all of Miranda's whims and fancies, which creates problems in her relationship with her boyfriend Nate, who is frustrated that she is always at her new boss's beck and call.

Miranda notices Andy's changed appearance and commitment and begins to give her more responsibility and complicated tasks to handle. Slowly but surely, Andy becomes more glamorous and absorbs the ''Runway'' philosophy. She gradually outperforms Emily at her job. Emily, meanwhile, is consumed with the thought of attending Paris Fashion Week as Miranda's assistant, which motivates her to attempt extreme diets which damage her health. When Emily is feeling too unwell to remember important details about the guests at a charity benefit, Andy steps in to save Miranda from embarrassment and is rewarded by being asked to replace Emily as Miranda's assistant at the Paris Fashion Week. Miranda tells Andy to inform Emily that she will not be going to Paris, but when Andy calls Emily, Emily is hit by a car and ends up in the hospital. Andy then tells the recovering Emily the news and Emily is furious. When Andy tells Nate the news, he is angered that she has become what she once ridiculed and they break up.

In Paris, Andy learns from Miranda about her impending divorce. Later that night, Nigel tells Andy that he has accepted a job as creative director with rising designer James Holt. Andy spends the night with an attractive young writer, Christian Thompson, who tells her that Miranda is to be replaced by Jacqueline Follet as editor of ''Runway''. Feeling bad for Miranda, Andy attempts to warn her but Miranda sends her away.

At a luncheon later that day, Miranda announces Jacqueline as the new creative director to Holt, leaving Andy and Nigel stunned. Later in the car, Miranda explains to Andy that she already knew of the plot to replace her and sacrificed Nigel to keep her own job. When Andy is repulsed, Miranda points out that Andy did the same with Emily by stepping over her and agreeing to go to Paris. When they arrive at their destination, Andy walks away from Miranda and throws her cell phone into the fountain of the Place de la Concorde and returns to New York.

Sometime later, Andy meets up with Nate and apologizes. Nate tells Andy he has a new job as a sous-chef in Boston, and they reconcile. The same day, Andy is interviewed and accepted to work at a major New York publication company. The editor recounts how he called ''Runway'' for a reference, and was informed by Miranda that while Andy was one of the biggest disappointments she ever had as an assistant, he would be an idiot not to hire her. Andy then calls Emily and reconciles with her by offering her the dresses she obtained in Paris. While passing the ''Runway'' office building in the afternoon, Andy makes eye contact with Miranda as she gets into a car. Although Andy waves, Miranda does not acknowledge her but smiles to herself once she is seated in the car.

When poor old widow Berlingot asks Tyltyl and Mytyl, the young son and daughter of her more prosperous neighbors, for the loan of their pet bird to cheer up her ill daughter, Mytyl selfishly refuses. That night, when the children are asleep, the fairy Bérylune enters their home in the semblance of Berlingot, before transforming into her true beautiful appearance. She insists that the children search for the bluebird of happiness. She gives Tyltyl a magical hat which has the power to show him the insides of things. As a result, the souls of fire, water, light, bread, sugar, and milk becoming personified, and their pet dog and cat can now speak with their masters. Before they all set out, Bérylune warns the children that their new companions will all perish once their quest is achieved.

The fairy then takes them to various places to search. At the Palace of Night, the traitorous cat forewarns the Mother of Night, having heard the fairy's prediction. The dog saves Tyltyl from one of the dangers of the palace. In a graveyard, the dead come alive at midnight, and Tyltyl and Mytyl are reunited with their grandmother, grandfather, and siblings. They receive a blue bird, but when they leave, it disappears. Next, they visit the Palace of Happiness. After seeing various lesser joys and happinesses, they are shown the greatest of them all: maternal love in the form of their own mother. Finally, they are transported to the Kingdom of the Future, where children wait to be born, including their brother. Nowhere do they find the bluebird.

Returning home empty-handed, the children see that the bird has been in a cage in their home the whole time. Mytyl gives the bird to Berlingot. She returns shortly afterward with her daughter, now well. However, the bird escapes from the daughter's grasp and flies away. Tyltyl comforts the upset neighbor girl, then turns to the audience and asks the viewers to search for the bluebird where they are most likely to find it: in their own homes.

The setting is Germany during the Napoleonic Wars. Mytyl, the bratty and ungrateful daughter of a woodcutter, finds a unique bird in the royal forest and selfishly refuses to give it to her sick friend Angela. Mother and Father are mortified at Mytyl's behavior. That evening, Father is called on to report for military duty the next morning.

Mytyl is visited in a dream by a fairy named Berylune who sends her and her brother Tyltyl to search for the Blue Bird of Happiness. To accompany them, the fairy magically transforms their dog Tylo, cat Tylette and lantern into human form. The children have a number of adventures: they visit the past (meeting their dead grandparents who come to life because they are being remembered), escape a scary fire in the forest (caused by Tylette's lies to the trees in a treacherous attempt to make the children quit their journey), experience the life of luxury and see the future, a land of yet-to-be born children.

Mytyl awakes as a kinder and gentler girl who has learned to appreciate her home and family. The following morning, Father receives word that a truce has been declared and he no longer must fight in the war. Mytyl is inspired to give the unique bird, now revealed to be the eponymous Blue Bird that she had sought throughout her journey, to Angela.

Mytyl and her brother Tyltyl are peasant children who are led on a quest for the Blue Bird of Happiness by the Queen of Light, who gives them a hat with a magic diamond that allows them to call forth the souls of all things, both living and inanimate.

On their journey, they are accompanied by the human personifications of a dog, a cat, water, sugar, bread, milk, and fire. They visit the kingdoms of the past and future and the queendoms of night and luxury, at each place absorbing more wisdom. Eventually they discover that the blue bird which they have been seeking, has been in their own backyard all along.

The film is set in a modern capitalist city. While searching for food at the market, a boy saves a stray dog from a cruel salesman. An old woman passing by witnesses the act and reveals that she is a fairy. She gives the boy a caged bluebird as a reward, stating that it can neither be sold nor bought, but can be given as a gift. He hides the bluebird in his attic, and plans to show it to his little sister.

At night, the brother and sister enter the attic to encounter their long-dead grandparents. The grandparents reveal that the bluebird has been stolen by a cat named Puss. They say that the bluebird contains happiness for all, so it must be rescued and set free.

The children and the dog set out in search of the bluebird. They meet a rich man who wants to use the bluebird to start a war and conquer the world. The rich man tempts the children with various delicacies to make them forget about the bluebird, but the fairy helps them escape.

The children make their way into the dark mines, where cheerful workers welcome them and offer gifts of bread. The fairy appears once more to provide the eternal companions of man: Fire, Water, and Bread. The group learns that Puss has kidnapped the bluebird at the behest of his mistress, Night, so that she can sell it to the rich man. Her plans are thwarted when Fire burns Night, Puss drowns in Water, and the boy steals the bird from the rich man.

After recovering the bluebird, the boy falls off a clock tower. Morning comes, and the boy wakes to discover that their journey was only a dream. He and his sister go to the attic and release the bluebird into the wild.

Set in a German-speaking country in the 1970s, the series is about a 12-year-old girl called Mytyl and her 13-year-old brother Tyltyl seeking happiness, represented by The Blue Bird of Happiness, aided by the good fairy Bérylune. They are accompanied on their journey by their cat and dog, Shanet and Tyrol, who are given anthropomorph forms and the ability to talk by Bérylune.

In San Francisco in the 1850s, a city where gold fever has left shipowners short-handed, Bat Morgan, a sailor come ashore, is robbed and nearly shanghaied aboard another ship. Managing to escape, he sticks around town to pay back those responsible and then to take a cut in the action in the vice district. He organized the various gambling houses (and other forms of vice implied but, for Code reasons, not explicitly shown) into a consolidated enterprise in alliance with a corrupt city boss, Jim Daley, and thereby comes into conflict with a crusading newspaper run by Jean Barrat, the daughter of the recently murdered publisher, and idealistic editor Charles Ford.

Loyal to his friends, even when they are on the other side, Bat Morgan protects the editor when Jim Daley orders him eliminated. He also falls in love with Jean, but his way of life and lack of faith in any morality beyond looking out for number one make a permanent relationship all but impossible. When his best friend, Solly Green, takes a bullet for him, Bat mourns him, but when Jean points to Solly as an example of people helping others, he observes that Solly would be alive today if he hadn't met Bat.

Riled at a judge's snub, he determines to bring his Barbary Coast crowd to the opening night at the Opera House, which the Judge has opened as an alternative place of amusement to the gambling dens. A gambler, Paul Morra, shoulders his way into the judge's box and murders him on a flimsy excuse. The resulting outrage provokes a public outcry, and when Morra is arrested and jailed, a lynch mob gathers, crying for his blood. Bat arranges Morra's release, not so much because he likes him as because he owes him a debt of gratitude for starting him on his upward rise.

Soon after, Ford is murdered by Jim Daley in a bar-room fight. Jean blames Bat, holding him responsible for all the evil done by those who work with him. A vigilance movement sets out to clean up the town, rounding up Morra and Daley and hanging them both. When the lowlife of the Barbary Coast determine to take revenge by wrecking the press and burning the city, Bat Morgan convinces them to do otherwise. Trying to keep them from fighting back as the vigilantes come to destroy the Coast, he is shot in the back by one of the underworld thugs and is captured by the vigilantes. Jean saves him from hanging and he is permitted to go free, on her parole.

The title character, Ilsa Brandes, initially lives with her naturalist father, Dr. John Brandes, in a house on a beach, outside a fictional town in the American Deep South. 13-year-old Ilsa is a vibrant, outgoing, seemingly carefree person. She immediately captivates the book's narrator, Henry Randolph Porcher, who is ten years old as the book opens. Henry's mother hates Ilsa and Dr. Brandes, even to the point of refusing their help when her home is on fire. After the fire, Henry and his family go to stay with relatives in Charleston, where Henry gets his first hints about the family scandals that explain his mother's attitude. The circumstances of Ilsa's birth are the subject of controversy, both locally and in Charleston.

After the death of her father, Ilsa goes to live with Henry's cousin, Anna Silverton. Henry's mother dies soon after this. Henry finally sees Ilsa again, and renews his friendship with her. Unfortunately for Henry, Ilsa later marries Monty Woolf, another cousin of Henry's. Despite his continuing love for Ilsa, Henry does little to further a romance with her, even after Monty's death. Nevertheless, he keeps returning to her side over the years. Ilsa and Henry experience numerous personal setbacks - including Ilsa's blindness and Henry's failure as a musician - and few if any triumphs.

Holger Brandt, a celebrated virtuoso violinist, meets Anita Hoffman, his daughter's piano instructor, during a trip home. Impressed by Anita's talent, he invites her to accompany him on his next tour. They begin touring together and a passionate relationship ensues. Holger's wife Margit asks him for a divorce.

Knowing how much Holger misses his daughter Ann Marie and son Eric, and torn with guilt for breaking up his family, Anita decides to pursue her own career and leaves Holger. Holger returns home to see his children again. He first travels to Ann Marie's school, but as she runs across the street to greet him, she is hit by a car in front of his eyes. He takes the injured Ann Marie back home and confronts his angry son in an attempt to explain his infidelity.

To Holger's relief, the doctor informs him that Ann Marie will survive and eventually recover from her injuries. Margit then forgives Holger and welcomes him back into his family.

Jonathan Cabot (Thomas) is approached by the Special Intelligence Agency (SIA) to play "the Game". The Game is an athletic competition in the fictional country of Parmistan, a tiny mountain nation which is supposedly located in the Hindu Kush mountain range. Parmistan forces all foreigners to play the Game, which is basically an endurance race with obstacles, all the while being chased by local Parmistan warriors. If a person wins, then they are granted their life and a wish. The SIA wants Cabot to win the game so that he can use his wish to install a US satellite monitoring station, which could monitor all satellites in space and act as an early warning system in case of nuclear attack. Cabot is told that the system could save millions of lives. As an extra incentive, Cabot is also told that his father (who went missing) was actually a SIA operative who was sent to play the game but was never heard from again. After a training period with martial arts teacher, Japanese guru, and a beautiful Parmistan princess named Princess Rubali (Tetchie Agbayani) he is deemed ready and sent to the town of Karabal, on the Caspian Sea, for infiltration into Parmistan.

While in Karabal, he is attacked by terrorist agents who kidnap Princess Rubali. Jonathan Cabot quickly raids the terrorist training center and, using his unstoppable "gymkata" fighting style that combined gymnastics with karate, easily disables dozens of terrorists before rescuing the Princess and returning to the salt mine where he is staying. However, when he returns he finds out that his handler has betrayed him to the enemy. Luckily, the SIA arrives in the nick of time to save him.

Finally, Cabot and Rubali use a raft to float down the river into Parmistan where they are promptly seized by Parmistan warriors and, after a fight, Cabot is knocked out. When Cabot wakes up, he is in the King's palace and is greeted by other players of the Game who also have arrived to play it. While waiting for the Game to start, Cabot learns from the Princess that the King's right-hand man and manager of the Game, Commander Zamir, is actually planning a coup against the King and will attempt to sell the satellite rights to the enemy. Zamir also intends to marry Princess Rubali.

With all this in mind, Cabot starts the Game but soon learns that Zamir won't play fair, and constantly breaks the strict rules of the Game in order to kill Cabot. Meanwhile, the King's forces have been overpowered by Zamir's private army in the coup attempt which the King is tricked into believing is a set of security measures for his protection.

Fighting many obstacles, including a crooked, sadistic participant named Thorg, Cabot is the only player left in the game and is about to be killed by crazed villagers when he is saved by a Parmistan warrior who turns out to be Cabot's father Colonel Cabot. His father explains that while playing the game he fell and disabled his arm, but was allowed by Parmistan warriors to live. As the two are catching up, Zamir fires an arrow into Cabot's father, who in a hushed voice tells Cabot to go on and win the race. Cabot races off, chased by Zamir's army. He is able to make his horse jump a gorge and gets away while only Zamir is brave enough to follow. Seeing that Zamir won't let him escape, Cabot decides to take him on and after a prolonged fight Cabot's gymkata skills allow him to defeat Zamir.

Meanwhile, Princess Rubali finally convinces the King that Zamir is plotting to overthrow the monarchy. Using their combined fighting skills, the Princess and the King attack Zamir's men before encouraging the citizens of Parmistan to rise up and seize the rest. As the crowd takes down Zamir's army someone cries out that a participant is approaching the finish line. As the villagers runs to see who made it, Princess Rubali is thrilled to see that Cabot is riding in on a horse, leading his father, arrow-punctured but still alive, on another horse. The crowd seizes on the champion and as the movie ends, the audience is informed that in 1985 the first satellite monitoring station was installed.

A young white girl, Lia Eltham, is left in Fu Manchu's care. A British regiment, chasing Boxer rebels, fires on Fu Manchu's home, killing his wife and child. When Lia Eltham grows up, he uses her as an instrument for revenge, killing all descendants of those who killed his family. Opposing Fu Manchu are Police Inspector Nayland Smith and Dr. Jack Petrie.

In 1910 Wyoming, a widow and her seven-year old daughter travel by train to two great unknowns-a strange land and life in a remote frontier with a man they never met.

Maico is Japan's newest radio DJ. When she is not working she must stave off assassins, crazed fans and a couple of office workers as well. She believes she was created just to be the perfect DJ. What she does not know is that she is really a sexdroid — a robot specifically designed for sexual intercourse. However, her creator Otari Masudamasu wanted her to be as close to human as possible and not a sex toy. Maico has never had sexual intercourse and is shy at times. She constantly learns about love and matters of the heart. She later meets another sexdroid Rei, Masudamasu's first android, who is designed to be like her late sister. After saving her from her evil controllers, who only used her to try to destroy Maico and as a sex toy, she and Maico become crime fighting DJs called Cherry-Bombs. The anime version differs from the manga, with less sexual themes, and no crime fighting involved. Also, there is no mention of her being a sexdroid, and Rei is never introduced.

Shelby Gilmore (William Holden), who owns a newly constructed hotel on a remote Pacific island, wants desperately to marry his secretary, Kay Kirby (Jacqueline Bisset) and proposes to her under the impression that she'll become his seventh wife. Kay is in love with Hank Anderson (Paul Newman), an oil rigger whose scientists are warning him that a nearby active volcano is about to erupt.

Shelby's partner, Bob Spangler (James Franciscus), assures guests at the hotel that the threat of the volcano is a total exaggeration, explaining that it only erupts once every thousand years. Spangler is married to Shelby's goddaughter Nikki (Veronica Hamel), but is cheating on her with Iolani (Barbara Carrera), an executive with Shelby's hotel. Iolani is engaged to Brian (Edward Albert), the hotel's general manager. Unbeknownst to all except Spangler, who chooses not to reveal the secret, Brian is his illegitimate younger half-brother and therefore part-owner of the resort.

Guests at the hotel include a bonds smuggler, Francis Fendly (Red Buttons), who is being tailed by a New York City private investigator, Tom Conti (Ernest Borgnine). Also on hand are Rene and Rose Valdez (Burgess Meredith and Valentina Cortese), who are retired circus tightrope walkers. Hank's oil rig workers include Tiny Baker (Alex Karras), who has a wager going with cockfighting rival Sam (Pat Morita) on a prized rooster that has just been delivered to him. Sam and his wife Mona (Sheila Allen) own a local bar.

Hank and Kay go for a picnic on the beach to discuss their relationship. During their time together, the volcano erupts and most of the island's population are wiped out. Tiny and all of Hank's workers are killed in town when a tidal wave crashes onto them. Sam takes Mona and two of his girls, Delores and Marsha, and escapes by car, while Hank and Kay rescue Nikki and some others at the stables by helicopter. The only survivors are those at Shelby's hotel, overlooking a disaster that will surely come straight for them, as the volcano is spewing fireballs. A fireball lands at the hotel, and Conti is blinded by the explosion, to Fendly's horror. Conti is told by the paramedics that the injury is superficial, and given time to heal, he will regain his eyesight. Some of the hotel guests panic and try to escape by stealing the helicopter, but it soon crashes, killing all those inside.

Hank insists that everyone must evacuate the hotel and journey to a safe side of the island to await rescue. Spangler convinces the majority of the guests to stay, including mistress Iolani. Shelby bids a farewell to Nikki, who insists on staying with her husband. After one final attempt to persuade others to join them, Hank and Kay leave the hotel along with Shelby, Brian, Rene and Rose, Fendly and Conti, Sam, Mona and the girls, plus a few more. At the hotel, Nikki stumbles upon her husband's affair with Iolani, but now it is too late for her to follow the others though Spangler expels her from the hotel.

Trucks carrying survivors manage to travel as far as a mountainside gorge. Everyone must cross the gorge on foot. Conti is guided by Fendly, and the two become friends. From there, the party comes upon a rickety wooden bridge over a river of molten lava. Hank crosses first to see if it is safe. The others go in pairs. Two native children, whose father died crossing the gorge, are afraid and run away. Rose, who had stopped to rest with Rene because of her weak heart, dies after telling her husband to find the children.

After an explosion beneath the bridge causes Sam and Marsha to fall to their deaths into the lava, Rene hoists a child onto his back and recreates his old tightrope act to get the child safely across. Hank guides the second child to safety. The survivors take refuge in a cavern, during which time fireballs streak across the sky. Spangler pays for his arrogance when one huge fireball arcs directly towards the hotel; when it hits, the hotel explodes, killing him, Nikki, Iolani and all who had unfortunately chosen to stay. The next morning, the survivors, fearing they're the only ones left, continue on towards a beach to wait for rescue.

Teams from all across Germany descend on a quiet camping ground for a week of training leading up to a final rowing competition. The plot follows the members of the RSC rowing club from southern Germany as they train for the regatta.

The boys are excited by the prospects of camping with a female rowing team from Berlin. However, by a stroke of fate, the Berlin girls' team cancels and is replaced by Queerschlag ("Queerstrokes"), a gay youth rowing team, and these boys are out, proud, and vocal about it.

Amidst the occasionally tense interactions between the members of his team and those of Queerschlag, Tobi is himself forced to confront his long-time feelings for his close friend and teammate Achim, who is already romantically involved with his girlfriend Sandra. Spurned by Achim, Tobi is devastated, but is partly consoled by his new friendship with Queerschlag member Leo.

The tension between the members of the two teams culminates in a scene set to the backdrop of a summer storm, during which Leo confronts Tobi about his homosexuality in front of his teammates. Tobi denies being gay, and, in an attempt to defend him, one of his teammates tells Tobi's girlfriend Anke to tell the rest of his teammates so. Anke, the only person to whom Tobi has confided his secret, remains silent.

Ultimately, Tobi comes out to his teammates and his rowing team, who seem to accept Tobi no matter what, and they go on to compete with Queerschlag in the final regatta.

Szeto Ho Nam from the Tung Sing Society attempts to take control of Causeway Bay by causing trouble at Chan Ho Nam's bars in Causeway Bay. Meanwhile, Big Head, a friend of Chan Ho Nam has been released from jail and works on the street as a vendor, attempting to have a peaceful life after being released without getting involved in gangster affairs. The Tung Sing members kept ruining Big Head's peaceful life by forcing him to give them money for protection racket.

Chian Tin Yeung, Sister 13, Chan Ho Nam, and many other branch leaders are invited to Malaysia by Chinese-Malaysian governor Chan Ka Nam. Chan Ka Nam fakes a business alliance with Chan Ho Nam, secretly helping Szeto Ho Nam to eliminate Chan Ho Nam. In Malaysia, Chan Ho Nam gets into a romantic relationship with Meiling, who's been forced to work for Chan Ka Nam. After she knows that she's been tricked, she decides to assist Chan Ho Nam in his plans to expose Chan Ka Nam.

After a confrontation with Tung Sing members, Banana Peel gets arrested and taken to the police station. There, he gets shot to death by a Tung Sing member whose brother was killed by Banana Peel during the confrontation.

Big Head decides to help Chan Ho Nam to fight a boxing match with the Tung Sing Society, whoever loses will need to disappear out of Causeway Bay. Big Head wins the match.

Meanwhile, Chan Ho Nam decides to challenge Szeto Ho Nam privately and Chan Ho Nam wins the fight as well.

At the end of the film, Chan Ka Nam gets beaten up by Pou Pan before getting arrested by the police, he was exposed with the help of Meiling and Tai Fei, who now runs a publishing office. Meiling and Chan Ho Nam officially begin their dating.

In a flashback to ''Young and Dangerous'', "Chicken" Chiu (Jordan Chan) heads into exile and decides to go to Taiwan, after a failed hit. The first part of the movie details the events leading up to his return to Hong Kong, following the death of his boss "Uncle Bee" (Frankie Ng). In Taiwan, Chicken's cousin introduces him to the "San Luen" Triad, headed by an influential Taiwanese senator. Although the atmosphere in the city is quite different than Hong Kong, Chicken gains the senator's favor by assassinating his rival. Pleased with the youth's initiative, he promotes Chicken to branch leader and does not even mind Chicken having been smitten with his beautiful mistress. Upon hearing news of Bee's death, Chicken returns to Hong Kong and helps best friends Chan Ho Nam (Ekin Cheng), Dai Tin-yee (Michael Tse) and K.K. (Halina Tam) to get rid of corrupt "Hung Hing" Chairman "Ugly Kwan" (Francis Ng).

The second part of the movie deals with returning Hung Hing Chairman Chiang Tin Sang (Simon Yam) trying to ally with San Luen and promote relationships, while trying to find a replacement branch leader of Causeway Bay, a position Bee held. Ho Nam is the most likely candidate, being Bee's must trusted underling, but a rivalry breaks out when another member "Tai Fei" (Anthony Wong) wants the position for himself. At the same time, Ho Nam's friend Pou Pan (Jerry Lam) recruits "Banana Skin" (Jason Chu), who bewilders Ho Nam and the rest of his friends because of his facial similarity to Pou Pan's deceased brother Chow Pan. During a visit back to Taiwan to see and thank the senator personally for helping them get rid of Kwan, Ho Nam and Chicken find him dead and are accused by San Luen of killing him.

In actuality, the culprit is the senator's mistress, who uses this opportunity to lead San Luen and break Hung Hing's grip on their gambling spots in Macau, reinforcing San Luen influence in the area. To that end, Tai Fei willingly allies with her and plots to have Ho Nam's candidacy for the Causeway Bay branch leadership tainted. Ho Nam is barely swayed by Tai Fei's threats, until a car accident cripples his girlfriend Smartie (Gigi Lai), putting her in a coma. Although disheartened at her condition, Ho Nam does not back out of the candidacy, and plans to stage an intervention at a San Luen opening of a new Macau casino, during which an important member of the Macau government will attend. Ho Nam's sabotage of the event is successful, destroying any credibility San Luen has in Macau and to Tai Fei's nomination.

In a tense Mexican standoff at town square, the senator's mistress and Tai Fei decides to settle things with Ho Nam and Chicken, summoning hundreds of San Luen and Hung Hing members. While it appears the victory is in the mistress' hands, it is Tai Fei who turns the gun on her: it was all a ploy on Hung Hing's part for him to ally with San Luen and provide a means to weed out any corrupt members in the Taiwanese society. Realizing it was she who killed the senator, San Luen's branch leaders decide to take her back to Taiwan for punishment, but Chicken requests he speak with her before she is led away. Upon stating she is the only woman he has ever truly loved, he executes her on the spot, knowing full well she will die more painfully in Taiwan. With the matter settled, Tai Fei abstains from the Causeway Bay branch leadership candidacy and Ho Nam is elected its leader.

Weeks after Chan Ho Nam (Ekin Cheng) is elected branch leader of Causeway Bay of the "Hung Hing" Society, "Chicken" Chiu (Jordan Chan), best friends Banana Skin (Jason Chu), Pou-pei (Jerry Lamb), Dai Tin-yee (Michael Tse) and K.K. (Halina Tam) after joining the Taiwanese "San Luen" triad, is reinstated into Hung Hing by Chairman Chiang Tin Sung (Simon Yam). At the same time, rival triad "Tung Sing", led by "Camel" Lok (Chan Wai Man) begins to make a name for itself, establishing bars and clubs alongside Hung Hing's areas of operations. Things become heated when Tung Sing member "Crow" (Roy Cheung) fuels a deep-seated rivalry between him and Ho Nam, with the threat of open war between the two societies. Meanwhile, Ho Nam's stuttering girlfriend Smartie (Gigi Lai), who was critically injured in a vehicular accident and slipped into a coma, reawakens but with no prior memories to her meeting with Ho Nam for the first time. Regardless, Ho Nam assures her he and his friends will protect her. To add in a stick of comedy, Father "Lethal Weapon" Lam (Spencer Lam) introduces his daughter Shuk Fan (Karen Mok) to Chicken, having been good friends and a source of advice for him.

During a business trip to Amsterdam with his mistress and Ho Nam, Chairman Chiang is assassinated by thugs. While the rest of Hung Hing believes the hit was orchestrated by Ho Nam, it is the deranged Crow who ordered the chairman's death, using Chiang's mistress to falsify evidence, framing Ho Nam. While Ho Nam goes into hiding back in Hong Kong, Crow is reprimanded by Camel; to add to his insanity, Crow kills his own boss and makes it look like a Hung Hing assassination. Drunk with power, Crow wants nothing more than to destroy Hung Hing and orders his men to search frantically for Ho Nam, who is quick to realize the ambush and escapes with Smartie, until Crow's men manages to separate the two. In their attempt, Smartie is captured but suffers a blow to the head, restoring her memories. Crow tells Ho Nam if he wants his name cleared and his woman back, he must meet him alone.

Yet, the crazed Crow does not keep his word and kills Smartie in cold blood in front of Ho Nam. Just as Crow is about to finish him, Chicken bursts in and reaches a stalemate with Crow to ensure Ho Nam's safety. The saddened Ho Nam carries Smartie's body out with him and gives her a proper funeral. Now fueled solely on vengeance, Ho Nam decides to march into Tung Sing territory and kill Crow at Camel's funeral haphazardly. Ho Nam's friends and the rest of Hung Hing manage to capture and threaten Tung Sing member "Tiger" (Ng Chi Hung), who tells all of Crow's madness in killing both their societies' leaders. Crow is left nowhere to run from his enemies, and in the midst of a Hung Hing/Tung Sing brawl, he is killed in the funeral pyre. With Crow dead, Tung Sing is left in disarray, and Hung Hing re-establishes control in its territories.

Silvia Tebrick, the 24-year-old wife of Richard Tebrick, suddenly becomes a fox while they are out walking in the woods. Mr. Tebrick sends away all the servants in an attempt to keep Silvia's new nature a secret, although Silvia's childhood nurse returns. While Silvia initially acts human, insisting on wearing clothing and playing piquet, her behaviour increasingly becomes that characteristic of a vixen, causing the husband a great deal of anguish. Eventually, Mr. Tebrick releases Silvia into the wild, where she gives birth to five kits, whom Tebrick names and plays with every day. Despite Tebrick's efforts to protect Silvia and her cubs, she is ultimately killed by dogs during a fox hunt; Tebrick, who tried to save Silvia from the dogs, is badly wounded, but eventually recovers.

McSweeney's Collins Library imprint republished ''Lady into Fox'' in 2004.

Kelly's daughter falls for a revenue agent, and his divorced wife is after alimony.

Six months have passed since the end of ''The Summer Tree'', and Kim is waiting for the dream that will tell her how to summon the Warrior to aid them in their battle against Maugrim. Jennifer is pregnant with Rakoth Maugrim's child and, surprisingly, is determined to have the baby—aware that Maugrim wanted her dead, she is determined not only to live but to have the child, believing that it will be both an answer and a threat to him. She and Paul are menaced in their own world by Galadan; Paul, tapping the potent but unreliable power of Mörnir that lives in him since his three nights on the Summer Tree, takes the two of them back to Fionavar. They arrive safely but the crossing brings on Jennifer's labor. When the child is born she names him Darien and gives him to Vae and Shahar, the parents of Finn. Jaelle sends Paul and Jennifer back to their own world.

In the spring, Kim and the others go to Stonehenge, where a dream has revealed to Kim she can call on Uther Pendragon to find out where Arthur is buried. She succeeds in raising Uther and extracting from him the name by which Arthur may be summoned. Using the Baelrath, she sends the others to Fionavar and herself to Glastonbury Tor, where she summons Arthur with the name Childslayer. Arthur is bound to answer to this name because of the May Babies, children he had ordered slain in an attempt to forestall Mordred's growing to manhood.

Kim and Arthur rejoin the others in Fionavar. This time, Fionavar is in the midst of an unnatural months-long winter. Upon meeting Arthur, a flood of memories awakens in Jennifer and she recalls her life as Guinevere. Unable to break through the walls she created to survive her ordeal in Starkadh, Jennifer retreats to the temple of Dana, relieved that at least there is no Lancelot and so although she cannot love Arthur, at least she won't betray him. Meanwhile, Darien is growing up unnaturally quickly, like all andain, so Vae, Shahar and Finn move to Ysanne's cottage by the lake. Darien is a loving little boy and devoted to Finn—but he also hears voices in the storm and sometimes unknowingly flexes the power he inherited from his father, which makes his eyes turn red.

On the Plains, the eltor are bogged down in the snow and harried by Galadan's wolves. The Dalrei do their best to protect the herds but come under attack by an army of urgach mounted on slaug. Diarmuid and his men, with Dave and Kevin, arrive in time to thwart the initial assault, but it is Tabor, mounted on Imraith-Nimphais, who finally saves them. Ivor worries that his son's bond with the deadly but beautiful magical beast will weaken Tabor's hold on the real world.

Kim, Dave, Levon and a small band make their way to the Cave of the Sleepers and Dave blows Owein's Horn to wake the Wild Hunt. Owein and seven shadowy kings awaken, but there are nine horses. Just as the Hunt is about to rampage forth looking for their missing member, Finn arrives and takes his place on the ninth horse: this is his Longest Road, riding with the Wild Hunt.

The entire company (except for Paul who remains with Darien) journeys to Gwen Ystrat, a location sacred to the goddess, arriving (by chance?) on Midsummer Eve, or Maidaladan, a night of potent sexual/erotic magic. Kim, Gereint, Jaelle and the mages discover that Metran, renegade first mage of Brennin, is making the winter on an island; since all the ports are frozen, they cannot get to him to stop him. Kevin is wounded during a boar hunt which he realizes marks him as belonging to the Goddess. That night, Midsummer Eve, Diarmuid and Sharra admit their love for each other; meanwhile, Kevin follows Cavall to the cave of Dun Maura where he sacrifices his life to the Goddess, allowing her to intercede and, with the magic unleashed from his sacrifice, end the winter that has been looming over Fionavar.

Freed from winter, war begins. Kim and Brock journey to the mountains where they are attacked by brigands. The Dalrei are attacked by a vast army of the Dark, and only Dave's summoning of the Wild Hunt by blowing Owein's Horn turns the tide. However, the Hunt are as wild as their name, and when they finish slaughtering the armies of the Dark they turn on the Dalrei and the other armies of the Light. Ceinwen intervenes, and that night she takes Dave as her lover.

Meanwhile Darien has used his powers to accelerate his growth and, now a young man, overhears Cernan ask Paul why "the child" was allowed to live. Angry, hurt by Finn's desertion, feeling unwanted and unloved, Darien decides to seek his father, Maugrim. Jennifer comes to terms with her past and has one day of joyous reunion with Arthur, both of them daring to hope that this time things will be different since there is "no third" (i.e. no Lancelot). Arthur, Loren, Matt, Paul and Diarmuid set sail for Cader Sedat, and Jennifer goes to Lisen's tower with Brendel to await their return.

The ship, ''Prydwen'', reaches Cader Sedat and the company discovers that Metran is fueling his unnatural winter by draining the life from hundreds of svart alfar, resurrecting them again and again using the Cauldron of Khath Meigol. Loren breaks the spell and kills Metran but in the process draws so much power that Matt dies. Below the castle, the company finds the Chamber of the Dead and Arthur, shouldering the full weight of his repeated penance, awakens Lancelot du Lac. Lancelot exercises his gift of healing and brings Matt back to life, though death has broken the binding between Matt and Loren and so Loren is no longer a mage. The company prepares to depart; Lancelot is reluctant to accompany them, knowing that his mere presence will cause yet more pain to Arthur and Guinevere, both of whom he loves so deeply. "Then Arthur spoke, and there was sorrow in his voice and there was love. 'Oh, Lance, come," he said. "She will be waiting for you.' " (WF, p. 244). And so the company, including Lancelot, prepares to depart for home.

The story centers on Macario, a poor Indigenous woodcutter, during Colonial Mexico, on the eve of the Day of the Dead, who lives embittered for being so poor and hungry. His economic situation keeps him and his family at the edge of starvation. After he sees a procession of roast turkeys, his dream is to eat a whole roast turkey just by himself. He announces in front of his wife and children that he will not eat until his dream comes true. His worried wife steals a turkey and gives it to Macario before he heads to the mountains to work.

However, just as Macario prepares to eat the turkey, three men appear to him. The first one is the Devil in the guise of a fine gentleman, who tempts Macario in order to get a piece of the turkey. The second one is God in the guise of an old man. Macario refuses to share the turkey with either, since he believes that they both have the means necessary to get themselves what they want.

When a third figure —a peasant like himself— appears to him, he gladly shares the turkey with the man. The third man is none other than Death itself. Death is unsure why Macario has shared his turkey with him and not with the Devil and God. Macario responds, "Whenever you appear, there is no time for anything else." Macario hoped to forestall what he assumed to be his imminent death by gaining the time it would take for him and Death to eat. Death is amused and as a compensation, names Macario his "friend" and gives him miraculous water that will heal any disease. If Death appears at the feet of the sick person, they can be healed with the water - but if Death appears by the person's head he or she is condemned to die. This "friendship" lasts for years, but they never speak to each other, but merely stare.

Death hints that Macario will meet him later that day. Macario returns home to find his son unconscious and badly injured from falling into a well. Macario heals his son with the water and eventually becomes known as a miraculous healer, creating such commotion that the church itself will accuse him of heresy, and even the Viceroy will ask for his services, to cure his son. He is promised freedom if he can save the boy, or to be burned at the stake otherwise.

Unfortunately for Macario, Death "has to take the child," so Macario, in despair, begs and tries to escape, only to enter Death's cavern and is reprimanded for turning his "gift" into merchandise. Death shows him the candles that the cavern is filled with, thousands of candles all representing a person's life. The making of the wax and length of the candle all factor into the lifespan of a given person. Death then snuffs out the candle of the Viceroy's son before Macario's eyes. When Macario sees how short his candle is, he begs Death to save it but Death refuses. In desperation, Macario snatches up his candle and runs out of the cavern, not heeding the shouts of Death behind him.

The last scenes begin at twilight on the day that Macario shared the turkey with Death. He has not come home, and his wife and some villagers are looking for Macario out in the woods only to find him peacefully dead, next to a turkey divided in halves: one of which is eaten, the other being intact, as if he died not fulfilling his dream of eating a complete turkey for himself.

Morris "Mud" Himmel has a problem: his parents want to send him away to a summer computer camp. He hates going to summer camp and will do anything to get out of it. Talking to his friends, he realizes that they are all facing the same sentence of going to a boring summer camp. Together, they hatch a plan to create their own summer camp with no parents, no counselors, and no rules. Word gets out and other kids soon want to join the made-up summer camp. Mud decides to blackmail former drama teacher Dennis Van Welker into helping; he had bought an AMC Gremlin and failed to make most of the payments and is being pursued by soon-to-retire collector T.R. Polk, and agrees to help them in return for $1,000 and after they threaten to turn him in if he doesn't help.

With Dennis' help, the kids trick all the parents into sending them to the camp, and then rent an old campground (that used to be a hippie commune back in the 1960s and '70s) with a cabin on a lake. Some parents believe it is a computer camp, while others believe it is a fat camp, military camp, or an acting camp. The kids use the money their parents had paid for camp to buy toys and food. After a little while, they get bored and wonder if they should just return home. Mud goes to Dennis for help, and with a bribe, he soon finds ways to keep things interesting and help them continue to have fun.

Eventually, the parents want to come visit their kids despite being told that there are no parents' days. Mud makes a plan to trick them and, along with his friends, they keep the camp concealed. In a matter of hours, they fix it up and set up different scenarios representing the different camps (fat camp, computer camp, military camp, etc.) Their plan works and the parents don't suspect a thing. T.R. Polk then meets a state trooper who was also seeking Dennis, and they find their way into the camp and catch him. The police are called and Mud finds Dennis running away from the authorities. Mud is confronted by the police and protects Dennis from them, but soon after Dennis turns himself in. Mud confesses and explains that the whole thing was his idea, and uses the rest of the money to settle Dennis' debt with T.R. Polk, who'll retire with a perfect record. The other kids in a show of solidarity also claim responsibility and therefore all the parents refuse to press charges. Dennis gets off the hook and the kids leave for home, having had the greatest summer of their lives. Mostly Mudd is punished by his parents because of this scheme.

Robert Kraft (Boone) is the newly appointed chairman of a committee that oversees a large cemetery. The cemetery caretaker, Andy MacKee (Bikel), keeps a map in the cemetery office displaying the grounds and each gravesite. Filled graves are marked by black pins and unoccupied but sold graves are marked with white pins. New to the position and unobservant, Kraft accidentally places a pair of black pins where they don't belong, only to discover later that the young couple who had bought the grave sites in question died in an automobile accident soon afterwards. He believes that he marked them for death.

Hoping it will give him peace of mind, Robert replaces a random white pin with a black pin. When that person dies later in the week, however, he becomes increasingly convinced that either he or the map wield some kind of dark power. Repeated experiments, undertaken upon the insistence of skeptical friends and co-workers, yield the same result. Kraft slips into deep guilt and depression and believes he is cursed.

The police, who are initially skeptical, eventually begin to take notice and, in the hopes that it will reveal the cause of the deaths, ask Robert to place a black pin on the grave of a person who is known to be in France. Although he does so, Robert continues his slide into despair. That same night, he decides that if black pins give him the power of death, white pins might give him the power of life. He replaces all of the recently placed black pins with white pins. When he goes to the associated grave sites later that night, he discovers that all are open, with the bodies gone.

Upon returning to the cemetery office, Robert receives a call informing him of the death of the man in France. As he hangs up the phone, the cemetery caretaker comes up behind him, covered in dirt. He reveals that he has been killing all of the marked people as revenge for being forced to retire. However, when Robert informs him of the death of the man in France, the caretaker, who couldn't have killed the man, begins to lose his mind, and collapses. When the police arrive, they find the caretaker dead and tell Robert that the news of the man's death was all a ruse to flush out the cemetery caretaker.

Margaret Mottershead works as a cook at a motorway service station. She joins her colleagues on a works outing to London to see a recording of ''Magic Moments'', a ''Surprise, Surprise''-style television series. Pat Bedford, the glamorous British star of an American soap, returns to the UK to promote her book on the show, unaware that the producers have planned to make her part of one of the surprises. During the show, Margaret is shocked to be invited onto the stage by the host Maeve and asked about her sister Patricia, whom she has not seen for 27 years. Backstage, Pat freezes in a panic when she hears the name "Patricia Theresa Mary Mottershead" and is invited on-stage to meet her long-lost sister Margaret. Attempting to remain professional, Pat embraces Margaret and feigns happiness. Afterwards, she tries to prevent the programme being broadcast, only to discover that it was live on air. The vain, beautiful Pat rejects Margaret, ashamed of her sister and fearing further damaging revelations about her past. Margaret prepares to leave, but the coach has left without her. Unaware of Pat's true feelings, her assistant Claire, has arranged for Margaret to stay with Pat at her luxury hotel.

In the morning, a ''Magic Moments'' film crew arrives to follow the pair getting to know each other, and Pat resigns herself to staged bonding for the cameras. Margaret phones her boyfriend Jim to let him know where she is, but his disapproving mother does not pass on the message. Pat tries unsuccessfully to pay off an angry Margaret, who tells Pat she doesn't want anything from her. Once the newspaper articles come out, Margaret realizes that they have viciously misquoted her and her colleagues at the motorway service station and fears for her job. She stays though, when tabloid journalist Stella Kincaid, desperate for dirt on Pat, discovers a woman she thinks is Pat's mother Vera in a nursing home in Pat's home town. Pat and Margaret talk about how horrible their mother was and Margaret agrees to help Pat. The two head North, hoping to stop Vera talking to the press. In the car, Margaret shares a bit of her life. She mentions that she was once married and, soon after losing her husband, had a miscarriage.

Meanwhile, Stella digs up dirt on Pat by tracking down her old neighbours, discovering in the process that Pat had a child at the age of fifteen. She also hears insinuations that Vera had been a prostitute. The sisters find that the Vera in the nursing home is not their mother and continue on. Jim, believing Margaret has dumped him, has gone to London to find her. He meets Claire, and the two follow Pat and Margaret north. Stella, however, has managed to track the real Vera down, and after seeing photographs of her realizes she is linked to another story a timeshare scandal.

While hiding from Stella at a petrol station in the North, the glamorous Pat is accidentally hosed down with water by a power hose, leaving her soaking wet. This forces her to change out of her expensive clothes and expensive leather jacket. Having left all her luggage and credit cards and identification with Claire, Pat has to borrow money from Margaret to buy a cheap shellsuit at the petrol station. To add to her humiliation, Pat is unable to book into a hotel as, again, she has left all her credit cards and identification with Claire and the management state she isn't suitably dressed. Margaret asks her boss Bella to give Pat a bed for the night, but she is furious with Margaret over false claims in a newspaper article that Margaret is ditching her job and moving to Los Angeles.

Margaret takes Pat to her bedsit where the two argue about the different paths their lives have taken. Margaret reveals that Vera was sent to prison after Pat left and she ended up being fostered around, while Pat reveals that she was thrown out because she became pregnant. Jim arrives with Pat's bag, but when he proves more worried about leaving his mother alone than about meeting Pat, an irritated Margaret ends their relationship. Pat takes Margaret to the Swiss Cottage Café where she worked as a teenager, which is still owned by her old boss, now planning to retire. Claire joins them for dinner where she gives Pat "a note from a fan", actually given to Jim by Stella. The note appears to be from Vera, asking to meet, but in fact, has been written by Stella, who knows where Vera is living.

Pat and Margaret are stunned to find their mother had won the pools and has a large house. Vera assumes Margaret wants money; Pat angrily tells Vera she owes them, but Vera reminds Pat that there was nothing to stop her tracking Margaret down and giving her a better life, forcing Pat to admit she is hard and selfish like her mother. Vera claims she's what drove Pat to make a success of her life, and reveals she has to sell the house because of the timeshare scandal; at this point Stella appears with her photographer and Pat realizes she has been set up.

Stella reveals Vera has given her an exclusive and that she knows about the baby, threatening to trace Pat's child. However, Pat turns the tables by revealing he has already traced her many years before and has no interest in being involved with the media. Margaret angrily tells Stella that Pat should be applauded for beating the odds rather than derided in the press; Stella offers to make the story a sympathetic "rags to riches" tale if all three women give her an exclusive; the goal to create a TV mini-series of their story. Margaret suggests Meryl Streep should play her in the series.

Margaret and Jim make up their quarrel when he decides to leave his mother and move in with Margaret. At the airport, Pat fails to persuade Margaret to move to the United States with her, but, in a surprise move, takes Vera instead, telling her "they're very big at the moment, celebrities' mums", and giving Stella a happy ending for her story. Pat leaves Margaret a goodbye letter which has a set of keys with it; the final scene shows Margaret and Jim happily clearing up at the Swiss Cottage Café, which Pat has bought for her sister.

Dr. Joyce Reardon, an unorthodox university psychology professor, leads a team of psychics to the massive and antiquated Seattle mansion known as Rose Red in an attempt to record data which would constitute scientific proof of paranormal phenomena. The mansion is publicly thought to be haunted, as at least 23 people have either disappeared or died there and the interior of the house appears to change or increase in size, yet only from the inside. Reardon's team awakens the evil spirit possessing the house, leading to several deaths and the revelation of the mansion's deadly secrets.

History of Rose Red

According to information revealed at various points in the miniseries, and Ellen's diary, Rose Red was built in 1906 by wealthy oilman John Rimbauer as a wedding gift for his young wife, Ellen. Rimbauer used much of his wealth to build the mansion, which was in the Tudor-Gothic style and situated on of woodland in the heart of Seattle on the site of a Native American burial ground. The house was rumored to be cursed even as it was being constructed; three construction workers were killed on the site, and a construction foreman was murdered by a co-worker.

While honeymooning in Africa, Ellen Rimbauer fell ill (from an unspecified sexually transmitted disease given to her by her unfaithful husband) and made the acquaintance of Sukeena, a local tribeswoman. The two women became very close while Sukeena nursed Ellen back to health, and Sukeena accompanied the Rimbauers back to the newly completed Rose Red to work there full-time as a servant. The Rimbauers soon had two children, Adam and April, the latter born with a withered arm, but Ellen quickly became unhappy with her marriage to her philandering, neglectful, and misogynistic husband. After a spiritualist seance, Ellen came to believe that if she continued to build and expand the house, she would never die.

Bizarre deaths and unresolved disappearances became more commonplace at the house throughout the years. Several female servants disappeared and one of John Rimbauer's friends died of a bee sting in the solarium, while his business partner (whom Rimbauer had cheated out of his share of the oil company's profits) hanged himself in front of Rimbauer's children in the parlour room of Rose Red. Six-year-old April also vanished while playing in the kitchen, never to be seen or heard from again, leaving only her doll in the chair she was last seen sitting in. Sukeena, who was babysitting April, was the last person to see her alive and was tortured mercilessly by the local police after being suspected of April's murder. During April's disappearance eight-year-old Adam was sent off to attend boarding school and kept away from the house as much as possible. John Rimbauer died in an apparent suicide by throwing himself from an upper stained-glass window; in actuality, however, he was murdered by Ellen and Sukeena.

Ellen used nearly all of her dead husband's fortune to continually add to the home over the next several decades, enlarging it significantly. The mysterious disappearances continued to occur: a famous actress and dear friend of Ellen's, Deanna Petrie, vanished within the house's billiard room during a party in the 1940s. By the 1950s, both Ellen Rimbauer and Sukeena had disappeared in Rose Red.

For several years after Ellen's disappearance, only servants occupied Rose Red. Eventually, all left one by one out of fear. Adam Rimbauer, who inherited the house, lived there for a short time with his wife. However, he abandoned Rose Red after witnessing several paranormal events, such as seeing the ghost of his long-lost little sister April, and watching rooms alter their size and shape before his very eyes. After his death, and with the family fortune depleted, his wife generated income by permitting the Seattle Historical Society to give tours of the house. These ceased in 1972 after a female participant disappeared while on a tour of the mansion. Investigations for paranormal phenomena were conducted on the property in the 1960s and 1970s. But these also ended, and the house fell into disrepair.

The miniseries begins in the year 2001. Steven Rimbauer, the great-grandson of John and Ellen Rimbauer, has inherited Rose Red. He has been offered a substantial sum of money to have the house torn down and the site developed into condominiums. He is intrigued by the paranormal history of the house, and has agreed to allow one more investigation of the mansion.

Part 1

In 1991 Seattle, young Annie Wheaton is drawing a picture of a house as her parents and older sister, Rachel, argue outside her room. As she draws lines down over the house in her picture, rocks fall through the roof of an identical house belonging to an elderly couple down the street whose dog had bitten Annie, severely damaging the building.

Ten years later in 2001, Dr. Joyce Reardon is a professor at the fictional Beaumont University who teaches classes on psychic phenomena. Kevin Bollinger, a reporter for the campus newspaper, skeptically questions her about a trip she will be taking to Rose Red, an ostensibly haunted and abandoned mansion in Seattle. Professor Carl Miller, Joyce's departmental chair who questions the validity of Joyce's research, orders Bollinger to follow Reardon and spy on a meeting with the group of psychics she is taking to Rose Red. The group includes Victor "Vic" Kandinsky, an elderly precognate with heart disease; Pam Asbury, a young psychometric; Cathy Kramer, a middle-aged automatic writer; Nick Hardaway, a telepath with remote viewing capabilities; and Emery Waterman, a young post-cognate. The group meets with Steve Rimbauer, the last descendant of Ellen and John Rimbauer, in an auditorium at the college. Bollinger takes a photo of the group joining hands in a circle, and the photo and an article ridiculing Joyce are published in the campus newspaper. Dr. Miller takes Bollinger to Rose Red and drops him off, instructing him to obtain additional embarrassing photos once the group of psychics arrives. The reporter is greeted by Sukeena at the front door, who tells him that he is expected. Not realizing she is a ghost, Bollinger enters the mansion. He becomes trapped in the solarium, where he is pulled off-screen by an unseen force.

The back-stories of psychics Emery Waterman and Annie Wheaton are introduced. Emery Waterman is a rude, sarcastic, and obnoxious young man under the control of his domineering mother, Patricia Waterman; when he sees spirits from Rose Red, he caustically tells them they can't scare him off because he needs the money. The audience learns that Rachel Wheaton now cares for Annie Wheaton, who rarely speaks and who refers to Rachel as "Sister". The audience also learns that Joyce is having a sexual affair with Steve, although the film remains unclear whether she loves him or is merely using him to gain access to Rose Red.

Part 2

Joyce and the group of psychics, now joined by Rachel "Sister" Wheaton and a teenaged Annie Wheaton, arrive at Rose Red. The team tours the mansion. Joyce and Steve point out that the home contains many optical illusions as well as an upside-down room and a library with a mirrored floor. The team finds Bollinger's cellphone, and Steve calls Miller to confront him over his attempt to discredit the group. That night, Emery sees the ghost of an actress that disappeared from the house decades earlier; Pam dreams of the decomposing body of Kevin Bollinger; the Wheaton sisters are visited by a ghost under the bed and in the closet; and Cathy sees something moving under the carpet and her blankets. Later in the night, Pam is lured outside by a doppelganger into the garden pond and is presumably drowned.

The next morning, when Dr. Miller receives Steve's voicemail message, it instead says that Bollinger slit his wrists and wrote Miller's name in his blood before expiring. The message unnerves Dr. Miller and he goes to the mansion to learn more. Patricia Waterman also has driven to the mansion after being unable to reach her son via his cell phone. The two arrive simultaneously, and their cars collide in the driveway when Mrs. Waterman swerves to avoid what she believes to be a figure running across the road. Terrified, Mrs. Waterman begins to run through the forest on the grounds of the mansion while calling for her son. Miller, wanting to get her insurance information, pursues her. Inside Rose Red, Emery hears his mother's cries but dismisses them as an auditory illusion created by the haunted house.

On the other side of the house, Pam leads Vic into the garden toward a pond with a statue of Ellen in it. She suddenly disappears. When Vic looks down into the pond, he sees what he believes to be Pam's dead body. He attempts to pull her out of the water, but the body vanishes and he is left clutching only her nightgown. He panics and runs back toward the house. Looking back, he sees the statue come to life and has a heart attack. Vic tries to draw the attention of Emery (who is inside the house), but Emery again believes this to be an apparition and refuses to open the window. Nick arrives and tries to open the window, but it will not open and the glass cannot be broken. Vic collapses and dies in full view of Emery and Nick. Out in the woods, Mrs. Waterman is stopped and knocked unconscious by the ghost of Kevin Bollinger.

Part 3

Annie Wheaton has discovered a dollhouse that is a miniature replica of Rose Red. While standing on a chair in an attempt to reach the dollhouse, she falls and is knocked unconscious. Rachel Wheaton and Steve Rimbauer see her fall and attempt to render first aid. Meanwhile, on the other side of the house, Rose Red's windows and doors mysteriously open again. Emery Waterman, realizing that his mother's screams were not an illusion, rushes outside to look for his mother. He runs into Dr. Miller, who warns him to stay away and then flees. Emery chases Miller but cannot catch him, so he returns to Rose Red. Miller, continuing to frantically run around the grounds of the house, is found and attacked by the ghost of Kevin Bollinger.

Emery attempts to convince the others that they should all leave. They refuse, and Emery tries to depart on his own. As he does so, he runs into the ghosts of Pam Asbury and Deanna Petrie (Yvonne Sciò), the movie star who vanished in the house in the 1940s. Emery has the power to make apparitions disappear by repeating the phrase "not there," and avoids the deadly fate of his mother and Dr. Miller. As Emery is about to leave Rose Red, Annie Wheaton wakes and via psychokinesis causes the doors of Rose Red to slam shut. Emery's hand is caught in the door, and some of his fingers are severed. While the others assist Emery, Joyce Reardon asks Annie to continue to keep the doors and windows sealed, promising to give her the dollhouse if she does so. However, Steve soon discovers that he is able to communicate with Annie telepathically, and she begins to form a friendship with him.

Later, Steve relives some repressed memories of a visit to the house with his drunken mother during which a ghostly Ellen Rimbauer appeared to him and called on Steve to aid her in continuing Rose Red's unending construction. Meanwhile, Emery suspects that Annie, not some "spirit of Rose Red", is keeping the house sealed. Nick confirms Emery's suspicions, and then informs the group that Bollinger appeared to have hanged himself in the library. The group begins to speculate that Rose Red has never been in a dormant state, and that the mansion's supernatural powers are linked to Annie and Steve (whose psychic abilities become apparent only when he is in the house because of his familial connection to the property). Nick correctly guesses that Joyce brought the psychics to the house in an attempt to reawaken Rose Red rather than simply investigate it.

The wounded Emery suggests that Annie be killed in order to allow everyone to escape, alarming the rest of the group. While in the kitchen, Cathy Kramer is attacked by Mrs. Waterman and is rescued by Nick. The two decide to tie up the deranged woman and leave her in the kitchen. They agree not to inform Emery so that the unstable young man does not become more unbalanced. A ghostly Sukeena appears and drags Mrs. Waterman off into the dark wine cellar. As Nick and Cathy head back toward the main hall, the house changes around them and they become lost. A mysterious shape under the carpet chases them, and they flee. The shape begins to catch up to them, and Nick shoves Cathy into a room and slams the door behind her, turning around just in time to see a skeletal monster rushing up to him. With silence in the hallway, Cathy opens the door again but finds no sign of Nick or the entity in the empty hallway. As the house continues to change around her, Cathy ends up in the attic. Suddenly overcome by the urge to automatically write, she witnesses the murder of John Rimbauer by Ellen and Sukeena. Steve and Rachel, meanwhile, decide to look for Nick and Cathy. They find Cathy in the attic, where she is about to be attacked by a corpse-like creature. Their presence seemingly prevents the house from acting, and the corpse drops lifeless to the floor. The corpse's withered arm lets them deduce that the carcass is that of Steven's missing great-aunt (and Ellen's daughter), April Rimbauer. Suddenly, April's corpse releases a bright white light from its mouth and instantly disintegrates.

The group reunites in the main hall. Emery attempts to attack Annie with a fireplace poker. Using psychokinesis, Annie animates a suit of armor and attempts to indirectly attack Emery with its halberd. It is unclear whether either is genuinely attempting to kill the other: Emery had previously stated that knocking Annie unconscious should be sufficient to escape, while the placement of Annie's final halberd attack suggests that it was a warning shot. Neither attack succeeds, and Joyce calms both individuals. In an attempt to uncover the secret of Rose Red, Steve creates a telepathic link between Cathy and Annie, and Cathy begins to engage in automatic writing. Annie begins to draw pictures of boulders striking the house, smashed doors, and broken glass, and soon doors and windows all over the house are opening and closing violently and glass in the windows shatters. Rocks begin to fall, destroying Mrs. Waterman's car and causing severe damage to Rose Red. Cathy automatically writes "help us" and "open the doors," prompting Annie to unseal the house. Steve, Emery, Cathy, Rachel, and Annie make their escape from Rose Red, but Joyce, now clearly insane, refuses to leave. The group is attacked by the spectre of Ellen Rimbauer, but Annie prevents Ellen from coming after them. Mrs. Waterman's ghost leaps from a mirror and attempts to draw Emery into the spirit realm, but Emery, with the assistance of Steve and Cathy, resists his mother for the first time in his life, and Mrs. Waterman vanishes again. The survivors flee to their cars as boulders rain down on Rose Red. Back in the house, Joyce suddenly realizes too late that she does want to leave, but is surrounded by the ghosts of Rose Red: Nick, Pam, Vic, Mrs. Waterman, Miller, Bollinger, Sukeena, and Deanna Petrie. She screams in terror as the film fades to black.

Six months later, the survivors visit Rose Red, just before the mansion is due to be demolished and replaced by condominiums. They pay their last respects to the dead by laying red roses on the path leading up to the house. As they drive away, the ghosts of Ellen Rimbauer, Sukeena, and Joyce watch the survivors depart from the tower window.

The five are living together in a London flat. They make breakfast then drive to Smithfield Market, passing multiple advertising posters featuring a girl and the slogan "Meat for Go".

During the filming of a TV commercial for a "Meat for Go" campaign set in London's Smithfield Market, stuntman Steve (Dave Clark), disillusioned by the inanity of his job, absconds in an E-type Jaguar (260 EYW, one of the props) with a young actress/model, Dinah (Barbara Ferris). After a visit to Oasis Swimming Pools, an open-air swimming pool in central London, and a memorable scene in and around the Great Conservatory on the grounds of Syon House, they make their way across a wintry southern England toward Burgh Island, off the coast of Devon. Dinah is contemplating buying the island, presumably to escape the pressures of her celebrity as the "Butcher Girl" in the TV meat advertising campaign. This act of rebellion is cynically exploited by the advertising executive behind the campaign, Leon Zissell (David de Keyser), who dispatches two of his henchmen to pursue the fleeing couple.

On their journey, Steve and Dinah first encounter a group of beatniks squatting in MOD-owned buildings on Salisbury Plain (some of this sequence was shot in the evacuated village of Imber), and then, an eccentric, upper-class, middle-aged married couple (Yootha Joyce and Robin Bailey) in the opulent surroundings of the Royal Crescent in Bath, Somerset. Steve also plans to visit his boyhood hero, Louie (David Lodge), whose youth club in London's East End he attended, and who has since relocated to Devon.

Having fled the police and Zissell's henchmen after a fancy-dress party in the Roman Baths at Bath, Steve and Dinah (with the rest of Steve's gang and the police in pursuit) make their way toward Devon. Louie recognises Dinah instantly because of her TV celebrity, but fails to recognise Steve and misremembers his name, even after being introduced. Dinah's island also proves to be disappointing; at low tide, it is reachable from the mainland, and Zissell, who is besotted with Dinah, has already arrived.

The story describes the use of prisoners in the POW camp to build the bridge and how a separate team of experts from 'Force 316' based in Calcutta were sent to sabotage the bridge.

Lt. Colonel Nicholson marches his men into Prisoner of War Camp 16, commanded by Colonel Saito. Saito announces that the prisoners will be required to work on construction of a bridge over the River Kwai so that the railroad connection between Bangkok and Rangoon can be completed. Saito also demands that all men, including officers, will do manual labor. In response to this, Nicholson informs Saito that, under the Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907), officers cannot be required to do hard work. Saito reiterates his demand and Nicholson remains adamant in his refusal to submit his officers to manual labor. Because of Nicholson's unwillingness to back down, he and his officers are placed in the "ovens"—small, iron boxes sitting in the heat of day. Eventually, Nicholson's stubbornness forces Saito to relent.

Construction of the bridge serves as a symbol of the preservation of professionalism and personal integrity to one prisoner, Colonel Nicholson, a proud perfectionist. Pitted against Colonel Saito, the warden of the Japanese POW camp, Nicholson will nevertheless, out of a distorted sense of duty, aid his enemy. As the Allies, on the outside, race to destroy the bridge, Nicholson must decide which to sacrifice: his patriotism or his pride.

Boulle's portrayal of the British officers often verges on the satirical, with, for example, Colonel Nicholson being portrayed as military "snob". Boulle also examines friendship between individual soldiers, both among captors and captives. The victorious Japanese soldiers cooperate with their prisoners through the construction of the bridge.

The film is narrated by the adult Jean Louise "Scout" Finch. Young Scout and her pre-teen older brother Jem live in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the early 1930s. Despite the family's modest means, the children enjoy a happy childhood, cared for by their widowed father, Atticus Finch, and the family's black housekeeper, Calpurnia. During the summer, Jem, Scout, and their friend Dill play games and often search for Arthur "Boo" Radley, an odd, reclusive neighbor who lives with his brother Nathan. The children have never seen Boo, who rarely leaves the house. On different occasions, Jem has found small objects left inside a tree knothole on the Radley property. These include a broken pocket watch, an old spelling bee medal, a pocket knife, and two carved soap dolls resembling Jem and Scout.

Atticus, a lawyer, strongly believes all people deserve fair treatment, in turning the other cheek, and in defending what you believe. Many of Atticus' clients are poor farmers who pay for his legal services in trade, often leaving him fresh produce, firewood, and so on. Atticus' work as a lawyer often exposes Scout and Jem to the town's racism, aggravated by poverty. As a result, the children mature more quickly.

Atticus is appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell. Atticus accepts the case, heightening tension in the town and causing Jem and Scout to experience schoolyard taunts. One evening before the trial, as Atticus sits in front of the local jail to safeguard Robinson, a lynch mob arrives. Scout, Jem, and Dill unexpectedly interrupt the confrontation. Scout, unaware of the mob's purpose, recognizes Mr. Cunningham and asks him to say hello to his son Walter, her classmate. Cunningham becomes embarrassed, and the mob disperses.

At the trial, it is alleged that Tom entered the Ewell property at Mayella's request to chop up a chifforobe and that Mayella showed signs of having been beaten around that time. One of Atticus' defensive arguments is that Tom's left arm is disabled due to a farming accident years ago, yet the supposed rapist would have had to mostly assault Mayella with his left hand before raping her. Atticus noted that Mayella's father, Bob Ewell, is left-handed, implying that he beat Mayella because he caught her seducing a young black man (Robinson). Atticus also states that Mayella was never examined by a doctor after the supposed assault. Taking the stand, Tom denies he attacked Mayella but states that she kissed him against his will. He testifies that he had previously assisted Mayella with various chores at her request because he "felt sorry for her" – words that incite a swift, negative reaction from the prosecutor.

In his closing argument, Atticus asks the all-white male jury to cast aside their prejudices and focus on Tom's obvious innocence. However, Tom is found guilty. As Atticus exits the courtroom, the black spectators in the balcony rise to show their respect and appreciation.

When Atticus arrives home, Sheriff Tate informs him that Tom was killed during his transfer to prison, apparently while attempting to escape. Atticus, accompanied by Jem, goes to the Robinson home to relay news of Tom's death. Bob Ewell appears and spits in Atticus' face.

Autumn arrives, and Scout and Jem attend an evening school pageant in which Scout portrays a ham. After the pageant, Scout is unable to find her dress and shoes, forcing her to walk home with Jem while wearing the large, hard-shelled costume. While cutting through the woods, Scout and Jem are attacked. Scout's cumbersome costume protects her but restricts her vision. The attacker knocks Jem unconscious but is himself attacked (and killed) by a second man unseen by Scout. Scout escapes her costume and sees the second man carrying Jem towards their house. Scout follows them and runs into the arms of a frantic Atticus. Still unconscious, Jem has his broken arm treated by Doc Reynolds.

Scout tells Sheriff Tate and her father what happened, then notices a strange man behind Jem's bedroom door. Atticus introduces Scout to Arthur Radley, whom she knows as Boo. It was Boo who rescued Jem and Scout, overpowering Bob Ewell and carrying Jem home. The sheriff reports that Ewell, apparently seeking revenge for Atticus humiliating him in court, is dead at the scene of the attack. Atticus mistakenly assumes Jem killed Ewell in self-defense, but Sheriff Tate realizes the truth – Boo killed Ewell defending the children. His official report will state that Ewell died falling on his knife. He refuses to drag the painfully shy, introverted Boo into the spotlight for his heroism, insisting it would be a sin. As Scout escorts Boo home, she draws a startlingly precocious analogy: comparing the unwelcome public attention that would have been heaped on Boo, with the killing of a mockingbird that does nothing but sing.

The plot of ''Doctor Zhivago'' is long and intricate. It can be difficult to follow for two reasons. First, Pasternak employs many characters, who interact with each other throughout the book in unpredictable ways. Secondly, he frequently introduces a character by one of his/her three names, then subsequently refers to that character by another of the three names or a nickname, without expressly stating that he is referring to the same character.

Part 1

Imperial Russia, 1902. The novel opens during a Russian Orthodox funeral liturgy, or panikhida, for Yuri's mother, Marya Nikolaevna Zhivago. Having long ago been abandoned by his father, Yuri is taken in by his maternal uncle, Nikolai Nikolaevich Vedenyapin, a philosopher and former Orthodox priest who now works for the publisher of a progressive newspaper in a provincial capital on the Volga River. Yuri's father, Andrei Zhivago, was once a wealthy member of Moscow's merchant gentry, but has squandered the family's fortune in Siberia through debauchery and carousing.

The next summer, Yuri (who is 11 years old) and Nikolai Nikolaevich travel to Duplyanka, the estate of Lavrenty Mikhailovich Kologrivov, a wealthy silk merchant. They are there not to visit Kologrivov, who is abroad with his wife, but to visit a mutual friend, Ivan Ivanovich Voskoboinikov, an intellectual who lives in the steward's cottage. Kologrivov's daughters, Nadya (who is 15 years old) and Lipa (who is younger), are also living at the estate with a governess and servants. Innokenty (Nika) Dudorov, a 13-year-old boy who is the son of a convicted terrorist has been placed with Ivan Ivanovich by his mother and lives with him in the cottage. As Nikolai Nikolaevich and Ivan Ivanovich are strolling in the garden and discussing philosophy, they notice that a train passing in the distance has come to a stop in an unexpected place, indicating that something is wrong. On the train, an 11-year-old boy named Misha Grigorievich Gordon is traveling with his father. They have been on the train for three days. During that time, a kind man had given Misha small gifts and had talked for hours with his father, Grigory Osipovich Gordon. However, encouraged by his attorney, who was traveling with him, the man had become drunk. Eventually, the man had rushed to the vestibule of the moving train car, pushed aside the boy's father, opened the door and thrown himself out, killing himself. Misha's father had then pulled the emergency brake, bringing the train to a halt. The passengers disembark and view the corpse while the police are called. The deceased's lawyer stands near the body and blames the suicide on alcoholism.

Part 2

During the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), Amalia Karlovna Guichard arrives in Moscow from the Urals with her two children: Rodion (Rodya) and Larissa (Lara). Mme. Guichard's late husband was a Belgian who had been working as an engineer for the railroad and had been friends with Victor Ippolitovich Komarovsky, a lawyer and "cold-blooded businessman." Komarovsky sets them up in rooms at the seedy Montenegro hotel, enrolls Rodion in the Cadet Corps and enrolls Lara in a girls' high school. The girls' school is the same school that Nadya Kologrivov attends. On Komarovsky's advice, Amalia invests in a small dress shop. Amalia and her children live at the Montenegro for about a month before moving into the apartment over the dress shop. Despite an ongoing affair with Amalia, Komarovsky begins to groom Lara behind her mother's back.

In early October, the workers of the Moscow-Brest railroad line go on strike. The foreman of the station is Pavel Ferapontovich Antipov. His friend Kiprian Savelyevich Tiverzin is called into one of the railroad workshops and stops a workman from beating his apprentice (whose name is Osip (Yusupka) Gimazetdinovich Galiullin). The police arrest Pavel Ferapontovich for his role in the strike. Pavel Ferapontovich's boy, Patulya (or Pasha or Pashka) Pavlovich Antipov, comes to live with Tiverzin and his mother. Tiverzin's mother and Patulya attend a demonstration which is attacked by dragoons, but they survive and return home. As the protestors flee the dragoons, Nikolai Nikolaevich (Yuri's uncle) is standing inside a Moscow apartment, at the window, watching the people flee. Some time ago, he moved from the Volga region to Petersburg, and at the same time moved Yuri to Moscow to live at the Gromeko household. Nikolai Nikolaevich had then come to Moscow from Petersburg earlier in the Fall, and is staying with the Sventitskys, who were distant relations. The Gromeko household consists of Alexander Alexandrovich Gromeko, his wife Anna Ivanovna, and his bachelor brother Nikolai Alexandrovich. Anna is the daughter of a wealthy steel magnate, now deceased, from the Yuriatin region in the Urals. They have a daughter Tonya.

In January 1906, the Gromekos host a chamber music recital at their home one night. One of the performers is a cellist who is a friend of Amalia's, and her next-door neighbor at the Montenegro. Midway through the performance, the cellist is recalled to the Montenegro because, he is told, someone there is dying. Alexander Alexandrovich, Yuri and Misha come along with the cellist. At the Montenegro, the boys stand in a public corridor outside one of the rooms, embarrassed, while Amalia, who has taken poison, is treated with an emetic. Eventually, they are shooed into the room by the boarding house employees who are using the corridor. The boys are assured that Amalia is out of danger and, once inside the room, see her, half-naked and sweaty, talking with the cellist; she tells him that she had "suspicions" but "fortunately it all turned out to be foolishness." The boys then notice, in a dark part of the room, a girl (it is Lara) asleep on a chair. Unexpectedly, Komarovsky emerges from behind a curtain and brings a lamp to the table next to Lara's chair. The light wakes her up and she, unaware that Yuri and Misha are watching, shares a private moment with Komarovsky, "as if he were a puppeteer and she a puppet, obedient to the movements of his hand." They exchange conspiratorial glances, pleased that their secret was not discovered and that Amalia did not die. This is the first time Yuri sees Lara, and he is fascinated by the scene. Misha then whispers to Yuri that the man he is watching is the same one who got his father drunk on the train shortly before his father's suicide.

Part 3

In November 1911, Anna Ivanovna Gromeko becomes seriously ill with pneumonia. At this time, Yuri, Misha, and Tonya are studying to be a doctor, philologist, and lawyer respectively. Yuri learns that his father had a child, a boy named Evgraf, by Princess Stolbunova-Enrizzi.

The narrative returns to the Spring of 1906. Lara is increasingly tormented by Komarovsky's control over her, which has now been going on for six months. In order to get away from him, she asks her classmate and friend Nadya Laurentovna Kologrivov to help her find work as a tutor. Nadya says she can work for Nadya's own family because her parents happen to be looking for a tutor for her sister Lipa. Lara spends more than three years working as a governess for the Kologrivovs. Lara admires the Kologrivovs, and they love her as if she were their own child. In her fourth year with the Kologrivovs, Lara is visited by her brother Rodya. He needs 700 rubles to cover a debt. Lara says she will try to get the money, and in exchange demands Rodya's cadet revolver along with some cartridges. She obtains the money from Kologrivov. She does not pay the money back, because she uses her wages to help support her boyfriend Pasha Antipov (see above) and his father (who lives in exile), without Pasha's knowledge.

We move forward to 1911. Lara visits the Kologrivovs' country estate with them for the last time. She is becoming discontented with her situation, but she enjoys the pastimes of the estate anyway, and she becomes an excellent shot with Rodya's revolver. When she and the family return to Moscow, her discontent grows. Around Christmastime, she resolves to part from the Kologrivovs, and to ask Komarovsky for the money necessary to do that. She plans to kill him with Rodya's revolver should he refuse her. On 27 December, the date of the Sventitsky's Christmas party, she goes to Komarovsky's home but is informed that he is at a Christmas party. She gets the address of the party and starts toward it, but relents and pays Pasha a visit instead. She tells him that they should get married right away, and he agrees. At the same moment that Lara and Pasha are having this discussion, Yuri and Tonya are passing by Pasha's apartment in the street, on their way to the Sventitskys. They arrive at the party and enjoy the festivities. Later, Lara arrives at the party. She knows no one there other than Komarovsky, and is not dressed for a ball. She tries to get Komarovsky to notice her, but he is playing cards and either does not notice her or pretends not to. Through some quick inferences, she realizes that one of the men playing cards with Komarovsky is Kornakov, a prosecutor of the Moscow court. He prosecuted a group of railway workers that included Kiprian Tiverzin, Pasha's foster father.

Later, while Yuri and Tonya are dancing, a shot rings out. There is a great commotion and it is discovered that Lara has shot Kornakov (not Komarovsky) and Kornakov has received only a minor wound. Lara has fainted and is being dragged by some guests to a chair; Yuri recognizes her with amazement. Yuri goes to render medical attention to Lara but then changes course to Kornakov because he is the nominal victim. He pronounces Kornakov's wound to be "a trifle", and is about to tend to Lara when Mrs. Sventitsky and Tonya urgently tell him that he must return home because something was not right with Anna Ivanovna. When Yuri and Tonya return home, they find that Anna Ivanovna has died.

Part 4

Komarovsky uses his political connections to shield Lara from prosecution. Lara and Pasha marry, graduate from university, and depart by train for Yuriatin.

The narrative moves to the second autumn of the First World War. Yuri has married Tonya and is working as a doctor at a hospital in Moscow. Tonya gives birth to their first child, a son. Back in Yuriatin, the Antipovs also have their first child, a girl named Katenka. Although he loves Lara deeply, Pasha feels increasingly stifled by her love for him. In order to escape, he volunteers for the Imperial Russian Army. Lara starts to work as a teacher in Yuriatin. Sometime later, she leaves Yuriatin and goes to a town in Galicia, to look for Pasha. The town happens to be where Yuri is now working as a military doctor. Elsewhere, Lt. Antipov is taken prisoner by the Austro-Hungarian Army, but is erroneously declared missing in action. Wounded by artillery fire, Yuri is sent to a battlefield hospital in the town of Meliuzeevo, where Lara is his nurse. Galiullin (the apprentice who was beaten in Part 2) is also in Lara's ward, recovering from injuries. He is now a lieutenant in Pasha's unit; he informs Lara that Pasha is alive, but she doubts him. Lara gets to know Yuri better but is not impressed with him. At the very end of this Part, it is announced in the hospital that there has been a revolution.

Part 5

After his recovery, Zhivago stays on at the hospital as a physician. This puts him at close quarters with Lara. They are both (along with Galiullin) trying to get permission to leave and return to their homes.

In Meliuzeevo, a newly arrived commissar for the Provisional Government, whose name is Gintz, is informed that a local military unit has deserted and is camped in a nearby cleared forest. Gintz decides to accompany a troop of Cossacks who have been summoned to surround and disarm the deserters. He believes he can appeal to the deserters' pride as "soldiers in the world's first revolutionary army." A train of mounted Cossacks arrives and the Cossacks quickly surround the deserters. Gintz enters the circle of horsemen and makes a speech to the deserters. His speech backfires so badly that the Cossacks who are there to support him gradually sheath their sabres, dismount and start to fraternize with the deserters. The Cossack officers advise Gintz to flee; he does, but he is pursued by the deserters and brutally murdered by them at the railroad station.

Shortly before he leaves, Yuri says goodbye to Lara. He starts by expressing his excitement over the fact that "the roof over the whole of Russia has been torn off, and we and all the people find ourselves under the open sky" with true freedom for the first time. Despite himself, he then starts to clumsily tell Lara that he has feelings for her. Lara stops him and they part. A week later, they leave by different trains, she to Yuriatin and he to Moscow. On the train to Moscow, Yuri reflects on how different the world has become, and on his "honest trying with all his might not to love [Lara]."

Parts 6 to 9

Following the October Revolution and the subsequent Russian Civil War, Yuri and his family decide to flee by train to Tonya's family's former estate (called Varykino), located near the town of Yuriatin in the Ural Mountains. During the journey, he has an encounter with Army Commissar Strelnikov ("The Executioner"), a fearsome commander who summarily executes both captured Whites and many civilians. Yuri and his family settle in an abandoned house on the estate. Over the winter, they read books to each other and Yuri writes poetry and journal entries. Spring comes and the family prepares for farm work. Yuri visits Yuriatin to use the public library, and during one of these visits sees Lara at the library. He decides to talk with her, but finishes up some work first, and when he looks up she is gone. He gets her home address from a request slip she had given the librarian. On another visit to town, he visits her at her apartment (which she shares with her daughter). She informs him that Strelnikov is indeed Pasha, her husband. During one of Yuri's subsequent visits to Yuriatin they consummate their relationship. They meet at her apartment regularly for more than two months, but then Yuri, while returning from one of their trysts to his house on the estate, is abducted by men loyal to Liberius, commander of the "Forest Brotherhood," the Bolshevik guerrilla band.

Parts 10 to 13

Liberius is a dedicated Old Bolshevik and highly effective leader of his men. However, Liberius is also a cocaine addict, loud-mouthed and narcissistic. He repeatedly bores Yuri with his long-winded lectures about the glories of socialism and the inevitability of its victory. Yuri spends more than two years with Liberius and his partisans, then finally manages to escape. After a grueling journey back to Yuriatin, made largely on foot, Yuri goes into town to see Lara first, rather than to Varykino to see his family. In town, he learns that his wife, children, and father-in-law fled the estate and returned to Moscow. From Lara, he learns that Tonya delivered a daughter after he left. Lara assisted at the birth and she and Tonya became close friends. Yuri gets a job and stays with Lara and her daughter for a few months. Eventually, a townsperson delivers a letter to Yuri from Tonya, which Tonya wrote five months before and which has passed through innumerable hands to reach Yuri. In the letter, Tonya informs him that she, the children, and her father are being deported, probably to Paris. She says "The whole trouble is that I love you and you do not love me," and "We will never, ever see each other again." When Yuri finishes reading the letter, he has chest pains and faints.

Part 14

Komarovsky reappears. Having used his influence within the CPSU, Komarovsky has been appointed Minister of Justice of the Far Eastern Republic, a Soviet puppet state in Siberia. He offers to smuggle Yuri and Lara outside Soviet soil. They initially refuse, but Komarovsky states, falsely, that Pasha Antipov is dead, having fallen from favor with the Party. Stating that this will place Lara in the Cheka's crosshairs, he persuades Yuri that it is in her best interests to leave for the East. Yuri convinces Lara to go with Komarovsky, telling her that he will follow her shortly. Meanwhile, the hunted General Strelnikov (Pasha) returns for Lara. Lara, however, has already left with Komarovsky. After expressing regret over the pain he has caused his country and loved ones, Pasha commits suicide. Yuri finds his body the following morning.

Part 15

After returning to Moscow, Zhivago's health declines; he marries another woman, Marina, and fathers two children with her. He also plans numerous writing projects which he never finishes. Yuri leaves his new family and his friends to live alone in Moscow and work on his writing. However, after living on his own for a short time, he dies of a heart attack while riding the tram. Meanwhile, Lara returns to Russia to learn of her dead husband and ends up attending Yuri Zhivago's funeral. She persuades Yuri's half-brother, who is now NKVD General Yevgraf Zhivago, to assist her in her search for a daughter that she had conceived with Yuri, but had abandoned in the Urals. Ultimately, however, Lara disappears, believed arrested during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge and dying in the Gulag, "a nameless number on a list that was later misplaced."

Epilogue

During World War II, Zhivago's old friends Nika Dudorov and Misha Gordon meet up. One of their discussions revolves around a local laundress named Tanya, a ''bezprizornaya'', or war orphan, and her resemblance to both Yuri and Lara. Tanya tells both men of the difficult childhood she has had due to her mother abandoning her in order to marry Komarovsky. Much later, the two men meet over the first edition of Yuri Zhivago's poems.

The film concerns a race of subterranean reptile-men (dubbed "slime people", due to their slime-covered skin) who create a wall of "solidified fog" around Los Angeles using a strange organic-looking machine and proceed to invade the city after they are driven out of their subterranean homes by underground atomic tests. A pilot (portrayed by Hutton) lands in Los Angeles after some flight difficulties and finds the city almost deserted. He later encounters other survivors, including a Marine separated from his unit, and a scientist and his two daughters, and the group try their best to halt the further invasion of the slime people who are attempting to use the fog to not only isolate the city but also to lower the surface temperature enough to let them function at all hours of the day. Eventually, near the end of the film, the survivors find that while the slime people are otherwise immune to conventional weapons due to their body's ability to quickly seal wounds, the creatures can be killed with their own spear weapons as they are hollow and prevent the wounds they inflict from closing properly. They also realize the reason the plane from the beginning of the film was able to land was due to the chemical making the fog reacting with the salt from the ocean water thus preventing the section near the sea from solidifying. With these facts in mind, the survivors then attempt to escape the city using several buckets of a saltwater solution to try and make a hole through the fog wall, however, when this fails due to them not having enough of the solution the group instead opts to destroy the machine generating the fog. With the machine destroyed, the fog quickly disperses allowing the military to enter the city and causing the slime people to die off from the rapid rise in temperature.

Hanemura is the head of a yakuza clan enjoying his last taste of freedom before starting a prison sentence. He tells the members of his 'family' to disband the clan and go straight. However, his clan 'brother' believes the clan can be saved if they arrange for James Brown to give Hanemura a private performance before he enters prison.

The gang mistakenly kidnaps an American James Brown impersonator, who is himself being hunted by aides of the Japanese Prime Minister, who want to recover incriminating materials that he unwittingly brought into the country.

Meanwhile, Hanemura is using his last day of freedom to track down the daughter he hasn't seen for 25 years.

These plots get entangled when it emerges that his daughter runs the talent agency that had brought the James Brown impersonator to Japan in the first place.

After many complications, father and daughter are reunited, Hanemura saves his daughter's company by performing a James Brown routine and his prison sentence is quashed.

In New York City in 1957, two teenage gangs compete for control on the Upper West Side. The Jets, a group of whites led by Riff, brawl with the Sharks, Puerto Ricans led by Bernardo. Lieutenant Schrank and Officer Krupke arrive and break it up. The Jets challenge the Sharks to a rumble to be held after an upcoming dance.

Riff wants his best friend Tony, the co-founder and former member of the Jets, to fight at the rumble. Riff invites Tony to the dance, but Tony says he senses something important is coming. Riff suggests it could happen at the dance. Tony finally agrees to go. Meanwhile, Bernardo's younger sister, Maria, tells her best friend and Bernardo's girlfriend, Anita, how excited she is about the dance. At the dance, the two gangs and their girls refuse to intermingle. Tony arrives; he and Maria fall in love instantly, but Bernardo angrily demands that Tony stay away from her. Riff proposes a midnight meeting with Bernardo at Doc's drug store to settle the rules for the rumble.

Maria is sent home; Anita argues that Bernardo is overprotective of Maria, and they compare the advantages of Puerto Rico and the mainland United States. Tony sneaks onto Maria's fire escape where they reaffirm their love. Krupke, who suspects the Jets are planning something, warns them not to cause trouble. The Sharks arrive, and the gangs agree to a showdown the following evening under the highway, with a one-on-one fistfight. When Schrank arrives, the gangs feign friendship. Schrank orders the Sharks out and fails to discover information about the fight.

The next day at the bridal shop where they work, Anita accidentally tells Maria about the rumble. Tony arrives to see Maria. Anita, shocked, warns them about the consequences if Bernardo learns of their relationship. Maria makes Tony promise to prevent the rumble. Tony and Maria fantasize about their wedding.

The gangs approach the area under the highway. Tony arrives to stop the fight, but Bernardo antagonizes him. Unwilling to watch Tony be humiliated, Riff initiates a knife fight. Tony intervenes, leading to Bernardo stabbing and killing Riff. Tony kills Bernardo with Riff's knife, and a melee ensues. Police sirens blare, and everyone flees, leaving behind the dead bodies. Maria waits for Tony on the roof of her apartment building; her fiancé Chino (an arranged engagement) arrives and tells her what happened. Tony arrives and asks for Maria's forgiveness. He plans to turn himself in to the police. Maria is devastated but confirms her love for Tony and asks him to stay.

The Jets and their new leader, Ice, reassemble outside a garage and focus on reacting to the police. Anybodys arrives and warns them that Chino is after Tony with a gun. Ice sends the Jets to warn Tony. A grieving Anita enters the apartment while Tony and Maria are in the bedroom. The lovers arrange to meet at Doc's, where they will pick up getaway money to elope. Anita spots Tony leaving through the window and chides Maria for the relationship with Bernardo's killer, but Maria convinces her to help them elope. Schrank arrives and questions Maria about the rumble. Maria sends Anita to tell Tony that Maria is detained from meeting him.

When Anita reaches Doc's, the Jets harass and even try to rape her, when Doc appears and intervenes. Anita angrily lies, saying that Chino has killed Maria. Doc banishes the Jets, gives Tony his getaway money and delivers Anita's message. Tony, distraught, runs into the streets, shouting for Chino to kill him, too. In the playground next to Doc's, Tony spots Maria and they run toward each other, only for Chino to shoot Tony. The gangs arrive to find Maria holding Tony, who dies in her arms. Maria stops the gangs from fighting, takes the gun from Chino and threatens to shoot everyone, blaming their hate for the deaths. Schrank, Krupke and Doc arrive, and the gangs form a funeral procession, with Maria following. The police arrest Chino and lead him away.

Eric is an accident-prone childlike man who lives with his twin sister Hattie in a terraced house, 24 Sebastopol Terrace, in East Acton. Both are unmarried. Their busybody neighbour Charles Brown often interferes, until he emigrates to Australia. The local policeman, who makes occasional appearances, is Corky Turnbull.

The novel is set in the mid-19th century, but flashbacks to the history of the house, which was built in the late 17th century, are set in other periods. The house of the title is a gloomy New England mansion, haunted since its construction by fraudulent dealings, accusations of witchcraft, and sudden death. The current resident, the dignified but desperately poor Hepzibah Pyncheon, opens a shop in a side room to support her brother Clifford, who has completed a thirty-year sentence for murder. She refuses all assistance from her wealthy but unpleasant cousin, Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon. A distant relative, the lively and pretty young Phoebe arrives and quickly becomes invaluable, charming customers and rousing Clifford from depression. A delicate romance grows between Phoebe and the mysterious attic lodger Holgrave, who is writing a history of the Pyncheon family.

The house was built on ground wrongfully seized from its rightful owner, Matthew Maule, by Colonel Pyncheon, the founder of the Massachusetts branch of the family. Maule was accused of practicing witchcraft and was executed. According to legend, at his death Maule laid a curse upon the Pyncheon family. During the housewarming festivities, Colonel Pyncheon was found dead in his armchair; whether he actually died from the curse or from a congenital disease is unclear. His portrait remains in the house as a symbol of its dark past and the weight of the curse upon the spirit of its inhabitants.

Phoebe arranges to visit her country home, but plans to return soon. Clifford, depressed by his isolation from humanity and his lost youth spent in prison, stands at a large arched window above the stairs and has a sudden urge to jump. The departure of Phoebe, the focus of his attention, leaves him bed-ridden.

Judge Pyncheon arrives at the house hoping to find information about land in Maine, rumored to belong to the family. He threatens Clifford with an insanity hearing unless he reveals details about the land or the location of the missing deed. Clifford is unable to comply. Before Clifford can be brought before the Judge (which would destroy Clifford's fragile psyche), the Judge mysteriously dies while sitting in Colonel Pyncheon's chair. Hepzibah and Clifford flee by train. The next day, Phoebe returns and finds that Holgrave has discovered the Judge's body. The townsfolk begin to gossip about Hepzibah and Clifford's sudden disappearance. Phoebe is relieved when Hepzibah and Clifford return, having recovered their wits.

New evidence in the crime that sent Clifford to prison proves his innocence. He was framed for the death of his uncle by Jaffrey (later Judge) Pyncheon, who was even then looking for the missing deed. Holgrave is revealed as Maule's descendant, but he bears no ill will toward the remaining Pyncheons. The missing deed is discovered behind the old Colonel's portrait, but the paper is worthless: the land is already settled by others. The characters abandon the old house and start a new life in the countryside, free from the burdens of the past.

The novel tells the story of an astronaut, Hal Bregg, who returns to Earth after a mission to Fomalhaut during which the Earth passed through 127 years of proper time. Due to time dilation, the mission has lasted only 10 years for him. On Earth he faces culture shock, as he finds the society transformed into a utopia, free of wars or violence, or even accidents.

For Hal, however, this new world is too comfortable, too safe. Earth is no longer home, it is "another, alien planet". Humans themselves have changed, having undergone a procedure called ''betrization'', designed to neutralize all aggressive impulses. Its side effect is an extreme aversion to risk. Hal mistrusts this approach, seeing it as wrong. In particular, for an astronaut, he cannot agree with the opinion that space travel and space exploration are nothing but a youthful and dangerous adventurism. For Hal, this means that "...they have killed the man in man". He and the other returning astronauts are viewed with mistrust, seen as "resuscitated Neanderthals". They are alienated, outcasts, and subject to social pressure to undertake behavioural treatment replacing ''betrization''. The other choice is to leave Earth again and hope that once they come back, in several centuries, Earth's society is more familiar again.

In time, Hal marries a local girl, Eri, and comes to see the world her way, even disapproving of his youth's love, space expeditions. When he learns that members of his former crew are planning a mission to Sagittarius, he seems not to care, content to leave the stars to others. Hal still remembers his past, recalls the moon ''Kereneia'', a magnificent canyon "made of red and pink gold, almost completely transparent...through it you can see all the strata, geological folds, anticlines and synclines...all this is weightless, floating and seeming to smile at you". Yet he trades the chance to experience such sights and adventures for love and a peaceful, quiet life.

''Love Mode'' itself is a compilation of several stories (most often short) involving various degrees of gay couples. Every one of these couples is linked to an establishment known as the Blue Boy. The Blue Boy is a gay host club where anyone wielding enough money can hire out a very attractive man either to pretty up a party or for sex. Most of the couples consist of either hosts/ex-hosts, clients/ex-clients, or both.

Though all of the couples get a considerable amount of spotlight, without a doubt, the main focus of the story is the once dysfunctional Aoe family and their lovers. Aoe Reiji himself owns the Blue Boy and is the only main character to appear in all eleven volumes.

Marcos (Marcos Hernández) is a working class man in Mexico, employed by "the general." Marcos learns that the baby that he and his wife kidnapped for ransom had accidentally died. The remainder of the film follows a despondent Marcos, seemingly haunted by the moral and/or legal implications of his actions.

Marcos stands next to his wife Berta (Berta Ruiz) at the subway as she sells clocks and sweets at a stand. He travels to the airport to meet the "general's" upper-middle class daughter, Ana (Anapola Mushkadiz) whom he has known since she was a child. Ana orders Marcos to take her to the "boutique" where she works in the sex trade. While driving, Marcos is very distracted, and at one point stalls the car. Ana recognizes that something is wrong, but Marcos claims he's distracted only because of his wife's supposed ill health.

Ana invites Marcos into the "boutique" so that he can have sex with one of her "friends." Marcos is apparently not aroused by the "friend." The friend tells Ana that Marcos would prefer her instead. Ana goes to talk to Marcos, and reminds him that they have known each other since her childhood. Marcos then reveals that he and his wife kidnapped a baby but the baby died before they could collect any ransom. Ana seems to remain composed at hearing this news.

Back home, Marcos has sex with his wife, Berta. They seem united in their sorrow regarding the dead baby. Marcos tells Berta that he told Ana about the kidnapped baby, indicating that the confession brought him relief. Berta, upset, demands that he make sure that "the princess" does not tell anyone. The next day, Marcos visits Ana. She seems annoyed by his visit, but drives him to her place where they have sex. Ana advises Marcos to turn himself in to the police.

Marcos, Berta, their son, and a few friends (including the mother of the dead baby, who does not know who took her child, nor that it has died) go out to the countryside. Marcos tells Berta that he is going to turn himself in. She asks him to wait until after the pilgrimage (which is in honor of the Lady of Guadalupe), an event that Marcos had earlier shown disdain for. Marcos seems to agree with his wife. Marcos' mental state seems to worsen. Instead of driving back with his party, he treks through the countryside. He reaches a peak with Christian crosses, overlooking a valley. Marcos buries his face in his hands.

Marcos visits Ana at her home. He tells her that he will turn himself into the police that day. She gives him a goodbye kiss. Marcos leaves the apartment. He pees his pants, goes back to the apartment and fatally stabs Ana.

The police become aware of both the attack on Ana and the death of the baby, and are in search for Marcos. Marcos seems to have joined the pilgrimage to the Basilica, at first on foot, and then on his knees. Someone places a hood over his face, but Marcos continues to hobble forward. The hood becomes increasingly stained with blood as he makes his way into the Basilica during the church service.

Eventually the pilgrims are gone, and the Basilica is vacant. The police allow Berta to go in to see her husband. She touches him on the head and he collapses.

''Forged in the Fire'' is an epic love story in which love prevails over all. When Will is sent to prison during the plague, Susanna has no way of knowing whether her beloved is alive or not. Will gets sent to jail with two of his friends for starting a fight in the streets. Whilst in jail both his friends are infested with the plague and Will becomes deathly ill. Both of his companions die but Will is bailed out by a man called Edmund who is extremely wealthy and a friend of Nat, who during the story is always at Will's side.

When Susanna finally finds out where Will is located she travels at once to London. There she finds Will happy and healthy in Edmund's home with his eldest daughter. This is the one and only blow to their love but is soon overcome. The two get married in the sight of God at a Quaker meeting.

The London fire is the next huge thing to happen. The city is destroyed bit by bit, and now that Susanna is with a child she and Will must leave. But Will refuses to leave until he has finished his work, so he sends Susanna, with friends, to make it out of the city and into a farm where she is to camp for many nights. Finally Will with Nat manage to get out of the city and they are reunited at last. Will also makes up with his father who has never much cared for Will and Susanna's love. He gives them some money and they live happily ever after. A few years later they have a son and life happily goes on.