Ryan Cawdor arrives in the remains of the New Mexico MAT-TRANS chamber with his son Dean, having rescued him from a slave camp to the north. Once they exit the facility the pair see smoke coming from the direction of Jak Lauren's ranch, where their friends Krysty Wroth, J.B. Dix, Dr. Theophilus Tanner, and Mildred Wyeth were waiting for Ryan's return. Ryan and Dean set off for the ranch, fearing the worst. When they arrive they discover the ranch burned to the ground and completely deserted, but curiously find no bodies, not even the remains of the absent livestock. Further adding to the confusion there are only a small number of bullet casings found on the property, and inside the still-standing smokehouse Ryan discovers several pieces of smoked meat infested with maggots. A final, cryptic clue comes when Dean tries to pull water from the well and discovers a note from Krysty affixed to the top of the rope. The note urges Ryan not to drink from the well but offers no other explanation, saying that for some unstated reason there's not enough time for one. Reluctantly Ryan and Dean leave the water and head north, towards their friends. Several miles north the pair come across a deep mining pit, now filled with bodies. Dean examines them up close, discovering each has been shot through the head, apparently at point-blank range. Disturbingly, this includes at least a dozen children. Finally as they head into the foothills, Ryan discovers a long note from Krysty, explaining the situation.

Sometime after Ryan's departure, an oxen train of religious settlers passed by the Lauren farm, asking for permission to camp nearby for the night. Jak and his wife Christina cautiously agreed, but along with Ryan's friends made plans to watch their new guests carefully. This proved wise, as that night a number of the settlers attempted to take the ranch by force. Poorly armed and ill-organized, the attackers were quickly fended off and killed. Somewhat alarming signs of sickness on the corpses of the attackers led Mildred to examine other members of the group. She discovered advanced symptoms of the bubonic plague, but an even more disturbing discovery came when Mildred learned the time between the onset of symptoms and the near-terminal stages seen in her examinations was less than two days. Furthermore, the disease appeared to be excessively virulent, among other symptoms causing uncontrollable diarrhea. With the ranch house and immediate area fouled by stricken settlers, including the well, Mildred declared the area needed to be sterilized using the only guaranteed method available: fire. Since the settlers were still a possible combat risk and all just hours away from an agonizing death, it was agreed that they should all be killed. Mildred did so personally, administering a single headshot to each settler. The bodies were then taken by Doc Tanner via oxcart to the mining pit to be interred. The friends then released the Laurens' livestock, intending to round them up later, set fire to the ranch with gasoline, and departed north.

The mystery surrounding the ranch now explained, Ryan and Dean head further into the hills to make camp. During dinner they are surprised by a sec hunter, the fifth of a set of merciless robotic hunters that Ryan mistakenly activated while rescuing his son. The 'droid is programmed to kill Ryan and Ryan alone, at any cost, and has evidently followed him through the MAT-TRANS system. It is heavily damaged, evidently in the course of its pursuit, but is still a potent threat. Attempts to shoot it blind it but do not stop it, and Ryan's one effort at close-quarters combat nearly kills him. Finally Ryan wades into a nearby pond. The sec hunter follows, but stops just shy of the water level reaching its chest. Realizing the damage it has suffered has made some elements of the 'droid no longer waterproof, Ryan pulls the sec hunter fully into the water, escaping with only a heavy blow to the back. The sec hunter shorts out spectacularly, eventually going dark and sinking into the pond. Just a few minutes later, Krysty, Jak, Christina, and Doc Tanner arrive, reuniting with the Cawdors.

The next day Ryan, Krysty, and Jak set off to meet J. B. and Mildred, who have camped in a box canyon to watch over the Lauren's recovered livestock. As they near the edge of the canyon they spot stickies, a particularly vicious breed of mutant so named because of the octopus-like suckers which coat their palms and other parts of their bodies, allowing them to grapple onto surfaces easily, as well as rip the flesh from a human body with trivial ease. The stickies are prone, overlooking the canyon and sighting on something, presumably J. B. and Mildred, through rifles. The three companions quickly dispatch the stickies, only to be held at gunpoint when the rest of the stickies move in behind them. Jak is able to escape, while Ryan and Krysty are tied up and taken to the stickies' camp several miles away.

The leader of the stickies is an unusually intelligent and unusually (for a sticky) blond-haired mutant named Charlie. Almost 20 years prior Ryan, J. B., and a Trader man named Abe cleared out a nest of stickies. The only survivor left was a strangely blond sticky child: Charlie. Resentful over the death of his parents, but equally resentful of their unintelligent, barbaric lifestyle which led to their extermination, Charlie has become well-educated and intelligent, and has organized a large group of fellow stickies into a functioning community, rather than an animalistic nest. He gleefully tells Ryan that his leadership is asserted by periodically and publicly killing "norms", something he says he will enjoy even more when it is Ryan.

Ryan and Krysty are placed in a pit used to hold captives, and discover one of the eight other people there is none other than Abe. This comes as a surprise, since they had assumed Abe was killed while trying to reach the first redoubt. Though shot in the neck with an arrow, Abe was able to remove the shaft and recovered after several months, leaving him with two scars and a ragged voice. The reunion is bittersweet, especially when Charlie tells the captives be intends to have killed all of them within three days. Ryan begins trying to formulate a plan.

The next day the sticky camp is visited by "fladgies", religious worshipers who practice flagellation on themselves and each other. The stickies take them captive, and, in a grim form of irony, decide to whip them to death. In an effort to save himself the leader of the group tells Charlie about a large group of armed lepers he saw heading towards the camp, intent on taking it for their own. Charlie heeds the warning, but allows the fladgies to be whipped to death anyway.

That night, while planning an escape attempt, the captives are interrupted when Ryan is ordered out of the pit. He is tied up and taken by a female sticky who previously made unreturned advances to Ryan while serving him food. Once in her home, the sticky binds Ryan to the bed and then rapes him. After the third time she forces him to perform cunnilingus on her, then attempts to smother him while in this position. Ryan is only saved when the sticky is shot by a leper, one of many now attacking the sticky camp. The leper decides to shoot Ryan as well, only to be shot by an unseen sticky. With both assailants dead Ryan is able to free and arm himself. He makes his way to the holding pit and frees Krysty, Abe, and the other captives; they then recover their confiscated weapons from Charlie's home and make their escape through the mountains. In the process they suffer some losses, and Abe is wounded by a musket shot, making it necessary to carry him. Eventually the group is reunited with J.B., Mildred, Doc Tanner, Dean, and Jak and Christina Lauren, who have come to rescue Ryan and Krysty.

Mildred examines Abe's wound and determines it isn't necessarily fatal, but will need careful observation. When his condition begins to worsen Ryan elects to stay with Abe in a derelict town, in the hopes of allowing him time to regain some health. Jak decides to stay with him, while the rest continue on, hoping to lead Charlie and the band of pursuing stickies away from Abe, Jak, and Ryan. This proves mostly successful, as Charlie investigates the town only briefly before continuing on; however, he leaves behind three scouts who find Ryan and Jak. They are able to kill them all, but not before the third scout stabs Jak in the chest, hitting his lung. Meanwhile, Charlie catches up to the fleeing group, only to be caught in a well-orchestrated trap; he escapes, but all of his companions are killed. Charlie returns to the town, Ryan's friends in pursuit. He draws Ryan out by holding the injured Jak at gunpoint, but before he can kill him he is wounded by a brick thrown by one of the freed captives. A partially recovered Abe then attacks Charlie, wielding a piece of glass as a dagger, and stabs him in the stomach. The sticky is able to overpower Abe and escape.

Two months later the companions are at the Lauren's newly built ranch. Abe has recovered fully, and Jak, while touch and go for a while, is now healed, albeit with minor lung damage. Christina has given birth to Jak's daughter, Jessica; she is also openly resentful towards Ryan for his perceived role in nearly killing her husband. For that reason, Ryan has elected to leave with his friends that day. As he is saying his goodbyes to Jak, Christina calmly calls both of them to the back of the house. There they find Charlie, freshly killed, and Christina holding an axe. Charlie had arrived, begging for food, but made the mistake of threatening Jessica, prompting Christina to kill him with the nearby axe. She then further reiterates her desire for Ryan to leave, to which he agrees.

The companions travel back to the MAT-TRANS chamber under the destroyed redoubt, Abe now with them. When the jump completes Ryan opens his eye and finds something is very wrong....

Ryan Cawdor awakes following a MAT-TRANS jump and finds himself in an environment with a decreased amount of oxygen, as well as apparently lower gravity. Dr. Theophilus Tanner awakes as well, and with (for him) remarkable clarity reasons that they must have jumped to a MAT-TRANS facility not on the planet. Along with Krysty Wroth, J. B. Dix, Mildred Wyeth, Ryan's son Dean Cawdor, and former Trader associate Abe, the group cautiously explores the facility. Doc's near-certain hypothesis is confirmed when they discover viewing portholes, showing them an unbroken view of stars, clearly placing them in space somewhere. Though possessing a good knowledge of astronomy, J. B. is unable to recognize any constellations seen through the portholes, making it possible that the facility is not orbiting around the Earth.

The facility is empty, full of corpses who appear to have died of unknown causes, possibly a disease, just weeks prior. Exploration of the facility leads to the space station's bridge; there Ryan finds a folder containing the station's logs for the past several months. However, entering the bridge triggers an automatic self-destruct countdown, and Ryan loses the folder when he drops it while leaving the bridge, seconds before the security doors shut. The companions make it to the MAT-TRANS chamber and jump out just before the malfunctioning, accelerated countdown reaches zero.

The next jump takes the group to a redoubt somewhere under Chicago, revealed by graffiti left on the walls. A map indicates the facility has been mostly cleared by evacuating personnel during the beginning of the Great Dark, but two areas of interest are not marked as cleared: the garage, and the chron-jump section. This last part attracts Doc Tanner's attention: "chron-jump" was the name given to the government department responsible for "trawling" him forward in time from 1896. The companions agree to investigate the section. When they arrive they find it still functional, prepared to execute a trawling of three targets from just scant weeks before the beginning of the Great Dark. The companions decide to make an attempt to bring the targets forward, reasoning that it may save people who would otherwise die in the nuclear holocaust. The first attempt is unsuccessful, producing an unpleasant collection of disconnected body parts and gore. The second target arrives intact and alive, but curiously she is bound in a straitjacket. Careful examination of the information on the computer reveals that she is a clinically insane mass murderer, convicted of torturing, castrating, and murdering dozens of young boys. Disgusted, Ryan kills her with a shot to the head. The third trawling attempt is successful as well, bringing forward a 19-year-old man named Michael, a member of an isolated Christian monastic order who has been trained in the fictional martial art of Tao-Tain-Do. Brother Michael is skeptical of the story the companions tell him, but accepts that his situation is beyond his control. Reluctantly, he follows them.

The redoubt's garage contains a fully operational war wag, and the companions set out in it to explore the ruins of Chicago. The city turns out to be not just destroyed but nearly leveled, possibly from high incendiary warheads, leaving only a flat, charred, black wasteland. The level of destruction is shocking to nearly everyone, including Brother Michael. Unable to deny that the companions' story is true, Michael declares that he can no longer consider himself a member of the order, no longer "Brother" Michael. Since he lacks a last name, Doc Tanner suggests he use "Brother"; Michael accepts, christening himself "Michael Brother".

The group takes shelter in a stripped Victorian mansion; that evening they are attacked by a large group of mutants. Michael, who already has displayed remarkable speed and reflexes, singlehandedly kills a group of at least a dozen mutants while armed only with a pair of knives. This does not escape Ryan's notice, who concludes Michael may be faster than even Jak Lauren. Towards the end of the attack Abe is wounded lightly by a mutant. Enraged, he follows the fleeing mutant into the night, only to fall into a rapid-flowing, rock-strewn river while grappling with the mutie. The companions find no sign of him, and presume him dead. The next day, however, they are startled to find some distance away alongside the road, battered, naked, but alive. Abe explains that he had nearly drowned before someone pulled him free of the river. When he was able to see the person, he recognized him as none other than the Trader. Both Ryan and J.B. are incredulous, believing their former employer is dead, but Abe maintains that it was him. He then says he plans to stay behind in order to track down the Trader and, ideally, join up with him. Abe parts company with the companions on good, if bittersweet, terms.

While the companions stop to attempt repairs on the rapidly worsening war wag, Doc and Michael surreptitiously depart. Doc intends to go back to the chron-jump section and attempt to send himself back in time to be reunited with his family, and has convinced Michael to assist him and be sent back as well. As they travel by foot Doc's mental state becomes increasingly unstable, with him often mistaking Michael for his long-dead wife Emily.

Meanwhile, Krysty is kidnapped by a group of highly organized, female mutants. Calling themselves "Midnight" because of their large, nocturnally adapted eyes, the group believe Krysty is the "fire-haired" leader mentioned in their group mythology who will free them from their subterranean existence. Krysty soon learns other, disturbing things about Midnight, particularly that they are an all female group by virtue of killing any male offspring, and also practice cannibalism, including on their doomed male infants.

In order to find Krysty's whereabouts, Ryan, J. B., Mildred, and Dean capture one member of a Midnight sec patrol. Though initially resistant to interrogation by Ryan, the captured woman reveals the necessary information when Mildred "persuades" her using her extensive medical knowledge and a scalpel. Shaken but resolved, the group heads to the mutants' lair to rescue Krysty. During the initial assault Dean is separated from the group, eventually captured and placed in the same cell as Krysty. With someone there to help her afterward, Krysty calls upon her enhanced strength to break the chains binding both her and Dean. Dean kills the arriving pair of guards, recovering his and Krysty's weapons in the process, and helps the severely weakened woman make her escape. After a brief gunfight most of the Midnight leadership are killed, and the group reunites and flees to the surface.

The companions make their way to the redoubt, and find Michael and Doc in the chron-jump facility, prepared for a jump whose countdown is fast approaching execution. The machinery is obviously malfunctioning, but Doc refuses to leave the jump chamber, protected by Michael and holding the group at gunpoint. Ryan manages to disable Michael by faking a stagger and then kicking him in the groin, and Mildred disarms Doc by shooting a support on the chamber's lid, knocking the weapon from his hand when the lid swings down. They manage to drag Doc from the chamber a few seconds before the jump executes, whereupon the chamber malfunctions spectacularly and bursts into flames. Doc apologizes profusely for his behavior, which the group accepts.

After some time to recover, the companions make their way to the MAT-TRANS chamber; Michael accompanies them. Ryan closes the door and initiates the jump.

Ryan Cawdor, his son Dean, Krysty Wroth, J. B. Dix, Dr. Theophilus Tanner, Mildred Wyeth, and Michael Brother arrive in an icy redoubt via a surprisingly pleasant MAT-TRANS jump. The redoubt is both small and thoroughly stripped, its only occupants a curious breed of concrete-burrowing albino worms in one small section of the facility. A minor situation occurs when a worm latches onto Dean while he is urinating, necessitating its careful removal by his father.

Using a sextant, J. B. places their location somewhere in Colorado. With no supplies in the redoubt the companions venture out into the snowy wilderness, making camp some distance away. That night they are briefly joined by a trio of poachers, who inform them they are on land belonging to Baron Alferd Nelson of the ville of Vista. They also ask the companions' assistance in hunting a large mutant bear in the area; the companions agree, but sneak away once the poachers are asleep, not wanting to potentially run afoul of a Baron. Unfortunately the group is set upon the next day by the bear in question, a monstrous -long Grizzly standing tall at the shoulder. With some difficulty they are able to kill it, the gunfire attracting the poachers. The gunfire also attracts Vista sec boss Rick Coburn and a contingent of his men. Coburn has the poachers executed, then takes Ryan and his friends prisoner and escorts them back to meet with the Baron. During the trip Ryan converses with Coburn, and assesses him as both extremely competent and (reluctantly) likeable.

Baron Nelson proves to be a large, powerfully built man, standing over tall. Initially he orders the group hanged, but quickly changes his mind when Coburn points out that there are women and a child in the group. At the urging of his dowager mother, Nelson confides that he recently lost his wife and son, his wife when he strangled her for adultery with members of a group of roaming "trappers", and his son being brutally tortured and killed by others of the same group. Nelson has since learned that the "trappers" were in the employ of Wizard Sidler, the Baron of nearby Yuma and son of the late former baron of Vista. Later that night Alferd has Ryan brought to him and requests Ryan travel to Yuma and bring back the men responsible for his son's death, along with Sidler. He also states he will be keeping Krysty, Mildred, and Dean in the ville. Should Ryan be successful in his task he says he will let everyone leave freely; should Ryan refuse the request or fail to execute it he will keep the women and child as his new family and have the rest executed. Ryan reluctantly agrees.

Elsewhere, Abe has traveled to see a Native American "seer", hoping she can help him track down the Trader. The woman is able to tell him that the Trader is far to the West, but also warns that three of Abe's friends - whose descriptions match Ryan, Krysty, and J. B. - are in grave danger.

The companions, minus Krysty, Mildred, and Dean, head North for Yuma, encountering a traveling group of actors along the way. When the actors reveal they are heading to Yuma the companions quickly offer to join with them, pretending that they have at least minimal acting experience. The ruse is seen through by the group's female performer, Ellie Morte, but she allows them to join anyway once Ryan assures her their purpose is not nefarious. Attached to the troupe, the companions enter Yuma virtually unchallenged.

Once in the ville J. B. begins to take scrupulous measures to ensure his face is never fully seen by anyone other than the group. Ryan suspects his behavior may have something to do with one of their targets, a man Nelson identified as "Jennison", but when pressed J. B. refuses to discuss the matter; he assures Ryan he will let him know the details once he is certain they are necessary to know, but that the issue is not important right now.

Ryan has little trouble locating his targets; he is almost immediately told to meet with Sidler at the ville's restored movie theater, and seated with the Baron are five of the six targets (the sixth is revealed to have died some months earlier). Following that meeting the companions begin to plan how they are going to capture Sidler and his group. The plan begins to take shape when Ryan learns that the play the troupe intends to perform includes a brief scene requiring audience participation. Because of the risks involved otherwise, the companions inform the troupe of their plans; the actors hesitantly agree to go along with the plot.

Wizard Sidler does not attend the play initially, claiming sickness, which delays the kidnapping and brings Ryan and his friends close to missing Baron Nelson's deadline. Finally word comes that Sidler will be attending, delivered in person by Sidler's associate Jim Jennison. J. B., still taking measures to obscure his face, is able to confirm his suspicions, and once Jennison leaves he shares them with the group: Jennison is his half-brother. He still emphatically supports the plan to kidnap Sidler and his men, particularly since his half-brother's purported misdeeds do not come as a surprise to him. That night the group pulls off the plan successfully, and narrowly makes it out of Yuma before the ville's sec men realize what has happened.

Back in Vista, Baron Nelson has been spending ample time with Dean, clearly using him as a surrogate for his deceased son but otherwise treating him nicely, even indulgently. It is only when the Baron's mother calls the three to a private audience with her that they realize the truth: the Baron does not intend to honor his agreement even if Ryan succeeds, and plans to kill the rest of the group on their return. Dean kills the woman while she tries to hold the three at gunpoint, and Krysty uses the dead woman's pistol to kill Alferd when he arrives and confronts them. Rick Coburn learns of what transpired, but decides not to do anything until the rest of the group's return.

During the trip back to Vista, Sidler manages to break free of his bindings and kills Ellie before he in turn is killed by Doc. The woman's death comes as a particular loss to Tanner, who had recently started a sexual relationship with her. Sometime later the wagon carrying the remaining captives is driven off the edge of the road amid a harsh snowstorm, sending it to the bottom of a craggy ravine. The captives arm themselves and escape, but are quickly killed by J. B. and Ryan. The last captive standing is Jennison, who demands J. B. let him go free; J. B. refuses, and shoots his half-brother dead. The companions then use the ruins of the wagon as a makeshift pyre for the members of the acting troupe, all killed during the escape.

By the time Ryan and his friends return to Vista, Rick Coburn has appointed himself Baron of the ville. Though he cannot simply let the companions go, owing to their direct involvement in the death of the previous Baron, Coburn gives them a two-hour head start after leaving the ville before he and his sec men come after them. The companions are able to make it to the redoubt with Coburn still trailing behind, but nearing. Ryan enters the standard door activation code, but the heavy metal blast door fails to open. After another failed attempt he curses as he realizes the door is not functional, and he and his friends now have nowhere to flee to as Rick Coburn and his armed posse nears.

''"Kamata Town: not an ounce of chic..." "Perhaps I should move there..."'' So begins Yuko's story.

''Yuko'', is 35 years old; unemployed, single and is on medication to combat manic depression. There are a number of men in Yuko's life: * her college friend, ''Homma'', now a member of parliament; * ''K'', a confessed pervert who she meets on the Internet; * ''Yasuda'', a manic depressive young gang member; * ''Soichi'', Yuko's cousin who separated from his wife and child, and was also dumped by his mistress.

''Yuko'' seems to create a different persona depending on whom she is talking to at the time. By the end of the movie, ''Yuko'' knows that she needs more than what Soichi and the other men in her life can give her. We all need a soft life—the literal meaning of "Yawarakai Seikatsu"—once in a while, but as Yuko discovers, there's also something to be said for this hard thing called reality.

Picking up directly from the events at the end of ''Shockscape'', Ryan Cawdor, his son Dean, Krysty Wroth, J.B. Dix, Dr. Theophilus Tanner, Mildred Wyeth, and Michael Brother find themselves trapped at the exterior entrance of a redoubt somewhere south of Yuma, Colorado. The group is being pursued by a posse headed by Rick Coburn, sec boss of the nearby ville of Vista, intent on killing them for the death of the ville's Baron. Safety lies within the redoubt, but the exterior keypad which operates the redoubt's main doors is not functioning. Ryan makes the decision to scale the mountain the redoubt is built into, with the intent of reaching a section of corridor which has been opened to the elements following an earthquake.

Ryan scales the steep mountain and makes it inside, taking more than a half-hour to recover from the subzero climb. He then makes his way into the redoubt, carefully moving past a hive of mutated albino worms, previously shown to be carnivorous and capable of burrowing through solid concrete. At this point he is attacked by Coburn, who has followed Ryan's ascent into the redoubt. The two spar hand-to-hand, finding themselves evenly matched. When Coburn pulls a gun (shortly before Ryan was going to pull a knife) the noise rouses the nearby mutant worms, who swarm Coburn and devour him alive. Ryan opens the entrance door and lets his friends into the redoubt; the companions then make a jump in the redoubt's MAT-TRANS chamber.

The jump takes them to a somewhat damaged redoubt, which all describe as being unnaturally humid. The reason for this is soon discovered: the bulk of the facility appears to have become submerged, leaving only the MAT-TRANS facility above water. The companions exit through a partially submerged, open tunnel, finding themselves on a chain of islands; using his sextant, J.B. places them on the Florida Keys. The group is alarmed to discover that Michael, who earlier revealed that he cannot swim, has not surfaced. They briefly search for him, only to find him when a gigantic sea serpent emerges from the bay, clutching Michael. Inexplicably, Michael is rescued when a large group of dolphins appear and swarm the serpent, causing it to drop him and scaring it off. Michael is shaken, but okay.

The companions venture south, and eventually come across a seemingly intact facility identified as the Mark Tomwun Institute of Peaceful Oceanographic Research. The group soon learn from the facility's eponymous leader that the dolphins which rescued Michael came from the Institute, and furthermore are startled to learn that one of the Institute's members, Miranda, is able to speak with the dolphins directly. Tomwun offers the companions hospitality and a place to stay, which they accept.

Several days pass, and the Institute seems perfect: peaceful, safe, with ample food and comfortable lodging. Some of the companions, particularly Ryan and J.B., are nonetheless suspicious, but initially have no evidence to base their suspicions on. This changes on an evening when Ryan is attacked by a Seminole Indian, mistaking him for a member of the Institute. Later on an Institute trip to observe ocean phenomena, Ryan is tipped overboard by an undersea volcanic eruption, and washes ashore a large distance from the rest of the group. On his trek back to the Institute he comes across a shipwrecked Seminole vessel, its hull breached by explosives and its merchant crew slaughtered. Ryan confronts Tomwun with these pieces of information, at gunpoint, upon his return.

Tomwun confesses that the boat was indeed sunk by the Institute, or rather their trained dolphins carrying explosives. He assures Ryan that the sinking was a mistake, and the intended target was the man who he asserts slaughtered the crew: Red Jack Yoville, leader of a large band of pirates. Yoville has been capturing and pillaging settlements in the area, and Tomwun feared the Institute would be next. Disgusted with Tomwun's tactics and relative apathy over the deaths of the Seminole merchants, Ryan still agrees to spare his life and the lives of the Institute's other occupants; the companions leave for the redoubt the next morning. On the way they come across an encampment of pirates, and when surprised by a pirate returning from urinating have no choice but to open fire on the encampment. The companions survive without injury, but are unable to prevent some of the pirates from escaping, presumably to warn the rest of their group. The companions reason that the pirates will likely set up ambushes further north, and reluctantly head back to the Institute.

Meanwhile, Abe has been following the Trader towards the west coast, hearing repeated tales of a man matching the Trader's description. After spending several days holed up against a snowstorm Abe comes across a wandering hunter, who tells him he has a letter for Abe from the Trader. The note recounts several events in Abe's immediate past, including a fight with a mutated bobcat, and ends telling Abe that the Trader is trying to leave his old life behind, but will still be happy to see Abe if he catches up with him.

Back in Florida, Ryan and Tomwun come to an agreement: Ryan and his friends will stay for five days, during which time they will defend the Institute should the pirates attack. Scouting missions during the first four days reveal nothing, save for a peculiar race of mutants living in a near-immaculate Best Western hotel on a southern island. When Ryan and Krysty return from scouting the island, they learn that a group of eight pirates—a scouting party—attacked the Institute and were repelled. The next day Yoville himself arrives in a wag under a white flag of truce. Yoville tells Ryan that the two have met previously when Ryan was traveling with the Trader, and offers Ryan a deal: Ryan and his friends will leave unharmed while the pirates raid the Institute (and kill its inhabitants). Remembering his previous encounter with Yoville, specifically an ambush attempt by the pirate leader, Ryan refuses the offer, and shoots the two accompanying pirate commanders dead. Yoville retreats.

The next day at dawn the pirates attack en masse, coming over land with war wags and armed men as well as by boat from the north and south. The group is prepared for the wags, and detonates a large gasoline incendiary device as they cross the bridge, disabling the wags and killing a large number of pirates. The companions struggle for a way to deal with the approaching boats, but have the problem taken care of when a sudden earthquake causes waves large enough to tip them over. Unfortunately the earthquake does not stop, evidently not a simple quake but something cataclysmic. Tomwun attempts to stop the group from leaving, only to be shot by Ryan. As the companions leave they watch a mortally wounded Tomwun fall into a newly opened fissure, and further fissures destroy the remains of the Institute.

The companions quickly overtake the fleeing Yoville, and with his approach masked by the continuing earthquake Ryan gets close to the man and kills him. Ryan and his friends then use Yoville's single remaining vehicle to head for the redoubt. Though hampered by shifting, treacherous terrain, they make it to the facility. Before entering the still-submerged entrance the group notes the source of the earthquake: a visible and gigantic volcanic eruption roughly 50 miles from shore. Doc notes that the force has generated a massive tsunami headed their way; the group quickly swims into the redoubt, which is barely functioning. As Ryan closes the doors to the MAT-TRANS chamber the lights begin to dim, and he soon realizes something is wrong with the jump he has just initiated.

Ryan Cawdor, his son Dean, Krysty Wroth, J.B. Dix, Dr. Theophilus Tanner, Mildred Wyeth, and Michael Brother begin a MAT-TRANS jump in a decaying redoubt, only for the jump to go awry part-way through. When they awake they each find themselves alone in a distinctly separate redoubt, with the exception of Dean and Krysty who were in close contact when the jump occurred. Individually they explore the outer control rooms of their respective redoubts, only to all decide (for varying reasons) to jump again; all decide to jump within the 30 minute "return window", which under normal circumstances will return them to the last facility they jumped from. Instead they are all sent to a different facility, presumably because their initial jump point has ceased to function.

Though the companions are all sent to the same facility, their arrival is staggered in 20 minute increments. Ryan arrives first and proceeds through the facility, followed (unknowingly) by J.B. who in turn is followed (also unknowingly) by Mildred. Ryan discovers the top floor of the redoubt houses a massive wartime mortuary which has recently been invaded by hostile "cannies". Though of little relative threat, Ryan is nonetheless forced to open fire on an attacking group of cannies. J.B. immediately recognizes the sound of Ryan's blaster and rushes to his aid, with Mildred meeting up with the two soon after the firefight concludes.

Meanwhile, Krysty and Dean have arrived at the redoubt and waited long enough to greet Michael as he jumps in. They proceed to the top floor and reunite with the rest of the group, unaware that Doc Tanner has arrived some time after them. Doc's mental stability has been temporarily impaired owing to the stress of his initial destination combined with back-to-back jumps, and in this state he mistakenly comes face-to-face with a large group of cannies. The ensuing battle draws his nearby friends to him, who help kill the remaining cannies and save Doc from certain death.

Reunited, the companions explore the redoubt, finding several warehouse-sized rooms filled with innumerable refrigerated corpses, slowly being raided and used for food by the cannies. Doc refuses to let the corpses be used for food, locates the environmental control room, and increases the ambient temperature as far as the system will allow. The long-frozen bodies quickly begin to rot, and Ryan and his friends leave the facility as fast as possible.

The area outside proves to be a hilly pine forest, which causes both Mildred and Doc to doubt J.B. when his sextant places them somewhere in Kansas; he asserts that he is correct. The argument is moot and the companions enjoy several hours of relative peace and favorable conditions. Sometime later a horse-mounted hunting party is spotted in the distance, causing the companions to hide. Initially suspecting it to be a deer hunt, the companions soon learn it is a manhunt. The fleeing man is caught a short distance from Ryan and his friends, then brutally executed at the order of a beautiful, raven-haired woman. Before the hunters can leave Dean falls from his hiding place, forcing Ryan and his friends to reveal themselves. The woman is introduced as Mistress Marie Mandeville, the daughter of the local Baron; she orders Ryan and his friends to accompany her back to the ville. Along the way Doc nearly drowns while crossing a raging river and is rescued by Ryan, but loses his LeMat Revolver in the process.

Meanwhile in the ville of Andromeda, somewhere near the Cific Ocean, Abe is continuing his search for Trader. While at a bar he is set upon by three men, scavengers who mistakenly believe he has a map to a cache of pre-dark technology, and intend to interrogate him for the information. Though outnumbered and caught unprepared, he is saved when the three men are shot dead. His savior is none other than the Trader. Reunited, the two begin to travel together, and eventually start offering payment for any traveler willing to carry a message for either J.B. or Ryan, should they come across either. The message simply states that Abe has found the Trader, and the two will be near Seattle for the next three months.

Back in Kansas, the Baron, Nathan Mandeville, greets the companions warmly and shows them great hospitality, offering them fine food and comfortable lodgings. Nonetheless there is a subtle undertone of something sinister in the Baron's attitude, further emphasized by veiled, ambiguous warnings from the ville's sec boss, Harry Guiteau, as well as the extreme security measures in place throughout the ville. The following day the companions are invited to participate in a series of public, competitive challenges, which they accept. The first challenge pits Michael against the ville's jailer, Jericho, in unarmed wrestling. Michael wins the first bout, only to be sucker-punched by Jericho as her readies for the next round. Angered, Michael crushes Jericho's larynx, then finishes him with a bone-breaking kick to the face. The death attracts the immediate attention of Mistress Marie, who appears to orgasm watching Michael kill the larger man. The remainder of the competition is spent with Michael seated by her side, the two touching intimately and at one point with Marie possibly giving Michael a handjob. At the end of the day's events Mistress Marie leaves for her quarters with Michael at her side.

While the other companions eat dinner and, later, return to their rooms, Michael and Marie spend time alone in her room. Both are drunk, and in this state Marie mentions that she will keep Michael "safe"; Michael briefly realizes this implies his friends will ''not'' be safe. The two then proceed to have sex for several hours, with Mistress Marie variously biting him, performing fellatio, engaging in vaginal intercourse, having Michael perform cunnilingus on her, and ordering him to kiss her boots and suck her boot heels in order to "show you'll do what I tell you." While this happens Marie plays a collection of custom vids, which start with relatively benign subjects such as bondage, group sex, and pegging, but move on to darker subjects such as bestiality, eventually culminating in a vid showing Mistress Marie disemboweling a pre-teen boy, to her both recorded and live sexual pleasure. Michael reacts by simultaneously punching Marie and vomiting in her face, and flees for his friends' rooms.

After Michael tells his friends what he witnessed, the group makes an attempt to leave the ville, only to be stopped by a large contingent of sec men led by Marie. The companions are disarmed and escorted back to their rooms. The following day Ryan concludes they are going to be hunted for sport, which Marie confirms. The companions are given only their bladed weapons and a 15 minute start. Rather than hopelessly trying to reach the redoubt, Ryan and his friends circle around and re-enter the ville from the back just as the hunting party, consisting of most of the ville's sec men, leave from the front. The companions disable the ville's hydroelectric generator, then make their way into the Baron's armory to recover their weapons. In the process Doc discovers and takes a replica LeMat, chambered for more common, modern ammo. With the sec men fast approaching J.B. rigs the armory with a timed explosive and the group flees downstairs; the ensuing explosion kills most of the sec men and starts a massive fire. Baron Nathan is killed by Doc, while Marie seeks cover and Guiteau takes Dean hostage, using him as a human shield. Mildred takes careful aim, shooting off Guiteau's trigger finger and then killing him with a shot between the eyes once Dean is clear. Michael declares he will deal with Marie himself, calmly approaches her while she tries (and fails) to shoot him, and after exchanging some brief, unheard words with the woman, he snaps her neck. The companions then leave for the redoubt.

The thawed bodies in the upper floors of the redoubt have rotted thoroughly, causing most of the cannies to die of starvation. After making their way through the near-unbearable stench the companions arrive at the MAT-TRANS chamber. Everyone links hands, lest they be sent to separate locations, and Ryan closes the door to start the jump.

Guy Woodhouse, a stage actor, and his wife, Rosemary, move into the Bramford, a large Renaissance Revival apartment building in New York City. They disregard their friend Hutch's warning about the Bramford's dark past with witchcraft and murder.

Rosemary meets Terry Gionoffrio, a young recovering drug addict whom Minnie and Roman Castevet, the Woodhouses' elderly neighbors, have taken in. One night, Terry apparently jumps to her death from the Castevets' 7th-floor apartment, distressing the Castevets. Guy grows close to them, but Rosemary finds the couple annoying and meddlesome. Minnie gives Terry's pendant to Rosemary as a good luck charm, saying it contains "tannis root".

Guy is cast in a prominent play after the lead actor inexplicably goes blind. With his acting career flourishing, Guy wants to have a baby with Rosemary. On the night that they plan to conceive, Minnie brings over individual cups of chocolate mousse for their dessert. When Rosemary complains hers has a chalky "under-taste" and does not finish it, Guy criticizes her as being ungrateful. Rosemary consumes a bit more to mollify him, then discreetly discards the rest. Soon after, she grows dizzy and passes out. In a dreamlike state, she hallucinates being raped by a demonic presence (Satan) as Guy, the Castevets, and other Bramford tenants watch. None, including Rosemary, are clothed. The next morning, Guy explains the scratches covering her body by claiming that he did not want to miss "baby night" and had raped her while she was passed out.

Rosemary becomes pregnant, with the baby due the last week of June. The elated Castevets insist that Rosemary go to their close friend, Dr. Abraham Sapirstein, a prominent obstetrician, rather than her own physician, Dr. Hill. During her first trimester, Rosemary suffers severe abdominal pains and loses weight. By Christmastime, her gaunt appearance alarms her friends and also Hutch, who has been researching the Bramford's history. Before sharing his findings with Rosemary, he falls into a mysterious coma. Rosemary, unable to withstand the pain, insists on seeing Dr. Hill, while Guy argues against it, saying Dr. Sapirstein will be offended. As they argue, the pains suddenly stop and Rosemary feels the baby move.

Three months later, Hutch's friend, Grace Cardiff, informs Rosemary that Hutch is dead. Before dying, he briefly regained consciousness and said to give Rosemary a book on witchcraft, ''All of Them Witches'', along with the cryptic message: "The name is an anagram". Rosemary eventually deduces that ''Roman Castevet'' is an anagram for ''Steven Marcato'', the son of a former Bramford resident and a reputed Satanist. She suspects that the Castevets and Dr. Sapirstein belong to a Satanic coven and have sinister intentions for her baby. Guy discounts this and later throws the book away, upsetting Rosemary and making her suspicious of him.

Terrified, she goes to Dr. Hill for help. Assuming that she is delusional, he calls Dr. Sapirstein, who arrives with Guy to take her home. Rosemary locks herself into the apartment, but coven members somehow infiltrate and restrain her. Dr. Sapirstein sedates a hysterical Rosemary, who goes into labor and gives birth. When she awakens, she is told that the baby was stillborn. As Rosemary recovers, she notices her pumped breast milk appears to be saved instead of disposed of. She stops taking her prescribed pills, becoming less groggy. After Rosemary hears an infant crying, Guy mentions that new tenants with a baby have moved into the building.

Believing her baby is alive, Rosemary discovers a hidden door leading into Minnie and Roman's apartment. The Castevets, Guy, Dr. Sapirstein, and other coven members are gathered around a bassinet draped in black with an upside down cross hanging over it. Peering inside, Rosemary is horrified and demands to know what is wrong with her baby's eyes. Roman proclaims that the child is Adrian, Satan's son. He urges Rosemary to mother her child, promising her that she will not have to join the coven. When Guy attempts to calm her, saying that they will be rewarded and can conceive their own child, she spits in his face. After hearing the infant's cries, however, Rosemary gives in to her maternal instincts and gently rocks the cradle.

Terry Jones first journeys to Africa, where bones have been discovered with notches in them. However, there is no way of knowing if they were used for counting.

Jones then discusses the Ishango bone, which must have been used for counting, because there are 60 scratches on each side of the bone. Jones declares this "the birth of one"; a defining moment in history of mathematics.

He then journeys to Sumer. Shortly after farming had been invented and humans were starting to build houses, they started to represent 1 with a token. With this, it was possible for the first time in history to do arithmetic. The Sumerians would enclose a certain number of tokens in a clay envelope and imprint the number of tokens on the outside. However, it was realized that one could simply write the number on a clay tablet.

To explore why the development of numbers occurred there and not some other place, Jones travels to Australia and meets a tribe called the Warlpiri. In their language, there are no words for numbers. When an individual is asked how many grandchildren he has, he simply replies he has "many", while he in fact has four.

In Egypt, the numeral system provides a fascinating glimpse of Egyptian society, as larger numbers seem more applicable to higher strata of society. It went something like this: One was a line, ten was a rope, a hundred a coil of rope (three symbols for smaller numbers, probably applicable to the average Egyptian), a thousand a lotus (a symbol of pleasure), ten thousand was a commanding finger, and a million – a number the Sumerians would never have dreamed of – was the symbol of a prisoner begging for forgiveness.

The Egyptians had a standard unit, the cubit, which was instrumental for building wonders such as the pyramids.

Jones then journeys to Greece to cover the time of Pythagoras. Jones discusses with mathematician Marcus du Sautoy Pythagoras' obsession with numbers, his secret society, his dedication to numbers, the Pythagorean theorem, and his flawed belief that all things could be measured in units (brought down by the attempt to measure the hypotenuse of an isosceles right triangle, in units relative to the two legs).

Archimedes was also in love with numbers. He tried to see what would happen if one took a sphere and turned it into a cylinder. This concept would later be applied to map making. Archimedes lived in Syracuse which at the time was at war with Rome. Archimedes was killed by a Roman soldier while working on a mathematical problem. The Romans were not interested in mathematics for its own sake, and as a result mathematics declined. The Roman numeral system was clumsy and inefficient. One reason that Terry Jones theorizes might be was that the numerals that the Romans used were basically the old-fashioned lines of the Ishango bone.

Jones discusses India's invention of a more efficient numeral system, including the invention of the concept of zero. He explains how the concept traveled west to the Caliphate. Then it arrived in Italy where it met fierce resistance. The reason for this was that most people were familiar only with the Roman numerals and not the superior Indian numerals. Eventually, the Hindu-Arabic numerals displaced the Roman ones.

Jones discusses finally how Gottfried Leibniz invented the binary system, which is the foundation for modern digital computers. He planned on building a mechanical computer to use this system, but never followed through with the plan. Leibniz was convinced that 1 and 0 were the only numbers anyone really needed. In 1944, a computer called Colossus was used to crack enemy codes during World War II. Computers like Colossus evolved into modern computers, which are used for every type of number calculation.

Joe Harris (José Ferrer) is a popular, established local radio news reporter covering Broadway entertainment with a wise-guy attitude. Herb Fuller is the network's undisputed star. When Fuller dies in an auto accident, Philip Carleton (Dean Jagger), president of the Amalgamated Broadcasting Network, assigns Harris to prepare a memorial extravaganza, including an elaborate public viewing and a special memorial show featuring interviews with Fuller's radio cast, the "Fuller Family" (based on Arthur Godfrey's cast of "Little Godfreys"), and others who knew him. Carleton dangles a chance at Harris becoming Fuller's replacement if he succeeds.

Assisted by network PR man Nick Cellentano (Jim Backus), Harris is intrigued by odd comments at the public viewing, including some from various individuals who attend strictly out of boredom and are indifferent to Fuller.

Harris meets Sid Moore (Keenan Wynn), Fuller's longtime producer, who offers his assistance while realizing Harris is in line to become Fuller's successor. Aided by his secretary Ginny (Joanne Gilbert), Harris discovers Fuller was an alcoholic and an unethical womanizing egomaniac who became a star in spite of it. He is visited by Paul Beaseley (Ed Wynn), owner of a tiny Christian radio station in New England, who first hired Fuller, impressed by his inspirational poetry, and treated him as a son, only to discover Fuller's dark side. Harris is initially condescending to the mild-mannered Beaseley, but by the time he finishes his story, Harris is apologetic.

Harris's investigations reveal Fuller's relationship with Carol Larson (Julie London), the alcoholic vocalist on his show, and various conflicts of interest involving his relationship with various song publishers whose songs were performed on Fuller's program. Fuller bandleader Eddie Brand (played by real-life bandleader Russ Morgan), hoping to remain on what he, too, suspects will become Harris's show, dutifully records an artificially sincere sound bite regarding Fuller.

Moore signs Harris to a contract, then reveals more of Fuller's escapades. Carleton privately warns Harris of Moore's duplicitous nature, telling the newsman that the network will spin his chances of becoming Fuller's successor negatively so that Moore agrees to release him from the contract, adding that if Harris cannot secure a release, the network will turn elsewhere. Amassing the research into a script, Harris has to choose between praising the beloved, amusing and warm-hearted Fuller the public saw or unmasking the phony beneath the image.

Harris makes up his mind as the broadcast starts, throwing away his prepared script to tell the truth about Herb Fuller. As Carleton and Moore listen in, Moore realizes what Harris is about to do. He rips up Harris's contract and demands that Carleton stop the broadcast. Seeing that Moore has done precisely what he had hoped for, Carleton refuses to stop the broadcast, explaining that he can market Harris as a man of principle and honesty to the public just as easily as his network marketed Fuller's phony image.

"The Adventurous Eight," a multiracial talented group of singing and dancing teenagers from Sandusky, Ohio crave stardom so badly that they spend their spare time rehearsing their original songs and dance routines in an old building every day after school. The group consists of two boys and 6 girls: Matt, Michael, June, Debbie, Rita, Francine, Meryl and Valerie.

A tacit promise of an audition from Mr. Sabol, a well known dance executive, leads them to New York, where they are greeted by the news that he died. At his company headquarters, they prove they have met him personally, which leads them to a meeting with the current CEO, Clem Friedkin. Clem tells them the show they arrived to perform in has been postponed for three weeks and he doubts they'd make it past the first round. After pressing him, he promises that if they are still in town when he returns in 3½ weeks he will give them 5 minutes to audition.

The group agrees to do whatever it takes to stay in town. After three days of cleaning the filthy apartment they can afford, they want to eat more than fast food. Matt comes up with a plan how they can eat steak that night: dancing for tips in a fancy restaurant. The number goes off well and they get to sit around and eat.

Over the next couple of weeks, the Adventurous Eight continue to raise money by passing out business cards while dancing in front of crowds in hopes of getting paying gigs. Which is what happens after being seen during one of their performances. When they go to famous dance club The Zoo, they run into a rival dance crew who is more street savvy and dances rings around them. Furious with what happened at the club, Michael demands they learn more current dance moves so they are never shown up again as well as being ready for the contest.

Furthering their issues, the male tenants of the apartment building keep harassing the female members of the group and one of the girls breaks a car window fighting them off. Two of their parents are called to get them out of jail. After some pleading, they allow their daughters to stay until the contest is over. Matt finds himself tempted by Susan, a young woman who hires the group to dance for a party she is tasked with coordinating. After their performance at the party, she pulls Matt away from the rest of the group to pay him and the two start making out. He fails to wipe her lipstick off and, after a heated argument, his girlfriend June decides to leave the group and return to Sandusky. The rest of the girls convince her to stay during a late night out drinking.

Michael asks Matt if he thinks they are ready for the contest and they agree they are, but they have something to do first. They return to The Zoo and challenge the rival dance crew, this time coming out on top with their new dance moves. However when they return to see Friedkin, he refuses to give them the audition because Susan's mother made a call. They find Mrs. Sabol and convince her to assist them in getting into the contest (she calls Susan's mother for a reference and gives them a shot since they have never agreed on anything) after she sees them perform. Later, she goes to see Friedkin and discovers he has rigged the contest in favor of pre-selected entertainers who are guaranteed to make a lot of money for the company.

After returning to the apartment, she convinces the group to take a chance with her and allow her to be their manager. The night of the contest, she disguises herself to get in and brings the group. She then contacts her people to get them on stage. Matt tells June he's going to leave the group. She thinks he is lying and doing it for Susan, but Michael divulges that Susan married her boyfriend after using Matt to make him jealous. The group gets on stage and performs successfully. Meanwhile., Mrs. Sabol informs Friedkin that she is going to begin taking back control of her company.

Under the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Paul Latour is a prisoner of war in Germany and his wife Marie lives hand-to-mouth with their two children in a squalid flat. A neighbour, whose husband is also in Germany, has fallen pregnant and is trying to lose the baby. Marie helps her successfully. Other women come to her and she starts charging.

While talking with Paul following his release, she reveals that a fortune teller saw "nothing but good things" in her future, along with a lot of women, which she would not clarify. Marie confesses to wanting to be a famous singer. She has, however, lost her love for her husband, who has been wounded and struggles to stay in employment, and rejects his crude and abrupt sexual demands.

Although he cannot find work, he rents a bigger flat at her prompting. Marie continues her illicit business and lets prostitutes use their bedrooms during the day. When one of the abortions goes wrong, the woman dies and her despairing husband commits suicide. Marie shrugs off the tragedy and hires a maid to help. She visits a music teacher, who tells her that she has a great voice.

She also starts a daytime affair with a collaborator and offers the maid a pay raise if she sleeps with Paul. Paul is unhappy with this arrangement and, after he returns home early and witnesses Marie and her lover asleep together, he sends an anonymous denunciation to the police, alerting them to her illegal activities.

A recent law of the Vichy régime, determined to enforce morality and stop population decline, has made abortion a treasonable crime. Marie is condemned to death and guillotined.

Set in 17th-century France at the court of the Sun King, King Louis XIV, the young, colony-raised, naïve Mademoiselle Marie-Josèphe de la Croix is the lady-in-waiting to King Louis XIV's niece. Her brother, Father Yves de la Croix (a natural philosopher and explorer), has recently returned from a mission commissioned by the king: to bring back the endangered sea monster whose flesh is rumoured to give the consumer immortality. Father Yves brings back two specimens: one, a dead male sea monster covered in sawdust and ice; the other, a live female sea monster placed in the Apollo fountain in the Palace of Versailles.

Acting as her brother's assistant, sketching the dead sea monster's dissection, and caring for the live specimen, Marie-Josèphe soon realizes the creature is not a sea monster, but a sea woman. Thus, Marie-Josèphe tries to convince the others at court, including her brother, that the sea woman is intelligent and hopefully free her. Unfortunately, only Marie-Josèphe can understand the sea woman (now called Sherzad) and her musical way of talking. As a result, the court ignores her.

They bleed her for hysteria, the pope openly shows outrage over the impropriety of her composing a cantata, and several court men harass her on the King's hunt. At the same time, her slave Odelette (really called Haleed) struggles to gain her freedom. Only the stoic Count Lucien believes Marie-Josèphe about the sea woman, calmly taking the sea woman and Marie-Josèphe's scientific endeavors in stride. In order to save her own life, Sherzad, the sea monster, offers the king the location of a sunken treasure ship in return for her freedom. But despite the discovery of Spanish gold found from the wreck, the king intends to keep Sherzad and eat her, the lure of immortality being too strong.

Marie-Josèphe and Count Lucien (whom she has fallen in love with) plot secretly to release Sherzad, defying the pope, their king and her brother. Their attempt fails, but Yves (finally realizing Sherzad's sentience and its repercussions on his actions) aid them in finally releasing Sherzad. In the end, Marie-Josèphe and Count Lucien are exiled, but Sherzad, who had declared vengeance on all humanity, showers them with forgotten sunken treasures in gratitude.

At Malfoy Manor, Severus Snape meets with Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. He reports that the Order of the Phoenix will move Harry Potter, no longer under his mother's protective spell, to a safe location. Voldemort confiscates Lucius Malfoy's wand; his own is powerless against Harry because it and Harry's wand are "brothers" by sharing the same phoenix feather core. During the move, Harry survives Voldemort's attack but Mad-Eye Moody and Hedwig are killed.

During preparations for Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour's wedding, the new Minister for Magic arrives. He informs Harry, Ron, and Hermione that Albus Dumbledore left each a bequest: Ron a Deluminator, Hermione a copy of ''The Tales of Beedle the Bard'', and Harry the Golden Snitch he caught in his first Quidditch match. Dumbledore had also bequeathed the Sword of Gryffindor to Harry, but it has gone missing.

News arrives during the wedding that the Ministry has fallen and the Minister is dead. Death Eaters attack and Harry, Ron, and Hermione escape to Number 12, Grimmauld Place. While there, Ron realizes that Sirius' brother, Regulus Black, is the R.A.B. who stole Salazar Slytherin's locket from Voldemort. Local thief Mundungus Fletcher later sold it to Dolores Umbridge. Harry, Ron and Hermione infiltrate the Ministry and recover the locket but they are chased by Death Eaters in a chaotic exit. Hermione disapparates them to a forest. Meanwhile, Ron is injured. The trio decide to start their journey to discover and destroy all of Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes, starting from the locket.

Attempts to destroy the locket fail. Hermione deduces that Gryffindor's sword can destroy Horcruxes because it is impregnated with basilisk venom. Ron, affected by the dark locket, is frustrated with their slow progress and irrationally jealous of Harry and Hermione. He argues with Harry, then disapparates, leaving Harry and Hermione to continue their journey. When Harry touches the Snitch to his lips, it reveals a cryptic message: "I open at the close." Hermione notices a strange symbol drawn in ''Beedle the Bard'' that is identical to one Luna Lovegood's father Xenophilius wears.

Harry and Hermione search for the sword in Godric's Hollow and encounter the same strange symbol in a cemetery. Elderly historian Bathilda Bagshot invites them in her cottage, where they find a photo of the young man in Harry's dream who stole a wand from wandmaker Gregorovitch. Bathilda morphs into Voldemort's snake Nagini and attacks Harry. Hermione disapparates them to safety, but her rebounding spell accidentally destroys Harry's wand. Hermione identifies the man in the photo as dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald. That night, a doe patronus leads Harry to a frozen pond where Gryffindor's sword lies on the bottom. Harry dives into the frigid water, but the locket around his neck tightens, strangling him. Ron appears, retrieves the sword, and saves Harry. They destroy the locket Horcrux with the sword. Ron explains that the Deluminator led him to their location.

Harry, Ron and Hermione visits Xenophilius Lovegood and learn the symbol represents the Deathly Hallows. Many years before, three brothers each received a prize that evades Death: the Resurrection Stone, the Cloak of Invisibility, and the Elder Wand, the most powerful wand known. Possessing all three makes one the Master of Death. Xenophilius secretly summons the Death Eaters, hoping to exchange Harry for a kidnapped Luna. The three escape, but Snatchers capture them. During a vision, Harry sees an elderly Grindelwald telling Voldemort that the Elder Wand is buried with Dumbledore.

At Malfoy Manor, Bellatrix Lestrange sees a Snatcher has Gryffindor's sword that she believed was in her Gringotts vault. Harry and Ron are locked into the cellar where they encounter Luna, Ollivander, and Griphook. Upstairs, Bellatrix tortures Hermione. Harry begs for help using a mirror shard in which he believes he glimpsed Dumbledore; Dobby appears in response and helps save everyone while Harry grabs their captured wands from Draco Malfoy. As they disapparate, Bellatrix throws a knife, killing Dobby. Harry buries him near Bill and Fleur's seaside cottage, an Order safe house. Meanwhile, Voldemort retrieves the Elder Wand from Dumbledore's tomb.

Gay soap actor Cliff (Chris Bruno) is about to marry an unsuspecting girl (Linda Larkin) for the sake of his image, to the chagrin of his boyfriend Wes (Jack Koenig). However, a prowling reporter (Deborah Gibson) has some interesting photographs which could cause general consternation.

The main romance is between the reporter Melissa and the maid of honor's uncoordinated date Jake (Sean Runnette).

Sarah France is the 42-year-old widow of a GP, Henry. She lives in an often volatile family situation with her elderly mother, Eleanor Prescott, and her daughter, eighteen-year-old Clare France, with both of whom she shares a house. After Henry's death, all three members of the family have to find a way to cope with each other as best they can.

Sarah often finds herself in the middle of things, usually figuratively, but always literally, given that she has her daughter living upstairs and her mother in the basement flat. (In the radio series, it was the mother who lived upstairs and the daughter downstairs.) Eleanor is ruthlessly cunning and takes every opportunity to get one over on Sarah. Anything told to Eleanor will spread by word of mouth throughout an extensive network of the elderly of the area, or the "geriatric mafia" or "geriatric KGB". Clare is trying to be independent of her mother, though often has to come running back in times of crisis.

The relationships between the three women change constantly through each episode. Sometimes mother and daughter ally against grandmother, sometimes mother and grandmother go against daughter, but usually grandmother and granddaughter gang up on the long-suffering Sarah, whose one haven is Bygone Books, the remarkably unsuccessful second-hand bookshop where she works for Russell, who dispenses in turn sympathy and wisdom. Most of the time, Russell sees the women's relationships second-hand through Sarah, although he isn't opposed to taking the occasional more active role when necessary. In turn, Sarah can see some of Russell's difficulties of living with a gay partner in a small 1980s Home Counties town while at the same time seeing Russell's relationship as the one perfect marriage she knows.

In the series, cavemen were never really fully supplanted by modern humans, but integrated into ''Homo sapiens'' civilization as a separate species sub-group. Cavemen are a small but widespread minority group that have been present in every global civilization since the dawn of recorded history (a montage scene in the opening credits shows Cavemen in Egyptian hieroglyphs, when George Washington crossed the Delaware River, standing with Abraham Lincoln, participating in the space program, etc.). Effectively, Cavemen form another ethnic minority in the modern world, which faces several prejudices from ''Homo sapiens'' (sometimes referring to humans by the derogatory term "Smoothies" in reference to their relative lack of hair, or "Sapes" in reference to their species). Although these cavemen self-identify as Cro-Magnon, their facial appearance and physical anatomy is reminiscent of the Neanderthal.

Some Cavemen attempt to pass as ''Homo sapiens'' by shaving off their body hair - other Cavemen call them "Shavers". The central humor of the show is that Caveman characters are not brutish primitives, but fully integrated into white-collar jobs; the central Cavemen characters are effete modern city-dwellers. They must also endure racial epithets such as "Magger", a pun based on "Cro-Magnon".

The series focuses on three Cavemen roommates who share a condo: Joel, his brother Andy, and their cynical and self-absorbed roommate Nick.

According to producer Joe Lawson, the show was originally going to be set in Newport News, Virginia, due to its proximity to the water. The setting then changed to Atlanta, Georgia and finally San Diego, California.

Returning from the Cretaceous period, The Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones journey to the present day, where Cybermen have been teleporting into labs and stealing technology.

The Doctor takes Martha back to the Royal Hope hospital, where they have a confrontation with a pair of Cybermen in the car park. After nearly being captured, the Cybermen suddenly disappear, due to faults with their unfamiliar teleportation technology. The Army also want to get their hands on the Doctor, and ask for his help, so the Army capture him and his TARDIS from the Royal Hope Hospital, and he is separated from Martha.

At the Army Base, the Doctor realises that the Cybermen who were made on Earth, not the parallel universe (and were therefore not sucked into the void) having been using teleportion devices stolen from the Torchwood building, to help them gather enough technology to create a portal capable of reopening The Void and release the Cybermen trapped inside. But the Cybermen do not know how to open the Void, and so they need the Doctor to open it for them. That's why they're trying to capture him alive.

While Martha is separated from the Doctor, the Cybermen reappear, and capture her. They take her to their secret base where they discuss whether or not to kill her. Soon, the Doctor phones her on her mobile, and lets slip where he is. Just as Martha is about to tell him where she is, the Cyberleader snatches her phone and destroys it, then plans an attack on the Army Base where the Doctor is being held.

The Doctor manages to figure out that the Cybermen are at the Millennium Dome. But a team of 6 Cybermen (who were being kept frozen since the battle of Canary Wharf) attacks the base. The Army manages to destroy all but the Cyberleader with special weapons they had prepared in case Cybermen should invade again. The Cyberleader tells the Doctor that they'll kill Martha unless he helps them, then vanishes.

The Doctor and the Army plan to attack the Millennium Dome. Having retrieved his TARDIS from the base, the Doctor manages to materialize right inside the Dome but the Army cannot enter due to a force-field set up by the Cybermen. The Doctor cooperates with the remaining two Cybermen & the Cyberleader, and opens their portal by linking up their equipment to the TARDIS. But the Cybermen realize that the Doctor's methods do not work, and the force-field does not lead to the Void. Instead, it leads to Prehistoric Earth. A ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' appears and kills two Cybermen. Martha damages the force-field generator, and the Doctor uses an electrical cord from it to fry the Cyberleader. The portal then closes. With the Army entering too late, the Doctor and Martha say good-bye, then leave in the TARDIS to go somewhere 'peaceful'.

The story begins with Charlie, whose parents are recently divorced, meeting his father in a restaurant with his best friend Jack Farrell. They leave the restaurant, however, soon after entering. Soon afterward, Charlie is unknowingly possessed by a demon known as the Scourge. He also joins the society known as The Brotherhood Of Sleep, who imprisoned the Scourge in the roots of a tree until one of their own released him. With Charlie's help, the Scourge manages to first kill all the members of the Brotherhood, save for the girl Esme, who has trained all her life to kill the demon. Soon after the death of their members, a possessed Charlie gets into a gateway to Hell, which is essentially a Roman Empire of sorts composed of demonesque species and even gladiator pits. Soon after reaching Hell, The Scourge's true goal is revealed: He wishes to awaken "the dragon" who created the universe, and upon awakening he will destroy it again. Suddenly, it is up to Jack, Esme, and a team of soldiers to stop Charlie and the Scourge from destroying the universe.

Ryan Cawdor, his son Dean, Krysty Wroth, J.B. Dix, Dr. Theophilus Tanner, Mildred Wyeth, and Michael Brother arrive in a MAT-TRANS chamber which appears unusually constructed. The normally seamless bulletproof glass windows are badly aligned, along with the doors, and the exterior control chamber appears to be a hastily constructed chamber carved from an existing cave, with chisel marks still showing in the surrounding granite. The atmosphere outside is heavy and foggy, and in addition to preventing J.B. from putting his sextant to use the fog also seems to interfere with both compasses and electronic equipment, including watches. The companions venture out cautiously into the barren surroundings, encountering a variety of highly mutated insect-like creatures, as well as a few sources of water, including a fast-flowing stream. All are tainted with an unknown substance that causes an unpleasant stinging on contact, and thus clearly undrinkable. Eventually the companions arrive at surprisingly intact town, which is revealed to be an "Old West" themed reconstruction called Lonesome Gulch. In short order the companions are surrounded by a large group of flying reptilian creatures, and after the companions take shelter in the town's General Store the creatures attack. J.B. and Ryan rig a crude timed explosive, then wait with the others in the store's root cellar; when the explosives detonate the companions flee in the ensuing confusion, though Ryan is wounded by one of the creatures. The companions make it to the MAT-TRANS chamber and make the jump.

Ryan and his friends arrive in a familiar redoubt, and after some exploration conclude that it is a redoubt in Louisiana, where they initially met Jak Lauren. However, rather than the wet Louisiana bayou they are expecting, the group finds the area outside the redoubt is a barren, flat, lifeless desert. Furthermore, Ryan and J.B.'s radiation detectors show the area is dangerously radioactive, forcing them back inside before they can investigate a cause for the sudden change in the terrain. With no resources in the redoubt, the group reluctantly makes a third jump.

When the companions arrive in the next chamber they find that Ryan, Doc, and Michael are all unconscious. After some time Doc comes around, but Ryan manages only to regain consciousness briefly before passing out again. Most troubling is Michael, who regains consciousness only to attack Doc ferociously, claiming he is Satan. Michael is subdued and restrained; the group concludes that Michael has been driven to psychosis by the back-to-back jumps, but have no idea if he will recover. When Mildred examines Ryan she notes that his wound is obviously infected, presumably with some kind of poison, and needs to be sterilized. The companions head into the redoubt, finding it thoroughly cleared out but locating a sterile medical facility. With no other options Mildred sterilizes Ryan's wound with a superheated knife, with the rest of the group holding Ryan down due to a lack of any anesthesia. Partway through the process Michael regains consciousness, no longer psychotic, and helps restrain Ryan. The procedure is successful, and Ryan begins to recover.

The next day the companions set out from the redoubt, having found ample water but no food. J.B.'s sextant places them in New England, and Doc recognizes the nearby lake as Lake Champlain. The companions find a man's corpse, as well as one of a stickie (a vicious breed of mutant), and further evidence of stickie activity. Sometime later they encounter three people searching for their friend, who they identify as the corpse. Saddened, but grateful for knowing their friend's fate, the young people invite the companions back to their ville, Quindley.

Quindley is immediately recognized as an unusual ville: the residents are all strict vegetarians, and the ville does not have a Baron, but rather an unseen (behind a one-way mirror), "all-knowing" leader calling himself Moses. Furthermore, the ville's residents react strangely to most of the companions, save for Michael and Dean, and Doc notes that none of Quindley's inhabitants appear older than 25. This is confirmed by the ville's second in command, Jehu, who when pressed further reveals that once someone turns 25 they are ritualistically executed. The companions are not subject to this, and Jehu commands that they be treated as guests. This is met with disapproval, to the point where Jehu kills one of Quindley's residents after he in turn attempts to kill Doc.

Quindley is shown to have other problems as well. Though warned of stickies being present in the area, the ville's guards do not alter their patrols, as Moses has not authorized it. This results in the deaths of four children when stickies attack a group near the edge of town. Ryan and his friends kill the stickies before they can kill any more. Quindley's residents also attempt to convince Dean and Michael to stay permanently; a woman named Dorothy is particularly successful with Michael, fostering a romantic and sexual attachment between the two. The woman's allure is strong enough that, after showing him two prisoners awaiting execution and kept in narrow cages which force them to stand, Dorothy convinces Michael to have sex with her in front of them as a form of torture.

The following night the prisoners are ritually executed by being burned alive. During the execution stickies attack the ville, and using a large fire and a smaller force as a distraction manage to capture more than a dozen of the ville's children, along with Krysty, Mildred, Doc, and Dean. When Ryan offers Moses assistance in recovering the children Moses refuses, saying that no rescue attempt will be made. The remaining companions discuss the matter and decide to steal one of the ville's boats and set out after the stickies the next morning. Michael joins them sometime later and volunteers to come along, which they accept. That morning Ryan and his friends steal a boat without incident and set off for where they believe the stickie camp is located. There they find a group of at least 30 stickies, who have already started killing the captive children. Though it is a difficult task they manage to kill the entire contingent of mutants, freeing their friends and the surviving children.

At Michael's request the group returns to Quindley in the hopes of convincing Dorothy to accompany them. Unknown to them, Moses had previously ordered they be executed that morning during breakfast, and following their disappearance has ordered their death should they return. Ryan and his friends search for Dorothy unsuccessfully but without incident, and eventually arrive at Moses' temple. There they find both Dorothy and Jehu mostly naked, bearing teeth and whip marks as well as other signs of recent sexual abuse. Jehu attempts to kill Doc but is shot before he can, and his body knocks a torch into a nearby tapestry, starting a large fire. Doc then shoots through the one-way mirror hiding Moses, shattering it, revealing him to be a bedridden, grossly obese mutant dwarf. The companions take Dorothy and leave the temple, allowing Moses to burn alive, and are able to exit Quindley without incident. The companions make it to the redoubt safely, and with some coaxing convince Dorothy to enter the MAT-TRANS chamber. Ryan starts the jump, but partway through Dorothy panics and tries to leave the chamber. Ryan is unable to move, and passes out as he watches an already-fading Michael attempt to stop Dorothy.

In the epilogue, a traveling merchant arrives at the ruins of Quindley some weeks later. The ville has burned to the ground, the temple fire having spread to the other buildings, and its residents have fled the area or died. The merchant takes out a note he was given, to be delivered to men named J.B. Dix and Ryan Cawdor, a note given to him by Abe and the Trader telling the men to meet them in Seattle. The merchant drops the note into the water, remarking to himself that if the Trader asks, he can say he at least tried.

The novel opens with Ryan Cawdor resting in a box canyon in New Mexico, a few feet from Jak Lauren. Ryan notes the heavy sadness affecting Jak, sadness he shares. The reason is revealed when the two arise and have a brief moment at three new graves nearby: the graves of Jak's wife Christina, his infant daughter Jenny, and Ryan's traveling companion Michael Brother. The narrative then moves to a few days prior.

Ryan, his son Dean, Krysty Wroth, J.B. Dix, Dr. Theophilus Tanner, Mildred Wyeth, and Michael Brother arrive from their latest MAT-TRANS jump. When Ryan awakes he discovers Michael crying, bitterly depressed over the absence of Dorothy, a woman the companions tried to bring with them from their last destination, but who panicked and fled as the jump started. This simply adds to Michael's already growing depression over his life in the Deathlands, and the companions decide to let him deal with his emotions as he sees fit, but with the understanding to keep an eye on him should he turn dangerous.

Several of the companions recognize the color of the jump chamber walls, and Dean identifies it as the New Mexico redoubt, placing them near Jak Lauren's ranch. The companions set out for the ranch, and in a matter of hours are reunited with Jak Lauren and his family. Christina is still less than pleased to see Ryan, owing to her husband's near death during Ryan's last visit, but agrees to let the group stay for a few days. The next four days pass peacefully and pleasantly.

On the fourth day most of the companions set out, accompanying Jak on a day-trip to hunt deer. Michael opts to stay behind and help Christina care for Jenny and do other chores, part of his efforts over the past days to break out of his depression. The group sets off, and eventually find and kill two deer. As they are dressing them Krysty has a prophetic vision (an ability she has as a mutant) strongly foretelling death, although it is vague and without detail. Assuming the worst, the companions set off quickly for the Lauren ranch. As they approach they see a large group of horses riding away from the ranch. When they finally arrive Jak finds his wife in the kitchen, dead, murdered after being raped and tortured. J.B. finds Jenny in one of the barns, also dead, having been thrown violently against a wall. Michael is nowhere to be found. The companions help Jak clean up the bodies of his wife and daughter, in order to prepare them for burial. Sometime after they finish, Michael is found praying in front of the corpses. After some effort the group manages to get him to respond to them, and with further prompting he tells them what happened.

While the rest of the group was away hunting, Michael spotted a large dust trail in the distance, indicating people moving towards the Lauren farm. Christina didn't seem in any way alarmed by the news, so Michael continued performing various chores around the ranch. Eventually two armored wags arrived at the Lauren ranch, but it was only when numerous, heavily armed, uniformed men and women exited the vehicles that Michael knew something was wrong. Unarmed and heavily outnumbered, Michael was unable to act against the uniformed group, and instead hid in a nearby pile of hay. Several men took Christina into the house, presumably to rape her. After Christina severely wounded one of her rapists with a concealed knife other members of the group killed Jenny in retaliation. The armed group then executed Christina and left quickly, fleeing a group of Native Americans approaching on horseback. Michael fled into the hills, overcome with guilt.

The companions' reactions to Michael's story is mixed; Jak is furious with Michael for not trying to save his wife and child, though Ryan and J.B. maintain that any attempt on Michael's part would have simply resulted in his death without saving Jak's family. Ryan also notes that the horsemen they saw on approach were not the attackers and were presumably hunting the uniformed group as well, something they would not have known without Michael's account. Based on Michael's description, Jak tentatively identifies the attackers' leader as the General, a vicious raider rumored to prey on Native American communities and isolated settlements in the area. The companions make plans to bury Christina and Jenny the following day, then head out in pursuit of the General.

Meanwhile, near Seattle, Abe is still with the Trader, waiting in the hopes that J.B. and Ryan will meet up with them, as Abe has sent a message to do so with several traveling merchants. Abe has spent the past five weeks with the Trader, and has noticed that his former employer seems changed. While the Trader is just as powerful and commanding as he was in the past, Abe is worried about a new streak of brutality he has noticed in the man's behavior. Abe keeps these observations to himself.

The next day, the companions awake and find that Michael is not in his room. They initially assume he has simply left the ranch, but he is discovered in the barn, dead, having hanged himself. Inside his room Dean finds a suicide note, which Doc reads aloud to the rest of the group. In it, Michael explains that he is not killing himself simply out of guilt, but also due to his worsening depression over the past few weeks, which he attributes to the bleak life found in the Deathlands. He then says goodbye to each of the companions individually, and asks Jak for forgiveness; Jak bitterly confesses to the rest that he had already forgiven Michael. With Jak's approval the group bury Michael alongside Christina and Jenny in a remote box canyon. Afterward they stock up on supplies at the ranch and head out on horseback in pursuit of the General.

The companions camp for the evening in the abandoned ville of Opium Wells. During the night Dean is ambushed while urinating and briefly threatened for information on the rest of the group, which is cut short when Ryan and his friends surround the ambushers. Once Dean states that they are hunting the General the ambushers reveal they are Navaho, also hunting the General for a recent attack on one of their settlements. A tense truce is established, and the Navaho release Dean. After further discussion the Navaho agree to travel alongside Ryan and his friends, to better their chances of catching and killing the General.

The truce between the two groups is soon tested when, the following evening, they come across one of the General's wags which has become stuck in the mud. At Jak's suggestion they start a small fire near the wag in order to make its occupants believe the Navaho intend to burn them alive inside the vehicle. The stranded raiders flee the vehicle and are killed. However, when one of the Navaho looks inside the vehicle they are grabbed by a lone remaining raider, who pulls the pin on an implosion grenade he is holding. Ryan is standing atop the vehicle as this happens, and closes the entrance hatch to contain the blast as he flees. The ensuing detonation batters Ryan but does not kill him, thanks to the hatch being closed, but the surviving Navaho claim Ryan's actions doomed their tribesman. A direct conflict between the two groups is narrowly avoided by mention of the General, but the Navaho vow to bring up the matter again once he has been dealt with.

The two groups follow the path of the remaining wag back to the General's hideout, a natural attraction called the J.C. Wright Caverns. The groups leave their horses outside with Dean to guard over them, then head around the rise the caverns are situated in the hopes of finding a way in that doesn't require a frontal assault; the abandoned visitor's center proves to have a still-accessible stairway leading down into the caverns. Once inside Ryan and his friends prepare to make a covert assault on the General and his gang, but their plans go awry when two of the Navaho loudly charge a group of raiders (in order to battle "honorably") and are killed without inflicting a single casualty. Ryan and his friends are able to kill the small group of raiders, but not without alerting the General and the rest of his contingent that they are under attack. The rest of the Navaho move to make an attempt on Ryan's life, but he, J.B., and Jak have anticipated this and kill the Native Americans before they can fire a shot.

The situation turns into a standoff, and the General eventually asks for a brief truce to discuss terms, which Ryan and J.B. agree to, temporarily. The General proposes he and his remaining gang be allowed to leave in the wag. Ryan has no intention of letting him leave alive, not the least reason being that he recognizes that the General is not just a brutal killer, but absolutely insane. Meanwhile, Jak has moved silently through the dark caverns and placed himself behind the General and his gang, and starts to kill raiders one by one. This starts a brief firefight which kills the rest of the raiders but allows the General to escape into the caverns.

Rather than chase the General through the dark caves, the companions leave the caverns and wait for him to attempt to flee. Sometime later the General exits through the visitor's center, only to be stopped at gunpoint by Ryan and his friends. Jak then moves in on the seemingly unarmed General, quickly disarms him when he tries to pull a derringer, and then kills him with a knife through the eye. The companions then take the remaining wag and head back for the Lauren ranch.

On the trip back the group spends the night in the small ville of Patriarch. The next morning at breakfast Ryan meets the town's only other guest, a traveling merchant. The merchant recognizes Ryan and, after some brief questions, gives him one of Abe's notes. Ryan shares the news of Abe's success in finding the Trader with the rest of the group, and he and J.B. decide to set out alone for Seattle after they return to the ranch.

Virgil Copeland and Randall Panwar are forced to present a project review to the senior staff of ''Equatorial Systems'', and their fellow scientist Gabrielle Villanti fails to attend. Panwar struggles with the presentation, in which they present their research about asterids (artificial neurons) known as LOVs. Although LOVs showed promise in initial experiments, the enhanced intelligence of the test animals was offset by the uncontrolled growth of the LOVs, which eventually killed their hosts. LOVs were therefore made dependent on two amino acids: nopaline for metabolism and octopine for reproduction. In the second phase of the experiment, the LOVs were encased in silicate shells. These LOVs were able to safely interact with the test animals, but an unrelated incident at a rival biotechnology company prompted a government crackdown, and the LOVs were exported to the ''Hammer'', a space station in low Earth orbit.

Panwar's presentation is interrupted by news of an incident at the lab. Gabrielle, Panwar, and Virgil had illegally implanted LOV clusters on their foreheads to communicate with the LOV colonies in their care, and Gabrielle had entered a fugue state and died of exhaustion while connected to their latest experimental subject. Their administrators discover Virgil attempting to surreptitiously remove the LOVs from Gabrielle's corpse, and the two surviving scientists are put into quarantine. However, the LOV colony is more intelligent and resourceful than anticipated, and overcomes several obstacles to colonize key areas of the ''Hammer''. When it learns what has happened, it takes control of several drones and severs the lab module from the space station.

Ela Suvanatat is a freelance journalist doing a story on struggling fishing villages in Vietnam when the ''Equasys'' lab module crashes offshore. Although it is quickly declared off-limits by the government, Ela hires a boat and visits the crash site. She is able to scoop up a few stray LOVs which have survived atmospheric reentry and return to shore before the military arrives and cordons off the site.

Fleeing from military patrols through marshland, Ela comes into contact with the ''Roi Nuoc'', a group of children under the care of a nearly sentient computer program named ''Mother Tiger''. The ''Roi Nuoc'' take her to one of their benefactors, a businessman named Ky Xuan Nguyen. At his house, Ela discovers that the packet of LOVs has torn and most of them are missing, but a few LOVs are still lodged in her forehead.

Meanwhile, Virgil and Panwar attempt to escape from quarantine, but Panwar is gunned down and Virgil is only just able to reach Panwar's one-man automated submarine. Virgil soon receives a message from Ela, who is worried that her LOVs seem to be dying. He tells her that crown galls on some plants might contain nopaline, and orders her a supply of both nopaline and octopine tablets from a chemical supply company.

Ela is forced to flee her safe house when the military begins a house-to-house search, but she stops to gather crown galls and then asks one of the ''Roi Nuoc'' to lead her back to the pool where she took shelter after swimming ashore. At the pool, Ela puts half of her crown galls into the mud, hoping to save any LOVs which had reached the water.

Category:2001 American novels Category:American science fiction novels Category:Tor Books books Category:2001 science fiction novels Category:Novels about genetic engineering Category:Nanotechnology in fiction Category:Novels about artificial intelligence

The plot revolves around Lt. Kitty McCulley, a Military Nurse during the Vietnam War. While Kitty facing the challenges associated with her mission statement, often enduring the challenges of palliative care, she meets a revered Vietnamese holy man who changes her life by offering a amulet of unusual properties.

This amulet enables Kitty to navigate through the maze of personal connections and to provide meaning to patients' lives amidst a meaningless war. This gift not only saves her sanity, but also saves her life.

Elizabeth Butler is an archaeologist, and the author of several popular books that challenge her colleagues' ideas about Maya civilization. Elizabeth has a strange gift, connected to a suicide attempt as a young woman, which allows her to see the spirits of ancient people while she walks at dusk and dawn. The story opens with Elizabeth in the middle of an eight-week field study at Dzibilchaltún. Her team hopes to find dramatic artifacts that will spark interest and increased funding for future field studies at the site.

In the middle of the field study, Elizabeth's estranged adult daughter Diane arrives unannounced. After the death of her father, Elizabeth's ex-husband, Diane suddenly abandoned her life in the United States, and flew to Mexico to see her mother. It is revealed that Diane has seen Elizabeth for only a few brief visits since Elizabeth left her as a young child to be raised by her father. Neither is sure what Diane wants from Elizabeth.

As the two struggle to connect, Elizabeth has a new experience: one of her spirit visions, a Mayan priestess named Zuhuy-kak, can see and speak with Elizabeth. Zuhuy-kak provides unprecedented knowledge about the Mayans' departure from Dzibilchaltún, and leads Elizabeth to the major archaeological find her team needs, but demands a sacrifice to the goddess Ix Chebel Yax. As the dig progresses, haunted by bad luck and tragedy, Zuhuy-kak makes it clear that Elizabeth must sacrifice her daughter.

In 1993, 21-year-old Lance Armstrong becomes World Cycling Champion. In Austin, Texas, four years later on October 2, 1996, at age 25, Armstrong is diagnosed with testicular cancer with metastasis to the lungs and abdomen. On October 3, Dr Jim Reeves removes Armstrong's diseased testicle. On October 5, after banking sperm, Armstrong begins chemotherapy. The first chemo cycle Armstrong undergoes is BEP.

After receiving a letter from and talking to an oncologist, Steve Wolff, with events Armstrong discovers that the cancer has also spread to his brain. After Dr Wolff suggests Armstrong to get an opinion from Dr Lawrence Einhorn—the foremost expert on testicular cancer—Armstrong went to the Indiana University medical centre in Indianapolis. He decided to receive the rest of his treatment there. On October 25, Armstrong's brain lesions were removed by Dr Scott Shapiro. For the three remaining chemo cycles Armstrong was given an alternative protocol, VIP, by Craig Nichols — the primary oncologist. Armstrong completed chemotherapy on December 13, 1996, and by February 1997, he was declared cancer-free.

In 1997, Armstrong launched the Lance Armstrong Foundation to support those battling cancer. On May 8, 1998, he married Kristen Richard. In 1999 their first child, Luke David Armstrong, was born.

Homer and Marge say goodnight to their children, but all does not go according to plan. Bart tries to ask about the mind, but is left contemplating it as he does not get a proper answer. Lisa fears that bed bugs will eat her after hearing Marge say "Don't let the bed bugs bite". Maggie is terrified by the lyrics of "Rock-a-bye Baby". Ultimately, all three children decide to sleep in their parents' bed.

Almost a year after 9/11, strange things start happening to narrator Scott Staley, who—at the time of the attacks—had been employed at "Light and Bell Insurance" on the 110th floor of the World Trade Center. Not only is Scott unable to get rid of his survivor's guilt (on 9/11, he followed an inner voice which told him to take a day off and enjoy the sun), but items belonging to his late colleagues suddenly begin appearing in his apartment. A pair of sunglasses, a baseball bat, a whoopee cushion – Scott can identify them all. After convincing himself that they are no illusion and that others can see them, Scott tries disposing the items in a dumpster. However, they reappear after he returns home.

He explains this to Paula, a neighbor, who offers to stow away one of the things. Soon, Paula experiences the most horrible nightmare of her life. In her own mind, she recreates the last minutes of the item's owner. Paula immediately returns the object, but makes Scott understand his mission: he must give the things to the victims' family members– and on seeing the joy on their faces, he feels his guilt slowly fade away.

Daken

In an attempt to prevent Wolverine from finding them, some members of the government send Nuke to stop him. Captain America, Cyclops, Emma Frost, and Hellion intervene. Frost reveals that Wolverine has a son, Daken, who is being controlled by the government the way Wolverine had been, and that he hates his father.

Hoping to rescue his son from whoever is controlling him, Wolverine plans to weaken Daken with adamantium power Dido's, eventually focusing his efforts on acquiring the substance from Maverick (who was a fellow victim/member with Logan in the secretive governmental Weapon X program back in the 1960s.) Before Wolverine can learn where the carbonadium is, however, they are attacked by Omega Red. Wolverine is briefly knocked unconscious, giving Omega Red a head start for the carbonadium, which is in Berlin.

Wolverine travels to Berlin followed by and meets up with the Black Widow. Wolverine surrenders to agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. who have been following him. He is taken to a S.H.I.E.L.D. base and placed in restraints. Daken, disguised as a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, uses his bone claws to wound Wolverine. After healing, Wolverine escapes from the facility.

Wolverine catches up to his son, only to find Daken being attacked by Cyber. Wolverine saves Daken, allowing him to escape.

In an elaborate plan to draw Daken into the open, Wolverine arranges for the Winter Soldier to hire Deadpool to kill Wolverine. When Wolverine is incapacitated and Deadpool appears close to succeeding, Daken intervenes so he can be the one to kill his father. The Winter Soldier, who has been watching, shoots Daken in the head with a carbonadium bullet. This renders Daken unconscious, but does not kill him.

Romulus

Wolverine seeks out Professor X for help restoring his son's lost memories. Wolverine learns that Daken is being manipulated by a man named Romulus, the same man who manipulated Wolverine before Weapon X. Wolverine and Professor Xavier are able to save Daken and reveal to him the truth surrounding his mother's death. Father and son plan to track Romulus together and kill him. Daken later betrays Wolverine to ally with Cyber, and then betrays Cyber to hunt Romulus alone.

When Daken joins the Dark Avengers, Wolverine meets with Nick Fury. Fury shares his information on Romulus, including Wolverine's close connection to the Hudson family. Fury accompanies Wolverine to New York to stop Daken's attack on the X-Men, but Daken escapes again.

Wolverine tracks Daken, but is confronted by Victor Hudson, one of Romulus's henchmen. Forced to choose between chasing Romulus or Daken, Wolverine chooses Daken. Meanwhile, Daken has employed the Tinkerer to turn his claws more like his father's.

Wolverine continues to track down Romulus and Victor Hudson in Russia. Following Hudson, Wolverine believes he is close to Romulus when he discovers he has been led into a trap. He is attacked by and defeats Omega Red. He escapes the trap with the carbonadium synthesizer.

Inspector Cramer takes the unprecedented step of approaching Nero Wolfe for his help on a stalled murder investigation. Leonard Dykes, a clerk for a law partnership, was found dead in the East River. The police found in Dykes' apartment a list of men's names and Cramer wishes to have Wolfe's opinion on it. But other than suggesting Dykes may have been trying to invent an alias, Wolfe can't help.

A month later Wolfe, is approached by the father of Joan Wellman, a reader for a fiction publisher, who was killed in a hit-and-run incident, late at night in Van Cortlandt Park. After reading a recent letter that Joan had written to her parents, Wolfe realises that the name ‘Baird Archer’, an author whose novel Joan was reading for her employer, had also appeared on the list found in Leonard Dykes’ apartment.

Wolfe orders Archie Goodwin to explore the link between Archer's novel and the two murder victims. To that end, Archie arrives at the office of Rachel Abrams, a stenographer, mere minutes after she has been thrown out of a window to her death. In the moments before the police arrive Archie confirms that Baird Archer was one of her clients. Wolfe decides to begin the investigation with Dykes, and Archie arranges a meeting with the female employees of Corrigan, Phelps, Kustin and Briggs, the law partnership Dykes worked for. During the meeting, tempers flare and in a resulting argument the former senior partner of the firm, Conroy O’Malley, is mentioned. O’Malley was disbarred for bribing a jury foreman to fix a case, and while Dykes was blamed for exposing him to the Bar Association it becomes clear that all four of the partners have motives to betray him.

Soon after, the four lawyers—James Corrigan, Emmet Phelps, Louis Kustin and Frederick Briggs—approach Wolfe, keen to avoid further scandal. The men agree to send Wolfe all correspondence relating to Dykes, including a resignation letter he submitted. When they receive the letter, Wolfe and Archie discover an odd notation, apparently in Corrigan's handwriting, which corresponds a verse in the Book of Psalms. The same verse - “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help” - was used for the title of Baird Archer's novel, which confirms to Wolfe that Archer was a pen name of Dykes and his novel a Roman à clef based on O'Malley's downfall.

Archie is dispatched to Los Angeles to persuade Dykes's sister Peggy to help them trap her brother's murderer. Archie writes a letter to the law firm purportedly from Peggy asking for advice over the legal rights of her brother's novel, and hires a local private detective to pose as a literary agent. Soon after, James Corrigan unsuccessfully tries to acquire the manuscript, resorting to violence and attempted theft in order to do so. Archie begins to tail Corrigan, but soon after his return to New York Wolfe receives a rambling phone call, apparently from James Corrigan, which is abruptly ended with the sound of a gunshot. The police discover that Corrigan has apparently committed suicide, and the next day Wolfe receives a suicide note written by Corrigan confessing to having exposed O’Malley and committed all three murders to keep his secret.

Although the authorities are willing to rule Corrigan the murderer and his death a suicide, Wolfe has a breakthrough and summons the major witnesses to his office. There, he reveals that the supposed suicide note was flawed in one crucial respect; it claimed that Corrigan was aware of the contents of Dykes’ novel, when in fact Corrigan's actions in Los Angeles clearly demonstrated that he had never seen the manuscript before. In fact, Corrigan was murdered by Conroy O’Malley, who had staged his death as a suicide. O’Malley had discovered that Corrigan had betrayed him via Dykes's manuscript and had committed the other murders both to frame Corrigan and cover up his actions. After holes in his alibi are discovered, O’Malley is charged and convicted of murder.

Louis (Leslie Cheung) is a young man from a rich family and misses his dead mother. He has a good friendship with his cousin Kathy (Pat Ha). Louis and Kathy later meet Tomato (Cecilia Yip), who becomes Louis' girlfriend, and Pong (Kent Tong), who becomes Kathy's boyfriend. The four live a casual life together, hang out aimlessly, and share their dreams and difficulties with one another on frequent trips to Hong Kong's outlying islands. But Kathy's past returns to haunt her. She once lived in Japan, and had a romantic relationship with Shinsuke Takeda (Yung Sai-kit), a Japanese man who is a member of the Japanese Red Army. Shinsuke Takeda is tired of his work in the Japanese Red Army and wants to quit the organization. This leads to a vow of revenge by the organization and Shinsuke Takeda runs to Kathy to ask for help. However, he was eventually found by the killers dispatched by the Red Army and both Kathy and Shinsuke are killed, while Louis and Tomato, who is pregnant with Louis' child, survive the ordeal.

The translator Fariba Tabrizi (29, played by Jasmin Tabatabai) is at risk of the death penalty in her own country, Iran, after the vice squad discovers she is homosexual. With support from a relative, Fariba flees to Germany. When she is in the refugee detention centre at Frankfurt Airport her application for asylum is rejected. She lives hour by hour with the fear of being deported. Her poor prospects are improved by the suicide of a fellow-inmate from Iran as she assumes his identity and, as Siamak Mustafai, and using his temporary permit of sojourn, is re-located to Swabia.

Fariba knows Germany only from literature and as a translator which leave her unprepared for the small town of Sielmingen compared to a large city like Teheran. Also, her security is threatened as, in the refugee home, she is obliged to uphold her male disguise in cramped quarters while she is not permitted to leave the Regional District of Esslingen. The only way to escape is by means of forged documents for which she needs money. With help from her roommate, she comes into contact with Lächle, the local godfather. He obtains an illegal, seasonal job for her in a sauerkraut processing factory alongside the closeknit local workers.

One, Anne is manoeuvred by her workmates into taking a bet. She will get a bike for her son if she can get a date with the refugee chap. Another, Uwe, finds it totally out of order that Anne is so solicitous about Siamak. His worries are not unfounded, since Anne derives pleasure from the strange foreigner. Under other circumstances Fariba would have been only too glad to respond to Anne's advances, but is afraid on account of the Siamak facade. With stubbornness, Anne drags Siamak to the boozy get-togethers of locals. In the process, they become close and Anne begins to get wind of Fariba's true identity.

When Siamak's permit of sojourn runs out, Fariba gets into arrears with the instalments for her documents. It becomes clear to her that she will never manage things on her own. She risks everything and takes Anne into her confidence. She wants at long last to be able to live as a woman again, to live out her profession, to enjoy big cities. To break away from the provinces would also be the fulfilment of a dream for Anne. She does not disappoint Fariba. Together they successfully go in for car theft. Fariba gets her new passport. The world is their oyster.

Just as Fariba is changing out of her Siamak disguise, Uwe and the clique turn up in Anne's flat. Uwe demands an explanation. The row escalates. The noisy dispute leads to Fariba's downfall. During the routine check on account of disturbance, the falsified passport falls into the hands of the police. The system which she believed she had outwitted takes its relentless grip. Fariba knows: this is the end, her hopes are shattered. Anne has to watch on helplessly as Fariba is put under arrest.

The term "in orbit" is officially used by the UN to refer to asylum-seekers who find themselves orbiting around planet Earth because they can not find legal domicile anywhere.

Gorou Saruwatari and Jack "Lostman" Woodbridge are mountain climbers who have ascended some of the highest mountains around the world. At the peak of Mount Everest, they see the International Space Station in the sky above and become determined to go into space. At the same time, the International Space Association (ISA) begins the "Nexus" program to research and obtain a new energy source (Helium-3) which has been discovered on the moon. Gorou and Lostman attempt to join the program through different approaches: Lostman becomes a military pilot and Gorou takes a job as a construction worker.

Geophysicist Gordon Graham is a participant in the Gamanovia Project, whose mission is to increase the land area of the overpopulated twenty-second century Earth by creating new continents through the manipulation of geological forces. The project's initial goal is to raise a new land mass to be called Gamanovia around the existing Ascension Island in the South Atlantic. The name of the proposed new continent was chosen to honor fifteenth century Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama, the first European to navigate the region's waters, and for João da Nova, who discovered Ascension Island a few years later.

A sinister group concealing itself under the mask of the bogus Churchillian Society, supposedly dedicated to proving that the works of twentieth-century dramatist George Bernard Shaw were actually written by Winston Churchill, is attempting to discover the secrets of the project. The Churchillian Society's "cover" purpose is a spoof on the present-day body of thought similarly dismissing William Shakespeare's authorship of the Shakespeare plays on the grounds that he, as a commoner, could not possibly have written great literature.

When Graham becomes involved with Jeru-Bhetiru, an alien woman from the country of Katai-Jhogorai on the planet Krishna, the society attempts to blackmail him into serving them by kidnapping and threatening to kill her. Instead, Graham allies himself with World Federation constable Reinhold Sklar and Jeru's fiancé Varnipaz bad-Savarun, a diplomat from the Krishnan kingdom of Sotaspe, to thwart the plotters.

The enemy is gradually revealed as a rogue band of Thothians from the Procyonic star system, hoping to seize the new continent by claiming Ascension, which currently lacks any sovereign government. Graham and his cohorts find themselves in a tight race against time, in which the labyrinthine bureaucracies of the future Earth prove almost as much an impediment as the enemy, and the hypnotic powers of the reptilian alien Osirians bring about treachery within their own ranks.

An added problem for Graham is that the rescue of Jeru will gain nothing for him personally, but rather benefit only his rival Varnipaz; though Graham and Jeru love each other, people in her country wed on the basis of interest and advantage, considering love to have nothing to do with marriage.

In fierce heat, a man called Great House (the literal meaning of Pharaoh), also known as the God, is performing a ritual run that takes place every seven years, from his palace, around a low building on a rocky outcrop and back, to ensure that the river will rise and allow the fields to be planted. He is accompanied by the Liar, an attendant of his. His eleven-year-old son, known only as the Prince, is supposed to be watching with an old blind man, but is ignoring it instead. The Prince doesn't want to have to become the God, which means marrying his sister, Pretty Flower, and taking on the burdens of holding up the sky and making the river rise. He is also going blind, a fact that panics the old man when he learns it, since it puts in jeopardy his ability to carry on the duties of the God, which he will be relied upon to perform. As Great House is almost finishing the run, delirious from exhaustion, he collides with the blind man's stick and collapses, as the blind man is trying to tell him of the Prince's condition. The Prince accuses him of lying and Pretty Flower has him sent away to "the pit". The failure of Great House to complete the run is a terrible omen. When the river last failed to rise high enough, the God of that time drank poison and his retinue were expected to follow him into the afterlife – the eternal Now – a prospect they accept happily but which terrifies the Liar.

Later, at a feast, Great House insists on hearing the Liar tell his "lies" about supposed places beyond the river, though he has heard them before. The Liar describes white men, the sea, ice, and snow, which Great House finds very amusing. Pretty Flower performs a ritual striptease dance, in which she is expected to seduce her father, who is more interested in drinking and playing a game of checkers with Head Man. The seduction is unsuccessful, which is a deep humiliation for Pretty Flower and a further failure on the part of Great House. As Head Man explains, this requires a "Beginning", which Great House is happy about. He drinks poison cheerfully, in certain knowledge of a pleasant and eternal Now, from where he will be able to ensure that the river rises after all. The river duly does rise and when it is at the appropriate height he is entombed in the central chamber of the low building. Others go into the other chambers to take poison and be ready to serve him in his Now. The Liar struggles against this, threatening not to tell his lies if made to take his own life. He is pronounced unclean by Head Man and sent to the pit to be 'cleaned'. The river keeps rising, threatening to cause devastating floods.

The Prince, who is being trained to succeed Great House, runs away and finds the pit, where the blind man is almost dead from dehydration. He talks to the Liar, asking him to take him to the cold place, and the Liar has him try to come back at night with his jewels and a rope.

Head Man is talking to Pretty Flower, and surmises that the river is still rising because Great House is angry, not because of Pretty Flower's failure to seduce him but because of Pretty Flower's attraction to the Liar, something against the laws of nature since all sex and marriage must be between blood relatives. Pretty Flower reveals that she had actually been having sex with the Liar, which Head Man did not know and which shakes him. The Prince arrives in search of rope for his escape plan, but Head Man understands what he is trying to achieve and has the Liar summoned, intending to persuade or force him to join Great House, so he can be appeased. The Liar tries to persuade Pretty Flower to take him as a husband instead, as all women would be permitted to him if he were Great House and their love would no longer be forbidden. He also claims to be able to make the river recede if given the chance. The Prince is delighted by the idea and Pretty Flower seems torn. Head Man orders two soldiers to kill him but the Liar is able to overpower them and escape across floodwaters, killing Head Man in the process. In his dying words, Head Man says that the Liar "stings like a scorpion" and has a "death wish". The last words of the story are Pretty Flower's: "All the same—we'd better go and talk to Him". The significance of the new capitalisation is left unstated.

It describes the experiences of growing up in the 1920s in a small market town in England of the narrator, Oliver. It tells three separate stories from his childhood, resolving them many years later. All three stories end with Oliver seeing the other main character for the last time.

Category:1967 British novels Category:Novels by William Golding Category:Faber and Faber books Category:Fiction set in the 1920s

Samuel ('Sammy') Mountjoy, a talented painter but a directionless and unhappy man, is a prisoner of war in Germany during World War II. Recently some inmates escaped from his camp. A Gestapo officer, Dr. Halde, interviews Sammy in an attempt to find out about the escape organisation; when Sammy denies knowing anything, Halde has him locked in a small store-room, awaiting possible torture. Under the pressure of the darkness, isolation and horrified anticipation he gradually breaks down; in a series of long flashbacks, he wonders what brought him to his current state, and in particular, how he lost his freedom.

As a very young child he was happy, despite living in a slum and never knowing his father. He was adopted by the local priest and attended day school and grammar school, where he was torn between two diametrically opposed parent-figures – the kindly science master Nick Shales and the sadistic Rowena Pringle, who taught religious studies. He also fell desperately in love with a girl in his class, Beatrice Ifor. Whilst a student at art college he managed to become Beatrice's fiancé, and eventually her lover, but when she was unable to return his violent passion he grew bored with her and married another woman. After some years he found that Beatrice had gone incurably insane.
The novel alternates these flashbacks with Sammy's increasing terror and despair. Then, just as he loses all self-control and cries for help, he is abruptly released by the camp commandant, who apologises, outraged that an officer should have been humiliated like this.

The movie is set in French-occupied Vietnam in 1922, where peasant rebellions against the French colonialists have erupted throughout the country. In response, the French have created units of Vietnamese secret agents to track down and eliminate the rebels. One of the agents is Le Van Cuong. Although he has a perfect track record, his conscience is troubled by the bloodshed he has caused. Following the assassination of a high-ranking French official, Cuong is assigned to seek and kill the notorious leader of the resistance. Cuong encounters Vo Thanh Thuy, a relentless revolutionary fighter and the daughter of the rebel leader. She is captured and imprisoned by Cuong's cruel superior, Sy. Cuong suspects that Sy learned about the attack on the French official beforehand and could have prevented it. Suspicious, he warns Thuy that her organization has a mole and helps her escape the prison, thus becoming a fugitive himself. Her fiery patriotism inspires Cuong, and he develops feelings for the young woman as well. Meanwhile, Sy follows Cuong and Thuy, knowing the pair will lead him to Thuy's father.

Cuong changes his clothes and accompanies Thuy to her father. French soldiers attack them one night, but they managed to defeat them all. Thuy and Cuong then encounter Sy and Hua Danh. Though Sy couldn't find them, Cuong has to fight Hua Danh and manages to kill him, but not before being wounded. Later, while tending Cuong's wounds, Thuy reveals that her mother killed herself after being raped by a French soldier and couldn't bear having a child. Her father didn't learn of her mother's death until after he was freed from his imprisonment for opposition activities. Cuong and Thuy then make love. Meanwhile, Sy finds Cuong's father and tortures him before gouging his eyeball. He then faces Cuong and asks him where the rebel's hideout is. Cuong says that they have to go on a train, and Sy leaves. Cuong meets with Thuy, and she reveals that she lied about the train because she didn't trust him. She then takes him to her father's hideout.

Thuy's brother is suspicious of Cuong, while her father accepts him regardless. Suddenly, the hideout is ambushed because the French saw Cuong and Thuy together. Sy captures Thuy's father and reveals Cuong as a traitor to the French. When Sy delivers Thuy's father to his boss, his boss instead gives Sy another boss, not trusting a Vietnamese person to be in charge. Furious, Sy kills both of his bosses and plans to execute Thuy's father. Meanwhile, the rebels are held at gunpoint in a village, awaiting execution. Cuong asks the firing squad to take off his blindfold because he doesn't fear death. Using a hidden knife, he cuts his bindings and frees all the rebels. Cuong and Thuy fight off the soldiers, and Thuy's brother tells her to go save her father before dying.

Thuy and Cuong fight off the French people near a train, and Cuong finally confronts Sy. Cuong and Thuy finally manage to kill Sy by stabbing him in the eye. After they save Thuy's father, they return to the village where they found most of the people dead, except for a little girl. After paying their homage, Cuong and Thuy spread the ashes across the rivers of Vietnam.

The protagonist of the novel, Margayya begins his career as a petty money-lender doing his business under the Banyan tree, in front of the Central Co-operative Land Mortgage Bank in Malgudi. He helps the shareholders of the bank to borrow money at a small interest and lends it to the needy at a higher interest. In the process, he makes money for himself.

The Secretary of the Bank and Arul Doss, the peon, seize from his box the loan application forms he has managed to get from the Bank through its shareholders; they treat him with contempt and threaten to proceed against him. This sets the path to improving his position.

Balu, his spoilt-child throws his account book, containing all the entries of his transactions with his clients into the gutter, and it becomes impossible for Margayya to resume his old practice. He shows his horoscope to an astrologer and is assured that good times will come for him if he offers puja to Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth. The puja is done for forty days, with ash from a red lotus and ghee made of milk from a grey cow. Margayya goes through the puja with all rigour and at the end of it is full of a prosperous career.

Dr Pal, who sells him the manuscript of a book on Bed Life, for whatever ready cash Margayya's purse contains, assures him that the book named Domestic Harmony will sell in tens of thousands if only he can find a publisher. Madan Lal, “a man from the North”, reads the manuscript and agrees to publish it on a fifty-fifty partnership basis. The book is at once popular and sells like hotcakes and Margayya hits a fortune.

Margayya is again ruined through his son Balu. He had admitted him in school in great style, getting the blessing of his brother and sister-in-law next door. His wealth had made him become the Secretary of the School Managing Committee. This had armed him with enough power over the Headmaster and the School Staff. He had engaged a private tutor for his son and instructed him to thrash the boy whenever necessary. But Balu was not good at his studies. He could not clear his S.S.L.C. He tried to persuade him to take the examination for the second time. The result was that Balu seized the School Leaving Certificate Book, tore it into quarters and threw them into the gutter the same gutter which closed its dark waters over Margayya's red account book, carrying away the School Leaving Certificate Book. Then Balu ran away from home.

A few days later there was a letter from Madras telling Margayya that his son was dead. The brother's family immediately comes to his help, though Margayya felt that he could do without their help and wondered if that would change the existing relationship between them. He left for Madras, discovered through the good offices of a fellow traveller a police inspector in plain clothes that his son was not really dead, traced the boy and brought him home.

He wanted to marry him to a girl named Brinda, the daughter of the owner of a tea estate in Memphis Hills. When a pundit, after an honest study, declared that the horoscopes of Balu and Brinda did not match, he was curtly dismissed with a fee of one rupee. Another astrologer, whom Dr Pal found, gave it in writing that the two horoscopes matched perfectly and was paid Rs. 75 for his pains.

Balu and his wife were helped to set up an establishment of their own in Lawley Extension. Margayya, wishing to draw Dr Pal away from his son, sought his help in attracting deposits from Black Marketers on the promise of interest of 29%. If he got Rs. 20,000 deposit each day and paid Rs. 15,000 in interest, he had still Rs. 5,000 a day left in his hands as his own. Margayya became rich. It was now necessary for him to own a car. Every nook and corner of his house was stuffed with sacks full of currency notes. He was on the right side of the police, contributed to the War Fund when driven to do so, and worked day and night with his accounts and money bags, though his wife was unhappy at his straining himself so much.

One day Margayya visited his son in Lawley Extension. He found Brinda and her child. The girl could not hold back her tears while narrating Balu's nocturnal activities. When Margayya got out of the house, he found a car halting in front of it. Out of which emerged Balu. His companions were Dr Pal and a couple of women in the town.

The enraged Margayya pulled Dr Pal out of the car, beat him and dismissed the two women with contempt. The next day Dr Pal with a bandaged face whispered to all and sundry that things were not going well with Margayya's concerns. Hundreds of people swarmed Margayya and pressed him to return their deposits forthwith. All the accumulated wealth was disbursed. Still, hundreds of people could not be satisfied.

The run on the Bank led to Maragayya's filing an insolvency petition. And thus like a house of cards, the wealth that Margayya had accumulated was blown away. He advised his son to take his place under the Banyan tree with the old box. When Balu hesitated to do that for fear of what people would say about it, Margayya offered to do so himself.

This chronicles the first 48-hour shift for the new surgical interns. Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) meets Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), with whom she had a one-night stand the night before, and discovers he's the new attending and chief of neurosurgery at Seattle Grace, and also her "boss". All the interns are introduced to their resident in charge, Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson), nicknamed "The Nazi" for her serious demeanor and strictness. They are also introduced to the Chief of Surgery Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.) and the head of cardiothoracic surgery Preston Burke (Isaiah Washington), who catches the eye of Cristina (Sandra Oh). Meredith has trouble with her first case, a teenage girl who's having unexplained seizures. Izzie (Katherine Heigl) dislikes Meredith, as she thinks she's trying to "get ahead" by sleeping with an attending surgeon; it is revealed Izzie had a past career as a model, which is how she put herself through medical school, and she is teased by Alex (Justin Chambers). George (T. R. Knight) earns the nickname "007" ("license to kill") after botching his first surgery, an appendectomy, when he inverted the stump and pulled too hard on the sutures, tearing the bowel (the patient was saved by Dr Burke).

Meredith is the daughter of acclaimed surgeon Ellis Grey (Kate Burton), who evidently had an affair with Richard years before, while married to Meredith's father, Thatcher. Ellis is now battling Alzheimer's disease and Meredith constantly and secretly visits her.

The story is about the conversion of an ordinary house into an interplanetary portal or stargate by mysterious alien beings who apparently have taken up the task of exploring space for habitable planets and connecting them to each other, thus allowing civilizations to swap ideas easily.

In the story, a tinkerer and trader, Hiram Taine, finds out that his house contains peculiar creatures who repair and upgrade things in interesting ways and transform parts of his house to a substance impervious to harm. After unearthing a spaceship buried in the backyard, he discovers that the front part of his house is no longer on Earth but on a strange desert planet which is now accessible by merely passing through the front door. A little exploration in the desert reveals the existence of another similar house which opens to a rainy planet and some spaceships identical to the one unearthed in the backyard sitting in launch cradles next to some other empty launch cradles, implying several other similar houses. The story ends with the arrival of some aliens of either the desert planet or one of those connected to it, who are eager to trade ideas with the new member of the universal "planet-network".

Christopher Robin presents Pooh with an interesting new gift—a calendar. Pooh has never seen one before, and Christopher Robin explains that it is a way of keeping track of the days, weeks, months and seasons. The calendar stops at each season, as we watch Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Rabbit and Owl in the Hundred Acre Wood exploring the world around them and noticing the changes. Among them: the water in the pond becomes hard and slick when it gets cold in the winter and becomes refreshing and fun to swim in when it gets warm in the summer.

Tom's owner is grilling steaks in his backyard. The steak's scent reaches Jerry, who is aroused by it and is led to the steak. He then tries to eat it but is captured by Tom, who uses his grill fork to catapult him back into the house. Jerry then returns to retrieve the steak and encounters Tom once more. Tom and Jerry battle it out with steak prongs. Tom tries to charge at Jerry with the prong he had, but Jerry dodges it quickly, causing Tom to accidentally stab the owner's rear end, causing him to leap in pain. After Tom nervously salutes the owner, he angrily sears Tom's head as flat as a waffle with a hot girdle.

Jerry next hides in a shuttlecock and tries to sneak onto the table, but Tom hits him with a racket. The shuttlecock gets caught in the net and rebounds into the owner's mouth. Angry and red-faced, he breaks the racket over Tom's head and walks away. The racket flips over for a few seconds to hit him again. Tom then tries to stop Jerry from opening a freshly shaken bottle of Kooky Kola (which is a pun on the soda, Coca-Cola) but he is too late; the soda ruins one of his owner's steaks, so Tom gets punished by gulping down another bottle of Kooky Kola and swallowing it making Tom look like a bottle much to Jerry's humor.

Once Tom recovers, he chases Jerry across the yard only to get distracted by the smell of steak on the grill. Jerry secretly put Tom's tail on the grill and his tail is now trapped in the grill. Tom tried to pull it out but the pain causes him to run out with his tail hooked on the grill, and knock his owner along with his steak and the bowl of salad flies in the air. Tom dives into the swimming pool to cool off, but when he tries to get out he goes back in the water due to the grill's weight. The owner, already tired too much of many problems with Tom, fishes him out of the pool and clobbers him off-screen while Jerry hides under the picnic table and covered his eyes with his hat. After the clobbering is done, Jerry sees the owner then tie Tom to a lounge chair so Tom stays out of trouble. Jerry hooks the chair to the rear bumper of a passing car at a stop light on the intersection of Deitch Drive and Snyder Street just before the car drives away, taking Tom and the chair with it, and dances victoriously with utmost pride. Ironically, Jerry's Machiavellian move would invariably serve Tom well, as he would receive a much kinder owner since his current owner is unlikely to bother finding him, considering how he views him as hardly more than a pest at this point. Finally, Tom's former owner goes back to his grilling in peace, and Jerry reaches the table and starts eating one of the steaks.

''My Frogger Toy Trials'' begins with a young boy named Kyle, who is watching an advertisement for Toy Pets (a toy meant to be used in a tournament consisting of several worlds with several levels each) anticipating the arrival of his. Eventually, he meets a cloaked man named Shadow, who delivers his Toy Pet egg to him.

One month later, on the day of the tournament, Kyle is disappointed that after all that time, his egg still hasn't hatched yet. He meets up with his friend Lucy, who is also participating in the tournament. After talking with his mother and Lucy, Kyle and Lucy leave for the tournament. On their way, Kyle discusses with Lucy that he hopes that his Toy Pet turns out to be a dragon. Soon after arriving, Kyle's egg begins to hatch. However, instead of the dragon he asked for, from the egg emerges a frog. Kyle seems to hate him at the start, because of his lack of abilities, to the point of Kyle insulting the frog, nicknamed "Froggy" by Lucy. Disheartened, Froggy jumps into the sewer, but is saved by a Toy Pet frog named Lumpy, who is owned by the mysterious "Agent T". Afterwards Kyle names him Frogger and the two agree to work together from here on out.

Andreus finally begins the military maneuvers against Meldrith which had been feared in ''Wren to the Rescue''. Lirwani agents launch a covert strike to abduct Tess and assassinate the King and Queen. These events take place while Wren is on vacation in Alat Los. As part of the plot, Tess is drugged via a drink presented to her by one of the agents posing as a stable worker , but the effect does not take full hold until she is in a hidden staircase in the palace, and is rescued by her most loyal servant after reviving in time to witness her parents' murder. After being evacuated to a building in the hills, Tess raises the alarm to Wren, Tyron, and Conor using the summons rings which they began using after the events of ''Wren's Quest''.

Capitalizing on the disarray inflicted by the toppling of royal order, Andreus moves the full force of his army into Meldrith, over 1 million troops in all. Tess organizes all support she can in order to mount raids against the Lirwani occupation forces, which were not yet evenly spread throughout Meldrith's lands. Wren and Tyron, having been successfully recalled earlier, are sent to seek the aid of Hawk Rhiscarlan, who is known to have now set himself up in some form of power at the ruins of his ancestral home, directly south of Senna Lirwan.

Hawk Rhiscarlan attempts to gain favor with Andreus of Senna Lirwan by succeeding where Andreus was foiled in ''Wren to the Rescue''. Tyron is deployed in the guise of a dog in order to gain reconnaissance among the nobles of Cantirmoor which might reveal who is behind the trouble, but is captured by Hawk. During this time, unaware of the new plot afoot, Wren ventures to the records center for the Siradi border guards who found her in a brigand-devastated trade caravan as a very young child. Wren is accompanied by Connor Shaltar for protection in case of any trouble, though that idea was hatched by Leila and Queen Astren of Meldrith to allow Connor to avoid confinement by his uncle Fortian Rhismordith to a particular vacation house as punishment for his tendency to socialize with stage performers.

Excursion into such remote territory fails to spare the pair form the interesting times, however, as they are forthwith pursued incessantly yet intermittently by mysterious and vaguely menacing couriers clothed in blue, culminating in an entire forest fire being levied as an attack against the protagonists, which Connor manages to dispel though an exertion of his own manner of magic, which leaves him prostrate and asleep for two full days.

Upon regaining consciousness, Connor discovers his location to have changed to that of a stone fortification of considerable vintage, whereupon Wren briefs him regarding the elapsed time and the fact that this is indeed the Siradi border-guard records center, as well as one of their command posts.

Category:1993 American novels Category:1993 fantasy novels Category:American fantasy novels Category:Novels by Sherwood Smith

The story begins with a detailed description of an anxious young woman. The woman is frustrated with the narrator for some reason which he cannot understand as they are strangers. The narrator contemplates the situation and wonders what will help the little woman with her obsessive frustration with him. He considers that even committing suicide would not affect her anger at him. The reliability of the narrator is not a given, and sometimes there seems the suggestion that he is not the actual source of the woman's irritation, but merely considers himself to be so.

Joan McCarty (Glenda Farrell) is married to boxer Ritzy McCarty (Pat O'Brien), who has had some minor success, due to his active footwork in the ring and colorful personality. His crowd-pleasing technique catches the eyes of promoters Gavin (Robert Gleckler) and Stephens (Henry O'Neill). Under their management, Ritzy starts fighting in better venues and attracts the attention of Patricia Merrill (Claire Dodd). Patricia and Ritzy began an affair, which his wife Joan tolerates. When Ritzy learns that he has been winning because his opponents were paid to lose the fights, and that Joan agreed to these conditions, he leaves her.

Ritzy is suspended for fighting in a fixed fight. Patricia loses interest in him because he is no longer successful. He gets a job attracting customers to a health lecture. Patricia is there and invites him to visit her, but he finds a pregnant Joan waiting at Patricia's apartment. Ritzy, now determined to provide a good life for his child, accepts an offer to lose a fight. However, Ritzy puts up a good fight and knocks out his opponent after hearing that his wife has given birth to a boy. Impressed by the fight, Stephens visits him in the hospital and offers to put Ritzy back in the ring again, this time with legitimate fights.

The show closely follows the plot of the books, with only a few alterations and cuts for length. The first act is based on ''Anne of Avonlea'', while the second act is based on ''Anne of the Island''.

During the course of the first act, Gilbert Blythe gives up the position of Avonlea Schoolmaster for Anne Shirley, allowing her to stay close to home to care for her adoptive mother, Marilla Cuthbert. It is revealed that almost all of Avonlea knows that Gilbert is deeply in love with Anne, and she with him, although Anne will not admit it. In return for the kindness he has done her, Anne agrees to a wager with Gil; he will propose to her at some day of his choosing, and if she says no he will never ask again. After some time, Anne's best friend Diana Barry becomes engaged to her beau, Fred Wright and at the end of the first act, marries him. Gilbert takes advantage of his wager with Anne and proposes to her following the wedding, but she rejects him. He vows never to propose again. Through a series of fortuitous events, Anne is finally able to follow her dreams and go to Redmond University.

The second act opens with ''Anne of the Island'', introducing several new friends for Anne. Meanwhile, Anne falls in love with a millionaire named Royal Gardner much to the dismay of Marilla and Diana back home in Avonlea. Although she toys with the idea of marrying Roy, she finally decides that she does not truly love him and rejects his proposal. Roy storms off and is not seen again. Gilbert, who is paying his way through University with odd jobs, happens to be working as a waiter at the restaurant where Anne and Roy are. He gives Anne an early birthday gift in the form of three letters her parents left behind before they died. As she reads the letters she begins to realize that she truly can love somebody, and finally finds the love she's had for Gilbert all along.

The show ends with Anne proposing to Gilbert back home in Avonlea for the summer, as the entire town and several friends from Redmond look on.

Frank Fay, as a Mexican named Don Carlos, rides into a small Texas border settlement on the Fourth of July in the early 1880s. He is accompanied by his two inseparable companions, played by Georgie Stone and George Cooper. The day is being celebrated in the style of a Spanish fiesta. Fay challenges a rough Texan, played by Noah Beery, to a duel, only to find himself invited to undertake the dangerous task of capturing a cattle rustler who has been stealing cattle from the Lazy Y Ranch. He accepts the task on the promise of receiving $7000 in gold if he can return both the thief and the stolen cattle within 10 days.

During the next nine days, Fay spends his time making love to every pretty girl he meets, serenading many of them by singing the theme song to the film while playing his guitar, while his two companions join in the harmonizing. He lies to them all, telling each girl exactly what she wishes to hear. Throughout all this time, he does nothing towards earning his reward. On the 10th day, he captures the cattle rustler and turns up the cattle to everyone's surprise by using a simple method of which no one had thought. He rides back to Mexico with his latest conquest in his arms.

Aniuta (Bernice Claire), known as ''The Flame'', is a peasant girl who incites the people against the Czarist regime and the aristocracy through singing. Prince Volodya (Alexander Gray) is the leader of a group of Cossack troops who falls in love with the girl, even though she is part of a revolution that is opposed to his social class. Konstantin (Noah Beery) is a revolutionary who also falls in love with Aniuta, much to the anger of his lover, Natasha (Alice Gentle).

The revolutionaries succeed in overthrowing the regime, leaving the Prince and his aristocratic class in peril for their lives and fortunes. Konstantin becomes the new leader and his brutal treatment of the people make many regret having supported the revolution in the first place. After he attempts to seduce her, Aniuta flees to a village in her native Poland. The Prince, fleeing from the new regime, happens to arrive at the same village. When he meets the girl again, he decides to stay. They put their political differences aside and become romantically involved.

Hearing from his spies that the Prince is at a Polish village, Konstantin immediately goes there and arrests him, announcing that he attends to execute him. Aniuta desperately attempts to free the Prince by agreeing to have sex with Konstantin. The Prince is released from prison through this ruse, but when it is discovered that she had no intention of keeping her side of the bargain, she is thrown into jail. The Prince disguises himself and attempts to free the girl, but he is discovered and imprisoned again. Before they can be executed, Natasha, revealing the real reason behind Konstantin's execution order, tells the troops to release both the Prince and Aniuta. Konstantin is arrested by the troops soon after as a traitor to the revolution, and is executed, leaving the Prince and the girl free to pursue their romance.

When two star-crossed lovers, set on eloping, are forced into having a big wedding, the bride develops a plan of her own. Unfortunately, the groom is not privy to the plan. Meanwhile, family and friends start to take sides at a reception for a wedding that never took place.

The main character, only referred to as 'the girl' (Patricia Healey) leaves London, goes north on a train full of football fans and takes a trip in a white double-decker bus around an unnamed city she is visiting, although it is clearly based on Manchester; Delaney was born and grew up in nearby Salford. The Mayor (Arthur Lowe), a local businessman, and the council's ceremonial macebearer (John Sharp) happen also to be taking the trip while they show the city to visiting foreigners.

The film tells the story of a young engineer (Roberto Airaldi) from Buenos Aires who met a girl (Mirtha Legrand) at Córdoba Province falling in love with her; but her mother (Ana Arneodo) and her sisters (Aída Luz, Silvana Roth) don't agree with their feelings and they do all that they can for separate them, but at the end he discover why.

In Salta Province in 1817 during the War of Independence, the irregular forces commanded by General Martín Güemes carry out a guerrilla action against the Spanish army. The commander of a Spanish army contingent, Lieutenant Villarreal, is wounded, captured by the guerrillas, and put under the medical care of Asunción, the mistress of an estancia. She finds out from his idenfication paper that the Lieutenant, though serving in the Spanish army, was born in Lima. She persuades him of the justice of liberating America from Spain. The patriot forces receive help from the sacristan of a chapel located next to the grounds of the royalist troops. The sacristan fakes loyalty to the king, but during the battles he sends messages to the gaucho guerrillas hiding in the mountains by means of a messenger boy and by ringing of the bell. When the royalists discover this, they attack and burn the chapel and smash the sacristan's eyes. Blinded, the sacristan unwittingly guides the royalists to the patriot camp. The royalists then proceed to annihilate the gauchos. In the final sequence, after the battle, the only four surviving characters (the dying sacristan, an old man, a young boy, and the lieutenant who has fallen in love with Asunción and converted to the patriot cause) see Güemes' arriving troops, which will continue the battle.

Prologue

The film begins with a prologue on screen providing the historical circumstances of the place and time in which the action is placed, and advancing the position of its authors. From 1814 to 1818, Güemes and his gauchos resisted the royalist armies, that systematically ransacked the country from the Alto Peru since the withdrawal of the regular troops. This conflict of small battles was characterized by the heroism of the adversaries.

The opening states: "The thickness of the bushes gave cover to hundreds of partisans. The war of resources opened up like a mortal fan over the fields. Dented sables, clubs lances and bolas were the weapons of the gauchos. Neither hunger nor misery stopped these primitive hordes. To them, to the ones that died far from the pages of history we'd like to remember in these images"

Paulina, the daughter of the millionaire owner of a store, becomes employed at the store under an assumed name. She investigates the injustices of the workers and leads a strike, forcing her father and the store operators to bring about improvements in working conditions.

Howard Spitz is the author behind a string of poorly selling detective novels. He discovers that in contrast children's books enjoy strong sales. Believing it an easy way to make money, Spitz becomes a children's author with his new book character, a bovine detective named "Crafty Cow", but finds writing for his new audience significantly difficult.

Whilst doing research at the local library, he submits his drafts to a little girl called Samantha Kershaw who polishes them up. In return, she asks Spitz to find her father who left her mother before she was born. Spitz also discovers that to become a successful children's author he will need to do public appearances with his audience. Terrified at the prospect of having to spend time with children, Spitz hires a struggling actor to serve as his public face. But soon his doppelgänger is having delusions of grandeur, as his book becomes more and more successful.

Finally, at an awards ceremony, he confesses his identity, and finds that after spending so much time with Samantha, and after all the help she's given him, he feels more at ease around children.

At a way station in the desert, Roland Deschain meets Jake Chambers for the first time. Under hypnosis, Jake remembers that he has recently been killed in his own world, the New York City of 1977, when someone pushed him into traffic. This event creates the series' first link of Roland's world to ours, and Jake's account leads Roland to believe that the man in black may have caused the death.

While searching the way station's cellar for usable supplies, Roland encounters a demon that speaks to him through a skeleton buried behind the wall. The demon warns him that the man in black will be able to use Jake as an asset against him as long as the two are traveling together. On impulse, Roland takes the skeleton's jawbone with him.

Roland and Jake set off into the desert, heading toward a mountain range where the man in black has gone. Along the way, Roland tells Jake about a training session under the severe regimen of his teacher Cort, who showed him how to use a hawk as a weapon; and how Roland and one of his best friends, Cuthbert Allgood, exposed the cook Hax as a traitor working for the Good Man and sent him to the gallows.

Among other changes made by King for the 2003 revised version of ''The Gunslinger'', King altered the "Rain in Spain" nursery rhyme included in the opening pages.

It is spring 1922 and William, who is now eight years old, is off to a boarding preparatory school. After asking Virginia, Rose buys Alice a small dog, called "Thimble", for Alice to keep her company after William leaves.

Shortly William leaves, Richard and Virginia go to France. Miss Treadwell, the governess, believes she is in charge in their absence, and annoys the other servants by taking tea in the Morning Room. The servants are dismayed when she puts Alice on a bread and water diet as a punishment for her behaviour. Jennifer Chivers, a friend, joins Alice for her lessons with Miss Treadwell. When Thimble chews Miss Treadwell's shoe, she orders the dog to be presented to her the following morning so she can have it put down. However, the servants hide Thimble in Edward and Daisy's flat above the garage, and tells Miss Treadwell and Alice that it has gone "missing". It reappears moments after Richard and Virginia return home.

When Richard and Virginia return home, she immediately complains about the behaviour of the other servants. However, immediately Virginia dismisses Miss Treadwell and gives her four weeks wages instead of notice. It is then decided that Alice will go to a day school, something that Alice is very happy about.

Natasha Martin is a beautiful auto mechanic and aspiring musician who is invited to join music producer Infamous aboard his private jet en route to Las Vegas in appreciation of her services on his Ford GT. She is also a highly skilled race car driver, but is haunted by memories of her father's death at a NASCAR race many years ago. Meanwhile, on another side of town, USAF veteran Carlo, returning from a tour of duty in Iraq, meets up with his brother Jason before heading to Vegas themselves. Carlo is not happy that Jason is living with their mob boss uncle Michael D'Orazio, whom he blames for their family's destruction. They are unaware that Michael has been running an unsuccessful counterfeiting ring and owes millions of dollars to another syndicate led by the "Godfather".

On the outskirts of Vegas, a high-stakes race event is being held, with Michael, Infamous, Hollywood producer Jerry Brecken and Chinese businessman Marcus Cheng placing their bets over who has the better car. When Infamous' driver fakes an ankle injury, Natasha becomes Infamous' driver in exchange for $300,000 and a recording contract. However, she is unaware that Infamous has to place her on his wager, as Michael - who has been obsessed with her since watching her band perform on stage earlier - has placed four platinum bars at stake. At the same time, Brecken wagers his brand-new Enzo Ferrari on Natasha.

Natasha (driving a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren) takes on Jason (driving a Lamborghini Diablo). As they approach the finish line, Natasha is several car lengths ahead of Jason, but he quickly zips past her by engaging the onboard nitrous system. Unfortunately, because of the excessive speed, the Diablo loses downforce, flies off the ground and flips in mid-air before crashing upside down at the finish line. Attempting to avoid the falling Diablo, Natasha crashes on a barrier and is knocked unconscious. Before Carlo can reach Jason to rescue him, the Diablo bursts into flames, killing his brother instantly. Michael's henchmen, dressed as paramedics, place Natasha in an ambulance and speed off.

Natasha wakes up in Michael's mansion, realizing that she is now his property. Meanwhile, Carlo meets up with an old military friend and picks up some ammunition and gear before riding a Ducati 999, to Michael's mansion, intending to kill him. Instead, he rescues Natalie and evades Michael's guards. In response, Michael has them kidnap her mother to blackmail her into driving for him at the next race at Red Rock Canyon in Nevada. After receiving an ultimatum by the Godfather to pay him $80 million following a botched attempt at giving him counterfeit bills, Michael raises his funds for the upcoming race by borrowing money from the banks using his mansion as collateral.

In the final race, Michael, Brecken, Infamous and Cheng place their bets for a combined purse of $100 million. Infamous and Cheng are eliminated from the race after their cars (an SLR and a Porsche Carrera GT, respectively) are involved in separate crashes. During the race, Natasha (driving Michael's Enzo) receives a phone call from Carlo notifying her that he has rescued her mother. While she is several car lengths ahead of Brecken's Saleen S7 Twin Turbo, she stops the Enzo an inch away from the finish line and gives the S7 the win, costing Michael the race.

With no money left, Michael is given a last ride from the Godfather's henchmen. To repay Natasha for handing his driver the victory, Brecken gives her a recording contract (which shortly gives her a gold record and lands her on the cover of ''Variety''), an Enzo and a Koenigsegg CCX. The film ends with Natasha (in the Koenigsegg) and Carlo (in the Enzo) racing each other before being chased by the police on the freeway.

Free trade through the Bajoran wormhole is vital for the Bajoran economy. Unfortunately, a cloaked ship is attacking other ships, killing the crew and taking all the cargo. The attacking is going after Cardassian ships as well, causing the powerful Gul Dukat to show up. The two sides reach a cautious agreement to hunt down the ship. Unfortunately two Deep Space Nine crew-people are captured by the cloaked enemy. Dukat doesn't care that these people are in harm's way and now the rest of Deep Space Nine's forces must rescue their trapped comrades, neutralize the ship and keep war at bay.

During the Argentine War of Independence, Pancho Ramirez led well-disciplined and successful forces against the Royalists, eventually founding the short-lived Republic of Entre Ríos in 1820. When opposition forces captured his wife in 1821, Ramirez was killed and beheaded during an ill-fated attempt at rescue.

Fifteen-year-old honor student Molly Stewart attends private prep school in the Los Angeles area in the daytime, but transforms herself to "Angel" at night: a leather mini-skirted, high-heeled street teenage prostitute who works Hollywood Boulevard. Angel has a "street family" made up of aging movie cowboy Kit Carson, street performer Yoyo Charlie, Mae, fellow hookers Crystal and Lana, and her landlady, eccentric painter Solly Mosler.

The street's dangers increase as a psycho-necrophiliac serial killer begins to stalk and murder prostitutes. Los Angeles Police Lt. Andrews is assigned to the case, but finds no leads. Tragedy strikes Angel's group of friends when Crystal becomes a victim.

The next day at school, Molly is confronted by teacher Patricia Allen, who is concerned about Molly's lack of extracurricular activities. Molly explains that her mother was paralyzed by a stroke and she has to head home immediately after school each day to care for her.

Lt. Andrews advises the hookers to work in pairs. Angel teams up with Lana. Lana takes a potential client to a motel room that she and Angel share. When Angel shows up at the room with a client of her own a couple of hours later she finds Lana's body in the shower. Angel gives the police a description of the suspect and a composite sketch is made. The killer is brought in for a lineup and Angel recognizes him, but he shoots his way out of the police station and escapes.

Andrews takes Molly/Angel home to speak with her parents, but discovers that Molly's father left nine years ago and her mother abandoned her three years ago. Molly maintains the pretense of a mother at home so that she will not be sent to a foster home. She believes that her father will return someday. She has paid her rent, school tuition and living expenses through prostitution since she was 12.

Despite Andrews' warnings to stay off the street, Angel/Molly purchases a pistol and returns to work. Her masquerade falls apart that night when some classmates recognize her on the street. Word flashes through the students at her school and soon everyone knows that Molly spends her evenings as a Hollywood hooker.

The next day, Ms. Allen visits Molly's apartment and insists on meeting her mother. Mae pretends to be Molly's mother, but Allen is not fooled. Mae is still at the apartment when the killer shows up later. They fight, and he stabs her, leaving her mortally wounded. Solly discovers Mae and the two share a tender moment of friendship before Mae succumbs to her wounds.

Andrews and Molly return to her apartment and find Mae's body. Molly heads out on the streets with Solly's huge long-barreled Magnum to avenge Mae and Andrews goes after her. After a fight and chase, Carson, whom Andrews enlisted to help, shoots the killer. Molly, Andrews, and a wounded Carson walk off together.

A female Argentine tango singer in occupied France (Libertad Lamarque) gets romantically involved with a Resistance member (Juan José Miguez). A local Gestapo commander (Alberto Bello) tries to convince her to infiltrate the Resistance in exchange for her little daughter's safety.

A melodramatic, psychological thriller, the film tells the story of a young wealthy widow, who is unhappy. She meets a Bohemian artist who marries her to escape the poverty of his family, but is stifled by her possessiveness and jealousy. The plot centers around a love triangle, which was bold for its time.

An engineer leads an expedition to the summit of a mountain and is blamed when a young girl on the team plummets to her death.

Alicia returns from Paris to the city of Mar del Plata, where she is reunited with her childhood friend and youth lover, Luis. They go out to dinner along with their respective spouses: Julio, a close friend of Luis, and Carmen. Upon seeing each other again, Alicia and Luis confess that they are still in love with each other and, the following night, meet privately and agree to just be friends. While returning from this meeting, they suffer a car accident that causes the death of Luis and leaves Alicia in a delicate state. While being operated by Luis' uncle, a renowned doctor, Alicia loses her life and arrives in Heaven, where she reunites with Luis. Since their marriages on Earth have ended by their deaths, they marry each other in Heaven. However, the doctor manages to revive Alicia and she ends up surviving the operation, returning to her earthly life.

Following her recovery, Alicia refuses to recognize Julio as her husband, insisting that she had married Luis in Heaven. She wants to die in order to meet Luis again, although she cannot commit suicide as it would prevent her from entering Heaven. Alicia then decides to put herself in risky situations, seeking to suffer a fatal accident. Meanwhile, Luis discovers that natural accidents are controlled from Heaven, and sends a landslide while Alicia and Julio are climbing a mountain. Luis does not fulfill his mission, and only causes the death of Julio, with whom he argues in Heaven about who is Alicia's legitimate husband. Alicia visits a spiritist medium and manages to communicate with Luis, telling him that they will soon meet again.

After learning that Alicia was taking a flight to Paris alongside Carmen, Luis sends another accident. However, Alicia decides not to take the plane at the last minute, and Carmen arrives in Heaven instead. Seeking to return to Earth, Luis breaks the rules of Heaven but only manages to be punished with temporary isolation. A longing Alicia approaches the seaside, hoping that fate will lead her to death. While standing on the waterfront street, she is almost run over by Jorge Rigaud, a famous actor. Alicia reacts enthusiastically when she sees that the man physically resembles Luis, says the same compliments, and even has the same favorite song as him. In Heaven, Carmen and Julio celebrate while Luis screams in despair as they watch Alicia get into Jorge's car and drive away.

Raised by woodtrolls in the Deepwoods all his life, Twig believes he is one of them, yet strongly suspects there is something different about him, as he does not fit in with them; in particular, he feels a longing to live as a sky pirate. He sets off to find his true kind when he learns from his adoptive woodtroll mother that he is not a woodtroll after all, but was found abandoned in the woods and taken in by them. His adoptive mother tells him to travel to their cousin's house to mull things over, but during Twig's journey through the Deepwoods, he ends up unintentionally straying from the path. This is an act no woodtroll ever commits, for the woodtrolls' greatest fear is getting lost, and this fear is not without reason. The forest is populated with both fierce natural predators and evil demons, the most dangerous being the Gloamglozer. Twig soon stumbles upon a slaughterer who is being attacked by a hover worm. Twig kills the hover worm and the grateful slaughterer invites him to spend the night in his village.

The next morning, Twig is woken by a slaughterer who tells him that he has outstayed his welcome, and is expected to leave immediately, which he does. Twig has a run-in with a skullpelt, a predator which hunts people who fall under the illusions of the Deepwoods' lullabee trees, but is saved by a caterbird which has just hatched from its cocoon. As all caterbirds share telepathic dreams whilst in the womb, and the oakelf sage of Twig's woodtroll village lived in a caterbird cocoon, this caterbird knows all about Twig. The caterbird tells Twig his destiny lies "beyond the Deepwoods" and flies off, promising to return when he is in danger. That night, Twig is almost eaten by a bloodoak, a man-eating tree, but escapes and ends up in a gyle goblin colony, where he is almost fed to the goblins by their leader, the Grossmother. After a gyle goblin guides him to safety, Twig meets an injured banderbear, one of the forest's dominant predators. The banderbear is sick because of a rotten tooth, which Twig pulls out. Soon, Twig and the banderbear become great friends, but one day the banderbear is killed by a swarm of wig-wigs, ferocious predators which act like piranhas. Later, Twig almost drowns in a swamp, but is rescued by a flathead goblin who vanishes before Twig can thank him. Twig meets a young girl who takes him as a "pet" in the underground society of the termagant trogs. Twig spends a few months with the trog girl, but eventually she undergoes the termagant trogs' maturation ceremony by drinking sap from a bloodoak root, turning her into a monstrous brute like the other adult female trogs. However, a lone trog male saves Twig, much to his surprise, and directs him to the exit.

Twig finally meets some sky pirates, whose ship has crashed due to the flight-rock which powers the ship falling out of the sky when it was struck by lightning, and helps them repair it. When their captain Cloud Wolf, whose real name is Quintinius Verginix, tells a story about his past, Twig realizes that Quintinius is his true father, and wants to join his crew. To Twig's horror, though, the next morning he awakens alone, abandoned by his father again. Distraught, Twig realizes the pirates' campfire has started a forest fire. Twig runs for his life and ends up in the Edgelands on the outskirts of the Deepwoods, where he meets the Gloamglozer face to face. The Gloamglozer tempts Twig into living a life as a Gloamglozer himself, having failed to fit in anywhere else, and reveals that he had been influencing Twig's journey all along in the guise of a slaughterer, gyle goblin, male trog and flathead goblin. However, when Twig agrees, the Gloamglozer instead throws him off the side of the Edge. The caterbird returns and rescues Twig before dropping him onto the deck of Quintinius Verginix's ship. Finally reunited with his true father, who apologizes for leaving him and promises to always protect him, Twig and the sky pirates set sail.

The film begins with some sequences related to the youth of Dr. Gutiérrez, his arrival in Buenos Aires from his native Arrecifes, his law studies and his frustrated life as a writer and being the subject of unrequited love. An accident resulting in the death of a child changes his vocation and he goes on to study Medicine. There are battle scenes, featuring Gutiérrez in the Civil War and the Paraguayan War and, finally, his struggles as a pediatrician.

The film is loosely based on Horacio Estol's 1946 ''Vida y combates de Luis Angel Firpo'', a biography of the Argentine boxer Luis Ángel Firpo who came close to beating Jack Dempsey in 1923.

In the film, a humble lad starts to learn to box to defend himself, then goes on to become a professional boxer. He is trained heavily by Oscar Villa. Duggan's love interest in the film is played by Patrica Castell.

The series stars Kathleen Mallory, a policewoman who is tall, blonde, beautiful, and green-eyed. She also has immense street and computer smarts. Her physical beauty masks a cold, amoral interior, however; O'Connell describes Mallory as a sociopath.

New York City police detective Louis Markowitz picks up an 11-year-old homeless street urchin for stealing. Instead of arresting her, he takes Kathleen Mallory home and raises her as his own. Mallory (as she likes to be called) still deals with issues from her traumatic childhood, but she has an undying love (or at least the closest thing she can manage to it) for her adopted parents. She follows Louis to the police academy and ends up in the special crimes unit, specializing in computer research.

Louis begins investigating the brutal murders of several older, wealthy women from Gramercy Park. While working alone and hot on the trail of this serial killer, he is murdered alongside another victim. Mallory takes it upon herself to take on this investigation (without police sanction, of course) and tries to piece together all the bits of information Louis had gathered. Louis trained Mallory well, but there is still the possibility that following his trail will cause Mallory to make the same mistakes he did, and lead to her becoming another victim.

Along the line, Mallory uncovers a complicated plot that deals with magic, séances, and insider trading.

The novel is primarily composed of three separate plots, interleaved throughout the course of events.

In the main plot, Ryan Cawdor and J.B. Dix set off for Seattle in an armawag, leaving their friends behind at Jak Lauren's farm. Ryan and J.B. intend to meet up with Abe, a friend and formerly employed by their once-leader, Trader. The two had long believed Trader was dead after disappearing into the Colorado mountains, but Abe has since sent word that the Trader is alive. More importantly, Abe's note says that he and the Trader will be waiting to meet Ryan and J.B. near the ruins of Seattle, but only for the next six weeks.

Scant hours into their trip, Ryan and J.B. are stopped by a group of "fladgies": religious extremists who practise self-flagellation. The group's leader doesn't just ask for food and supplies, he demands them, earning a denial at gunpoint from the two friends. Ryan and J.B. travel onward, not bothering to kill the group.

Some days later J. B. and Ryan link up with a traveling animal show, run by a woman named Ellie Kissoon and her three daughters. The group heads to Weatherill Springs, and that evening put on a show outside the local bar for the ville's occupants. During the show an audience member extinguishes his cigar on one of the group's lions in a show of bravado, causing the animal to attack and starting a panicked firefight. In the aftermath several audience members are dead and Ryan is asked by Ellie to put down the mortally wounded lion, which he does. The group leaves town quickly, chased by gunfire from angry residents, and escape unharmed. Afterward Ryan notes that the bar's lockbox was missing following the incident, and after some hinting one of Ellie's daughters outright admits that they stole it during the confusion. This earns bemused approval from both Ryan and J. B., but the two nonetheless decide to part ways with the group, not the least reason being that Ellie and her daughters have expressed romantic interest in the two over objections that they are both in committed relationships.

Transit is presented in a non-linear narrative and follows four main characters from around the world who meet in fortuitous circumstances. The film opens in Los Angeles sometime in 2004, where Asha, an Americanized Indian woman, returns from her trip to Nairobi, Kenya and is riding a taxi driving through the freeway.

Six months earlier in St. Petersburg, Russia. Tatjana, a secretary, is in an abusive relationship with Yuri, a cab driver and drug user. On impulse, she ends the relationship and proceeds to have sex with a Mexican businessman named Ruben, whom she has flirted with in her boss's office to the chagrin of her close friend, Masha.

Tatjana naively believes that Ruben is the man she wants to be with, and so she ends up flying to Mexico City to follow him. Upon tracking his residence, Tatjana is dismayed when a woman holding a baby in her arms states that she is Ruben's wife after saying that she is looking for Ruben. Tatjana goes to a public park to make a call on a payphone and scream her frustrations to Ruben on the phone. Emotionally tired and exhausted from the flight and carrying her large stroller bag around the city in the heat, Tatjana loses consciousness and faints on the spot.

Nearby, a man has observed Tatjana whilst enjoying a picnic with his friends. A brief flashback of two months prior reveals the man to be Jose Luis, nicknamed Champignon (mushroom) or Champy for short, by his handsome yet womanizing friend, Blanco. Champy feels envy and resentment towards Blanco as he is unsuccessful in finding a girlfriend, whilst Blanco already has a relationship but finds time to enjoy infidelities with beautiful women, despite Blanco's good intentions to pair him with women during his secret trips with his mistresses in Acapulco.

Champy, however, has landed a job with a brewery company, and the story returns to present time to the picnic with Champy, Blanco, and the rest of their friends to celebrate Champy's new job. When Champy sees Tatjana faint after her phone call, he immediately runs to her side with his friends chasing after him. The group crowds around the unknown girl, and one of Champy's female friends suggest that he take her to his apartment to recover.

In Los Angeles, Asha is shown with Vip, her fiancé who is also an Americanized Indian, having lunch to celebrate an event. Asha is a film student on her way to Kenya to shoot her graduation documentary film. Her parents are conservative and traditional Indian people, and they record a heartfelt video message to Asha's uncle and aunt, whom she will be residing with once she arrives in Nairobi.

On the eve before her flight, Asha stumbles upon a sex tape of Vip with one of his female Caucasian colleagues she found while preparing to follow Vip to a nightclub where he his partying with his friends. Hurt by this betrayal, she goes to the nightclub and witnesses with her very eyes that Vip is indeed not the man she knows. The couple argue outside the club and Asha terminates their engagement after it is further revealed that Vip has had more than one instance of his sexual liaisons with other women.

During their fight, Champy is seen by his car packing things in the trunk. The scene then cuts to Champy and Asha in an empty bar, with Champy writing down his contact details on his company's promotional sticky note paper and give it to Asha.

In Nairobi, Asha is living with her relatives. Her documentary project comes to a temporary obstacle, with her original concept scrapped because of lack of funds from her documentary subject, and she is frustrated at having to start over and look for a new story angle. The story also introduces Matthew, a local who is into the burgeoning hip-hop culture of Nairobi.

A scene from the film Since completing a portrait of Genuine, a high priestess, Percy becomes irritable and withdrawn. He loses interest in painting and refuses to see his friends, preferring to spend his time alone with the portrait in his study. After turning down a wealthy patron's offer to buy the picture, Percy falls asleep while reading stories of Genuine's life. Genuine comes to life from the painting and escapes.

Genuine is purchased at a slave market by an old eccentric named Lord Melo. He learns that she had been sold into slavery when her people were conquered by a rival tribe. Melo locks her in an opulent chamber beneath his house, though she begs to be set free.

Guyard the barber visits Lord Melo every day at noon, though today he sends his young nephew Florian in his place. Meanwhile, Genuine breaks out of her underground prison, climbs the immense staircase to find Florian shaving the sleeping Lord Melo. She bewitches him into slitting Melo's throat with a straight razor. Florian falls under Genuine's spell, but when she demands that he prove his love for her by taking his own life, he cannot go through with it and is forced to make his escape.

Melo's grandson Percy arrives at the house. He too becomes infatuated with Genuine, quickly forgetting any questions he has about his grandfather's sudden death. Although Genuine loves Percy in return, their romance is destined to be short-lived. Guyard, stirred up by Florian's tales of murder and witchcraft, arms a mob with scythes and bludgeons and storms Melo's house. Florian, still infatuated with Genuine, secretly makes his own way inside, determined that he shall have her, or no one will.

Sometime after the events of the previous film, a very disfigured Paul (Rider Strong) escapes from the creek and wanders through the woods, leaving pieces of his own flesh along the way. When he finally manages to make it to the highway, he is splattered and killed by a school bus. His remains are checked by Deputy Winston Olsen (Giuseppe Andrews), the local policeman from the previous film. Winston assures the shocked bus driver that he has hit a moose.

The creek Paul was lying in turns out to be connected to a bottled-water company and the infected water was distributed to the local high school.

John (Noah Segan), a senior at the high school, is deciding whether to go to prom with his long-time crush Cassie (Alexi Wasser) or stay home. His friend Alex (Rusty Kelley) is against going until he hooks up with a girl named Liz (Regan Deal). She says if she can get off work that night, she will meet him there.

John asks Cassie to go to prom but she refuses. Meanwhile, Winston is at a restaurant where a worker from the bottled-water company dies from the infection. He then realizes the creek got heavily contaminated and goes to the water plant to tell the officials that the water is contaminated. The worker he informs is quickly killed by a group of CCD (Contamination Control Division) soldiers in NBC suits. Winston leaves before they can get to him.

At the high school, the infection begins to spread slowly. Frederica (Amanda Jelks) dies in the swimming pool from the infection and Rick (Thomas Blake, Jr.) is killed when he drowns after hitting his head on the side of the pool and falling in. Alex is disappointed that Liz did not come, while John gets into a fight with Cassie's boyfriend Marc (Marc Senter). Principal Sinclair (Michael Bowen) then kicks John out. Cassie follows him and John angrily confesses his love to her. As popular girl Sandy (Lindsey Axelsson) is declared prom queen the CCD then forces John and Cassie back into the school. The CCD locks all of the main exits from the school and kills Principal Sinclair when he demands to know what is going on. The infection then begins to kill the students in the gym at an alarming rate. The gym is then gassed from the outside. Cassie, John, and Alex watched in horror as all the students are killed. Winston is picked up by his cousin Herman (Mark Borchardt), ready to leave town.

Alex discovers he is infected and that the disease is incurable necrotizing fasciitis. The only way to stop the infection is to amputate the infected limb. However, Alex's infection is already too severe and he stays behind. John begins to show signs of the infection too and lets Cassie amputate his hand to stop it.

Cassie's boyfriend Marc then comes out of nowhere, hits Cassie with a hammer, and tries to kill John but Cassie recovers and kills him with a nail gun. The two leave the school only to be ambushed by the CCD. John stalls them, allowing Cassie to escape. She finds herself on the highway and stops Herman's van. Winston and Herman take Cassie with them. The camera shows her back where she is starting to show signs of infection.

Meanwhile, Alex's date Liz is at her workplace. She is a stripper at Teazers and she spreads the infection to the customers, who in turn spread it further around the country and even to Mexico.

In a post-credits scene, Darryl and Dane are shown watching a movie and Dane says "prom blows".

During the events of ''Aero the Acro-Bat 2'', Zero receives a telegram from his girlfriend Amy telling him that an evil lumberjack named Jacques Le Sheets is deforesting their homeland Stony Forest to produce counterfeit money and has also captured her father. Ignoring Edgar Ektor's protests, Zero decides to put a stop to Le Sheets. Upon arriving at the island, Zero's plane is shot down and crashes on the beach, so he starts making his way to the forest on foot. During his journey, Zero learns that Amy has also been captured after an unsuccessful attempt to save her father by herself. At the paper factory, Zero fights Le Sheets and pursues him on a flying ship. Aboard the ship, Zero finds that the mastermind is none other than Edgar Ektor. After defeating Ektor with Amy's assistance, the two squirrels parachute safely away, while Ektor's ship crashes into a cliff.

The story takes place in colonial Africa, where Dawn is a white girl, kidnapped in infancy and is being brought up by a black native, Mooda, who runs a canteen in the now German colonial settlement. Dawn falls in love with a British rubber planter, Tom Allen, who is now a prisoner of war. The native black leader of the tribes in that region is also in love with Dawn and becomes extremely jealous when he hears of Dawn's love for Allen, who, in turn, is sent back to Britain by the Germans for attempting to steal Dawn, whom they believe is half black.

Eventually, the British regain control of the territory and drive out the Germans. Allen returns to the colony. When the settlement experiences a drought, the local tribal leader attempts to incite the natives against Dawn, claiming God is angry because Dawn has dared to love a white man. Allen is unable to save Dawn because the colonial authorities refuse to act unless they have proof that Dawn is one hundred percent white. Eventually Dawn's "mother" (Mooda) confesses that she is not Dawn's true mother and that Dawn's real mother was white which Dawn's father confirms.

Allen quickly brings British troops just as the natives are about to sacrifice Dawn. During the ceremony however, one of the virgin priestesses reveals that the jealous tribal leader has been lying about Dawn and that God is not interested in Dawn as she is pure white. Furthermore she reveals that the tribal leader had violated her (the priestess's) chastity and claims the true reason for God's anger was this sacrilegious act. The tribal leader is deposed and sacrificed to the anger of the natives and the drought quickly ends as rain pours down. In the end, Dawn and Allen, happily reunited, sail back to England together.

When his partner is gunned down by the mob, Frank Hovannes, a detective inspector with the New York City Police Department, wants to lead his organized-crime unit against those responsible. Legal and departmental restrictions inhibit him, so Hovannes decides to take the matter into his own hands.

A vigilante act, a contract hit against one of the crime syndicate's members, is designed to stir the mob into action so that Hovannes and his men can catch them in the act. He runs into strong objections from his superiors, and trouble from his own team, along the way.

The film opens outside Mount Pleasant Baptist Church on West 81st Street in Manhattan. A man is attacked by another man wielding an ice axe. The attack is intercut with graphic closeups of a woman undergoing surgery. The NYPD arrive to process the scene. The coroner, Dr. Ferguson, shows Sergeant Edward Delaney that the fatal wound on the skull was made with a round object.

Meanwhile, the 20th Precinct receives news that Delaney's wife Barbara is recovering from emergency surgery. The information is relayed to Delaney at the scene, and he rushes to the hospital. Barbara's surgeon, Dr. Bernardi, explains that complications from her kidney stones forced him to remove the organ. Over the course of the film, Barbara's condition worsens, and Delaney harbors deep suspicions that Bernardi is incompetent.

The murder on 81st Street is a kind of solace for Delaney. Much to his colleagues' surprise, he throws himself into the case despite constant admonitions from his friends and supervisors that the NYPD's priorities are elsewhere. One of his early visits is to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he consults with Arms and Armor curator Christopher Langley about the type of weapon that could make such a unique wound. The elderly Langley is thrilled to have such a unique problem to solve, and he devotes a great deal of time to research.

The angle of entry and the perfectly spherical nature of the wound eliminate most of the weapons familiar to Langley. He decides the weapon must have been some kind of tool, and he visits a hardware store, where he explicitly asks for the best implement to kill someone. A bemused clerk helps Langley deduce that the weapon was most likely an ice axe.

Delaney has discovered that a similar attack had occurred recently on West 79th Street. After consulting with the perpetually harried Ferguson, he discovers that the wound patterns are nearly identical. As they investigate, they realize that similar attacks have been taking place all over New York City. Langley uses the new information to locate the exact model of ice axe that would cause such injuries. At one sporting goods store, the owner hands over the addresses that he collected from every customer who bought that ice axe. The addresses eventually lead Delaney to the high-rise building of Daniel Blank.

Blank has been seen intermittently throughout the film cleaning up after his murders. As Delaney closes in on him, Blank attempts one more attack, but it does not go as planned. After striking several blows, his victim escapes only to be hit by a passing car. Delaney's investigation of Blank confirms that he is the killer. Delaney realizes that his chances of arresting and obtaining a murder conviction against Blank are slim due to Blank's wealth and high social position in the city. Before going to confront Blank in his luxury apartment, Delaney gets a Luger nine millimeter pistol from a closet in his home. It is a souvenir that Delaney brought home as a soldier returning from World War II.

Delaney finds Blank curled up in a closet in a deeply disturbed state. He confesses to his crimes before composing himself. Blank brags about how respectable and well-connected he is, and he guarantees that he will get away with his crime. He confidently goes to the phone to report Delaney for breaking and entering. Delaney shoots Blank in the head with the Luger pistol as Blank is speaking with the police operator on the telephone. Delaney goes to his office at the police precinct station house and retires from the police department. As he is leaving the station house, the desk sergeant tells him of the discovery of Blank's body and asks him if he wants to respond to the call. Delaney informs the sergeant that he just retired as he walks out of the building. The final scene shows Delaney reading to his wife in the hospital, holding her hand. He cries as she dies.

The executive producer of a late night sketch comedy show sparks a media frenzy when he has an on-air meltdown during a live broadcast. The newly appointed network president, Jordan McDeere (Amanda Peet), has to scramble to make things right by hiring back two former prized employees to become the new executive producers of her network's flagship program. In doing so, she appoints two former members of the team: writer Matt Albie (Matthew Perry) and former sketch producer, now director Danny Tripp (Bradley Whitford), who had left the show years before on terms that were not amicable. Meanwhile, Albie and ex-girlfriend Harriet Hayes (Sarah Paulson) come to terms with having to work on the show together very soon after their breakup.

A crucial peace conference fills Deep Space Nine with intrigue. At the same time, Kira and Worf take a mission into enemy territory to discover the secrets of the chemical that controls the highly dangerous Jem'Hadar warriors. Odo may be their only hope of survival but he'll have to fight against his own people.

Marge is embarrassed at a Parent-Teacher Association meeting because she does not have an e-mail address. She decides to buy her own computer and is quite taken by the Internet. Quickly becoming bored with her lack of email messages she repeatedly hits the refresh button causing new advertising banners to appear. A banner ad for a MMORPG called ''Earthland Realms'' catches her attention. Marge clicks on it and soon creates a character for the game. She begins exploring the local town and interacting with game personas, all of whom are Springfield residents including Apu the gem trader, Seymour Skinner the turkey, Moe who resembles a troll, Edna Krabappel the enchantress, Snake the Cobra King, Chief Wiggum the pig man, Smithers the Barbarian, Comic Book Guy the fully armored crusader-like warrior, and Sideshow Mel as a creature who looks surprisingly like a Tauren.

Suddenly, everyone hides as a knight named "The Shadow Knight" appears riding a menacing black horse. The Shadow Knight is the most powerful and deadly character in the game (having once beaten Moe to death with his own life bar). While offline, Marge walks by Bart's bedroom door and unintentionally overhears that Bart is the Shadow Knight. Back in the game, Marge goes to the Shadow Knight's castle and meets Milhouse who is cursed to look like a female servant as a result of an evil spell. Marge constantly frets about Bart and, to Bart's dismay, redecorates his "trophy room" with the Hello Kitty expansion pack. In a fit of rage, Bart smashes many of the decorations with a mace and accidentally kills Marge's character which severely disappoints real world Marge.

Meanwhile, Homer referees Lisa's soccer game. His subpar skills frustrate Lisa. Stung by her criticism, Homer learns the rules of soccer and becomes a better referee, briefly impressing Lisa. While playing soccer, Lisa trips when trying to steal the ball from another player. Homer calls a foul and gives the ball to Lisa. Upon getting the ball, Lisa decides to take advantage of the situation and pretends to be fouled hoping that Homer would grant her penalties. When Brazilian footballer Ronaldo points out that Lisa is a "flopper", Homer gives Lisa a yellow card. Angry, Lisa rips up the yellow card, causing Homer to give her a red card for unsportsmanlike conduct and to eject her from the game.

Homer and Bart go to Moe's Tavern to escape the troubles that have occurred with Marge and Lisa. Moe gives them surprisingly good advice about their situations. Homer jokingly asks "What have you done with the real Moe?" and everyone laughs. A cutaway shot reveals that the real Moe is bound and gagged in the room next-door. Acting on fake Moe's advice, Bart makes up for killing his mother's character by reviving her with two-thirds of his life force. Revived, Marge tends to the Shadow Knight; however, other characters raid the castle to take advantage of his weakened state and brutally kill the Shadow Knight. Surprisingly, Bart is blasé about his character's death and decides to go outside and play.

In the real world, Homer enters Lisa's room. He offers her a BBC documentary produced in cooperation with Canal+ about "floppers", hoping that she will forgive him. Watching the documentary, Lisa realizes it was she that was at fault. Instead of forgiving Homer, Lisa apologizes for her injustice against him. Homer, Bart, Lisa and Maggie play a game of soccer in their back yard; however, Marge continues gaming inside. Feeling sorry for Bart, Marge dons the Shadow Knight armor and begins a revenge campaign for him starting by juggling Moe's character head like a soccer ball as he wonders why he pays $14.95 a month to play the game.

Part one

A full year after his abuse sent his girlfriend Terri into a coma, Rick is still being bullied by the students of Degrassi, including Spinner, Jay, and Jimmy. Rick, however, has made friends with Toby and Emma, and develops a crush on the latter. He also becomes a contestant on the popular school trivia show "Whack Your Brain" with Toby and Emma.

Rick gets revenge on Spinner and Jay by spray painting an 'X' on the door of both of their cars. Spinner, Jay, Alex, and Sean meet up and discuss the incident. Spinner wants to tell Principal Raditch, though Sean reminds him that if they tell Raditch, he's going to want to know why Rick vandalized their cars. Spinner changes his mind, but assures his revenge on Rick.

Due to his intelligence, especially in sports, Jimmy is placed on the "Whack Your Brain" team by Archie after one of the contestants gets sick with mono. Both Jimmy and Rick detest Archie’s decision, and Rick attempts to convince Raditch to get Jimmy off the team. Rick is quickly dismissed by Raditch, who claims Rick should try to make a better relationship with Jimmy. Rick is discouraged by this, but he and Jimmy soon start to get along.

Meanwhile, Joey, struggling with financial troubles, is attempting to sell his house, to Craig's dismay. When Joey's real-estate agent can't get the house sold, Craig decides to call Joey's ex-girlfriend, Sydney, who is an expertise in real estate. Though Joey is upset with Sydney's reappearance, Craig believes Sydney will sell the house for good money. During the open house, Caitlin comes back from Africa and asks why Sydney's name is on the lawn.

At the televised "Whack Your Brain" show, the Degrassi team is tied with Northern High School. For the final round, the team chooses Rick to go up. Rick ends up beating Northern, thus winning the game. While Rick celebrates his win on-stage, Spinner, Jay and Alex prank Rick by pouring a bucket of yellow paint and feathers on him in front of the audience. The audience laughs, humiliating Rick. Leaving school in shock, Rick is approached by Emma, who hands him the trophy and assures him he's the smartest guy in school; Rick kisses Emma. Emma is disgusted and angrily states she only befriended Rick because she felt pity for him. Dejected, Rick goes home and discovers his parents are not there. He pulls out a box from a drawer, opens it, and finds his father's gun.

Part two

Rick—now the laughing stock of the school—returns to Degrassi, still coated in feathers and paint, with his father's Colt 1911 concealed in a backpack. Planning to get revenge on his bullies, Rick goes after Paige first. When Paige encounters Rick, she reveals that she thought the prank was sickening and that she is sorry. Rick decides not to take out the gun to shoot her. He apologizes for hurting Terri and leaves.

While trying to clean himself up in the bathroom, Spinner and Jay trick Rick into thinking the prank was Jimmy's idea; Rick recommits to revenge. He approaches Jimmy, who is sympathetic towards him, informing him that he has his back if he is bullied further. Rick retorts to Jimmy that he was lying to him all along, and only pretending to be his friend; Jimmy is still unaware that Rick thought he set up the prank. Rick pulls out his gun and shoots Jimmy in the back, causing Jimmy to collapse to the floor. His unconscious body is seen by Craig.

Rick confronts Toby, Emma, and Sean in the hallway; Rick is mad at Emma for not reciprocating his feelings, stating that Emma played him, and that she has now "made his list". Sean tries to talk Rick out of shooting Emma, to no avail. When Rick points the gun at Emma, Sean attacks him and tries to point the gun away. They wrestle for the weapon and, during the struggle, it fires into Rick's stomach, killing him.

Following the incident, the school is put on a lockdown, though most of the students are unaware of what happened. In a classroom, Paige, Ellie, Ashley and Hazel learn about the shooting. Soon after, Hazel is pulled out of class and is informed that Jimmy was shot. Meanwhile, Caitlin and Joey, who were initially discussing about Sydney and the house, also learn about the shooting. They quickly arrive at Degrassi, where the students are being released from the school; Caitlin stops news reporters from interviewing the students. Archie yells at Raditch for not preventing Rick's bullying. Jay assures Alex that they will be fine and that nobody will find out, but Alex is regretful of her involvement. Spinner, filled with guilt and regret, tells Jay the authorities need to know who did it, and how they might have killed Jimmy. Jay reassures Spinner telling him “you need to keep your mouth shut, we didn’t do anything!” But Spinner retorts and says “Yes, we did!”

Toby and Emma leave the school and are greeted by their parents. Toby discovers that Rick has died. Numerous students, including Emma, Ashley, Sean, Ellie and Craig, watch the news about the shooting. Paige and Hazel go to the hospital to see Jimmy. Toby and Emma tearfully embrace at a candlelight vigil for Jimmy at Degrassi.

Tom and Jerry are sleeping outside during the day when a yellow bird wearing a red helmet lands on Tom, waking him up. Although the bird brushes Tom's torso off and reacts politely like "pardon me", the easily-annoyed Tom goes after the bird, catches it, and proceeds to beat it up. Jerry wakes up hearing this and goes after Tom by tying a string to his tail, throwing the string over a tree then tying the other end to a telephone pole. After this, he cuts the pole and tips it enough to lift Tom up into the tree. The bird and Jerry then fill a large tub with water, put it on an outside fireplace, light a fire underneath, then the bird loosens the string and lets Tom sling-shot into the tub, where he splashes around yelling, jumps out and bounces away and back (with funny "boing boing" sounds). The bird and Jerry laugh at the fact Tom looks bottomless. Tom grabs the hose and chases Jerry and the bird into the mouse hole, and tries flooding them out, as Tom laughs and laughs himself silly, but Jerry and the bird stop the hose with a mousetrap until the water backs up enough and the bird comes out and pops the hose, leaving Tom tied up in the hose. Tom then tries catching the bird on an electrical wire and almost electrocutes himself, then falls off into a wheelbarrow and into a shed, where he gets an idea. He turns himself into some kind of bird then climbs a tree, but before he could take off, Jerry brings an electric oscillating fan over, turns it on, and Tom loses his balance, falls off and bounces away. Next, Tom returns to the house with a box saying '''DANGER!'''. We find out it's a cannon, and while he is trying to take aim at the bird, Jerry sneaks down, drills a hole in the missile, then ties Tom's tail in it, so when he fires the missile, he is taken with it into a tree. Finally, in the most memorable scene, Tom takes all the grass around the outdoor fireplace, sets it in there and sets it on fire, causing smoke to just about blanket the sky. Afterwards, he grabs a lawnmower and mows a strip in the field, then lines the strip with Christmas lights, illuminates them, then waits at the end of the strip with his mouth open. However, instead of the bird, a jet airliner comes down and picks Tom up by his mouth. After the plane flies over the tree Jerry and the bird are in, Tom lands on the same branch that they're on. The bird then slaps a sticker saying "VIA AIR MAIL" on his forehead, kisses him, then salutes him, while Tom wearily returns the salute. Against the background the sky appeared inscription the end

The film emphasizes the theme of revenge and manipulation of characters by Dantès until the final swordfight with Mondego. The courtroom scene in which Dantès brings down crown prosecutor De Villefort is a highlight of the film, as is the scene between Dantès and Mercedes when he reveals Mondego's treachery to her (which occurs almost precisely as in the novel). However, important characters are omitted and several scenes differ from the novel. Villefort's wife for instance, never appears, and there is no mention of her ever having poisoned anyone. In the novel, it is Mondego rather than Danglars who commits suicide, and Dantès and Mondego do not engage in a swordfight. As in the novel, Dantès loses Mercedes because of his vengeful bitterness. Haydee has only a minor role in the film, and there is no confirmation that she and Monte Cristo become lovers as in the book.

Western society is split up into nine castes, from Lower-Lower to Mid-Lower all the way up to the privileged Upper-Upper. Mauser himself was born a Mid-Lower. Ambitious, he had chosen one of the few professions, Category Military, where upward mobility was still a reasonable possibility.

To prevent any chance of a ruinous war between the West and the Sov-world, the Universal Disarmament Pact had restricted all militaries to pre-1900 technology. Gradually, powerful corporations began settling business disputes by hiring troops to fight real battles (''fracases'') on one of many military reservations. This served a dual purpose: to maintain a military well-honed by actual combat and to provide the decadent general population with a diversion. The life-and-death struggles are so popular that they are televised.

Mauser had worked his way up to captain and Middle-Middle status after many years of effort. When upstart Vacuum Tube Transport finds itself forced into an expensive, division-sized fracas with Continental Hovercraft, he sees his opportunity. He signs up with the underdog, even though the much wealthier Continental is able to hire the best soldiers available, including Marshal "Stonewall" Cogswell, the finest commander in the business. Mauser tells Baron Haer, the head of Vacuum Tube, that he can engineer an improbable victory with a gimmick he has been working on for a long time; in return, he expects the baron's support which, in conjunction with his anticipated popularity with fracas fans, should be enough to get him promoted into the Upper caste. The baron's son, Bart, scoffs at the undisclosed idea, but the baron is desperate for experienced officers and hires him.

When the conflict starts, Mauser takes off in a glider, something no one else had thought of before. Powered aircraft had not been invented before 1900, but gliders had. From his vantage point, Mauser can see where all of the enemy forces are positioned. This information makes Cogswell's situation hopeless and he recommends to his employer that he settle quickly.

When Mauser returns in triumph to Vacuum Tube headquarters, he learns that Baron Haer has died of natural causes. His son does not have the deceased man's political influence, and has also invested heavily in the rival company, assuming his side will lose, so Mauser is out of luck. However, his unusual interest in the state of western civilization attracts the interest of Dr. Nadine Haer, the late baron's attractive, reform-minded daughter.

A group of five friends around thirteen years old begin to understand that life is not simply about riding bicycles, playing soccer games, or, if they can, enjoying the summer.

Guido (Alan Ardel) works under his father's orders and is sometimes rewarded with a beating.

Damian (Juan Pablo Bazzini) is an adopted child and, as such, suffers from an identity crisis that typically marks the teenage years.

Matias (Hernan Wainstein) is left outside his own house every night by his hateful parents.

Alejo (Emiliano Fernández) discovers that his mother has a lover and that women have desires and men have their failures.

Esteban (Juan Ignacio Perez Roca) is the goal-keeper of the football team and, as such, has the central role among his friends. Esteban draws his generosity from his family.

With their hormones kicking in due to reaching puberty, the boys become curious about women and begin to have sexual desires, yet they still have to deal with their parents and families.

They begin to spend time outside a women's hairdressing salon.

The five boys yearn to grow older faster and dream about a place outside of their small town.

''Eye of the North'' is set eight years after an event known as "The Searing" occurs in ''Guild Wars: Prophecies'', where a northern race of cat-like beasts known as the Charr incinerate the Tyrian kingdom of Ascalon. Earthquakes begin to increase in frequency across all the three continents of the game world; ''Tyria'', ''Cantha'' and ''Elona'', which correspond to the three Guild Wars stand-alone campaigns; Prophecies, Factions and Nightfall, respectively. Strange creatures have begun to emerge from crevasses created by these earthquakes and the player is tasked to investigate further, starting from either ''Lion’s Arch'', port city of ''Tyria''; ''Kaineng Center'', port city of ''Cantha''; or ''Kamadan, Jewel of Istan'', port city of ''Elona''.

Descending into one of these crevasses, the player fights enemies native to the respective campaign before coming across a Dwarf named Ogden Stonehealer and an Asuran named Vekk – a race unknown to most humans. It is not long before the party is ambushed by a group of creatures known as "Destroyers". The party then makes their escape through an Asura Gate (a teleportation device similar in appearance and function to ones seen in Stargate) which brings them into the Far Shiverpeaks. Vekk destroys the gate to ensure the Destroyers have no chance of following them. It is here that they meet a Norn (a race of giants that resemble the Vikings in terms of culture and appearance) named Jora. She tells the player of the existence of humans in the Far Shiverpeaks. Ogden, Vekk and the player eventually make their way north to a huge structure called "The Eye of the North". It is here that they come across Gwen, a character that first appeared in Prophecies as a little girl in Ascalon, prior to the "Searing". She informs the player of her temporary appointment as leader of the "Ebon Vanguard" (a group committed to fighting the Charr) in absence of an officer named Captain Langmar.

The player enters the ''Eye of the North'' and discovers a room called the ''Hall of Monuments''. Upon approaching a scrying pool at the center of the room, the player triggers a vision which displays Destroyers working their way towards the surface. Shocked by the prospect of the Destroyers being so close to their goal, Ogden, Vekk and Gwen make their own separate pleas to the player in gaining reinforcements. Ogden suggests getting help from the Norn; Vekk suggests that his people, the Asura, are the best choice; whilst Gwen believes that finding Captain Langmar's squad in the ''Charr Homelands'' would most benefit the player. The player can choose to help Ogden, Vekk or Gwen in any order he/she so wishes but is required to gain the help of the Norn, Asura and the Ebon Vanguard before proceeding further into the game.

Through the course of the game, the player receives three more visions through the scrying pool. One of them reveals that the main antagonist is a being known as "The Great Destroyer"; the nemesis of the Dwarven god, The Great Dwarf. Another reveals its location, which Vekk identifies as a cavern nearby the ''Central Transfer Chamber'', a junction for the Asura Gate network. With the help of new allies secured, Ogden Stonehealer tells the player that they must head to the ''Heart of the Shiverpeaks'' to summon the ''Great Dwarf''. Only then would the Dwarves stand a chance against the Great Destroyer. The player eventually meets with King Jalis Ironhammer, the king of the allied dwarven peoples. Jalis prepares for the final onslaught against the Destroyers by initiating a ritual that permanently changes him and the allied Dwarves by imbuing them with magical strength and transforming them into stone. It is then that the final assault commences in earnest as the Dwarves, the Norn, the Asura, and the Ebon Vanguard fight side by side to reach the ''Central Transfer Chamber''. Upon arriving at the ''Central Transfer Chamber'', the player conducts the final battle against The Great Destroyer.

Bugs is living in his rabbit hole that is just outside of Las Vegas, when Yosemite Sam builds a casino over it. Being given the option to gamble or get out, Bugs tries his luck. At every game he plays (blackjack, roulette, slot machines) he wins in surprising and spectacular fashion, much to Sam's consternation. By the time he leaves with a sum total of $8,042,123,297.55 (more money comes out of Sam, as if he was another slot machine), Sam is down to his last quarter. After reprimanding a group of cheaters, tells them that lucky medals, four-leaf clovers, horseshoes, or rabbit's feet are not allowed, and realizes that he has been hornswoggled.

Bugs has meanwhile used his newfound riches to buy a luxury hotel suite. Sam follows him shooting and Bugs quickly wins a prize car to outrace him; Sam, meanwhile, drives a giant pirate ship, complete with cannons. The two race out of Las Vegas and eventually make it to the Hoover Dam. There is a conveniently placed slot machine, which Sam uses his last quarter to play. He "wins", but the screen reads H2O, causing the dam to burst.

Sam phones Bugs, who is atop the now empty dam, to tell him, "I hate you, rabbit." Porky ends the film with his usual "That's all folks!"

Matthew is a high school teacher working in the small town of Mill Basin. One day, a heavy metal band named Black Roses arrives to play for three nights, after which they will move to their next destination. While the town's conservative parents are initially resistant, their concerns are mollified by the band's initially low-key appearance and by the town's mayor assuming that the band is harmless. This doesn't sit well with Matthew, who senses that the band has something more sinister in mind than just playing music.

As the performances continue, the teens go from normal to homicidal and antisocial. Their parents also begin to die in various ways, with some being murdered and one being devoured by a record player and speaker. Matthew's favorite student Julie murders his ex-girlfriend Priscilla, as she saw her as a rival for Matthew's affections. Horrified and afraid of what will happen if the third performance goes unstopped, Matthew decides to burn down the performance hall. Despite some resistance from the band leader Damian, who transforms into a demon, Matthew is successful in both setting the fire and also waking the teens from their trance. While the band appears to burn with the hall, Matthew and the town's mayor discover via the news some time later that not only did Black Roses survive, they recently played a large concert in New York City and plan to travel overseas to the UK.

The book follows the plight of Suleiman, a nine-year-old boy living in Tripoli in Libya, stuck between a father whose clandestine anti-Qaddafi activities bring about searches, stalkings, and telephone eaves droppings by Qaddafi's state police, and a vulnerable young mother who resorts to alcohol to bury her anxiety and anger. The only people he has to turn to are his neighbor Kareem, and his father's best friend Moosa. The book provides a description of Libya under Qaddafi's terror regime, and a narration of ordinary people's lives as they try to survive the political oppression.

Suleiman grows up partially wealthy because his father, Faraj, is involved in the exotic trade business. Since Faraj's job involves traveling overseas for long periods of time, Suleiman's childhood has primarily been reared by his mother, Najwa. As a youth, Najwa was oppressed by her family, and she desired her independence through education instead of forcefully getting marriage. She made a plan to swallow multiple birth control pills in order to deter a future husband. However, she miraculously still got pregnant with Suleiman and was nonetheless forced to abandon her dream for education and raise Suleiman. She disparages the stories of ''One Thousand and One Nights'', claiming that Scheherazade still had to ask permission from Shahryar. Her cynical view of the world instills a sense of confusion and a weary eye towards authority.

Ustath Rashid, a university professor, moves next door to Suleiman's family and they become friends. Rashid and his son, Kareem, take Suleiman on a trip to Lepits Magna in order to engage with the history of Libya. Two days after the trip, Ustath Rashid is kidnapped by members of Qaddafi's Revolutionary Committee. Suleiman watches Kareem stand perplexed and confused, suddenly rumored to be a "traitor". A week later, Suleiman sees his father being followed by his office clerk, Nasser, at the Martyr's Square, and suspects him of being involved in something other than exotic trade. His suspicions prove true as the Revolutionary Committee comes his home and interrogate the family. Najwa and Moosa, Faraj's best friend and the son of a wealthy lawyer from Egypt, hangs a picture of Qaddafi in their living room. They burn all of Faraj's books and letters. Suleiman is saddened and angered by watching his father's work being destroyed, and he keeps a book titled ''Democracy Now'', a gift from Ustath Rashid.

Within the political, social, and familial confusion, Suleiman is forced to define his own independence and grows up awkwardly. He fights with Kareem as they play a game of "Your Land, My Land" because he called his father a traitor, he envies Adnan because he felt diabetes gives a person independence, and after offering the village beggar Bahloul food, he gets into a fight with him. His mother's psychology deteriorates throughout the confusion and becomes more reliant in consuming alcohol, but after she reveals to Suleiman a history of familial abuse, he imagines his mother happy, and realizes that the ability to imagine her happy means happiness is still attainable.

After making allegiance with their neighbor, Abu Jafer, Suleiman and his family watch a national broadcast to show the strength of Qaddafi's revolution. To deliver a symbolic message, the government hangs Ustath Rashid, demonstrating that no one is capable to stand against the revolution. Faraj returns after the hanging, is badly beaten, and Suleiman has fear for his father. In a moment of irony, Suleiman found himself longing for the connection the family had while watching the hanging of Ustath Rashid.

Suleiman is eventually forced to leave Tripoli and travel to Cairo. He objected the decision but was nonetheless sent. After fifteen years in Cairo, Suleiman grows to be a pharmacist, believing that he did so because of his mother's addiction to her own medications. After his father's passing, Najwa decides to travel to Cairo to see his son. Once they reunite, she adores as if they were never separated, and he realizes that despite all the political confusion and madness, they were still able to live.

Randy Marsh is on ''Wheel of Fortune'' and has made it to the Bonus round. The episode is airing live, with his family watching him from the audience and the South Park residents watching from home. Randy has to solve a puzzle in the category "People Who Annoy You", and is given the letters R, T, S, L, and E. He then adds the letters B, N, G, and O, after which the puzzle spells "N_GGERS". Randy is given 10 seconds to solve the puzzle but hesitates due to its likely pejorative context. However, when host Pat Sajak tells Randy that he has only five seconds remaining, Randy yells the assumed answer: "Niggers," which shocks fans along with his family and friends watching at home, and enrages the African-American audience members; the correct answer is then revealed to be "naggers". On the car ride back home, Randy awkwardly tries to explain himself, Sharon is extremely disgusted with Randy for saying the N-word on national television, and Stan is beyond humiliated.

Stan goes to school the next day, knowing his father had just said the N-word over live television. Cartman confronts him, saying that Token will be mad at him for his father's actions. He goes to Token to try and explain, saying his father isn't racist but is just "stupid". Cartman, seeing an opportunity to cause conflict, tries to get the two into a "Race War". Token, instead of fighting, walks away. Cartman sees this as a forfeit, and also runs away screaming "Whites Win!"

Seeking forgiveness, Randy visits Jesse Jackson to apologize. Jackson bends over his desk and tells Randy to apologize by kissing his buttocks. Randy does so and a picture is taken, which is then put into the news. Stan seeks out Token, expecting everything to be better now since his dad apologized, yet Token is still mad, saying, "Jesse Jackson is not the emperor of black people!" To which Stan replies, "He told my dad he was."

The school, in light of the recent events, hires a smart man and author, who has dwarfism, called Dr. David Nelson who goes from school to school to talk to students about sensitivity, telling them that words are harmless. As soon as Dr. Nelson walks onto the stage, Cartman laughs hysterically. At first, Dr. Nelson believes that he would tire himself out but realizes that he has no chance to talk, even after Mr. Mackey walks on stage ordering Cartman to be quiet. Randy then goes to a comedy club, but he is singled out by a black comedian resembling Chris Rock, who calls Randy a "Nigger-Guy." Thereafter, everyone in town uses the name against Randy, making him feel like an outcast. Back at school, Dr. Nelson talks to Principal Victoria and Mr. Mackey about Cartman and asks them to have him meet with him. When Cartman comes in though, all he can do is laugh and make fun of him. Dr. Nelson keeps on saying that Eric's words don't hurt him, but as Cartman keeps on laughing, Dr. Nelson loses his temper and yells at him saying, "Shut your fucking mouth!" This shocks both Mackey and Victoria, in contrast to their prior indifference over Cartman's treatment of Dr. Nelson.

Stan once again confronts Token, but this time to say he understands how Token feels about the N-word after how he saw Cartman laugh at Dr. Nelson. Still mad, Token says that he does not really think Stan understands. After this, Dr. Nelson calls all of the students to the Gymnasium to teach Cartman a lesson by making fun of his weight problem with the words "Hello, Fatso!" when he walks in so he understands how it feels. They do this, and Cartman responds angrily, but when Dr. Nelson comes out to scold him again, he breaks up in laughter again. Meanwhile, in further attempts to clear his name, Randy opens up the Randy Marsh African American Scholarship Foundation. When walking away from the grand opening, he is chased by a trio of socially progressive rednecks carrying shotguns, who are angry at him for slandering an entire race of people. However, other "Nigger-Guys," led by Michael Richards from ''Seinfeld'' and including Mark Fuhrman, rescue him and scare the rednecks off. Michael Richards introduces Randy to other Nigger-Guys and accepts him into their ranks.

Stan gets fed up with Token, and demands to know why he's still angry. The two are interrupted by Butters, who tells them that Cartman is gonna fight Dr. Nelson in the town's park, and the three run off to go see. Before the fight, Kyle warns Cartman that Dr. Nelson is a karate black belt. After Dr. Nelson announces to beat Cartman to prove his point, which is words shouldn't hurt him, the two begin to wrestle wherein Cartman easily gets the upper hand. Later in Washington D.C., the "Nigger-Guys" are pleading their case to the Senate to ban the word "Nigger-Guy." The Motion is passed by the Senate and as a result, anyone saying the words "nigger" and "guy" within seven words of each other would be prosecuted and fined. Back in the park, Dr. Nelson gives up after being pinned by Cartman, who forces him to submit by saying "Uncle" and "Carol Anne, don't go into the light". As Cartman gloats about his victory, Dr. Nelson rises and kicks Cartman to the ground. However, Cartman remains unfazed and continues to laugh. An angered Dr. Nelson storms off, saying he 'proved' his point, which all the students have forgotten. It is then that Stan understands that he doesn't get it. He tells Token that he will never understand how it feels to have the N-word against him because he isn't black, which was what Token was looking to hear all along and they reconcile.

Dr. Goodwin is on a botanical expedition in the Himalayas. There he meets Dick Drake, the son of one of his old science acquaintances. They are witnesses of a strange aurora-like effect, but seemingly a deliberate one. As they go out to investigate, they meet Goodwin's old friends Martin and Ruth Ventnor, brother and sister scientists. The two are besieged by Persians as Darius III led when Alexander of Macedon conquered them more than two thousand years ago.

The group is saved by a magnificent woman they get to know as Norhala. She commands the power of lightning and controls strange metal animate Things, living, metallic, geometric forms; an entire city of sentient cubes, globes and tetrahedrons, capable of joining together and forming colossal shapes, and wielding death rays and other armaments of destruction.

They are led to a hidden valley occupied by what they name "The Metal Monster", a strange metal city occupied by the metal animate Things Norhala commands. This city is governed by what they call the Metal Emperor, assisted by the Keeper of the Cones.

Ruth is slowly being converted by Norhala to become like her; her little sister. Martin, her brother, tries shooting the Metal Emperor, who retaliates with a ray blast, putting Martin in a comatose state.

Closed in between the Metal Monster and the Persians, it falls to Goodwin and Drake to find a way to escape their predicament.

After finding a link in a successful mission in Hong Kong, James and Lauren Adams and Dana Smith are sent on a mission to Australia, posing as the children of an ASIS agent. Before leaving Kerry said to James that when he gets back they will try again on their relationship after he is done with his mission to infiltrate a cult. They have been sent to determine whether a cult, The Survivors, is associated with Help Earth and as such are sent to a "recruitment hotbed" area in Brisbane. The "family" starts going to cult meetings, and are eventually accepted into the commune. Lauren and James are accepted into an elite cult school in the Ark, the cult's headquarters. There, James befriends Rathbone "Rat" Regan, son of the cult's founder and the only other person in the ark immune to their brainwashing tactics. After a while, Lauren develops a crush on Rat, and he uses his influence with Susie Regan, one of his father's many wives, to get her and James jobs in the offices, rather than in the stifling warehouse or laundry rooms.

Dana, meanwhile, extremely depressed about her unspectacular role in the mission, is summoned to the head of the commune's office. There, she and Eve, another cult member, are told that they are to participate in a Help Earth mission to blow up an oil tanker. Australian oil tankers are alerted about an attack, but in her discovery that the target is across the sea in Indonesia she attempts to warn the mission controllers, which fail, and she ends up having to stop the attack herself. She overpowers the other members of the boat, except Eve who escapes on a dinghy but is later found dead washed up on a beach after the mission.

Back at the Ark, the cult leader, Joel Regan, dies sending the cult into a panic. His eldest daughter, nicknamed The Spider, takes over the cult and commands her followers to prepare for the apocalypse. Meanwhile, ASIS now knows of the links between Help Earth and the Survivors. Having been waiting for an excuse to attack the Ark, elite troops are sent in to destroy it, despite the CHERUB agents' warnings that the cult is well-prepared for such an event. Believing the ASIS attackers to be armies of the devil, the cult shoot down a helicopter and kill dozens of troops in the ASIS raid. In the lull that follows, James, Lauren and Rat (who discovered their identity as undercover agents) attempt an escape. However, they are captured by The Spider and locked in a room full of toddlers by a sadistic overseer.

When they manage to overpower her, Lauren points out that they need to take the kids with them or risk them dying in the fight between ASIS and the cult. James reluctantly agrees, and they drag the half-asleep toddlers with them. Rat says that the most likely way out is through the sewage system, so they go there. James is making his way through the tank when an engineer appears. A brief moment of panic is proved unfounded as Rat persuades the man that he is on a divine mission. The man then offers to help them escape.

The now nine-strong group escape, but the ark explodes after being rigged by the cult to kill ASIS soldiers, killing several dozen children inside the Ark and The Spider in the process. Rat is also reported dead by the media, but in actuality survived. With the mission over, Rat is recruited by CHERUB and starts going out with Lauren, who receives a black shirt, Dana is awarded a navy shirt, while all James gets is a stomach bug caught in the sewage system. The four return to campus with Rat due into basic training in three weeks.

Main characters

• James Adams - He is sent to Australia with Lauren and Dana to infiltrate the Survivors' Ark. Only Lauren and James are accepted and they begin to unearth links between The Survivors and Help Earth. Towards the end of the book they become involved in the carnage that ensues when the Australian SAS invade.
• Lauren Adams - James's sister, Lauren also goes to Australia and earns a Black Shirt, making her one of the youngest CHERUB agents to ever receive one.
• Dana Smith - She is part of the mission, except that she does not get accepted to go into the Survivor's Ark. Instead, Dana is sent to blow up a tanker that is refueling at a LNG, Liquid Natural Gas, facility as a part of Help Earth's plan.

John Lamar buys a Jade Box in Asia but it is stolen by his friend Martin Morgan. A cult, searching for the box because it contains the secret to invisibility, catches up with and abducts Lamar. After discovering the theft, the cult send a message to Martin and the pair's children: John Lamar's son, Jack, who is engaged to Martin Morgan's daughter, Helen. Jack searches for the Box while Martin attempts to discover the secret of invisibility for his own schemes.

'''''No Dominion''''' Is the second book in the Joe Pitt Casebooks series written by Charlie Huston. Vampyre Joe Pitt is down on his luck, behind on rent and low on blood. With nowhere else to turn he finds himself asking his former boss Terry Bird head of the vampyre clan the Society. Bird tosses Joe a job, tracking down the source of a new drug on the streets, a drug powerful enough to cause those infected with the Vampyre Vyrus to freak out. For this one Joe has to cross Coalition turf and head down to Harlem, home of the vampyre clan known as the Hood.

United States Secret Service agent Gary Gordon (Kenneth Harlan) is working on shutting down the "River Gang", a smuggling ring. His girlfriend Lola's father, John Mackey, is secretly a member of the gang. Soon after, events are complicated when the villainous Kent Martin (Gayne Whitman) attempts to blackmail Mackey for his daughter's hand in marriage. At one point, Lola's father is falsely accused of murder, and agent Gordon tries valiantly to prove his innocence.

Marta (Legrand), a department store clerk, aids her police detective fiancé (Closas) in hunting down a gang of jewel thieves. She awakens to later realise that it was all a dream.

Narrated in English by a Japanese officer named Kuroki (in the form of a journal he is writing for his wife), the film is set in the Asiatic-Pacific theater during an unspecified period of World War II. A platoon of 16 Japanese soldiers is stranded on an island in the Pacific with no means of communicating with the outside world. Lieutenant Kuroki keeps his men firmly in hand and is supervising the building of a boat for their escape.

An American C-47/R4D transport plane is shot down by a Japanese Zero, crash landing on the same island. The Zero and an American F4U Corsair destroy each other, with no outside commands learning of the island. Marine Aircraft Wing Captain Dennis Bourke assumes command of the platoon of Marines he was transporting, over their buffoonish and incompetent 2nd Lieutenant Blair and Sergeant Bleeker. Confidante to Bourke is Navy chief pharmacist's mate Francis. As the 19 Americans learn of the Japanese platoon’s existence on the island, tension mounts resulting in a battle for the Japanese boat. The vessel is destroyed and a Japanese soldier is seriously injured. Calling a truce, Koruki trades the Americans access to water in exchange for a visit from their doctor to treat the wounded soldier, whose leg has to be amputated.

The truce results in both platoons, reduced in numbers through their earlier conflicts and later natural disasters, choosing to live side by side – although a line is drawn forbidding one from encroaching on the other's side of the island. There is some clandestine cooperation and trading and earnest respect and friendship.

When the Americans establish radio contact and their pickup by a US naval vessel is arranged, they demand that the Japanese surrender, but Kuroki reestablishes that they are at war. As the Americans proceed to the beach, Bourke orders his men to be ready to shoot to kill. When they are ambushed by the remaining 8 men of the Japanese platoon, the remaining 11 Americans are given no option but to retaliate, resulting in a bloody and pointless firefight during which all the Japanese and most of the Americans are shot dead. Only Francis, Bourke, Bleeker, Blair and Corporal Ruffino survive the skirmish. Bourke orders Francis to examine the mortally wounded Kuroki to see if he can be saved. They move onto the beach and wait to be rescued by the American naval vessel, stationed just offshore. Francis reports Kuroki's death and hands Bourke the Japanese officer's journal, written in Japanese with what appears to be an address. Bourke speculates that one day he will be able to deliver it to Kuroki's widow. Kuroki's final narration calls what he is to do "just another day." The film ends with a long shot of the island, superimposed with the words "Nobody ever wins."

In early 1900s Paris, Police Inspector Tanner inspects a series of abductions of beautiful women from nightclubs. The perpetrator is Dr. Orloff, a mad scientist who wants to repair his disfigured daughter's face with skin grafts from other women with the aid of a slavish, blind henchman named Morpho.

The movie takes place in mid 19th Century Andalusia, Spain. An attractive flamenco dancer and singer, Rosarillo, captivates Andalusian audiences with her talent. On her wedding night, while she performed, her husband is murdered. When she is told the news onstage, she vows to avenge her husband's murder.

In an abandoned mansion, two homeless squatters witness a woman who hits her husband and leaves him for dead.

The 'Big 5 of Good Humor' live in a theater that is about to be demolished. They try to convince the owner not to, and they learn that a gang of criminals dedicated to clandestine gambling operates in the theater.

A young black man, Bigger Thomas, is hired as a chauffeur for a progressive, affluent white family living in Chicago in the early 1940s. That evening, he drives their teenage daughter Mary into town to meet left-wing sympathizers. Their attempts to befriend Bigger are baffling to him because no white person has ever been kind to him and reflect how oblivious they are to the reactions of the black man.

Mary gets so drunk with her boyfriend, Jan, that she passes out. Bigger takes Mary home and carries her to bed. Mary makes advances to Bigger so he kisses her. Mrs. Dalton, who is blind, suddenly opens Mary's door. Bigger panics and covers her mouth with a pillow. Mary cannot breathe, and he accidentally smothers her to death. Mrs. Dalton merely thinks that Mary has passed out from being drunk and leaves the room. Bigger moves the body and puts her in the basement furnace, trying to cover up what happened.

A group of reporters, relegated to the furnace room of the house, notice fragments of bone and an earring in the ashes, prompting Bigger to flee in terror. He joins his girlfriend Bessie, a nightclub singer, in an abandoned building, but when she goes to a drug store for liquor and a sweater for him, Bigger thinks she has conspired with stool pigeon Snippy to put the police onto him, and he murders her, throwing her body into an elevator shaft. He flees the building, but the police give chase, turning a hose on him and forcing his surrender.

He is defended by a leftist lawyer with support from Jan, who worked with Mary toward racial equality. Max, the lawyer, fails to overcome the racism of the judge and jury and Bigger is sentenced to death. When Max tearfully says goodbye to Bigger for the last time, Bigger asks him to "say hello to Mr... to Jan". Bigger had found two white people capable of kindness to him; all the others put him to death.

In the early nineteenth century a valet impersonates his master.

Young newspaper reporter Harvey Hanford (Harry Houdini) is in love with Mary Cameron (Ann Forrest), the ward of his rich, eccentric Uncle Dudley Cameron (Thomas Jefferson), who opposes the match. Harvey becomes involved in a newspaper scheme to plant evidence for a fake murder of his uncle.

Dudley Cameron is actually killed, however, and Harvey is framed and arrested for the murder. Jailed unjustly for a murder he did not commit, freeing himself, Harvey is able to pursue the actual killers.

Confronting the gang, Harvey is overwhelmed, but using his amazing powers of escape to free himself in a series of remarkable escapes from handcuffs, chains and a straitjacket, culminating in a climactic mid-air aircraft collision. Following the collision, Harvey is vindicated and finally reunited with Mary.

Edgar Marsh, a shy librarian obsessed with erotica, becomes infatuated with his neighbour Betty Clare when he sees her undressing in her bedroom. He invites her to dinner, and although she clearly is uncomfortable with the attention he pays her, he showers her with jewelry and fantasizes about their future. Complications arise when he introduces her to his friend Carl Loomis, whom Betty finds far more attractive and appealing. After witnessing Carl and Betty together in her bedroom, Edgar bludgeons Carl to death with a poker and buries him beneath the floorboards in his piano room. His overwhelming guilt leads him to believe a ticking metronome and the incessant dripping of a faucet actually are the sound of his victim's heart still beating.

When a lieutenant is mortally wounded in a winter ambush that decimates his platoon, he passes command to the highest ranking survivor, Sergeant Towler, a black man. However, all of the other men left alive are white. Towler feels that Private Kincaid, an ex-sergeant with 11 years of experience (demoted for doing things his way), is better suited for command, but the lieutenant orders him to take charge and complete their vital mission: to take and hold a farmhouse strategically positioned in a mountain pass for the advance of their battalion. After the lieutenant dies, Southerner Private Bracken initially refuses to take orders from Towler, but Towler forces him, at gunpoint, to back down.

With their radio not working, Towler leads ten healthy survivors and a badly wounded Private Casey on a stretcher to their objective. As they warily approach the farmhouse, one soldier spots someone inside and throws a grenade, which wounds a Korean woman. The only other occupants are her young son and her adult, part-French daughter Maya. Kincaid and some of the others want to leave before the enemy attacks, but Towler keeps them there.

They repel an attack later that night. Hunter, a Navajo, volunteers to scout the area in place of Towler. They agree on a password. Hunter is captured, but despite being hit repeatedly, refuses to disclose the password when he is forced toward the outpost manned by Towler and Kincaid. After his challenges are not answered, Towler fires, striking Hunter and some enemy soldiers. After the enemy is repelled, Hunter gives the password. Towler and Kincaid find him, and he talks to Towler before dying.

Bracken tries to force himself on Maya. Her scream brings Towler, but Bracken ignores Towler's order to leave and strikes him. Towler knocks him down, but Bracken remains defiant.

Lazitech, manning the outpost, is the next casualty. At his own request, Casey is carried to a gunport to fight, but he dies in the next assault. Towler and Kincaid start brawling when Towler catches Kincaid slacking off afterward, but they break off when they hear a tank approaching. After driving off the accompanying infantrymen with a machine gun, Towler and Kinkaid use kerosene and torches to set the tank on fire. When a tank man opens the hatch, Kinkaid tosses in a grenade. The tank runs over his leg when he jumps off and Corpsman Wade has to amputate it, but the only man who has the right type of blood for a transfusion is Towler. The operation is a success despite Wade's lack of training.

When a column of tanks is spotted, Towler sends his men and the civilians up the pass while he goes back and carries Kinkaid to the outpost. Friendly aircraft appear and bombard the enemy infantry as they advance, signaling the approach of the battalion.

In September 1938, advanced British aircraft prototypes carrying experimental and secret equipment are vanishing with their crews on test flights. No one can fathom why, not even spymaster Major Hammond (Ralph Richardson) or his sister Kay (Valerie Hobson), a newspaper reporter, who is working undercover in the works canteen at the Barrett & Ward Aircraft Company.

At first, Major Hammond is seen as an outsider at the aircraft factory, especially by Mr. Barrett, the owner (George Merritt), who is working under a government contract. Hammond soon finds a friend in star pilot, Tony McVane (Laurence Olivier), who helps him try to solve the case. Hammond becomes convinced that Jenkins (George Curzon), the company secretary at the factory, is a mole but Jenkins is killed by a gunman firing from a moving car before he can give up the names of his contacts.

McVane returns to the aircraft factory, determined to make the next test flight. His aircraft, like the others, is brought down by a powerful ray beamed from a mysterious salvage ship, S.S. ''Viking''. (Although the nationality of the crew and agents aboard the ship is only implied, it was understood by audiences that "All of the crew speak with German accents and little doubt is left who the villains are", wrote ''Variety''.)

The aircraft, McVane and the crew are taken onboard ''Viking'', where he discovers many other missing airmen who have suffered the same fate. Escaping from their prison, McVane leads them in an attempt to take control of the ship, gathering up weapons as they go. Back in London, Major Hammond learns the truth and directs a Royal Navy ship ( ) to go to their rescue. Kay and McVane form a relationship, while Hammond, who in the line of duty has repeatedly cancelled plans with his lady friend, eventually meets up with her but learns that she has married someone else.

Space Major Reeves, a rocket expert and friend of Colonel White (voiced by Donald Gray), leaves Cloudbase after completing a tour of the facility. He boards a motor yacht bound for the island military installation Base Concord, unaware that Captain Black is watching from the shore. Black uses the Mysterons' powers to induce nausea in Reeves, who falls overboard and drowns in the yacht's wake.

A Mysteron double of Reeves arrives at Base Concord, shoots the control room officer and launches an incendiary variable-geometry rocket (VGR) using the control code "ZERO". He then escapes in a J-17 fighter jet with the flight program unit, leaving the base personnel no way of knowing the VGR's target nor which of the 10,000 possible codes must be transmitted to trigger its self-destruct. Furthermore, for reasons unknown the VGR is not showing on radar.

The commander alerts Spectrum and White dispatches Captains Scarlet and Blue (voiced by Francis Matthews and Ed Bishop) to Base Concord. Meanwhile, the Angel squadron are launched to track down Reeves and recover the program unit. Reeves is quickly intercepted but refuses to surrender, instead crippling Melody's (voiced by Sylvia Anderson) aircraft with his fighter's machine gun and forcing her to eject before she crashes into the ocean.

Scarlet, Blue and the base personnel realise that the VGR would be invisible to radar only if it were travelling upwards, and that as its descent will also be vertical the only plausible target is Base Concord itself. A replacement program unit is installed and the personnel use it to transmit one code after another in alphabetical order in a futile bid to find the one used by Reeves. In the air, Reeves ignores Rhapsody's (voiced by Liz Morgan) order to surrender and kills himself by deliberately crashing his fighter. Although the program unit survives, it is lost on the seabed.

Minutes before impact, with Base Concord evacuated except for Scarlet and Blue, White radios his officers and orders them to leave. In a last-ditch attempt to save the base, Scarlet and Blue disobey White and carry on inputting codes, their final try being "AMEN". On the seabed, the sunken unit is knocked over by an underwater current and the shock causes it to re-transmit "ZERO", causing the VGR to self-destruct.

Scarlet and Blue return to Cloudbase believing that they miraculously found the correct code. After the unit is recovered, White reprimands the two captains for their insubordination but stops short of court-martialling them, recognising the value of bravery in the fight against the Mysterons.

A French Bulldog is adopted from the Happy Kennel by a girl named Ai and is given the name Alex. She tells him stories and reads to him from a book titled ''The Adventures of Freddy'' about dog who leaves home to find the Fortune Tree.

However, he is separated from Ai when he mistakenly follows a girl wearing the same clothes as Ai on a bus. Adopting the name Freddy, after the hero in Ai's storybook, Alex begins his quest to return to Ai. But before he can return to his owner, Freddy and his new friends must find the Fortune Tree and save it from dying, otherwise all the humans in the world will lose their good will and no longer care about their pets.

''Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill'' shares structural elements with the original ''Ravenloft'' module, including variable NPC goals and variable locations for key objects, so that ''Gryphon Hill'' plays differently each time. The module includes 11 cards that are used to randomly determine the vampire's identity and the location of various items to be recovered as part of the plot. The module's plot features an artifact known as "The Apparatus" that switches a monster's personality with that of an ordinary townsperson; player characters, therefore, are uncertain about the true identity of the people they meet.

At the beginning of the holiday season, a school administrator, Cal Peterson (Gerald McRaney), is sent to a financially troubled school to find a way to keep it from closing. After reviewing expenses, he decides that the best way to save money is to cancel the music program in which his niece Fern (Alison Pill) is enrolled and let go its teacher, Lily Waite (Naomi Judd). News of his decision leaks out prematurely, causing resentment among the students. After realizing how much the program has benefited his shy niece, he regrets his decision, but can think of no better alternative.

In a subplot, with Peterson's help, a long-time lady friend secretly arranges a reunion of his father Jake Peterson's WWII squadron, as a Christmas present. He is so happy that he decides to propose.

The film ends with a concert by the music department's students, where Peterson hears his niece perform and then announces that the townspeople have donated enough money to keep the program going.

Reynard "Reynie" Muldoon is an orphaned boy who lives in the Stonetown Orphanage. One morning at breakfast, his tutor "Miss Perumal" notices an advertisement in the newspaper targeted towards gifted children. Reynie follows up and finds himself presented with a series of complex puzzles and odd tests. He passes all of the tests and qualifies to help Mr. Nicholas Benedict. He meets three other gifted children: George "Sticky" Washington, Kate Wetherall, and Constance Contraire. Mr. Benedict, the organizer of the tests, is assisted by his subordinates Number Two, Rhonda Kazembe, and Milligan, the secret agent that turned into a security guard for Benedict.

They explain that a mysterious threat plagues the world in the form of secret messages transmitted into people's minds via television and radio signals. These messages have created the illusion of international panic known as "The Emergency". Mr. Benedict invited the children to form a team to stop the Sender from sending them. The messages originate at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened "L.I.V.E." The children join the Institute as students (and spies), and discover astonishing facts that help them complete their mission.

On a climbing expedition in the Himalayas, Professor Jeffries is led by his Sherpa, Pemba, to a high point on a mountain using an ancient tablet. Jeffries is out looking for the Abominable Snowman, who lives in the mountains. He's convinced that the Snowman lives close by, but Pemba tells him he won't lead Jeffries anymore, as it would be intruding on the territory of the Abominable Snowman. Jeffries, who seems to care about the Snowman over their safety, decides to cut the rope and continue. As soon as Jeffries fades from view, Pemba sees the outline of a large creature in front of him.

Meanwhile, Fred, Daphne and Velma are on vacation in Paris. However, Scooby-Doo and Shaggy have not arrived yet, and the gang wonders where they are at. Shaggy and Scooby are in a small plane that they think is going to Paris, but it is really going to the Himalayas to drop off Alphonse LaFleur, a French hunter and trapper. LaFleur wants to find and kill the Snowman, and is taking Shaggy and Scooby along as bait. LaFleur then locks Shaggy and Scooby up with his equipment, and throws them off the plane. Shaggy, realizing they are not going to Paris, manages to get a quick phone call through to Fred before the phone goes dead. Fred uses the GPS on his phone to track them, and then he, Daphne and Velma head to the Himalayas to find them.

Meanwhile, Shaggy and Scooby manage to land near a small village on the mountain, where Professor Jeffries and Pemba currently are. Jeffries tells Pemba he never should have left him, and that he almost died on the mountain. Many of the other villagers are leaving, fearing the creature and its wrath. Shaggy and Scooby go to the High Lama to ask for a phone to call their friends. The High Lama, a strange person, tells them there is only a phone on the weather station nearby. The High Lama is uneasy about letting them go in, but lets them. In the room is a statue of the Snowman holding a very large crystal, which the High Lama says it protects the villagers from the Abominable Snowman's powers. They then meet Pemba's sister Minga, who has decided to stay in the village. Minga constantly listens to the radio, and has a crush on the DJ from the station that she's listening to. Pemba tells her to leave the village, and he, Shaggy, Scooby and Jeffries (who says that everyone should stick together), decide to go to the weather station. LaFleur arrives, and decides to accompany them.

As they travel, Minga runs up to them and says that she heard on the radio that a big storm is approaching. Shaggy wonders how there could be any radio reception so high up, and Pemba tells him there isn't, as it's just the weather station man pretending to be a DJ. Pemba realizes that Minga has a crush on the weatherman and deduces that she's just tagging along with them as an excuse to meet him. Minga denies this, and explains that there really is a storm coming. Everyone looks up and sees a dark cloud, and they decide to set up camp to wait out the storm. During the night, Jeffries gets out of his tent and leaves with his sled, which is filled with TNT and other explosives. Some time later, the Snowman attacks Shaggy and Scooby. LaFleur tries to capture the Snowman, but fails when all his traps backfire on the Snowman, instead working on him. Scooby and Shaggy manage to lose the Snowman but get lost themselves. However, they are relieved to see a snowplow approach them. In the snowplow is Del Chillman, whom the gang had met before. Del takes them to the weather station, where he works. Chillman tells them he decided to take the job so he could find out if the legend of the creature is true. He also reveals that he's the DJ/weatherman. He had the radio just to do weather reports, but plays songs to pass the time.

Meanwhile, Fred, Daphne and Velma get to the village and see it is deserted. They follow Shaggy's tracks and see where the party camped the night before, and also the footprints of the Snowman. Velma notes that they are not very deep in the snow. They find Pemba, who was caught by one of LaFleur's traps. Minga is nowhere to be found and Jeffries is still gone, so the gang decides to split up and search for everyone else. At the weather station, Del goes out to look for the others. Once he leaves, the Snowman appears and attacks Shaggy and Scooby. As they run away, LaFleur shows up, tries to capture the creature, and struggles to save Shaggy and Scooby, but fails, and falls off a cliff, apparently to his death, or better yet whether he might have survived the fall. Scooby and Shaggy manage to escape and find their way to the lost kingdom of Shangri-La, but are pursued by the Snowman.

Del catches up to the rest of the gang, but finds the weather station destroyed and some helium tanks missing. As Scooby and Shaggy walk around the city, the Abominable Snowman appears and chases them. Daphne and Pemba find a large cave and go inside, and conclude that is where the Snowman lives. They also find an empty helium case. Shaggy and Scooby lose the Snowman again, and everyone meets up in an old mine, each coming from a different direction. There, they see Jeffries mining for crystals like the one on the Yeti statue. They capture him and conclude he is the Snowman, although he denies it. Then the Snowman appears and chases everyone, while Jeffries gets free and follows them. The Snowman chases Shaggy, Scooby, and Jeffries down the mountain. Jeffries attempts to get the crystals in the mine cart that Scooby and Shaggy are riding in. The rest of the gang prepares a trap for the Snowman, but Shaggy, Scooby and Jeffries get caught in it. The High Lama comes out to see what happened. Then an avalanche starts, and almost crushes Velma and Del, but the Snowman saves them at the last moment. The Snowman is revealed to be Minga, who has been behind the mystery from the very beginning. She used the helium to fly, which caused the footprints to not be as deep. Minga confesses that she did it so that Del wouldn't stop broadcasting his radio show (also her way of admitting that she has feelings for Del). Del's touched by what Minga says, and finds it romantic. Jeffries is taken to jail because he was taking the crystals for his own gain. The gang wonders if there really is a Snowman, but then LaFleur appears and tells them that something saved him from his fall and brought him to the village (presumably the real Snowman).

The gang, along with Del and Minga (who are now boyfriend and girlfriend), return to Paris for their vacation. Unfortunately, Fred gets on the wrong plane and ends up in the Amazon. The others go to find Fred, with Daphne complaining, "I'd like to have a vacation that actually ''stays'' a vacation."

The show's plots often take place within the confines of the fictional fraternities Kappa Tau Gamma (ΚΤΓ) and Omega Chi Delta (ΩΧΔ), or the fictional sorority Zeta Beta Zeta (ΖΒΖ). Throughout the course of the series, other non-Greek characters and situations are introduced, but they all tie into larger relationships with the Greeks. The series follows Rusty and Casey Cartwright as they endure the events surrounding the Greek system at Cyprus-Rhodes. There are six chapters, arranged into four seasons. The series stars Jacob Zachar and Spencer Grammer as the lead characters.

''The Fatal Eggs'' can be described as a satirical science fiction novel. Its main protagonist is an aging zoologist, Vladimir Ipatyevich Persikov, a specialist in amphibians. The narration begins in Moscow of 1928, which seems to have overcome the destructive effects of the Russian Civil War and is quite prosperous. After a long period of degradation, research at the Zoological Institute has revived. After leaving his microscope for several hours, Persikov suddenly noticed that the out-of-focus microscope produced a ray of red light; amoeba left under that light showed an impossibly increased rate of binary fission, reproducing at enormous speeds and demonstrating unusual aggression. Later experiments with large cameras — to produce a larger ray — confirmed that the same increased speed of reproduction applied to other organisms, such as frogs, which evolved and produced a next generation within two days. Persikov's invention quickly becomes known to journalists, and eventually to foreign spies and to the GPU, the Soviet secret service. At the same time, the country is affected by an unknown disease in domesticated poultry, which results in a complete extinction of all chickens in the Soviet Russia, with the plague stopping at the nation's borders. A sovkhoz manager Aleksandr Semenovich Rokk (whose name is also a pun on the novel's title, ''Rok'' meaning ''fate'') receives an official permission to confiscate Persikov's equipment, and use the invention to attempt to restore the chicken populace to the pre-plague level. However, the chicken eggs which are imported from outside the country are, by a mistake, sent to Persikov's laboratory while the reptile eggs destined for the professor end up in the hands of the farmers. As a result, Rokk breeds an enormous quantity of large and overly aggressive snakes, ostriches, and crocodiles which start attacking people. In the panic that follows, Persikov is killed by a mob — which blames him for the appearance of the snakes — and his cameras are smashed. The Red Army attempts to hold the snakes back, but only the coming of sub-zero weather in August—described as a deus ex machina—puts a stop to the snake invasion. In an earlier draft the novel ends with the scene of Moscow's complete destruction by the snakes.[http://www.bulgakov.ru/r/rockeggs/ "The Fatal Eggs" article in Bulgakov Encyclopedia] at [http://www.bulgakov.ru www.bulgakov.ru]

Raman is a sign-painter who takes the art of calligraphy very seriously. He devotedly creates the perfect signboard for all his customers, taking great care in the styling of words on the board. Made using the "best rosewood" from the Mempi mountains, Raman believes that his signboards are a notch above his rival Jayaraj's. Living with his aunt, a conservative old woman who likes to ramble about mythological stories and old family gossip, on Ellaman Street, Raman goes through periods of frustration at his aunt's interest in his going abouts and feelings of guilt for ignoring her affection and presence. Not orthodox himself, Raman neither sports a tuft like others from his caste nor has inhibitions in eating meat if necessary. He looks down on superstitions and old-fashioned notions of religion and caste and spends his time reading ancient copies of books on science and history. He does have a tendency to quote from the scriptures and make associations with events in the scriptures and those in his life.

Daisy, an intense young woman involved in family planning campaigns, hires Raman to make a signboard for her office. For no reason whatsoever, Raman finds himself bewitched by her beauty, and more so by her precision, authority and her devotion to her career. It so happens that he has to accompany Daisy on a three-week campaign in the villages around Malgudi to identify potential sites where he can paint signs (Hum do humare do) and messages on population control and finds himself further attracted to her firmness, simplicity, and her tendency to shun luxuries and comforts of all sorts. He finds that his resolve to remain unmarried, seeing marriage as commonplace and unnecessary, is weakening.

The story goes on to outline Daisy's complicated past and her eventual admission of a mutual attraction for Raman. The two start spending the nights together, and decide to get married in the ("Gandharva" style),the simplest form of marital union. Daisy seems to be unaffected by the relationship though, and tells Raman that she will not change her last name, or house-keep for him. Raman mulls over the eventualities of such a wedlock, but is steadfast in his affection and love for Daisy and constantly tells himself that her needs and wishes will always be more important than his. His aunt, upset over her nephew's unorthodox afflictions - especially at his decision to marry out of caste - asks him to arrange a one way trip to Benaras for her. His repeated beseechings to her to stay and bless him and Daisy have no effect. On the morning that Daisy is to move into Raman's house on Ellaman Street, she changes her mind about Raman, feeling that her sense of purpose and her independent existence may be affected by married life. She decides to leave Malgudi for a three-year family planning initiative in villages all over India. Confused and befuddled, Raman tries his best to convince her, telling her that his house on Ellaman street will be open for her ''whenever' she decides to return.

Category:1977 novels Category:Novels by R. K. Narayan Category:Novels about artists Category:Viking Press books Category:Heinemann (publisher) books Category:1977 Indian novels

At the start of the story, Youn Suu is a rookie Explorer on her first assignment in interstellar space. Like most Explorers, she suffers from a significant physical deformity—in her case, a facial blemish that has been left untreated to "qualify" her for the Explorer Corps. Her first assignment, with her partner Tut, is to investigate a sudden infestation of the Balrog in a domed city on the home world of the Cashlings. While there, she is herself infested by the red moss. At the same time, Youn Suu and Tut encounter Admiral Festina Ramos, present on a mission of her own.

Aboard an Outward fleet starship, Youn Suu is monitored medically, though there is no cure for her condition and no real treatment. The Balrog, far more than a parasite, is a hive mind well above the human level of development, so that killing it would violate the central precept of the League of Peoples. As its symbiotic relationship with its human host develops, the Balrog comes to share the mental functioning of its host, and prolongs the host's life while consuming her body—"her" because the only prior human host was also female (and also a Buddhist). Youn Suu is also exposed to potential exploitation, by people who want to use the Balrog's special abilities for their own purposes. Meanwhile, Ramos and the other explorers are called to an emergency rescue on a planet called Muta, where Unity survey teams have suddenly disappeared, with barely a peep of a distress signal.

The planet Muta, temperate and Earth-like, is to outward appearances almost ideal for colonization; yet colonizing efforts by the Unity, and the Greenstriders, and perhaps others, have mysteriously failed. The three Explorers land on the planet; even with the most elaborate precautions they fall prey to its peculiar circumstances, and find themselves stranded and contaminated with a microbe that threatens to destroy their bodies.

Investigating their predicament, they learn that the entire planet was once a global research station for the Fuentes, a species that discovered a way to transcend the physical body and transform itself into energy-based or consciousness-based entities. The research done by the Fuentes on Muta 6500 years earlier had been in pursuit of that goal—but had gone horribly wrong, dooming Fuentes and Greenstrider and Unity individuals to a disembodied but tortuous existence. While being hunted by raptor-like reptiles, the three Explorers must find a way to repair alien technology to reverse the damage, before their own bodies collapse.

In Tom and Jerry's penthouse apartment room on the 20th floor of a 30-story apartment building around 10:00 PM, Tom finishes reading a book and prepares to sleep, setting his wind-up alarm clock to ring in the morning. Unfortunately for Tom, this is also time for Jerry to get up. The mouse's alarm-watch rings and Jerry showers (using a wrench on a pipe) and grooms himself before setting out for a tiny elevator in the wall. He hears Tom snoring and stops briefly (with a close-up of Tom's feet) before he enters the elevator and descends to a club with a sign that says "Le Cellar Smoqué" ("The Smoky Cellar" in French) displayed at its entrance.

Jerry arrives at the bar and has a martini (of which he only eats the cheese on the toothpick, leaving the bartender to drink the rest of the martini). Then, Jerry begins playing the drums with a jazz quartet, which puts the club into full swing.

Shortly afterward, being woken up by the noise, Tom opens the elevator, only to get blasted by the music. He tries to block the elevator doors with a pillow, but it's not enough to stop the noise. He lowers a hose into the elevator shaft in hopes of drowning out the noise. His smug laughter is interrupted by an angry dog that drags Tom downstairs and throws him into his flooded apartment room.

Dripping wet, Tom goes back to his apartment room and decides to stop the noise at its source by grabbing some tools and heading down to the basement through the air vents. Hearing the music through the floor, Tom saws a hole in the floor and uses a plunger, but the music is coming from a radio, and to make matters worse, the angry dog (whom the radio belonged to) pulls Tom up through the floor and punches him back up to his 10th floor apartment room through the floors and his bed.

Now completely bruised and sleep deprived, Tom cries and puts bigger corks in his ears, wraps up his head with first-aid bandages and tries to settle down to sleep. At that very moment the music stops, causing an elated Tom to wake up with a start, unravel the bandages and pop the corks out. A tired Jerry is seen leaving the elevator toward his mousehole.

Tom gleefully goes back to sleep, only to be awoken seconds later by his ringing alarm clock he had set before. However, having been woken up by the noise, Jerry turns on the light in his Mouse hole, peeks out, and signals to Tom to turn off the alarm clock with a shush, but this hypocritical action from Jerry immediately causes Tom to lose his mind (since Jerry kept him up all the night). Tom screams and runs straight out through the wall, leaving a Tom-shaped hole in the wall. A confused Jerry shrugs it off, thinking that Tom's gone bonkers and imitates a Charlie Chaplin silent walk before going back to sleep.

''Deep Dwarven Delve'' is a straightforward dungeon crawl that leads the players through an abandoned dwarven mine, centering on freeing dwarves in another world from thralldom.

The year is 1928. Samuel Fulton (Charles Coburn) is an old and lonely New York millionaire who has decided to leave his fortune to the family of the late Millicent Blaisdell. Millicent is the only woman he has ever been in love with and they briefly dated, until she dumped him because she did not return his love. Samuel explains to his lawyer Edward Norton (Frank Ferguson) that losing the love of his life was what inspired him to build up a career as a wealthy businessman, eventually becoming the richest man in the world. Fearing the family will spend the money the wrong way, he decides to visit them in a small Vermont town, faking a newspaper advertisement to board a room under the alias John Smith.

The family is initially reluctant to take in Samuel, but Roberta, the youngest daughter, (Gigi Perreau) wastes no time and makes him feel as welcome as possible. He notices that the Blaisdells are a happy family who, although poor, are proud of their background. Father Charles (Larry Gates) has taught the family not to put a value on materialistic products. Nevertheless, mother Harriet (Lynn Bari) wishes for her daughter Millicent (Piper Laurie) to marry Carl Pennock (Skip Homeier), a wealthy but snobbish young man who could buy Millicent everything that Harriet never had. Millicent, however, is not keen on Carl and prefers to marry Dan Stebbins (Rock Hudson), a charming but poor soda jerk. While staying at the Blaisdells, 'John' is given a job at Dan's store as soda jerk.

One night, Millie and Dan announce their engagement, which upsets Harriet. Shortly after, Norton arrives, announcing the family has inherited $100,000 from an unknown man. When realizing Norton is not joking, the family – especially Harriet – immediately gives up their humble life for the upper-class life style. Charles is not enthusiastic of his wife's sudden craze of materialism, but allows her to buy whatever she wants. The oldest son Howard (William Reynolds) immediately starts gambling a large amount of money and lands a debt, which prompts Samuel to help him. Meanwhile, Dan, feeling he could never live up to Millie's expectations, breaks off their engagement. Afterwards, Millie reluctantly starts dating Carl again, much under the pressure of her mother.

Samuel helps both Millie and Howard escape from a raid, which results in his being jailed. Soon, Harriet feels that Samuel's presence is ruining the family image, unaware of the reason why he ended up in jail. In this period, he is supported only by Dan, who admits his intentions of leaving town to build a career. Trying to prevent Millie and Dan from disappearing out of each other's life, he sets up a meeting at the cinema. There, an argument follows, and Millie exclaims her hatred for the family's sudden wealth, complaining that it is the cause of all bad things happening to her. She is comforted by Samuel, and thereby attracts the attention of other theatre-goers, who suspect that Sam and Millie were necking.

During the ongoing social party at Blaisdell's house, there is gossip of the necking in the cinema, which prompts Harriet to force Millie to announce her engagement to Carl. Meanwhile, Charles announces he has lost his investments, which makes Samuel realize that the Blaisdells are in no position of making wise financial decisions. Obligated by Samuel, Norton refuses a loan, after which Charles begs the Pennocks for money. Pennock Senior (Paul McVey) refuses the loan to Charles and leaves with wife and son Carl the party, which makes clear that the engagement is off. Much to Harriet's distress, the Blaisdell family returns to their old lifestyle. At the end, Roberta reveals that 'John' has won the first prize at an art show, having secretly entered his paintings. Samuel immediately leaves the house to avoid the press, and realizes that the Blaisdells now think of him as the grandfather he could have been.

''The Homesteader'' involves six principal characters, the leading one being Jean Baptiste (Charles D. Lucas), a homesteader far off in the Dakotas, the lone African American living in the area. To this wilderness arrives Jack Stewart, a Scotsman, with his motherless daughter, Agnes (Iris Hall), who doesn't know that she is biracial. In Agnes, Baptiste meets the girl of his dreams. Peculiar fate threw her in the company of the Homesteader, but, because Baptiste is black and Agnes is presumably white, their love is forbidden by law. Baptiste eventually sacrifices the love of this girl of his dreams, goes back to his own people and marries Orlean, the daughter of a black preacher named McCarthy.

McCarthy, the embodiment of vanity, deceit and hypocrisy, really admires the marriage his daughter has made. He speaks of the "rich" young man she has married, praises him to the highest. Baptiste does not know, however, that McCarthy requires and is in the habit of having people praise him. Baptiste does not do it because he is not of the temperament to do so. Because of this failure grows the tragedy of mismarriage to Orlean (Evelyn Preer), a sweet girl, kind and good, but like her mother, without the strength of her convictions.

Baptiste, Orlean having failed him, is persecuted by McCarthy and by Ethel (McCarthy's other daughter), who, like her father, possesses all the evil a woman is capable of; she is married to weak-kneed Glavis. In the end, Orlean, driven insane by the evil she had been the innocent cause of, rights a wrong which causes Baptiste to go back to his land in the Dakotas, where he finds the girl he first discovered. Later, he learns the truth about her race and the story has a beautiful ending.

The kingdom of Eginasem, a land inhabited by opossums, is under attack by the Lioness's army of yellow dog and wolf soldiers, which also kidnapped Princess Flora. Sparkster, the Rocket Knight, is out to battle this threat, rescue the princess and save his kingdom from certain destruction. His nemesis, the rival Rocket Knight Axel Gear, is aiding the invading forces, making Sparkster's task even more dangerous. The player's goal is to battle through all of the enemy warriors and robots, defeat Axel Gear and infiltrate the enemy's battleship, where the yellow dogs leader, Generalissimo Lioness, is planning to launch a warhead to destroy planet Eginasem.

Saga is set in a fantasy world where an age-old strife exists between five competing Gods. Each God heads up a faction with unique races and abilities. The factions are Magic (Dark Elves), Machines (Dwarves), Nature (Elves), War (Orcs and Ogres), Undead (Undead) and Light (Giants and Humans). Each faction is diametrically opposed to two other factions. For example, Machines hates Magic (they are naturally opposite, technology vs. mysticism), and Machines also hates Nature (machines vs. living things). Nature also despises War, for their tendency to destroy nature. Light faction are champions of order and justice, while Magic faction delve deep into the black arts, and the circle completes itself. Each faction has an ethos and a strategic quality that sets it apart, giving players a spectrum of play styles to identify with. The system is designed to create a balanced tension between the factions, giving each faction two archenemies and two neutrals to war with or form alliances with. The result is a world where endless war is inevitable.

However, the Machine (Dwarf) and Nature (Elf) factions have put aside their differences to join the Order (Machine, Nature, Light), and the remaining factions have joined the Brotherhood (War, Magic, Undead). The Undead faction is a recent (2008) addition and not part of the original five races.

After nearly being run down in the street by a gang known as the Scars, Brenda (Linda Blair) and her deaf-mute younger sister Heather (Linnea Quigley) and their friends trash the car of the gang leader, Jake. Jake exacts his revenge by getting his cohorts to gang-rape Heather. A fight between Brenda and her friends and the Scars at a local nightclub results in Brenda's pregnant, soon-to-be-married friend Francine being murdered by the Scars, who throw her off a viaduct. When Brenda learns who is responsible for Heather's rape, and that Francine is dead and the Scars are responsible, Brenda arms herself and sets out to avenge them. Finding them at a nearby warehouse, Brenda impales one of the gang members, Fargo, with an arrow; kills another, Red, by snapping a bear trap shut upon his neck; and then begins to torture Jake with arrows shot into his thighs and a hunting knife as he hangs by his feet from a gate. However, he then manages to free himself and attacks her. The showdown ends in a nearby paint store; as a burglar alarm blares, Brenda douses Jake in paint and then sets him on fire with a cigarette lighter that she has previously had difficulty getting to produce a flame, just before the police arrive.

The movie ends with Brenda (who is presumably facing charges for the murders of Fargo, Red and Jake), Heather and their surviving friends visiting Francine's grave, and Brenda comments, "At least we set things right," to which her friend Stevie replies, "No, Brenda. ''You'' set things right."

The series is set in the year 5808. The human civilization has taken gigantic steps in the conquest of the space, and with the creation of the three-dimensional tunnel, people can travel to any Galaxy in the universe. "The Gentleman of the Cosmos" is a company that manages the tunnel and dominates organizes the trips.

The main characters of the series are part of Yamamoto Anshin Travel (YAT), with the plot revolving around Goro Hoshiwatari, an adolescent who has left his home to travel by the space and to find the whereabouts of his father, who disappeared fifteen years ago during the explosion of the main transporting center of the three-dimensional Tunnel that he created. Goro falls in love with Katsura, the commander's daughter; and becomes the YAT mechanic/janitor after an accident that he was responsible for, so he tags along to pay for the damage, as well to find his father. Finding his father turns out not to be his only problem, since Kanea, a young lady whose mother is the owner of "the Gentleman of the Cosmos", is in love with him. In addition, Kanea's mother had a mysterious and conflicting past with Yamamoto.

The second series takes place six months after the first. YAT ships and crew are transported to a very far universe. They soon discover that the person responsible is Professor Nota, a scientific who is working on a teletransportation device, helped by a cat-like girl with psychic powers called "Pinky". Then, the professor is kidnapped by Emperor Ganon, who wants to use the device to rule the universe. The aim of the YAT crew is finding the kidnapped professor and going back to Earth.

The film features an ensemble cast of Greek actors portraying various characters, each living his own story in modern Greece. Almost everyone of the protagonists is interrelated to each other, and all live their own parallel stories which often converge at several points. Several professional actors appear briefly or in non-speaking cameo roles.

As a result, there is no central plot or prominent protagonist who may be singled out. The major theme of the movie is sex and each character's approach to it, portrayed in a comedic way.

Story

The storyline is centered on saving the world from a mysterious plague that is spreading quickly. The player takes the role as Stinger, whose town has just been destroyed. The player meets many friends and foes on their way to finding out how the chaos started and how it can be stopped.

Characters

• '''Stinger''' — When the chaos wipes out his hometown, he vows to end the chaos.
• '''Windleaf''' — Joins Stinger after her secluded sylvan village gets attacked.
• '''Harv-5''' — A robot originally created for harvesting crops, but when the demons destroy his fields and home he sets out to find out his purpose. His catchphrase of sorts is "There will be death."
• '''Xero Von Moon''' — A Mage Warrior who has been resurrected from his deep sleep, he has no body so he floats around with just his head.
• '''Clemett''' — He is a native Gadgeteer, but he didn't agree with how they lived so he went to live with humans, and when the chaos started he vowed to protect his 'Friends'.
• '''Jirina''' — She is a proud Org-Ta and a native of the underground world known as Wyldern. Her people have been enslaved by the Darg who turned a once peaceful land into a twisted hell. She vows to get revenge.

The main characters, Johnny Street and Arthur Lane play partners in a small Yorkshire building firm. The series records their rather odd experiences in Yorkshire suburbia, doing a variety of small and large jobs for householders. Street and Lane often wax philosophical to each other about life, the Universe, and everything. Lane worked for Street's father in the firm, which apparently suffered from certain financial irregularities. Street gave up a teaching career to rescue the family business. The humour is understated, lurking under a stereotypically laconic Yorkshire mindset.

Various running jokes are used. "Head Office calling!" means Mrs. Street, who fields customer calls at home, is calling Johnny on his mobile phone. The "lady with the boiler on Misperton Avenue" is a fictional customer used as an all-purpose excuse for not being able to take on a job right away (the builders do not want to seem desperate for business) or for making a quick exit from an embarrassing situation.

In India, a young woman is kidnapped, and her young male companion beaten within an inch of his life. He is working class Sikh, Surinder Singh; she is his wife, the former Davinder Samra, a Canadian Sikh whom he met when she visited India a year earlier for her cousin's wedding. For both, it was love at first sight. However, Davinder comes from a traditional Sikh family, who made their fortune in Canada. Her parents, who knew nothing of Surinder when Surinder and Davinder eloped, were seeking a suitable husband for her. As the story unfolds leading to the kidnapping/beating and the subsequent investigation by the local police and Crime Investigation Division, the power of money and of Sikh family honor is shown.

In Prague in 1820, a poor university student named Balduin is the city's wildest carouser and greatest swordsman. Despondent over his lack of funds, he is approached by a diabolical old gentleman dressed in black named Scapinelli. A local young woman named Lyduschka is infatuated with Balduin and begins to follow most of the action from a distance. Balduin becomes smitten with Countess Margit Schwarzenberg after rescuing her from drowning, but — despite receiving a locket from her — knows he cannot pursue this love because of his poverty. Scapinelli, who is always in a gleeful mood, offers Balduin 100,000 pieces of gold in exchange for any item to be found in his student lodgings. Balduin agrees and signs a contract thinking he owns nothing, but is astonished when Scapinelli calls forth Balduin's reflection from the mirror and absconds with it. The baffled student realizes that he now produces no mirror image. Recovering, Balduin — now flush with cash — attempts to woo Countess Margit. At the Hofburg Palace, the resplendently attired Balduin renews his acquaintanceship with the Countess, but both Lyduschka and his mirror double put in appearances before the Countess covertly gifts Balduin with her handkerchief. Balduin and the Countess meet secretly at an old Jewish graveyard, but the double appears again and terrorizes both lovers. Lyduschka tips off Baron Waldis-Schwarzenberg, the Countess's fiancé and cousin, about Balduin's amorous efforts (she has stolen the handkerchief as evidence). Incensed, the Baron challenges Balduin to a duel with sabres. Privately, Count Schwarzenberg — the Countess's father and the Baron's uncle — begs Balduin not to kill the Baron, as he is the last surviving heir to the family. Balduin agrees but is thwarted when his double again appears at the duel in his place and kills the rival suitor. Distraught, Balduin sneaks into Margit’s room and continues to petition for her affections. She is accommodating, but becomes frightened by Balduin's lack of a mirror reflection followed quickly by the sudden appearance of the double. She collapses in a swoon. Utterly dejected, Balduin returns to his own now lavish lodgings and retrieves a pistol. When the double appears there he fires at it and it vanishes, but soon he becomes stricken himself and falls dead. Scapinelli arrives, takes the contract Balduin signed with him and tears it up, throws it like confetti and departs happily. In a coda, we see Balduin's double sitting atop his fresh grave, stroking a raven, and glowering menacingly at the viewer.

A cop's wife gets a surprise when her husband gets murdered in a break in. The break in was meant to kill the cop. The wife, afraid for her life, runs to the house her husband built, away from the protection of cops. Is she really safe there?

Lou falls in love with her best friend Sassafras, who doesn't know. In order to bring their careers as performance artists forward, they move to San Francisco, where they get into the BDSM scene. Soon they start a princess/daddy role-play: Lou plays out a Sea Captain Daddy role and Sass takes on a brat princess.

The preface to the story shows Episcopal clergyman T. Lawrence Shannon having a "nervous breakdown" after being ostracized by his congregation and defrocked for having an inappropriate relationship with a "very young Sunday school teacher."

Two years later, Shannon, now a tour guide for the bottom-of-the-barrel Texas company Blake's Tours, is taking a group of Baptist schoolteachers by bus to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The group's brittle leader is Miss Judith Fellowes, whose 16-year-old niece Charlotte Goodall tries to seduce Shannon. Meanwhile, Fellowes accuses Shannon of trying to seduce Charlotte and declares that she will ruin him.

While approaching the group's hotel in the bus, Shannon suddenly veers off and recklessly drives the terrified passengers to a cheap Costa Verde hotel in Mismaloya. Shannon assumes that the hotel is run by an old friend named Fred, but the man had died recently and the hotel is now run by Fred's widow, the bawdy and flamboyant Maxine Faulk. Shannon convinces Maxine to allow the tour group to stay at the hotel, believing that they will be unable to reach a phone or escape.

Another new arrival at the hotel is Hannah Jelkes, a beautiful and chaste itinerant painter from Nantucket who is traveling with her elderly poet grandfather. They have run out of money, but Shannon convinces Maxine to let them have a room. Over a long night, Shannon battles his weaknesses for both flesh and alcohol, Miss Fellowes' niece continues to make trouble for him and he is "at the end of his rope," similar to how an iguana is kept tied by Maxine's cabana boys. Shannon suffers a breakdown, the cabana boys truss him in a hammock and Hannah ministers to him there with poppy-seed tea and frank spiritual counsel.

Hannah's grandfather delivers the final version of the poem that he has been laboring to finish and then dies. The characters try to resolve their confused lives, with Shannon and Maxine deciding to run the hotel together. Hannah walks away from her last chance at love.

Peter Morgan, a young doctor, starts a new job at Monument Heights Veterans' Hospital in Washington, D.C. The government-funded hospital is suffering from cutbacks upheld by Executive Director Dr. Henry Dreyfoos. Morgan only plans to work in the hospital temporarily before starting private practice. On his first day, Morgan finds himself out of his depth working amidst the chaos. One of the patients, veteran ‘Shooter’ Polaski, snaps after being given an Article 99 form, which states the hospital finds the patient ineligible for immediate treatment because the supposed ailment is not service-related. Polaski proceeds to drive through the hospital's entrance and starts a shooting rampage with his M16. A group of doctors led by Dr. Richard Sturgess are able to disarm Polaski.

After this traumatic incident, Sturgess takes Morgan under his wing. Sturgess, as well as his colleagues Rudy Bobrick, Sid Handleman and Robin Van Dorn, are defiant of Dreyfoos' belt-tightening policies. Sturgess does midnight raids on medical supply rooms and tries to get Morgan to join him, but Morgan refuses, fearing repercussions to his medical career.

Meanwhile, Morgan befriends World War II veteran Sam Abrams, who is considered by the hospital a 'gomer'—a person who cannot be admitted even with a critical condition and has to be constantly moved around so administration will not discharge him. Abrams' bond with Morgan has the new doctor increasingly growing discontent with the hospital's conditions.

Through overhearing Dreyfoos' phone conversation, Morgan learns a new shipment of cardiac surgery tools is stored in the pathology department. He relays this info to Sturgess, who does a midnight raid to get the tools. However, this turns out to be a trap set by Dreyfoos, who films the theft and blackmails Sturgess into voluntary suspension and a declaration of guilt if charges are brought. Shortly after, Abrams passes away, heavily affecting Morgan as he feels he failed his patient. Morgan eventually finds Dreyfoos' film and, infuriated he was used as bait, declares open rebellion against Dreyfoos, resulting in his own suspension.

Morgan and Sturgess, along with wiseguy veteran Luther Jerome, begin planning a hostile takeover to properly attend to the patients without the administration's interference. The veterans successfully lock out the security guards while Dreyfoos is away. Police gather outside but cannot remove the veterans as the hospital is under federal jurisdiction. News of the standoff reaches the FBI and the Inspector General, who arrives to assess the situation. The Inspector General attempts to negotiate with Luther, but Luther stands his ground as the veterans unfurl a massive banner in the hospital stating 'No Surrender'.

The FBI prepares to retake the hospital by force, cutting off the power and issuing a final warning. Sturgess convinces Luther to lay down resistance and reopen the hospital. The Inspector General and Dreyfoos enter the building and attempt to arrest Morgan, but Morgan stands his ground. The Inspector General discloses he himself is a Vietnam veteran, and acknowledging the situation the hospital is facing, he suspends Dreyfoos from the hospital management. Morgan decides to become a permanent resident in Monument Heights as no prosecutions are made.

Victory is sadly short-lived, as Dreyfoos' unnamed replacement decides to continue Dreyfoos' previous policies. Morgan and Sturgess vow to take a stand against the 'new' administration.

''The Pathfinder'' shows Natty at his old trick of guiding tender damsels through the dangerous woods, and the siege at the blockhouse and the storm on Lake Ontario are considerably like other of Cooper's sieges and storms. Natty, in this novel commonly called the Pathfinder, keeps in a hardy middle age his simple and honest nature, which is severely tested by his love for a nineteen-year-old young woman, Mabel Dunham. She is a conventional heroine of romance. A certain soft amiability about her turns for a time all the thoughts of the scout to the world of domestic affections. More talkative than ever before, he reveals new mental and moral traits. With the same touch of realism which had kept Uncas and Cora apart in ''The Last of the Mohicans'', Cooper separates these lovers, and sends Natty's romantic interest to the arms of a younger suitor, restoring the hero to his home in the wilderness.

Dave Martin and his friends Phil, Ron and Ricky are Post Office messenger boys who have formed their own four piece pop group, the 'Smart Alecs'. They pool their resources to make a tape recording of their original song "Live It Up". Dave is given a month by his unsympathetic father Herbert to get it published or give up his musical dreams. Sent with a special delivery to film producer Mark Watson, Dave gets into the studio where a musical is being made. He is stunned by a falling piece of equipment and is afterwards photographed with the star as compensation. Next day, when the accident and photo are publicised in a newspaper his friends upbraid him for not having mentioning their tape to the producer. He promises to approach Watson again but then discovers that it has vanished. Watson finds it at the studio and, with the group unknown, tries to interest Radio and T.V. in a mystery search. Finally with the help of Dave's girlfriend Jill and his father, Watson and columnist Nancy Spain are brought by taxi to meet the group and the 'Smart Alecs' then make good.

''Executioners'' reunites the main characters of ''The Heroic Trio'' in a dark, post-apocalyptic story set in a world ravaged by war, torn by social and political strife, and desperately short of uncontaminated water.

The Wonder Woman (Anita Mui) is now the mother of a young girl, named (in the English dubbed version) Charlie. She has abandoned her role as a crime fighter in order to become a better mother and wife. But while walking her daughter home from the grocery store, she witnesses an attempted water theft. In a brief display of her true prowess (and to the delight of her daughter), she stops the thief and returns the bagged water to the would-be victim.

The Invisible Girl, (Michelle Yeoh), has finally accepted her true role as a hero and strives to atone for the evil deeds she committed while under the influence of her former Evil Master (as shown in ''The Heroic Trio''), She has become an agent of change, striving to use her abilities for the good of society. She's gone so far as to become the tutor of the masked hunchback Kau, another of the Evil Master's former servants. Lured into a blast furnace in "The Heroic Trio", Kau had been horribly burned and disfigured; somehow, he retains his almost superhuman vitality and ability, yet has no moral compass, other than his allegiance to his tutor. She hopes to reform him and show him a better way, as the Wonder Woman and the Thief Catcher did for her.

The Thief Catcher (Maggie Cheung), is still up to her old ways, just trying to make a profit out of a bad situation. Yet even she is starting to strive for a higher standard, and has come to realize that she is part of a team and has responsibilities to something greater than herself. The three heroes are forced to overcome devastating personal loss, conflicting loyalties, and overwhelming odds, to bring security and justice back to the people.

''Dear Friends'' follows a high-school student named Rina (played by Keiko Kitagawa) who believes that friends are not necessary and that they can only be used in times of need. Thus, she is unable to maintain a decent relationship with her friends and classmates. Her family's relationship is also lacking; her father does not care much about his family and her mother is over-protective.

Rina spends a lot of her time going to a club in Shibuya where Yousuke (played by Masaya Kikawada) is the disc jockey with her friends Hiroko (played by Airi Toriyama) and Emi (played by Hatsune Matsushima). (In the opening scene, Rina has "borrowed" Hiroko's boyfriend for sex, infuriating Hiroko.) Yousuke falls for Rina, but her attitude has a feral edge, and they neck but stop short of having sex.

After obtaining a large amount of money under false pretenses (i.e. claiming she is pregnant when she is not and forcing the guy [not Hiroko's boyfriend or Yousuke] to pay for the abortion) and spending it on a bottle of Dom Pérignon (which she sprays over everyone at the club), Rina collapses on the dance floor. She eventually discovers that she has cancer (non-Hodgkin lymphoma) and becomes hospitalized for an indefinite amount of time. In the hospital, she is not visited by her family, but by one of her classmates named Maki (played by Yuika Motokariya). Although Maki tells Rina that they were friends in primary school, Rina does not remember her, so Maki takes the opportunity to re-connect with her. A young girl, Kanae, (played by Mao Sasaki) who is also hospitalized tries to become friends with Rina, but she holds fast onto her mantra of friends being unnecessary.

Throughout her hospitalization, Rina begins to lose hope as her well-being falls apart. Her hair falls out from the chemotherapy and she looks pale and thin. Rina learns that Kanae also had cancer (leukemia), and has died after a bone marrow transplant failed. Rina must undergo a mastectomy as the cancer has spread to her left breast. She decides to commit suicide by jumping off the hospital's rooftop. Before she can jump, however, she is confronted by Maki, who stabs herself in the chest with a knife and declares that she will share the same pain as Rina and that she does not want to lose her friend. Maki has suicidal tendencies (as evidenced by scars on her wrist), but sees in her relationship with Rina a reason to keep living. Rina shows some hope again when she realizes that she can find friendship in Maki, but she does not see Maki while the latter recovers from the stab wound.

Hiroko and Emi then visit Rina in the hospital ward. Hiroko throws away a love letter from Yousuke to Rina that she was supposed to deliver, then claims that she and Emi had three-way sex with him. Emi acknowledges this (even though it is new to her).

After treatment, Rina is discharged. She tries to go back to her party lifestyle, but cannot force herself to behave as she once did. She goes back to the club, where Emi apologizes for the hospital visit (claiming that Hiroko put her up to it) and states that Hiroko overdosed on drugs. Rina decides she is ready to have sex with Yousuke, but he has second thoughts after seeing Rina's mastectomy scar.

Rina goes back to the hospital rooftop to jump, but is stopped by the head nurse. The head nurse says that Maki wanted her to live, but Rina claims that Maki has not seen her recently. Then, another nurse pushes a zombie-like Maki in a wheelchair onto the rooftop. Maki says that the only reason she is still living is so that she could meet friends like Rina. Maki has a terminal illness: an unspecified neurodegenerative disease. Rina finds her purpose in life, fully recovered from cancer, applies to nursing school, becomes a nurse, and takes care of Maki during her final days. After three months, Maki dies.

There was not a central story in ''Por estas calles''. At the beginning, the main story revolved around the tribulations of elementary teacher Eurídice Briceño, falsely accused of murder, who has to hide under a new identity. But the other characters soon took bigger screen time, and it became an ensemble story. During its runtime, the telenovela adapted many stories inspired by news headlines.

Edwer Thissell, the new consul from Earth to the planet Sirene, has trouble adjusting to the local culture. The Sirenese cover their faces and heads with exquisitely crafted masks that indicate their social status (''strakh'') and mood. They also communicate by singing, accompanying themselves with one of a score of musical instruments, selected based on the social situation and feelings. Furthermore, errors of etiquette may prove fatal. Thissell is a clumsy musician and lacks confidence in the alien society, so he is forced to wear a lowly Moon Moth mask.

One day, he receives an alert to arrest a notorious assassin named Haxo Angmark, who is due on the next starship. Thissell, however, gets the message too late. He races to the spaceport, but Angmark, thoroughly comfortable with Sirenese customs, has already landed and disappeared. Thissell commits a number of serious social blunders in his haste to reach the spaceport and in enquiring after Angmark.

The next morning, Thissell is shown the body of an offworlder. He concludes that, since the fugitive would be unable to pass himself off as a native, Angmark must have killed and taken the place of one of the other three expatriates on the planet. But since even they wear masks, how is Thissell to know which one?

Eventually, Thissell solves the mystery by borrowing a slave from each of the suspects and determining their masters' mask preferences before and after Angmark's arrival. He succeeds in identifying his quarry, but is captured and forced to walk unmasked in public (the ultimate humiliation to the natives), while Angmark masquerades as Thissell by wearing his Moon Moth mask. However, the Sirenese turn on Angmark and kill him for the perversion of unmasking another man and, ironically, for Thissell's previous gaffes.

Thinking quickly, Thissell cleverly represents his humiliation as an act of unsurpassed bravery, asking if any present would be willing to be so shamed in order to destroy his enemy. With his new-found confidence, Thissell receives offers of gifts (the acceptance of which would enhance the prestige of both the giver and the recipient). He first goes with a mask maker to procure a covering more befitting his lofty new ''strakh''.

Vince Rinaud has liquor thrown in his face while lighting a cigarette during a party. Despite diving into the pool half his face is disfigured. As a result he becomes recluse and opens a wax museum. As various Paragon stars disappear new figures appear in his museum. It turns out that he has taken the theory of a Doctor Zerkai of using truth serum and a compound called Nerving will put a person into suspend animation for centuries and put it into practice to fill his museum. The formula has one flaw though - its influence is dampened by electricity (including electrical storms). He finally gets Max Block as the police close in and is about to make him into a figure. Max Block laughs and enrage Vince lunges forward and falls into the pool of molten wax. He is surrounded by everyone who is laughing at him and then a phone wakes him up. Answering it he is reminded of the party and not to be late.

The show was a follow on from the original Blinky Bill books by Dorothy Wall. Set in the fictional Bollygum National Park, characters include Blinky Bill, Mrs Magpie, Angelina Wallaby and Walter Wombat from the books, and new characters such as Charlie Goanna, Eric Echidna, Sybilla Snake and Kerry Koala from the neighbouring fictional Acadia Ridge park.

The series takes place in a near future in which a South American despot named Rykos launches his sole two atomic missiles on New York City in the U.S. and Moscow in the U.S.S.R. The two superpowers, each believing the other has launched a first strike, retaliate. By the time American president Cole and a Russian premier with the first name Mikhail have realized their errors, their fully automated nuclear-missile systems can not be countermanded.

Only hours before the apocalypse begins, a Saturn VI rocket launches bearing three astronauts: '''Captain Boyd Ellis''', United States Air Force; his fiancée, '''Jill Malden'''; and Japanese physicist '''Ikei Yashida'''. Weeks later, after the post-apocalyptic radiation has subsided to safe levels, their space capsule lands upon a melting Greenland ice field, where the three ally themselves with '''Kuno''', a 3rd-century Goth revived from his ice-encased suspended animation.

The four encounter a Russian scientist/cyborg in Canada, where they commandeer a futuristic jet plane; undersea dwellers; and brutish U.S. military survivors, among others.

This film opens with Treasury Agent Jimmy Mercer (Wesley Snipes) and his partner Brady (Dan Hedaya) doing some undercover work, when Mercer's fellow Agent is shot and killed by a new man, Ronnie (Viggo Mortensen) that criminal Rudolph "Red" Diamond (Dennis Hopper) pulled out of jail. Now on a snap of anger and thoughts of revenge, Mercer wants to find the killer and take him down before he gets transferred to Newark. Although a cop and close colleague claims over dinner that Mercer must do it "by the book," Mercer replies that "when I'm done with this motherfucker, I'm gonna put him in a box..... by the book."

A background theme is the closing of a big band dance emporium called the Palace. Lonely, Red takes hooker Vicky (Lolita Davidovich) there for dancing. Lolita is also involved romantically with Mercer, who is estranged from his ex-wife.

Red continues to try to build a relationship with his old girlfriend, waitress Mona, (Valerie Perrine). Typically, he has manipulated and betrayed her in the past.

Red is under increasing pressure to repay mob debts to boss Tony Dio (Tony Lo Bianco). He manipulates Ronnie into a crime spree culminating in the murder of the boss and ransacking his apartment. He tells Ronnie to meet him at the palace at 9 PM to split up the money. He asks Mona to meet him there as well. Mercer is building his case against Red and arrives at the murder scene seconds too late. Red is soon arrested and a net is laid for Ronnie at the club

At the club Red again manipulates Ronnie in an attempt to escape, yelling gun as he ducks. Ronnie is shot by Mercer in the exchange and Red almost escapes. As Red is taken away in the police car Mona arrives, seeing him pass by. In the last scene Jimmy asks Vicky to leave with him.

The epilogue reports that they actually did move to Newark.

After Ralph dismisses his wife's orders to clear the snow from the front walk before he went out for the day, he finds his regular mailman dead on his front stairs, having slipped on the ice and broken his neck. Fearing police investigations and potential wrongful death lawsuits from the letter carriers' union amongst other things, Ralph must go to great lengths to cover up the mailman's death while his wife comes to terms with her past.

During a summer festival, the Angel of Death (Robert Z'Dar) instructs his "Soultaker" subordinate (Joe Estevez) to kill five people: Zack (Gregg Thomsen), Zack's friends Brad (David "Shark" Fralick) and Tommy (Chuck Williams), Brad's girlfriend Candice (Cinda Lou Freeman), and Zack's ex-girlfriend Natalie (Vivian Schilling). After Natalie's friend leaves her behind, Zack offers her a ride home in Brad's car, although Brad is high on cocaine and reluctant to accept her as a passenger. Driving home at high speed, Brad crashes the car to avoid hitting the Soultaker. Candice dies instantly while Natalie, Brad, Zack, and Tommy fall comatose as their souls leave their bodies. The Soultaker then takes Candice's soul and informs the Angel of Death, who orders him to recover the other souls. Thinking they survived the crash, the four return to the car, unaware their bodies were taken to a hospital. There, Soultaker reveals himself and claims Brad's soul; the others, helpless to stop him, flee.

They run into a convenience store and attempt to tell the cashier who cannot see them that someone is after them. While inside, they see a news report on the crash, which confuses them, and Natalie accuses Zack of knowing Brad had been using drugs. They leave the store and call emergency services, but the operator cannot hear them and hangs up on them. Appearing again, the Soultaker tries to claim Natalie's soul, but her resemblance to his past lover, whom he killed in his former life, stays his hand. Zack rescues her and they flee, leaving Tommy behind. The Angel of Death reprimands his subordinate for failing to take her soul, and the Soultaker then takes Tommy's.

Zack and Natalie go to her house, where they tell her mother Anna (Jean Reiner) about the Soultaker. Zack and Natalie reconcile while Anna prepares a bath for her. While she bathes, Anna watches her from behind the bathroom door. Meanwhile, Zack learns from a live television announcement from Natalie's father Mayor Grant (David Fawcett) that their life support systems will be turned off at midnight. During the broadcast, Anna appears onscreen; at the same time, the "Anna" watching Natalie suddenly morphs into the Soultaker. He attempts to make a pact with her, offering her eternal life on the condition that she stays by his side forever. Zack arrives and attempts to attack the Soultaker, but is overpowered. Natalie tries to shoot the Soultaker to no effect. When she tells the Soultaker she wants to be with Zack, the Soultaker throws him out of the window. Zack survives the fall.

Hoping to return to their bodies before midnight, Natalie and Zack flee to the hospital. Natalie is captured by the Soultaker on an elevator which leads to the afterlife; he claims he is an angel charged with collecting souls. He convinces her there is nothing left for her in the living realm, that Zack is already dead, and that she can be saved if she stays with him. While searching for her, Zack encounters Brad, who has become a Soultaker, as those who kill someone even by accident must pay for it with service as a grim reaper. With Brad's help, he enters the afterlife and rescues Natalie. Brad gives him two empty "soul rings", which can help him and Natalie return to their bodies.

They find Natalie's body, and she places herself in the ring but remains comatose. Discovering that her pendant is acting as a barrier between her soul and her body, Zack pulls her soul from her body to reattempt the process when the Soultaker reappears. After a chase around the hospital, Zack escapes by leaping off the roof. The Soultaker is confronted by the Angel of Death, who tells him that he has failed since it is now past midnight. Despite his pleas, the Soultaker is imprisoned into a soul ring by his master. Zack returns to his body and saves Natalie's life; he later visits her when she is discharged from the hospital.

Marieta (Mónica Cervera), a transgender woman, works as a prostitute in the city of Madrid to save money for a sex change operation. Her narcoleptic spells cause her to fall asleep at any sudden moment, and each time she dreams she is the star of musical numbers where she is free to sing and dance as her true self. Marieta meets a man who works at the market, Raúl (Pablo Puyol), and he loves her with her appendage. This creates a conflict for Marieta, who is happy about her new found love, yet so desperately wants her operation to feel like her whole true self.

The Bell sisters, Annie (KaDee Strickland), Jane (Teri Polo) and Sammy Bell (Sarah Jones), inherited ''"The Wedding Palace"'' after their parents' divorce. David Conlon (Michael Landes), photographer for ''The Wedding Palace'' and ex-boyfriend of Annie's whose tension-filled dealings with her are clearly the result of pent-up sexual chemistry; and Russell Hawkins (Benjamin King), Jane's husband and the company COO; round off the cast.

Then there's wedding singer Ralph Snow (Chris Williams), who always aspired to be the next Lenny Kravitz, but instead is stuck crooning endless cover songs and retro medleys for unappreciative wedding guests. Amanda Pontell (Missi Pyle) adds to the frenzied scene as a former bridezilla client who becomes a board member of The Wedding Palace.

B-plots through the brief run of the series

• The relationship between Wedding Palace assistant Debbie (Sherri Shepherd) and another wedding singer (Cleavant Derricks in a recurring role). Her biological clock is ticking and he is cautious about getting married again, as his first marriage ended badly.
• The very rich (but socially awkward) Amanda Pontell's efforts to fit in with the three Bell sisters.
• Sammy Bell's (Sarah Jones) efforts to be seen as a whole woman, not just as a sexy woman.
• Sibling rivalry between Jane (Teri Polo) and Annie (KaDee Strickland) -- there is a history of Jane's boyfriends becoming attracted to Annie—and Jane and Sammy—Sammy has read in Jane's diary that Jane is jealous of Sammy's breasts.
• Had the series gone on, another secondary plot might have been about Russell's efforts to franchise the Wedding Palace. Christopher Rich played a potential investor with Las Vegas connections in the last aired episode.
• A couple of episodes had Heather Tom and Nicholle Tom as buxom blonde sisters who would crash weddings. Debbie would inevitably throw them out.

The story is set in the Rhondda Valley in the early 1930s. It chronicles the trials and tribulations of the peoples, set against the backdrop of the aftermath of the General Strike and the Great Depression in the South Wales Valleys. It is principally seen through the eyes of a newly ordained chapel minister, the Reverend Dan Price.

The story is peopled with colourful characters who mostly struggle to live their lives during economic troubles. They include Dan's uncle, John 'Shoni' Lloyd, an ex-First World War soldier and confirmed non-chapel goer, Morgan 'Big Mog' Morgan, an ex-miner, ex-soldier and now a successful bookie and philanthropist, David 'Dai Hippo' Daniels, an ex-miner and firebrand Communist activist, and Guy Sprattling, ('the captain') a badly shell-shocked veteran of the war who works for Big Mog until he is eventually able to face the world again.

Dan throws himself into his work at Beulah chapel, which is heavily in debt, and attempts to draw more people into the work of the chapel and improve attendance (and thereby its income). He persuades the fiery 'Llew Rhondda', the chapel's choirmaster known as 'God's Songmaster', to revive the tradition of choral performances at Beulah.

On his visit to Evans the Draper, he meets Lucy Meredith and is smitten with her, eventually courting her, whilst carrying on his full-time work at the chapel, giving lectures, producing amateur dramatics and trying to persuade people to come to chapel instead of attending boxing matches and communist rallies.

The story culminates with a massive explosion in one of the mines that is still working. Shoni, a trained rescue worker, goes down to bring out the trapped miners, with no lives lost, Dan joins an emotional prayer vigil at the pithead.

When he dies, Evans the Draper wills his estate and house to Lucy, so that she and Dan can marry.

The Doctor and Martha arrive on the ''Castor'', an abandoned prison ship floating in space. Whilst exploring they find a fully populated village and forest, whose inhabitants appear to be unaware of the spaceship outside, and whose children are mysteriously disappearing. Later, The Doctor and Martha find a creature from another dimension, who, because of its telepathic powers, was used to remove the evil from prisoners in the ''Castor''. To keep itself sane, it expelled the evil, creating a separate being which killed the crew. The telepathic creature then created the forest and village in an attempt to balance itself with goodness, but, due to low power supplies, it is having to remove small parts of the 'program', such as children, to conserve power. The Doctor offers to pilot the ship closer to a sun to give the creature more power to run the program, and a woman from the village absorbs the evil into her body, before exiling herself, so she can learn to control it. The Doctor and Martha then leave the creature to maintain the forest world.

Bagas (Marcel Chandrawinata) has a crush on his neighbor and childhood friend, Alexandria (Julie Estelle), but he is unable to express it. Things change when Bagas realizes that his best friend, Rafi (Fachri Albar), is also pursuing Alexandria, and that she may like him as well.

Fragments of a mysterious stone known as the are scattered across the globe. Once all four pieces are assembled, the location to the world's largest deposit of gold will be revealed. The villainous gang are searching for the Skull Stone. Standing in their way are Gan and Ai, who become the masked heroes Yatterman-1 and Yatterman-2, respectively. The two are aided in their adventures by a large mechanical dog, Yatterwan.

Unlike previous series in the ''Time Bokan'' franchise, Yatterman does not cover any specific time/space travel. Instead, the places where the heroes travel to and the individuals they encounter are either a homage or parody. The fictional characters or places are usually represented by purposely misspelled names or familiar actions. For example, a revolution leader is named "Yashington", in homage to George Washington; and a place resembling ancient Japan is named "Yametai" ("(I) want to stop"), as a spoof of Yamatai.

A writer of murder novels adopts a new identity to track down the hit-and-run driver who killed his son. Along the way he falls in love with a beautiful film star, and a series of disastrous complications take their course.

Framed and convicted of a crime she did not commit, Flora, played by Fanny Navarro is sent to prison, where she meets Roberta, played by Golde Flami, who becomes her protector and lover.

The Big Five are seeking hidden in the basement of a hotel treasure.

The film begins with the Five aboard a ship sailing to Africa. The group later cross the desert on camel and the jungle and stay in a palace.

Marcela loses her mental health when her boyfriend dies. Carlos, an old teacher, helps in her recovery and a romance starts between them.

Roberto Moran (Mariano Mores) has just arrived in Buenos Aires from the provinces to work in a foundry. He can play the bandoneón by ear but wants to have proper training in music at a conservatory run by a frustrated old musician, Don Matias (Ricardo Galache). The old man first rejects both Roberto and his instrument, but after hearing him play, he changes his mind and takes him on, though forbidding him to play popular music, which he despises.

Roberto becomes a great classical pianist, but as he acquires proficiency, he secretly composes tangos too. One of the best sequences shows him informally playing the Argentine "Taquito Militar" accompanied by the other students playing their classical instruments (violin, clarinet, harp).

Roberto wins a scholarship to go to Europe to further his success as a pianist but he turns it down, preferring to compose "music that reveals the soul of the city". "The day will come," he tells the conductor Aquiles Baldi (Orestes Soriani), "when your great orchestra will play this kind of music."

A conflict arises with the arrival of factory owner, Francisco Romani (Santiago Gómez Cou), a calculating authoritarian who admires the United States. Roberto and Romani are both interested in Isabel (Diana Maggi), the conservatory director's daughter, who is torn between staying with the infatuated young musician who loves her or opting for the affluence of his more mature opponent. At the end of the film the roles are reversed: while Roberto achieves both popular success and the support of the "cult", showing his old master he can indeed express the "voice of the city", the entrepreneur is finally revealed to be a worthy suitor, full of feeling, who can succeed in winning the heart of the young woman.

Mario Lopez (Oscar Rovito) is a child, the son of an aging footballer (Armando Bo) . On the one hand, while his father is disowned by supporters for being no longer physically able to play it, he tries to convince himself that this is a temporary decline and he will return to his former star status. On the other hand, his mother and his maternal grandfather, reject the world of football and the street, arguing that it is a primitive world and inadequate, isolating him. Only his son remains a major fan. Dying from a serious illness, he tries to please his fans once more and regain his legendary status.

Khamlao is a Black op Counter-terrorismsecret agent for the country of Wongnaileum, which shares the common Isan dialect and culture with its neighboring country, Thailand (similar to [Laos]). He is dispatched to Bangkok on a secret mission to track down some terrorists. To do so, he goes undercover as a luk thung singer working for a record label that serves as a front company for dealers in weapons of mass destruction. As he probes deep inside the record company, he finds that the company's executive secretary is actually a CIA agent, assigned to the same mission. Meanwhile, Khamlao's wife, Keaw, discovers that Khamlao had lied to her about his job in Thailand.

The film ends where the first film starts.

Out of ambition, a woman sacrifices her true love and marries a man of fortune.

María, a passionate and selfish woman, willingly maintains an affair with Rómulo, a married man who ends up abandoning his fragile and insecure wife to unleash all his passions with her. Being wealthy and gorgeous Maria also displays cynicism, pride and unscrupulousness which causes torture and suffering of those around her. Then came David, a dedicated scientist who attends to the unprotected and sacrificed workers of Maria's plantation, which showed the latter the ghosts of her licentious life.

A couple sees their lives altered when they take care of their grandchildren while their children go on a trip.

A divorced couple find their path to reuniting complicated by another couple.

Oliviero Rouvigny, a failed writer and an alcoholic, lives in a crumbling mansion with his wife Irina, who is scared of Oliviero's cat, Satan, that used to belong to his late mother Esther. The only other main resident is the maid, Brenda. To fight boredom, Oliviero organizes decadent parties for local hippies and humiliates and abuses Irina in front of the guests. A key early plot-point is the elegant gown that belonged to Rouvigny's dead mother that he catches Irina wearing which angers him. After his mistress Fausta, a young student and bookstore employee, is found murdered, Oliviero becomes the primary suspect after being fingered by Fausta's boss Bartello. The author lies when questioned by police and tells them that he was fixing a flat tire on his car during the time Fausta was murdered and forces Irina to cover for him. Later, Irina investigates the supposed flat tire in the boot of her husbands car but he catches her and angrily beats her. During the night during a heavy thunder storm, Brenda puts on Esther's gown and is silently watched by Oliviero. Brenda senses someone else is in the house and attempts to flee to her room but is mortally wounded by the still-unseen killer with a bill-hook. Irina finds the dying Brenda who collapses at her feet. Oliviero appears and coldly views the body and convinces Irina to help him conceal it to avoid further suspicions. Brenda's body is buried in the cellar, although Oliviero refuses to dispose of the blood-stained gown with the body and tells Irina to wash it.

Then Oliviero's niece Floriana suddenly arrives for a visit from Paris. A sinister gray-haired man also appears and seems to watch the Rouvigny's from afar. Later at the house, the same gray-haired man shows up and gives Irina a dry-cleaning package containing the gown. Oliviero flies into a rage after believing his wife sent the dress out to be cleaned and beats her and locks her in a closet where Satan claws Irina. Floriana finds her aunt in the closet and frees her. Irina finds comfort in Floriana's arms and bed, and the two start an affair and decide to find a way to deal with Oliviero. The same night, the killer strikes again and murders a local prostitute named Giovanna, who had coincidentally arrived in town the same day Floriana appeared. The girl's aunt/madame kills the attacker. The following day, the police inspector reveals to Oliviero that the serial killer was none other than the book store manager Bartello, who was really an escaped mental patient named Lipori. Rouvigny tells his wife this and attempts to strangle her. Floriana, meanwhile, has begun a relationship with the local milkman Dario, who previously dated Brenda. Following attending a dirt-bike race in which Dario competes but is forced to drop-out of due to his bike failing, Floriana is taken by Dario to an old barn where they make love while Oliviero secretly spies on them.

Irina catches Satan after the cat kills several of her pet doves and in a rage stabs one of the cats eyes out with a pair of scissors. This is witnessed by the elderly woman who collects bottles from the house and she is ordered to leave by a crazed-looking Irina who rushes into the house and collapses. Later Oliviero enters Floriana's room and finds her laying in bed in his mother's gown. Floriana reveals she knew that her uncle spied on her when she bedded Dario in the barn loft and then proceeds to seduce Oliviero. The next morning, Oliviero confronts Irina about his missing cat and questions why she bought new scissors. When Irina mentions Esther, Oliviero lunges at her and rapes her, Floriana witnessing everything. The elderly woman, Mrs. Molinar, visits the town and asks to speak to the Chief of Police regarding the Rouvigny's. Oliviero, Floriana, and Irina visit a mountaintop scenic view and the two women discuss killing Oliviero by pushing him over the cliff. That night, Irina is awakened by the sound of Satan's wailing outside. She goes to the room of Floriana and overhears her niece and Oliviero discussing her and Oliviero mentions he has made space in the cellar for his wife's body. Irina rushes outside and sees Dario secretly meeting with Floriana and asking her to meet him in the morning. Irina spies Satan and chases him into the cellar where she discovers that Brenda's corpse has been uncovered, giving credence to Oliviero's murderous plans. Irina approaches Olivero, passed out next to his typewriter and violently stabs him to death with the scissors. Following the murder, Floriana reveals she watched but indicates that Irina will surely go to prison unless she covers up the murder. Floriana reveals that she has been after the jewelry that Oliviero had stashed in the mansion. Irina humbly gives her the jewelry and the two have sex one final time before Floriana departs in the morning. The gray-haired man, Walter, sneaks into the house in the early morning hours and begins writing on Oliviero's type writer "vendetta" repeatedly before escaping as Irina and Floriana investigate. Disturbed by these events, Floriana abandons Irina and rushes out to meet Dario. Walter appears and its discovered is the secret-lover to Irina, who goes to the cellar. Irina reveals that it was she who killed Esther as well as Brenda. The original scheme was to convince Oliviero he was Brenda's killer and drive him mad, however his own plans to murder Irina and bed Floriana forced a change of plan. Walter kills both Floriana and Dario by throwing oil on the road as they attempt to escape on motorbike, making it look like an accident so he can recover the family jewels. Later, Irina pushes Walter off a cliff to have the jewelry all for herself. When Irina returns to the mansion, she finds the police there. Mrs. Molinar, the old woman, had filed a complaint for animal cruelty, as she had seen Irina stabbing Satan. Inside the mansion, the police officers notice that the cat seems to be mewing in agony inside a wall. As they tear down the wall, they discover the cat and the dead body of Oliviero inside.

''Rent-a-Goalie'' revolves around the exploits of Cake (Christopher Bolton), a hockey-mad, recovered-from-everything go-to guy, who runs a rag-tag hockey goalie rental service out of Cafe Primo, a family-owned coffee shop in Toronto's Little Italy. Here, at this crazy crossroads of hockey culture and coffee culture, Cake has finally found a home. He spends his time juggling friends and enemies, the ridiculous and the profound, while always trying to live by "The Code" – an ever-evolving set of personal ethics, spiritual maxims and athletic credos that keep him on the straight and narrow.

Wealthy New York businessman G. Ellery Cobbold has sent his son Stanwood, a blundering ex-American football player, to London, to separate him from Hollywood starlet Eileen Stoker with whom he is in love. When Cobbold discovers that Stoker is also in London, making pictures, he insists that Stanwood goes to stay with a distant relation, curmudgeonly widower Lord Shortlands. But Stanwood stays put. Instead, good-looking movie agent Mike Cardinal goes to Shortlands' castle (Beevor, in Kent), posing as Stanwood. He is pursuing Shortlands' beautiful daughter Terry. But Terry is wary of him because he is too handsome.

Lord Shortlands himself is in love with his cook, Mrs Punter, and would like to marry her. Unfortunately she insists on £200 to buy a pub, which Shortlands doesn't have, the purse-strings at Beevor Castle being firmly in the control of his domineering elder daughter Adela. Also, he has a rival in suave butler Mervyn Spink. Things look up for "Shorty" when he discovers that a stamp in his collection is worth £1000. But Spink fools Adela into believing that the stamp is his, and it gets locked up in a safe. It so happens that Stanwood's butler, Augustus Robb is an ex-safe breaker, and Mike masterminds a burglary. This goes disastrously wrong, and Mike gets hit in the face with a bag of safe breaking tools. The up-side is that his battered face makes him suddenly attractive to Terry. So, after a final misunderstanding, things end happily for Mike and Terry. Stanwood and Eileen also get together. But Mrs Punter runs off with Augustus Robb, leaving Shorty and Spink ruing their loss in love but bound in their increased fortunes; Spink is a big winner in a horse race and Shorty has been invited to live with Mike and Terry in Hollywood, away from Adela, where the savvy Mike has assured him he can make a handsome income by appearing in movies as a character actor of butlers.

Haines plays a shipping clerk named Jack Kelly. He neglected golf to work for the aging Mr. Waters (George Fawcett). On one day, Mr. Waters fires Pop Kelly (Bert Woodruff). Jack witnesses this and is outraged. He wants revenge and breaks a window with a golf ball. Mr. Waters catches him but, instead of being mad, he is impressed with Jack's golfing skills. He later that day announces to his dad he is invited by The Oakmont Country Club to be a guest of the club for a minimum of two weeks. His role there will be the teacher of Mr. Waters, trying to teach him how to golf. Pop doesn't want to say goodbye, but lets him go.

At the club, he meets Allie Monte (Joan Crawford) and immediately falls in love with her. He introduces himself as a member from the shipping business of her family. However, Allie sees through him and walks away. Harold Johnson (Edward Earle) is the club champion and devotes himself to Allie. He tries to get her attention at a game, but she is not charmed with his presence. Over the days, the members – including Allie – become more pleased with Jack as he teaches everyone how to golf.

Jack and Allie bond with each other. Johnson feels intimidated by Jack, fearing he could take over the championship title and his girl. Jack kisses Allie, but she storms off. He tries to apologize, but she refuses to talk to him. Therefore he climbs into her room, staying there until she forgives him.

The next day, Jack sets a record with the golf tournament. While giving his victory speech, he notices his father, who came there to tell his son how proud he is of him. Jack realizes his club membership is almost over and swears he will marry a rich girl, which would make him allowed to stay at the club. He decides to propose to Allie, but she informs him her father has just lost all of his money. She admits she now has to marry a wealthy man to keep her social position.

They are interrupted by Martha Lomsdom (Eileen Percy), who invites them to a party. On their way, Jack sees Allie is flirting with Johnson, so he does the same with the wealthy Martha. At the party, Johnson announces he and Allie are engaged. Jack is devastated, but Martha sees an opportunity in luring him. Her beau confronts her, but she responds she is willing to leave him for Jack. Jack now admits he is not the person to marry for money. When he meets up with Allie to say goodbye, he realizes he can't live without her and tells her he loves her.

Allie admits she loves him too, but reminds him she is already engaged to Johnson. They decide to run off and marry. Allie tells her dad Jack is a millionaire shipping man. Jack is afraid to tell her the truth about his income. But when he does, she throws him out. Her family tells her it's a good riddance and she should get an annulment. Allie however refuses, stating he is her husband. In the final scene, Jack becomes rich with winning a golf tournament and is reunited with Allie.

Buford Turnover (Bert Remsen) is suffering from advanced dementia, and it's only a matter of time before he dies. Told by Buford's mother-in-law Lois (Molly McClure) ('Mama Wheelis' to her grandchildren) that their father is dying, his four adult children arrive at the family's homestead to spend time with their father during his last days. It's a mixed bag of personalities: Lurlene (Amy Wright), the eldest sister, a minister's wife who rarely visits the rest of the family; Sara Lee (Tess Harper), the spinsterish middle sister who cares for her father with the help of her grandmother; Orville (Beau Bridges), the greedy, abusive brother, and his wife, Marlene (Patrika Darbo); and the youngest sibling Evalita (Beverly D'Angelo), the six-times married aspiring country singer, who brings her hippie boyfriend Harmony (Judge Reinhold).

All arrive at the Turnover homestead, and personalities clash.

Eldest sister Lurlene irritates her siblings as she tries to take control of the situation, causing resentment by acting too much like their deceased mother Linnie Sue (Carolyn Brooks). She is a bit estranged from the rest of the family, having only returned to the homestead every few years since she married and moved away, leaving her father to try to run the farm alone. For this reason, Lurlene suspects that she has been cut out of the will. However, Lurlene has few altercations with her siblings and tries to keep the peace among them.

Sara Lee also tries to act as peacemaker, until Evalita has a drunken night at the bar with Clarence (Keith Carradine), to whom Sara Lee is engaged (though it is later revealed to the audience that the two had broken up at some prior point). Evalita implies that she and Clarence had slept together, though Clarence denies the event.

Orville frequently verbally abuses Marlene, often criticizing her weight and parenting skills. (The couple have one son, Jimbo, whom Orville sent to reform school after catching him smoking marijuana and huffing gasoline.) Orville is rarely seen without a beer in his hand. Marlene is preoccupied with her weight and is quite unhappy with her husband and life. She and her sisters-in-law and grandmother-in-law get along very well, and Marlene quickly forms a close bond with Harmony as well.

Evalita is constantly drunk and makes her family uncomfortable during very public displays of affection with Harmony. She spends most of her time not at home with her dying father, but at the local bar, singing. On one occasion, she lies about her age.

Harmony is initially distrusted by the family, but eventually manages to win the family over (except Orville) when he demonstrates his piano playing ability by playing "I'll Fly Away" on the family piano. As everybody gathers together to sing along, Buford hears the music and rises from his bed, watching his grown son and daughters sing. He sees them as small children, singing with their mother.

When Harmony and Marlene secretly share a joint, he tells her that he is falling in love with her, and asks her to run away with him. She refuses, but they end up kissing in the kitchen and nearly get caught by Orville.

Eventually, Mama Wheelis remembers that Buford kept his will in a strong box buried in the yard. Harmony helps open the box by picking the lock, telling the family that he had once served time in prison for burglary. Evalita, again drunk, berates him for this and Harmony leaves. The will is read, and though all the siblings had been forgiven by their father in an earlier scene, the will hadn't been changed and Lurlene and Orville each receive only $1 of the $600,000 estate. Jimbo receives what would have been his father's share in the estate. Sara Lee offers to share her inheritance with Orville and Lurlene, but Evalita refuses to give up any of hers.

Harmony returns to tell Evalita that he has thrown her belongings out of his van, and that he is going back to California. Marlene quickly grabs her suitcase and leaves with Harmony.

Buford eventually dies, and the family converges in the living room for the funeral. They begin to practice the song they will sing at the funeral, and an image of Buford can be seen, watching. Again, he sees his adult children as young children.

In their newfound peace, the will is temporarily forgotten.

On a cold afternoon, with snow on the ground, a high school band in a small Pennsylvania town is practicing for the season's last football game, when they hear gunshots while their teacher, Mr. Chervenick, is giving instructions. The film abruptly flashes back to a few weeks before, to a Chinese restaurant that employs a high school boy named Arthur, his ex-babysitter, Annie, and her best friend, Barb. Arthur, who's a bit of a misfit, has a troubled home life caused by his constantly clashing parents, both of whom often forget about him. Annie's life isn't faring much better: she's dealing with her ill mother, is separated from her husband, Glenn, and is now raising their young daughter, Tara, on her own. Glenn is now on the wagon and becoming a born-again Christian in order to prove that he is responsible enough to spend time with Tara.

Depressed and lonely, Annie decides to betray her best friend by having an affair with Barb's husband, Nate, but finds that ruining Barb's life doesn't make her own life any happier. Desperate to prove himself and still harboring deep feelings for his estranged wife (though he suspects is seeing someone), Glenn gets a new job and spends as much time as possible with Tara. Meanwhile, Arthur finds himself growing close to Lila, a new student at the high school who has a knack for photography.

The film focuses heavily on how people's lives can cross in a small town, especially when Tara wanders out of the house and goes missing while Annie, drained over having meaninglessly destroyed her friendship with Barb and suffering from a bad cold, falls asleep on the couch. The whole town spends hours desperately searching for Tara, before Arthur finds her body while smoking pot with his friend. To everyone's horror, Tara had fallen into open freezing water at the edge of the lake while playing and drowned, after which the open water froze over her. Glenn distraught over the death of his little girl, Tara, breaks into Annie's home with his shotgun and waits for her return. Upon Annie's return Glenn grabs her and forcibly washes her feet. Covering her mouth as she cries and screams at him, he drags a barefoot Annie by the collar into the snowy woods. With her kneeling, back turned to him, Glenn holds his gun to her head and tells her to say when she's ready (to be shot). The movie presumably ends with their murder-suicide, explaining the shots heard before the flashback.

The story is set in 1911 London at the time of George V's coronation. American-born chorus girl Mary Morgan becomes involved with Balkan archduke Charles, the widowed Prince Regent of Carpathia, after he sees a performance of her West End musical ''The Coconut Girl''. She soon becomes involved with the actions of his teenaged son, King Nicholas, as well as the Queen Mother. A peripheral character, fish-and-chips peddler Ada Cockle, appears to be present solely to entertain the audience with a rousing fifteen-minute rendition of traditional Cockney tunes.

Carlo Levi is a painter and writer from Turin. He also has a degree in medicine but has never practised it. Arrested in 1935 by Mussolini's regime for anti-fascist activities, he is confined to Aliano (''Gagliano'' in the novel), a remote town in the region of Lucania, the southern 'instep' of Italy, known today as Basilicata. While the landscape is beautiful, the peasantry are impoverished and mismanaged. They are superstitious and insular; many have emigrated to the United States in search of employment. Since the local doctors are not interested in treating peasants, Levi begins to minister to their health in response to their appeals, establishing a strong relationship with the community.

A scientist experiments with chicken breeding in order to produce a miraculous meat, capable of changing the lives and tempers of its consumers.

''El Primer Bes''o is a romance between the son of a taxi driver and a salesgirl at a newsstand.

This conventional drama by director Daniel Tinayre handles a distinctive subject—the onset of blindness in an adult—and raises issues about the disability without diving far under the surface. The setting is an institution for the blind, and the featured protagonist is a man who rails against his misfortune, his energy and thinking distorted by a need to fight his blindness. Unhappy and unable to come to grips with his condition, he stirs a sympathetic chord in another blind inmate. She in turn, slowly enters into a relationship with him that starts to transform the ways he perceives himself and his blindness.

A man is led to commit a robbery by the woman he falls in love with later when he is released from the prison he takes refuge in a convent.

A young painter from the La Boca neighborhood discovers that his father is a millionaire, goes to live with him, changes his life and returns to his neighborhood.

An individual is forced to pose as a famous boxer.

Beautiful farmer's daughter Isabel can have any man in the village, but she falls in love with the wrong man and his sins cost both of them their lives at the Iguazú Falls.

The plot is a variation on the standard B-Western "Land Grab" plot: Gold has been discovered in the area and gambler Jim Rodney intends to make sole claim to it by pushing the rightful owners off the land and taking it for himself. To do so he has his henchmen kill an Indian woman, provoking attacks from her tribe. This brings Buffalo Bill and the United States Cavalry into the town. Buffalo Bill proceeds to defeat Rodney and his schemes.

Butte Morgan (villain) plans to take over a circus by marrying Maria Wallace, the daughter of the circus's owner. She, however, is interested only in the trick rider Jack Grant..

Vincent Day (Warren William) is a prosecutor who is on the fast track to success. When a man he zealously prosecuted all the way to the electric chair is found to have been innocent, he becomes distressed and quits his job. At the suggestion of a friendly bartender (Guy Kibbee), he decides to switch teams and become a defense attorney specializing in the representation of gangsters and other unsavory people. He will use any tactic to get his clients acquitted, up to and including drinking a slow-acting poison from a bottle of evidence to prove that the substance isn't lethal. The jury acquits the man not knowing that immediately after, Day rushes into a mob doctor's office for a pre-arranged stomach pump.

Celia Farraday (Sidney Fox) is a young secretary recently arrived in the city from a small town in Kentucky. When Day makes play for her, she spurns his advances, loyal to her fiancé, Johnny (William Janney). When the fiancé is framed for a crime committed by one of Day's clients, Day's affection for Celia not only prompts Day to defend Johnny by implicating his client in the crime, but to reconsider his life of getting criminals out of jail sentences. However, his associates send him a message that his departure will not be allowed. He lets them know that he has all of their secrets in a safe-deposit box, along with instructions for the bank to forward the contents to the District Attorney in the event of his unnatural death. They call his bluff and he is shot while leaving his office to attend Celia's wedding. On the way to the hospital, he tells his faithful secretary that the criminals were wrong to call his bluff and that the information will be on the way to the DA. The movie leaves it ambiguous whether Day, shot several times, will survive his wounds.

Airmail pilot Bob Lee (James Flavin), owner of a gold mine, faces off against "The Black Hawk" (Wheeler Oakman) who has kidnapped Jimmy Ross (Al Wilson), Bob's best friend. The Black Hawk carries out a series of attacks on Bob's ore shipments by air, using an unusual catapult device that launches aircraft into the sky to intercept Bob's aircraft. With his sweetheart, Mary Ross (Lucile Browne), Bob constantly battles against his enemy, and eventually is able to defeat him.

John Blaine – helped by his teenaged son and daughter, Noah and Ann – work to build a section of a transcontinental railroad "through the heart of the wild and wooly west." Their section threads through Wyoming territory, dangerously close to hostile Indians. In addition to tribulations inherent in the Old West, work is hindered by crooked foreman Rance Judd, who is "secretly in the pay of a rival contractor and aims to make Blaine lose his government railroad contract by fouling up construction in any way he can" with help from his henchmen Butch Gore, Bart Eaton, and Buckskin Joe. Blaine is aided by a group of men also working on the railroad: surveyor Tom Crosby, scout Noah Blaine, and rail crew leader Bart Eaton. Together, our heroes must battle skullduggery from Judd's henchmen, stagecoach problems, saloon brawls, horse stampedes, train robberies, Indian attacks, and other perils "to complete the line on time."

As is typical in serial films, each episode ends on a cliff-hanger. For example: after a tremendous fight in an old trapper's cabin, the cabin catches on fire and burns down with our heroes still inside; however, the next episode shows how they escaped the fire through a secret tunnel in the cabin floor.

After a textual montage summarizing Edgar Allan Poe's life, the film begins in late September 1849 with Poe awakening from a hallucination where he is buried alive. He prepares to take a trip to New York City via a ferry steamboat from Richmond, Virginia, to Baltimore, and from there, another ferry to New York City itself. He discusses his plans to marry his childhood sweetheart Sarah Elmira Royster with a stranger taking the same steamboat, who suggests that he meet with a few potential investors for his planned magazine ''The Stylus''. Though Poe had intended only to pass through Baltimore, he agrees to meet the investors who, one by one, turn down his request for funding.

Poe is depicted as having some type of memory loss, which is first evident when he offers to pay his boat fare twice after forgetting he had already paid. In Baltimore, he more than once forgets the arrangements he has made at his hotel as his stay in the city is extended. One night, he chooses to dine in a local tavern rather than at the hotel. There, he meets an old friend from his days at West Point. In desperation, he asks his former classmate and the classmate's companion for money to help start a magazine, saying proudly he has already raised $1,000. Poe leaves the tavern to retrieve his prospectus for the magazine. His classmate follows him and beats him up to steal the $1,000 he had collected.

An injured and delirious Poe is then found by organizers of a cooping ring. The author, along with several others, are forced to multiple polling locations around Baltimore to place multiple votes for the candidate for mayor. A couple of victims of the scam die amidst the brutality of their captors.

Afterwards, Poe is released and he eventually collapses in the street and is found by a local tavern owner. The man calls for Poe's uncle Henry Herring and Dr. Joseph Snodgrass. The men discuss what to do with the incoherent, half-conscious Poe. Snodgrass assumes he is drunk and suggests they let him sleep it off - a theory the film seems to dispute by showing him early in the film declining offered alcohol several times. Herring becomes more concerned and demands Poe be taken to Washington College Hospital, despite the expense.

At the hospital, Dr. John Moran tends to Poe, unable to accurately determine his situation or the cause of his failing health, or how he received his injuries. He muses to his wife, Mrs. Moran, that he does not want to be known as the physician who killed Edgar Allan Poe. Over the next three days, the bedridden Poe is kept in seclusion in a private room as Moran denies Poe visitors, including his Baltimore cousin Nielson Poe, who becomes convinced that his cousin is about to die. Poe ultimately does die after one final hallucination or perhaps a flashback where he sees his dead wife Virginia Clemm.

Various expeditionary parties head to Zanzibar to search for a legendary cache of ivory and a missing explorer named Jack Morgan. Tom Tyler played the hero, Kirk Montgomery, and Cecilia Parker played the heroine, Barbara Morgan, who is searching for her missing brother Jack. Boris Shillov and his henchman Comrade Krotsky are also searching for the ivory. The "jungle mystery" pertains to a half-man, half-ape creature named Zungu.

A special train carrying gold bullion is hijacked on its way from the Golconda Mine. Laying down portable tracks, the bandits take the train off the main line, hide it in an abandoned mine shaft, steal the gold, and eradicate their makeshift tracks, leaving a mystery in their wake. Part owner of the mine, Potter Hood, and the railroad president, Horace Moore, search for the mysteriously disappeared train and gold. They are unaware, however, that the criminals are working secretly for Sam Slater, the other partner in the gold mine, who wants to sabotage mine operations enough that he can take over completely. Potter's son, Tom Hood, arrives home from college and determines to solve the mystery with the aid of his pal Bob Collins. They board the gold-shipment special train on its next run. Meanwhile, newspaper reporter Betty Moore – who is niece to the railroad president – and her friend Kate Bland begin their own investigation. After the four youths foil an attempt at a second heist, they join forces. The next 11 chapters show the characters' attempts to locate the "Lost Special" train and identify the ringleader.

Cliff-hanger endings include a runaway car sailing off a cliff into a lake, the heroine's car crashing headlong into an oncoming train and our heroes being trapped by rising water in a dungeon.

A sports car races through the countryside. A young woman is in the passenger seat. It enters a small village at high speed. It hits Charles Thénier's nine-year-old son, who is returning from the beach, and drives on without stopping. Charles vows to have his revenge, keeping a journal of his thoughts.

The police investigation is fruitless. Charles thinks the guilty party may run a garage, since there is no record of a car going in for repairs. By chance, while pursuing this hunch, he discovers that the actress Hélène Lanson was the passenger in a car that was damaged on the day of his son's death. Adopting a pseudonym, he seduces her and discovers that the driver was her brother-in-law Paul Decourt. He arranges a trip with Hélène to visit her sister's family in Brittany.

Charles discovers that Paul is detestable, cruel to his wife and hated by his teenage son Philippe. He has conflicting thoughts as to whether or not he will kill Paul. He rescues him from a cliff-fall. Philippe confides to Charles his own desire to kill his father.

Hélène confesses that she once slept with Paul. Charles presses her to explain more of her anxiety about Paul, but she refuses to add anything.

Charles decides to kill Paul in a staged sailing accident and buys a boat for that purpose. However, while at sea, Paul pulls a gun on him and reveals that he has read Charles' journal and passed it to his solicitor to take to the police should something happen to him. After returning to the harbor, Paul throws Charles out of his house.

Charles appears to abandon his plan to murder Paul and drives away with Hélène. In a roadside restaurant, a television announcer reports Paul's death from poisoning and appeals for Charles and Hélène to return, which they do. Charles argues to the police that it would be foolhardy for him to kill Paul when he knew the journal would reach them. They contend that Charles has planned to use this argument to deflect their suspicions, and arrest him. However, Philippe enters and confesses to the murder.

Back at their hotel, Charles is weary and promises to tell Hélène the entire story the next day. She wakes to find his note explaining that Philippe has confessed falsely to the crime Charles himself committed. He tells her to share his confession with the police and that he will punish himself and never be seen again. He is seen sailing oceanward.

NB: Serious vocal music: Sung by Kathleen Ferrier, the Brahms song "Denn es gehet dem Menschen wie dem Vieh" ('For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts', OT Koh 3,19-22 LUT) from Four Serious Songs op. 121, is played thruout the movie as a sort of basic musical motive.

Sergeant Tom Clancy, of the North-West Mounted Police, is assigned to arrest his own brother Steve, who has been framed for murdering a neighbor by "Black" McDougal and Pierre LaRue.

Commander John Lane returns from a ten-year mission in space to find that the teenagers of Spaceport City have organized themselves into "outfits", well disciplined, non-violent little gangs with their own customs and argot, and that the parent's role in teen upbringing has become minimal. His 16-year-old daughter Susan belongs to the Red Cat Outfit, whose newest member Bud is actually a spy for the alien fleet that has secretly followed John Lane as he returned to Earth.

Setting and characters

''LittleBigPlanet'' is set on the titular planet, a world full of creations made by Creator Curators. Sackboy explores through eight of the creations; each with a theme based on locations around the world. The eight creations are the Gardens, the Savannah, the Weddings, the Canyons, the Metropolis, the Islands, the Temples, and the Wilderness; each creator curators' being the King, Zola the Lion King, Frida, Uncle Jalapeño, Mags the Mechanic, Grandmaster Sensei, the Great Magician, and the Collector respectively. Each creation is based on Britain, Africa, South America, Mexico, America, Japan, India, and Siberia respectively.

Story

After Sackboy explores the Gardens, learning various tools along the way, the King sends Sackboy to the Savannah for him to begin his adventure. Sackboy accidentally destroys one of Zola's creations, but Zola agrees to forgive Sackboy if he finds out what is troubling the bison; the cause is discovered to be crocodiles. Their king, Croc, reveals that Meerkat Mum is accusing Croc of eating Meerkat Mum's son, Stripy Tail. Sackboy finds Stripy Tail at a VIP club in a disco and brings him to Meerkat Mum.

Entering the Weddings, Sackboy is revealed to by a butler that Frida's groom, Don Lu, has gone missing. Sackboy finds Don Lu, who had gotten lost and exhausted in the dark crypts. Frida, however, goes on a rampage with a destructive machine called the Skulldozer, believing she has been abandoned by Don Lu. Sackboy destroys the Skulldozer and reunites Frida and Don Lu. Frida and Don Lu decide to travel to the Canyons for their honeymoon, and Don Lu invites Sackboy over to meet Don Lu's uncle, Jalapeño. There, a citizen named Devante reveals that Sheriff Zapata kidnapped Jalapeño. Sackboy and Devante free Jalapeño from his prison cell with the use of bombs. Sackboy finds Zapata in the Serpent Shrine, who tries to blow up Sackboy with bombs, killing himself in the process. Jalapeño, wanting a vacation, goes to the Metropolis with Sackboy. A resident mechanic Mags reveals that martial artist Ze Dude stole Mags's car. Ze Dude races Sackboy with the car but crashes it into a river. After Sackboy recovers the car from sewage, Ze Dude starts vandalizing Mags's construction site with a fireball machine. Sackboy fights and beats Ze Dude and his bouncers. Finding him a worthy fighter, Ze Dude sends Sackboy to the Islands. There, the Grandmaster Sensei trains Sackboy's skills as a warrior to fight the Terrible Oni. After Sackboy saves Grandmaster Sensei's flame-throwing cat from a sumo wrestler, the Sensei sends Sackboy to fight the Terrible Oni in the volcano. Afterwards, the Sensei sends Sackboy to the Temples to get a flame-throwing cat.

In the Temples, the Shopkeeper sends Sackboy to the Goddess for her to lead Sackboy's way. The Goddess reveals that the Great Magician needs help to "bring sharing back to LittleBigPlanet." The Great Magician reveals to Sackboy that the Collector is stealing creations around LittleBigPlanet and "not sharing them around the world." The Great Magician teleports Sackboy to the Wilderness to find the Collector. Sackboy breaches the Collector's base and starts freeing all the inhabitants of LittleBigPlanet from their cages, including the curator creators. Sackboy confronts the Collector, who attacks Sackboy with machines. After Sackboy destroys his machines, the Collector tries to escape through his pod, which breaks down. Defeated, the Collector admits that he went evil because he has no friends to share with. The King appears and addresses the player, calling for them to be a part of the ''LittleBigPlanet'' community.

The novel opens with Golder refusing to help his colleague of many years, Marcus. As a result of this, Marcus, bankrupt, commits suicide. Following the funeral, Golder travels to Biarritz where he has a huge, opulent house. His wife and daughter reside there in luxury, spending Golder's cash like water. On the train, he suffers a heart attack. Seriously ill, he is forced to re-evaluate his life.

Hayley's parents disappeared when she was a baby. Since then, she has been raised and homeschooled by her grandparents. Grandad is overworked and travels a lot; Grandma is much too strict and never lets her meet any children her own age. When Hayley does something wrong—she is not quite sure what—they pack her off to her aunts in Ireland. To Hayley's shock, her family is much bigger than she thought; to her delight, the children all play what they call “the game,” where they visit a place called “the mythosphere.” And while she plays the game, Hayley learns more about her own place in the world than she had ever expected.

Hayley encounters various mythological figures during the course of her adventures in the mythosphere, including Actaeon and Baba Yaga.

Laura, played by Isabel Sarli runs away to Mexico after being implicated in a murder. There she meets a painter who asks her to pose for him. She later meets his brother, Julio played by Julio Alemán and falls in love but everything goes wrong when her mobster boyfriend comes looking for her.

This black comedy is about average people who live in González Catán, a working-class suburb southwest of Buenos Aires, and are having a hard time making a living.

In the beginning, Hernán helps his brother and his wife get ready for a their big move to Spain. His parents are forced to leave Argentina in order to escape the ravages of the country's economic crisis. Hernán is left alone in the Buenos Aires suburbs. He works at an agency delivering messages on a small motorcycle. One day, at a gas station, he meets Pato, an attractive woman working the pumps. Hernán invites Pato to rent the room his brother vacated.

Pato is a mysterious young woman. She realizes Hernán likes her and she decides to go along in returning his advances. Yet, Hernán is quite surprised when he comes home one night. Pato's parents and her young daughter have moved in without giving Hernán a warning. The father, Venancio (Oscar Nuñez), a slick character, thanks Hernán, who thinks the move-in is temporary.

However, it seems that Pato's parents have come to stay. Dispossession laws in Argentina can be quite lengthy and costly. Venancio and his wife turn the kitchen into a small bakery making churros that are sold on the streets. Nothing that Hernán does to get rid of Pato's family who occupy the house. That is until he takes matters into his own hands and scares Pato's family.

Pato, who is not able to have a relationship with Hernán, is being pursued by a handsome young man, Jose Luis, a client at the gas station. Pato realizes her chance when she discovers that Jose Luis is much wealthier than Hernán. Venancio, his wife, and the young girl appear at Jose Luis' building. In the next scene, Venancio is seated at the dinner table thanking Jose Luis with the same speech he used to thank Hernán.

Mew and Mica, two spacey alien androids, pose as cute high school students to conceal their identities as the most undependable dynamic duo ever sent to defend the Earth. The OVA follows the misadventures of Mew, Mica and their reluctant friend, Akai.

Polin is an eleven-year-old troublemaker in reform school for unknown reasons. After suffering from harsh treatment at the hands of the staff there, Polin finally reaches a breaking point and snaps, punching one of the supervisors in the face. He is then sent to the police station where he is locked up in a cell and left alone. Polin soon breaks out and travels back to his hometown, a rural fishing village, where he meets up with his best friend and falls back into his old routine—smoking, pickpocketing, shoplifting, skinny dipping with his friends and picking fights with the neighborhood bullies—all the while trying to avoid a run-in with the law, which he knows is inevitable.

In Clearview, a town in the South of the U.S., strange waves begin to appear on the TV sets, hypnotizing the very young and the very old. Children and old people begin to wander around town in a zombie-like state. When the signal drops, there is a violent reaction and the army must be called in.

The film is divided in three parts: New wave (Vieja Ola), Eternal wave (Ola eterna) and Old wave (Nueva Ola).

This is the story of a woman who travels to the islands on the delta of the Parana River to fight for her inheritance.