Jake and Hawkins go to Cheyenne, where they tell Grey to go home to Jericho. Grey says that the whole constitutional convention is a sham. He and a fellow convention attendee had just discussed the removal of the Second Amendment from the Constitution being written at the convention for the Allied States of America.

Beck arrests Heather after he discovers that she had removed information from an aerial scan for radiation. When he asks why she did it, she says that she believes that Cheyenne is corrupt, accuses him of working for a fraudulent, illegitimate government, and challenges him to "open his eyes".

Hawkins contacts the only other member of his team, Cheung, who comes to Gray's hotel room, where Hawkins and Jake are waiting. They soon discover that the nuke will be transferred using an ambulance, in order to not attract attention. Hawkins, Jake, and Cheung go to a hospital that had been evacuated because of a "gas leak." They find an EMT with a gun and soon after, an ambulance. Cheung doesn't trust Jake so he stays behind. While securing the nuke, one of the ambulance drivers pulls out a gun and kills Cheung and the other driver before he shoots Hawkins. The driver then speaks and reveals himself as John Smith; the mastermind behind the attacks finally revealed in person.

More soldiers, as well as Beck arrive at the Richmond Farm. Beck tells Stanley that he is sorry for their loss and then tells the Rangers that they are free to leave. When Eric asks why, Beck explains that he told his company commanders twenty minutes earlier that he no longer recognizes the ASA government's right to lead. He says that he considers Cheyenne to be corrupt and that most likely by the end of the day he will be arrested and sent to Cheyenne to be court-martialed for treason. However, until that happens, he is still in charge and he is letting the Rangers take their time.

At the army headquarters in Jericho, Beck sits in a chair drinking scotch when Heather comes in. He tells her that she is free to leave and she asks what the other officers are doing in Beck's office. He says that he told them to look at Hawkins's laptop and to decide what they will do to him. The officers then come out and tear the ASA flags off of their uniforms, asking Beck for orders. Beck tells his men to spread the word to prepare for a fight.

In Texas, Chavez comes and tells Jake that after the bomb is authenticated, Texas is siding with the old US government based in Columbus, Ohio, which will lead to the Second American Civil War. Texan soldiers load the nuke into a truck as Hawkins is loaded into an ambulance.

Alternate ending

Producers initially shot two endings—one a cliffhanger, one more of an open-ended wrap-up, at the request of CBS, which was still undecided on the future of the show beyond the second season. On March 20, 2008, CBS notified the show's producers that they would not renew the show, and that they would show the wrap-up version. According to producer Jon Steinberg, the version with the cliffhanger ending will appear on the season two DVD set, and may also be made available for viewing on CBS' website.

The alternate ending begins with Jake and Hawkins arriving at the airport; Hawkins tells Jake to let him out on the runway so he can disable the tower. If he's not back in 10 minutes, Jake is to leave without him. Jake waits at the plane and Hawkins blows up the tower, but the ASA troops swarm the area. Due to his wounds, Hawkins is caught by the troops as Jake leaves without him.

We see that Hawkins has been taken to Lumeridge Prison in Colorado, where the ASA's Secret Service plans to interrogate him and hold him there for life after he has healed. Hawkins then has an encounter with Valente, who tells him how difficult he's made things and that he wants to know everything Hawkins knows. However, Hawkins sarcastically replies that he knows that Valente and Tomarchio will soon be exposed by the analysis of the bomb and that the United States will stop the Allied States from gaining any more power. Valente then leaves Hawkins to his fate in the cell.

Upon arriving in Texas, Jake is greeted by Governor Todd (a woman) and Chavez, who asks about the whereabouts of Hawkins. Jake says he was captured and Chavez deduces he would be at Lumeridge. Jake then moves towards the plane and Chavez asks where he's going. "To get my friend! You coming?" Chavez simply smirks before he and Jake board the plane and the bomb is taken away. It ends with the plane taking off from the runway, a thunderstorm forming in the sky.

Emm Luther is a planet ruled by a single, worldwide theocracy. It is evenly populated, and a couple of railroads run up and down the coasts of the largest continent. Earth sends secret agent Sam Tallon to Emm Luther to infiltrate the theocracy and extract the coordinates of the "null-space" (hyperspace) jump points of a newly discovered colonizable world, a closely guarded secret.

When the religious secret police discover that he has false credentials and has entered their world under false pretenses, a frantic chase and flight ensues. He is captured in his hotel room. A high-ranking officer named Cherkassky tries to render Tallon harmless by erasing his memory of the jump data, using a device called a "brain brush". He thinks that he has succeeded, but Tallon is equipped with a gadget that can sequester certain memories. Cherkassky enjoys tormenting people, and he is known for destroying most of the memories of prisoners who annoy him. He begins by erasing Tallon's memory of a loved one; the sense of loss enrages Tallon, and he attacks Cherkassky in a bid for escape. He is blinded when Cherkassky shoots him in the face with a dart gun, destroying his eyes. He is taken to a secret prison complex in the southernmost tip of the most distant continent to convalesce. While he is there, he enlists the aid of the scientific elite among the other political prisoners there, and together they design a pair of electronic "sonar" eyes. The headgear delivers different tones to distinguish various objects. Later, they make another breakthrough: they make a device that can sense and interpret the nerve signals of the eyes of nearby living things. Tallon can now see, but only through others' eyes. After they develop and test this device, Tallon and his partner Winfield try to break out, but Winfield is shot during the attempt. Tallon must flee alone, depending on encountering local animal life in order to see.

Tallon escapes and travels across the continent, reaching his secret contact after much difficulty. When he has a chance to escape the planet, though, he is delayed by trying to bring a new lover with him. Later, when he does try to depart, he finds that his ship is filled with police. Battle ensues, and he seems to be the sole survivor. He boards the ship and starts a null-space jump to a random point in the universe. Now blind since there isn't anyone in the ship, he must somehow master the intricacies of the "jump stick," a form of jump drive via portals to null-space (a hyperspace parallel universe, through which FTL space travel is achieved). However, further trouble arrives in the form of Cherkassky, who also survived the battle for the ship. They fight, and Cherkassky is killed. Tallon finds a mouse to function as his eyes. He solves the mathematical problems concerning null-space travel by discovering that he can also see through the eyes of people in other ships traversing various routes through null-space. He gains knowledge of the structure of null-space that will be invaluable to space travelers, since the complexities of null-space had theretofore never been adequately mapped. He eventually reaches home with his enemy (and some loved ones) dead, but his new knowledge helps bring about greater peace.

Category:1967 British novels Category:Novels by Bob Shaw Category:Religion in science fiction

In Madrid, during the bombing of November 1936, in the Spanish Civil War, the Republican Government decided on the evacuation of paintings from the Prado Museum. Manuel, a 28-year-old security guard, finds a self-portrait of Goya abandoned in one corner. He hides the painting and flees the bombing of his house.

Prologue

The prologue serves to defend Terence's method of playwriting. He asks the audience to judge the play by its merits, rather than by the opinions of critics.

Act one

Menedemus, a wealthy farmer, explains to his neighbour Chremes why he is punishing himself by working hard in his fields. Menedemus explains that he had reproached his son Clinia for his having a relationship with a penniless girl, and had held up his own youth as a soldier as a virtuous contrast. Clinia, shamed, has taken Menedemus more literally than he intended and has gone to live as a soldier in the East. By coincidence, immediately after Menedemus exits, Chremes encounters his own son, Clitipho with Clinia, who has returned from the East. Clitipho tells Chremes not to tell Menedemus, as Clinia is still afraid of his father's wrath. Chremes agrees for the moment but adds that a father's duty is to be severe. Once alone, Clitipho swears he will never be a tyrant in the mould of his father.

Act two

Clinia has sent for his lover, Antiphila, who has been in mourning for the old weaving-woman who brought her up. Antiphila arrives accompanied by Bacchis, the wealthy courtesan with whom Clitipho is in love. Clitipho is angered that his slave, Syrus, has presumed to invite his mistress to his father's house, as his father will disapprove of her. Syrus conceives a ruse for the meantime where Bacchis will pose as Clinia's mistress and Antiphila as her servant. The women arrive; Bacchis praises Antiphila for her virtue and beauty but warns that beauty and men's attention fade, and that she ought to find a man to love who will be constant for life. They meet Clinia and the young lovers are overcome with joy at the reunion.

Act three

Chremes informs Menedemus that his son is returned, but believing that Bacchis is Clinia's mistress, he warns Menedemus against welcoming him home, explaining that Clinia is now in love with a spendthrift mistress. He advises Menedemus to wait while Syrus works out a plan. When Menedemus exits, Chremes is surprised to find Clitipho embracing Bacchis, and tells him off. Syrus agrees to help Chremes, but only because it dovetails with his own scheme directed ''against'' Chremes: Syrus needs money because he had promised Bacchis money for her part in the deception. Syrus tells Chremes that Antiphila had been pawned to Bacchis by the old weaveress, and Bacchis now wants to sell her, and he advises Chremes to tell Menedemus to buy Antiphila as she is a good bargain: a captive from Caria whose friends will pay handsomely for her release. Chremes thinks it unlikely that Menedemus will go for this.

Act four

Sostrata, Chremes' wife, has discovered, by way of a ring that Antiphila has given to her for safekeeping while she bathes, that Antiphila is her long-lost daughter whom she had given away to be exposed on Chremes' direction. Syrus realizes that his deception may thus be found out and he may lose the chance to pay off Bacchis, and may be punished. He withdraws to consider a better plan. Clinia, on the other hand, is overjoyed because Antiphila is now revealed to be a suitable wife for him, so he will be able to abandon the deception. But Syrus says that while Clinia may tell his father the truth, he must keep up the pretense to Chremes for a while longer because Clitipho will be in trouble if Chremes discovers that Bacchis is Clitipho's mistress. When Clinia objects that Chremes will not allow him to marry his daughter while he believes Bacchis is Clinia's lover, Syrus persuades him to maintain the ruse for a day to give Syrus the time to get Bacchis' money. Syrus then tells Bacchis, who is threatening to expose him, to go to Menedemus' house where she will get paid. Syrus then tells Chremes the truth as if it is a trick: he tells him that Clinia has told his father that Bacchis is Clitipho's mistress and that he wishes to marry Antiphila. Syrus advises Chremes that he should go along with this 'trick' and offer to give Clinia dowry money, as well as giving Clitipho money to give to Bacchis to pay off her pledge. Meanwhile, Menedemus has been reunited with Clinia, but he then encounters Chremes who tells him that his son is deceiving him with a false declaration that he wishes to marry Antiphila so that he can extract more money for his mistress Bacchis. Menedemus is dismayed and agrees to pretend to believe his son's plan while Chremes engineers a plot to entrap him.

Act five

Following his agreement with Chremes, Menedemus tells his son that his match with Antiphila will go ahead. Chremes is puzzled that Clinia does not respond by trying to extract expenses for the nuptials but then realises that it is he and not Menedemus who is the subject of Syrus' plot. He is in despair as he only has sufficient money to keep up his family for ten days. Menedemus repeats the advice that Chremes gave to him at the start of the play: he should make his son abide by his wishes. Although Chremes approves of the match now between Clinia and Antiphila, because of his financial woe the dowry he can offer is too small. He asks Menedemus to help save his son by pretending that he, Chremes, is giving away all his estate to make a sufficient dowry. Clitipho is distraught when he hears this news, but his father tells him he would rather have his estate be thus disposed of than go to Bacchis by way of his heir. Menedemus upbraids Chremes for treating his son too harshly and Chremes relents, but on the condition that Clitipho give up Bacchis and take a different wife. Clitipho, preferring a full stomach to passion, agrees to marry a respectable girl. In the last lines of the play, Clitipho begs Chremes to reward Syrus for everything he has done for them.

Chen Jun is the leader of Shao He Triad, which has a number of illegal businesses operating in Malaysia and Singapore. He is retiring from the Triad and money-lending business. He is succeeded by a young lady, Wang Lihua, who tries to restructure the "Ah Long (loan shark) system" with as little use of violence as possible while making debtors pay back.

Lihua and several of her subordinates start implementing a series of creative methods to attract people to borrow money. They also practice hilarious methods to pressure debtors to repay in a way that is anti-violent. However, this restructuring is met with opposition from the majority of the "elders" in both her own and rival triad (the Qinglongs).

Lihua is pressured by her mother to get married. Lihua decides to force Mr Fang, an effeminate dance instructor, to marry her. Mr Fang agrees to the proposal, wanting to prove his masculinity. Subsequently, Mr Fang offers to help Lihua out by introducing creative ways to reduce violent methods of debt collection.

Chen Jun is opposed to these less-violent ways of debt collection, but appears to have a change of heart. However, Lihua and her gang members get embroiled with a fight with a rival triad, whose head, it is later revealed, is acting under Chen Jun's instigation. Lihua and Fang go on the run with the Malaysian police and three gang members on their heels. Chen Jun, Lihua and Fang get caught by a number of street urchins, who turn out to be children of debtors who were killed after failing to pay back Chen Jun's gang their loan money.

Finally, the Malaysian police nab Chen Jun, Lihua and her company for their illegal dealings. They are sentenced to jail terms (except Chen Jun, who was executed). Mr Fang fetches Lihua on the day of her release, and surprises her by bringing her to an office dealing in legal business, run by former members of the Shao He Triad (whom some of them once had terms of 8–10 years). Lihua finds the drive to lead again after being in jail for 10 years.

The story follows Sakura 'Penguin' Nankyoku and her friends Kujira Etorofu and Nene Kurio through their daily lives, which are often corrupted by either Penguin herself, her economic rival Mary Whitebear, or other people who have interest in the Nankyoku family. Sakura Nankyoku is a total otaku. Due to a fluke, she gets elected as her class' student council president. Everything takes off from there into a series of crazy misadventures revolving around Sakura, her family, and her classmates.

"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" opens with Xena and Gabrielle running into Joxer, who has a package for Xena. It contains the talking head of Orpheus. Orpheus's head informs Xena that Bacchus has decapitated him, and that he must be stopped. They arrive at a nearby town, and Gabrielle goes to a party and dances with a group of Bacchus's bacchae: female vampires created by Bacchus. Meanwhile, Xena defeats two bacchae. Elsewhere, Bacchus plots to turn Xena into an "eternal bacchae".

The next day the protagonists go to the cemetery next to Bacchus's catacombs to collect dryad bones. These bones are the only thing capable of piercing a bacchae's heart and killing them. Xena kills one of the skeletal, winged dryads and procures a sharp bone. Gabrielle then turns into a bacchae; she had been bitten the previous day at the party. Gabrielle escapes into the catacombs and the group gives chase.

They find Gabrielle, Bacchus, and a large group of bacchae in the middle of a ceremony. Gabrielle is about to drink Bacchus's blood from a cup and become a permanent bacchae, but Xena knocks the cup to the ground with her chakram. A fight ensues and Xena attempts to kill Bacchus, but he informs her that only a bacchae can kill him. Xena lets Gabrielle bite her, becoming a bacchae, and then kills Bacchus, after which all of Bacchus' bacchae servants, as well as Xena and Gabrielle regain their humanity.

The film centres on the life of Phil, a fun loving student in his final year at British secondary school. He is currently going steady with girlfriend Sharon, whose best friend Vera (an early role for Kathy Burke) just happens to have the hots for his best mate Matthew. However, Matthew is gay, and dropped out of school the previous year as a means of escaping the abuse of the classroom, only for the discovery of his collection of soft-core gay porn to cause him problems at home as well. Matthew is an ardent swimmer - an opportunity for the film to immediately use and confront an obvious stereotype.

Phil is torn between the realisation that whilst he loves Sharon, he equally has feelings for Matthew. He tries to have it both ways, introducing the one to the other - prompting Vera to describe him as a "little worm" when Sharon runs off in distress. Tired of the complications of life at home, Phil and Matthew decide to elope to the coastal resort of Seaford on the Sussex coast. Sharon follows him, determined to regain her "fella".

The film has two endings. In the original 1987 release, Phil returns to Matthew at the beach, and they run together into the ocean. The film was re-released in 1988 with an ending where Phil appears to leave with Sharon, but Matthew decides that life must go on and that he is his own person.

Gilbert Valence is a grand old theatre actor who receives the shocking news that his wife, daughter, and son-in-law have been killed in a car accident. As time passes, Valence busies himself with his daily life in Paris, turning down unsuitable roles in low-brow television productions and looking after his 9-year-old grandson. When an American filmmaker miscasts him in an ill-conceived adaptation of James Joyce's ''Ulysses'', Valence finds himself compelled to make a decision about his life.

The plot of ''Get Lost!'' concerns the disappearance of Jim Threadgold (Brian Southwood), husband of English teacher Judy Threadgold (Turner). Aided by her colleague, woodwork teacher Neville Keaton (Armstrong), Judy sets out to find out what has happened to her husband. Judy and Neville soon discover the existence of a secret organisation dedicated to assisting people who want to escape the mundanity of their lives and families and just disappear. Although Judy eventually finds her missing husband, she is none too enthusiastic about taking him back and allows him to seek a new life running a fish and chip shop. Her adversarial relationship with Neville blossoms into a love affair.

A man calling himself Ryder and his accomplices – Bashkin, Emri, and former train operator Phil Ramos – hijack Pelham 123, a New York City Subway 6 train, at 77th Street. Uncoupling the front car of the train below 51st Street, they take the passengers hostage. Metropolitan Transportation Authority employee Walter Garber, working the Rail Control Center as a train dispatcher, receives a call from Ryder, demanding $10 million in cash to be paid within 60 minutes. Ryder warns that every minute he waits past the deadline, he will kill a hostage.

Bashkin kills a suspicious New York City Transit Police officer, and all the passengers not in the front car, except the motorman, are released. Garber reluctantly negotiates with Ryder as Ramos and Emri set up Internet access in the tunnel. On his laptop, Ryder watches the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunge nearly 1,000 points in response to the hijacking. A hostage's laptop also connects to the Internet, and its webcam allows the control center to observe Ryder and Ramos. Lieutenant Camonetti of the New York City Police Department Emergency Service Unit takes over negotiations, which infuriates Ryder, who kills the train's motorman to force Camonetti to bring Garber back.

Camonetti learns that Garber is being investigated for allegedly accepting a $35,000 bribe over a contract for new Japanese subway cars. Ryder also discovers the allegations online and forces Garber to confess by threatening to kill a passenger. To save the hostage, Garber claims that he was offered the bribe while deciding between two companies, using the money to pay for his child's college tuition, and insists he would have made the same decision regardless. The mayor agrees to Ryder's ransom, ordering the police to deliver it. En route, the police car is involved in an accident and fails to deliver the money in time. Garber attempts to bluff Ryder that the ransom has arrived, unaware he has been monitoring events on his laptop. Ryder threatens to execute a child's mother, but another hostage, a former soldier, sacrifices himself and is killed. A brief gunfight erupts after an Emergency Services Unit sniper is bitten by a rat and discharges his weapon, killing Ramos.

Based on clues from Garber's conversations, the police discover that Ryder is Dennis Ford, a manager at a private equity firm who was sentenced to prison for investment fraud. Ford had agreed to a plea bargain to serve three years, but received ten years instead. One of the mayor's aides mentions the extreme drop in the major stock indexes, and the mayor deduces that Ryder is attempting to manipulate the market via put options. Ryder demands that Garber deliver the ransom money himself to avoid coming in contact with the police. Garber is flown to the terminal, where he is given a pistol for protection. Ryder brings Garber aboard and orders him to operate the train down the tunnel below 33rd Street, where Garber and the hijackers exit, rigging the train to go on without them. Garber manages to separate himself at a railway crossing and then follows Ryder to Track 61 underneath Waldorf Astoria hotel. Ryder parts from Bashkin and Emri, who are shot dead after being surrounded by police and provoking deadly force in an apparent suicide-by-cop. The train comes to a screeching halt safely just before Coney Island (West 8th Street-New York Aquarium), and the police discover that Ryder is no longer on board.

Ryder hails a taxi, with Garber following him on-foot, and finds out that his scheme has amassed $307 million. Garber steals a car and pursues Ryder. After a brief chase, they reach the Manhattan Bridge's pedestrian walkway, where Garber catches up with Ryder and holds him at gunpoint. Ryder gives him a 10-second ultimatum to pull the trigger, and in the final seconds, pulls out his own gun and forces Garber to shoot him. Telling Garber in his final breath, "You're my goddamn hero", Ryder collapses and dies (as Garber solemnly looks on while Camonetti observes approvingly from a chopper).

The mayor thanks Garber and assures him the city will "go to bat" for him over his bribery admission. The film concludes as Garber returns home to his wife with groceries he had promised to pick up.

Karthik (Karthik Kumar), a young lawyer, falls in love with Poongothai (Poongkothai Chandrahasan), the daughter of a businessman (Vijayakumar). Poongothai's father and sister (Janaki Sabesh) run a multi-level market and are imprisoned for false accusations. Karthik brings Poongothai to his parents and seeks permission from his mother (Revathy) and speech-impaired father (Nassar). Karthik and Poongothai eventually get married after his parents' consent.

One day while travelling back home, their car breaks down, and they decide to board a bus. However, both of them miss each other while travelling in the bus, and Poongothai falls into the hands of a group of teenagers, who are projected as womanizers. In the event, Poongothai is raped by the group and is thrown out with her hands tied at the back. After the event, issues of how she faces the humiliation and gets justice for the act form the rest of the story.

Despite escaping somewhere else, Poongothai wants to fight back the humiliation. An opposition lawyer (Thalaivasal Vijay) in the support of womanizers humiliates Poongothai in the court with vulgar questions. Two of the boys are kept captive under Karthik's family friend, a cop (Raviprakash), to render poetic justice. The opposition lawyer appears to save the boys, but the boys, who have realised the error of their ways, push the lawyer. All three of them fall down to their deaths in the building's basement, which is under construction.

Jannus is the son of Mistress Lillia, the ruler of Newstock, a village near the river in Bremner. The competing villages are protected by the Valde, strange female warriors who serve ten years in the villages. The few that reach the end of their service are allowed to get married with one of the rare male Valde. The Valde are tall, beautiful, filled with quick animal instincts, sexually mature at nine and dead of old age around thirty, are also gifted with empathy; the power to feel one's emotions.

While watching a duel to the death between Poli - Jannus's favorite Valde - and another Valde, Jannus discovers a Screamer, a fragile humanoid creature that is hunted without pity by the Valde. He saves the Screamer who tells him that he is an immortal Tek. Each time when a Tek dies he is reborn again. The Tek wants to return to Kantmorie to end his thousand years of regenerations. The Tek, called Lur by Jannus, persuades Jannus to accompany him.

Together with a merchant family, the Innsmiths (a corruption of Ironsmith) and a number of Valde warriors Jannus follows the river downstream. Among the Valde is Poli who served her ten years. After a number of adventures the Tek, Jannus, Poli and the leader of the merchant family find themselves in the desert trying to reach the location where the Shai is, the huge intelligence guiding the star ship that brought the Teks to the world, to end the endless cycle of reincarnation.

The film opens with Mr. Moto in disguise as a street salesmen and selling goods to passers-by. He sees a man leaving a shop with a tattoo of the British Flag on his arm. Moto enters the shop to sell a rare diamond to the owner. However, Moto sees a body stuffed into a wicker basket in the store, and using his mastery of judo takes down the shopkeeper. Later, he reserves a berth on a freighter headed for Shanghai. Also on the freighter is Bob Hitchings Jr., son of the owner of the freighter. Before leaving, Hitchings Sr. gives his son a confidential letter for the head of the Shanghai branch of the company. Hitchings and Moto become friends (Moto notices the letter), and Moto helps Hitchings cure a hangover. Hitchings complains to Moto that he has not met any beautiful women on board. After a stop in Honolulu, a beautiful woman named Gloria Danton boards the ship, and she and Hitchings fall in love. But Gloria is a spy for Nicolas Marloff, who runs a smuggling operation out of Shanghai. She periodically sends him notes and leaves without saying goodbye to Hitchings. Moto finds a steward looking for Hitchings’ letter and confronts him, knowing he was the person who killed the man in the wicker basket, as he wears the tattoo. Moto throws the man overboard and takes the letter.

At Shanghai, Hitchings meets with Joseph B. Wilkie and gives him the letter, but later learns that it is a blank sheet of paper. He calls his father, who tells him the letter said to watch out for smugglers. Hitchings is determined to find Gloria, and he learns from an unknown person that she is at the "international club". Both he and Wilkie go there, as well as Moto and his date, Lela Liu. Hitchings finds Gloria performing at the club and goes to her dressing room. However, the club owner Marloff discovers them together and, knowing that Hitchings knows too much, locks them both up. Moto tells Lela to call the police, and seeks out Marloff. Posing as a fellow smuggler, he tricks Marloff into leading him to Gloria and Hitchings. Lela is shot while contacting the police, but manages to tell them where she is. Wilkie finds Marloff, and demands that Gloria and Hitchings be released. Marloff finds out that Moto is not a smuggler, then Moto apprehends him. Moto tells Wilkie to get Marloff's gun, the gun explodes as Wilkie tries to grab it, killing Marloff. Police storm the building, and Moto tells them the Wilkie headed the smuggling operation. Wilkie replaced the letter and shot Lela. Moto gave Wilkie the opportunity to kill Marloff, who knew he was in on the plot, and he did. Wilkie is arrested, and things go back to normal.

Searching for the cure for cancer, a scientist creates a chemical that promotes cell growth. After being visited by a drug addict, the drugs and the cure are mixed up and misused by him and several prostitutes. They become zombified and begin biting people nearby. A small group of exotic dancers team up with the prostitutes' former pimp to defend their strip club, the Grindhouse, against a horde of blood-thirsty zombies.

Four strippers in a nightclub, after their dance routines are over and the club is closing for the night, walk over to a nearby cafeteria for breakfast, when some hookers turn into zombies and attack them. Except for one stripper Pandora, played by Juliet Reeves, who couldn't make it till the end, the other 3 ladies manage to fight and decimate all the zombies and survive through it all.

The prettiest and tallest of the 3 surviving strippers is Dakota, played by Playboy playmate Jessica Barton. She is the most popular (and most tipped) stripper of the club, but that comes with quite some attitude. During the course of the movie, she gives a lap dance to one of her lovers, but then he gets bitten and turns into a zombie. Dakota has to blow this lover-turned-zombie (as well as her boyfriend cop-turned-zombie) with her gun.

The second stripper is Dallas, played by Miss Oahu Lyanna Tumaneng. She is clearly the most courageous of the trio, as she braved zombie attacks to get the zombie antidote from the laboratory. The male lead Chris, played by Sean Harriman, was on the same mission alongside Dallas and managed to inject himself with the zombie antidote that they found in the lab. Eventually, Chris falls in love with her.

The third stripper is Chris' sister Harley, played by Playboy playmate Hollie Winnard. She is a single mom of a little daughter and they stay with Chris and their grandmother. This was Harley's very first night at the club, where she plays a nervous rookie and she performs a quick but funny tease.

During the beginning of the film the strippers have a difficult time identifying themselves to each other. They awkwardly introduce each other by their stage name, and their real names. Their indecisiveness in their career lead to differences in how strippers should be treated by themselves, others, and of course zombies.

As the battle between the zombies and the remaining survivors heats up, the zombies start to get the upper hand. Though the survivors are locked inside a safe room, the buxom hooker-turned-zombie named Pamela, as played by Stephanie Miller, manages to get inside. In the skirmish, Chris loses to her strength, as Pamela bites him and takes a chunk off his forehead. But thanks to the zombie antidote in his blood, Pamela is soon blown to smithereens. Harley and Dakota do not understand what happened, so Dallas explains that exposing Chris' blood to the zombies is a sure way to destroy them all. To test the idea, Chris offers his right hand to a zombie outside the door, and upon biting Chris, that zombie is blown apart as well.

Seeing the plan work so well, Dakota suggests that they should let 2 zombies into the room. The plan works well for the first couple of times, as 2 zombies are let into the room at a time, and after biting the shoulders of Chris, they are blown apart. But soon, a very weakened Chris collapses on the floor. Hell breaks loose, as all the remaining zombies manage to break into the room and attack them. With no other option to save the 3 girls, Chris gets up for his final action. He requests his sister Harley to take care of her daughter Jenna, whom Chris used to babysit back at home. He then gives a farewell kiss to his love interest Dallas. Chris offers himself to the pack of zombies, with the girls making no effort at all to stop him from doing so. At the outset, the zombies cut through Chris' ribs and eat up his heart, as the girls look on. Within a very short time, the zombies finish him off and then blow themselves apart as expected. The devouring of Chris by the zombies happens at a pretty high speed, instead of his arms, legs, torso, etc. being chomped step-by-step. Finally, all that is left of Chris are just some blood and flesh splattered on the club floor, along with that of the exploded zombies.

With all zombies finally eliminated, the 3 girls wipe the goo off their hair and walk out of the nightclub in supermodel catwalk style, smiles of victory writ large on their face. Their outfits are still smeared with flesh and blood of zombies and Chris alike. Out in the open daylight, Dallas smilingly comments to Harley that they had a rough last night. Harley replies that it wasn't as much fun as she had hoped.

The story surrounds a young boy called Obaid. He is confronted with a choice to live an easy life in this world or to struggle for reward in the hereafter. The story takes place during the tyrannical rule of King Narsis, who controls his people by encouraging them to worship idols and frightening them with the magic of Cinatas, his evil sorcerer. Cinatas chooses Obaid to be his student, someone who will assist him in his magic. At first, the boy is tempted by dreams of the power and the influence he will wield as the king's next sorcerer. But, soon after he starts to question his priorities. He begins talking to a righteous and a very holy man, who opens his mind to the true meaning of life.

This righteous man tells Obaid that there is only one God, Allah Almighty and that He created mankind to worship Him alone. Though these words appeal to Obaid's heart and mind, he is still pretty much confused. The righteous man advises him to seek the truth on his own – and thus begins the boy’s quest for the real meaning of life.

The show was an online dramedy centered on the lives of four main characters called the "In Town Roommates" and four secondary characters called the "Out of Towners". The primarily female cast members are recent college graduates in LA ready to begin their lives as adults. A reality show producer has made a deal with a social blogging video site to document their journey. The characters believe that they will be able to maintain their extremely codependent relationships like they had in college. The Roommates videotaped their pranks and hook-ups during their dorm years throughout their off-campus house adventures with carefree abandon. But when the pressures of professional careers and artistic aspirations mix with the voyeuristic documentary cameras; the bonds of committed friendships are severely tested. A combination of raw and voyeuristic "reality show" segments, confessionals, and college flashback footage drive the real-time story. Interactive chats and events were used to involve the audience and affect the direction of the story.

Based on a story with some historical elements from over 1400 years ago, The Jar deals with the epic struggle between good and evil and highlights the ethics and virtues of traditional family values. Set in a Middle Eastern village, the story of the jar begins when a poor yet virtuous family discovers a lost treasure buried in a jar under their new home. In their quest to return the jar to its rightful owner, a jealous and greedy neighbour who has his eye on the jar foils their attempts to return it. An adventure ensues as the towns-folk try to solve the mystery of the jar. A fantastical subplot includes two mice who steal the family's eggs but are defeated by the family's pet squirrel.

''Bangai-O Spirits'' has very little story line, and is not part of the same continuity as the previous game. The two new pilots are called Masato (boy) and Ruri (girl). The campaign mode is limited to a brief set of tutorial stages.

Upon completing all of the stages under "Treasure's Best" in free mode, a brief cutscene will play, with one of the characters saying, "We're only here because the fanboys would throw a fit on the internet if the game didn't have an ending."

Young demons Rara Yamabuki and Bibi Kurosawa come to the human world in order to do evil deeds and become full-fledged demons. Rivals in love, they search for the legendary demon, Hiroshi Akusawa, in order to win his heart though they do not even know what he looks like. While Rara is standing on the roof, classmate Retsu Aku mistakenly believes she's going to kill herself and grabs her, "flying" down with her to safety. With that, and hearing him called "Aku," Rara believes him to be Akusawa, but later learns he is just a normal human and that Akusawa is not nearly as desirable in person. When she uses her power of flight to aid Retsu, which causes her to lose the power forever, Rara realizes she has fallen in love with him.

As the series progresses, Rara learns that Retsu has had the power to see ghosts since last summer. One ghost begins stalking Retsu to take over his body. Rara tries to protect Retsu, using her power of invisibility, but in doing so accidentally kisses him. After Retsu learns about the ghost, he is able to identify the ghost and remind him of his past, allowing the ghost to move on to the afterlife. Rara, however, has lost so many of her powers helping Retsu that her mother and other demons warn her that if she does not kill Retsu, she will soon disappear "into the darkness." Rara is unable to do it after Retsu confesses his own love for her. They skip school to spend the day together, and Rara decides she will enjoy whatever time she has left with him. Bibi, unwilling to let her "rival" disappear, traps Rara, then disguised as Rara tries to kill Retsu herself. Retsu sees through her and Rara is able to catch up to them in time to warn him that Bibi wants to kill him. Before leaving them alone again, Bibi explains to Retsu about their being demons and that Rara is going to disappear because of her love for him.

Retsu tells Rara to kill him so she can live, but she refuses. She kisses him, using the last of her powers to take away his ability to see ghosts, then disappears. Instead of going into darkness, she begins going to the light. Retsu promises to find her wherever she ends up, and tells her not to forget him. Later, Retsu is shown having forgotten what happened, though left with a feeling he is missing someone. Bibi uses her own powers to walk by him disguised as Rara and whispers "don't forget me" unlocking his memories.

In a hospital, a girl named Sara wakes up from a six-month-long coma, having been stabbed in a street fight with a guy. Beside her is Retsu, who tells her that he is her boyfriend. A delinquent, she threatens to kill him, but he hugs her and says she cannot, and that he knows the real her.

Zach is an aspiring young artist living in San Pedro, California. He has put off his dreams of going to art school in order to work and help his older sister Jeanne, his disabled father, and his five-year-old nephew Cody, whom he cares for most of the time as the irresponsible Jeanne spends her time partying. Working as a short-order cook to make ends meet, Zach uses his free time to paint, surf, and hang out with his on/off girlfriend Tori and his best friend Gabe.

When Gabe's older brother Shaun comes back home from Los Angeles for a few weeks, Zach and Shaun develop a close friendship as they go surfing together. Shaun, who is a published writer, encourages Zach to take control of his life and pursue his ambition of going to CalArts. One night after drinking, Shaun kisses Zach. However, Zach is not prepared to give in to his feelings immediately and struggles with whether or not he may be gay. Soon, however, he goes to Shaun's house and the two start making out and spend the night together. Following this, Jeanne reveals her boyfriend Alan is heading to Portland for a job interview and she wants to go with him for the weekend so she needs Zach to look after Cody. Zach is reluctant, but agrees. When Shaun invites him over, he tells him to bring Cody along and the three have a great time together. Zach and Shaun's relationship begins to blossom, while at the same time Shaun builds a strong bond with Cody.

Zach feels uncomfortable when both Gabe and Jeanne learn about his relationship with Shaun. Although Gabe is supportive, Jeanne reveals her homophobic opinions and tells Zach that she does not want Cody hanging around Shaun because he is gay. She insists that since Cody's father is no longer in the picture, she needs Zach to be a positive influence and role model for Cody. At a party later that night, Zach becomes conflicted and ends things with Shaun, reasoning that he is not like him. Shaun tells him that it is obvious what he wants and calls him a coward for being too afraid to deal with it.

Shaun secretly submits Zach's art school application and Zach is eventually accepted on full scholarship. When Alan gets the job in Portland, Jeanne wants to move there with him permanently but does not want to take Cody. She wants to leave Cody with Zach for the time being. Zach is again forced to decide between putting others first and neglecting his own dreams, as he has always done. Later, he tries to tell Tori about his relationship with Shaun, only to find out she already knows and is supportive. After Zach decides to finally move forward with his art career, he goes to see Shaun and confesses that he had been accepted into the school in the past, but put it off to look after his family after his mother died. Now determined to finally go for what he wants in life, he re-affirms his love for Shaun and the two reconcile, making plans to move in together near the school.

He then goes to see Jeanne who's preparing to leave with Alan. Zach boldly walks up to her, hand in hand with Shaun, and gives Jeanne an ultimatum. If she wants to leave Cody with him then she will have to accept that Cody will be living with him and Shaun. Jeanne tries to guilt Zach, but he reminds her that she is the one who is abandoning her son, not him. He tells her that Shaun is a good guy who cares about him and Cody, and that a life with them is what is best for Cody. He tells her that he plans on finally making the life he really wants for himself. Jeanne relents, accepting what is truly best for Cody, and leaves him in the care of Zach and Shaun as she goes off to Portland with Alan. The film ends with Zach, Shaun and Cody happily playing on the beach together as a family.

The novel is divided into chapters each covering the same few months but centring on the life of one of seven working-class women living the area of Union Street in northeastern England. The characters range in age and circumstance, Alice Bell is in her seventies and dying whereas Kelly Brown is eleven, but all of them face struggles and poverty. The book begins with the character of eleven-year-old Kelly Brown and deals with her rape and the response of Kelly and her community to the rape. When the people on the street find out about her rape they will not deal with it openly with her; instead, they react with general sympathy, in the way they would have if she had been ill, but both the adults and children talk about the incident behind her back. Kelly becomes increasingly isolated, distrustful of adults and no longer feeling at home with the other children; she spends an increasing amount of time by herself at night in the neighbourhood. As time passes Kelly's silence turns to anger, responding to the trauma of the events with acts of rebellion and violence, such as cutting her hair short and breaking the windows of a school.

The Fifth Doctor arrives on earth, to discover that Cuddlesomes – pink, vampire, hamster-like toys from the 1980s – are attacking people. He meets Angela Wisher, whose boyfriend (John Dixon) was attacked by his old Cuddlesome, and they investigate at the "White Elephant", the warehouse in which the Cuddlesomes are made. The Doctor discovers that a journalist, Miranda Evenden, has turned into a kind of Tinghus hybrid. The Tinghus is the one behind the attacks, and he destroys Ronald Turvey's Cuddlesomes and makes new, American-voiced, evil Cuddlesomes (Mark 2s). The Doctor, Angela, Ronald and the just recovered John try to stop the Cuddlesome plan. With Ronald's new army of Cuddlesomes and the Tinghus's Cuddlesomes, a war starts.

A courtroom-drama about a dead Captain whose memory is publicly accused by a historian on TV, twenty years after his death. The story follows his widow's struggle to prove that he was not a murderer and did not practise torture while he was leading a ground unit during the Algerian war.

She decides to sue the man who accused him of being a torturer and thus begins an investigation which retraces the Captain's last two weeks, day by day.

The film uses numerous flashbacks depicting battle scenes in Algeria.

Set in 1968 New York City in an alternate universe to the Dryco universe of the previous five iterations of the series, ''Going, Going, Gone'' nevertheless disposes of several of the series' characters in its closing chapters. Its protagonist is Walter Bullitt, an egocentric expert in psychoactive substances who freelances for various branches of the increasingly Nazi-influenced United States government spy apparatus. Though he passes for white, Bullitt is in fact of African-American descent in an USA where, as revealed in previous novels in the Dryco series, the American Civil War never took place. As a result, racial relations in this version of the USA have been much more fraught, with almost all full-blooded African Americans interned and used as slave labor during World War II before being disposed of, and by 1968 even black music has been culturally marginalized. Walter becomes subject to increasingly strange experiences, hearing voices and seeing ghosts from a parallel New York almost a century more advanced than his. Walter is taken to this alternative New York (the primary locale of the previous five Dryco novels) which, after flooding due to the Greenhouse effect, has been moved north, is populated by all races and features in its collection of futuristic wonders television, which never caught on in his world. The novel ends with the two epistemic worlds converging into a New York which is, in the words of critic Paul Dukes a "morally better place than either of the two which composed it".

Welcome to "Number One". Benni (Chris Avram), the owner of a photo agency, arrives. He welcomes Leo (Venantino Venantini), the owner of the club, Sylvie Boisset (Claude Jade), a French actress and model, Mino Cattani (Massimo Serato), the editor of the newspaper, Commenda (Renato Turi) and the lawyer (Paolo di Tusco). There is a lot of murmuring and the editor of the newspaper receives a phone call. He is nervous and whispers to Leo and makes another phone call. Sylvie observes the men's interactions. At dawn in a villa in Rome: three men sit next to the body of the naked Deborah Garner (Josiane Tanzilli). Her sad husband Teddy Garner Jr (Paolo Malco) is comforted by his two friends: Massimo (Guido Mannari) and Dino Pancati (Howard Ross). Shortly after, a doctor, the Doctor (Andrea Aureli), arrives. He diagnoses the death and has Deborah taken away. Teddy immediately leaves Rome. Dino and Massimo go to the Capannelle, where they meet Pupo (Bruno Di Luia), the leader of a gang.

Inspector Vinci (Renzo Montagnani) starts investigating the Deborah Garner case. He interrogates all the members of Garner's entourage. The Commendatore tells him that Garner is close to a royal family, the elderly Princess (Rina Franchetti) says nothing, the lawyer turns to an art dealer (Roberto D'Ettorre Piazzoli) who is involved in the trade of stolen paintings, as well as to the director of a pawnshop who is also an accomplice. Now the case of the stolen paintings has to be investigated. Vinci now works together with the Captain (Luigi Pistilli), the commander of the Carabinieri.

The commendatore elaborates a scam with the notary: he pretends to have bought some paintings from the legitimate owner, now deceased, a nobleman, which then ended up in Garner's house. He negotiates with the accountant (Guido Lollobrigida). There he receives a call from Pupo, who has been ordered to punish a married couple who have taken out a loan with false cheques. The husband (Andrea Scotti) is beaten, the wife (Rita Calderoni) is forced to have sex and raped by Pupo.

Nobody shows up at Debora's funeral except Sylvie, who is identified by two policemen. Sylvie calls the Carabinieri and gives them a tip-off: there are paintings stolen from the convent of Monterenzo. The carabinieri, led by the captain, find the paintings in the Monterenzo monastery and arrest the prior.

When Sylvie returns home, Inspector Vinci is already waiting outside the door of her flat and questions Sylvie's neighbour. Sylvie runs away from the house.

Sylvie is visited by Benni during the night, who makes a phone call to someone called Rudy. Sylvie finds the phone call suspicious in connection with Deborah's death, the death of an American nobleman and the theft of art.

Sylvie now goes to see Massimo, who lives with his wife Betsy (Isabelle de Valvert), a model. Sylvie confides in Massimo and tells him that Benni received a phone call in his presence from the nobleman Rudy, who was involved in the theft of his uncle's painting and was in "Number One" during the theft so that the Commendatore would tear up some bills for his complicity in the theft. Later, the uncle is eliminated. Massimo confides to Sylvie how he, along with Dino, Pupo and other crooks, had taken the paintings to the monastery. Leo was also at the scene, Massimo reveals. Massimo tells Sylvie not to be too afraid of Benni because the real criminals and dangerous villains are Leo and the Commenda.

After the Captain interrogates the Commendatore, Sylvie enters his office. She is anxious and confides in him that she knows the true story of Deborah's death: In a flashback, narrated by Sylvie, we see Deborah's agony and death. She has taken the heroin and is rolling around naked ecstatically in agony on the bed, helpfully caressing herself with white foam in her mouth. Dino and Massimo advise Teddy not to save her, but to allow her inevitable death. Because the two had planned an expensive divorce. Since death takes a long time, the men play cards until Deborah is finally dead after a long agony. Because she is late, they bring the situation to Leo's attention. Leo turns to the editor and sends the three men a doctor he trusts, who ascertains Deborah's death. Sylvie tells the Captain that she is worried about Massimo. She has not heard from him for four days and he has disappeared. The Captain thanks Sylvie and asks her to make herself available, because she can tip off the plot...

The Captain arrests Dino at a poker club. The latter admits that the cocaine found in the Garner house belongs to him. He ends up in prison, where we see him as an altar boy. Massimo learns of Dino's arrest and is frightened. While having sex with Betsy, he tells her that a policeman (Emilio Bonucci) showed up while he was carrying paintings on the beach at night. The policeman was first shot and then had his throat slit. Now he wants to escape to Switzerland with Betsy. He calls his friends and asks them for money. These friends tell him to come with Betsy to a lake, the Lake Martignano. Massimo and Betsy can't wait to get all the money. Massimo is doing a photo shoot with Betsy on the shore of the lake when the two are suddenly executed with many gunshots. Both are dead.

On the way, a car stops next to Sylvie. Pupo jumps out, hits Sylvie and drags her into the car. The car drives away at great speed. A short time later, Pupo and his gang are eliminated by a group of assassins. They had just learned that an autopsy had been ordered on Debora to determine the true cause of death. The Captain leads Benni to the morgue where a female corpse is found. Benni says he can't recognise her as Sylvie. The Capitano says he will keep looking for Sylvie Boisset, because he is only interested in what happened to her. Benni gets nervous, makes a phone call and threatens the caller. A bomb explodes at Number One. Then a car explodes. It turns out to have been used to transport stolen paintings. Publisher Cattani's newspaper publishes an article on the death of Massimo and Betsy: double suicide. There are no more witnesses. The two investigators attend the exhumation and discover they have no evidence against anyone.

The novel takes place in New York City, where a chemical truck gets into an accident and spills its contents on the street. Curiously, the trucker has fake identification, and no one seems to have heard of the company name on the truck: "Ladies, INC."

Later that evening, Tom Braun and his family go to a party. Tom gets into a shouting match with his wife, Susan, which their son, Andy, overhears. Andy retreats to his room to pack for a scout camping trip. After Tom leaves the apartment for the night, the women of New York who inhaled the spilled chemicals (including Susan) begin to have severe headaches. Within a short time, the women are overcome by a desire to have sex with any man they can find. Finally, the women begin attacking those who have not been similarly affected by the spilled chemicals. In increasingly gruesome scenes, women kill their children, husbands, brothers, etc., and the seemingly few unaffected women of the city.

As Tom works with a small band of men to make it home to Andy, Susan first tries to mate with her son, then tries to kill him. Andy hides in a bathroom until an unaffected woman unknowingly saves his life by knocking on the door. The woman is subsequently attacked by Susan and other crazed women. Tom is wounded on his journey home, but manages to severely injure his wife before she can kill their son. Susan then kills Tom, whereupon Andy shoots his mom with several arrows (which he had for his camping trip) to make sure she is not able to recover from her injuries.

The story follows three genetically modified humans who work as guards for a large mining conglomeration in a far future Montana. It begins with the three of them being called out to track down an intruder on their employer's property. When they finally corner it they realize it is nothing more than a dog. Fascinated by the fact that it could still survive in their day and age they decide to keep it as a pet, and then constantly struggle to keep it fed, clean, healthy and alive.

Tokidoki is a Japanese high school student who, when he fails his history class, is sent to a high-tech history museum that virtually recreates the Edo period to do make-up work. However, what was supposed to be a simple school project becomes much more complicated when he's attacked by two supernatural beings known as "the nue" and "the yakou" and loses the vision in his left eye. After he's saved from the nue by a girl named Kuchiha, he realizes that he's no longer wearing the simulation goggles, and is trapped in the virtual Edo. Meanwhile, in the real world, Sensai Corporation, the virtual reality company who made the virtual museum Tokidoki is trapped in, is seen throughout the story.

As college students, Andy McGee and Vicky Tomlinson participated in an experiment in which they were given a dose of a low-grade hallucinogen called LOT-6. While the other participants suffered terrible side effects, the experiment gave Vicky and Andy telepathic abilities; Vicky can read minds and Andy can control others to do and believe what he wants, though the effort sometimes gives him nosebleeds, limiting this otherwise very strong power. Now married, they have an eight-year-old daughter named Charlene "Charlie" McGee, who has pyrokinetic abilities (the power to control heat and fire) and can also see the near future.

Andy comes home from work one day to find Vicky murdered and Charlie abducted; the family had already suspected that the government agency that sponsored the experiment, the Department of Scientific Intelligence ("The Shop"), was watching them, with the government wanting to weaponize Charlie's power. Andy finds Charlie and rescues her by blinding the agents, and for the next year they are on the run.

Farmer Irv Manders and his wife Norma take in the pair; Andy tells Irv the truth so that when The Shop arrives, he is ready to stand with them. However, Charlie quickly dispatches the agents when they arrive. They go on the run again, but Andy's power has weakened. They go to a secluded cabin and prepare to go public with their story. Unfortunately, the head of The Shop, Captain James Hollister, sends agent and assassin John Rainbird to capture them and stop the release of information. To protect themselves, Andy writes letters to major newspapers, unintentionally revealing their location. After capture, father and daughter are kept separated. Andy is medicated and subjected to tests, and given drugs which decrease his powers. Meanwhile, Rainbird pretends to be "John", a friendly orderly employed by The Shop to gain Charlie's trust and encourage her to submit to the tests.

Charlie's powers increase exponentially. She continually demands to see her father as they promised. Andy is revealed to be faking the acceptance of his drugs, so his powers have never decreased and it was all a ruse to make Hollister drop his guard. Once alone on a walk far from the house, Andy uses his power to get information from Hollister (such as "John"'s true identity) and arranges to leave with Charlie that night. He slips Charlie a note and she immediately tells John/Rainbird about the escape. Since he has wanted to kill Charlie since first hearing about her, he hides in the barn so he can kill Andy as well. Charlie enters the barn first and Rainbird successfully convinces her to start climbing up the ladder to him.

His plan is foiled once Andy enters and Charlie instead runs to her father. She tells him that "John" is present and asks if they can take him with them. She is saddened and angered to find out the truth, yet believes Rainbird when he states that he will not kill her father if she comes to him. To save his daughter, Andy orders the still mind-controlled Hollister to shoot at Rainbird. However, Rainbird kills Hollister, after which Andy, using his powers, causes Rainbird to leap to the ground, breaking his leg. Rainbird shoots Andy in the neck, fatally wounding him. He then fires at Charlie but she detonates the bullet and engulfs Rainbird in the ensuing fire, killing him. Andy, mortally wounded and dying, pleads with her to use her powers to bring the facility down after he dies. The entire security team arrives and she eliminates them one by one with her powers and makes her way off the property. Charlie hitchhikes back to the Manders' farm and is welcomed back. Shortly after, Charlie and Irv arrive in New York City to tell her story to the media.

Fred Simmons (Danny McBride) is a fourth-degree black belt in Taekwondo who runs his own dojang in a small North Carolina town. He styles himself a big shot, driving a Ferrari and extolling the virtues of Taekwondo to potential new students, but loses his confidence after he discovers that his wife, Suzie (Mary Jane Bostic) gave her boss a handjob after a drunken office party. In order to restore his confidence, he attends a martial arts expo. He meets his idol, B movie action star Chuck "the Truck" Wallace (Ben Best), who in reality turns out to be a dirty and drunken mess. After nearly brawling with Chuck's seedy friends, Fred persuades Chuck to make an appearance at his upcoming Taekwondo belt test and then parties with his friends and students in Chuck's hotel room. Fred returns home and sells his Ferrari to pay Chuck's $10,000 appearance fee. Shortly thereafter, Suzie returns to Fred after losing her job. On the night before the belt test, Fred catches Suzie having sex with Chuck on his own couch. Fred challenges Chuck to a fight, but is eventually beaten and driven off. The next morning, Suzie once again asks to be taken back, but Fred rejects her and urinates on his wedding ring. Fred arrives at the test late, battered and bruised, but with his confidence restored. When Chuck arrives for his appearance, Fred challenges him to a martial arts demonstration of board breaking, which he wins. At the following belt ceremony, Fred reads a new student pledge that he has written, which outlines the goals and responsibilities of Taekwondo.

Every year, Rosie Forrest, known as "Auntie Roo", throws a lavish overnight Christmas party for ten of the best-mannered children at the local orphanage. Despite her warm demeanour, Rosie is in fact demented and mentally-ill, and keeps the mummified remains of her daughter Katharine in a nursery room in the attic.

Christopher and Katy Coombs, an orphaned brother and sister, sneak into the party. Auntie Roo notices that Katy resembles her late daughter Katherine and warmly welcomes her and her brother. After the party ends, Auntie Roo kidnaps Katy with the intention of making her a substitute for Katherine. Christopher believes Auntie Roo is a witch who wants to devour him and his sister. He tries to warn people about Auntie Roo and when no one believes him, he returns to the house alone to rescue his sister.

Auntie Roo prepares a dinner for the coming New Year while Christopher assists her by gathering firewood. In the process, he steals the key to the nursery room and lets Katy out. During their escape, they steal Auntie Roo's jewelry and stuff it inside an old teddy bear which once belonged to Katharine. Christopher and Katy fight their way out of Auntie Roo's mansion. Once outside, they place the firewood at the door and set it on fire.

The orphans encounter Auntie Roo's butcher, Mr. Harrison, who is delivering a whole piglet by horse-cart. He sees the smoke inside and drives off to call the fire brigade. Katy realizes that she was to cook the pig, but Christopher says that they were to be eaten after it. The fire brigade arrives and puts out the fire, but are unable to rescue Auntie Roo. Inspector Willoughby takes the children back to the orphanage. Christopher and Katy smile at each other as they depart from the burned mansion, knowing that Auntie Roo will not harm anyone else and that they can use her jewelry (which Christopher calls "the wicked witch's treasure") to ensure their own happy ending.

Like many games that ''IWBTG'' parodies, the game's plot is straightforward and does not heavily impact gameplay. The player controls "The Kid", who is on a mission to become "The Guy". The entirety of the plot is given in a message during the opening credits, a parody of bad Japanese translations and broken English in early NES games.

At the end, The Kid reaches The Guy, who reveals that he not only killed "Former Grandfather The Guy", but that he is also "The Father" to The Kid. A battle between the two takes place ending with The Kid becoming "The New Guy".

A cocktail party is in full flow at the Kensington home of James and Pam Brent when there is a phone call. Mrs. Lamb, the Brent's housekeeper fetches James and the operator puts the call through. He hears a slightly ethereal voice that claims to be that of a woman called Fay. James is shocked and angry and demands to know who the caller really is. She repeats that she is Fay, she is at Newton Abbot railway station and that she is waiting for him. Pam comes into the hall from the party and James, shaken, slams the phone down but refuses to say who the caller was. He sends her back to look after his guests and rings the operator to find out where the call came from. He is stunned to find out that no call has been put through to his house today. Pam comes back from the party again, suspicious about what is going on. James tries to reassure her that there is no problem. Pam tells him that she has invited two friends who she hasn’t seen for a long time to come round and play bridge tomorrow.

At a railway station a woman asks a porter where the telephone kiosk is for long-distance calls. After she has been pointed in the right direction, the porter turns to his colleague and tells him that she reminds him of someone – someone connected with the matter of a dead woman.

James and Pam are playing bridge with Evan and Mary Curtis when another call comes through. After James has gone into the hall to take it, Pam confesses to Mary that she is worried as yesterday's call upset him so much. Mary suggests she listens in on the bedroom extension. Pam does so and hears as "Fay" speaks to James again. He demands to know who she is and where she is ringing from. For confirmation, she opens the door of the kiosk and he hears the guard's cry announcing Newton Abbot railway station. Fay asks if he has noticed the time – it is 7.15pm and she tells him that she is waiting for him. Again, James slams the phone down. His friends notice his shaken condition when he returns to them and he tells them he has a headache. They decide to leave him, promising to see James and Pam again after their trip to France, which starts the day after tomorrow. They go and soon after Pam asks who Fay is and confesses to listening into the call. James tells her that Fay was the name he called his first wife, despite the fact that Pam knew her name to be Florence and that she died a year ago. James tells her the death was an accident. They were at Newton Abbot station and Fay, suffering a dizzy spell, fell under the path of an oncoming train – at 7.15pm. James tries to dismiss the incident of the spectral phone, looking forward to their trip to France.

The next day, Pam receives a phone call from Mr Enderby, their lawyer. He has seen to the matter of their will as arranged and now wants to know if he should retain it or should he send it on to their bank. Pam tells him the bank and Mr Enderby concludes the call by wishing her a pleasant and relaxing holiday and he hopes that she will recover from the dizzy spells she has been suffering from that James had told him about. Shaken, Pam thanks him and finishes the call – she hasn’t been suffering from any dizzy spells but before she can puzzle the matter out, she receives a second call. The ghostly caller announces herself as Fay Mortimer and tells Pam not to travel to France in a train with James. After the call is finished, James comes home and Pam asks him who Fay Mortimer is – she thought his first wife's name was Garland. James is furious but Pam is determined to go to Newton Abbot the next day and to be there at 7.15pm to see what is happening. If James will not go with her, she will go alone.

The next day the two are at the station at the appointed time. Pam makes James talk through the sequence of events of what happened the year before and James tells again of Fay's dizzy spells. Pam uses this prompt to tell James of Mr. Enderby's comments on the phone yesterday. James is annoyed but before the conversation can progress, Fay herself walks along the platform towards them, saying that she has been waiting for him since he pushed her under the train the year before. Shocked and panicking, James backs off and falls into the path of a train passing through. Pam faints.

She comes to in the office of the station master with Inspector Narracott of the police bending over her. He tells her that her husband is dead. It is fortunate for her as he has little doubt that she would not have survived the trip to France. James has murdered three wives before in the same fashion: one in Scandinavia, one in Wales and the last one here at Newton Abbot a year ago. She is introduced to "Fay" – it is, in fact, the dead girl's mother who, her voice sounding similar and made-up to look younger, agreed to help the police trap the murderer of her daughter. The first time she rang she was in London, the second time was in Newton Abbot but no one was in the third time she called. Pam tells her she was mistaken – she spoke to her and warned her not to travel by train with James. Fay's mother tells her that it is she who is mistaken. She has never spoken with Pam before. Pam is more disconcerted than ever – who did she speak to?

After a brief courtship, a man marries an enchanting woman, and then things begin to go terribly wrong. During their honeymoon on the foggy Oregon coast, he discovers her shocking secrets as those around them begin to die horrible and violent deaths, one by one. He soon learns that you really don't know someone until you marry them.

A band of cyborgs is terrorizing the planet. Believing that Magneto is controlling the cyborgs, the X-Men try to defeat him. The player can take control of Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops, Iceman, and Gambit as they prepare for the battle to save the planet.

The story begins in 1939. Alex Schottland, a colonel in charge of supplies in the German Army, is a long-entrenched British agent planted toward the end of the First World War. He is growing weary of being a spy, but is urged to continue by his friend and fellow British agent, Cornaz, who is posing as an antique dealer.

In 1941 Schottland passes on information that Germany is about to invade the Soviet Union. Captain Reinisch, a Gestapo agent and Schottland's suspicious aide, discovers that Schottland has changed his original name and is of British ancestry. However, his superiors already know about Schottland's past and scoff at the possibility that he is a spy. To deflect suspicion and boost his own credibility as a loyal Nazi, Schottland claims at a staff meeting that "defeatists" inside the German high command have leaked military information to the enemy.

Cornaz is arrested after their courier to the British is intercepted. Schottland, as a customer at the antique shop, is summoned to headquarters for questioning. There Schottland is forced to watch as Gestapo officer Müller tortures Cornaz in a scene in which a fire hose is used to force water into Cornaz's bowels. This kills him, so there is little actual evidence to incriminate Schottland. Though he is arrested, the General is soon released on the intervention of a high-ranking Nazi, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, who had been convinced of his sincerity when Schottland seemingly damaged his own position with his accusation of defeatism among the General Staff.

Cornaz's replacement as a relayer of military information to the British is the attractive singer Lili Geyr. Though drawn to each other, they agree not to get involved emotionally, but Schottland pretends to be having an affair with her while actually passing on information. The pretence further antagonizes Reinisch, who is in love with Geyr himself.

Schottland wishes to pass on news of the attempt to break through Allied lines in the Battle of the Bulge, but Geyr no longer has means of communicating the information to the British. When Schottland is ordered to the front, he drives off the main road and tries to contact the Allies via a radio transmitter, but is forced to shoot a corporal who interrupts him. Schottland returns to Berlin and, now unable to transmit vital news, decides to sabotage the German war effort by tricking Hitler into making strategic military blunders. He does this successfully by catering to Hitler's vanity and deluded sense of the realities of the military situation.

With the war nearing its end, Schottland sends Geyr to cross over to the Allies. The plan is that once safely behind the lines she is to stay there, and after the war she and Schottland will re-unite in London and live together, at last acknowledging the strength of their relationship. Geyr is intercepted by Reinisch, who follows and shoots her, in the process getting his hands on incontrovertible evidence of Schottland's involvement in giving away German military secrets. Reinisch does not immediately act on what he has learned, however. His attempt to contact his superiors in the Gestapo fails because the communication network is in chaos. When he finally confronts Schottland the next morning at Schottland's home, they fight, struggle for a dropped gun, and Schottland kills Reinisch. He then requests an immediate meeting with Hitler, where he implicates capable German generals as defeatists so that they will be relieved of their duties, and also casts suspicion on Müller, who as a result is also arrested.

Having volunteered to contact a missing general to assist in the defence of Berlin, Schottland is driven along an autobahn. Orders are received to pursue him, but he cuts across the forest towards the Allied lines. Camouflaged troops capture him, and on realising they are British his face breaks into a relieved smile.

The book opens with a scene of a seabird flying through the clouds. It falls out of the sky with exhaustion and crashes through a window, dying, where it is found by a strange golem-like creature. Then later that day in the other side of Orokos in the ghettos, the two protagonists, Rail and Moa, are sent on a mission to steal from the hideous creatures called Mozgas. They sneak through a large building and find a small box with different sorts of treasure within. Rail also finds an artifact that is known to be Fade-Science. They manage just to escape from the Mozgas and report back to the obese thief mistress Anya-Jacana. Rail debates about whether to give her the Fade Science but chooses not to. They depart and leave for their small living place. Anya-Jacana sends a small group of boys, led by her favorite, Finch, to get the artifact off them. They arrive soon enough and Rail and Moa are trapped. Moa then puts the artifact on her hand and manages to fall through the wall behind them. She pulls Rail through just as the gang enters. They discover the artifact can open 'doors' though solid objects. As Rail and Moa escape, they meet a golem named Vago. He had escaped from his own master after getting beaten. The three proceed to discover the truth behind their unjust society..

"He" wakes up on a prison ship, and discovers that "he" is a copy. But he receives another shock, as he discovers that he is in a woman's body, a criminal named Qwin Zhang, who was mindwiped so that his recording could be inserted. He quickly learns that this is not an insurmountable problem, as the Warden powers on this planet are such that everyone has them, but it manifests itself as body swapping, a process that occurs when both parties are asleep. The Warden Organisms exchange information pertaining to memories and personality, so that if given sufficient time, the two sleepers will fully exchange bodies. The agent arranges to sleep next to a male during the newcomer orientation, and so has a male body again. He also learns that Cerberus is covered completely in water, with the only "land" being the tops of underwater trees that grow tall enough to extend beyond the water's surface.

Given that Cerberus is a world of white collar criminals, and that their technology is 20 years behind the times, "Qwin" can do quite well, and quickly establishes himself as "president" of a minor subsidiary of a large company. He does this with the help of Dylan Kohl, a boat captain, and Sanda Tyne, a host mother. Host mothering is an important profession, as the body swapping allows for people to live forever, so long as there are enough new bodies to swap with.

After a series of improbable adventures that gain him the position of company president, he attempts to carry out his mission of assassinating Wagant Laroo, the Lord of Cerberus. In the process of this, he comes across Dr. Dumonia, a psychologist who is later revealed to be a part-time Confederacy agent, though not especially loyal at all times. Qwin also learns that the human imitating robots are given human minds on Cerberus, specifically on Wagant's island. With the help of his friends, he manages to get on that island, and even arranges to come up with the solution to a problem of Wagant's.

The problem Wagant had was that the robots are better in every way, and nearly immortal and invulnerable. But Wagant does not want to put his mind into one, as the aliens who provide the robots have hidden commands in them that make the person the slave of the aliens. Not being able to get rid of those commands, Wagant accepts Qwin's help in getting rid of those commands. Qwin does so by asking his over-Agent in the picket ship to do so, which not only gets him in good with Wagant, but lets the Confederacy have a sample of the robot body and brain for examination.

Wagant, while very untrusting of Qwin, does eventually transfer his mind into the body of a "cleared" robot. What Wagant doesn't realize is that it wasn't quite fully cleared, and when Qwin recites a Lewis Carroll poem in front of him, it places Wagant under Qwin's complete control. Thus assassination is not necessary, as Qwin and Dumonia are in effect the rulers of Cerberus.

The book closes with the Agent in the picket ship feeling more concerned, as he saw himself change again, this time putting other people above his own needs and mission. This increases his turmoil and soul searching.

The saga continues in the third book of the series, called ''Charon: A Dragon at the Gate''.

Similar to previous ''Fallout'' games, ''FLOPout 3'' takes place in post-apocalyptic United States. The player character is a member of Vault 101, a fallout shelter serving Washington D.C. One day, the player wakes up finding that his father has left the vault and ventured into the wasteland for unknown reasons. Wishing to uncover the mystery behind his father's departure, the player leaves the protection of the vault as well, in search of his father's whereabouts.

The player is depicted as Mark Brophy, a fictional agent of the Secret Service who had previously been a member of an elite unit of the U.S. Navy. The game's first playable level, called "Acceptable Risk", is one in which Mark is on an assignment to protect the National Security Advisor while visiting a nondescript country in the Middle East. At some point during the NSA's visit, his motorcade is attacked by a group of terrorists, not long after which the Special Agent in charge is mortally wounded and relinquishes his command to Mark. The player is then given the objective to eliminate all of the attackers, while keeping the NSA safe. After completion of "Acceptable Risk", the player assumes the leader's position in the following assignments, which includes the assignment of agents to specific posts or protective details. The conclusion of the game displays a montage of credits while a brief communication between Mark and other agents plays in the background. The communication ends with the words, "this might not be over yet," possibly indicating a sequel to the game.

The story unfolds in Victorian London. Fanny is only 9 years old and is in the street with her young friend. They wander down to a basement, which appears to be a brothel and nightclub (Hopwood Shades). She is given a coin and then pulled out by Joe, her father's handyman. Back at home she is having a birthday party by her father (John Laurie). Her mother and father decide to send her away to boarding school.

We jump to her birthday in 1880, Fanny has finished at boarding school and returns to London. It is clearer that her father owns and runs the nearby nightclub and brothel and has a secret door in his house that links down to it, But he has no desire for his daughter to be involved in any way with the business. Only when her father is killed in a fight with Lord Manderstoke, is it revealed to her at the inquest that her father ran a brothel.

She is sent to work for the Heaviside/Seymore family far from her home. The husband Clive Seymore reveals he is her true father and he paid William Hopwood to look after her (it is implied he was a client). She is introduced to other servants as Mrs Heaviside's niece and given the name Emily Hooper. Her father takes her on holiday and gets to know her and wants to tell the world that she is his daughter.

In the idyllic countryside during the holiday she is painting by the lake when a dog spoils her picture. The dog belongs to Harry Somerford. They chat.

Back in the mansion where they stay the dog appears at her door. She looks out of the window and Harry is talking business with her father. He is a young friend of the father, who then has to return to London without her. She is now calling him "father".

Back at the huge Seymore house she returns to duties as a maid. One day a visitor Lord Manderstoke encounters her on the stair and recognises her as Hopwood's daughter. He is revealed as the lover of Mrs Seymore.

Mr Seymore reveals to his wife that Fanny is his daughter. She asks for a divorce to marry Manderstoke. Mr Seymore commits suicide rather than face disgrace.

Fanny leaves and goes back to home territory. Somerford is trusteee to Mr Seymore's will and delivers property shares to Fanny. A letter reveals that Fanny was Seymore's daughter and also that he loved Somerford like a son.

Somerford's sister comes and tells her Somerford wants to marry her but it must not happen as it will ruin his reputation. Somerford appears and asks her to marry him.

In the final scene Somerford has been shot in the chest and Fanny and a physician are caring for him. The sister again appears and demands to take him into her own care. This could be fatal but the sister says she would rather he die than be with Fanny. He chooses to live.

The Maasai people become aware that a global crisis is approaching. Malevolent, unearthly creatures called ''shetani'', which inhabit another dimension the Maasai know as the “Out Of” (because all things, such as humans, animals and plants, originally came "out of" it), are finding their way into the world. They are fomenting trouble between the superpowers, intent on causing mischief up to and including war. If not prevented, the barriers between the two dimensions will be breached and uncountable hordes of shetani will overrun the world, destroying all life.

Olkeloki, a Maasai elder, comes to Washington, D.C. to warn the US President and seek help. He encounters Joshua Oak, a disenchanted FBI agent, and Merry Sharrow, a shy and unfulfilled call centre worker. He is convinced that they are the key people he has been seeking, and his persuasion, coupled with several dangerous encounters with shetani, convince them to return with him to Africa, where they join in Maasai attempts to hold back the shetani. Eventually, Olkeloki takes Merry and Oak into the Out Of, where, with their help, he performs a ritual which seals the breach between dimensions, sacrificing his own supernatural powers in the process. All three return to this world, where the shetani’s tricks have ended and the diplomatic crisis is receding, and Oak and Merry realize they have found what they have been looking for in each other.

Europe 1944: Fox company (call sign "Fragile Fox") is a US Army National Guard infantry unit staging in a Belgian town near the front line. They are led by Captain Erskine Cooney (Eddie Albert), who appears to be better at handling red tape than combat. When Lieutenant Joe Costa (Jack Palance) sends a squad to take a pillbox, Cooney agrees to provide covering fire but freezes at the critical moment leading to the slaughter of Costa's squad.

The executive officer, Lt. Harold Woodruff (William Smithers, in his first credited screen role), is the "voice of reason" who tries to keep the peace between Cooney and Costa. Woodruff approaches battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Clyde Bartlett (Lee Marvin), who is a career officer intent on leveraging Cooney's family ties for political gain when the war ends. When Woodruff tries to appeal to Bartlett's honor and claims that Cooney is not capable of leading the unit and should be reassigned to a desk job, Bartlett dismisses him. Woodruff is promised that the war is coming to an end and it is highly unlikely that the platoon will ever see combat again. It is well known that Cooney owes his position to Bartlett, who has known the Cooney family since he was a 14-year-old clerk in the office of Cooney's father, a politically powerful judge. The judge's influence could be very useful to Bartlett's post-war political ambitions.

When the Germans launch the Battle of the Bulge, Bartlett orders Cooney to seize the town of La Nelle. Woodruff recommends a two-pronged attack but is over-ruled by Cooney who orders Costa to lead a reconnaissance mission. Costa agrees, on the provision that both Cooney and Woodruff promise to send reinforcements if his squads encounter heavy resistance. As the platoon approaches La Nelle, the men come under fire – the town, as it turns out, is strongly held by German troops backed up by mortars and tanks.

Most of Costa's platoon is killed or wounded. He and the survivors (Platoon Sergeant Tolliver, Private First Class Bernstein, Pfc. Ricks and Pvt, Snowden) take refuge in a farmhouse. When Costa calls for reinforcements, Cooney ignores his request and begins drinking. Costa and his men capture a German SS officer and a soldier. But when tanks start shelling the house, he has no choice but to retreat. He furiously tells Woodruff over the radio to warn Cooney that he's "coming back!"

as the manipulative colonel

As the survivors flee Ricks is shot and badly injured, Tolliver, Snowden and Bernstein each run past the man but Costa is unable to leave him behind and attempts to carry Ricks to safety. Ricks dies in Costa's arms and in the ensuing barrage Costa goes missing in action. The rest of the men manage to get back to town. The men show their contempt for Cooney. Bartlett reprimands Cooney for failing to send in his entire company to take La Nelle. As a result, the Germans are advancing on their position; he tells Woodruff and Cooney that they must hold. Bartlett threatens to arrest Cooney if he falls back, as it would leave another company unprotected and the Germans would be able to "roll up the entire front line". When Cooney begs to be reassigned, an enraged Bartlett strikes him.

Woodruff threatens Bartlett saying he will tell the commanding general, Gen. Parsons, the whole story. With the pressure building up inside him, Cooney turns to drink again, but Woodruff smashes the bottle. After that, Cooney has a mental breakdown. Feeling sorry for him, Woodruff tells him to sleep it off and is about to assume command when Costa suddenly reappears, determined to kill Cooney. As they argue, they are told by Corporal Jackson (Jon Shepodd) that the town is being overrun and that the surviving members of Costa's squad are cut off. Costa takes it on himself to save his men and grabs a bazooka, he manages to disable one tank but is gravely wounded when another tank he disables drives over his arm, crushing it and pinning him down.

Woodruff, Tolliver, Bernstein, Jackson and Snowden (Richard Jaeckel) take refuge in a basement, followed shortly afterward by Cooney. Bernstein's leg is broken when a beam falls on it. As the men try to get back to their own lines they discover that they are surrounded. Cooney orders the men to surrender and just as he steps out of the basement he is met by a severely injured Costa, his grievously mangled and bloody arm dangling uselessly. It is clear that Costa is gravely wounded and as he collapses to the ground in front of Cooney, he appeals to God to give him enough strength to kill Cooney. Before Costa dies, Cooney mocks him by kicking his pistol away. Cooney then orders the remaining survivors to surrender, even though they have not been discovered. Woodruff angrily refuses, as there are members of the SS in the advancing German troops, and Bernstein is Jewish and injured. Surrendering would be a guaranteed death sentence for Bernstein as Woodruff knows the SS will not honor his POW rights.

Woodruff demands that Cooney relent, and threatens to shoot his commanding officer if he tries to proceed. When Cooney continues, Woodruff, with no other choice, shoots and kills the captain. Feeling remorse, Woodruff instructs Tolliver to place him under arrest, but Tolliver and the other GIs reject his command. Each man, except Snowden, steps forward and shoots Cooney to prevent Woodruff from taking the blame. Snowden returns to report that the town is empty and American reinforcements are arriving with the Germans in full retreat.

Bartlett finds the men and demands to speak to Cooney; the men point to his body. The men then intervene before Woodruff can confess and inform the Colonel that Cooney was killed by the Germans, but Bartlett sees immediately that they are covering for Woodruff. He dismisses the men and, alone with Woodruff, he tries to bribe the younger officer with a field promotion to captain. Woodruff reluctantly seems to go along until Bartlett then announces that he is going to nominate Cooney for the Distinguished Service Cross award. Outraged, Woodruff accuses Bartlett of orchestrating the whole thing in order to get rid of Cooney and gain favor with his powerful father. Bartlett remarks that Woodruff has too much to lose if he makes the whole affair public, and leaves after promising to get a medal for Costa too. As he leaves Woodruff decides to do the right thing to honor Costa, and calls the commanding general, Gen. Parsons, on the radio to file a full report.

In Miami, Florida, retired heavyweight boxing champion Cleon Salmon owns the restaurant The Slammin' Salmon. His staff consists of manager Rich, eccentric waiter Nuts, callous Guy, pre-med Tara, ballet student Mia, aspiring actor Connor, angry chef Dave and his busboy twin brother Donnie. Cleon informs Rich that the restaurant needs to make $20,000 by the end of the night so that he can pay off a wager he made with the ''yakuza''. If they can't make enough money, the yakuza will take the restaurant.

Rich initially offers the top selling waiter two tickets to an upcoming Norah Jones concert. After a slow start Rich realizes he needs to offer a better prize. He perfectly impersonates Cleon's voice and books a vacation at a resort hotel in Key Largo. Now motivated, the staff step up their efforts to sell. Connor is approached by movie star Marlon Specter who asks him to hide an engagement ring for his girlfriend in her dessert. Rich eats the dessert and swallows the engagement ring after Connor is distracted by Mia. Connor tells Marlon what happened and Marlon threatens to beat both Rich and Connor if they don't get it back. Meanwhile, Nuts begins acting strange while serving and Mia suffers a first-degree burn after Guy trips over Donnie and spills a piping hot soup in her face. Tara looks at Mia's burn and tells her she should go home but Mia refuses and Rich encourages her to keep selling.

Cleon tracks down Rich and asks for the total so far. Rich informs them they are at $12,000 and an angry Cleon demands that the entire wait staff gather in his office immediately. Cleon starts off by humiliating Rich in front of the staff before yelling at everyone for their poor results so far. Nuts begins acting weirder by spit polishing Cleon's boxing trophy. To further motivate them, Cleon changes the prize for top seller to $10,000 in cash to be awarded at the end of the night. He also warns them that the bottom seller will earn themselves a beating from Cleon. After the staff leave, Rich tries to explain to Cleon that he's making it worse by offering the money, but Cleon tells him to make the needed money or face a beating himself.

The staff begin using every trick they know to pad their customer's checks. Rich promotes an inebriated Donnie to waiter and adds extra tables for him against his objections. Donnie makes a mess at his first table and then panics after Cleon stops him in the kitchen and reminds him that if he finishes last Cleon will beat him. A panicked Donnie attempts to run away from the restaurant only to be stopped by Cleon who forces him to go back. Connor is embarrassed when the cast of the TV show he was fired from show up to eat and get seated in his section. Connor corners his old boss in the restroom to talk about why he was fired and gets angrily told off. Meanwhile, Guy grows impatient with a customer who won't order anything and gives the table to Donnie. Tara reminds Nuts to take his medication but Rich distracts him and he misses his dose. Nuts then transforms into his bizarre split personality Zongo. Zongo becomes a selling machine, moving Nuts from last place to first. The rest of the staff grab Zongo and force him to take his medication, transforming him back into Nuts. After Guy fills Nuts in on what he missed Nuts runs to the bathroom and vomits his medication out, becoming Zongo again. Rich consumes a bowl of pasta made by Dave and finally expels the engagement ring.

Guy gets angry when Donnie overtakes him on the scoreboard. Desperate to avoid a beating, Guy sabotages both Donnie and Mia's biggest tables. Tara gets stiffed on her tip by pop star Nutella, pushing her out of first place. Connor finally delivers dessert to Marlon's table and watches in disgust as Marlon's girlfriend eagerly eats it. She finds the engagement ring and accepts Marlon's proposal. Zongo finally snaps and is knocked out by Cleon after attacking a customer and trying to force-feed him an entire fish. Rich asks Tara to check on Nuts but instead she admonishes him for how he has treated the staff because he's afraid of Cleon.

At closing time, the man at the table that Guy gave to Donnie leaves Donnie a $1,000 tip. Donnie refuses it at first, but the man explains that he is dying and that he appreciated that Donnie let him sit there without bothering him. The man is then trampled to death by Cleon's horse as he leaves the restaurant. Rich gathers the wait staff and announces the top-seller as Tara, who is shocked to find out that Donnie gave her his $1,000 tip so that she'd win. Cleon finds out that they only made $19,000 for the night and decides to take the waiters tips to make up the difference. He also tells Tara that he lied about the $10,000 prize. Rich finally confronts Cleon, taking the waiters tips back and demanding he pay Tara. Tara realizes that Cleon only needed 20,000 yen ($170), not dollars. Cleon takes the $170 out, gives Tara her $10,000 prize, and then throws the rest up in the air for the waiters to fight over. Cleon is shown later with Guy tied up in his office about to receive his beating for being last.

In 1921 in an alley called Melchiorgasse in the poor part of Vienna, Austria, there are only two wealthy people: the butcher Josef Geiringer and Mrs. Greifer, who runs a fashion boutique and a nightclub, patronized by wealthy Viennese. Annexed to the nightclub is Merkl Hotel, a brothel to which the women of the nightclub bring their clients. The film follows the lives of two women from the same poor neighborhood, as they try to better themselves during the period of Austrian postwar hyperinflation. They are Maria, a streetwalker with a cruel and abusive father, and Grete, who at the last moment, is saved from this fate.

For the poor, the central crisis which begins the film is the lack of meat. Greta's family is made up of a proud, civil servant father and a little sister who bitterly complains that she can no longer live on cabbage soup. Grete promises meat the next day, as the butcher has advertised frozen Argentine meat in the morning. But while standing in the overnight line, Grete passes out and loses her place.

As for Maria, after being screamed at by her father for failing to bring home margarine, she writes to her lover, banking clerk Egon Stirner, and begs him to take her but ultimately believes him to be unfaithful, and falsely accuses him of murder, all the while knowing the true identity of the murderer, from having witnessed it herself.

At the finale, Else, a wife and mother, who previously provided sexual favors to the butcher for meat, kills the butcher because he refuses her any more meat. The poor of the neighborhood, hearing the sounds of the nightclub, revolt against the clients by throwing stones. The nightclub burns down killing Else and her husband in the attic, but not before allowing them to ease their infant safely to the waiting poor. Only Grete seems to have any hope of leaving Melchiorgasse, and this because of her relationship with an American Red Cross officer.

The Three Little Pigs become the target of a special-ops team of wolves. The wolves plan to finally infiltrate the impenetrable house of bricks by leaving a tiny wolf cub on the unassuming pigs' doorstep. The pigs take the baby in and raise him as their own. The newest addition to their family, Lucky, grows up into his teens not knowing his history, his role in the wolves' plan or the difficult choice he will have to make about the family that raised him.

After losing, the hare challenges his rival the tortoise to a hike.

Goldilocks, a spoiled television star, moves in with a family of three bears to be filmed in a ''Big Brother''-style reality TV show.

It's breakfast, supposedly, and everyone has something to say about the questionable food being served. Henry soon calls an officers' meeting in order to address an emergency on the front lines. Some nearby aid stations received heavy shelling, and as a result some personnel were killed. The 4077th must send some stand-in staff: a surgeon, a nurse, and a corpsman until replacements arrive. Margaret immediately volunteers while the surgeons avoid eye contact. Thus, they draw sausages (instead of straws) to see who gets to go. Hawkeye is the "winner", and the lucky corpsman (chosen by a random drawing by Father Mulcahy) is Klinger.

As each prepares to leave camp, Klinger tells Radar to whom each of his dresses should go in case he doesn't make it back, Margaret gives Frank a stern warning not to touch any other nurse while she's gone, and Hawkeye and Trapper share a goodbye of their own in the Swamp, ending with a toast to the Ritz Brothers. The trio soon get a flat tire, which Margaret insists on fixing to avoid Hawkeye injuring his hands (being a surgeon), while Klinger keeps an eye out for snipers. Upon arriving at the aid station, Hawkeye gets the place organized, and Klinger patches a call in to Radar, which is cut short when exploding live shells land near the station. Back at camp, Radar signs off, looking very distressed.

The episode then parallels the chaotic life-and-death situation at the aid station with the relatively calmer atmosphere at the 4077th:

• At the 4077th, the OR is busy, even as Frank complains incessantly about the terrible working conditions - such as the pits in his orange juice. :Meanwhile, Hawkeye scrambles to save patients as best he can with limited supplies and only alcohol as a sterilizer.

*After the surgery session, Frank complains to Henry about Trapper's disrespecting him, to which Henry replies "Frank, I'm going to put it on your record - you don't work and play well with others".

:At the aid station, Hawkeye relies heavily on Klinger and Margaret to give hands-on help with the patients; Margaret even has to cut into a patient while Hawkeye finishes surgery at another table. The three pull off some stress-filled teamwork. All the while, they are continuously shelled.

In the swamp, Trapper and Frank argue, just as Radar comes in wearing his changing robe and carrying his teddy bear. Trapper offers Radar Hawkeye's bunk, and Radar settles in. Frank is indignant that an enlisted man is sleeping in his tent. Henry comes in next, grabs himself a glass of gin and sits down. Trapper and Henry also get in a few jabs on Frank. Still, it is clear that everyone but Frank is worried about the three absent MASH-ers.

:It's also bedtime at the aid station. Klinger is sound asleep on the ground. Margaret and Hawkeye exchange friendly words, and after he gets up to drape a blanket over Klinger, Hawkeye lays down beside Margaret. She is obviously scared, so he moves a little closer to her and shares his blanket.

In Henry's office the next day, Radar informs Henry that Margaret, Hawkeye, and Klinger are all well, safe, and on their way back. Just outside the camp, their jeep rolls up to the camp's outskirts. Hawkeye and Klinger praise Margaret, then just before they drive into camp, Klinger replaces his combat helmet with a ladies blue lace cap. In the Swamp, Hawkeye explains that Margaret was "a trooper, above and beyond the call", much to Trapper's disbelief. In Margaret's tent, Frank is more than a little miffed to hear that she and Hawkeye got along quite well at the aid station and that Margaret "has a headache". Klinger is upset that Radar already gave away nearly all of Klinger's dresses.

Later, in the mess tent, all the officers sit around enjoying some coffee, and Frank complains even more about their terrible conditions. Margaret and Hawkeye's eyes meet in a moment of understanding, and the episode ends.MAS*H DVD, Season 3, Disk 3

A man named Johnny (Gilles Renaud), who becomes the fall guy for a bank robbery, is released from prison on a 36-hour parole. He takes a taxi driven by Michel (Jean Yanne). During the road trip, Johnny has second thoughts and eventually Michel finds himself in the middle.

After meeting United Nations diplomat Dr. Robertson in New York City, journalist Emanuelle is invited to India to write a report on Guru Shanti, a man who claims to have achieved the ultimate orgasm. Once there she engages in a variety of sex acts, including one with the Guru, disproving his theory. She then heads to Hong Kong to investigate trafficked women and witnesses them being subjected to forced Bestiality. Upon her return to San Francisco in the United States, by way of Italy, she teams up with fellow reporter Cora Norman. The two snoop out a trail of men smuggling women to the Middle East, involving members of the United States government.

Andrea Richler (Paule Baillargeon) is a well-known director who returns to her home town of Montreal to film a high-budget musical drama. At her hotel, she has a brief but unsettling encounter with a suicidal elderly woman named Estelle (Louise Marleau). This is briefly forgotten until later when she meets the old lady again and with mounting incredulity Andrea discovers that the actual events in the woman's life mirror the fictional events in the director's film.

In her first appearance, "Bad Day at Black Rock", Bela Talbot hires two crooks to steal a cursed rabbit's foot from a storage container owned by the deceased John Winchester, a hunter of supernatural creatures. Anyone who touches the foot is granted good luck, but will die within a week if the foot is lost. She intends to sell it and shows no concern for the fate of the thieves. John's sons, series protagonists Sam and Dean, retrieve the foot but are cursed by it. Bela interferes when they attempt to destroy it, and shoots Sam in the shoulder. Dean, however, tricks her into touching it. She gives the foot up for destruction to save herself, but manages to steal $46,000 in winning lottery tickets from Dean that he had purchased using the foot's granted luck.

She next appears in "Red Sky at Morning", an episode in which the Winchesters track down a ghost ship responsible for local deaths. Bela fools them into helping her again, with the three of them working together to steal the precious and magical Hand of Glory. The Winchesters plan to destroy the artifact to end the curse, but Bela steals it from them to sell to a client. However, Bela then witnesses the ghost ship, which only appears to those who have spilled the blood of a family member. Condemned to death, she turns to the Winchesters for help. Dean is prepared to leave her behind to die, but Sam comes up with a plan to save Bela's life. This time, Bela gives them $10,000 as a "thank you" before she leaves because she does not like being indebted to others.

In "Fresh Blood", hunter and recently escaped felon Gordon Walker tracks Bela down and threatens to kill her unless she reveals the location of the Winchesters, as he plans to kill Sam. Bela agrees to find out their location in exchange for his priceless mojo bag, and has an unsuspecting Dean disclose their whereabouts to her. After Dean threatens to kill her, she uses a Ouija board to placate him by obtaining information on Gordon's location so the Winchesters can neutralize the other hunter first.

In "Dream a Little Dream of Me", Bela returns when the Winchesters contact her for help in saving fellow hunter and family friend Bobby Singer after he falls into a mystical coma. They need dream root to enter Bobby's dreams and find out what is keeping him asleep. She claims nothing from them in compensation, explaining she is helping them in order to repay a debt to Bobby. However, the Winchesters discover after Bobby awakens that she was lying, having helped them only in order to gain access to the Colt, a mystical gun capable of killing any being. Enraged at the theft, Dean and Sam attempt to track her down in "Jus in Bello", but instead are led into a trap she has set up; police arrest the Winchesters and place them in jail. Though the demonic overlord Lilith sends her forces, Sam and Dean eventually make their escape.

In "Time Is On My Side", Dean discovers Bela no longer has the Colt. He later gets her criminal record from England and learns her true name is Abbie. Almost ten years prior, when she was 14, she had her parents killed in exchange for her soul as part of a ten-year deal made with a Crossroads Demon; though Dean believes that she killed them to inherit their fortune and Bela supports this story, the audience is shown a flashback that suggests that she had actually agreed to the deal to escape abuse from her father. Now desperate because her time is running out, Bela tries to kill the Winchesters, but they anticipate her and escape ahead of time. Dean then calls her a few minutes before her deal is up and she confesses to him she tried to get out of the deal with the Crossroads Demon by trading the Colt. Once she gave it up, however, the deal changed so that she had to kill Sam as well. Though Dean refuses her pleas for help, she reveals to him that the demon Lilith holds all the contracts brokered by Crossroads Demons, including his own, hoping that Dean can kill Lilith. Bela's death and her soul's resulting descent into Hell is inevitable, but not shown with the hellhounds heard barking outside of the room she is in.

In season 5's "The Real Ghostbusters," Becky Rosen reveals to Sam that in Chuck's book version of "Time Is On My Side," Bela had lied about giving the Colt to Lilith. Instead she had given it to Crowley, Lilith's right-hand man and possibly her lover. Learning who Bela had really given the gun to gives the Winchesters their first real lead on where to find the Colt.

The film follows Ibro (Emir Hadžihafizbegović) and his son Armin (Armin Omerović), who travel from a small town in Bosnia to a film audition in Zagreb, hoping to land a part for Armin in a German film about the war in Bosnia. On their way to fulfilling the boy's dream, they encounter a series of disappointing setbacks — their bus to Zagreb breaks down and they are late for the audition. After Ibro convinces the director to give the boy a second chance, they soon realize that Armin is too old for the part anyway. As it becomes obvious that Armin's dream of playing a part in the movie will never happen, he feels increasingly disheartened, while Ibro's determination to help his son grows. Finally they do get another chance, but Armin buckles under the pressure and experiences an epileptic seizure. As they get ready to head back to Bosnia, the film crew makes an unexpected offer, but when Ibro refuses, Armin at last realizes how much his father really loves him.

A recently qualified medical doctor, Dmitri Malyanov, has taken a posting to a remote and very poor part of Soviet Turkmenistan. On top of his day job as a pediatrician Malyanov is undertaking research into the effects of religious practice on human health. His research has drawn the politically incorrect conclusion that religious faith does indeed improve health. However, as he attempts to write up his thesis, various sorts of improbable, bizarre events take place one after another. Malyanov perceives that some force is preventing him from completing his research.

Peter Standish is an American atomic scientist who is working in a nuclear laboratory in London. His co-worker Roger Forsyth, who is worried about Peter's lack of social activities, takes him to a house in Berkeley Square he inherited. It is there that Peter announces his wishes of living in the 18th century among the high-class family Petigrew he has studied the last years. Because of a lightning strike, he is brought back to 1784, where he is thought to be the first Peter Standish, the American cousin of the Petigrews who, according to history, will soon romance and marry Kate Petigrew.

Peter falls for Kate, but he is more interested in her sister Helen, of whom he has never found any records. Over the next few days, Peter makes several bad impressions on the family by using modern day language and revealing information he could not have known if he had actually grown up in the 18th century. Helen, however, is the only one not suspicious of Peter's presence and falls in love with him as well. Peter admits to her that the 18th century is not what he thought it would be. The narrow-minded people, the poverty and the dirt irritate him. Furthermore, he admits that he is from the future and shows Helen his hidden laboratory in the basement with modern inventions.

Rather than being afraid, Helen becomes even more interested in Peter. They fall in love, despite Peter's awareness that he has to marry Kate in order to not change history. Helen begs him not to say things which makes him look odd, and that night, at a formal party, Peter tries to impress the famous Duchess of Devonshire, but he accidentally talks about her as if he is talking about her legacy, which makes her uneasy. Kate is fed up with Peter and announces that she will not marry him. Rather than trying to court her somehow, Peter is drawn to Helen, who is interested on finding out more about the future.

Things start to look bad for Peter when his laboratory is uncovered. He is committed to the Bethlem Royal Hospital. Before being brought away, he rushes to Helen's room, where she places a crux ansata to remind him of her love for him. While he is being taken away, lightning strikes again and Peter is back in present life. There, Forsyth tells him he has been acting like a mad man for the past seven weeks. Peter is shocked when he meets Forsyth's sister Martha, who resembles Helen. He rushes out to the graveyard in front of his house, where he not only discovers Helen's grave, but that she died of grief shortly after he was taken away to the asylum.

The novel begins with an overview of the main character's background. Louis Lambert, the only child of a tanner and his wife, is born in 1797 and begins reading at an early age. In 1811 he meets the real-life Swiss author Madame de Staël (1766–1817), who – struck by his intellect – pays for him to enroll in the Collège de Vendôme. There he meets the narrator, a classmate named "the Poet" who later identifies himself in the text as Balzac; they quickly become friends. Shunned by the other students and berated by teachers for not paying attention, the boys bond through discussions of philosophy and mysticism.

After completing an essay entitled ''Traité de la Volonté'' ("Treatise on the Will"), Lambert is horrified when a teacher confiscates it, calls it "rubbish", and – the narrator speculates – sells it to a local grocer. Soon afterwards, a serious illness forces the narrator to leave the school. In 1815, Lambert graduates at the age of eighteen and lives for three years in Paris. After returning to his uncle's home in Blois, he meets a woman named Pauline de Villenoix and falls passionately in love with her. On the day before their wedding, however, he suffers a mental breakdown and attempts to castrate himself.

Declared "incurable" by doctors, Lambert is ordered into solitude and rest. Pauline takes him to her family's château, where he lives in a near coma. The narrator, ignorant of these events, meets Lambert's uncle by chance, and is given a series of letters. Written by Lambert while in Paris and Blois, they continue his philosophical musings and describe his love for Pauline. The narrator visits his old friend at the Villenoix château, where the decrepit Lambert says only: "The angels are white." Pauline shares a series of statements her lover had dictated, and Lambert dies on 25 September 1824 at the age of twenty-eight.

Dirt Merchant is a young man who struggles finding a job after getting fired from the mailroom at a record company where he dreamed of becoming assistant director. Eventually he becomes a summons server but gets in trouble when a rock star overdoses and he is framed for murdering him. He has to solve the case and deal with his feelings for his ex-girlfriend Angie while also dealing with the rock star's porn star girlfriend Holly So Tightly.

In 1931, a Missourian meat heiress is robbed by three men, who panic after murdering her boyfriend and kidnap her. At their hideout, the three are ambushed and killed by Eddie Hagan, who happened to witness the crime, and the rest of the notorious Grissom Gang.

Barbara Blandish is held captive by the gang, including Slim Grissom, a mentally handicapped thug who falls in love with her. Ma Grissom, the gang's boss, sends a ransom note to the girl's father, John P. Blandish, demanding a million dollars for her return. But she has no intention of returning Barbara, and the plan to kill her meets the disapproval of Ma's husband Doc.

Private detective Dave Fenner is hired by Barbara's father as weeks go by. After at first insulting Slim as a "halfwit" and repelling his advances, Barbara realizes that the only thing keeping her alive is his desire for her, Slim vowing to kill any gang member who harms her. She reluctantly becomes Slim's lover.

Nightclub singer Anna Borg has no idea what became of her boyfriend, one of the kidnappers who got killed. She pulls a gun on Eddie, who lies that Anna's boyfriend ran off with another woman. Anna allows herself to be seduced by Eddie, who then murders two men with knowledge of the crime.

Months go by. Fenner, out of ideas, poses as a theatrical agent who can help Anna's singing career. He gets her talking about past criminal associations and learns where the missing girl might be. A furious Eddie kills Anna, then goes after Barbara only to have Slim stab him to death. Ma uses a machine gun to fight police and kills her husband Doc when he tries to surrender. Slim dies in a hail of bullets, but when Barbara weeps over him, her disgusted father walks away.

The day before the fourteen-year-old Arthur "Artie" Kipps leaves to begin a seven-year apprenticeship, he asks his friend's sister, Ann Pornick, to be his girl. She gladly agrees. They split a silver sixpence and each keeps half.

Kipps goes to work for Mr. Shalford in a Folkestone drapery store. Years pass and Kipps grows up into an unremarkable young man. One day, he attends a free lecture on self-improvement presented by Chester Coote and decides to take a course. Coote steers the young man away from the literature class he would prefer to a woodworking class taught by Helen Walshingham, a member of the local gentry. Kipps is soon smitten with his lovely teacher, but she is mindful of his social inferiority and keeps her distance.

One night, actor and playwright Chitterlow rides his bicycle into Kipps and tears his trousers. Taking Kipps back to his lodgings to repair his clothes, they get drunk together, while Chitterlow tells Kipps about his latest play. By coincidence, one of Chitterlow's characters is also called Kipps, a name the writer got from a newspaper advertisement.

When Kipps arrives late for work, he is sacked for breaking one of Mr. Shalford's strict rules for live-in employees. Chitterlow arrives while he is working out his notice to tell Kipps that the advertisement was about him. It turns out that Kipps has inherited a large house and a fortune (£26,000) from a grandfather he had never met.

Chitterlow talks Kipps into investing £300 in his new play for a half share. At the bank, they run into Mr. Coote. Coote suggests that Kipps employ new solicitor Ronnie Walshingham to look after his fortune. When Kipps finds out that the man is Helen's brother, he becomes interested.

Soon, Coote and the Walshinghams have manoeuvred the naive Kipps into an engagement with Helen, though he is uncomfortable at her attempts at his self-improvement.

Kipps meets Ann paddling at the seaside, and they clearly still like each other. However he does not realise that she is now a parlour maid. When he re-encounters her at a formal tea party in the house where she serves, he is embarrassed, and his fiancée is also there. Ann puts her half sixpence into his hand. His feelings for her resurface. Kipps finds her in the scullery and kisses her and tells her he loves her. With the servant bells ringing for Ann, they impulsively rush off to get married.

The newlyweds quarrel over Kipps' insistence on maintaining his social position. Then Kipps receives a request to go to Ronnie Walshingham's office. He suspects it is for a breach-of-promise suit. Instead, Kipps is surprised to meet only Helen there. She has come to confess to him that Ronnie has speculated away all of Kipps' and her own family's money and fled. Kipps reassures Helen that he will not set the police on her brother, and she reassures him that she is resourceful enough to get by herself.

As all seems bleakest for Kipps, Chitterlow arrives from the theatre late at night. He informs Kipps that his play is a great success. It will have a long run, and Kipps will profit from his half-share in the show. It is enough for Kipps to open a bookshop and live comfortably with Ann and their baby son.

Devin Ratray is a musician and besotted admirer of Condoleezza Rice, 'Condi,' who travels across America, learning more about Rice from those who knew her. He speaks to her childhood friends in Birmingham, Alabama. In Denver, Colorado, he performs at Red Rocks, where he meets some of her former teachers, and the one man to whom Rice has been engaged, Rick Upchurch. Upchurch tells Devin that Rice made an oath to God not to have sex before she got married, and deduces that her continued single status and her enduring Christianity confirm that she is still a virgin. Ratray follows Rice's rise to Provost of Stanford University, where he discovers that, while in that position, she departed from the practice of applying affirmative action to tenure. In Los Angeles, he is given courtship advice by Adrian Grenier and cult comedian Jim Norton and is presented with a power ballad to send to Condi from Oscar nominated songwriter Carol Connors. When he arrives in Washington, D.C., he is assisted by Republican strategist Frank Luntz and is counseled by ''Newsweek'' editor Eleanor Clift.

Ratray also learns from various people he meets along the way about Rice's controversial statements to the 9/11 Commission. Through interactions with and clips featuring Colin Powell's Chief of Staff Lawrence Wilkerson, 9/11 Commission investigator Richard Ben-Veniste, and Congressman David Price, Ratray gets a fuller picture of how Rice's political positions and political philosophy developed and changed over the years.http://www.mammothtimes.com/content/view/99365/ Finally, Glenn Kessler, a ''Washington Post'' reporter and author of a book about Rice and the Bush Administration, discusses Rice's involvement with the government's use of torture during the War on Terror.

During the First World War, Lieutenant Richard Saville, a young Royal Navy officer on five days' leave, and Miss Lucinda Bentley, a merchant's daughter from Portsmouth, get talking on the train up to London. Halfway through their journey, they miss their rail connection and spend a romantic holiday in the countryside of southern England. When Saville proposes, she accepts, but on the day they are due to go back to Portsmouth, she changes her mind, asking Saville to realise that neither he nor she could bear being parted for the long periods he would be at sea. They part, seemingly forever.

Saville serves out the First World War and the inter-war years and, by the first years of the Second World War, he is in command of a squadron of three cruisers on convoy duty in the Pacific. He receives a message from a British merchantman just before it is sunk by the German raider ''Essen'', but HMS ''Stratford'', the flagship of Saville's squadron is too low on fuel for pursuit and the convoy cannot be left unguarded. Saville decides to remain with the convoy while his other two ships - HMS ''Amesbury'' and HMS ''Cambridge'' - chase after the raider. ''Cambridge'' then has to stop to pick up survivors from the merchantman, leaving the ''Amesbury'' on her own. ''Amesbury'' finds and attacks the ''Essen'', scoring a major torpedo hit on the ''Essen''’s bow, but is sunk with the loss of all but two hands, Petty Officer Wheatley and Signalman Andrew 'Canada' Brown. Brown is the son of a mother keen on the navy and thus knows more about naval tactics, strategy and gunnery than most of his rank.

The ''Essen'' picks up the two survivors. Meanwhile, news of the ''Amesbury''’s fate reaches Saville in the ''Stratford''. Saville decides to take a risk and go after the ''Essen'' with ''Cambridge''. While the ''Essen'' is anchored in a rocky lagoon for 36 hours to carry out repairs, Brown manages to escape to the heights around the lagoon with a rifle, Having won marksmanship prizes, he proceeds to pick off sailors working on the repairs, leading the ''Essen''’s captain to use his ship's AA guns and then big guns in a vain attempt to dislodge Brown. Finally, he sends a party of marines to hunt Brown down, but just as they are about to kill him, they are recalled and the ''Essen'' departs. Brown collapses, seriously wounded.

As the ''Essen'' leaves the lagoon, she is caught and sunk by Saville's force. One of her survivors informs the British of Brown's exploits, which delayed repairs for 18 hours, thus enabling the British to catch up with them. A landing party is sent ashore from Saville's force to find him.

Alternate endings

The film is unusual for its period in that, for the American version, two different endings were filmed, one in which Brown survives and another in which he is killed. These were both shown in cinemas and audiences were asked to choose their favourite one. Both endings are also shown when the film is broadcast on British television (e.g. FilmFour).

First ending

The landing party searches the island for Brown, as the camera pans to his apparently dead body. The action then cuts to London and an honours investiture, where Saville receives a knighthood for his actions. Brown was found dead by the landing party and is awarded a Victoria Cross posthumously, presented to his mother. She is revealed to be the former Lucinda Bentley, who had moved to Canada after her tryst with Saville. She and Saville meet before she goes to accept her son's medal.

Second ending

The action cuts straight from the German survivor to an honours investiture in London, where Brown, who has in this version survived to receive his VC, meets Saville. Brown tells Saville that his English mother - to whom he owes his joining the navy - is living in Montreal and unable to make it to the ceremony (though whether or not she is Lucinda is not revealed). Saville informs Brown that he is to be his signaller on their next posting, on the north Atlantic convoy routes. They will both probably get a chance to see his mother in Canada. The pair then stand to attention as the national anthem plays.

The film is set in East Africa. It is about a game warden called Bob Payton (Anthony Steel). He is horrified by the destruction of wild animals by ivory hunters. He establishes a wildlife sanctuary. He is attacked by wild animals and must contend with a villainous ivory poacher (Harold Warrender).

Capt. Anthony Nelson (Larry Hagman) is on a rocket, on a space mission. When his final stage misfires, his one-man capsule, ''Stardust One'', is unable to maintain orbit and he has to make an emergency landing on a desert island in the South Pacific. There, while gathering items on the beach to form a giant "S.O.S." in the sand, he finds an old bottle that seems to move. When he opens it, smoke pours out, and a 2000-year-old beautiful blonde-haired girl named Jeannie (Barbara Eden) appears, dressed in harem clothing and speaking in Persian (in the unaired version of the episode, her first words to him are translated on screen as,"Your wish is my command, Master"), and gratefully kisses him. Tony, shocked at first, realizes she's a genie, and that she can get him off the island. However, the language barrier between them is such that he can't get Jeannie to understand what an airplane or ship is, "blinking" up a falcon and an ancient galley ship instead. Frustrated, Tony idly wishes she could speak English...and she does begin to speak English ("Somehow, I must find a way to please thee, Master!"). She makes it quite clear that she is a genie and that Tony is her new master. He can wish whatever he wants and she will make that wish come true. Tony tests her, again wishing a helicopter would appear to rescue him from the island. This time, she gets it right. After it lands nearby, Tony realizes he can't take Jeannie with him; not only can't he explain her presence logically, it's left unsaid she would also complicate matters with the fiancee he is about to marry, Melissa Stone (Karen Sharpe), the daughter of his commanding officer. Tony tells Jeannie she's free of her obligation to serve him as a genie, explaining to her, "I rescued you, you rescued me - we're even". He says goodbye, and heads for home; but he doesn't see that the girl, smoking inside her bottle, rolls it into his duffel bag and returns to Cocoa Beach, Florida with him.

Upon his return to Cape Kennedy, Tony is debriefed by the base psychiatrist, Col. Alfred Bellows (Hayden Rorke). When Tony tries to explain to the doctor about seeing Jeannie, Bellows believes Tony suffered hallucinations while stranded on the island, and that the image of the "beautiful girl on a desert island" was, in his opinion, actually that of his mother. "My mother's in Salt Lake City", Tony points out. "I'm a psychiatrist", Bellows insists. "I know a mother when I see one". After dismissing Capt. Nelson, the doctor, worried about Tony's mental health, immediately phones his superior, Gen. Wingard Stone (Philip Ober).

In the meantime, Tony arrives home with Melissa. On hearing the shower in his bedroom, she wonders who could be using it. Tony doesn't know...until he sees the duffel bag with the bottle sticking out nearby. He tries to shove Melissa out, but it's too late - Jeannie appears in his bedroom doorway, clad only in his shirt. Naturally, Melissa doesn't believe Tony's explanation that "she's not a girl", yelling, "It's a GIRL!!", as she storms out. Tony insists that Jeannie leave, but she won't. "Thou hast set me free. That means that I am free to please thee", she explains. "And I am going to please thee very much...". He finally has to trick her back into her bottle to get her out of the house. Before he can release her outside, a car with Gen. Stone, Dr. Bellows, and Tony's fellow astronauts, Army Capt. Roger Healey (Bill Daily) and Navy Lt. Pete Conway (Don Dubbins), pulls up. Tony quickly dumps the bottle into a nearby garbage can as they approach him. Bellows brings up the matter of Tony's hallucination, claiming he can't reinstate him for active duty until he's certain he's "completely normal". While Tony tries to convince them he is normal, a garbage truck pulls up, and the contents of the can are dumped into it - along with Jeannie's bottle. In a panic, Tony quickly races to the truck, offers the garbage men $10 for the contents, and fishes out the bottle. Bellows and the others gently steer Tony back into his house, convinced he isn't normal. He tries to coax Jeannie out of the bottle to prove her existence, but she won't budge. Just as Dr. Bellows is about to phone for an ambulance, Tony suddenly giggles, telling them the whole incident was "just a gag", that he was just getting back at Roger and Pete for what they did to him while in training. "You really had me worried, Tony", Gen. Stone nods, accepting his explanation. "I wouldn't want a son-in-law who went around seeing genies, would I?". Tony nervously agrees, as they leave, allowing him to rest after the long day he's had. But it's not over for him, as Jeannie smokes out of her bottle, boiling mad . Tony tries to explain that she's not part of the air force, and "there's just no room for you in my life". But after floating in the air next to Jeannie, his living room briefly transformed by her into a sultan's den (complete with exotic furniture and dancing girls) — just as Gen. Stone and Melissa arrive — his nervousness as Jeannie takes on Melissa's appearance and mimics Melissa's every move and word , her passionate kiss after the Stones leave, and his insistence that she disappear from his life by the time he wakes up in the morning, Jeannie makes it quite clear she's not leaving. After he chases her out of his bedroom when she tries to sneak under the locked door as smoke, she glances at us...and blinks the picture off. The episode is over, but not the battle of the sexes between her and Tony, as he reluctantly accepts the fact he's now "master" of a beautiful but stubborn genie who knows what's best for him.

In 1856, ambitious freight company and store owner Logan Stuart agrees to escort Lucy Overmire home to the settlement of Jacksonville, Oregon, along with his latest shipment. Lucy is engaged to Logan's best friend, George Camrose. The night before they depart, however, Logan has to defend himself from a sneak attack in his hotel room; though it is too dark to be sure, he believes his assailant is Honey Bragg. Later, he explains to Lucy that he once saw Bragg leaving the vicinity of two murdered miners. Despite Logan's unwillingness to accuse Bragg (since he did not actually witness the crime), Bragg apparently wants to take no chances.

On their journey, Logan and Lucy become attracted to each other. They stop one night at the homestead of Ben Dance and his family. There, Logan introduces Lucy to his girlfriend, Caroline Marsh.

In Jacksonville, Logan tries to get George to stop playing poker with (and losing to) professional gambler Jack Lestrade, even giving him $2000 to pay off his debts, but George is more interested in the prospect of getting rich quick without hard work. What Logan does not know is that George has been stealing gold dust left in his safekeeping by the miners to pay some of his losses. George also has a secret he is keeping from Lucy; he keeps propositioning Lestrade's wife Marta, though she shows no interest in him.

Meanwhile, the burly Bragg keeps trying to provoke Logan into a fight. Finally, he succeeds. Logan wins, but does not kill his opponent when he has the chance. A humiliated Bragg tries to ride Logan down on his way out of town.

George decides to move away to make a fresh start and finally gets Lucy to agree to marry him. Logan then proposes to Caroline and is accepted, much to the disappointment of Vane Blazier, Logan's employee, who is in love with Caroline himself.

Lucy decides to accompany Logan to San Francisco to pick out a wedding dress. Along the way, they are ambushed by Bragg. Though their horses are shot dead, they get away and return to town, only to discover that George is in grave trouble.

When a miner appears months earlier than George had expected and informs him that he wants to get his gold the next day, George kills the drunk man late that night. However, his crimes are traced to him; shopkeeper Hi Linnet saw him stealing some gold, and the miner's lucky gold nugget is found in George's possession. The locals, led by Johnny Steele, find George guilty of murder and lock him up, intending a late-night lynching. However, when one of the settlers rides in with the warning that the Indians are on the warpath after Bragg killed a woman, Logan helps his friend escape in the confusion.

Logan organizes a party to fight. When Bragg seeks their protection, Logan drives him off, to be killed by the Indians. They are then driven off by Logan's men.

Afterward, Logan and Lucy learn that George was found and killed by one of the townsfolk. Caroline also has second thoughts about marriage to a man who is away so frequently on business; she breaks their engagement and accepts Vane. Logan and Lucy are free to follow their hearts.

Harry and Anne Wilding return to civilian life after service in the army. They have trouble readjusting, and Harry eventually resigns from his council job and goes into business, selling food from a mobile canteen. Anne becomes jealous of the daughter of Harry's backer. Anne gives up her job to concentrate on her marriage.Something Money Can't Buy Picture Show; London Vol. 59, Iss. 1533, (Aug 16, 1952): 5-6, 10

Three things happen to Kinsey Millhone on her thirty-third birthday: she moves into her remodeled apartment, which has finally been finished; she is hired by Irene Gersh, a sickly Santa Teresa resident, to head out to the Slabs in the Mojave Desert and locate her mother; and she gets the news that Tyrone Patty, a particularly dangerous criminal she helped the Carson City Police Department track down a few years back, has hired a hit-man to kill her.

After her first night in her new place, Kinsey heads out early the next day in search of Mrs Gersh's mother, Agnes Grey, who lives in a trailer in the desert. Agnes isn't home, and the trailer seems to be occupied by two teenage runaways; but Kinsey eventually tracks Agnes down at a local convalescent hospital, where she has been since being taken suddenly ill on a trip to a local town sometime before. Agnes, 83 years old, has not been a model patient; and the hospital staff are delighted to hear that she has relatives who can take responsibility for her. Irene makes plans to transfer Agnes to a facility in Santa Teresa. But Agnes seems terrified of going there and tells Kinsey a confused story about a number of people from the past, including Lottie and Emily, who died.

Kinsey makes plans to come home, but before she can do so, a man in a pick-up truck deliberately runs her off the road, seriously injuring Kinsey and totaling her treasured VW automobile. Kinsey recognizes the driver as a man traveling with his young son she has seen a couple of times on the journey to the Slabs, and realizes she needs to take the death threat against her seriously. She hires Robert Dietz, the PI who helped her briefly on an earlier case, as a bodyguard. His vigilance initially frustrates Kinsey, who is used to making her own decisions; but they soon begin an affair. Dietz discovers the hitman is Mark Messinger, who absconded with his son, Eric, eight months previously. He arranges a meeting with the child's mother, Rochelle, who is desperate to get her son back, and offers to help her.

Meanwhile, Agnes goes missing only a few hours after getting to Santa Teresa. She is soon found, yet she dies of fright within a day. Kinsey and Robert Dietz suspect she was kept prisoner somewhere before her death. Irene suffers a serious panic reaction when she sees a tea set Kinsey found among her mother's possessions, and Kinsey suspects this has triggered a buried childhood memory. Further anomalies occur when Irene tries to fill in the paperwork relating to the death: Kinsey realizes that Irene's birth certificate is faked and that Agnes Grey is a pseudonym. It's Kinsey's CFI colleague Darcy who points out Agnes Grey is the name of a novel by Anne Brontë, which seems to link to the names Emily and Lottie (Charlotte) Agnes had mentioned. Kinsey tracks down a family called Bronfen, who match the circumstances Agnes described, and surmises that the surviving brother of the family, Patrick, murdered Lottie and Emily. She is convinced that when Patrick killed Irene's mother, Sheila, Agnes Grey was Anne Bronfen, a third sister, who took off with Irene to protect her, changing their identities and posing as the young Irene's mother. The three daughters were presumably named for the Brontë sisters, which explains the alias Anne chose to use. Patrick faked Anne's death in order to gain sole possession of the family property.

Kinsey is convinced that Patrick is responsible for Agnes's death, to cover his past crimes, and discovers evidence of further killings at his home. When she confronts Patrick, she is interrupted by Messinger, who kills Patrick. Dietz and Rochelle have managed to get Eric away from Messinger, and Messinger's stated intention is to use Kinsey as a hostage to exchange for Eric. As she drives Messinger to the airport at gunpoint to intercept Rochelle, Kinsey is convinced Messinger will kill them all; and he succeeds in killing Rochelle's twin Roy, who was attempting to help her escape with Eric. However, Rochelle outsmarts Messinger and kills him first.

In the epilogue, the third contract killer hired by Tyrone Patty is apprehended; and Patty himself dies as a consequence of a jail altercation. Dietz leaves to pursue his plan of providing anti-terrorism training on military bases.

These are troubling times for California Fidelity, the insurance company for whom Kinsey Millhone does occasional freelance work in return for office space. First, a recent employee and friend of Kinsey's, Parnell Perkins, is shot and killed—and the police investigation seems curiously lacking in results. Second, in the wake of poor profit figures, company troubleshooter Gordon Titus (or 'tight-ass' as he is immediately nicknamed) arrives to shake things up. The informal arrangement with Kinsey seems high on his list of targets.

In the new mood of nervous efficiency prevalent at CFI pending Titus's arrival, Kinsey is passed the claim file of Bibianna Diaz to investigate for possible fraud. Kinsey assumes a false identity as Hannah Moore in an attempt to befriend Bibianna, who, by co-incidence, is in a relationship with a former schoolmate and police-academy associate of Kinsey's, Jimmy Tate, recently relieved of police duties on the grounds of corruption. Bibianna has problems too, it seems: her former boyfriend Raymond Maldonaldo, of whom she is—rightly, as it turns out—terrified, is the jealous type and is hunting her down. Kinsey realises that a CFI colleague has inadvertently given away information on Bibianna to Raymond's gang, and things come to a head while she is out drinking with Bibianna and Tate. Raymond's brother Chago and his girlfriend Dawna accost Bibianna; and in the fracas that ensues, Tate shoots and kills Chago. Bibianna is taken into custody, Kinsey deliberately sticking to her in order to cement their relationship.

Kinsey's enforced overnight stay in the police 'tank' is interrupted by Lieutenant Dolan, who has a job offer for her: Raymond is the head of a huge insurance fraud gang, and the police want Kinsey to use her new position as Bibianna's confidante to get the evidence they need; there seems to be a leak somewhere in the police department, and they need someone unconnected whom they can trust to bring Raymond to justice. Kinsey withdraws her initial gut refusal when Dolan tells her Raymond killed Parnell but that they have been stalling the murder investigation in order not to jeopardize the longstanding fraud case. Kinsey agrees to help out of a sense of duty to Parnell; but the police plan to have Kinsey wired for her own protection goes awry, and she is left to fend for herself.

Thus begins a dangerous and stifling few days for Kinsey, undercover and up to her neck in a criminal ring headed by a deluded killer. Raymond effectively keeps both Kinsey and Bibianna under house arrest in Los Angeles, with the aid of his second in command, Luis. Raymond can't accept Bibianna's rejection of him and is determined to force her into marriage. The snag in the plan, which Bibianna doesn't dare confess, is that she has actually just married Tate. Tensions run high, while Kinsey learns much about the car insurance fraud business, keeps her eyes open, and eventually establishes the leak is a clerk at the County Sheriff's office, whose father is a crooked doctor heavily involved in Raymond's ring.

Matters come to a head when Bibianna escapes and is pursued almost to her death by one of Raymond's henchmen. Visiting her in the hospital, the doctor inadvertently lets slip to Raymond that Bibianna's next of kin is her husband, Jimmy Tate. Enraged, Raymond shoots Jimmy. Kinsey sets off in hot pursuit and receives unexpected help from Luis, who turns out to be an undercover LAPD cop. Kinsey makes it back to Santa Teresa in the nick of time for her friend Vera Lipton's wedding. Both Bibianna and Tate survive; but despite her success in wrapping up the insurance fraud claim, Kinsey is fired from CFI by Gordon Titus.

As young children, Skeeter and Wendy Bronson are raised by their father Marty at the family business, the Sunny Vista Motel. However, despite being a good hotelier and host, Marty faces serious financial problems with the business and almost goes bankrupt. The motel is sold into a forced liquidation to Barry Nottingham, CEO and founder of hotel chain Nottingham Hotels, and rebuilt into a luxury hotel named the Sunny Vista Nottingham. Twenty-five years later, Skeeter is stuck as the hotel's hardworking repairman, despite Nottingham previously promising the late Marty to let Skeeter run the hotel if he showed promise. Nottingham announces plans to close the old hotel in order to build a new one, named the Sunny Vista Mega Nottingham, and appoints the snotty Kendall Duncan as its future manager, simply because he is dating Nottingham's daughter Violet.

Wendy asks Skeeter to watch her children, Patrick and Bobbi, because the school at which she is the principal is closing down and she is looking for a job in Arizona. The first night, Skeeter cynically tells them a bedtime story in which he casts himself as an underdog peasant in a medieval fantasy world, who is unfairly passed over for promotion. Dissatisfied with the story’s unhappy ending, the children add that he gets a chance at the promotion, and that it starts raining gumballs.

The next day, the story miraculously comes true: Nottingham, recalling the original promise he made to Marty, gives Skeeter a shot at the manager position; and on his way home, gumballs rain on Skeeter from a truck crash on an overpass. The next night, at the hotel, Skeeter tells a wild west-style story in which he, as a cowboy, is freely given an expensive horse named Ferrari. Going out later that night, he saves Violet from obnoxious paparazzi; he then sees Violet’s Ferrari car and mistakenly thinks it is for him before Violet drives away. Skeeter realizes that only the children's additions to the stories come true. The night after that, Skeeter, with the children's help, tells a story about a chariot-riding stuntman in Ancient Greece who wins a date with the “fairest maiden in the land”. The next day, Skeeter ends up spending the day with and falling for his sister's friend and colleague Jill.

On Skeeter’s last night with the children, he tells them a space opera-style story in which he triumphs over Kendall in a duel, but the children add that someone kills him with a fireball. Skeeter learns from Kendall that the new Nottingham Hotel will be at the location of the closing school. Skeeter and Kendall both make presentations on how best to market the hotel; with his heartfelt speech, Skeeter ultimately wins the managerial position. However, Skeeter, paranoid against fire due to the story, blasts a fire extinguisher at Nottingham's cake who then “fires” him.

Skeeter, much to the surprise of Jill and Nottingham manages to get the hotel’s location moved to the beachfront in Santa Monica; after which Skeeter and Jill race to the school before it can be demolished. While at the site, protesting the school’s closure, Bobbi and Patrick sneak in the building to give their sign a better view. Skeeter and Jill arrive just in time to stop Kendall from setting off the highly sensitive explosives, saving the kids and the school. Sometime later, Skeeter marries Jill and opens a motel named after his father; with Kendall and his accomplice Aspen demoted to the motel's waiting staff. Violet marries Skeeter's best friend Mickey, giving him control of the Nottingham Empire. Nottingham quits the hotel industry to become a school nurse; and newlywed Skeeter and Jill have a baby.

Mike is a struggling artist who draws the ''Brenda Starr'' comic strip for a newspaper. When Brenda comes to life and sees how unappreciated she is by Mike, she leaves the comic. To return her to her rightful place and keep his job, Mike draws himself into the strip.

Within her fictional world, Brenda Starr is an ace reporter for the ''New York Flash''. She is talented, fearless, and smart, and she is a very snappy dresser. The only competition she has is from Libby Lipscomb, the rival newspaper's top reporter.

Brenda heads to the Amazon jungle to find a scientist with a secret formula, which will create cheap and powerful fuel from ordinary water. There, she must steal the formula from her competition and foreign spies.

William J. Hypperbone, an eccentric millionaire, living in Chicago, has left the sum of his fortune, $60,000,000, to the first person to reach the end of "The Noble Game of the United States of America." The game he devised is based upon the board game "The Noble Game of Goose"; however, in his version, the players are the tokens and the game board is the United States. The contestants are Max Réal, with his companion Tommy); Tom Crabbe, with his trainer John Milner; Hermann Titbury, with his wife Kate; Harris T. Kymbale (on his own); Lizzie Wag, with her friend Jovita Foley; Hodge Urrican, with his companion Turk; and the mysterious player only known as "XKZ." Who is this mysterious "XKZ" who was added to the game by a codicil to the will? Time and completion of the game will tell.

In 1897, the first Baedecker guidebook for the U.S. was published, and Verne used this as the source for his descriptions of the modes of transport, timetables, and geographic descriptions of the numerous places the twelve participants were required to visit in order to claim the prize.

1799: The French campaign in Egypt and Syria. At Jaffa, General Napoléon Bonaparte ruthlessly orders the killing of 4,500 Turkish prisoners of war. A Breton sea captain attached to the French force notices a still living young Turkish soldier among the piled bodies, and saves his life. The Turk, who would later rise to great wealth and prominence in Cairo, will not forget his saviour.

1831: The wealthy Egyptian Kamylk-Pasha buries his treasures in the rock of an unknown islet, to save them from the greed of his family.

1862: In Saint-Malo, Pierre Antifer, an impulsive and gruff Breton sea captain, meditates on a document bequeathed by his father – a letter sent by Kamylk-Pasha, whose life the father had saved. This document mentions the latitude of the island where the treasure is hidden, with the longitude to be communicated to Antifer once upon a time. Antifer's nephew, Juhel, thinks only of his coming marriage with his beloved Enogate and fears the consequences of a possible trip.

The Egyptian notary Ben-Omar – accompanied by Saouk, the last heir of the Pasha – arrives at Saint-Malo and reveals to Master Antifer the long desired longitude. The impulsive seaman immediately embarks, drawing with him his friend Gildas Tregomain and poor Juhel, whose marriage was put off indefinitely. The islet is located in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Muscat in Oman.

Alas! Instead of the expected treasure, the travelers discover a second parchment, indicating a new longitude, and referring them to the Maltese banker Zambuco, who once helped Kamylk-Pasha and thus deserves a share of the hidden treasure. Zambuco has the latitude, and the new location turns out to be another islet – off the African coast, in the Gulf of Guinea.

There, they find a new message, including a small diamond to defray their mounting travelling costs, a new longitude and the name of a new treasure-colleague residing in Scotland. However, when arriving in Edinburgh, they find that the Reverend Tyrcomel is an advocate of the complete abolition of wealth: he has no interest in finding the treasure himself nor in helping others get it, and obstinately refuses to hand over the latitude in his possession.

Saouk, violent and unscrupulous, resorts to brute force: coming back in the night, undressing and tying up the unfortunate Tyrcomel – and discovering the required information tattooed on the Scotsman's body, put there by his late father who had once traveled to the Orient and helped Kamylk-Pasha. The brigand would not benefit from his violent deed – Saouk ends up in a British prison, but the rest of the treasure hunters know where to head to next.

Antifer, equipped with the new latitude, charters a ship for Spitzbergen, where a third islet is located. He discovers only a half-illegible document, and is unable to identify the final location of the jackpot. Sick and tired with frustration, he returns to Saint-Malo and Juhel can finally marry Enogate.

Unintentionally, it is the young woman who will provide her husband (and his uncle) with the solution of the enigma, enabling him to interpret the recalcitrant parchment: the treasure is hidden off Sicily, at the exact center of a circle described by the three divergent islets which they visited. Everybody hurries there – to find only an empty sea. Julia Island, of volcanic origin, had emerged from the depths of the sea in 1831 and was used to bury the treasure – but unfortunately, it returned to the depths shortly after its emergence. Adieu, then, to Kamylk-Pacha's gold and precious stones!

Antifer, cured permanently of his dreams of opulence, is able to laugh off his misadventures – to the great relief of his family.

According to series creator Eric Kripke, the archangel Lucifer "twisted and mutilated" the human Lilith's soul into the first demon "to prove a point to God...that human souls were...inferior to God and the angels". Having been freed from Hell in the second season finale "All Hell Breaks Loose: Part Two", Lilith (Rachel Pattee) debuts in the final moments of the third season episode "Jus in Bello" as the current leader of an army of demons also unleashed from Hell; the first half of the season had established that after the death of the army general and previous series antagonist Azazel created a power vacuum, leading to power struggles between demonic factions, which is resolved when Lilith ultimately emerges as the victor. In her "Jus in Bello" appearance, she searches a police station for the series protagonists Sam and Dean Winchester, brothers who hunt supernatural creatures. Having just missed them, she proceeds to torture everyone in the station for nearly an hour after destroying the station in a massive explosion. The Winchesters' demonic ally Ruby explains that Lilith sees Sam as a rival, as he has demonic abilities and was intended—but unwilling—to lead Azazel's demon army. Lilith orders Sam's death in order to secure her position as the army's general, even tricking the thief Bela Talbot into making a failed attempt on Sam's life with the promise of releasing Bela from her Faustian deal, only to go back on her word and let Bela get dragged into Hell.

With Dean having also sold his soul as part of a Faustian deal—one he made to save Sam's life —the brothers spend part of the season searching for the entity that holds the contract to Dean's soul and eventually learn from Bela that the demon in question is Lilith, who holds the contracts to all deals. In the third season finale "No Rest for the Wicked", the Winchesters track her down in New Harmony, Indiana, where she is holding a family hostage in the guise of their daughter (Sierra McCormick). Before Sam and Dean can attack her, Lilith secretly takes over Ruby's host body (Katie Cassidy) in order to catch the brothers off-guard. She has a hellhound kill Dean and bring his soul to Hell to be tortured by Hell's chief torturer Alastair as part of her plan to begin breaking the 66 mystical seals keeping Lucifer imprisoned in Hell. Lilith then tries to kill Sam as well by blasting him with destructive white energy, only to find that she is powerless against him. Horrified, she escapes before he can retaliate with Ruby's demon-killing knife.

Throughout the fourth season, Lilith orchestrates the attacks by the forces of Hell on the 66 seals. They are opposed by angels, who resurrect Dean to assist them. Lilith eventually finds out that her death is the final seal that needs to be broken to free Lucifer. Reluctant to sacrifice herself, Lilith (Katherine Boecher) proposes a deal to Sam in "The Monster at the End of This Book": she will stop breaking the seals in exchange for his and Dean's lives. He rejects the deal and tries to kill her instead. She quickly overpowers him, but is forced to flee before she can do anymore when Dean tricks an archangel into coming to the location. In the season finale "Lucifer Rising", Sam kills Lilith under the impression that her death will prevent the final seal from breaking, and in doing so inadvertently breaks the final seal, releasing Lucifer.

In the fifteenth season, Lilith is resurrected by God from the Empty where demons and angels go after death. Possessing a young woman named Ashley Monroe, Lilith poses as the witness of a werewolf attack to get close to the Winchesters as part of God's plan, putting Dean to sleep and purposefully allowing herself to be captured by the monsters. Lilith's deception is revealed when she trips and is impaled on a set of deer antlers, but she is unable to kill Sam and Dean due to it not being part of God's plan. Having sacrificed herself to release Lucifer and begin the Apocalypse, Lilith is shown to be bitter and vengeful over her sacrifice being in vain and claims that Sam was only able to kill her because Lilith allowed him to do so. Lilith reveals that God intends for Sam and Dean to kill each other and destroys the Equalizer, the gun God created to kill the Nephilim Jack with and which Sam had used to wound him. Lilith then departs after promising to see Sam and Dean again. She later attempts to take the recently-escaped Michael to God, but the archangel refuses. When Lilith continues to insist, Michael smites Lilith who vanishes in a flash of white light, once again killing her.

Mario (Petermann) is a 10-year-old autistic boy who is mute and hard of hearing. He has an 18-year-old brother whom he admires greatly. One day, Simon (Reddy) becomes involved with a woman and, as a result, their relationship becomes strained. Mario finds himself without his brother and his parents who are always watching over their island during the tourist season.

:"Mr. Leadbetter is in holy orders, and for more years than he cares to remember has led a virtuous, worthwhile and very dull life. After drinking a little more than is good for him whilst on holiday, he rashly decides to commit a crime. It has consequences he could never have imagined - he ends up on the other side of the world."[http://www.suttonelms.org.uk/lsieveking.html Diversity Website - Lance Sieveking Radio Plays]. Accessed March 9, 2008

Mutter Krause and her two adult children, daughter Erna and son Paul, live in a tenement in Wedding, a cramped working-class district of Berlin. With them lives "the Tenant", a petty criminal, his fiancée Friede, a prostitute, and Friede's young child.

Mutter Krause is a quiet, long-suffering old woman who earns what little she can delivering newspapers. However, Paul is unemployed, earns little from ragpicking and often relies on her for money. One day, he spends the money collected from her customers on drink. Mutter Krause pawns her last valuable possession, a treasured memento of her late husband, but still has not enough to satisfy her obligation to her employer, who sacks her and takes her to court.

Erna begins dating Max, a young communist worker, who promises her to help her mother meet her debt. Paul is persuaded to join others to break into the same pawn shop to get money for the debt. When police are alerted, he gets away but is then arrested in front of his mother, who does not know of Max's promise. In despair, Mutter Krause turns on the gas in the apartment and kills herself, along with Friede's child.

The story begins in the United States, where the heroine, Mistress Branican, suffers a mental breakdown after the death by drowning of her young son. On recovering, she learns that her husband, Captain Branican, has been reported lost at sea. Having acquired a fortune, she is able to launch an expedition to search for her husband, who she is convinced is still alive. She leads the expedition herself and trail leads her into the Australian hinterland.

Sarah Paulson portrays Acey Rawlin, a teenage girl who gets pregnant after spending the night with a man she just met. Acey's only friend, a fisherman named Bob, may be imaginary. And when Acey tells her mother Anna about her problems, Anna chooses this moment to tell Acey that she's adopted, which causes her to search out her birth mother.

Claudius Bombarnac, a reporter is assigned by the ''Twentieth Century'' to cover the travels of the Grand Transasiatic Railway which runs between ''Uzun Ada'', a harbour on the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea, and Peking, China. Accompanying him on this journey is an interesting collection of characters, including one who is trying to beat the round the world record and another who is a stowaway. Claudius hopes one of them will become the hero of his piece, so his story won't be just a boring travelogue. He is not disappointed when a special car guarded by troops is added to the train, said to be carrying the remains of a great Mandarin. The great Mandarin actually turns out to be a large consignment being returned to China from Persia. Unfortunately the train must travel through a large part of China that is controlled by unscrupulous robber-chiefs. Before the journey is over, Claudius finds his hero.

Alexis Smith in the trailer Sam Hurley and Bart Moore escape from prison, although Moore is seriously wounded in the breakout. They commandeer a gas station, killing the attendant when he tries to disarm Hurley. They meet up with a confederate, a mute named "Dummy", and hide out in a ghost town. Along the way, they pick up several hostages, Kay Garven and her lover Arthur Ashton, reporter Larry Fleming, dancer Dorothy "Dottie" Vail, and the town's sole resident, Asa Tremaine. Sam calls Kay's husband Neal, a doctor, and threatens to kill Kay if he does not come and help Bart.

Larry warns the gangsters that the government is going to conduct an atomic bomb test nearby the next morning, but Sam does not believe him. When Arthur causes trouble, Sam kills him without a qualm. To Kay's surprise, Neal still loves her enough to show up. He successfully operates on Bart, but warns Sam that moving his friend too soon will kill him. When Sam finally realizes that Larry was telling the truth, he still waits as long as possible to give Bart time to recuperate.

Unknown to everyone, the test has been moved ahead an hour due to favorable weather conditions. When the five-minute warning sounds earlier than expected, Sam and Bart hurry to Neal's car and a desperate Kay persuades Sam to take her along. Larry overpowers Dummy, but the others drive away. Asa leads Dottie, Larry and Neal to safety in a nearby mine. Sam, Bart and Kay are killed by the explosion, but the others emerge unharmed.

After murdering a lover, and crashing his car while fleeing the scene of the crime, a ruthlessly "successful" man is transported to an unknown island (called Ata) whose location is never revealed, the implication being that it doesn't physically exist in our world. The island is inhabited by people he gradually learns are deceptively primitive. Every aspect of their waking lives is governed by their dream life. Initially in conflict with their ways, the unnamed protagonist, according to Bryant, "is dragged kicking and screaming to his own salvation." He gradually comes to realize that the people of this island support and maintain the real world through their dreaming, and that he needs to incorporate this world view so he can successfully return to his former life. It can be read as an allegory of spiritual growth, and shows the influence of modern anthropological writings on indigenous peoples and the writings of psychologist Carl Jung.

While being moved from their regular prison to a newer prison, situated near the Rio Grande, the wagon containing the Dalton gang is hijacked by the infamous Mexican bandit Emílio Espuelas and his men. The two gangs team up to kidnap the local mayor, disguising the Daltons as mariachi musicians.

Meanwhile, the Mexican ambassador to The United States of America has threatened with decreased diplomatic relations and, ultimately, war, unless the Daltons are returned to the US. Lucky Luke departs to Mexico by direct order of the president.

Ultimately the grand scheme is foiled by Lucky Luke switching places with the mayor and Averell revealing the Daltons plan of double-crossing the Mexicans while drunk on tequila.

Back across the border Luke is awarded a medal and Averell flaunts his new expression: "¿Cuando se come aqui?".

At a high school Parent Teacher Association meeting, Walter White fondles Skyler White beneath the conference room table, arousing her. In the parking lot, the two of them have sex in the back of Walt's car – Walt is finding the danger of his situation arousing. Jesse Pinkman, who is now living in the RV, puts his house on the market because he is too traumatized by the deaths of Krazy-8 and Emilio to continue living there. Walt tells him about the deal with Tuco, but Jesse says producing two pounds of meth a week is impossible. His "smurfs" – people who supply him the pseudoephedrine needed to cook the meth – cannot meet their demand.

Walt and Jesse meet Tuco and his men at a junkyard, where they hand him approximately half a pound of meth. Tuco is furious that Walt's end of the bargain was not kept and pays him only $17,000. Walt says he still wants the $70,000 Tuco promised upfront, despite not having the goods. Tuco agrees to $52,500, which adds up to $65,625, but threatens dire consequences if next week's quota is not met. To make up for it, Walt promises to have four pounds of meth at the next meeting.

At Skyler's baby shower, Marie Schrader presents her with an expensive white gold baby's tiara. In the yard, Walt and Hank have a philosophical conversation about the dividing line between legal and illegal behavior. That night, Walt tells Skyler that he is planning to spend a weekend at a holistic medical clinic after she expressed desire for alternative therapy. In reality, he is cooking meth with Jesse. Skyler goes to return the tiara and is detained in the store – it turns out that Marie stole it, but Skyler matches her description. She pretends to go into labor, persuading them to let her go. Skyler later confronts Marie about the theft, who calmly denies it.

Walt has a plan to manufacture the meth using different precursors, and gives Jesse a list of chemicals and equipment to acquire with the cash fronted by Tuco. Jesse gets almost everything Walt requested except methylamine, which is kept tightly controlled. Jesse knows of a chemical warehouse where there are men willing to steal and sell the methylamine for $10,000. Walt decides they will steal the methylamine themselves by using the aluminum powder in Etch-a-Sketches to make thermite. At night, Walt and Jesse trespass into the warehouse, subdue a security guard by locking him in a portable toilet, and place the thermite on a locked door, which melts the metal when lit. The two steal a 40-gallon drum of methylamine and escape.

The next day, Walt and Jesse attempt to start the RV when mechanical troubles prevent it from going anywhere. Faced with a deadline, they set up to cook in Jesse's basement, unaware that his realtor has planned an open house viewing for that afternoon. Jesse guards the door to the basement while Walt synthesizes the chemicals, and once a man asks to see the basement, Jesse demands that everyone leave. When Walt arrives back home, he learns of Marie's theft and wonders if Skyler would ever turn him in for a crime. At the next meeting with Tuco, Walt supplies 4.6 pounds of meth. Despite its blue hue, it is still the same quality and Tuco hands over $91,000. When one of Tuco's men makes an offhanded remark to Walt, Tuco becomes furious and beats the man until he is unconscious.

The story is set up towards the end of the nineteenth century and takes place among Rome, Ethiopia (the only African country that, in this period, resisted European imperialism) and Eritrea, Italian colonies in Africa.

The main character is "Volto Nascosto", a mysterious Islamic warrior and prophet whose face is covered with a silver mask and who, in the story, leads the resistance of Ethiopian people against foreign invaders. (His figure was based on real Islamic legends.) However, the series doesn't only revolve around Volto Nascosto, but deals with various characters, whose events continuously intertwine with each other. This multiplicity of voices is a rather innovative aspect for Bonelli's publishing house.

The characters playing around Volto Nascosto are: * ''Ugo Pastore'', an honest and loyal young man, skilful in the use of a pistol. After changing several jobs, he adapts himself to an accountant's role at a notary's office; * ''Enea Pastore'', Ugo's father and the owner of the Caput Mundi firm; * ''Menelik II'' (a real historical figure), the King of Ethiopia and Taytu's husband; * ''Taytu'' (a real historical figure), the Queen of Ethiopia and Menelik's wife; * ''Vittorio De Cesari'', Ugo's best friend, a cavalry lieutenant from a noble family, fond of adventure and beautiful women; * ''Matilde Sereni'', a Roman girl from a wealthy family, the victim of a nervous illness. Ugo is in love with her, but she loves Vittorio (who, however, doesn't return her feelings).

As it is clear from this short description, the series has a strong literary inspiration and deliberately merges elements from different genres, from classic adventure to historical novel and nineteenth century ''feuilleton''. This last aspect is particularly evident not only in the choice of the serial formula, but also in the presence of some typical situations: the love triangle, the sensitive girl with a mysterious past, etc., which directly recall the ''topoi'' of the nineteenth century novels and operas.

Another interesting feature about the story is the setting in the late nineteenth century Italy, a not very well known period of Italian history and an unusual choice for a comic-book series.

The setting of ''Brown Girl in The Ring'' is post-apocalyptic in nature. The story takes place in the city core of Metropolitan Toronto (Downtown Toronto) after the economic collapse. Riots of the past have caused the inner city of Toronto to collapse into a slum of poverty, homelessness, and violence. While the elite and city officials have fled to the suburbs, children are left to fend for themselves and survive on the streets which are ruled by Rudy Sheldon and his posse of criminal thugs. As a consequence of the Riots, Toronto is isolated from other satellite cities in the surrounding Greater Toronto Area (North York, Scarborough, Etobicoke) by roadblocks and Lake Ontario has become a mudhole. Disappearances and murder are not uncommon, and everyone is left to either fend for themselves or bind together to provide support for each other.

In the twelve years since the Riots, the city is now ruled by a criminal mastermind, Rudy Sheldon. Rudy is commissioned to find a heart for the Premier of Ontario, who needs a heart transplant. Normally, the Porcine Organ Harvest Program is used, but the adviser of Premier Catherine Uttley encourages her to deem the program "immoral" and make a public statement of preference for a human donor instead.

Hopkinson then introduces the heroine of the story, and a very different perspective of life in the outskirt of the city is seen. Ti-Jeanne, the granddaughter of Gros-Jeanne, is struggling with different problems than street survival. Having recently given birth to a baby boy, Ti-Jeanne is forced to move back in with her grandmother to care for her child as a single mother; the child's father, Tony, suffers from addiction and is a member of the posse. While she loves her Mami, she has difficulty seeing the importance of her grandmother's spiritualism and medicinal work, and is frightened by her visions of death. Gros-Jeanne has gone to great lengths in the past to share her culture with her family, but has continuously been pushed away by her daughter and granddaughter. In the community, she is a well-respected apothecary and spiritualist who runs an herbal and medicine shop.

Paths begin to cross when Tony is called upon by Rudy. Hopes of leaving his criminal life behind and reconnecting with his love, Ti-Jeanne, are shattered when the threats from the posse leader begin to loom over him. Tony must perform a horrific murder in order to obtain a heart that will save the life of one of the city's elite. The situation only gets worse when he involves his relationship with Ti- and Gros-Jeanne with his business with the posse. He arrives on Gros-Jeanne's doorstep asking for protection, and Ti-Jeanne convinces her to help him flee the city without harm.

The magic comes alive for the rest of the novel when Tony seeks help from the spiritualism of Gros-Jeanne. In attempts to save Tony, Ti-Jeanne performs the rituals alongside her Mami and accepts her father spirit. When plans go awry, Tony makes a rash decision that forces Ti-Jeanne to be the one to save herself and the city from Rudy's evil spiritual acts.

Later in the novel, Rudy is revealed to be Ti-Jeanne's grandfather, Gros-Jeanne's husband. It turns out that Rudy was an abusive husband and Gros-Jeanne kicked him out and found a new lover, named Dunston, and since Rudy has been vengeful.

Meanwhile, Rudy summons the Calabash Duppy spirit and commands the duppy to kill Gros-Jeanne, Ti-Jeanne and Tony, who was sent to kill Gros-Jeanne and take her heart for Premier Uttley. It's revealed that the duppy is Mi-Jeanne (Ti-Jeanne's mom).

In the CN Tower, Rudy sets the Calabash spirit on Ti-Jeanne who has come to confront him after Tony killed Gros-Jeanne. Ti-Jeanne is trapped and injected with Buff, a drug that paralyzes her. While in a state of paralysis, Ti-Jeanne slips into an "astral" state or spirit state, and she calls upon the ancestor spirits to help her. They kill Rudy by allowing the "weight of every murder he had done fell on him."

Meanwhile, Premier Uttley's new heart (Gros-Jeanne's heart) attacks her body. Eventually, it takes over her spirit and when she wakes up from the surgery, she has a change of mind about human heart donorship and declares that she will make an attempt to help Toronto return to a rule of law by funding small business owners.

On Gros-Jeanne's Nine Night event, all her friends arrive to help out, and so does Tony. Ti-Jeanne has trouble forgiving him for killing Gros-Jeanne, but Jenny tells her "he wants to do penance." She lets him into the event to say goodbye to Gros-Jeanne and is surprised that Baby doesn't cry around him anymore. It ends with Ti-Jeanne sitting on her steps, thinking of what she'll name Baby, who is possessed with the spirit of Dunston, Gros-Jeanne's former lover.

Ti-Jeanne's personal growth throughout the novel is evident in her attitude toward her elders, culture, and outlook on life. Through acceptance of her ancestry and culture, she finds power and support to overcome steep odds and end the horrific violence of the posse and their heinous leader, despite her personal connection to the man who took her mother away from her at a young age. The story closes with hope, Ti-Jeanne's victory is monumental, and the stolen heart possesses the power to permanently change the city of Toronto for the better.

Mu-hoon, a gangster in Busan, is the half brother of Ha-young, a successful photographer. When Mu-hoon is caught having an affair with his boss' mistress Eun-ju, the two run off with their organization's money. They are soon caught, but although Mu-hoon escapes, Eun-ju is given a scar on her cheek as punishment, and sold into prostitution. A year later, Mu-hoon finds a photograph of Eun-ju in Ha-young's studio, but although he is able to rescue her, he is eventually tracked down by the mob. Threatened with Eun-ju's death, Mu-hoon accepts a job to kill a man, only to discover that his target is in fact his old gang friend Man-cheol.

While having his tonsils removed, Cartman is accidentally infected with HIV from a blood donor. From this point on throughout the episode, Cartman dresses as Andrew Beckett, played by Tom Hanks in the movie ''Philadelphia''. Upon hearing the news of Cartman's diagnosis, Kyle leaves the room and bursts out laughing because of all the years Cartman has constantly harassed Kyle. A special event is held for Cartman in which Elton John is expected to turn up and sing for him. It has low attendance, and Elton John does not show up. A waitress tells Cartman that people nowadays care more about cancer than AIDS. Jimmy Buffett performs instead, making Cartman angry.

The next day when Cartman asks why Stan, Kyle, and Kenny did not turn up, the former says they forgot and asks if Elton John sang for Cartman. He tells them what happened, making Kyle laugh so hard that he has to run home. Stan explains to Cartman that while Kyle truly feels bad for Cartman, he thinks it is ironic, and he deserves to be punished because he is always so horrible – especially to Kyle himself. Despite being told this, Cartman plots revenge by drawing some of his own blood with a syringe and putting it in Kyle's mouth as he sleeps with the help of an unsuspecting Butters. Cartman confesses he has sneaked into Kyle's room dozens of times.

When Kyle is diagnosed with HIV, he knows at once who is at fault, despite numerous suggestions that he contracted it through unprotected anal sex and blood transfusion. Enraged, he confronts Cartman in the playground and begins beating him up until Mr. Mackey breaks up the fight. The school authorities merely ask Cartman to apologize to Kyle for giving him HIV and Kyle to apologize for tattling about it.

Infuriated by this injustice, Kyle ignores Cartman's apology and goes straight to Cartman's house, telling Cartman that he intends to destroy everything he owns and his room in retaliation. When Kyle picks up Cartman's Xbox 360 to smash it, Cartman pleads with him, telling him that he has done research that leads him to believe that a cure for AIDS lies in Magic Johnson's longevity since becoming infected with HIV. Kyle and Cartman fly to Johnson's house after gaining free airline tickets by pretending to have "all-over" cancer because AIDS is seen as "too retro" a disease. During their trip together, Kyle becomes annoyed by Cartman's constant repetition of the phrase "I'm not just sure, I'm HIV positive," ultimately screaming that neither AIDS nor dying is funny. Johnson is sympathetic toward the boys, offering assistance, but is unsure what he has in his house that helps. Upon investigation, Kyle and Cartman find that Johnson regularly sleeps with vast piles of cash in his bedroom because he does not trust banks; money eventually proves to be able to neutralize HIV. Laboratory scientists experiment with a concentrated dose of "about $180,000 shot directly into the bloodstream" on the boys, which disintegrates the HIV – implying that sufficiently allocated money could have solved the AIDS epidemic easily. Word spreads about the cure for AIDS, and an event is held at which Jimmy Buffett sings "CUREburger in Paradise". Volunteers inform poverty-stricken Africa that the fight against AIDS is over because all those suffering from the AIDS epidemic have to do now is inject themselves with piles of cash - which they do not have. After an unfortunate mix-up during the celebration in which the speaker addresses him and Cartman as "two brave lovers," Kyle tells Cartman he will break his Xbox anyway, prompting Cartman to run after him.

Following a car accident, in which he believes he killed a boy, Arthur Seligman falls into a coma for several hours. While in the coma, he pronounces incoherent sentences. At his awakening, he does not remember what happened before the crash, and he does not know the meaning of the words he pronounced while unconscious. The nurse who assisted him, Isabelle Kruger, recorded them in a notebook, which she gives to him. Arthur then tries to understand what happened, what those sentences mean, and begins to lose his grasp of reality.

Apanage prince Paul ( ) is much disturbed as a guileful snake has gotten into the habit of visiting his wife, disguising itself as the prince. His wife finds out that the only one who can destroy the snake, using a magiс sword, is Paul's brother, Peter ( ). Peter kills the snake but its blood spills over him and his body becomes covered with painful scabs. No doctors are able to help but then Peter hears of Fevronia ( ), a wise young peasant maiden, who promises to heal him. In reward he agrees to marry her. However, once healed he does not keep his promise but instead sends her rich gifts. Soon Peter's body is again covered with scabs. Fevronia heals him once more and this time they get married. Soon after this Prince Paul dies and Peter and Fevronia come to reign in Murom. The boyars are unhappy to have a peasant woman for princess and they ask Fevronia to leave the city, taking with her whatever riches she wants. Fevronia agrees, asking them to let her choose just one thing. The boyars find out that the wise maiden's wish is to only take her husband so Peter and Fevronia leave Murom together. Because the city no longer has a prince, a power struggle begins among the boyars, leading to havoc in Murom and finally Peter and Fevronia are asked to return. They reign wisely and happily until their last days, which they spend in separate cloisters. Knowing that they will die on the same day they ask to be buried in the same grave. The Russian Orthodox tradition does not allow for a monk and a nun to be buried together but the bodies are twice found to disappear from the original coffins and finally remain in a common grave forever.

The show mainly revolves around the misadventures of Bryn Coch United, a fictional village football team, which is based on Llanuwchllyn Football Club (of which Alun Ffred Jones was a player). The running of the team is handled by a mix of uncapable committee members; quick-to-anger manager Arthur Picton, the slightly dim-witted linesman Wali Tomos, and Tecwyn Parri (the team's goalie and captain), arguably the most normal on the committee. Part of the cast outside of the football committee is Mr Picton's daughter, Sandra, and her boyfriend (later husband) and member of the football team, George Huws - a leather-clad punk rocker from Caernarfon.

Most plots were derived from the team's attempts to win their weekly games, as well as other events held in the village, and the main characters' relationships with their families. The many long-running jokes included Wali's intolerance of his mother, Lydia, Tecwyn's constantly angry wife Jean, and the fact that Arthur's (first) wife, Elsi, was almost never seen on screen - with many excuses being made for her absence. One ongoing sub-plot was Arthur Picton's dislike of his daughter's relationship with George Huws. However, Sandra was the only one who could put both her father and George in their place whenever she was unwittingly caught up in their feuds and ambitions.

Later series focuses more on expanding the families of established characters, such as introducing Arthur's brother into the show, the birth of Sandra and George's twins, the death of Arthur's wife, Elsi (after appearing on screen for only one episode), and eventually seeing him re-marry in series 5.

After a car accident, Sandra is in hospital, and the Bryncoch crew are working hard to fulfill Sandra's dream of helping and giving presents to an orphanage in Azerbaijan. But the trip is full of turmoil, with Tecs trying to keep the peace between Arthur and George.

Category:S4C original programming Category:1980s Welsh television series Category:1990s Welsh television series Category:1988 British television series debuts Category:1994 British television series endings Category:English-language television shows Category:1980s British comedy television series Category:1990s British comedy television series

Christopher Hatton owns the country estate Mordelaine. While Hatton's son Barney has a romantic tryst with Dilys Helmar, Hatton loses his estate in a game of dice to Dilys' father Nick.

The Hattons are forced to move to a cottage in a nearby village. One day Barney sees some villagers attacking a young woman, whom he rescues. She is Jassy Woodroofe, daughter of Tom Woodroofe and a gypsy mother. Jassy has the gift of second sight which causes the villagers to regard her as a witch.

Mrs Hatton hires Jassy as a domestic servant. Meanwhile, blacksmith Bob Wicks whips his daughter Lindy so badly she becomes mute, despite Tom Woodroofe coming to her rescue.

Nick Helmar and his family move into Mordelaine. Nick allows Christopher Hatton to continue gambling. When Hatton is caught cheating, he kills himself.

Nick finds his wife has been having an affair and asks for a divorce.

Tom Woodroofe leads a crowd of villagers to march on the Helmars, who are now their landlords, to demand better pay and conditions. Back in the village, Jassy senses something bad will happen and asks Barney to help. A drunken Nick confronts Tom and accidentally shoots him.

Jassy and Barney become close which worries Barney's mother. She sends her to a ladies' finishing school where she becomes friends with Dilys Helmar. Dilys sneaks out for a romantic tryst one night and when Jassy covers for her, Jassy is sacked.

Dilys takes Jassy home with her to Mordelaine. Nick tells Jassy that he killed her father.

Dilys and Jassy go to see Barney. Dilys and Barney resume their romance, which upsets Jassy, who still loves Barney and knows that Dilys is also seeing Stephen Fennell.

Nick offers Jassy the job of running Mordelaine. Jassy restructures of the staff, hiring the still mute Lindy at the recommendation of Mrs Wicks, but firing almost all the female staff.

One day, Jassy catches Dilys and Stephen together. Nick horsewhips Dilys, who runs out into the arms and carriage of Stephen. Barney goes to see Stephen and finds that he and Dilys are engaged.

Nick proposes marriage to Jassy, who agrees on condition he gives her Mordelaine as a wedding gift. They marry, but Jassy insists on living separately as their legal agreement says nothing of sleeping together. In a fury, Nick goes out riding and has an accident.

He is brought back to Mordelaine, where the doctor prescribes a strict diet and no alcohol, which Jassy enforces, even though Nick is increasingly violent towards her. When Jassy goes to visit Dilys and Stephen, Lindy decides to poison Nick for what he's done to Jassy, slipping rat poison into a bottle of brandy. Nick drinks it greedily.

Nick's murder is sensed by Jassy, who cries out that he's dead. Stephen thinks that this means that she has murdered him, and has her arrested along with Lindy.

At the trial, despite Jassy's alibi, both she and Lindy are found guilty, but the shock goads Lindy into speech. She confesses to the murder, exonerates Jassy, and drops dead.

Jassy signs over Mordelaine to Barney, its rightful heir, and explains she only married Nick to get the estate back to him, and the reunited couple kiss.

On the 18th of October, 1827, about five o’clock in the evening, a small Levantine vessel piloted by Captain Nicholas Starcos of the Karysta returns home to Vitlyo, an ancient village in the Peloponnesus, only to be denied entry by his mother, who denounces him for what he’s become. Lt. Henry d’Albaret of the French navy, and other Frenchmen, have joined the Greeks in this war. After recovering from a wound received in battle, d’Albaret meets Hadjine Elisundo, his banker’s lovely daughter. They fall in love then make plans to marry, but Starcos, who holds a devastating secret against the girl’s father, demands her hand in marriage—or else. The distraught father soon dies, thus freeing Hadjine from her obligation of marrying Starcos, but she breaks off her engagement to d’Albaret, who is a respectable and honest man, because of her father’s scandalous dealings with Captain Starcos. While she takes steps to right her father’s wrongs, the distraught d’Albaret returns to the war until he’s given command of the ship Syphanta. He then sails along the archipelago in search of pirates, who are taking advantage of the conflict. Eventually d’Albaret tracks Sacratif, a notorious pirate, to Crete, where Verne brings this informative and entertaining novel to a surprise ending.

In the Western Isles of Scotland, a long and murderous grudge exists between two clans, the Macraes and McFarishes. The arrival of a serving girl (Patricia Roc) to work for the Macraes reinflames the conflict and causes an internal power-struggle between two brothers in the Macrae clan (played by Maxwell Reed and Duncan Macrae).

While visiting Vienna incognito, Russian Grand Duke Peter (Robert Young) is lured away from a masquerade ball by the beautiful Maria (Maureen O'Sullivan), only to find himself the prisoner of Polish nationalists. Peter is made to write a letter to his father, the Tsar of Russia, offering to exchange him for Maria's father, who has been sentenced to be executed.

Because their previous petitions for clemency were intercepted and never reached the Tsar, the Poles task secret agent Baron Stephan Wolensky (William Powell) to deliver the letter. Meanwhile, Colonel Pavloff (Frank Reicher), head of the Russian secret police, assigns his own agent, Countess Olga Mironova (Luise Rainer), to take to Russia documents incriminating Wolensky as an enemy agent, along with an order for his arrest.

Since he is already going to Saint Petersburg, Wolensky's friend, Prince Johann (Henry Stephenson), asks him to deliver a pair of ornate candlesticks to a princess. Each of the candlesticks has a secret compartment, so the baron secretly places the letter in one. Later, when Prince Johann amuses Countess Mironova by showing her the candlesticks' unusual feature, she puts her documents inside the other, and persuades the prince to entrust the pair to her. When Wolensky is given the news, he sets off in pursuit.

A complication arises when Mironova's maid, Mitzi Reisenbach (Bernadene Hayes), and Mitzi's lover Anton (Donald Kirke) steal her jewelry and the candlesticks. As they trace the candlesticks, first to Paris and then to London, Wolensky and Mironova admit to each other that they are on opposite sides, but this does not prevent them from falling in love.

Finally, the candlesticks are put up for auction. The countess places the winning bid, but since only cash is acceptable as payment, she does not have enough to pay for them. The baron solves the problem by offering to pool their resources, each getting one candlestick. Wolensky chooses what he believes is the one with his letter, but he picks the wrong one. He finds and reads his own death warrant. When Mironova tries to exchange candlesticks, Wolensky declines. She then offers to deliver both sets of documents, while Wolensky remains safely outside Russia. He does not trust her, but knowing the price of her failure, offers to give her back her papers once he has safely delivered Peter's letter.

Meanwhile, the Polish patriots become restless at the long, unexplained delay. Korum (Douglas Dumbrille) favors killing Peter, but Maria persuades the others to wait until they hear from Wolensky. Peter eavesdrops and is pleased. The Tsar pardons and releases Maria's father in exchange for his son.

In St. Petersburg, Pavloff arrests Miranova at her mansion. When Wolensky shows up there with her documents, she tosses them into the fireplace. Pavloff takes them both before the Tsar. The ruler of Russia graciously frees the loving couple, who decide to marry.

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Category:Communes of Aïn Defla Province

After learning that her husband is a bigamist who already had a wife, new mother Lily Gardner (Patricia Roc) resolves to raise her baby, Jimmy, on her own under her maiden name of Lily Bates rather than give him up for adoption. Each day Lily leaves Jimmy at a day nursery while she works as a shopgirl at a department store, and then cares for Jimmy herself at night. Frances Norman (Rosamund John), a middle-class married woman who works at the day nursery to be around children after losing her own baby, is drawn to Jimmy. When Lily, under stress from her demanding schedule, becomes ill with flu, Frances persuades Lily to let her and her husband look after Jimmy temporarily. When Lily recovers, she visits Jimmy at the Normans' comfortable home. Seeing that Jimmy is happy and is receiving better food and care than she was able to manage, Lily agrees to let the Normans raise Jimmy, although she refuses to sign any legal document formally allowing them to adopt Jimmy. Lily eventually gives up on staying in touch with the Normans and drops out of Jimmy's life, although she misses him. The Normans do not tell Jimmy he is adopted and he regards them as his parents.

Eight years pass, during which time Lily rises to the level of manager at the department store and falls in love with a kind shopkeeper, Bill Collins (Bill Owen), who marries her and is willing to accept Jimmy as his own. Lily visits the Normans to reclaim Jimmy, now that she has the resources to take care of him, but the Normans refuse to give him up since Lily has not been part of Jimmy's life and he does not know he is not the Normans' natural child. A legal battle ensues, and the court awards custody of Jimmy to Lily due to the lack of any formal adoption agreement. Jimmy goes to live with Lily and Bill, but has trouble adjusting to life in a working-class household, and runs away in an attempt to return to the Normans, whom he considers his true "mummy and daddy". Bill, seeing that Jimmy is unhappy, persuades Lily to let him return to the Normans. Lily and Bill then have a baby of their own and are shown happily celebrating his birthday, while Jimmy celebrates his birthday with the Normans.

In 1943 Italy, nuns hide and protect Jewish children who have escaped from a concentration camp. The Italian camp has been taken over by German forces with a colonel (Albert Lieven) and his sadistic lieutenant (Peter Arne) in command. When the colonel and lieutenant threaten to execute some of the nuns, including Mother Katharine (Lilli Palmer), for helping the Jewish children to escape, the Italian soldiers block the execution and shoot the Germans dead. The Italian soldiers then leave the camp to join Italian partisans in the nearby hills.

The story begins right after the successful Mongolian conquest of Bagdad by Hulagu Khan (Kurt Ketch). The caliph Hassan (Moroni Olsen) has escaped captivity, together with his young son Ali, and prepares to regroup the renmants of his troops. While staying at the mansion of Prince Cassim (Frank Puglia), Ali and Cassim's daughter Amara, fearing that they will not see each other again, betroth each other via blood-bond.

As the caliph prepares to leave, Cassim stops him at the last moment. This, however, is the initiation for an ambush by the Mongols, to whom the cowardly prince has sworn allegiance; the caliph and his retinue are massacred, and only Ali escapes. Alone and lost in the desert, he comes across a mountainside where he sees a group of rider exit a hidden cave. Guessing its opening phrase ("Open, Sesame!"), he enters the cave and finds it filled with treasure. When the 40 Thieves return, they find the boy asleep in their hideout. Upon learning that he is the son of the caliph, and impressed with his courage and determination, the thieves allow him to stay, and their leader, Old Baba (Fortunio Bonanova), adopts him as his son, Ali Baba.

Ten years later, the band of thieves have become a group of Robin Hood-style resistance fighters, raiding the Mongols and giving to their poor and downtrodden people. One day, they learn of a caravan bearing the new bride for the Khan to Bagdad, which seems to be rich pickings because it is apparently only loosely guarded. Ali (John Hall), now a grown man, however is suspicious and decides to scout the caravan first, along with his 'nanny' Abdullah (Andy Devine). The bride turns out to be Amara (Maria Montez), Cassim's daughter, who is to be wed to the Khan in order to solidify Cassim's somewhat shaky standing with the Mongols.

In the meantime, Amara decides to take a bath in the oasis, where Ali encounters her (and does not recognize her). Taking her for a mere servant girl and passing himself off as a traveller, he asks her about the caravan, then more about herself. But then it turns out that the caravan is in fact heavily guarded; Ali is ambushed and captured, while Abdullah narrowly escapes. Upon learning that the 'servant girl' is the bride of the Khan (her name is not mentioned), Ali curses her for her supposed treachery. Hurt by his words and in growing admiration for him and his cause, she asks her servant and bodyguard, Jamiel (Turhan Bey), who hero-worships the 40 Thieves, to give Ali some water for the trip.

In Bagdad, Ali is presented to the Khan, though he is not recognized as the leader of the 40 Thieves, and bound to a pillory in the palace square for public execution the next day. Cassim visits him in private and discovers Ali's true identity, but keeps the knowledge to himself. Soon afterwards, the thieves mount a rescue, but Old Baba is mortally wounded; Amara, who went to see him to clear the misunderstanding between them, is kidnapped, and Jamiel personally cuts Ali loose from his bonds. The thieves retreat into Mount Sesame.

The next day, the thieves capture Jamiel, who was tracking them. Ali recognizes him as a friend, and Jamiel, upon swearing allegiance to Ali Baba, is assigned as a spy in the palace. His first task is to deliver a ransom note to the Khan: in exchange for his bride, Hulagu Khan is to surrender the traitor Cassim. The thieves proceed to Cassim's mansion to await the traitor's arrival. When Amara walks into the garden, Ali recognizes her as his lost love, and with his re-awakened emotions for her he decides to release her without waiting for her father. This initially arouses the anger of his band, but they still remain loyal to him.

When Amara returns to Bagdad, her father confesses Ali's true identity to her and the Khan. Hulagu Khan decides to hold the wedding immediately; Amara refuses, but the sight of her father being tortured (actually, a ruse) forces her to give in. Jamiel brings the news to Ali, who decides to free his love. In order to reach the palace unnoticed, he devises the plan to pose as a merchant from Basra who brings forty huge jars of oil as a wedding gift. Jamiel returns to the palace to relay the plan to Amara, but they catch one of her servants eavesdropping. The girl then relays the news to Cassim and the Khan, who decide to welcome Ali in a fitting manner.

At the wedding day, Ali does appear as the merchant and is admitted as a guest. During an interlude, sword dancers appear, which first perform their routine and then suddenly plunge their weapons into the jar covers. But the jars contain only sand; upon discovering the exposure of the original plan, Ali had decided to make a few changes: most of the thieves came dsiguised in the crowd; some others were hidden in jars which were not brought before the Khan.

Hulagu Khan kills Cassim for his failure and announced Ali's execution, but then Jamiel opens the revolt by dispatching Ali's guards with his throwing knifes. While the thieves attack the palace guards, he and Amara open the gates for the mob, which storms in and overpowers the Mongols. Hulagu Khan is killed by Abdullah while prepearing to finish Ali, and as a sign of victory Jamiel climbs onto the tallest tower and hoists the Arabian flag.

Rustlers rob horses belonging to wealthy Wyoming rancher Jeremy Rodock and shoot him. He is found by young cowboy Steve Miller, who digs out the bullet, saves Rodock's life and is offered a job at the ranch.

Rodock believes in lynching rustlers personally without arrest or trial. His wrangler McNulty describes it as "a hanging sickness" to Rodock's woman, Jocasta Constantine, a former dance-hall girl ashamed of her past.

McNulty makes a pass at Jo. A jealous and suspicious Rodock sees them leave a barn together and jumps to the wrong conclusion. He fires McNulty, then beats him viciously before ordering him off the ranch.

Rodock sets out to find the men who stole his stock and murdered Whitey, a ranch hand. He rides to former partner Peterson's spread and demands to know if Peterson and son Lars were involved. They deny it, but Rodock soon comes to believe that Peterson and partners Hearn and Barjak are the thieves. He kills Peterson and hangs Hearn.

Lars vows to avenge his father. He joins up with McNulty and Barjak and plan to steal every horse Rodock owns. Steve is sickened by watching a man hang and Jo urges him to speak with Rodock about his vigilante ways. Steve has fallen in love with her and begs her to leave with him, but she will not.

Valuable horses are stolen and McNulty files down the hoofs into bloody stumps. Rodock catches up to the three thieves, makes them dismount and remove their boots. At gunpoint, he forces them to walk to jail through sand, rock and cactus. Barjak ultimately passes out and McNulty begs for mercy.

Rodock comes to his senses. He lets the other rustlers go and returns Lars to the Peterson ranch, where he offers to make restitution. Upon returning home, he finds that Steve is leaving forever and taking Jo with him. Rodock cannot blame either, but when he rides out to bring her some jewelry she left behind, Jo has a change of heart and stays with Rodock after all.

Florent (Dupire) and his wife Elise (Spaziani) always had one dream: to own a restaurant. When they meet a strange old man, Egon Ratablavasky (Carmet), their dream becomes a reality, but only to quickly turn into a nightmare when they sadly discover they have been tricked by him and lose everything.

In Eastern Europe, a group of US college athletes unknowingly board a train that will become one deadly ride. The students are participating in a wrestling championship; they include Todd (Derek Magyer) and his girlfriend Alex (Thora Birch), Sheldon (Kavan Reece), Claire (Gloria Votsis), and young assistant coach Willy (Gideon Emery). After a hard match, they sneak away from their hotel to an underground club. However, the next morning, they return too late for their train to Odessa.

Coach Harris (Todd Jensen) has stayed behind to wait for them. At the station, a woman named Dr. Velislava (Koina Ruseva) approaches and explains that train tickets are normally purchased after one has boarded. The coach and team members join her in boarding the train. Two workers from the train take their passports, and later burn them.

In the dinner car, the coach is joined by the doctor, who flirts with him. They go to his room to have sex, but she injects him with a tranquilizer. In the following scene, the coach is seen in a torture chamber, screaming as he is stitched in the abdomen. Meanwhile, the 4 students and the assistant coach drink and play a game truth or dare. Todd gets dared to run down to the end of the train and back in his underwear. He reaches the end of the train and is found by one of the workers who charges at him and captures him. Todd is strung up, has his ribcage broken open, spine severed and eyes removed. Dr. Velislava is then seen fetching a mother who has a son with what appears to be severe glaucoma in his left eye.

The next morning, upon finding Todd still missing, the remaining students and assistant coach Willy start looking for the missing members of their group. While searching, Sheldon is attacked by the two demented workers, who drag him to the torture car. Dr. Veliskava opens the window to the torture car and allows a middle-aged man to view Sheldon's genitalia, upon his approval, Sheldon's genitalia are cut off without any anesthesia which causes him to blackout. In the next scene he is shown passed out as he is being stitched back up. Claire reaches the end cart and finds the burnt remains of the passports. She is caught looking for more information and is hooked by the mouth and dragged to the chamber. Willy and Alex find the torture chamber where Todd is vivisected and Sheldon is alive in a cage. They free him and when they see Todd is still breathing, Sheldon kills him out of mercy. Just then, the torturer arrives dragging in Claire. Willy and Alex escape, chased by the torturer, but Sheldon and Claire are left behind. Alex and Willy are caught by the doctor; they realize all the other passengers are transplant patients, and tourists are being harvested for organs.

Back in the torture car, Claire is still alive despite having a huge iron hook driven through her jaw. She, Alex, and Willy watch in horror as Sheldon is vivisected and his heart pulled out. While the captors go to another car to perform the transplant, Alex manages to escape and hide in a sleeper compartment. The next morning, at a military checkpoint, the conductor drags Claire off the train to give to the platoon as a bribe. The passengers (including Alex) watch the platoon take Claire (who, to judge by her screams, is being sexually assaulted) as the train pulls away.

That night the train reaches what appears to be a huge medieval hospital. Alex, disguised, sneaks off into the building, and soon finds Willy, horribly injured but still alive, chained to a bed. They escape into the woods. In the morning, Alex leaves Willy behind briefly, but then from a distance she sees him brutally murdered by the torturers from the hospital.

Now determined, she returns to the train, still parked near the hospital and about to pull away to its next destination. Alex kills each of her torturers, douses the train with gasoline and sets it ablaze, and decouples the last car, which slows to a stop. As she stops to look over the bridge, she's attacked by one of the surviving torturers. After a struggle, she manages to subdue him. When he wakes up, he finds himself strapped to the train tracks. Moments later, a train runs over him. Alex escapes down the tracks, and in the last scene, we see her some time later, about to enter a wrestling match with grim confidence.

After a battle, the Nightlord Steel Brightblade finds Palin Majere, nephew of the famed mage Raistlin. He allows him to return with the bodies of his two brothers, slain in the battle, to their parents, Caramon and Tika.

The Knights of Takhisis visit an island where the hidden race of Irda make their home. The Irda hide themselves with an illusion, pretending to be primitive humans, and the knights leave. This fearful encounter causes the Irda to believe that another invasion will come, and convinces them to break open a magical item known as the Greygem of Gargath. The Irda did not know that the Graygem holds the entity known as Chaos inside it, long thought too dangerous to dabble with, which sets in motion the Chaos War.

Among the Irda is Usha, an orphaned human girl they had raised among them. They believed while their kind would be immune to the effect of the Greygem, that she, being a human, might be affected by it. So they decided to send her away, giving her a message to deliver to Lord Dalamar, master of the Tower of High Sorcery in Palanthas. After she is gone, they crack open the Greygem and release the god Chaos.

In 1835, a ship crewed by Russian fur hunters and Aleuts come to an island off the coast of Southern California to hunt sea otters. They make a deal with the Nicoleño people living in the village of Ghalas-at for permission to hunt on their lands, but later try to leave without paying. The hunters are then confronted by the village chief and respond with violence. In the ensuing skirmish most of the Nicoleños are slain, forcing the survivors to flee the island. Young Karana, realizing that her 6-year-old brother, Ramo, has been left behind, returns to the island. Karana and Ramo are left alone, menaced by a pack of wild dogs. The most ferocious of the dogs kills Ramo, and Karana teaches herself archery and hunts the dog. She puts an arrow in its chest but then takes pity on the animal and nurses it back to health.

She and the dog, whom she names Rontu, become fast friends. When another group of hunters come to the island, Karana hides, and although Tutok, a girl in the group, finds her and tries to befriend her, Karana refuses to trust anyone. Years pass, and Rontu dies of age. Karana finds a wild dog, that looks like Rontu, and names him Rontu-Aru which means son of Rontu. Later, a boat carrying a missionary arrives, and this time Karana decides to trust the strangers. Taking her animals, Rontu-Aru and some wild birds she has taught to never leave her, she leaves the island.

''Krik? Krak!'' contains nine stories as well as an epilogue. The stories take place in Port-au-prince, Haiti, Ville Rose, and New York. The stories are about women trying to understand their relationships to their families as well as Haiti. The Epilogue, "Women like Us", suggests that these women have a relationship with one another. The epilogue's unnamed narrator recognizes the similarity between herself and her mother as well as her female ancestors. These women all cook when they feel the need to express their sorrows and pain, but the narrator chooses to write despite her mother's disapproval. Her mother feels that she could be killed because that is often the case with Haitian writers. The narrator keeps her female ancestor's history alive through her stories.

With the help of their friend Spiller, the Clock family have relocated to the miniature village of Little Fordham, where everything is perfectly scaled to Borrower size. However, they are soon discovered by Miss Menzies, a kind but eccentric human woman, who reveals their existence to the village's creator, Mr Pott. Miss Menzies and Mr Pott agree between themselves to keep the Borrowers a secret, while they also prepare a special, functioning miniature cottage for them.

Meanwhile, the Platters, a married couple who own a rival model village, learn of the Borrowers' existence. Fearing their own model village will be ruined, as they cannot compete with a model village with live occupants, the Platters kidnap the Clock family and keep them in an attic, planning to show them after building a see-through, escape-proof miniature house in which to display the tiny family. The Clocks are horrified at their fate, but escape seems impossible.

Imprisoned through the winter, Arrietty amuses herself by reading old newspapers. After Arrietty discovers a series of articles on hot-air balloons, she and her father race against time to build a functional Borrower-size balloon before they are trapped forever. With their balloon, the family escapes the attic, but, realizing they cannot return to Little Fordham, they again strike out in search of a new, safe home.

Englishman Rudolf Rassendyll (Lewis Stone) decides to pass the time by attending the coronation of his distant relation, King Rudolf V of Ruritania (also played by Stone) . He encounters an acquaintance on the train there, Antoinette de Mauban (Barbara La Marr), the mistress of the king's treacherous brother, Grand Duke 'Black' Michael (Stuart Holmes).

The day before the coronation, Rassendyll is seen by Colonel Sapt (Robert Edeson) and Captain Fritz von Tarlenheim (Malcolm McGregor). Astounded by the uncanny resemblance between Rassendyll and their liege, they take him to meet Rudolf at a hunting lodge. The king is delighted with his double and invites him to dinner. During the meal, a servant brings in a fine bottle of wine, a present from Michael delivered by his henchman, Rupert of Hentzau (Ramon Novarro). After Rudolf tastes it, he finds it so irresistible that he drinks the entire bottle by himself.

The next morning, Sapt is unable to rouse him; the wine was drugged. Sapt is afraid that if the coronation is postponed, Michael will seize the throne. The country is dangerously divided between the supporters of Rudolf and of Michael. The colonel declares that it is Fate that brought Rassendyll to Ruritania; he can take Rudolf's place with no one the wiser. The Englishman is less certain, but he tosses a coin, which lands in Rudolf's favor, and Rassendyll goes through with the ceremony. Afterwards, he is driven to the palace in the company of the universally adored Princess Flavia (Alice Terry).

Later, when Rassendyll returns to the lodge to switch places with the king once more, he and Sapt find only the corpse of Josef (Snitz Edwards), the servant left to guard the king. Rassendyll is forced to continue the masquerade.

With Rudolf guarded by a handful of trusted retainers at Zenda Castle, Michael tries unsuccessfully to bribe Rassendyll into leaving. In the days that follow, Rasssendyll becomes acquainted with Flavia, and the two fall in love. Meanwhile, Rupert tries to alienate Antoinette from Michael by telling her that Michael will marry Flavia once Rudolf is out of the way. However, it has an unintended effect; Antionette reveals Michael's plans and Rudolf's location to von Tarlenheim.

A dwarf assassin (John George) in Michael's pay tries to garrot Rassendyll, but Sapt interrupts him before he can finish the job. The would-be killer mistakenly signals to an anxiously waiting Michael that the deed is done, and the duke hastens to Zenda to quietly dispose of the real king. However, Rassendyll was only rendered unconscious. When von Tarlenheim arrives with his news, the three men chase after Michael.

Sapt and von Tarlenheim split up to find a way into the castle, but when Antoinette lowers the drawbridge, Rassendyll goes inside alone. Though outnumbered, he manages to kill Michael in a sword fight. Then Sapt and von Tarlenheim come to his aid. When Rupert is cornered by the three men, he chooses death over a waterfall rather than execution for treason.

In the aftermath, Rudolf resumes his rightful position, while Rassendyll hides out at the lodge. By chance, Flavia stops there to speak with Colonel Sapt. Despite Sapt's attempt to shield the princess from heartbreak, a servant girl blurts out that the "king" is staying at the lodge. Rassendyll is forced to tell his beloved the bitter truth. When he tries to persuade her to leave with him, her sense of honour and duty to her country compel her to stay, and Rassendyll departs alone.

In the immediate aftermath of the successful Mongolian conquest of Bagdad by Hulagu Khan (Kurt Katch), the caliph Hassan (Moroni Olsen) escapes captivity, together with his young son Ali (Scotty Beckett), while he prepares to regroup the remnants of his troops. While staying at the mansion of Prince Cassim (Frank Puglia), Ali and Cassim's daughter Amara (Yvette Duguay), fearing that they will not see each other again, betroth themselves via a blood-bond.

As the caliph prepares to leave, Cassim stops him at the last moment. This, however, is the initiation for an ambush by the Mongols, to whom the cowardly prince has sworn allegiance; the caliph and his retinue are massacred, and only Ali escapes. Alone and lost in the desert, he comes across a mountainside where he sees a group of riders exiting a hidden cave. Deducing its opening phrase, he enters the cave and finds it filled with treasure. When the 40 thieves return, they find the boy asleep in their hideout. Upon learning that he is the son of the caliph, and impressed by his courage and determination, the thieves allow him to stay, and their leader, Old Baba (Fortunio Bonanova), adopts him as his son, Ali Baba.

Ten years later, the band of thieves have become a group of Robin Hood-style resistance fighters, raiding the Mongols and giving to their poor and downtrodden people. One day, they learn of a caravan bearing the new bride for the Khan to Bagdad, which seems to be rich pickings because it is apparently only loosely guarded. However, Ali Baba, now a grown man (Jon Hall), is suspicious and decides to scout the caravan first, along with his 'nanny' Abdullah (Andy Devine). The bride turns out to be Amara (Maria Montez), Cassim's daughter, who is to be wed to the Khan in order to solidify Cassim's somewhat shaky standing with the Mongols.

In the meantime, Amara decides to take a bath in the oasis, where Ali encounters her (they do not recognize each other, however). Taking her for a mere servant girl and passing himself off as a traveller, he asks her about the caravan, then more about herself. But then it turns out that the caravan is in fact heavily guarded; Ali is ambushed and captured, while Abdullah narrowly escapes. Upon learning that the 'servant girl' is the bride of the Khan (her name is not mentioned), Ali curses her for her supposed treachery. Hurt by his words and in growing admiration for him and his cause, she asks her servant and bodyguard, Jamiel (Turhan Bey), who hero-worships the 40 thieves, to give Ali some water for the trip.

In Bagdad, Ali is presented to the Khan, though he is not recognized as the leader of the 40 Thieves, and bound to a pillory in the palace square for public execution the next day. Cassim visits him in private and discovers Ali's true identity, but keeps the knowledge to himself. Soon afterwards, the thieves mount a rescue, but Old Baba is mortally wounded; Amara, who went to see Ali to clear the misunderstanding between them, is kidnapped, and Jamiel personally cuts Ali loose from his bonds. The thieves retreat into Mount Sesame.

The next day, the thieves capture Jamiel, who was tracking them. Ali recognizes him as a friend, and Jamiel, who swears allegiance to Ali Baba, is assigned as a spy in the palace. His first task is to deliver a ransom note to the Khan: in exchange for his bride, Hulagu Khan is to surrender the traitor Cassim. The thieves proceed to Cassim's mansion to await the traitor's arrival. When Amara walks into the garden, Ali recognizes her as his lost love, and with his re-awakened feelings for her he decides to release her without waiting for her father. This initially arouses the anger of his band, but they still remain loyal to him.

When Amara returns to Bagdad, her father confesses Ali's true identity to her and the Khan. Hulagu Khan decides to hold the wedding immediately; Amara refuses, but the sight of her father being tortured (actually, a ruse) forces her to give in. Jamiel brings the news to Ali, who decides to free his love. In order to reach the palace unnoticed, he devises the plan to pose as a merchant from Basra who brings forty huge jars of oil as a wedding gift. Jamiel returns to the palace to relay the plan to Amara, but they catch one of her servants eavesdropping. The girl then relays the news to Cassim and the Khan, who decide to welcome Ali in a fitting manner.

At the wedding day, Ali does appear as the merchant and is admitted as a guest. During an interlude, sword dancers appear, who first perform their routine and then suddenly plunge their weapons through the jar covers – but the jars contain only sand. Upon discovering the exposure of the original plan, Ali had decided to make a few changes: most of the thieves came disguised in the crowd; some others were hidden in jars which were not brought before the Khan.

Hulagu Khan kills Cassim for his failure and announces Ali's execution, but then Jamiel opens the revolt by dispatching Ali's guards with his throwing knives. While the thieves attack the palace guards, he and Amara open the gates for the mob, which storms in and overpowers the Mongols. Hulagu Khan is killed by Abdullah while preparing to finish Ali, and as a sign of victory Jamiel hoists the Arabian flag atop the palace's highest tower.

This series follows a group of firefighters in Norway. The show has been described as an intense and realistic story about a group of people who save lives. The episodes follow their professional lives as firefighters and their personal lives as their tough job takes a toll on their relationships.

In the game, Milon is a young boy whose mission is to restore the music from the forest of his hometown and rescue his friend, the fairy Alis, from an evil wizard known as Amon responsible for the music's disappearance. To do this, he must collect a series of magic instruments that are being held by Amon's strongest minions. However, said instruments have had their power locked away after Amon corrupted them, so Milon must also collect stars to purify the instruments.

The Viscount Medardo of Terralba and his squire Kurt ride across the plague-ravaged plain of Bohemia en route to join the Christian army in the Turkish wars of the seventeenth century. On the first day of fighting, a Turkish swordsman unhorses the inexperienced Viscount. Fearless, he scrambles over the battlefield with sword bared, and is split in two by a cannonball hitting him square in the chest.

As a result of the injury, Viscount Medardo becomes two people: Gramo (the Bad) and Buono (the Good). The army field doctors save Gramo through a stitching miracle; the Viscount is "alive and cloven". With one eye and a dilated single nostril, he returns to Terralba, twisting the half mouth of his half face into a scissors-like half smile. Meanwhile, a group of hermits find Buono in the bushes. They treat him and he recovers. After a long pilgrimage, Buono returns home.

There are now two Viscounts in Terralba. Gramo lives in the castle, Buono lives in the forest. Gramo causes damage and pain, Buono does good deeds. Pietrochiodo, the carpenter, is more adept at building guillotines for Gramo than the machines requested by Buono. Eventually, the villagers dislike both viscounts, as Gramo's malevolence provokes hostility and Buono's altruism provokes uneasiness.

Pamela, the peasant, prefers Buono to Gramo, but her parents want her to marry Gramo. She is ordered to consent to Gramo's marriage proposal. On the day of the wedding, Pamela marries Buono, because Gramo arrives late. Gramo challenges Buono to a duel to decide who shall be Pamela's husband. As a result, they are both severely wounded.

Dr. Trelawney takes the two bodies and sews the two sides together. Medardo finally is whole. He and his wife Pamela (now the Viscountess) live happily together until the end of their days.

Paul Callow (Mackenzie Crook) accidentally runs a man over with his underground train, after the man is pulled on to the tracks by his dog. After a week off he kills a second passenger who falls onto the tracks after having a heart attack.

Before taking time off for the second accident his colleagues tell him about a little-known 'rule' at London Underground that no-one talks about: three 'under' within a month, and you lose your job - earning yourself ten years' salary in one lump sum. But being off for the next week means that Paul needs to find someone willing to kill themselves by the following Monday.

Paul sets about trying to find someone prepared to die under his train – and after hearing a report about Holborn Viaduct he comes across Tommy Cassidy (Colm Meaney) attempting to jump off. He grabs his hand and pulls him up but far from being grateful Tommy is angered by Paul's interference and moans about how "do gooders" will not just mind their own business, however upon hearing a police siren he agrees to get in Paul's car.

While in a bar Paul explains to Tommy that he will pay him if he is willing to jump in front of his train. Tommy is scornful asking what good will the money do him if he has to die. Paul says that he can have one last weekend of fun. Tommy however wants to do something meaningful.

Tommy agrees to his proposal and decides to spend his last weekend making amends with his estranged family.

Tommy hires a car and they travel to Liverpool. While there they find that Tommy's wife Rosemary (Imelda Staunton) and daughter Frances (Gemma Arterton) have moved to the Lake District. Paul tags along to protect his investment.

While in the Lake District Tommy meets with resistance from his wife and daughter. He reconciles with his wife, who reveals she has found a new man. Paul meets the daughter at a local pub and the two get drunk and sleep together.

On the Sunday morning Tommy tries to talk to his daughter and sees her in bed with Paul, then chases him over some hills before having a mild cardiac attack and being taken to hospital. Tommy and Paul leave to go back to London.

Paul tells Tommy he does not want to kill him and Tommy insists that he go through with it. On the Monday morning Paul is told by his colleagues that the "three and out" rule was a joke, and that there is no pay off. When the time approaches Paul sees Tommy on the tracks and stops and reports an "animal on the tracks". However, crying and recalling "a deal's a deal", Paul accelerates towards Tommy, who recites William Butler Yeats' poem Lake Isle of Innisfree as the train kills him.

Distraught, Paul sits at home then begins to write and changes the title of his novel to Three and Out, we see Frances receive a copy of the novel along with £10,000 which Paul had promised to Tommy. Hidden behind the cheque is the dedication "In Memory of Tommy Cassidy". Realising her Dad has died, Frankie breaks down in tears. She travels to London and meets Paul, they go deep sea diving with Great White Sharks, Tommy's last wish.

The novel moves between a first-person narrator and a third-person narrator who tell the story of Tan-Tan, the Robber Queen. She lives on planet Toussaint with her father Mayor Antonio and mother Ione. The Midnight Robber is young Tan-tan’s favourite Carnival character, and she practices Robber Queen speeches and antics for hours at a time. Toussaint is a planet peopled by the descendants of Caribbean immigrants from Earth. Its society is technologically very advanced, with Granny Nanny, the ultimate A.I. guiding and directing the fate of humanity as a whole (or at least the citizens of Toussaint). Similarly, each person has "nanomites" injected into them at birth, which allow them to hear the voice of all the A.I. as needed.After killing Ione’s lover, Antonio escapes with Tan-Tan to an alternate world called New Half-Way Tree, a prison planet for exiles.

Life on New Half-Way Tree is much harder, a primitive and dangerous world inhabited primarily by Toussaint's exiled criminal class and the douen, an alien race reminiscent of creatures from Caribbean folklore. Tan-Tan is being beaten and raped by her father Antonio and, on her 16th birthday, she kills her father in self-defense. She flees from the human settlement, aided by a douen and from then on lives in a douen tree-village. Soon, she realizes that she's pregnant with her father's child. Tan-Tan is kept on the run by Antonio's jealous widow, seeking vengeance for her husband's death. Hiding among the trees, Tan-Tan learns the secrets of the douen and gradually transforms into another figure out of Caribbean folklore, the Midnight Robber, who dresses in black, spouts poetry, steals from the rich and gives to the poor.

Antonio's ex-partner Janisette seeks revenge for Antonio's death. When she discovers the secret douen village, the douens exile Tan-Tan and the young douen woman Abitefa. Tan-Tan seeks a new home, travelling between villages with her douen companion, continuing to act as the Robber Queen when the need arises. She is forced to flee upon seeing Janisette already looking for her, having followed the rumors of “Tan-Tan the Robber Queen.”

Tan-Tan arrives in a new town, looking for clothes to hide her pregnancy. She finds her friend Melonhead whom she was planning to partner with before she killed her father, and they reconnect. Preparations for Carnival are underway, and Tan-Tan joins as a successful Robber Queen masque.

Janisette arrives in town, now driving a tank, and confronts Tan-Tan. Tan-Tan confesses everything in a Robber Queen speech, cowing Janisette and winning the adoration of the entire village. Melonhead wants her to stay, but Tan-Tan leaves to have her baby in the forest. It is revealed that a Toussaint A.I. is able to make contact to Tan-Tan’s baby, named Tubman.

In the introduction, Gaarder claims that he found the old manuscript at a bookshop in Buenos Aires and translated it. According to his plotline, it was written by Floria Aemilia, Augustine's concubine, who after being abandoned by him, got a thorough Classical education, read his ''Confessions'' (where she is mentioned but not named, unlike their son, Adeodatus) and felt compelled to write this text as an answer.

Elana belongs to a peaceful, technologically advanced, space-faring civilization called the "Federation", which monitors worlds which are still "maturing", allowing them to grow without any sort of contact or intervention. Elana stows away on a ship in order to accompany her father on a mission to Andrecia where intervention has been deemed necessary because a technologically advanced empire (The Imperial Exploration Corps) has invaded the planet in order to take advantage of its resources. In order to lead a young woodcutter (a native of that planet) against the Corps (without exposing him to the truth about either alien civilization), Elana takes on the role of an enchantress. She trains him and his brother in psychokinesis in an effort to get the Imperial Corps to leave Andrecia peacefully. She also gives him various tools, leading him to believe that they are magical.

The plot is set in Britain at the end of the 21st Century and revolves around an experimental type of robot that can think for itself, EGR3 (called Eager). Eager learns by experience as a human does, is intellectually curious, and capable of emotion. He can feel wonder, excitement, and loss. His inventor sends him as an assistant to an old-fashioned robot, Grumps, who acts as a butler to the Bell family. Though much-loved, Grumps is running down and can no longer be repaired.

Mr. Bell works for the all-powerful technocratic corporation, LifeCorp, which supplies the robots which cater to every human need. His children Gavin and Fleur learn of an underground group that opposes LifeCorp, and there is a danger of a robot rebellion brewing. The ultra-high-tech, eerily human BDC4 robots are behaving suspiciously and the Bell children and Eager are drawn into a great adventure. Eager's extraordinary abilities are tested to the limit and he tries to find out the answer to the question: what does it mean to be alive?

''BioShock 2'' begins on New Year's Eve, 1958. Subject Delta, a Big Daddy, patrols Rapture with his Little Sister Eleanor. Sofia Lamb, Eleanor's mother, separates the pair and forces Delta to kill himself. Delta awakens in 1968, resurrected by a Little Sister under the direction of Eleanor. Delta is informed by Brigid Tenenbaum, the custodian of the rehabilitated Little Sisters, that because he has a physiological bond with Eleanor, he will die unless he finds her. Helped by Tenenbaum's ally Augustus Sinclair, Delta makes his way to Eleanor, who is trapped in Sofia Lamb's stronghold. Lamb plans to use ADAM to transfer the minds and memories of all of Rapture's inhabitants into Eleanor, to create a selfless leader. Traveling through the city, Delta encounters members of Lamb's Rapture Family and can choose whether to kill or spare them.

Delta arrives at the containment chamber where Eleanor is held, but Lamb captures him and severs his bond to Eleanor by temporarily stopping Eleanor's heart. Delta begins to weaken as the bond cannot be re-established. Eleanor transforms herself into a Big Sister to free Delta. Together they head for an escape pod Sinclair prepared to escape the city. They find that Lamb has converted Sinclair into a Big Daddy and are forced to kill him. Eleanor and Delta make it to the escape pod, but Delta is mortally wounded by a trap set by Lamb.

The ending depends on how the player interacted with encountered Little Sisters and the fates of the Rapture Family's members. Whether the player spared non-player characters or not influences if Eleanor saves her mother or leaves her to drown. If Delta rescued all of the Little Sisters and spared at least one Rapture family member, he will die in Eleanor's arms, she will absorb his ADAM, personality and memories and leave Rapture with the Little Sisters to better the world at large. If Delta harvested all of the Little Sisters and killed the entire Rapture family, then Eleanor will extract Delta's ADAM and become bent on world domination. If Delta saved and harvested the Little Sisters, the player can choose to let Eleanor absorb his ADAM, or to stop her so she forges her own path in life.

Ted tells his kids about a private joke he and Robin used to share while they were dating: they would salute whenever another person used a word that sounded like a military rank before another word in a sentence (an example being 'Kernel (Colonel) Stuck In My Teeth'), but since breaking up they simply share awkward looks whenever someone does it. Future Ted also explains that they can no longer spend time alone together.

Thanksgiving is approaching, and this will be the group’s first with Marshall and Lily as a married couple. Lily is obsessing over making sure it is perfect, Robin has invited her 41 year old boyfriend Bob, who Ted perceives to be ancient, to Thanksgiving dinner, and Marshall is terrorizing Barney in the days leading up to Barney's third slap and has even set up a countdown website. When Robin and Ted are the only two members of the group to show up to a night of baking pies, they notice that they have nothing to talk about when they are together, creating a nagging feeling that they are no longer really friends.

When Ted and Robin arrive at Marshall and Lily's apartment for Thanksgiving, Lily is floundering to get the apartment ready for their dinner. Ted and Robin reveal separately that they fought while baking but ended the night by having sex. Robin and Lily decide that Robin and Ted need to talk about what happened, while Ted, Marshall, and Barney have decided they must ignore it. Robin and Ted argue again and Lily forces them to talk it out. After the two discuss how weird it is to be around each other, they come to the realization that they're not friends and agree that after the dinner they shouldn't see each other again. Meanwhile, Barney begins to get upset at the notion of another slap. Following Marshall's relentless taunting of Barney and lack of interest in helping her prepare, Lily declares as Slap Bet Commissioner that no slap would occur on Thanksgiving, much to Barney's delight and Marshall's dismay.

Everyone sits down for Thanksgiving dinner and Lily is upset that no one is taking it very seriously. Robin and Ted exchange sad glances with each other. Marshall speaks up and thanks Lily for her hard work in putting together the dinner. Later during dinner Bob uses the phrase 'major buzzkill', and Ted and Robin absent-mindedly salute, causing them to realize there's still a connection between them and they can still be friends. Future Ted tells his kids that he had a great evening with his friends (and Bob), and that's why he takes them to Marshall and Lily's to spend Thanksgiving every year. Barney begins to taunt dismayed Marshall as the slap countdown enters the last ten seconds. At first Lily warns him not to go through with the slap, but when Barney keeps taunting, she allows the slap to happen with only three seconds to go. Overjoyed, Marshall slaps Barney immediately sending him flying across the room before singing "You Just Got Slapped" (a song of his own creation) with everybody.

In the kitchen after dinner, Ted notes there's going to be a 'major clean-up' making everyone unknowingly salute and despair. Marshall asks if this is going to be a regular occurrence from now on and Robin replies, "That's the general idea," causing another salute.

Virginia (Ginny) Blackstone, a seventeen-year-old girl who is on summer break before her final year of high school, has received 13 blue envelopes from her self-proclaimed "Runaway Aunt" Peg, who has passed away. Ginny is told that she is about to leave for several weeks and will travel to foreign lands. Her aunt leaves her four rules to follow: she can only bring what fits into a backpack, she cannot bring any kind of journal or foreign language aid, she cannot bring extra money of any kind, and she cannot use or bring anything electronic with her. Ginny is only allowed to open the next envelope once she has reached the destination or has completed the task set in the previous letter.

The envelopes lead her to London, where she meets a "starving" artist/creep named Keith, and Aunt Peg's best friend and roommate, Richard. She realizes she has a crush on Keith, and they go to Scotland to meet her aunt's guru, artist Mari Adams. After she has an argument with Keith, they part ways, though they meet again briefly in Paris. Later, she encounters a horrible hotel in Amsterdam and finds shelter under a very hyperactive family. Following the letters, she goes to Denmark and meets four Australian students, Emmett, Bennett, Nigel, and Carrie. Together they form the "Blue Envelope Gang" and follow the second-to-last envelope to Greece. On the way, the 12th envelope tells her she can open the last one whenever she feels ready.

While in Greece, her backpack is stolen, along with the 13th envelope. She enlists Richard's help to return to England as she discovers her bank card is out of balance. Upon arriving there, Richard tells her that he and Peg were married during her final days with her fatal illness, which makes Richard the uncle-in-law of Ginny, even though they both thought the other was marrying for the insurance for the aunt's illness. This last bit of information completely unsettles the already-distressed girl, who runs to Keith's house for the night. Returning to Richard's apartment the next day, she manages to discover a trove of her aunt's final paintings in the attic of Harrods, a large department store in London, which her aunt used as a private art studio. The painting collection is sold at auction, and the proceeds become her inheritance. While wondering if selling the paintings was the right decision or not, a conversation with Keith makes her realize that Peg wanted Richard to know that she loved him. She writes a letter to her aunt, letting her know that even though she never read the 13th envelope, she knows what it said. Ginny finally makes her way back home to New Jersey, after leaving half the inheritance to Richard.

A young woman dies in childbirth. Witnessing the woman's birth is Mr. Bumble, a hard-nosed man in charge of the local orphans workhouse. With no information on the mother's identity, he gives the boy the name Oliver Twist.

Like the other boys in the workhouse, Oliver lives a hard life of endless labour and schooling, with only a bowl of gruel for supper. After seeing his friend Dick devour his bowl and still wanting more, Oliver offers the lad his own, then goes up to Bumble and asks for more. His request angers Bumble, who hires him out to work for Mr Sowerberry, a local undertaker.

Oliver's situation is not much different than the workhouse, as he is given a workbench to sleep on and scraps that Sowerberry's dogs refuse to eat for food. Oliver also becomes an object of hatred for Noah Claypole, a teenager been assigned to supervise him. Claypole taunts Oliver one day, making fun of his dead mother. The insulting remark angers Oliver, who delivers a surprisingly powerful blow to Claypole's face, breaking his nose. Sowerberry takes Claypole's side and tells Oliver he will be returned to the workhouse the following day. Unwilling to return to the workhouse, Oliver sneaks out later that evening . He roams the streets until he is met by the Artful Dodger, who offers Oliver lodgings from his benefactor. Oliver agrees, unaware of what he has got himself into.

Oliver is now part of a band of thieves, overseen by Fagin, a kindly Jewish man. Among Fagin's group are Bill Sikes, a drunk who oversees the orphan thieves, and Nancy, an attractive young woman often used for sexual favors, and frequently abused by Bill. She takes a liking to Oliver and tries to help him, but for this, she is eventually viciously murdered by Bill.

Oliver is made aware of his true purpose with Fagin when Sikes forces Oliver to help him burglarize a home in the countryside. The boy is shot in the process. An elderly man, Mr Brownlow, along with his niece Rose Maylie and housekeeper, Mrs. Bedwin, take pity upon him and nurse the boy back to health. They notice a close resemblance between Oliver and a lady's portrait on the wall.

Monks, another criminal associate of Fagin's, has learned that he and Oliver are half-brothers and that their father has disinherited him in favor of Oliver. Brownlow is revealed to be a friend of Oliver's father, who left both the will and a portrait he had painted of Oliver's mother with Brownlow. Brownlow does some investigative work on his own to bring justice to his friend's young son. He learns of the cruelty and inhumane conditions at the workhouse, and also learns of Bumble's theft of workhouse funds for his own benefit. After receiving a locket Mrs. Bumble had stolen from Agnes's corpse and revealing to everyone the boy's true identity, Brownlow tells Monks that he will be going to prison. Brownlow tells Bumble that he will use his influence to see to it that he and his wife lose their workhouse jobs and may even face criminal charges.

Monks is sent to prison whilst Brownlow and Rose assure Oliver that he is no longer a foundling, but now has an identity of his own. Everyone then climbs into Brownlow's coach and they make the journey back to Brownlow's estate.

The story begins as the present unfolds along with scenes from the past about Edna, a woman in a hospital who each day writes down her memories. She is a devoted housewife, an excellent cook, and in love with her husband Harry who often compliments her on her cooking, fills their conversations with his life at work, and they seem quite normal if perhaps a little boring. Edna's attitude towards herself suddenly changes resulting in her ending her 20-year marriage by stabbing Harry with a kitchen knife. Edna cannot (or will not) talk to her doctor, and nurses have to take care of her basic needs. Edna's hospital surroundings give way to the bright colours of her home life as her memories of her past life surface as she writes.

The story opens with a diary entry from an eleven-year-old Corinne von Nordhoffen, heiress to a large orthopedic supply company. The young girl laments at the fact that, while others have offered her gifts for her birthday, the real present she wants is Raymond Ford. On the night of her birthday, she waits in vain for him to show. Her driver is directed to head to Ford's house, across town. When they arrive at the address, all they see is a closed restaurant but realize that in fact Ford lives upstairs, with his mother. Corinne talks with Ford briefly as he suddenly exits the apartment with his mother, who chides him for being slow. He is carrying a large suitcase and when asked where he is going he says "I don't know ... goodbye."

At seventeen Corinne was a beautiful but naive student attending Wellesley College. After graduating she goes to Europe and meets many men. One boyfriend dies in a car accident, and Corinne moves to New York City to a "darling, overpriced apartment in the East Sixties." She gets a job after contacting an old friend from college, Robert Waner (who we learn is narrating the story). Waner sets her up as an editor at a magazine. He proposes to her and she rejects him. After some months of working for him, Waner introduces her to the work of a poet (specifically a book of poems called ''The Cowardly Morning'') whose works are "Coleridge and Blake and Rilke all in one, and more."

The first poem is the title poem; Corinne reads it and "felt sorry for the poet for having her as a reader." She reads through it again and begins to appreciate the symbolism: "Not a wasteland, but a great inverted forest/with all the foliage underground."

Corinne is floored by the poem, calls Waner and tries to get more information on the poet. His name is Ray Ford, twice winner of a prestigious fellowship and an instructor at Columbia University (the same college Salinger's Seymour Glass teaches at). Corinne arranges a meeting with Ford, where he tells her what happened to him. As a young man he worked at a smoky race track, running bets for people. He is befriended by a woman who begins to write poems he must read on scraps of paper. Following her advice, he reads them (using her library), then memorizes them, until he has a volume of poetry in his mind. His vision impaired, Ford writes his own poems at this point, with large block lettering. Ford explains that the poetry emerged from him slowly, and with the pain of his life at that time.

Corinne is mesmerized by Raymond Ford and initiates a romantic relationship. The two of them meet regularly at a Chinese food restaurant and talk. She invites him to a party. Reluctantly, he accepts. While there he is quiet until he starts on a poet he admires and impresses the academics at the party without showing off his genius.

Soon after she and Ford are married, Corinne receives a letter in the mail. It is from a Mary Croft, who had noticed the wedding announcement in the ''New York Times'' and who wants Ford to read some of her poetry. Corinne invites Croft to their house. When she arrives Ford dismisses her work and asserts "a poet doesn't invent his poetry—he finds it." Ford and Corinne's relationship begins to crack under the stress of the poet's dedication to his work and introspection. Ford leaves Corinne; later, following a lead from a man who turns out to be Croft's estranged husband, Corinne finds Ford living with Croft. Among other things, Croft's husband reveals that his wife is older than she appears (a woman of 31, not a college girl of 20, as she'd claimed to be), and the negligent mother of a ten-year-old son.

Ford lives with Croft in a large Pennsylvania city, in a dilapidated apartment bereft of literature. He is drinking a highball when Corinne shows up to see him. His senses dulled, and his creative output stymied, Ford is a prisoner of "the Brain." This, he explains to Corinne, is his mother: The insensitive and cruel person who had first introduced him to the world of the ignorant and dull. Corinne pleads with him to come back but he doesn't. Instead, Ford, the genius who sees what others can't, closes his eyes to the world of beauty by drowning his perceptions in ether and making himself dependent upon a woman who reincarnates his dead mother.

Private investigator Kinsey Millhone is hired by Beverly Danziger to locate her missing sister, Elaine Boldt, whose name is needed on some paperwork regarding an inheritance. Elaine was last seen getting into a cab with the intention of flying down to Boca Raton, Florida, where she spends her winters, but appears to have disappeared along the way. It seems a relatively straightforward matter, so much so that Millhone is not sure Beverly needs a PI; but she agrees to take the case.

Things are not as easy as they seem, however, as Millhone can find no trace of Elaine anywhere in Florida, although she does find a woman called Pat Usher, who claims Elaine agreed to let her sublet the Boca Raton apartment where Elaine lived while she was off travelling. This claim rings false, since no one but Pat Usher has received a postcard from Elaine on her supposed trip. Millhone secures the able assistance of Elaine's elderly neighbour, Julia, to keep an eye on things in Florida while she goes back to California. Millhone suspects there is a link between Elaine's disappearance and the death of her Santa Teresa neighbour, Marty Grice, who was apparently killed by a burglar who then set fire to the Grice home a week before Elaine left. Someone breaks into the home of Tillie, the supervisor of Elaine's Santa Teresa apartment complex, apparently on the track of some of Elaine's bills that Tillie was holding ready to forward to her. Someone also searches the detective's apartment, and Millhone realizes the thief is after Elaine's passport.

Gravely concerned for Elaine's safety, Millhone suggests to Beverly that Elaine's disappearance should be reported to the police; but Beverly objects so violently that Millhone terminates their relationship and starts working for Julia instead. Kinsey reports the disappearance and meets Jonah Robb, a recently separated cop working on missing persons. A visit from Beverly's husband Aubrey complicates matters further, as it turns out he was having an affair with Elaine, which Beverly had discovered. This raises suspicion around whether Beverly could have had a hand in Elaine's disappearance.

Millhone is increasingly convinced that Elaine is dead and that Pat Usher is involved. Pat disappears after totally trashing the Boca Raton apartment. Eventually, Millhone discovers that Pat Usher has applied for a driving licence in Elaine's name, thus proving Pat's involvement. Marty's nephew Mike, a teenage drug dealer, confesses that he was at the Grice home the night of the murder; and from the discrepancy in times between his account and what was told to the police, Kinsey realises that it was Elaine who died in the Grice fire, not Marty. Marty and her husband killed Elaine to steal her identity (which Marty assumed) and her money. They then passed Elaine's dead body off as Marty's by switching the dental records. Marty departed for Florida as Elaine and arrived as Pat Usher, with some cosmetic surgery to help. Unable to find Elaine's passport, she and her husband were forced to wait for a new one to come through before they can skip the country. Kinsey returns to the Grice home to look for the murder weapon; but while she is there, the Grices find her. Marty Grice is shot in the left arm during the fight that ensues, but Kinsey manages to detain the two criminals and calls for help.

The novel begins with Kinsey at the gym, rehabilitating herself from injuries sustained at the end of ''B is for Burglar''. While there, she meets Bobby Callahan, a twenty-three-year-old who was nearly killed when his car went off the road nine months ago. Bobby is convinced that the car crash, which killed his friend Rick, was an attempt on his life. He suspects that he may still be in danger, so he hires Kinsey to investigate. Having lost some of his memories and cognitive faculties as a result of the crash, he can only vaguely articulate why he thinks someone wants to kill him, referring to some information in a red address book that he can no longer locate.

Kinsey takes the case despite little information, having taken a liking to Bobby. She meets his rich but dysfunctional family: Glen, his mother is an heiress on her third marriage to Derek Wenner, whose daughter Kitty is a 17-year-old drug user and is seriously ill with anorexia. Glen has spared no expense in seeking treatment and counseling for Bobby. He is depressed further due to Rick's death, his own injuries, and the loss of his prospects at medical school. A few days later, Bobby dies in another car crash, which is attributed to a seizure while driving. Kinsey thinks this is the delayed result of the first crash and thus a successful murder. Kinsey investigates several people: Kitty stands to inherit 2 million dollars from Bobby's will; Derek insured Bobby's life for a large sum without Glen's knowledge; and Rick's parents blame Bobby for their son's death.

However, Kinsey looks elsewhere for the solution: a friend of Bobby's gives her Bobby's address book, which shows Bobby was searching for someone called Blackman. Bobby's former girlfriend thought Bobby ended their relationship because he was having an affair with someone else, and she thinks Bobby was helping a woman who was being blackmailed. Kinsey eventually finds out that the woman with whom Bobby was involved was his mother's friend, Nola Fraker. She confesses to having accidentally shot her husband, a well-known architect named Dwight Costigan, during a supposed struggle with an intruder at their home years prior. She has a blackmailer, who is in possession of the gun with Nola's fingerprints on it.

Trying to investigate further, Kinsey realizes that 'Blackman' is code for an unidentified corpse in the morgue. She finds the gun concealed in the corpse. However, while she is at the hospital, she finds the recently murdered body of the morgue assistant and realizes the killer is at the hospital. It is Nola's current husband, Dr. Fraker, a pathologist from the hospital, who is also the blackmailer. Bobby found out what Fraker was up to; but Fraker rigged the first car accident before he could do anything about it, leading Bobby to eventually put Kinsey on the trail. Soon after, Fraker cut Bobby's brake lines, leading to his fatal crash, and falsified the autopsy results to point to a seizure. Fraker traps Kinsey and gives her a disabling injection, but she manages to cosh him and escapes to a phone to call the police. In the epilogue, she describes finally discharging the debt she feels she owes to Bobby and concludes with a wish that he is at peace.

In a side plot, Kinsey's landlord and friend Henry begins a personal and business relationship with Lila Sams, newly arrived in Santa Teresa. Kinsey, rubbed the wrong way by Lila, discovers her to be a fraudster with multiple identities and turns her over to the police just as Lila is preparing to decamp with Henry's money.

Kinsey Millhone receives a contract from ex-con Alvin Limardo to deliver a cashier's check for twenty-five thousand dollars to a fifteen-year-old boy named Tony Gahan. According to Limardo, Tony helped him through a tough time in his life, leaving Limardo indebted. However, when the retainer check Limardo made out to Kinsey for four hundred dollars bounces, she learns that Alvin Limardo is actually John Daggett, a man known by all and liked by few, and recently released from a local prison. He is also a bigamist. His first wife Essie's fanatical religious views have kept her married to Daggett, while Daggett, in disregard of his marital status, underwent a second marriage to Lovella on his release from prison, whom he has subjected to domestic abuse.

In her search to find Daggett and get her money back, Kinsey discovers that he was found dead on the beach only a few days after hiring her. Through Daggett's daughter Barbara, Kinsey learns that Tony Gahan was the sole survivor of a family killed in a car accident caused by Daggett, for which he received a conviction on charges of vehicular manslaughter. Tony's been a wreck since the death of his family, rarely sleeping and doing poorly in school. He now lives with his uncle and aunt, Ramona and Ferrin Westfall. Also killed in the accident was a friend of Tony's young sister, and a boy called Doug Polokowski, who had hitched a ride in the car. Kinsey tracks down an ex-con friend of Daggett's, Billy Polo, now living in a trailer park with his sister, Coral. Billy introduced Lovella to Daggett. Kinsey finds out that Doug Polokowski was Billy and Coral's brother. There's no shortage of people with a motive for Daggett's death, but the police are classifying it as an accident.

Kinsey discovers that shortly before his death, Daggett was staggering about drunk at the marina in the company of a blonde woman in a green outfit. Kinsey sets out to discover which of the numerous blonde women in the case might be the killer. She also suspects that Billy Polo is not giving her the full truth about his involvement with Daggett, a suspicion confirmed when Coral finally levels with Kinsey and reveals him to be blackmailing someone he suspects of Daggett's killing. The blackmailer murders Polo at the beach, using Kinsey's own gun, stolen from her car a few days earlier. Coral also admits to scheming with Billy and Lovella to rob Daggett of money he had come by illicitly in prison, not knowing that Daggett had given the money to Kinsey to pass on to Tony.

The police investigating Billy's murder discover a home-made silencer used in the killing. Kinsey immediately recognizes the toweling used for padding as coming from the Westfall household, and Ramona jumps to the top of her suspect list. This means confronting Tony, who has given Ramona an alibi for the time of Daggett's death. In pursuing Tony, Kinsey realises Tony himself, dressed as a woman in his aunt's wig, was actually the killer. He was also the one who stole her gun and killed Billy Polo, who had recognized Tony at Daggett's funeral. Killing the man who killed his family has done nothing to ease Tony's torment, however; and he commits suicide by throwing himself off a building in front of Kinsey, despite her best effort to talk him down.

The tale begins with a variation on the story of Adam and Eve before introducing the reader to a nameless youth who, having reached "the age of discretion," receives counsel from his parents. His parents advise him not to attend feasts, drink too much, be tempted by beautiful women, fools, or riches, visit taverns, steal or rob, deceive or lie, and last but not least, not to disobey his parents. The youth, ashamed to submit to his father and mother, goes out into the world and ends up gaining much wealth and many friends.

One day, a friend of his tempts him to a tavern and convinces him to drink mead, wine, and beer, promising the youth that he will watch over him and make sure he gets home safely to his parents. The youth drinks the mead, wine, and beer, falling into a drunken slumber. When he wakes up toward night time, he realizes everything he had, including his clothes, have been stolen. He is covered with tavern rags, at his feet lay ragged sandals, and under his head is a brick serving as a pillow.

Being ashamed to return home or to his former friends in such a condition, he travels to another town and comes across a feast. He approaches the merry guests, who welcome him to their festivities. Upset over what has transpired, he is not enjoying himself and the guests notice and ask him what is wrong. After telling them what happened to him, they offer him practical advice and he sets off to another town with their counsel in mind.

He begins to live wisely and acquires even greater wealth than before. At a feast he has organized himself, he begins to boast about his success. Woe (a personification-"spirit") overhears him and threatens the youth not to boast anymore, appears in two of the youth's dreams, and convinces him to spend all his money on drink. Ending up yet again with nothing, he is again ashamed and moves on to the next town.

He comes across a river, and despite Woe's taunting, manages by virtue of a song he sings to have the ferrymen take him across. When the youth decides to return home, Woe gets in his way. The youth then transforms into several different life forms and ends up being able to protect himself from Woe only by entering a monastery, which he does, leaving Woe at the holy gates.

Twin sons to Prince Arutha, the Princes Borric and Erland have lived a life of relative luxury. Though well educated and talented swordsmen, they spend their time brawling, gambling, and disrupting their father's court. After the twins show no sign of maturity after a year stationed at the Kingdom's northern border, and with Borric being Heir Presumptive to the throne in Rillanon after the drowning of King Lyam's only son, Arutha decides that his two sons cannot afford the luxury of youth anymore. He sends them as ambassadors to the Empire of Kesh for the Empress' 75th birthday jubilee. Baron James ("Jimmy the Hand") and Baron Locklear accompany the twins, their presence made all the more vital after an assassination attempt on Borric before their departure is narrowly averted, and the assassin is found to be of Keshian nobility.

On the way to Kesh, the emissaries stop at Stardock. There James meets Gamina, Pug's adopted daughter, and they fall in love on first sight. James and Gamina wish to marry but James must seek Arutha's permission as a member of his court. Along with granting permission, Arutha promotes James to the rank of Earl, and the two are married. Gamina then joins the group as they continue their journey south.

Upon entering Kesh, the party is attacked during a sandstorm, and Borric is captured by slavers. His companions scout the slavers' camp, but are unable to locate the prince, and certain that he has been killed, continue onward to the capital, grief-stricken.

At the capital, the embassy is introduced to imperial customs and meet the various people who form the Empire, and begin to gather information on the plot against Borric and the political unrest within the Keshian government. Erland enjoys an affair with the Empress' granddaughter, Princess Sharana, while Locklear also pursues a relationship with the Empress' daughter, Princess Sojiana, rightful heir to the throne. Later, after expressing unease about some of the things he has learned, Locklear suddenly disappears and is accused of the murder of Sojiana.

Meanwhile, Borric manages to escape from the slavers, and with the help of a beggar boy, a mercenary named Ghuda Bule, and a trickster named Nakor, makes his way to Kesh, learning more about the plot against him and the Empress on the way. Eventually, the plot is uncovered, the Empress' life is saved, and the conspirators are revealed and punished for their treasonous acts. The brothers and their companions, happy to be reunited, but mourning the loss of Locklear, who was found murdered by the conspirators, return to Krondor.

Just after Christmas, Kinsey Millhone discovers that five thousand dollars has mysteriously been credited to her bank account. She flashes back a few days to when she was asked to investigate a fire claim at a factory in Colgate as part of her informal office space rental arrangement with California Fidelity Insurance. The business in question, Wood/Warren, is owned and operated by the Wood family, whom Kinsey has known on a personal level since high school. Company founder Linden Wood is dead. His son Lance now runs the company, and his four other children—Ebony, Olive, Ash and Bass—all have a stake. Ash is Kinsey's former schoolmate; and Bass was an acquaintance of her second ex-husband, Daniel Wade. Olive is married to Terry Kohler, Lance's second-in-command at the company. After a solitary Christmas, with Henry away visiting relatives and Rosie's Tavern shut down until the new year, Kinsey writes off the fire as an industrial accident. Upon submitting her report to her boss, she finds that significant papers have been removed from the file and others substituted, giving an appearance that Lance Wood has bribed Kinsey not to label the fire as arson. In the middle of protesting her innocence, the five thousand dollar credit takes on a sinister significance.

Temporarily suspended from California Fidelity, Kinsey takes up her own investigation to prove her innocence, aided (unwillingly at first) by CFI administrator Darcy. Darcy is united with Kinsey in her dislike of claims manager Andy Motycka, who is Kinsey's chief suspect in the set-up. She is at a loss and cannot imagine for whom he could be working. Kinsey reconnects with the Wood family and learns some of their dark family secrets: that Ebony, the oldest sister, wants control of the business and that Lance was practically a criminal in high school. She also learns that a former Wood/Warren employee, Hugh Case, committed suicide two years before, although the suspicious disappearance of all the lab work on Hugh's body seems to support his widow Lyda's claim that it was murder rather than suicide. Kinsey remains unconvinced by Lyda's conviction that Lance was Hugh's killer but can't seem to find any other leads. Her spirits are at a low ebb, and it's the worst possible moment for Daniel to show up (eight years after leaving without a word). Kinsey finds it hard to cope with but eventually agrees to store a guitar for him while he sorts himself out.

On her way to a new year party at Olive and Terry's home, Kinsey is almost killed when a bomb, disguised as a gift left on the doorstep, explodes. Olive is killed, and Terry is badly injured. Kinsey does her best to resist Daniel's attempts to nurse her, and her distrust is proven right when she finds out the guitar she has been storing for Daniel is bugged and that he has been reporting on her investigation to Ebony and Bass Wood. She discovers Daniel and Bass are lovers—Bass is the person for whom Daniel left her. Shortly afterwards, Kinsey finds Lyda Case's dead body in a car outside her apartment. Forcing answers from the Wood family, Kinsey learns an even darker family secret: that Lance had an incestuous affair with Olive when they were teenagers, leaving Olive emotionally and sexually scarred for the rest of her life. Kinsey's suspicions immediately jump to Terry Kohler; and when the police identify fingerprints on the car Lyda was found in as belonging to an escaped convicted bomber called Chris Emms, she realizes Terry and Emms are the same person.

Unfortunately, Emms has anticipated her solving the case and is waiting at her apartment with another bomb. Before it explodes, he explains he killed Hugh Case because Hugh had realized his true identity; and he killed Lyda because she had belatedly found Hugh's records of that. He engineered the fire at Wood/Warren and set up Kinsey (with the aid of Andy Motycka) to get revenge on Lance after Bass spilled the family incest secret to him. Kinsey manages to shoot Emms and disables him sufficiently to get out of the bathroom window just as the bomb explodes, killing Emms and destroying her garage apartment. After Daniel leaves with Bass, the only loose end is the five thousand dollars Emms put in her account; and on the advice of Lieutenant Dolan, Kinsey keeps it.

Murders taking place on the back lot of Worldwide Studios turn out to be the work of a disfigured actor who has been living there for years and will stop at nothing to cease the sale of the back lot to developers. The film seems to place a lot of emphasis on the chalk outline and one character is even heard to quip, "We're going to be running out of chalk," while standing over a murder scene in a dry pool on the set.

Henry Pitts is having Kinsey's garage apartment rebuilt after it was destroyed in the events of the previous novel. Royce Fowler wants the detective to exonerate his son of the murder of Jean Timberlake, seventeen years before, in Floral Beach, California. Bailey Fowler pleaded guilty to killing Jean, his sometime girlfriend, and escaped from prison soon afterwards. He has apparently been living the life of a model citizen under an assumed name. He is recaptured and is claiming his innocence. Kinsey heads to Floral Beach, a tiny local community, to pursue the cold trail; and she stays with the Fowler family at their motel. Royce is dying of cancer; his wife Oribelle is sick with diabetes; and their daughter Ann, Bailey's senior by five years, has taken leave of absence from her job as a counselor at the local high school to provide care for her parents.

Bailey's lawyer, Jack Clemson, fills her in on the details of the case: Jean, 17 when she died, was a problem child who was doing badly in school and engaged in numerous sexual encounters with the local boys at school—and some of the local men, as well. She was pregnant at the time of her death. Everyone knows everyone in Floral Beach, and Kinsey acquaints herself with a number of the locals in pursuit of the truth: Pearl, the local bar-owner, whose son's evidence put Bailey on the spot at the time of Jean's death; Tap Granger, who was Bailey's accomplice in several robberies before the murder; the local pastor, Reverend Haws, and his wife; and Dr. Dunne, whose wife Elva has a violent objection to being questioned. The high school principal at the time of the murder, Dwight Shales, offers some help. Attention is turned to Jean's single mother, Shana, whose friendship with Dwight is causing raised eyebrows around Floral Beach. She is struggling with longstanding alcohol problems, is less co-operative, and refuses to identify Jean's father. Nobody seems convinced that the killer could be anyone but Bailey.

At Bailey's arraignment, Tap Granger stages a hold-up, allowing Bailey to escape once more. Tap is himself killed in the escape. Kinsey gets confirmation from Tap's widow that Tap was paid to do it—for the first time providing concrete evidence that someone wants to keep Bailey discredited. Someone breaks into Kinsey's motel room at the motel, and she receives threatening calls in the middle of the night as she pursues the case. Oribelle is murdered following the adulteration of her insulin, medication that is administered regularly by Ann.

Kinsey establishes that Dr. Dunne is Jean's unknown father. Shana is murdered when she sets out to keep a rendezvous with him. Kinsey runs from the cops herself after she finds the body and seeks refuge with Dwight Shales, who confesses that he, too, was having an affair with Jean and was probably the father of her child. Kinsey realizes that Ann Fowler is jealous of anyone who comes into contact with Dwight.

She searches Ann's room and finds evidence that Ann supplied Tap with the hold-up gun and made the anonymous phone calls. Unfortunately, she also finds Ann waiting for her, armed with a shotgun. Jean had confided in her, as school counselor, that Dwight was the father of her child. Motivated by jealousy, Ann killed her; and being equally jealous of her brother's position as favored child of their parents, Ann was happy to see him take the rap. Her plan is to use the money she will eventually inherit from her parents to tempt Dwight into marriage. She killed her mother to hasten the plan along. She also killed Shana, Jean's mother, because she was jealous of her friendship with Dwight. Before Ann can kill Kinsey, she is interrupted by Royce, who wrestles the gun away from Ann, shooting her in the foot accidentally in the process.

Ann, injured, is arrested for the murders of Shana and Oribelle. Though there is insufficient evidence to prove her to be Jean's killer, the circumstances are sufficient to ensure that Bailey is cleared of the murder.

After being unceremoniously fired by California Fidelity Insurance, Kinsey has found herself new office space with her attorney, Lonnie Kingman. Lonnie has a case with which he wants Kinsey's help. Six years earlier, David Barney was acquitted of killing his estranged wife, talented but insecure society house-designer Isabelle Barney, by shooting her dead through the spy hole of her front door. David's desperation to rebuild the marriage after the split netted him an injunction for harassment; so he was the obvious suspect—particularly since he inherited Isabelle's multimillion-dollar business—but the prosecution could not make it stick. Now Isabelle's previous husband, Kenneth Voigt, is trying again in the civil courts in an attempt to secure the fortune for his and Isabelle's daughter Shelby; and Lonnie needs some evidence. The previous PI on the case, Morley Shine, has just died of a heart attack. Lonnie asks Kinsey to step in.

Kinsey agrees and, knowing Morley of old, is surprised to find his files in a mess, with crucial witness statements missing. One new witness has come forward: Curtis MacIntyre, a habitual jailbird who shared a cell with Barney for a night and claims that Barney confessed to his guilt just after the acquittal. Kinsey is very doubtful of this story, especially when she finds out Curtis was in custody on another matter on the date in question. In trying to fill in the other blanks, she uncovers more evidence in Barney's favor than against him, not least that Barney appears to have a cast-iron alibi; he was the victim of a hit and run whilst out jogging at the time of the murder some miles away. Kinsey tracks down both the driver—Tippy, the daughter of Isabelle's best friend Rhe Parsons—and a witness who can swear that she knocked down Barney.

Kinsey also finds out that Tippy, drunk and in her father's pick-up truck, was the perpetrator of a previous and fatal hit-and-run on the same night, the victim being an elderly man named Noah McKell. Kinsey realizes Morley was on the same track and begins to have suspicions about his death. She eventually establishes that Morley was poisoned by a pastry left at his office, a pastry made with lethal mushrooms. She also finds out that Kenneth Voigt has been paying Curtis 'expense money' for years, which casts further doubt on his testimony. Curtis comes up with an alternative story: according to him, the confession was actually made some time after the acquittal during a drunken evening at Barney's home. This sounds even more unlikely to Kinsey's skeptical ears. She begins to suspect that someone else from Isabelle's immediate circle might be the guilty party—Isabelle's sister Simone, Ken Voigt's new wife Francesca, or Isabelle's former business partner Peter Weidmann and/or his wife Yolanda.

Meanwhile, at home, Kinsey's octogenarian landlord, Henry Pitts, is entertaining his hypochondriac elder brother William. Both Henry and Kinsey are astonished to find romance beginning to bloom between William and Rosie. Rosie is the proprietor of Kinsey's local Hungarian tavern, which has recently been taken over as a favorite haunt by some local sports fans. Rosie charms William with her acceptance of his imagined illnesses.

Back on the case, Kinsey has a sudden flash of inspiration after looking at the time gap between Tippy's killing Mr. McKell and knocking down Barney. Tippy admits that, panic-stricken after the first accident, she went to confess what she had done to her 'aunt' Isabelle but did not get an answer at the door. Kinsey realises Barney's alibi is worthless: having just killed Isabelle, he could have hitched on Tippy's pick-up and then rolled off it later at an appropriate time in front of witnesses, to establish his alibi miles away. Kinsey's train of thought is interrupted by a call from Curtis, asking her to meet him at the bird refuge. He sounds terrified, and Kinsey suspects he has been taken hostage. She arranges for Jonah, her ex-boyfriend cop, to provide back-up and calls in at the office to pick up her gun on the way. Barney has anticipated that she would do this and is waiting for her, along with Curtis's corpse. They play a cat-and-mouse version of Russian roulette with their respective guns until Kinsey, in possession of a gun with an extra round in the chamber, emerges victorious, having shot and killed Barney.

Kinsey Millhone's former employer, California Fidelity Insurance, hires her to investigate the alleged reappearance of Ponzi schemer Wendell Jaffe. Jaffe was assumed to have died five years previously when his boat, the ''Captain Stanley Lord'', was found drifting off the Baja coast. He left behind a suicide note, a number of angry investors, and a family: a wife, Dana, along with sons Michael and Brian. With no body to prove death, CFI made Dana wait the full statutory five years to presume death before paying out on Jaffe's half-million insurance claim. She has been making ends meet by working as a wedding planner. Michael, now 22, has coped reasonably well with suddenly being the man of the house and is a new husband and father himself. Eighteen-year-old Brian, on the other hand, is currently residing in juvenile hall. Two months after the insurance payout, a former CFI employee has spotted a man he is convinced is Jaffe in Viento Negro, Mexico.

In Mexico, Kinsey finds Jaffe is now known as Dean DeWitt Huff. Huff/Jaffe is traveling with a woman named Renata Huff, who has a residence on the quay in Perdido, near Santa Teresa, as well as a boat of her own. Before Kinsey can prove his identity, they vanish. That same day, Brian is arrested in the middle of a botched escape attempt, but is just as suddenly released on a technicality. Kinsey is convinced Jaffe arranged Brian's escape and is heading back to California to reconnect with his son.

Renata catches Kinsey searching on her property, but admits Wendell is visiting Michael. Kinsey tracks Jaffe down, but someone begins firing shots at them both and he escapes once more. The next day, the ''Captain Stanley Lord'' is found drifting a few miles off-shore just as it was the first time Jaffe vanished.

Kinsey has proved Jaffe didn't die and therefore the insurance money can be reclaimed from Dana. Though her job is done, Kinsey goes in search of the full story. She finds Brian, and also finds out from Jaffe's former business partner Carl Eckert that there was three million dollars from their fraudulent business scheme on board the missing boat. Renata confesses that she killed Wendell, dumped his body at sea, and then set the ''Lord'' adrift, making her way back to shore in her own dinghy. She then wades out into the sea to kill herself, and Kinsey is unable to stop her. Jaffe's body washes up on the shore, but Renata's never does, leaving Kinsey to wonder if, like her husband, she has managed to fake her own death.

In a subplot, Kinsey discovers she has long lost family living in nearby Lompoc. Her cousin Liza tells her the family scandal: Kinsey's mother was cut off from her family for marrying Kinsey's father. Kinsey is aghast that no one has tried to track her down in the 29 years since her parents were killed and is resentful of any intrusion into her solitude at this late date.

A beautiful American socialite, Diana Standing (Myrna Loy) and her acerbic companion, Miss Powers (Louise Closser Hale), arrive at the train station in Cairo, Egypt, where they are met by her wealthy British fiancé Gerald Hume (Reginald Denny). Their plan is to be married in the city in a few weeks' time, once Gerald's mother arrives. At the station, she is noticed by Jamil El Shehab (Ramon Novarro), a handsome good-natured Egyptian dragoman who enjoys romancing a bevy of women tourists, in exchange for a hoard of their jewelry as love tokens. Jamil is immediately captivated by Diana, but is rejected by Gerald when he offers them his services. Undaunted, he snatches up her little laptog, Mitzi, when he sees she is unattended. Back at the hotel, Powers, who asks if everyone in Egypt is a Shriner (their official headgear is the same fez, or tarboosh, worn by Egyptian men), is upset to find Diana's wedding regalia didn't travel well. (Powers' role is that of comic relief, and her negative experiences with, and suspicion of, everything Egyptian is a running joke. Only the efficient Jamil meets with her approval.) This is forgotten when Diana realizes Mitzi is missing, but her panic is alleviated when Jamil appears with her dog, claiming credit for saving her from being hit by a train. Diana initially plans to send him away with a tip, but when the attractive Jamil again suggests she hire him as her guide, Diana pleads with a reluctant Gerald to indulge her.

Born in Cairo of an Egyptian mother, but only now returning to it for the first time since she was a baby, Diana is apparently accepted by the British upper class despite her parentage. She is dismissive when Gerald asks her if the country feels like home to her, laughingly asking him if he expects her to break into a snake dance. She is not passionately in love with Gerald, and while they view the city from the hotel balcony, she gently rebuffs his attempts to present her with "romance, poetry and all that sort of rot," telling him her desire is instead to have a "civilized" life with him, albeit one that will be regimented and strictly scheduled by his mother. Jamil interrupts them and begins to serenade them with an Arabic song of love, while casting several sidelong glances at Diana that are returned. Much to Gerald's irritation, Diana quickly starts to fall under its spell.

While touring the Pyramids at night, Jamil manages to separate Diana from the rest of the party by climbing one with her and leaving the others behind. He then romances her with the same love song which everyone below, including an infuriated Gerald, can hear. The next morning when Jamil enters Diana's hotel bedroom under the pretext of returning Mitzi from her walk, he spies her in her lingerie, humming the same love song he sung to her the night before. When Jamil discloses he is not only a dragoman, but a prince of Egypt, Diana scoffs at the notion. Meanwhile, Diana is also being wooed by Pasha Achmed, her fiancé's unscrupulous Egyptian business associate. In order to arrange to be alone with Diana, Pasha persuades Gerald to leave Cairo and inspect the aqueduct they are building together. When Jamil learns of the deception, he blackmails his countryman to remain silent about the reason for Gerald's absence. Bringing Diana orchids sent by Pasha, he again enters her bedroom the following morning and scatters them on her as she sleeps. Diana is outraged at this second intrusion, but when Pasha and Cecil knock at her bedroom door to announce they will wait outside for her while she dresses, she is even angrier at being forced not only to conceal Jamil's presence, but to have to ready herself while he makes personal comments. Jamil declares that if she were of his race she would know not to be offended, and that hers doesn't value the art of love. As he describes his hope that the man she chooses will recognize and inflame her romantic nature, Diana becomes increasingly agitated and distracted. When Jamil kisses her in a moment of passion, Diana initially returns his kiss, then pushes him away, exclaiming "A servant!" at this affront. She angrily dismisses him, even though she had previously refused to fire him when a jealous Gerald demanded it. Jamil then leaves by the balcony, further infuriating Diana because she hadn't thought of it at the outset.

Diana and Powers then set out on a caravan across the desert with a new guide. Diana does not discover until nightfall that Jamil, undaunted by her rejection, has followed them and forced the new dragoman to leave, leaving her with no choice but to let him stay. Once again Jamil's romantic singing has its effect on Diana, but when he pulls her into his arms and kisses her again, she is outraged and strikes him with his own whip. Still believing him to be nothing more than a servant, she is taken aback at the uncharacteristic expression of anger on his face, then regains her composure and demands to return to Cairo immediately. Jamil angrily organizes the caravan, but sends it, along with Powers, on a different route, leaving Diana to discover, too late, she is alone with Jamil on a longer, scenic, route. Spying an oasis retreat, Diana abandons Jamil and rides toward it, where she is initially pleased to be treated lavishly by servants. Newly bathed and dressed, she is taken to a private room, where she is horrified to see Jamil spraying the air with perfume. When she tries to flee, she finds all the exits locked. When Pasha unexpectedly enters, she greets him as a rescuer, unaware that the house is his. He, in turn, assumes she is there for a tryst, since he received a message from Jamil asking him to meet her at his retreat. When Diana flatly denies it, Pasha confronts Jamil with what "the white woman" told him. Jamil assures him that all Occidental woman deny their true emotions, and that Diana paid him to bring her to Pasha. He then hands Pasha the same whip Diana struck him with and escorts him to her. Jamil tries to ignore Diana's cries as Pasha forces himself on her, but when she cries out his name he hammers on the locked door until Pasha comes out. Jamil confesses to Pasha that he really brought Diana to his home for food and shelter, and that he will need to be paid off before Pasha goes any further. When Pasha leaves Jamil to fetch his price, Jamil escapes with Diana. As they ride away, Jamil muses aloud, in a pleased manner, that she called for him. When Diana offers to pay him £1,000 to return safely her to Gerald in Cairo, Jamil repeats it.

Pasha's guards soon catch up to them in the desert; in the ensuing fight, Jamil kills them but loses his horse. Surveying the guards' corpses in disgust, Jamil brusquely orders the barefooted and barely-dressed Diana off her horse and rides off, forcing her to catch up and walk alongside him. That night, at a desert oasis, he forces her to wait while he and the horse drink first. Weakened by thirst, hunger, and humiliation, Diana snatches his discarded dagger and hides it. She again offers him everything she has to return her to Cairo safely, then threatens that he will pay for his actions if he doesn't. When Jamil picks up his whip, she recoils, but he assures her that he wouldn't whip her since it would mar her beauty. As he approaches her, Diana tries to defend herself with the dagger, but Jamil quickly disarms her, then rapes her. Soon afterwards, he quietly tells an unresponsive and tearstained Diana that they need to travel a good distance before the sun is high. When she numbly prepares to walk next to the horse, he stops her and instead puts her up on it, while he leads them on foot. They arrive at his tribal village, where Jamil reveals his true identity is indeed that of a prince who worked as a humble dragoman as part of his royal training. When Jamil declares his love and proposes monogamous marriage to her, Diana passively accepts. But at the ceremony, she throws the water from their ceremonial cup in his face, humiliating him in front of his father and his tribe. Devastated by her rejection, Jamil furiously strikes her three times with his whip. When Diana neither flinches nor takes her eyes off his face, Jamil cannot meet her gaze and looks away. He then tells her she is free and provides her with an escort to return safely to Cairo.

The escort flees when they encounter an army troop, along with Gerald and Cecil, that was dispatched to rescue Diana. Diana declares she wants Jamil dead to pay for what he has done, making it clear to Gerald that Jamil has violated her. The army is sent to find and apprehend Jamil, dead or alive. On the day of the couple's wedding, Jamil is still at large. Just before the ceremony, Diana's prospective mother-in-law asks Gerald just how far Diana's "adventure" went; he replies that he's trying to forget it and that he can't call off the wedding. Mrs. Hume worries that Jamil's capture will result in a scandalous charge of rape against Gerald's soon-to-be wife, but her son assures her that usurping a caravan is piracy, and that charge alone will carry a death sentence. She then goes to dress Diana for her wedding, criticizing her servants, her departure from the traditional Hume bridal bouquet, and how she proposes to wear the family veil. She goes on to speculate whether Diana really will be a worthy and responsible enough wife for her son, and advises her that she will have to curb her adventurous personality in order to fit in with the Hume family. Even Powers makes a thoughtless remark about Diana's bridal virginity before she leaves to take her place downstairs.

Left alone, Diana is startled to hear the familiar song of love, and finds the fugitive Jamil on the balcony outside. Jamil places his life in Diana's hands, offering his death as a wedding gift if she rejects him again. Diana tells him she doesn't want him dead, and as he hands Diana her bridal bouquet, Jamil tells her the choice is hers; she will be taken by another man, and he will be taken by the troops. But as he takes her hand to kiss it in farewell he instead pulls her into a passionate kiss, which she returns. As Cecil, who has come to take her to Gerald, pounds on the locked bedroom door, Diana pleads with Jamil to flee, but he refuses to go without her. She tells him he is crazy, to which he responds that so is she, and that they are exactly alike. Realizing that she truly loves him, Diana escapes with Jamil on horseback into the night, as Powers thwarts the Humes' attempts to go after them. Some time later, as they drift down the Nile together on a felucca, Diana contentedly caresses Jamil's head in her lap as he hums his melody of love to her. When Diana asks him if he knows that her mother was an Egyptian, he blissfully tells her that he wouldn't care if she was Chinese. As they kiss, the boat drifts out of frame to reveal an exhausted Powers reclining on a pile of cushions in its stern, holding Mitzi and dressed in Egyptian harem pants and a fez.

Kinsey Millhone receives a visit from Janice Kepler whose beautiful but reclusive daughter, Lorna Kepler, died 10 months ago of an apparent allergic reaction. Someone has just sent Janice a tape of a pornographic movie Lorna made before her death, and Janice, who has never believed the official story of Lorna's death, wants Kinsey to find out the truth. Janice's husband, Mace, and her two surviving daughters, Berlyn and Trinny, seem less keen on the investigation.

With some help from Officer Cheney Phillips, Kinsey learns that Lorna, who was a receptionist at the water treatment plant by day, had accumulated a modest fortune as a high class prostitute by night. Kinsey finds herself abandoning her usual daytime routine in order to explore Lorna's world. Lorna's body was found by Serena Bonney, night-shift nurse and estranged wife of Lorna's boss at the water treatment plant, Roger Bonney. Serena's father, Clark Esselmann, is a powerful business tycoon and member of the local water board. Phillips introduces Kinsey to Danielle, a teenage colleague of Lorna's in her night-time occupation, who obliges Kinsey by giving her a badly needed haircut.

Kinsey has a terrifying Mafia-style encounter with a man describing himself as an attorney for a Los Angeles man to whom Lorna was engaged. He asks Kinsey to keep him abreast of any developments in the case.

Kinsey uncovers a variety of secrets: Berlyn found Lorna's body two days before Bonney, but kept quiet about in order to lift some of Lorna's money, and also sent her mother the porn video. Leda, the wife of Lorna's landlord, had placed recording equipment in Lorna's cabin because she was worried that Lorna was having an affair with her husband. After obtaining the tapes, Kinsey attends a meeting of the water board, where she witnesses a contentious debate between Esselman and his business rival John "Stubby" Stockton.

With the help of Lorna's friend, late-night radio DJ Hector Moreno, Kinsey transcribes the taped conversations, but can't make sense of them until Esselmann is electrocuted in his swimming pool. Kinsey realizes the conversation is someone telling Lorna the plot and surmises that Lorna was killed to keep her quiet. Her suspicions turn at first to Stubby Stockton, but then she realizes Roger Bonney had the necessary knowledge and access to his father-in-law's pool to have set up the electrocution. The final link in the chain is when Kinsey finds a photo of Lorna and Danielle with Stockton and Bonney.

Kinsey talks to Cheney Phillips about her suspicions of Bonney, but he points out there is no evidence. Frustrated that Bonney is likely to get away with murder, Kinsey phones the Mafia men and reports that Bonney is the killer. Overcome with guilt, she tries to warn Bonney, but he thinks she has come to confront him with the murder and stuns her with a taser. While Kinsey lies powerless on the floor, the Mafia types arrive and escort Bonney away, never to be seen again.

In the epilogue, Kinsey wonders if she can return from the "shadows" she has strayed into.

Kinsey is asked by her landlord Henry Pitts to help out Bucky, the grandson of their recently deceased neighbor Johnny Lee. Bucky is trying to ensure his grandfather has a military burial. Ray Rawson and Gilbert Hays, old acquaintances of Johnny Lee, turn up unexpectedly and are interested in the meager contents of Johnny's garage apartment. The two are at cross-purposes, seeking the proceeds of a bank robbery they committed together with Johnny forty years ago. Gilbert, a violent psychopath, pursues Ray, Kinsey and Laura Huckaby (Ray's daughter and Gilbert's common-law wife) from Santa Teresa to Dallas, TX to Louisville, KY, in search of the money buried in a secret location by Johnny before his death. Catching up with them in Louisville, Gilbert takes Laura hostage to force Ray and Kinsey to piece together Johnny's clues and find the stash. Gilbert, intending to double-cross Ray after it is found, finds himself double-crossed by Ray, who had surreptitiously disabled his firearm. Shooting Gilbert dead to avenge all the deaths he is responsible for, including their associates from the heist, Ray escapes into hiding with Laura after she knocks Kinsey unconscious to keep her from following them.

A subplot concerns Kinsey's cousin Tasha reaching out to her in the hope of having a family reunion at Thanksgiving. Kinsey initially rebuffs her, but decides to ask her for assistance at the end of the book, when she is stuck in Louisville with no funds and no means of returning to Santa Teresa.

In January 1986, Tasha Howard hires her cousin Kinsey Millhone to find an heir of the wealthy Malek family. When patriarch Bader Malek died, everyone assumed his $40 million estate would be split between his sons: Donovan, who runs the Malek construction empire; Bennet, a would-be entrepreneur; and Jack, a playboy. However, the will also names the supposedly disinherited second son Guy, the black sheep of the family who left home 18 years ago and whom the family has not seen or heard from since. His unlikeable brothers do not want him back in their lives, nor do they want his taking a cut of the inherited millions. Kinsey sympathizes with the story of Guy's exile from his family, as she struggles to deal with her own family troubles.

With illicit help from Darcy Pascoe, a friend at California Fidelity Insurance, Kinsey tracks Guy to the small town of Marcella near Santa Teresa. After being rescued by local pastor Peter Antle and his wife Winnie, Guy has become a devout Christian and turned his life around. Kinsey finds him the nicest of the Malek brothers. Despite Kinsey's warnings, Guy agrees to return to his childhood home. Ugly family scenes ensue. Kinsey's worst fears for Guy are exceeded when he is found brutally bludgeoned to death at the family home. Feeling guilty for his death, Kinsey tries to find his killer.

At the same time, Kinsey deals with her own personal problems, including the reappearance of Robert Dietz, a private investigator ex. We also learn that Kinsey's ex-boyfriend Jonah Robb, the investigating officer on Guy's death, is back with his wife Camilla, while also pursuing a fling with a police colleague. Eventually, Kinsey and Dietz resume their relationship, albeit on a transient basis; and Dietz helps her with the case.

Initial physical evidence implicates Jack Malek in Guy's murder; and his attorney, Lonnie Kingman, hires Kinsey to investigate further for Jack's defense. Kinsey believes the crime's motive lies in the past but can't reconcile Guy's misdemeanors with the character of the man she knew. She decides Guy was a scapegoat for crimes he didn't commit: for example, Guy supposedly swindled widow Mrs. Maddison out of a fortune in valuable historical documents, alongside getting daughter Patti pregnant. Kinsey discovers that Bennet and his university friend Paul Trasatti completed the crime under the name Maxwell Outhwaite, a pseudonym constructed from two adjacent books, after the fashion of Conan Edogawa. She also connects the name to the murder to the Maddison family; but since Patty Maddison's mother, her sister Claire, and other family have died, this appears to be a frustrating dead end.

Dietz discovers that the story of Claire's death has been faked. Meanwhile, Enid reports that Myrna has disappeared from the Malek home in circumstances suggestive of foul play. Kinsey realizes that Myrna is actually Claire, having bided her time to get revenge on the Malek family and Guy in particular. Claire tries to escape on foot; but Kinsey catches her and confronts her with her crime against Guy, the blameless brother. After confessing to destroying the will that disinherited Guy and confessing to the murder itself, Claire commits suicide. In a post-script, Kinsey explains that Tasha used a note Guy wrote to Kinsey as evidence of testamentary to ensure his share of the Malek millions goes to Peter and Winnie's church. The book ends with Kinsey's reconciling her grief at losing Guy, just as she once had to do with her deceased parents and aunt.

The story takes place mainly in the small-town mountain community of Nota Lake, California (population 2,356, elevation 4,312), where Kinsey has inherited a client named Selma Newquist from her periodic boyfriend Robert Dietz. He is temporarily out of action back home in Carson City, where Kinsey has been taking care of him following knee surgery. Selma's brief is vague: she fears her husband Tom, a sheriff's officer who died of a heart attack a few weeks before, had something on his mind at the time of his death; and she wants Kinsey to find out what it was.

With very little to go on, Kinsey finds the residents of the insular community are not forthcoming. She finds Tom was held in high respect, while reactions to Selma range from tolerance for Tom's sake to downright dislike. Tom's colleagues in the sheriff's department, including Tom's partner Rafer LaMott and brother Macon Newquist, close ranks around his memory, though their respective wives, as well as Selma's 25-year-old son by her first marriage, Brant, are slightly more friendly and helpful to Millhone, as is CHP officer James Tennyson, who found Tom's body. A frustrating search of Tom's home office reveals nothing more than some doodling and a list of phone numbers; but it seems someone is worried about what Kinsey might find when she is first threatened by a masked driver, then attacked in her temporary accommodation, the dismal Nota Lake Cabins run by Tom's elder sister Cecilia Boden.

Retreating to Santa Teresa to lick her wounds (two dislocated fingers and a beaten-up jaw), Kinsey follows up leads from the phone numbers she found in Tom's office, from which she finds Tom was interested in the case of a petty criminal, Alfie Toth, whom he had traced to a hotel in Santa Teresa before Toth died in what might have been a murder or a bizarre suicide. Toth's unusual death has curious similarities to that of a prison associate of his, career-criminal, child-abuser, and rapist Pinkie Ritter, who died 5 years earlier but whose body only came to light near Nota Lake shortly before Toth was killed. Following up more of Tom's recent phone calls, Kinsey traces local sheriff's department officer Colleen Sellers, who had been in love with Tom, who reluctantly assists with information that Tom was suspicious that someone close to him was responsible for the deaths of both Toth and Ritter. When she also finds out that one of Ritter's daughters, Margaret, worked for Tom at the sheriff's department, Kinsey reluctantly realizes she has to return to Nota Lake to wrap up the case. Now enduring open hostility in the town and a sinister atmosphere of danger and unsure whom she can trust, Kinsey discovers that Rafer's daughter Barrett has had Tom's missing field notes since his death—but they are in code. Belatedly, Kinsey cracks the code and realizes that the threat comes not from one of Tom's colleagues, but his step-son, Brant, who had himself been sexually abused by Ritter, killed him in retaliation, and then killed witness Toth later when he found out through Tom's investigation where Toth was. It was the realization that Brant had committed murder, and that Brant had found Toth through him, that was causing Tom's anguish before his death. Despite being unwittingly drugged by Brant in a final showdown, Kinsey manages to subdue him, much to Selma's horror.

Kinsey's curiosity is roused when she receives a call from a man who has bought some of her possessions at an auction of defaulted storage locker items. She recognizes the box as stuff which she left in the possession of her former husband, Michael Magruder – whom she met and married during her time on the Santa Teresa Police Force at the age of 21. She walked out after eight months in 1972. Mickey had asked her to give him a false alibi when he was accused of violence against a recently returned Vietnam veteran Benny Quintero, who later died. Kinsey refused to lie, assuming his guilt, and left him.

As well as high school and police academy memories, she finds in the box a letter written to her 14 years before, shortly after she left Mickey, which never reached her. It is from Dixie Hightower, barmaid at an old haunt from that era called the Honky-Tonk, saying that Mickey was with her the night he was accused of killing Benny. While shocked to find out her husband was cheating, Kinsey realises she did Mickey an injustice thinking he killed Benny and sets out to find out what has happened to him. The trail leads her to Shack, a former colleague of Mickey's, and to Tim Litenberg, the son of another colleague, who is running the Honky-Tonk, as well as to Dixie herself, living in new-found luxury with her Vietnam vet husband Eric. Kinsey finds out Mickey had been frequenting the Honky-Tonk and is suspicious of his motives, sensing that he had uncovered some sort of illegal activity. She also contacts Mark Bethel, Mickey's lawyer on the Quintero manslaughter charge, another veteran now running for political office.

Two LAPD officers shock Kinsey with the news that Mickey is in a coma, having been shot with a gun registered to her, a present from Mickey she abandoned along with him. She is disconcerted to find this puts her high on the suspect list, especially since her assurances that she hasn't spoken to Mickey in years are belied by a record of a 30-minute call from Mickey's number to her apartment in recent weeks. Illegally breaking into Mickey's apartment in search of answers, Kinsey finds a stash of weapons, false IDs, and evidence of a trip Mickey made to Louisville, Kentucky, but her search is interrupted by a biker called Carlin Duffy, looking for Mickey, and who has been a frequent visitor in recent months according to Mickey's neighbor Wary Beason. Duffy, a habitual criminal, turns out to be Benny Quintero's half brother, and like his brother, hails originally from Louisville. Clearly he and Mickey shared an interest in finding the truth about Benny's death. From Duffy, Kinsey learns that Mickey was interested in Benny's connections to a young Louisville journalist called Duncan Oaks, who was killed in Vietnam. Benny had Duncan's press pass and dog tags, which Duffy passed to Mickey, and which Kinsey assumes have been stolen from Mickey’ s apartment, though she later find she has them herself, sewn into a jacket of Mickey's she took from the apartment as a souvenir.

Kinsey follows Mickey's trail to Louisville. She discovers that Oaks was injured in Vietnam but disappeared in transit for medical treatment, and also that he was a classmate of Mark Bethel's wife Laddie. She deduces that Duncan and Laddie had some sort of affair, giving Mark Bethel a motive for Duncan's disappearance in Vietnam. Back in Santa Teresa, the LAPD detectives reappear and confirm they have traced Bethel's fingerprints in Mickey's apartment, searching for the missing press pass, and suspect him of shooting Mickey. They compare notes and conclude that Bethel must have pushed Oaks out of the medical helicopter, witnessed by Benny Quintero. When Quintero headed for California after the war and presumably tried to blackmail Bethel, Bethel killed him and set Mickey up to take the rap. Years later when Mickey finally uncovered the truth, Bethel shot him, implicating Kinsey.

Kinsey is reluctantly persuaded by the detectives to attempt to trap Bethel into a confession, an operation which goes badly wrong, and she ends up a target. However Duffy, now understanding Bethel to be the one responsible for his brother's death, decapitates Bethel with a digger, saving Kinsey. Meanwhile, Kinsey has uncovered the truth at the Honky-Tonk: it is being used to manufacture fake IDs, as Mickey had discovered. She reports the scam, and having exonerated Mickey on all fronts, is with him when he dies without regaining consciousness.

Kinsey Millhone is hired by Fiona, the first wife of Dr. Dowan Purcell, to move along the stalled investigation by police of his disappearance. He disappeared nine weeks earlier, on September 12, 1986. The first wife is more concerned than present wife Crystal. Fiona, embittered by the breakdown of her marriage, is convinced that Dow has engineered his own disappearance, as she alleges Crystal is having an affair and admits that Dow has gone missing a couple of times before. In support of this, his passport and thirty thousand dollars seem to be missing. In contrast, Crystal, a former stripper Dow met on a trip to Las Vegas, is convinced he is dead. Not impressed either with Fiona's haughty personality or the chances of turning up something on a cold trail, Kinsey accepts the case with misgivings.

She soon finds evidence that there has been fraudulent Medicare/Medicaid activity at Pacific Meadows, the care home at which Purcell worked as medical director following his retirement from general practice. Opinions vary amongst his former colleagues and associates as to whether Purcell could have been responsible, whether deliberately or through administrative incompetence; but since he is missing, he is certainly a convenient scapegoat for any blame that might be assigned by the ongoing official investigation. Kinsey meets an old acquaintance in the form of Dana Glazer, formerly Dana Jaffe, now married to wealthy businessman Joel Glazer, co-director of the management company that owns Pacific Meadows. By coincidence, Kinsey's landlord Henry adds to the evidence of fraud when sorting through the finances of Rosie's recently deceased sister, Klotilde, who had stayed at Pacific Meadows. Kinsey struggles to work out whether Dow did a runner with some illegal gains, killed himself having realized he was going to be implicated, or was entirely innocent but murdered by the real perpetrator of the fraud.

In a sub-plot, Kinsey has decided it is time to leave her current rented office space at Kingman and Ives and finds her dream office space up for rental by brothers Richard and Tommy Hevener. After snapping it up with a big advance rent payment, and starting to date the attractive Tommy, Kinsey receives a shocking visit from one Mariah Talbot, who explains that the Heveners are suspects in the murder of their parents in Texas some years before. Given Kinsey's blossoming relationship with Tommy, she is hoping Kinsey will help her entrap the brothers. Kinsey is in a dilemma; ultimately, Henry carries out the entrapment himself to protect Kinsey after failing to persuade her to steer clear of it. After a dangerous showdown with the Hevener brothers, in which Richard kills Tommy with Kinsey's gun, Kinsey finds out that she was duped by Mariah Talbot; she is really the sister of the Heveners' hired accomplice, whom they are also suspected of murdering.

Meanwhile, Kinsey has become embroiled in Purcell's complex family; and a search for Crystal's tearaway teen daughter Leila leads to Kinsey's discovery of Dow's car in a lake near Fiona's property. When the car is pulled out, Dow's body is in it. Kinsey has technically done her duty to Fiona, but she still wants to know how and why Dow died. She finds that Leila was behind the missing thirty thousand dollars and that Crystal is innocent of the affair Fiona had alleged. Kinsey establishes that it is Joel Glazer and his business partner who are responsible for the Pacific Meadows fraud; Dow Purcell had uncovered it. They are not the killers, however: a bullet hole at Crystal's property implicates her. In the absence of Kinsey's usual explanatory epilogue, the motive is implied; Crystal is in a relationship with Leila's school counsellor, Anica.

While moving into her new office, Kinsey Millhone receives a visit from Lt. Con Dolan of the Santa Teresa Sheriff’s Department. Dolan comes bearing bad news: retired STSD Detective Stacey Oliphant is dying of cancer. Oliphant is haunted by a cold case from 1969, a murder investigation wherein he and Dolan discovered the body of a teenage Jane Doe in a quarry outside Lompoc. Dolan suggests the three of them work together to solve the case in order to give Oliphant some peace of mind in his final days.

After Kinsey pursues a couple of false leads, Dolan and Oliphant suggest focusing their investigation on a career criminal named Frankie Miracle, who was arrested in Lompoc within days of the Doe murder for killing his girlfriend. They have always believed Miracle killed Doe, but were never able to prove it. Miracle’s former cellmate Cedric “Pudgie” Clifton confirms that Miracle claimed to have killed a second woman in circumstances which match the Doe murder. The recently paroled Miracle denies any knowledge of the Doe crime and flatly refuses to cooperate.

STSD Sgt. Detective Joe Mandel discovers that a red Ford Mustang mentioned in the original report as possibly belonging to the killer was stolen from an auto upholsterer in Quorum, a small town near the Arizona border and suspiciously close to Miracle’s own hometown. The car was recovered and sold to the owner of the shop, Ruel MacPhee, who has kept it ever since.

In Quorum, Dolan and Kinsey find the auto shop being run by Ruel MacPhee's son, Cornell. MacPhee’s mother-in-law, Medora Sanders, identifies Jane Doe as Charisse Quinn, a foster child who briefly boarded with her. Sanders relates that Quinn was a troubled teen, expelled from school and sexually promiscuous. According to Sanders, Quinn ran away one night and was never seen again. Local car salesman George Baum informs Oliphant that Quinn was infatuated with Cornell MacPhee and befriended his sister Adrienne in hopes of getting close to Cornell himself. Cornell’s wife Justine vehemently denies this.

Forensic reports on the Mustang reveal Pudgie Clifton’s fingerprints. Oliphant and Kinsey begin an extensive but unsuccessful search for Clifton. In doing so, they learn he had dated Justine before she met Cornell. Quorum police find Clifton dead in an unfinished, abandoned apartment complex called the Tuley-Belle.

George Baum reveals that Cornell MacPhee had begun a sexual relationship with Quinn and that Adrienne had interrupted the two of them once at the Tuley-Belle. Adrienne confirms Baum’s story, adding that Quinn told Cornell she was pregnant and wanted to elope with him. Kinsey drives to the Tuley-Belle to assist local deputies in finding the weapon used to kill Clifton. Once there, she sees Cornell and Justine digging up a tire iron.

In an epilogue, Kinsey explains that Justine killed Charisse Quinn for seducing Cornell, who Justine saw as a future source of financial security. Justine convinced Pudgie Clifton to steal the Mustang and dispose of Quinn's body. When Clifton told her the case had been reopened, she killed him to keep him quiet and forced her husband to dispose of the body as she had with Clifton 20 years before.

Kinsey Millhone agrees to escort Reba, the daughter of Nord Lafferty, out of prison to the Lafferty mansion and watch over Reba until she is settled into her life out of prison. Reba was serving a sentence for embezzlement, though she had not embezzled funds; her boss had spent the funds on bribing municipal officials for the construction of a shopping mall with office space in the center of Santa Teresa. Lieutenant Cheney Phillips encounters Kinsey at the office of the probation officer for Reba Lafferty, as he is the local investigator in a multi-agency operation to arrest Reba's boss, Alan Beckwith. Several federal agencies are pursuing him for laundering funds for a Colombian drug dealer.

Reba pled guilty because she was in love with Beckwith, a married man. While Reba was in prison, Beckwith slept with her replacement in the office. Kinsey has known Cheney for a couple of years; now, she is smitten with him. For this arrest, he and the whole team of investigators want Reba to provide evidence of the money laundering, an inside witness for their case. They decide that Kinsey, now building rapport with Reba, should ask her to take this on. Unwillingly, Kinsey does so.

Kinsey's landlord, Henry, meets with Mattie Halstead, a woman he met on a cruise ship trip taken with his older brothers. His brothers interfere with each visit between the two, which is upsetting the normally calm Henry and upsetting Kinsey, who thinks she might be good company for Henry.

Reba goes to a support group meeting for alcoholism but, within days, is drinking again. She had stopped smoking in prison and takes up smoking again. Even with Kinsey's company, Reba cannot handle freedom. As she realizes that Beckwith has no intention of keeping the promises he made to her, Reba makes plans to get back at him. First she tells her former colleague and comptroller for Beckwith's company, Marty, about the federal investigation, recommending he leave the country. He acts slowly, not sure whether to believe her.

Touring the new offices in the development completed while Reba was in prison, Reba and Kinsey find the room where Beckwith bundles cash in small bills to carry out to Panama, where he owns a bank. He either flies on his own jet or sails his own ship to carry the heavy bundles without close examination by customs. Reba at first thinks the cash belongs to Beckwith and steals a packet worth $25,000. Beckwith learns of the theft when his Colombian dealer tells him the cash is short. Reba then understands from Kinsey that the cash was being laundered for the Colombian. Reba goes to Reno to meet her friend from prison, Misty Raine. Besides her profession as a stripper, Misty makes false passports and driver licenses; she makes a set for Marty. Reba has already seen that Beckwith had a set of false papers for his trip to leave the country, as he is aware of the pressure building from the federal investigation.

Kinsey has some pleasant evenings with Cheney. She buys more flattering clothes with Reba to look nicer for Cheney; and Cheney cuts her hair to be more stylish, a talent of his.

Kinsey pursues Misty in Reno when Reba disappears from her family home. Her hunch is good, and she finds Reba with Misty. Reba agrees to drive back to California with Kinsey, aware that she has broken the terms of her parole by leaving the state. The two meet Marty in a hotel in Beverly Hills. Abruptly, a couple of goons grab Marty in the hotel lobby where they talk and beat him up. Reba tells the hotel they need help and she flees, while Kinsey pursues Marty in hopes of helping him. Kinsey hits one goon hard with a chair, but she is then knocked unconscious. She revives in the presence of Beckwith and his goons, solving the question of who sent those men to beat up the comptroller. Reba lets Beckwith know that she has the computer and the data discs that he uses to back up his business affairs, including the money laundering. Beckwith threatens Kinsey so that Reba will bring the computer and the discs to him. She does so. In the office, Marty lies dead. Beckwith claims the man had a heart attack; the beating did not kill him. Presented with the computer and the discs, Beckwith carefully pours a strong acid over them so they cannot be read. Reba reveals that she switched the computers with Marty's aid. Behind Beckwith, the team of police, led by Cheney Phillips, arrives with guns out.

Reba feels she does better in prison, where she cannot do wrong, which is where her theft of the cash lands her. The federal case against Beckwith is strong, and he is convicted. Kinsey is optimistic about her and Cheney and remarks how sometimes, she feels she is an actor in someone else's story.

In the year 16 BCE, the people of Jerusalem are awaiting the birth of the son of Imran. Instead of the much-anticipated "Messiah", a girl is born to Imran and Anna. The latter names her Mary, which means "Servant of God". At the age of six, Mary is presented at the Temple, and remains there under the protection of the priest Zechariah until she turns sixteen.

While in seclusion, Mary spends all of her time in labour and prayers, and is harassed by the Jewish priests. She achieves such holiness that the angel Gabriel appears to her, foretelling that she will bear a holy man. She later gives birth to Jesus.

The plot of ''Twilight at the Well of Souls'' is a direct continuation of the plot of ''The Return of Nathan Brazil''. As that novel concludes, guards at the South Zone of the Well World have killed Nathan Brazil.

Or have they? As ''Twilight at the Well of Souls'' opens, it turns out that Brazil is not killed so easily. Yet another being carrying Brazil's appearance is shot down by the guards, and the leader of Zone, Serge Ortega, is informed that the latest victim is the 27th of the current day. Ortega reveals that he has deduced that Brazil had actually entered several weeks before, even arriving prior to his companions Mavra Chang, Marquoz, and Yua (all of whom had been led to believe that Brazil had not yet journeyed to the Well World).

Marquoz has been busy in his short time on the Well World. After awakening as an armored war-lizard in Hakazit, he immediately insinuates himself into the local government. He learns that the government is a sort of dictatorship, but one in which anyone who assassinates the current leader is elevated to that position themself. Marquoz does not wish to take overall leadership, but he does assassinate and supplant the head of the secret police. He leverages this position and the Hakazit lust for war and combat to raise an army to fight on Brazil's behalf.

In contrast, Yua finds what seems like a hopeless situation in Awbri. The society there is dominated by the males, because every month the females go into heat (referred to as the Time) which can only be relieved by mating with a male. Just as Yua is despairing of being able to do her part to assist Brazil, she receives instructions which had been planted subconsciously by Obie. These instructions give Yua the recipe for making a hormonal replacement that will prevent the Time from occurring. Fortified with the means to gain control from the men, Yua sets about raising her own army.

Mavra prefers to begin in Dillia by journeying to the neighboring hex of Gedemondas. She recalls that during her previous visit to the Well World, she had seen that the inhabitants there had amazing mental powers, with the ability to control the thoughts of others. She believes that the Gedemondans would be powerful allies, and she wants to do something more than just sit and wait until she is called. Mavra is able to catch on with a hunting party headed by Colonel Asam, as Asam has heard the stories of Mavra's previous visit to the Well World and is also very interested in meeting a Gedemondan. Their party is waylaid near their first overnight rest stop in Gedemondas. Although they succeed in fighting off the attackers, several members of the party perish and Mavra is critically injured by a blow to the head, putting her in a coma for three days.

After turning the other wounded members of the group over to a rescue party, Mavra and Asam travel further into Gedemondas. At one of their rest stops, the Gedemondans arrive to meet them. Holding Mavra and Asam in thrall, the Gedemondans heal their wounds, then discuss the mission to repair the Well. Mavra asks for their assistance, but is not told whether it will be offered. The Gedemondans inform her of a council of war that will soon be conducted in the empty Gedemondan embassy in South Zone, and Mavra suggests that the fastest way to get there is via the Gedemondan Zone Gate. The Gedemondans take her and Asam there, though they do not allow either traveller to remember anything of the journey.

At the council, the three conspirators are reunited, and they learn of one another's new forms. The last member of the council is Gypsy, who inexplicably retains the same appearance as he had before arriving at the Well World. Gypsy informs the rest of the council of Brazil's early arrival on the Well World, and discusses the plan for misdirection of the search for Brazil. Gypsy demonstrates that he has the ability to morph into the same appearance as Brazil, capable of fooling any observer not aware of the switch. He informs the group that he will join their army at some point in the future in the guise of Brazil, with the intention of drawing attention away from the approach of the real Brazil to the Well.

In 1953, Violet Sullivan vanishes after going out for a Fourth of July party in the small town of Serena Station, California. The exact reason for her disappearance is unknown, but rumors abound that she ran off with a lover or was murdered by her jealous husband. 34 years later, Kinsey Millhone is hired by her daughter Daisy to help seek closure and try to find some explanation for Violet's disappearance. After interviewing close acquaintances, as suggested by Daisy, Kinsey's biggest clue comes from Winston, who worked at the dealership where Violet bought her Bel Air, which also disappeared. Winston admits to originally hiding the fact that he saw the Bel Air abandoned on an offbeat road. While visiting with Daisy's friend Tannie, whose property overlooks the road, Kinsey spots an oblong depression in the soil and correctly theorizes that the car, along with Violet, is buried beneath. The curtain Violet is wrapped in initially implicates her husband Foley, as he ripped them off the window during a fight the couple had the previous day. However, Kinsey is able to confirm that he could not have spent the 24 hours digging the hole as he was in prison for public drunkenness the previous night and assisted the local sergeant with a woodworking project upon being released the next day. On a final hunch, Kinsey tracks down the breeder of Violet's dog and finds the name of the killer, Tom Padgett, who gave her the dog to try to subdue her for a loan to start up his heavy equipment business.

The plot differs from other novels in the "Alphabet Mystery" series in that it switches perspective between Violet and Kinsey, and switches the period between 1953 and 1987. Grafton would again use this narrative device in the next instalment, ''"T" is for Trespass''.

Kinsey's cantankerous neighbor Gus is badly injured in a fall and hires Solana Rojas, a private nurse, to help him while he recuperates. Kinsey becomes suspicious when Gus becomes isolated and withdrawn. She finds out that Solana is a con artist who engages in identity theft. What Kinsey does not know is that Solana is a dangerous sociopath with an accomplice and a history of clients who died under her care. Kinsey works with other neighbors and friends to rescue Gus and expose the con-artist without rousing her suspicions.

At the same time, Kinsey investigates a case of possible insurance fraud involving a student who drove into another car. The female passenger in the other car had extensive injuries and she and her husband are suing the student and the insurance company. Kinsey must track down a reluctant witness and use her rather rough charm to get him to come forward.

Unlike previous books in this series, this book alternates between two perspectives: that of Kinsey and that of Solana.

In Kagoshima, the southernmost part of Kyushu, there are many special volcanic ash areas called "Shirasu", and we suffered from typhoons every year. Researchers at the Tokyo Labor Research Institute, Ohno and Takayama, were invited by a land development team to study how to transform this volcanic ash land into agricultural land. Sadae Miura is also a woman dispatched from the Tokyo headquarters to the labor insurance research institute of farmhousewives in this region, and these three people were working with enthusiasm. A malicious broker Nonaka came in there and tried to buy the forest above "Silas", but Ohno and others opposed the danger of the landslide and the survival of the village. However, Nonaka got it by bad means and started logging. Ohno and his colleagues advised the dangers of the village and encouraged the relocation of the village, but due to the feudal obstinacy of the elders in the village, it also failed. Sadae is encouraged to marry by his uncle in Fukuoka, but he is attracted to Ono's serious lifestyle attitude, and he knows that he is a prodigal son of a wealthy man who committed a daughter in the village of Keiko who was on a manner of apprenticeship. I changed it all over. Though Keiko was crazy, he still loved Ohno. The rain continued, and finally the day when Ono and others warned was coming. Takayama pushed his illness and eventually died in a rainy investigation. When the village was in danger of rising water and landslides, Ohno et al. showed that the damage was minimal and difficult. Onaka's gang who laughed at Ono and stayed in the mountains, but was in time for Ono at the risk of death, but fell victim to the landslide. Keiko was also caught up in the landslide after climbing Ohno. And this great fear and excitement brought together Ohno and Sadae.

The story is about Fujiwara Sunao, a high school student often mistaken as a boy because of her dressing up like a boy. Sunao also has the ability to control and manipulate water at will. She appears to be the uncaring type of heroine but quickly befriends the crossdressing school nurse Mr. Shizuki and the perverted Kureha among many others. Sunao is a heroine that acts as a counselor to help people that have problems and saves them from themselves and their painful pasts.

In a hospital in Rome, a poor 92-year-old white émigré lies on her deathbed. She reveals to her granddaughter Olga there is a treasure worth 9 billion Italian lire buried "underneath a lion" in Leningrad. However, the story is overheard by the woman's attending physician, two male nurses named Antonio and Giuseppe, an mafioso named Rosario, and a patient with a broken leg. All six of the characters fly to Leningrad to hunt for the treasure.

The mafioso steals the doctor's passport who is forced to make round trips from Russia to Italy since neither country will accept him. Antonio and Giuseppe are soon joined by Andrei, an undercover captain of the Soviet militsiya who poses as a tour guide for Antonio, who purports to grant Antonio free tours on the basis that he is "the millionth Italian visitor". Olga doesn't plan to share her treasure with anyone and runs away, but agrees to join forces with Andrei, while Rosario the mafioso continues his attempts to eliminate the competition. They start digging up lion statues all over Leningrad, which is a city well known for its many lion monuments.

They eventually find the treasure hidden underneath a lion cage at a zoo, but the lion starts chasing them through Leningrad. After making a successful escape they are confronted by the police who confiscate the treasure, which belongs to the state under the Soviet law. Nonetheless, they are awarded 25% of the value of the treasure as a reward for finding it. The now-wealthy adventurers part their ways and return to Italy, but Olga decides to stay with Andrei in the end.

The story is about Terry Teo the skateboarding schoolboy who is the hero of the story. Along with his martial arts expert sister Polly, he takes on the notorious gunrunner Ray Vegas and his henchmen, Bluey and Curly. The bright colours and crazy sets help to recreate the story's comic book origins.

Elizabeth Allen is a spoiled girl who is an only child. She becomes very upset and outraged when she learns that she is being sent to a boarding school. When Elizabeth joins Whyteleafe School she is determined to misbehave so that she will be expelled and able to go back home as soon as possible. She is surprised to find that the children run the school through weekly community meetings, and that her behaviour will be judged by her peers. It is a portrayal of children's restorative justice, and is based on A. S. Neill's school, Summerhill.

Anthea (Charlotte Gregg) is undergoing a crisis of confidence: overworked, no boyfriend, and now all her friends are leaving Brisbane. She is tempted to leave herself, but is opposed by her longtime best platonic male friend Michael (Matt Zeremes).

Michael thinks people who leave Brisbane are copycats who follow the crowd; he is quite happy to stay in Brisbane, he is in a stable job and a stable very low-maintenance "sex-with-the-ex" relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Stephanie (Sarah Kennedy). In short, he is in a rut.

Anthea's temptation to leave Brisbane increases with the impending departure of her flatmate Kath (Cindy Nelson). However, she then hears that her ex-boyfriend Jake (Gyton Grantley) is coming back to Brisbane to live. To Michael's annoyance, she dreams of a great future with him.

Michael is then thrown out of his comfort zone by starting a new relationship with a girl he meets at work; Simone (Romany Lee). Slightly "alternative" and good natured, Simone is totally different from the sorts of girls he normally deals with, and he finds himself in a relationship over which he does not have total control.

On her last day in Australia, Anthea and Michael finally resolve their feelings for each other.

In 1965, a mysterious beam of blue light came down from space and overlooked Northern California. This light had extraterrestrial powers that caused whomever the beam touched to die, go mad, or acquire a special unique power. This power is defined as full actualization of humankind, with strengths, understandings and communication abilities that exceed our normal capabilities. The people touched by the light in the novel were soon referred to as "Blues" and were segregated from society because of their new and improved super human powers. Soon after this discovery, they came together to try to find their purpose in the universe. As they look for their calling in life, an evil force, the "Gray Man", emerges, setting the stage for a battle later on in the novel between good and evil. The Gray Man is Horace LaFontaine, a character in the novel who was struck by the light at the moment of his death. He was revivified as a demon sent to kill all of the "blues". Once the "blues" discover this nemesis, they take refuge in the forest outside of Northern California. Soon, the Gray Man finds out where they are hiding from inside sources and the "blues" come to a consensus in which they are going to confront their enemy and declare war with the Gray Man. This epic battle takes place at the ending of the novel and has an extraordinary finish. The "blues" all use their powers that they were given to destroy the Gray Man. They soon reside in the small cities of Northern California and live normal lives with the people of California.

The film tells the story of Tom, a young man from Pennsylvania who travels to Los Angeles to start working for an ambulance company. There, he is paired with an utterly self-assured veteran named Jimmy who has apparently gone through many partners in his time. In the beginning, Tom is overwhelmed by Jimmy's competence to deal with the high-pressure job, but slowly but surely he discovers that Jimmy is not the cool and collected man he thought he was. While Jimmy seems to have everything under control on the surface, he gets through the traumatic effects of the job by heavy use of drugs and avoiding commitments. Before long Tom finds himself pulled into the same world and has to come to a decision about what direction he wants to take in his life.

A native Californian, his work is set almost entirely in Southern California, and the book is about two "lusty" gay lovers from Los Angeles named Nick and Jeff who at the beginning of the novel were having passionate sex when two "wildly homophobic cops" break in on them. They fight back and while trying to defend themselves, they take one cop as hostage. A SWAT team shows up and accidentally kills the cop hostage and blames the two lovers. After that incident the two are on the run from the authorities throughout Los Angeles on the way to Mexico.

Harper (Stephen McNally) is a bank robber posing as a traveling salesman. He arrives in town, soon to be joined by sadistic benzedrine addict Dill (Lee Marvin) and bookish Chapman (J. Carrol Naish).

Boyd Fairchild (Richard Egan) is manager of the local copper mine, troubled by his philandering wife (Margaret Hayes). He considers an affair with nurse Linda Sherman (Virginia Leith), though he truly loves his wife. His associate, Shelley Martin (Victor Mature), has a happy home life, but is embarrassed that his son believes that he is a coward because he did not serve in World War II.

Subplots involves a peeping-tom bank manager, Harry Reeves (Tommy Noonan), and a larcenous librarian, Elsie Braden (Sylvia Sidney). As the bank robbers carry out their plot, the separate character threads are drawn together. Violence erupts during the robbery. Fairchild's wife is slain and bank manager Reeves is wounded. Martin is held hostage on a farm with an Amish family. With the help of the father (Ernest Borgnine), he defeats the crooks in a savage gunfight. In the aftermath, Martin becomes a hero to his son, and Linda comforts Fairchild as he grieves for his wife.

Margaret is a corporate executive who, to prove her loyalty to the company, undergoes bioengineering that gradually transform her into a giant insect.

After his mother dies to create a "Sacred Sword" to seal it into his body, a young man named Kamui Shiro goes back to his hometown Tokyo to understand his fate. As he arrives, he learns of a current war between two factions known as the Dragons of the Heavens and the Dragons of the Earth who seek the survival of mankind and nature, respectively. Shortly after Kamui's arrival, Subaru Sumeragi from the Heavens and Seishirō Sakurazuka from the Earth kill each other, resulting in a moment in the destruction of part of the city. Kamui meets his childhood friends Fuma Monou and Kotori Monou whom he came back to protect, but he and Fuma start suffering visions when seeing each other. Kamui is then attacked by the Dragons of Earth but is saved by the ones from the Heavens. As this happens Kotori is kidnapped by a woman named Kanoe while Fuma follows her.

Kamui is contacted by Princess Hinoto, Kanoe's sister, who seeks to recruit Kamui into the Dragons of Heavens to protect mankind from this war. Kamui refuses to take such responsibility but remains concerned about Fuma and Kotori. Kanoe meets Fuma and recognizes him as the "other Kamui" who could replace the other and join the Dragons of Earth. Seichiro Aoki and Karen Kasumi from the Heavens face Nataku and Shōgo from the Earth respectively but all four fighters are murdered. Fearing Kotori and Fuma possibly being killed by the Dragons of Earth, Kamui joins the Dragons of Heavens alongside the members Arashi Kishū, Sorata Arisugawa and Yuzuriha Nekoi to face their Dragons of Earth. Upon meeting a man named Kusanagi Shiyū from the Earth, Kamui tries to get him to tell him Kotori and Fuma's whereabouts but he tries to kill him alongside Yuzuriha. As this happens, Kamui suffers visions again and Yuzuriha is killed in a battle with Yūto and Kusanagi while protecting Kamui. Fuma finds Kamui and murders Kusanagi alongside Yuto later on.

Fuma then kills Kotori as her body contains another Sacred Sword to wield in the war. The continuous deaths of the Dragons of Heavens cause the destruction of more areas from Tokyo. Before dying from the falling debris, Hinoto transports Kamui to a safe area to protect mankind. Fuma then attempts to kill Kamui who is unwilling to fight his friend. Eventually, Kamui is forced to unseal his own Sacred Sword and decapitates Fuma. Despite being the winner of the war, Kamui is completely grief-stricken over what transpired and cries while holding Fuma's head in the remains of Tokyo.

Lord Francis Kelton (Frank Morgan) finds a beautiful woman in his stateroom. He is flustered, but his playboy friend, Lord Arthur Dilling (Robert Montgomery), is fascinated by her. He finds out from the ship's purser that she is American widow Fay Cheyney (Joan Crawford) on her way to stay in England. In London, she becomes the darling of English society, impressing everyone, including Arthur's wealthy aunt, the Duchess of Ebley (Jessie Ralph), who invites her to stay with her for the weekend. Arthur tries to impress Fay, but is rejected by her, even though she is becoming attracted to him.

After a charity auction at Fay's house, her "servants" look forward to a profitable future, but Charles (William Powell), her butler, suggests that she may be more fond of Arthur than she pretends. Fay and her servants are really confidence operators who are planning a jewel robbery, using Fay as their front. At the duchess' country home, she suggests to Fay that Arthur, who usually acts like a cad, is really in love with her, but Fay shrugs her words off. After Lord Kelton makes a bungled attempt to propose to her, Fay sneaks into the duchess' room and attempts to steal her pearl necklace, but is interrupted by a maid. Before she can resume, Arthur also interrupts and proposes. In London, the servants worry about Fay's lack of success, while in the country Fay learns how to get into the duchess' safe, but finds it difficult to think of robbing her because of her kindness.

Soon Charles arrives, but tells Fay that she can't get out of the plan now because of the others. Before he leaves, she decides to continue, even though Charles offers to face the others himself, and tells him that she will signal him when she has the duchess' pearls. Arthur sees Charles sneaking around the grounds and tries to have him stay the night, suspecting that he has seen Charles somewhere before, but Charles leaves. Later, when Fay steals the pearls, Arthur confronts her before she can throw them down to her friends, after remembering that he recognized Charles from an incident the previous year on the Riviera. He tries to blackmail her into spending the night with him, but she refuses, saying that she has never done that before. She then rings the alarm, rousing the entire household. He tries to take the blame, saying he acted like a cad, but she produces the pearls and tells them all the truth.

When Charles arrives, he summons the police, using Arthur's name, and they wait for Inspector Witherspoon (Lumsden Hare) of Scotland Yard's arrival the next morning. At breakfast, Arthur reveals that a letter that Lord Kelton wrote to Fay describing his friends may have to be used in court. Though at first amused, they are shocked when they learn that Kelton has written the unexpurgated truth about all of them. Kelton then suggests that they offer to pay Fay's passage back to America in exchange for not revealing the letter's contents. Fay, however, finds the offer too "dishonorable," until Kelton finally offers £10,000. She has destroyed the letter already, though, and will not take the money. In gratitude, Kelton offers to set Fay up with a modiste shop and the others offer to be her clients, but she again refuses. Though she wants Charles to stay, he declines, saying that he would have to remain honest if he stayed with her.

After offering to return Arthur's watch, which he stole five years before, he goes with Inspector Witherspoon, leaving Fay ignorant of the fact that he has turned himself in. When everyone has gone, Arthur says that he has arranged for them to be married by a neighboring bishop that morning, marking the last of Mrs. Cheyney and the first of Lady Dilling.

The story is set in a small town near Naples in early 1900. Baron Antonio Peletti is a stingy and cruel man who thinks only of spending the bare minimum needed for his son and future daughter-in-law, even though he lives in a luxurious house. The servant Contrado is forced to go hungry because of the miser. In fact, every time Antonio has to spend even a penny to buy something, he complains of unnecessary waste, exclaiming: "And I pay, and I pay!!" But one day his son wants to steal a box full of gold coins that Antonio hid under the bed, as a way of revenge. But in order to steal the gold, the son needs the complicity of all higher institutions in the city, including the mayor, one of the most bitter enemies of Antonio. The mayor wants to build a primary school for the children of the village, but the cruel Antonio prevents the funding because he does not want to throw out a penny! So the pharmacist gives Antonio a sleeping pill and deceives him into believing that he drank poison accidentally. Antonio wakes and believes he is in Hell, where he sees the really desolate condition of the villagers. Then the Baron meets a soul who persuades him to donate money to the mayor's box to set up the school. Only then will Antonio be redeemed from his sins in the past and go to Purgatory. However, during this operation something goes wrong and Antonio realizes the trap of the villagers. The son, in order not to lose money, steals the box of gold and runs away in a balloon with his girlfriend, but Antonio catches up to him and the three hover in the air. But due to a failure of the balloon, they start to descend towards the sea and so must lighten it; Antonio is forced into tears and falls overboard with his heavy box full of gold coins. He is thought to have sunk somewhere near Sardinia, but at the end of the story, the Baron, coming back from the island on a donkey on the very day of inauguration, eventually understands his mistakes and decides to finance the project of founding the school.

Mark Whitacre, a rising star at the Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) office in Decatur, Illinois, during the early 1990s, blows the whistle on the company’s price-fixing tactics at the urging of his wife Ginger.

One night in November 1992, Whitacre confesses to FBI special agent Brian Shepard that ADM executives—including Whitacre himself—had routinely met with competitors to fix the price of lysine, an additive used in the commercial livestock industry. Whitacre secretly gathers hundreds of hours of video and audio over several years to present to the FBI. He assists in gathering evidence by clandestinely taping the company’s activity in business meetings at various locations around the globe such as Tokyo, Paris, Mexico City, and Hong Kong, eventually collecting enough evidence of collaboration and conspiracy to warrant a raid of ADM.

Whitacre’s good deed dovetails with his own major infractions, while his internal, secret struggle with bipolar disorder seems to take over his exploits. The bulk of the film focuses on Whitacre's meltdown resulting from the pressures of wearing a wire and organizing surveillance for the FBI for three years, instigated by Whitacre's reaction, in increasingly manic overlays, to various trivial magazine articles he reads. In a stunning turn of events immediately following the covert portion of the case, headlines around the world report Whitacre had embezzled $9 million from his own company during the same period of time he was secretly working with the FBI and taping his co-workers, while simultaneously aiming to be elected as ADM CEO following the arrest and conviction of the remaining upper management members. In the ensuing chaos, Whitacre appears to shift his trust and randomly destabilize his relationships with Special Agents Shepard and Herndon and numerous attorneys in the process.

Authorities at ADM begin investigating the forged papertrail Whitacre had built to cover his own deeds. After being confronted with evidence of his fraud, Whitacre's defensive claims begin to spiral out of control, including an accusation of assault and battery against Agent Shepard and the FBI, which had made a substantial move to distance their case from Whitacre entirely. Because of this major infraction and Whitacre’s bizarre behavior, he is sentenced to a prison term three times as long as that meted out to the white-collar criminals he helped to catch. In the epilogue, Agent Herndon visits Whitacre in prison as he videotapes a futile appeal to seek a presidential pardon. Overweight, balding and psychologically beaten after his years long ordeal, Whitacre is eventually released from prison, with his wife Ginger waiting to greet him.

Kit Vesey, a London barrister, has proposed to Angela Turner, a receptionist at an art gallery. He is fearful about breaking this news to his fiercely controlling mother Helena but they do. Kit also insists that Angela not mention anything to Helena about their going to visit his father Alex, who divorced Helena and remarried many years ago. Helena has blocked all mention of Alex from her life and even threatened to commit suicide when Kit once suggested going and living with him.

Accepted by Helena, they settle into marriage and have two children, all the while maintaining a secret relationship with Alex and his new family. However, when Helena sees an arts programme about Alex's wife Ruth, a renowned photographer, she is shattered to see her driver George attending a family function. She conspires to lock Ruth in her darkroom with the ventilators blocked, suffocating her and contrives evidence to convict George.

While visiting Rome, Alex meets Jordan, an American actress whom he subsequently marries and whom later gives birth to twins. As Kit is paralysed following surgery on a brain tumour, Helena comes to tend to him in hospital but starts to uncover other evidence about how Angela has been visiting Alex. After watching Angela leave Alex's home and interpreting the evident affection between the two of them as evidence that Angela was having an affair with Alex, Helena becomes increasingly unhinged. While at the hospital one day, she informs the paralysed Kit that she intends to poison Alex and Jordan's twins using laburnum in return for the pair's 'treachery.' Having tested the effectiveness of laburnum on a neighbour's cat, Helena laces some marzipan shortbreads with the poison and gives them to her grandchildren, knowing that they would likely give them to the twins at Alex's party.

Helena's plan fails, however, as another girl at the party, Olivia, steals one of them while the rest of the guests are outside taking a photo together, and she is subsequently discovered in a convulsive state in the garden. After the family receive a strange call purporting to be from the hospital, Angela realises that it must have been Helena who poisoned the shortbreads and who had called the family only to be told that Alex's family did have contact with Kit. Angela rushes to the hospital at the same time as Helena starts removing Kit from his life support machine for his 'treachery.' Angela arrives to find Helena embracing Kit whilst he struggles to breathe and calls nurses over, who discover that Helena had, in fact, forced him out of his paralysis. The final scene shows Helena in a prison cell, staring emptily at a wall.

John Munn (Pinsent) is a miner from a small Newfoundland town who gets laid off when the mine closes. Rather than leave the town for work, as everyone else has done, John sets out to save the town along with his wife ''The Missus'' (Burroughs).

A young Rasta musician falls in love with the gospel-singing daughter of a Pentecostal preacher, meeting her as they both sign up for a music contest in which the winner will get twenty thousand US dollars and a record deal. When they start falling in love her father forbids her from seeing him because he wants her to marry a church member. They face overcoming the preacher's disapproval as well as battling a corrupt record producer.

The great detective Sherlock Holmes and his trusted companion Dr. John Watson travel to New York City to investigate a recent threat made by Professor Moriarty.

During their investigation, Holmes and Watson are reunited with their old acquaintance Irene Adler, now a popular music-hall singer, who reveals that Moriarty has kidnapped her son. Moriarty has also left a note for Holmes informing him that he will be approached by the police soon for aid in a crime, and should he not refuse – Moriarty also informing him that he should provide no reason for his refusal – the boy will die.

Holmes is subsequently contacted by the NYPD regarding the recent apparent theft of the international gold exchange at the New York bank, with the entire vault of gold bars having vanished seemingly overnight, the theft only secret until a planned transaction between Italy and Germany in three days' time. To protect the child, Holmes refuses the case, but a chance comment by Watson inspires Holmes to shift his attention to finding Scott to remove the blackmail card. While Watson departs with Irene disguised as Holmes to draw away the agent Moriarty has assigned to watch him, Holmes determines that Scott was tricked into cooperating with the kidnapping as an apparent joke, allowing him to find the kidnapper.

Investigating the vaults, and quickly ruling as impossible the actual removal of many tonnes of gold via a narrow tunnel in the time available, Holmes swiftly determines what has taken place; based on the speed of the lift's descent, it should take them 45 seconds to reach the vaults, but they stopped after only 42 seconds. From this, Holmes deduces that Moriarty had an empty, duplicate vault built a few meters above the real one, subsequently planting iron bars to stop the lift reaching the real vault. While everyone puzzled over how the bars of gold were stolen from the false vault, Moriarty would actually be stealing them from the real one below. In a final confrontation in New York's underground, Moriarty escapes.

The case is solved. As Holmes and Adler say their goodbyes, Adler comments that her son has a keen intellect and a certain knack for solving puzzles, implying that Holmes may be his father. The two nevertheless part ways with Adler giving Holmes a picture of her son to keep.

The story begins in Athens, with '''Chara Chaska''' (Renia Louizidou), a single mother who works at an advertising agency. When her boyfriend and fellow co-worker steals her ideas for a campaign and gets promoted instead of her, she decides to quit her job and move with her 10-year-old daughter Valia (Effie Rassia) to the remote mountain village of '''Kolokotronitsi''' (Κολοκοτρωνίτσι, named after Theodoros Kolokotronis), in Arcadia, where she has just inherited some property.

Chara's hopes for a peaceful life away from the cutthroat environment of the big city are quickly dashed when she meets the village's traditionalist and misogynist mayor '''Periandros Popotas''' (Περίανδρος Πώποτας), who has a pathological hatred of everything "modern" and views the very presence of an Athenian woman with an illegitimate child in his village as a threat to his idyllic community's motto of "Order and Morality" (Τάξις και Ηθική). A British-educated folklorist with a mysterious past, Periandros lives with his ten-year-old son Emmanuel, who develops a crush on Valia, and their housekeeper Tasia.

Popotas is particularly outraged at Chara's plans to open a modern cafeteria (which she calls "To cafe tis Charas", literally "The cafe of joy", a pun on her name) and rallies the villagers to boycott her.

The first season focuses on Chara's struggle to open her café against Periandros' machinations and follows her slowly winning the villagers over to her side, culminating in her attempt to unseat Popotas at municipal elections in the penultimate episode. The second season explores the protagonists' backstories, through the arrival in the village of various characters from their past. The third season has Chara and Periandros develop feelings for each other, and follows their doomed efforts to find a way to live to together despite their deeply contrasting beliefs. Season 4, set 14 years after the third season's cliffhanger ending, follows a now adult Valia returning to the village to investigate the cafés destruction in a mysterious fire.

Other characters include Periandros' sister, Stavroula, her adulterous, lazy and linguistically challenged husband, Vangellis, who as the village's coffee house owner is also Chara's main competitor, the village idiot Trelantonis whom Chara takes in, the bakers, Lefteris and Kanella, who have a long-running feud with the greengrocers, Tasos and Chaido over a fig tree (only to have their feud resolved when their children, Billy and Gogo get together and eventually marry), the village's priest Papa-Triantafyllos and his gossiping wife Marika and Aglaia, the wacky teacher who is madly in love with Periandros and fantasizes about marrying him.

About the village

The village features a square where its bakery, its greengrocers, its primary school and the city hall are all located. A number of neighboring villages are also mentioned many times in the series: Megalochori (lit. Big Village), the biggest village of the region, Ano and Kato Kremasta (lit. Upper and Lower Dangling) and Pera Rachoula.

The story centers around Frances Benedetto (Mary Stuart Masterson), who desperately escapes from the clutches of an abusive marriage. After years of living under the increasing violence of her husband, Bobby (Anthony LaPaglia), Frances takes her son, Robert (Will Rothhaar), and flees from their New York home to a small town in Florida. After enrolling Robert in school there, she befriends her son's P.E. coach, Mike Riordan (Sam Robards). Several months pass, and the two fall in love, but with the unshakable fact that Frances still lives under the terrorizing thought that her husband will eventually find her.

After she unknowingly appears on national television, her husband, an officer of the NYPD, is able to track her down. He attacks her in her home and kidnaps Robert from his school. Mike, after realizing that Frances, now under the alias of Beth Crenshaw, failed to pick Robert up, makes his way to her home and finds her pummeled and unconscious on the floor of her kitchen. Five years pass, and Frances has since never seen her son. She has married Mike and they have a daughter together. The film ends with Robert finding Frances's sister, and Frances receiving a phone call that implies that she will soon be reunited with her son.

The Inter-Planetary Corporation's (IPC) space-liner, ''IPV Arcturus'', takes off on a routine flight to Mars. Brilliant physicist Dr. Percival (“Steve”) Stevens is aboard to validate the work of the ship's pilots in response to reports by the Check Stations of errors in the ship's flight positions. To his relief, he confirms that the pilots are right, and it was the Check Stations that were out of position, not the ships.

Before the ''Arcturus'' can reach Mars it is attacked and literally cut into pieces by a small, mysterious, globe-shaped spaceship. The attacking spaceship begins towing the pieces toward Jupiter. Stevens and a female passenger named Nadia Newton end up stranded in a large, wedge-shaped piece of the dismembered ship. They work to repair as much equipment as they can, gathering needed material from other pieces of the ship floating nearby, and start calling the piece they are in the ''Forlorn Hope''. As they approach Jupiter, Stevens eases the ''Forlorn Hope'' out of the pack and manages a hard landing on Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter.

With the remains of the ''Forlorn Hope,'' Steve has everything he needs to construct an ultra-radio set capable of reaching the inner worlds and calling for help. But the landing discharged the accumulators, and with no power, they must be recharged before anything else can be done. While Steve uses the ship for raw materials to build a hydro-electric power plant and a power beaming station to recharge the accumulators, Nadia explores the area around where they landed.

She finds Ganymede is Earth-like. She goes out each day to gather plants and animals that they can eat, while Steve struggles to rebuild most of Earth's basic technology from the ground up. He succeeds in building a power plant and recharging the accumulators, and has also completed the ultra-radio except for the high-power output tube, which requires platinum, which they don't have, and must also be sealed in a vacuum. While on a trip away from their base'','' Steve and Nadia encounter primitive six limbed beings, which they call "Hexans". The Hexans chase them back to the ''Forlorn Hope'', and Steve takes off to avoid being overrun.

Now in space and getting power beamed from the station he built on Ganymede, Steve navigates toward a comet that is in the vicinity of Jupiter at the time, which he remembers contains platinum which he can use for the output tube. Then he can seal the tube in the vacuum of space, and call for help. The comet is heading away from Jupiter, but after a long chase they catch it, and it does have platinum in it. Steve gets the metal he needs and starts building the parts he needs for the tube.

Before he completes the task the ''Forlorn Hope'' is attacked by a ship similar to the one that cut up the ''Arcturus'' and started their adventure. As the enemy ship begins cutting up the ''Forlorn Hope'', another small globular ship arrives, but this one has a mirrored surface instead of a dull one like the attacking ship. The attacking ship immediately turns its weapon on the newcomer, but the mirror surface reflects the beam. The mirrored ship fires back with homing missiles and destroys the enemy ship.

The people manning the mirror ship are a strange type of humanoid: very tall, with barrel chests, and pale blue in color. They are from Saturn's moon Titan, and were exploring inward from their home and have no idea why the other ship attacked them on sight. Since Titan is so cold, the Titanians use ice as a building material and think of liquid water as "molten ice". Their blood is a mixture of substances that don't freeze even at Titan's temperature, and so combustable that if they were to stand unprotected next to an earth human they would literally burst into flame.

The ship from Titan has taken damage in the fight and must head for home. The ''Forlorn Hope'' is in pieces and at the end of its power beam, so the commander of the Titanian ship offers to tow the pieces back to Titan and help the people from earth rebuild their ship and get back to the Jupiter system. Steve and Nadia gladly accept, doing what repairs they can on the ''Forlorn Hope'', and continuing to build the power tube on the long voyage to Titan.

Upon arriving on Titan they find that one of the Titanian power plants, which have built with great difficulty on the surface of Saturn, has failed, and lack of power has endangered their world. Due to the heat and gravity, it would cost many Titanian lives to return to Saturn and repair the power plant, so being better able to survive heat, Steve volunteers to do the work. He succeeds, and with the help of the Titanians, the repaired and upgraded ''Forlorn Hope'' heads back to Ganymede.

When they are nearing Jupiter again, they are attacked by six of the enemy spaceships. The enemy ships move in close and start beaming the ''Forlorn Hope'', but the ship has been coated with the mirror substance and loaded with homing missiles. Although taking some damage, the ''Hope'' destroys all six ships. Steve lands the damaged ship back on Ganymede next to the power plant. With the radio complete and all the power he needs, Steve sends out an "S.O.S."

Soon, the ''IPV Sirius'', an armed scientific vessel with two of Steve's scientist friends aboard, is on the way, Steve sends them all the information he has on the weapons of the enemy ships and of the Titanians, so the scientists can work on finding defenses against them and making improvements to them. Upon arrival at Ganymede to rescue the castaways, the ''Sirius'' has a chance to try out her new weapons and defenses when they are attacked by an enemy globe. With their own weapons, and the improved weapons of the enemy, they destroy the enemy globe and pick up Steve and Nadia.

The story moves to the rest of the wreckage of the ''Arcturus'', and the surviving passengers and crew. As the globe ship towing them nears Jupiter, it is attacked by a human ship from the moon Callisto and destroyed, and the passengers and crew are rescued. They are told by the Callistonians that the Jupiter system is in the final stages of a war between the Hexans and the humans of Jupiter's moons. The four major moons have all produced both Hexan and human species and they have battled from their first meeting. The war has been going on for ages and a few underground cities on Callisto and Europa are all that remain of the losing human populations of the moons. The men of the inner planets and the men of the Jupiter system join forces, and with the now superior weapons and defenses available to both sides they start taking back the moons from the Hexans.

During the war, the human's minor involvement is seen in a war between the Hexans and Vorkulians on the surface of Jupiter. The Vorkulians are a species completely unlike either Hexans or Humans. The story ends with the rebuilt ''Arcturus'' arriving on Mars only four hundred forty-six days, fifteen hours, eleven minutes, thirty-eight and seven-tenths seconds late.

A 16-year-old skateboarder who tries to fit in with the skater crowd accidentally kills a security guard while trying to board a train. Much of the plot concerns the character struggling to cope with what he has done while also trying to avoid being caught. The author has said that the book is a retelling of ''Crime and Punishment'' in a young adult fiction setting. The novel takes place in Portland, Oregon, United States.

The game takes place on a small island called Ripple Island, where humans and animals lived together in peace. However, one day, the evil emperor suddenly appears on the island and kidnaps the king's daughter. The king promises that he will allow whoever can rescue his daughter to marry her, and a young boy named sets off on a long journey to rescue the princess.

Characters

All of the characters in the game are small humans that are about the same size as woodland creatures. They can communicate with animals in a common language.

; :The main character of the game sets off on his adventure after seeing the king's offer to allow the rescuer to marry the princess. He is joined by Cal during his journey, and begins to have romantic feelings for her as they travel together.

; :This short-haired young girl was left alone after her home was destroyed by Gerogēru, and heads off to defeat Gerogēru along with Kyle. She also beings to have feelings for Kyle during the journey, but secretly fears facing the evil emperor, and backs out when they reach the castle doors.

; :The king of Ripple Island is named after , a type of traditional Japanese clothing which he also wears.

; :The daughter of King Dotella and princess of Ripple Island is kidnapped by the emperor at the start of the story, and is turned into a frog.

; :The main antagonist of the game calls himself the emperor of darkness, and bears the appearance of a gigantic frog.

Areas

Areas are marked by the player's progress. Fulfilling the a set of objectives allows the player to proceed to the next area, and the player may not return to the previous area later in the game. However, the player may be automatically taken to the next area depending on the player's actions.

;Area 1 :Kyle starts off near the King's castle. The path is blocked by another character, so his first task is to find a way to prevent this character from moving. Hints are provided by the animals living around the castle. A girl with a sickness and her younger sister live in the nearby village, and Cal can be found standing on top of her decimated home in the plains.

;Area 2 :The second area is a forest where many travelers get lost. Kyle wants to gain information on the location of the sacred item from the local elder, but first, he must learn the location of the elder from another animal who will only give out the information if Kyle gives presents him with his favorite food. The player must conduct a thorough search of the forest in order to find the food item. After meeting a family of foxes in the cave located west of the forest, Kyle learns that the elder will also only give information if he gets a certain item that he has been looking for. The real item he is searching for is too dangerous to actually obtain, so Kyle must find a suitable substitute somewhere in the forest. Kyle obtains the sacred item as instructed by the elder, which may convince other creatures to join him in fighting the evil emperor.

;Area 3 :The third area is a huge snow-field. The player's actions in this area directly influence the game's ending. Several new creatures must be dealt with here, including a sleeping seal and a mother rabbit that is looking for her lost child. The west side of the field is covered with snow, and the lack of landmarks makes it easy to get lost. Snow-topped mountains abound on the east side, and even shouting loudly may cause a huge avalanche of snow.

;Area 4 :The fourth area is a village that was destroyed by the emperor. Only one resident remains in the village, and Kyle must search for useful items left in the village ruins. There is a suspicious-looking well located in the east, and a bird awaits beyond it, though it flies away as Kyle approaches. The west side is a seashore covered with rocks, but it is impossible to go to the emperor's castle from the seashore. Kyle must try using various items in various locations in order to discover a path to the next area.

;Area 5 :The final area is the evil emperor's castle. It is constructed strangely, with broken-down walls and a brewery near the entrance. The inside of the castle is guarded by a drunk raccoon and an armadillo, whose body is impervious to all attacks, save for one location. Approaching certain guards causes Kyle to be captured and thrown into the dungeon.

There are two extant fragments of this manuscript. This plot summary pertains to "The Museum Fragment (Muzejní Zlomek)."

The play begins with Rubin approaching the Merchant and telling him that he will gladly serve him if the Merchant gives him a pot of barley porridge and three new spoons. The Merchant agrees to provide these goods if Rubin helps him find a place to set up a stall to sell his ointments. Rubin then starts to sing a song with Pusterpalk extolling the virtues of the Merchant's ointments, and continues after the song to praise the Merchant and his ability to cure sicknesses of all kinds. Rubin runs off amongst the people and the Merchant, not able to find him, calls for him repeatedly. When Rubin returns to him, the Merchant asks him to take out the ointments and enumerate them for him. Among these ointments is one that is "so precious that neither Vienna nor Prague has it:

A young lady made it
all out of gnat lard,
she added a few farts to it
so that it should not quickly spoil;
that's the one all praise most keenly."

The Merchant suggests after some time that they should set up their stall somewhere else since no customers are coming. Rubin then tells him that he has heard that there are three ladies in town seeking good ointments. The three ladies – all named Mary – are standing in the crowd and Rubin calls them over. The Marys ask for ointment to anoint their Lord Jesus Christ's body. At this point Abraham appears carrying his son Isaac and asks the Merchant to heal him and make him rise from the dead. The Merchant agrees but only if Abraham gives him gold and his daughter, to which Abraham agrees. The Merchant proceeds to pour feces over Isaac's backside. Isaac then rises and gives thanks to the Merchant for healing him. The Marys continue to request ointment to anoint Jesus Christ. The Merchant asks for two talents of gold instead of three as usual and the Merchant's wife then yells angrily at him for offering the ointment for less gold, blaming him for their poverty. To his wife's outburst, the Merchant exclaims:

"I would advise you to stop,
to let me be in peace.
And if you do not stop it
maybe you will rise and go away from me in tears.
Busy yourself with your distaff at once,
or I will punch you in the face!"

Rubin and Pusterpalk then have a conversation about their lineage and get into an argument, whereby the Merchant tells the Marys not to pay attention to their fighting. This is how the Museum Fragment ends.

His Year Nine teacher, Miss Tarango, tells the whole class about the name Ishmael coming from ''Moby-Dick'', which gives Barry and his friends more names to tease Ishmael with. Ishmael later intervenes when he sees Barry and his friends tease a boy who joins Ishmael's year level. A new boy called James Scobie becomes a target for bullying because of his appearance. However, James responds to the bully's taunts with humour. He tells the class that he is fearless because he had a brain tumour that damaged the part of his brain that feels fear. Barry is the only person that does not believe James. About a week later, Barry puts a lot of insects and spiders in James's desk, but James is not frightened. During a rugby match against Churchill, James's fearlessness changes the course of the game with a speech that invokes courage.

Ishmael, Scobie, a hilarious, outgoing and independent boy called Orazio Zorzotto, an overweight, sci-fi geek called Bill Kingsley and a very smart nerd Ignatius Prindabel participate in debating. Ishmael only joins because he feels sorry for James (and because James promises to not make him speak onstage). However, Ishmael is forced to debate due to Bill being sick and then later because James has a checkup about his brain tumour. The team does not win, missing out by just one point, however they are still incredibly happy to have gone that far. Barry and his friends mock Bill about his weight by destroying his debating certificate, angering Ishmael as well. Kelly Faulkner, a girl Ishmael starts to fall in love with (for a fair reason) at the debating workshop, thanks Ishmael because she is the sister of the Year Four boy that Ishmael helped to "save" from Barry. On the last day of school at the 'end-of-year extravaganza thingy', Ishmael invents a prayer that will humiliate Barry. However, he eventually decides not to say his prayer, because he does not want to humiliate Barry's innocent parents, ruin the ceremony for the people who worked to make it or become the person Barry was. Ishmael then receives a letter from Kelly. He runs out on to the school's oval, completely ecstatic and bursting with happiness, and reads the letter, which says that she has invited him to her friend's party. He finally realizes that his life is not as bad as he once have believed.

After serving prison time for manslaughter, Bobby Reynolds is released on probation from Rikers, and moves to the old apartment in East Village, New York, where his lonely mother lived and died while he was incarcerated. He finds a job as a mechanic at the Houston Auto Repair shop owned by the supportive Hector Rodriguez and tries to rebuild his life.

However, he is deemed an outcast and his former friends and neighbors do not want to talk to him. He meets his former girlfriend, Alyssa, who works as waitress and studies in a design school, and they tentatively resume their relationship. Bobby begins hearing strange noises, finds blood in his apartment, and overhears an argument between Walter, an abusive police officer, his wife Gina, and their daughter Carly next door in Room 517. He finds bottles of pills in the bathroom and learns from the manager that his mother had locked herself in her apartment for a week prior to her death.

When Bobby next hears an argument ensue in Room 517, he bangs on the door and tries to intervene. Walter comes to his door and tells him to mind his own business. On another evening, Bobby overhears Walter beating Gina next door, and sees Carly standing in front of his door. He invites her in and calls the police on the tenants next door. However, it turns out that Room 517 has been empty for several years. Bobby continues to hear things; his experiences affect his job performance, and his relationship with Alyssa starts to deteriorate, with her thinking he is crazy.

Meanwhile, Joseph, another tenant who had been experiencing the same visions as Bobby, comes face-to-face with the ghosts in his apartment. His body is later discovered, with the police looking at Bobby as a possible suspect. The ghosts of Gina and Carly begin haunting other individuals who have connections with Bobby and the apartment building: Alyssa, as she is taking her design final; Hector, when he comes to Bobby's apartment in order to apologize for a misunderstanding. While interrogating other tenants, Bobby discovers that, years ago, Walter had beaten his wife to death when she tried to leave him, and dumped his daughter's body down the garbage chute. But although Gina had banged on other people's doors and screamed for help, no one had been willing to intervene (including Bobby's mother, who had then experienced the haunting), and the ghosts of the family continued to haunt the apartment.

Hector, while looking for Bobby, dies by falling down a staircase after running from Carly's ghost. Alyssa, also haunted by the ghosts, runs to Bobby's apartment looking for him, but winds up being dragged to Room 517 by the ghost of Walter, mimicking the way Gina was murdered. Bobby hears Alyssa's screams of pain, and saves her. While tending to her back in his room, Bobby witnesses the scene as it had occurred those years ago; yet, this time, Bobby doesn't let the entire scene play out and rushes to intervene just as Walter is about to give the final blow to Gina. Gina then beats Walter to death with his nightstick and disappears along with her daughter. With the ghosts gone, Bobby comforts Alyssa as the police head towards the apartment.

Act I takes place in an unidentified mountainous region outside of San Juan. The family—Doña Gabriela, Luis, Juanita, and Chaguito, are packing for their move to San Juan. There is a great deal of tension in this scene as the family remembers nostalgically its traditions as they break away from them. Don Chago, the grandfather, refuses to move, and unbeknownst to the family, intends to live out his days in the solitude of a cave. He is Marqués personified in his love of the land and his attitude against industrial development. He blames his deceased son-in-law for the family's inability to keep up with the mortgage payments and the subsequent loss of the farm. Luis, technically the head of the family now that his father has died, decides that a move to the city will bring prosperity to the family, and they unquestioningly follow out his wishes. In reality, Luis is the son of his father and another woman, but is accepted totally by Doña Gabriela, who cautiously guards this “secret” from him, not realizing that he indeed knows. Luis’ strong determination to secure a better life for his family in a mechanized world can be seen almost as overcompensation for the gratitude he feels as an undeserving stepchild who enjoys the rights and privileges of a blood-relative. Juanita is ambivalent about the move as a local farmer, Miguel, is now courting her. Her mother worries about the sexual implications of this relationship and is relieved to know that it will be severed by their move.

Act II finds the family in a San Juan slum, ironically called “The Pearl”. They live alongside a noisy bar and Lito is introduced as a liaison between the family and this establishment. He infers that Luis is involved in gambling and in an illicit love affair with the owner's wife. By the end of this act, Luis has been unsuccessful in five factory jobs and ironically ends up as a gardener for a wealthy family, thus returning to the land he had hoped to flee. Chaguito has taken on all the influences of the street and his thievery results in incarceration. Juanita, reacting to a pregnancy resulting from rape, attempts suicide. Doña Gabriela is distraught with grief and accepts Luis’ suggestion of yet another move—this time to New York City as a solution to their problems.

Act III develops in Morrisania, a Puerto Rican area of the Bronx. It is wintertime and they are suffering the bitter cold for the first time. Juanita is “working” (she has become a prostitute) and rents a room in another part of town. Luis is disgusted by her independence and wants her to move back so that he can support her. She refuses a marriage proposal by a Puerto Rican radio announcer who perceives her sensitivity beyond her citified facade. Doña Gabriela refuses to confront Juanita by not believing in the obvious source of her income. She is overwhelmed by the changes in the family and gradually loses her fiery spirit. She silently accepts her fate, continuing to accept whatever Luis plans for them. Luis is obsessed with his job in a boiler factory as he provides the family with the trappings of a “better” life. The play ends as the tragic hero succumbs to his flaw when the machine he idolizes causes his death. The family returns to Puerto Rico to bury him, again ironically, in the land which he fled.

Zoey is hiding in the stables with her horse, Persephone. After an internal debate she finally decides to talk with her friends. On the way to the cafeteria she feels the presence of Darkness and rushes inside. She tries to blend in and act normally but her friends ignore her and the situation degenerates with the appearance of a newly re-Marked Aphrodite, who chooses to sit with the 'nerd herd'. A confrontation is postponed by the arrival of new fledgling and famous archer James Stark.

After lunch, Zoey meets Aphrodite and Stevie Rae in her room. She finds out that Stevie Rae is mostly normal now and the only differences she experiences is an intense aversion to sunlight, and that Aphrodite's Mark is fake – she has mostly reverted to a human teenager, except for her visions. Zoey casts the circle and asks for guidance. Nyx appears to tell them that she still loves Aphrodite, that she was only safekeeping the Earth affinity for Stevie Rae, and that she reverted to human because her own humanity was too strong.

After the goddess' disappearance, they rush to a Council meeting. They find out that the Priestess of all vampyres, Shekinah, has come to the House of Night to reject Neferet's declaration of war on humans. She follows Zoey's advice to put Detective Marx on the case instead. Erik Night returns to the school and takes over Professor Nolan's drama class, much to Zoey's dismay. On her way back Zoey meets Stark and watches him practice. He confesses to her that he has a gift for archery – that he never misses a target – and it was discovered when he killed his mentor by mistake. Because he fears his power, he asks Zoey to use her powers to protect the others from him. Quickly after he confesses his gift, he starts to cough up blood. While he is dying, Zoey tells him about Stevie Rae and how he can come back to life.

Zoey, Darius and Aphrodite go to Street Cats, a local cat shelter, as Zoey has been searching for a community activity for the Dark Daughters. The organization is led by nuns from the Benedictine Abbey. Their leader, Sister Mary Angela, astounds Zoey with the contrast between her beliefs and John Heffer's.

At school she's late for drama class and Erik, the new teacher, makes her play Desdemona to his Othello in a Shakespeare improvisation. She's initially mad, but uses this as an opportunity to explain her feelings for him and kisses him just before the bell rings, but he storms off. Outside, she meets Darius who brings her to Aphrodite, revealing a gift for speed. Aphrodite has been having a vision of Sylvia Redbird's house and copies out a poem in her writing. Zoey calls her grandmother and together they uncover that the poem is a warning about an ancient Cherokee legend. The poem warns that Kalona, a fallen angel, will rise again throughout the help of the Tsi Sgili queen, a dark witch that uses pain. Her grandmother also warns her to beware the Raven Mockers, half-raven half-human offspring of Kalona. Zoey asks her to come to the House of Night to be safe.

Zoey then goes to Shekinah, and is attacked by a Raven Mocker on the way. She escapes Aphrodite's second vision of death by calling for Damien, who sends Air to banish the creature. Outside the Council chambers she happens to eavesdrop on a discussion between Neferet and Shekinah. She incredulously hears how Neferet manages to twist all the problems she's faced since the beginning of her change and make it seem as if they were Zoey's fault.

Back at school, Zoey begins a cleansing ritual at Shekinah's request. Zoey tries to introduce the red fledglings and Stevie Rae makes an appearance, but is interrupted by Neferet who brings an undead Stark and tries to frame Zoey. In the ensuing commotion, Neferet makes Stark shoot Stevie Rae, fulfilling another line of Aphrodite's poem. Her blood frees Kalona. Neferet reveals herself as the Tsi Sgili queen from the poem, and then kills Shekinah with her thoughts to prove it.

''Wild Seed'' is the story of two immortal Africans named Doro and Anyanwu. Doro is a spirit who can inhabit other people's bodies, killing anyone and anything in his path, while Anyanwu is a woman with healing powers who can transform herself into any human or animal. When they meet, Doro senses Anyanwu's abilities and wants to add her to one of his seed villages in the New World, where he breeds super humans. Doro convinces Anyanwu to travel with him to America by telling her he will give her children she will never have to watch die. Although Doro plans to impregnate her himself, he also wants to share her with his son Isaac. Isaac has very strong telekinetic powers and is one of Doro's most successful seeds. By partnering Anyanwu and Isaac together, Doro hopes to obtain children with very special abilities.

Doro discovers that when Anyanwu transforms into an animal, he cannot sense or kill her. Feeling threatened by her shape-shifting ability, he wonders whether he holds enough control over her. Anyanwu witnesses Doro's barbaric ways and plain disregard for his people, which frightens her. When they arrive at the seed village, Doro tells Anyanwu that she is to marry Isaac, and bear his children and the children of whomever else Doro chooses. Anyanwu eventually agrees once Isaac convinces her that she could be the only one to get through to Doro.

Fifty years later, Doro returns to the seed village. His relationship with Anyanwu has deteriorated, and one of the only things keeping him from killing her is her successful marriage to Isaac. He has come home because he senses that Anyanwu's daughter, Nweke, is fully coming into her powers. During her transition, Nweke attacks Anyanwu. Trying to protect Anyanwu, Isaac accidentally kills Nweke and suffers a heart attack. Anyanwu realizes she is too weak to heal Isaac and he dies. Afraid that Doro will kill her now that Isaac is not there to protect her, Anyanwu transforms into an animal and runs away.

After a century, Doro finally tracks Anyanwu down to a Louisiana plantation. To his surprise, Anyanwu has created her own colony, which in many ways is more successful than Doro's. She protects her people until Doro's arrival, at which point he forces his breeding program on her community. One man he brings to mate with one of Anyanwu's daughters ruins the harmony of the colony, resulting in several deaths. Anyanwu becomes tired of Doro's control, since his immortality makes him the only permanent thing in her life. She decides to commit suicide. Her decision causes Doro to have a change of heart. In desperation, he agrees to compromise as long as she continues to live. From that point on, Doro no longer kills as carelessly to remain immortal, and does not choose his kills from the people that he should be protecting. He also stops using Anyanwu to breed; from now on she helps him in his quest to try to find more promising seeds, but is more of an ally and partner than his slave.

Returning to the planet Delta Vega, site of the deaths of Lt. Cmdr. Gary Mitchell and Dr. Elizabeth Dehner, Captain Kirk and the crew of the ''Enterprise'' encounter a rift of psionic energy in space, through which travels a starship of Shi'ar design. The ship is quickly destroyed by the spatial anomaly, though not before Spock detects that it carried seven lifeforms of "near human" nature. A second, larger Shi'ar craft comes through the rift, which promptly fires an unusual projectile at the ''Enterprise'': Gladiator of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard, who warns the ''Enterprise'' away from the planet and drives his point home by striking the ship's deflector shields, causing some actual damage to the vessel as a result. ("Did he just... '''punch my ship?'''" exclaims Kirk)

Meanwhile, the seven crew members of the destroyed ship are revealed to be members of the X-Men - Cyclops, Wolverine, Jean Grey, Beast, Storm, Gambit, and Bishop - who managed to transport to the ''Enterprise'' before their own vessel's destruction, though they are hiding to avoid detection. As Dr. McCoy discovers Beast and Storm sneaking Gambit into Sick Bay for medical attention, Spock has sensed the presences of the X-Men on board and confronts the remaining members, engaging Wolverine in combat and actually putting him under for a few moments with the Vulcan nerve pinch. The X-Men and the ''Enterprise'' crew soon settle their differences and meet to discuss the purpose of the mutants' trip to what they presume is an alternate universe: both they and the other Shi'ar ship, commanded by the renegade Deathbird, are tracking the consciousness of the powerful reality-altering mutant Proteus, who has traveled through the rift to Delta Vega and has reanimated the corpse of Lt. Mitchell, who had developed similar powers in the days leading up to his death.

Beaming down to the planet, the X-Men and the ''Enterprise'' command crew discover two things: first, that the surface had been transformed to resemble a Scottish village, and second, that Deathbird and the Imperial Guard beat them there, and offered Proteus/Mitchell the use of their ship in return for establishing an alliance. While Wolverine, Cyclops, Gambit, Storm, and members of the ''Enterprise'' crew fight off the Imperial Guard and Proteus' physical form, Jean Grey and Captain Kirk psionically appealed to the remaining consciousness of Mitchell and determine that the only way to win was to, once again, kill Mitchell's physical form. Beast, Spock, and Mr. Scott construct a way to direct the ''Enterprise'''s phaser energy through Bishop's energy channeling powers, and that, combined with the crew's own phasers and the powers of the X-Men succeeds in ending the Proteus/Mitchell entity's existence.

The battle over, the X-Men commandeer the Imperial Guard's starship and return home through the rift, expressing their happiness that after experiencing a multitude of alternate futures, they finally encountered one that seemed hopeful.

A second generation British Asian accountant (Alfie Singh) wants to be a film producer. He has an idea for a film called ''Ealing Comedy'', about an accountant turned film producer called Alfie Singh. Alfie will play himself and his real son, Paul, will play his son in the film. Unable to raise finance he decides to make the film himself. The film chronicles his life with his Irish wife and teenage son and his struggles to finance and make the film while keeping his family together.

Ptath is a god from Earth's far future when the landmasses have rejoined to form a single super-continent, now called Gonwonlane. Ptath ruled this planetary nation with his two goddess-wives; all of them having divine powers, his fueled by the prayers of women, the goddesses's from Ptath himself.

Before the start of the novel, Ptath had chosen to journey back in time and incarnate as a series of mortals from Earth's history. While he is absent, one of his goddess-wives tries to usurp his power by imprisoning the other goddess-wife and forbidding women from praying, thus removing Ptath from his power source while keeping her own. She contrives to bring Ptath back to Gonwonlane before the completion of his journey, without his powers, and kill him. But he returns to Gonwonlane in his immortal body but with the mind of his most recent incarnation - a just deceased 20th century tank commander.

From Ptath's point of view, he was killed in his tank and then immediately woke up (naked, walking down a road) in the far future.

The story follows Ptath as he rescues his other wife, learns about his immortal body, mental powers, and makes war against his evil wife.

Background

''Triplanetary'' is a prologue to the Lensman series. It consists of two parts. The first explains the series background, which consists of a conflict between the evil Eddorians and the benevolent Arisians. This conflict is carried out throughout the history of an oblivious humankind on Earth. The Arisians undertake a eugenics project to breed two human genetic lines that are intended to become the ultimate weapon in Arisia's cosmic war with Eddore.

The author takes five defining chapters to cover the background of the Kinnison line: the destruction of Atlantis in a nuclear war, an attempted coup in Rome against the Eddorian-controlled Nero, the First and Second World Wars, and, finally, a nuclear Third World War. In each of these periods he tells part of the story of the two families who will be of importance later on, and who will produce the two people whose children will be the culmination of the human breeding line, Kimball Kinnison and Clarissa MacDougall. One genetic line is surnamed "Kinnison" or some close variation. The other line is distinguished by having "red-bronze-auburn hair" and unusually colored "gold-flecked, tawny eyes".

The final part of the book, which was originally published as a magazine story, takes up the tale after civilization has been rebuilt with the covert help of the Arisians. Humanity has explored the Solar System and formed the Triplanetary League, which consists of an alliance of Earth with the governments of Mars and Venus. Prior to the start of the main story, humans have set up in-system colonies and fought the first interplanetary war against the Adepts of North Polar Jupiter.

Main story

As the story begins, interplanetary commerce is plagued by pirates. The fleet of these pirates is led by Gray Roger, a surviving Adept of North Polar Jupiter. Unbeknownst to the Patrol, Gray Roger is actually Gharlane of Eddore. The pirate fleet and the Triplanetary Patrol are in the midst of a large-scale engagement when an alien race known as the Nevians show up. The Nevians are the dominant, amphibious race of the planet Nevia, located many light years distant from the Sun. Their planet is in a galactic region that has very little iron, which they use as an energy source, so they set out with a spaceship to try to obtain more.

The Nevians decide that humans are inferior beings, and carve up both fleets using a ray that extracts every atom of free or combined iron in both sides' ships and personnel into a red, liquid "allotropic iron". The iron is used in this form by the Nevians to power their interstellar ships and their power plants at home. The use of this ray means the death of nearly every person in both fleets. Roger survives the battle and flees to start a new operation on a distant world.

After absorbing the fleets, the Nevian ship goes on to the Earth and the same action is taken against the city of Pittsburgh before the ship heads for home. A Triplanetary Patrol agent named Conway Costigan is captured by the Nevians, along with his love interest, Clio Marsden, and an old space-hand and friend, Captain Bradley. Costigan is actually an undercover operative of Triplanetary Intelligence and uses a secret technology called an ultrawave spy ray to examine the Nevian technology. He reports home to Earth scientists.

On Earth, Patrol scientists are working feverishly on their new "Super Ship", the ''Boise''. This ship has mankind's first inertialess drive and can travel faster than light. Using Costigan's reports, human scientists figure out Nevian technology, improve upon it, and install it on the ''Boise''. After forcing a second Nevian ship to flee, the ''Boise'' heads for Nevia. On the way, the ''Boise'' locates the new pirate base. After much fighting, Roger is defeated by a resurgent Patrol armed with both human and Nevian technology.

The three humans captured by the Nevians are taken home to Nevia and put on display as zoological specimens. Costigan and his companions stage several escape attempts, but are repeatedly foiled. Finally they escape, having destroyed a Nevian city with a chemical weapon, and head for Earth, being chased by the first Nevian ship. The ''Boise'' reaches them before the Nevians do, and Costigan and his companions are rescued. The Nevians are then fought to a stalemate. A peace is negotiated and the Nevians are forced to acknowledge humans as equals.

A government ministry's fast-rising head of security asks a shadowy figure, Meursault, to steal a bag from an armoured truck. Meursault goes to Théo, a former night club owner, in prison for two years on false charges, who is being released in exchange for information about Montreal's underworld. Théo agrees to steal the bag for money and safe passage to the United States for himself and his son Robin. Théo brings in two helpers, Gilder, ex-con and set designer, and Roxanne, Gilder's friend, a tough-minded petty thief. Their elaborate plan blows up when a guard, Martial, takes his responsibilities too seriously.

The novel revolves around Edwin Fisher, a lecturer who takes a holiday at a seaside resort. The work takes place entirely within the mind of Fisher, with much of the book's development dealing with the painful realities of Fisher's mind and life.

The novel's main character is Norman Zweck, who is addicted to amphetamines and is convinced that he sees silverfish wherever he goes.

The novel centres on Colin, a young boy growing up in the Yorkshire mining village of Saxton during the Second World War and the postwar years.

Peter is an idealistic college student on Thanksgiving break, and his older brother Caleb is begrudgingly giving him a ride home. At school, Peter has found a new girlfriend, Emma Gainsborough, and Caleb immediately grills him for details. We find out that Emma and Peter met while Emma was dating another fraternity boy. Despite this, Peter says she's a "good girl" while Caleb immediately perceives her to be a "whore."

Caleb is immediately antagonistic to Emma, but they eventually arrive at the home of the boys' father, Donald. Caleb drops them off, but not before revealing to Emma that he and Donald do not get along and that this will be the last time he will see them this weekend. Donald comes off as well-meaning, if somewhat crude and flirtatious.

Caleb has been having difficulty sleeping, and whenever he tries to sleep he keeps seeing images of his ex-girlfriend, Hannah, who behaves and looks strikingly similar to Emma. Hannah has been continuously calling Caleb without speaking, so he drops off pictures of himself having sex with a prostitute at her doorstep, ringing the bell and fleeing.

Caleb runs into Emma twice over the next two days, once at the bowling alley and again at the grocery store. He ends up physically and verbally attacking her, and threatens her not to hurt Peter, who is a good kid (and a virgin). Moments later, he breaks down, begging for her forgiveness.

That night, Emma sees Caleb trying to sneak around the yard with a camera. Emma wants an explanation about what happened earlier. Caleb goes into his belief on what he heard about her at school, his girlfriend Hannah who cheated on him, and his lack of sleep, which has further muddled his actions and behavior. Caleb eventually leaves, feeling better after these confessions.

The next morning, Emma asks Donald about Peter's mother, and he reveals that she died when Caleb and Peter were young. Donald also says that his wife cheated on him prior to being diagnosed with cancer and that no one visited her in her final months. At work, Caleb reveals he managed to fall asleep for a few minutes the night before.

Caleb, Peter and Emma go to a restaurant together. During a moment alone, Caleb assures Emma that he doesn't have feelings for her before forcibly kissing her. Emma says nothing about it to Peter. Caleb privately warns Peter to watch Emma carefully, because she's been eyeing him. Peter says he's in love with her and wants to give her his virginity, and Caleb laughs at the idea. Caleb apologizes for his ideas that she was a whore.

While Peter and Emma prepare to have intercourse, Peter reveals that what Donald told her is true, except that Caleb was the only one to see their mother before she died, and Caleb and Donald haven't spoken since. Caleb visits his prostitute, and asks her if it's normal to be in love with a perceived image of someone, even if that's not who they really are (likening Emma to Hannah). He then asks if she was abused as a child, which offends her. Caleb loses his temper, then comes back and gives her a better tip, implying that his perception and treatment of women is evolving.

Caleb tries apologizing to Emma for kissing her and says he'll try not to bother her anymore. Emma reveals she has accidentally locked herself out of the house, and Caleb manages to get them both inside through a window. Emma falls on top of Caleb, and they seem like they might be about to kiss before she rebukes him and asks him never to see her again. Caleb leaves, and Emma returns to the place they embraced to masturbate.

At a bar, Caleb's co-worker JT asks him if he's had sex with Emma yet, and he says no, but he wants to. He spots some men sexually harassing a woman and ends up fighting them, marking another change in him.

Peter tries to have sex with Emma but ejaculates prematurely. Caleb drives over to see Emma, and this time, she doesn't rebuke him when he kisses her, and eventually, they end up having passionate sex in Caleb's old room.

Emma asks why Caleb was the only one to see his mother before she died. He reveals he was hurt by her cheating, and shut her out of his life. However, he eventually discovered that Donald had been the one cheating until his wife finally left, never thinking that he would refuse to let her see her sons. Caleb never told Peter because he was only 12. Emma tells Caleb she was a virgin. Caleb leaves and reminds Emma that Peter is in love with her. On his way out, he runs into his father who deduces what happened and says he'll tell Peter. Caleb calls him a coward for erasing him out of his life. They both hide as Peter goes to Emma's room, and Caleb dictates to Donald that he won't tell Peter what he did, otherwise he'll tell him Donald's secrets and he'll lose both his sons. Peter and Emma sleep together, and he loses his virginity to her.

The next morning, Donald drives them to the train station. On the way, Peter tells Emma he loves her, but it causes Emma to cry. Donald confesses to Peter that he's made mistakes, and that sometimes, people know what they are doing is wrong but they do it anyway, because the right thing is painful. The two of them alone again, Caleb rings Donald's doorbell and Donald invites him in, their relationship beginning to mend at last.

The 2-dimensional Arthur Square awakens from a dream of strange, glowing symbols. He lives with his wife, Arlene Square, and his curious granddaughter Hex, a hexagon. Hex and Arthur discuss the laws of inheritance: how each new generation of Flatlanders, beginning with triangles, gains a new side until the shapes become indistinguishable from circles. They also discuss how a citizen's shape affects their job, with triangles performing menial labor and circles ruling Flatland in the priest class. They witness a cruel incident where a Circle Priest arrests a slightly irregular octagon child, prompting Hex to yet again wonder what happened to her pentagonal parents. Arthur tells her that he will tell her someday.

The head circle ruler of Flatland, Pantocyclus, issues a new edict that bans discussion of heretical topics such as a third dimension or the ruins at Area 33H. Arthur recognizes an image of the ruins from his dream.

Arthur gives Hex a geometry lesson, showing how powers in arithmetic can be translated to geometrical dimensions. When Hex speculates on a third dimension, Arthur becomes infuriated and sends her to her room. To calm Hex, Arlene gives her her mother's box containing books and a model of the symbols at Area 33H.

That night, Arthur Square is taken to a strange landscape. He encounters the insane King of Pointland, a being of zero dimensions. Then he encounters Lineland, a universe of one dimension that is populated by an arrogant line segment King who cannot imagine a new dimension that he cannot see. Finally, Arthur is whisked back to his living room. He hears a voice booming out and sees a point grow to a circle and then back to a point. The being identifies himself as Spherius, a three-dimensional solid from Spaceland. After Spherius fails to explain the third dimension, Arthur is popped into Spaceland. They stop at Area 33H and Arthur realizes that the symbols show a progression from point to line to square to cube, and that the constantly changing shape in the center is actually a cube, halfway through the plane of Flatland and spinning along all three axes. Arthur asks Spherius to show him the fourth dimension and the fifth dimension, but Spherius says there couldn't possibly be a higher dimension. He tells Arthur to spread the word of the third dimension and drops Arthur back into bed. Meanwhile, at the Ministry, Pantocyclus is ordering the triangle-guards and circles, including Miss Helios (Arthur's boss), to beware any employees who mention the third dimension and to guard Area 33H.

Hex leaves to explore Area 33H, but a triangle guard spots her. At the Ministry, Arthur is talking to his brother, when an alarm goes off. Over the intercom, Miss Helios orders all guards to catch an intruder at Area 33H. Arthur realizes it might be Hex and persuades Abbott (his brother) to help him steal a Ministry car.

Abbott and Arthur arrive at the ruins moments before the triangle guards. With Abbott distracting the guards, Arthur goes to the symbols and finds Hex terrified. Arthur admits to her that her parents were arrested and killed for their theories about the third dimension. With the guards closing in, Arthur pushes Hex into the cube symbol, which pops her up into the third dimension. Arthur is arrested by Miss Helios.

Arthur is hastily brought into a courtroom with Pantocyclus proceeding over his trial for heresy. Arlene arrives and asks where Hex is. In his cell, Arthur assures her that Hex escaped 'upward' into the third dimension and is safe. A nearby pentagon begins broadcasting the trial. Pantocyclus challenges Arthur to show everyone the third dimension Arthur admits that he can't but pleads to his fellow Flatlanders that reason dictates a third dimension. He challenges them to aspire to be greater than their shapes, angering the Circles immensely. In a fit of rage, Pantocyclus sentences Arthur to death, but Spherius suddenly pops Arthur out of Flatland.

Arthur thanks Spherius but feels he has failed to persuade people of the third dimension. Spherius tells Arthur that he intended Hex, not Arthur, to be the prophet of the Third Dimension. Hex embraces Arthur and they fly back down to the courtroom, surprising everyone as they materialize out of nowhere. The Circles are speechless and lose control of the courtroom, evading the reporter's questions about the third dimension. Arthur, Arlene, Hex, and Abbott are reunited. The reporter asks Hex if she has also visited the fourth dimension. Spherius angrily comes down to Flatland to scoff at the idea and flies off.

The symbols at Area 33H are glowing and as the camera dips below Flatland we see that the spinning cube is actually part of a larger installation: eight cubes spinning and orbiting a 4D cube – a tesseract – which, in turn, is rotating around its fourth axis.

"Swift death awaits the first cow that leads a revolt against milking," wrote Swedish Professor Peder Bjornsen just before he died of a heart attack in May 2015. Bill Graham, investigating the deaths of two scientists his agency has funded, discovers that over a dozen scientists who knew each other have died recently, either by heart attack or by suicide, after appearing to go insane. With the aid of police lieutenant Art Wohl, Graham searches out other scientists who knew the men in the group and finds that they are dying as well. He finally meets a scientist who explains what’s been happening.

Professor Bjornsen had discovered a means of extending human vision into the far infrared and he discovered that the world is occupied by meter-wide spheres that appear pale blue in his new vision. The spheres, which he called Vitons, are sentient and mildly telepathic (they can read people’s minds if they get close enough); they also feed on the electrochemical energy of human emotions. If a Viton sucks too hard on a human nervous system, it causes a fatal heart attack, which is how the Vitons have been killing the scientists, in order to prevent Humanity from learning of their existence.

That knowledge, including Professor Bjornsen’s formula, is quickly spread around the world. The Vitons react by triggering an all-out world war. They enjoy a world-wide feeding frenzy as they work to regain control over their “cattle”. Chased into a hospital by a pair of Vitons, Graham and Wohl discover that the phantom vampires shy away from a machine that emits short-wave radio energy.

Given that information, researchers all over the world struggle to find a form of radio transmission that will kill Vitons. Graham continues to seek out clues, obtaining them from people that the Vitons kill. Eventually he gets the necessary information and a ray gun, built like an anti-aircraft gun, is set up and tested. Graham destroys dozens of Vitons before the gun is destroyed and he is nearly killed. All relevant information on the gun has been widely disseminated and more guns are built and put to use. Seeing Vitons being destroyed, people sober up and the war winds down. There’s a huge mess to clean up and plenty more Vitons to kill, but Humanity will prevail.

Focussing on a single day in an affluent English suburb, the book chronicles the lives of five middle-class married women, all of them mothers of young children. Going about their routines of child-rearing, work, shopping and socialising, they dwell of their feelings of frustration and disappointment, memories good and bad, aspirations and sometimes flashes of inspiration and hope. The five meet in the evening at a dinner party hosted by one of them.

A school shooting occurs at South Park Elementary resulting in a fatality. However, when a S.W.A.T. member storms the classroom to secure it, the fourth grade teacher and her students are nonchalant, attempting to ignore the disruption while reviewing a recent mathematics test. Eric Cartman is angry because having copied his answers from classmate Token Black, he failed the test, and believes that Token initially put incorrect answers on his own test paper in a deliberate ploy to cause Cartman's failure. Cartman becomes worried that Token was motivated by rumors that Cartman disliked the feature film ''Black Panther'', whose success holds cultural significance for black Americans, but Token says he has not seen the film, spurring the paranoid Cartman to try to confirm his suspicions. Ultimately, despite Token's repeated denial of ever having seen the film, Cartman concludes that Token saw it, and shares his own opinion that the film was not that good. After Cartman and Token successfully evade gunshots at yet another shooting at their school, Token allows Cartman to copy his answers on their next test.

Sharon Marsh, the mother of Cartman's classmate Stan, is outraged not only at the school shootings, but at the lack of similar distress on the part of other townspeople, including her husband Randy, who comes to believe that her disposition is caused by either her menstrual cycle or the onset of menopause. He attempts to shower her with love in the form of a party at which he serenades her, but Sharon angrily informs Randy and their neighbors that she is not undergoing menopause, and storms off. She later apologizes to an astonished Randy for the pain and suffering they have been experiencing, admitting that she may have been overly emotional lately. They receive word that Stan was shot at another shooting at his school. Instead of panicking, Sharon exhibits a calm, nonchalant attitude like those of Randy and the others, and a relieved Randy lovingly embraces her.

After the events of the previous book, Dexter Morgan is eager to resume his hobby of stalking violent criminals, but first, he must endure a honeymoon in Paris with his unsuspecting wife, Rita. At an art gallery, the couple view an avant-garde performance piece in which the artist amputates her own limb. Upon returning home, Dexter finds that his relationship with his sister, Deborah, has become strained since she learned of his murderous pastime. Deborah, now a sergeant in the Miami-Dade Police Department's homicide unit, is torn between loyalty to Dexter and her duty as a police officer to arrest him.

Dexter is called to investigate a gruesome tableau on a local beach, where a pair of bodies have been mutilated and arranged in a display that parodies the state's tourist trade. At home, Rita is concerned for her children, Cody and Astor, who appear withdrawn and different from normal children. Dexter knows that they share his pathology and has promised to train them to kill those who deserve it, as his adoptive father, Harry, trained him. Cody is enrolled as a Cub Scout, which Rita believes will help him to bond with normal children. Dexter believes that it will help him learn how to ''pretend'' to be normal.

Todd arrives at a cafe for a blind date with Kelly, whom he expects to be a girl. When Kelly turns out to be a gay man, Todd discovers that he has been the victim of a prank by his brother Barry. Todd and Kelly decide to get revenge on Barry by pretending they are indeed now a couple. The joke soon goes further than they expected when Todd's family and friends all soon believe him to be gay. Despite his repeated attempts to prove otherwise, Todd soon finds himself doubting his own sexuality, and feelings toward Kelly.

The narrator is driving to London in his new BMW 1975 car when he picks up a hitchhiker. The narrator always used to pick up hitchhikers since, in early times, he also used to hitchhike and he knew how difficult it can be. The author described the hitchhiker as a small ratty-faced man with grey teeth. The man mentions he's going to the horse races, but not to bet or work the ticket machines. The narrator is intrigued and says he's a writer and tells him the trouble was that writers are terribly nosy.

They get to talking about the car, and the narrator proudly states it can hit 129 miles per hour. The hitchhiker doubts that, so, once they hit a straight patch of road, the narrator accelerates. They're almost there when a cop on a motorcycle zooms past and signals them to stop. The cop is a bit of a bully and threatens to have the narrator thrown in prison. He takes down his address and also that of the hitchhiker. Then he gives them a ticket and leaves and they continue on their way. The narrator is worried about the ticket, but the hitchhiker says it will be fine. They begin talking about their careers again, and eventually the hitchhiker announces he is a "fingersmith". He is so skilled with his hands that he even manages to remove the narrator's belt without him noticing. He attends races and steals money from the winners. "That policeman's going to check up on you pretty thoroughly," the narrator says. "Doesn't that worry you a bit?"

The hitchhiker responds no one will be checking up on him, as policemen have notoriously bad memories. "What's memory got to do with it?" the narrator asks. "It's written down in his book, isn't it?" The hitchhiker proudly announces he's stolen both books from the policeman. "Easiest job I ever done". They pull off the road to burn the books.

Category:1977 short stories Category:Short stories by Roald Dahl Category:Works originally published in The Atlantic (magazine) Category:Fiction about hitchhiking

Van (Tierney) frequently visits his grandmother, Armen (Keklikian) who is living in a poor quality nursing home. There, he meets Aline (Khanjian), whose mother (Sabourin) is in the bed next to Armen. Aline's job as a phone sex worker does not pay enough to afford a better nursing home for her mother. Van and Aline get to know each other through their frequent meetings at the nursing home. Van's mother (Sarkisyan) disappeared years ago and his father, Stan (Hemblen), is reluctant to visit his mother-in-law. Stan does go to visit Armen once, but he first visits with a stranger because he does not even know what she looks like. When he finally sees Armen, she attacks him. Van tries to convince his father to allow Armen to live with them, but he refuses. Van also unsuccessfully tries to convince Sandra, Stan's live-in lover (Rose), to help him convince his father but she also refuses.

Van discovers that Stan is re-using old home movies to tape himself having sex with Sandra. Van decides to switch the tapes for blank ones to save them, bringing them to the nursing home to show to Armen. When Aline is asked by a client to travel with him to Montreal, she asks Van to look after her mother while she is away. Aline's mother, believing that Aline is deserting her, commits suicide by overdosing on her medicine. Van switches the two elderly women so it appears that his grandmother has died, then tells his father that Armen has died and holds a funeral for Aline's mother before she returns from Montreal. Van tells her what he has done and shows her a videotape of the funeral, asking her to help him to get Armen out of the nursing home, as Armen's identity is now Aline's mother. Aline also agrees to put up Armen in her flat as long as the rent is shared and then agrees to allow Van to leave his father's house and move in too. Van's father helps him get a job in a hotel and Aline gets a job there, too. Van, while watching the tapes, discovers images of his mother being tied up by Stan as a part of their sexual activities.

Stan discovers that Van switched the tapes and wants to get them back. Sandra visits Van to tell him that Stan, having seen Aline at the nursing home and putting flowers on what he thinks is his mother-in-law's grave, is suspicious and hires a private detective (Shafer). Van moves his grandmother to the hotel so she won't be discovered and puts her up in a part of the hotel which is not used out of season. Stan visits Aline and questions her about her mother without results. With the private detective's help, Stan tracks down the room where Armen is being kept. Before he can get there, Van finds out that the room is needed by the hotel and responds by reporting Armen as a homeless woman who has been staying in a storage area. As a result, Armen is removed by medical personnel and moved to a different and better nursing home. In the final scene, Van and Aline visit Armen and find her sitting and talking with Van's mother - her daughter.

The game is set in Trip World, a peaceful world where Yakopoo lives. He is a young member of the Shabubu race of bunny-like beings. Yakopoo lives with his grandfather, an old Shabubu, on the holy mountain known as Mount Dubious, where the Maita Flower is found. The named flower is the flower of peace and is deemed to have supernatural powers. Because of this, it is usually protected by Yakopoo's grandpa, so that it won't fall in the wrong hands. However, one day mysterious shadowy creatures appear, attack Yakopoo's grandfather and steal the flower of peace.

Since the Maita Flower has been removed from its place, the peace is gone and the inhabitants of Trip World get mad and don't stop quarreling with each other. In order to save his world, Yakopoo sets out to find the thieves and to return the Maita Flower.The introduction sequence of ''Trip World'' shows parts of the described events without text In the game's last stage, Mirror Land, it turns out that the King of Mirror Land, a Shabubu himself, and his minions stole the flower. After Yakopoo defeats the King's minions and the King who fights Yakopoo in a robot, the Queen appears who hid with the Maita Flower during the fight. The King was actually possessed by a flower of unknown origin on his head which now disappears after his defeat. The King turns good again, Yakopoo's grandfather returns the flower to the holy mountain and the peace is back in Trip World.

Recent Radcliffe College graduate Caroline Bender is hired as a secretary at Fabian Publishing Company. She works for Amanda Farrow, a bitter, demanding, middle-aged editor who resents Caroline and suspects she wants her job. Caroline meets two other young women in the typing pool — April Morrison, a naïve rube from Colorado, and Gregg Adams, a glamorous aspiring actress — and the three women become roommates.

April is assigned to work for the lecherous editor-in-chief Mr. Shalimar, who persuades her to work late one night in a ploy to sexually harass her. When she rejects him, he is undaunted and continues to pursue other young female employees. At an alcohol-fueled office party, an intoxicated Mr. Shalimar makes sexual overtures to Barbara Lamont while they are alone in her office. Sidney Carter, a coworker with whom she has an affair, intervenes to stop Shalimar after he hears Barbara yelling. Shalimar shows no remorse over the incident and suggests that, because Lamont has been married and divorced, she should expect such advances from male coworkers.

Gregg is cast in a play directed by David Savage and the two become lovers. Gregg is demoted to understudy when she repeatedly flubs her lines. She becomes obsessed with David, whose affections turn to Gregg's replacement in the play. After David ends his affair with Gregg, she becomes mentally unstable and starts stalking him. While lurking outside his apartment, she is startled by a boisterous neighbor and panics. Gregg flees to a fire escape and falls to her death when her high-heeled shoe gets caught in the grating, causing her to stumble.

April meets Dexter Key, a spoiled playboy, at a company picnic. They start an affair, but Dexter threatens to dump the romantic April unless she agrees to have sex. When April becomes pregnant, Dexter persuades her to ostensibly elope. Once they are en route, Dexter admits his marriage proposal is a ruse and he is driving her to a doctor for an abortion. Distraught at the idea of ending her pregnancy, April leaps from Dexter's moving car. She survives, but the impact causes a miscarriage and hospitalization. April becomes romantically involved with her attending physician.

Caroline, upset after her fiancé Eddie Harris marries another woman, goes on a blind date with Paul Landis. The date ends awkwardly when Caroline spots a coworker, Mike Rice. After Paul leaves, Mike and Caroline get drunk, and she falls asleep at his apartment. At the office the next day, a badly hungover Caroline is worried she and Mike had sex, but he assures her nothing happened.

While working for Amanda Farrow, Caroline adds her own editorial comments to the manuscripts submitted by writers. Shalimar takes notice of Caroline's comments and promotes her to the position of manuscript reader. When Caroline thanks Farrow for recommending her as a reader, Farrow admits she advised Shalimar ''not'' to promote her. Later Mike disparages Caroline's ambition and advises her not to become career-driven, but to seek marriage instead.

Mike and Caroline consider becoming involved romantically, but their plans are interrupted by Eddie, who dines with Caroline while in New York on a business trip. Thinking Eddie wants to leave his wife and rekindle their relationship, Caroline visits his hotel room; she leaves after Eddie reveals he has no intention of divorcing his rich wife and only wants Caroline to be his mistress.

When Farrow quits her job to marry a man and move to St. Louis, Caroline takes her place at Fabian. Caroline relinquishes the position when Farrow returns to New York after her marriage fails. While leaving the office one day, Caroline bumps into Mike. She lifts the veil and removes the black hat she is wearing to mourn Gregg's death and locks eyes with him; they walk away together as the film ends.

The story is set in an alternative world wherein the Thirteen Colonies, after gaining independence from Britain, did not succeed in creating the United States, but instead developed into separate and mutually hostile nation-states which often fight bitter wars with each other.

In the novella, the citizens of Pennsylvania speak a language they call "Pennsylvanisch", which a character describes as "[a] German dialect mainly derived from Swabian and with many English loan words, which a speaker of High German would find it difficult to follow".

This language has a rich literary tradition of which the Pennsylvanians are proud; and they feel suspicious of, and threatened by the hostile English-speaking nations of New York to their north, and Virginia to their south.

In that Pennsylvania, only the Quaker communities still speak English as their native language, and they are therefore recruited by the Pennsylvanian Intelligence Service as spies to infiltrate the territories of neighboring nations.

The story's main conflict comes when a Pennsylvanisch officer encounters a man who claims to be from the United States as we, the readers, know it. The officer first regards the man as either truly mad, or feigning madness to cover his mission of espionage for an enemy such as New York, but soon becomes enamored and full of longing for the parallel universe described by the captive.

In a brief part of the story, the time traveler's journal reveals that he has visited other worlds, including one with an Axis victory in World War II. A reference to Nuns being hanged on lamp posts in Philadelphia might point specifically to Eric Norden's ''The Ultimate Solution'', in whose plot the Nazi occupiers of that city summarily execute the members of a resistance cell made up of Catholic priests, monks and nuns. The traveler has also passed through a world where the Plantagenet Dynasty still rules England (and North America) and where a kind of scientific magic is practiced. This might be the world of Randall Garrett's ''Lord Darcy.

The life of a professional killer becomes complicated when he falls in love with his neighbor, Soo-ha, a bargirl.

The story continued from the last scenes of battle in ''Skylark Three''.

Having pursued and destroyed the fleeing Fenachrone colony spaceship, The Skylarkers decided to explore the galaxy seen up ahead, to take the opportunity offered by the great velocity resulted from the chase and the distance they had traveled. Along the way, Seaton discovered thought is a phenomenon of the "sixth order", and developed the technologies in relation with it.

Meanwhile, DuQuesne's ruse faking death (see Skylark Three) fooled all the Fenachronians, the Skylarkers and the Norlaminians. He successfully deceived the Norlaminians into giving him everything the Norlaminians had given Seaton, eluded their watchful eyes, returned to Earth and quickly become the complete master of it by the super-technologies he now possessed.

At the other corner of the universe, Seaton was experimenting with his thought-sixth order projector. He attracted the attention of the Disembodied Intellectuals (in ''The Skylark of Space''). The leader of the Disembodied Intellectuals, "One", wanted to appropriate Seaton's mind for his "experiments". Seaton naturally refused. This situation escalated into a fight. The Uranium metal store of the Skylark Three - used for powering offense and defense - was no match for the inexhaustible cosmic energy at the command of the Disembodied Intellectuals. Running out of power and having no other choice, Seaton decided to try the heretofore one-way trip: a rotation into the "Fourth Dimension" in the small Skylark Two.

After an eventful interval in the strange Fourth Dimension, the Skylarkers returned to normal space far removed from where they were. They had escaped the clutch of the Disembodied Intellectual, but were utterly lost. Their small Skylark Two was too deficient for their needs. They had to find resources and help to build their technologies back up, to find the way, and be able to get home. They ran across the so-human-like Valeronians, who were in the mortal struggle with the hypnotic, amoeba-like, shape-shifting Chlorans, and helped them to win the war.

With the help of the Valeronians and their resources, Seaton built the new Skylark of Valeron. With a "mechanical brain" aka a super-computer "running on all bands of the 'sixth order'", a "Sixth Order Projector" that could reach almost anywhere, he mapped the First (known) Universe, and found the way home. With the help of the Norlaminians, Seaton managed to trap and imprison the Disembodied Intellectuals, and liberated Earth from DuQuesne's dictatorship. He sent the seven Disembodied Intellectuals - and DuQuesne as the eighth member - away on a one-way (he believed) long, long trip, and ushering in a new era for the humanity of Earth.

A middle-class African American couple's life is shattered when the wife begins receiving death threats. The husband begins to experience an alternative reality so real he has trouble grasping which is real. His psychiatrist diagnosis him as a latent schizophrenic. The family must decide if its schizophrenia, are the dreams a cosmic death threat or has the husband become unstuck from this reality and become stuck between worlds.

A ruffian from the Bowery sees a dandy young man approaching him and decides to taunt the well-dressed fellow. The young "dude" ignores the ruffian's insults for a time before losing his patience. He then punches the aggressor in the jaw with a right-handed swing and follows it up with a series of additional blows so that "in less time than it takes to tell (the thug from the Bowery) is on his back in the gutter begging for mercy."