An Edison catalog describes the film:

Shows a bedroom in a hotel. On the wall of the room is a conspicuous sign "Don't blow out the gas." A hayseed enters the room, accompanied by a bellboy. The boy deposits the Rube's bag and umbrella, turns a somersault, and vanishes through the door. The Rube then removes his hat and coat and places them upon the table. They immediately vanish. He then blows out the gas. The scene then instantly changes to a funeral procession, headed by Reuben's hearse, and followed by the carriages of his country friends. Strictly up-to-date picture.

People are turning up dead at Solana Beach, a seaside tourist resort, their skeletons picked clean of flesh and bone marrow. The local Sheriff (Akins) has no leads, but crusading newspaper reporter Ned Turner (Huston) suspects the construction of an underwater tunnel by the Trojan company, owned by Mr. Whitehead (Fonda). Whitehead threatens Turner to leave it alone, but after several more deaths, he interrogates killer whale trainer and marine expert Will Gleason (Hopkins). When two of Gleason's divers are also killed, Gleason goes to investigate himself and determines the attacks are the result of Trojan using ultrasonic drilling techniques where the sound waves have been "above regulated levels," which maddens a giant octopus, causing it to attack and devour human swimmers and boaters whenever it feels similar frequencies. Criticizing him for risking his life, his wife Vicky (Boccardo) joins her sister at the pool. When her sister goes off on a boating expedition and also goes missing, Gleason's wife goes in search...and is also killed by the octopus. In the meantime Turner's sister Tillie (Winters) has taken her young son to a boating race which he is one of the few to miraculously survive. Gleason vows to kill the octopus and takes his trained killer whales out to where his wife was killed. In the end, the octopus is killed by that pair of killer whales while he tries to save another diver.

A group of men who have spent two years in an internment camp are sent by the Vichy Government to build a railway in the Sahara. One escapes and returns to London to find his lover believes him to be dead and that she is being pursued by his deadliest enemy.

During the opening credits, a mouse soldier is climbing around a Christmas tree with a light. When it spots a nutcracker hanging from one of the branches, it hastily retreats back into its mousehole.

The first scene is a Christmas party where numerous children are celebrating. The female protagonist, an unnamed girl who works as a maid at the household, watches the children frolicking around. A boy begins using a nutcracker to crack nuts, but he is quite brutal with it and eventually leaves the nutcracker with a nut stuck in its mouth. When the party is over late at night, the girl comes down to the hall for cleaning, but the night is full with magic, which manifests firstly in the maid's broom animating and dancing with her. She eventually finds the nutcracker on the floor. When she kisses him, he comes to life and is devastated when he sees what he has become. It is then and when the Nutcracker decides to tell the girl his story of how he came to be:

A long time ago, there was a party at a royal castle to celebrate the prince's birthday, which was interrupted by the arrival of the three-headed mouse queen and her spoiled brat son, who both behaved very rudely and refused to leave or improve their manners. In exasperation, the king entered a secret chamber to obtain a poison against the mouse queen, but was locked in by the mouse prince. The mouse prince then started harassing the queen and the baby prince, and when the prince hit the mouse prince, its tail got stuck under the cradle and was hurt. In retaliation, the vengeful mouse queen had cursed the baby prince, turning him into a nutcracker, just before she was vanquished by the king. The king and queen were devastated, and the entire hall was petrified while the mouse prince escaped, taking his mother's crown with him. Now the Mouse King, he declared revenge on the Nutcracker. Eventually, the Nutcracker came to be hanged as an ornament on the Christmas tree within this house.

Just after the Nutcracker has finished his story, mice soldiers begin to appear in the hall, followed by the King of Mice. The soldiers try to get the Nutcracker, but the girl stops them, leading the Mouse King to shrink and capture her. The Nutcracker brings the toys around the Christmas tree to life, and a war is fought between the toys and mice. The Nutcracker is captured, bound and about to be whipped to pieces by the Mouse King when the girl throws her wooden clog at him, knocking off and smashing the iron crown, the source of the Mouse King's powers. The Mouse King's magic backfires, making him vanish in a puff of green smoke which also decimates his army the moment they inhale it and start sneezing.

The clog transforms into a glittering shoe. When the Nutcracker takes up the shoe, his shell falls away and he is restored to his human (and now young adult) self. He puts the shoe on the girl's foot, and her maid's uniform is transformed into a princess gown. The two dance to the royal castle to the music of the ''Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy''; the king and queen are brought back to life through the ''Waltz of the Flowers'', and the girl and the prince pass into the realm. All that is left behind of them in the human world are the girl's wooden clogs and the crumbled remains of the Nutcracker's shell lying before the Christmas tree.

Uuno (Vesa-Matti Loiri) is shabby and lazy man, who has married a rich woman Elisabeth (Marjatta Raita) in order to eat and sleep from day to day without any worries. Completely tired of overtaking Uuno, Elisabeth tries to get her husband to look for a job, but Uuno has other plans: he wants to build a violin for himself. But has Uuno really found his true calling?

In 1986, Vesuvius, a rock band from Cleveland, Ohio, performs at a local theater. After the show, their manager informs them that a record company is interested in signing them, but only if they replace drummer Robert "Fish" Fishman with the president of the record company's nephew. At first the band refuses, as they have been together since high school and agree that Fish is the heart and soul of their band, but when their manager tells them they would get to tour as the opening act for Whitesnake, the band relents and drives away in their van, without Fish.

Twenty years later, Vesuvius remains an immensely successful band, while Fish is living a normal life. Matt Gadman, Fish's high school-aged nephew, plays keyboards in an alternative rock band called A.D.D., along with his friends Curtis Powell and Amelia Stone. The band is scheduled to play their school's prom but the gig is in jeopardy when their drummer gets suspended from school. Matt convinces the others to allow Fish to fill in. The concert goes well at first, as Fish is still a natural talent on drums (in spite of not playing in 20 years), but he ruins the gig when he gets carried away and launches into an impromptu drum solo during a ballad. However, Fish is so excited by Curtis' songs and the chance to play again, he convinces them to let him join the band if he can deliver another gig. After repeated failed attempts, he finally succeeds in securing a gig at a club in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Because the other members are all minors, they have to sneak out to the gig but are apprehended in the process.

After Fish is forced to rent the basement of his favorite Chinese restaurant, the band invents a new way to practice via four-way iChat. To the dismay of his bandmates, Fish performs in the nude to try and stay cool. The video of the practice quickly goes viral under the title of the "naked drummer band". The band is signed to a recording contract by the same label as Vesuvius, and are sent on a midwest tour. However, Fish commits stereotypical acts, despite the physical costs on his body, and he vandalizes a hotel room, causing the band to be apprehended again.

After securing A.D.D.'s release, Kim, Curtis' mother, promises the other parents she will stay for the remainder of the tour, so their kids won't be influenced by Fish's antics.

The label asks A.D.D. to open a show for Vesuvius honoring their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Fish refuses to play the gig and Kim kisses him in a failed attempt to convince him to let go of his anger and finally move on. David sees the kiss and exaggerates the details of the ordeal to Curtis. At a later gig, Curtis announces they would be playing the show, angering Fish and driving him to leave the band. When the new drummer from the label proves to be lazy, Curtis eventually apologizes to Fish and convinces him to put aside his resentment and play the show. After meeting Vesuvius before the show to discover they have become vain and arrogant while sporting fake British accents (except for the drummer, who is actually English), Fish decides to forgive Vesuvius and wishes them good luck. Fish and the band perform to a standing ovation. After their gig, Amelia and Curtis, as well as Fish and Kim both begin a relationship. During Vesuvius' set, the lead singer's microphone falls off the stand while the voice track of their song continues revealing that they have been lip-syncing. Vesuvius' recording malfunctions, revealing their lip-synching to the audience, who boos them off the stage and the hall of fame rejects them. The audience chants an encore for A.D.D., who fire David and perform for the crowd once again.

Elvira, an attractive but insecure twenty-something, joins her sisters Jimena and Sol to celebrate the birthday of their mother, Sofía. A divorced concert pianist, Sofía announces that she's fallen in love but is interrupted by the doorbell as she describes her new partner. While the three gleefully speculate about their mother's new boyfriend, their joy suddenly gives way to shock when she returns with Eliska, and the sisters realize that their mother is a lesbian.

The young women handle the shock in different ways. Elvira confides in her psychiatrist, while Sol composes a song about her mother and her lesbian relationship for her band. Jimena doesn't act out in any similar manner, but her husband becomes concerned about how his mother-in-law's sexual orientation affects his image at work.

When her daughters find out that Sofía has given the much younger Eliska a significant amount of money, they become suspicious of Eliska and plot to find a way to get their mother to break up with her.

The story begins in the Quartermaine Art Gallery on 57th Street, New York City. Mrs. Estelle Whitelake buys Franz Hals' ''The Looten Family''. She buys the picture, and rushes it to an art expert. The art expert first tries to explain that Franz Hals did not paint such a picture, but eventually admits it is genuine. Estelle Whitelake pays $75,000 for the painting, and has it delivered to her apartment in Venice Court. Whitelake regularly brags about the painting, flaunting it to her friends, writing seven page letters to her son serving in the Marines about it. One day, she brings over several friends, including her art expert, who tells her the painting is a different one then the one he saw, and is a fake.

Senator Banner is playing pool in a dingy pool hall, when a phone call comes in. The call is from Estelle, who begs Banner to come with her to see Mark Quartermaine, at 111 Coldrige Crescent. Banner agrees to meet Estelle there.

Quarteriane's house is a two-story house, surrounded by trees on all sides. Estelle leads Banner inside to meet Quartermaine's secretary Olive Culpepper, who doesn't know where Paul DeQueen (Quartermaine's agent) is, but knows where Quartermaine is. Quartermaine is in his trophy room, a room with axes and coats of armor, and tapestries everywhere. It has one door in, and a window on the other end of the room, that is right beside the garage. Lying behind the oak wood desk is Quartermaine, with a huge sword driven through him, with no blood coming out of him.

Olive shrieks as Quartermaine is found, screaming they were going to be married. Banner gets Estelle to take Olive out of the room, and then he calls the police. DeQueen rushes into the room, through the door, and explains the sword is a Scottish claymore sword, that was supposed to hang on the wall. The sword is to large and heavy to be lifted by any one man who was not incredibly strong, and couldn't have been driven that deep into the body, no matter how strong they are. Banner gets every one in to rehearse their story. Olive said she went to see Quartermaine right before Banner showed up, and heard a shoe scrape outside the window, or at least a scrape of stiff leather, but no one was looking in the window. The sword was still on the wall.

The medical examiner looks over the body, and says the problem is, that the sword is very dull, couldn't have been driven very far, yet went through Quartermaine's ribs like a knife through butter. With the way the sword was thrust, only a giant could have done it. Banner gets a call from Quartermaine's lawyer Eddystone, who reveals the only people who benefited from his death are Olive, DeQueen, and Estelle. Banner goes out, and sees the only car owned by Quartermaine is a Volkswagen. Banner asks Olive how many miles to the gallon Quartermaine got, and she says 20. Banner then goes to a nearby gas station, where it is revealed Quartermaine got his car filled up, and didn't drive anywhere but home, but another gallon of gas is missing. Banner finds out that in a 20-mile radius, there is only one art gallery, Porthaven, owned by Mr. Morgan. Morgan reveals he bought ''The Looten Family'' from Quartermaine's agent DeQueen for $75,000.

Banner gathers Estelle, and tells her there were two paintings, a real and a fake. Estelle bought the real one, but DeQueen switched it with a fake one while delivering it to her house. DeQueen also killed Quartermaine. DeQueen sneaked into the trophy room, through the window, so he wouldn't be seen. He then lured Quartermaine alone, into the garage. While Quartermaine was there, DeQueen took the sword, tied it to the hood of the Volkswagen, and drove the spearhead through Quartermaine, as he opened the garage. DeQueen then untied the sword, and dragged Quartermaines body into the trophy room.

Category:1963 short stories Category:Works originally published in American magazines Category:Locked-room mysteries Category:Works originally published in mystery fiction magazines

The story begins with a couple that for a long time has been waiting for a child, which however does not seem to arrive. One day the husband finds in the nearby forest a log of wood (Otesánek) that strangely resembles a baby and decides to bring it home. To the joy of the couple, the wooden baby comes to life and asks to be fed. Initially the couple is enthusiastic that their wish of having a child has finally been granted, however the situation soon takes a turn for the worse as they find themselves having to deal with the insatiable appetite of the baby, who will keep growing and eating until he will start eating even people, including his parents. The log anticipates each meal with a nursery rhyme in which he lists every previous meal he has done. The story eventually concludes with the death of Otesánek at the hands of an elderly lady of the village who rips open his chest with a hoe, thus killing the monster and freeing all those who were eaten by him, including his parents.

Emma is an orphaned child who has been treated badly by her stepfather, Darien Drinkwater. She runs away after Darien threatens to do something nasty to her. She ends up in Kokonino County, where the helpful Muses live. Feather, the Muse of Plants, uses intelligent air to watch Darrin Drinkwater, and Emma watches him take the two pieces of paper her parents had left for her. After much work, Emma is able to write down what is written on the two pieces of paper. The text, however, seems to be some sort of secret code, so Emma searches for someone who can help her crack the code. Unfortunately, she arrived in the middle of the great Pie War between Kokopelli and Urania, two Muses who get along very badly. She ends up helping Urania because Urania is proficient in maths. In the end, it is Bo, the Muse of Factoids, who saves the day by recognizing the "code" as the number to a safe deposit box in a bank. Emma then finds a grown-up cousin to live with while Darien Drinkwater is arrested for various crimes performed throughout the book.

It is April, 1942. Lieutenant Freddie Taylor and some crew of the submarine ''Sea Tiger'' are given a week's leave after an unsuccessful patrol. Leading Seaman Hobson goes home to save his marriage, while a reluctant Torpedo Gunner's Mate Corrigan departs for his wedding in London. When the crew are recalled early Corrigan is relieved, though later regrets not completing his marriage. ''Sea Tiger'' has been assigned the top secret mission to sink Nazi Germany's new battleship, the ''Brandenburg'', before she transits the Kiel Canal for sea trials in the Baltic Sea. ''Sea Tiger'' must put to sea immediately.

Crossing the North Sea, the submarine picks up three shot-down Luftwaffe pilots from a rescue buoy, and prevents their radio alert to German forces. When the submarine enters a minefield, an airman panics and reveals the ''Brandenburg'' is further ahead than thought. The airman is attacked by a countryman and subsequently dies. Taylor decides on a desperate gamble to pursue the ''Brandenburg'' into the German-controlled Baltic Sea.

When the ''Brandenburg'' is spotted, ''Sea Tiger'' fires all its torpedoes, but dives before assessing their impact due to German destroyers dropping depth charges. By expelling oil and other debris including the body of the German airman, Taylor deceives the Germans into believing that the submarine has sunk. Although successfully escaped, ''Sea Tiger'' no longer has enough oil to reach Britain. The Germans, convinced that the ''Sea Tiger'' has been sunk, have Lord Haw Haw broadcast to Britain announcing the destruction of the ''Sea Tiger''.

Taylor decides to have his crew abandon ship on the Danish island of Hågø (which is in fact the island of Bågø). Hobson, a former merchant seaman who speaks German and knows the port on the island, persuades Taylor to let him go ashore and search for oil. He succeeds, and ''Sea Tiger'' enters the harbour under cover of darkness, using Hobson's intelligence about the harbour depth. Aided by friendly Danish sailors, they refuel while Hobson and other crewmen hold off the German garrison. Although Pincher (the cook) is killed and Oxford and Lieutenant Johnson are wounded, they get back to the re-fuelled submarine and start to leave the port. While they leave though, the tanker they were able to refuel from is hit by German shells and catches fire. Taylor, not wanting to risk the ''Sea Tiger'' any longer, continues to leave the port and makes it out to the open sea.

While returning to Britain, the crew are met by an escorting trawler and learn from them that they sank the ''Brandenburg''. The ''Sea Tiger'' returns to base, flying the Jolly Roger for the first time.

Tom is sleeping, but Jerry, sleepwalking, pulls Tom's whiskers through one side of his face. Annoyed, Tom stops Jerry and turns him around, but Jerry punches Tom's jaw into his face. Tom then snaps his fingers to wake Jerry up, flicks Jerry's head to send it spinning, and hits Jerry with a pool cue, sending Jerry rolling into the wall of his mouse hole. Jerry then pulls Tom's tail into an umbrella, but Tom snaps his fingers again, ties Jerry up in string and unwinds the string to send Jerry spinning into his hole again. Jerry then walks out with a steak knife, but sneezes and wakes up, causing Jerry to feel guilty and return to his hole. Jerry then gulps several cups of coffee to stay awake and prevent himself from attacking Tom, but his eyes open and close themselves three times and he falls asleep. Jerry then walks out with a brick and throws it at Tom, but sneezes and wakes up again. Jerry opens Tom's eyes, and Tom swallows the brick, causing Tom to throw Jerry back into his hole and board it up. Later, Jerry opens the board and with a ball of yarn tied around his waist, ties it around Tom's tail, and spreads it around the house and outside. He finally ties it around an anvil and pushes the anvil down the chimney. Tom is pulled around the house, squeezed through gaps, and pulled up to the chimney, where he hits his head on the anvil. Finally broken, Tom starts crying, packs up, and leaves. Tom walks through a desert, with Jerry sleepwalking behind him. And On A Black Background Appeared The Colors Inscription The End A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Cartoon

As a woman in the Bible, Mary Magdalene's story is not recounted as fully as that of some of the males associated with Jesus. The novel presents a new view of Mary Magdalene – a female apostle who was the first of Jesus' followers.

Mab, the Winter Queen of the Sidhe, has purchased Dresden's debt from his fairy godmother, Leanansidhe. She tells Dresden he can pay off his debt by doing three favors. The first favor is for him to find the murderer of the Summer Knight Ronald Reuel and recover his stolen mantle. Dresden refuses her request, but is forced by the White Council to accept the role of her Emissary as his Trial, else be stripped of his title of wizard and handed over to the Red Court vampires as a peace offering.

Dresden is visited by Elaine, his former lover, now the Emissary of the Summer Court, indebted to Aurora, the Summer Lady. Dresden goes to Reuel's funeral, looking for a group of teenage half-human/half-Fae changelings who were Reuel's friends, but they flee and attack, believing him to be in service to Winter. An interview with the sadistic Winter Lady, Maeve, convinces him that she did not kill the Summer Knight.

The changelings ask Dresden to find their friend Lily, and he agrees. He discovers a gravely wounded Elaine and takes her to the Summer Lady. Aurora heals Elaine, but is not forthcoming with any details on Reuel's murder or Lily's disappearance. She explains that the death of the Summer Knight and the theft of his mantle of power shifted the power balance in favor of Winter, driving the Summer Court to attack Winter at Midsummer before their power fades.

Dresden summons Leanansidhe, who transports him to an ethereal Chicago-over-Chicago, where a great Stone Table, the sacrificial stone that maintains the balance between the Winter and Summer Sidhe, now rests. The power of blood spilled upon that table will change the balance of power between the Courts. Dresden persuades Elaine to help him reach the Mothers, the elder Queens of Summer and Winter. They goad him into answering his own questions, realizing that Aurora killed the Summer Knight and transferred his mantle to Lily, who she then turned to stone. They give him a Cloth of Unraveling to release Lily.

Aurora ambushes Dresden and takes him prisoner, aided by Elaine and by the Winter Knight, who she has suborned. Aurora intends to ritually sacrifice Lily on the Stone Table, transferring the power of the mantle to the Winter Sidhe and breaking the unending cycle of struggle between the Faerie Courts. Elaine covertly betrays Aurora, leaving Dresden an escape route from Aurora's sorcerous deathtrap. During the battle between the Courts, Dresden confronts Aurora, who dies at the hands of pixies armed by him with cold steel.

Mab offers Dresden the mantle of the Winter Knight, which he declines. Queen Mab grants safe passage to the White Council of the wizards, enabling Dresden to pass his Trial. Lily becomes the new Summer Lady and her changeling friend Fix her new Summer Knight.

The series takes place during turbulent times in Korea, spanning from the end of the Japanese occupation to the eventual split of the country into North and South. The story revolves around the lives of four young adults who grew up together. Choi Woon-hyuk (Ryu Soo-young) is a child prodigy born into a family of poor miners; Kim Hae-kyung (Han Eun-jung) is the eldest daughter of tenant farmers; Lee Dong-woo (Kim Ho-jin) is the heir to a wealthy, well-connected family; and Moon Suk-kyung (So Yoo-jin) is the only child of an affluent and powerful political ally of Japan. In a blend of personal choices and circumstances beyond their control, each individual embarks on different paths that reflect the chaotic nature of the time as well as their true character. As their paths collide, love, friendship, loyalty, vengeance, moral conscience, and ideology become driving forces to irrevocably change the course of their lives.

A group of jewel thieves on the lam run out of fuel in the middle of the countryside. They wander into a backwoods farm, hoping to hide out for the time being. However, when the farmer returns home only to find the thieves taking over the house, he hatches a deadly plan.

After having sex with a girl who turns out to be the daughter of White Oak County sheriff Zero Bull, self-proclaimed Preacherman Amos Huxley (Viola), is beaten by the sheriff and his deputy and left outside the county line, warned never to return. He is unwittingly brought back into the sheriff's jurisdiction by local farmer Judd Crabtree (Esty F. Davis Jr.), who picks up the unconscious Huxley and takes him to his home. Aware there is a countywide roadblock looking for escaped convicts (and likely himself), Huxley decides to stay with Crabtree, especially after meeting his daughter Mary Lou (Ilene Kristen), who has been fooling around with multiple boys in the area. Under pretense of baptizing Mary Lou and curbing her lascivious behavior, Huxley fools her into multiple sexual encounters and diverts Judd from noticing by sending him outside to watch for "the Angel Leroy."

Judd confesses to Huxley that instead of farming, he has generated income through an illegal moonshine still, a business sanctioned with Sheriff Bull and Bull's shopkeeper brother-in-law. Huxley, seeing a chance to make money and get revenge on Bull, suggests Judd can continue the business as a revenue-generator to build a new church, using travelling saleswoman Martha (who is attracted to Judd) as the new supplier instead of the sheriff's infrastructure. Other locals are brought into the operation, which becomes a success. The new venture draws the attention of Clyde Massingale (Adam Hesse), one of Mary Lou's former paramours, jealous at no longer having sexual access to the now "saved" girl. Huxley tries to recruit Clyde into the business to keep him quiet, but Sheriff Bull, noticing that Clyde is now working for Judd despite their history of animosity, senses the boy may know about either Huxley or the loss of his former bootlegging revenue, and alerts him to Huxley's criminal past.

The prisoner dragnet now ended, Huxley sees a chance to flee the county with Mary Lou, but convinces Judd and Martha to stage a large revival event, where he can proceed to rake in more cash. Clyde rats out Huxley to Bull, who raids the meeting. Judd distracts Bull long enough for Huxley and Mary Lou to escape, but as they run, Mary Lou admits to Huxley she loves Clyde. Huxley, somewhat relieved, tells Mary Lou he has left a large share of the profits in her bedroom for herself and Judd, and runs off alone. Clyde, upon reuniting with Mary Lou, misleads Bull and his deputy, allowing Huxley to make it to the next county free and clear.

Senator Brooks U. Banner is making a phone call outside the Sphinx club, when he hears angry yelling a few booths down. Magician Larry Drollen is arguing with someone, telling them he has no more need for them. Seeing Banner is looking at him, Drollen turns, and simply says "Murder". Drollen then tells him the story of Gabriel Garrett, a doctor who was stabbed with a silver handled knife that had no finger prints on it. Garrets wife Ivy, and his aunt Letitia Cody want the case to be resolved, and hire fake medium Ted Wesley to perform a seance. Wesley claims for a fee, he can bring back Garrett's spirit, and have him point out the murderer. During the seance, the table rattles, there are strange voices, but nothing comes out of it. Larry Drollen tells Wesley he can produce something better, and if he can, Wesley has to give Ive and Letitia their money back. The seance is at 11, and the District Attorney Arcibald Lang, will be attending.

Everybody is at Ted Wesley's parlor at 11. Drollen is tied into a large walnut chair, that is attached to a cabinet, in front of a circle of 4 chairs. The silver knife is held by Drollen briefly, and then put in the cabinet. Wesley's servant Shannon brings in straitjackets, and straps everyone in. He then locks them all in. Drollen tells everyone to be quiet, but after a while, the others wonder what is going on. Asking Drollen, he doesn't respond. Upon the door opening, it can be seen Drollen has been stabbed, and everyone is in a straitjacket. The police are called, and take the knife, looking for fingerprints, they find one. But it belongs to no one in the room.

Banner goes to see Archer the next day, and finds out what happened at the seance. Everyone had their feet touching each others, and no one felt anyone get up. The fingerprint is worthless, because it does not belong to anyone. There is also a palm print, but it is blurred from the knife slipping. Archer reveals that even though Ivy had the body cremated, Garrett's fingerprints did not match, so the killer was not a ghost. All of the people were in straitjackets, and there was nowhere to hide an animal, meaning, no one could do it.

The police find out that Garrett was killed by a snowbird named Mulik. Mulik was not at the seance, so he is not the killer. Banner then reveals that while Drollen's secretary was going through old news clippings, she found out that Drollen was married to a sideshow freak. Banner, unsure of where this works in, invites Ivy and Wesley to lunch. A redhaired girl snaps Ivy's picture, causing her to go loose-jointed, and faint. After she come to, Banner figures out she is pregnant.

The next afternoon, Banner invites into Lang's office, Ivy, Wesley, Lang, and Letitia. Banner then reveals he knows exactly how it happened. In the reversal of John Dickson Carr's The Crooked Hinge, Banner reveals that Ivy killed Drollen without using her arms. Ivy was wearing loose shoes, so she easily slipped them off while still in the straitjacket. The fingerprint on the knife didn't match, because it wasn't a fingerprint, but was a toeprint, from where Ivy held the knife with her feet. Ivy killed Drollen, because they had been married years ago. But then they drifted apart, and Ivy committed bigamy. Now, Garrett's baby is on the way, so she begged Drollen to take her back. Drollen refused on the phone, so Ivy killed him.

Serge Chekov inherits his uncle's estate, only to discover that Professor Droila, a mad scientist, has taken residence in the basement. As Chekov investigates further, he learns that Droila is reanimating the dead with the help of a necrophiliac grave robber by the name of Igor. In the end, Droila's zombies turn against him.

Dr. Howard Vanard (John Carradine) implants a strange electronic component into the brain of returning Vietnam War veteran Joe Corey (Roy Morton) who becomes a psychotic killer. Corey takes part in a jewel heist with a few cohorts, and while escaping from the scene, the stolen loot is hastily thrown from a rooftop into the back of a pickup truck belonging to a guy named David Clarke. After he violently murders a cocktail waitress in a motel room and a secretary who is working late in an office, Corey goes in search of Dr. Vanard, seeking revenge for what the old arthritic scientist has done to him. In a mindless rage, Corey straps Dr. Vanard to his own lab equipment and electrocutes the mad doctor. Corey and his friends then go to David Clarke's home and beat him up, trying to get him to tell them what happened to the stolen gems that were tossed into Dave's pickup truck, but they finally realize he knows nothing. Corey then follows David Clarke's wife Linda and his young daughter Nancy as they leave town on a trip. The young ladies unknowingly have the stolen jewels with them in their car, concealed in her daughter's doll. Corey chases the two through a snow-covered forest before being shot by a pursuing policeman. He falls off a cliff, clutching the doll and the jewels as he dies.

Some years later, Susan Vanard (Regina Carrol), the mad scientist's daughter, tells the police she's been getting psychic messages from someone in her sleep, speaking about Haiti and voodoo. A weird doctor named Elton Corey (Kent Taylor) has returned from Haiti, bringing with him a murderous zombie named Akro, and has set out to avenge the death of his psychotic son Joe Corey on anyone who was in any way involved with the late Dr. Vanard. Akro the zombie (who for some reason has only one eye) strangles a number of people in alleys as the film proceeds, although his manner of choosing his victims seems to be totally random. Sgt. Cross (Tommy Kirk) however has been investigating the recent spate of murders and feels they are related to the now-closed Joe Corey case, and he questions Susan Vanard about her late father and his connection to what happened to Joe Corey.

A police officer, Sgt. Grimaldi, is killed and mutilated in an alley by Akro the zombie, and his severed head is mailed in a box to a horrified Sgt. Cross. Susan Vanard is kidnapped by the zombie and taken to Dr. Corey's lab, where he injects her with a serum that ages people prematurely and turns them into zombies. As Susan is rapidly transformed into a shriveled mummy, Sgt. Cross finds Dr. Corey's lab just in time. Akro the zombie turns on Dr. Corey when he overhears him say that Akro's body is wearing out and that he'll be dead soon. He strangles Dr. Corey in a rage, and then dies when he can no longer obtain his life-preserving elixir. In the final scene, Susan is able to drink an antidote that returns her to her normal state.

Lucy Valdon has recently been widowed by the accidental death of her husband, the novelist Richard Valdon. Lucy has a surprise waiting for her in her vestibule one evening: an abandoned baby, dressed, with a note pinned to a blanket. The note claims that the baby is Richard's son. Lucy wants to learn who the mother is. That information would help determine whether her husband and the mother had been intimate, and therefore the likelihood that the child is in fact Richard's.

Wolfe is reluctant as always, but agrees to investigate. Archie examines the clothes that the baby was wearing and spots an unusual item: the baby's overalls have horsehair buttons, apparently handmade. After Archie draws a blank trying to track the buttons down via businesses in the garment trade, Wolfe tries a tactic that he uses to good effect in other cases. He advertises for information.

The advertisement succeeds in prompting a call from someone who has seen a similar button, and when Archie follows up he eventually locates Ellen Tenzer in Mahopac, about fifty miles north of New York City. Miss Tenzer is a retired nurse who from time to time cares for babies temporarily. She is unwilling to help Archie, though, and orders him off her property. Archie complies, Miss Tenzer disappears, and the next day she is found, strangled, in her car on a Manhattan street.

With that line of investigation closed to them, Wolfe and Archie try another. Lucy arranges for several of Richard's acquaintances to come to the brownstone. Wolfe asks that they each supply him with a list of all the women with whom Richard was in contact during a three-month period roughly corresponding to the date of the baby's conception. A list of 148 names results, and it takes nearly four weeks for Archie, Saul, Fred and Orrie to verify that none of the women had an unaccounted for baby following the period in question.

Finally, Wolfe decides to go for the swindle. His plan involves the ''Gazette'', Lon Cohen's employer, and it succeeds in flushing the baby's mother from hiding. But then ''she'' is found dead, also strangled.

When Inspector Cramer learns that there is a connection between the dead woman and Wolfe, he shows up at the front stoop, forcing Wolfe and Archie to flee via the back door. Wolfe is furious about the murders, particularly the second, and desperately wants to expose the killer himself. But if Cramer finds him, he will either have to tell Cramer about the search for the baby's mother or withhold evidence in a capital case.

To avoid having to make that choice, Wolfe and Archie hole up in Lucy's house—she, her baby and her staff are away for a few days. While there, Wolfe has an insight about how the murderer and Ellen Tenzer might have become acquainted. That insight leads to the traditional Wolfe finale, with witnesses and suspects gathered together, but this time it's in someone else's house.

'''''A Wife for a Month''''' centers on Evanthe, a beautiful and chaste lady-in-waiting to Frederick's Queen. Evanthe has never been married, and King Frederick lusts after her. In the first scene, he calls for her to be brought before him, and her cruel brother Sorano does not object. Upon meeting Evanthe, Frederick proposes to sleep with her. She is appalled, and refuses. Her brother pushes her to accept the King's generous offer, telling her what an honour it is that he wants her; she is horrified, especially after being offered riches, fine clothes and money to sleep with the King and be his mistress. The King then decides that he will force Evanthe to marry another man, the valiant Valerio. She agrees, viewing marriage as much nobler than being a mistress to a married man, but then the King orders that Valerio be killed within the month, and sentences Evanthe to a series of marriages that will all end in her husbands' deaths after each month passes. The Queen is horrified: marriage ought to be holy, and all agree that the King is interfering with divine ordinance in disregarding and disrespecting marriage.

Once Evanthe and Valerio are married, they decide to make the best of it, and to love each other. They plan to consummate the marriage, but Sorano comes secretly to Valerio with the King's order that if he lies with his wife, she will face immediate death. He is not to tell her of his bind. King Frederick's aim is to ruin their marriage, have Evanthe resent Valerio, and then run to his own arms. He believes that if he can come between the couple, Evanthe will fall in love with him.

Meanwhile, Cassandra, Evanthe's waiting woman, tries to convince her to lie with Frederick (Frederick has put her up to this, but she's to pretend she believes it's acceptable). Try as she might to compel Evanthe to lie with the 'Herculean warrior king' she makes him out to be, Evanthe refuses. Evanthe openly defies Frederick, and pledges her loyalty to Valerio. Frederick orders Valerio's death. He believes it's been carried out, and his body thrown into the sea, but Valerio actually remains alive. Frederick orders Evanthe to be remarried to another man for a month. Her suitors, including a Lawyer, Physician, Fool, Captain, and a Cutpurse all leave upon learning they will be executed. Valerio, disguised as the princely Urbino, arrives as a last "hope" for marrying her. He agrees to the match knowing he is to die in a month.

Rebels surround the castle, and the men all turn on Frederick and Sorano, his lone supporter. Valerio reveals himself, and the commons all cheer for Prince Alfonso as the new King. Alfonso sentences Sorano and Frederick not to death, but to monastic lives of fasting, prayer, and pilgrimage to their dead father the former king's grave. Order is restored to the kingdom, and Alfonso calls for all to "forget old paines and injuries… / and drown all in fair health."

The film begins with Bujji (Prabhu Deva) escaping from his wedding, accompanying his maternal uncle Bangaru Raju (Rajendra Prasad), being afraid of the bride Chi. La.Sow Suryakantham (Kovai Sarala). Both of them reach Hyderabad where Bangaru Raju meets his childhood friend C.Co. (Brahmanandam) a burglar who steals cars with his gang Sivamani (Mallikharjuna Rao), Indra (Krishna Bhagawan), Simhadri (Raghu Babu) & Bipasha (Jyothi). Bangaru Raju & Bujji then join them.

Concurrently, a multi-millionaire KK's (Nagababu) daughter Usha (Ankita) returns from abroad to learn that her father has fallen into the clutches of his swindler secretary Naveena (Kiran Rathod). Once, Bangaru Raju is acquainted with Naveena and falls for her. Meanwhile, being cognizant of KK & Naveena's holiday trip when Usha plays a kidnap drama to bar them with the help of their manager Pushparaj (Surya).

But indeed he is also a fraudster who aspires to couple up with Usha. At present, Usha gives a fake call for KK and asks for Rs.10 lakhs of ransom. Coincidentally, C.Co. & his gang arrive at the exchange spot in their context when Bangaru Raju steals the suitcase while observing the deal.

At that juncture, KK is informed that Usha is locked in her car. Eventually, Bujji mugs the car, and all at once, Naveena alerts the cops when KK assumes due to Naveena's deed they have backed up, so, he necks her out. Here, Naveena decides to take avenge, in her way back, she views the suitcase in the hands of Bangaru Raju, mistakes him for a kidnapper, and starts trapping him.

Bangaru Raju grabs her intention and double-crosses’ her. Thereupon, Naveena plans for 1 crore from KK via Bangaru Raju. Soon after stopping at their lair Bujji & gang realize Usha's presence in the car trunk. So, they ask Bujji to leave her never city outskirts. Concurrently, Police begin their investigation in which Naveena & Pushparaj's plan breaks out, they even ride on C.Co's den but they all abscond and land in a forest. During the interval, Bujji & Usha fall in love on their journey. The rest of the story is a confusing kidnap drama that culminates in a happy ending.

Set during the 1920s in the Midwestern United States, the movie revolves around two coal miners, Charlie Jacobs (Ross Hagen) and Thad (Kelly Thordsen), who decide to follow a life of crime like their role model Al Capone. Jacobs adopts the gangster persona "Bad Charleston Charlie", an anachronistic reference to the 1962 song "Charleston Charlie". The duo has to deal with forming a gang, learn to handle "wild women", bribe corrupt officials, and battle rival gangs plus the Ku Klux Klan. They find that they are no better at being gangsters than they were at mining coal. The film features a cameo by actor John Carradine, who plays as a drunken reporter.

A group of high school cheerleaders have sex with the opposing team's players to make them too tired to play football properly, allowing their team to win an unprecedented series of games.

The game's prologue slide show shows the original myth of Pandora's Box; in reality, Pandora's Box was a device of incredible power. In the early 21st century, archaeologists found the artifact in a ruin at the bottom of the ocean. Unable to pinpoint its origins, they place the artifact in a New York City museum for safe keeping. A wealthy millionaire named Ormond LeFey, knowing the true nature of the box, hires a professional thief named Charles Deckard, tasking him with opening the box, and stealing the contents inside (with, of course, a substantial payment).

The game opens with Deckard sneaking into the museum, easily bypassing all the security and opening the box. When he does, he has a Signet branded onto his left hand, and the box suddenly releases a huge energy surge that shoots toward the sky. Deckard gains the ability to absorb Animus Energy, which he can use to heal himself. He escapes the museum to discover that griffins have materialized, and are flying through the city attacking people.

After fighting various mythical creatures summoned by the box, Deckard finds out that LeFey has sent his private army, known as the Black Order, against him. He fights his way through those soldiers, eventually meeting up with the Council of 98, the group that originally concealed the box. They are distrusting at first, especially their commander, Lexington White Deer, but eventually agree to help upon seeing the Signet on Deckard's arm. A deal is struck; in exchange for his associate Vivian Kane's information on the Black Order's plans, the Council will help them.

After defeating a golem, The Council takes Deckard, Kane, and the box to where the headquarters of the Council is stationed: beneath the Houses of Parliament in London. After a mission to locate a hard drive detailing LeFey's plans in an abandoned cathedral, Deckard finds out that LeFey has built a machine that could harness Animus Energy and control the creatures. He aims to use it to take over the world. The surge of energy could also find its way to Deckard's Signet, and the energy surge could kill him.

Suddenly, the power goes out. It turns out that the hard drive also contained a Trojan Horse, which powered off all the power in the facility. All the creatures that they were keeping are released. The hard drive also gave the location of the headquarters away, and Black Order soldiers land and attack. Deckard and all the Council soldiers get up onto the roof, where they wait for reinforcements from other parts of the world. Suddenly, a Kraken surfaces in the Thames and attacks. Firing several rockets down the Kraken's mouth, Deckard succeeds in killing the Kraken. While the Council was distracted, however, the Black Order manages to steal Pandora's Box, and kidnap Vivian Kane. Deckard and the Council chase after them back to New York City.

In New York City, Deckard and the Council launch a full-scale attack on the Black Order headquarters. Inside the building, he manages to free Vivian, and she goes up the command post to help Deckard. On the roof, Deckard finds the machine. It turns out that Deckard can overload the machine, and destroy it by putting a lot of Animus Energy inside of it. In the end, the machine overloads, and then explodes. LeFey is hurled out of his control booth by a werewolf, grabbed in midair by a griffin and impaled on the machine, killing him. After the explosion, Vivian is nowhere to be seen. The Council arrives, and assumes that she was vaporized. The Council immediately turns on Deckard, locking him up, stating that Deckard's Signet contains information that could create a new Pandora's Box, the first one being destroyed when the machine exploded. Later, it turns out that Vivian survived, and Deckard, being a thief, easily escapes. A final picture shows Deckard holding his Signet branded hand out to a griffin, seemingly taming it.

In 1936, a German professor, Richard Wirth, is hosted by the Wollners, a family of German emigrants in West Virginia. The Wollners believe him to be a visiting scholar, but Wirth turns out to be a Nazi occultist who seeks a Viking runestone buried on their property. When Wirth reveals he wants to use it for evil, he is interrupted by the family, who trap him in their basement and bind him through a ritual that requires frequent human sacrifices. Linked to Wirth, the family survive through the decades, operating as both captors and servants to Wirth, who they keep weakened.

In 2007, 25-year-old paramedic Evan Marshall is surprised when his older brother Victor suddenly appears after having disappeared during a camping trip in rural West Virginia. Victor explains that he has escaped his captors, and they quickly prepare to return for vengeance. The brothers head to the farm and confront the Wollners. They, in turn, warn the siblings about Wirth. They do not listen until Wirth gets out of the cellar and begins his terror. Wirth reveals that the reason Victor was able to escape was because Wirth knew that Victor would come back to the farm for revenge and would eventually free him from the Wollners, so he let Victor go on purpose. The brothers manage to poison and decapitate Wirth, but as a result the Wollners rapidly turn old and die. Before the youngest dies, she tells Evan that SS leader Heinrich Himmler has sent eight more Nazi agents to different farms. Evan finds a map that was under the farm and discovers that others like Wirth are at other farms. While Victor returns home to his family, Evan heads out to the other farms to stop the Nazis.

After the devastating San Francisco earthquake of 1906, two girls' lives become connected. Kate Keely is the orphaned daughter of a newspaper reporter father and an Irish immigrant mother, living close to poverty with an aunt until their home was destroyed by the earthquake. They move to a boardinghouse the aunt purchases with a friend, and there Kate learns of an opportunity to go to work as the companion to Jolie Logan. Jolie's father is a wealthy physician and her mother died in the earthquake. Suffering from a history of scarlet fever and the loss of her mother, Jolie is sickly and depressed and her father thinks a companion would lift her spirits and that together they could travel. Kate sees this position as an easy source of income and, more importantly, a chance to visit her mother's fabled Ireland. Together the girls do travel across country and then to Ireland, and become more than friends, and learn more of life than they expected.

In 1971, British Security Services (MI5) have taken interest in a safety deposit box that is located in a Lloyd's Bank branch on the corner of Baker Street and Marylebone Road. It belongs to a black militant gangster, Michael X, and contains compromising photos of Princess Margaret, which he is keeping as insurance to keep the British authorities off his back. Martine Love, an ex-model who is romantically involved with MI5 agent Tim Everett, is caught at Heathrow Airport smuggling drugs into the country, and to avoid going to jail, she makes a deal with the authorities whereby she agrees to retrieve the photos.

Martine approaches her friend Terry, a struggling East London car salesman with criminal contacts, and tells him that if he can assemble the gang to help her rob the bank, he will be richly rewarded, though she does not tell him about the photos in the deposit box. Terry recruits a small team, including one of his own workers, Eddie, Dave, Kevin, Bambas, and Guy Singer. While scouting the bank, Dave runs into local gangster Lew Vogel, for whom he made several pornographic films.

The gang rents a leather goods shop near the bank and tunnels into the vault. They loot the safety deposit boxes, but Terry becomes suspicious when Martine seems to display particular interest in one box and eventually discovers the photos. The police are alerted to the robbery by a ham radio operator who overhears the gang's walkie-talkie communications, but by the time they locate the bank, the gang has already fled. The robbery rattles many important underworld figures who had used the bank, including Lew Vogel, who kept a ledger of police payoffs inside. He notifies a furious Michael X in Trinidad, who correctly suspects Gale Benson— the lover of his associate Hakim Jamal—of spying for MI5, and subsequently murders her. Vogel decides that Dave’s presence outside that particular bank was not a coincidence, and has him kidnapped and tortured for information by sand blasting an ankle and one of his legs. Dave gives in, and Lew has Gerald Pyke and Nick Burton — two corrupt policemen working on his payroll, kidnap Eddie at Terry's garage. Meanwhile, Terry discovers explicit photographs of important government officials among their loot and uses them to secure passports and new identities for the gang.

Vogel's men track down and murder Bambas and Guy Singer. Eddie refuses to cooperate with Vogel, who has Gerald execute Dave and threatens to kill Eddie unless Terry delivers the ledger to him; Terry agrees to meet up with Vogel at Paddington Station to exchange the ledger for Eddie. He arranges for the meeting to happen at the same time as he will be picking up the new passports and immunity of prosecution of the robbery from the MI5 in exchange for the pictures of Princess Margaret. Meanwhile, Terry sends Kevin to honest cop Roy Given with a page torn from the ledger. Vogel becomes spooked and tries to flee, but Terry attacks and beats him—only to be arrested by the police. However, Given has Terry released and uses the information he supplied to arrest Lew, Gerald and Nick. In Trinidad, Michael X is arrested as well and after Benson body is found in a shallow grave his house is burned down. Eddie inherits Terry's car dealership, while Kevin and Martine prepare to begin new lives with their share of the money. Terry and his family leave England and enjoy a carefree life on a boat in a sunny location.

It is later revealed Vogel's ledger eventually causes Scotland Yard to undergo a major corruption purge in the police force. The activities of Sonia Bern's brothels make several senior officials resign. Michael X is hanged in Trinidad in 1975 for the murder of Gale Benson and his file in the British National Archive remains classified until 2054. Lew Vogel is sentenced to 8 years in prison. Hakim Jamal is murdered in 1973. The murders of both Bambas and Guy Singer are never solved. The loot taken from the robbery exceeds that of the Great Train Robbery at £4 million. Over 100 safe deposit holders refuse to identify their losses as most of them are criminals. A disclaimer at the end of the film ironically remarks that the names of many of the persons involved in the film have been changed to protect the guilty.

A group of prison inmates in a chain gang obtain some experimental formaldehyde, and get high off of it. They later try to escape and are shot dead. They are buried, and rise again to kill everyone in their path, and to find more formaldehyde from which to get high.

Slave traders bring back an evil voodoo entity that is accidentally freed by the Confederate Army during the Civil War. The entity possesses the bodies of the dead soldiers to create an army of its own bent on conquest, using the corpses of both the North and South. When both Union and Confederate soldiers are mysteriously murdered by the entity during the Civil War, the opposing troops must overcome their differences and band together to investigate the gruesome deaths. It soon becomes apparent that these killers are anything but human. Instead, they are a maniacal regiment of supernatural forces, and it is solely up to these united American soldiers to fight the slaughterous evil of the Ghost Brigade.

The film centers around Captain John Harling, a Union army man that has been awaiting the end of his enlistment; it is cut short when there are unusual murders of Union troops. To discover the culprits behind this Harling seeks Colonel Nehemiah Strayn, a former Confederate regiment commander, now sitting in a Union prison at Bowling Green, who was once Harling's teacher. The two officers, along with Colonel George Thalman supervising, set out with a small detachment of troops and a runaway slave named Rebecca. When they reach the site where several Union troops were murdered, Strayn tells about what happened to his regiment, whose gruesome end happened at the same place where the Union corpses were found.

After leaving the site and wandering deeper into Tennessee, they come across a group of Confederate soldiers, who quickly surrender, much to the surprise of the Union troops. The Confederate in charge tells Thalman that their group was attacked by a band of undead troops who took many of his men away, yet he was unaware of why he and his people were taken. Thalman, deciding that they require reinforcements, takes off leaving Harling in charge. But during the night, while Strayn and Rebecca are talking just a few yards away from the camp, they are assaulted by Stayn's old regiment, now a bunch of walking zombies. His former second-in-command, Major Josiah Elkins, tells him to lead this new regiment. Strayn refuses the offer, however, and escapes with Rebecca to the camp. Strayn warns everyone at the camp and they all hide behind the carts that the Confederates had with them and wait until the zombie soldiers approach them. After holding them off, they are surprised to see Thalman reappear again, but he has been changed. After being burned by Rebecca he returns to his former self, But before he dies, he puts Harling in charge, in hopes that Harling will see the men out.

The next day, since they do not have time to leave the area, they set a trap for the Ghost Brigade. Using Strayn to lure them back to the Union camp, he surprises them by picking up a pistol and killing one of them with a silver bullet which was created from the silver that the Confederates were carrying. The Ghost Brigade goes into a fury and attacks the joint Union/Confederate troops, who are positioned behind a trench filled with water and wagons turned into barricades. Strayn personally fights with Elkins in hand-to-hand combat before Elkins stabs him. Before he can finish Strayn, Rebecca leaps on top of him. The short struggle continues until Rebecca shoots Elkins by aiming at her chest when he was behind her. While barely alive, Harling realizes that she is infected and has to be shot. Strayn tries to intervene but Rebecca is shot. The last remaining zombie soldier cries over Elkin's corpse before he is shot by Harling. With the Ghost Brigade defeated, they head back for Union territory, where Strayn is sent back to Bowling Green prison for a short period, before he escapes and rejoins the Confederate Army. He fights with distinction during the battles of Gettysburg and other major Civil War battles, but his unusual stand against slavery alienates many of his countrymen. While Strayn is fighting in the Confederate Army, Harling decides to not take his parole and stays with the Union Army for the duration of the war, serving under General U.S. Grant for the remainder of the Civil War.

The film ends with Harling telling the story of Strayn going back to the creek where his regiment was murdered, where he is never seen again.

Donna Taylor is a young prostitute recruited by a criminal organization known as "the Syndicate" to help blackmail their latest target, a politician. She agrees to carry out their plan of meeting him in his hotel room, drugging his drink, and having pictures taken of him while he is unconscious. She soon finds out the drug she administered was not a simple sedative as she had been told by Sandra and Erica, the two members of the Syndicate accompanying her, but a lethal poison. They threaten to kill Donna if she does not stay silent about the murder. After they depart to dispose of the body, Donna arranges to use a friend's place in Mexico to hide out. Unknown to her, the Syndicate is monitoring the hotel room.

The next morning, Donna drives off toward the US-Mexico border, unaware Sandra and Erica know her destination. Donna stops at a remote gas station to refuel and is approached by a young, female hitchhiker who urgently needs a ride. Donna declines, and while she is away from the car, the hitchhiker steals her car. Sandra and Erica pull into the gas station, and the attendant points them in the direction the hitchhiker left; they drive off immediately before he can tell them it had been stolen. Donna recognizes them, and now realizes she is being hunted.

Another customer, a young man named Chuck, has witnessed the series of events and offers to give Donna a ride. Suspicious of his motives, she declines, instead accepting a ride from a seemingly more trustworthy old man named H. R. Stringham. However, Stringham abducts Donna, taking her back to his remote desert home, where he demands Donna have sex with his mentally impaired son, Ben. Donna reluctantly agrees, and the two go off to a secluded area. As she begins to disrobe, it is evident the childlike Ben does not understand what to do. She sneaks back to the house and steals his pickup truck.

Meanwhile, the Syndicate girls overtake Donna's car, now driven by the hitchhiker, who explains that she stole the car at the gas station. Angered that Donna has eluded them, they kill the girl and return to the station. The attendant updates the two on Donna's whereabouts and gives them directions to Stringham's house. They pass Donna leaving in Stringham's pickup, but do not recognize her. Stringham's truck soon runs out of fuel, and while Donna is pondering her next move, a vehicle pulls up behind her. She arms herself with a pistol she finds in the glove compartment and waits. The driver turns out to be Chuck, who had been camping nearby when he noticed the stalled truck. He convinces her that the desert roads are impossible to navigate at night, and she returns to his camp until daybreak. Donna soon lets her guard down and tells her story to Chuck. At first, he is apprehensive about getting involved, but eventually agrees to help her escape. They have sex.

Sandra and Erica finally reach the old man's house, where he explains how Donna escaped. They decide to stay the night and resume hunting Donna in the morning. Sandra becomes drunk and seduces the dimwitted Ben. As he reaches orgasm, she pulls out her pistol and shoots him in the head, laughing. His father hears the noise and comes in, horrified and aghast. Sandra shoots and kills him as well.

The next morning, Donna and Chuck are driving down a desert road when Sandra and Erica pick up their trail and catch up to them. Chuck pulls over near an outcrop of hills and provides cover fire, while Donna tries to escape on foot. Chuck runs out of ammunition but ambushes Erica and, during a brief struggle, shoots her and takes her gun. Donna is chased by Sandra and finally killed. Sandra is quickly picked up by a car driven by the Syndicate boss, just as Chuck arrives and finds Donna's body. Bent on revenge, Chuck steals a dune buggy, chases them, and kills both Sandra and the driver.

The novel opens in 1997, two years after the nuclear exchange. The "Screamies" have been afflicting humanity since the 1980s.

Arthur Gregson, an American spaceflight engineer, and his close friend Kenneth Wellford, from England, are attacked by an odd flying craft while themselves flying a small plane to a meeting in Rome. They evade their attacker long enough for SecBu military craft to arrive and shoot it down. The experience is too much for Gregson, however, who has to pretend to check out another part of the plane so he can endure yet another of his intermittent Screamie attacks.

Finally reaching their destination, they meet the head of SecBu, Weldon Radcliff, and are shown the corpse of an alien. It is definitely not human, having no hair, no fingernails, and most tellingly, an elaborate double heart. Greg's twin brother Manuel had gone out on the first operational starship, the ''Nina'', which was lost after sending messages about "a glowing ship" and "presences". Radcliff informs Greg and Kenneth that they believe the ''Nina'' was attacked by aliens, who are now on Earth and are responsible for the Screamies in some way. A human accomplice of the aliens apparently calls them "Valorians". The particular alien they are shown attempted to assassinate a SecBu official.

Back in New York City Gregson and Wellford are caught up in yet another assassination attempt on an official, and Gregson recognizes one of the assailants as a Valorian. Giving pursuit, he is halted by a Screamie attack after the Valorian reaches into his pocket to activate a device of some kind.

While visiting his fiancée Helen Forsythe and her father in rural Pennsylvania, Gregson follows up on an article in a local newspaper about a farmer who claimed that aliens tried to recruit him to help them. He runs into a group of men and an alien at the farmhouse who interrogate him until SecBu troops arrive. Strangely the men know him and refer to Helen as if she had been working with them.

Summoned to London with Wellford for another SecBu briefing, Gregson hears that Wellford was predicted to go Screamie himself, that very day, by a fortune teller. Since she offered him a refund if she was wrong, Wellford looks forward to collecting. The briefing consists of a show where an apparent drugged Valorian confesses to seeking the conquest of Earth, and to bringing the Screamie disease as a biological weapon. Astonishingly, Weldon Radcliff executes the Valorian in front of his agents. To make matters worse, Wellford goes Screamie, as the fortune teller predicted.

Returning to Pennsylvania Gregson confronts Helen, who admits to talking with the Valorian and being told that the Screamies were the advent of a new perception. By this time SecBu have begun a campaign to convince people that the Valorians are not only hostile but have powers of persuasion amounting to hypnosis. Helen recants her beliefs. Shortly afterward Gregson himself has his ultimate Screamie attack, and is sedated for removal to one of the many Isolation Institutes reserved for Screamers.

He endures months of psychic pain, apparent hallucinations, and terror, narrowly avoiding the typical fate of Screamers, who tend to commit suicide when their sedation wears off enough for them to reach a convenient high window. He recovers and is met by Helen on his release.

Now, like many ex-Screamers, Gregson is a valuable commodity to SecBu. Most elected officials are ex-Screamers, as are the top officials in the Bureau. Gregson learns that Wellford also recovered, only to be kidnapped by the Valorians. Radcliff reveals to him the existence of a device which can suppress the Screamies over a small area, by blocking the effects of an unknown form of radiation. Radcliff wants Gregson to help construct a super-suppressor on the space station Vega Jump-off, the departure point of the ''Nina'', to cover the entire planet.

First Gregson is sent to Paris for training. He learns that the Screamies really are a new form of perception, called ''zylphing'' and the radiation is called ''rault'', created by a body at the galactic center known as Chandeen. Another body known as the Stygum Field blocks the ''rault'', and Earth has been in the shadow for thousands of years.

Besides the training, Gregson is introduced to a temptress called Karen Rakar. Gaining proficiency at ''zylphing'' he learns that the perception can be used for many purposes, including telepathy, long-distance viewing, and even precognition. He also begins to realize the depth of the SecBu plot to keep and hold power. Discovering the head of the training institute asleep in a field of artificial ''rault'' he is able to ''zylph'' the man's true purposes from his mind. The man wakes up and Gregson has to kill him. He then escapes in a car, but as he does so he ''zylphs'' a re-entry capsule, bearing a Valorian, coming down nearby after having been disabled by SecBu weapons. Rescuing the occupant, a female, he drives to confront Madam Carnot, a conspirator who claims to be the oldest and most powerful ''zylpher'' on Earth. As he ''zylphs'' her true intentions, a rescue party led by Wellford breaks into the building, intent on rescuing the Valorian woman, but in the process capturing Gregson and killing Carnot. She had previously foretold a violent end for Gregson, but in reality she would be the victim.

In the Valorian hideout, a castle in the Rhine valley, Wellford assures Gregson that the Valorians have no powers beyond ''zylphing'', nor any evil intent. Gregson is still doubtful. He sees the necessity to build the super-suppressor as the Screamies are getting worse by the day. His qualms at the intent of the SecBu conspirators are balanced by the urge to carry out the plan for the good of humanity.

The Valorian he rescued, who is called Andelia, tells him that his brother Manuel is alive, one of the few on the ''Nina'' who survived when the ship emerged into full ''rault''. He cannot return to Earth because he has lost the ability to live without ''zylphing''. Eventually, she promises Gregson, they will be re-united. Gregson, apparently free to leave the hideout, steals a craft and returns to Pennsylvania to find Helen, only to be captured by SecBu. They ''zylph'' the location of the castle from him, but by the time they get there only the injured Andelia is left for them to capture.

Gregson ships up to the space station for the final phase of construction. Crucial to the process is lowering the station's altitude, which is something only he can be counted on to do. On the station he re-unites with Karen Rakar. He is still ambivalent about which faction to side with. The station is already in a small suppressor field, but this breaks down long enough for him to detect the presence of Andelia. While he is talking to her a guard arrives and kills her. Gregson kills the guard, but is cut down yet again by Wellford, one of a boarding party intent on a last-ditch gamble.

Recovering, Gregson learns Wellford's plan. The super-suppressor can be re-wired to be a super-transmitter. All the top SecBu people are on the station, and activating a super-transmitter would fry the brains of everyone aboard. It is the supreme chance to decapitate the conspiracy, who plan to use their control over the super-suppressor to cement their power, threatening to turn it off if their demands are not met. With them eliminated, the super-suppressor could be activated as planned, and with help from the Valorians humanity would be able to recover the lost perception, ready to deal with high levels of ''rault'' which must be coming.

Gregson helps Wellford re-wire the suppressor, and they escape to a comparatively safe distance of a few thousand miles aboard Wellford's ship. Even at that distance, the radiance is almost more than they can bear. Returning to the station, they find the people aboard either dead or catatonic.

The final chapter takes place a few years later. Helen and Gregson are married with young children. Humanity is learning to live with ''rault'', but already the Valorians have located another civilization about to emerge from the shadow of the Stygum Field. Gregson and Wellford are offered a place on that mission.

In Europe, days after V-E Day, General Patton orders that hoarded Nazi gold be transported to the Reichsbank in Frankfurt. But before the shipment arrives in the city, the gold train is robbed and 59 U.S. Army military policemen are killed with poison gas in a railroad tunnel. A group of corrupt American officers, led by a colonel, is behind the crime. Patton launches an investigation that initially leads to OSS major Joe De Luca, from whom the thieves took a plan from his wartime operations to steal the gold.

De Luca begins his own investigation. He first visits his old wartime commander, Colonel Mike McCauley, who is now living in a requisitioned German castle. Meanwhile, as the investigation gets closer, the corrupt American officers hire a professional assassin named Webber to kill Patton and halt the inquiry.

Soon De Luca meets Mara, a former girlfriend, who can help him find the culprits. But they first discover that Webber is on their trail and is also planning to kill Patton. They race against time across war-ravaged Europe to save the general and catch the villainous officers.

Webber, posing as an American soldier, kills General Patton in a staged traffic accident. At the precise moment when a military truck collides with Patton's car, Webber fires a rubber bullet, striking Patton and breaking his neck. De Luca tracks down the assassin and kills him with his own weapon.

Emily Shepherd, her professor stepfather, physician mother, and stepbrother Grady are moving into an older, larger house and Emily is very happy. An accident that scarred her face the year before had left her shunned by friends and foes alike. Plastic surgery has removed the physical scar but not the psychic one, and the new home is a chance to start over for her. The house comes with a marvelous treehouse and a new neighbour, Rowan Tucker. Rowan's life is full of secrets, most of which surround her antisocial father and their locked-up house. But on the common ground of the treehouse, Emily and Rowan forge a friendship. Rowan is a woodcarver and has fashioned a series of animals for the treehouse which she names after England's Queen's Beasts; but Rowan's beasts are memorials for animals who have suffered in life and are saved by Rowan's art. The stories she crafts for the carvings bring them to life for Emily, too, who also finds healing through them. In the give and take of real friendship, each gains; perhaps Rowan is finding in Emily the strength to stand up to her father.

Twenty-four years after the original, documentarist Melvin Hall (Eric Idle) interviews musicians, actors, and other entertainment figures about the days of the popular band The Rutles.

With contributions from over 50 politicians, scientists, and environmental activists, including former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, physicist Stephen Hawking, Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai, journalist Armand Betscher, and Paul Hawken, the film documents the grave problems facing the planet's life systems. Global warming, deforestation, mass species extinction, and depletion of the oceans' habitats are all addressed. The film's premise is that the future of humanity is in jeopardy.

The film proposes potential solutions to these problems by calling for restorative action by the reshaping and rethinking of global human activity through technology, social responsibility and conservation.

After a chance meeting at the laundromat, Jemaine reconnects with Sally. She is interested in resuming their relationship but tells him that they have no future while he remains roommates with Bret. Jemaine immediately announces that he is moving out but refuses to tell a perplexed Bret that it is because of Sally.

At a band meeting, Murray announces that he has started a "band investment portfolio". He has been creaming a bit off the band income and has purchased some real estate — three stars for fifty dollars each. Bret is pleased but Jemaine thinks it's a waste of money. Later in the episode they learn that Jemaine's star has gone supernova.

Jemaine takes Bret and Murray to see his new apartment. It turns out to be an empty cleaning cupboard, which Murray dubs a "compartment". When Jemaine announces he has to leave on a date, Bret quickly works out that it is with Sally. A jealous Bret takes Coco on a date to the same restaurant to which Jemaine has taken Sally. After dinner we learn that Sally is having a birthday party which happens to conflict with Jemaine's housewarming.

In the week leading up to the parties, the two band-mates launch into an escalating competition to craft the most thoughtful and beautiful birthday present for Sally.

At the housewarming, Jemaine learns that Bret has gone to Sally's party instead, so he abandons it also and rushes to Sally's place. However at Sally's party they both get a shock — she tells them that she is engaged to Mark, an Australian former boyfriend. Mark has given her a BMW, which vastly outshines the creepy gifts that Bret and Jemaine have made. The two are heartbroken.

Walking home, Bret asks Jemaine to move back in. Jemaine agrees and then passes on a message from Coco — she has decided to dump Bret due to his obsession with Sally.

Orphaned sixteen-year-old high school student Shinkurō Kurenai, a specialist in settling squabbles between people, is one day approached by his employer Benika Jūzawa with the seven-year-old daughter of a powerful plutocratic family asking him to be the child's bodyguard.

Buddy, a young gay man leaves his small-town home in rural Upstate New York to make a new life in New York City.

Ryan Azarcon lives in a fishbowl. He is the son of the infamous Captain Cairo Azarcon, of the deep space carrier ship ''Macedon'' and Songlian Lau, Austro Station's head of publicity. Because of his combination of good looks and influential parents, Ryan is constantly watched by the media.

After going to college for three years on earth and witnessing a horrifying terrorist attack related to the war between Earthhub and the striviiric-na in deep space, Ryan develops post traumatic stress disorder, drops out of school and returns to Austro, where he quickly begins doing drugs.

However, when Captain Azarcon destroys the pirate ship ''Genghis Khan'' and begins to make peace with the striviiric-na, Ryan finds himself in danger. After a failed assassination attempt in a club on New Years Day which leaves many people dead or injured, Ryan finds himself trapped in his home for his own safety- at which point his father comes for him, taking him aboard his ship.

Ryan is immediately caught in the middle of the war, the peace, and the effects thereof. The truth about his father's mysterious past, as a protégé of the pirate captain of the ''Genghis Khan'', Vincenzo Falcone emerges.

Earthhub factions, particularly the Family of Humanity, are against the peace. This extremist group eventually has Ryan's mother assassinated. The ''Macedon'' returns to Austro for her funeral, where another assassination attempt nearly kills Ryan. Captain Azarcon subjects Austro to martial law illegally to save him, and is forced to flee to the striviiric-na section of space.

Ryan recovers on his father's ship, where he comes to terms, somewhat, with who he is, who his father is, and his place in the war.

Arriving by seaplane to inspect an isolated but thriving rubber plantation in the African jungle during World War II, Worthing (Richard Ainley) reminisces about the old days, when conditions were much harsher. The film then flashes back to 1910.

The only four white men within hundreds of miles eagerly await the arrival of the riverboat ''Congo Queen''. Wilbur Ashley (Bramwell Fletcher) and his boss, Harry Witzel (Walter Pidgeon), have grown to hate each other. Ashley is finally going home, and the boat is also bringing his replacement, Langford (Richard Carlson), for a four-year stint. The other two white men are the alcoholic doctor (Frank Morgan) and missionary Reverend Dr. Roberts (Henry O'Neill).

Harry and Langford get off to a bad start, and it only goes downhill from there. It takes all of the efforts of the doctor and Roberts to keep the two men from each other's throats. The situation becomes worse when Tondelayo (Hedy Lamarr), a seductive native woman, returns. Harry, as resident magistrate, has already previously ordered her to leave his district, as a disruptive, amoral influence.

Tondelayo begins to work her wiles on Langford. Despite the warnings from all three of the other men (and perhaps to spite Harry), he eventually succumbs to her charms. When Harry orders her expelled once more, Langford decides to marry her. Roberts reveals that she is not a native, but rather half Egyptian and half Arab, and in spite of his better judgment, reluctantly joins them in holy matrimony.

After five months, Tondelayo has grown bored of her husband. However, when she tries to seduce Harry, he reminds her that she is Mrs. Langford "until death do you part". That gives her an idea. When her husband becomes sick, the doctor gives her some medicine to give him periodically. She obtains poison and makes him drink some of it instead. However, Harry suspects what she is trying to do. He leaves, then returns just as she is about to give Langford another dose. Harry forces her to drink the rest of the poison. She runs away screaming and collapses on the jungle floor.

The doctor takes Langford away on the ''Congo Queen'' for better medical treatment, identifying him as white cargo. From the boat comes Langford's replacement: a younger Worthing. Harry grabs him and forcefully tells him that he will stick around. Returning to the present, Worthing observes that he did.

The novel begins with Yuri Terisov, the jaded former protégé of the infamous dead pirate, Captain Vincenzo Falcone, and the Captain of the pirate ship ''Kublai Khan'' in prison on earth, where his is approached by Black Ops agent Andreas Lukacs. Lukacs offers to free Yuri from prison in exchange for his help in infiltrating the pirate network, which Yuri agrees to in exchange for the protection of his cellmate Stefano Finch.

Yuri fakes his own death and his is smuggled out of prison with Finch to Pax Terra, the station orbiting above the earth, where he is picked up by his ship. He finds, however, that his ship has been taken over by his Lieutenant Taja Roshan and is first forced to kill her taking back his ship.

Once that is done, he contacts Falcone's former Lieutenant, Caligtiera, about the Black Op's offer, who proposes that together they destroy the Earthhub Military Carrier ''Archangel''. Yuri finds that he cannot bring himself to do this and informs the ''Macedon'' of his plans. He destroys his ship and kills Lukacs, who had intended to use the pirate to gain power, then flees to the ''Macedon'' whose crew includes two of Falcone's other protégés.

This story alternates with the story Yuri's childhood, which tells how his colony was destroyed by the striviiric-na when he was four. His family was split up and he was sent to live in the bleak refugee camp on the partially terraformed planet Grace. When he is nine, Falcone recruits him from the camp and takes him on as his protégé and eventually as a geisha.

Yuri falls in love with his geisha mentor, Estienne, and is indoctrinated, but this indoctrination fails when Yuri is forced into geisha duties at fourteen, which is essentially prostitution, with the aid of Falcone's cruelty. Despite this, Yuri is eventually given his own ship.

When Falcone's ship, the ''Genghis Khan'' is destroyed, Yuri is sent to seek revenge on the ''Macedon's'' captain, Cairo Azarcon, by attempting to murder his son, Ryan Azarcon. He fails on his first try intentionally, but almost succeeds on his second, which is what lands him in prison. This portion of the story is told in more detail, through Ryan's perspective in the Universe's second book, Burndive.

Hannah plays Harry, a very shy young gay man who has a birthmark in the shape of Madagascar across much of the left-hand side of his face. On fleeing the city and the shallow gay scene, Harry ends up at a rugged stretch of coastline where he meets Flint, played by Bernard Hill. Flint is very heterosexual and the two are wary of each other to begin with. The film focuses on how their relationship is transformed from distrust, through respect, and ultimately to attraction.

When a fortune is discovered at the bottom of a lake, a diver is out to get it, even when he discovers that the loot is being guarded by an awful underwater beast.

The author, James R. McDonough, introduces the book as a story of an "American platoon leader in combat." James McDonough begins the story with a brief introduction and the summary of his childhood in New York and decision to enter the United States Military Academy . After graduating West Point, Ranger school, and infantry officer basic course, Lieutenant McDonough leaves his wife and infant son and deploys to Vietnam as part of the Vietnam War. Two of his classmates sit beside him on the flight over to the combat zone. After meeting a shell-shocked first lieutenant from the same unit to which he is assigned, he soon takes command of his first platoon.

McDonough soon meets SFC Hernandez, his former Ranger school instructor and now platoon sergeant. Friction develops between the two after McDonough takes control during an attack on their platoon area of operations. Eventually Hernandez is transferred out of the platoon after a suspected assault on a female Viet Cong member who the platoon had taken as a prisoner of war.

McDonough faces a variety of morally ambiguous situations throughout the book. Eventually he completes his tour and returns home to his wife and son to continue his Army career.

Category:1985 non-fiction books Category:Vietnam War memoirs

Within a frame story in which a doctor talks about sex, the film is split into three segments: the first involves a man buying an animate sex doll and his many failed attempts to bed it. In the second story, a man suffering from writer's block finds his muse by undressing various women. Finally, the third story involves the President of the United States, whose daughter is kidnapped and will be killed unless the president and his wife have sex on national television.

Daniela and Gabriel meet by accident and sparks fly between them in spite of the fact that they are both already romantically involved. Daniela has been going out with Ricardo for years, but he is still not willing to commit to marriage, and is consistently unfaithful and while Gabriel is engaged to Raquel, what he feels for her is not really love, but lust. He has stayed in the relationship under pressure from his godmother Angela who, for selfish reasons that will be revealed later on, insists on having him to marry Raquel.

Although Gabriel inherited an enormous fortune after the death of his parents, he cares very little about money and position, and devotes his time to his greatest passion, radio, hosting a highly rated late night show. Sincerely interested in Daniela, he conceals his wealth and moves to the middle-class neighborhood where she lives, in order to be close to her.

During a Growth Opportunity graduation, (a parody of Erhard Seminars Training), a couple named Terry and Charlie are offered a ride from an old woman and are driven into the woods. After the old woman's car stalls, two inbred killers appear and attack; Charlie is decapitated with a machete in the backseat while Terry is brutally assaulted before being garroted by the old lady. It is revealed that the dual killers named Ike and Addley are the woman's sons.

Meanwhile, three women who have been friends since college—Trina, Abbey, and Jackie—prepare for an annual "mystery weekend" trip, where one of them arranges a getaway in a location unknown to the other two. Jackie, who lives in New York City, has planned a camping trip for them in the Deep Barrens, a forested area in rural New Jersey. Trina, a glamorous model living in Los Angeles, and Abbey, who returned to Chicago after college to care for her ailing mother, travel to New Jersey, where Jackie picks them up. After stopping at a nearby store for supplies, they arrive at their destination and begin to camp. While in the woods, they begin to explore, sitting around the campfire telling stories and having fun by swimming and fishing. Unbeknownst to them, they are being stalked by Ike and Addley. In the middle of the night, Ike and Addley attack the women, binding and gagging them. The three are taken by Ike and Addley to a ramshackle home in the woods where they live with their unhinged mother, whom they impress by torturing people. The brothers tie the women to exercise equipment inside the home, but Jackie is swiftly selected by Mother to be the brothers' first victim and is taken outside. Addley rapes Jackie while Ike photographs it, and Mother looks on encouragingly.

Abbey and Trina awaken the following day and plan to escape while Mother and her boys exercise outside. During their exercise routine, Mother is alarmed when she spots her deformed sister Queenie—who lives in the woods and subsists on vermin—roaming in the distance. Inside the house, Abbey and Trina discover Terry and Charlie's bodies, and find a brutalized Jackie hidden inside a drawer. The three women manage to escape and flee into the woods. While Ike searches for the women, Addley remains at home with Mother where he questions Queenie's existence and if Mother's claims are just a ploy to keep the boys at home with her. As Jackie is unable to move quickly because of her injuries, Trina and Abbey become separated. Trina finds the car destroyed and is chased by Ike, while Jackie peacefully dies of her wounds. Ike eventually loses track of Trina, and she reunites with Abbey for revenge against Mother and the brothers.

The next morning, Abbey and Trina arm themselves with weapons and begin to invade the cabin to avenge Jackie. Trina castrates Addley with a clawhammer before Abbey suffocates him. When the women drag Addley's body outside, Ike leaps from a second-story window and attacks them. Enraged over his brother's death, Ike tries to strangle Trina before Abbey pours Drano down his throat. He chases the women into the house, where Abbey slams a television set on his head before Trina stabs him to death with an electric knife. With the brothers dead, the girls confront Mother in the basement where she is watching television, and sadistically suffocate her with a pair of inflatable breasts. With their vengeance complete, the two girls make a burial for Jackie and prepare to leave the woods before they are suddenly attacked by Queenie who leaps at them from behind the bushes.

After a Great War injury leaves her Baronet husband Sir Clifford Chatterley impotent and crippled, his new wife, Constance Chatterley (called Connie) is torn between love for her husband and her own sensual desires. With her husband's consent, even encouragement, even to the point of bearing him an heir, she is open to means of fulfilling her physical needs. She clandestinely observes their gamekeeper, Oliver Mellors, washing himself at his hut, and is immediately attracted, and uses that image to masturbate in bed that very evening. As she later approaches him at his hut openly, he shows disdain for her prying, due to class differences, he being a common laborer, and she a middling aristocrat.

A later visit to his hut, ostensibly to view newly hatched birds, she sobs at their condition, and Mellors gently takes her in his arms, whereupon they begin a physical relationship. The physical affair between Connie and Mellors grows into love, and they both desire that she should have his child. Gradually, Sir Clifford begins to suspect the affair. After several more clandestine copulations, the lovers agree that Connie should spend an entire night at his cottage. So she does, and it is on this night that Clifford painfully pulls himself to her upstairs bedroom, only to find an empty bed. When Connie returns to the mansion at daybreak, Sir Clifford awaits her. He is shocked and angry that his wife should descend to bedding a member of the lower classes. He sends his wife off to Venice, and fires Mellors. Connie, discovering that she is pregnant, attempts a return to Sir Clifford, only to be rebuffed, as no child of a commoner shall be an heir of his. But she remains in the mansion, while Mellors awaits the finalization of a divorce from his first wife, who never appears in the film.

First year high school girl Sawa Konishi transfers to Amabane High School, a former all-boys school who has begun accepting female students. Throughout the day, Sawa learns that most of the boys in the school don't listen to the teachers, following the lead of Ran Matsuyuki, the son of the school's chairman. After confronting Ran, Sawa is bullied by the boys, but her unwavering courage and defiance causes her to gain respect from Ran and the rest of the boys, and they eventually become friends.

In this fact-based adolescent melodrama, Joe Fisk is a juvenile delinquent who falls in love with Lisa Taylor, a beautiful Catholic girls' school student, in an Oregon forest. The two meet by accident when the troubled young man stumbles upon her while being chased by his peers in a training exercise, and sees the lovely girl floating in a small lake as she works on a photography assignment, recreating the Pre-Raphaelite painting ''Ophelia'' by John Everett Millais. The two are immediately drawn to each other, but neither of their custodians encourage contact with the opposite sex, and when their relationship is discovered there is trouble all around, forcing the young lovers to flee. The question then remains: Will they be able to escape the law and other authorities long enough to find happiness?

A married cartoonist named C. C. Drood becomes involved in the cover up of a political sex scandal after his lover, Yolanda Caldwell, a call girl, is found murdered.

Drood has betrayed his wife Helen with the exotic Yolanda, whom he meets at a club where the patrons slam dance, violently crashing into one another on the dance floor.

Bobby Nye, a former lesbian lover of Yolanda's, hires a hit man named Buddy to do away with Drood, who is also hotly pursued by the police. Drood ultimately comes to believe that Bobby and Buddy are the ones responsible for Yolanda's death. A corrupt cop, Gilbert, is doing everything in his power to pin the whole thing on Drood, but a police colleague, Smiley, intervenes on the wanted man's behalf.

Buddy is eventually overcome with guilt in his role in the killing of Yolanda, so he spares Drood's life and takes his own. To escape with his wife and his life, Drood tries to make Nye and the cops believe that Buddy's body is actually his.

Wealthy department-store heir Paul Saxon has a romantic fling with a Nebraska dress-shop owner, Rae Smith, who breaks it off when she discovers he is married.

Rae moves to New York to become a fashion designer, then on to Rome to become the famed Dalian's partner in a salon. Paul continues to woo her, explaining that his alcoholic wife Liz won't grant him a divorce and is unstable, having tried to commit suicide.

Her resistance lowered, Rae becomes the lover of Paul, meeting secretly with him at a house near Paris that he buys. Paul's son learns of the affair and demands that Rae stop seeing his father. Liz makes a public scene humiliating Rae at a charity fashion show featuring her designs, purchasing the closing creation, a wedding gown, for $10,000.

As a drunken Liz leaves the house to attend a party, Paul confronts her. He gets into the car with her, and as the two argue they fight over the keys in the ignition. The car crashes instantly killing Liz and leaving Paul critically paralyzed in the hospital. Paul dies from his injuries, but not before insisting his son call Rae so he can tell her he loves her. Rae, Paul Jr. and his sister Caroline are left alone with their grief.

The last scene shows her sitting by the window of the home he bought for her. She was looking at his picture and a knock came on the door. It was Paul's son with his little sister and the movie ended with Rae with her arms around them.

The film is set in the early 1900s. It tells the story of a pretty and independent young woman, Ray Smith, who lives in Cincinnati. She has many suitors, none of whom she takes seriously. One day she meets an extremely charming and handsome banker named Walter Louis Saxel, and they fall immediately into a strong attraction, which for her is real love. After a few days of closeness she is shocked when he tells her he is already engaged to someone else. Nonetheless, the two of them very nearly marry one another on an impulse, but they are prevented from doing so by arbitrary external forces.

After five years, they meet once again, by chance, in New York City. The banker is now married with two children (Richard and Elizabeth) and is extremely successful in his career, but Ray and he still share the same strong attraction. Ray loves him so much that she gives up her career in dress design and becomes his kept mistress, seeing him only when it is convenient for him. Walter keeps up the appearance of a "happy marriage" and never considers divorcing his wife, whose father is his boss at the banking company.

Ray's loyalty to Walter collapses only once, when he fails to contact her after he has been on an extended trip to Europe with his wife. Ray goes back to Ohio and agrees to marry Curt, an attractive and good-hearted man who proposed to her many times in their youth. However, Walter travels to Ohio to find her, and is able to persuade her to return with him.

Once Walter's children reach adulthood they understand who Ray is, and they despise her. People in Walter's social circle also point condemning fingers at Ray, who suffers all this with patience and fortitude.

In old age, dying of a stroke in his grand home, Walter's last faltering word is to Ray, on the phone. She dies not long afterwards in her apartment.

A businessman hires a psychopath to murder his wife. After he accomplishes the deed, the psychopath blackmails the businessman into finding young girls for him to torture and kill. The man makes a deal with a motorcycle gang to kidnap two young girls for that purpose.

In early 1900s Cincinnati, young and beautiful Ray Schmidt (Irene Dunne) works in her father's shop by day and stays out late drinking beer and dancing with various men by night, although her stepmother disapproves. Ray dates for fun, mostly going out with traveling salesmen passing through town, and neither she nor her dates are interested in any permanent attachment. An exception is Kurt Shendler, who owns a bicycle shop near Mr. Schmidt's shop and aspires to get into the automobile business. Kurt is in love with Ray and asks her to marry him, but she refuses because while she likes Kurt, she doesn't return his romantic feelings.

While visiting the train station with Kurt, Ray meets Walter Saxel (John Boles) and the two fall for each other at first sight. Walter soon confesses to Ray that he is actually engaged to another woman in town, Corinne, who comes from a wealthy background and whose mother is friends with his own mother. Nevertheless, he has fallen in love with Ray, and asks her to meet him at a local band concert that he will be attending with his mother. Walter hopes to introduce Ray to his mother and perhaps get her approval of the relationship. On the day of the concert, Ray is late arriving because her younger half-sister Freda is suicidal over her boyfriend, Hugo, leaving town. Freda begs Ray to go after Hugo and stop him, threatening to throw herself out a window if Ray does not help. By the time Ray has dealt with Freda's situation and gotten to the concert, it is over, and Ray cannot find Walter or his mother in the departing crowds. Walter, thinking she stood him up, writes her an angry letter and marries Corinne.

Several years later, Walter, now a rising young financier on Wall Street, runs into Ray who is single and working in New York City. The two renew their acquaintance and realize they still love each other, although Walter is still married and has two children. Walter sets Ray up in an inexpensive apartment and gets her to give up her job so she will be free to see him when he has time. However, his work, family and social commitments sometimes keep him away for long periods of time, causing Ray to feel lonely and isolated. After Walter takes an extended trip to Europe with his wife, leaving Ray alone with insufficient money to live on, she breaks up with him and accepts a proposal from Kurt, who has become a rich automobile manufacturer. Walter goes to Cincinnati to convince her not to marry Kurt and they resume their previous relationship.

Years pass, and Walter has become a wealthy and prominent financier. When he travels he now brings Ray along, although they must keep their relationship hidden and avoid being seen in public together, meaning Ray spends much of her time alone. Ray is the target of gossip and is hated by Walter's adult children, who regard Ray as a gold digger. Walter's son Dick tells Ray to get out of his family's life, but his father Walter walks in on the conversation and tells his son to be more understanding or at least to mind his own business. That night, Walter suffers a massive stroke and dies shortly thereafter. Just before Walter dies, he asks Dick to telephone Ray's number and hears her voice over the phone one last time. Dick, who now understands his father's feelings for Ray, goes to see her and offers to continue to support her. He finds her distraught over Walter's death and also learns that his father had been paying her only a very small amount per month, thus proving that she stayed in the relationship for love, not money. After Dick leaves, Ray dies looking at Walter's picture.

A man named Zambrini (Marc Lawrence) lives in a rural California area and operates a small, isolated diner catering to local oil workers. He also feeds fresh corpses (apparently acquired by grave robbing) to a pen of 12 pigs he keeps behind the diner. Two spinster neighbors, Miss Macy and Annette (Catherine Ross, Iris Korn), suspect Zambrini of feeding human bodies to the pigs, but cannot convince sheriff Dan Cole (Jesse Vint), who investigates their claims but cannot get Zambrini to admit to anything. Miss Macy tells him that whenever Zambrini feeds a new body to the pigs, there is a new pig in the pen the next day.

Into this mix comes a young woman named Lynn Webster (Toni Lawrence), a stranger who comes to the diner looking for work and a place to stay. Zambrini immediately gives her a room and a job as a waitress, asking no questions about who she is or where she comes from. After a nightmare where Zambrini attacks her with a straight razor, Lynn attempts to investigate the hog pen behind the diner and is intercepted by Zambrini, who ominously warns her never to go back there.

Lynn attracts the attention of local oil worker Ben (Paul Hickey), who pursues her for a date. After politely rebuffing his advances, Lynn finally relents after Ben reveals that he found an abandoned nurse's uniform in a nearby field, suggesting that Lynn is on the run from something that she does not want to be revealed. After Ben takes her out in his truck and attempts to rape her, Lynn invites him back to her room at the diner and murders him with a straight razor. Zambrini finds her and cleans up all evidence of the crime, feeding Ben's dismembered body to the pigs. Lynn seems to have only fleeting memories of her crime, and she continues making one-sided phone calls to her father, promising to return to him.

A man named Jess Winter arrives in town searching for Lynn. Once he makes contact with her at the diner, he reveals to Zambrini that Lynn has escaped from a mental institution; she is a dangerously disturbed psychopath due to being raped by her own father, whom she stabbed to death. Winter tries to get her to go back with him, and she agrees, but when Zambrini tells her that he wants her to stay, Lynn stabs Winter to death.

Winter's disappearance triggers an investigation that reveals Lynn's past to Dan Cole. When he discovers she is an escaped mental patient, he calls the diner to warn Zambrini before rushing out there to apprehend Lynn. Instead, Zambrini warns her and attempts to hide her from the police, but she stabs him to death before he can get her to leave. She makes one last phone call to her father, and this time we hear that she's been talking to an automated recording for a disconnected phone number. Suddenly, the pigs invade the diner, presumably attacking Lynn. Cole arrives on the scene too late and discovers the aftermath. As the pigs are being loaded into a truck the next day, he realizes that there are now 13 full-sized pigs instead of 12.

A middle-aged man who drops out of college to go undercover as a truck driver in order to solve the mysterious murder of his trucker father.

Terrick (James Faulkner), a British South Africa Police officer in rural Rhodesia, looks forward towards the end of his police service and early retirement to his farm with his fiancée, Sally (Sybil Danning). Terrick's hopes for a peaceful life with Sally are shattered, however, when black nationalist guerrillas attack the farm. Sally is raped and murdered by the guerrilla leader, an albino known only by the moniker ''"Whispering Death"'' (Horst Frank). Consumed by grief, Terrick and his farmworkers, led by Katchemu (Sam Williams) set out to avenge Sally on their own. They subsequently learn that the guerrillas have summoned the local villagers to a meeting to politicize them and lay an ambush for "Whispering Death" there. However Terrick's party opens fire prematurely, killing and injuring some of the civilians present.

The Rhodesian government demands that Terrick's police superior, Bill (Christopher Lee) hold him accountable for his recklessness and bring him to justice. From its perspective he has endangered the war effort by inflaming the relationship between the security forces and the locals through his irresponsible actions. Bill obligingly orders a manhunt for Terrick, but most of the policemen sympathize with their onetime colleague and are demoralized by the fact they are being ordered to pursue him instead of the guerrillas. They abandon the manhunt and return to their homes. Due to the apparent unwillingness of the police to apprehend Terrick, the Rhodesian Special Air Service is called in to perform the manhunt.

"Whispering Death" and his guerrillas decide to flee across the border to their sanctuaries in a neighbouring country. However, Terrick and Katchemu, who is an expert tracker, are hot on their trail. The duo become increasingly desperate, with Katchemu torturing a captured guerrilla for information. During a series of bloody skirmishes, Katchemu and nearly all the guerrillas are killed, leaving only Terrick and "Whispering Death" to face each other. Terrick gains the upper hand and stabs his opponent to death. The next morning, pursuing Rhodesian troops finally catch up to Terrick, but he is no longer coherent, having lost his mind as a result of the collective trauma he endured. When he threatens the soldiers with his rifle, they shoot him dead.

Bryan, the son of the Galesburg, Illinois mayor, is brutally murdered in his home, his body later found stuffed and posed as a scarecrow. Local policeman John Brady begins investigating the murder. Meanwhile, John's son Pete, a high school senior, sits in on a course at Galesburg University with his friend, Oliver. During the course, professor Gwen Parkinson screens a lecture by her late mentor, Dr. Le Sange, whom Pete's late mother, Catherine, once worked for. After the lecture, Pete agrees to become one of Gwen's test subjects in order to earn money for his college applications. Later, Pete attends a house party. During the party, one of his classmates, Waldo, is stabbed to death outside by a masked assailant, and Waldo's girlfriend Lucy is attacked and falls into the swimming pool. Pete and several others rush to save her, and the masked attacker flees; in the distance, he removes his mask, revealing himself to be Oliver. John subsequently questions Oliver, who says he cannot recall the events of the party as he was drunk.

Medical examiners observe that Waldo's corpse has a bizarre surgical incision near his eye, and, upon scrutinizing the evidence, John concludes that two different people are responsible for the murders of Waldo and Bryan. Meanwhile, Pete attends one of Gwen's studies at a large laboratory, which hosts both human and animal tests. Gwen has Pete swallow a pill and repeat several words before dismissing him. After, he invites Caroline, a college student who works the front desk at the laboratory, on a date, and the two quickly begin a romance. The following day, a woman finds her son, Timothy, being dismembered in her bathroom by an unknown young woman; she phones police before being stabbed, and manages to tell her friend Mildred over the phone sparse details about the girls' appearance before having her throat slashed.

John, suspecting the female assailant may be one of Gwen's test subject, confronts Gwen at the laboratory, unaware of the fact that Pete is in one of the test rooms, tied to a chair. After John leaves, Gwen resumes the session, in which she injects a fluid into Pete's eye. After he awakens and is dismissed, Pete goes to have dinner with Caroline, but becomes violently ill, and begins urinating blood. Meanwhile, John has a conversation with his girlfriend, Barbara, about the murders: He deduces that each of the victims are sons of men who previously collaborated with John to investigate the unethical experiments of Le Sange, and believes Le Sange is in fact alive, enacting revenge. Barbara follows John to the cemetery, where he breaks into Le Sange's crypt, and finds the casket empty, except for two skeletonized lower legs. John and Barbara return home and find a confused Pete along with Caroline.

John retrieves a shotgun and heads to the university. Barbara meanwhile recounts to Pete and Caroline how Pete's mother, Catherine, acted strangely during her employment under Le Sange, and that her subsequent unexplained death spurned John's initial investigation into the program. Pete and Caroline decide to follow after John to the university. Pete enters a chamber where John is communicating with Gwen, who appears on a small television. Gwen orders Pete, now in a daze from her mind control methods, to take his father's gun. Gwen appears in the room, whereafter a legless and weelchairbound elderly man enters, revealing himself to be Le Sange disguised as an elderly man. He expounds that his methods of mind control will help the world, before proceeding to instruct Pete to slash his own wrists, which he does, before instructing him to stab his father to death. Pete responds by stabbing Le Sange in the throat, and declaring that he "is his father," revealing that Pete's mother, Catherine, had an affair with Le Sange, and John is not actually Pete's biological father. Police subsequently arrive and Gwen is arrested.

Some time later, Pete, healed from the experiment, attends his father's wedding to Barbara with Caroline.

The plot follows a conservative young man's venture into a world of sexual hijinks.

'''''Tagline:''''' ''Remember what you felt when you were sixteen?''

When crown princess Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee was born, she did not open her eyes until her aunt held her. The woman became her nursemaid and constant companion, nicknaming her Ani and telling her stories about three gifts people have: people-speaking, animal-speaking, and nature-speaking. The aunt has the second ability, and teaches Ani to speak with birds, mainly swans. Ani grows to be more comfortable at the pond than in the palace. When her aunt leaves, Ani is forced to abandon her unique talent. At age sixteen, she devotes herself to preparing to be the next Queen of Kildenree, but finds solace in communicating with her horse, Falada. After her father dies, Ani's mother tells her that, instead of becoming queen, she is to travel to the kingdom of Bayern and marry their crown prince. During the journey, half of the royal guards mutiny and attempt to kill the princess and replace her with Selia, Ani's lady-in-waiting; but Ani flees, leaving behind Falada.

After days of walking in the forest and recovering from near starvation, Ani assumes the alias of "Isi," and travels into the capital of Bayern. She soon discovers that Selia has assumed the role of princess. Ani finds a job tending the king's geese, and lives among other animal workers to whom she tells stories. After a few hiccups, she learns to use her animal-speaking skills to communicate with the geese. In this time, she slowly discovers her nature-speaking ability: understanding and eventually manipulating wind. Ani also befriends a royal guard named Geric, and soon they begin to develop romantic feelings for each other. One day, Ani's best friend, Enna, discovers her secret identity and swears to help her reclaim the throne when the time comes. Geric tells Ani that the execution of Falada has been planned; she tries to rescue him, but is too late. He later sends her a letter saying he will be unable to see her anymore. Ani continues life as the goose girl, and uses her animal-speaking and wind-speaking abilities to save her geese from thieves. She then learns that Selia has spread a rumor that Kildenree is planning to attack Bayern. Ungolad, Selia's most loyal guard, hunts Ani down and stabs her in the back. She narrowly escapes and flees to the forest, where she heals. It is here that she discovers one of her loyal guards, Talone, has survived, and he accompanies her back to the kingdom. When she returns, Enna had told the other animal workers Ani's secret, and they rally behind her.

The group rides to the castle where the wedding is to take place. It is here that Ani confronts Selia and learns that the Crown Prince of Bayern is actually Geric. Selia and Ungolad trap Ani alone, but before they can kill her, an eavesdropping Geric appears with the king in tow after hearing Selia's full confession. A fight breaks out; and Geric, with the help of Ani's wind-speaking, defeats Ungolad. Selia is also captured. Days later, Ani goes before the king and convinces him that Kildenree has no plans to attack Bayern. Geric is impressed by this and Ani's knowledge of Bayern. Now that she is proven to be his true betrothed, they acknowledge their love for each other and happily rule together.

Enna has returned to the forest to live with her elder brother, Leifer. After finding a vellum scroll, Leifer learns the secret of 'fire-speaking', the ability to control the element of fire. However, he is unable to control the power when he is enraged, frightening Enna. When the neighboring country of Tira invades Bayern, and Enna and her friends - Razo, Finn, and Isi (Princess of Bayern) - travel to the battlefront, and Leifer joins them. In their first battle, he uses his power to set fire to enemy troops and becomes consumed by his power, incinerating himself from the inside. Enna finds Leifer's body black and charred, but the vellum untouched. She disregards warnings from Isi about the potential dangers of fire-speaking and learns it. Meanwhile, her friendship with Finn becomes strained by their potential romantic feelings for each other. Frustrated and confused, she rides away from camp one night and accidentally encounters Tiran soldiers. She lights a fire to escape.

Bayern decides to put on a mock battle between a Tiran prisoner and one of their own soldiers to predict the outcome of the war. Finn volunteers, but comes close to death during the fight until he is saved by Enna, who burns the hilt of the prisoner's sword. Because of her interference, Finn succeeds; and Enna takes this as a sign that Bayern will fall unless she uses her powers to end the war. She makes a series of rules for herself which she hopes will allow her to fight in the war without meeting the same fate as her brother. Next, she tells Razo and Finn about her power and asks them to accompany her on a series of raids and keep her in check. Enna quickly finds she is unable to control her use of fire; she even tries to burn Isi when confronted by her. Feeling the call of the fire, she runs away to an enemy village and is captured. There, Captain Sileph of Tira uses herbs to drug Enna so that she can't use her power of fire to escape. He tries to brainwash her into teaching him the secret of fire and burning for Tira. Razo and Finn try to rescue her, but are captured during their attempt. Enna gradually gives in to Sileph's persuasive speeches, eventually falling in love with him; but after overhearing him speak to another Tiran, Enna learns that Sileph has been manipulating her.

While Sileph is away at a battle, a disguised Isi visits the camp to comfort Enna, who is so grateful that their friendship is not lost that she burns the vellum. The drunk guards outside Enna's tent reveal that Tira is planning to march on Bayern's capital, so Enna fights her way out of the camp with Finn and Razo. At the battle, they guard her while she burns the enemy soldiers, and she grows so powerful that she starts to burn herself. Isi cools her off using her powers of wind-speaking, and Bayern wins the war. The two then undertake a journey to Yasid, the kingdom to the south, to find and consult the rumored fire-speakers that live there. Along the way, Enna has to face Sileph and his band of Tiran soldiers. His charisma has worn thin for her and his troops, and they fight, with Finn showing up to help and the Tiran soldiers betraying their captain. Finn, Enna, and Isi reach Yasid and find the fire-speakers, who reveal that they balance their gifts with water-speaking, a skill that unfortunately takes years to master. Instead, Enna and Isi teach each other their respective powers to reach balance within; the wind calms the fire, and the fire calms the wind. They start back home again, both finally at peace. During the journey, Isi gives birth to a son, Tusken; and Enna and Finn are happily in love.

''Austenland'' tells the story of 32-year-old Jane Hayes, an average New York woman who secretly has an unhealthy obsession with Mr. Darcy from the BBC adaptation of ''Pride and Prejudice''. Jane accidentally reveals her secret to her great aunt Carolyn, who dies shortly after their conversation. In her will, Carolyn leaves Jane a trip to a Jane Austen–themed getaway destination. She decides to go, planning to give up dating for good afterwards. Once Jane arrives at Pembrook Park in the English countryside, she is bombarded with the complex rules of Regency era society. The proprietress, Mrs. Wattlesbrook, is eager to preserve these rules at Pembrook Park and makes it clear that Jane–who didn't pay for the trip herself–is not their usual type of customer. She becomes "Miss Jane Erstwhile" and meets Aunt Saffronia and Lord Templeton, her pretend aunt and uncle, respectively. "Miss Charming" and two gentlemen actors, Colonel Andrews and Mr. Nobley, are the other guests in the house. Andrews is jolly and flirtatious, while Nobley is brooding and arrogant. Jane also meets Theodore, the gardener, whose real name is Martin Jasper. He breaks Mrs. Wattlesbrook's rules to speak to her. As the days go by, Jane doubts her ability to keep up the act and begins to feel like an outsider. She finds Martin in the servant's quarters and they begin a new romance, but he cuts her off after worrying his involvement with her will cost him his job.

Another guest arrives, "Miss Amelia Heartwright," who has met Mr. Nobley before. A new actor, Captain George East, arrives, and it is clear to Jane that he and Miss Heartwright have some sort of past together. Jane grows bored and resorts to using her contraband cell phone, asking her friend for information on Martin Jasper and Henry Jenkins (Mr. Nobley.) There is nothing about Martin, but her friend's e-mail tells her of how Henry forgave his ex-wife for many offenses before their divorce four years ago. When her cell phone is discovered by Mrs. Wattlesbrook, Miss Heartwright saves Jane from being sent away, claiming it was hers. Mr. Nobley tells Jane that Miss Heartwright and Captain East had previously been engaged, but her family disapproved and they were forced apart, though she still loves him. Mr. Nobley and Jane begin to spend more time together. The company puts on a play, and the two are cast as a couple. The night of the ball arrives, and Jane finds herself torn between the comforting reality of Martin and the uncertain fantasy of Nobley. Nobley confesses his love to her and proposes, but she refuses, unable to separate his acting from his true feelings. She finds Martin and plans to leave Austenland with him. In the departing carriage ride the next morning, Miss Heartwright explains that Mr. Nobley was behind saving Jane after her cell phone was discovered. She also learns from Mrs. Wattlesbrook herself that Martin was also an actor, and reported back to her about Jane's relationship with him. He finds her at the airport, but so does Mr. Nobley. They fight over her, and Jane walks away from both of them. After she sits down on her plane, Mr. Nobley sits down beside her, introducing himself as Henry and confessing his love to her again, this time in his own words. He flies home with her to New York City, and Jane puts her ''Pride and Prejudice'' DVDs out for all to see.

The title characters are Angie Gordon, Mary Nicholson, and Laura Cahn. Their picaresque adventure begins in 1956 when Mary has a pregnancy scare after letting Bob Randolph go too far with her. Mr. Russoff, named for Lou Rusoff who wrote the screenplay of the original version, is a widower from the wrong side of the tracks, and he seeks to cover his tracks by enlisting in the United States Navy. Angie and Laura accompany Mary in a flight from the suburbs as she decides what to do about her pregnancy. Along the way, they meet bully cops and redneck survivalists with rifles.

The book contains all twelve Lady Molly adventures and is narrated by Lady Molly's assistant Mary Granard.

Miri is a fourteen-year-old girl from Mount Eskel, an isolated territory of Danland, who has never been allowed to work with the rest of the villagers in the quarry that keeps the community alive. The quarry workers cut linder (a fictional type of expensive stone), which they sell to the lowlander traders for food and other necessities. Because her father refuses to allow her to work in the quarry, she feels like an outcast in the community and cut off from the culture focused around a shared working life. However, Miri helps by bargaining with the traders. She is very close to her father and her sister, Marda, as well as a boy named Peder, for whom she harbors feelings.

One day, a messenger from the king unexpectedly arrives in the village and announces that the nation's priests have determined that, despite the lack of education provided for the villagers and the prejudice that exists between the mountain villagers and the lowlanders, the crown prince's future bride will come from Mount Eskel. A "princess academy" is established nearby to train the potential princesses, with compulsory attendance for every girl age twelve to eighteen. At the end of the year, the prince will meet the girls and choose his princess from among them.

Miri and the other girls attend the academy, where they meet r strict teacher, Tutor Olana. They first learn how to read and write, then move on into subjects such as the history of Danland, poise, conversation, and commerce. All the girls are eager to please the prince and win a comfortable life for themselves and their families. Miri makes friends with some of the other girls, including Britta, a lowlander who had recently moved to Mount Eskel. Miri's new knowledge of commerce helps the village improve their situation in trading with the lowlanders. After they break Tutor Olana's rules and flee home to the village for spring holiday, the girls use what they learned of diplomacy to negotiate a more bearable living arrangement with their teacher, including weekly visits home. Miri also begins to explore the mechanics of quarry-speech, a form of unspoken communication used by natives to Mount Eskel. Miri discovers her ability to use it outside of the quarry - though this was previously thought impossible - and does so to assist the other girls in their final exam. As a result, they all pass and qualify to attend the ball and meet the prince. On their final visit home before the big event, Miri's sister Marda gets in an accident while working in the quarry and breaks her leg. Miri runs to help, but her father yells for her to leave the quarry; he never allows her in it. Upset, Miri runs into Peder's mother, Doter, who tells her the real reason Miri's father never lets her into the quarry: Miri's mother was involved in an accident very similar to Marda's shortly before she gave birth to Miri and passed away. This encounter makes Miri realize her father truly does love her. Once back at the academy, her conversation with the other girls reveals that they never judged her for not working in the quarry alongside them. Miri realizes her feelings of resentment in this regard have dissipated, and that she now has the potential, with her new education, to become whatever she wishes.

Miri's excellence in her studies and her willingness to help her peers despite bitter competition eventually earn her the title of academy princess and the privilege of having the first dance with the prince. At the academy ball, the prince dances with every girl except Britta, who is ill, and generally acts very distant. Later in the evening, he takes a walk with Miri and shows a more human side. However, he leaves without choosing a bride. Once the prince has left, promising to return in the spring to announce his choice, bandits attack the academy hoping to hold the princess-to-be hostage and demand a ransom. Miri must use her new knowledge of quarry speech to call for help from the village. At first no one seems to hear her, but eventually she is able to contact Peder. The villagers come to the academy through the blizzard, and the girls escape from the bandits and spend the whole winter at home with their families. In the spring, the prince returns and chooses to marry Britta - whom he has known since childhood - and names Mount Eskel an official province. Britta promises Miri the opportunity to travel to the capitol and continue her studies. The book ends with Peder and Miri admitting their feelings toward each other and Miri choosing to stay in Mount Eskel with her family for a while.

The story begins as the main character, Razo, watches a meeting. The king and queen of Bayern speak with a Tiran ambassador and agree they should exchange ambassadors to promote peace between the two countries. After the reception, Razo is chosen among other soldiers from Bayern's Own to join the ambassador in Ingridan, the Capital of Tira. Razo experiences self-doubt and believes their captain only chose him because of his participation in the war against Tira.

In winter, the ambassador, Lady Megina, and twenty of Bayern's Own leave for Tira. On the way, Razo finds a burned body hidden in the trees near a river. After talking with Captain Talone, they guess Enna might be burning again—either that, or the burner might be from Tira, because the body was placed where it could be easily seen by the Tiran escort group led by Captain Ledel. When the party arrives at Ingridan, they are taken to Thousand Year's Palace, where they are introduced to Lord Belvan and Lady Dasha, their host and hostess.

Razo finds more burned bodies and still does not know who the burner is. After being beat up by one of Ledel's soldiers, Tumas, he goes to Talone requesting to be sent home. Talone rejects his plea, and asks him a series of questions. After Razo answers them all correctly, Talone tells Razo he has excellent observation skills, and gives him the job of spying to find the murderer. Razo proceeds to watch and spy on everyone. A week passes, and the Tiran party challenges Bayern's Own to a mock sword fight. Razo is humiliated with defeat, and the Tiran soldiers mock him. Then Finn speaks up and tells them to challenge Razo with a long-ranged weapon, his sling to their spears. Razo hits every target and discovers that he is the best sling Bayern had.

Summer approaches, and the Tiran soldiers and all the nobles leave for the coolness of the country. Razo goes out to buy shoes and meets the prince of Tira. The prince tells him that he has no true power, except the power of the people's opinion. Razo spends most of the summer with the prince. They dye their white Tiran robes rich and deep colors typical of Bayern fashion, which begins a cross-cultural trend in the city.

Soon after Ledel's cohort returns from their summer assignment outside the city, Razo discovers a map and overhears a discussion that leads him to believe Ledel was behind the burning. Razo and Dasha go to the burner's warehouse but are captured. They fight back and are nearly killed - although Razo kills Tumas with his sling - until Enna and Finn, tipped off by Conrad, arrive. Enna and Dasha, whom Razo discovered had the gift of water-speaking, fight the newly-taught Tiran burners while Finn and Ledel duel. The Bayern and Dasha win, and the whole story - of Ledel attempting to teach fire-speaking to soldiers in order to spark another war, only for each to die when the fire overwhelms them - comes out.

Soon before the Bayern cohort is due to return home, Geric and Isi, King and Queen of Bayern, come to see the vote for or against war. They arrive too late, but come just in time for the celebration, escorting Isi's sister Napralina. At the celebratory feast, Finn makes a fool of himself by playing the harp and singing a love song to Enna, and Enna finally accepts his proposal to marry him. After the dinner, Razo and Dasha confess romantic feelings for each other.

John Holman is a worker for the Department of the Environment investigating a Ministry of Defence base in a small rural village. An unexpected earthquake swallows his car releasing a fog that had been trapped underground for many years. An insane Holman is pulled up from the crack, a product of the deadly fog.

Soon the fog shifts and travels as though it has a mind of its own, turning those unfortunate enough to come across it into homicidal/suicidal maniacs who kill without remorse, and often worse. Respectable figures including teachers and priests engage in crimes ranging from public urination to paedophilia. A Boeing 747 pilot is also driven insane and crashes the aircraft into the Post Office Tower (now BT Tower) in London.

Soon a bigger problem is discovered – the fog is multiplying in size and nothing seems to be able to stop it. Entire villages and cities are in danger and the only chance left is to use the treated and immunized John Holman to take on the fog from the inside where who knows what awaits him.

Roxanne plays Gillian, the rightful heiress of a wealthy couple, but was switched with Andrew (Jake Cuenca), the son of a driver. Andrew, who grows up to be irresponsible, is secretly in love with Gillian. On the other hand, Joross Gamboa is Mark, who adds to the confusion, as he is Andrew's best friend, who also has feelings for Gillian.

In ''The Tangled Skein'', Queen Mary is characterized as a loving woman with a strong sense of justice.

The ''tangled skein'' arises from Mary's love for the fictional character Robert d’Esclade, fifth Duke of Wessex, said in this book to be the people's choice as King Consort. Wessex is chivalrous and charming, but semi-betrothed to Lady Ursula Glynde, whom he has not seen since her infancy. Wessex is repelled by the idea of having his wife thrust upon him and purposely avoids Lady Ursula. Unknown to Wessex, the Queen jealously guards him against Ursula, who is extremely beautiful.

As soon as she realizes the Queen is keeping her away from Wessex, Ursula is angered. She believes she loves Wessex, for his nobility and goodness, and she is invested heavily in the betrothal. On her father's deathbed, Ursula promised to go into a convent if she did not marry Wessex. Although Ursula does not want to lose her independence by marrying, she seeks to frustrate the Queen's plans and make Wessex notice her; however, the arrival of Cardinal de Moreno, and his henchman Don Mignel, Marquis de Saurez, shifts the scene.

The Cardinal is in England to negotiate the marriage between Philip II of Spain and Mary. To end the Queen's love for Wessex, the Cardinal tries to marry Wessex and Lady Ursula. But when the Queen discovers the ruse, she declares that his Eminence should leave England immediately; she will not marry Philip. Then the Cardinal has to set to work to part the lovers, a far more difficult and intricate business than bringing them together.

It costs a life, Wessex his freedom, and Lady Ursula her good name before it can be effected. The skein is more hopelessly tangled than before, and still Mary remains obdurate. The Queen loses her dignity, will and love. The Cardinal's victory is gained at the expense of his own career.

Category:1901 British novels Category:1907 British novels Category:Historical novels Category:Novels by Baroness Emma Orczy

Dashti, a mucker from steppes of the Eight Realms, begins a diary as she looks for a job after her mother dies of illness. Eventually, she finds and accepts a position as the new maid of Lady Saren, the youngest child of the lord of Titor's Garden. Saren has defied her father's declaration that she will marry Lord Khasar of Thoughts of Under and revealed that she is engaged to the young Khan Tegus of Song for Evela. To tame his daughter, Saren's father shuts her and Dashti, the only maid willing to accompany Saren, in a tower far away from his city and surrounded by guards. He claims he will only release them after seven years, or if Saren will relent and marry Khasar.

While isolated from the rest of the world, Dashti realizes the fragility of Saren's mind and heart and does her best to soothe Saren through stories and songs. When Khan Tegus visits them, Saren unexpectedly refuses to speak with him and orders Dashti to impersonate her. As Tegus cannot see into the tower, Dashti reluctantly agrees and a friendship develops between them when he returns for several more visits, including one where he gives Saren a cat whom Dashti names "My Lord." However, Lord Khasar also arrives at the tower and begins harassing them, performing cruel acts to torture and upset them. The guards around the tower fail to respond to the girls' cries and My Lord disappears from the tower during a night when they hear the howls of a wolf, causing the rats to infest the tower. Khasar's appearances cause Saren to become withdrawn from deep-seated fear, in spite of Dashti's efforts. As their food storages dwindle, Dashti finds a weakened portion of the tower where the rats have entered and breaks through the wall to freedom.

Once out, they discover that Titor's Garden has been destroyed and they discover that Khasar has been waging war across the Eight Realms. Together, they travel to Song for Evela, which has remained untouched by Khasar so far, and Dashti finds them jobs as scrubbers in the kitchens of Khan Tegus. Though Dashti continues to sing healing songs to calm and soothe her, Saren's condition does not improve, and she refuses to reveal her identity to Khan Tegus. When it is revealed that Dashti can sing songs of healing, she is hired to take care of and heal Tegus, and the two slowly fall in love.

While Dashti thrives as a servant, Saren grows increasingly resentful and unhappy, especially when My Lord finds them again. Dashti returns the cat to Saren, who begins to grow more confident in herself through the cat's unconditional love. As Khasar begins to approach Song for Evela, Tegus agrees to a betrothal to Lady Vachir, the ruling lady of the realm Beloved of Ris, in order to save the remaining realms. Desperate to save the realms, Dashti tries to persuade Saren to reveal herself, but her fear overwhelms her. She orders Dashti to impersonate her again, and for once Dashti is stalwart in her refusal. However, when Khasar threatens to level the city unless they give up Lady Saren, Dashti relents and presents herself as Lady Saren to Tegus and his ministers, thinking to protect her lady.

Dashti finally coaxes Saren to speak of her previous traumatic meeting with Khasar, allowing Dashti to form a plan to defeat him. She risks herself before Khasar's armies, using her song to reveal his true nature: he is actually a skin-changer who becomes a wolf. Khasar's armies turn against him, and he is killed. Dashti returns to the palace, prepared to leave after uniting Saren and Tegus despite her own feelings for him, but is exposed as a mucker by the vindictive Lady Vachir after she steals Dashti's diary. Saren finds the courage to stand up for herself and saves Dashti with help and encouragement from Tegus. Dashti and Tegus marry.

Dan Morgan witnesses the (fictitious) bloody massacre of Chinese on the goldfields and turns into a robber. He is arrested and sent to prison for six years where he is tormented and raped. He is let out on parole and becomes a bushranger, befriending an Aboriginal man, Billy. Morgan fights against the vicious Superintendent Cobham and is eventually killed.

Tony (Harry Baer) is a mob loan collector who is unsatisfied with his position in life, and constantly dreams of living it rich in Brazil with his brother. To make some quick cash, Tony joins the forces of organized crime, making his way up the ladder. Together with Napoli, another mob enforcer, Tony hatches a plan to con mob boss Manzari (Palance) out of a fortune, but Manzari isn't about to let that happen.

The story is set in Hungary and the scene is laid in a village close to the Maros.

The sharp, cracked sound of the Elevation bell breaks the silence of the summer morning. The good Pater Bonifacius is saying Mass: he, at any rate, is astir and busy with his day’s work and obligations. Surely it is strange that at so late an hour in mid-September, with the maize waiting to be gathered in, the population of Marosfalva should be still absent from the fields! Hej ! But, stranger, what would you ? Such a day is-this Fourteenth of September. What ? You did not know it? The Fourteenth of September, the ugliest, blackest, most God forsaken day in the whole year! What kind of a stranger are you if you do not know that? On this hideous day all the finest lads in the village are taken away to be made into soldiers by the abominable Government? Three years! Why, the lad is a mere child when he goes-one-and-twenty on his last birthday, bless him! still wanting a mother’s care of his stomach, and a father’s heavy stick across his back from time to time to keep him from too much love-making. Three years ! When he comes back he is a man and has notions of his own. Three years! What are the chances he comes back at all? Bosnia! Where in the world is that? My God, how they hate it! They must go through with it, though they hate it all-every moment. They hate to be packed into railway carriages like so many dried heads of maize in a barn... and the rude alien sergeant with his 'Vorwarts!' and 'Marsch!' and 'Rechts!' and 'Links!' I ask you in the name of the Holy Virgin what kind of gibberish is that?

On this particular fourteenth of September it is Andor's turn due to go. On the eve preceding it, at the village merrymaking, as the whole population spends its last happy hours trying to forget the hideous events that will occur in the morning, he tokens himself to Elsa the village beauty.

It is Elsa and Andor that everyone is watching. He is tall and broad-shouldered with the supple limbs of a young stag, and the mad irresponsible movements of a young colt. The young couple dread the next day, which comes all too soon. They are at the station now, the last bell has sounded. For each lad only one girl, and there she is at the foot of the carriage steps, a corner of her ribbon, or handkerchief or cotton petticoat stuffed into her mouth to prevent herself from bursting into sobs. The pain and loss of conscription.

It is some time since Andor was conscripted but there has been no news of him so Elsa is forced to betroth herself to the wealthy and sinister Béla, after being placed in the terrible alternative of either being faithless to Andor or disobedient to her mother. It is characteristic of Hungarian society at the time that of the two options available the latter seemed by far the more heinous.

On the eve of Elsa's wedding Andor suddenly reappears, and is indirectly concerned in the assassination of Béla which takes place the same night.

The story begins and ends with festival mingled with tragedy.

Category:1915 British novels Category:Historical novels Category:Novels by Baroness Emma Orczy Category:Novels set in Hungary Category:Hutchinson (publisher) books

Nielsen plays John Trevor, who for six years has been training and leading a team of highly trained special forces men (Code Name: ''Project: Kill'') whose performance is enhanced by drugs. Over time Trevor realises that his men, who work independently, are being used as assassins rather than to protect government installations and individuals.

Trevor relates his worries to his second-in-command Frank Lassiter (Gary Lockwood), then decides to escape from his secret government base to the Philippines where two of his former comrades in arms reside. However, withdrawal from the mind-control drugs turn Trevor violent and dangerous, and now Lassiter must find him before he can do any real damage. Filipino criminal boss Alok Lee (Vic Díaz) learns of Trevor's arrival and has been paid to capture him and sell him to a foreign power so they may discover and duplicate the drugs and training given to Trevor's force.

''Big Willy Unleashed'' takes place after ''Destroy All Humans! 2'' and before ''Path of the Furon''. The game is set in 1975, 6 years after ''Destroy All Humans! 2''. Cryptosporidium 138 and his mentor, Orthopox 13, attempt to support the popularity of Big Willy, a fast food restaurant Orthopox owns. Pox reveals that the Big Willy food franchise is actually a scheme to dispose of the human bodies Crypto leaves lying around.

Story

Crypto and Pox are watching TV in Harbor City and happen upon the evening news. Bill Kincaid, a news reporter, announces that the Big Willy Corporation has opened its fifth-hundred restaurant, and that President Huffman has resigned, implying that Crypto gave up on controlling the American Government. The news is then interrupted by the missing heiress named Patty Wurst (a parody of Patricia Hearst) using a pirated television signal to appear on the channel. She reveals that Big Willy is using human corpses to grind up and feed to the public and that a shipment of meat supply is going to dock at the Harbor to prove her case.

Before Crypto kills Patty Wurst, in the new Big Willy mech, Pox figures out that his actual enemy is Colonel Kluckin (a parody of Colonel Sanders), the owner of a competing fast-food restaurant, and that he might be a threat to the Big Willy franchise. Pox sends Crypto to Fairfield in rural Kentucky, home of the new Big Willy restaurant, to see if he can find a lead to where Kluckin might be hiding. After Crypto lands, Pox notices that a group of roller blade girls skate out of the Big Willy restaurant holding a briefcase. Inside is the secret recipe for the Big Willy fast food. Crypto finds them in the back of an alleyway; he kills all of them except for one that somehow manages to hide. Later, she appears in front of Crypto and tells him that the Furon species and the Big Willy franchise will be brought down. Attacking Crypto, she escapes. Pox informs Crypto that his weapons and jet pack are broken. He returns to the saucer and kills more of the roller blade girls. Afterwards, Crypto body snatches the Corncob King, the boyfriend to the leader roller girl. He meets her at a phone booth, after which he jumps out and electrocutes the lead roller girl. Pox orders Crypto to destroy all of Fairfield (except for his restaurant) to wipe all traces of their missions and head off to the next area.

Pox brings Crypto to Fantasy Atoll, an Island located near Malaysia, as a tactic to beat Colonel Kluckin. There, Crypto meets Mr. Pork, the man who ran the island, and Ratpoo, his servant (both parody of ''Fantasy Island'' main characters Mr. Roarke and Tatoo). Mr. Pork promises Pox a new body and Pox agrees. Crypto must find parts to build a new body, but it turns out to be a hoax and it blasts Pox somewhere on the other side of the island. Crypto finds the module broken. A Furon Customer Support Representative instructs Crypto on how to repair the damaged HoloPox Unit, Pox is then restored and wants revenge. Crypto hypnotizes Ratpoo, who jumps into the Atoll's active volcano while carrying Pork. To their surprise, Mr. Pork survives and attacks with the Hate Boat, a giant warship. After destroying the hate boat, Pox and Crypto go to Vietmahl to find Colonel Kluckin.

In Vietmahl, Kluckin reveals that he has been making the corpses from the Vietmahl War into chicken wings and breasts, and Crypto and Pox confront a traitorous Big Willy employee named Trahn, who turns out to be a double agent with Kluckin. After successfully completing several objectives, including killing Trahn, Crypto climbs inside the Big Willy mech and manages to defeat Kluckin in a robotic rock Vietmahlese temple god. However, upon defeating Kluckin, Pox claims that he's done with fast food. Though angered by Pox abruptly giving up on the restaurant after just defeating Kluckin, Crypto gleefully takes the profits from the restaurant and tells Pox that he will make the business transactions from now on and that has an idea for the profits that involves a "little town in Nevada", as the both of them walk off into the distance.

The film begins by tracing Poe's ancestral heritage before Poe himself is born. After the loss of his parents, Poe is taken in by the John and Francis Allan in Richmond, Virginia. The film then jumps ahead about 15 years to Poe's time at the University of Virginia. Due to debts from playing cards and a growing interest in wine, Poe begins to have difficulties. He hallucinates that he has killed a man in a pistol duel.

Poe meets Virginia and they spend a day together, riding a horse and sitting "beside the glassy pool of romance." He tells her a fairy tale, a raven perching on Poe's shoulder as he finishes the story, before they go on a walk together. Upon seeing a black slave (listed in the credits only as "Negro") being whipped, he buys the slave with an IOU for $600.00. The slave's former owner then goes to John Allan to collect the debt. Allan calls Poe a "scoundrel" for causing so many bills.

After having a drink with his "chum" Tony, Poe goes to visit Virginia. Tony follows shortly after and the two compete for Virginia's affection. Later, Virginia says she will choose the man who guesses which hand holds a wreath behind her back. Poe allows Tony to go first and, though he guesses correctly, Virginia secretly switches the wreath to the other hand so that Poe can win. Shortly after, in front of Tony and Virginia, Allan questions Poe's spending habits. Allan causes quite a scene, despite his wife's attempts to calm him. Poe is asked to leave the Allan family but Virginia offers to come along. Poe's recently purchased slave comes along as well.

Poe, in Fordham, New York, is in "dire poverty" along with Virginia and her mother Maria. Virginia has a terrible coughing fit, a sign of her tuberculosis. Poe, desperate for money, unsuccessfully attempts to sell some of his work to George Rex Graham. Virginia, bothered by the cold winter weather, is kept warm by Poe's old coat from his time at West Point and from their pet black cat. She dies the next day, causing Poe great grief.

Sarah Helen Whitman is introduced at the end of the film, assisting an elderly couple. She meets Poe on her walk home through what seems to be a graveyard. Poe thinks she is Virginia Reincarnated and proceeds to follow her home. She rejects him when he makes advances, then Poe proceeds home where he starts hearing the tapping and recites “the raven”first seeing the shadow of a raven appear on his door. Hallucinating he begins climbing up a hill, and then resting on a rock that says wine, trying to move up past it he ends up perched on top of it before coming back to reality in his room. He goes to grab a drink and watches his wine glass turn to a skull, the horror causing him to drop it. A raven enters his room when he opens his window, answering all Poe’s questions with Nevermore. His hallucinations show him with a ghost and then at heavens gate in front of an angel, as the gates close leaving Poe outside. Once returned to reality he finishes the poem before departing from his body. His death ending the film.

Nicole (Leslie Caron) is a wealthy, reclusive widow who lives alone with her murderous chauffeur Malcolm (Ramon Bieri). When she falls for Fletcher (Bruce Graziano), a successful car salesman, and makes friends with Sue (Catherine Bach), a young dancer, things begin to turn out for the better. However, when she begins to suspect that Fletcher is cheating on her, she snaps and slips into an "alternate reality of violence, sex and paranoia".

Sam Kellog (John Saxon) is an ex-cop who works as a modern day bounty hunter in Los Angeles. He works for bailbondsman Bill Schwartz (Keenan Wynn) and is assigned to bring in ex-convicts and criminals who have skipped bail. Kellog is frustrated over the low amount of money he receives from his jobs. Recently divorced, Kellog's ex-wife is threatening to end weekend visitation rights to their young daughter over missing several alimony payments. One day, Kellog is offered a large, off-the-book $20,000 bounty by his former police commander, Lt. Kruger (Howard Honig) to bring in an ex-convict named Victor Hale (Roosevelt Grier) who is suspected in the murders of various former prison guards in the L.A. area. Hale was brutalized in prison by the guards who used a five-pound, leather-covered, steel glove called the 'riot glove' and has been using a copy of it to murder the prison guards who used to beat him with it. Kellog takes the job, aware that the 20 grand reward will solve all of his financial problems. Harry Iverson (Michael Pataki), a bounty hunter from New York City, arrives and offers to team up with Kellog to find Hale, but Kellog refuses, claiming that he works alone.

Over the course of the film, the action switches back and forth between the lives of the protagonist Kellog, who narrates several aspects of his life, as well as the antagonist Hale, who in between murdering the former prison guards, makes a living as a guitarist in a jazz band, and is popular and well liked among the tenants in the low-income housing project where he lives. Hale soon realizes that Kellog is on his tail when he learns that Kellog has been asking questions about Hale's whereabouts. Hale begins stalking Kellog as well as making phone calls to his house to stop trying to find him.

At the climax, Kellog and Hale finally meet face to face when Kellog tracks Hale to the roof of Hale's apartment building where Hale (whom annoys Kellog during most of the film by addressing him as "hound dog") offers to make bringing him in a challenge by giving Kellog his riot glove to fight him with. Kellog accepts and a brutal and climatic brawl occurs on the roof of the building where both men batter each other senseless. The fight ends in a stalemate when both of them collapse against a wall, exhausted, and Kellog concedes defeat by removing the riot glove. To show that he does not hold any grudge against him, Hale helps Kellog up and begins to escort him from the building until the bounty hunter, Iverson, suddenly shows up and shoots Hale to death. Iverson tells Kellog that the bounty for Victor Hale was to kill him, not to bring him in alive. The residents of the building, after hearing the gunshots, rush up and literally beat Iverson to death for killing "one of their own", leaving behind the battered and bloodied Kellog on the floor. In a final voice-over, Kellog explains that he nevertheless received the $20,000 bounty for Victor Hale and, having used the money to pay off all of his debts, was able to regain visitation rights to his daughter.

As the US Coast Guard moves to intercept a ship off the coast of New York, which had departed from St Petersburg carrying around 30 Chinese illegal immigrants, the leader of the ship, a notorious human smuggler and hitman named Ghost, decides to ignite a bomb, causing the ship to sink, as he escapes himself by means of a life-raft. A group of immigrants escape on a second life-raft, some of whom fall over within meters from the shore. One of them drowns, two are pursued and killed by Ghost, and a shot is fired by Ghost against another. The remaining ten, namely, the Chang and Wu families, who were dissidents and supporters of the 1989 riots in China, run into Chinatown of New York using a stolen van. Ghost meets with a local accomplice, but he drives off by himself, abandoning Ghost. Amelia Sachs, upon racing to the scene, finds a man with a gun-shot wound clinging to the rocks near the shore, and helps to rescue him. The man claims to be Dr John Sung, a well-known dissident and supporter of democracy. After being taken to the hospital, he requests asylum and is easily granted release pending the hearing.

At Lincoln Rhyme's apartment, where the interagency operation to intercept the ship was being coordinated, the team is approached by Sonny Li, one of the immigrants who fell off the raft, who is really an undercover police officer from Fuzhou, and who wishes to kill Ghost for personal reasons. Meanwhile, the Chang family is sheltered by a contact in Brooklyn, while the Wu family pays a Chinatown gang for protection. Ghost goes to the Uighur Community Center and hires three accomplices of the Uighur race to murder his unfaithful accomplice, as well as the leader of the aforementioned Chinatown gang. He tries to assault the apartment of the Wu family, but is ambushed by the FBI, INS, and NYPD. As it happens, the mother of Wu was sick with a disease common to China, and was intercepted at the hospital by Rhyme, who proceeded to arranged the ambush. However, an INS agent with a personal vendetta against Ghost fires too soon, alerting Ghost and allowing him escape, even though one accomplice is killed.

The father of Chang decides to meet with Ghost, pretending to be a Sino-American wanting to sell Chang out, so he can kill Ghost. However, the grandfather drugs him with morphine and goes to the meeting instead, and proceeds to shoot at Ghost. He kills one accomplice but runs out of ammunition, and kills himself by drinking morphine before Ghost can torture him. Li conducts his own investigation, leading him to an upper-class Fengshui dealer whom Ghost had hired. He is told that Ghost had just exited the office. He confronts Ghost in the street, discovering that he had shot himself, clung to a rock near the shore, and assumed the identity of Dr John Sung. The two of them fight, and Li is ultimately killed, but not before rubbing talcum-powder from Ghost's amulet under his nails, so that Rhyme can trace the material to Dr John Sung.

Rhyme locates the Chang family's hide-out, and deploys the combined task force. Sachs, who during this period has befriended Dr John Sung, brings him along as a translator. Unknown to her, they are tailed by two Uighur accomplices. Rhyme calls Sachs after finding the talcum-powder residue, and warns her. Sachs decides to pretend to arrest a random INS agent to distract Ghost, and drives not to the Chang apartment, but to another house where NYPD paramilitary can ambush Ghost and the two accomplices. However, Ghost, using his connections within the INS, is able to secure deportation to China despite his numerous murders and other crimes on American soil. There, he has arranged for his Chinese connections to abandon any criminal prosecution. The team is stunned and disappointed. However, Rhyme at this point realizes that Ghost is not merely a criminal, but an agent of the Chinese government, specifically of the province of Fujian since the central government cannot get their hands unclean. Ghost's mission is not to smuggle humans, but to offer to smuggle intellectual dissidents at a very low cost, and then to kill them by detonating the ship. Rhyme realizes that the State Department secretly knows this, and is returning Ghost to appease China.

In one final move, Rhyme, with the help of the NYPD and ''The New York Times'', argues with Ghost and the State Department at the boarding gate of the air-plane, and threatens to create a scandal if Ghost is not further detained. The State Department gives in, and several INS and State Department employees are forced into early retirement. Ghost is scheduled for trial, and is likely to face the death penalty, or life imprisonment at the very least. The Chang and Wu families proceed with their asylum hearings which are implied to have succeeded.

The creature known as Bigfoot has managed to elude capture for more than 25 years and a small town has made a cottage industry out of local Bigfoot sightings and merchandising. When a businessman decides to trap Bigfoot once and for all so that he can benefit, the town may ultimately lose the tourist profits that have filled the town's coffers.

Tom Craig (John Wayne), a pharmacist, arrives in Sacramento and gets into trouble with Britt Dawson (Albert Dekker) for carrying Lacey Miller (Binnie Barnes) across a mud puddle. Tom teams up with Kegs (Edgar Kennedy) and they are thrown off the river boat by Britt’s henchmen. Tom strikes a deal with Lacey to sell his pharmaceuticals in her store. Ellen Sanford (Helen Parrish) and Tom begin a romance. Tom and Kegs organize the settlers to stop Dawson’s land-grabbing gang. Tom proposes to Ellen as she leaves for San Francisco. Helga (Patsy Kelly), Lacey's lady's maid, gun in hand, marches Kegs off to get married. Whitey (Emmett Lynn), the town drunk, drinks Tom’s elixir tonic, which Dawson has poisoned, and dies in Tom’s store. The townspeople take Tom out to hang him, but he is saved when gold is discovered. Dawson shoots up Tom’s store, they fight, and Tom ends up in jail.

Lacey leaves Britt for the gold miners who are suffering from typhoid fever. Tom leaves Ellen, loads up medicine and with the townspeople depart for the gold fields. Britt and his brother Joe (Dick Purcell) plan to ambush the townspeople to steal the medicine. Joe shoots Britt and attacks the townspeople but Britt, who is only wounded, shoots Joe. Tom and the townspeople make it to the miners camp, thus saving them. Britt admits to poisoning Tom's elixir and dies. Back in town Tom and Lacey reunite.

After leaving Lawson Peabody, a boarding school in Boston, Jacky joins the whaling ship, the ''Pequod'', as a companion to the Captain's wife, a teacher for the Captain's son, and as the cook's helper. Jacky leaves the ship when it arrives in London and searches for Jaimy. She goes to Jaimy's house on Nine Brattle Lane, where Jaimy's mother threw Jacky out and told her Jaimy was no longer in love with her. She is confused until the family maid, named Hattie, tells her not to believe her and that Jaimy will be at the races at Epsom Downs. Jacky sets off to find him. In the meantime, Jacky visits her old gangs kip under the Blackfriar's bridge. She doesn't recognize any of the kids and they tell her what happened to the other members of the gang. They tell her a former member, Judy was hired to be a helper to an older woman, and despite her promises, has not come back to help the gang. Thinking that was odd, Jacky goes to visit her and discovers Judy is being forced to work at a wash house for a terrible man. Jacky saves Judy. Jacky takes Judy in as her maid and buys her all new clothes. Jacky dresses as a jock in order to get into a racetrack, where Jaimy is. She sees Jaimy with his cousin Emily and mistakenly thinks that Jaimy has replaced her.

She runs away and is captured by a press-gang who mistake her for a boy and take her aboard a ship, HMS ''Wolverine'', where Jacky furiously reveals that she is a girl. Instead of sending her back, the captain keeps her around, wanting to have a night of sport with her. Jacky, knowing what the Captain has in mind, jumps from the ship into the sea, in an attempt to swim to safety. As Jacky is swimming, the Captain of the ''Wolverine'' sends out a small boat to retrieve her. As the boat creeps up on her, Jacky tries to stop them by going under water and pulling at an oar, causing a sailor to fall out. She thinks this will cause them to slow down and save the man, but instead they just keep going. Jacky can't let the sailor die, so she dives down and saves him. When she does this the other men grab her and pull her aboard.

When back on the ship, Jacky tells the Captain that if she is to be entered into the books then she shall be put it as midshipman, since she was made midshipman while on the ''Dolphin''. After she was put into the books, Jacky settles into the midshipman's berth. There she meets the other midshipman, Georgie Piggott, about eight years old, Ned Barrow and Tom Wheeler, both twelve years old, and Robin Raeburne, about sixteen years old.

Meanwhile, Jaimy has written a letter to Jacky, explaining the events at the track. Jaimy tells that the girl Jacky saw was actually his cousin Emily, who likes to make other men jealous by going into town with Jaimy. Jaimy says he is still hers.

Jacky attempts to begin training the midshipmen. To begin this Jacky puts the midshipmen onto the ship's watch. Jacky also goes to the officers to be assigned a division. She is put with gun crew, Division One on the port bow guns. Jacky goes to the division and learns they have never even fired the guns. She assigns the men their jobs and drills the men on dry runs.

The book again turns to a letter from Jaimy to Jacky. Jaimy says how Judy shows up on his doorstep. Jacky had told her if she did not return to go to Jaimy's house, since she thought she and Jaimy would be together. Judy tells Jaimy how his mother had thrown Jacky out of the house and told her Jaimy no longer loved her. Jaimy is outraged and goes to his mother and has Judy tell the story. His mother hears how the maid, Hattie, told Jacky where Jaimy would be and tells her to leave. Hattie is mad that she would throw her out after many years of service and tells Jaimy to look in one of his mother's drawers. In the drawer Jaimy finds letter to and from Jacky. This makes Jaimy very mad, and tells her that he is leaving, which is what he did, along with Judy and Hattie.

During an early morning watch, Jacky notices a flashing light from the shore. She is told that they occur about every week. They don't know what they mean but they are supposed to tell the Captain when the lights occur. While on watch Jacky goes about and inspects the ship. She goes up the foremast to check on the lookout. There she meets Joseph Jared, the Captain of the top. He tells her he is a friend of Billy, the sailor she saved on the first day. Jared also tells her that the ship does not stop ships from passing through the blockade.

One night, Jacky is on the watch when a storm comes, which she calls a living gale. Jacky looks up and sees the forestaysail chafing. If it breaks the ship will be lost. Jacky runs from the quarterdeck and climbs to the line and fixes it. Jacky decides to climb even higher to make sure not anymore line is chafing, even though that's Jared's job. When she gets there a huge wave comes over the deck. Jacky holds on to the mast, but she knows the wave will tear her away. When she thinks she is lost Jared comes from behind and holds her down, saving her.

The Captain sends the officers away in a small boat when the captain decides he wants to sleep with Jacky. She tries to offer herself to a fellow midshipman, Robin, wanting her first time to be willing and happy instead of in fear. However they are interrupted and Jacky is sent to the Captain's cabin. A member of the crew, wanting to protect Jacky, begins dropping cannonballs from the rigging on to the quarter deck. This enrages the Captain, it being a beginning act of mutiny. He orders the person to be captured, and it is revealed to be Robin. When the Captain tries to have his way with Jacky, he has a heart attack and dies.

At first, Jacky pretends that the Captain is too sick to leave his cabin. She realizes that she is now Captain of the ship, all the sailors ranking above her having been sent off in a small boat, never to be heard from again in the book. She then slowly assumes command of the "Wolverine" by pretending her orders are the dead Captain's. After a few days Jacky tells the crew of the Captain's death. After the Captain's death, Jacky discovers that the Captain has been taking bribes to let ships pass through the blockade. She soon uncovers a smuggling ring, which included smuggling out French spies. Jacky takes control of the ship, which includes releasing Robin and placing Joseph Jared, a sailor that Jacky befriended, as one of her officers. She and her crew take several French ships as prizes and Jacky earns a reputation as ''La belle jeune fille sans merci'', or "the beautiful young girl without mercy". Soon she is removed from her position as captain, but manages to escape on one of the captured ships, the Emerald, which she makes her own. She tries to hide from the Admiralty the fact that she captured the Emerald.

Along with Higgins, a steward from the ''Wolverine'', Jacky travels to Ireland and finds her former sea dad, Liam Delaney and offers him the role as Captain of the ''Emerald'', while she remains owner of the ship. He accepts and together they find a crew and begin privateering. Jacky becomes close friends with Liam's daughter, Mairead. They become very wealthy and prosperous and Jacky's reputation grows. When the ''Emerald'' is at a port in England Jacky is relaxing in the countryside and an older man approaches her. The man turns out to be Jacky's grandfather. This is the first family Jacky has had since the dark day when her parents and sister died and she was forced out on the street. Though Jacky has acquired a letter of marque by revealing the smuggling ring to the Admiralty, the latter brands her as a pirate when they learn she kept the ''Emerald'' for her own use. Later, she is briefly reunited with Jaimy who is a lieutenant aboard the ''Wolverine,'' which captures and sinks the ''Emerald''. The two rekindle their relationship; however, the ''Wolverine'' becomes engaged in the Battle of Trafalgar where Jacky escapes the brig and takes part in the fighting. When all is over, she requests to stay and help doctor many of her former shipmates who had been injured, but the Captain sets her free for her bravery in battle. She then signals Jamie to meet her in Boston before sailing away in a small boat.

A young girl who is intrigued with her Roman Catholic upbringing. Monica likes to play with angel and Blessed Virgin Mary figurines the way other girls play with dolls. She sneaks out of the house to go to church.

Set in Toronto's Portuguese-Canadian community, Monica lives with her mother Icelia and lethargic uncle Albert in a basement suite. Icelia has just gotten out of an abusive relationship and has recently moved to a new neighborhood to avoid her ex.

Her uncle is in charge of watching her while her mom is at work, which is most of the time. Albert hates looking after his niece and would rather watch movies in peace. One day, Monica blackmails him into giving her a ride to her old church. She finds them in the midst of organizing their annual procession and, even though she wasn't invited, she sneaks in. When she lived in her old neighborhood she had her heart set on playing an angel in her church's parade. Unfortunately, since she moved away, she is not allowed to participate anymore.

Left without a place in the procession, the distraught girl steals a pair of archangel wings from the church's costume department as compensation—only to lose them on the streetcar home. A little searching reveals them to have landed in the hands of a homeless woman named Mary; Mary is also obsessed with collecting religious artifacts. She spends her time reciting Hail Marys and challenging her faith in a God by crossing busy lanes of traffic while clad in the wings.

Mary's importance to Monica is obvious as she is the one who has the young girl's wings. After they form a bond that goes beyond friendship, it's a certainty that she's also a mentor. With Mary in the picture, Monica is better in touch with herself but she's also getting into more trouble.

The rest of the film concerns the girl's lies to cover up her deeds, her attempts to recover the wings in time to return them, and her unique relationship with Mary.

Life insurance salesman John Nolan (Jeff Goldblum) goes to the liquor store where he witnesses the fatal shooting of Auggie Rose (Kim Coates), an ex-convict on his second day as a stock boy. Auggie was returning from the back of the store with a bottle of wine John had requested – since the only bottle out front had a torn label – and he surprised the robber, who shot him in the stomach. John tries to comfort him, riding with him in the ambulance, but Auggie dies at the hospital.

Feeling responsible, and offended that the police show little interest in investigating and finding Auggie's next of kin, John finds out everything he can about Auggie, who was just released from prison after serving 20 years for armed robbery. Decker, the LAPD officer investigating the case (Richard T. Jones), warns him to back off. However, John becomes more and more engrossed with Auggie and disconnected from his own life, causing strain with his live-in girlfriend, Carol (Nancy Travis). After finding a stack of letters, he discovers that Auggie had a Southern pen pal named Lucy (Anne Heche) who is coming to meet him for the first time, unaware of Auggie's death, and is due to arrive the next day.

John tells his secretary, Noreen (Paige Moss), that he is taking a leave of absence. When John goes to meet Lucy, she greets him as Auggie, and he decides to pretend to be him. He lives in his apartment and starts a relationship with Lucy, and even applies for jobs as Auggie, getting a job as a stock boy at a small market. He meets ex-con Roy Mason (Timothy Olyphant), who knew Auggie through his cellmate but had never met him. Roy asks John to help him rob the L.A. Transit Authority, which he says has $200,000 in cash daily and only two guards. John says he will consider it.

John trades in his Volvo for a motorcycle to complete his look. He happily spends his days at the market and nights with Lucy. Unbeknownst to him, however, both Roy and Decker are suspicious and tailing him. Roy retrieves John's business card from his Volvo at the dealership. Roy goes to John's office and sees a photo of him on the wall. He confronts John in the lobby of Auggie's apartment, and says he began spying on him when he didn't eagerly accept the transit heist, and that he had asked around and learned Auggie was dead. He accuses John of killing him to take his identity, which John denies, and Roy says he thinks John must be working some kind of life insurance scam. Roy threatens to tell Lucy and John punches him. Roy says he even knows about Carol before he leaves. John later gives Roy a forged insurance policy in Auggie's name worth $100,000 with a blank beneficiary, and tells him to take it and go away.

John continues to have dreams and flashbacks to the shooting, including dreams in which he is in Auggie's place and gets shot after coming out with the bottle of wine. Lucy confesses to John that she married someone she didn't love after she started writing Auggie, but that the marriage had been annulled after four months after her husband found all of the letters to Auggie. She says she felt she had to tell him because he was so much more than she thought he would be. John decides to tell Lucy the truth. Devastated, she leaves.

John decides to officially end his life as John Nolan, selling his half of the business to his partner, Carl (Casey Biggs). As he leaves the office, he runs into his partner with a couple, whom he recognizes from the market. They ask his advice about the plan Carl recommended, and John tells the husband, "I think you should go home and make love to your wife and pray that nothing bad happens, and ask yourself each day, 'if it were to end right here right now, would it be enough?'" John even has a headstone put up for himself with the inscription "Free at last." He informs Decker about Roy's plan to rob the Transit Authority, and Roy is arrested for violating his parole while trying to cash the life insurance policy.

John goes back to work at the market. He is sent to the back to retrieve a bottle of wine and pauses, coming out cautiously. Instead of a gunman, he sees Lucy, who greets him with, "Hi, Auggie."

Ex-convict Bobby Ogden (Peter Fonda) is trying to get his life straight and his career going as a country and western singer. Bobby shows off some of his tunes to Nashville star Garland Dupree (James Callahan). However, Dupree uses one of his songs "Outlaw Blues" for himself with no credit to Bobby. Bobby confronts Dupree and when Dupree pulls a gun on him, he accidentally shoots himself in the ensuing struggle. Of course, Dupree tells everyone that Bobby shot him. Now Bobby's on the run, with only Dupree's recently fired back up singer Tina Waters (Susan Saint James) believing him. The pair flee together, as Bobby becomes an underground hero who is accepted as the man who actually wrote the hit, while being put on the law enforcement's most wanted list.

Tom McHugh quickly learns that his perfect big brother Craig isn't all he's cracked up to be while on a night on the town with the girl next door, during which Tom is harassed by unpleasant strangers, threatened by mobsters, pursued by police, attacked by an irate florist, accused of murder, and has his date kidnapped—all because everyone thinks he's Craig...and the classic 1959 DeSoto Firesweep he borrowed off his brother has two dead bodies in the trunk.

Heidi Neville Bub was born on December 10, 1968, in Da Nang as Mai Thi Hiep. Her mother, Mai Thi Kim, already had three children and was estranged from her husband Do Huu Vinh, who had left her to fight with the Viet Cong. She was working at an American military base where she met Heidi's father, an American serviceman. When the North Vietnamese army came closer to Da Nang, Mai Thi Kim feared for Heidi's safety due to rumors of retaliation against mixed-race children. At the age of six, Heidi was sent to the United States and placed in an orphanage run by the Holt Adoption Agency.

Heidi was soon adopted by Ann Neville, a single and strictly religious American woman who renamed her Heidi. They spent a year in Columbia, South Carolina, before permanently settling in Pulaski, Tennessee.[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/daughter/peopleevents/p_heidi.html People and Events: Biography of Heidi Bub] - WGBH-TV, Boston, PBS ''American Experience'' documentary series.

Neville told Heidi that her parents had died in the war, and not to tell anyone she'd been born out of wedlock. She was also instructed to tell people she had been born in the US and not Vietnam, and that she was fully white and not biracial. As Heidi got older, Neville did not want her to date or have friends. After Heidi's freshman year of college, she returned home to find all of her belongings packed up outside. Neville told Heidi to never come back and that she no longer had a daughter. It is revealed at the start of the documentary that Heidi has remained estranged from her adoptive mother.

Heidi is now married and has two young daughters of her own, but the rejection from her adoptive mother is still painful. She hopes that meeting her biological mother might help heal that pain. Heidi contacts the Holt Adoption Agency, and learns that her biological mother, Mai Thi Kim, sent them a letter in 1991 asking about Heidi's whereabouts. The agency had forwarded this information to Ann Neville, who subsequently ignored it and never told Heidi. Now that she knows her biological mother was trying to find her, Heidi decides to return to Vietnam, assisted by journalist Tran Tuong Nhu.

Upon meeting, Mai Thi and Heidi hug and cry tears of joy, but this reunion soon gives way to culture shock. Heidi has no prior knowledge of Vietnamese customs, food, language or culture. Mai Thi expects to spend every moment with Heidi, even sleeping beside her at night. Her other family members constantly want to touch or hug her. This rattles Heidi, as she grew up in a home with little affection. She is uncomfortable among the crowded conditions in the markets she visits with Mai Thi. The unrelenting invasion of her personal space makes Heidi feel suffocated and overwhelmed.

She also discovers that her family lives in abject poverty, and they have been taking care of Mai Thi for years. Heidi's half-brother is the head of the family, and informs her that it is now her turn to care for their mother. Mai Thi tells Heidi that she wants to live the rest of her life in America with her. Heidi is shaken by this unexpected request, and replies that taking Mai Thi to America is not feasible.

Her half-brother then tells Heidi that if she cannot take Mai Thi with her, they will expect Heidi to send them money regularly. Heidi is shocked and walks out of their home in tears. Given their cultural differences, her family does not understand why their requests upset her, and one relative remarks that Heidi cries too much. Heidi's guide explains to her that it is common for Vietnamese nationals in America to provide money for their families remaining in Vietnam. Heidi maintains that she barely knows her Vietnamese family, and feels she is being exploited. She decides to return to America ahead of schedule, feeling more emotional conflict than ever before.

Months after Heidi's visit, she says she occasionally gets letters from her family in Vietnam, but they are all requests for money. She has not replied to their letters.

As of mid-2012, Heidi has had no further contact with her Vietnamese family.

Henry and Ann, a pair of young lovers, are planning to commit suicide and are worried about what will happen to their dog when they are gone. The scene then changes to a disparate group of passengers who find themselves aboard a darkened, fog-enshrouded crewless ship, sailing to an unknown destination.

Their stories are revealed one by one. Tom Prior, a prodigal son, discovers that he's traveling with his ex-boss, Mr. Lingley, a captain of industry; his mother, Mrs. Midget, whose identity is unknown to him, is curious about how her son is doing; Mrs. Cliveden-Banks, an affected socialite, chats with Scrubby the steward; Rev. William Duke, a clergyman, is keen about his missionary work in the London slums; and the young couple, Henry and Ann, who are facing an impossible love affair and have decided that they cannot live without each other. They now wonder if they will be together forever.

In time, the passengers slowly realize what is going on—they are all dead. They will be judged during the course of the voyage, and go either to Heaven, or to Hell. Arriving at their destination, they await judgment by Thompson, the "examiner."

Henry and Ann, who made a suicide attempt, now hover in a sort of limbo between life and death, have not quite crossed over. Scrubby, the ship's steward, has already been condemned to sail the ship for eternity, having previously committed suicide himself. Henry is eventually saved from asphyxiation by gas poisoning when his dog breaks a window pane. He calls to Ann, she revives, and together they are rescued by neighbors and taken away in an ambulance.

The main character, Manuel Garcia, is a bullfighter who recently got out of the hospital and is now looking for work. After an old promoter, Retana, hires him for a "nocturnal" fight on the following evening, he enlists the help of an old friend, Zurito, to be his picador. Although Zurito discourages Manuel, Manuel proceeds with the fight and is injured while fighting his first bull of the night, ending up back in the infirmary at the end of the story.

Toivo Teräsvuori (Häyrinen) is a young radio journalist who's looking for new, interesting topics on which to report. After covering a skydive on a live broadcast, he gets the idea to stage a fake burglary for his next daring stunt. He shares this idea with his friend and fellow radio employee Laakso, whom he persuades to go along with the plan without notifying either their superiors in the radio station, nor the police.

Unfortunately, Teräsvuori and Lahti happen to discuss the details for their fake crime, a burglary into the Helsinki Art Museum, in a cafe within earshot of some actual burglars, who plan their own heist to coincide with Teräsvuori's. Both crimes, real and fake, go forward as planned, and Teräsvuori is captured inside the museum, only to learn to his great surprise that an actual theft took place and that he's being blamed for it. Unable to convince the police of his story, he instead escapes and tries to prove his innocence.

Based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's closet play Faust, Osamu Tezuka came up with his own version of the classic German story.

In the manga, Mephisto is a proud, confident devil who is causing much havoc and violence in the world. One of his most sinister acts is sending angels to fall to Earth, making them fallen angels. Witnessing this, God grants new life to the fallen angel as she is reborn as Princess Margaret, daughter of the King: Charles V. God then confronts Mephisto and bets him that he can not take the soul of Heinrich Faust, God's favorite human at the time, to Hell. Sure of his ability, Mephisto agrees to God's wager and heads down to Earth to get Faust away from righteous pursuits so that he can take his soul.

On Earth, Faust has hit a roadblock in his studies. He believes that no matter how hard he studies, he won't be able to reach his goals. Before him, Mephisto appears as a black furred, white eared and tailed poodle. Turning into a kind of anthropomorphic animal, he offers to grant Faust's every desire. Faust signs a contract with Mephisto, agreeing that Mephisto can have his soul if Mephisto can satisfy everything that Faust desires.

The rest of the manga details Faust's journeys to win the love of Margaret, meet the demands of the King in finding the beautiful Goddess Helen, and blends Faust Part One and Faust Part Two together.

The ambitious radio reporter Toivo Teräsvuori (Hannes Häyrinen) is disappointed when ordered to report on an agricultural show in Mäntsälä. He convinces his superior to let him report using a hidden microphone to gauge people's reactions on being asked outlandish questions. Things start to go wrong when the police are informed of the apparently incoherent reporter who also appears to be talking to himself. The police come to the conclusion that Teräsvuori must be insane and he is committed to Houruniemen Mental Hospital. Testimony from his wife, Eila (Ritva Arvelo), only confirms their diagnosis. Despite being detained at the mental hospital, Teräsvuori continues to make light of the situation, only becoming alarmed when the doctors there concur in the verdict regarding his mental health. Faced with the prospect of uncomfortable tests and treatments, he starts looking for a way to escape.

After writing a letter in a promotional contest for a cat food company, Alex goes on to describe key points in his young life, mainly having to do with little league baseball, occasionally going off on tangents or telling other stories from his life that, while not important to the story, are points of humor and show Alex's thoughts and feelings more clearly.

Though Alex has played in Little League for six years, his skills in the game are subpar (he refers to himself as "really stinky" when it comes to baseball). He is constantly berated by his nemesis, T.J. Stoner, a player widely known for his incredible skill. After numerous attempts to get T.J. to leave him alone fail, Alex tries besting T.J. in a pitching contest, at which he fails miserably. A few days later, Alex's team and T.J's team are playing a game against each other, and T.J. once again tries to make Alex look foolish. During the game, Alex bunts the ball and runs to first, where T.J. is set to get Alex out. Desperate to stop him, Alex jumps up and down, screaming "BOOGA BOOGA!" This makes T.J. miss the ball, allowing Alex to get a double. Alex is called out by the umpire immediately after for interfering with the play at first base. Though Alex was thrown out, he accomplished something better than getting a double to him: making T.J. embarrassed. When T.J. looks like he's going to beat Alex up, Alex runs home and locks himself in his room.

Though Alex tries to become a hermit, an effort which lasts only a few hours, he's forced to go back to school the next day, where the students and teachers all make fun at his expense. T.J. gets a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for beating Alex's team, and Alex, in a twist of good luck, ends up winning the contest from the cat food company that he wrote a letter to at the book's opening. By winning, Alex will get to appear on a national television commercial. He leaves school that day, nervous about filming the commercial, but eager to be a big star and hoping things will go well.

When a group of scientist work to develop a bacterium to increase food yields is delayed by bureaucratic processes, Dr. Celia Graham (Brenda Donahue) ignores protocols and developes a bacteria called M3.

The new bacteria is accidentally released and causes sickness in children and death in others around the world. The disease is highly contagious, and the epidemic increases geometrically. Dr. Graham is killed by the virus, while an infected but unaffected woman spreads the disease in the manner of Typhoid Mary.

Scientists Dr. Bill Fuller (Daniel Pilon) and Dr. Jessica Morgan (Kate Reid) work tirelessly to develop an antidote to stop the contagion.

The story is set in 1967. Bond is instructed by his superior, M, to investigate a man named Dr Julius Gorner, and his bodyguard, Chagrin. Bond is warned that his performance will be monitored and that a new 00 agent is waiting in the wings if his actions go awry.

Bond flies to Imperial Iran (Persia) to investigate. Gorner owns factories and produces legitimate pharmaceuticals; however, MI6 suspects he has other motives. During Bond's investigation he identifies Gorner due to a deformity of his hand, and establishes Gorner's complicity in a scheme to not only flood Europe with cheap drugs but also to launch a two-pronged terrorist attack on the Soviet Union, whose retaliation will subsequently devastate the UK. The attack is to be made using a stolen British airliner, earlier hijacked over Iraqi airspace, and an ekranoplan. Bond is assisted in his investigation by Scarlett Papava (whose twin sister Poppy is under Gorner's emotional spell), Darius Alizadeh (the local head of station), JD Silver (an in-situ agent), and Felix Leiter.

Bond is eventually captured by Gorner in the heroin plant, who explains that Bond is to be used as bait during a drugs delivery across the Afghan desert, and should he survive an expected ambush, is to fly the captured airliner into the Russian heartland. Bond would be identified as British upon its destruction, increasing the evidence against the British Government. Bond survives the predicted Afghan attack and plots an escape attempt, which sees Scarlett get away due to Bond surrendering himself as a diversion. In the morning he is taken aboard the aeroplane. Before the airliner can bomb the Soviets, with the aid of the airliner's pilot and Scarlett (who had been hiding on board), Bond regains control of the aeroplane and crashes it into a mountainside after parachuting to safety.

Meanwhile, Felix Leiter and Darius inform agent Silver of the second method of attack. Silver shows himself to be a double agent by failing to call in an airstrike against the Ekranoplan and by attempting to kill Leiter and Darius. In the shoot-out Darius successfully calls in the airstrike at the cost of his own life and Leiter survives only thanks to the timely arrival of Hamid, his taxi driver. The Ekranoplan is destroyed by RAF Vulcan bombers before it reaches its target. Bond and Scarlett escape through Russia but are pursued by Chagrin, whom Bond finally kills on a train. Later Gorner meets him on a boat and tries to shoot him, but Bond pushes him overboard, where he is torn to pieces by a propeller. With the subsequent elimination of both Chagrin and Gorner, Bond considers his mission a success, and on condition that the agent M has waiting in the wings will not take his place Bond is sent to assess the new agent, designated 004. She turns out to be Scarlett Papava. Scarlett discloses that the story of her twin sister was a ploy to convince Bond to enable her to join the mission. Papava feared that if Bond knew she was a potential 00 agent, he would not have worked with her. With Bond returning to active duty, Scarlett moves off to her own operations as a full 00 agent.

Reed Fish has followed in the footsteps of his late father, doing an early-morning radio show with the town's mayor, Maureen, through which the eccentric locals of Mud Meadows voice their complaints and have them addressed. Reed produces the show with his old high school buddy, Frank, and he's engaged to be married to another high school classmate, Kate Peterson, whose dad owns several businesses in town. Reed's plans are upended when his high school sweetheart, Jill, comes back to town. She's supposed to be away at law school, but confides to Reed that she quit school two years earlier, and has been working as a waitress while she fruitlessly pursues a career in music. Reed encourages her to play on Open Mike Night at the local bar. He inspires her to find her voice, which leads to some complications in his relationship with Kate, forcing Reed to reexamine every aspect of his safe, secure life.

The game closely follows the plot of ''Toy Story'', with a few minor differences.

It is the day of Andy's birthday party, and his toys are riled up about the possible newcomers and their potential replacement. In an effort to calm their nerves, Sheriff Woody sends a troop of green army men, along with a baby monitor, to report. The mission goes over smoothly; however, they receive an abrupt warning that Andy is returning to his room, sending everyone in a frenzy to return to their positions. Once things have settled down and Andy has left the room, the toys find a lone newcomer: Buzz Lightyear. They, except Woody, are impressed with him and his features, and Hamm decides that Woody and Buzz should have a race to settle their argument. Buzz wins the race, but Woody, still unfazed, challenges Buzz to fly around the room with his eyes closed, which Buzz does. Although Woody convinces himself that he is still Andy's favorite toy, he begins having nightmares about Buzz.

Jealous of all the attention Buzz has been getting, and wanting to be brought by Andy to Pizza Planet, Woody attempts to use R.C. to knock Buzz behind a cupboard, but accidentally knocks him out of a window, drawing the other toys' ire at him. Woody manages to escape from the angered toys with the help of Rex, who dislikes confrontations. Woody is chosen by Andy as the toy to go to Pizza Planet, but during a stop at the gas station, Buzz hops in the van and attacks Woody. Buzz is defeated when Woody traps him in a spare tire. However, Andy and his mother leave, without noticing their absence. Woody and Buzz hitch a ride on a Pizza Planet van to return to Andy. Once there, the two toys disguise themselves as litter and sneak into Pizza Planet, avoiding contact with humans. Buzz sneaks into a claw machine, mistaking it for a rocket to return to his home planet; Woody sneaks in the coin slot and works through the hazardous innards in pursuit. Woody is greeted by the squeaky toy aliens inside, who task him with saving some of their own, lost even deeper inside the machine. Woody is successful with the task and the aliens thank him. However, Sid Phillips, Andy's toy destroying neighbor, notices Buzz in the claw machine and tries to fetch him out. Woody delays Buzz's capture by launching the Aliens at the claw, but is unable to prevent it, and instead goes along with him to Sid's house.

Woody and Buzz try to escape from Sid's room, which is overrun with metal bugs and live firecrackers. Sid occasionally pops in to torture Woody by setting his head on fire, sending Woody dashing for a nearby bowl of cereal to douse it. Woody and Buzz have a run-in with Sid's collection of mutilated toys, keeping them back with Buzz's karate-chop action. Sid decides to destroy Buzz with a large rocket, and takes him away. To save him, Woody then befriends the toys, and riding on the back of Roller Bob, sneaks out into Sid's backyard, dodging various pieces of litter and Sid's dog, Scud. The toys attack Sid and save Buzz, but Andy's family moves out of their house without either toy. Woody manages to catch up to the moving truck, but Buzz falls behind. Woody finds R.C., hops on his back on the road, and drives back for Buzz. Securing him, they proceed to ride R.C. back to the truck. However, R.C. is too slow to get there, so Buzz and Woody light the rocket on Buzz's back, cutting it off once they gain enough airspeed and glide all the way back to the van of Andy's mother. The two toys have gotten over their differences over the course of this adventure, and go on to be good friends in Andy's new house.

In Dallas, Walter Lloyd (Hackman) runs a lumber business. After checking out at the office, Walter stops by the local racetrack, where his college-age son Chris (Dillon) works repairing stock cars. He reminds Chris of his mother's departure for Europe that afternoon, and Chris meets him back at the house to send her off.

Though their relationship is slightly strained, the family is tightly woven and carry on amicably, although an underlying tension between father and son is hinted at. Before she leaves, Chris' mother asks Walter to "break through to the kid." Walter attempts to bond with Chris over the next few days, Chris staying at the house and going on a fishing trip with Walter.

That night, the two are awoken by a late-night phone call from Paris informing Walter that his wife has split from her tour group. Although he downplays it, Walter's fear for his wife's well-being is apparent and Chris picks up on it. Prying further, Chris gets Walter to admit that she has, in fact, been missing two days. With that, Chris and Walter decide to go to Paris to find her.

At the airport, Chris bumps into an attractive backpacker, who introduces herself as Princess Carla, leader of the Sparrow Revolution.

Walter, on the other hand, bumps into a shady man with a gun who shows Walter his wife's jewelry. A few seconds later, an odd-looking man in glasses points a gun at them and, in an attempt to kill Walter, shoots the man holding him up before disappearing. In a moment of uncharacteristic bravado, Walter kicks the dead man's gun under a jacket and scoops it up before anyone can notice. When Chris asks what's going on, Walter replies that it's probably a heart attack.

At the hotel, Walter writes a note telling Chris to stay for any messages, then leaves for the American embassy in Paris. Once there, Walter slides through the embassy with a casual, cavalier attitude, stopping to look at security while taking a drink at a fountain. He walks casually into the office coffee room, where he pours ketchup into a bag with a handkerchief, pretending it's evidence, and waltzes into the head office under the guise of working there. He tells the secretary that her boss is "family," and once inside the office, tells her boss that his wife has been kidnapped, and that "Duke is here".

Walter regroups with Chris at the hotel restaurant, where he tells him that his mother has been kidnapped, and tells him the real story about the shooting at the airport. Chris' reaction, as to be expected, is one of frustration and disbelief. At that point, the embassy's Director Barney Taber (Josef Sommer) enters and Walter (whom Taber calls "Duke") and he embrace. He alludes to having seen Chris when he was a baby, and expresses sadness at his mother's kidnapping. Chris begins to tell Taber what's going on, but Walter covers up the conversation by telling him that he and Chris had been talking about something else. Before he leaves, Taber asks Walter what name he's traveling under.

A waiter enters with a call for Walter in the office, which the presumably-simple Walter fields in flawless French. After a brief conversation, Walter heads out of the hotel, telling Chris to stay there. Fortunately for Walter, Chris follows him, and saves his life when a car sprays gunshots at Walter. They run away to escape, ducking into an alley where Walter confesses to Chris that he used to work for the CIA. Chris asks him if he's ever killed someone, and Walter downplays the question. Chris, disturbed that his father's life is a lie, runs off, although the two catch up with each other in a café.

Walter tells him about his own history, working as a journalist in France when an agent "tuned into him" at a party. Walter began working for the CIA, performing a variety of duties, but he gave it up when he met his wife and their son was born. A suspicious-looking man enters, and Walter pulls a gun on him, and they leave. Chris tells him that he's going to the police and Taber. Walter tells him it was for his benefit - that Taber is in fact working for the CIA.

The two go to Taber, where they find that another agent, Clay (Guy Boyd), has been tailing him. Clay and Taber tell them to hole up in their hotel, a piece of advice that Chris and Walter promptly disregard. Walter decides it's best to look up an old contact of his, a German operative named Lise. They rent a car, Chris making a crack about Walter's driving speed; "Here we go to Hamburg, twenty miles an hour..."

The two make their way slowly to Paris until Walter spots a tail on them, at which point he takes off in high gear. Walter weaves expertly through the countryside, shaking the tail at extremely high speeds. When the two lay a trap for the tail, they find out that they're being watched by the CIA to make sure they don't get into trouble. Walter tells him to pull the tail off, warning that if he sees him again, he "won't see him again".

After buying some clothes, the two leave for Hamburg by train. The agent tailing the Lloyds reports to Taber with a paltry two digits of a phone number that Walter dialed, (4-0). Taber is understandably upset, and sends him out of the office.

At the train station, Walter and Chris see a man approach a similar pair - a young man and his father - yelling "Mendelssohn" to them. After spotting the Lloyds, the man grabs a fiddle from a nearby busker and begins playing a well-known Felix Mendelssohn tune. The two laugh it off as they walk away, although it's apparent that Walter makes more of it than Chris does. On the way out, Chris spots the backpacker he met at the airport in Paris.

They arrive at Lise's, where a history between Walter and Lise is hinted at. Lise helps the two get settled, and while Chris sleeps, the two reminisce about their days in the trade. Lise calls Walter her "Dear Duke," and recalls having loved him. At this point, Chris wakes up and listens to the two talking about what could have been, had they not chosen a life of intrigue and mystery. Lise asks Walter about his Donna, who Walter insinuates was completely worth giving up his life for.

The next day, Lise sends Walter and Chris off to meet "The Colonel", Walter's old boss. Chris spots the fiddle player from the train station, and Walter tears off in the car. They attempt to lose their pursuers, but when they can't, Walter takes off on foot with Chris presumably driving to meet the Colonel. When Chris spots the assassin who attempted to kill Walter earlier, he sticks around, driving through the port they've stopped by to rescue his father. Cornered by the two undercover agents, Walter jumps off the pier onto a passing ferry. The two agents hum the same tune to Walter, and point for him to meet them further up the channel. The eyeglass-wearing assassin attempts to kill Walter, but ultimately only kills one of the agents attempting to catch up with Walter. Chris picks Walter up and the two drive to the Colonel's.

Once at the Colonel's, Walter asks him about the man at the airport - Heinz Henke. They recall "Operation Clean Sweep", where they killed five of six agents. The Colonel recalls something about a family, the family of the agent Clean Sweep ''didn't'' kill. The Colonel asks them what happened at the train station, and Walter tells him about the fiddle player. When he hums the tune, the Colonel recognizes it as from the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, whereupon Walter recalls that "Mendelssohn" was the codename of the sixth agent who escaped "Operation Clean Sweep"; that agent was also known as Schroeder.

Later that night, Walter leaves for West Berlin, to the Marie-Louise ''Pension'', leaving Chris in the care of Lise. Chris has a moment of honesty with Lise, who tells him about her desire to be with Walter, to have a son like Chris. Chris then leaves on a train to Frankfurt, where he'll presumably be safe with a contact of Lise's.

In the following scene, the assassin visits the Colonel, who tortures the emphysema-ridden Colonel for the Lloyds' location by depriving him of oxygen. Though the Colonel does not give them up, his caretaker does, and the assassin kills both of them.

At the train station, Chris spots Carla, who's headed to Berlin to stay with friends. The two have an exchange, and Chris decides to surprise Carla by changing his travel plans to Berlin. Once in Berlin, Chris stays with Carla and the two make love. The next morning, Chris tells Carla he has to leave to find his father; she says she'll wait for him in bed.

Lise contacts Walter, informing him that "his old military friend has died..." painfully. She tells him he has been exposed, and the package he mailed to Frankfurt (referring to Chris), has not arrived. Lise warns him to be careful, before she says a tearful goodbye and embarks on a boat. While he's shaving at the ''pension'', Walter hears a knock at the door. Suspicious, he pulls his gun and approaches the door, but to his surprise, it's Chris. He tearfully exclaims that he could've killed him, hugging him tightly and dropping the gun. Frustrated that Chris has met up with him, he fills Chris in on his plans. The two bond shortly thereafter, however, and Walter sends Chris out after a short briefing on Agency tradecraft to keep watch at a café near the ''pension''.

Their plan is disrupted, however, when Carla appears at the café. Chris asks her how she found him, and she tells him she followed him out of jealousy. Through the window, Walter spots Chris talking to her, and gives a frustrated shrug. When Chris spots the assassin, he moves to signal his father with a newspaper, but Carla pulls a gun on him and forces him to stay put, which shocks the unsuspecting Chris. The assassin moves up to kill Walter; Chris unable to warn him. The assassin enters the apartment, but Walter suspects a setup and gets the drop on him, shooting the assassin dead. After the gunshot, everyone's attention goes to the window, and Chris uses the opportunity to slug Carla in the face. He runs upstairs to his father, and the two flee.

That night, after ditching the gun in a river, Walter says goodbye to Chris before heading into East Berlin. Though Chris is scared he'll never see his father again, he follows his orders and heads to the US Embassy in Berlin. Walter warns him that the CIA will be crawling all over the place, and tells Chris to tell them nothing. Once through the border in East Berlin, Walter is picked up by a motorcycle courier who takes him to a small farm in the country to meet with Schroeder (Herbert Berghof). Schroeder is at first cryptic, leaving Walter guessing as to what his desire is. Walter goes down the list of possible motives - information, of which he has none; money, which he can raise. The wheelchair-bound Schroeder beckons him over to get a closer look at him, and after a closer look, proclaims "this is the murderer of children..."

Chris, at this point, has come back into Taber's custody, where the CIA pumps him for information. Chris gives them none, much to the frustration of Clay and the other agents.

Back at Schroeder's farm, the two old men look on at the gravestones of Schroeder's family. Schroeder grimly tells Walter of the deaths of his family, a wife and two teenage children murdered in cold blood because the CIA failed to arrest Schroeder himself. Walter denies being responsible for their deaths. He even investigated the tragedy but all his people were cleared. Walter then quit, finding the promise of raising a family more appealing than a life of espionage. Though Schroeder doesn't believe his story, Walter convinces him that there's another party involved. He tells him about the assassin, of a group who's been trying to kill him since he arrived in Europe who may have "walked in both camps."

In Taber's office, Chris is contacted by his father, who updates him on the situation and tells him to head to an abandoned air force base where the CIA used to exchange captured agents with the East. Though he leaves Taber's office and proceeds alone to East Berlin, Taber and Clay catch up with him and Walter. While Walter and Taber talk, Chris walks over to the hangar nearby where he finds his mother bound and gagged, wrapped in plastic explosives.

Walter and Clay manage to defuse the bomb, at which point Taber is revealed as the double agent who betrayed both Schroeder and Walter when he pulls a gun on Walter and shoots Clay. He forces the Lloyds to kneel, but Walter gets the jump on him when Schroeder reappears. Though he denies it, it's deduced that Taber was responsible for the death of Schroeder's family, and Schroeder's man straps Taber to the chair rigged with explosives. An angry and distraught Schroeder, finally faced with the man responsible for the death of his son, his daughter, and his wife, sends Walter and Chris away with Donna in tow before blowing himself and Taber up.

The family, reunited, embrace as the hangar erupts in a massive explosion. Chris, looking on at the devastation caused by the double lives his father and the other agents have lived, realizes who his father truly is before embracing his family once again.

Jonny Quest and Hadji Singh are fleeing from a seemingly hostile tribe of natives in the Orinoco in South America. After evading both the tribe and various jungle predators, including some ferocious alligators, the two enter a native village. Their goal is to steal a sacred sapphire, seemingly unguarded. Hadji points out that it is too easy, but Jonny impulsively attempts to take the jewel, and the two boys are taken prisoner by the tribe who have lain in wait. At this point, Chief Atacama appears along with Jonny's father Dr. Benton Quest, Race Bannon and the Quests' dog, Bandit, revealing the entire thing to have been an Orinoquian test of manhood. One which Jonny has failed.

Later, Jonny confides in Chief Atacama, who reveals he failed because he didn't listen to his friend, Hadji. Jonny reveals he is uncertain he can measure up his world-famous scientist father, and Atacama tells him if he follows the correct path he will attain his goal. Suddenly a violent storm rocks the region. Dr. Quest is contacted by Commander Harris from the organization Intelligence 1, who reveals the bizarre weather is happening all over Earth and seeks his assistance in discovering its origin. The Quests return to their South American base where Race's daughter Jessie rubs Jonny the wrong way due to his failing the Orinoquian test. Jonny's personal robot 4-DAC, is also introduced. 4-DAC assists Quest in determining the origin of the storms is somewhere in space, likely a satellite of some sort.

Armed with this information, Benton opts to go and visit his colleague Dr. Eve Belage, who works on Quest Station, a research platform in Earth's orbit. He takes 4-DAC with him. Out in the jungle, a ship crashlands and disgorges a group of cybernetic insects, who use a sonic device of some kind to induce a swarm of ants to attack the Quest compound in an effort to prevent Benton's ship, Quest Shuttle 1, from launching. However Jonny plays a recording of Chief Atacama's flute music, which drives the ants off, and Quest Shuttle 1 launches without incident. Benton and 4-DAC arrive and meet with Eve, who gives them a tour of the station, which Benton helped create and fund.

Elsewhere, it is revealed that the Quests' old enemy Dr. Zin is behind both the weather phenomenon and the gigantic insects. He is assisted by several numbered technicians: 425, 426 and 427. Blaming 425 for the ants' failure, Zin has him killed and promotes 426 in his place. Back on Earth, Jonny impulsively goes to investigate the source of the ants and takes Hadji and Jessie with him, without asking Race first. His brash behavior nearly gets the three killed when they encounter the insects. Race manages to shoot one's arm off, and they take it back to the compound for analysis. Aboard Quest Station, 4-DAC is brought under Dr. Zin's remote control using a computer virus. 4-DAC uploads all of Quest Station's files to Zin's computer, including Dr. Belage's research into prehistoric assassin bugs.

Needing the assassin bugs for his own work, Zin captures the entire space station using his cloaked asteroid base. He has Benton and Eve brought to him. The remaining scientists are kept imprisoned aboard Quest Station. After losing contact with his father, Jonny, accompanied by Race, Hadji, Jessie and Bandit, takes Quest Shuttle 2 into space to find them. The group remains in contact with Commander Harris and Intelligence 1 with a video link. Aboard the asteroid, Zin explains he plans to weaken Earth using his weather-changing satellites before unleashing his cyber insects upon it. Having no further use for 4-DAC, he has the robot dumped into a vat of ethynol before using Eve's research to begin growing a giant mutated assassin bug inside of a vat. When Quest Shuttle 2 appears on their radar, he orders 426 and 427 to shoot the ship down with an ion cannon despite Benton's pleas.

426 refuses, telling Zin doing so would give away their position. Zin admits she is right but then drops her through a trapdoor for questioning him, and promotes 427. He has Benton and Eve taken to a holding cell in a giant honeycomb-like structure. On Quest Shuttle 2, Jonny uses his laptop to locate 4-DAC, who he remotely links with. The computer virus is cleaned up using anti-virus software, and 4-DAC fills the group in on what has happened so far after extracting himself from the ethynol vat. He finds and frees Benton and Eve and the three begin searching for a way out. When Jonny, desperate to save his father, flies Quest Shuttle 2 near the asteroid again, Zin has 427 send out fighters piloted by his cyber insects to destroy them. During the attack, Race is injured and thought dead.

After learning of Benton and Eve's escape, Zin executes 427 by freezing him to death and shatters his frozen body to pieces. He has the insects find the two. They are swiftly recaptured despite 4-DAC's attempt to distract the insects. Shot and damaged, the robot is dumped down a trash chute. Zin reveals his presence to Intelligence 1, uncloaking the asteroid, and tells Commander Harris all of Earth must surrender to him. Back on Quest Shuttle 2, Race is revived. Jonny blames himself for almost getting Race killed, but is told by Hadji and Jessie that part of growing up is making mistakes and learning from them. He agrees to assist them in getting aboard the asteroid. Zin, intending to upload all of Benton and Eve's memories into his computer, hooks the two up to a brain-scanning machine before he is distracted by Quest Shuttle 2's attack. He destroys it using the ion cannon, much to Benton's horror.

Unknown to him however ship was empty. The group infiltrates the base using a pair of small shuttecraft called Weasels, and Jonny finds 4-DAC, whose body is damaged beyond repair, however his CPU remains intact, and so Jonny uploads him into his laptop, along with the computer virus, inactive but still present, which he intends to use against Zin's computer. In the meantime, Zin's assassin bug, which he calls an "Assassinoid," finishes growing. Zin tells it to go and attack the intruders. Quest Team's first encounter with the Assassinoid has it getting frozen and shattered when Race shoots it, and Bandit grabs a piece. The other pieces thaw and regrow into more Assassinoids as the group finds Quest Station in the hangar and take refuge aboard, finding and freeing the captive scientists.

Eve's assistant Mylana cryogenically freezes the piece of Assassinoid Bandit grabbed, and then Jonny and Race fight their way past the insects to reach Zin's unoccupied control room. They learn from 4-DAC that the only way to kill the insects is a nuclear bomb or a sufficiently large, fiery explosion. They open the hangar doors, allowing Quest Station to be sucked harmlessly back out into outer space. Jonny and 4-DAC upload Zin's own virus into his computer, bringing it under 4-DAC's control. Benton and Eve are freed, allowing Jonny to rescue them. Zin flees. Jonny transfers control of the weather satellite to Intelligence 1, and Harris orders it turned against the asteroid base. It begins to be destroyed as Jonny, Benton, Race and Eve try to reach Zin's escape ship, but it is damaged by an Assassinoid. Instead, the four are rescued when Hadji and Jessie arrive flying Quest Shuttle 1 (which was docked on Quest Station). They escape just as the base explodes.

Back on Earth, Jonny and Hadji retake the Orinoquian test of manhood and passes, making both Benton and Chief Atacama proud; Jonny then beckons Jessie into the circle since she's earn the right to be within it too. 4-DAC has also been restored to a duplicate robot body. Meanwhile, in space, Eve is keeping the piece of Assassonoid that Mylana froze in her lab aboard Quest Station, as she and Mylana tend to the station's onboard garden, which is revealed to be named E.D.E.N. ("Environmental Diversity Experimental Nucleus"). Not far away, it is revealed that Dr. Zin made it to a different escape ship and has survived...

''Blade of Fire'' takes place 20 years after the first novel. The story follows Thirrin's and Oskan's (now married) new efforts to repel the imposing threat of Imperial invasion, yet again at the hands of Scipio Bellorum and his bloodthirsty sons, Octavius and Sulla.

But this time, they have the help of their five children: Cressida, the Crown Princess and military extraordinaire; Eodred and Cerdic, the twin warrior princes; Charlemagne (Sharley), stricken with polio at a young age, and much to his chagrin, cannot be a warrior; and finally Medea, the dark daughter and the only inheritor to her father's gift.

A burning hatred for Charlemagne causes Medea to turn against her family. Early on in the book Oskan has a prophecy about Sharley. About a week or two later Sharley is sent off into exile to be Prince Regent to the exiles. Maggie, his tutor, goes with him. He is sent to the Southern Continent where he makes some unexpected allies and friends. This includes the Desert People (he befriends the Sultan's son) and the Lusu people of Arifica. Maggie falls ill on the journey to the Sultan's palace and is sent to stay in oasis where he recovers. On the journey to Lusuland, an unexpected storm comes but the spirits of the desert (the blessed women) save them from harm. On the sea voyage back to Icemark the fleet of Lusu people and the desert people are attacked by the Empire's biggest allies.

Then before the final battle against the Polypontians, Medea possesses the Crown Prince of the desert people, Mehkmet, and turns him against Sharley. With the help of the Blessed Women though, Medea is defeated. Later when Oskan is about to call down lightning, Medea steals his lightning and is about to use it against Sharley but Oskan blocks the lightning, sending it back toward Medea. Oskan attacks Medea because he found out that Medea betrayed the Icemark and banishes her to the seventh plain of the magical realms called The Circle Of Dark.

Octavius is killed by Sharley and Sulla is killed by Cressida. After the battle, Scipio is beheaded by Thirrin and the Vampire Queen rips apart his body. Icemark has defeated the Empire.

When the Hrum army arrive in the country of Farsala, a war is started, and just three people can stop it.

Kavi is a peasant peddler selling bronze goods plated in gold and he holds a grudge against the deghans. When he was a young apprentice to a man in the city of Mazad, a deghan came in looking for a remarkable sword and is willing to pay an astronomical price for it, but does not have the money with him. Kavi grabs for the sword, but the deghan pulls and scars his right hand. A year later, the deghan returns for the swords pay, and throws in a bonus amount "For his troubles". The cut cripples him with an injury that still pains him years later. While Kavi is running from a city where he is found to be selling false gold items, he is caught up in High Commander Merahb's plan. He is to visit the cottage where Soraya is staying to supply her with the goods and news that a deghass is accustomed to, and he is to do it like an obedient peasant should. But while he is on his usual rounds of the northern mining towns selling second rate iron goods to the country folk, he is captured by Hrum scouts who have infiltrated Farsala unknown. To save his own life Kavi agrees to turn traitor to Farsala and spy for the Hrum. He also believes that the Hrum will be better rulers of Farsala than the deghans.

When the Hrum arrive in Farsala the deghans and their unstoppable charge is ready to meet them. Seconds before the wall of horses slams into the Hrum's front line, spears five yards long and as thick as saplings appear throughout the Hrum line. The deghans' charge is dissolved and half of their army is killed in their initial charge. Jiaan is thrown from his horse and is knocked unconscious. He also thinks he broke his collar bone. During this time the Farsalan army is being driven back to their camp. When Jiaan wakes up, all he sees is his father attempting to save his army and challenge the Hrum's champion to a life or death duel for victory or defeat. Before Commander Merahb could do anything else, he is shot by four arrows. Then, attempting to get up, he gets shot with another volley of arrows that kills him. With the High Commander dead and the Farsalan army defeated and virtually non-existent, Jiaan has to scrounge up an army of peasants and try to defeat an empire that spans half of the known world.

The plot is set within the framework of a Cold War scenario very similar to the geopolitical situation at the time of writing. It is told from the perspective of Roland, a 12-year-old boy from Bonames (a district of Frankfurt), who travels with his parents and sisters to visit his grandparents in Schewenborn.

During their journey, they are surprised by a nuclear attack. As emergency response systems fail to activate and no humanitarian aid reaches them, the survivors have to assume that the whole of Germany, or even the entire civilized world, may have been destroyed. The question of whether this is actually the truth is only resolved by the end of the novel.

The family finds refuge in the house of the grandparents, who were in Fulda at the time of the nuclear explosion and presumably died there. Shortly afterwards, Roland's mother takes in a young brother and sister who had been made orphans by the bombs.

The later chapters of the story describe the weeks, months and years after the nuclear attack, and are almost exclusively set in Schewenborn.

The Last Children of Schewenborn does not have a happy ending. One by one, members of Roland's family, including a new-born sibling without eyes, die of radiation sickness and other illnesses. By the end of the book, only Roland, his father, and a small group of boys and girls representing the titular last children remain alive, and the final paragraphs suggest that they, too, will perish.

The book is alternately comic and serious, charting Durrell's experiences on Cyprus and the people he met and befriended, as well as charting the progress of the Cypriot "Enosis" (union with Greece and freedom from British rule) movement, which plunged the island into chaos and violence. Comic moments include Durrell's successful house-buying adventure, and the visits of his mother and brother, naturalist Gerald Durrell. Durrell settled in the village of Bellapais (deliberately spelt "Bellapaix" by Durrell to evoke the old name Paix), which is now part of the Turkish-controlled north.

During his stay, Durrell worked first as an English teacher at the Pancyprian Gymnasium, where several of his female students reportedly fell in love with him:

Invited to write an essay on her favourite historical character, [Electra] never failed to delight me with something like this: 'I have no historical character but in the real life there is one I love. He is writer. I dote him and he dotes me. How pleasure is the moment when I see him came at the door. My glad is very big.'

Eventually, however, "the vagaries of fortune and the demons of ill-luck dragged Cyprus into the stock-market of world affairs" and as Greek Cypriot armed groups emerged demanding an end to British rule in Cyprus. Inter communal violence between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots ensued, with Greek Cypriot nationalists wanting union with Greece. Durrell accepted a job as press advisor to the British governor. Durrell was not enamoured with the Greek Cypriot militants, however, and felt that they were dragging the island to a "feast of unreason" and that "embedded so deeply in the medieval compost of religious hatreds, the villagers floundered in the muddy stream of undifferentiated hate like drowning men." The account ends with him fleeing the island without saying goodbye to his friends, approaching the "heavily guarded airport" by taxi in conversation with the driver who tells him "Dighenis, though he fights the British, really loves them. But he will have to go on killing them—with regret, even with affection."

A group of New Jersey women, upset over their boyfriends' tendency to pay more attention to softball than their love lives, decide to beat them at their own game...literally. The girls form their own softball team and challenge the men to a match out on the field. The men initially scoff at the idea, but soon grow nervous when they worry that they'll lose face if they refuse to play.

Architect Larry Andrews and his new wife Barbara travel to a small island off the coast of the Philippines, where they are due to move into a condominium. Barbara is perturbed when Larry's business associate, Del, notifies them the residence is not ready yet, and pays for them to stay in a hotel, and tells Larry she feels Del exploits him. At dinner, Del subsequently reveals to the couple that there was no condominium to begin with, and that he instead arranged for them to live in a large, historic colonial mansion named ''Casa Fortuna''. Del soon explains that the home is supposedly haunted by Alma Martín, the first lady of the home; she and her husband, Esteban, killed each other in the home according to local legend. Prior to their respective murders of one another, Alma became heavily involved in the occult.

Barbara begins being awoken by chanting and is troubled by visions of a woman she comes to find is Alma. On one occasion, she uncontrollably stabs herself in the hand, but claims to Larry it was accidental. Barbara is hospitalized and Dr. Albanos, a physician, runs tests on her. Meanwhile, Larry meets their neighbors, Leia Solomon, and her father, Dr. Solomon, a healer. Leia later confronts Larry and says she and her father can sense that Barbara is in danger, and urge him to have her healed. Larry becomes suspicious when the records of the tests Dr. Albanos completed on Barbara disappear. Dr. Solomon subsequently tells Larry that Alma is vying for Barbara's body, and that Barbara is in danger of spirit possession.

Larry proposes the two move, but Barbara resists. The next day, a construction accident at Larry's project seriously injures one of the foremen. Del later stops at the house and attempts to initiate sex with Barbara. She agrees, and leads him upstairs, where she pushes him from a balcony to his death. Larry later finds Barbara staring blankly into the fireplace, and she loses consciousness when he approaches her. Larry consults Dr. Solomon after he notices a strange skin anomaly on Barbara's finger, and Dr. Solomon insists Alma's spirit is attempting infect her. Leia tries to cleanse the house while Larry and Barbara are away, but is confronted by Alma's spirit, which electrocutes her to death before turning her to dust.

Larry brings Barbara to Dr. Solomon to examine her finger, which has continued to swell and has turned a deep red. Barbara is appalled when she enters and finds Dr. Solomon healing a gaping wound in a woman's stomach, and she storms out. The following day, Del's body is found by a villager lying on the hillside near the house. Larry consults Dr. Solomon to save Barbara at all costs. They attempt to stage an exorcism, but Barbara, infected by Alma's spirit, evades them. Alma materializes, threatening to fully take over Barbara as a host. When Dr. Solomon separates her spirit from Barbara's body, she attacks Larry, but rapidly begins to deteriorate, unable to use Barbara's life force. Now with Alma defeated, Larry and Barbara leave the mansion permanently.

Hud is an American who survived the Bay of Pigs Invasion and has sworn revenge against Fidel Castro. Many years later, he gets his chance when he is engaged by Mr Rossellini, who blames Castro for his losses when his gambling enterprises and he had to leave Cuba, and the mysterious Mr. Bell, who finances Hud for a mission to Cuba. Hud plans to bring a father-and-son pair of sharpshooters to kill Castro when he stays at a hotel on the Isla de Pinos. Through Rossellini, Hud hires bar owner and ship's captain Tony to bring his men ashore, but the enterprise is fraught with betrayal.

A group of abused, scantily-clad female prisoners devise a plan to rebel against their oppressors and escape from their penitentiary.

The series follows the lives and adventures of five racing vehicles, Roary, Maxi, Cici, Drifter, Tin Top, and the people who they work for, Big Chris the Mechanic, Marsha the Race Marshall and the owner of the racetrack, Mr. Carburettor.

In the fictional town of Santa Mira, California, a man witnesses student Stacy Lockwood (Tori Spelling) (whom he drove home after she went to his house to telephone her parents) being stabbed by an unseen 'friend', who followed them to her house. When her family arrives home, they find paramedics and police gathered outside, as Stacy is rushed to the hospital, where she dies.

In a flashback to ten months earlier, Angela Delvecchio (Kellie Martin) is a shy high school sophomore who aspires to be popular, beautiful and perfect in everything. She performs well academically in school, attends Mass regularly, and sets high goals for herself. She idolizes Stacy, who is the most popular girl at school, as well as a cheerleader. One of the reasons why Angela admires Stacy is because one of Angela's goals is to become a cheerleader. When Angela is accepted into the Larks, the school's popular clique, she tries to forge a friendship with the rich, snobbish and conceited Stacy, who rejects her. She then further suffers being rejected for a coveted position as one of the yearbook staff and in an audition for the cheerleading squad, leaving her humiliated and feeling like a failure.

The events of the night of Stacy's stabbing are shown from Angela's perspective. Still determined to be friends with Stacy, Angela calls Stacy's mother and anonymously invites her to a party under the guise of there being a special dinner for the Larks. Once Stacy gets in the car with Angela, she reveals that the "dinner" story was a lie she told Stacy's mother so she would be allowed to meet Angela. Infuriated, Stacy demands to be taken home. Angela tries to explain how much she admires Stacy and wants to be like her, but the arrogant Stacy is less than sympathetic. Unmoved, she calls Angela "pathetic" and exits the car, stating that everyone in school will now laugh at Angela. Stacey then runs to a nearby house, where she asks to use the telephone, explaining that the 'friend' she was with had 'gotten a little weird', and manages to get a ride home. Angela follows the car back to Stacy's home, and out of fear that Stacy will spread rumors about her, Angela stabs Stacy multiple times and leaves her for dead.

Angela avoids capture in the weeks following the incident. Although Angela is interviewed by the police, she is not named as a suspect. Angela, along with all of the Larks, attends Stacy's Funeral Mass. Most of the students put the blame for Stacy's murder on one of their classmates, Monica Whitley (Kathryn Morris), a goth girl who was always mocked and tormented by Stacy for her appearance; she and Stacy always hated each other and she threatened to kill her. At first, no one suspects Angela because she is seemingly too nice to commit the crime. Furthermore, Jamie Hall (Marley Shelton), Angela's former best friend and one of Stacy's friends, tells Angela that she never really liked Stacy, and was only afraid of her.

As her junior year begins, Angela becomes more involved with the community, taking up such activities as peer counselling and candy striping. Overwhelmed by Stacey's murder, one of the Larks brings up the idea of disbanding. Determined not to let this happen, Angela argues that they should remain active, noting that the group was not only important to Stacy, but also to the various community activities in which they take part. This idea not only saves the Larks, but also wins Angela the position of secretary/treasurer.

In the meantime, a harassment campaign is waged against Monica until she finally leaves the school. At this point, authorities resume their investigation and begin re-interviewing possible suspects, including Angela. With the authorities slowly closing in on her, she becomes more and more consumed by her guilt, until she finally confesses to her priest and then to her parents in a letter.

Devastated by the arrest, Jamie, who had gone to St. Joseph's Catholic School with Angela prior to high school, confesses to their priest to having left her in a ski lodge alone during a ski trip the year before, all because she did not have the courage to stand up to Stacy. The high school's principal, Ed Saxe, declared Angela a 'sick kid' and that there is no problem with materialism. As the trial begins, the Prosecutor argues that Angela should be charged with first-degree murder as there was evidence of premeditation. Angela's lawyer claims it was second-degree murder.

The judge agrees with the defense, after listening to Angela's taped confession. Stating that, other than the tape, the rest of the evidence was just circumstantial and that the prosecution failed to prove the crime to be premeditated. Angela is then sentenced to confinement until the age of 25. Back at the church, the priest gives a homily on the community's responsibility for the death of Stacey, stating that the unrealistic high expectations and pressures to be "perfect" contributed to Angela's actions. As the movie ends, Jamie writes a letter to Angela, explaining that she quit the Larks (having left when she realized how mean they were to Angela) and that she plans to leave Santa Mira High School and go back to her former school, St. Joseph's. Angela is released and paroled after a few years from juvenile hall.

Charlie Snow (Stephen Baldwin) was a highly decorated war hero, a sniper who never placed emotion before the mission. Except once. Providing cover for an undercover arms dealer sting operation, he was forced into a predicament, as through his scope he saw a hostage crisis unfold.

The decision he made cost his fellow soldiers their lives. But he also managed to kill the hostage-taker, arms dealer Lendl Bodnar (Mio Deckala).

Back in the US, Charlie is now a shell of the man he used to be. He has been ostracized from the government, and his family is falling apart. His wife Maggie (Deborah Worthing) is close to finalizing their split.

But Charlie's world is about to get rocked. Lendl Bodnar has a brother named Yevon Bodnar (Yorgo Constantine), an arms dealer who wants revenge on Charlie for Lendl's death.

Charlie's learns that Maggie has been kidnapped, his daughter Lisa (Steffani Brass) and son Sam (Rory Thost) are in danger. Everywhere he turns, he's being attacked by Yevon's men.

Charlie must summon all the tactics that made him such an effective killer and reconnect with his secret ops government links to rescue Maggie and take Yevon down.

Brad Jenkins, a 40-year-old gay college professor, is still uncomfortable in his own skin. After a disagreement with his mother, he storms out of his home, claiming that he is "going somewhere where [he] is more normal." A sudden car accident propels him back to his youth and into a world in which gay is "normal" and being straight is not accepted. Brad has to weigh whether to remain in the past and be "normal" or attempt to return to his old life. A local jock, who had ignored him before, now dates him. However, he grows attracted to a girl – his best friend/sister-in-law in the heteronormative world. The couple attempts to deal with the pressures of being straight in a gay world. Eventually, everyone dances with people of the opposite sex at the school ball, even though they are in the homonormative world, showing Brad's "acceptance" of his straightness in the past and his gay self in real life. He then returns to his life as a professor and re-unites with the jock, who turns out to be the gay father of a student of Brad's.

The series revolves around three main characters: Flapjack, Captain K'nuckles, and Bubbie. Flapjack is a young boy who was raised by a talking whale named Bubbie. Flapjack and Bubbie lead a peaceful life until the duo rescue a pirate by the name of Captain K'nuckles, who tells Flapjack of a place called Candied Island, an island made entirely of candy. Inspired by the adventurous pirate, Flapjack, Captain K'nuckles, and Bubbie get into strange predicaments and "misadventures" in search of candy, Candied Island, and the coveted title of "Adventurer". The three spend most of their time in Stormalong Harbor, their place of residence and home to many strange characters.

Many French aristocrats exiled during the revolution have been presenting petitions to enable them to return to France under the conditional amnesty granted to them by the newly crowned Emperor.

Amongst them are a petition signed by Mme.la Marquise de Mortain and her son, Laurent (aged twenty-one years), and one signed by M. le Comte de Courson for himself and his daughter, Fernande.

Fernande is Laurent's cousin and is promised in marriage to him

Napoleon, in a lenient mood, grants their return and allows them to retake possession of their chateaux and any remaining land that had not been sold by the State.

Mme la Marquise, however, has an older son from a previous marriage still resident in France, Ronnay de Maurel was only four years old when his father died, but an uncle brought him up. This uncle, Gaston de Maurel is a solid republican patriot, if ever there was one, with nothing of the aristo about him at all. Gaston eats peas with his knife and wears sabots and a blouse ... he even voted for the death of the king.

Ronnay works in the foundries where he employs five thousand men and as a result he is now one of the richest men in France. Yet despite their fortune, he and his uncle live like peasants using only a couple of rooms in the sumptuous chateau that is now being returned to his mother.

The fastidious Mme. la Marquise hates her elder son on every count. He is a follower of the loathed Bonaparte, and a bourgeois in his upbringing, manners and dress.

Fernande also starts off by hating and despising Ronnay, but she soon hatches a plan to make him fall for her so she can win him over to the Royalist party. To this end she plans to bump into him in the woods and conveniently sprains her ankle just before the time she knows he will pass.

"''She had only just time to arrange her gown in its most becoming folds to decide on the exact position of the sheaf of bluebells and of her outstretched arm, and to assure herself that the sunlight was indeed playing with her hair and with her toes in just the manner she desired. Then she closed her eyes and waited."''

She waits until he is right in front of her before opening her eyes, gazing into his and pleading for his help. Ronnay is, as usual, dressed in blouse and rough breeches. Unused to such ploys, he gazes around in pathetic helplessness, as if expecting the dwellers of the forest to help him in his awful dilemma.

But no one the around, and the lovely Fernande, whose tiny bare foot looks like an exquisite flower to him, is appealing, oh, so piteously, for help.

Ronnay gives in and carries Fernande home. As per her plan he loses his heart completely on the journey, but rather unexpectedly, Fernande ends up also falling victim to the passion that she sought to arouse in Ronnay, in spite of her hatred of the cause for which he is fighting.

The news that the hated Ronnay has become the lover of the woman promised to her adored younger son Laurent, only causes Mme. La Marquise to loathe him more. She plots and schemes for the undoing of her hated elder son but Fernande discovers the plot and saves Ronnay from being treacherously murdered.

Laurent goes through tortures of passionate jealousy and deserts from his regiment at a great crisis in order to assure himself of Fernande's feelings. Following which his mother furiously disowns him, accusing him of dishonour, while his father and kindred are fighting for France.

Poor Laurent eventually retrieves his dishonour only to die a hero's death, conveniently leaving Fernande free to marry Ronnay.

Category:1917 British novels Category:Historical novels Category:Novels by Baroness Emma Orczy Category:Novels set in France Category:Hutchinson (publisher) books

The book centres on the love life of Rose Marie, the only daughter of M. Legros, tailor-in-chief to His Majesty the King of France. As an infant Rose was espoused to Rupert Keyston, a mere child himself at the time. Over the years Rupert's position has changed from one of poverty and obscurity to one of wealth, and he now holds the honorable position of the Earl of Stowmaries. Rupert has not seen his child-bride since his espousals, and on reaching manhood conceives a dastardly plot to free himself from the unwanted union by persuading his cousin Michael to impersonate him when he is finally called upon to ratify his engagement, and claim his bride. Once this has happened, he fully intends to get his marriage annulled, on the score of his wife's unfaithfulness with his cousin.

The mock nuptials are concluded with a dance in the workshop of M. Legros

The couples fell back one by one, panting against the wall, while only one pair remained in the centre, now twirling and twirling in a cloud of dust. The man's head 'was bent, for he was over tall, and towered above every one else in the room. He was a head taller than she was, but he looked straight down at her, as he held her, straight into her eyes-those beautiful blue eyes of hers, which he had thought so cold. How it all happened afterwards she could never say. She had been dancing with her lord, looking up into his face, glowing with ardent love. She was still so dizzy, with the frantic whirl of the dance, that she hardly remembered being lifted into the saddle, and landed safely in the strong arms of her lord. In the forefront were papa and mamma, half laughing, half crying, waving hands and mopping tears... No other ride had been just like this one, just one slight shifting of her lissome body, to settle more comfortably. One little movement, which seemed to bring her yet a little nearer to him

The wild and lawless Michael, who agreed to his part in this base deed in return for gold, is suddenly caught hopelessly in the charms of the lovely Rose Marie – but he is determined not to lose his prize. Papa Legros, on being informed of the trick that has been practiced on his child, pursues the couple hotly, and brings back his beloved daughter the same evening. So Michael's punishment begins. His love for Rose Marie transforms him from a reprobate to a chivalrous gentleman. After a series of exciting episodes they are eventually re-united. His trial as a Papist and traitor is dramatically told, and Rose Marie's evidence that he was with her on the dates in question saves his head from being exhibited at Tyburn.

Category:1912 British novels Category:British historical novels Category:Novels by Baroness Emma Orczy Category:Novels set in France Category:Methuen Publishing books

Jim Marlowe (voiced by Benny Grant), Jr., and his little sister, Phillis Jane "P.J." Marlowe (voiced by Haven Hartman), are teens growing up on the distant mining world of New Aries. Life on New Aries is difficult, with its surface being a red-colored desert. Along with the harsh climate and severe weather, there are many dangerous creatures living on New Aries, such as the three-headed Cerebus Hounds, the swift and voracious Water Seekers, and the misunderstood Locals, creatures so rare and dangerous they border on urban legend.

Jim has recently acquired a new pet, a "roundhead" called Willis (voiced by Pat Fraley) with the parrot-like ability to mimic human speech and record conversations. Willis is small, furry, and playful, can survive both on the surface of New Aries and the Earth-like atmosphere of the colony, and has some sort of connection with the Locals on an almost empathic level.

As Jim and P.J. are about to be sent off to a boarding school, their mother (voiced by Marcia Mitzman Gaven), the colony's medical officer, discovers a substance deep within the mines that is killing the miners. The school's headmaster Marcus Howe (voiced by Roddy McDowall) and the colony leader (voiced by Nick Tate)—a company man from the Beta Earth Mining Company—learn of Jim Marlowe's new pet, and plot to steal him for medical experiment in order to generate a serum to protect the miners, and thus, keep the company in the black. Willis records this entire conversation, which prompts Jim, Willis, and P.J. to escape into the desert. With their life-support running low, they are forced to take shelter in a carnivorous plant, using the process of photosynthesis so the plant will generate oxygen and keep them alive.

Running from New Aries' many dangerous life-forms, they are eventually found by the Locals. They are enraged by the attempted capture of the tiny Willis. In the end, only Jim and Willis' friendship save the colony world from destruction by the angered natives, who reveal themselves to be an intelligent, highly advanced subterranean race.

Willis then tells Jim that it is time for him to go. He is finished being a child, and must become an adult via metamorphosis. One of the colony's doctors correctly assumed that Willis was not a separate species from the Locals, but rather a Local in its infant form. Jim says that he will wait for Willis to finish changing, but Willis states that this will take a long, long time. He and Jim will probably never see one another again.

Many decades later, New Aries has been terraformed into a green, Earth-like world, with humans and Locals living side by side in peace. Willis, now a full-grown Local, has befriended Jim's young granddaughter, and spends time with her wandering the grass-covered hills and telling her stories of the adventures he and her grandfather had together.

Vanessa and her siblings watch, as their divorced mother once again becomes drunk, making the children believe their Christmas will be ruined once again. Some drastic changes must be taken. When their mother is drunk, they take her and lock her in a basement to dry out. So begins a conspiracy to hide her absence from their father and the cleaning lady. The children feed their mother and spend many hours in the basement with her, hence the title ''Mothertime''. The children also spend time with their beloved father and his new wife hoping to spring a new but long lost family whole again. Unfortunately, the manoeuvres are not so easy.

In London, mob boss Lenny Cole rules the ever-growing real estate business, using a corrupt councillor for bureaucratic fixing, and his right-hand man Archy for the dirty side of things. A billionaire Russian businessman, Uri Omovich, plans a fixed land deal, and London's crooks seem to all want a piece of it — particularly Uri's underhanded accountant Stella, and a gang called "The Wild Bunch" led by small-time crook "One-Two", his partner "Mumbles", and their driver "Handsome Bob".

Uri agrees to Lenny's price of €7,000,000 for bribing the Council, and as a sign of trust, loans him his "lucky painting". Yet when Uri arranges for Stella to move the funds, she double-crosses him and hires the Wild Bunch to steal the money. Additionally, Lenny's estranged and drug-addicted stepson Johnny Quid steals the painting from Lenny's office after faking his own death. Lenny and Archy then coerce Johnny's former talent managers Mickey and Roman into tracking down Johnny. In a subplot, Handsome Bob gets close to Stella's gay husband, a lawyer who has information on a longtime unknown informant in their criminal circle.

Uri tasks Stella once more with covertly siphoning the necessary payoff from his holdings, despite his growing suspicion of her. Yet when his moneymen are once again robbed by the Wild Bunch, his assistant Victor convinces him that it's likely Lenny who is behind the robberies, and is also purposely keeping Uri's lucky painting from him. Uri and Victor then invite Lenny to a private golf game, where Victor beats him with a golf club, finishing by breaking Lenny's leg as a warning to return his painting.

Wild Bunch friend Cookie happens to buy the painting from a couple of crackheads who stole it from Johnny's hideout. Cookie then gives the painting to One-Two who, in turn, offers the painting to Stella as a token of appreciation after a sexual encounter. After Stella leaves his flat, One-Two is surprised by Uri's henchmen but is rescued, and subsequently kidnapped, by Archy and his goons who had come looking for Uri's money.

Uri wants to marry Stella, whom he has long admired. He goes to Stella's house to propose, but he then spots the painting. Stella lies and says she has had it for years. Uri, enraged by Stella's betrayal, orders Victor to kill her.

Archy brings Johnny, Roman, Mickey and the Wild Bunch to Lenny's warehouse where Lenny orders Johnny and the Wild Bunch executed. Handsome Bob offers the legal documents concerning the informant in his pocket to Archy. Archy recognizes the pseudonym used on documents, "Sidney Shaw", as belonging to Lenny. Lenny had arranged with the police to routinely lock up many criminal associates (including Archy) for years at a time to ensure his own freedom and while also enhancing his own standing in the criminal underworld. Archy orders Lenny's men to free the Wild Bunch and has Lenny drowned and fed to crayfish.

In the elevator, Johnny explains to Roman and Mickey that they will also be killed to leave no witnesses, and graphically explains the manner of their executions. His description unnerves the man tasked to execute the trio, prompting him to act prematurely. Having already anticipated this move, Johnny warns Mickey and Roman to intervene and kill their would-be executioner. Johnny shoots two more men waiting at the top of the elevator and with help from the Wild Bunch, they escape the last of Archy's men.

Later, Archy picks up Johnny from rehab and gives him Uri's lucky painting as a welcome home present, remarking that obtaining the painting "cost a very wealthy Russian an arm and a leg". Johnny proclaims that, with his new-found freedom from addiction and his stepfather, he will do what he could not before: "become a real RocknRolla".

''Seeing'' is set in the same unnamed country featured in ''Blindness.'' The story begins with a parliamentary election, in which the majority (83%) of the populace cast blank ballots. The first half of the story focuses on the struggles of the government and its various nameless members as they try to simultaneously understand and destroy the amorphous non-movement of blank-voters. Some of the characters from ''Blindness'' appear in the second half of the novel, including 'the doctor' and 'the doctor's wife', and the 'dog of tears' now with the name, Constant.

The setting is 1950s Japan and young Musashi Miyamoto has come to Tokyo with visions of becoming a manga filmmaker. When he visits a manga filmmaking studio, he meets veteran manga filmmaker Matsuma Dan. Musashi shows Matsuma his work, but is quickly dismissed by Matsuma who claims his work lacks "vitality" in its movements.

Disappointed, Musashi doesn't give up and continues to practice the art of manga filmmaking. While in Tokyo, he meets Kojiro Sasaki, another young boy yearning to be a manga filmmaker. The two become friends almost instantly. However, after a quarrel, they split up and become fierce rivals to see who can make it in the manga filmmaking business.

More trouble falls on Musashi when he runs afoul of a Yakuza family in Tokyo. He meets a beautiful young girl named Otsu, but as fate would have it, she is the daughter of a Yakuza family's leader. As payback, the yakuza members burn Musashi's 50,000 manga film cells, destroy his movie making equipment, and damage his eyes in the process.

Hurt and beaten, Musashi still finds the strength to move on. Thinking of his beloved horse, Ao, back in his hometown, Musashi begins anew with his manga films by making ones about Ao.

Outraged by Marina's betrayal (as seen in the first episode), Titan (voiced by Ray Barrett) vows revenge and turns to the fish god Teufel for guidance. Teufel opens his mouth, causing a nearby plant to emit powerful fumes that consume the surrounding air, almost suffocating Titan. Recovering, Titan realises that Teufel has given him a weapon to use.

At Marineville, Captain Troy Tempest (voiced by Don Mason) sees Marina crying and realises that she is feeling homesick. With the permission of Commander Shore (voiced by Ray Barrett), he, Phones (voiced by Robert Easton) and Marina set off in ''Stingray'' for the underwater city of Pacifica, ruled by Marina's father Aphony.

From his base on Lemoy Island, Surface Agent X-2-Zero (voiced by Robert Easton) alerts Titan to ''Stingray'' s movements. Sensing an opportunity to get his revenge, Titan dispatches X-2-Zero to Pacifica with the plant, now sealed in a jar. Meanwhile, he has a Mechanical Fish attack ''Stingray'' to delay Troy, Phones and Marina. After a tense chase, Troy and Phones destroy the Mechanical Fish with ''Stingray'' s torpedoes.

Reaching Pacifica, X-2-Zero, posing as a simple messenger, presents the plant to Aphony as a symbol of good faith and informs him of Marina's imminent return. He then leaves before ''Stingray'' arrives. As Aphony treats Troy, Phones and Marina to a lavish meal, Marina takes an interest in the plant. After the meal, it appears that she wishes to stay in Pacifica, so Troy and Phones start the journey back to Marineville alone. However, Marina has a last-minute change of heart and swims after ''Stingray'', bringing the plant on board with her. On returning to Marineville she gives it to Atlanta (voiced by Lois Maxwell) as a present.

Returning to her quarters, Atlanta takes the plant out of its jar. She passes out from its fumes but is saved from death when Troy breaks into the room. Suspicion falls on Marina, but Troy refuses to accept that she is a spy. The team decide to test Marina's loyalty by summoning her to Atlanta's quarters with the plant still present. Marina fails to smash the plant and passes out, proving her innocence. Troy disposes of the plant and the team apologise to Marina for doubting her. Later, Troy, Phones and Shore watch as Atlanta teaches Marina how to play the piano.

Napakpapha Nakprasitte as Em. Adam, an English backpacker, breaks up with his girlfriend immediately after arriving with her in Thailand. He then strikes out on his own, leaving Bangkok for Ko Samui. There, he meets Em, a young masseuse. At first, their relationship is innocent, but Adam soon grows frustrated and starts hitting the bars and becoming a sex tourist, or "butterfly man", flirting from woman to woman. Meanwhile, the ugly side of Samui starts to reveal itself, with a human trafficking, slavery, and prostitution ring, run by British mafia exposed. Adam gets in trouble with the British mafia. Em helps him get away, so the British mafia beats her severely. Adam manages to escape via small boat, taking Em with him. They get married on the boat but then Em dies. He keeps his promise to take her body to her home village and ends up staying in Thailand.

Fred Flintstone gets into the Christmas spirit by hanging up decorations and being altogether joyful while awaiting the arrival of his daughter Pebbles, her husband Bamm-Bamm and their twin children, daughter Roxy and son Chip. After learning that they will arrive at 4pm, Fred and Barney leave to get their turkeysaurus for dinner. However, on the way back home they are mugged by a Santa. Fred hands over his wallet and watch and orders Barney to give him the bird, but while tossing the turkeysaurus the Santa "breaks" in half. Seizing the opportunity, the two run away from the mugger.

When Fred and Barney get to the police station, they identify the thief, who turns out to be a "caveless" abandoned child named Stoney. According to the social worker, Stoney used to be the horror of foster homes because of his stealing habits. Feeling sympathy for Stoney, Wilma decides to take him in as a ward, despite Fred's initial reluctance. They try to show Stoney that they trust him and attempt to teach him that stealing is wrong.

However, things get slightly bleaker when Pebbles and her family get stuck in an airport because of a blizzard. The Rubbles and the Flintstones then go Christmas tree shopping, but can't afford any that aren't "smaller than their grandchildren". Stoney attempts to help by convincing people to bet on him as he plays a game in order to earn enough money for the Flintstones to buy the tree. When a man loses, he chases Stoney, who runs for cover near Fred. The man claims that Stoney cheated him, and Fred asks if this is true. Stoney then truthfully replies "no", and when Fred believes him, he gets hit in the head with a tree by the man.

Fred then goes to the hospital, but his boss informs him that he can't participate in the Christmas parade (which is something Fred is quite eager to do since the beginning of the movie) and when he tries to protest, his boss finalizes his "no". To make it up to Fred, Stoney poses as his boss's driver and locks him up in the Flintstone's bathroom, which will allow Fred to participate in the parade. Instead, Fred saves his boss and ends up in jail, where he eventually bonds with Stoney. Fred even advises Stoney that cutting corners to get what you want is not the solution. Fred sees Stoney is a good kid. However, the social worker then takes Stoney away and considered to send him back to Juvie, and meanwhile Fred's boss makes him go to the parade. While there, Fred saves Stoney.

At home, Fred sees Pebbles and her family, and Stoney bonds with the twins. Fred says that the new addition to the family gets to put the star on the Christmas tree. Stoney thinks Fred is referring to Roxy and Chip, but it turns out it is him and he becomes a Flintstone. Bamm-Bamm helps him put on the star and they all have a happy Christmas.

Shin, a nobleman, has been trying to conceive a male heir to continue his family name. Unable to provide a male heir, Shin's wife gives her husband permission to search for a surrogate wife to bear a male heir. On the way to finding a surrogate wife, Shin runs into a 17-year-old girl, Ok-nyo (Kang Soo-yeon). She is a poor, but feisty, girl who states that she will do anything for money. The stubborn nature of Ok-nyo attracts Shin and influences him to choose her to become the mother of his child. Ok-nyo holds the social status of a servant, but the relationship changes both of them through the course of the movie. Ok-nyo has to obey rules which keep her hidden during the day and delegates her to perform the mating ritual during Shins wife's hours of choosing. No matter what is happening, Ok-nyo can not leave the building in which she is housed. With Shin's infatuation and Ok-nyo's attachment, both secretly meet for passionate affairs. Unfortunately both eventually get caught, which causes their separation. Ok-nyo's mother tries to dissuade her, and to break off the relationship, by telling her the realities of life. Even though both are punished for the infraction, they still continue to meet. Eventually Ok-nyo conceives an heir for Shin, but is burdened with not knowing whether Shin will stay by her side or leave with her child forever.

The Bedrock Community Players is mounting ''A Christmas Carol,'' and all of the town's citizens are either planning to attend or be involved in the production: Barney Rubble is playing Bob Cragit, with Betty as Mrs. Cragit and his son Bamm-Bamm as Tiny Tim; Mr. Slate is Jacob Marbley; Wilma Flintstone is serving as the stage manager, while her daughter Pebbles plays Martha Cragit; even Dino has a role, playing the Cragit's family pet. It is Fred, though, who has landed the leading role of Ebonezer Scrooge. Unfortunately, he has let his role go to his head, thinking himself a star and spending all of his time rehearsing his lines rather than focusing on his job or family. On Christmas Eve, in his rush to get to work and complete his Christmas Shopping, Fred forgets that he must take Pebbles to "cave care", and later to pick her up from cave care. When Fred arrives at the theater, he discovers a furious Wilma, who breaks down in tears as she tells Fred about his mistake.

The play finally begins with narrator Charles Brickens reading the opening lines, and after a momentary bout of stage fright, Fred enters. The play proceeds as normal. As the second act opens, Wilma and Betty discover that Garnet, the woman playing the Ghost of Christmas Past, has contracted the "Bedrock Bug," a flu-like illness. As stage manager, Wilma is left to play the part herself. During the next scene, at Fezziwig's Christmas party, Betty informs Wilma that Maggie has come down with the Bedrock Bug as well; Wilma dons her costume and plays Belle. Fred realizes he forgot the presents and runs to the store, he is approached by the hooded figure of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, revealing to be the actor Philo Quartz, he drives him back to the theater. The second act takes place. The third act begins with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come appearing before Scrooge; he shows the elderly man an abandoned gravestone marked with the words "EBONEZER SCROOGE." The scene shifts to Scrooge's bedchamber—he is alive, and he discovers that it is Christmas morning. He recruits a passing boy (played by the same child who Fred entrusted with his presents) to purchase a prize "Turkeysaurus" and have it sent to the Cragits for a feast. Scrooge prepares to go out and explore the city on Christmas morning; along the way, he meets Wilma, who has taken on the role of one of the members of the Piltdown Charitable Foundation, as the original actor has caught the Bedrock Bug. Fred acts as if the woman is Belle (much to narrator Brickens's frustration, as the ad-libbing is not in his script), and begs for both her and Wilma's forgiveness, admitting his recent selfishness and promising that he has changed his attitudes. Wilma reluctantly plays along.

The play ends with the narrator informing the audience of the permanent change in the elderly man. Bamm-Bamm forgets his line "God bless us, everyone!," leaving Pebbles to make the declaration herself. When the curtain falls, the company drops Fred and scolds him "for being such a Scrooge." Fred apologizes, informing Wilma that he has finally realized that his friends and family, rather than his role in the production, are what matter most. As the company begins to depart, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come takes off his hood, revealing himself as Dino, who took the part after Philo came down with the Bedrock Bug.

A changed Fred says that when the Flintstones get home, he's going to make dinner and invite Wilma's mother. Unfortunately, after he says this, he comes down with the flu, and Wilma decides to make dinner with her mother's help, since the Bedrock Bug "lasts for a day".

In 1861, John Blair and his partner, Larry Adams are dismayed when the arrival of telegraph ends the Russell & Waddell Pony Express. Hoping to utilize their horse-riding skills, they decide to start a stage coach transportation business. They go to Buchanan City and ask local magnate Cal Drake if he is willing to sell them a stage coach. Instead, Drake offers them a franchise from his own stage coach line - a line out to bustling Crescent City.

Upon arriving at Crescent City, Blair and Adams quickly realize that they had been bamboozled into paying for the line as Crescent City is a ghost town. The only residents are the mayor, Rocky O'Brien, and Dr. William Forsythe. The mayor is thrilled to get not only new residents to double the size of the town, but a stage coach line too. Blair protests that there are no customers to transport. The mayor says there is a way for Blair to get all the money he owes and more. There will be a contest in the next few days where the fastest team in a race will win a $25,000 government contract to deliver mail to the area. With Blair's luck returning, he also meets a telegraph crew, whom he saves from poisoning after drinking from a local water hole. In appreciation, the telegraph crew offers to run the line through Crescent City if Blair will give them laborers to build the telegraph line.

Blair is able to get laborers to build the telegraph line and the population of Crescent City begins to skyrocket. Drake, upset that Blair has turned his con into a competing business, then decides to hire Blair to drive a gold shipment to Sacramento, only to ambush him. If Blair can get the gold to the destination, Drake will take $1,000 off of the original loan. Blair escapes the ambush and collects the money at gunpoint. Drake next hopes to stop Blair at the race. He gets his henchman to throw obstacles in Blair's way to defeat him by any means necessary. But despite all odds, Blair wins the race and the $25,000 reward.

The player takes the role of Office of Strategic Services operative Lieutenant John Berg. The game has eight missions (seven in the PSP version) and is set against the backdrop of the Battle of Cherbourg.

Lt. Berg is deployed to Northern France in the midst of the Normandy D-Day amphibious invasion to conduct investigations into the German special weapon programs situated in the area. There, he discovers a terrifying weapon that could potentially shift the war in Germany's favor, and endeavors to thwart Hitler's plans to produce that weapon.

Soul Reapers of the 10th Division—led by its captain Tōshirō Hitsugaya and vice-captain Rangiku Matsumoto—are sent to escort the "King's Seal". The rare artifact is stolen during transport by the deviated Soul Reaper Sōjirō Kusaka and two girls known as Ying and Yang. Hitsugaya seems to recognize the Soul Reaper, who wounds him and leaves, and abandons his post to pursue the man while leaving his squad behind to fend for themselves. Later, Soul Society suspects Hitsugaya of treason, orders his immediate capture, and puts his whole squad under house arrest.

In the human world, Soul Reaper Ichigo Kurosaki is informed about the events happening in the Soul Society, and finds Hitsugaya, who passes out. Hitsugaya wakes up in Ichigo's house, and they are attacked by Ying and Yang. Ichigo fights, while Hitsugaya escapes and continues to avoid an attempt of capture by Soul Society. The suspect on him increases when Kusaka attacks a Soul Society's captain using Hyōrinmaru, a ''zanpakutō''—special swords used by Soul Reapers—with identical powers to Hitsugaya's. Hitsugaya's capture is then made top priority and his execution is approved.

Through his wandering to avoid capture, Hitsugaya eventually manages to track Kusaka down, and it is revealed that the two managed to manifest the same ''zanpakutō''. Because Soul Society does not allow the same ''zanpakutō'' to be wielded by different people, the two were forced to fight to the death. Hitsugaya did not wish to fight, but had no other option as Kusaka attacked, claiming that he was the only one worthy of Hyōrinmaru. The authorities concluded that Hitsugaya was the true owner of Hyōrinmaru and carried out Kusaka's execution. Kusaka died and was reborn as a Hollow in their world, Hueco Mundo. Once he learned of the King's Seal and its powers—which allows the user to freely manipulate time, space and matter—he started his plan of revenge against Soul Society.

Using the King's Seal, Kusaka teleports Hitsugaya and himself to Soul Society, needing Hitsugaya's power to break the seal. The Soul Reapers find and attack Hitsugaya and Kusaka, but are thrown back when Ichigo intervene. As Hitsugaya refuses, Kusaka breaks the seal himself, after which he transforms into a giant dragon-like creature made of ice. However, because he lacks the control which Hitsugaya possesses, the power goes berserk and threatens to destroy Soul Society. A hoard of Hollows appears out of Kusaka's castle, which he had generated out of the Kings' Seal. While several Soul Reapers face the Hollows, Ichigo and Hitsugaya storm up to the central tower. After they destroy Kusaka's dragon-like form, Hitsugaya impales Kusaka. Hitsugaya is cleared of all charges and the King's Seal is restored. After the credits, he and Rangiku visit Kusaka's grave.

The movie begins with son Eddie feeling homesick for Transylvania. Herman decides a "good old Transylvanian Christmas" is what his troubled son needs to get in the mood for the holidays. Together with the family - including Lily, Grandpa and Marilyn, he sends out invitations to the entire Munster family, including Wolfman, Mummy, and the Gill-Man. Herman also asks for a raise from his boss and is fired, taking on other jobs such as modeling nude for an art class, donating blood, and wrapping presents. Meanwhile on Christmas Eve's eve, one of Grandpa's experiments has gone awry, accidentally transporting Santa Claus and his elves to the Munster Mansion. Christmas faces ruin as there is no way to send Santa home, and the entire family must find a way to save Christmas. Meanwhile, Marilyn falls in love and Lily enters a home decorating contest, with nosy neighbour Edna Dimitty (from the previous Munster movie ''Here Come the Munsters'') causing trouble. Eddie also faces trouble at school from bullies.

Samir Horn is an Arabic-speaking Sudanese-American and devout Muslim. His Sudanese father was killed by a car bomb when he was a child. As an adult, Samir is first seen operating as an arms dealer. While negotiating a deal with Omar in Yemen he is arrested and thrown into a Yemeni jail. Later, Samir and Omar become friends, and when Omar's people arrange an escape, they take Samir with them. They meet Fareed, a lieutenant in the al-Nathir terrorist organization. FBI Special Agent Roy Clayton suspects Samir has been radicalized and begins tracking him.

Joining al-Nathir, Samir uses the skills he learned as a Special Forces Engineer Sergeant with the U.S. Army Special Forces to bomb the U.S. consulate in Nice, France. It is revealed that Samir is working under deep cover for a U.S. intelligence contractor, Carter; Samir is devastated when he learns that despite his and Carter's covert efforts, innocent people perished in the consulate bombing.

Impressed with Samir, Fareed introduces him to leader Nathir, who discloses a plot to place suicide bombers on 50 buses in the U.S. during Thanksgiving and instructs Samir to act as liaison to each of the al-Nathir sleeper bombers. Later, Carter unwittingly interrupts a meeting between Samir and Omar, and is killed by Omar.

Samir reveals his deep cover to Clayton, who tracks him to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. While investigating, Clayton also discovers the deaths in Nice were fake, save for one. While on board a cargo ship to Marseille, France, Samir kills Nathir and Fareed, and tells an enraged Omar that by targeting innocents they betrayed Islam. Samir then tells Omar that he switched the bombers' emails and placed them all on the same bus, so all of them died without victims (except for the driver of the one bus). The Canadian police and the FBI break in, kill Omar, and injure Samir.

Later, underneath the L in Chicago, Samir tells Clayton he feels guilty for killing innocent people, and that the Qur'an says that to kill an innocent person is to kill all mankind. Clayton responds by noting that the Qur'an also says that by saving an innocent person, he has saved all mankind, tells Samir he is a hero, and assures him of a possible career with the FBI.

In the "Cartoon Dimension", mad scientist Doctor Carnage experiments on a man, then disembowels him and rips his skull out through his stomach. On Earth, sisters Cindy and Candy are left alone with Cindy's friend Amy. While Cindy and Amy call over Rick and Eddie, Candy watches a ''Terror Toons'' DVD that she received in the mail. Created by Satan, the DVD depicts the antics of Doctor Carnage and his accomplice Max Assassin, a stolen lab monkey that was mutated into a monster gorilla by Carnage.

As Cindy and her friends play Strip Ouija, Candy dozes off, awakening when Carnage and Max appear in her room. The two rip Candy's spine out, behead her friend Tommy when he drops by, dismember a pizza delivery man with a giant pizza cutter, and do a hypnotic disco dance number that causes Eddie to vomit up his own innards. When Cindy, Amy, and Rick try to escape, they discover that all of the doors have been replaced by vertigo-inducing spirals. Rick is taken and has his brain experimented on by Carnage and Max, while Cindy and Amy are separated when a police officer who was released from ''Terror Toons'' is blown up by a stick of dynamite that was hidden in a box of donuts.

Cindy is captured by Carnage and, along with the lobotomized Rick, is forced to watch as Carnage and Max saw Amy in half as a part of a magic act. The two villains then take Cindy to a cartoon version of Hell and present her to the Devil, who explains that he intends to use ''Terror Toons'' to ravage the Earth and corrupt children. Realizing that "anything is possible" in cartoons, Cindy becomes a superheroine and challenges the Devil, who sends her back to her house. After discovering a machine that is producing ''Terror Toons'' DVDs, Cindy is attacked by Max, but she uses her new powers to snap his neck, and stomp his brain out. When Carnage comes at her with a giant axe, Cindy uses it against him, cutting his head in half with it. As tiny monsters pour out of Carnage's split skull, Cindy destroys the ''Terror Toons'' DVD press with a crowbar.

Cindy and Candy's parents return home from a wedding and find Rick banging his head against a wall while Cindy laughs hysterically, surrounded by the remains of her friends and sister. Next door, a boy finds another copy of ''Terror Toons'' in his mailbox, and rushes inside with it. The boy's front door slams shut, and Carnage's giggle is heard.

The cartoon begins when some gangsters are asking directions to an oil refinery. After Herman gives them directions, the gasoline company president is seen bound and gagged in the back of the gangsters' car. Soon after, a messenger bat arrives from Transylvania and the Munsters are informed their cousins Igor and Lucretia are coming to visit them. They go to the airport, where the cousins are found waiting for them on the luggage carousel. Initially Eddie (now a teenager) wants nothing to do with his cousins, at first thinking that they are younger than him, but since they all like playing rock music, they form a band. Herman is annoyed by the music the Mini-Munsters play, so they offer to play their music at school. Since Herman had promised to buy Eddie a car, they go buy a used hearse. When Eddie asks if there is enough room in the back of the hearse for their instruments, Herman stretches it out in the back, and assures them there is. They discover that the old hearse is haunted by the funeral director who owned it when he was alive. Grandpa adds an invention that allows for the car to run on music when it runs out of gas. The device becomes popular, and the gangsters, who have taken over a gasoline company, are infuriated. The gangster boss challenges the Munsters to a race with his sports car, which the Munsters win. It seems the faster Eddie, Lucretia and Igor play their music, the faster the hearse travels. When they beat the gangster boss in a race at the park Grand Prix course, the gangsters capture the Munsters' pet dragon Spot by tricking the family into leaving their house for an award ceremony, which Herman learns was not real. The gangsters then threaten to harm Spot if Grandpa does not destroy his invention. The young Munsters find Spot and thwart the gangsters by getting Spot back.

A girl receives a weird DVD in the mail on her birthday. In the meanwhile, Hansel and Gretel, follow out their fairy tale, and arrive at a witch's house, after getting lost in the cartoon-like woods. The witch planned to poison them with a rat and a bottle containing Nitroglycerin, but instead of killing them, it turns them into big-headed, crazy cartoon characters: Hansel becomes a giant, demonic, anthropomorphic rat, and Gretel becomes a criminally insane girl with ugly teeth and a big head. They rip the witch in half and, almost immediately, they are pulled from their world to reality and begin watching it. Most of the partygoers are slain in various ways until the last of the group goes through a swirl-like portal and end up in the Cartoon Dimension where they encounter cartoon signs, cartoon demons, the clown from the party, and, unfortunately, Hansel and Gretel get some of the group members and the clown killed. The final girl and the boyfriend come up with a plan to keep Hansel and Gretel distracted: they kill Hansel with a giant cartoon mousetrap, and they stop Gretel with a tranquilizer gun and enter the entrance to Hell where they encounter surreal demons, monsters, and zombies.

The final girl and the boyfriend find out that Damian, Satan's son, (Shane Ballard) sent the duo after them. In the encounter, he shows them a new character, a giant worm-like monster. He then attempts to rape a girl and in the resulting fight, she gets infected with "the demon"(which is actually a rattlesnake). After they escape, Damian turns into a giant horned demon. Hansel and Gretel prepare to send Mom into Hell with a rocket, but before they can, the boyfriend comes in, slices off Hansel's hand, in which Hansel and Gretel form together into the worm Damian showed them, as a final attempt at killing everyone.

Just when it was about to succeed, a girl comes in, and supports the beast against the wall, telling her boyfriend to destroy the DVD, which has since been a factory for the DVDs. The Boyfriend lights the rocket, and rides it into the machine, blowing up half the house, where he, the girl, and the beast are presumably killed in the explosion. The police arrive to help out the survivors.

The film ends with Damian dropping a box of Terror Toons off at a movie rental store, where he laughs maniacally and the screen cuts, reminiscent of the beginning.

In 1893 Pecos, Texas, two cowhands join forces with a lady marshal.

Just out of jail, Gruesome (Boris Karloff) goes to the Hangman's Knot saloon, where his old crime crony, Melody (Tony Barrett), is now playing piano. Gruesome takes him to a plastics manufacturer, where X-Ray (Skelton Knaggs) and a mysterious mastermind are in possession of a secret formula and hatching a sinister plot.

Ignoring a warning not to touch anything, Gruesome sniffs the gas from a mysterious test tube; he escapes the toxic fumes but collapses upon returning to the Hangman's Knot and is taken to the city morgue, where his body stiffens dramatically.

Dick Tracy (Ralph Byrd) is at headquarters speaking with college professor Dr. A. Tomic (Milton Parsons), a scientist who suspects someone has been following him. At the morgue, Tracy's sidekick Pat (Lyle Latell) has his back turned when Gruesome wakes up and knocks him out. Pat describes him to Tracy as looking a lot like the actor Boris Karloff (a gag cribbed from ''Arsenic and Old Lace'').

At a bank where Tess Trueheart (Anne Gwynne) happens to be, Gruesome and Melody drop a grenade with the gas into a wastebasket; when it goes off, everyone but Tess freezes in place. They rob the place of more than $100,000 and shoot a cop on the sidewalk before Tracy and his men arrive. Gruesome demands half of the loot from X-Ray .... or else.

Tracy tries to learn the secret of the formula from Dr. Tomic's top assistant, Professor Learned (June Clayworth), before going after Gruesome and his gang. Over the course of the film, Learned is shot dead, and Melody dies in a car accident. As an offhand comment, Tess quips "dead men tell no tales", which gives Tracy an idea: since Gruesome will resort even to murder to keep his secret weapon a secret, if he thinks Melody is alive, he will hunt Melody down to prevent any leaks. Tracy decides to run a false flag operation: put out word that Melody has been captured alive, and pose as Melody hoping Gruesome will show up. Gruesome takes the bait and abducts what he thinks is Melody from the hospital. In a climactic shootout at the plastic factory, Tracy shoots Gruesome in the back.

Tracy retrieves one last gas grenade with the intent of analyzing the contents. Back at the office, in the closing scene, the grenade inadvertently goes off, freezing everyone in place just as Dick and Tess are about to kiss.

The story begins with 5 Sky Crystals falling onto Earth. Mario finds one of them and then shows it to all of his friends. However, Kamek flies past dropping party invitations from Bowser, inviting everyone to a feast in his castle to apologize for his villainy. They are suspicious at first, but they go to Bowser's castle, only to find that it is a trap and Bowser steals Mario's Sky Crystal. Using his new Minimizer, he shrinks everyone down to minuscule size. Bowser wants to find the four other Sky Crystals without Mario and his crew in the way and orders Kamek to fling them far away. Mario and his friends find themselves tiny in a very big world.

The crew travels to Bowser's Castle, far away while defeating a Piranha Plant in Wiggler's garden, stopping a Hammer Bro. from ruining Toadette's instruments in her music shop, helping Diddy Kong free DK after being turned to stone by a Dry Bones on the way to the feast at Bowser's castle, and freeing a Koopa's grandpa who has been trapped in a book by Kamek. Each of them gives a Sky Crystal to thank Mario and his crew. Once the friends make it to the castle, Bowser traps everyone inside his pinball machine and prepares once again to use his Minimizer. Luckily, DK and Diddy received the invitation too, and have made it to the castle in time. While looking for the food, DK bumps into Bowser and breaks the Minimizer in half, returning Mario and friends to their rightful size. However, Bowser reveals his new Megamorph Belt and challenges the superstar. After defeating Bowser, the crew takes back the stolen Sky Crystal and puts it with the others. The crystals combine into a new game (Triangle Twisters) and Bowser is meaner now because the crystals were part of a castle legend, but in a surprising move, Mario and crew invite Bowser and Bowser Jr. to play with them. They accept, and now everyone is happy, including DK and Diddy, who have eaten the entire buffet.

The show takes place in a fictional national park known as the "Kookamunga" (The "Kook" for short, although there is the Cucamonga Valley in California). The park is looked after by a white pig named Iggy Arbuckle, who is the creator of the "Pig Rangers", a fictional type of forest ranger. He is accompanied by a beaver named Jiggers, who is the only other canonical Pig Ranger in the show.

Iggy's nemesis is a catfish named Stu, who is always trying to use the Kookamunga to obtain wealth. Most of the stories revolve around Iggy and Jiggers' efforts to save the park's ecosystem from Catfish Stu.

The novel is set in Victoria, British Columbia. A car accident leaves three-year-old Sherry Barrett in a coma. As her parents struggle to deal with the aftermath of the accident, word spreads that anyone who comes into contact with her will be miraculously cured of illnesses. As interest in Sherry intensifies, she becomes the focus of attention not only from pilgrims seeking healing, but of religious figures who accuse the Barretts of exploiting their daughter for gain. There is a fantastical aspect to some of the characters who intrude into the lives of the Barretts, and even Henry Denton, the driver of the vehicle that struck Sherry, trying to deal with his remorse, becomes trapped in limbo, which in this case is found in the Victoria Public Library.

The story centers around Juan Fernandez, the son of a Mexican printer who had published articles favorable to striking workers in the hydraulic power plants of Río Blanco, Veracruz. The workers were locked out, and federal troops were sent to kill them. Juan escaped the massacre by climbing over the bodies of the deceased, including those of his mother and father. He makes his way to El Paso, Texas where he comes into contact with the ''Junta Revolucionaria Mexicana''. Adopting the new name of Felipe Rivera, he volunteers to serve the cause at the office of the ''Junta'', whose personnel suspect his motives and put him to work doing menial labor. Soon, however, he is dispatched to Baja California to reestablish connections between Los Angeles revolutionaries and the peninsula. Exceeding his orders, he assassinates a federal general and returns to El Paso.

Rivera surprises his colleagues by occasionally disappearing for days or weeks at a time, then returning with much-needed funds and displaying fresh injuries that appear to have been caused by fighting. Unbeknownst to them, he has begun working on the local boxing circuit, first as a sparring partner for experienced fighters and later moving up to compete in a few bouts of his own. As the ''Junta'' scrambles to finance the revolution, Rivera overhears his superiors discussing a shipment of guns needed by the front-line fighters. He suddenly tells them to order the guns and promises to get the $5,000 needed to pay for them within three weeks.

Rivera pays a visit to Michael Kelly, a boxing promoter who has brought the promising contender Danny Ward in from New York. Ward's scheduled opponent has broken his arm and is unable to fight; Rivera offers to take his place, insisting on a winner-take-all contract once he learns that the prize money will be more than enough to afford the guns. Ward agrees, but on the condition that the weigh-in must occur on the morning of the fight instead of at ringside.

Rivera holds his own against Ward and manages to knock him down several times, despite the crowd's dislike of Rivera and the referee's active intercession on Ward's behalf. During the fight, Rivera learns that Kelly has bet heavily against him and refuses to take a dive even after Kelly offers to help advance his boxing career. In the seventeenth round, spurred by visions of vengeance against his parents' killers, he knocks Ward out and wins the money needed to pay for the guns and keep the revolution going.

In London during the Blitz, Arthur Rowe attends a charity fête. Convicted of murder for the mercy killing of his wife, he has just been released from a psychiatric prison. A fortune-teller tells him the answer to the "guess the weight of the cake" competition, enabling Rowe to win it. As he leaves, the organisers try to take the cake back, saying there's been a mistake, but Rowe refuses.

The next day, a man offers Rowe money for the cake and then tries to poison him, but an air raid bomb demolishes the house, knocking them both out. Worried for himself and wary of the police, Rowe hires a private detective to watch him and goes to the charity that ran the fête. There he meets Willi and Anna Hilfe, Austrian refugees who are brother and sister. Willi goes with Rowe to the fortune-teller's home. There they join in a séance, during which a man is murdered with Rowe's knife. Rowe escapes before the police arrive.

Rowe contemplates suicide, but meets a man who asks him to take some books to a hotel. At the hotel he finds Anna and a bomb in the case explodes. When Rowe regains consciousness, he has amnesia. The nurses tell him his name is Richard Digby, but Anna visits and calls him "Arthur". Rowe starts to fall in love with Anna.

Becoming convinced that the sanatorium is run by Nazi agents, Rowe escapes and goes to the police. The police tell him that the man who Rowe thought murdered is not dead, and the cake had a microfilm of secret plans hidden in it. They take him to a tailor's shop where he identifies the man he thought dead. Before they can question the man, he kills himself.

After the police round up most of the spy ring, Rowe rings the telephone number that the tailor called before killing himself, and hears Anna's voice. He finds out the address and, going there, learns that Willi is a member of the spy ring.

Willi escapes, intending to reach neutral Ireland with the microfilm sewn into his new suit, but when cornered by Rowe commits suicide. Rowe returns to Anna.

While guiding a group of scientists through the Zone, Scar faints during a high energy emission. Scar, the only one to survive, is then rescued by Clear Sky, a secret independent Zone faction dedicated to researching and learning about the Zone in their attempt to better understand it and its related phenomena. It is not known how Scar has survived the emission, but it is noted he has suffered damage to his central nervous system and seems to exhibit other, subtle physiological changes.

The nature of these changes becomes clear shortly. Word arrives that a platoon of Stalkers has come under attack by mutants, and Lebedev, leader of the Clear Sky faction, asks Scar to seek them out and help them. During the rescue attempt another emission occurs with little warning, giving Scar and the Stalkers no time to seek cover. Once again Scar is the sole survivor, recovering shortly after the emission dies down. Lebedev is amazed that Scar is still alive; the Clear Sky lead researcher, Beanpolev, believes that Scar has acquired some "unusual ability" that allows him to navigate and survive anomalies and parts of the Zone that would normally kill any ordinary man.

Lebedev begins to theorize that the Zone is being disrupted by a dramatic increase in energy emissions, emanating from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the center of the Zone. The emissions are a sort of "immune response" to an outside force that the Zone perceives as a threat. Lebedev believes this outside force to be a group of Stalkers who are reportedly making an attempt to reach the center of the Zone, and have made it further than any other group of Stalkers before. Both Lebedev and Chebekov fear that the Zone's reaction may cause untold destruction should the group succeed. Scar is asked to seek out this group and stop them at all costs.

Scar is sent to the Cordon, an area near the edge of the Zone, to get further information about the group of Stalkers. The trader Sidorovich is able to identify the four-member group of Stalkers as Fang, Ghost, Doc, and Strelok and gives Scar a lead on locating Fang. Scar follows this lead to another, and another, following a trail of leads to encounters with multiple factions of Stalkers across a large area of the Zone. Eventually Scar tracks the group's progress to Yantar, the site of a Brain Scorcher, where he learns from a scientist that Strelok has just recently obtained a prototype psionic shielding unit which should protect him from the mind-damaging effects of the Brain Scorcher surrounding the Chernobyl NPP.

Scar nearly catches Strelok in the Red Forest, only for him to escape into a tunnel leading towards Chernobyl, which is immediately collapsed behind him by an explosion. With the assistance of some recently rescued Mercenaries and the Clear Sky faction, Scar captures a nearby bridge to Limansk from bandits, which provides an alternate route to Chernobyl. Progress through Limansk is impeded by bandits, the military, and the radical and heavily armed Monolith faction, who seek to kill anybody approaching the center of the Zone.

After proceeding through Limansk and finding an alternate route through the partially underground ruins of a hospital, Scar arrives at Chernobyl along with Lebedev and other members of Clear Sky. Strelok has already arrived and is progressing towards the sarcophagus surrounding the number four reactor. While Clear Sky battles with Monolith forces on the ground, Lebedev gives Scar a prototype "EM1 rifle", a long-range electromagnetic weapon, and instructs him to use the weapon to disable Strelok's psionic protection. Battling Monolith forces himself, Scar nonetheless is able to succeed. With the "threat" eliminated Lebedev anticipates a sudden settling of the Zone, but instead Zone activity increases dramatically and the plant releases an emission which incapacitates everyone in the immediate area. Scar's fate is left unknown, but since at a later time, Strelok appears as an amnesiac for the beginning events of Shadow of Chernobyl, it is conceivable that Scar survived.

The ending shows Strelok waking up in a dimly lit hallway lined with other Stalkers sitting slouched against either wall, semi-comatose. Each Stalker is facing a stripped down display which shows a series of cryptic images, part of their brainwashing process to lose their memory. Strelok himself is also in the process of being brainwashed. The view then moves to focus on Strelok's exposed right arm, which has been tattooed with the acronym "S.T.A.L.K.E.R."

Centaurus is the destination of the space ship ''The Hope of Man''. It has been traveling through space for almost twenty years, and still has nine years of flight remaining. For many on board the craft, Earth has become a vague memory, while for others it is a mere dot in the vast starry reaches of space. Restlessness is evident everywhere; the people want to return to a place they know is inhabited - not continue to an unknown where life is uncertain. Mutiny seems inevitable. Captain Lesbee (the ship's main officer) knows that mutiny breeds mutiny, but what is more significant is his knowledge of Earth's possible obliteration. The one hope is Centaurus. Now more than ever, there can be no turning back. Order has to be maintained even at the price of human life.

After reaching Centaurus and finding it unsuitable for human life, ''The Hope of Man'' heads towards the next destination, the Alta system. Because the ship is unable to attain light speed it takes decades to travel there. Upon arriving in the system, after mutiny and treachery, ''The Hope of Man'' is now captained by Browne, a descendant of the ship's original First Officer. ''The Hope of Man'' enters into orbit around Alta III, but find it already inhabited and come under attack from the occupants. During this time we see a struggle for power by various groups. Control changes quickly from one character to another until the arrival of the ship's owner, Averill Hewitt. The novel concludes with Hewitt in charge and the ship finding many planets to inhabit.

In 1955 in Portland, Oregon, a businessman finds his wife in bed with another man, and commits a double murder-suicide. His young son, Paul, witnesses the three deaths, and is traumatized. Twenty-five years later, in 1980, Paul is incarcerated at a psychiatric institution near Stanford Bay, a small town on the Oregon Coast. One day, Paul manages to murder an orderly, and subsequently retrieves a beloved wooden flute given to him by his father before escaping the institution.

Meanwhile, Stanford Bay teenager Marion is struggling to adjust to her disability: She survived a car accident several years prior—caused by her drunken father, Frank—which left her unable to walk without the help of a leg brace. Marion's home life is troubled, with her father being verbally abusive to her and her mother, Bea. She dreams of leaving Stanford Bay once her fisherman boyfriend, Joey, obtains a job in Portland.

Paul manages to hitch a ride with a truck driver. When the driver becomes annoyed by Paul's flute-playing, Paul bludgeons him in the head with a hatchet, killing him, before stealing his vehicle. He subsequently picks up a female hitchhiker, who he brings to a local motel in Stanford Bay. The two begin to engage in sex, but Paul strangles her to death after he fails to charm her with his flute-playing, and proceeds to dismember her body. Marion is concurrently plagued by bizarre dreams and visions of the murders, which she comes to discover are in fact premonitions. While in the hospital after her accident, she had received a blood transfusion from Paul, which has given her extrasensory perception of Paul's actions in the present.

Marion's psychic visions of Paul's actions increase in frequency and intensity, and she eventually runs into him in person disposing of the female hitchhiker's dismembered corpse on a rural beach, making her his next target. Marion manages to elude Paul, but he later discovers where she lives. He infiltrates her home, killing her father. Struggling to walk, Marion manages to flee her home to an adjacent sawmill, and is pursued by Paul. While chasing Marion, Paul impales a worker with a forklift, and then inadvertently crashes through a barrier, driving the forklift off the pier and into the bay.

Later at the police station, Marion is questioned about her attacker, who she identifies as the "man she dreamed about." Unable to find any trace of Paul, the police assume that Marion is mentally ill and responsible for the murders herself. She is committed to the same psychiatric institution from which Paul had earlier escaped. While lying bound to a hospital bed, Paul enters her room posing as a doctor. She awakens, and screams in horror.

At the beginning of the episode, Leslie (Amy Poehler) proudly announces to the parks and recreation staff that she will be judging the Miss Pawnee beauty pageant, a job she takes very seriously. Tom (Aziz Ansari), excited at the prospect of judging women on the basis of their looks, pulls some strings to get a spot on the judging panel along with Leslie. April (Aubrey Plaza) enters the contest in order to win the $600 prize, despite being disgusted with the concept of a beauty contest. She tries, unsuccessfully, to gain an advantage by sucking up to Leslie. Later, Pawnee police officer Dave Sanderson (Louis C.K.) visits Leslie at work to ask her out on a date. She initially accepts, but when Dave mistakes a photo of Madeleine Albright for Leslie's grandmother, Leslie becomes reluctant.

Meanwhile, Ann (Rashida Jones) offers to cook Mark (Paul Schneider) a cheap meal if he will fix her broken shower; Mark accepts what he calls "the weirdest second date ever". That night, the date goes well, until Ann takes her trash outside and finds her ex-boyfriend Andy (Chris Pratt) is spying on her from the construction pit near her house, where he is now living. Back inside, Ann complains about Andy to Mark, who thinks they should invite Andy inside when it starts to rain. Ann reluctantly agrees, and Andy spends the rest of the night interrupting their conversations and spoiling romantic moments. After dinner, Ann kicks him out, but Andy remains convinced the night went very well for him.

Leslie and Tom arrive at the pageant. Leslie, who wants the Miss Pawnee winner to be dignified and graceful, favors Susan (Anne Elizabeth Gregory), a student and children's hospital volunteer. But the other judges favor Trish (April Marie Eden), an attractive but untalented and unintelligent woman. Tom is particularly impressed with Trish, even when she answers Leslie's question about how "we as citizens can improve on the great experiment?" by making fluffy remarks about America and expressing a distaste for immigrants. April puts on an act by pretending to be a shallow beauty contestant, but instantly quits when she learns the $600 prize actually consists of gift certificates for a fence company.

After the contest, the judges deliberate. Tom and the other judges (Susan Yeagley, Frank Medrano, Worth Howe) all immediately agree Trish should win, but Leslie insists on further discussion. She pushes for Susan to win, but the judges eventually settle on Trish. After the pageant ends, Leslie makes a speech congratulating Susan anyway, and claiming the "Susans" of the world will carry on, even when they lose to the "Trishes" of the world. Dave approaches Leslie at the pageant and asks her again on a date. When she hesitates, he tells her she should call him if she changes her mind. As Dave leaves, he bumps into Trish, whom he pushes past without much notice, impressing Leslie. They set up a date the next day and Dave tries to impress Leslie by showing he has memorized the names of all the female politicians in her photographs. Meanwhile, Tom has tried to pick up girls at the pageant by giving him his house keys with none of them showing up, but he reveals that he has been robbed twice.

Joe Boyd (Robert Shafer) is a middle-aged fan of the unsuccessful Washington Senators baseball team. His obsession with baseball is driving a wedge between him and his wife, Meg—a problem shared by many other wives of Senators supporters. Meg (Shannon Bolin) leads them in lamenting their husbands' fixation with the sport ("Six Months Out of Every Year").

After seeing his team lose yet again, Joe rashly declares that he would sell his soul to the devil to see his team beat the Yankees. No sooner has he spoken than the devil appears before him in the guise of a suave conman, Applegate (Ray Walston). Applegate claims he can go one better—he can restore Joe's youth, making him the player who wins them the pennant. Joe agrees, but persuades Applegate to give him an escape clause. Applegate declares that Joe can back out, but only the day before the last game of the season—afterwards, his soul belongs to the devil.

Joe bids an emotional farewell to a sleeping Meg ("Goodbye Old Girl"), after which Applegate transforms him into a dashing young man (Tab Hunter), now called Joe Hardy.

The next day, the Senators' practice is a fiasco. Their manager, Ben Van Buren (Russ Brown), gives the team a rousing pep talk ("Heart"). Applegate arrives and, introducing himself as a scout, presents his new discovery—Joe Hardy from Hannibal, Missouri. Joe promptly hits baseball after baseball out of the park in an impromptu batting practice. As he is signed to a Senators contract, female sportswriter Gloria Thorpe (Rae Allen) plans to quickly get Joe into the public eye ("Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo.").

With tremendous home runs and game-saving catches, Joe leads the Senators on a long winning streak into pennant contention and becomes a national hero. Joe misses Meg dreadfully, however, and keeps sneaking back to his old neighborhood for a glimpse of her. Realising this could ruin his plans, Applegate summons his demonic right-hand girl, Lola (Gwen Verdon), a seductress who was once known as the ugliest woman in her territory, but sold her soul to Applegate in exchange for eternal youth and beauty. She is ordered to make Joe forget his wife, a task Lola is confident she can carry out ("A Little Brains, A Little Talent").

Joe succeeds in getting close to Meg by renting a room in his old house; Meg is unaware of his baseball stardom. Applegate and Lola corner Joe in the baseball team's locker room, where Lola confidently tries to seduce Joe ("Whatever Lola Wants"). But she has her first failure—Joe dearly loves Meg, and does not fall for Lola's tempting ways. Applegate angrily banishes Lola.

By the end of the season, the Senators are on the verge of overtaking the Yankees, so the Washington fans hold a lavish tribute ("Who's Got the Pain?"). Gloria, having returned from Hannibal, Missouri, where no residents remember a Joe Hardy, confronts Applegate about the player's true identity. Applegate implies that Joe is actually Shifty McCoy, a corrupt minor leaguer playing under a pseudonym. By the end of the tribute, newspapers arrive accusing Joe of being Shifty. He must meet with the baseball commissioner for a hearing or else be thrown out of baseball—on the day he plans to switch back to being Joe Boyd.

At the hearing, Meg and her female neighbors arrive as material witnesses, attesting to Joe's honesty and falsely claiming he grew up with them in Hannibal. The commissioner acquits Joe, but as everyone celebrates, midnight strikes and Joe realizes he is doomed.

Applegate has planned for the Senators to lose the pennant on the last day of the season, resulting in thousands of heart attacks, nervous breakdowns and suicides of Yankee-haters across the country. He is reminded of his other evil misdeeds throughout history ("Those Were the Good Old Days").

Following the hearing, Lola lets Joe know she's drugged Applegate so that he will sleep through the last game. They commiserate over their condemned situation at a nightclub ("Two Lost Souls").

Late the next afternoon, Applegate awakens to find the Senators/Yankees game well underway. Realizing Lola has tricked him—and worse, that Lola has actually fallen in love with Joe—he turns her back into an ugly hag.

They arrive at the ballpark by the ninth inning, the Senators up by a run. With two outs, one of the Yankee sluggers (Mickey Mantle) hits a long drive to the outfield. As he backs up to make the catch, Applegate impulsively switches Joe Hardy back into Joe Boyd in full view of the stadium. Now paunchy and middle-aged, Joe makes a final lunge at the ball and catches it. Washington wins the pennant! As his teammates celebrate and fans storm the field, an unrecognized Joe escapes from the ballpark.

Late that night, as the public wonders why Joe Hardy has disappeared, Joe Boyd meekly returns to his house. A tearful Meg hugs him and they sing to each other ("There's Something about an Empty Chair"). Applegate materializes once again and offers Joe the chance to resume being Joe Hardy in time for the World Series; he also makes Lola young and beautiful again to tempt Joe. Joe ignores him, and a tantrum-throwing Applegate vanishes for good.

'''Background'''

Mark Tankerville and Hugh Emmett became firm friends whilst at school at St Paul's, their friendship cemented by many afternoons spent at Hugh's house in Hammersmith in the company of his father, one of the greatest archaeologists and Egyptologists of his generation. Mr Tankerville keeps the boys entertained with stories and theories about the people of Ancient Egypt and teaches them how to speak and understand the language of ancient Kamt.

When they finish school, Mark goes to Oxford to study medicine while Hugh stays at home to help his father with his research. During this period Mr Tankerville and Mark's Uncle both die.

After college Mark is unemployed but living off a small fortune left to him by a distant relative. He still sees Hugh occasionally but his old friend has become more and more distant as he absorbs himself in some 'important work'. Hugh apologies for his behaviour and asks that Mark gives him two years to finish his project and get back to his old self – Mark, as a qualified Doctor, is concerned that Hugh will have worked himself into the grave within two years if he keeps on as he is and makes Hugh promise that he will ask for help if he needs it.

Two years pass with no contact between the friends, until one day Mark receives a telegram from Hugh asking him to come over. His work finally finished, what Hugh reveals to his old friend is a piece of 3000-year-old parchment which he and his father have spent forty years piecing together. Hugh explains that the text proves that the ancient civilisation did not simply disappear at the close of the 6th dynasty, rather they were driven off by strangers and formed a new empire somewhere in the Libyan desert. More importantly he believes that their descendants are still living there and that the parchment clearly sets out the way to find the secret city.

'''The Journey'''

Hugh convinces Mark to accompany him on an expedition to find the hidden civilisation and a week later they are heading up the Nile on a dahabijeh towards the mysterious immensities of the Libyan desert. From Wady-Halfa they set out towards the west, alone but for four camels. After days of walking through the monotonous heat and sandstorms, they have exhausted most of their food supplies and two of the camels have died but eventually they spot the rock of Anubis – and suddenly it appears that there might be something tangible in Hugh's conjectures after all.

The pair make their way slowly towards the rock, only to realise as they approach that the mass of white specks they have seen glinting in the sun at the base of the rock are human bones, none of which have been there for more than ten years...

Nearby is a half dead man, dressed in rags who is speaking the ancient language of Kamt, before he dies he tells them that he has been thrown out of Kamt as a punishment. All ways into the valley appear to be sealed and impassable so, down to their last few days of supplies, Mark and Hugh wait by the main gate in the hope that another criminal will be expelled – giving them a chance to enter.

'''Kamt'''

Some days later the opportunity arises and they sneak into Kamt to find themselves in the middle of a massive temple. Hiding in the background they watch an ornate ceremony take place in the middle of which is a living breathing Pharaoh, his mother, Queen Maat-kha, and the High Priest Ur-tasen. Eavesdropping on the Queen and the Priest, they discover that the Pharaoh is very ill and if he dies his throne will pass to his cousin Princess Neit-akrit, as Maat-kha cannot remain as queen if she has no son or husband to accompany her on the throne.

At this point Hugh comes out from his hiding place and tells the shocked witnesses that he has been sent by Ra. The Priest asks him what his will is, to which Hugh replies "To wed that woman and sit upon the throne of Kamt".

Hugh's actions stun Mark but probably save them from death as they are quickly accepted by those present, who fall at Hugh's feet. The pair are treated like gods: showered with food, given luxurious clothes and entertained with lavish ceremonies. Before long they have been fully integrated into palace life.

'''The Princess'''

It soon becomes obvious that Princess Neit-akrit has her detractors, for her beauty causes madness in men and jealousy in women. Even the Queen is not immune, and asks Hugh to force the Princess to become a Priestess of Ra, hoping that once she has been blinded and rendered harmless, she will no longer be a threat.

Hugh dismisses the idea, but after getting involved in the trial of one of the Princess' servants who murdered her own son rather than watch him be a slave to Neit-akrit's beauty, his curiosity is roused. He is further intrigued when, the night before he is due to visit the Princess for the first time, he is approached by a young girl. It turns out that her lover was the man cast out into the desert before they arrived, for he had fallen for the Princess and been caught trespassing in the temple on her request. The girl then gives Hugh a scarab as a talisman, to protect him from falling under Neit-akrit's spell.

Before leaving Hugh manages to upset the High Priest even further when he insists that Mark is appointed as physician to the Pharaoh, there is a bit of a power struggle between the two men but Hugh, who knows he has the support of the people comes off better and Mark takes over nursing the Pharaoh, who appears to be suffering from a form of diabetes.

Despite the Queen's concerns, all seems to go well when Hugh first meets the Princess. She is truly regal in her beauty, but Hugh appears to be immune while Mark falls for her at first look. At supper Hugh mentions the man who was expelled from Kamt for doing the Princess's bidding, which unsettles her and she comes to talk to him about it afterwards.

It becomes obvious that the Princess is making a play for Hugh but although she claims she is happy to lose her claim on the throne of Kamt, Mark is not convinced. Shortly afterwards the scarab goes missing from Hugh's room and he starts to become fascinated by the Princess – though she is less than impressed to hear he is going through with the wedding to her Aunt and is leaving for Net-amen to make the necessary arrangements. The Pharaoh is clearly passionate about the Princess but she is only pretending to be interested in his advances in an attempt to make Hugh jealous.

After a month Mark is missing Hugh so, leaving the Pharaoh in the care of some servants, he makes his excuses to the Princess and travels to Net-amen to check on his friend. Hugh looks dreadful and after some persuasion confides that he is madly in love with the Princess – a confession which makes Mark feel jealous, yet though he admires Neit-akrit, he still does not trust her.

'''Tanis'''

Tanis, where Hugh's wedding to the Queen is due to take place, is a beautiful city, full of love and romance. According to local custom Hugh must spend 24 hours alone in a pavilion in the temple gardens before his wedding. The Queen and the Pharaoh arrive together and Mark is immediately called to look after the Pharaoh, who has deteriorated since Mark left.

The Pharaoh has realised that Hugh loves the Princess rather than his mother and, out for revenge for the Queen stealing his throne from him, he tells her as much – insisting that she will pay for stealing Hugh from Neit-akrit, for the Princess loves Hugh as much as he loves her. Shaking with rage, the Queen attacks her son and strangles him to death with her bare hands.

After seeing everything, the High Priest Ur-tasen condemns Queen Maat-kha for murder and desecrating the temple. She starts to realise that there will be consequences for her actions and declares she will go willingly into the valley of the dead and leave Ur-tasen all her wealth, if only the Priest will separate Neit-akrit and Hugh once she has gone.

The Priest makes the Queen promise to the gods that she will do his bidding, which she agrees for she would rather see Hugh dead than with the Princess. He insists she must go through with the marriage ceremony as if nothing has happened, then when Hugh goes to meet her in the garden after the ceremony, he will find the dead body of the Pharaoh and they will frame him for the murder.

Mark has overheard everything and tries to warn Hugh, only to discover he is trapped in the temple and can't get out. Stuck until the wedding, Mark waits and watches, only to see Princess Neit-akrit appear next to the High Priest... who then announces "I did it all for thee Neit-akrit", for he is in love with her too and wants to see her crowned Queen once her 'enemy' has been removed.

Neit-akirt, however, has other ideas and defies the Priest to do his worst, for she will not allow Hugh to be blamed for the Pharaoh's murder. The Priest laughs at her and dares her to summon help knowing it will be his fellow priests who come. Outmanoeuvring the Princess, Ur-tasen then tells her that if she mentions any of what has happened to Hugh, the marriage will go ahead and she will have to suffer losing both her crown and the man she loves.

Faced with the impossible choice between death of her loved one or seeing him happy in another woman's arms, the Princess leaves the temple. The smell of burning herbs makes Mark think he can escape but the pungent odour starts to affect him and just before he loses consciousness he realises that he is in a room with the body of the dead Pharaoh.

'''The Marriage'''

Mark finally comes round to hear Hugh making his marriage vows. Unable to speak he can only watch as his friend pledges himself to the woman who is plotting his death and shame before sinking into yet another drugged sleep.

He comes to again several hours later, it is dark but he can just make out his friend waiting in the gloom, soon to leave and walk into the trap that had been set. Still unable to speak he is helpless to warn Hugh; however, soon Princess Neit-akrit turns up and asks Hugh to help her make a posy from the flowers in the temple. She is able to manipulate Hugh's love for her to prevent him from going to his bride and being framed for the Pharaoh's murder.

Mark shakes off the last effects of the drug, overcomes the priests who have come to finish him off, and escapes. Mark finds Hugh and tells him everything he has seen. The two are confronted by Ur-tasen who has captured Neit-akrit as she left the temple at dawn. Ur-tasen threatens to have his priests torture and mutilate Neit-akrit as is the custom in Kamt for women who have committed adultery. Hugh threatens to use his position as Beloved of the Gods to inspire the people of Kamt to revolt and leave nothing but one vast and burning ruin where Kamt now stands if Neit-akrit is not released. Ur-tasen relents but convinces Hugh that he must leave Kamt if Neit-akrit is to retain her honour and take her rightful place as Pharaoh.

'''The Departure'''

Hugh and Mark agree to leave if the priests provide them with supplies and oxen to get them through the Valley of Death and back to their civilisation. Ur-tasen must go with them as far as the Rock of Anubis as a guarantee at which point he would be released to return to Kamt. Hugh plans to leave without seeing Neit-akrit again, but as Ur-tasen is announcing that Beloved of the Gods has had to leave Kamt to return to the feet of the Gods, Neit-akrit comes up to the platform and leaves a flower--rosemary for remembrance.

Hugh and Mark make their way back to England where, years later, their adventures in Kamt all start to seem like a dream. But in a small gold casket with a glass lid Hugh keeps in front of him a dried sprig of rosemary.

Sixteen-year-old Arnold Haithwaite is a sand pilot guiding parties of tourists over the sands at Skirlston (when the Admiral is not feeling up to it). But Arnold's quiet life is shattered when a stranger turns up claiming to be the real Arnold Haithwaite. Life at Cottontree House changes dramatically for the young lad and his father when the stranger worms his way into their lives. No one seems to have any sympathy for Arnold's predicament, except newcomers Peter and Jane, and even they are not sure he is not simply imagining the whole thing. Things come to a head when Arnold finds himself fighting the sea itself in the midst of a raging storm, with the stranger at his heels and Jane trapped by the rising tide in the ruins of an old church.

Setting

''InFamous'' is set in Empire City, a fictional metropolis based on New York City, consisting of the Neon District, where most of Empire City's businesses are concentrated, the Warren, a slum dependent on international shipping activity, and the Historic District, the location of the city government. Each district has an elevated train system and a separate power grid. The premise of the game is built around the partial destruction of the Historic District by a mysterious explosion, followed by a viral epidemic that forces federal authorities to seal the only bridge leading to the mainland. A rise in violent crime overwhelms the police, resulting in societal collapse.

Characters

The protagonist is Cole MacGrath (Jason Cottle), a courier who is accused of triggering the explosion, which leaves him with the ability to absorb and project electricity. His closest friend, Zeke Jedediah Dunbar (Caleb Moody), allows Cole to hide on his rooftop, despite his envy of the former's powers. Trish Dailey (October Moore), Cole's girlfriend, abandons him out of anger over the death of her sister Amy, while most of Empire City's residents view him as a terrorist. While attempting to escape the city with Zeke, Cole is contacted by FBI agent Moya Jones (Kimberli Colbourne), who offers to clear his name if he helps her find her husband, fellow agent John White (Phil LaMarr). White vanished while investigating a group known as the First Sons, who are believed to be responsible for orchestrating the explosion.

While working to restore order in the Neon District, Cole encounters Sasha (Jessica Straus), a former member of the First Sons, who like Cole is a "Conduit", an individual given powers by the First Sons. Using her ability to control the minds of others via a tar-like substance, she has formed a gang known as the Reapers. Meanwhile, the Warren has been overrun by the Dust Men, an army of homeless militants led by Alden Tate (also Jason Cottle), the original leader of the First Sons, who possesses telekinesis. Kessler (Sam A. Mowry), the true antagonist of the game, is a shadowy figure who controls the First Sons and who takes an obsessive interest in Cole and his powers.

Story

While the basic story of ''InFamous'' remains unchanged whether the player opts for the "Good" or "Evil" karma path, there are some story elements that change depending on Cole's choices.

While making a delivery in the Historic District, Cole is instructed to open the package. In doing so, he activates a device known as the Ray Sphere, leveling six city blocks and nearly killing him. Rescued by Zeke and Trish, he teaches himself to control his emerging powers. After using them in public to fight off a Reaper attack, the locals turn against Cole after he is accused of triggering the explosion, forcing him into hiding. He and Zeke engineer an assault on the sealed bridge, only to be ambushed by government forces. Separated from his friend, Cole meets Moya, an FBI agent, who persuades him to return and find her husband John White, who was supposedly tasked with investigating a group called the First Sons. With her help, Cole restores the district's power supply, earning the attention of Sasha, who lures him into her underground lair. Cole defeats her, but she is abducted by the Sons before he can make her talk. Trapped in the Warren, Cole assists what remains of the police in battling the Dust Men. Alden is arrested and imprisoned, but Zeke's incompetence in guarding him allows the Dust Men to free him and massacre most of the officers. With Alden planning to reactivate the Sphere, the two patch things up and confront him, with Zeke ending up in possession of the Sphere. Giving in to his temptations, Zeke deserts Cole and takes the Sphere to Kessler.

With Alden on a murderous rampage towards the Historic District, Cole defeats him once and for all in a bridge battle. Before jumping in the water, Alden reveals that Kessler exiled him from the First Sons. White, who turns out to be an NSA agent with no connection to Moya, reaches out to Cole and explains that the Ray Sphere is designed to consume bio-energy from thousands of lives and transfer it to a single user, making them a Conduit. During their search for the Sphere, Kessler publicly challenges Cole to stop a series of bombings across the district, ending with him being forced to choose between saving Trish or her colleagues. Regardless of which choice he makes, Cole fails to keep Trish from dying. Determined to punish Kessler, Cole tracks the Sphere to a remote pier, where he must decide whether to destroy it or use it to become even more powerful. Regardless, the Sphere releases the last of its energy, killing John before disappearing into a vortex.

Kessler then invites Cole to join him for a final fight in the same location where the game began. Displaying similar, if not superior, powers to the latter, Kessler comes close to killing him, only to be foiled by Zeke. Mortally wounded by a massive energy discharge, Kessler uses his last bit of strength to transmit a message into Cole's brain. In a final twist, Kessler is revealed to be Cole from the future of an alternate timeline. While raising a family with Trish, Future Cole failed to prevent the Beast, a malevolent entity, from destroying humanity. Despite their attempts to flee, the Beast tracked down and killed Trish and her children. Sending himself back in time Future Cole, adopting the name "Kessler", seized control of the First Sons, using their resources to prepare his past self for the future to come. Cole denounces Kessler's memory, but recognizes that his actions have given his life a new purpose.

Based on what rank Cole holds at the end of ''InFamous'', two endings are possible. If Cole defeats Kessler as a Hero, he restores peace to Empire City and is hailed as a savior. Nevertheless, his estrangement from Zeke and Moya, coupled with the responsibilities of heroism, lead him to realize that he will always be alone. If Cole is Infamous, he allows Empire City to slip further into chaos, and disregards Kessler's warning about the Beast, believing himself to be the strongest being to ever exist.

The main character in the book is Louise Harris, a plain but content young woman who leads a life of prosy luxury. Louise gets up every morning and eats a copious breakfast, she walks the dogs, hunts in the autumn, and skates in the winter, just like hundreds of other well-born, well-bred English girls of average means.

Loo is an altogether nice person, and so it is that Luke de Mountford, who knows a good thing when he sees it, asks her to be his wife. Luke is heir to his uncle, Lord Radcliffe and therefore deemed a satisfactory match for Louise.

However, just when everything seems to be going well, another nephew with a claim to his uncle’s fortune turns up unexpectedly. Luke is forced to reveal to Louise that their financial future may not be as guaranteed as he had hoped.

Faced with this seemingly unavoidable situation, Luke is considering setting up an Ostrich farm in Africa as a way of making a living, but he can’t bring himself to inflict such an existence on his darling Loo, who is always so perfectly dressed, so absolutely modern and dainty.

When the intruder, Philip de Mountford, is discovered stabbed in a cab, suspicion naturally falls on Luke who certainly has a motive for murder. The head of the Criminal Investigation Department, who happens to be Louisa’s uncle, reveals his evidence before the ensuing trial and allows Colonel Harris to conceal himself in his office while a witness for the prosecution details the points of the evidence he will give at the trial. He also reveals that he intends to allow Luke time to escape should the verdict at the inquest be against him.

But Luke is, notwithstanding, tried for his life, and before his arrest he faces Louise once again.

''"It was a supreme farewell, and she knew it. She felt it in the quiver of agony which went through him as he pressed her so close that her breath nearly left her body, and her heart seemed to stand still. She felt it in the sweet sad pain of the burning kisses with which he covered her face, her eyes, her hair, her mouth. His face was just a mask, marble-like and impassive, jealously guarding the secrets of the soul within.Just a good-looking, well-bred young Englishman, in fact, who looked in his elegant attire ready to start off on some social function."''

''Perseus Mandate'' is a sidequel to the original ''F.E.A.R.'' and ''Extraction Point'', beginning moments after Armacham Technology Corporation (ATC) security turn on F.E.A.R. and kill Aldus Bishop as he is being extracted by Delta Force.

As the game begins, the senator heard at the end of the original game orders a man named Gavin Morrison to retrieve Perseus at all costs. Meanwhile, a second F.E.A.R. team composed of Cpt. Raynes, Lt. Chen, and an unnamed sergeant (the player character), is preparing to infiltrate ATC's Global Data and Security Center. Their orders are to find and retrieve anything related to Project Perseus, a classified ATC operation that was attempting to develop a unit of telepathically-controlled clone soldiers (known as Replicas). As ATC Security and the Replicas openly battle in the streets, F.E.A.R. breach the building, only to discover that an unknown group has already infiltrated the facility.

They soon learn that the group is a highly skilled mercenary squad known as the Nightcrawlers and is neither ATC nor Replica-affiliated. The team then see a security feed of Morrison interrogating the head of Project Perseus, Bristol, in an attempt to gain access to secure files. When Bristol refuses to comply, the leader of the Nightcrawlers, known as Albino, slits his throat. Meanwhile, the sergeant heads to the mainframe computer to download files related to Perseus, after which the team are extracted.

Based on information in the files, the team are deployed to Armacham Plaza where Chen is dispatched to investigate ATC Archives and the sergeant to investigate their bio-research facility. As he moves through the facility, he learns that Morrison is trying to get something referred to as "The Source". The sergeant then overhears Morrison and Albino arguing, and when Morrison leaves, Albino orders his men to kill Morrison once the mission is over. Meanwhile, Chen finds information on a secret underground cloning facility nearby. The sergeant then learns that the Source is actually Paxton Fettel's DNA, which is stored in the bio-research facility.

Morrison acquires the DNA and is pursued by F.E.A.R., who discover the Replicas have shut down (coinciding with Fettel's death in the original game). Just as they are about to apprehend Morrison, the Origin facility explodes, sending out shockwaves (coinciding with the end of the original game). In the confusion, Morrison escapes, and Chen and the sergeant make it into an abandoned subway station (the same one traversed by Point Man in ''Extraction Point''). As they move through the tunnels, Chen is killed when he is dragged into the floor by a supernatural entity. The sergeant eventually reaches the surface, and reestablishes contact with Raynes, who orders him to make his way to the cloning facility. En route, the replicas reactivate (following Fettel's resurrection at the start of ''Extraction Point'').

The sergeant then encounters Morrison, who has been imprisoned by the Nightcrawlers. Morrison says that the Nightcrawlers are now attempting to acquire a sample of Alma Wade's DNA, which is housed in the cloning facility. He also knows a shortcut to the facility, and so the sergeant frees him. Morrison gets the sergeant into the facility, but is immediately killed by Alma. The sergeant navigates through the facility, occasionally encountering Fettel, who makes cryptic comments about Projects Origin and Perseus, the first synchronicity event, and Point Man. Albino gets to the DNA first, but the sergeant pursues and defeats him, taking the DNA. He then meets up with Raynes and the two fight their way to the evac helicopter.

After the credits, audio plays of the Nightcrawlers finding Morrison's body. We then see a Nightcrawler bringing the Senator the sample of Fettel's DNA. The Senator asks how many losses there were, and the Nightcrawler replies that the losses were "acceptable".

Canonicity

''Perseus Mandate'' is not considered canon in the ''F.E.A.R.'' universe insofar as ''F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin'' disregards the events of both ''Extraction Point'' and ''Perseus Mandate'', acting instead as a direct sequel to the original game. When ''Extraction Point'' was announced, initial reports stated that Monolith Productions, creators of the original game, had given the expansions' storylines their blessing, and that they were in line with their own in-development sequel. However, in December 2008, a year after the release of ''Perseus Mandate'' and a few months before the release of ''Project Origin'', Dave Matthews, ''Project Origin'' s lead artist, explained that the expansions

The game begins thirty minutes before the end of the first game. A Delta Force unit has been deployed to take Genevieve Aristide, president of Armacham Technology Corporation (ATC) into protective custody, in light of fears that the ATC board may be planning to assassinate her so as to silence her. The hand-picked team consists of 1st Sgt. Griffin; SFC Keegan, Sgt. Jankowski, Sgt. Morales, Sgt. Becket (the player character), Cpl. Fox, and communications liaison 1st Lt. Stokes.

Dropped at Aristide's penthouse, the team are immediately attacked by an ATC black ops squad, and from the commencement of the mission, Becket begins to experience hallucinations involving Alma Wade. In Aristide's apartment, Becket uncovers hints of an ATC project called "Harbinger", which seems to involve himself and his teammates. Files list each team members' "Paragon Review Scores" and "telesthetic potential", with Becket's scores higher than anyone "aside from the Origin Prototypes." Moments after Becket finds Aristide, Point Man blows up the Origin facility, with the shockwave knocking Becket unconscious.

He wakes up in a hospital which is under attack by the black ops, learning that himself, Stokes, and Griffin have all undergone "Activation" surgery, and were being prepared for "Attunement". He is then contacted by a man calling himself "Snake Fist", who says he wants to help them escape and destroy Alma. He meets with Aristide, who tells him he needs to get into the Telesthetic Attunement Chamber (TAC) if he wants to have any hope of defeating Alma. Mid-procedure, the lab is attacked and Becket witnesses several of the black ops team killed by black tentacles. He then passes out, and has a vision of Alma on a tree swing near a nuclear power plant.

Upon regaining consciousness, he finds Jankowski on an operating table. Jankowski says, "We have to help her. Can you hear? She's crying", before he dies. Shortly thereafter, Fox attacks Becket, telling him, "Stay away from her, she's mine", before Fox is killed by the black tentacles. Eventually, Becket learns the purpose of Harbinger – to turn ordinary people into psychic commanders. Becket fights his way through a squad of revived Replicas, and Snake directs him to Wade Elementary. He reunites with Griffin and Stokes, but moments later, Griffin is killed by the black tentacles. The remainder of the team head to the school in an APC, and once there, Becket uncovers evidence of "Project Paragon", which is designed to spot children with promising psychic ability. Becket himself was a student at the school and, although he has no memory of it, must have been subjected to the project.

Finding a secret Paragon facility beneath the school, Becket locates Snake; real name Terry Halford, an ATC researcher. Although he is killed by a Replica almost immediately, Halford is able to transfer files to the APC in which he explains that Aristide tricked Becket into the TAC so as to make Alma "aware" of him. He also says that Becket isn't yet strong enough to defeat Alma, and needs to amplify his psychic abilities by going to an ATC facility inside a nuclear power plant on nearby Still Island, which houses an amplification device. Still Island was also Alma's home before she was moved to the Origin facility.

En route, the APC is ambushed by Replicas, and Keegan wanders off in a daze, searching for "her". Unable to retrieve him, Becket, Stokes, and Morales continue to the island. There, Becket finds the tree from his hallucinations, Alma's swing still hanging from its branches. He and Stokes head to the amplifier and Becket enters. Aristide arrives and explains that she plans to seal Becket and Alma inside the device, and then use Alma as leverage against ATC. This is why she tricked Becket into the TAC; she needed Alma to be aware of Becket so she could be lured to the machine. When Stokes tries to intervene, Aristide kills her.

Aristide seals the machine with Becket inside, and in a hallucinatory landscape, he fights off apparitions of a maddened Keegan. As he does, he sees flashes of Alma, who appears to be raping him in the real world. Eventually, he escapes the hallucination. The machine doors open, and Becket sees Alma standing in the midst of a post-apocalyptic landscape, the black tentacles spreading out around her. She is pregnant. She approaches Becket, placing his hand onto her stomach as a child's voice says "Mommy".

''Reborn''

''Reborn'' begins with Paxton Fettel speaking about his prediction of a coming war from the original game; "The war has begun just as I dreamed it would, just as I foresaw. Dreams are all I have now, dreams of death, of blood and fire. Of her. The time has come to awaken; to be...reborn."

The game is set concurrently to ''Project Origin''. As Becket and his squad mates are tracking down Snake Fist at Wade Elementary, in a different part of Fairport, ATC Security has launched an attack against Replica Command Post Sigma, and additional Replicas have been called in. The game begins with the Replica designated Foxtrot 813 dropping to a location near the command post and taking control of an EPA. He fights his way through ATC forces but no sooner has his mission begun when he starts to have problems with his radio feed and video display. He eventually makes it to Sigma and tries to correct the problems with his equipment. As he ascertains that the interference is originating at the blast site of the Origin facility, he is pulled into a hallucinatory realm by Paxton Fettel, where he is attacked by corrupt Replicas. Upon killing them, Fettel tells him, "Do you see? You are different from the others. They are meaningless now. They are ghosts. You must set me free." When 813 returns to reality, he finds that he has killed his Replica teammates. Replica command then issues an order for all Replicas to shoot 813 on sight.

Guided by Fettel, 813 starts to move through the devastated city towards the blast site, fighting off Replicas throughout his journey. In an underground car park, he is attacked by Alma, but manages to escape and continue on, with Fettel continuously in his head (saying such things as "you must feel it all around you. The promise of things to come" and "they do not understand; they are blind to whom they serve").

Eventually, 813 reaches the blast site, and proceeds deep under the rubble. As he moves, Fettel promises him that they will lead "a mighty army". As he nears Fettel's location, Alma again tries to stop him, but he again evades her. Eventually, 813 opens a door to find Fettel kneeling in the middle of a room. Fettel welcomes him, calling him "my brother". As he touches 813, Fettel melts away. 813 then removes his helmet to reveal Fettel's face, as he gloats "I am...reborn."

Michele, a shepherd of Orgosolo unfairly charged with rustling and murder, is forced to take to the hills. In his flight into the inaccessible areas of Barbagia, where there is neither water nor pastures, he loses every sheep in his flock.

One night, desperate because he is full of debts, and with impending trials up ahead, he goes into the sheepfold of another shepherd and, at gunpoint, steals every sheep.

Michele has become a bandit.

Kate Keeley has returned from Ireland older and wiser. Her goals are still to move her and her aunt out of the boardinghouse and to open a linens shop. Ellen Flannery hasn't saved her share for the store she planned to be a partner in because she has spent it pursuing the rich, careless Aaron Schuster. But with the help of money from Jolie Logan's father, Kate does find a flat and an empty shop. Finally, Kate and Ellen open their store and pursue the novelty of independent womanhood. At the boardinghouse, Mrs. Flannery is getting sick and the boarders are more demanding than ever, especially the acidic Mrs. Stackhouse and the abandoned Thalia Rutledge. Though they dream of independence, Kate and Ellen realise they will always be tied to family, home, and the lure of romance, such as Kate's finding the travel journal of a mysterious and attractive stranger.

Category:American historical novels Category:2003 American novels

The series took place in a world where all forms of war and terrorism had long ended, bringing forth a dystopian future. An amnesiac man named Jin awakened and was entrusted with missions given by DEUS to fight against aliens that had slipped into the human society, joining forces with agents K and S. During that moment, he was given a pair of glasses by Elea Saeki to transform into the red giant. While fighting to preserve the safety of the city, Jin becomes closer to discovering his memories.

Near the end of the series, Jin, K, and S discover that their world is silently ruled by an alien race through subjugating mankind into a state of utopia. While on the run from DEUS agents, Jin discovered that he was bonded to Ultraseven, the red giant from another world to stop the aliens from invading his home dimension. When Seven reawakened, he quickly destroyed the entire alien race and saved Jin's comrades from a suicide bombing attack. Jin was separated from Seven as the latter returned to his world as Dan Moroboshi, reuniting with his lover Anne.

The film follows Troy (Erik Palladino) as he returns to Los Angeles from Miami to meet with his former partners: Al (Tyson Beckford) and Pete (Simon Rex), whom Troy betrayed years before. Naturally they are dismayed to see him and call their boss, infamous crime syndicate leader Dmitri (Raymond J. Barry) to inform them that Troy has returned. The three of them, along with Troy's former love Jessie (Tatyana Ali) attempt to exact their revenge, while Troy tries to convince them that he is not the man he was before. He also has a brand new and devious plan for his former partners to get involved in.

David Kepesh is a cultural critic and professor, in a state of 'emancipated manhood': His relationships with women are usually casual, brief and sexual in nature. Previously married, he has a son who has never forgiven him for leaving his mother. His friend, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet George O'Hearn, suggests that he "bifurcate" his life: have conversations and enjoy art with a wife, and "keep the sex just for sex". David is also in a casual 20-year relationship with Caroline, another former student.

He encounters Consuela Castillo, a beautiful and confident student who attends one of his lectures. She captures his attention like no other woman, and they begin a serious relationship. George advises him to leave her before she leaves him, but David cannot bring himself to give her up. They are a couple for a year and a half, during which he continues to sleep with Caroline; neither woman knows of the other's existence.

Over dinner, Consuela invites David to her graduation party. After some hesitation, he agrees to attend. On the day of the event, David phones Consuela and claims he is stuck in traffic and will be unavoidably delayed. In reality, he is sitting in his car, anxious about meeting Consuela's family. Heartbroken, Consuela hangs up, and they end their relationship. Shortly afterward, George suffers a stroke during a poetry conference after David introduces him, and later dies. David realizes too late that he genuinely loved Consuela, and ends his relationship with Caroline. He somewhat mends his relationship with his son, Kenny, who reveals that he is having an affair and indirectly asks David for advice.

Two years pass before Consuela and David come into contact again. On New Year's Eve, David arrives home to find a message from Consuela. She mentions that she needs to tell him something before he finds out from someone else. At his apartment, Consuela announces that she has found a lump in her breast and will need surgery. Grief-stricken, David cries and asks her why she didn't tell him sooner. Consuela then asks David to take photos of her breasts, before the doctors "ruin" them. David agrees.

In the final scene, David visits Consuela at the hospital where she is recovering from a mastectomy. Consuela says, "I will miss you". David responds, "I am here" as he climbs into the hospital bed and gently kisses her face. In a fantasy scene, the film flashes back to David and Consuela on the beach where Consuela told David she loves him.

John Marsden, a famed and powerful New York gambler who refuses to throw a game, is devoted to his wife, Alma, and his impressionistic younger brother, "Babe," to whom he sends a wedding gift of $10,000, which Babe may keep on the condition that he does not indulge in gambling. Alma, dismayed by John's ruthless tactics and his obsession with gambling, threatens to leave him unless he takes his winnings and leaves the city with her. He agrees.

However, that evening Babe, who has become a cardsharp, comes to town with his new wife, Judith. He goes to see his brother, whom he believes is a stockbroker, unaware of John's true profession and the reality that he is trying to quit and rebuild his marriage. Babe insists on playing and tries to win a fortune with his savings in an organized gambling session. He wins remarkably. The professional gambler sees that his card-playing sibling is preparing to make the same mistakes he did.

John therefore decides to risk his life and gamble one more time, and to break the gambler's code and cheat by throwing the game, in order to disillusion Babe, thereby teaching him an unforgettable lesson. However, John is caught cheating by Dorgan and becomes a marked man. John is later mortally wounded, in spite of his wife's attempts to save him.

In Tokyo, known as , in 2020, 19-year-old Minato Sahashi is extremely intelligent, yet due to his major lack of self-confidence has failed the college entrance exam twice.

The same day of his second failure, Minato meets a girl named Musubi, who literally falls out of the sky on top of him. Minato soon learns that she is a "Sekirei", and she chooses him as her "Ashikabi", one of the mysterious set of humans that have the genetic trait and can make a contract by kissing the Sekirei; this binds the Sekirei to the Ashikabi and allows them to use their full power in elimination battles with other Sekirei. Made up of 108 cute girls, attractive buxom women and ''bishōnen'', the Sekirei battle in a competition known as the "Sekirei Plan" organized by Hiroto Minaka, the chairman and founder of the mysterious and powerful MBI Corporation.

Minato quickly learns that being the partner of a Sekirei is not all fun and games, especially when five other Sekirei choose him as their Ashikabi, each also forming a contract/bond with him. Now Minato must find a way to survive both the life-threatening battles of the Sekirei Plan and his partners' fierce competition for him.

Peter (Roger Rees) and his dominatrix, Suzanne (Geno Lechner), develop a personal relationship during their sadomasochistic sessions and, when Suzanne quits her job, they attempt to maintain that relationship outside her workplace, without the rules and boundaries that existed in the S&M dungeon.

During the opening credits, images are shown of frescoes from a villa in Pompeii called the Villa of the Mysteries. Of particular relevance to the film is a fresco depicting an angel with a whip.

Suzanne is in a dungeon setting with her client, Peter. Suzanne informs Peter that she is quitting at the end of the month, and gives in to Peter's request to see her on the outside. Their agreement causes Peter to be distracted at home with his wife, Pat (Kit Flanagan), and at his work as a psychotherapist. Pat confronts him and, although she already knows and accepts Peter's sadomasochistic activities, she is concerned to hear of Peter's attachment to Suzanne.

Upon meeting Peter on the outside for the first time, Suzanne is unsure if she has made the right move in deciding to see him, but her curiosity overpowers her reluctance and they continue talking. Later, it becomes apparent that Suzanne is just as preoccupied by their relationship as Peter, when she is shown in bed with her girlfriend, Miko (Miho Nikaido), who notices Suzanne's distraction and confronts her about it.

Flashback to Peter, calling himself "Robert", meeting for the first time Suzanne, who was going by the name "Mistress Diana". He removes his clothes and tensely waits for her. He describes to her his favorite masochistic acts and she begins their session. They feel a connection quickly and at the end of that session, they share their real names.

In the present time, Suzanne's relationship with Miko is faltering. Peter is struggling to write a psychiatric paper, remembering his childhood of coping with a severe learning disability and Attention Deficit Disorder.

Peter and Suzanne continue exploring their S&M relationship in flashbacks, with Peter receiving piercings and pinching. Outside the dungeon, Peter clings to her, but also tries to analyze her or overpower her at the same time. In a meeting at a diner, Suzanne tells Peter about a time in her teens when she tried to make friends with a boy named Tim in a new community by performing oral sex on him. Suzanne says she felt proud of herself until everyone at her new school found out about it. Peter suggests that if the memory did not still hurt, she would not have brought it up. He tells her about his struggles in school with a learning disability and how it still affects him. Suzanne again becomes uncomfortable with Peter's intimacy with her.

After Suzanne puts off meeting with Peter on the outside again, he goes to an S&M club, but he is unable to get in the mood and stops his dominatrix, Mistress Terry (Angela Forrest), shortly after she begins flogging him. He leaves a pleading message on Suzanne's answering machine. Rather than meet with him again, she goes to Philadelphia for a one-time session with an old client, facilitated by Suzanne's former madam, Juno (Phyllis Somerville). When she returns to New York City, she gets news that her mother, Gretchen (Jenny Sterlin), has cancer. She calls Peter to drive her to her mother's house. Suzanne and her mother are shown to have a tense relationship, causing her to lean on Peter after the visit.

Peter drives Suzanne back to her apartment and they go inside. They begin passionately kissing for the first time. Suzanne says that she will never be comfortable with how they met, and although she seems to want more, she stops Peter before he penetrates her. She leaves the room only to return and begin to allow Peter to touch her again sexually, at which point her face goes blank and she collapses in his arms, sinking to the floor. Peter sits with her for a while and returns home.

Days later, they meet again outdoors. Suzanne says she cannot allow herself to want Peter. He says he understands how she feels but does not want to lose her, but Suzanne ends the relationship anyway.

In the final scene, Peter and Pat are sitting lakeside. Peter apologizes for the things he has done to hurt her through his relationship with Suzanne. Finally, in a voice-over telephone conversation, Peter asks Suzanne if they can meet on the outside again, and Suzanne says it will not be any different than it was a year ago. Peter falls silent.

Tara Reedy and her reckless mother Joleen have been evicted from the house where they were staying with Joleen's latest boyfriend, who was arrested for growing marijuana. Tara is forced to follow Joleen as she begs her younger brother, James, to take them in.

Shortly after moving into James' apartment, Joleen runs off with a truck driver, leaving Tara with her uncle, who works with a road-building crew. After missing too many days of work, he is fired, and ends up crashing in the basement of his married best friend, Randall, after Tara has been sent to a foster home.

Longing to be reunited with Tara, James goes to visit her, and she tells him she's being bullied in the foster home and asks him to take her away. James drives Tara to his childhood home, which he and Joleen had fled from many years earlier. James and Tara agree to pose as father and daughter during the road trip, and begin to develop a familial bond. Upon arriving at the Reedy homestead, which has now become a run-down cattle and horse farm, they are immediately put to work as unpaid labor by the head of the household, Mr. Reedy.

Mr. Reedy treats Tara with contempt, physically abusing her due to her inexperience with farming. James attempts to stand up to his father, but is quickly rebuked and threatened with a shovel. After silencing his son, Mr. Reedy continues to abuse Tara, until James snaps and beats his father to death with the shovel, exacting revenge for the years of abuse he and Joleen had previously suffered. James then drives Tara to Westmoreland, where Joleen is waiting at the police station. He leaves Tara with Joleen as the police rush out to arrest him, only to find him already gone.

The first chapter of the game sees the player leaving a vessel with Northern Water Tribe officials, including Master Pakku. Aang, Sokka, and Katara make their way to the Earth Kingdom fortress of General Fong, who upon arrival immediately sets a pair of guards upon the Avatar to test his skills.

Three sisters, Brielle, Kelli, and Sam, are on a college break. They discover that their grandfather has just died and he has left them a motel in his will. Their father, John, tries to persuade them not to go, but the sisters ignore him and head off, accompanied by their friends: Tanya, Ben, Bill, and Bill's girlfriend, Amy. Sam is the first to arrive, and while drinking wine in Room 6, two inbreds forcefully enter and attack Sam, where with a collection of duct tape, an iron bar, and an axe, they bind Sam's legs with the tape, place the iron bar beside her ankles, and use the axe head to force the bar through both her ankles. Afterwards, the three are in a boat, where the inbreds tie a badly beaten Sam's legs to a concrete block, and dump her into the water, where she is still alive as the concrete block pulls her beneath the water, where she drowns.

The rest drive to the motel and meet the caretaker, an old lady who appears kind. After finding a lake on their property, the group of friends take a swim, not noticing that Sam's dead body is floating in the lake beneath them. After the swim, the friends return to their trailer, where they set up a small campsite. Bill and Tanya go out to the woods to get some firewood, and end up having sex (much to the chagrin of Amy). After encounters with large, strange-looking, unkempt men, the friends are terrified. Bill, Tanya, and Amy are butchered, while the remaining friends escape but are picked up by a mysterious, pushy cop. He tricks them into coming back to the motel where everything slowly falls into place. It is later revealed that the cop and caretaker are all a part of the evil scheme to make Brielle and Kelli a part of their devious plans. The cop and caretaker are in fact son and mother, respectively, and their family has been perpetuated by incest for generations (hence the inbred characteristics of the two aforementioned unkempt men).

It becomes apparent that the girls' father had rejected the family "tradition" and escaped. Their grandmother found out about this and concocted the inheritance scheme to lure the sisters to the motel so that her son could forcibly impregnate them and continue the family line. Sam was killed, however, because she was not their real sister, but she was adopted. The sisters manage to overcome joining their family's footsteps. Ben seemingly manages to kill both of the inbred men and attempts to rescue the girls from the barn where the cop has taken Brielle to rape her (in the process the grandmother is shot in the head by Ben).

When they arrive at the barn Ben is shot unexpectedly by the cop, but the girls' worried father, John, shows up at the last minute and kills his brother, stating "That's how you fuck family", and ending the gruesome tradition. John takes his daughters and the still alive Ben to a hospital. At the end of the movie, four teenagers are shown going into the motel to see if it is abandoned. One of the teenagers has strange feelings about going into the motel; it turns out that one of the inbreds has survived. The inbred man stares at the girls from behind a tree and then screams.

The plot is about the Junk, a system which acts as a super-suit, and the people to whom the junk suits are given. At first, there were two units in the world, both in Japan; one white unit and one darker, black unit. However, it was revealed that a third JUNK type (red) was also created. The Black JUNK, White JUNK, and Red JUNK were all prototypes used by JUNK SYSTEMS to further develop the Blue JUNK(the production model). The eye style, according to Asamiya, "Is a mono-eye style.... but there's actually two eyes." The suits require an eight-hour charge up period, and only one hour of performance is delivered. Though the suits are free, users must fill out a report and send it to the manufacturer, which has not yet been named.

The story revolves around the two users of the Junk units, one of which is Hiro, who receives the black unit. The other unit goes to an unknown female user, though hints suggest it is Manami. It is actually revealed later that the White Junk actually goes to Manami's Stand in/bodyguard, Lisa. the story follows Hiro's maturation and adventures using the junk system, as he copes with the responsibilities and burdens it brings, as well as the changes in his life because of the suit.

JUNK is an acronym, which stands for Juriatic Union of Neo-Kinetics, the name of the company that is spearheading the JUNK development and deployment.

After being gay bashed at a gas station and eventually reconciles with Wade romantically, Noah hears the news that Dre is planning to propose marriage to Wade at the Black Gay Pride beach party. Unable to reach Wade by phone, Noah runs into him at his work, asking why he has not returned any of his calls. Wade responded that they both cheated on their boyfriends, and they need to commit to their relationship and go on their separate ways. At the Ovahness Ball, Noah breaks up with Quincy, realizing that he is still in love with Wade and Quincy was not "the one". At the beach party, Noah meets up with Wade in the restroom, telling him that he still loves him. Noah also tells Wade that Dre is proposing marriage. Noah gives Wade an ultimatum to tell him in his eyes to leave him forever so they can never see each other again; however, they both kiss and go in a bathroom stall. After they both came out of it, Dre was in the bathroom and saw the two of them kiss.

Trey is having his photos taken for calendars to be sold for raising money towards Alex's HIV/AIDS clinic. At the Ovahness Ball, overzealous buyers for the calendars are trying to get a piece of Trey after the calendars went out of stock. Trey tells Alex that they won't be going to the Black Gay Pride beach party. They end up staying home babysitting Chance and Eddie's child, Kenya. While babysitting Kenya, they decide to have a child of their own.

Ricky and Junito decide to have an open relationship. Ricky is anxious about Junito not taking advantage of seeing other people, so he sets him up with another male companion, whom they become good acquaintances. At the beach party, Ricky sees the two share a kiss at the beach party, which upsets him. When Junito finds him, Ricky claims that he is in a "prison" with their relationship, and Junito breaks it up for good.

Chance and Eddie are looking forward to the Black Gay Pride. At Ricky's clothing store, Chance spots the very same swimsuit that he wore when he met Eddie. He buys and wears it which surprises Eddie in a good way. They reconciled about the old days of their relationship, one of which they had sex in a car. Eddie later decides to leave the party but lets Chance stay at the beach. Alex meets up with Chance and Ricky to tell them about his and Trey's decision to have a child. After this, Dre was spotted yelling at Wade about cheating on him with Noah. They get in their car and drive away, and Noah spots Quincy on the side catching on the whole situation.

After the party, the group drive home together, and on the road, they see a car accident involving Wade and Dre. Wade is thrown out of the convertible while Dre is stuck inside the car. Noah and the group tend to Wade as an ambulance arrives.

While watching a Western at the cinema with his mother, 7-year-old Jack (Gilbert) discovers that his grandfather Tom (Booth) looks like John Wayne. Upon returning home, he excitedly informs his grandfather, who asks him whether he can keep a secret. At school Jack reveals the secret to his schoolmates, who jeer and refuse to believe him. Later that day his grandfather discovers him crying, and decides to help him out. There is a dramatic showdown, where Tom organizes a horse and rides in to vindicate Jack. In the end, Jack and his grandfather ride down off down a Liverpool street lined with brick houses that dissolve into Monument Valley.

Poppy Moore, a wealthy Malibu teenager, executes a wild prank to ruin all of her widowed father's girlfriend's belongings. When her father, Gerry, arrives on the scene, he announces he will be sending her to a boarding school in England. At the school, she is greeted by headmistress Mrs. Kingsley and head girl, Harriet Bentley, who berates Poppy for her attitude. Poppy shares a bedroom with four girls: Kate, Josie, Kiki and Jennifer, known as "Drippy". Her rude and self-centered behavior leads to trouble when she insults the Matron, who confiscates their cellphones. All five are punished with detention. When Kate learns Poppy's mother died in a car crash when Poppy was eleven, she sympathizes with her. Kate lets Poppy use her actual phone to message her friend from back home, Ruby, who is secretly being intimate with Poppy's boyfriend, Roddy.

The girls decide to help Poppy get expelled to help return home. Together, they carry out several pranks, which gradually bring them closer together. When none of their plans work, they decide to have Poppy seduce the headmistress's son, Freddie, who is strictly forbidden from fraternizing with any of the girls. The girls go on a trip and Poppy removes her blonde hair dye, revealing her natural brunette hair. She dances with Freddie at the school dance, much to Harriet's dismay, but Poppy trips and hits her head. Freddie takes her outside for air, where he asks her out on a date.

The next day, Poppy discovers her talent for lacrosse and whips the school's team into shape, getting them into the finals. She finds herself falling for Freddie and they kiss before returning to school. Entering her room, Poppy finds her roommates reading an email supposedly sent by her, expressing she thinks all of her new friends are losers. She finds Freddie has received a similar email, as a result she is ignored by them. However, she never actually sent the email. With no one else to turn to, Poppy sneaks down to the cook's room and calls Ruby, who accidentally reveals how much she dislikes Poppy and she is seeing Roddy. Feeling even more alone, Poppy starts playing with her lighter and accidentally sets a curtain on fire. Hearing footsteps, she quickly puts out the fire and runs off. A few minutes later, she looks out her window to see a fire and immediately wakes the school.

When they find Drippy is missing, Poppy runs into the burning school to rescue her. After the fire is extinguished, Freddie finds her lighter and gives it back to her, refusing to hear any explanation. Realizing she no longer wants to leave, Poppy goes to the headmistress and takes the blame for the fire. Afterwards, she finds a portrait of her late mother in the 1976 Abbey Mount lacrosse team and begins to cry upon realizing her mother had attended the same school.

While Poppy waits for the Honour Court to decide whether she should be expelled, Freddie finds her crying and becomes convinced the fire was an accident, and forgives her. At the hearing, Poppy gives her testimony. Meanwhile, her roommates find out Poppy did not send the emails. Harriet mentions Poppy's lighter during the hearing and when the other girls say no lighter was ever mentioned, Harriet snaps at Poppy and then confesses to restarting the fire after Poppy had put it out. Poppy is subsequently absolved and Harriet is expelled.

Gerry comes to the lacrosse finals game and notices Poppy's dramatic change in appearance and how much she looks like her mother. He is amazed by his daughter's role as captain of the lacrosse team. Abbey Mount wins the lacrosse finals. Some months later, Poppy, her friends, and Freddie are relaxing in Malibu. Poppy ignores Ruby's phone calls, now fully aware Ruby was not a good friend. They prepare to jump off the cliff into the waters below.

It begins when detective Johnny Modiner (Brad Davis) gets his Christmas celebration spoiled with the news about his father's death, which is the work of psychopathic junkies who slashed the old man to death while robbing his store. Johnny is determined to find the person responsible and get his revenge, even if it means the end of his police career.

Johnny doesn't know that the murder was actually part of a sinister revenge plot directed against him. Leader of those murderous thugs is his former friend and colleague Isaac (Jonathan Banks) who blames Johnny for the incident that left him crippled many years ago. But before he gets to Isaac, Johnny must overcome many obstacles, including Kathy (Sharon Stone), an attractive but mysterious woman with a hidden agenda.

A murder mystery writer misreads the nervous man he bullies in a spooky Hollywood mansion.

The novel brings together the various threads begun during previous volumes. It takes place mostly in the 24th century, over the final 20 years leading up to the Silence in 2355, the point beyond which the future of the Company is unknown.

The Botanist Mendoza, disabled and psychologically scarred by the attempts of the Company to destroy her, is dealing with the three incarnations of her lover, whom she first knew as Nicholas Harpole in the 16th century. Two of them are imprisoned in her cyborg mind, while the third, the Victorian secret agent Edward Alton Bell-Fairfax, has taken over the body of the latest incarnation, Alec Checkerfield. Edward is showing signs of megalomania. The four of them, along with Alec's artificial intelligence known as Captain Morgan, are hiding in the deep past, hundreds of thousands of years before the present. This is to allow them to recover from their trials and mount their own campaign against the company, for which they laid the foundations in ''The Machine's Child''.

In the 24th century, Facilitator Joseph, having given up his quest for Mendoza after she disappeared, is putting the fix in again. This time it is on behalf of his own foster-father, the Enforcer Budu, who is intent on destroying the Company in his own way. To do this he will revive the army of Enforcers who have slept in Company bunkers for millennia, like heroes out of legend. Strangely, William Randolph Hearst is a necessary part of this plan, even if Hearst would like to be the hero Roland.

Preserver Lewis, after being captured by the strange little humanoids known as ''Homo umbratilis'', is slowly recovering from their attempts to kill him as a way of developing a new way to destroy the Company cyborgs. He finds himself in a situation similar to that in the ''Arabian Nights'': as long as he can keep telling stories, a princess of the little people will bring him food and water so he can repair himself. Fortunately Lewis is a Literature Specialist and knows many stories...

Bugleg, the mortal Company scientist encountered in ''Sky Coyote'', is now so afraid of his own creations, the cyborgs, that he allows himself to be persuaded to spread a new poison among them, the result of experimentation on Lewis. His accomplice is a Hybrid, a genius born from both humans and ''Homo umbratilis''. Bugleg himself has some ''umbratilis'' in him, it seems.

Suleyman, Executive Facilitator for North Africa, and his protégé Latif, continue their efforts to seek out the places where the Company has buried its mistakes, and rescue missing cyborgs such as Lewis and Kalugin.

The rival power groups headed by Labienus and Aegeus gather their forces for the final showdown. But things must be done correctly. They face off across the table at the sumptuous Banquet At The End of Time.

Preserver Victor, who has realized he is a carrier of deadly diseases, designed to be activated when the Company needs them, creates his own appropriate form of retribution for what was done to him.

Above all the Silence looms. After 11 a.m. California time on 9 July 2355, there are no more transmissions from the Company to its operatives in the past. As the time approaches, the disruption becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The mortal executives of the Company cower in a bunker, while the different cyborg factions schedule their various assaults on the Company for that time.

A group of six friends (Mel, Wyatt, Bill, Blind Kiyomi, Lin, and Sarah) are on a deer hunt in the southern United States. Kiyomi hears noises in the distance, and her boyfriend Mel goes to investigate. He then leads the others to a church graveyard in the woods where long-dead Confederate soldiers from the American Civil War are buried. The group argues over whether to take the items that they find in the graves. Unbeknownst to the others, Mel takes a diary from one of the soldiers. They set up camp, and that night, they are attacked by the soldiers, who are now zombies. The group manages to fight the soldiers off with their guns. They leave the area and are stopped by police officers, who do not believe their story. Soon after, they are attacked by the soldiers again; Bill and the officers are killed and eaten. The others retreat to an abandoned house. The soldiers follow them there and kill Kiyomi, Sarah, and Mel. Wyatt gives the diary back, and the soldiers leave.

When Pope John Paul II is visiting Canada in 2002, Kenny Hotz's friend Paul bets him $1000 that Kenny (who is Jewish) can't meet him. Over the course of six days, Kenny wears various disguises and makes multiple efforts to meet the pope in order to win the bet. Kenny's attempts include becoming a "Pope-arazzi", fighting his way through millions of pilgrims and onlookers, thousands of cops, security guards, Vatican Special Forces, and precision snipers. Along the way, Kenny crosses paths with various members of The Rolling Stones.

It is the summer of 1984 in Paris. Sarah, a well-to-do writer of children's books, and her working-class husband, Mehdi, an inspector of North African descent, are confronting some marital problems after the recent arrival of their first child. Sarah, stumbling over a bout of writer's block, has little maternal instinct towards their newborn baby, whose cries she tunes out with earplugs while she works. Her husband despairs when she neglects the child, does what he can to fill in, and sometimes parks the child with his parents. The couple have an open marriage and both are allowed to take outside lovers in a “don’t ask, don’t tell” arrangement that seems to work, although not without tensions.

Meanwhile, Sarah's close friend Adrien, a middle-aged gay doctor, meets Manu, a carefree young man, at a cruising ground. Manu is not sexually attracted to Adrien and they do not have sex, but strike an emotional friendship. Manu is happy with the friendship and becomes Adrien's companion and his student of life's finer things. Wildly in love with his shallow, narcissistic protégé, Adrien is shrewd enough not to push too hard, but there is an element of masochism in his abject devotion.

Manu, who has recently arrived to Paris from a provincial town in the south of France, shares a space with his sister Julie, while she struggles to affirm herself as an opera singer. They live in a cheap hotel that is a center of prostitution. This does not bother Manu, and he has a friendly relationship with Sandra, a prostitute. The hotel is under scrutiny by Mehdi, who leads the police force's vice division. Through Adrien, Manu meets Sarah and Mehdi. The group of friends get together at Sarah's mother’ summerhouse in the Calanques of Marseille. One afternoon, when Mehdi and Manu go swimming in a remote cove, Mehdi saves Manu from drowning and, while tugging him to shore and administering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, becomes aroused. Later, when Manu makes a pass at Mehdi, he responds, and they embark on a secret, no-strings-attached love affair. They meet at the holiday camping site outside Paris, where Manu now works as a cook.

When Manu confesses to Adrien that he has been having sex with Mehdi, Adrian is furious and hits Manu. After the fight, Adrian discovers spots on Manu's skin; it turns out that he has AIDS. Sarah tries to write a novel, and as a result Mehdi leaves temporarily to stay at his parents with the baby. Adrien becomes a leader in a medical crusade against AIDS, while meanwhile privately taking on Manu's treatment. Mehdi also does not shun his friend when he hears the news, although he is terrified that he has AIDS and cannot bring himself to tell his wife. He wants to see Manu, but Manu does not want to see him in the terrible state he is in. By contrast, Adrien is safe as his relationship with Manu was more companion-based than sexual.

Desperate to see his former lover, Mehdi forces his way into the camping site. Manu shows him his gun, with which he will commit suicide when his illness gets worse. Mehdi secretly takes it with him and throws it in the Seine. Mehdi is relieved that he has not been infected. Sarah has not been infected either and they reconcile. Manu's health deteriorates and he commits suicide with pills supplied by Adrien for this purpose. Julie and Adrien take Manu's body to be buries in his native village to his grieving mother.

Before he passes away, Manu uses a tape recorder to dictate his life for others to hear of. Sarah is inspired by the events as they have transpired so far and, once he is gone, listens to the tapes and begins writing a tale (for grown-ups) of it. She is free of her writer's block. Medhi is a bit concerned his life will become gossip, but Sarah assures him she has changed the names in the story. Julie decides to move to Munich, Mehdi and Adrien make amends while Sandra is HIV positive.

The following summer, Sarah, Mehdi, Adrien and his new companion Steve, a young American, return to the summerhouse on the Riviera to celebrate Sarah and Medhi's child's birthday.

Casey Cantrell (Sharon Stone) sets off for the UK to personally take a letter to Lord Richard Bredon, the last request of her late mother. A failed attempt to find him at his country residence has her falling from a wall into the arms of Lord Bredon's playboy son, Michael (Christopher Cazenove). Casey manages to escape his grilling without giving her name, but the younger Bredon tracks her to an inn in the local village where he uses his clout to get it.

Casey accepts his dinner invitation in order to learn the whereabouts of his father. The evening is spent with the two trying to get information from each other. It ends with neither one being any more informed than when it started. Wanting to see her again and to continue to try and solve her mystery Michael convinces her to visit Bredon Hall the next day. While she is there, Michael's flamboyant best friend Hamdan al Dubai (Leigh Lawson) arrives. Not unexpectedly based on their mutual history, Hamdan immediately starts expressing an interest in Casey much to Michael’s annoyance. After Casey learns that Michael's father is in London, she accepts an offer made by Hamdan to go back there with him.

Continuing her quest, Casey finds Lord Bredon at his office in Half Moon Square. While visibly shaken by the news of Jessie's death, he denies ever having known her and refuses to accept the letter. Instead of deterring her, Richard's confusing reaction only serves to make her more determined to uncover the mystery. Meanwhile a still suspicious but intrigued Michael has found her again and asks her out for the following day

The next day Hamdan calls to charm Casey into having lunch with him on his yacht. Michael, upon finding out her plans with Hamden, shows up at lunch uninvited. The talk switches to a discussion of the party going on at Hamdan's house that evening. Hamdan invites her to the event but it's not until she finds out Lord Bredon is going to be there that she accepts. Later that evening as Casey is modeling her dress for the party, Michael happens to see that she's wearing a necklace that reminds him of his family crest. When she claims that it belonged to her mother, he persists in trying to talk about it, but she laughingly blows off the conversation.

At the party Casey and Michael have a confrontation with his father who accuses her of being a con artist and tells his son about her trip to his office. Michael, who has a deep fear of being taken in by a woman, immediately lays into her. Casey becomes distraught by both men attacking her and runs off. Michael chases after her ultimately cornering her in a garden house where they end up in a passionate embrace. He agrees to hear her side of the story and the pair leave the party.

Before his own departure, Richard has a flashback revealing the nature of his relationship with Jessie. Still concerned that Casey is trouble, Richard asks Hamdan to dig up information on her. Hamdan expresses his discomfort with the situation, but this falls on deaf ears.

Michael and Casey arrive at his apartment after her having told him the story about the letter on the way there. The two reexamine the pendant with him verifying that is the family crest. Casey and Michael end up sleeping together after the postulating theories about how Jessie and Richard knew each other. Meanwhile Richard is lost in his own memories about their meeting and Jessie’s connection to a Bredon family friend, Emily.

The next morning Hamden calls Richard, and Richard asks him to work on Casey while he talks to Michael. Once again Hamden expresses reluctance to involve himself, but Richard hangs up on him. Hamdan then goes to see Casey at her hotel and ends up following her to track down a woman whose name is in her mother's address book. Back at the office Richard confronts Michael about Casey, and then Michael turns the confrontation on him asking how Casey's mother got the pendant. Richard kicks him out and goes into a flashback about giving the pendant to Jessie.

Casey and Hamden end up going to a pub owned by Billie Cooper, the person in the address book. Billie confirms that Jessie was in England during the war following Frank, Casey's father. Billie tells her about a fateful mission in which Frank was believed to have died trying to save Billie's husband. Billie also confirms that Richard and Jessie knew one another and that their interest in each other angered Richard's old friend, Emily. As the two are talking Hamdan finally calls a PI to investigate Casey.

Later at Michael's apartment, Casey and Michael discuss the latest revelations. This leads to a discussion of their feelings and a proposal of marriage from Michael. After at first questioning whether he means it, Casey accepts.

Having been told about Michael’s desire to marry Casey, Richard goes to meet with Hamdan at Bredon Enterprises to find out the results of the investigation on Casey. He not only learns that Casey's record is clear, but that Frank was discovered not to have died around the time that Jessie vanished. This changes his whole perspective on what happened, and he contacts Michael who Casey alone at his apartment to go to see him. While he is gone, Casey receives a visit from Michael's mother. She turns out to be the family friend, Emily. The story she tells reveals the truth about Michael’s parentage and that Jessie is his real mother.

Casey flees the flat and runs to Hamdan. She asks him to take her to the airport without explaining what happened. He reluctantly agrees believing she should talk to Michael first. Michael gets wind she is leaving and arrives to hear the story about their shared mother.

Richard confronts Emily about what happened during the war. A flashback reveals that in her determination to be the mistress of Bredon Hall and Richard's wife, she manipulated events so that Richard was led to believe that Jessie had abandoned him. She then screws the knife in further by revealing to him the truth about Michael.

On the drive to the airport, Casey reveals the whole story to Hamdan. As she dozes off in the seat next to him a flummoxed Hamdan picks up a file from his PI and looks through it. Whatever is in the file causes Hamdan mood to change for the positive. He has his driver take them to Bredon Hall where Richard and Michael have gotten together to share the reading of the letter. Hamdan's car pulls up outside and Casey awakens from her nap to find that she's there. She is distressed by this, but Hamdan convinces her to trust him. After gaining admittance, Hamdan hands Richard the file. Richard reads through it then tells Casey that she was adopted by Frank and Jessie meaning she can have a relationship with Michael. The film ends with Richard looking back on his time with Jessie and looking forward to the future for Michael and Casey.

The book is introduced by C. J. Henderson with an After Word by the authors. The plot summaries of the seven stories are:

"Made of Meat": In the Cambodian jungles, Major Harrison Peel of the Australian Army Intelligence Corps and MI6 spy James Figgs, are involved in covert operations fighting a losing war against Tcho-Tcho terrorists. The Tcho-Tcho are able to predict Peel's and Figgs’ every move, efficiently eliminating the foreigner's agents under their very noses. Peel seeks the aid of a Vietnam War veteran who provides him with the intelligence he requires to bring the Tcho-Tchos’ reign to an end. "To What Green Altar": In Siberia, Middle Eastern cultists slaughter every single employee at a remote Russian mine. In London, James Figgs calls NSA agent Jack Dixon to aid in the investigation of this attack, and together they uncover its connection to the 1908 Tunguska event. A trail leads to the Vatican City, where the summoning of a Cthulhu Mythos deity almost forces a global religious war between Muslims and Christians. "Impossible Object": The ancient city of Pnakotus in Australia's Great Sandy Desert, a city that was once home to the Great Race of Yith, has been unearthed by the Australian government. Their secret investigation of its ruins found nothing of value except for a strange artifact, the Impossible Object, which no one can describe or classify. Harrison Peel, now head of security at the city, tries to understand its purpose before more scientific researchers die, or are erased from existence altogether by the Object's unpredictable properties. "False Containment": Harrison Peel travels from Australia to Thailand, to Los Angeles and then into the deserts of Nevada, spurred on by a strange encounter with himself from the future with disturbing news of a wormhole leading to a monstrous god called the Many-Thing that devours worlds. Toxic and nuclear waste is materializing all over the world, and Peel becomes convinced its source is a new waste treatment plant in Nevada, utilizing technology of great interest to the Pentagon, and derived from knowledge offered by the Impossible Object. "Resurgence": Shoggoths from Antarctica are waking. Discovering that there is nothing to feed their hunger in the icy wastelands, and freed from their incarceration as slaves to the ancient alien race of the Elder Things, they advance northwards. In Argentina, Jack Dixon's expertise is called upon to defeat a bold shoggoth, which he destroys with a nuclear weapon. Facing a similar foe in Australia, Harrison Peel is not able to deploy weapons of mass destruction because no one in the Australian or United States government will provide him with one, fearful of the political ramifications if a nuclear bomb is detonated on Australian soil. "Weapon Grade": After suffering severe radiation poisoning from his encounter with a shoggoth in Sydney, Peel is dying. He hopes to go quietly, but Dixon calls upon Peel's expertise, taking him to Utah, Antarctica and finally another universe, to secret US bases where Dixon's government has long been studying the properties of shoggoths. Meanwhile, a rogue Israeli Mossad spy plans to steal a tissue sample of a shoggoth, only to be defeated by Peel as they pass between dimensions. The effects of higher-dimensional time flow, cures Peel of his radiation poisoning. *"The Spiraling Worm": In the jungle of the Eastern Congo Basin the cult of the Spiraling Worm is building an army, whose primary goal is to restore the powers of the Outer Gods. A team of British and American Special Forces, led by Peel, Dixon and Figgs, are sent into Africa to stop the army.

Gloria has just gotten out of prison, where she has served three years to save her boyfriend, Kevin. During her stay in prison, she thinks about how Kevin never once visited her. She tells Kevin that the relationship is over and that all she wants is the money he promised her for taking the rap for him. He refuses to give it to her.

Meanwhile, the gang's accountant has tried to protect himself by creating a computer disk with the names of all those involved in the outfit's criminal activities. The plan backfires, and—in trying to get the disk—one of Kevin's trigger-happy henchmen kills the accountant, his wife, his mother-in-law and his daughter. Only his seven-year-old son Nicky escapes, but is quickly caught and brought to Kevin's apartment. It is there that Gloria and Nicky meet. Gloria must decide whether or not to risk her life in order to save the boy.

Gloria begins to feel love for the young boy as his innocence and intelligent nature inspires her. She tells him that she hates kids and that is why she doesn’t have kids. She lectures him to get used to this world and to grow up on his own. She then tries to ditch him in a subway, but Nicky comes back. As Gloria and Nicky spend more time together, they both develop feelings for each other. The boy sees news reports of his family being killed by the mob and runs away from the hotel room he and Gloria were staying in. Gloria follows in pursuit and Nicky gets on the train to go back to his family's apartment. Unable to catch Nicky before he gets on the train; Gloria is frantic and tells the cops her kid is on that train heading to 158th Street. After the cops apprehend Nicky, he and Gloria go back to the hotel room and Gloria gives Nicky a bath. Lying awake Gloria hears Nicky wake up. He asks "Did it really happen?"

In 1978, David Raybourne is an American novelist who lives in Rome and works as a journalist in a small English-language newspaper. He is romantically involved with Lia, the estranged wife of an Italian Industrialist, and befriended by Italo Bianchi, a politically left-leaning lecturer at a Rome university.

The story happens against the backdrop of politically charged atmosphere and student unrest, in which the infamous Red Brigades commit their spate of violent attacks which rocked northern Italy in the 1970s, culminating in the kidnapping and later murder of Aldo Moro, former Italian Prime Minister.

As part of a plan to write a commercial novel and raise money to marry and support Lia in the style to which she is accustomed, Raybourne researches the activities and organization of the Red Brigades. He writes the draft of a novel, realistic but fictitious, with the plot centered on the kidnapping of a central political figure by the Red Brigades. During this time Raybourne meets a beautiful and sexually provocative young photojournalist, Alison King. She is eager for a news story and is introduced by Raybourne to Bianchi. Alison becomes convinced that Raybourne knows something about the Red Brigades and is hiding a potential scoop from her, so after a sexual dalliance she searches his apartment and finds Raybourne's novel draft. She brings this to the attention of Bianchi who, despite his mild manner and seemingly moderate politics, is actually collaborating with the Red Brigades. He delivers the draft to a Red Brigades contact and the similarity of his fictitious plot to their actual kidnap plans causes them to conclude that their plans have been leaked. Raybourne realizes he is being hunted when the Brigades shoot his boss Pierre Bernier dead at the newspaper office, moments before Raybourne himself arrives. He then attempts to escape with Alison with the aid of Lia.

It turns out that Lia is even more deeply involved with the Red Brigades than Bianchi, and after a chase, Raybourne and Alison are captured. They are held while the kidnapping of Aldo Moro takes place. After this is achieved, the Brigades leadership accuses Lia of the leak and shoots her for her apparent betrayal right before Raybourne's and Alison's eyes. They force Alison to photograph the body and instruct Raybourne to publicize the story as a warning to any future traitors.

Raybourne is interviewed on American television regarding the successful publication of a now non-fiction book about the Red Brigades and his contact with them, with a postscript saying that Moro was found shot to death in the trunk of a car nearly two months after his kidnapping.

This science fiction drama centers on Eric, teenage son of a computer scientist who worked for the Apollo program which sent the first humans to the Moon. Eric, determined to become an astronaut himself one day, befriends Paul Andrews, the thirteenth man on the Moon. Paul is avoided by other astronauts nowadays because he was very rude and rebuffing when he returned from space. Eric slowly learns that Paul discovered something during his excursion on the Moon that he keeps as a secret.

Unlike ''Mario Kart'', STK has a story associated with gameplay, similar to ''Crash Team Racing''. Story mode is used to unlock tracks and characters for single and multi-player modes. At the beginning of story mode, Gnu, the leader of the free/libre and open-source world, is captured by Nolok, the villain in STK, with his spaceship. Nolok then visits Tux and tells him that he has kidnapped Gnu; unless Tux and his friends can defeat Nolok, the 'King of the Karts', Gnu would become his supper. After the player defeats Nolok in Fort Magma, the final track of STK, Tux rescues Gnu from his prison.

On the last day of summer at Camp Big-Tee-Pee, all the teenage campers are crazy with hormones and eager to go home. While on a nature walk with ditzy hippie camp counselor Michelle Farmer, four students - self-proclaimed stud Mitch, his girlfriend Annie, overweight Henry, and nerd Danny - break off from the rest of the group to indulge in some cannabis. They take refuge in a nearby cave, only to be caught in the act by Michelle some time later. While being shooed out, Henry's flatulence causes a landslide, trapping the five of them inside. To pass the time until their eventual rescue, the group shares stories of how each lost their virginity.

In Mitch's story, Lucy, an elegant prostitute, picks up Mitch while he is hitchhiking and invites him to visit her fancy hotel room. Feeling nervous and inexperienced, he asks his ultra-cool, yet dim-witted friend Jeff to give him pointers (which include "when in doubt, whip it out"). However, upon meeting Lucy, Jeff unsuccessfully attempts to seduce Lucy, almost injuring her. When Mitch saves her and kicks Jeff out, Lucy repays him with mind-blowing sex.

Henry is forced to tell his story next. In preparation for a big Halloween party, he dresses as a ghost. Unfortunately, in addition to not being able to see out of the eye-holes, the costume looks identical to a Klan robe. Blinded, he accidentally stumbles upon a group of (flamboyantly gay) African-American thugs about to kill a young white woman. The thugs turn their attention to Henry, beat him senseless, and then skip off, singing and holding hands. The girl, convinced Henry has just saved her life, instantly falls for him and the two make passionate love later that night next to a giant pile of donuts.

Meanwhile, the camp's staff, in fear of a potentially expensive lawsuit, desperately search for the missing campers.

In Annie's story, she discusses her first time, back when she was working on her family's farm. One night, she discovers an attractive drifter who had broken into her house in search of food. Overwhelmed by her hormones, she gives him a lot more than cookies in the back of the barn, much to the dismay of the sheep.

Danny goes next: His flashback reveals that he was a pornography-addicted loser. While visiting the beach one day, he thinks he sees Penthouse Pet Sheila Kennedy smiling and winking at him, but quickly dismisses it as a mirage. Later that night, after being rejected from a double date with his brother, Danny returns to his room to find Kennedy waiting for him. While the two engage in lengthy foreplay, they are later joined by his brother's girlfriend, and they all participate in an orgy, which Danny mispronounces.

Finally, Miss Farmer tells her story: Back in high school she was deeply in love with her psychotic, nerd boyfriend Dwayne. However, when Dwayne dumps her for another girl at the junior prom, she sucks up her pride and picks up two new boyfriends. The three of them proceed to have sex on a bowling alley lane.

As more time passes and oxygen diminishes in the cave, the gang becomes convinced that they will all asphyxiate. In a moment of truth, everyone admits that their stories were false. They're all still virgins. Determined not to die as such, they all participate in an orgy. The symphony of thrusts and moans causes another landslide, thus opening the entrance of the cave and freeing everyone.

As the group returns to camp, a narrator reveals the character's futures: Danny became a pornographic actor under the name "Dicky Long". Mitch became a priest and a staunch advocate of gay rights. Henry now works for the National Cheese Commissioners Board. After eight marriages, Annie had a nervous breakdown and became a vegetable. Miss Farmer runs the government's program for Wildlife Preservation. The film's final shot shows her trying to make a large trout "fly away" by tossing it into the air.

Marv Grant is a high school student who lives with his deadbeat, alcoholic father. At school he begins dating the attractive Betty Alexander (Virginia Aldridge), who eventually manipulates him into writing her English class term paper for her. Marv does this, but the subterfuge is easily uncovered by the professor. Betty fails the class, and the professor withdraws his recommendation from Marv's college application, without which Marv has no chance of earning a scholarship. In anger, Betty throws Marv over and returns to her old boyfriend, Vince, revealing that she had only been using Marv from the beginning.

At his part-time job at the docks, Marv overhears his boss plotting a drug transaction worth $1 million cash. The money will be kept in the office safe prior to the deal. In despair, Marv plots to steal the money, with the help of safecracker Harry March and Sam Tolman, to cure troubles with his father and Betty and he secures $550,000 of the take for himself. He tells Betty about the pending robbery to entice her to marry him, and she apparently accedes. In reality she secretively tasks her boyfriend, Vince, to steal the money from Marv.

Marv and his associates steal the money, but things then go horribly wrong when it's discovered Marv's father has hanged himself, then Vince and two accomplices intervene and shoots Sam, and he is horrified. When Betty arrives on the scene soon afterwards, Vince accuses her of making him do this, and he kills her, too. Vince's accomplices flee, but the police soon arrive where they shoot Vince and the drug importer. Marv is arrested and the money falls into the water, being lost.

In Cambodia, where families were torn apart in the communist Khmer Rouge's genocidal bid to transform the country into an agrarian utopia, it is ironic that people have lost touch with the land. For a generation of children, the rice comes not from the ground, but from a sack, offloaded from the back of a United Nations relief truck.

So it is in these uncertain times, that a Cambodian family is attempting to grow rice. The father, Pouev, is concerned that the family's plot of land is shrinking, and he might not be able to grow a big enough crop.

The mother, Om, is worried for her husband, and her worst fears are confirmed when Poeuv steps on a poisonous thorn, and then, after a protracted period of being bedridden, dies of infection.

Om is unable to handle the pressure of being the head of the family, nor does she have the strength to tend to the rice fields. She turns to alcohol and gambling and is eventually locked up for her mental illness.

Responsibility for bringing in the crop and raising her six sisters falls on the oldest girl, Sakha.

One year has passed in the real world since the first adventure ended, but in Narnia, almost 1300 years have passed. The villainous King Miraz prevents the rightful heir, his young nephew, Prince Caspian, from ruling the land of Narnia. Caspian uses Susan's magic horn that was left in Narnia to summon the four Pevensies and a small army of Old Narnians to help him reclaim his rightful throne, and find Aslan.

Puzzles need to be solved to progress through the game and unlock bonus material. Featuring 20 playable characters, of which 4 are available in each level, each character uses different weapons and abilities. These Include: The Pevensie children, Prince Caspian, Glenstorm, Trumpkin, Dr. Cornelius, Reepicheep, Giant Wimbleweather, Tyrus the Satyr, and Asterius the Minotaur. In addition to these, several unnamed characters are also playable, including Trees, Fauns, Centaurs, Gryphons and horses. They can also be controlled after they have been mounted by the player's character. Bonus material is, however, primarily unlocked by opening Treasure Chests, which require a certain number of keys to be opened.

A group of drama students idolize their favorite horror film star, Conrad Razkoff. In the beginning, Conrad is acting in a commercial for dentures, and the director stops the filming because he does not like Conrad's performance. While the director sits on the edge of the balcony, an angry Conrad pushes him off with his cane. Later, Conrad visits a school and talks about his performances, only to faint under excitement. One of the drama students, Meg, revives him. Later, as Conrad sits in his bed, his obese director Wolfgang visits him. After a long talk about his death arrangements, Conrad closes his eyes and tricks the director into believing he is dead. Then, the director denounces him until Conrad springs up and smothers him with a pillow. After Conrad dies, the seven drama students, Meg, Saint, Bobo, Eve, Donna, Oscar, and Stu, go to the cemetery after dark, they sneak into the tomb where Conrad's coffin resides. The lights turn on and they see a film of Conrad stating that he welcomes them into his tomb, unless, he says, they have broken in. Creeped out, Meg asks them not to take Conrad, but they do, and take him to an old mansion where they stay for the night.

That night, Conrad's coffin explodes, and he rises from the dead. Later, Oscar and Donna are having sex but Donna says she is scared. Oscar goes to investigate and has his tongue ripped out by Conrad in the attic. Donna becomes worried and walks outside only to see Conrad, who uses black magic to set her on fire. Later, the five remaining teens realize that Oscar and Donna are missing and begin to look for them. Bob however is put in a trance by Conrad and walks to Conrad's tomb, only to suffocate from vapors that are released inside the crypt. Eve decides to watch a movie and is lured out of her room by the sound of Donna's voice, only to be smashed into the wall by Conrad's coffin, and hidden with Oscar's body.

Meg, Saint, and Stu realize that the other two are now missing and begin to panic, and Meg decides she's going to tell the police. Stu runs upstairs to get a flashlight since Saint's car will not start, only to be decapitated by Conrad who then sends his severed head out onto the front lawn of the mansion. Meg and Saint venture outside looking for Stu and find Donna's burnt body, and hurry back inside. Saint decides to try to fix his car, while Conrad traps Meg in the attic, where she impales him with a cross. Saint safely hides her unconscious body and takes Conrad's body with him to put back in the crypt, while the police arrive to the mansion finding a delirious Meg and all her dead friends. At the cemetery, Conrad attacks Saint and puts him in the crematorium, and goes back to his grave. A while later, his wife and his psychic friend arrive to say their final goodbyes to the "dead" Conrad, only Conrad kills his psychic after she steals his jewelry from his body, and his wife locks the crypt for forever. The final scene shows a video being played on the television installed in the crypt of Conrad informing the audience that hell is actually quite pleasant and hopes that more respect will be shown for the dead.

Hester (De Carlo) is a wealthy heiress who was jilted years ago by her lover to marry her sister. Using her weapon of choice, a 200 lb. Rottweiler, Hester not only exacts her revenge on her sister and lover, but has now set her sights on the offspring of the ill-fated reunion.

Aspiring screenwriter Edgar Allen (Rufus B. Seder) arrives in Hollywood carrying his most valuable possessions: a battered suitcase and a typewriter. Edgar Allen's best attribute is his wild imagination. He imagines scenes so vividly for the murder mystery he is writing that they seem to come to life...and they do! As mysterious gruesome murders pile up, Edgar Allen must confront aging actresses, rock stars and the police in a bleak setting of broken dreams and hideously broken bodies in Hollywood. As the line between reality and imagination becomes more blurred, Edgar Allen, convinced the only way to be a real writer is to suffer, is driven slowly mad.

A rocket ship carrying astronaut John Corcoran (Michael Emmet) launches and orbits the Earth, marking the United States' first manned space launch. Shortly after taking off, the ship is struck by an unknown object, forcing Corcoran to abort the mission and land. However, the equipment cannot handle the fast descent back into the atmosphere and the ship crash lands in the woods, killing Corcoran. Dave Randall (Ed Nelson) and Donna Bixby (Georgianna Carter), two technicians from a nearby space agency tracking station, locate the crashed ship and recover Corcoran's body. They are baffled, however, by what appears to be a giant tear in the side of the destroyed spacecraft and a mud-like substance covering some of the wreckage. Randall and Bixby are joined by lead scientist Dr. Alex Wyman (Tyler McVey), technician Steve Dunlap (John Baer) and physician Julie Benson (Angela Greene), who was also Corcoran's fiancé. Wyman observes that Corcoran's body exhibits no signs of rigor mortis and that the blood pooling beside him is not livid as it should be. The team brings the corpse back to their lab to run tests and find further irregularities. Although the body lacks a heartbeat or pulse, it maintains the blood pressure of a living human being. After looking at his blood in a microscope, they find unusual, unidentifiable cells that seem resistant to destruction from human white blood cells.

The team tries to call for further assistance, but find the radio is no longer working. Randall heads outside to check the power transformers, and is attacked by a large creature (Ross Sturlin) hiding in the underbrush around the station. Randall fires a few shots at the creature with his pistol and escapes unscathed. Although he did not get a good look at the creature, he describes it to the rest of the team as similar in size to a bear. Later, the team finds the infirmary has been trashed and Corcoran's body is gone. They initially believe the creature has broken in and stole the corpse, but are shocked to instead find Corcoran has mysteriously regained consciousness. Upon checking his blood again, there is no trace of the mysterious cells from before, but after investigating Corcoran's body, they find the cells have changed into lizard-like fetuses and entered into his abdominal cavity. The creature later breaks into the lab again, this time beheading Dr. Wyman. Randall and Dunlap are initially suspicious that Corcoran was involved in the death, which he denies, but it appears he has some sort of telepathic connection with the creature. Despite Wyman's death, Corcoran does not believe the creature is evil, but rather simply misunderstood. He implores the others to give the creature a chance to explain its actions and asks that they not condemn it as a monster simply because it is different.

As the others plot to destroy the creature with improvised gas bombs and flares, Corcoran flees the station and finds the creature in a nearby cave. After consuming Wyman's brain, the creature is now able to speak with the scientist's voice and has absorbed his knowledge. Corcoran asks whether Wyman's death was needed, but the creature insists it was a necessary sacrifice. The others arrive to destroy the creature, but hesitate because Corcoran will not step aside and let them throw their bombs. The creature insists it is not an evil monster, but an intelligent alien who has come to Earth to save the human race from its own self-destructive tendencies. It explains that Corcoran's body has been implanted with its embryos, which will allow the alien species to multiply and take over the human race, which the creature claims is the only way to truly save humanity. Upon realizing the creature is forcing the will of its species on the human race, Corcoran concludes the creature is evil after all and commits suicide so its embryos cannot come to fruition. The others then throw their explosives and kill the creature, which in its dying breath warns that others from his species are waiting in space and will return one day to conquer humanity.

The story starts off with a father, named Kent, pleading for his young son not to eat an ice cream cone, but to no avail—the ice cream is eaten and Kent shockingly dissolves into a puddle of melted ice cream. At Kent's funeral, Layne Banixter, one of his childhood friends, attends. While there, Layne observes a shaggy individual hiding back in the trees, smirking. While Layne is at a pub, his friend, Toot, is drinking himself into a stupor. Toot claims that Kent was in a closed casket because there was nothing left of him but his clothes. He insists that Layne's moving back to town has created bad luck for everyone. Around midnight, Layne heads home and observes several children in a trance, standing outside, clutching coins with an eerie chant of "We all scream for ice cream".

Worried, Layne goes to bed. His wife is concerned at his distant behavior, and she urges him to tell her what's wrong. Layne tells his wife of his childhood, and the local ice-cream man named Buster Dawkins. He was a decent soul who drove an ice-cream truck and wore a clown suit. The neighborhood bully, Virgil Constance, had pulled off his clown nose to reveal a burnt stub – Buster had no real nose. Layne ends the story there, stating that one day, Buster simply died. Then he gets a phone call and arrives at the scene of Toot's death – his clothes in a pile of something gooey. Layne's wife demands to know what part of the story he omitted. Distressed, Layne tells her that Virgil planned a prank on Buster that one of them would release the brake on his truck and make it roll down the hill. Virgil forced Layne to pull the brake, and the truck began rolling straight towards Buster. Too busy picking up fallen coins to notice, Buster was run over by the truck and killed.

That night, Layne goes to see the adult Virgil, the shaggy man he spotted at the funeral. Virgil eventually tells Layne that Buster has returned for revenge for their fatal prank. While they are talking, a ghostly ice-cream truck stops nearby in front of a little girl whom Virgil had molested. Buster reaches out of his truck to her, and his horribly-scabbed hand gives the girl a treat. He tells her she can use it to get revenge. Upon the girl biting into it, Virgil melts away, screaming as layers of skin and flesh strips off him like ice-cream.

Layne returns home with a plan. He begs his wife to take their children away to their grandmother's house for one day while he fixes things. After they leave, he tests the garden devices with a remote, then uses ice cream from a bucket in the freezer to create a shape. He wraps the treat with one of Buster's wrappers that Layne had thrown away.

Upon hearing the ice-dream truck's creepy tune, Layne, carrying a small cooler, walks outside for a showdown. His children, lured by Buster from the car a short distance away, run to them. Buster's vengeful spirit offers an ice-cream (shaped like Layne) to Layne's kids. Layne and Buster struggle until Layne turns on the garden sprinklers, freezing the clown. Layne's son sees the ice-cream treat Layne had dropped, and it's shaped exactly like Buster. The boy bites into it, and the clown dies. In the next scene, everything appears normal again and the family is about to move away from that town, but suddenly Layne hears the old creepy tune again, and the film ends with a flash of Buster's rotten face.

The warrior Deathstalker is sent by a witch on a quest to find a chalice, an amulet, and a sword, two of which are held by the wicked sorcerer Munkar (Bernard Erhard). Deathstalker finds the sword almost immediately, which has been hidden by the witch in a cave guarded by an ogre and an imp. The imp Salmaron reveals himself to be a thief cursed by the witch and aids Deathstalker in defeating the ogre. Deathstalker removes the curse from Salmaron and the thief agrees to accompany Deathstalker on his journey. Sword in hand, Deathstalker sets out to Munkar's castle to gain the remaining objects of power.

On his journey, Deathstalker learns of a tournament from Oghris (Richard Brooker), a charming warrior. Munkar has invited warriors across the land to participate in contests until a winner is determined - the winner will inherit Munkar's kingdom. One night along the way to the tournament, the pair meet Kaira, a defiant female warrior (Lana Clarkson) who wears only a G-string and a cloak. Later that night Deathstalker has sex with her. Salmaron looks on with amusement at the pair. Kaira joins the group on their journey the next morning.

Arriving at Munkar's castle, Deathstalker and the other participants gather in Munkar's banquet room the night before the tournament. The warriors are invited to get drunk and rape Munkar's harem slaves, including Princess Codille (Barbi Benton). Oghris connects with one slave girl while Kaira keeps Deathstalker to herself. Deathstalker rescues Princess Codille, briefly, but Munkar takes her back. Munkar reveals to his assistant that his true agenda is for the warriors to fight each other to the death until only a weakened survivor remains for Munkar to kill. This would remove all threats to his rule. Munkar transforms his assistant into the likeness of the Princess and sends him to kill the hero; when Deathstalker attempts to rape Codille, he discovers that the woman is not all "woman" and sends her away. Kaira finds the assassin; assuming she is the real Codille, she is tragically killed by the assassin in a sword fight after Munkar's disguise spell wears off.

The night after the first day of the tournament, Oghris is taken by Munkar's men to a prison cell while Salmaron is attacked by prison guards. The thief is knocked into a well that leads to Munkar's harem. It is revealed that Oghris brought Deathstalker to the tournament expressly for Munkar and he is ordered to kill him. Reluctant to kill his friend, Oghris warns Deathstalker and asks the hero to just leave the tournament but Deathstalker refuses and attacks him. During the brawl, Oghris has the chance to draw the sword and kill Deathstalker but chooses to fight fairly and ultimately loses. Deathstalker says goodbye to the fighter and kills him.

The last day of the tournament arrives and there are only two competitors left - Deathstalker and an ogre. After a long fight, Deathstalker kills the ogre and moves to claim his prize. He is attacked by Munkar's men but makes his way to the amulet. Salmaron is discovered in the harem room but frees the women and helps them slay the guards. Deathstalker defeats the holder of the amulet and faces Munkar; he is able to defeat the sorcerer's illusions and claims the third object of power. Deathstalker declares he has no interest in Munkar's power or kingdom - he destroys the three objects of power and throws Munkar to a crowd of slaves who tear him apart.

The Road Runner (''Disappearialis Quickius'') zooms to the end of a cliff and watches as Wile E. Coyote (''Overconfidentii Vulgaris'') takes steps back on a different cliff, attempting to jump to the other side, and the end falls off when he steps on it, and the title appears. While falling, the rock turns upside down and Wile E. struggles to get on the new top side. He thinks that he made it to the top and starts panting, but then realizes he is actually upside down again. He gets the pointy end stuck between two cliff ends. He then goes on the left end, but that end falls off and hits the ground, and a small accordion-squished Wile E. walks away with the ''coney'' cliff end on him.

Later, Wile E., who is back to normal, then again chases the Road Runner. When the Road Runner stops at the top of a natural arch and gets Wile E. to stop as well, the bird points at the ground. Wile E.'s nose then points to the ground, before he falls to the ground once more. The Road Runner zips off and Wile E. tries to deduce how did the bird managed to defy gravity, but finally admits he is clueless.

''1.'' Wile E. then sets up a bear trap in the middle of the road, struggling in the process. Once the trap is set, he placed a bowl of ACME Bird Seed on the trap's base and hides behind a rock. The Road Runner sees the bird seed, eats it and zooms off, but the trap does not go off. Confused, the Coyote approaches the trap with an oilcan, applies a tiny drop of oil to the base (while standing inside the trap), and then it finally closes—on him. The zigzag-shaped Coyote walks off with a deadpan "Ouch".

''2.'' An attempt to chase the Road Runner with a jet mobile ends up with the motor's fire burning the support beam, causing the entire apparatus to collapse.

''3.'' Wile E. uses an ACME Instant Icicle Maker. "Freeze Your Friend-Loads of Laughs". After experimenting on a cactus, he tries to freeze the Road Runner. As soon as he hears the "Beep-Beep", he jumps out on the road to see the approaching bird, but the machine then activates, freezing the Coyote instead. Wile E. tries to thaw himself out with a magnifying glass, but only ends up melting himself into a puddle along with the ice as well.

''4.'' Finally, the Coyote paints iron glue on an ACME Boomerang, but when he prepares to launch the boomerang, the glue droops down onto his hand, sticking the Coyote onto the boomerang and carrying him with it as he throws it. While still in the air, Wile E. attempts to free himself from the sticky boomerang, but only ends up getting both his hands stuck on his head. He crashes rear first on the ground, then walks away with the boomerang stuck on his back legs. An iris out shaped like a boomerang appears, then stops to show the words ''The End''.

The title is a pun on the motion picture title "Room at the Top".

Victor Mancini is a sex addict who works as a reenactor of life in Colonial America. He works with his best friend, Denny, who is also a reformed sex addict. To support his hospitalized mother, Ida, Victor cons others by intentionally choking at restaurants to get money from his rescuers.

When he visits his mother one day, he meets Dr Paige Marshall, who takes care of her. She tells Victor that his mother's condition is worsening and that they could try an experimental stem cell technique that would require harvesting cells from the umbilical cord of a newborn baby with Victor's genes. She persuades Victor to have sex with her so she can have his child and save his mother.

Victor never knew his father and is anxious to obtain the information from his mother, but she never recognizes him when he visits. He asks Denny to pose as him and ask her questions. Denny agrees and reveals that Victor's mother kept a diary. Victor finds it, but it is in Italian. Paige tells Victor she can read Italian and agrees to translate the diary.

Victor and Paige try several times to have sex, but Victor cannot maintain an erection. After discussing it with Denny, Victor realizes he loves Paige. She then reveals to him that his mother may have fled Italy because she stole Jesus' foreskin, and used its cells to conceive Victor, making him the Second Coming. He is reluctant to believe but, in the end, accepts Paige's assertion. However, his mother finally recognizes him and tells him that she stole him as a baby and she has no idea who his birth parents are. As she tells him this, he feeds her chocolate pudding and accidentally chokes her to death.

While Paige tries to resuscitate Victor's mother, a hidden band around her wrist falls into Victor's view, revealing that she is a patient in the hospital—not a doctor. Paige then reveals that she was admitted to the hospital years ago, in a catatonic state, and fell in love with Victor through the stories his mother told her about him. As she was a former medical student, the nurses allowed her to wear a white coat, as it calmed her down. Paige, a voluntary patient, checks herself out without saying goodbye to Victor.

After his mother's funeral, Victor boards a plane. He goes to the bathroom and the door opens to reveal Paige joining him.

From the Silent Debuggers Game Manual by NEC Technologies, 1991:

''The Great War is over. Mankind is united into one peaceful world. Or is it?''

''While the Joint Government pursues a policy of "Advancement into Outer Space" it encounters pockets of resistance. The evil forces ("Bugs") must be destroyed before they threaten the peace of the Universe. Yet there are no armies, only small groups of highly paid soldiers left over from the Great War. The most famous of these groups is the "Silent Debuggers". Powerful and mysterious, now the government calls upon them again. As an aspiring Debugger with your sidekick Leon, you are assigned to enter the Evil Space Station Gane. While it is rumoured that riches abound, no Debugger has ever returned from this fortress of evil.''

The series starts twenty years earlier when a group of Chilean friends travel for fun to Los Angeles, United States. One night in the hotel a gunshot is heard, and Marcia Jones (Jael Unger), the first to hear it, runs to the room where she heard the shot to find her friend Patricia dead on the floor of the room. Marcia picks up the gun by accident, therefore becoming the sole murder suspect. Months later she's found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison in the United States. During the trial it's discovered that at the time of her death, Patricia was pregnant. Every friend Marcia thought she had shuns her, including her husband Esteban San Lucas (Walter Kliche), who leaves her in the United States and forces her to sign a marriage annulment.

The story moves on to present day (1981), Marcia has now become a bitter woman who only maintains contact with her attorney, who has always believed in her innocence and tries to help her. Father Belisario (Tennyson Ferrada), a priest in Pomaire also remains in touch with Marcia and regularly sends her Chilean food and clay which Marcia uses to make highly-appraised figurines which had allowed her to generate a small fortune by herself. One day Marcia is released from prison and decides to return to Chile. At this point, Esteban is about to marry Ana Rosa (Ana María Palma), to the dismay of Héctor (Ramón Farías), Luna (Claudia Di Girólamo), and Ricardo (Alberto Vega), Esteban's children with Marcia. Especially since the wedding day coincides with another anniversary of the "mother's death"—Esteban had told this lie to his kids so he wouldn't have to tell them she was a murderer.

Days later, the group of friends receives an invitation to a hotel where they find out that they have been summoned by Marcia herself, who has returned to reclaim her children and finally discover Patricia's real murderer. She begins by making Esteban cease his relationship with Ana Rosa, and goes on to remarry him herself, therefore becoming "La Madrastra" ("The Stepmother") of her own children who reject her completely and make her life impossible at first. But as time goes on, Marcia slowly regains their trust.

At the same time, she slowly uncovers the truth: Patricia's murderer was Estrella (Gloria Münchmeyer), who killed Patricia because she was expecting a baby that could have possibly come from her affair with Estrella's husband Donato (Jaime Vadell) who might have left Estrella to be with Patricia and their baby.

11-year-old Roy and his big brother, Joe, are on the run from the authorities when they fetch up at the Bar None ranch. Their shared passion for horses soon wins them great respect, and Roy is offered the chance of a lifetime, to break in a wild pony that runs like the desert wind. He is even promised that if he can ride Lady Luck, he can keep her – a dream come true.

But Roy knows that Joe has a dangerous secret... a dark obsession that could explode at any time and send Roy's dream, and their whole world, up in smoke.

''A Swift Pure Cry'' opens a year after the mother of fifteen-year-old Michelle "Shell" Talent dies, leaving her husband and three children to cope with her death. The eldest of the children, Shell is given the responsibility to care for her younger siblings as well as continue attending school as their father changes drastically.

When a new priest, Father Rose, comes to their village, Coolbar, Shell begins to believe once again in Jesus and in her mother's spirit. However, her father is also changed by religion; he quits his job to only collect money for church drives, leaving Shell and her family in poverty. At school, Shell's only friends are Declan, the altar boy, and Bridie, another misfit teen.

As Shell feels more and more isolated from normal family life, she becomes involved with Declan, who makes her promise not to tell anyone, so he can continue seeing Bridie as well. Unfortunately, Declan abandons both girls for America, leaving Shell pregnant and alone. She manages to hide the pregnancy from her father and gives birth to a stillborn child around Christmas, whom she names Rose, for the priest.

Around the same time, another baby is found dead, killed by exposure, and Shell is under suspicion of abandoning her child. The town is in an uproar, as is the rest of Ireland, and Shell finds comfort in Father Rose's help. However, Father Rose believes Shell's father to be the baby's father and the town folk believes that Father Rose is the father.

In the end, it is revealed that Bridie was also pregnant from Declan and gave birth around the same time as Shell, but her child survived. Faced with pressure and despair, she left her child outside to die. Concluding, Shell returns to school and Father Rose is transferred to another location in Ireland for training.

Mani Kongo (Gérard Essomba) is the king of the Bakongo. His only daughter, Mwana (Dominique Mesa), left for Belgium as a young child in hopes of becoming a doctor, but contact with her had been lost over the past few years. Mani Kongo decides to travel to Belgium in search of his beloved daughter. On arriving he will have to cope with the very best and the very worst of the black diaspora, as well as with prejudices rampant in European society. He himself will find good friends amongst poor low-class whites.

The main character of the series is a bird, whose full name is the "Fiddley Foodle Bim Bam Boodle Oo Diddley-Doodle Oodle Bird". The character is voiced by Dennis Waterman (actor and singer famous for his roles as Terry McCann in ''Minder'' and Detective Sergeant George Carter in ''The Sweeney''). The bird was originally nothing more than just a picture in a book, which was found by a young boy named Algernon. He wished that the bird would come to life, and when the wish came true they set out on an adventure with Algernon's friends, the eternally hungry Princess Toto, and his housekeeper, the overly strict Mrs. Grumblebaum. The aim of the mission is to find Algernon's lost parents, two members of the Potty Explorer's Club- Carzy and Maudy. They were lost exploring in a sieve. However, Algernon's dastardly Uncle Arbathnot is out to ensure that their mission does not succeed, and also to seize a mysterious treasure chest. He is assisted by a muscle-man named Damage, a Frenchman named Flannel, and a pirate named Pierre Head, who, like most pirates, is accompanied by a parrot — a wise-cracking green glove puppet. The show features a guest appearance from Cilla Black, who voiced the President of the Potty Explorer's Club.

Three dogs and one cat are naturally suspicious of each other. At first the dogs and cat are playing various tricks with each other, and their thoughts are translated to the viewers by actor Lev Lemke. Eventually the four pets become good friends and have adventures together. They follow their owner, a forest ranger (played by Petr Shelokhonov), on various trips. With the help of a girl (played by Katya Kishmereshkina) three dogs and cat also help other people and have lots of fun together.

Nami Matsushima is used as a spy by her first real boyfriend, a police detective named Sugimi, to investigate a drug smuggling ring. However, her role is discovered and she is raped by several drug dealers. It emerges that Sugimi was simply using Matsushima as a pretext to obtain a bribe from the ''yakuza''. Seeking revenge, Matsushima makes a failed attempt to stab Sugimi on the steps of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police headquarters. She is sentenced to do hard time in a women's prison, where she is given the number 701.

The prison is run by sadistic and lecherous male guards. The prisoners are forced to walk up and down a stair-like contraption naked with male guards watching from below. While incarcerated, Matsushima meets inmates like Yuki Kida, who was convicted for fraud and theft; Otsuka, jailed for burglary and extortion; and Katagiri, who was imprisoned for arson and illegally disposing of a body. Outside the prison, Sugimi and the ''yakuza'' orchestrate a plan in which Matsushima will succumb to an "accidental" death in prison.

The conspirators enlist the help of Katagiri and quickly set their plan in motion. Matsushima is attacked in the shower but defends herself, wounding the attacker. She is punished by being held bound by ropes in solitary confinement. A group of trustees, including Katagiri, tortures her; one pours hot soup on her. Matsushima is able to trip the trustee and make her spill the vat of hot soup over herself, causing horrible burns. Matsushima is forced to dig dirt holes for two consecutive days and nights. She kills a woman who attempts to attack her during this digging by tripping her and breaking her neck. In response, Matsushima is hung and tied from the ceiling while being beaten by her fellow prisoners.

After a prison riot, Matsushima escapes and kills Sugimi and all of the ''yakuza'' with a dagger. The film ends with Matsushima walking alone back in prison.