Rudi Mackenzie and company stage a rescue of Mathilda Arminger, Odard Liu, and Ingolf Vogeler from High Seeker Kuttner. They come upon a group of Mormon rebels, who join up with Rudi and reach the town of Picabo, now occupied by Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT). They attempt to infiltrate the town, but are discovered and chased out by Graber.

After recovering in the woods, the whole company is discovered by a group of Buddhist monks and they winter in their monastery. While at the monastery, Ignatius receives a vision from Mary telling him to look after Mathilda.

As the group enters Sioux territory, they are greeted by Sioux chief Red Leaf and his soldiers. Red Leaf gives the group sanctuary, but Major Graber catches up with them. The ranchers and the CUT are driven away after the two forces accidentally upset some lions. Rudi and his group stay with Red Leaf's tribe, but leave just before Graber returns with reinforcements. With the help of Red Leaf's son, they manage to get on the other side of a huge stream of migrating buffalo, thus losing Graber.

Rudi and company make it to Iowa and, thanks to Ingolf's connections with a local influential farmer, are able to make it to Des Moines, where they hope to finance a trip into the eastern deathlands. The group is ambushed and captured by the State Police. It appears that the Bossman of Iowa is angry with Ingolf for not completing a salvaging expedition he had paid for into the eastern Death zones. Rudi volunteers to retrieve the goods that were abandoned in Illinois. The Bossman agrees on the condition that Rudi must do it alone in one month.

Back in Oregon, the leaders of the Meeting march toward Pendleton to capture the Bossman of Pendleton and his family. With the help of a spy in the service of Sandra Arminger, the Rangers sneak into the city and get access to the Bossman's palace. Astrid captures the Bossman and his family, but Sethaz incites the crowd to attack the Rangers, who are forced to flee with only the Bossman. Tiphaine rescues them, but Astrid has been injured and has to cede command of the army to Tiphaine. Tiphaine attempts a fighting retreat in an effort to buy time for the infantry to escape.

Back home, the Mackenzies and Bearkillers mourn their dead.

The film opens in medias res with vacationer Wally Walrus beating Woody Woodpecker into submission on a beachfront amusement pier. Wally explains to the gathered crowd what happened earlier to provoke his anger:

Wally decides to go to the beach to relax for his day off, but is constantly disturbed by surfer Woody. Returning to the present, Wally ties Woody to an anchor and hurls him into the ocean. The rope snags on the pier, demolishing first the pier and then the entire marina. The cartoon ends with Woody swimming away toward the horizon, pursued by Wally, and both of them pursued by the other beachgoers.

Intro screen (IBM PC)

The game is set on the alien moon Tricuspid orbiting the planet Evath. Terrorists (the Ketars, the villains of the previous game ''Driller'') hijacked the moon's facilities and built Zephyr One, an immense beam weapon on the moon's dark side with the purpose of destroying Evath. The player is a government agent, sent secretly to the moon's surface with the mission of deactivating the weapon before it becomes fully charged. This is accomplished by destroying a power network in the form of ECD (Energy Collection Device) columns, dotted around the moon and connected with power lines all the way to the beam weapon.

When Juliette Fontaine, formerly a doctor, is released from prison, her younger sister Léa invites her to stay with her family – including her husband, his mute father, and their two adopted Vietnamese daughters – in their home in the university town of Nancy in Lorraine. Why Juliette was in prison is revealed slowly throughout the film: first, that she was in prison for 15 years, then that her crime was murder, then that the victim was her 6-year-old son Pierre, and finally the reason why she killed him.

Léa, a college professor of literature, is considerably younger than Juliette. Because of the nature of Juliette's crime, their parents denied Juliette's existence and refused to allow Léa to visit her. In addition, Juliette had refused to speak throughout her trial. As a result, Léa knows nothing about the circumstances surrounding the crime and, when pressed for details, Juliette refuses to discuss what happened until the end of the film.

While struggling to find employment, Juliette enjoys platonic companionship with two men, a probation officer who understands how prison can damage the human spirit, and Michel, one of Léa's colleagues, who is sympathetic to her ordeal of having been imprisoned.

Gradually, Juliette begins to fit in with Léa and her family, makes friends, and finds a permanent job as a secretary at a hospital. She also develops a close relationship with her young nieces, much to the distress of their father, who is concerned about their safety while in their aunt's presence. Slowly, after seeing how she interacts with the family, he begins to accept her.

Juliette agrees to accompany Léa on a visit to their mother, who is confined to a nursing home with Alzheimer's disease. For a brief moment the woman recognizes and embraces her, remembering her as a little girl rather than the estranged daughter who murdered her grandson.

Léa accidentally discovers a clue to why Juliette killed Pierre. Juliette diagnosed her son as suffering from a fatal and painful disease. Léa confronts Juliette with what she learned, and Juliette explains that, when Pierre's condition progressed so that he could barely move, Juliette killed him with an injection, knowing that otherwise he would suffer unbearable pain. At the trial she spoke no word of defense or explanation, feeling that she deserved punishment for bringing her son into the world, condemned to die. After a cathartic, emotional scene between the two sisters, Léa looks at a window and comments on how beautiful the rain is. Juliette agrees, and the film ends with Juliette saying, "I am here."

The book begins with Alice McKinley moving from Chicago to Takoma Park, Maryland with her single father, Ben, and older brother, Lester. As the new girl in school, she doesn't know a single person except for her next-door neighbor Donald Sheavers, who is not only a boy, but also seems to be a little bit peculiar. She gets off to a rough start when she meets three snooty girls, Jody, Dawn and Megan, whom Alice nicknames "The Terrible Triplets" after they make it clear they don't want to get to know her. Along the way, she makes some new friends, gets a kitten, attends a wedding, attends a funeral, confronts bullies and continues to learn about the world around her.

The governance of a futuristic city is secretly handled by a supercomputer called ATOM, and publicly by a ruthless female director whom ATOM refers to as "Mama". A group of freedom fighters attempt to expose and sabotage the system.

One of the freedom fighters has an elder brother, with whom he has lost contact, who works for the director's riot police. This elder brother possesses moderate psychic abilities such as the power to briefly levitate a pen. The director learns of this and recruits the nascent psychic for an 'experiment' which entails connecting his brain and nervous system to ATOM, stripping away much of his body in the process. Throughout this the subject is seen to inhabit a blissful womblike existence from his perspective.

The freedom fighter brother attempts to infiltrate the government base but is shot by security. Sensing this, the psychic brother wakes from anesthetic and uses his powers to superheat his surroundings and levitate the remnants of his physical body from the workbench, effectively becoming the center of a vengeful destructive sun: the 'Fireball' of the story's title.

Widower Ty Ty Walden and his two daughters, Rosamund and Darlin' Jill, live in the backwoods of Georgia during the Great Depression. He also has three sons: Jim, Shaw, and Buck.

While Ty Ty searches constantly for gold on his farm, his son-in-law Will cheats on his wife Rosamund with Buck's wife, Griselda. Ty Ty has been digging for gold on his land for 15 years, searching for the treasure his grandfather left him. Consequently, the farm has suffered from many years' neglect.

Pluto Swint arrives to announce he's running for sheriff. Swint is invited to come around back where Darlin' Jill is taking a bath in an outdoor bathtub positioned near a handpump and spigot. She asks him to pump some more water, and although Swint is asked to keep his eyes closed, he sneaks a peek.

In the belief that having an albino with him in his quest for treasure will bring him great fortune, Ty Ty transports and wrongfully imprisons Dave Dawson, demanding that he help him locate the buried treasure. Dawson, using a divining rod, claims the gold lies on the neighboring church's land (referred to as "God's Little Acre"). Ty Ty pulls the marker out of the ground, explaining that God told him to move it, thereby absolving him from giving any gold found in this new spot to the church.

In the middle of the night Will leaves his house, followed by Griselda. He breaks open the mill's gates and enters the property. At first, she distracts him from his purpose, and they kiss. He then escorts her back to the gates and asks the growing crowd to restrain her. He re-enters and turns on the power, and the machines reactivate to the cheers of the crowd.

Hearing the rioters' assembly and the mill's power turned on, the caretaker comes from an inside office and shoots Will for trespassing. The crowd carries his body back to his house. Griselda enters to tell Rosamund the bad news, but Rosamund cries out that she already knows what has happened.

The populist Pluto Swint is elected sheriff, replacing the incumbent. The Walden family squabbles after Will's funeral, particularly over Griselda's actions at the mill and the numerous affections which she attracts from the other sons. The family decides to give up searching for the gold.

The family contentedly plow for the first time in years, with Ty Ty finding the blade of an old shovel in the ground and speculates about whether the gold might lie in that spot. As he begins digging again, the final resting place of the marker for God's Little Acre is revealed to be none other than the pond.

There are two imaginary countries: the Kingdom of Popo and the Kingdom of Pipi. Prince Leonce of the Kingdom of Popo and Princess Lena of the Kingdom of Pipi have had their political marriage arranged. (Popo and Pipi are children’s language – Popo means “buttocks” and Pipi means “urine”.)

Act one

; Scene 1 – A garden in the Kingdom Popo Prince Leonce is in the garden, complaining about his own life as a “prince of Kingdom Popo”. He meets Valerio who is a lot different to him and will be his companion later.

; Scene 2 – A room in the Kingdom Popo King Peter of the Kingdom Popo is being dressed up by valets. He concerns more with his duties as a King than with his people.

; Scene 3 – Leonce’s room in the Kingdom Popo Leonce’s girl friend Rosetta is in his room and dances for him but he confesses he does not love her anymore, and so she goes out. The president of the council comes in his room and reminds him of the wedding ceremony with Lena on the day after. Leonce decides to flee the Kingdom to avoid the wedding.

; Scene 4 – A garden in Kingdom Pipi Lena is in the garden with her governess. She tells the governess that she does not want to get married with a man whom she does not know and love. She decides to run away with the governess’s help to escape her arranged marriage.

Act two

; Scene 1 – Open country Leonce and Valerio are on their way to Italy, and also Lena and governess are on their way to Italy.

; Scene 2 – A garden of the inn Leonce and Valerio arrive at an inn. A bit later, Lena and the governess arrive at the same inn. Leonce hears Lena’s voice and falls in love with her.

; Scene 3 – A room in the inn Lena and the governess are in a room, but Lena goes out to go to the garden.

; Scene 4 – The garden in the inn (night and moonshine) Leonce and Lena meet in the garden. Leonce confesses to Lena he fell in love with her and kisses her but she runs away. That makes Leonce want to commit suicide by jumping into the river but Valerio stops him.

Act Three

; Scene 1 – The garden in the inn Leonce decides to marry Lena and tells Valerio about it.

; Scene 2 – open area in front of the king Peter’s palace Many people are in front of the palace to celebrate Leonce and Lena’s wedding. This event is arranged and controlled by the schoolmaster.

; Scene 3 – Grand stateroom King Peter and his followers try to figure out how to solve the problem that Prince Leonce and Princess Lena are not there in their wedding day. Finally, Leonce, Lena, Valerio and the governess arrive with masks on their faces. Valerio takes off the masks and presents the two world famous automatons. King Peter decides to make those two robots get married instead of Prince Leonce and Princess Lena. Therefore, the two robots get married and then take off their masks. They realize each other’s real identities.

After the conclusion of the Indonesian National Revolution, Leman (AN Alcaff) and Barjo (Rd Ismail) go to the national capital in Jakarta and live off government donations. When a meeting goes awry, Leman accidentally kills the prospective donor, and Barjo and Leman escape. They go their separate ways, and Leman remains on the run for five years. He ultimately settles in a village.

As he had been given everything he needed while a guerrilla, Leman is shocked when society appears to ignore him. He tries to earn a living as a farmer, but is unable to do so owing to the ongoing drought. He decides to go to the city and find work. However, this plan is stopped when his girlfriend Ira (Titi Savitri) convinces him that it is his duty to stay in the village and help it develop.

One day, Leman learns that Barjo has become rich off prostitution and gambling rackets. When Leman confronts his former friend, the latter forces him to work as a driver. When Leman learns that they are smuggling weapons, he faces off against Barjo and the two fight on a mountaintop; this ends with Barjo's death.

Before his death, King Arthur sends young Galahad, the oldest son of Lancelot and Elaine, on a quest to find the lost treasures of an ancient king — a Grail, a Spear, a Sword — which will safeguard Britain's future.

For Galahad, the search becomes a transformative journey into manhood. His quest challenges his famed gallantry and purity, the traits that set him apart in Arthurian legend as the only knight fit for and worthy of the quest for the Holy Grail.

A young girl suddenly finds herself wealthy, but lacking in social graces. She calls upon the disinherited son from a wealthy family for help.

As described in a film magazine, Jim Montjoy (MacLean), who is engaged to Millicent Lee (Bennett), goes with his brother Jim (Cooley) to Mexico to make their fortunes. Jim falls in love with a Mexican girl, Diana Ramon (Vale), and a photograph of her gets into Jim's coat pocket. The brothers own a mining claim that Diana's uncle (French) wants to buy, so Jim stays in Mexico to look after the property while Stanley goes to New York to try to obtain a better price. There he discovers Bob Davis (McCullough) is trying to cut him out, so he marries Millicent without delay. As a joke he buys his wife a book titled ''How to be Happy Though Married'', but it ends up giving her jealous thoughts. She finds the photograph of Diana in Stanley's coat pocket and pretends to go away on a visit, but when she returns to the house she finds her husband escorting the original from the photograph and installing her in one of the bedrooms. Jim, having eloped with his Mexican charmer, is back in town and left to buy new clothes, and Jim then leaves without knowing his wife is in the house. The women meet, and although neither can understand the other's language, they get into an argument. Blond Millicent thinks the handsome brunette is trying to steal her husband, while Diana thinks that her sister-in-law is attempting to rob her of her jewels. All is resolved when the men return.

As described in a film magazine, Laura Dayne (Bennett), an ambitious young sculptress courted by neighboring young artist Denis Connors (Welch), has limited contact with the social world and knows little of the "law of men" and so unsuspicious when decadent architect Jamison Keene (MacDonald) lures her to the Tarrytown Inn one night with a promise to consummate her dream of having her work in a municipal building. Keene had recently had the artist paint a miniature of Mildred Wade (Matthews), the foolish wife of Laura's dear friend Benton Wade (Robson). Laura goes to the Tarrytown Inn and into the trap set for her. Keene uses all of his disarming wiles in vain as Laura puts up such a struggle that the Inn management forces Keene to release her. Overwhelmed by the sense of her own folly, she goes to the artist and tells her story. In fury Denis goes to the Inn, but is ejected by the house detectives for using threatening language. He returns to his rooms and suggests marriage as the only way to protect Laura. She accepts, and just after the ceremony Denis is arrested for the murder of Keene. At the trial Benton Wade, motivated also by his hatred of the spoiler of his own home, makes an impassioned defense of the innocent young man, but fails. Benton then becomes a victim of fear as Laura traces step by step his guilt for the crime and confronts him with the evidence. At the sentencing hearing Benton confesses his guilt and then drinks poison, leaving the young artist and his devoted wife whose intelligence saved him.

The game's story is about Max, Rex, and Zoe, the members of the D-Team (of whom only Max and Rex are available as player characters). One day, they find mysterious stones that allow them to summon dinosaurs, after creating special cards from fossils, using a special device called a Dinoshot. However, an evil group called the Alpha Gang steals a Dinoshot in order to create a dinosaur empire. It is the D-Team's job to stop the Alpha Gang.

As described in a film magazine, New York reporter Betsy Thorne (Bennett) travels to the railroad station in a Southern state to investigate a missing man where she overhears a conversation between the sheriff and an imported detective that reporters are barred from the house and grounds where the mystery has taken place. By good fortune she comes across a maid sent to the house from Richmond, and so frightens her that she gains a chance to act in her place. She finds an extraordinary set of affairs at the house, and during the first night is nearly terrified out of her senses when, hiding in the chapel, she sees a ghostly figure come from the grand organ. The house is roused by her screams as she flees the room, and she is forbidden from going back there by the sister of the missing man. During the following night she is locked in her room during a thunderstorm, and while escaping through a window sees the ghostly figure again in the family graveyard. She enlists the aid of an old black man and, both badly scared, make an investigation which starts from a particular chord played at the grand organ. They find that certain keys cause a secret door in the organ to open, revealing a secret passage to a family tomb. There she discovers two expert crooks and solves a mystery that has baffled the detectives, laying bare the scheme to extort a young man accused of the crime whom she has become deeply interested.

As described in a film magazine, Dick Armitage (Hughes), essentially honest but weak, steals a small sum from his employer, Walter Haskell (Conklin), but confesses the theft prior to its discovery in hopes of leniency. Haskell asks him to sign a confession and gives him three days to raise the money, meanwhile discharging him. Dick is unable to raise the sum so his sister Shirley (Bennett) enters Haskell's employ as a stenographer to pay back the debt. Haskell becomes enamored of her and allows her marked attentions, to the dismay of Bobby Baker (Welch), also in Haskell's employ and Shirley's sweetheart. Matters reach a climax when Haskell attempts certain familiarities and is rebuffed. He then threatens the arrest of Dick unless Shirley bends to his will. She returns to the office at night to steal Dick's confession and is caught by Haskell. Mrs. Haskell (Matthews) has detectives watching her husband and they bring her to the scene. A woman who had lived upon Haskell's bounty also appears. The next morning Haskell is found dead in his office. Dick believes his sister is guilty and unsuccessfully attempts to take the blame. Mrs. Haskell arrives at the police headquarters and vindicates Shirley. The police later locate the murderess with happiness then following Dick, Shirley, and Bobbie.

Amy (Bennett) is married to a cad but visits another man who loves her and helps her endure her marriage. After a confrontation and struggle between the men which leads to a death, Amy stands accused of the murder.

The film tells the story of an attempted Russian infiltration of American industry, and includes a depiction of the "nationalization of women" under Bolshevism, including "extras on horseback, rounding up women, throwing them into dungeons and beating them."

College graduate John King (Hughes) is sympathetic to the left in a general way. Then he is seduced, both romantically and politically, by Sophia Guerni (Du Brey), a female agitator. Her superior is the Bolshevik Boris Blotchi (Richardson), who has a "wild dream of planting the scarlet seed of terrorism in American soil."Brownlow, 263 Sofia and Boris turn their attention to the Weston shipyards that are managed by John's childhood sweetheart. The workers have valid grievances, but the Bolsheviks set out to manipulate the situation. They are "the dangerous element following in the wake of labor as riffraff and ghouls follow an army." When they threaten John's earlier love, he has an epiphany and renounces revolutionary doctrine.

Simon is a high school student who always gets high grades. He isn't popular and spends his free time doing his home work and helping his mother. One day, he is in a store buying an LP album for his mother and runs into the popular brothers, Arnout and Victor van Riebeeck.

Arnout and Victor are the sons of a very wealthy man and like to make trouble. Arnout is trying to steal an LP album, but gets caught by the store clerk. He shoves the LP album into Simon's hands to stay out of trouble and it seems to work. Eventually, Simon steals the LP album for the boys. Outside, they get to know each other better.

They are interrupted by Ronnie, a high school drop-out and bully. He breaks Simon's LP album. Simon is too afraid to stand up for himself, so it is Arnout who helps Simon out. They get acquainted with Ronnie and they all eventually get into trouble when Ronnie steals a motorbike.

The owner of the motorbike calls the police who then try to arrest Ronnie. He gets away and decides to crash in the attic of the Van Riebeeck house. The boys decide to help him out, without Arnout and Victor's parents or the maids and other house staff, finding out.

Nothing seems to go wrong and Simon has the time of his life hanging out with Arnout and Victor at their enormous mansion. Simon is especially interested in Arnout's girlfriend, Frederique. Arnout isn't really interested in her and tells Simon he can have her. Simon tries to make a move, but Frederique isn't interested in him in a romantic way.

Meanwhile, Ronnie becomes more of a problem. He starts to demand stuff. The boys try to force him to go away, but Ronnie threatens to tell the police that they helped him steal the motorbike, if he gets busted. Before Arnout and Victor are about to go on vacation, they know it is time for Ronnie to leave. The boys try everything to get Ronnie out of the house, including making a fake passport and convincing him to leave the country. But nothing seems to work and the boys see only one solution: Murder.

They try to poison his drink, but it goes wrong. They plan on strangling him with a cord. Victor is supposed to be on the look out, while Arnout and Simon are strangling him. When Arnout chickens out, Simon decides to do it alone. He tries to choke him, but Ronnie is stronger and pushes him away before he tries to run from them. Afraid that Ronnie will tell someone, Arnout runs after him and hits him in the head with an axe.

They bury him and a few days later Arnout and Victor are about to go on vacation. Arnout tells Simon that a lot has happened in the past few weeks and it is better for them not to see each other. The movie finally ends with intertitles, saying the boys got arrested and went into TBS. Arnout and Victor are now free and took over their father's business. They now become two of the richest men in the Netherlands, while Simon is forgotten.

María de Jesus, better known as Marichuy, is humble young girl living with Candelaria, a laundress who gave her a home when she was wandering on the streets. Candelaria is like a mother to Marichuy because she never met her biological mother as she was left in an orphanage when she was a baby. The abandonment has led her to believe her mother never loved her. Marichuy's biological mother, Cecilia Velarde, entrusted her baby to a priest, named Father Anselmo, who took the baby to an orphanage, after she thought she was dying. Now, she regrets making that decision and has spent most of her life searching for her lost child.

Marichuy also hides a horrible secret. At the age of 14, Marichuy ran away from the orphanage, and began to live on the streets, doing her best to survive. One night, she was attacked by a drunk man. She cannot seek justice for what happened to her because she did not see the man's face very well since she was attacked late at night. This experience, as well as having terrible recurrent nightmares, leaves her with a deep resentment towards men.

Juan Miguel San Román is a prestigious psychiatrist who has dedicated his time to the rehabilitation of young rebels and criminals. This serves as a distraction from his failing marriage to his wife Viviana and a horrible crime he committed during his youth while he was drunk. Once again, destiny brings Juan Miguel and Marichuy together when she is arrested with a group of friends. From that point, he vows to help Marichuy and he takes her to Judge Patricio Velarde's home, a very strict, heartless man, who is also her biological father.

As soon as Marichuy steps foot into the house, Cecilia welcomes her with open arms, but Judge Patricio despises her from the start due to her lack of manners. She also is not well received by the Velarde's daughter, Estefanía and her aunt, Isabela. Estefanía is not the Velarde's real daughter. She and her aunt schemed up a plan to have Cecilia believe that she had found her daughter, that way, they would both move into their mansion and not live in poverty anymore.

Eventually, Marichuy and Juan Miguel fall in love and get married. On their wedding night, Marichuy has the same nightmare, but this time she is able to recognize the man's face who is Juan Miguel, the love of her life. Marichuy runs out of the hotel room, devastated. Juan Miguel runs after her and tries to calm her. She apologizes but Juan Miguel confesses that her nightmares were, indeed, true. This enrages Marichuy and she runs off again and takes a bus back to Mexico City.

The next stage of the novela is Juan Miguel constantly begging Marichuy to forgive him and she rejecting him. She later finds out she is pregnant and decides to forgive him. Turns out however, that Juan Miguel's first wife Viviana is still alive and she returns pretending she lost her memory. Juan Miguel thinking Marichuy came to beg him for a divorce instead of coming to forgive him, screams about Viviana's return before Marichuy has a chance to speak. Devastated Marichuy leaves and hides out in a farm for a while.

Then begins the third stage of the novela. This stage consists of pregnant Marichuy hiding out in a farm of guy name Omar (better known as Leopardo) while taking a fake name of Lirio. While she is in the farm Leopardo falls in love with Lirio (really Marichuy) and she agrees to marry him, and she has Juan Miguel's kid. Everything appears to be going well for Marichuy. Meanwhile, Juan Miguel is missing Marichuy and is taking care of his supposedly memory-lost wife, Viviana. He hires a nanny, Blanca, to take care of his daughter Mayita. Blanca turns out to have multiple personality disorders and her other personality, Ivette, stabs Viviana, killing her. Juan Miguel takes the blame for the murder trying to help Blanca. Well Marichuy sees of his imprisonment in the newspaper and decides to go back, standing Leopardo up before their wedding, to hep Juan Miguel. However, Juan Miguel gets freed since Blanca confesses it was her (or at least kinda her since it was her other personality Ivette). He decides to marry Blanca in order to help her and make her feel supported.

Marichuy gets back but discovers Juan Miguel is engaged to Blanca and is heartbroken. She knows she lost Leopardo for coming back to help Juan Miguel so she doesn't know what to do and decides to pursue acting (having previously acted before hiding out in the farm). She starts working as a theater actress to support herself and her child, as well as Candelaria. Leopardo comes looking for her and turns out he is friends with Juan Miguel and they talk about their great love for a woman not knowing it is the same woman. At some point they discover Marichuy and Lirio are the same woman and Juan Miguel discovers he has a son with Marichuy. Many things happens but at the end of this stage of the novela Leopardo and Blanca get together and Marichuy goes blind after a bullet hits her in her head, luckily doesn't die.

Unfortunately, this is not enough for Marichuy and Juan Miguel to finally get together. Many other things happens in the novela, like; Marichuy losing her kid, Marichuy finding out she is a Velarde and forgiving her parents (after many episodes of hating them), Juan Miguel becoming an eye surgeon, Juan Miguel pretending to be someone else to be close to Marichuy since she is blind, and Juan Miguel giving Marichuy her sight back through a surgery. At the end, Juan Miguel and Marichuy finally get married again living happily ever after with their two kids.

Although ostensibly a documentary, ''My Winnipeg'' contains a series of fictional episodes and an overall story trajectory concerning the author-narrator-character "Guy Maddin" and his desire to produce the film as a way to finally leave/escape the city of Winnipeg. "Guy Maddin" is played by Darcy Fehr but voiced by Maddin himself (in narration): Fehr appears groggily trying to rouse himself from sleep aboard a jostling train as Maddin wonders aloud "What if?" What if he were able to actually rouse from the sleepy life he lives in Winnipeg and escape? Maddin decides that the only possible escape would be to "film my way out", thus motivating the creation of the "docu-fantasia" already underway.

Maddin then describes Winnipeg in general terms, introducing it to the viewer, noting primarily its location at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, a place known as "the Forks". Maddin equates this Y-like junction to a woman's groin and associates it with his mother. Maddin also notes the apocryphal aboriginal myth of a secret "Forks beneath the Forks", an underground river system below the aboveground river system –the superimposition of these two sets of rivers has imbued the site and Winnipeg itself with magical/magnetic/sexual energy. Maddin also notes that Winnipeg is the geographical centre of North America, and thus these secret rivers are "the Heart of the Heart" of the continent and of Canada. Maddin regales the viewer with one of the film's many suspect historical "facts" about Winnipeg: "the Canadian Pacific Railway used to sponsor an annual treasure hunt [that] required our citizens to wander our city in a day-long combing of the streets and neighbourhoods. First prize was a one-way ticket on the next train out of town." No winners in a hundred years could bring themselves to leave the city after coming to know the city so closely over the course of the treasure hunt. Maddin then posits an alternative explanation for Winnipeggers never leaving Winnipeg: sleepiness. He notes that Winnipeg is the sleepwalking capital of the world, with ten times the normal rate of sleepwalking, and that everyone in Winnipeg carries around the keys to their former homes in case they return while asleep. Winnipeg by-laws require that sleepwalkers be allowed to sleep in their old homes by the new tenants.

Maddin rents his own childhood home at 800 Ellice Avenue for a month, hiring actors to play his family (including Ann Savage as his mother) in order to recreate scenes from his childhood memories, excluding his father and himself. The "family" gathers to watch the television show ''LedgeMan'', a fictional drama in which "the same oversensitive man takes something said the wrong way, climbs out on a window ledge, and threatens to jump." His mother, in the next window, convinces him to live. Maddin's mother is noted as the star of the show. The film recounts the conditions of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike, a real-world event with international significance, before returning to the family re-enactments, including Mother's suspicion of Janet Maddin, who hit a deer on the highway but is accused of covering up a sexual encounter. Maddin announces that this, like "everything that happens in [Winnipeg] is a euphemism." The film then recounts the city's history of Spiritualism, including a visit by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1923. The film next examines Winnipeg architectural landmarks, including the Eaton's building and the Winnipeg Arena, both of which are demolished (while the arena is being destroyed, Maddin becomes the last person to urinate in its washroom). Maddin imagines the arena's salvation by the "Black Tuesdays", a fictional team of hockey heroes "in their 70s, 80s, 90s and beyond", then re-enacts a family scene where Mother is harassed to cook a meal.

The film recounts a racetrack fire that drove horses to perish in the Red River – the horse heads reappear, ghostly, each winter, frozen in the ice. Further Winnipeg landmarks, including the Golden Boy statue atop the provincial legislative building, the Paddle Wheel restaurant, the Hudson's Bay department store, and the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame, make appearances in distorted versions of themselves, as does the Sherbrook Pool. The film then recalls If Day (an actual historical event when a faked Nazi invasion of the city was mounted during World War II to promote the sale of war bonds), and a buffalo stampede set off by the mating of two gay bison. Time is now running out for Guy Maddin, who fears he will never leave Winnipeg, since the family re-enactments have failed to free him fully. To accomplish this feat of leaving, Maddin imagines a pinup girl for the 1919 strike's newsletter ''The Citizen'': dreaming up this "Citizen Girl" allows Maddin to leave Winnipeg in her capable hands, guilt-free. The final family re-enactment then involves Maddin's brother Cameron, who in real life committed suicide, rationalizing this death calmly in a discussion with Maddin's "Mother".

Mary's (Bennett) father James Moreland (Conklin) returns from a business trip to Philadelphia and while searching his suitcase for a promised present, she finds the autographed picture of Dolly Wright (Matthews). Mary does not inform her mother (McDowell) of this fact, but instead decides to save her father from this wicked woman. She advertises for an escort to take about town in a search of the Wright woman. Billy Friske (Lee), the son of the owner of the newspaper, answers the advertisement and they soon discover Moreland at a dance. Mary makes the acquaintance of the young woman and is soon invited to her apartment. There she meets her father, who sees the error of his ways and returns home with Mary. Mary is made happy by the faithful Billy and accepts him as her life partner.

The film is a morality story on the evils of marital infidelity and the wild lifestyle of New York actors. At the same time, the film included scenes of seduction and debauchery that made it the subject of controversy over its prurient content.

The film's plot centers on Adrienne Renault (played by Louise Glaum), the beautiful queen of the Midnight Follies at the Frivolity Theater.

The film opens with Renault's current conquest, a married millionaire, Philip Overman (played by William Conklin). Overman is in his private box watching Renault perform her seductive "Spider Dance". Renault comes on stage dressed as a spider, "clad in a translucent cloak of webs wrapped cloak-like around a body-hugging black sheath".

In another scene of debauchery, the film depicts a party at which "stage-door johnnies drink out of women's slippers and scantily clad chorines slide down banisters, their undergarments visible to all and sundry".

The film then shifts to Mrs. Overman (played by Myrtle Stedman), home alone in her empty mansion. Her suspicions persuade her to hire a private detective to follow her husband. Eventually, Mrs. Overman uncovers her husband's infidelity. She begs Renault to release her husband, but Renault refuses, and Mrs. Overman obtains a divorce.

By this time, Renault has fallen in love with a new millionaire, Dick Wallace (played by Irving Cummings). Renault marries Wallace, but Wallace then betrays Renault, falling in love with Renault's young protege, Daisy (played by Viola Barry). It was Renault who had coached Daisy in the ways of seducing wealthy married men. Renault begs Daisy to release Wallace, harkening back to the scene where Mrs. Overmire had pleaded with Renault. As Renault had done with Mrs. Overman, Daisy refuses to release Wallace.

Renault then sails for Europe. She ends up on the same ship with the reunited Overmans, who are on a second honeymoon. The chastened Renault does nothing to disrupt the relationship, resigned to a life of solitude. The film's final intertitle reads, "The standards of morality eternally demand that the naked soul of Sex be stripped of its falsehoods – which can only be atoned for through bitter tears."

As described in a film publication, Betty Palmer (Bennett) is in a New York criminal gang. Her sweetheart, Roger Moran (Hughes), completes a two-year sentence at Sing Sing and surprises her when he announces at a banquet the gang gives in honor of his return that he is going straight. She refuses to leave her pals in the gang, so he leaves her and finally obtains work at a local bank in a small New England town. Later, the gang leader sends Betty and a confederate to rob the bank. Roger follows them back to New York and, by posing as a backslider, succeeds through Betty in recovering the stolen cash. Betty then abandons the life of crime and marries the man of her heart.

Rex Rossmore (Moore) disgust at the hairpin-strewing, straggly locks of his young bride Muriel (Bennett) and her concentration upon extra-particularness in her housekeeping make it easy for him to forsake her company outside the home for that of his stenographer Effie Wainwright (Livingston). Overhearing her husband's confession of her failure as a wife to him as he makes it to his employer, she considers suicide. Making herself orderly for death, she discovers that she is beautiful in life, and conceives a plan whereby she plays an affair of her own against that of her husband and stenographer, acquaints herself with the ways of the gay world and practices them until her husband's rage brings issue to their artificial existences. This reveals to the man that his love is to the woman herself, after all, and not to her fashionable habiliments. This readjustment is certain to reflect a compromise in several things after a reconciliation is brought about after the husband discovers that another man is in love with his wife.

The comic builds upon the idea that during the Cold War the superpowers Russia and USA built super-powered beings that should be used in case of a war. The story takes place in modern times when these beings wake up.

Princeton Hadley (Chatterton), because of favors done during his college days by Billy Westover (Lee), feels a moral obligation upon Billy's sudden death in an automobile accident to hold to the responsibility of paying the widow's alimony to Judith (Bennett) as her husband's bondsman, even though the law does not require this. Shortly before his death, Billy had been divorced from his wife and had lost his fortune. Later, Princeton meets the widow without knowing her identity and falls in love with her. Judith is revealed when the two are brought before their lawyer, and Princeton convinces her that he wishes to continue his obligation as her husband.

The series centers around a misanthropic alien girl called Emma, who is sent to earth by her parents to repeat the fifth grade.

As summarized in a film publication, Marjorie Bowen (Bennett) is a model who longs for romance and adventure of the story book variety, but never gets further than displaying gowns at an ultra-fashionable clothing shop. Every customer who comes in is buying a gown for a ball thrown by some Prince. Yvette (Pavis), a French woman, comes to order a gown and brings her fiance Sir Leeds (Webb), who immediately attracts Marjorie's attention, but she loses hope after she hears that he is engaged. Marjorie stays alone in the shop to deliver the gown to Yvette and dresses herself in the costume. Some crook business follows in which Yvette and an idler are implicated. Marjorie gets mixed up in it and ends up kidnapped and in a room with Sir Leeds, who tries to explain what happened. They escape and Marjorie impresses the Prince (Ghent) by recovering a note and piece of jewelry that the Prince had indiscreetly given a New York society woman and which he feared would be used against him. Leeds turns out to be a detective. He asks Marjorie to marry him.

Li Tung is awoken in the middle of the night by the sounds of his upstairs neighbor hammering something. He confronts his neighbor, and sees a girl holding a cat inside his neighbor's apartment. The next day, Tung sees the neighbor, the girl, and the cat departing in a moving van. Tung enters the neighbor's now-empty apartment, where he sees piles of newspaper on the floor, some of them bloodied. He lifts the papers and discovers a set of organs, prompting him to notify the police. When the police investigate, they determine the organs to be fresh cat intestines.

Later, Tung has dinner with police inspector Wang Chieh-Mei, adventure novelist Wisely, and Wisely's partner Pai So. Wisely later writes that he is convinced that the girl and her cat are from another star. At a museum, an octagonal artifact unidentified by archaeologists is stolen by the girl, the cat, and the girl's knight Errol, who know the artifact to be a weapon. A large, fungus-like monster surging with electricity bursts into the museum, attacking and killing museum guards while the girl, the cat, and Errol escape. A curious Wisely learns of the girl's new address and sneaks into their house.

Inside, Wisely overhears the girl telling the cat that they must find a second octagon in order to defeat "the star killer" and return home. The cat alerts the girl to Wisely's presence and scratches him, after which Errol knocks Wisely unconscious. Errol suggests they destroy him, but the girl refuses. When he awakes, Wisely finds no trace of his attackers. Some time later, Wisely and Pai So learn about the theft of the octagon from the museum. Upon visiting the crime scene, Wisely sees that the area is covered in scorch marks, and finds cat hair.

Wisely and Wang borrow a dog named Lao Pu from a man named Chen, intending on using the dog to track down the cat. Wang and four other police officers are attacked by the fungal monster, which takes control of their bodies. A possessed Wang acquires firearms from a group of criminals, killing the criminals when they demand he pay for the weapons, and showing himself immune to their gunfire in the process.

At the location of the second octagon, Wisely and others witness the cat stealing the artifact, and flying through the air as he escapes. Lao Pu tracks the cat to a junkyard, where the cat severely injures Lao Pu. Wisely nearly apprehends the cat, but he flees, leaving behind a severed portion of his tail. At a hospital, Chen takes Lao Pu home, and Wisely learns from a bone analysis that the cat the tail belonged to died many years prior.

The cat, whom the alien girl calls "the General", enters Wisely and Pai So's home, wanting his tail back. The girl and Errol follow, and confirm to Wisely and Pai So that they are extraterrestrials. The tail reattaches itself to the General. Wang appears outside, and begins firing bullets into the house. Wisely retaliates by throwing Molotov cocktails, but Wang is unharmed. Wang follows Wisely to the roof, where Wisely electrocutes him. Wang falls off the roof, and Errol sets himself on fire and jumps onto Wang. Wisely, Pai So, and the girl drive with the General to an observatory, where the girl uses a telescope to locate her home star. Her distant home sends a beam of light down to the observatory, radiating the General's body and making him "the strongest knight in the universe".

Wisely, the girl, and the General drive to a building where they encounter the fungal monster. The monster forces them up to the roof, where the General, holding the completed octagon in his jaws, flies into the monster's mouth, destroying it from the inside and causing it to explode into a glittering substance. The girl and the General use the substance to transport themselves home. Later, Pai So arrives with police. A reporter follows, but Wisely declines to provide her with a story, saying instead that she can read about the events in his next novel.

After her sister goes missing in Los Angeles, a woman tries to find information about the disappearance at city hall. The police are not helpful, but she does get support from a local crime reporter. As the two investigate the disappearance together, they are led to a shady detective and a black-market baby ring.

The novel begins with a prologue set at the 20th World Science Fiction Convention (Chicon III) in 1962 at which a large group of famous science fiction authors in attendance are watching a television broadcast of an American space probe as it lands on an inhabited Mars. Those present include Frederik and Carol Pohl, Poul Anderson, H. Beam Piper, Guest of Honor Theodore Sturgeon, Jack Williamson, Robert and Virginia Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Larry Niven, Isaac Asimov, L. Sprague and Catherine Crook de Camp, John W. Campbell, Frank Herbert, and Leigh Brackett. Heinlein mentions an idea for a novel about Mars that he had had but set aside when "the preliminary orbital telescope reports" had come in. (In actual history, the completed book, ''Stranger in a Strange Land'', won the Hugo Award for Best Novel at the convention.) The authors watch and comment as the broadcast from the probe reveals a Martian canal and wildlife and then, startlingly, the arrival of human-like Martians in a "land ship" who haul the probe off.

The main action of the novel commences in 2000, and both the US and the Sino-Soviet "Eastbloc" have bases on the planet. The US has its base off in the wilderness away from the major cities, and the Eastbloc has placed its base inside the remnants of the Tollamune emperor's realm within Olympus Mons, a ruling dynasty that once ruled all of Mars. Although in decline, Martian civilization is significantly older than Earth's and has considerable expertise in genetic engineering to the point that Martian engines, ranged weapons, and other complex equipment are actually advanced creatures specifically bred and engineered for certain tasks.

The archaeologist Jeremy Wainman is sent by the U.S. Aero-Space Force to explore the lost city of Rema-Dza out in the "Great Beyond," or the Martian desert. The Space Force also hires a female Martian mercenary, Teyud za-Zhalt, who leads the expedition to the city. Fighting a pack of feral engines under the city, Jeremy and Teyud fall in love.

It becomes apparent that there is more to Teyud than she initially recounts. When the expedition discovers the lost "Invisible Crown" of the Tollamune emperors, a symbol of authority that gives the wearer immense power, everyone is startled to find that Teyud can wear it even though only someone from the Tollamune dynasty can do so. Teyud admits that she is the illegitimate daughter of the current emperor. The former mercenary now commands the power of an ancient technological artifact allegedly created by the aliens that terraformed Mars and Venus and seeded them with life from Earth.

Jeremy and Teyud soon discover that there are Tollamune dynastic factions who know of Teyud's ancestry and are looking to kill or to capture her. Jeremy is captured while he attempts to protect Teyud. That forces her, with the help of her father's soldiers, to attempt to rescue him from the fortress of a potential usurper, who had been displaced from the imperial succession after the emperor recognized his daughter's legitimacy. The crown prince is later defeated after playing a game of ''Atanj'' (Martian chess), using people as the pieces, including Teyud and Jeremy. Teyud's father also dies and so passes the title of emperor to her.

With the crown prince dead and a Tollamune once again ruling all of Mars, Teyud takes Jeremy as her prince consort. The couple are visited by an ancient alien computer program, which cryptically announces that they will proceed to the next stage. Both are unsure what that means, but they soon discover that three interplanetary "Gates" have opened up on Earth, Venus and Mars, each leading to another world. The book ends with Teyud and Jeremy visiting "Vow'da" (Moon-World) the new world on the other side of the Martian gate.

The film follows a young Mary Crow Dog and her poor Lakota family living on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota as she briefly learns the ways of her people and of the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee told to her by her grandfather Fool Bull (played by Floyd Red Crow Westerman). She is later put into St. Tristan Boarding School along with her sister Barbra. Mary describes her boarding school experience,

"The years passed as they tried to turn us from Lakota to white. They took away our language, the words of our elders about the history of our people and our memories grew dim. They took away our souls every day and they took our pictures once a year." One night, Barbra decides to run away, but it isn't clear where she is going. Mary is left alone without her sister.

The years dragged on as Mary endures hardships of white society, and as a Lakota girl, she wasn't so sure she wanted to learn the ways of her people, until she reads a newspaper given to her by a young white girl named Nadine (Amy Moore Davis). The paper titled "AMERICANS BEFORE COLUMBUS!" described the rape and looting of Indian lands in America. Mary prints out papers that is a sign to all Indian people in boarding schools who should turn down the white man's ways and take back their land, but she is expelled by her teachers.

Having been kicked out of school, Mary finds her way back to the Oglala Tribal Office in Pine Ridge looking for a job and her aunt Elsie Flood (Casey Camp-Horinek), but to no avail. So she goes searching for her mother and finds her living with a white man and living in the white society. She once again goes searching for a job, but the manager doesn't want to hire Native Americans (revealing the racism in South Dakota in the 1970s). With no job, or anyone who will help her, she hitches a ride with two Indian men, but while they are driving to Rosebud, the passenger attempts to rape her and she jumps out of the car. Later that evening, Webster finds her walking on the road. He picks her up and she joins his posse of drifters who drink their earnings away and drive aimlessly. After almost dying in a collision with a train, Mary decides to get her life together by joining the American Indian Movement and takes part in the 1973 Occupation of Wounded Knee. In spite of the support by various tribe members and Vietnam Veterans they're constantly preyed on by the police who sometimes snipe them at random. Among the struggles, she finds out she's pregnant. It ends with Wounded Knee being reclaimed by the police and with various members including her being arrested. Nevertheless the mission was accomplished.

Young Marcos Assunção goes to the fictional city of Pontal D' Areia to assist in the businesses of the Assunção family. The young man meets Ruth, daughter of a poor fisherman, and falls in love with her, but he ends up involved with Raquel, the twin sister of Ruth. The sisters are identical, but of opposite personalities. While Ruth truly loves the young man, Raquel desires his position and riches. She also has a lover, Wanderley, an outlaw.

Tonho da Lua, best friend of Ruth, is mentally disturbed and famous for creating sculptures of women with the sand of the beach. Raquel must also face Virgílio Assunção, Marcos's father, who doesn't accept her relationship with his son. Virgílo, an unscrupulous man, is the vice-mayor and owner of the biggest hotel in the city. His goal is to turn Pontal D' Areia into a tourist center, but he must deal with the mayor of the city, the Green politician Breno. The population of the city is divided. Breno has one ally, Tônia, a local trader. To demoralize Breno, Virgílio puts scarecrows in the beaches, symbolizing the mayor who scares the tourists.

Meanwhile, Ruth suffers in silence over the marriage of Raquel, knowing that Marcos is only interested in Raquel. The plot has a twist when Raquel is believed dead and Ruth assumes her personality to be with the man she loves. But Raquel did not die and she returns to claim her own life.

As the film progresses, Awadein realizes that Srg. Peter was the prison warden at Abu Ghraib and that he is also staying at the hotel that he intends to bomb. Events reach their climax when Shoukry betrays Awadein upon realizing that the bombing of the hotel is a futile act that will only result in the murder of innocent people.

This book starts with George Schnitzer's training on the Grumman F9F jet before deployment aboard the . Carrier Air Group 15 soon will meet the North Korean communist military. The grind of combat flying becomes quickly apparent as they attack North Korean supply lines. The North Korean gunners try to destroy the U.S. Navy Ground-attack aircraft with Anti-aircraft warfare installations. For the U.S. pilots it is not only the North Korean bullets that they face, but also the difficulty of operating jets off the World War II aircraft carrier. The flights alternate between boring and suddenly frightening as the deadly North Korean Tracer ammunition bullets chase them.

Alice McKinley (Alyson Stoner) is an 11-year-old girl who is facing many challenges. Her mother, Marie, died when she was very young, so she never really got to know her. She lives with her brother Lester (Lucas Grabeel) and her father, Ben (Luke Perry). The family moves to a new house, and soon meet their new neighbors, a girl Alice's age named Elizabeth (Parker McKenna Posey) and her mother. The next day Alice goes to school with Elizabeth and runs into a boy named Patrick (Dylan McLaughlin), whom she accidentally walked in on in a dressing room a few days earlier in his underwear. They line up to find their teachers, and Alice wants to be in beautiful Miss Cole's (Ashley Eckstein) class. Instead, she winds up with the seemingly evil (but actually strict and caring) Mrs. Plotkin (Penny Marshall), who gives her a hard time. Alice tries out for a play that Miss Cole's class is directing, and really wants the princess role. Unfortunately, she is tone-deaf (although her dad is a musician), so she doesn’t get the part. Her arch rival Pamela (Bridgit Mendler) gets the role instead, and Alice lands the role of a frog. Pamela hasn't been very nice to Alice ever since she came to school. Alice tells her dad and brother about it, but they end up being discouraging. Her dad opens a new shop, and Alice tries to set up her dad and Miss Cole up, as she's searching for a mother figure to replace the one she lost, but her dad says she is too young for him. Then her dad starts dating a new girl, Kelly, (Jilanne Klaus) and Alice is afraid her father will marry her. One night, Alice sneaks downstairs and sees her father and Kelly kissing, and it really hurts her. Her Aunt Sally (Ann Dowd), who is her mother's older sister, and her husband come to visit. Their father finds Aunt Sally annoying, as she thinks they can't take care of themselves. During the visit, Alice finds a video of her mother, and later watches the video. Her father reprimands her when he finds out, saying that those videos were private. Back at school, Alice slowly begins to bond with Mrs. Plotkin, and finds that she isn't as bad as everyone believes she is. She also realizes that Miss Cole isn't “all that”. On the night of the play, Alice accidentally tears down the set, and everyone is upset at her, including Miss Cole. They tell her to leave, but Mrs. Plotkin consoles her. After the play, everyone apologizes, even Pamela. At the end of the movie, Pamela and Alice are friends, Patrick asks Alice out, which leads to her having a daydream about her and Patrick kissing, and Lester is seen playing with his band, the Naked Nomads.

Ou Motoura is a Japanese, former national men's volleyball player and celebrity, single, independent, and employed at the fictional as a coach for the boys' volleyball team. When a member is expelled for fighting, the group dissolves, leaving Motoura to transfer to the girls' team instead. The exchange a sullen, unwanted one, with his reputation as a sportsman on the line, Motoura swallows his pride and takes up their training. It is only afterward, however, that he begins to develop feelings for them.

After a Roman centurion is continually defeated by the Village of Indomitable Gauls, he concludes that they must be gods. Julius Caesar sets twelve tasks that only gods could perform, similar to the twelve tasks of Hercules, to prove that the Gauls are mere mortals. If the Gauls succeed, he will admit defeat and let the Gauls become the rulers of Rome, but if they fail, they will become his slaves. The challenge is accepted and Asterix and Obelix are chosen to represent the village, eventually succeeding in all tasks. In the end, Caesar admits the Gauls' superiority. He is shown living in retirement married to Cleopatra, although it is explained that the ending is what it is because it's just a cartoon film, so "anything goes".

Jungle medics Dr. Sturdy (Carl Benton Reid) and his daughter Anne (Jil Jarmyn) are opposed by witch doctor Futa (James Edwards) of the Nagasu tribe, who regards their work as a threat to his own livelihood. Futa incites the tribe to waylay Anne's fiance Dr. Ken Warwick (Harry Lauter), who is saved by Tarzan (Gordon Scott).

Later Tarzan and his adopted son Tartu (Rickie Sorensen) enlist the doctors' services on behalf of Jane (Eve Brent), suffering from appendicitis. Futa hypnotizes Moto (Nick Stewart), a native assistant of Sturdy, to murder Jane, but Tarzan thwarts the plot. Learning that the young Nagasu chief (Roy Glenn) is sick, Tarzan attempts to persuade them to let Sturdy treat them. Seizing his chance, Futa has the ape man taken captive and condemned to death.

To restore his own credentials, the witch doctor then undertakes to cure the chief himself, hedging his bets by having his henchman Ramo (Woody Strode) steal medicine from Sturdy. Unfortunately, Ramo purloins a poison by mistake. Freeing himself, Tarzan intervenes and prevents the administration of the poison to the chief; Futa then swallows it himself to demonstrate that there is no harm in it — and dies. Dr. Sturdy is consequently called in, successfully curing the chief.

Filming locations

Much of the movie was filmed in Africa but some scenes were filmed in Norther California, at Hat Creek, the Pit River and at Burney Falls.

As described in a film publication, several years earlier Mrs. Sheldon (McDowell) had been deserted by her husband. She brought up her son Robert (Hughes) in the belief that his father was dead. His desire to make good in the city leads his mother to send him to his father, Willard Thatcher (Kilgour). Unknown to him, Robert is now working for his own father, and all goes well until he learns of his father's nefarious financial schemes. They end up fighting, and Willard tells Robert that while he is married to his mother, Robert is not his son. Willard is accidentally killed, and on the evidence of Fan Baxter (Blythe), Willard's woman, Robert is condemned. A last minute forced confession from Fan by Robert's mother saves the day.

As reviewed in a film magazine, a rich man's son marries an artist's model, and is then disinherited by his father. Despite their circumstances, both the son and his model wife do well.

Chappy's story is much like Sally's of ''Sally the Witch''. Chappy, becoming sick of the old customs of her people, left the Land of Magic for the human world. Soon her family sees how much she has in the other realm that they decide to join her in new home. Chappy is known for being the first witch to use a wand (actually a magical baton, given to her by her grandfather). Her special chant is ''"Abura Mahariku Maharita Kabura"''. Chappy's closest human friends are tomboy Michiko and girly-girl Shizuko, much like her predecessor Sally's friends Yotchan and Sumire.

In a nod to the ecological concerns of the early 1970s, the series featured one noteworthy episode late in the show's run, written by Shukei Nagasaka, which dealt with issues such as pollution and use of natural resources. The show is also notable for featuring several Disney references, including a reference to the 1959 film ''Sleeping Beauty'' in one episode, and for the panda mascot character, Don-chan, introduced to cash in on a panda mini-craze in 1972 Japan (which also informed Hayao Miyazaki's ''Panda! Go Panda!'').

In 2012 a comet named ‘Christopher-Floyd’ threatens the Earth. The last chance to prevent an apocalyptic impact is to launch nuclear missiles from the ISS. US Air-Force Commander Matthew ‘Matt’ Drax leads a group of three jets on a reporting mission about the result of the nuclear strike. The counter measures fail and Christopher Floyd hits the earth. Luckily Commander Drax's Jet is taken out of time before the energy of the impact can kill him. Suddenly he finds himself crash-landed in an ice landscape, attacked by human-sized two-legged rats (Taratzen) and rescued by a Stone Age tribe. Bit by bit Drax (who is called Maddrax by the natives) finds out, he has been thrown more than five centuries into the future. Christopher-Floyd was not just a comet, but also a kind of space-arc, which resulted in increased evolution and the appearance of completely new life forms on earth. On the search for other survivors from his mission Maddrax finds the last bits of humanity dumbed by the rays Christopher-Floyd has emitted. Remaining spots of civilization (former government shelters or underground hideouts) are tainted and show a perverted version of their today appearance. On his voyages on earth and later the solar system, Maddrax finds out that Christopher-Floyd is only a small part of a huge eternal interstellar conflict and because of its landing on earth, the whole planet nears complete destruction.

Bernice finds herself marooned in Victorian London where she seeks the help of Mycroft Holmes.

Marise La Noue (Enid Bennett) and Jean Leonnec (Ramon Novarro) are young lovers who elope to Paris; however, they are separated shortly after their arrival, leading to the downward spiral of both their lives: She becomes a prostitute known as 'the Red Lily', and he learns the ways of the underworld from Bo-Bo (Wallace Beery).

Huey, Dewey and Louie are enjoying a swim in the lake. But they are being watched by Truant Officer Donald Duck, as he believes that they are skipping school to have fun in the lake.

He captures the nephews and drives them to the schoolhouse in his truant officer van. While he endlessly goes on about the importance of a good education, the boys pull out their pocket knives, managing to cut themselves out of the van and make a run for it. Donald notices the back of his van is gone and he chases the boys to their clubhouse.

Donald tries numerous ways to get in, but each attempt fails miserably. In one attempt, he jacks up the clubhouse to load onto his van, but the boys manage to reverse the jack so it comes back down on top of Donald. He tunnels out and decides as a last resort to smoke the boys out. Meanwhile, inside the clubhouse, the boys are cooking three chickens over the fire when suddenly they notice smoke pouring in. They decide to beat Donald at his own game by putting the chickens in the bed and escape through the roof. Donald peeks inside to see if his ploy had worked, and is horrified to see the chickens in the bed. Donald is very beside himself as he thinks he cooked the nephews alive. Then, Huey disguises himself as an angel and is lowered into the clubhouse. He manages to kick Donald in the rear. The second one causes him to fall and his disguise falls off. Realizing that he has been tricked, Donald angrily beats up the trio and takes them to school.

But in a twist ending, as soon as they reach school, Donald is shocked when he sees a sign that says "NOTICE SCHOOL CLOSED FOR SUMMER HOLIDAYS"; he realizes his nephews weren't playing hooky like he thought, and his intention of bringing his nephews back to school was all for nothing. As such, the nephews give Donald an angry glare for what he did to them, and Donald literally shrinks from embarrassment over his mistake.

Prince Amir lives in a lavish and beautiful cage. He lives in a palace with hundreds of his brothers, all barred by law from ever leaving the palace until he, or one of his brothers, becomes the next Sultan. Living under constant threat of death at the hands of his scheming brothers, Amir has chosen a life of solitude and study. His scholarly and alchemical pursuits bring him under suspicion when his brothers begin to die from seemingly supernatural means. Amir finds himself thrown together with his brother Erik, the son of a barbarian princess. Together they must discover the dark secret that is stalking the halls of their golden cage.

Category:American fantasy novels Category:2007 American novels Category:Night Shade Books books

Tarzan and Boy, on their way to meet Jane, who is returning from nursing work in Britain to support the war effort, rescue an "Amazon" woman from an attack by a black panther. During the attack, she drops a golden bracelet which Cheeta picks up. The Amazon woman's ankle is twisted in the incident and she cannot walk. Telling Boy to wait for him, Tarzan carries the woman through a mountain pass to the valley where her city of Palmyria is located. Boy disobeys Tarzan, follows them at a distance, and discovers the location of the city, then returns to wait for Tarzan.

After they reunite with Jane, a group of explorers, led by Sir Guy Henderson, discover the bracelet Cheeta has, and its markings are matched to other relics supposedly from a lost city of Amazons. The explorers attempt to enlist Tarzan to lead them to Palmyria. Tarzan refuses, but Boy, believing he is aiding the advancement of science, is duped into guiding them there.

Boy and the party are captured by the Amazons, and their queen declares that in lieu of the death penalty for invading their city, they will all be forced to work the rest of their lives in the Palmyrian quarries with the other men they keep for labor. The woman Tarzan saved from the panther takes pity and releases them. The group, led by Ballister (Henderson's second-in-command) and Anders, then sets about looting the city's treasure vaults. When Henderson objects, Ballister kills him, then fatally knifes the woman who released them. She is able to sound an alarm before she dies, and the invaders are all killed save Ballister and Anders, who escape with two pieces of treasure.

Boy is recaptured and condemned to die. Cheeta warns Tarzan of Boy's impending doom. Tarzan races to Palmyria, meets Ballister and Anders, and backs them into a mud bog in which they sink and die. He returns the Amazons' treasure in exchange for Boy's freedom.

Gwen Moss (Jeanne Tripplehorn) has spent the better part of her life waiting for the man of her dreams, unaware she briefly bumped into him at school as children and has had several close encounters ever since. She aspires to have a life like her longtime friend Debbie (Jennifer Aniston), a successful doctor with a beautiful home but a marriage that may not be as perfect as it seems on the surface.

Gwen is hired to ghostwrite the autobiography of former child star Francesca Lanfield (Sarah Jessica Parker), whose career virtually ended following her stint on a long-running ''Partridge Family''-''Brady Bunch'' hybrid sitcom. Francesca owns La Fortuna, a picturesque vintage apartment complex (filmed at the historic El Cabrillo). Architect Nick Dawkan's (Dylan McDermott) boss Timo wants to buy and demolish the complex so his firm can construct a modern condominium development in its place. Francesca agrees to the sale as long as Nick is placed in charge of the project, and the two embark on a somewhat tempestuous relationship. Both are damaged emotionally; Francesca has overcome an addiction to drugs but still craves the spotlight, while Nick is dealing with the memory of a father who failed as a songwriter and became a hopeless alcoholic. Meanwhile, Gwen is shocked to discover her father Saul never loved her mother Beebee and is devastated when the two decide to divorce. Her parents' story of how they met from her childhood turns out to be false: Saul got stood up by his date that night and Beebee thought that he was interested in her. They only married to "avoid an argument", as Saul puts it.

Gwen moves into La Fortuna and finds herself surrounded by an assortment of odd but lovable neighbors who have created a family of their own. When the tenants are presented with eviction notices, they decide to fight back. Having discovered the property was designed by Sophia Monroe, one of the first female architects of note (and coincidentally Nick's mentor during the early stages of his career), and served as home to silent film star Louise Brooks, Gwen hopes she can have it declared an historical landmark with the assistance of Jon Haas, the city councilman she is dating. Nick is prepared to fight for his firm until he sees La Fortuna and learns its history and decides it might be worth preserving after all. Though ultimately unsuccessful in preserving La Fortuna, they finally meet at the Nicotine Anonymous meeting, are then happily married, and have a daughter together.

Now aged fifteen Marianne returns to Brighton, where she recuperated from her illness at the end of ''Marianne Dreams'', when she was ten. Much to her disappointment she finds Brighton a lonely and boring place, and she tags along with local girls Alice and Josie despite having little in common with them.

One evening Josie's friend Billie tells the girls of a visit to a local fortune teller who apparently gives remarkably accurate readings. Reluctantly, Marianne joins the girls on a trip to the fortune teller and there she is astonished at how much the woman guesses about her life, including details of her illness five years ago. The fortune teller assures Marianne that she will not be lonely for much longer and that soon she will experience romance.

Spurred on by this Marianne accepts a date with a boy called Alan, whom she doesn't realise is Billie's former boyfriend. This inadvertent betrayal alienates Marianne from the few friends she had, and after Alan also deserts her she is left on her own. It is then that she meets Mark, a boy from London who, it transpires, is the same boy with whom she shared a tutor but never met in ''Marianne Dreams''. The two enjoy the last few days of the holiday together and promise to meet again in London.

At a martial arts tournament, fighters compete for the right to begin a quest to challenge Zetan (Lee), a famous wizard who possesses a special book of enlightenment that is supposed to contain all the world's wisdom. The arrogant brawler Cord (Jeff Cooper) defeats every opponent, but he is disqualified for fighting dishonorably. Cord decides to follow the eventual winner, Morthond (Anthony de Longis), hoping that he can lead Cord to Zetan.

While the two fighters are resting, a blind flutist (Carradine) walks by them and into a nearby building. Cord follows the blind man and sees him easily dispatch a gang of thugs who attack him. Impressed by his fighting skills, Cord asks the blind man to be his teacher. The blind man refuses, but Cord follows him anyway. Cord becomes frustrated with the way the blind man teaches his lessons in riddles, and they soon part ways.

Cord finds Morthond wounded from the first trial. Morthond asks Cord to help him end his suffering and pursue his quest to find Zetan. Cord does, and he faces a tribe of monkey men whose leader, the Monkeyman (Carradine), is a great fighter. Cord challenges and eventually overcomes the Monkeyman, who then tells him how to find his second trial.

On the way, Cord encounters a man in a large cauldron of oil (Wallach) who is attempting to dissolve the lower half of his body. The man is hoping to end his sexual urges to find enlightenment. He invites Cord to join him, but Cord immediately leaves.

Cord then comes upon a band of travelers holding a festival. Cord meets with their leader, Chang-Sha (Carradine), who offers to let Cord sleep with one of his wives, Tara (Erica Creer). Cord declines due to his vow of celibacy. However, he challenges Chang-Sha to combat. The contest is set for the following day. During the night, Cord is joined in his tent by Tara. They make love, and Cord asks Tara to stay with him forever. The next morning when Cord awakes, he finds that the entire band has left, and that Tara has been crucified.

Resuming his journey, Cord has a vision of Death (Carradine), but he dispels the spirit by demonstrating his lack of fear.

While trying to find Chang-Sha, Cord reaches an oasis, where he again meets the blind man. Cord again asks him to be his teacher; the blind man agrees, and they travel together. Encounters with a poor ferryman, a band of raiders and a spoiled child become opportunities for the blind man to teach an exasperated Cord a few life lessons before they go their separate ways once again.

Cord finally finds Chang-Sha and his band. Cord holds himself responsible for Tara's death, but he insists on fighting Chang-Sha to learn the location of Zetan. The fight ends in a draw, but Chang-Sha tells Cord how to find Zetan anyway.

Cord reaches the island where Zetan lives. He encounters the sect that protects the book of enlightenment. Cord expects to fight, but Zetan explains that Cord has passed the trials and is entitled to read the book. He even asks Cord to replace him as the new keeper of the book. Opening it, Cord finds that the book's pages are simply mirrors. Zetan explains that there is no book of wisdom, and that enlightenment is found only in oneself. Cord walks off laughing, declining to take Zetan's place, and leaves the island. He rejoins the blind man, who gives Cord his flute, passing on his role of teacher.

Vividly set in the fictional harbor town of Saxton in The Fens of eastern England, ''The Lost Crown'' follows the adventures of two young ghost-hunters, Nigel Danvers and Lucy Reubans. Nigel has fled London, following the theft of several documents from his employer, The Hadden Corporation. The documents contain proof of Hadden’s involvement in experiments with paranormal forces, and the existence of ‘chasm ghosts’. Two Hadden agents, Mr. Hare, and Mr. Crow are dispatched to capture Danvers and return the stolen documents.

Nigel takes refuge in Saxton, where he meets local psychology student, Lucy Reubans. Together they set out to solve local mysteries, study paranormal activity and discover the whereabouts of a legendary Anglo-Saxon crown, thought to be buried somewhere in the vicinity around town. Nigel’s presence in the town does not go unnoticed. There are those, alive and dead, that do not wish the crown to be disturbed.

The central character in ''Crusader'' is 15-year-old Roberta Ritter, who lives in south Florida with her widowed father. Roberta is an aspiring journalist, but works after school and on the weekends at Arcane, the virtual-reality arcade run by her father and uncle.

Roberta is apathetic towards many facets of her life. Her father acknowledges her presence, instead spending much of his free time with his girlfriend, Suzie. Roberta doesn't approve of the games offered in Arcane, which are all filled with over-the-top violence and covert racism, nor does she like having to deal with the arcade's often unsavory clientele. Roberta deals with coming of age problems, criticized by her cousin's popular friend Nina for her disinterest in make-up and never having menstruated. She also is forced to come to terms with finding many of the people around her to be motivated by self-interest and the deaths of both an elderly friend, Winston Peters, and her mother.

Roberta takes it upon herself, with the occasional help of some friends and her high school journalism teacher, to investigate a series of incidents at the mall where Arcane is located. These incidents range from hate crimes perpetrated against vendors, to rumors that the mall developers are planning to have the mall burned down in an insurance scam. She also begins to dig into the facts surrounding her mother's murder. Roberta likes the idea of muckraking as a way of unveiling hidden injustice, but also becomes disillusioned with both her teacher and the local news station after witnessing the inability to pursue real journalism.

Roberta discovers that on the day that her mother died, her father owed drug money to a local dealer. The dealer came to their family arcade while only Roberta's mother was working to collect what her father owed him. When there was not enough money in the register, the dealer shot Roberta's mother and fled the scene. After discovering her father is responsible for the death of her mother, Roberta separates herself from her father and moves on.

Orphans 16-year-old Andi and 12-year-old Bruce swindle a pawn shop owner in order to buy food to feed their dog, Friday. However, they are quickly caught and brought to the police station where they get picked up by their social worker Bernie Wilkins who takes them back to their foster parents, Lois and Carl Scudder, who do not appear to care for either Andi, Bruce, or their dog. Despite his sympathy for the siblings, Bernie warns them that they are playing a dangerous game by deliberately getting into trouble in order to escape their foster parents.

The next morning, Friday leaves to go looking for food, only to be caught by Animal Control. Desperate and worried, Andi and Bruce go into a local pet shop to ask if anybody has seen him. They meet Dave and Heather, who advise them to check the pound. They learn that Friday is indeed in the pound but cannot be claimed without their parents present, so they bribe the guard to get Friday back. While walking home, they discover a gang of youths committing a crime, causing them to flee before the police arrive. They look for Friday who has taken shelter in an abandoned hotel, where they find a tiny Boston Terrier and an English Mastiff. They name them Georgia and Lenny and leave Friday at the hotel for the night.

The next day, Bruce stays at the hotel to keep the dogs quiet, while Andi heads to the same pet shop to get some food for the dogs, where she runs into Dave and Heather again. Andi lies to them that their parents often rescue dogs, causing Dave to ask her to take in three more dogs that nobody seems to want to adopt, which she reluctantly agrees. With six dogs to look after, the friends set about trying to get the hotel in a decent state to accommodate the dogs' needs, with help from a local boy named Mark (Troy Gentile), as they rescue more stray dogs to occupy the hotel.

Eventually, Dave invites Andi to a party, which she accepts. Meanwhile, Bruce ends up interrogated by Carl and Lois, having been caught stealing a hairdryer. The party is ruined for Andi when she bumps into Jason, an old acquaintance who reveals to everyone that she and Bruce are orphans. Bruce manages to escape his house, only to find out that the hotel has fallen into chaos. Lois and Carl follow him and the police are called. The dogs (including Friday) are found and sent to the Pound, while Bruce and Andi are taken away by the police. When Lois and Carl refuse to take Andi and Bruce back, Bernie is forced to send them to separate foster homes.

The dogs are all scheduled to be put down the next day, but Friday manages to escape. He rushes over to find Dave, Heather and Mark, who in turn, find Andi and Bruce. Meanwhile, Bernie explores the hotel where he finds a dog named Harley, who had managed to avoid getting caught by animal control the previous night. Bernie then realizes why the kids loved doing what they did. Andi and Bruce manage to break into the Pound and release the dogs in an attempt to get them across the county line, where they will be safe. However, the dogs instead make their way back towards the hotel, believing it to be their real home. The strange event attracts the attention of citizens, reporters and the police, who follow the dogs to the hotel, causing a large crowd to gather. Before the animal control officers attempt to capture the dogs again, Bernie appears and tells everyone about how Bruce and Andi managed to create a family of dogs and reveals Jake and Max's plans to them. He introduces all the dogs who live at the hotel and tells the heartfelt stories of their past owners, which wins over the crowd and the police allow the children to keep the dogs together.

As people eagerly explore the hotel, Bernie reveals to an overjoyed Andi and Bruce that he and his wife have decided to adopt them. Sometime later, the hotel re-opens as a grand "Hotel For Dogs", where people can either adopt strays or board their dogs, while Andi, Bruce, and Friday happily settle into their new family.

A new member joins the Themysciran Embassy, by the name of Jonah McCarthy. As people hear other people talk about who and what Wonder Woman is from their point of view, preparations are underway for Wonder Woman to release her first book called "Reflections: A Collection of Essays and Speeches", which contains poems and essays reinforcing her "world view". At the same time this is all happening, Diana herself is bringing to justice a corrupt tyrannical African General on behalf of the United Nations. When all this is completed, Diana returns home and the book is published and released.

"Reflections" causes praise, as well as a stir, with some sections of the community not happy with the views she shares. A mysterious woman, Veronica Cale, who hates Diana so much, sets herself on destroying Diana's reputation by any and all means, by using her book to create negativity toward the Amazon. She also uses a video camera that captured Wonder Woman and The Flash's disagreement over the best way to handle a Forest Fire, with Diana stopping Flash, saying that the fire must continue as part of its "rebirthing" process, to her advantage.

Thanks to Cale, while Diana's staff fights the media's negative views on Diana thanks to her book, the leader of the outspoken opposition to Diana's book is shot dead outside the Themysciran Embassy, which Cale hopes will bring scandal and accusation upon Wonder Woman and tarnish her reputation irrevocably. Also thanks to Cale, Dr. Psycho and the Silver Swan fight the Amazon that leads to her home at the Themysciran Embassy. Finally, Diana faces off against Silver Swan where she is defeated. But as she is still her friend, she takes her for help to Themyscira.

In a subplot; above in Mount Olympus, the Gods and Goddesses have a disagreement toward Zeus continuing his reign on the throne. When a jealous Hera accuses her husband Zeus of lustfully watching the Amazons, from a fit of rage, she sends the floating islands of Themyscira crashing back down to the sea.

Sidonie and Imriel confess their love, causing a national uproar. To mitigate the turmoil and quell the uprising, Queen Ysandre decrees that she won't acknowledge the lovers. To appease the Queen, Imriel embarks on a quest to find his mother and return her to the kingdom where she faces treason charges and execution.

The player assumes the role of a budding chef who has landed in Port Abello, one of the most important locations on the culinary map. After learning the trade in a local fast food joint, the player purchases a diner. The Fortified Chef Competition is about to visit town and winning it would launch the player to the centre of the culinary stage.

At a location where snow is falling and it is cold in the wind, Wonder Woman walks to her destination. She is hunted and attacked by wolves, who are diseased and are in no control of their attacks. With her help, Diana lets the wolves die in peace as like they were warriors before continuing on. Eventually, she finally reaches a bar where the likes of myth such as barbarians are there. She sits, and then after waiting, who she was waiting for finally arrives: Beowulf. Some time before all this; Diana is assigned to create her own team as part of the Department of Metahuman Affairs. This assignment makes her know that Sarge Steel is on to her. After lunch with friend Etta Candy, the same intruder from her apartment (from The Circle) appears. He says he has no name, but lets it out that he is a demon, he is the DC Comics character known as Stalker. So Diana uses her lasso of truth to see if he is telling the truth: the end result leaves her cold and shaken as the man has no soul. The man has come to give a quest for Diana to do for him: kill ''D’Grth'' aka the devil.

Back in the present, the meeting between Nemesis and Diana's gorilla friends doesn't start off well.

Then, peasants loyal to Grendel, whom Beowulf was asking for, prepare to attack them. Wonder Woman and Beowulf fight off the Grendel worshippers and are able to escape, and Stalker proposes that they must work together. The prophecy states that Stalker and three powerful warriors will stop D'Grth. They visit and Oracle who aids them in their quest and tells them of the prophecy.

Diana begins to find herself conflicted when she loses her compassion and memories of her friends and allies. She is losing a side of herself in order to travel to the Black Horizon, where D'Grth lives. Wonder Woman also gives Stalker a name, Elpis, so that he may find new meaning and identity. Diana also ends up having a demonized disfigured hand, similar to Claw.

On the way, they meet Claw the Unconquered, but he and Diana do not get along well. Diana tries to use the Lasso of Truth on him, but ends up having to knock him out when it fails to activate to her call. After arriving at the Black Horizon, they find Grendel, who is a servant of D'Grth. As the three warriors battle the devil, Elpis shows his treachery and mortally wounds Beowulf.

Elpis/Stalker explains that D'Grth will give him his soul back in exchange for the three warriors who would be able to stop him, as well as the piece of magic he wears on his neck. Diana makes Claw get Beowulf to safety, and is able to steal Elpis' magic stone. She uses it to swap souls with Elpis, and transport D'Grth to Earth, where she can finish her final battle in Washington, DC.

While battling, Diana realizes that her deformed hand keeps her safe from D'Grth's burning touch, and that she is meant to finish off the devil himself. After saving a news helicopter from crashing, Diana is able to activate her Lasso of Truth by remembering the mercy she gave to the Wolves at the beginning of the story, and takes off D'Grth's hand. She uses her invisible jet to fly down and cut him in half.

Back in the other plane, The Oracle finds them and they can only finish off D'Grth with the four swords of Beowulf, Diana, Claw, and Elpis. Elpis refuses because he wants his soul, but Diana returns with D'Grth's head and convinces him that her soul is from the Gods and his is gone forever. Using their combined swords, they finish off D'Grth despite his offers, threats, and pleas.

Elpis goes off with The Oracle, trying to find direction in his life. Beowulf will heal from his grievous wounds, and Diana returns to Earth after receiving Beowulf's prized sword.

Back on Earth, Donna Troy is able to broker a peace between the Gorillas and Nemesis. Diana says it is for her to let Tom know what is going on, and to trust them. Tom calls off the back up he asked for earlier and says it was all a mistake, but Sarge Steel thinks the conspiracy goes deeper and show some signs of mental distress.

Tom and Diana visit Themiscyra and Tom must meet with Hippolyta, and who gives him a working over with strange tasks and questions. Once she is satisfied with him, she makes him an Amazon entitled: '''Sir Thomas of Cleveland''', even though he is male. She awards him with a spear made especially for him, and asks that he sire many grandchildren.

With two Gorillas at her side, Diana meets with a group of Hollywood executives for a Wonder Woman movie. The group is Ms. Laney Kirswel, the director, the writer, and their PR representative Alison Condero, a skeptic. Even without Diana's permission, they wish to write a movie on her exploits. If Diana gives them her permission, she will get a creative consultant credit and a million dollars towards Diana's women's shelter.

After a talk with Alison Condero, Diana tells her she can stop after Alison expresses her dislike of Diana's use of violence to solve problems, and her revealing outfit. Alison breaks away before anything else is revealed.

While on the lot, one of the writers explains that Hercules will have a love triangle plot with Wonder Woman and Hippolyta, which outrages Diana. Before anything else can happen, different versions of Wonder Woman from different ages of her history attack her, and it turns out Laney Kirswell is actually the Queen of Fables.

Diana ate an apple that was given to her as refreshment, and the magic has distorted Diana's perception. She must fight through the screenwriter's ridiculous dialogue and perception of events of the movie, while fighting the Queen's machinations. Diana eventually overpowers the Queen of Fables and saves Alison's life. Diana shuts down the production of the movie and says she will have lawyers if they try to cash off on the footage they have filmed.

When Diana visits Alison at night, it is revealed Alison has had a drinking problem and has thus quit since her ordeal on the film lot. Alison has had a hard time readjusting since her spouse died, and Diana comforts her and brings some bracelets for her daughters. Alison wakes up her daughters so they can meet Diana, and Diana relishes meeting two of her biggest fans.

Diana flies away contemplating children.

Returning to Mount Olympus after being held captive by the New Gods of Apokolips, the Olympian Gods discover their home defiled and memories tarnished. Realizing their place in the modern world, the goddess Athena wills her godhood to end. Seeking to reignite her passion to rule, Zeus uses the remaining power of the gods to bring about a few changes in the world. After sensing the Amazons have had their memories altered as well and scattered across the globe with false personas, Zeus restores their memories and provides them access back to their homeland of Themyscira.''Wonder Woman'' (vol. 3) #27 (February 2009)

Finding Queen Hippolyta on the island, Zeus appears before her and tells her the Amazons will soon return. He also tells her that the Amazons have no more need to be warriors of peace and deserve a rest for all time. He explains that he will create a new island of warriors who will take the Amazon's place in the world. They will be responsible for creating peace among the world's countries and the Amazons will then be able to rest in death.

Keeping his word, Zeus creates the island of '''Thalarion''' from Themyscira. There he also creates a kingdom city made of crystal and a river of gold. He then re-animates the corpses of long dead Greek warriors. Among them are Jason (the former leader of the Argonauts) and Euphemus, the son of the sea god Poseidon. Zeus calls this new race of men '''Gargareans''' and ranks them to be honorable enough to be considered Olympians. The god then informs them that their city is created out of clear crystal so that there can never be secrets among them, the golden river will provide them with wealth enough to deal with the outside world and not cause jealousy among each other, anyone who enters their island without permission will die instantly, no women will be allowed to set foot on the island, and their new favored god would be the goddess Athena. To provide the Gargareans air transport, Zeus also creates mountable winged lions and winged horses. Zeus then instructs them to slaughter dictators and dismember warmongers as a way of bringing harmony to the world. Zeus explains that after this has been done that the Olympians will then join the new race in death at the bottom of the sea. Zeus then informs Jason that he will create a new son for him in his honor.''Wonder Woman'' (vol. 3) #28 (March 2009)

On their first mission the Gargareans board the re-created ship Argo and travel to the Persian Gulf. There they battle the U.S. battleship ''New England''. Due to the magical enchantments tied to the Argo and Euphemus' control of large sea creatures, the battleship New England is unable to defeat the Gargareans.''Wonder Woman'' (vol. 3) #29 (April 2009)

While they battle, Zeus kills the Hawaiian god Kāne Milohai and tears out his heart.

Upon their return to Thalarion, the Gargareans discover Zeus waiting for them. He tells them that the time has come and magically causes a fire to burn brightly. Within the fire a skeletal being reaches out and takes Kāne Milohai's heart from Zeus' hand. The heart's substance then engulfs the fiery skeleton and forms a body. Zeus then presents the new being, Achilles, as the Gargarean's new leader. To serve as Achilles' personal transport, Zeus also created a massive and powerful elephant named Mysia who has two trunks, two mouths, three glowing eyes, an impenetrable hide, and the ability to walk on air.

After attacking several countries and disrupting a United Nations assembly, Wonder Woman is informed of their existence and confronts them during an attack in Russia. Wonder Woman informs Achilles during battle that they are being used by outside forces and demonstrates their naivete by safely detonating a warhead they mistakenly launched in the sky above them.

After this Diana battles Genocide, an agent of the war god Ares and leaves her to drown in the ocean. However, Diana is unable to leave the creature to her fate and attempts to save her, only to find that Genocide has vanished. Angered, Ares commanded Euphemus to cause a swarm of deadly sea creatures to attack Themysciria and Thalarion. The Gargareans joined forces with the Amazons in defending their nations. During this battle Diana deduced that Ares was the grand manipulator and confronted him. Not allowing Ares much time to gloat in his latest masterpiece of war, Diana took a battle axe and used it to strike Ares' head, splitting his helmet in two. The then dead Ares falls to his knees uttering in his last breath, "Amazon...what have you done?" Achilles wishes to kill Euphemus as well for his treachery, but is convinced by Jason to simply exile him instead. Euphemus then enters the ocean, leaving with his fellow sea creatures.''Wonder Woman'' (vol. 3) #33 (August 2009)

After Ares' death Zeus thanks Diana by informing her that he killed her newfound god Kāne Milohai, used the dead god's heart to create Achilles, and urges Diana to return to the Olympian faith. This causes a reverse reaction and Diana physically strikes Zeus and denounces her Amazon heritage. Zeus then decrees that the Gargareans and the Amazons are to become one people. To head the new nation Hippolyta is to step down from her royal station and be replaced by Achilles. Achilles then takes the rogue Amazon Alkyone as his bride. But unbeknownst to everyone else, Alkyone has the totem of Genocide in her possession, claiming herself to be the creature's new mother.

Jilly is struck by a car and becomes paralyzed on her right side. She discovers she can dream herself to the spirit world like her friend Sophie has long known how to do. Her physical body remains in the hospital bed while a dream version of herself, young and not paralyzed, traverses the spirit world. There she meets her friend Joe Crazy Dog, who can travel to the spirit world while awake. He tells her he has sent for a pair of "crow" girls who might be able to cure her condition, but only after she deals with emotional wounds from her past.

Somebody breaks into Jilly's studio and destroys many of her paintings. Her friends keep seeing on the streets a woman who looks just like Jilly. They wonder if a shadow twin might be behind both Jilly's "accident" and the vandalism.

Jilly meets in the dreamlands a young man named Toby. He is an ''Eadar'' – a fictional character who acquires a physical presence in the spirit world, but whose existence depends on there being people who believe in him. Together they spend several nights climbing a huge tree to get some magical twigs that may help both of them.

In flashbacks, the book gradually reveals details of Jilly's past. As a child, she was repeatedly raped by her brother Del. She finally ran away from home and by her teens was a junkie and prostitute living on the streets, until a kind cop named Lou found her and brought her to his then girlfriend Angelina, who rehabilitated her.

Back at Jilly's former home, Del turned his attention to her younger sister Raylene, who never forgave Jilly for abandoning her. Raylene slashed Del's leg, and later ran away with her best friend Pinky. To make money, they performed badger games and ended up killing a dirty cop. Pinky eventually became a porn star, while Raylene started working in a print shop. There she fell in love with one of her coworkers, who taught her how to use computers, but was killed by a robber. Pinky served several years in prison for assault, and during that time she and Raylene began sharing dreams in which they were wolves hunting unicorns.

Raylene learned her sister's whereabouts from an article. On the day of Pinky's release, Raylene bought a pink Cadillac and the two of them rode off in search of Jilly. That is when Raylene destroyed Jilly's paintings, and continued to stalk her.

In the hospital, Jilly and Sophie discover that they can share their dreams as well, and when they find themselves in a forest, they encounter a pack of wolves, one of whom reminds Jilly of her sister. She realizes that Raylene must be the lookalike who destroyed her paintings.

Raylene is upset that Jilly has now invaded her dreams. She wants to find a way into the dreamlands while awake, so that she can avenge herself on Jilly there. She sees Joe on the street and recognizes him from his Don't! Buy! Thai! T-shirt as he slips into the spirit world. By watching him, she figures out how to enter the spirit world herself. She and Pinky kidnap the sleeping Jilly and carry her body into the spirit world.

The dreaming version of Jilly has reached the top of the tree and retrieved two twigs, one of which made Toby real, and no longer an Eadar. The other had no effect on Jilly's condition. But because Jilly's physical body has entered the dreamlands, she feels pulled toward it, and she must climb down the tree to reach it.

When she reaches Raylene, they begin talking. Raylene realizes how silly it is to hold a grudge against her sister for something she did when she was a kid just trying to survive. Unfettered, Pinky points her gun at Jilly and fires – but Raylene places herself in the line of fire and dies. Joe arrives at that moment with a pitbull, which kills Pinky.

Toby reaches the clearing with the remaining twig woven into a wreath containing additional herbs, which is powerful enough to cure Jilly's paralysis. Instead, Jilly uses it to bring Raylene back to life. Because Raylene killed many unicorns, she must never return to the dreamlands, or else Joe's friends will hunt her down. The crow girls visit Jilly and tell her that they cannot yet cure her condition, but they give her feathers so that she can call them anytime she wants.

In flashback, Brainiac is shown stealing the city of Kandor. In the present, the ''Daily Planet'' is having a staff meeting attended by Perry White, Lois Lane, Clark Kent, Jimmy Olsen, and Ron Troupe. Also present are Cat Grant and Steve Lombard, who have recently returned to the staff. Clark hears a mysterious noise with his super hearing and investigates as Superman. He discovers the noise is a Brainiac drone, sent to locate Superman. Superman promptly defeats the drone and takes it back to the Fortress of Solitude. With help from Supergirl it is revealed that Superman has never fought the real Brainiac, as all earlier encounters Superman had with Brainiac were with one of his probes. It is also revealed that Supergirl was on Krypton when Kandor was stolen, and because of this is terrified of Brainiac.

After visiting the Kents, Superman flies all through the galaxy in an attempt to track down Brainiac. He discovers his probes on one planet, and witnesses Brainiac capture a city as he did with Kandor. Brainiac then fires a missile into that planet's sun, causing the sun to explode and destroy the planet. The explosion knocks Superman unconscious and he is brought upon Brainiac's ship. When Superman awakes he escapes and makes his way around Brainiac's ship. There he discovers a room full of thousands of bottled cities, including Kandor. At this point the true Brainiac reveals himself. It is revealed that Brainiac has been collecting information on all the planets he has been destroying and the next planet he will attack is Earth, including capturing Superman and Supergirl as the last remnants of Krypton.

Brainiac's ship arrives over Metropolis and sends out probes which everyone, including Supergirl, does their best to fend off. Meanwhile, Superman fights with Brainiac. After knocking him out, Superman hears a voice that sounds distinctly like his father; it is actually the voice of his uncle Zor-El, who is alive inside the bottled city of Kandor (along with his wife Alura). As Superman and Zor-El talk, Brainiac attacks Superman from behind. Supergirl is also caught at this point and brought to Brainiac's ship just as Metropolis is encased in a bottle and a solar-aggressor missile is fired towards the sun.

Superman is unconscious and hooked up to all the bottled cities, which allow him to hear their cries for help. Superman escapes and attacks Brainiac, before taking the bottled Metropolis and Kandor. He frees Supergirl and convinces her to stop the solar-aggressor from hitting the sun. Superman then attacks Brainiac and knocks him out of the ship, forcing Brainiac to land on Earth. Brainiac is overwhelmed by Earth bacteria and micro-organisms. As a result, he can not control anything on Earth and is promptly defeated by Superman. Brainiac reveals that the cities can not be sustained outside of the ship, and Superman flies off and returns Metropolis before flying to the Arctic and releasing Kandor to its normal size.

Supergirl intercepts the solar-aggressor, preventing the sun from being destroyed. However Brainiac has one final trick left. After reading Superman's mind while he was kidnapped, he knows where Superman's parents live, and he promptly fires a missile which explodes on the Kent farm. Although no one is hurt by the explosion itself, Jonathan Kent suffers a heart attack and dies in Martha's arms, just as Clark arrives.

The epilogue begins with Jonathan Kent's funeral. Clark looks over and sees Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth standing under a tree nearby, and after a moment with Lois, he then retreat to his family barns, where he is devastated by the loss of his adoptive father.

Superman, Krypto and Hal Jordan play fetch in space. When Superman reflects happily on his life, wife, and dog, Jordan wonders if this point of view is what makes Clark the Greatest Man in the Universe. In Metropolis, the Science Police are fighting a giant monster. Their leader Dubarry is unsure if he can lead the team and hates feeling like Superman's janitor. The monster is killed by what appears to be Superman. But when he catches the falling Daily Planet globe, it is revealed to be Atlas, who then takes on and defeats the Science Police. Atlas yells for Superman, who comes straight from space telling him, "You did not have to yell".

Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen run to the scene as Superman and Atlas exchange blows. During a break, a second wave of science police are defeated. In the past, Atlas had similar a fight with soldiers in front of his friend and father figure Chagra, but he was sucked into a portal, from which he watched as thousands of years passed. He awakes in a dark room, finding himself held in the air and restrained by a massive machine in front of an Army General. After a time, Atlas and the General come to an agreement that Atlas will fight Superman and the General will "observe". Atlas believes the General will go after him after he has killed Superman; however, the General just wishes him luck. It is then revealed that Chagra was picked by Atlas to find a way for him to stop carrying the crystal, the source of his power. Chagra, with the aid of witches, used this to unstick Atlas in time, not wanting to kill his old friend even though he had become corrupted by power. Atlas and Superman begin to fight again.

Superman is getting more tired and beaten up as the fight continues. Lois remembers a conversation with Clark that morning that he said he wanted to spend his life with her and intimate embrace they shared afterwards. Lois admits Clark is her world and worries for his life. Lana Lang tries to send help as Lexcorp's C.E.O. but is fired as all Lexcorp employees are contractually forbidden to help Superman in any way. Supergirl comes to help Superman and a man on a roof communicates with someone who refers to the figure as Colonel. A satellite with the words "Hotel 7734" written on it fires a beam of energy that weakens Supergirl. Atlas believes her to be an Amazon and proclaims "easy to fight easy to.." but Superman sends him flying and tells Supergirl to fly away to find out what going on and avenge him if he falls. Atlas returns commenting that it was a pity that Supergirl fled. Atlas stomps on Superman and then defeats Steel and Bibbo, asking if anyone else would fight him. Krypto then appears, stating in broken English, "This One hurt Man. Krypto loves Man, Krypto hurt this One."

Krypto is fighting Atlas and unlike Superman has no problem injuring Atlas. The figure on the roof calls down another strike on Krypto, who is not affected. He is attacked repeatedly by the satellite by different settings called rooms, but is unaffected. the figure on the roof is revealed to be floating. Atlas is having trouble with Krypto and asks what kind of magic is the dog. Superman stands at this and rushes to find Zatanna who is in the city for a show but instead finds the Zachary "Zatara" the new permanent resident to Metropolis. Zatara is now not yet as good with magic as his cousin and can only affect living things for short period of time. Superman can get a boost but for only less than a minute from the moment the fight begins. Atlas almost kills Krypto but then Superman appears and rams Atlas underground, Superman then re-emerges from the crater victorious. Superman tells them to applaud Krypto his dog and the dog of Metropolis as well. Krypto is applauded as his master pets him and proclaims his happiness.

Uniting the ''Super''-titles

In the months before Johns started his ''Brainiac'' arc, and Robinson took over writing duties on ''Superman'', both Johns and Robinson had made clear their plans for the ''Superman''-related titles following those arcs for the rest of 2008 onto the end of 2010. Their plan is to link the three ''Super''-books (''Action Comics'', ''Superman'', and ''Supergirl''), allowing them to cross over more fluidly on a regular basis, allowing the narratives to be tied together similar to a bi-weekly series.

According to Johns, the plan is to make readers want to get the ''Super''-titles because they would feel that ''"you HAVE to read, that you WANT to read"''. Robinson also added that even though neither he nor Johns would be writing ''Supergirl'', they still made it clear that they were still the advisers to the book's next ongoing writer, Sterling Gates.

The link on all three titles began in the ''Superman: New Krypton'' story arc.

The novel is set shortly after the events of ''The Bonehunters''. The Malazan Empire is in turmoil following the catastrophic war in Seven Cities and the plague which has devastated the subcontinent and severely disrupted food supplies to Quon Tali, the Empire's home continent. In an attempt to divert the populace's anger elsewhere, the Empress Laseen has pinned the blame for the disaster on the Wickan contingents of the armies in Seven Cities, and a pogrom has been launched into the Wickan homelands. However, this bluff has not succeeded and civil war threatens to tear the Empire apart. Whilst the Malazan Empire teeters on the brink of disaster, the mercenary group known as the Crimson Guard has been summoned back to Quon Tali to take advantage of the chaos and fulfil their century-old vow to liberate their homeland from the occupiers.

Mr Mulliner tells another story about his nephew Augustine, which takes place around six months after the events of "Mulliner's Buck-U-Uppo".

The Bishop of Stortford's wife has instructed him to give the vicarage of Steeple Mummery, Hampshire, to her incompetent cousin, though the bishop would rather give it to his secretary, the cheerful Augustine Mulliner. The bishop receives a letter from his old friend, the Rev. Trevor Entwhistle ("Catsmeat"), who is now Headmaster of Harchester, their old school. The headmaster wants the bishop to visit the school to unveil a new statue of Lord Hemel of Hempstead ("Fatty"), another old schoolfellow. The bishop dislikes Hemel but is willing to unveil the statue anyway. He goes to Harchester with Augustine, who knows the school since his brother is there.

The statue is unveiled. After the ceremony, the headmaster and the bishop are exhausted. The bishop suggests they drink some of Augustine's tonic. The headmaster's butler is sent to request some of the tonic, called Buck-U-Uppo, from Augustine, and returns with a half-full bottle. The bishop does not know how much to take but does not want to disturb the butler again, so he guesses. The bishop and the headmaster each drink far more than a normal dose. They start to feel energetic and young. They talk about how much they dislike Fatty, and plan to paint the statue pink.

Around midnight, the bishop and the headmaster secretly paint the statue pink. Afterward, the headmaster realizes he lost the key to his building. The bishop remembers a water-pipe at the back he used for sneaking out in his youth, and the two start climbing up the pipe. A young man looks out a window. The headmaster and bishop tell him they are merely the cook's cats, and the young man allows them to enter. The headmaster and bishop agree that they probably deceived him, though the bishop sees that the young man was Augustine, who would not betray them anyway.

In the morning, Augustine asks the bishop if he took a big dose of the Buck-U-Uppo, and also mentions that the bishop's shovel-hat was found on the head of the statue. General Bloodenough, the Chairman of the College Board of Governors, confronts the bishop about his hat on the statue. A young boy appears and claims that he painted the statue. The general thinks the boy should be punished, but the headmaster and bishop insist that a harsh punishment is not necessary. The boy only has to write out twenty lines. He is Augustine's brother. Augustine paid him two pounds to take the blame. The bishop promises to repay Augustine and to make sure he gets the vicarage at Steeple Mummery.

Left-wing activist and filmmaker Michael Malone campaigns to end the celebration of the Fourth of July holiday. Malone holds pronounced anti-American views and truculently argues that America's past and present are both offensive, and therefore should not be celebrated. He has finished another film entitled "Die, You American Pigs!" and just won the Leni Riefenstahl Award at the MooveAlong.org awards. They rush Malone off the stage before he can give a speech and his trophy is remarkably small, insignificant—and turns out to be a keychain. Then they start televising the program and give out the Award for "Best Film Director" overall. Malone is already working on another anti-American film called "Fascist America".

On the evening of July 3, Malone watches a speech from President John F. Kennedy and mistakenly interprets the speech to mean avoiding war at any cost. President Kennedy rises out of the television set, corrects Malone regarding the intent of the speech, and informs him that he will be visited by three spirits.

The following morning, Malone is visited by General George S. Patton (Kelsey Grammer), who shows him an alternate United States where slavery still exists because Abraham Lincoln (founder of the Republican Party) chose not to fight the Civil War. Malone later sees George Washington (Jon Voight) who gives a passionate speech about God's gift of freedom and the price many people pay for others to have it. Malone is visited by the angel of death (Trace Adkins), who takes him to a future Los Angeles completely taken over by radical Islamists. He is then taken to the ruins of his hometown in Michigan, which has been destroyed by a nuclear bomb planted by Al Qaeda. In a mortuary, Malone learns that he will be killed in this attack, leaving nothing behind but his trademark hat and "big ass." Facing his death, Malone pleads for his life with the Angel, promising to change. However, all is not well after Malone's revelation, for Aziz, a Middle Easterner he had interviewed, is actually a terrorist who will bomb a 4th of July rally along with his underlings Ahmed and Fayed. However, when Fayed and Ahmed learn they are going to be detonated along with the planned bomb, they figure their slim chance of survival is by seeking out Malone.

Later, Malone arrives at an anti-Fourth of July protest rally and publicly renounces his former views. This triggers an outraged mob from which he is rescued, however, by American servicemen. Meeting up with Malone, Ahmed and Fayed defuse their own bomb, thus sparing the people at the anti-Independence Day rally and resulting in the capture of the terrorist Aziz. Safe inside a country music concert, the three are formally welcomed to "the real America" by Trace Adkins (this time as himself). A reformed Malone then goes to a Navy base to see his nephew Josh off to the Persian Gulf. He tells Josh how very proud he is of him and promises to look in on his wife and family during his deployment. In the final scene, Malone now decides to make films he feels people would appreciate, as well as Fayed and Ahmed as part of the crew, who have been pardoned for foiling the bombing. Malone is last seen working on a biographical film about President Kennedy.

Marge Winton (Marion Davies) is fed up with having to quit job after job to avoid the advances of lecherous bosses. When she goes to the employment agency, she is surprised to discover that she is too beautiful for one position. So she gives herself a makeover, hiding her blond curls under a dark, severe wig, putting on glasses, and wearing a drab, unflattering dress.

The disguise works. Book publisher Abigail Belldon (Louise Fazenda) hires her as a secretary for lazy writer Freddy Matthews (Robert Montgomery). Freddy would rather go out and party with his girlfriend Camille Lansing than start on his novel. Abigail has already sold the film rights, and the deadline for delivering the book to the film studio is fast approaching. She figures a plain secretary will be one less distraction.

Despite his initial displeasure at Marge's appearance, Freddy gives in and accepts her. However, Camille keeps taking up too much of Freddy's time and attention, and Marge begins to fall for him as well. Thus, Marge has plenty of reason to try to sabotage their relationship. When this is discovered, she quits.

A complication arises when Freddy decides to rehire her. He shows up at her apartment unexpectedly and sees her without her disguise, so she has to pretend to be her roommate Sadie (Patsy Kelly). They spend the entire evening and part of the morning getting acquainted.

With the deadline only days away, however, Marge pretends to go out of town for a couple of weeks. The plan backfires. Instead of writing, Freddie goes after her. Camille finds out and follows as well. Marge has no choice but to show up at the hotel, registering first as the plain secretary, then as Sadie, juggling her two personas to keep Freddie in the dark. She finally gets an outline from him for the last few chapters, which she uses to finish the novel on her own.

Since he gave the outline to "Sadie", and she had no opportunity to give it to Marge, Freddie finally realizes that they are one and the same. He decides to marry her anyway.

Fumiyo Asabu, a designer who organizes the Asaya association, lived with the genius design painter Ibuki during his stay in France. Discarded and returned to Japan. The design allowed her to earn the prestige of a prestigious designer. When Ibuki came to Japan following Fumiyo, I met Fumiyo's patron Nagaoka and revealed the secret. When Nagaoka bought the rest of the design from Ibuki, he occasionally turned into a phantom and called for Bunyo and sold it for a fortune. Nagaoka wanted to use this method to wake up Fumiyo and stop the false designer life. Ibuki calls for Bunyo to the insect brother of Eto, an twin entomologist and entomologist, and urges him to be reconciled by violence, but is instead killed by Bunyo. Toru Murakoshi, a manager of the Asayakai and a murderer who has a murderous illness, revealed his true nature when he knew of the murder of Bunyo and threatened her to become her own woman. Then, with the luck that no one knew Ibuki's death, Toru, who was transformed into a werewolf Ibuki, committed a brutal crime. In this way, three out of the seven Asaya Kai-only models were killed, and finally Nagaoka. Bunyo was also overwhelmed by Tohru and killed his competitor, Tsuruko Kushita. On the other hand, Eto, who does not know Ibuki's death, thought that the crimes that occurred one after another were the work of his younger brother Ibuki, and hid the three models who were the victims of the next victim, but he also became a werewolf there. Tohru appears and Eto is killed. Toru ordered Fumiyo to bring in a seventh model, Yumiko Sugino, and tried to kill the four models together. Kazusuke Kaneda, a detective who was chasing a murderer in a crisis, appeared and the four were saved. Bunyo fell to Toru's pistol, and Toru, who fled to the steel frame of the building under construction, crashed and died when a criminal detective appeared as a group of police officers. Yumiko was struck by the lover's newspaper reporter Kawase.

When his daughter Nikki, an investigative reporter, is seriously injured after her car is forced off a mountain road in Tennessee, Bob Lee Swagger hunts down those responsible for the accident. He unravels a criminal organisation disguised as a Baptist prayer camp and, with the help of Nick Memphis, his old pal from the FBI, thwarts their elaborately planned attempt to steal a cash truck right after a NASCAR race at the Bristol Motor Speedway.

The Wraparound Story

‘World famous photographer of nudes’ Harrison Marks visits an Indian psycho-analyst on Harley Street. While most male viewers imagine that Marks seems to have a dream job, his life taking pictures of naked ladies isn't without its downside, as depicted in the slapstick opening credits in which clumsy models knock over Marks' cameras, he gets a pie in the face for trying to touch up one of his subjects, and accidentally snapping a girl in a park causes him to be chased by her boyfriend Burt (Howard Nelson). Worried that his ancestors bad luck is rubbing off on him, Marks tells the psychiatrist stories about how his ancestors have also suffered misfortune through the ages-mainly because of their involvement with nude women and ‘the arts’.

Story #1: "The Stone Age"

Marks’ first anecdote takes place in the prehistoric age. Sculptor ‘Harry Stone Marks’, fresh from carving Stonehenge, is employed to draw a cavewoman housewife (June Palmer) in the nude (in slate) only to end up pelted with rocks when her husband (Bruno Elrington) takes a fancy to Marks’ blonde secretary (Maj-Britt Mannson).

Story #2: "The Egyptian Age"

In ancient Egypt, Harrison Hubergritz a lowly Jewish slave is ordered by Pharaoh Akenaten (Julian Orchard) to spend a lifetime painting the Pharaoh's harem, symbolized by the accumulation of a powdered beard. After finally completing his masterpiece- Hubergritz accidentally knocks his pyramid home down causing himself and the girls to be buried under a hail of boulders.

Story #3: "China"

In Ancient China, the Fu-Manchu like "Ha-Ri-Son" an oriental offshoot of the Marks family, curses his wife (Suzan Long) when he finds her in the arms of the gardener (S'Zeto). This story is narrated by the actor Charles Gray.

Story #4: "Greece"

An elderly Greek scholar, who constructs nude statues, has the misfortune to fall in love with every model he meets.

Story #5: "The Cavaliers"

Set during the Oliver Cromwell era. While staying at the manor house of Sir Rupert (Howard Nelson), Harrison De Chandelier, a renowned painter of nudes is asked to paint a portrait of the lady of the house. Unfortunately roundhead soldiers appear at the Manor, and their leader (Max Wall) orders the painting be destroyed and its creator put in the stocks.

This is a semi-remake of one of Marks earlier 8mm glamour films called "The Bare Truth" in which Stuart Samuels played the Max Wall role.

Story #6 "The Theater"

In Victorian England, music hall impresario ‘The Great Marko’, is down on his luck. However a chance meeting with a Cockney cleaning lady -who he imagines topless- provides Marko with the idea of presenting a show based around ‘Living Statues’. A pre-striptease concept of women posing motionless in the nude. The show is a great success however on the verge of making his fortune Marko is arrested on obscenity charges. The mere mention of ‘Living Statues’ causes the Judge in charge of the case (Cardew Robinson) to imagine himself running around naked –save for a judges wig- and ravishing one of Marko's models. Passing sentence on the buck toothed impresario, the judge gives him a knowing wink and fines him 7’6 pence.

Marks distinct buck teeth and wig disguise in this episode was later re-used when Marks played Cornelius Clapworthy in ''Come Play With Me''. Marks’ daughter Josephine Harrison Marks plays the baby girl in this episode, and appears visibly distressed by her fathers made-up appearance.

Story #7 "The Poet"

Poet Byron Marks waxes lyrically about nudes.

Story #8 "The Old Dark House"

Marks plays "Professor Frankenstein Harrison Marks".

Story #9 "The Future"

Finally Marks imagines a space age future where women dress in leather and (in the context of the sexes) also wear the trousers. Men played by the same grunting cavemen seen in the first story, are whipped and forced to grovel at the feet of the Space Leader (Monique Devereaux). This is the only story in which Marks does not feature in one of the roles.

The wealthy girl Esmeralda (Theda Bara) is kidnapped by gypsies at birth and becomes, as one might assume, the darling of Paris. She is loved by the bell ringer and former hunchback Quasimodo (Glen White), Frollo (Walter Law), the wicked surgeon who cares for him, and an equally wicked Captain Phoebus (Herbert Heyes).

However, the titular hunchback is downplayed in favor of gypsy dancing girl Esmerelda. The surgeon kills the Captain and frames Esmeralda, but after many merry mix-ups, she winds back with her wealthy family, happily wed to Quasimodo.

Due to a shortage of animals in American zoos following World War II, Tanya Rawlins (Patricia Morison), a big-game "huntress," Carl Marley (John Warburton), her financial backer and Paul Weir (Barton MacLane), a cruel trail boss, are given permission by King Farrod (Charles Trowbridge), to capture a male and female of each species of animal on his land.

In a subplot, Oziri (Ted Hecht), nephew to King Farrod, colludes with Weir to allow him to trap more animals than bargained for. He also has Weir's men kill King Farrod and his son, Prince Suli (Maurice Tauzin), in order for him to take over the throne. Farrod is shot in the back and killed, and Suli is thrown into a pit full of crocodiles, but, unknown to all watching, he lands on a hidden ledge and is knocked unconscious.

Boy (Johnny Sheffield) trades two lion cubs to the trappers for a flashlight. When Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller) finds out, he returns the flashlight, retrieves the cubs, and calls all the animals from King Farrod's land across the river to his part of the jungle. When the hunters begin trapping on his side of the river, Tarzan and Boy sneak into their camp at night, take their guns and hide them in a cave behind a waterfall. They then begin to systematically release all the trapped animals from their cages.

Cheeta inadvertently reveals the location of the cache of weapons to Rawlins and her safari.

Prince Suli is able to make his way through the jungle, and is found by Tarzan. Tarzan, Boy and a herd of elephants defeat both the usurping nephew and the huntress, but the latter escapes on board a plane.

A Mr. Dixwell Hardley approaches Tom with a proposition to help recover sunken treasure. Mr. Hardley was on board a ship which was carrying gold to help finance an illegal revolution. When the ship sank, Mr. Hardley overheard the captain recording the coordinates. Now he wants Tom's help to recover the gold, under the guise of both financing the expedition as well as rewarding Tom with a portion of the recovered treasure.

Unfortunately for Tom, after agreeing to the expedition, he learns that Mr. Hardley is a con-artist, who recently scammed someone out of the oil well rights. Making matters worse, the victim is Barton Keith, a relative of Mary Nestor. Rather than cancel the expedition, Tom decides to carry on in the hopes of restoring Mr. Keith's claims to the oil wells.

The North siblings, Benjamin, Crista and Marco, must rescue their missing Uncle Rudy, who has gone to the Himalayas in search of the mythical Yeti. The first decision that the player has to make is when their Fokker F27 has a fuel leak and they either have to parachute or stay.

Producer Jeff Norton explains that they aspired to create alternate story paths (there are "over eleven possible endings") with different characters and story developments and yet obey the rules of their fictional world.

Following the murder of the Martian Manhunter, Crispus Allen, the Spectre, exacts justice on the ones responsible. He kills Doctor Light, melts Effigy, and even slays the Hangmen before they can join the Secret Society of Super Villains. He then goes after Libra, the new head of the Secret Society; however, the Spectre is unable to discern Libra's real name, and the villain is capable of fighting against the Spectre with ease. For the first time, this new Spectre must concede defeat, a fact which only adds to Allen's increasing disillusionment with the role.

At the same time, Renee Montoya is hunting down the members of the Religion of Crime, who have sworn to kill her for denying her role as their leader. They are looking for the Spear of Destiny. As Renee tries to fight off the members when they do find the Spear, the Spectre arrives to judge her. He teleports her away—causing her to drop the Spear—to see Batwoman one last time and then to the Bat-Signal to receive her judgment. However, he is stopped from enacting vengeance of Renee by the arrival of ''The Radiant'', the Spirit of Mercy. The Spectre becomes agitated at the sight of her, and strikes her, only for the Radiant to literally turn the other cheek. Crispus demands to know where God's mercy was when he took his son's life. The Radiant reverts to her human identity of Sister Clarice—a nun who had earlier died in a hospital bed after being severely beaten—and confronts Crispus about the importance and power of his role as the Spectre, and how he has used that power only in a superficial way.

Shortly thereafter, the Anti-Life Equation is unleashed across the world. A corrupted Gotham City police force led by Maggie Sawyer emerge from the GCPD headquarters and attempt to unleash the equation on Renee. The Spectre holds the brainwashed police off while Radiant teleports Renee away. The Radiant attempts to use her powers to calm the brainwashed people, but finds they have no effect. Renee finds a brainwashed Batwoman at her location and is badly beaten. She is saved from death by the Spectre and the Radiant. The three retreat to a nearby church, taking in citizens who had escaped the Anti-Life brainwashing. Once inside, the Radiant uses her powers to heal Renee's wounds. Crispus and Sister Clarice debate over the lack of power they have in the present situation, and whether God has abandoned them, or worse, is allowing these events to happen. Sister Clarice points out three men to Renee, whom she states had killed her. Distressed at the Spectre not being called to take vengeance upon them, she confronts them as the Radiant. The men, terrified at what she has become, beg for mercy; she replies by saying she does not know if she can give it.

Meanwhile, the Religion of Crime's ringleader Sister Wrack confronts Vandal Savage in a dilapidated hut. Sister Wrack impales Vandal Savage on the Spear, revealing him as Cain. Cain lead his acolytes towards Gotham, where he intends to revenge himself against the Spectre in retaliation for the curse he once inflicted on him. Arriving at the church, the Cain defeats the Spectre in hand-to-hand combat and stabs him through with the Spear of Destiny, enslaving the Spectre and separating Crispus from him. Realizing that the Spear is ineffective against Renee, he attempts instead to impale her with it, but she is saved by the Huntress. The Radiant uses the momentary distraction to bring Huntress, Renee, and Crispus's body back into the church, where her power prevents Cain and his hordes from entering. Inside the church, the Radiant reveals the reason why she and the Spectre are so powerless; it is because the conflict is over God's greatest gift to humanity: their free will, which means only the choices of humanity can decide the outcome.

The Radiant leaves the church to confront Cain, who attempts to bargain with her, offering to kill the men who murdered her human host in return for the safety of all the others inside the church. The Radiant refuses, and Cain, in retaliation, forces the Spectre to recite the Anti-Life Equation, which unmakes creation itself, and reconstitutes the world in Darkseid's name. The Radiant's faith begins to waver, causing her protection over the church to weaken. Renee and Huntress launch a desperate final charge in an attempt to regain the Spear of Destiny. Huntress is stabbed by the enthralled Catwoman, and Renee is restrained by Batwoman. Crispus, still there in spirit, despairs of the dire situation, and leaves the area, going to his son's grave. Cain stabs Renee with the Spear of Destiny, and at the same time is tackled by the men who killed Sister Clarice, which gives Renee the chance to take the Spear. With the Spear away from Cain, the Radiant's faith and strength is renewed, and she heals Huntress's wounds. However, she cannot heal Renee until she purifies the corrupted Spear, by using it to "heal a soul rather than destroy one." Renee chooses to bring peace to Crispus by means of an unspoken gift.

Invigorated by God's allowance of Renee's gift, Crispus returns and reunites with—and thereby frees—the Spectre, who uses the Spear's power to restore the world and casts absolute judgment upon Cain's followers. At the same time, the Radiant sees that the men who killed Sister Clarice have been mortally wounded by Cain, and she grants them her forgiveness as they die ("That is why God forbade me to punish them," the Spectre tells her, "that they might truly earn your mercy.") The Spectre, though unable to kill Cain, deals him a terrible punishment: he casts him out into the world, unable to hide his mark, where he will be forever hated and reviled by mankind, finding "no peace nor safety until God grants [him] otherwise." Thanking Renee for all her help, the Spectre and the Radiant move on to their next mission.

The story closes with a scene of a resurrected Jake Allen returning home to his family—the "gift" Renee made to heal Crispus' soul.

The game opens with Mathayus, his half-brother, Jesup and their friend Rama, training in the art of combat. After completing his training with his half-brother, the Akkadian king Urhmet sends Mathayus to assassinate the Lord of Khemet, who has murdered one of his loyal concubines.

Upon arriving in the warlord's chambers, he finds the warlord dead and eaten. Anubis himself appears before him and Mathayus fights him. Temporarily defeating Anubis, Magus reveals himself - he set Mathayus up so that he would run into Magus on purpose. He wants to employ Mathayus' services for his own ends and when Mathayus refuses, Magus imprisons him in his underground prison.

Mathayus meets Hammet, an old man who was also trapped there for refusing to help Magus. Mathayus and Hammet escape the underground prison and make their way back to the Akkadian village where Mathayus trained with his brothers. Magus had attacked the village and after fighting his troops off, Mathayus finds Rama gravely injured and vows to find Magus. He is attacked by Horus and is forced to kill them before he can leave.

He makes for the Isle of Crete, but is shipwrecked along the way. He finds out about a Minotaur threatening the Isle and causing trouble for the inhabitants. Mathayus says he will fight the Minotaur himself and kills all resistance on his way, and kills the Minotaur in the end.

After defeating the Minotaur, Mathayus finds himself in the land of the Sphinx. After killing the Sphinx and entering the Netherworld he hears the voice of Ptar telling him of the Sword of Osiris. Mathayus gathers the pieces of the broken blade and takes them to Ptar's chambers, where Ptar fixes the Sword of Osiris and gives it to Mathayus, warning him to never let it fall into the wrong hands. On his way back into the land of the living he is stopped by Apep, who tells him he must die because no living man is allowed in the Netherworld. Mathayus defeats Apep and leaves.

After leaving the Netherworld, Mathayus finds himself in Magus' gardens, and after making his way through and killing all opposition he arrives at the Tower of Babel, where Magus is said to reside. He scales the tower and finds Hammet at the top, who tells him that Magus still had troops in the mountains near his village, and kidnapped Jesup and Rama shortly after he left them. Mathayus cuts Hammet down with the Sword of Osiris, freeing him, but Hammet then attacks Mathayus and knocks him down. He reveals himself to be Magus in disguise, allowing him to surprise Mathayus and imprison him as well. He takes the Sword of Osiris and prepares to summon Set, the lord of Chaos and claim dominion over the world. He says he used Mathayus to enter the Netherworld and retrieve the Sword for him. Mathayus fights and defeats Magus, but Magus laughs at him, saying that in order to become Set, he needed to be defeated by his enemy. Thus, he transforms into Set and attempts to kill Mathayus and rule the world. However, Mathayus kills him with the Sword of Osiris and sets Jesup and Rama free. The three brothers walk out and leave the tower as it explodes and releases a beacon of energy into the sky.

A Quebec comedy about an ordinary man (Jean-Guy Moreau) and his overly active and imaginative brother-in-law (Willie Lamothe) who tells a lie about why he was late coming in to his bank-teller job. One thing leads to another, and confusion and mayhem are unleashed. An early film role for Quebec singing star Dominique Michel, who had a hit with the film's title song released as a duet with Lamothe.

John and Alice Clayton (Lord and Lady Greystoke) are marooned on the coast of Africa, where their son, John Clayton, Jr., is born. The baby is orphaned when both parents die of a mysterious disease, but is adopted by Kala and Kerchak, members of the tribe of Brown Apes.

The baby, christened Tarzan ("White Skin") by Kala, grows to adulthood among the apes, and eventually discovers the cabin where his parents lived. He teaches himself to read and write using the books there. He also discovers a cache of gold coins secreted beneath a loose floorboard in the cabin.

Jane Porter, her father, Professor Archimedes Porter, and Esmerelda, their cockney housekeeper, are shipwrecked at the same location, and soon Jane and Tarzan fall in love. The Porters and Esmerelda are rescued and sail to America, believing that Tarzan has been killed.

Tarzan, with the help of Lieutenant Paul D'Arnot, sails to Baltimore, Maryland where he is reunited with Jane. Tarzan's identity as Lord Greystoke is discovered, and he and Jane are married and return to Africa.

The story follows Meg, a newspaper columnist who has joined a commission studying aliens that have landed on the University of Denver campus. The aliens glare at everyone, and allow themselves to be led to various locations, but the commission has no idea how to communicate with them. Following an incident at a local mall during the Christmas shopping season, Meg and a school choir director team up to try to decipher the aliens' actions before they leave Earth.

A summary of the film was published in ''The Moving Picture News'', "Claude the elder brother, is heir to the estates of Sir Tames by reason of the laws of England. He is a rogue and spendthrift. Gerald, the younger brother, leaves England to seek his fortune in America, being the recipient of a remittance at stated intervals. He goes to the mountains of the West and engages in mining. There he meets Marja and admires the girl. Claude comes to visit him, sees the girl, remarks her comeliness and marks her for his own. Gerald notices this and knowing his brother, warns him to let the girl alone. Marja is infatuated with the well-dressed visitor and is easily influenced. She consents to a secret marriage and Claude returns to England, promising to come back and claim her. Some months later Gerald proposes marriage to the girl and she sobbingly tells him she has married Claude. Gerald remains silent and does not denounce his brother. Marja does not hear from Claude but Gerald receives a paper from London announcing the marriage of Claude to a society woman, and he is furious with rage. Marja, broken-hearted over the silence of Claude, attempts suicide by throwing herself from an eminence and is found by Gerald, a cripple for life. He goes to civilization and purchases a wheel chair [so] that she may get about. Her father dies and Gerald takes her to his cabin, he [sleeps] outside in a tent. She grieves for Claude and he writes her a letter purporting to come from Claude, sending her some money and breathing love and devotion, and she is happy for a time."

"Gerald receives a letter from his father announcing the death of Claude and calling him home to assume his position as the heir of the estates of Sir James. Gerald places the letter in his pocket together with the newspaper account of the marriage of Claude and decides not to return to England but to remain and care for the lawful wife of his brother, whom he has grown to love fondly. Some time afterward he goes to his mine, wheeling the girl along with him. He wheels her to the mouth of the shaft and leaves her, after throwing his coat over the arm of her chair. His devotion has caused her to love him. She tries to change her position and the coat falls to the ground. She picks it up and the letter from England and the paper falls out. She reads the announcement of the marriage of Claude and then, feeling justified, she reads the letter announcing the death of Claude and of Gerald being heir to the estates and a gentleman. She reflects and then draws the forged letter from her bosom and sees that it was written after the announcement of the marriage. It is all revealed to her. The sacrifice of Gerald — the double duty, love and a desire to uphold the honor of the proud English family. She cries to Gerald but cannot make him hear. In her desperation she tries to wheel her chair down the slope and it is overturned. Her cries bring Gerald and when he comes she shows him the newspaper and the letter. He is silent. He cannot explain. She reaches out her arms to him and is clasped to his heart."

A surviving description of this lost film was published in ''The Moving Picture World''. It states: "Two men playing cards, the argument, flash of a revolver, and one lay dead. The murderer homeward fled, hurried his little girl baby into a west-bound train and was heard of no more. The years passed and boyish Jim Conway grew to manhood with the sole purpose of seeking out his father's murderer to deal justice to him. He went West and was one day lost in the mountains. He called for help and help came in the form of a sweet-faced woman who led him to her home. He spent the flying weeks with her and the aged father, learned to love the mountain nymph for her beauty of soul and fair face. One day she asked him his reasons for being in the hill country, and he, lover-like, confided his secret. Behind the door, sat the white-haired father. He rose, shook himself like a leaf as be invited the young man into the house. And there he confessed the deed, baring his chest for the expected blow. But none fell for love had sweetened the poison of his thought." This summary of the film was provided by the American Film Manufacturing Company.

The gardener at the Palace of Chikuzen has fallen in love with the Imperial Consort. She sends a message to the gardener that she will meet him at the pond if he beats the drum which she has placed in a laurel tree in the garden. He tries but the drum has been made with twill (''aya'') and so cannot sound. Realising that he has been made a fool of, the gardener drowns himself in the pond and returns as an evil ghost who torments the princess.

A servant leaves a new mother with only a written letter of notice, placing her key under the doormat as she leaves. Her exit attracts the attention of a tramp to the house. As the husband has previously phoned that he is working late, the wife decides not to ring back when she finds the note but does ring back when she sees the tramp. Her husband listens, horrified, as she documents the break-in and then the tramp cuts the line. The husband steals a car and is immediately pursued by the car's owner and the police, who nearly but don't quite manage to jump into the stolen car during a high-speed chase. The husband manages to gain a lead over the police but then accidentally strikes a man smoking in the road and checks to see that he is okay. Meanwhile, the tramp is breaking into the room where the wife has locked herself and her baby, violently thrusting himself through the wood door, carrying a large knife. At that moment the husband arrives, pursued by the police. As the husband runs towards the home, the police fire warning shots into the air, panicking the hobo. He runs down the stairs, to be met by the husband at the front door. After a short struggle, he overpowers the hobo, who is then grabbed by the police. The husband runs upstairs, everything is explained, and all is forgiven as the couple embrace.

When Homer forces the kids to take classes at the recreation centre, Lisa takes part in a strict art class and meets a girl named Juliet Hobbes, who also likes Josh Groban. The two create a fantasy world that takes them away from reality. They deem the land "Equalia" where they are the queens and everybody is equal. However, Lisa soon becomes distracted in school after becoming obsessed with the imaginary land. After meeting Juliet's family and seeing her disruptive behavior, Marge thinks Lisa's friend might be troubled, and after she becomes obsessed in their dreamworld, Marge attempts to stop her from seeing Juliet, much against Marge's original idea of trying to get Lisa a best friend.

The next day, Lisa is invited by Juliet to run away to a run-down restaurant where they intend to live while they complete their writing. Lisa misses her Model UN meeting, where she was going to represent Azerbaijan. Martin contacts Marge and tells her about Lisa's disappearance. Marge immediately goes looking for Lisa, but cannot find her. Jimbo, Dolph, and Kearney, who use the restaurant as their hideout, find and trap Lisa and Juliet. They tie them up, then (apparently having untied them off-screen) lock them in cages. Dolph and Jimbo leave, and the girls escape by distracting Kearney with stories about Equalia. Dolph and Jimbo try to destroy the girls' manuscripts, but Kearney now believes in the idea of Equalia and attacks them—in his mind he becomes a dragon and overcomes them, but in reality Dolph and Jimbo are beating him up while he smiles dreamily and obliviously. Lisa and Juliet escape. Later, Lisa tells Juliet that she wants to continue living in the real world and forget about Equalia. Juliet feels disappointed that Lisa feels this way and decides to abandon the friendship, claiming that "the real world is for people who can't imagine anything better" (causing Lisa to conclude that Juliet is crazy).

Two months later, Lisa is back at home with a rejection slip from a publishing company to whom she had sent her Equalia manuscript. Homer is then prompted to make his own fantasy story, based on his experiences as a father, which goes no further than him re-imagining the family in forms more pleasing to him: Bart is a hot dog, Lisa is a starfish, Marge is a bottle of Duff Beer, and Maggie is a monster truck.

The synopsis of the film was provided in ''Moving Picture News'' as: "The action is laid in the latter part of the eighteenth century while the story revolves about a young Scotch duke who, determined not to marry one seeking his money, searches for adventure in the Highlands, disguised as a piper. He meets, during his wanderings, Madge, the daughter of Donald Maclvor. They fall in love at first sight. Unaware of Shon's real identity, the old father refuses to sanction the match. He prefers to give his daughter to the wealthy Laird of the Isla. When the girl carries this news to her lover he tells her to "Be of good cheer, my bonny lass; I'll pipe them a tune of another class." The wedding day is fixed and the Laird leads his melancholy fiancée forth. Shon visits the feast in the garb of a harpist. He amuses the guests for a while and then, throwing off his disguise, escapes with Madge from a window. But previous to this, Shon has called his clan together and when speeding away to his mansion, they cover his retreat. What follows is a remarkably thrilling and fresh piece of business; a battle between two kilted Scotch clans. And then the title of the youth is discovered and all ends well."

The story begins during King Taskan IV's reign, following the end of a civil war. Hype, the champion of the kingdom, is being rewarded for his loyalty and valor by being presented with the powerful Sword of Peace. However, during the ceremony a mysterious and powerful black knight riding a dragon unexpectedly appears. The knight steps to the King and demands the throne. At that moment, Hype steps before the knight and attempts to confront him, but the black knight is too strong and with the use of powerful magic, transforms Hype into a statue of stone and casts him deep into the past. Two hundred years earlier, Hype's statue appears in the courtyard of an apprentice magician: Gogoud.

After many failed attempts to revive Hype, the young magician, Gogoud, manages to restore Hype to life. As Hype recovers his memory he quickly explains his ordeal with the black knight - known as Barnak - and how he must return to his own time in order to protect his king, take revenge on Barnak and marry his betrothed, Vibe. Sorrowfully, Gogoud explains that he as a magician is not very experienced and is as currently only an apprentice. Still, the young man agrees to help Hype and guide him on his quest through time. Gogoud comes to learn that in order for Hype to return to the future, he must collect a number of jewels. Both are dismayed to learn that each Jewel only allows Hype to advance one leap through time, meaning that he will have to collect and charge jewels hidden in the reigns of Taskan I, II and III before returning to the era of Taskan IV. Throughout his journey, Hype meets a number of faithful friends, including: Zatila the dragon, Karon, leader of the brigands, her daughter Nohlin and many others. On the other hand, Hype also encounters a great number of foes including King Taskan I and his followers; Rajoth the magician - founder of the Laboratories; Enost - King Taskan III's wizard, who defects to the Barnak's side; numerous different soldiers, including Barnak's armies of Black Guards and other servants; Barnak's black dragon Vhoid and finally the evil Barnak himself. Hype also confronts many non-human enemies including wolves, spectres, bats and a three-headed dragon. Hype's adventures take place in the same kingdom throughout different periods of its history. Rivalries and wars erupt between the fortress, the monastery, the brigands and the magicians in the laboratories. Upon returning to his own time, Hype is reunited with Vibe and together they form an army in order to begin an uprising against Barnak, who has taken control of the kingdom. His large army enforce his diabolical regime, forcing the kingdom's people to worship their master as a God, as well as a King. The entire kingdom is guarded by Barnak's evil minions, with the main areas of the Town of Torras, the Forest, Gogoud's Manor, the Brigand Village and the Fortress being closely watched, while 'un-necessary' areas such as the Monastery, Laboratories, and the Field of Courage are closed off at Barnak's command. Most disturbing however, it is due to Barnak's conquest the land has become desolate and a fiery sky above foreshadows Barnak's triumph - causing great sadness over the kingdom's people. The land however, is finally restored to its former beauty when the Black Knight is defeated - his dark magic that plagued the kingdom broken. The spirit of Gogoud tells tales of a new world as the story ends with peace returning to the land.

Many years before, while climbing the foot of a cliff, Henry, Laura's grandfather, had met a small fairy named Lumina. A gust of wind had made the small creature lose control of her wings and had fallen into the sea. Henry had dived into the water to rescue the fairy and in exchange, Lumina had rewarded him with a beautiful bracelet. One day, as she is admiring her grandfather's stone collection, Laura picks up a volcanic rock, but accidentally drops it and it shatters on the floor. Inside what had been the rock, Laura discovers a small pink diamond. The diamond comes to life and tells Laura its story. It had been the fairies' lucky charm until the day that one of the fairies, Lumina, had lost it inside a cave which was later filled with lava following the eruption of a volcano. Laura's grandfather had chipped the rock out of the lava, completely unaware that the lucky charm was inside. It then explains that it lost its powers due to its long imprisonment and that in order for it to sparkle and bring luck again, Laura must light up its five facets by helping the people around her and bring them happiness.

Within her home, Laura finds plenty of opportunities to help those she loves. The entire town is preparing itself for the celebration that is to take place that same day, the town's 700th anniversary. Laura's mother, Miriam, is in charge of arranging the preparations, writing the invitations as well as the opening speech, and has no time to take care of her youngest daughter, Laura's baby sister Caitlin. Laura's father, Anthony, is saddened after a small quarrel he had had with his wife which had caused her much grief and needs help to come up with the perfect way of asking forgiveness. Tommy, Laura's younger brother, is crying because, after taking his father's binoculars without asking permission, he had forgotten them at the town gates and had disappeared when he had realized this and had gone back for them. Laura's grandfather Henry, many years after his encounter with Lumina, is still saddened that people fail to believe his story and longs to one day have the proof it takes to convince everyone. Rosie, the cook, is struggling to finish a crisp for the evening's celebration, but she had neglected to collect the nuts that Carmen the fruit merchant had saved for her and does not have time to go to town. Outside, people, too, need help carrying out their daily tasks; Carmen, at the produce stand, has run out of mushrooms, Violet the florist needs her watering can re-filled, Theo the tramp needs a job and Mr. Morris the milkman's back is too painful to continue working and is in desperate need of an assistant. Before the day is through, one adventure at a time, Laura finds ways to help out her friends and family in order to enjoy themselves together at the celebration, where Laura is rewarded and honored by being asked to read the opening speech and begin the festivities.

In the opening scene, the cat is shown fishing in the pond in Foghorn's resident farm. He is after a large, juicy, succulent, tender fish that lives in the pond and is clearly willing to go to any lengths to catch one. His feet are actually far into the water — an anomaly for domestic cats. Almost all of him that is in the water is covered in hooks. It can also be assumed that he has sat for long hours, as he becomes inconsolably excited when he feels a tug on one of his hooks. However, when he pulls it out of the water, it doesn't bear the object of his desire; rather, it's attached to a note reading "Dear Dope, You can't catch us Fish without a Worm on the hook. Signed, The Fish." (The note from the fish to the cat questions the mental capacity of the fish, as it says that, no matter what, they will take the bait.)

Frustrated, the cat begins now to find a way to catch a worm. Little does he know at first that one has popped out of the ground — intending to enjoy the sunshine — but the worm is soon in peril as Foghorn begins to chase him, intending to snack on him. But once it comes into the sights of the cat, it stops moving. Both Foghorn and the cat are running at him with all their speed — the cat with an empty tomato can. The worm uses the only method of escape available to it: a nearby stone chimney. Instead of the worm, the cat catches Foghorn's head in the can. Instead of the worm, Foghorn drives his beak into the ground near the cat; and both of them see stars. Then, once they both shake it off, Foghorn confronts the cat and demands to know what he was doing chasing "his" worm, pointing out that he does not go around chasing mice, and that that's a cat's job. The cat is a cat, Foghorn says, so he should make himself useful chasing down mice. (While saying this, he advances on the cat so forcefully that the latter falls backwards through the fence. Foghorn picks him up and tells him that he ought to learn to stand on his own feet.) He also threatens to start eating mice if the cat won't stop chasing worms. All the while, he does not allow the cat to get a word in edgewise (this was also the situation that Henery's father found himself in two years earlier in ''The Foghorn Leghorn''). Again, Foghorn advances upon the cat, stating that "if you'd just quit arguin' and jawin', you'd see my side of it" and to not "keep that mouth flappin' and do no listening", at the same time as forcing him to back up a ladder. At the top, the cat falls down backwards. From the ladder, Foghorn states that "There's nothin' worse than a blabbermouth cat" (even though Foghorn is the one that is the blabbermouth).

However, the cat recovers enough in a short time to dress his finger up like a worm, using green and black paint. He also rigs a paintbrush to a wheel (the brush fresh with green paint), and contrives to set up a guillotine-like system (the purpose of which isn't to decapitate Foghorn, but rather to hold him in place by the head, as the "blade" is actually made of wood and has a large hole in it). The cat sticks his decoy out under the "guillotine" where he hopes Foghorn will go for it. He has very little time to wait, as Foghorn is employing a telescope to get the location of the actual worm before the cat, and he spots the fake worm. When he dives headfirst for it, the cat pulls the rope and Foghorn's head is trapped in place. The cat drags out his wheel; Foghorn asks him what he'll do with it. The cat silently answers by setting his wheel, with its load of green paint, in motion, and the brush repeatedly hits Foghorn in the face, painting him green from the neck up.

The cat now thinks he can look for the worm undeterred by the pesky Foghorn. He snatches an axe from a nearby stump and wields it haphazardly around, but Foghorn, having somehow just escaped, comes along and reprimands the cat, reminding him that he's not George Washington (not realizing that the cat was not about to cut down a cherry tree as the original President of the United States was said to have done in his youth). The cat sticks the axe into the fence again, but this time Foghorn doesn't pick him up and tell him to learn to stand up by himself. Very briefly, the cat is downcast, but this changes as the worm now passes to within three inches of his own nose. The worm is initially slow to realize his danger, but when he does, he is very speedy to move to a tractor nearby and hide in the exhaust pipe. Having no clue where the worm is exactly, the cat grabs a stick and quickly raps the tractor with it, intending to scare the worm out of hiding. Cautiously, the worm sticks his head out of the exhaust pipe, but the cat instantly dives for him. He misses, however, his mouth squarely holding the pipe. Foghorn comes by and starts the engine, leaving the cat sputtering out gas.

He chases the worm out to a nearby pair of tiny holes, very close together; the worm dives into one of them. The cat manages to guess which one on the first try, but when he sticks his toe into the hole, the worm chomps him hard. This, however, only cements the cat's desire for a fish dish. He tries to pounce on the worm several times, but misses each time. However, he does spot a bicycle pump near the "left" hole (from the viewpoint of the audience). He inserts the pump into this hole and begins vigorously pumping. He tries three times to catch the worm while he's in the air, but the lack of pressure on the pump handle allows the worm to fall right back into the hole. The cat plans to try a fourth time, but Foghorn comes by again — now assuming that the cat is after petroleum. Foghorn berates the cat for his "insanity," telling him that there's "no oil for of here. Geology says the ground's all wrong. And even if there was crude oil|oil, you'd need a drill, not a tire pump!" The cat stumbles under a wagon full of hay and Foghorn picks him up and flatly tells him, with a note of sincerity that he hopes this will be the final time, to "stand on your own feet, son. I may not always be around to help ya." As an aside fourth wall|to the audience, Foghorn remarks that the cat "has a mouth like a cannon, always shootin' it off". However, when he comes to the pipe, Foghorn can't resist pushing the handle. Much to his surprise and delight, the worm comes right out of the other hole. Foghorn snaps at him with his beak, but every time he misses, like the cat. But right when he has pushed the worm up on a vertical stream of air past his own head and lets go of the pump, the cat snatches the worm, leaving Foghorn infuriated with himself.

Now, or so he believes, guaranteed of a fish, the cat attaches the worm to his fishing rod. The worm seemingly dips one toe into the pond, shivers and scurries up the line. However, anticipating that his catch might try something like that, the cat forces the worm back down to the hook at gunpoint. Little does the overconfident cat realize that Foghorn saw the whole thing from behind a tree and somehow managed to travel from his vantage point to a point inside the pond in a fraction of a second, because the next thing he knows, Foghorn has snatched the worm and is demanding to know "What kept, I say, what kept you, son?" He goes on to say that the cat ought to have realized that he isn't a fish, and that his lungs would have long since begun to "crave air!" Muffled burbling is heard as the cat is forced to back up into the water trough nearby and Foghorn, having dipped his own head in, continues to berate his feline enemy, not missing a beat as both reemerge. Finally, Foghorn realizes that he has to appease the cat if he wants him to stop chasing the worm. So he offers to "draw a line and BI-SECT 'im." And this he does with a pen, a tree stump and an axe. Foghorn draws the line evenly, so that exactly half of the stump area is on one side and the other half on the other side, and places the worm perpendicular to the line. On the cat's side is just the head; Foghorn gets to keep all else of the worm. However, as Foghorn raises the axe to cut the worm in half, the object of both their desires scrunches up all on Foghorn's side. Foghorn states delightedly: "Well, barbecue my hamhocks. YOUR half is gone!" The cat tries to point out that the worm just pulled his head over to Foghorn's side, but Foghorn tells the cat, "Don't gimme no lip, son. You gotta stick by the bargain. I'd have done the same." But as they argue, the worm scrunches up all in the cat's end. Foghorn states in a state of shock: "Well, pig|hog gravy and chetlucks. MY half is gone!" Gleefully, but at the same time respectfully, the cat tries to say that the worm pulled all his parts below his head to his own side. However, Foghorn thinks that the cat wants to question whether or not the worm was there, and so Foghorn says, "I know what you're gonna say, son. When two halves is gone, there's nothin' left. And you're right. It's a little old worm who wasn't there. Two nothin's is nothing. That's mathematics, son. You can argue with ME, but you can't argue with figures. Two half-nothings is a whole nothin'. And I know what I'm talking about, because..." Foghorn does not get to finish his last sentence, as the cat, finally fed up with a chicken much larger than he is, doing exactly what he accused him of (talking incessantly), screams at the other worm-pursuer to shut up. While Foghorn and the cat are arguing again, the worm, having spotted a perfect opportunity to escape, crawls off.

Forgetting about the worm, Foghorn says to the audience: "OK, I'll shut up." He goes on to explain that he isn't one of those annoying people who "always just have to keep their mouths flapping" and that he was properly raised, including how every time his father told him to shut up, he'd shut right up and would not speak again until he was told he was allowed to. This long-winded reminiscence of his own childhood concludes. As the cartoon begin to iris-out, how one time he nearly starved to death. But right as the circle is the size of his own head, Foghorn pulls it apart and screams, "WOULDN'T TELL HIM I WAS HUNGRY!!!!!!!!" ("Him" being his father.) He pulls it closed again.

Art (Pattinson) is not talented, but aspires to be a musician. He has a dead-end job at a supermarket, despite having a degree (which he doesn't seem to value much). His girlfriend ends their relationship. Art is then forced to move back home with his cold and neglectful parents (played by Pidgeon and Michael Irving). Art buys a book titled, ''It's Not Your Fault.'' Upon reading it, he tries to follow the self-help book's advice. He decides to use inheritance money to first buy a car, and then pay for a Canadian therapist, Dr. Levi Ellington (Jones), the book's author, to come to his home in England and help Art get his life on track, about which his parents are less than thrilled.

Despite his unsupportive parents, Art attempts with his new life coach and two slightly unbalanced friends Nikki (Pearce) and Ronnie (White) to find a balance in his life, true happiness, and a good relationship with his parents.

The film also stars Jeremy Hardy as Art's superior at the care centre at which he volunteers.

A young country spider Itsy befriends Leslie McGroarty, a perky young city girl who takes piano lessons from the music teacher (incidentally, she learns to play the song) and her cat, Langston. When Itsy frightens the teacher, she calls the Exterminator, who tries to kill Itsy with the toxic machine blower, but it causes pain and destruction to the instructor's house, and the Exterminator turns out to be a heavily armed android. The Exterminator's method uses more extreme weapons, escalating from poison and vacuums to guns and explosives, and it destroys the instructor's house. Itsy finally reunites with Leslie (who senses to leave the house when the Exterminator uses the weapons) and head home to the big city with the bicycle.

The story is set in a time when the world is beset by monsters and other creatures with mystical abilities. The story centers around Ash Grave and Mirim. Ash is a descendant of the god of death and is also known as the "black-winged devil", while Mirim is a Crimson, a top-ranking member of the "Ten Pillar Swords Guild" and the wielder of one of the ten crimson blades forged by the gods to protect the world. They both have a common goal; revenge upon the "Descendants of the Gods", who seek to purify the world of humanity.

Ash is somewhat of a pacifist in the vein of Vash the Stampede from Trigun, believing strongly in the value of human life and its endless possibilities; a view he gained from a young human girl eight hundred years ago named Mia, who bandaged his wounds in spite of his kind being at war with humanity. His enemies and kin, on the other hand, have retreated to obscurity, particularly in the hierarchy of the Church, to carry out a centuries-long plot to eliminate the humans who defeated them in the long-ago conflict.

Malcolm and Reese are preparing for a bowling party with some friends from school, but need to be driven there by Lois or Hal. Dewey is being punished for killing a neighbor's parakeet, and one parent must stay home with him. When Lois and Hal are asked who will drive the boys, the screen splits, with Hal offering to take them on one side, and Lois offering on the other. From this point forward, the episode alternates between the realities in which each parent drives.

When Lois takes Malcolm and Reese, they immediately arrive at the bowling alley. Right away, both Malcolm and Reese notice a pretty girl named Beth (Alex McKenna) at the party. Lois soon learns that there are no adults chaperoning, then decides to stay and chaperone it herself. Reese impresses Beth, but is repeatedly interrupted by Lois before he can tell her a joke. Malcolm is terrible at bowling, and Lois' overbearing cheering only makes the ridiculing worse. When he finally stands up to her, he only embarrasses himself. Beth has had enough of Reese and her classmates and kisses Malcolm, but Lois breaks it up and takes everyone home. Meanwhile, Dewey tricks Hal into reading him a bedtime story, which puts Hal to sleep. Now free to do whatever he wants, Dewey orders pizza and watches R-rated movies on television.

When Hal drives Malcolm and Reese, he gets lost. When they finally arrive, Hal sends the boys off for a good time while he takes a lane to himself. Reese's joke disgusts Beth, but Malcolm does well at bowling and Beth is impressed with him. Reese gets insanely jealous and tries to throw a bowling ball at Malcolm. He misses and hits a large man, who furiously chases after him. Reese must spend the rest of his evening hiding from the large man. Hal makes a strike and attempts a perfect game by repeating his actions leading up to the strike, attracting a large audience. Malcolm leads Beth to an area behind the pinsetter machines to make out, but his shirt catches in a pinsetter and he tumbles into Hal's lane, ruining the perfect game. He takes Malcolm to the car and orders Reese to get out of the photo booth. He attempts to sneak away, but the large man finds him and takes him back inside the booth. He is able to have pictures of himself beating Reese up as souvenirs. Meanwhile, Dewey cannot fool Lois, but when he appears to have given up she suspects he is up to something. Eventually, Lois allows Dewey to watch television, but only something he will not enjoy: C-SPAN. Neither is sure who won.

In the end, the two realities are shown side-by-side once again, with Hal and Lois simultaneously coming home and saying to their spouse: "Next time, ''you'' take them."

Trent and Dylan Steadman are city kids who are sent by their mother to live with their father in a small seaside town. They struggle to make friends with the local kids. Trent meets Swampy, an old pearl diver who tells him about a priceless cluster of pearls known as the 'Ocean Star' that he claims were lost when his boat sunk in a cyclone forty years ago. The quest for the treasure sends Trent and the kids on an exciting and dangerous adventure.

A smart, young boy named Griffin Bing decides to invite his entire class grade over for a sleepover in an old, abandoned house that is slated to be demolished after the town's plan for using as a new space in their town to make a skate park was thrown out because of their youth. However, on the night of the sleepover, only Griffin and his best friend Ben Slovak show up. Griffin finds a vintage baseball card. The card was a 1920 Babe Ruth trading card worth $974,000. S. Wendell Palomino, or Swindle as the boys call him, stiffed them and gave Griffin only 120 dollars for the card. Griffin gave half to Ben. The boys attempt to steal the card from a safe in Palomino's shop, but it has been moved. After discovering that it is in his house, they group up with a few other people and decide to steal the card back in an elaborate heist. They steal the card, but leave a little evidence to their identity, and they are caught. However, news of Swindle's swindling comes out in the newspaper, and he does not press charges-instead, he gets a dose of karma and his shop does not see much visitors anymore. The card goes on auction, selling for 974,000 dollars, with the money eventually going to a town museum and the skate park.

Gina McVey, a successful radiologist, is examining x-rays of a patient with Situs Inversus, an uncommon condition in which a person is born with their heart and other organs reversed or mirrored from their normal positions. On the birthday of her father, John, Gina, along with her boyfriend Stefan Moreau, her brother Daniel and his girlfriend Kate Coleman surprise John in his home. In the middle of the dinner party, a mirror previously knocked askew when John entered the room falls and shatters. Kate and Gina proceed to clean the shards and discuss that breaking mirrors is a sign of bad luck. At work the next day, Gina is baffled by her assistant Anthony when he tells her that he just saw her walking out of the building. Gina explains that she has been inside the whole time. On her way home however, she sees a woman who looks exactly like her driving a car identical to hers, so Gina follows the woman to her flat and sees a picture of her and her dad inside the woman's room. A frightened Gina runs out of the building and drives her car seemingly disturbed at what she saw, and ends up colliding head on with another car in the middle of the road. Gina awakens in a hospital with no memory of the accident. She is introduced to a therapist Dr. Robert Zachman who leaves his business card. Gina is released and Stefan takes her home.

Back at Stefan's flat, Gina notices his mirror is missing and he explains he broke it by accident. Stephan goes to take the dog out and it snaps at him, which is peculiar. Gina runs a bath and while relaxing in the tub, she notices a leak in the ceiling and goes to check on it in the attic but is stopped by Stefan who appears to be cold and less emotional than earlier appearances in the film. Gina sleeps fitfully that evening and has flashbacks of her father's birthday party, the accident as well as unearthly scenes and a frightening sexual encounter with a seemingly Stefan. Frightened by these developments, Gina contacts Dr. Zachman about her concerns that the man known as Stefan is not really her boyfriend at all. Dr. Zachman suggests this may be a form of Capgras delusion, a rare psychological condition also known as impostor syndrome, brought on by brain damage and/or memory loss sustained in the car crash. He advises more tests to be performed and recommends Gina visit her wrecked car in hopes that it will help her remember the events surrounding the accident.

Meanwhile, Daniel and Kate arrive home to see their neighbor in the stairwell. The neighbor is clearly disturbed and appears to be about to say something. However, his wife watches the man expressionlessly through a crack in the door. The neighbor does not finish what he has to say, and nervously goes into the apartment with his wife.

Gina goes to the auto shop to examine her car, and finds the picture she found of her and John from the woman's flat. While investigating her car, Gina hears the sound of breaking glass and turns to see two identical dogs fighting each other next to a broken mirror. She visits John in his office at the American Embassy and shows him the picture. He begins to worry about what has gotten into his daughter's mind. Later, John's secretary mentions seeing him on the street during lunch, but he tells her he hadn't left the office all day. He goes into the Embassy's men's room where he finds the mirror broken on the floor.

Kate arrives at her home to find that Daniel is not there. As Kate peers into the hallway mirror, a being in what appears to be a dark, shadowy version of her house looks back at her. Unaware of her observer, Kate takes a shower, but is disturbed by the sound of a mirror breaking. Suddenly, a woman who looks exactly like her enters the bathroom and murders Kate.

Back to Gina who is at the subway station, picture in hand, when someone bumps into her, making her drop the photo which flies onto the subway rail. Gina gets on the ground to reach down for it when she hears a train coming just around the bend. She finally stretches far enough and narrowly escapes being hit by the train, but successfully grabs the picture. Gina visits her father at home where he tells her the doctor called him and voiced his concerns regarding Gina's opinion that Stefan has changed. She then relays the events that unfolded that day and shows John the picture, to which he replies, "Maybe it's not me." Gina phones Stefan to check on him but he does not answer. She goes back to Stefan's flat to find it deserted. Gina hears the water leaking once more and goes to the attic to investigate where she finds Stefan, dead, with his head smashed onto a pipe. Panicking, Gina calls John for help but when a man who looks like John appears out of the shadows from behind him, they are disconnected.

Scared, Gina runs into the bathroom and locks the door. Someone jiggles the door knob from outside and pounds on the door trying to break it open, but Gina gets out through the bathroom window. Suddenly, the door breaks open and a man looking exactly like Stefan walks into the room. We then see Gina running down the street and into a phone booth where she relives parts of her day and picks up the phone receiver and calls her brother, Daniel. Gina explains everything to Daniel about the woman she saw who looks like her and that she followed the woman to her flat. Daniel realizes that Gina is talking about her own home and tells Gina that's where she lives. Gina ends the call. Daniel hangs the phone up, turns and sees broken mirror pieces on the floor. Puzzled, he walks further into the apartment when he begins to hear scrubbing noises and follows the sound to the bathroom where he sees Kate scrubbing the blood stained floor. Daniel calls to Kate who stands up and they look at each other with no emotion.

Gina arrives at her flat and is let in the building by the night watchman. Gina gets a spare key to her apartment from him and he asks if he should make her another key to which she replies no, she has another set somewhere. Gina continues to her flat and quietly walks in. When she goes into the bathroom, Gina finds a dead body of herself with a plastic bag over her head. Gina pulls the bag off the duplicate's head, which causes previously suppressed memories she had been struggling to remember to come flooding back to her. Gina backs up, crying, looks up and suddenly remembers coming home, seeing something that frightened her. She drops her wallet, glass breaks and she sees herself putting the plastic bag over her head and murdering the real Gina. More memories flit by as Gina processes everything, then she goes to the living room window which she looks out and down at her father, John, who is standing on the sidewalk looking up at her.

The film concludes as Mirror Gina is examining x-rays of herself showing that she too now has Situs Inversus, implying that the patient from the beginning of the film along with others are also being replaced by doppelgangers from the other side of the mirror. Daniel comes to see Gina at the hospital, but realizes that she has been replaced similar to how Gina earlier realized that Stefan was not Stefan anymore. Daniel runs away as Mirror Gina stares at him and smiles. Mirror Gina is then seen driving her car to destinations unknown while smiling eerily.

Shuu is a detective in Metal City. He is engaged to the daughter of the Shadow Dragon organization's leader, Eileen. Despite his job, he still has to pinch pennies to keep his combat mech in working condition. His partner is Ion, who eventually becomes something of a love interest. Eileen is the daughter of the Shadow Dragon Organization's leader. She is engaged to Shuu.

The game takes place in a town known as Solid City, which despite being technologically advanced, is overrun with crime. Very few people dare to challenge the control of the underground mafias and street gangs that threaten the city. While the game has a continuous plot, players are urged to complete individual missions.

Set in the 1960s, the plot revolves around the people of a rural Irish town named Mountfern. Patrick O'Neill, an Irish-American businessman, settles with his children in "the land of his ancestors" in order to build a luxury hotel on the site of a derelict mansion. While many of the town's residents are excited about the project's impact on local employment, one of the town's pubs, run by John and Kate Ryan, which is located directly opposite the planned hotel, is threatened with closure by O'Neill's scheme. The novel explores the relationships between the O'Neill teenagers and the Ryan children, as well as the lives of a large cast of secondary characters. As construction crews begin working on the project, Kate Ryan is seriously injured at the site, and the entire town is negatively affected by the unfolding events.

The plot events and characters are described, below, using in-universe tone.

Setting

Like other games in the ''Neverwinter Nights'' series, ''Storm of Zehir'' takes place in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, on the continent of Faerûn on the planet Abeir-Toril. It is set mostly in the Samarach and Sword Coast regions, with visits to locations featured in previous games such as Crossroad Keep and the city of Neverwinter. Since the Shadow War depicted in ''Neverwinter Nights 2'' and the subsequent disappearance of the game's protagonist, the Knight–Captain, Neverwinter and the surrounding area have been declining economically. Several merchant companies have been attempting to establish a foothold in the region, with limited success.

Story

''Storm of Zehir'''s story begins with the player character escorting a ship called the ''Vigilant'', sailing from the Sword Coast to Samarach. Halfling captain Lastri Kassireh quickly advises the party to go below decks in anticipation of an impending storm. The violent storm, coupled with a possible act of sabotage, culminates in the ''Vigilant'' becoming shipwrecked on the shores of the xenophobic nation of Samarach. The captain is missing, but the party quickly sets to work organizing the survivors, such as finding defensible positions nearby and salvaging equipment from the wreckage. Before long, a tribe of goblins discovers the group, and their leader issues a challenge in an unknown language. One of the other passengers of the ''Vigilant'', the bard Volothamp "Volo" Geddarm, claims to speak the goblin tongue but inadvertently insults the goblins and instigates a battle. After the goblins are defeated, a group of humans approaches and arrests the party on suspicion of treachery, escorting them to the Open Palm market in the nearby city of Samargol. There, a local merchant named Sa'Sani intervenes on the party's behalf, revealing herself to be the recipient of the goods traveling aboard the waylaid ''Vigilant''. She subsequently recruits the party to investigate the ship's demise and the whereabouts of Captain Kassireh.

After rescuing the captain from goblins, investigating the wreckage of the ''Vigilant'', and recovering some of Sa'Sani's goods, the merchant offers the characters employment in her trading corporation. The party undertakes various missions throughout Samarach for her, establishing trade routes through the jungles of Chult and protecting caravans along them. As the group continues to expand their trading operation, they eventually discover a large plot involving followers of the new yuan-ti god, Zehir. They learn that the yuan-ti, evil serpentine humanoids, have been infiltrating human settlements from their temples in the jungles of Chult and posing as merchants. After Sa'Sani commits an act of murder at Crossroad Keep, the party learns that she is a yuan-ti priestess of Sseth who has adopted this guise. The characters are given the option of aiding Sa'Sani against a powerful yuan-ti House Se'Sehen that shifted its attention to the new god, Zehir. In order to stop the House Se'Sehen's plot to conquer Sword Coast, the party has to infiltrate the House's stronghold, the Temple of the World Serpent, and assassinate N'Safa, the high priest, and a powerful being called the "Herald of Zehir", which is a gift from the god himself. Afterwards, the party has the opportunity to slay Sa'Sani as well.

A robber calmly holds up a post-office in Stockholm at Saint Lucy's Day 13 December. The policemen Johansson and Jarnebring are the first on the scene and they chase the robber, who escapes. Shortly after, someone dies in a car accident and a dead body is found at a graveyard. After a while it is clear that these incidents have something to do with the robbery, and when the policemen are investigating further, they are beginning to reveal a bigger scandal. Meanwhile it seems that there is a cover-up going on.

The novel prologue retells part of the events of Flight of the Old Dog from the perspective of crew member David Luger, as he makes the decision to sacrifice himself in order to allow his crewmates to take off from a Soviet airbase and return home. He subsequently awakens in a Soviet military hospital, where Soviet KGB officers have begun plans to brainwash him and make use of his extensive technical knowledge.

Five years later, a special operations mission to rescue a Lithuanian CIA agent/defector recovers a photo of Luger, now brainwashed into working for a Soviet aircraft design bureau under a false identity. USAF Col. Paul White, leader of the CIA extraction team, recognizes Luger, having formerly worked with both him and fellow Old Dog crew member Patrick McLanahan. After receiving no substantive response from the normal chain of command, White seeks out Lieutenant General Bradley Elliot, commander of the top-secret High-Technology Aerospace Weapons Center (HAWC) or Dreamland facility and former leader of the Old Dog mission. Elliot convinces his superiors to authorize a mission to rescue Luger, but is unconvinced that they will follow through, and so conspires with White to set up his own mission.

Simultaneously, General Dominikas Palcikas, commander of the Lithuanian Self-Defense Forces, labors under the challenge of creating a post-Soviet identity for his forces while training them to defend against a possible invasion from neighboring Belarus and its power-hungry military commander, General Voschanka.

As matters come to a head in Lithuania, General Voschanka invades, threatening to overrun the country at the same time as the mission to extract Luger goes in. Despite the unauthorized nature of the additional forces gathered by Elliot and White, the American President and military commanders have no choice but to make use of those forces to stop the Belarusian invasion. Elliot's high-tech bombers and White's commandos successfully aid the Lithuanian forces in repelling the Belarusian invasion, along with Luger and McLanahan, who steal the Russian stealth bomber which Luger was forced to help design, the fictional Fiskious Fi-170. In a final act of desperation and revenge, General Voschanka launches a nuclear missile at Vilnius, which is intercepted in the nick of time by one of Elliot's bombers.

Back in the United States, Luger is reunited with the rest of his former crewmates at Dreamland, where a DIA official states he must be take into custody due to his long absence. The HAWC staff manage to switch Luger with the defector and the President allows Luger to stay at HAWC under Elliot's authority.

The Office of the District IC at one of districts of Saint Petersburg investigates the most difficult crimes. Possibly, many of these affairs would have remained unsolved, if not for the talent and sharp senses (including sense of humor) of the Chief Detective Maria Sergeevna Shvetsova and her team.

Twenty-one-year-old Valentine (Sophie Marceau) is a part-time teacher preparing for her all-important final teaching examinations. She meets Edouard (Vincent Lindon), a jazz musician who aspires to be a composer. Despite their different schedules and career agenda, they engage in a passionate affair. Valentine compares her relationship with Edouard to the dry dissertation of Molière's ''The Misanthrope'' in her oral exams at the Sorbonne.

In 1971, young Lucie Jurin escapes from a disused slaughterhouse where she has been imprisoned and tortured for more than a year. She is placed in an orphanage, where she befriends Anna Assaoui, who quickly discovers that Lucie believes she is being tormented by a disfigured, demonic woman.

Fifteen years later, Lucie bursts into the home of an apparently normal family, the Belfonds — Gabrielle, her husband, and their two teenage children — and kills them with a shotgun. Anna arrives and is horrified by the carnage but ultimately decides to help Lucie clean up. Anna later discovers Gabrielle alive and tries to help her escape, but Lucie catches them and beats Gabrielle to death with a hammer. Lucie is again attacked by the demonic woman, but Anna only sees Lucie hurting herself; it is implied that the woman is the psychological manifestation of her guilt for leaving behind another girl who was also tortured with her as a child. In despair, Lucie slits her own throat.

The next day, Anna, while on the phone with her estranged abusive mother, discovers a secret passageway in the living room, leading to a subterranean chamber. Imprisoned in it is a horrifically brutalised and emaciated woman, proving Lucie was right about the Belfonds. Anna helps the woman out and attempts to clean her, but she later finds her mutilating her arm with a knife. A group of people arrive at the house, kill the woman, and capture Anna. The group's leader, identified only as Mademoiselle, explains that they belong to a secret society seeking to discover the secrets of the afterlife through the creation of "martyrs". They do this by capturing young women and inflicting on them systematic acts of torture, in the belief that their suffering will result in a transcendental insight into the world beyond. So far, the group have mostly produced "victims" who succumbed to the pain, like Lucie and the woman Anna found, but are determined to create martyrs who accept their suffering.

Anna becomes the group's latest subject. After a period of being brutally beaten and degraded, she is told that she has progressed further than any other test subject and reached the "final stage." She is flayed alive, a procedure that she survives, and reportedly enters an "ecstatic" state. Mademoiselle arrives eagerly and Anna whispers into her ear. Members of the society then gather at the house to hear the groundbreaking testimony. While waiting for Mademoiselle, an assistant asks her from outside her door if what Anna said was clear. She unequivocally confirms and asks him in turn if he can imagine what comes after death. After he says no, Mademoiselle abruptly produces a handgun, tells him to "keep doubting", and kills herself.

An intertitle explains that "martyr" is Greek for "witness" and the film ends with a shot of Anna lying catatonic on a table.

Marie is a prostitute who enjoys her job: she likes the independence, she likes the money, and she likes pleasing men. One cold night she sees a homeless man asleep at the foot of the stairs and, struck by his plight, asks him up to her apartment. His name is Jeannot and, after she has given him food and drink, she offers herself. Realising that she has fallen in love with him, and wanting to keep him, she offers him the job of being her pimp.

Jeannot likes the independence, the money, and the sex with Marie, but is lonely mooching around town while she is entertaining clients in the apartment. Meeting a manicurist called Sanguine, he decides to make her his next prostitute. Her first client happens to be a police inspector investigating vice rings and Jeannot ends up in jail.

Marie, devastated at losing Jeannot and at his treachery, is also sorry over Sanguine's plight. She decides to give up prostitution and to raise a family with a good man. Meeting Jean-François in a bar, she decides that he will be the father and invites Sanguine to join the two of them. When Jeannot is released he meets Bérengère, who is looking for a man. Since neither Marie nor Sanguine ever visited or wrote to him, he moves into her house.

Jean-François, who has given Marie two babies and has another on the way with Sanguine, keeps getting fired and is now unemployable, being on the black list. With the electricity cut off and Sanguine due to deliver at any moment, Marie decides to go back to prostitution. But the men do not seem interested in her any more and the prices they offer are derisory. Coming home despondent, she finds a mute Jeannot at the table. While Jean-François prepares to rush Sanguine to the maternity hospital, Jeannot mutters his apologies to them all.

Help the Doctor and Martha discover the truth behind the legend of Howling Hill, before the horror that stalks the night catches up with you. -->

The millionaire Jonathan Reynolds is dying, and his son Johnny returns from Mexico City to his deathbed. The attending physician, Dr. Harvey, informs Johnny that his father does not have much time to live and that his last wish is to get to know Johnny's future wife. Johnny drives quickly to his hotel to find his fiancée, Gloria Pennington, but she has left with her mother. Desperate, he asks Anne Terry if she can play Gloria for an evening. She agrees. She is kind to the dying man and he is pleased with her manner.

To everyone's surprise, the father feels much better than expected the next morning and asks if he can see his son's fiancée once again. Dr. Harvey is still concerned about the health of his patient and asks Johnny to keep pretending that Anne is Gloria. Johnny catches Anne at the train station as she is about to leave for her hometown and convinces her to return with him.

He and Anne arrive home, to find that Gloria and her mother have suddenly appeared there. Johnny tries to explain the situation. At the same time, Anne, who is an opera singer, learns of the father's New York opera world contacts. She suggests giving a party for the elderly Jonathan to show off her vocal ability. Johnny agrees, but wants to introduce his father to his real fiancée, by telling the father that he and Gloria (Anne) are separated, and his new girlfriend is the real Gloria. Anne asks him to wait until after the party, but Johnny refuses.

The next evening, Johnny informs his father about the separation. At this moment, Anne falls into the room and asks for Johnny's forgiveness. Johnny is almost forced by his father to forgive her. When Jonathan leaves the room, he, however, learns the true story through the ensuing loud dispute between Anne and Johnny. Gloria and her mother are now fully satisfied. Again, they see Johnny with Anne, but, this time, Johnny's mouth is covered by lipstick marks. Deciding that enough is enough, the mother and daughter leave yet again.

At last, the day of the party arrives. Jonathan is back in good health, and Johnny goes to the party with Gloria and her mother, explaining to his father that Anne has a headache and cannot attend. Jonathan then sets off to see Anne. He tells her that he knows the true story, but wants to go out for a farewell dinner between old friends. They go to a nightclub where they drink and dance together. Jonathan secretly sends word to Johnny to come to the club. When Johnny and Dr. Harvey arrive, Johnny accuses Anne of endangering his father's life. Anne flings his drink in his face and leaves.

The next day, Johnny catches Anne once again at the station to tell her that his father has had another heart attack and wants to see her. They rush to the mansion, only to find that Jonathan is fine—it was his doctor who collapsed. Jonathan just took advantage of the mixup to bring the young couple back together. Johnny and Anne recognize their true feelings for each other, which pleases Jonathan.

When you find yourself on a 23rd-century space station, you soon realise a dangerous alien parasite has taken over most of the people on board. Can you and the Doctor destroy it before it reaches Earth?

Your journey takes you to the planet Elandeffn, where people live side by side with dragons. But hunters from a neighbouring planet are attacking... Can you restore peace to these two clashing worlds?

Category:2008 British novels Category:2008 science fiction novels Category:Decide Your Destiny gamebooks Category:Tenth Doctor novels Category:Novels set on fictional planets

During the opening credits Robert Goulet and Andy Williams perform a duet "I'd Rather Be Rich".

We first meet Cynthia Dulaine (Sandra Dee) sitting at a nightclub table while Warren Palmer (Andy Williams) croons to her "It Had To Be You".

Suddenly, Cynthia is called away to her dying grandfather's bedside. Philip Dulaine (Maurice Chevalier) is the founder and CEO of Dulaine Enterprises and Cynthia is his closest surviving relative and heir. He tells her that his dying wish is for her to find the right man to marry. She's happy to tell him of the "kind, considerate and handsome" Warren Palmer whom Philip has never met and whom she has recently become engaged. Philip asks to meet Warren as soon as possible for the end seems close at hand.

Stuck in Boston because of airport difficulties, Warren is unable to be with Cynthia. Realizing that Philip will die a happier man if he can meet her fiancé, Cynthia approaches a stranger and asks if he would pose as Warren for an introduction to her grandfather. This man is Paul Benton (Robert Goulet), who has invented a heat-proof paint and desperately wants an audience with Philip Dulaine whose company has a contract with NASA. So, Benton agrees and the ruse is pulled off very successfully with Philip favorably impressed by the young man he believes to be Cynthia's fiancé. Especially after Philip makes the two kiss and sees Cynthia kick off her shoes just as her grandmother always did when Philip and she would kiss.

Philip tells the "couple" that Dulaine Enterprises is in danger of a hostile take-over and implores Cynthia to meet with the board to try to save the company. He insists against her protest that she take her "fiancé" along. The meeting at first proves disastrous for Cynthia until Benton announces that Cynthia will put her own money into the company. This satisfies the board, but Cynthia later tells Benton she is outraged with him for offering up her money without checking with her first. However, she does help him by sending him off on an interview with the best person at the company to help get his paint invention tested by NASA.

Meanwhile, back at the Dulaine mansion and unbeknown to Cynthia, Philip has unexpectedly recovered and feels as healthy as ever. Throughout the rest of the film, he and his nurse (Hermione Gingold) perform a comical cat and mouse game - she trying to stop him from smoking the many cigars he has hidden around the mansion.

Philip learns of Benton's success with the board and now surely approves of his granddaughter's choice in a fiancé. But then Philip learns all about the ruse when he overhears Cynthia tell Benton that his presence is no longer required since the real Warren Palmer is arriving that afternoon.

Because Philip likes Paul Benton so much and thinks he is the right man for his granddaughter, he continues to pretend to be at death's door. Whenever Cynthia tries to tell him who her real fiancé is, he coughs and feigns a weak heart making her afraid to shock him in any way. This makes it necessary for Benton to stick around and Philip uses the situation to his advantage - playing matchmaker in an attempt to ensure his granddaughter's happiness. After all, Philip is certain Benton spells true love for Cynthia since she cannot keep her shoes on whenever they are together.

Later that afternoon, the real Warren Palmer arrives at the Dulaine mansion and is reluctantly forced to pose as Paul Benton. Meanwhile, Benton realizes he's fallen for Cynthia, so he manages to hamper some late night amorous activity between the engaged couple and also boobie-traps a romantic getaway they go off on together. In the car on the way over, Palmer serenades Cynthia with the song "Almost There". But their rendezvous is sabotaged by the jealous Benton and they are forced to return early.

Philip sends Cynthia and Benton to attend a shareholders' dinner dance, a scheme to have them spend more time together. They have a very enjoyable evening, until it ends up with the two rivals for Cynthia's affection fist fighting on the mansion's lawn.

Finally Philip tells Cynthia that he is no longer dying and that her recent foot problems, just like her grandmother's condition, signifies which of the two men she truly loves. After a few more comedic scenes, Cynthia breaks off her engagement with Warren Palmer and winds up with Paul Benton.

France in 1870: Napoleon III has just lost the war against Prussia and left the country in poverty.

Young Jeanne (Geneviève Bujold) falls in love with photographer Francis (Francis Huster), who soon takes her with him when he emigrates to The United States. In a small town in the still Wild West, they build up a small photo shop. Meanwhile animal doctor David (James Caan) lives on his lonesome farm with his wife.

It takes two years and two tragic accidents until Jeanne and David meet. Alone with a child, Jeanne has decided to return to France and is about to leave but then she and David silently and carefully fall in love for the second time in their lives and hope returns.

Flamel takes the twins to London, where he uses Francis to enlist Palamedes, the Saracen Knight, to help them. Palamedes takes them to his home, a junk-yard in London, and they manage to work together to contact Perenelle. Perenelle is trapped on Alcatraz with the friendly but untrustworthy spider elder, Areop-Enap, after narrowly escaping the Sphinx and defeating the Morrigan. Morrigan had been suppressed sufficiently by the Words of Power that resided on the island that her body was retaken by her two elder sisters, Macha and Badb. Perenelle also makes fleeting contact with Scathach and Joan of Arc by scrying. Areop-Enap and its spider army are then attacked by an onslaught of poisoned flies, killing most of the spiders and wounding Areop-Enap. Billy the Kid has joined forces with Machiavelli in an attempt to kill the sorceress, but Perenelle, aided by Macha and Badb, tricks the pair and steals their boat, travelling back to the mainland with her new ally, the Crow Goddess.

Unfortunately, the Dark Elders have awakened an ancient being even more powerful and mysterious than them: an Archon (a being that predates the Elders). The Archon, named Cernunnos, is known as the Horned God and is the leader of a pack of wolf people called the Wild Hunt. Cernunnos, the Wild Hunt, and Dr Dee engage Shakespeare, the Gabriel Hounds, Palamedes, the twins, and Flamel in a vicious battle. Flamel, Palamedes and the twins manage to fight their way past Cernunnos and Dee and flee the destruction of the junkyard. They pick up Gilgamesh before heading towards Stonehenge. What Nicholas Flamel withheld from the twins is that Gilgamesh the King is insane. Though he has no magical aura - and hence cannot use any of his abilities - he can still pass on his knowledge to the Awakened human twins. Machiavelli uses his power as head of French intelligence to lock down the roads around Stonehenge, so they head to one of Shakespeare's nearby safe houses. Here Gilgamesh teaches the twins the magic of water. While the twins are adjusting to the powers Gilgamesh has taught them, Cernunnos returns with the Wild Hunt and attacks the twins and Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh is wounded by the Archon, but the twins use their newfound magical powers to protect the King. While making their escape, Josh loses Clarent, and Dee grabs the sword, reuniting it with its twin, Excalibur. The two swords fuse together to make a new sword. Flamel, Palamedes and the twins flee for Stonehenge with the Wild Hunt, Dee, and the police after them. They meet up with Shakespeare and the Gabriel Hounds who fled the junk-yard using a secret tunnel, the twins activate the ley lines at Stonehenge and the protagonists are greeted by Perenelle at the other end.

Meanwhile, Scathach and Joan of Arc try to get to Alcatraz to help Perenelle but are trapped in a shadow−realm by Machiavelli, who had deliberately set the trap to snare them. They do not know how to return to their time and must try to survive while they wait for Flamel and the others to find and rescue them.

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin is raised by his father and his grandfather because his mother dies when he's still very little. He works as a handyman, studies the law at a university and travels the country as an actor before he becomes the celebrated playwright Molière who impresses firstly the Duke of Orleans and then even King Louis XIV.

''The Hep Cat'' opens with a cat strolling through an abandoned lot. Unfortunately, he stumbles across a dog named Rosebud who gives chase. The cat, after a successful escape, begins singing a parody of "Java Jive". Later, the cat encounters an attractive female cat, and attempts to woo her, failing utterly. A package containing flowers and a lipstick-kissed note is tossed over the fence; the note invites the cat to rendezvous with "guess who?" on the other side of the fence. He prances over and comes face-to-face with Rosebud. The chase resumes.

At one point, the dog uses a puppet version of the female cat of Hep Cat's dreams to trap him. The cat is fooled and again the dog pursues him.

After a series of zany sight gags, the cat once again evades Rosebud and puts him out of commission. As the cartoon closes, the cat can be seen kissing his dream girl—the puppet.

While happily roller skating, Woody (Grace Stafford) gets bullied by an angry Buzz Buzzard (Dal McKennon) who has just avoided being served a summons. Thinking the woodpecker might want to seek mild revenge on Buzz, law officer I. Gypem (also McKennon) tells Woody he will pay him a dollar to serve Buzz with the summons.

Woody happily accepts the offer from Gypem, but Buzz manages to stop all attempts at delivering the summons. Woody then stumbles on a book about hypnotism, which declares: "Influence others and be their master." Woody reads the book cover to cover, and then decides to "practice" his newly acquired skill on Buzz. At first, he has some fun by putting the reluctant buzzard to sleep. Then, Woody turns him into a dog, a monkey, and appropriately enough, a woodpecker.

Finally, Woody blindfolds himself, begins walking on a skyscraper skeleton and tells Buzz (who has been fitted with Woody's roller skates), "I am your master. You must protect me at all times." The two encounter several death defying close calls before Woody manages to secure Buzz and escort him to I. Gypem's office.

Supposedly thankful, Gypem has the audacity to serve Woody with a summons, accusing the woodpecker of "practicing hypnotism out of season." Incensed, Woody hypnotizes Buzz into thinking he is a hungry giant and Gypem is a tasty ham sandwich. While Buzz chases Gypem out of the office and into the city, Woody celebrates his victory by throwing the money into the air and doing his trademark laugh.

Taiwanese politicians vote to declare independence from China in early June 1997 and the US immediately recognizes Taiwan as a sovereign state. However, Beijing does not take the declaration lightly and plans offensive operations to reimpose the one-China policy, with the initial swing led by the PLAN's deployment of the aircraft carrier ''Mao Zedong''.

Meanwhile, the US government authorizes a covert deployment of two EB-52 Megafortresses to patrol over the Taiwan Strait and keep watch on the situation. Lt. General Bradley Elliott successfully reorganizes the survivors of the original Old Dog crew for the operation as part of a plan to pitch the Megafortress as new aircraft for the US Air Force. A stand-off between a Taiwanese Navy frigate and the ''Mao Zedong'' task force escalates as the Old Dog crew is forced to intervene.

The battle opens an opportunity for the Chinese to wage an international public-relations campaign to paint the US and Taiwan as the aggressors. Chinese Admiral Sun Ji Guoming uses Sun Tzu's lessons on deception to give the campaign added leverage. His schemes include launching torpedoes against the ''Mao Zedong'' and frame the attack on the Taiwanese submarine ''Hai Hu'' shadowing it in Hong Kong harbor, disguising a ferry as a cruiser to provoke an attack by the Megafortress, and detonating a suitcase nuke on the USS ''Independence'' as it steams out of Japan for deployment to the Taiwan Strait. Sun uses the success of his deception operation to launch a massive air campaign against Taiwan, starting off with nuclear-tipped SAMs fired on Taiwanese F-16s attacking a naval base in Fujian province. The Chinese attacks on Taiwan - with nuclear weapons used on several of them - prompts the US to prepare its own strategic nuclear forces.

The fallout from the events also affect the US leadership's confidence in Elliott's team while many countries in the Pacific Rim ban US warships from their waters. The US military tries to impound the Megafortress planes while in Guam, but Elliott's crew hijack one Megafortress and fly to a secret underground airbase outside Hualien, where a surviving Taiwanese Air Force F-16 unit welcomes them as the "new Flying Tigers." As Sun gloats over the success of his plan and expects the Taiwanese government's surrender, the joint US-Taiwan force starts attacking Chinese strategic assets deep in the mainland, which helps Chinese Army commander Chin Po Zihong convince Central Military Commission chairman Jiang Zemin to launch a ballistic missile at Andersen Air Force Base in the belief that it was the staging area for the attacks.

Chin, who has been disgusted with Sun's tactics that do not require an actual invasion of Taiwan, orders an attack on the secret airbase after a patrol plane follows a flight of F-16s returning from another strike before being shot down. Elliott's team and the Taiwanese planes launch ahead of the Chinese assault. At the same time, the US Navy's carrier planes and the Air Force - which finally called off its strategic forces alert - savage the Chinese planes to help the Megafortress attack the Second Artillery Corps' missile silos. In the ensuing battle, the Megafortress suffers heavy damage while destroying many silos. Elliott orders McLanahan and the rest of the crew to eject while guiding the bomber for a kamikaze attack on the last DF-5 silo.

The crew is captured by the Chinese, but are returned to the US after Sun surrenders to the Americans at Kadena Air Base and threatened to reveal the Chinese plan for recapturing Taiwan, causing Beijing to declare a ceasefire. The group - who expected jail time for going renegade - arrives at Dreamland, where President Martindale declares that it was reactivated and renamed in Elliott's honor. He also designates Eighth Air Force chief Gen. Terrill Samson as base commander and McLanahan drives off contemplating an offer to be the base's operations director.

Jake comes home and finds his wife and Willy ("The Dude") Mollycoddle in a compromising position. Enraged, Jake throws Willy out of the house and scolds his wife and threatens to kill himself. Fearful that Jake will commit suicide, the wife calls the police and three officers are sent out to find Jake. Stopping at a bar before he commits suicide, Jake finds the Dude who is drowning his sorrows. Jake takes his revenge on Willy with a seltzer bottle. Later Jake drunkenly walks down to a park fountain where he is mugged and knocked out by some ruffians. The police find Jake unconscious and carry him home to his wife, who thinks Jake has really killed himself. She contacts the Dude who comes over to help her prepare Jake's funeral arrangements, but when Jake suddenly revives from his stupor, the Dude runs out of the house in terror. Jake and his wife make up and decide to repair their marriage.

A hunchback fisherman named Barnacle Bill finds a young girl tied to a mast, the sole survivor of a shipwreck, and raises her into womanhood with the intention of making her his wife. Ten years pass and the woman, out of gratitude, promises to marry him. The hunchback hires a handsome stranger named Bob. The boy and the girl fall in love, but the girl refuses to marry him. The hunchback sees the two embrace and threatens Bob with a knife. The next day, the three go fishing in the boat and an argument breaks out. During the argument, the boat tips over and the girl is washed away. The hunchback and the boy search for her, until the boy becomes exhausted and collapses on the shore. The hunchback finds the girl on a rock and brings her ashore. When the two young people reunite, he sees how happy they are together and decides to walk out of their lives.

A jealous girl, Jane, puts paint on her fiance Lon’s overcoat and becomes excited when she finds traces of the paint on another girl’s waist. But it develops that Lon’s brother Chance had worn the coat in the meantime, and she is pacified after an explanation. But later, Chance's wife Cleo finds traces of the paint on Jane's dress and accuses Chance of being unfaithful to her. All is explained in the end.

Subtitled ''A Gothic Comedy'', the play is set during the Christmas holiday in the deteriorating Pascagoula, Mississippi house of Cornelius and Bella McCorkle, who have just buried their eldest son, a gay man Cornelius banished from the home years earlier. During a raging storm, heavy drinker Cornelius, who once had political aspirations, tries to get Bella, who suffers from mild dementia, to disclose where she concealed the considerable amount of money she inherited from her grandfather, who accumulated his wealth by making and selling moonshine. When she refuses to cooperate, her husband threatens to have her institutionalized, just as he did their daughter Joanie. Coming to her rescue is their negligent youngest son Charlie, who has returned home with his zealously religious pregnant fiancée Stacey in tow.

Seventeen-year-old Egon (Ib Mossin), an apprentice mechanic in a small town near Copenhagen, naively falls into the company of criminals. When the thieves dare Egon to prove himself worthy of their company, Egon steals a doctor's bag from a parked car. Getting away easily, Egon becomes involved with crime. After brutally mugging a local butcher one evening, Egon and his buddies are arrested. Egon is sentenced to a home for juvenile delinquents. He meets the sympathetic Ruth (Anni Stangerup), who tries to encourage him to go straight, but finds she has little power to change him. When Egon is released from the juvenile home, he has lost his naivete and become a hardened criminal. He organizes a gang, proving himself a merciless leader, and says they will commit crimes "the right way." Egon surrounds himself with a group of the town's antisocial individuals: Manchester (Ole Wisborg) a drug addict and dealer, Johnny (Thomas Rasch) the spoiled doctor's son, the callous Karl (Per Lauesgaard), the weakling Ejnar (Klaus Nielsen), and the dimwitted but sweetly loyal Alice (Birgitte Bruun). Egon decides to burgle a slaughterhouse. But his new girlfriend Tove (Kirsten Venner) betrays him to the police out of jealousy. The new band of criminals is arrested and sentenced to prison. Only Ejnar is able to break free of his criminal connections, and the community gives him a new chance.

The film begins with the Dreamer, a restless and disappointed dreamer who has a wife and child. He gazes at his hands and dreams of becoming a great conqueror, but laments that no opportunities ever come to him, and so he continues to dream. The Dreamer becomes the subject of ridicule and his wife becomes the subject of pity by the community. The Dreamer decides to enter the world of men and abandons his wife, leaving her to seek refuge from her father. Her father wishes for her to marry a wealthy gentleman who is also a stranger in the town.

The Dreamer heads off into the desert and wanders until exhaustion takes its toll. A woman called "The Desert Flower" finds him and takes him to her hut in the desert. There she spends her time looking over the garments of the man who once courted her, who happens to be the same stranger who is now attempting to marry the Dreamer's wife. The woman learns of the Dreamer's story and shows the Dreamer the futility of conquering worlds unknown when he cannot even conquer his own small corner of the world. The Dreamer sees visions of himself in the roles of various great conquerors, but each vision ends in death. Meanwhile the Dreamer's wife has been kicked out of her father's home for refusing to marry the Stranger, and is reunited with the Dreamer at the edge of the desert. The Stranger is sent out into the desert, and the Dreamer and his wife return to the town. In time, the Dreamer becomes respected by the community.

Susie (Louise Fazenda) turns down Lee's (Lee Morris) offer of love, planning instead to become a famous actress. The director of a film team engages Susie to star in an exciting serial after his leading lady's false teeth break, but chaos ensues. Susie's brother Benny sees her being menaced by a villain who is preparing to burn her alive, not realizing they are just making a movie. He gets the fire department involved, and they create a deluge on the set with their hoses. The director finally manages to chase the firemen away.

Later, while filming a scene on a beach, Susie is almost drowned accidentally when the film crew leaves her tied up in a rising tide. Her boyfriend rescues her just in time, and Susie decides to marry him and give up acting forever. Realizing how dangerous filmmaking can be, she exclaims "Never again!" as she falls into her beau's arms.

Ramona is fond of pets, but her hubby, Eddie, has a horror of all animals. The parrots bite him and the monkeys bare their teeth at him. They receive a wire from Eddie's uncle saying that his circus has gone broke and that he is sending his pet elephant to Eddie to care for it. Despite his protests, Ramona sends Eddie over to the train station to pick up the beast. First, Eddie has to pay a $300 shipping bill, and then the stable he rented doesn't allow him to keep elephants there. When they try to keep the creature in their backyard, neighbors complain and authorities order it removed. The last scene shows the elephant dragging a furniture van with Ramona sitting up on top of it and Eddie leading the procession.

A sportswriter is sent to a city (identifiable through landmarks as Nottingham) on an assignment, only to find himself confronted by ghosts from his past. As he attempts to report an association football match, memories of his friend, a tragic victim of cancer, haunt his mind.

The city visited remains unnamed, however the novel contains an accurate description of Nottingham landmarks, its streetscape, and its environment in 1969, with additional recallings of 1959. The football ground in the novel is obviously Nottingham Forest's City Ground, whence the fictional football club 'City' comes.

A sex-obsessed lush of a writer is employed by the Catholic Church to edit and tidy up a 1,100-page report on the army's massacre and torture of the indigenous villagers a decade earlier. The writer becomes mesmerized by the poetic phrases written by the indigenous people and becomes increasingly paranoid and frightened, not only by the spellbinding words he must read, but also by the murders and generals that run the country. The country, never named, is identifiable as Guatemala through the mention of two presidents, Vinicio Cerezo Arevalo and Efrain Rios Montt.

The book is set in Luton, Bedfordshire where fifteen-year-old David Case saves his younger brother from falling out of an open window. Scared by the experience, he starts to see danger everywhere, believes that Fate is stalking him, and decides to change his identity in order to escape his destiny. He changes his name to Justin, adopts a new wardrobe, seeks out new friends, acquires an imaginary dog, all in the hope of avoiding Fate. His new, moody, self-absorbed persona attracts attention, not all of it good, and Fate is not fooled at all.

The title and David's adopted name Justin Case refer to his preparation phobia.

Harry Driscoll is an editorial assistant living in New York. He works for a major publishing house, but is failing to make an impression by not taking his job seriously. He constantly arrives at the office late and intoxicated. He is bitter, cynical and troubled but very charming. The only thing he (secretly) cares about is his long suffering girlfriend - Evie; but he is unable to commit, be faithful or tell her he loves her. Soon his self-destructive actions will send his life into a rapid descent.

Box Elder follows best friends and roommates, John Scott (Sklar) Alex, Nick, and Chad (Haas) through their final years of college at the University of Missouri. The loose narrative structure is anchored by John's breakup with his girlfriend Laura (Hina Abdullah). The four dudes party, eat sandwiches, and repeatedly ignore their scholastic responsibilities.

All the books of the series are set at the same location, the New Arcadia Inn, formerly known as the Arcadia Inn. The resort is luxurious and located in a forest in the northeastern part of the United States. It has a gruesome history of murder and violence from beyond the grave. All the primary characters are teenagers, which is a common format of the young adult novels. Though each book is a stand-alone story, they are all inter-connected by two recurring characters, a young girl named Sarah (who plays an important part in the first novel and is portrayed as a secondary character in subsequent stories) and the inn's caretaker/manager, who is intimately familiar with the hotel's history.

Pudgy the Puppy, out for a stroll, meets a mean bulldog. Impressed by the tough dog, Pudgy imitates his behavior. Betty, seeing this, sings the title song to Pudgy in an attempt to stop this. Pudgy ignores her and follows the bulldog, but his attempts to be tough only land him in trouble. After an attempt to steal a meal from the butcher nearly gets him skewered, Pudgy runs back to Betty, who welcomes him home.

Betty and Pudgy are on the roof of their tenement building, trying to get her pet pigeons back in their cage. One stubborn bird refuses to return to the roost, despite Betty's pleas. Pudgy, imagining himself a might hunting dog, attempts to catch the bird, with little success (at one point, Pudgy spots the pigeon on top of a flag pole, and as he tries to climb up the pole, the flag spanks Pudgy). When the pigeon gives Pudgy the slip, the little dog eventually wanders into the forest, where he falls asleep from exhaustion. The pigeon takes pity on Pudgy, and flies him back to Betty's home. When Pudgy wakes up on the roof, he tears up the picture of the hunting dog in frustration.

Two criminals are stalking the streets of London one dark night. Frank Clemmons (Dirk Bogarde), a cocky middle-class young man, holds up psychiatrist Dr. Clive Esmond (Alexander Knox) at gunpoint outside his affluent home, but Dr. Esmond overpowers him.

Arriving home from in Paris, Dr. Esmond's wife Glenda (Alexis Smith) is taken aback to discover Clemmons staying in their home as the new household guest. To avoid being turned over to the police, Frank agreed to stay as a guest at Dr. Esmond's house as a human guinea-pig subjected to Dr. Esmond's psychoanalysis, which aims to release him from his criminal recidivism. Glenda has reservations about Frank and behaves in a cold, aloof manner towards him.

Frank undergoes regular analysis with Dr. Esmond, who is determined to get to the root of his criminality. In between these sessions, he goes horse riding with Glenda. Although at first indifferent to him, Glenda soon finds herself growing attracted to Frank. With a fellow criminal in tow, Frank leaves the house one night and steals some jewellery. A police inspector later interviews him about the crime, but he denies having committed it. Some time after, Frank takes Glenda to the Metro, a hipster nightclub in Soho where her conflicted attraction to him deepens. The next day Glenda admonishes Frank for his violent behaviour towards the house-maid Sally (Patricia McCarron), but their argument ends with a passionate clinch which indicates the beginning of an affair between Glenda and Frank.

Initially oblivious, Dr. Esmond eventually finds Frank and his wife in a compromising position. Glenda's conflicted feelings plague her. Back at the Metro club with Frank, the two have a huge argument that overwhelms her. As they begin their journey home, Glenda driving recklessly and out of control. A police car soon pursues them but they manage to escape.

Sally's fiancé pays Dr. Esmond a visit to complain about the abuse she has had to endure from Frank. Her fiancé threatens to tell the police about the assault. No charges are pressed and Frank finds out that this is due to Dr. Esmond buying the man off with £100. Frank reacts by carrying out another robbery. When questioned by the police, Dr. Esmond ends up lying on Frank's behalf. A cunning ploy, this results in Frank pouring out a dramatic account of his tyrannical father, whom he deeply despised. As a boy, Frank stole and his father consequently turned him in to the authorities. Frank vowed revenge on his Father when he was released, but was then given a beating. His father died shortly thereafter and his mother blamed him. Frank admits that he prayed for his father's death, and has seen himself as worthy of punishment ever since. Dr. Esmond concludes that with the father's death, Frank has had to provide his own punishment for the rest of his life.

Dr. Esmond soon begins acting like a father figure towards Frank. The two enjoy carefree activities together until Glenda finds out and grows intensely jealous. She asks Frank to elope with her. However, with Dr. Esmond's psychiatric experiment over and his patterns of behaviour understood, Frank leaves and decides to turn himself in to the police. Glenda hysterically rushes to Dr. Esmond, claiming that Frank has assaulted her. Dr. Esmond goes upstairs with a gun and returns claiming that he has shot Frank dead. Glenda is heartbroken and ends up declaring her love for Frank. She then finds out that though there was a gunshot, Frank has escaped and she goes after him in her car. Frank gets into Glenda's car and they drive off at high speed. The highly distressed Glenda swerves to avoid a lorry, but crashes. Frank survives, but Glenda dies in the wreckage.

In May 1944 Louise Desfontaines (Sophie Marceau), a member of the French Resistance, flees to Spain after her husband is killed, where she is captured and later expatriated to London. She is recruited by the Special Operations Executive (SOE), the secret spy and sabotage service initiated by Winston Churchill. Louise is given an urgent first mission: to extricate a British agent (Conrad Cecil) who has fallen into German hands while preparing the invasion of Normandy. The agent has not yet revealed anything but time is pressing.

Louise must first create a commando group of women especially chosen for the needs of the operation. When it comes to recruitment, anything goes: lies, blackmail, bribery (through the offer of remission of a death sentence) and calls to carry out patriotic duty. She first employs Suzy Desprez (Marie Gillain), a cabaret dancer who excels in the art of seducing men. Then she brings in Gaëlle Lemenech (Déborah François), a chemist and explosives expert. Finally she selects Jeanne Faussier (Julie Depardieu), a prostitute capable of killing in cold blood. After their arrival in Normandy, they are joined by Maria Luzzato (Maya Sansa), an Italian Jew and radio operator.

The mission gets under way well, but quickly becomes complicated. They are obliged to return to Paris, where the SOE gives them a new, almost suicidal, objective: to eliminate Colonel Heindrich, one of the key figures of Nazi counter-espionage. He knows too much about the planned landings.

The main character in the series is ten-year-old Birger, who collects the comic book series ''Thunderboy''. When his parents discover one day that the first issue is worth 10,000 kroner, the family searches the entire house for his copy but fails to find it. In frustration, Birger kicks the furniture in his room and discovers that the room functions as a spaceship. He takes off, and in outer space discovers a supervillain named Barry Slisk, who had stolen his comic book. Slisk has his hideout in a black hole and Birger must try to thwart his evil plans. In the course of doing so he meets a beautiful girl named Iris, who helps him.

The story is principally set in and near Paris between 1789 and 1792. Yannick "Yann" Margoza, an orphaned gypsy boy, who can throw his voice, read minds and predict the future, works in the Théâtre du Temple, with his guardians Topolain a magician, and Têtu a dwarf who can move objects with his mind. The trio is invited by the mysterious and sinister Count Kalliovski to perform at the chateau of the Marquis de Villeduval for him and his guests. Unbeknownst to them, Count Kalliovski is an old enemy from Têtu and Topolain's past. They run into him in the library of the chateau but it is too late for them to escape so they decided to leave the bullet catch out of the performance. During one trick with the pierrot, Yann has a disturbing premonition in which the guests are all carrying their bloodied severed heads. Têtu and Topolain hurriedly try to end the show but Kalliovski insists on performing the bullet catch. He tampers with the pistol which instantly kills Topolain. While hiding from Kalliovski, Yann meets the Marquis' abused and neglected daughter Sido, and is instantly smitten by her. After escaping back to Paris with Sido's help via a secret passage in her chamber, Têtu warns Yann he is in grave danger and insists he travel to London. Yann is bitter about this but eventually agrees. Têtu's friend, Monsieur Cordell, arranges for Yann to stay with Henry and Juliette Laxton in London, who happen to be Sido's maternal aunt and uncle. Têtu also tells Cordell that Kalliovski is actually a former Russian gypsy and secretly Yann's father; he was obsessed with Yann's mother Anis, who was working with Têtu and Topolain in circus. The trio eventually fled to escape his wrath but he tracked them down and murdered her after she rejected him. While trying to get Yann to safety, Têtu is shot by Kalliovski's henchman, Milkeye, while Yann is smuggled out of the country by Cordell and Mr Tull. Despite the Laxtons' kindness to him, Yann is unhappy and homesick. After attempting to run away, he rescues a poor but eccentric actor named Mr Trippen from being robbed by throwing his voice to distract the thugs. Mr. Laxton apologises to Yann and employs Trippen as his new tutor. As Yann grows older he successfully adapts to English society but seems to have lost his gift to throw his voice and read minds. He becomes keen to learn about Têtu's telekinetic abilities, known as the 'threads of light'. One day, he meets a family of gypsies: Talo Cooper, his wife Orlenda, and his grandfather, Tobias. After Orlenda reads his fortune, Tobias successfully teaches Yann how to see and control the threads of light and gives him a magic talisman. Yann also receives news from Cordell that Têtu is alive. At the same time, the body of an old acquaintance of the Marquis is found by the Thames, and Yann suspects Kalliovski after Cordell notices his necklace around the victim's neck. Yann and the Laxton's also learn that Kalliovski intends on making Sido his bride, prompting Yann to return to France and rescue her.

During Yann's absence, the political situation in France worsens with the impending threat of The French Revolution. Maître Tardieu, the Marquis' lawyer visits him one day warning him that he is bankrupt, and delivers a letter from Kalliovski demanding him to repay his debts, and asking for Sido's hand in marriage. The Marquis initially refuses until he is threatened with a cryptic warning: Remember your wife. Unwilling to suffer Kalliovski's wrath, he reluctantly agrees. Sido is understandably horrified by this arrangement, but is powerless to against both Kalliovski and the Marquis' wishes. During her father's fête one night, she overhears a heated conversation between the Marquis and his friend, Madame Perrien. Fearful for her life, she begs him to lend her money to repay her debts to Kalliovski. However, the Marquis refuses and ignores her warning that his own dealings with the Count will backfire. Perrien is indeed later murdered by Kalliovski, much to the Marquis' horror. He gradually descends further and further into madness. The chateau is soon destroyed by a mob, prompting Sido and her father to escape through a secret tunnel with the help of their servants and are given refuge by another of The Marquis' friend, the Duchesse de Lamantes.

Yann eventually returns to Paris and his old home, now renamed the Théâtre de la Liberté, and reunites with Têtu, Didier, the caretaker of the theatre, and Monsieur Aulard, the manager. Têtu is overjoyed to see him and that he too can see the threads of light, and finally tells him the truth about his father. Yann and Sido are briefly reunited and realises that he can read her mind again. He tries to persuade her to forget the Marquis and come back to England with him. She explains her situation including her engagement to Kalliovski, and that the Duchesse had advised her and her father to find Mr. Tull who would smuggle them out of the country. Yann, however, remembers his encounter with Tull the night he was smuggled out of France and warns Sido not to trust him and let ''him'' take her instead. He and Têtu later meet with Maître Tardieu who informs them that the Marquis wrote instructing him to end Sido's betrothal, but when he informed Kalliovski he received no reply. He gives them a bag of jewels that belonged to Sido's mother, Isabelle Gautier, and Armand de Villeduval, the Marquis' half brother. Upon noticing seven familiar red garnets, Têtu realises that Isabelle and Armand were murdered by Kalliovski on the Marquis' behalf. Yann attempts to see Sido again the next day but is too late as she and the Marquis have already been captured by Tull who was working for Kalliovski.

During the night, Kalliovski visits an ill and exhausted Sido in prison and blackmails her into marrying him. He then taunts her and threatens her with rape before she passes out. Kalliovski arranges to have her moved to her own cell and nursed back to health. Meanwhile, Yann and Maître Tardieu meet with her in prison however, the ever gentle and good-hearted Sido cannot bring herself to abandon her insane and helpless father. After she is taken away, Maître Tardieu reveals that Isabelle and Armand were lovers –therefore, Sido is not the daughter of the Marquis, but of Isabelle and Armand; the pair had been attempting to elope to London with a three-year-old Sido at the time of their murder. This gives Yann and Têtu an idea that might help change Sido's mind. They invite Kalliovski to a performance with a pierrot to distract him while Yann and Didier attempt to break into his apartmento find the love letters from Sido's parents. He discovers a room full of automatons made from Kalliovski's murdered victims known as 'The Sisters Macabre' which he uses to hide all his secrets. He also discovers that Kalliovski can also has telekinesis, only known as the 'Threads of Darkness'. Milkeye suddenly emerges and shoots Yann in the shoulder. Although weak, he uses his new magic abilities to make The Sisters Macabre talk. One of them opens a draw in their chest revealing the letters from Sido's parents and Kalliovski's 'Book of Tears' containing all the names of those who had borrowed money from him. He passes out but is rescued by Didier and taken back to the theatre where Têtu treats his wound.

Meanwhile, Sido finally decides that the Marquis isn't worth trying to help and that should Yann come for her, she will go with him. She is spared from the bloodshed the next day when she is tried but fortunately found innocent, only to be abducted by Kalliovski. Didier manages to stop his carriage by drawing a mob to it allowing him and Yann to rescue Sido. Yann confesses that although he loves her, Sido's family are waiting for her in London as he is staying behind to help more aristocrats escape from France. Sido doesn't want to be separated from Yann again but eventually agrees and he gives her his talisman. Kalliovski is revealed to have survived the mob. Sickened and enraged that he was defeated by a son he never wanted, he vows vengeance.

Confidence man Buzz Buzzard (Lionel Stander) is looking for a fresh sucker to swindle. Looking off in the distance, Buzz sees a happy-go-lucky Woody Woodpecker (Ben Hardaway), minding his own business while whistling down the street. The cunning buzzard quickly assembles a makeshift insurance office and greases the sidewalk, causing Woody to slide directly through the front door.

Buzz tries to convince Woody that he needs an insurance policy. Buzz tells Woody that "One never knows when a little accident might prove fatal." Woody is then bamboozled into signing a policy; with the fine print clearly stating that it will pay Buzz $10,000 in case of accidental death. However, Woody soon realizes what is going on and challenges him to try to carry out his plan, mocking him by saying "If you think you're going to bump ME off and collect $10,000...you're crazy! Anytime you can get $10,000 from me, it'll be over my dead body, you dirty crook!"

Buzz then tries his best to kill Woody so he can collect, resulting in a battle of wits between them, only to have the tables turned on him when Woody knocks him into a pit full of alligators. As Buzz flees from his attackers (Woody and the gators), screaming into the distance, Woody laughs and tears up the policy.

The novel is set in New York towards the end of the Second World War. Its protagonist is a Gentile named Newman, a personnel manager for a large company, who lives with his mother. Newman, though too timid to do much about them, shares the prejudices of his neighbor Fred, who is determined to deal with the "new element" in their neighborhood, particularly a Jewish candy store owner called Finkelstein.

However, a new pair of glasses have an unfortunate effect on Newman, altering his appearance in such a way that he begins to be mistaken for a Jew. He hires a prospective secretary whom his boss thinks is an assimilated Jew using a WASP-sounding fake name, and is told he will not get a promised promotion and will be moved to an office where fewer people could see him. He is furious about being mistreated and quits; ironically, he later gets a new job at a company where the owner and many of the staff are actually Jewish.

As antisemitism mounts throughout the city, a Christian Front-type group organizes to turn general ill will into action, Newman marries a girl called Gertrude. She has seen antisemitism mobilized at close quarters before, when she lived with the ringleader of an organization that abused Jews in California (someone whose views that the U.S. will soon get rid of all Jews she notes without any editorial comment), and recognizes how risky a position Newman is in when his garbage can, as well as Finkelstein's, is turned over in the night. She has also been mistakenly identified as Jewish, and is angry at this, because she is a Christian and is disgusted that anyone would think she is Jewish, not because she thinks anti-Semitism is wrong and hateful.

Newman's principles and character mean that he would prefer to stand aside while the persecution of Finkelstein continues – his own latent antisemitism tacitly endorses it, while his reticence makes it hard for him to participate. But, accidentally caught up as a victim, non-participation is not an option.

An attempt by Newman to convince Fred and his collaborators of his allegiance to their cause by attending an antisemitic rally results only in his being again taken for a Jew, attacked and ejected. Approached afterwards by Finkelstein, Newman tries to politely sell Finkelstein on the idea of leaving the neighborhood and moving somewhere where he will not be threatened. Finkelstein forcefully tells Newman he will not move: the anti-Semitic forces want to take over the U.S. (confirming what Gertrude told him earlier) and their crusade against Jews does not make any sense in that context because Jews comprise a very small percentage of the population.

Finally, Newman and Finkelstein are together attacked in the street by a gang of men, whom they fight off. Newman realizes he cannot count on Gertrude and walks away from their marriage, later going to the police to report the attack. Asked by an officer "How many of you people live there?" he declines to correct the mistake, realizing that by accepting it he sets himself against those who have abused him, rather than against their intended targets.

Among a tribe of female insect that preys on their male counterparts, The Novice, the daughter of The Queen, is born, and her membranous covering is removed. She is confronted by the First Intruder, a male insect, and she reflexively stabs him and cracks his neck until he dies. The tribe celebrates that she has been initiated. The Second Intruder appears, and this time the tribe leave her to kill him. However, the two fall in love and mate. The tribe returns and the couple attempts to hide, but are discovered. The tribe attacks the Second Intruder, and finally, the Novice is overcome by animal instincts and kills him. The Novice is embraced by the Queen, while the rest of the tribe salutes her.

''Dustclouds'' is an epic fever-dream, chronicling a long night's journey into day. As his wedding carriage rides beneath a starlit night, Getz (Wesley Walker) vows to enjoy the fruits of his labor. Having worked his whole life, he has finally married. Yet as he lies in his bride's embrace, Getz already starts to question his happiness. Deep within, he yearns for "the perfect," which puts strain on his marriage. As the night progresses, inner turmoil unravels the fabric of Getz's being. Years begin to pass like seconds. Time, identity and purpose become unstuck. And a great sadness is borne into his life. Getz longs for answers, but is terrified by what he could lose in his search for truth. What follows is a quest deep into his heart of darkness.

Gene Summers, a young American bombardier, is selected by Major Kimball to go on a mission to Nazi-occupied Paris and kill a man believed to be a double agent working in the French Resistance. Summers is picked because of his military experience and fluency in French. He receives rigorous training by his handler Major MacMahon and a British naval commander. Summers is enthusiastic, and remembers all of the information he needs by setting it to melodies of childhood songs. MacMahon, however, has misgivings about Summers' boyish enthusiasm, and fears that his youth and inexperience might jeopardise the mission.

Arriving in France, Summers meets his Resistance contact, Leonie, a dressmaker whose clients include the girlfriend of a high-ranking German officer. Leonie gives Summers more information about the man he is to assassinate, Marcel Lafitte. However, after observing and then unexpectedly meeting Lafitte at a café, Summers begins to have second thoughts about his mission. Lafitte seems to be gentle, polite, friendly and intelligent, has a wife and daughter whom he obviously loves, and also dotes on his cat Mimieux, carefully protecting her from harm at a time when cats are being killed and eaten due to food shortages.

At a subsequent meeting, with curfew drawing near, Lafitte apparently saves Summers from being detained by German troops (who are hunting a Resistance assassin) by allowing Summers to take shelter in Lafitte's office. Summers' misgivings deepen and he begins to doubt whether Lafitte is really guilty.

Summers runs back to Leonie and reveals his doubts about Lafitte. She rebukes him sharply for his folly and reminds him that he would not have been given his orders without reason, and then furiously upbraids him after he reacts to her tirade by inadvertently revealing details of his war service. Leonie points out to Summers that he dropped hundreds of bombs on people while he was a pilot. Summers protests that there is a difference between killing a lot of people at a distance and one person up close. "When I dropped bombs I wasn't there at the other end." Leonie then apologises for her curt behaviour and explains to him that her son was killed in the war, and she counters his doubts about Lafitte's supposed innocence by questioning how Lafitte could have known in advance about the German manhunt that Lafitte had helped Summers to evade.

His confidence regained, Summers prepares to kill Lafitte. Returning to Lafitte's office, he first cracks a blunt object over the man's head, but the blow merely stuns him. The stricken Lafitte turns over to look directly up into the eyes of the young man, and utters a single word: "Why?" In a panic, Summers stabs Lafitte with a pair of scissors, killing him. He steals money from Lafitte's table and tries to make the scene look like a robbery.

Narrowly escaping the Gestapo, the distraught Summers hides the money in a cemetery. He tries to contact Leonie, but it is too late: the Nazis have captured her. Racked with guilt, Summers goes off into the night.

Several months later, after Paris has been liberated, MacMahon is giving the newly promoted Colonel Kimball a tour of the now liberated Paris and informs Colonel Kimball that Summers is in a military hospital. After the assassination, Summers became a drunkard, using the money he stole from Lafitte to pay for the liquor. Summers finds out that Leonie was killed by the Nazis after her capture. At first, the major and the colonel try to convince him that Lafitte was guilty and that many lives were saved by killing him. However, Summers is not convinced and, after Kimball departs, insists that MacMahon tell him the truth. MacMahon confirms that Lafitte was in fact innocent.

Summers leaves the hospital and visits Lafitte's wife and daughter, who are now impoverished. Unable to tell them the truth, Summers tells them that Lafitte was one of their best agents in the Resistance and offers them the small compensation of his own back pay.

While Tom and Ned Newton are reviewing financial records, a fire breaks out at the fireworks factory in town. Assisting the firemen, they rescue Josephus Baxter, Mr. Baxter is developing a new dye formula, and has hired out laboratory space at the factory. During the mayhem created by the fire and the rescue, Mr. Baxter loses the formula, but he is positive that the owners of the factory have stolen it. Tom feels pity on the man, and allows him use of the labs at the Swift Construction Company.

While observing the blaze, Tom wonders that there is not a more efficient way to fight fire, especially having troubles with multi-storied buildings or skyscrapers. These thoughts lead him to develop a new fire suppressant chemical, and an air-borne system to deliver the new chemicals to the upper stories of skyscrapers.

Tom also rescues a small boat in distress, with the aid of a naphtha launch.

A boy (Melvin Van Peebles) travels from Chicago to New York to find adventure and riches, later traveling the ocean to Africa in order to reunite with his lover.

Gessen's novel centers around the stories of three literary-minded friends: Keith, a Harvard-educated writer living in New York City; Sam, living in Boston and writing the "great Zionist epic"; and Mark, who is trying to complete a history dissertation on the Mensheviks at Syracuse University.

High school is difficult for most kids. But for Kayano, a shy girl whose single mother seems to work all the time, it's even worse than usual. She's so afraid of drawing attention to herself that she can't tell the handsome Kamijo how much she loves him. One day she finally gets up the courage to write him a love letter confessing her feelings.

But her plans go awry when the letter falls into the hands of the school's most notorious student, Edogawa Takeru. To Kayano, Takeru seems to be Satan himself. Not only is he devilishly handsome, he is also the son of the school's principal.

To make things worse, her mother comes home to announce she's marrying ... principal Edogawa! Now Kayano will have to live with Takeru 24/7!

In an unexpected twist, Kayano and Takeru gradually begin to grow feelings for each other the more they interact. Many obstacles get in their way, and the biggest one is to face their parents and come clean about their true feelings for each other. How will their parents react? What will happen to the soon-to-be family?

At the Central Park Zoo, Marty the zebra celebrates his tenth birthday but has grown bored with his daily routine and longs to experience the wild. Marty's best friend, Alex the lion, enjoys showing off for the public and his celebrity status as "the king of New York".

Alex attempts to cheer Marty up, but Marty, still unsatisfied, learns that the zoo's penguins—Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private—are trying to escape, and follows them out. Alex, and his friends, Melman the giraffe, and Gloria the hippopotamus pursue Marty and attempt to convince him to return. The four, along with the penguins and two chimpanzees named Mason and Phil, converge at Grand Central Station where the authorities sedate them using tranquillizer guns. Under pressure from anti-captivity activists, the zoo is forced to ship the escaped animals by sea to a Kenyan wildlife preserve. During their travels, the penguins escape and take over the ship, intent on taking it to Antarctica. Their antics on the bridge cause the crates containing Alex, Marty, Melman, and Gloria to fall overboard and wash ashore on Madagascar.

The animals come across a pack of lemurs led by King Julien XIII. The predatory fossa attack the lemurs, but are scared off by Alex's fearsome appearance. Alex blames Marty for the group's predicament and attempts to signal for help to get back to civilization. Marty finds the wild to be exactly what he was looking for, and Gloria and Melman soon join him in enjoying the island. Alex eventually comes around, but without the raw steaks he was provided at the zoo, hunger sets in and his prey drive begins to show. King Julien has the lemurs befriend the zoo animals in the hope that Alex's presence will keep the fossa at bay, despite his adviser Maurice's warnings about Alex's predatory nature. When Alex loses control and attacks Marty, King Julien realizes that he is a threat and banishes him to the predator side of the island, where the fossa live. Seeing what Alex has become, and how dangerous the wild can be, Marty begins to regret his decision to leave the zoo.

The penguins, having found Antarctica to be inhospitable, land the ship at Madagascar. Seeing the chance to return Alex to New York, Marty crosses over to the predator side and attempts to convince the scared, starving Alex to return, but Alex refuses out of fear that he will attack Marty again. The fossa attack Marty, and though Gloria, Melman, and the penguins come to the rescue, they are outnumbered. Alex overcomes his predatory instincts, rescues his friends, and scares the fossa away from the lemur territory forever. The lemurs regain their respect for Alex, and the penguins satisfy his hunger by feeding him sushi. As the lemurs throw a farewell celebration for the foursome, the penguins decide not to break the news that the ship has run out of fuel, thus leaving them stranded on the island.

Abby Richter is a morning show TV producer in Sacramento, California. Abby firmly believes in true love and is a big supporter of complex self-help books such as ''Chicken Soup for the Soul'' and ''Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus''. Coming home from a disastrous date, she happens to see a segment of a local television show, ''The Ugly Truth'', featuring Mike Chadway, whose cynicism about relationships prompts Abby to call in to argue with him on-air. The next day, she discovers the TV station is threatening to cancel her show because of its poor ratings. The station owner has hired Mike to do a segment on her show.

At first, the two have a rocky relationship; Abby thinks Mike is crass and disgusting while Mike finds her to be naive and a control freak. Nevertheless, when she meets the man of her dreams, a doctor named Colin living next to her, Mike convinces her that by following his advice she will improve her chances with Colin. Abby is skeptical, but they make a deal: If Mike's management of her courtship results in her landing Colin, proving his theories on relationships, she will work happily and peacefully with him, but if Mike fails, he agrees to leave her show.

Mike succeeds in improving the ratings, brings married co-anchors Georgia and Larry closer and successfully instructs Abby to be exactly what Colin would want through a number of pointers including: always laugh at his jokes and say he is amazing in bed. Mike is invited to appear on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and is offered a job at another network. Abby is forced to cancel a romantic weekend away with Colin, during which they had planned to finally sleep together, and instead fly to Los Angeles to persuade Mike to stay with her show.

They drink and dance and Mike admits he does not want to move because he wants to stay in Sacramento near his sister and nephew. In the hotel elevator, they passionately kiss, but go to their separate rooms. Mike, dealing with the intensity of his feelings for Abby, calls on her room only to find Colin has shown up to surprise her. Mike leaves. Abby is upset and soon realizes Colin only likes the woman she has been pretending to be, not the real her. She breaks up with him.

Mike quits and takes a job with a rival TV station in Sacramento, and ends up doing a broadcast at the same hot air balloon festival as Abby. He cannot resist intruding when she kicks the new "Mike Chadway" imitator off the air and begins ranting about what cowardly weaklings men are. Going out of script, the balloon takes off while they argue. Abby says she broke up with Colin, and Mike admits he loves her. Abby kisses him while they fly off, all of which is broadcast due to a camera mounted in the balloon. The film ends with Abby and Mike in bed. When Mike asks if she was faking it, Abby responds with, "You’ll never know."

Southwestern United States; circa 1916. Two bumbling good ol' boys, Ben and Booger, are thrown off a train after failing to show their tickets. They wander into a saloon/brothel and attempt unsuccessfully to cheat their way into a fortune at the card table.

Penniless, they try to trade their shotgun for a loan at the bank, causing a teller to sound the alarm. They try to escape by hitching a lift from a driver who thinks they’re stealing his car at gunpoint, and runs away to demand that they face justice. The sheriff forms a posse to capture them, but Ben and Booger "terrorize" two U.S. Army troopers with their shotgun, allowing them to steal their horses and uniforms. The sheriff orders the two now out-of-uniform troopers to join the hunt, and there is a chaotic chase across the west, with gunfights galore. Ben and Booger escape by train into Mexico, but can’t find their tickets, so once again they get flung off the train. We’re left to assume that they’re off to launch their next fraudulent scheme.

Best friends Acerola ("Ace") and Laranjinha ("Wallace") live in the ''favelas'' of Rio de Janeiro, and have been raised without their fathers. They are turning eighteen as a war between rival drug gangs begins around them. Wallace, with Ace's help, gets to meet his father, Heraldo, in person, a parolee living not very far away, only to witness the police arrest of his father a few days after. Wallace and Ace discover that their fathers were best friends, but Heraldo killed Ace's father in a robbery incident. Each discovers things about his missing father that could potentially compromise their solid friendship. At the end, they decide to leave "the Hill" and lead a responsible life.

Episode one

Oil surveyor Masud Khamil narrowly escapes an attack on his camp in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and flees with some valuable data. Tom McConnell replaces his father-in-law Sir Mark Foxbay as Chairman of Arrow Oil. At the celebration party, Inuit activist Mika Namuvai enters uninvited and serves Tom a writ from her people. The writ decries global warming and its causes, such as Arrow's production facility on the Athabasca tar sands. The shock of Mika's subsequent ejection causes Tom's daughter to have an asthma attack, but she is saved by Holly Dernay, head of renewable energy at Arrow.

In testimony before the US Senate in Washington, Sir Richard Langham, Tom's former geology professor, testifies on the dangers of global warming, but he is discredited by a pro-oil senator using muck racked up by devious oil lobbyist James "Mack" Mackintosh. Tom confronts Mack, his longtime friend, about the tactics. Mack denies that he spread the story, but he is clearly committed to serving his employers. Back in London, Tom wins his court case but then sees Mika set fire to herself on the court steps.

Tom and Holly attend Mika's funeral in Alberta, where Sir Richard sends them into the wilderness to see the truth for themselves. Holly pokes a hole in the ice covering a swamp and is able to ignite the methane gas waiting to be released. Later, while overnighting in an isolated shack on the tundra, Tom and Holly become intimate.

Meanwhile, British Prime-Ministerial Aide Philip Crowley offers unofficial government assistance to the Green Congress as they prepare for the World Forum on Climate Change (WFCC), a United Nations conference about global warming in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Masud returns to London and makes contact with Sir Mark, who has spoken with Masud before and agrees to meet to accept some confidential geology data. Sir Mark is clearly conflicted over what to do with the data.

Tom and Holly discuss pulling out of Athabasca, which has the most polluting oil of Arrow's many interests, and investing that money in renewables. Phillip confronts Holly with his knowledge that the desert massacre was done by mercenaries for the oil industry and not terrorists. But before she can talk to Tom, Tom finds Mack at her overturned apartment, where Mack reveals that Holly orchestrated Mika's protest at the party. Phillip stops Holly from returning to her apartment, instructing her to lie low. Tom wanders off to visit Sir Mark. Sir Mark hears a noise and goes outside, only to be struck dead in a hit-and-run. Tom and Masud, approaching from different directions, are witnesses. Tom runs to help, and Masud flees.

Episode two

Crowley sends Dernay to the World Forum on Climate Change in Calgary to look for Masud. Mack leads the Open Business Coalition and their friendly countries in moves to scupper Kyoto II. Dernay contacts Masud and tries to go to McConnell but he dismisses her. Crowley gets support within the Open Business Coalition from McConnell and the insurance companies and they win over the United States Treasury Secretary Brent Schlaes. Under pressure from Schlaes the US delegate softens his stance at the conference. Mack feeling under threat from his boss tries to scare off Dernay who has finally convinced McConnell to meet with Masud. At the meeting Masud hands over the data from the survey Foxbay commissioned that proves that the Saudi oil reserves have run out.

At a meeting in the Calgary Tower Mack warns McConnell of the chaos that will be unleashed if Masud's data is published. The hard-line Robert Cooper is appointed as the new US delegate and goes back on the agreements of his predecessor. The Chinese delegate makes approaches to McConnell and the Green Congress so Crowley brokers a deal with them to sign Kyoto II. Dernay tries to bluff Mack and he warns her off but he is too late and she is killed. Mack confronts his boss who threatens to go after McConnell next to get the data. Cooper agrees a sideline treaty with the Chinese and walks out without signing Kyoto II. Mack confronts McConnell on the roof and after getting the data from him, he smuggles it past his boss's men and hands it over to Crowley for publication.

Richard Bartholomew, president of the Hendrickton and Pas Alos Railroad Company (H&PA) is under pressure to save his company from bankruptcy. If Mr. Bartholomew cannot come up with a means to compete with the Hendrickton & Western railroad, the H&PA will be doomed to failure. Mr. Bartholomew has contracted The Swift Construction Company to build a new electric locomotive which can travel at 2 miles per minute ( ).

The catch is that the owner of the competing H&W railway, Montagne Lewis, is dishonest and will stop at nothing to prevent Mr. Bartholomew from succeeding. Hired thugs are under orders to destroy Tom's developments. Tom, and his friends Ned Newton and Mr. Damon, have several life-threatening encounters with these hired gunmen.

Freddie is a lonely, socially-awkward young man who purchases a farmhouse with winnings he has earned from the football pools. An amateur entomologist, he spends his time capturing butterflies, of which he has a large collection. Frederick begins stalking a bourgeois London art student named Miranda Grey. One day, Frederick follows Miranda into a pub in Hampstead before abducting her on the street, incapacitating her with chloroform.

Miranda awakens inside the cavernous, windowless stone cellar of Freddie's 17th century farmhouse, which he has adorned with a bed, furnishings, clothing, painting tools, and an electric heater. Miranda assumes she has either been taken for ransom or to be used as a sex slave, and insists to Freddie that her father is not wealthy. Freddie explains he is not seeking sex or ransom; he explains that he and Miranda used to ride on the same bus years earlier in Reading and that he continued to follow her into London after she enrolled in art school. When Freddie proclaims his love for Miranda, she fakes appendicitis as a ploy to escape but is caught. Freddie agrees that he will free Miranda after four weeks, an allotted period he believes will allow her to "get to know him".

Freddie gradually allows Miranda small luxuries, such as leaving the cellar to obtain sunlight and take baths in the house under his supervision. When Freddie fondles her aggressively, Miranda tells him she will not fight him should he rape her, but that she will lose all respect for him. During one of her baths, Freddie's neighbour, Colonel Whitcombe, arrives at the house to introduce himself, resulting in Frederick gagging Miranda and tying her to pipes in the bathroom. She floods the bathroom in an attempt to get Whitcombe's attention, but Frederick diverts him, claiming his girlfriend inadvertently left the tub running.

Freddie recurrently mentions one of Miranda's boyfriends, with whom he observed her socialising on numerous occasions. He allows Miranda to write a letter to her mother, but discovers a small piece of paper in the envelope asking for help, and tears the letter apart in front of her. During a conversation about art and literature, Miranda further alienates Freddie, who accuses her of being an elitist. He proclaims that they could never be friends in "the real world". On the 30th—and allegedly final day of her captivity, Freddie prepares a meal in the house for Miranda, and gives her a dress to wear for the occasion. Over dinner, he asks Miranda to marry him. She agrees, but Frederick senses her hesitation. She attempts to flee the house, but Freddie corners her in his study and chloroforms her before lying with her in an upstairs bedroom. When she regains consciousness in the cellar, Frederick assures Miranda he did not rape her. He tells her he intends to keep her until she "tries" to fall in love with him. After having a bath one night, Miranda unsuccessfully attempts to seduce him, but he senses her artifice and compares her to a prostitute.

When he escorts her back to the cellar during a rainstorm, Miranda seizes a shovel, with which she strikes Freddie on the head. Though wounded, Freddie takes advantage of Miranda's subsequent hesitation and manages to drag her back into the cellar and she accidentally breaks the electric heater just after their struggle. Miranda remains locked in the cold cellar, soaking wet, while Frederick receives medical attention. He returns three days later to find Miranda ill with pneumonia and goes into town to get a doctor. When Freddie returns, having changed his mind about a doctor, he finds Miranda dead. Freddie buries Miranda's corpse under an oak tree on his property. A short time later, Freddie, convinced Miranda brought her fate on herself, again drives around, now stalking a young nurse in the hopes that he might have better success overall with a different sort of woman.

Amazon is a movie adventure game about a 1957 expedition into the heart of the Amazon basin: "a desperate, crazed message sends [the player] on a perilous search through a land where legends come to life, danger hides behind every corner, and incredible treasures wait to be discovered."

Two aspiring young actors, Melinda and Steve, in love with each other and the theatre get their big break when they are cast in a new musical by their Svengali-like acting teacher, Bernardo. But when the show moves to Broadway, only Melinda is asked to move with it. Their relationship is tested as well as their acting, singing and dancing skills. Steve's mother makes frequent visits to the couple's apartment with advice and money.

In 1890 Kristiania (Oslo), an impoverished and lonely writer named Pontus (Per Oscarsson) comes to the city from the country. He stands on a bridge, overlooking running water, writing but clearly starving. He visits a pawnbroker several times. He sells his waistcoat for a few cents, then gives the money to a beggar. Other money that falls into his hands he also gives away. He has written an article that a newspaper editor (Henki Kolstad) agrees to publish if he makes some corrections, but Pontus is too proud to accept an advance when offered, so he leaves elated but still hungry. He begs a bone for his fictitious dog, which he gnaws on secretly in an alley. He often has the chance to make things better for himself, but his pride gets in the way, such as when he declines the much-needed help of a worried friend.

When he is unable to pay his rent, the landlady (Else Heiberg) evicts him. Another landlady shortly does the same. Hunger is constantly overwhelming Pontus and he drifts between hallucination and reality while struggling to survive. He suffers humiliations which lead him to the edge of insanity. He applies for an accounting job but is rejected, and fails a physical exam to be a fireman because he wears glasses. One hallucination revolves around Ylajali (Gunnel Lindblom), an apparently refined woman he has met on the street. Despite their mutual flirtations, nothing ever evolves between them. On a sudden impulse, Pontus takes a job as a crew member on an outbound freighter. His destination is unknown.

Steven Jay Russell is on his deathbed, recalling the events of his life that led him to this point. He spent his early adult years in Virginia Beach as a police officer. He plays the organ at church, has unenthusiastic sex with his wife, Debbie, and spends his off-hours searching for his biological mother, who had placed him for adoption as a child. Steven locates his biological mother, but she rejects him.

He then quits the police force and moves to Texas and works for Sysco, the family business.

After a car crash on the way from a homosexual tryst, Steven leaves his family and life behind, though he keeps in touch with his wife and young daughter, and explores the world as his true self – a gay man. He moves to Miami, where he finds a boyfriend, Jimmy, and they adopt a luxurious lifestyle. To keep themselves in the style to which they have become accustomed, Steven becomes a con man. He is pursued by the police, and, after jumping off a parking garage, is sent to prison, where he falls in love with inmate Phillip Morris.

Steven cannot bear to be separated from Phillip. After being released, he helps get Phillip freed from prison by posing as a lawyer, then attains wealth by fraudulently acquiring a position as Chief Financial Officer of a large medical management company called USAMM.

Steven is eventually caught embezzling. While in the police car, he reminisces about Jimmy in Florida, dying of AIDS. He asks the police for Phillip's insulin and injects himself. He goes back to prison, where Phillip is also sent as an accomplice and angrily tells Steven he never wants to see him again. Months later, Phillip learns from another inmate that Steven is dying of AIDS. Heartbroken, Phillip calls Steven while he is in the infirmary and confesses that, while he is still upset with Steven for lying to him, he still loves him. Phillip is later told that Steven has died.

Sometime later, Phillip is taken to meet with his lawyer and finds Steven waiting for him. Steven describes how he faked dying of AIDS, to be allowed to see Phillip again, and promises never to lie to him again. He runs one last con to break Phillip out of prison, only to be caught when he runs into an old co-worker.

The end of the movie explains that the real-life Phillip was released from prison in 2006; but Steven was given a life sentence and is in 23-hour lockup, only having one free hour a day to shower and exercise, which the film implies to be because an official involved in the sentencing had a brother-in-law who was conned by Russell.

The last scene shows Steven laughing joyfully while running across the prison yard, guards in pursuit, in another attempt to be with Phillip.

The story follows Walter Silverman, a man who sees a young woman that looks exactly like his deceased wife. As he gets to know her he discovers that she has too many things in common for this to be a coincidence. He then comes up with a plan to help out her love life and manages to find his own Avatar for her to meet.

The book begins with the aftermath of the last book as Cato and Macro recover from their injuries in the Atrebatan capital city of Calleva. The Durotrigans are still at large raiding the Roman supply lines in Atrebatan territory. The Legate Vespasian with a small bodyguard come to investigate the stop of the supply lines, but is caught up in a skirmish to save a caravan of supplies. The raiders are only just fended off with most of the guards killed. The Atrebatan king, Verica, demands that Vespasian leave troops to protect the kingdom. Vespasian is unable to leave troops, but instead has Centurions Macro and Cato to train local troops. The two make good progress training two cohorts of locals as Roman troops. The two cohorts are named the Wolves and the Boars, and in their first combat action, ambush a Durotrigan raiding party of some 500 men, resulting in a much-needed victory. In light of such success General Plautius is worried that arming disloyal locals would endanger his rear flank against Caracutus and sends a Tribune Quintillus with procurator powers to assess the situation.

The situation at Calleva is dangerous as the locals are questioning whether they should be aiding the British resistance instead of Rome. Internal politics run rife and an assassination attempt is made on the King, who is grievously injured in the attempt. The Boars and Wolves are called to attack a raiding party, but it is revealed to be a trap. The army routs and most of the troops are massacred before they make it back to Calleva. Only around 200-odd of the 960 men escape back into the city. Tincommius, the king's "loyal" nephew is revealed to be the would-be assassin and has set siege to the city in a power play with the Durotrigans. Cato and Macro's men are forced to abandon the walls and fall back to the royal enclosure as the enemy numbers overwhelm the loyalist army. The Legate Vespasian's relief forces soon arrive to drive the enemy from the city, only to abandon it after hearing news of Caracutus' superior flanking force. Forced into battle Vespasian's forces attempt a last stand against the British onslaught, only to be saved by the pursuing forces of General Plautius. Victory is snatched from the jaws of defeat. The novel finishes with the Atrebatan Kingdom annexed regardless and the remaining Boars and Wolves disbanded. Centurion's Macro and Cato are left with another set of medals and reinstatement to the 3rd Cohort, with Cato commanding the 6th Century.

Edward Courtney, the son of a baronet shocks class-conscious 1900 British society by marrying Kate, his Irish servant. The film chronicles 45 years in their lives together and apart, through the Boer War and World War I and World War II.

The family live on Curzon Street, a high class street in the Mayfair district of London.

Kate begins to feel the awkwardness at a musical recital before Queen Victoria, where all the "true ladies" are staring at her. Later she hears gossip about herself.

Edward is an officer in the Horse Guards but Kate does not realise he cannot return her wave when he is on duty. She packs her bags and leaves without telling Edward. She returns to Ireland then develops an idea to be an actress, adopting the stage name of "May Lynton".

Meanwhile Edward goes in India where he accidentally finds the truth as to why she left.

Kate takes up her career as a singer in the theatre. Her father-in-law visits her backstage and gives her an update whilst trying to retain her separate identity. He says his wife is now dead... she missed her son and his wife too much. Kate also updates him, saying her father was killed at the Battle of Spion Kop.

The First World War starts and Edward returns from India and finds Kate. She confesses they have a son, also called Edward (Teddy). They go to visit him at his boarding school. The absence has been long as he is around 12 years old. They go out for high tea and discuss cricket and the new Rupert Brooke poem "The Soldier". The war ends.

Edward's father dies and he inherits the baronetcy. Kate becomes Lady Courtney. Meanwhile Teddy has joined the Army. He becomes engaged and marries before being posted to India. While his pregnant young wife is reading one of his letters home, a telegram arrives telling her that he has been killed in action. Devastated, she gives birth but dies in the process. Edward and Kate raise him. Edward loses badly in the 1929 Wall Street crash but they hang onto their home after Kate goes back on the stage. The Second World War sees Edward back as a Colonel in the Army and Kate an ENSA entertainer. They survive a fire at a factory and the film ends with their soldier grandson introducing his intended. While they are happy that the old class prejudices that bedevilled their marriage have gone they are bemused that the parents of the intended are less sanguine. Fade to end credits.

Paul Moses is a retired agent of the CIA, formerly working in "foreign acquisitions". Living in a secluded area, his human contacts are limited to pleasant phone calls to his handler (who desires what she believes to have been Moses' type of work) and letters to a niece who lives in England.

Michael Beesley, the newly appointed Director of Central Intelligence (D.C.I.), is taken to ''Room R'' as part of his orientation by Deputy Director (Operations) Adrian Kane, where he learns of Moses' existence and the full extent of his activities. Disgusted by what he has seen and fearing public reaction should any of those secrets leak out, Beesley orders the assassination of Moses.

A three-man hit-team is sent to Moses' residence, but he kills them, recognizing the pattern of the attack and realizing his death has been sanctioned. He calls his handler, only to learn that she has been transferred. He informs the Agency that his status has changed from "Green" to "Red" before leaving his house and going on the hunt.

Moses telephones CIA Headquarters and is put through to Kane. Beesley breaks into the conversation and calls Moses a monster. Moses calmly replies that whatever he is, he became at the behest of his country. He says that he has now learned the identities of the men who ordered his death and hangs up.

Moses breaks through the cordon of agents surrounding his county and makes his way to Langley, Virginia, where he breaks into the apartment of his former handler, Sally, and forces her to give up the access codes allowing him to enter CIA Headquarters. Normally he would kill her but, instead, apologizes and says he genuinely enjoyed talking with her on the phone, before leaving.

Though Langley is surrounded by an army of security guards and soldiers, Moses breaks in anyway, killing several. When he calls Beesley's office, Beesley demands that Moses surrender or he'll have Moses's niece in England murdered. While Beesley is making this threat, Moses enters the office, disables Kane with a bullet to the hand, and informs Beesley that he's already visited Beesley's home and murdered his wife and children ("I don't make threats. I carry them out"). Beesley collapses in shock, while Kane explains the events that led to Moses's attempted assassination: that it has become customary to appoint a civilian like Beesley as D.C.I. and that protocol required Beesley to be shown Moses's file. With no background in espionage or the military, he was unprepared for its contents and overreacted. Kane apologizes for the turn of events but says things have progressed too far to go back.

Moses tells Beesley that he lied, that Beesley's family is alive and well, then kills him. Moses plans to use Kane as a hostage to escape the building, but Kane refuses to cooperate and offers an alternative: with Beesley dead, Kane is acting Director and has the authority to reinstate Moses to active duty, and thus retroactively sanction all of his previous actions. Kane carefully explains that Moses has no other choice; that the foregoing debacle proves that Moses is unfit to live in the outside world. Moses sadly replies, "I never wanted to. I just wanted to be left alone" and kills Kane, too.

Moses steps outside the office, where an army of guards are pointing their weapons at him. Raising his gun, Moses says: "I'm the monster. Do your best".

The comic takes place in an alternate time line where after the capture of U-234 on 14 May 1945 and the discovery of its nuclear cargo (intended for the Japanese atomic program in Tokyo) the US decides to use its first A-Bomb on Tokyo to prevent the Japanese developing their own device. Following this Japan finds itself plagued by giant monsters and the appearance of giant battle robots within the city of Tokyo, over the next sixty years.

It followed the exploits of the pilots of the ARCangels - gigantic robotic constructs used by the Japanese government to battle fantastic creatures hell-bent on penetrating the defenses of a secret installation in the heart of modern Tokyo.

While the feud between Princess Diana and Queen Hippolyta continues, because of Diana's role as Wonder Woman and not Queen of Themyscira, another feud arises between the Themysciran Amazons and their Bana-Mighdall Amazon sisters. It is not long until the feud leads to a civil war on Paradise Island between the two tribes breaking out. The war comes to a head as Magala from Bana-Mighdall, the architect of the conflict, is revealed to be none other than Ariadne, in her plot for revenge against the Amazons. With the help of Fury, Ariadne is defeated, and mother and daughter stop the war between the two above the skies with the promise of starting change. They start by shocking everyone with the abolition of the Themysciran Royal Family as both Hippolyta and Diana lay down their titles as Queen and Princess, thus resolving the differences that have long festered between the Amazons of Paradise Island and the Bana-Mighdalls. But even after all that, Hippolyta continues to fight alongside the Justice Society of America as their own Wonder Woman.

A spaceship appears out of nowhere over Atlantis. John Sheppard (Joe Flanigan) and his team discover that the ship is the ''Daedalus'', which is strange as Stargate Command confirms that the ''Daedalus'' is actually two days away from Earth. Sheppard's team boards the new ''Daedalus'' and find it apparently abandoned with signs of battle damage. Teyla (Rachel Luttrell) views a log entry from the ''Daedalus'' commander, Colonel Sobel, who the team has never heard of before. Suddenly, there is a power spike and the ''Daedalus'' disappears from above Atlantis, while from the perspective of Sheppard's team, Atlantis disappears. McKay finds that they have been propelled into a parallel universe by what he terms an "alternate reality drive", and thus the ''Daedalus'' is actually from an alternate reality.

The team finds another version of themselves, dead, who come from yet another parallel universe and were trapped aboard while investigating the ship, just as they are. Soon, the ship jumps again, into a reality where Atlantis is under attack from an unfamiliar alien ship. Sheppard intervenes, and the aliens retaliate by launching fighters. One of the fighters crashes into the ''Daedalus'' before it jumps again, this time into a universe where Atlantis' sun has already swelled into a red giant. To keep the ship from being burned up, McKay (David Hewlett) increases the rate at which the alternate reality drive activates, warning that his modifications are irreversible. Meanwhile, the team must contend with aliens from the crashed fighter. McKay figures out that there is no way to guide the alternate reality drive, but that they can return to their original reality by reversing the drive and jumping back through the realities they had visited before. They use the maneuvering thrusters to stabilize the ship's orbit above the red giant, and weather another attack by the aliens, with help from an alternate Atlantis. Once they return to their own reality, they leave the ship in space suits after a remaining alien detonates an explosive, causing a breach in the ship's hull and are picked up by Lorne (Kavan Smith) after the ''Daedalus'' disappears. In the end, McKay is shown working on fixing the alternate reality drive, despite Sheppard's admonishments.

''Passage ''is the immediate sequel to ''Legacy'' in The Sharing Knife series. It takes farmer's daughter Fawn and Lakewalker maverick Dag back to her home farm as a first step on their 'honeymoon trip' to the Southern Sea, which is analogous to the Gulf of Mexico in The Sharing Knife series' alternate-world setting. At the farm they add the first of a considerable list of fellow-travelers: Fawn's older brother Whit.

Once on their way again another odd companion is added by accident, quite literally, as Hod the charity-case helper of the teamster taking them to find flatboat passage on the Grace River (the Ohio River) gets his kneecap shattered by Dag's ill-tempered horse. This begins a series of events in each of which Dag's ground-working abilities are stretched past old limits, ground being the series setting's term for what might well be read as chi. Hod happens to owe much of his sloth and sly theft of edibles to a well-grown tapeworm, not suspected by his employer and only noticed in passing by Dag. But by his good curing works Dag has, as he feared, left himself open to an avalanche of farmer folk with ailments. He has, also, unwittingly beguiled Hod—Hod follows him, and wants more of Dag's ministrations. So there are dangers to the farmers he tries to cure, too. Much of the novel follows out his attempts to present what Lakewalkers do, how, and with what limitations, in ways that farmers should understand. This action violates long-standing Lakewalker secrecy about just these matters. Dag, in his effort to reduce a culture gap that has already led to violent misunderstandings, sees no choice but to risk apostasy. After he, with help from two other Lakewalkers, and many of the so-called farmers (in this book, the non-Lakewalkers mostly work with boats, not farms) defeats a renegade Lakewalker, who has been leading a group of murderers and robbers, Dag even demonstrates, for a group of farmers, the ceremony that turns a knife made from a bone from a deceased Lakewalker into a sharing knife. He also discovers how to remove a beguilement.

The core of the novel is set on a flatboat, patterned on craft used in the middle 19th century to move goods downstream on America's navigable rivers, and large enough to need a crew of around eight (and with space for cargo, chickens, a goat, and Dag's horse). For the details of this pre-steamboat era Ms. Bujold has drawn from a number of histories and biographies, listed and annotated in an Author's Note page at the very end of the text. Like the rest of the series this is a romance, but one that rides on deeper questions of personal and social relationship, including those of leadership, honesty, caste relations and power. It also presents some clear moral choices, for those who were recruited to join the renegade Lakewalker. It ends with the motley crew, Lakewalkers and farmers, that has made its way to the mouth of the Gray River (the Mississippi River) having a picnic on the sands of the River's delta and considering the whens and hows of their return journey up-river.

Category:2008 American novels Category:American fantasy novels Category:HarperCollins books Category:Novels by Lois McMaster Bujold

This Matthew Scudder noir crime novel starts out much like the previous books in the series. Matt is still drinking heavily and solving crimes as an "unofficial" private detective in gritty New York. There are three separate mysteries that are intertwined, involving multiple dead bodies, stolen money and other complications. But the real story is Matt's drinking and how it affects his work. The closing line is a classic, and separates the earlier books from the later ones in this series.

Hui (Michael Hui) is the struggling proprietor of a Cantonese BBQ roast duck restaurant in Hong Kong. At the beginning of the film, Hui is visited by a health inspector, who finds a cockroach in his soup and other unsanitary conditions, and threatens to sue the restaurant. However, Hui's staff stop the inspector from leaving with evidence, allowing Hui to continue running the restaurant. While the restaurant is operated on ground floor, Hui lives upstairs with his wife and son. He receives a visit from his rich mother-in-law (Yan Pak), who is convinced that her daughter, Ah Kuen/Tammy (Sylvia Chang), has married a good-for-nothing man. Hui faces competition when a profit-oriented businessman, Danny Poon (Lawrence Ng), opens what is to be the first of a fast food chain of fried chicken restaurants across the street from him. Danny's Chicken employs a wide range of marketing techniques that makes them instantly popular, causing Hui's business to plummet. Jealous of the employees at the rival chicken restaurant and fed up with their poor pay and working conditions, Hui's staff voice their dissatisfaction and one of the employees, Cuttlefish (Ricky Hui), leaves to work at Danny's Chicken. However, he discovers while being trained at Danny's Chicken that Poon's regimen is strict and humiliating. He is made to hand out leaflets outside the shop dressed as a chicken, much to Hui's disgust. In response to Hui's dwindling business, his nagging mother-in-law offers to pay for a renovation, but Hui is at first too proud to accept. He finds out that his son visited Danny's Chicken with his girlfriend Judy (Gloria Yip), and decides to infiltrate the rival business dressed as an Indian woman, but is quickly exposed by Poon. Hui tries to turn his luck around by adopting Poon's marketing techniques and "packaging" in order to appeal to the fashionable crowd, redecorating and holding a disastrous karaoke night. He also begins to parade the street in a makeshift duck costume, leading to a physical altercation with Cuttlefish in his chicken suit that nearly gets them both arrested. His attempts only succeed in alienating his loyal customers, including a Buddhist nun whose regular order is vegetarian noodles with no lard. Poon plots a final sabotage against Hui by releasing rats into the restaurant during a health inspection. Cuttlefish returns to the duck restaurant, disillusioned with Poon's techniques to the point he even tried to foil the sabotage, and Hui refuses Poon's attempt to buy out the business that he has run for years. Hui overcomes his pride and accepts his mother-in-law's help to renovate the restaurant before she leaves for China. The renovation is a success, so much so that Danny's Chicken begins selling roast duck in imitation, but it is not as good as Hui's secret recipe. Angered that his fast food chain has been defeated, Poon resorts to an arson attempt that goes wrong and ends up setting Danny's Chicken on fire before he is rescued by Hui.

An anonymous flasher exposes himself to shoppers in the Forest Ridge Mall parking lot. The head of mall security, Ronnie Barnhardt, makes it his mission to apprehend the offender. However, while Ronnie is ostensibly well-intentioned and valiant in his own mind, in reality he is emotionally unstable with vigilante tendencies, apparently experiencing bipolar disorder and displaying violent ideation, among other problems.

The criminal activity at the mall continues as the flasher exposes himself to make-up counter worker Brandi and a masked robber causes property damage at a shoe store. In both instances, Detective Harrison, a police detective, arrives to investigate. The two dislike each other, as Ronnie believes Harrison is taking over his proper role as investigator and Harrison believes that Ronnie is disrupting the investigation.

Ronnie decides to take steps to become a police officer. As part of his preparations, Ronnie decides to ride along with Detective Harrison. Harrison tricks him into walking into the most dangerous part of town and drives off. Ronnie then confronts and subsequently assaults several drug dealers, victoriously returning to the police station with a dealer's son and thanking the detective for the opportunity to prove himself.

Emboldened, Ronnie arranges a date with Brandi. On their date, she sees him taking a prescription clonazepam and assumes that Ronnie takes them recreationally. She asks him to share and he gives her the entire bottle, believing he does not need his prescription anymore. Ronnie takes her home and has sex with her while she is semi-conscious.

Ronnie passes the background check and physical examination for the police officer job, but fails the psychological examination. Nell, a friendly food court worker, tearfully shares that her coworker, Trina, and her boss, Roger, tease her for having her leg in a cast. Ronnie then beats up Roger and warns him and Trina not to harass Nell again. Depressed, he is persuaded by fellow security officer Dennis to spend the day doing a wide variety of drugs and assaulting skateboarding teenagers. At the end of the day, Dennis reveals that he is the one who has been stealing from the mall. Ronnie insists this is wrong and, after a brief argument, Dennis knocks him unconscious and flees.

Ronnie decides to go undercover in order to catch the flasher, but when he catches Brandi having sex with Harrison in the parking lot, he confronts her in front of onlookers at the mall the next day, blowing his cover and destroying a display case. The police are summoned and Ronnie fights them off, defeating the regular officers, until he is overpowered by Harrison and arrested.

A few days later, Ronnie's mother gives him a postcard from Dennis in Mexico, who respects Ronnie for caring so much. Ronnie returns to the mall, despondent that he no longer works security. He discovers that Nell's cast has been removed. She kisses him just before the flasher arrives and exposes himself to the food court.

After a brief chase, Ronnie incapacitates the flasher by shooting him in the shoulder. As he picks the bleeding flasher up, Brandi thanks him, but he rejects and publicly humiliates her for sleeping with Harrison. Ronnie brings the flasher to the police station, gloating that he has won by apprehending him. Ronnie is subsequently interviewed by the local news, having regained his job and begun dating Nell.

At a modern-day nursing home, an elderly man named Duke reads a romantic story from his notebook to a female patient, which tells the following:

In 1940, at a carnival in Seabrook Island, South Carolina, poor lumber mill worker Noah Calhoun sees 17-year-old heiress Allison "Allie" Hamilton, who is spending the summer in town with her parents. He pursues her and they begin a summer romance. One night, Allie goes to Noah's house and meets his father, Frank Calhoun, who immediately likes her. A few days later, Noah is invited to a luncheon at Allie's house by her parents, John and Anne Hamilton, but they are unimpressed with Noah and he doesn't fit in with the other wealthy attendees. That evening, Noah takes Allie to the abandoned Windsor Plantation that he intends to buy and restore for them. While there, Allie asks Noah to make love to her for the first time, but then grows nervous and starts rambling. They are interrupted by Noah's friend Fin with the news that Allie's parents have the police out looking for her. When Allie and Noah return to her parents' mansion, Allie's parents, particularly her mother Anne, make it clear they do not approve of the relationship and forbid her from seeing him. Overhearing Allie's mother's insults, Noah leaves and Allie chases after him. An argument ensues, and Allie breaks up with Noah, but she immediately regrets it. The next morning, Anne announces that the family is returning home to Charleston that day. Allie tries to find Noah at work but fails, so she asks Fin to tell him she loves him. Noah rushes to Allie's home, but finds the gates locked.

Noah writes a letter to Allie every day for a year, but Allie's mother intercepts them. After sending 365 letters with no response, Noah stops writing. He enlists with Fin to fight in World War II, where Fin is killed in battle. Allie volunteers as a nurse's aide in a hospital for wounded soldiers, where she meets Captain Lon Hammond Jr., a young lawyer who comes from old Southern money. After a few years, the two become engaged, to the delight of Allie's parents.

Noah returns from the war to find that his father sold their home so Noah could afford to buy the Windsor Plantation. He convinces himself that if he restores the house, Allie will find her way back to him. While Allie is being fitted for her wedding dress, she spots a photo in a newspaper showing Noah with the house he completed. She faints.

Allie is overwhelmed with memories and unresolved feelings for Noah, and asks permission from Lon to take a solo trip before the wedding. She returns to Seabrook to find Noah living in their dream house. The two rekindle and consummate their relationship. Several days later, Allie's mother appears on Noah's doorstep to warn Allie that Lon has followed her to Seabrook. She also reveals that, like her daughter, she once loved a lower-class young man and still thinks about him and how their lives might have been different. She gives Allie the letters Noah wrote. She tells her she hopes Allie makes the right choice. After an emotional argument with Noah, Allie makes the difficult choice to drive back to her hotel and confess her infidelity to Lon. Lon says he still loves her and wants her back, but she decides to return to Noah.

In the present, the elderly woman listening to the story is revealed to be Allie, now suffering from dementia, and Noah, who now goes by Duke so as not to startle her in her disoriented state, is her husband. During the early stages of her illness, Allie had written a journal detailing their romance and life together so he could read it to her to help her remember, which he does almost every day. One day as he is reading the notebook, she briefly recognizes him. She asks how long they have before she forgets again, and Duke tells her no more than five minutes. They dance to their song, "I'll Be Seeing You". Allie quickly relapses and panics, and medical personnel must sedate her. Duke has a heart attack and is treated within the nursing home, while Allie is resting in the dementia ward. Upon recovering, and despite not being allowed in, Duke visits Allie's room in the night, and she remembers him again. They kiss, hold hands, and fall asleep. In the morning, a nurse finds them both dead, their hands still clasped together.

In a flashback to 1692, a warlock in Salem, Mass. is executed.

In the present day, married couple Sonny (Lee Grober) and Mary Ann Dunaway (Kim Kopf), who have relocated to Massachusetts after an affair that nearly drove them apart. Neighbors Mitch (David Wells) and Gayle (Anthoni Stewart) welcome the new couple, and when Mitch attempts to help stop a leak in the basement, he unearths the warlock's tomb and is possessed by evil.

The now evil Mitch attempts to convert more people to his side, but is stopped by a priest.

Rosalie is the only daughter of the Wattevilles, a distinguished family of Besançon. Her father is very timid and spends his time working on a lathe, while her mother is quite proud and domineering. Her mother is trying to encourage Rosalie to take an interest in M. de Soulas, who is a young fop. At a dinner party, the Abbe reports the spectacular success of a lawyer Savaron, who has settled quietly in the town. Rosalie takes an interest in the lawyer, who is good-looking, and gets her father to build a gazebo in the garden with the secret intent of being able to watch Savaron. Savaron is successful in several cases, and it becomes known that he has started a local literary journal. Rosalie persuades her father to subscribe, and reads a story obviously penned by Savaron.

In Savaron's story, two young men are touring in Switzerland. From a boat on a lake, Rudolfe, one of the young men, becomes captivated by a girl he sees leaning out of a window in a house on the lakeside. He instantly decides to stop in the village, and makes enquiries. He is told that the girl is a young English girl staying with her grandfather who has come there for his health with a dumb girl as a servant. Rudolfe tries to obtain invitations and eventually creeps into the garden and overhears the two girls talking Italian. It emerges that they are Italian émigrés who are hiding in Switzerland. Furthermore, it turns out that the girl, Francesca, is married to the old man. Rudolfe befriends them and enters into a chaste love affair with the girl. They are in love and agree to wait until the old man dies to get married. News comes that their exile has been lifted and the Italians depart to Geneva, where Rudolfe is to meet them later. When he gets there, it turns out that Francesca is a princess and her husband is a Duke. Rudolfe is invited to the house, and they swear undying love, before Rudolfe departs to make his name in the world.

When Rosalie has read the story, she suspects it is the true story of Savaron, and becomes jealous. She tricks her servant into obtaining Savaron's correspondence, and after a letter to Leopold, finds letters to the Princess and confirms that the story is true. Savaron tries to make his name in the town and stands for elections. There is much complex politicking to obtain him the vote. Wrapped up in it is a lawsuit over M. de Watteville's land. Rosalie persuades her father to enlist the help of Savaron, but he refuses to come into the open about it until after the election, because of possible effects on the electorate. Suddenly just before the election, Savaron disappears and is never heard of again. Rosalie's mother tries to push the marriage with M. de Soulas but Rosalie is totally opposed. Thus they fall out and after the death of her father, Rosalie is left in very difficult circumstances. In response to Rosalie's taunt, her mother ends up marrying de Soulas herself.

Rosalie seeks the aid of the Abbe to find Savaron, and confesses to him the awful secret she has hidden. It turns out that not only did she intercept Savaron's mail and prevent it reaching him, but she also substituted letters to the Princess. In particular she wrote that Savaron was to marry herself and so Savoron's disappearance is linked to the marriage of Francesca to another man shortly after the death of her old husband. Savaron is tracked down to a monastery where he has shut himself off from the world. Rosalie is still vindictive and tries to find Francesca, delighting in telling her what happened and handing over the letters. Shortly afterwards Rosalie is horribly disfigured in a steamboat accident on the river Loire.

College-bound Gidget (Cindy Carol) is vacationing in Rome for the summer with faithful boyfriend Jeff, aka Moondoggie (James Darren) and their friends. Chaperoning the pair is Aunt Albertina (Jessie Royce Landis). However, Gidget's father Russell, worried about his daughter being abroad, asks an old friend of his, named Paolo Cellini, to keep an eye on Gidget to see that she stays out of trouble. Complications set in when Gidget begins to fall for the much older Paolo.

''The Last of Chéri'' picks up the lives of Cheri and Lea after a six-year break during which World War I has been fought and Cheri returns an uninjured hero. During this time, Edmee and Madame Peloux have become more assertive in home and business as do many women in the burgeoning suffragist movement. Cheri finds himself wandering aimlessly with no focus now that he does not have his former lover Lea nor the war to occupy his time.

Cheri is also perplexed by the assertive behaviors of Edmee and his mother; he cannot adapt to the new role of women in the post-War era. Eventually, Cheri and Edmee grow further apart and live separate lives, Edmee taking lovers without any jealousy from her husband. Attempting to recapture his past, Cheri visits old friends but finds that they, too, have moved on to new ventures and do not want to dwell in stories of the past. Cheri grows increasingly impatient with his life surrounded by Edmee and Madame Peloux and finds any route he can to escape even for a little while; including buying a car and taking friends on long day trips into the French countryside.

Because he can find no purpose to his life, Cheri obsesses about Lea. He makes the mistake of visiting her one day to find that she has aged and is overweight with short gray hair. Cheri is repulsed by Lea's appearance and plunges into an even deeper despair. Just when Cheri has reached the point where he can think of nothing that interests him or motivates him to think beyond the present, he runs into an old acquaintance, the Pal, who offers up her flat to Cheri's need for time alone.

In the Pal's flat, Cheri finds a wall filled with photographs of Lea, and he spends countless nights lying on a divan and staring at the images. Cheri makes one last attempt to connect with Edmee by asking if she would like a child but Edmee is aghast at the proposition, and Cheri realizes that their marriage is truly over. Cheri visits his mother who understands her son's anguish but can do nothing to assuage it, and they part with Cheri amazed to see a tear in his mother's eye. Cheri visits the Pal's apartment again and with images of Lea staring down at him raises a revolver to his head and pulls the trigger.

Category:1926 French novels Category:Novels by Colette Category:Sequel novels Category:French romance novels

Thea Clayhill is about to lose her position as secretary to a very cranky publisher. She decides to lie about being pregnant to save her job, after seeing on an episode of ''Law & Order'' that it is discriminatory to fire a pregnant woman. The plan works, and she gets to keep her job.

With help from her friend Lisa—and a "baby bump" stolen from a mannequin—Thea fakes her pregnancy while figuring out her next move. In the meantime, her boss gets called out of town and his cute brother Nick takes over.

In an attempt to get author Suzie Cavandish to publish her new book, about pregnancy, with the company, Nick takes Thea to meet the author. Thea convinces Suzie that they are the right "home" for her book. Nick then launches a new parenting division at the publishing company and promotes Thea to be the editor. This results in a raise and promotion for Thea, as well as the beginning of a romantic relationship between her and Nick after breaking off her fake engagement with Miles. She begins to enjoy her life to the extent that her "pregnancy" becomes real to her.

In an attempt to get Thea to admit her lie to her family, her younger sister Emma throws Thea a surprise baby shower. When Thea still does not admit the lie, Emma destroys her pregnancy pillow in a fit of rage. Thea quickly grabs a balloon and leaves. Later that day, the author of the book is going to have a book reading, but her boss comes back a week early, and gets into an argument with Nick (which ends with Nick jumping on him, then Thea pulling them apart). After insulting Thea, she tries to go at him. Nick holds her back by the stomach, and her balloon pops, blowing her cover. After a couple of nights, Nick still does not answer the hundreds of messages Thea left him. She gets to go on the show talking about the book Suzie wrote. After everyone leaves, Thea and Nick kiss until the lights go out.

Two years later, Thea (who is actually pregnant with her and Nick's daughter), goes into labor. Nick and Lisa are left pushing Thea to the hospital in a desk chair.

In a small Russian town at the turn of the century, three sisters (Olga, Irina, and Masha) and their brother Andrei live but dream daily of their return to their former home in Moscow, where life is charming and stimulating meaningful. But for now they exist in a malaise of dissatisfaction. Soldiers from the local military post provide them some companionship and society, but nothing can suffice to replace Moscow in their hopes. Andrei marries a provincial girl, Natasha, and begins to settle into a life of much less meaning than he had hoped. Natasha begins to run the family her way. Masha, though married, yearns for the sophisticated life and begins a dalliance with Vershinin, an army officer with a sick and suicidal wife. Even Irina, the freshest, most optimistic of the sisters, begins to waver in her dreams until, finally, tragedy strikes.

Eric Roberts plays Harry Siegal, a police detective attempting to locate a kidnapped child. Harry finds Rory, the man he believes is responsible and viciously beats a confession out of him. It soon becomes clear that this is not unusual behavior for Harry; he believes his methods are justified in pursuit of a greater good. Rory begs for his life, especially after Harry cuts his throat. Rory eventually gives in, confessing. then faints. Harry locates the boy in a closet. Outside, Rory is being loaded into an ambulance. Harry has no remorse for what he has done to Rory in order to get the confession. Knowing that he will die, Rory warns Harry that he'll never let Harry forget this, before finally dying. Harry is sentenced to 100 hours of community service, is fired from the police force, and loses his pension.

Fifteen years later, Harry is a successful private detective, working with his partner, James (Larry Gilliard Jr.). Harry is approached by a woman named Meredith (Cynthia Watros), who wants Harry to spy on her husband, who she believes is cheating on her. Harry agrees and sets up his equipment in the abandoned building across from Meredith's house, with James monitoring from a surveillance van down the street. As night falls, Harry begins to pick up signs of life in the building: lights coming on, forms moving about, even children watching TV. The problem is that only Harry seems to be able to see these things; James only sees darkness in the house. After another night of the same spooky events—in which Harry claims the house is haunted—James gives up and leaves. Harry goes into the house he has been monitoring, but finds it empty, with 'FOR SALE' signs all over.

In the abandoned building, Harry encounters Rory, who haunts Harry and says he didn't deserve to be killed. Harry has an hallucination: he sees two children watching TV, one of whom shows a gun to his brother, but the gun goes off, killing him. Harry has just relived his childhood, in which he accidentally shot and killed his brother. We then see young Harry and his father burying the boy in their yard, covering up the incident.

An enraged Harry flashes back to the present, .and surmises that Meredith must have set this up. He confronts Meredith—who reveals that Rory was her brother; the whole affair was their revenge against Harry. She aims her gun at Harry, who takes it and aims it at her. Meredith begs Harry to kill her. But Harry says that he is truly sorry for his actions over the years, and resolves to start over. James then bursts into the room. Meredith screams "Help me!" and James accidentally shoots Harry. James protests that it was an accident, while Harry dies, finally at peace.

In 1970s New York City, David Marks, the son of a powerful real estate tycoon Sanford Marks, marries Katie McCarthy, a working-class student. Together they flee New York for country life in Vermont, setting up a health food store called All Good Things, only to be manipulated into returning by his father, who preys upon David's insecurities by telling him that Katie deserves more than he's currently giving her. Upon their return, Katie and David buy a beautiful apartment and Katie brings up the idea of having children. David implies he can't have any. After buying a lake house out of town, Katie confesses to their pregnant neighbor that she is expecting as well. When Katie tells David the news, he responds by throwing things and then breaks down at the thought of being a parent. After forcing Katie to make an appointment for an abortion, David misses the appointment when he is called away to do work for his father.

Katie goes back to college and eventually gets into medical school while her relationship with David continues to deteriorate. Katie makes inquiries about a separation, but her funds, which she needs in order to pay for school, are cut off when she attempts to leave. Having been advised that she will need leverage to make the family let her go, Katie attempts to find incriminating documents of the family's financial activities. She then disappears without a trace in 1982, despite a $15,000 reward offered for any information on her whereabouts.

Eighteen years later, the case is reopened by the current District Attorney of New York after reading an unpublished novel written by David's best friend Deborah Lehrman, which contains a murder almost identical to the Marks case. Soon after this is announced, Lehrman is shot and killed in her home, and David is under suspicion again while standing trial for the murder of his neighbor Malvern Bump in Galveston, Texas. David is acquitted of the murder of Bump; the film states that nobody has ever been tried for Deborah Lehrman's murder and that Katie Marks remains a missing person to this day. A flash-back implies that David left his wife's remains in the trunk of her car, which the father finds. The film ends with David visiting his dying father and whispering to him "I miss her so much." It's left to the viewer to decide whether he is talking about Katie or his mother.

The author of the 13th-century Prose ''Lancelot''—the massive section of the Old French Vulgate Cycle devoted to Lancelot—expanded the Arthur-Guenevere-Lancelot love triangle into a rectangle, adding a figure named Galehaut, Lord of the Distant Isles, a powerful political and military foe to Arthur and a rival to Guenevere for the love of Lancelot. The Old French account is an extraordinary tale, related with an understanding of human desires and aspirations unprecedented in its depth and richness. For love of Lancelot, Galehaut surrenders his political ambitions, voluntarily submitting to the rule of Arthur; the same reason leads him to facilitate the rapprochement of Lancelot and the Queen. The invincible Lord of the Distant Isles, who had seemed destined to conquer the world, becomes a paragon of love-inspired self-sacrifice.

In this retelling of the episodes concerning the connection between Galehaut and Lancelot, two motifs are emphasized: magic and a new understanding of love. The first is embodied in the Lady of the Lake; the second in Galehaut, the Lord of the Distant Isles. Unlike other retellings or translations of the Old French sources, this novel seeks to retell the central love-drama in such a way as to restore its complexity and emotional depth for the modern reader.

The Hon [Dagger] Brothers, Chung and Lam, who are in fact uncle and nephew, are rival bounty hunters to the Fung [Bewitchment] Sisters, and take glee in thwarting each other because Chung refused to marry Lady Fung. Fung Ling and Lam are also in love, but do not acknowledge it.

Emperor Tsao hires the Hons to capture the Nine-Tails Fox, whom he claims has made a major robbery of his household, including the rape and murder of his daughter and the murder of 41 servants. The Hons are distracted when they find the Fungs captured by Never Die and his brothers, who in spite of decapitation and loss of a hand, proceed to chase the Hons (the severed hand grabbing at one of them) to the lair of Nine-Tails Fox, who has recently caused his wife, the apsara known as Flying Cat to walk out on him. The group discovers that Never Die is allergic to glib talk, and begin speaking to each other glibly. Chung, too embarrassed to speak to Lady Fung in that way, instead speak to Nine-Tails Fox, the two pulling off each other's shirts, and trap Never Die, where he soon dissolves. The four bounty hunters and Never Die's hand escort Nine-Tails Fox away. Flying Cat returns to find drawn images of what has gone on previously, including what she interprets as her husband's homosexual behavior, and chastises the old man who sends the drawings out through a slot for not intervening, which he says is not his place.

Nine-Tails Fox, who proudly admits to being a thief but insists he never hurts anyone, escapes from the bounty hunters to the inn of Pang Tin-hong, where he becomes involved with numerous courtesans. The bounty hunters follow him, but not before Flying Cat catches up with him. Still other bounty hunters, including the burly Western Ace, a gay man who sings 1980s American pop tunes, and a transsexual who delivers poisoned kisses, arrive at the inn. Because the Hons and Fungs pay well and are supported by the police, Pang sides with them against the new bounty hunters, claiming that he and his wife are Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui. The transsexual kisses Chung, causing him to turn green and infect him with poison. After the other bounty hunters are defeated, Pang sends Lam and Ling outside, insisting that they are under eighteen, although both claim to be eighteen, in order to explain that the cure for the poison is to have sex nine times, then eat the strange fetus that will be born three days later. Chung tries to take Lady Fung to bed, but inadvertently passes the disease to Pang, whose wife and he fight a lot and never want it at the same time.

While Ling and Lam are outside, Never Die's hand grabs Ling's shoulder, and she thinks it is Lam's and rests her head on his shoulder. Thus distracted, Tsao captures the two of them, and the thieves and the bounty hunters team up against their common enemy and rescue the young ones.

At the end of the film, Lady Fung gives birth to the strange fetus, and the Hons, Fungs, Fox, Cat, and Pang seemingly forgetting about the idea that it is to be eaten and ready and excited to receive it as if a normal birth, are horrified to see that the baby is in fact Never Die.

Brenda is a plain young woman who lives at home with her mother in Liverpool and enjoys writing fairy tales for children. One day she tells her mother that she is leaving home and moving to London in order to find a father for her yet unborn baby.

Arriving in London, she has some of her belongings knocked out of her hands by an attractive young man (Peter) who doesn't give her a second look. She ends up living in a grubby bedsit before finding a job at a fashionable boutique (run by Jimmy Lindsay), and taking a spare room in a flat owned by one of her co-workers, Caroline specifically as she hopes to meet a man at one of Caroline's many parties.

Peter appears to live with an older, alcoholic woman. He invites her upstairs, she goes into his room and, unseen, starts screaming.

After discovering Caroline in bed with Joey, another co-worker that she was interested in, Brenda runs crying out of the flat and onto the streets. She comes across a scruffy dog, and sees its owner looking for it. Recognising the young man who had previously bumped into her (Peter), she picks up the dog and runs home with it. Unbeknownst to her, Peter sees her do so.

Back at the flat, Brenda washes the dog, and pretties it up with a bow. She then uses the address on the dog's collar to take it back to Peter. He lets her in, and is nice to her, but upsets her when he insists she tell him why she took the dog. She finally admits that it was because she wanted to meet him, and have a baby with him. He suggests that she move in with him.

While she has gone to get her belongings, Peter kills his dog with a utility knife, ostensibly because it is now pretty. Brenda lies to Caroline, telling her that she is moving in with her mother who is ill.

After Brenda returns, Peter starts to buy her baby gifts. Meanwhile, Brenda's mother is worried about not hearing from her daughter, and calls her last known number, which is Caroline's flat. She then visits Caroline, before going to the police. Caroline looks through Brenda's old room and finds the dog's broken lead, which has Peter's address on it.

After Brenda has gone out shopping, Caroline arrives at Peter's house, and eventually they go to bed. Peter then murders her with the utility knife, again because she is too beautiful.

When Brenda returns, Peter is alone in the house (the implication being that Caroline has been buried in the garden). Brenda has had a total makeover – hair, clothes, make-up – in order to look beautiful for Peter. He makes it very clear that he loves her exactly the way she was. He tells a fairy story, which is interspersed with flashbacks implying that he has killed multiple women. Brenda and Peter go to bed.

A few days later Peter reads in the paper that there are missing person reports out on both Brenda and Caroline, and when he gets home he forbids Brenda to go out.

Brenda gives signs that she might now be pregnant, and they both seem happy. Peter tells Brenda he has a surprise for her and takes her up to his bedroom, where he plays her a tape of him killing the dog and Caroline. Brenda becomes hysterical and tries to get out of the flat but the doors are locked, as Peter walks after her, telling her he doesn't want to hurt her.

Later Peter sits alone in his house. There is no sign of Brenda.

Ralph Lavie (Dean Cameron) is a friendly vampire. He's 400 years old and still lives with his mother Phoebe (Toni Basil) who is also a vampire. Ralph is living under a curse. After meeting the girl of his dreams 308 years ago Ralph lost her after she was killed by her jealous boyfriend, a pirate. Since that time, the girl, Mona, has been reincarnated every 22 years, only to fall in love with Ralph and die under exactly the same oddly specific circumstances (killed on Halloween by a rhinestone-peg-legged pirate wielding a giant hambone). Now in 1990, Ralph, weary of the whole thing, vows to stay locked in his room and not meet Mona again until after Halloween, much to the chagrin of his sentient and libidinous reflection (another side effect of the curse).

Ralph meets up with friends at a local bar (including rock legend Bo Diddley) and once again recounts the story of his curse to them. Walking out into the streets he is hit by a car being driven by none other than Mona's latest incarnation, a local singer (Tawny Fere). Immediately warning her off him Ralph runs off, but a portentous dream reinvigorates him to try and save her life now that events have been set in motion. He goes looking for her and discovers a flyer with her band playing at a local club. When he goes to visit her, the two hit it off immediately much to the dismay of Mona's manager/ex-boyfriend, an eccentric mortuary owner named Stanley (Thomas Dolby). After Ralph is unable to adequately say what he does for a living, he states that he's in a band. Realizing that he actually is a decent musician after hundreds of years of piano and guitar lessons, he and his friends start the band Rockula, playing up his vampirism as the band's gimmick. Rockula's first gig is a success and the band quickly becomes a hit. Ralph and Mona start dating and even start collaborating musically, writing songs and filming a video together. Stanley sees this as a threat and seeks the council of a local Psychic, Madame Ben-Wa who reveals that Ralph is a vampire. He begins a plot to kill Ralph and cryogenically freeze Mona using equipment from his mortuary so he'll have her forever.

Ralph and Mona have dinner with Phoebe and her latest beau, which proves awkward as Phoebe makes no secret of her unnaturally long life, referring to things such as George Washington's bedroom prowess and speaking to Mona as if she's known her for years. The evening culminates in an impromptu musical number by Phoebe. On the drive home, rather than have Mona think he and his mother are crazy, he reveals that he is a vampire and tells her the details of the curse. Mona is skeptical until Ralph half-transforms into a bat in front of her. Disturbed by this, Mona drives off and leaves town. Halloween comes and Rockula is scheduled to perform. Stanley appears, dressed as a pirate, with a hambone, having been directed to do so by Madame Ben-Wa. Mona, having admitted that she loves Ralph returns and meets him on stage, only to be kidnapped and carted away by Stanley, who prepares to place her in the cryogenic freezing chamber. Ralph's reflection tells him where to find Mona and he comes to the rescue. Stanley and Ralph duel with Stanley wielding the hambone and Ralph wielding the rhinestone peg-leg. Madame Ben-Wa is then revealed to be Phoebe, who has orchestrated the curse for years, scared that Ralph will leave the nest. Phoebe apologizes, realizing that she needs to let Ralph grow up, but is knocked out by Stanley. Ralph then again half-transforms into a bat, scaring Stanley into falling into his own freezing chamber. Having saved Mona's life the curse is broken, and the two leave the club together happily.

Ralph's reflection has had enough and smashes his way out of the mirror dressed as Elvis Presley in a rhinestone jumpsuit and performs a final number as Rockula.

The My Scene girls are attending high school in Manhattan when they find out there's a new teen spy movie called "Spy Society" being filmed there, starring Lindsay Lohan (who plays Laural St. Clair, the lead character) and fictional character Ryan Ridley (who plays Lohan's love interest in the movie). While the girls, Barbie, Chelsea, Madison, Nolee and Delancey, go to watch the movie being filmed, they get the idea to sneak onto the set by pretending to be extras.

While working as extras for the movie, the girls quickly learn that there's a lot of work that goes into making a movie, such as getting to the set early in the morning, doing hours and hours of takes on a scene and Chelsea keeps getting terrible roles such as sweat girl, trash girl and even being forced to clean up after the horses that are being used in the movie. The girls imagine themselves becoming best friends with Lindsay Lohan, who turns out to be nice and down-to-earth (and who they do end up becoming friends with).

When one of the actresses gets hurt on their way to the set and is unable to play her part, Madison's called in to take her place. The actress she's replacing plays the movie's lead female villain, although the character only has five speaking lines.

After a while, the fame starts going to Madison's head. She begins thinking that she and Ryan are dating as they always go out together and the tabloids refer to her as "Ryan's Mystery Girl." When Madison gets invited to a party with Ryan and Lindsay, her friends show up to surprise her. However, Madison is very rude to them, pretending that she doesn’t know them. She starts acting and dressing like a diva, and avoids her lifelong friends. This causes her friends to become mad at her and start avoiding Madison as well.

When the shooting is about to wrap in New York, Madison asks Ryan how they will handle their relationship. Ryan's surprised to hear her say this and admits that he doesn't see Madison as his girlfriend, leaving Madison heartbroken at the realization that Ryan was never going to feel the same way about her as she did about him. Lindsay witnesses this and goes to tell the other girls about it—but they are still mad at Madison for how she treated them and don't seem to care, feeling that she deserves it. Upset, Lindsay briefly lectures the girls about the importance of friendship, pointing out that despite everything that's happened between them and Madison, she needs them now more than ever. Hearing this, the girls get over their anger towards Madison and go to her apartment, where they all apologize to each other and make amends.

In the end, six months later, the girls all go to the red carpet premiere of the movie, where they meet up with Lindsay. After Ryan arrives at the premiere, he tries getting Madison and Lindsay's attention but they ignore him and go to watch the movie with their friends.

The story concerns two teenage boys, Tom Flanagan, and Del Nightingale, who attend a prestigious all boys private school called Carson's. The freshmen students are at the whims of the seniors, most notably, Steve “Skeleton” Ridpath, son of Coach Ridpath, one of many mean and troublesome teachers at Carson. Tom befriends several of the freshmen and bonds with them over the school year. Tom and Skeleton are haunted by ghostly visions of vultures and of a nightmarish figure that Del seems to know. Skeleton becomes insane and sociopathic over the course of the novel and behaves strangely during school because of these occurrences. Del and Tom bond over their shared love of magic, which Del is an expert at and demonstrates to Tom during their school year.

During an away football game at another private school, the boys see Skeleton nonchalantly steal an artifact from the other school. This causes disarray from both schools and Carson students are subjected to extensive interrogation from the teachers, and they can't figure out who stole the item. It is revealed that Skeleton kept the item, a bejeweled owl, alongside papers he cheated off of inside the piano, which explained as to why he got so angry at the students when they were near it, exampled when Skeleton whipped Del with his belt. Del breaks the owl thereafter, and the situation is mostly forgotten.

Tom and Del are allowed to create a magic club at school and perform a magic show. Suddenly the auditorium catches fire at the end of Tom and Del's act. The faculty barely escape but do so, and there is only one casualty, fellow freshmen and math whiz, Dave Brick. Tom and Del are stumped as to who caused the fire and wonder where Skeleton was. Summer arrives and Del asks Tom to go with him to Shadowland. Tom goes since his father is dead and feels a need to protect him. Together they board a train from Arizona to Vermont to stay at Del's uncles home. Del revealed to Tom that his uncle was a renowned magician and taught real magic to Del and he wishes to teach Tom as well. He also reveals that he controlled Skeleton to steal the owl, hoping to have Skeleton suspended from school, although the plan evidently did not work.

During the train ride, Tom is frightened when Skeleton boards the train and stumbles upon a late forties compartment at the back of the train that wasn't there before. Skeleton is nowhere to be found and the train is delayed after a crash a few miles ahead. Tom meets Del's uncle, alcoholic magician Coleman Collins. They travel to Collins's estate, what he calls Shadowland, and prepares to teach them magic over the summer. Tom and Del are subjected to countless hallucinations and tricks by Collins to teach them magic. Collins tells stories to both boys in the woods, recounting his time as a medic during WWII, and the origin of his magical persona. Del gets jealous that Tom is spending more time with Collins, who admits to Tom that he wants him to take his position as King of the Cats and ruler of Shadowland, and Tom pretends to think it over, secretly wanting to hand the position to Del. The boys become distant but slowly reconcile over time.

At Shadowland are a group of muscular men called the Wandering Boys who enjoy badger baiting and stay in the woods at the Shadowland estate, and act as Collins bodyguards and were part of his traveling act during the War. Del introduces Tom to Rose Armstrong, a fifteen year old girl who stays on the estate near the lake. Both boys fall in love with her, and Rose falls in love with Tom, and tells him that she wishes to escape Shadowland before the “big show.” They persuade Del to accompany them, and Del slowly sees that Collins is a madman and is psychotic. Over the course of the novel Tom and Rose meet at night, thinking of ways to escape Shadowland and getting closer with each other.

Collins becomes more mysterious and dangerous as he tells the children the tale of the Collector, a creature he had created during his magic shows, which was accompanied by his friends Rosa Forte (a singer and reincarnation of Rose) and Speckle John (another magician who taught Collins magic). The Collector was a receptacle and he was used by Collins on people that got in his way. The Collector was created during Collins time as a medic during the war when he developed multiple personality disorder after mercy-killing another soldier and the stress made Collins run away to do magic shows around Europe. Tom starts to grow worried that Collins will force him to become the leader of Shadowland and train him to be the greatest magician and Collins reveals that he had taken Speckle John's magic after becoming a better magician than his mentor and left him alive, believing it was a fate worse than death.

Rose, Tom and Del escape Shadowland through underground tunnels. Tom is greeted by a demon called M. who attempts to coerce Tom to leave his friends and join Collins as a magician. He declines. The three continue through the tunnels, and are caught by the Wandering Boys. Rose reveals to have betrayed them, having lead them down the tunnel they had previously journeyed, believing it was the best solution to escape. Collins decides to start his final performance early and has the Wandering Boys crucify Tom in the theater, where Collins also taught the boys magic and told stories. The other Boys go outside and start beating Del to death.

When Tom awakens, he is able to free himself from the cross with the help of Del's butler (who is a reincarnation of Speckle John) who mentally pushes him. In pain, Tom manages to go outside and using an old revolver, shoots and kills a few of the Wandering Boys before the others scramble. Tom comforts a bruised and dying Del. Rose joins them, revealing she did not know that Collins planned on killing the two. Tom sees she was also tricked by Collins. The boys witness Collins as the Collector arrives, in the form of Skeleton Ridpath, who was revealed to have been possessed near the beginning of the novel by the Collector. Tom is momentarily killed by the Collector, who transports him, Del and Rose to the theater. Tom is revived and Del is then taken to Collins, who blows up the last Wandering Boy, killing him.

Rose runs from the theater as Tom fights off the Collector. Tom manages to save Skeleton and rips him from the shell of the Collectors skin. Skeleton then runs away from Shadowland. Tom and Rose then barge into Collins's room, and he forces Tom to drop his gun, or else he'll kill Del. Collins then tells Tom he has one more performance left, transforms Del into a bird and escapes. Tom follows Collins after-images around the house. At the theater, numerous people watch in the audience as Collins transforms the bird version of Del into a statue, killing the boy. Tom and Collins fight just like Tom fought the Collector. Tom forces Collins into the Collector and sends him away through the bathroom mirror where the Collector resides. Tom then sets fire to the house and leaves through the tunnels. Tom takes the Book of Spells (which Collins used in his early career with Speckle John) with him before going. Rose takes Tom to the beach and in the morning disappears. Tom sets the statued Del on the lake before leaving the ruined Shadowland.

It is also revealed at the beginning and throughout the novel that one of Tom's friends from school had written the story with Tom's permission and had been going around and asking others who knew Tom to gather research on the story. The friend visits an older Skeleton, who is now a priest, and then visits the ruins of Shadowland where he comes to terms that Tom was telling the truth.

Svein ( ) is a small boy with a pet rat, Halvorsen. His friend Dan has also one, James Bond. To Svein's regret many people consider rats to be a pest. After Halvorsen has knawed on too many electric cables and a water hose of the washing machine, Svein's parents decide Svein cannot keep it, and they bring it to the pet shop. Dan tries to buy him back for Sven, but the shopkeeper tells him that pets are not sold to minors. By threatening to expose fraudulous behavior of the shopkeeper (who sold an unsuitable animal as guide dog to a blind man) Dan gets Halvorsen. He can stay now with him.

There is an upcoming pet competition in town. Svein assumes that rats cannot participate, and is afraid to ask, but his friend Melissa inquires; it turns out that rats are accepted; she registers Halvorsen. With Melissa's help Svein trains him to do tricks, but Halvorsen fails in the first attempt in the competition. Svein realizes that Halvorsen does not like to do tricks, and promises him that he never has to do them again.. Svein is allowed to let the rat try again, but he declines. However, Halvorsen wins the title "pet of the year" for his friendship with Svein. Later Svein gives Melissa her own rat.

Alexia and Hayley Wheaton are portrayed as sisters who live in the same house and attend the same high school. Eighteen-year-old Alexia is popular, stylish, has a jock boyfriend, Kyle, and puts no effort into schoolwork. In contrast, her fifteen-year-old sister Hayley is socially reserved and admires her older sister's popularity from a distance, while excelling in science and mathematics. The sisters do not get along; Hayley resents her reliance on Alexia, who is frequently late for a ride to school, and Alexia prefers not to be seen with her less-than-cool younger sister. Hayley has a crush on her sister's boyfriend, Kyle, and envies her when she sees them making out.

One night, Hayley is seen outside studying the night sky for her science class while Alexia is relaxing in the outdoor hot tub with Kyle. When Hayley sees a shooting star, she wishes to become her sister Alexia, then turns to see Alexia also watching the sky. The next morning, the sisters each awaken to find themselves in each other's bodies. Hayley takes responsibility for the swap, mentioning her wish.

Discovering they are unable to swap back, Hayley is content to fill her sister's role for the day, as she can now experience the glamour of Alexia's life firsthand. However, their experience sours: as Alexia, Hayley discovers how poorly Alexia's friends treat the unpopular kids at school, including her best friend Caitlin. She learns that Alexia has been planning to break up with Kyle due to her friends' self-imposed rules. To get out of taking a test, Alexia faints and is taken home from school by their mother. Meanwhile, Hayley (as Alexia) apologizes to Kyle after learning that Alexia had broken up with him the previous night, and they make out.

By the end of their first day, the sisters realize they may be stuck in their altered states. Alexia gets upset when she sees a hickey on her old body. They each spend the next day purposely sabotaging each other's lives. Hayley (in Alexia's body) wears the same outfit that she had worn the day before, and Alexia (in Hayley's body) goes to school dressed up as a dominatrix. Alexia (as Hayley) dances on a table in the cafeteria miming explicit rock songs and Hayley (as Alexia) roughly grabs and makes out with Kyle in retaliation. Eventually, as Hayley and Alexia each become accustomed to the other's life, they begin to relate to one another better, and the swap eventually brings them closer as sisters.

While spending an evening outside searching for a shooting star to make their wish to switch back, they decide to spend one more day as each other. Hayley's task (in Alexia's body) is to convince her teachers that Alexia is not an "airhead," and Alexia (in Hayley's body) is to show Hayley how easily she can get a guy. Kyle starts to appreciate Alexia's new approach to life, wearing less makeup and caring less about clothes. He tells her he loves her, and Hayley (as Alexia) dismisses him, as she knows she will never be with him. The sisters’ plans work, and they both decide to switch back. Unfortunately, that night, they fall asleep early. Hayley wakes up in time to wish on a star. When she awakens the next morning, she finds that they didn't switch back and believes that they will never be able to return to their bodies, but does not tell Alexia. The next day, Kyle breaks up with Hayley (as Alexia).

Alexia and Hayley attend the Winter Festival dance. On the pool bleachers, Hayley breaks down and tells Alexia that they cannot switch back. Alexia then confesses that she also saw the star when she was with Kyle and wished to become Hayley. In tears, Alexia confesses that she was bored with her life and that she had been jealous of Hayley's intellect and well-structured future plans. She reveals that on her first day as Hayley, she had discovered the daily bullying from their classmates that her sister and the other unpopular kids suffered through. From that moment on, Alexia regrets her past mistreatment of everyone. She mentions that she realized that her friends are shallow, that Kyle was planning to dump her over their self-imposed rules, and that she had no chance of getting into college due to her underachievement. Alexia then mentions that with her intellect and planning, Hayley would never make Alexia's mistakes.

Realizing that it was their simultaneous wish that caused the switch, Alexia and Hayley sit outside, and when they see a shooting star, together they wish to be themselves again. They open their eyes back in their own bodies. Hayley worries that it will be hard for her to remain neat and clean, but Alexia reassures her that she will have help. They then return to the Winter Festival. Alexia apologizes to Kyle, they kiss, and Alexia is crowned queen. Her friends apologize for their earlier behavior and decide to throw out the rules. Alexia then dances on stage with her boyfriend, while Hayley finds their new neighbor Simon and dances with him.

The dark tale revolves around a sexually ambiguous serial killer, whose crimes are committed to a French cabaret song. The police suspect a chanteuse who sings the same tune during her performances.

Lucy is born on June 2, 2009 (the date the program aired; changed to January 1, 2009, in subsequent airings), in the suburbs of Miami, and is still alive in the year 2100. In 2015, negotiations on climate change action breaks down between the West and India/China as the former is unwilling to transfer clean technology to the latter, while Lucy's family moves out of the suburbs and into an apartment in Miami after chronic gas shortages. A few months later a powerful hurricane named Linda hits and levels much of Miami, killing thousands of people. She and her parents move to San Diego. She becomes an EMT and meets her husband, Josh, an engineer, during a protest against high water prices of California desalinated seawater in 2030 (Las Vegas had run dry).

In 2050, they and their nineteen-year-old daughter Molly move to New York City by car, passing desperate Texans begging for rides north, which is refused by the trio. One pulls a gun on Molly, but others in the car/truck convoy point automatic weapons on the desperate man, who is forced to back off. While the others in the convoy make it to Canada, New York City is a marvel of clean power, clean transit, and community gardening. Josh sets to work building a flood barrier to hold back the ocean, but the CO₂ warming unleashes trapped methane in the Arctic, which causes even faster, non-linear warming.

An attempt to use sulfur dioxide as a last resort to cool the planet is called off when it is found to destroy the ozone layer. Lucy finds and helps quarantine and neutralize a strange new disease, and Molly moves upstate to an agricultural community. During a storm at high tide in 2075, Josh is killed while trying to fix a stuck gate, and New York City is flooded. Lucy refuses Molly's offer to live with her, her husband, and son. Starving people among the rotting flood damage set the stage for the return of the disease Lucy saw, now called "Caspian Fever."

Caspian Fever soon becomes a pandemic and kills so many people on Earth that the human population starts shrinking, international trade stops and basic services begin to break down. Eventually, the grid fails, modern technology stops working, and unrest follows (a plot contradiction as it was stated earlier that all technology in New York were self-sustaining), it dawns on Lucy and every American that there is no Federal response, no National Guard, no soldiers to keep order. Democracy and civilization at the national level have died in America.

Lucy leaves the city with some friends and a dog in the 2080s, and eventually finds her daughter, now a widow like herself, and her grandson. Initially, there is no communication with the outside world, until someone set up a two-way radio discovering former cities have become relatively advanced walled enclaves, while surrounded by masses of poverty. In 2100, Lucy ponders what strange advice to pass along to her grandson, now denied the education she took for granted, as she is the oldest person in the world.

The story is set in a French north coast town. Jerome and Alissa, cousins, as 10- to 11-year-olds make an implicit commitment of undying affection for each other. However, in reaction to her mother's infidelities and from an intense religious impression, Alissa develops a rejection of human love. Nevertheless, she is happy to enjoy Jerome's intellectual discussions and keeps him hanging on to her affection. Jerome thereby fails to recognize the real love of Alissa's sister Juliette, who ends up making a fairly unsatisfactory marriage with M. Tessiere as a sacrifice to her sister Alissa's love for Jerome. Jerome believes he has a commitment of marriage from Alissa, but she gradually withdraws into greater religious intensity, rejects Jerome and refuses to see him for longer and longer stretches of time. Eventually she dies in Paris from an unknown malady which is almost self-imposed. The ending of the novel occurs ten years after Alissa's death with the meeting of Jerome and Juliette. Juliette seems content to have a happy life with five children and a husband, but their conversation together in a room that resembles Alissa's concerns whether or not one can hold onto a love that is unrequited; as Jerome still loves Alissa, so it would seem that Juliette still loves Jerome, though both loves are equally as impossible.

When Beth (Mitchell) opens her remote roadside diner, she expects another slow day. But almost immediately, Jack (Watson), a handsome drifter bursts in, bleeding and on the run. Within moments, the three surfers Jack claims are chasing him appear and the stage is set for a deadly game of cat and mouse as Beth must decide who to trust.

The three digests contained stories on Bigfoot, the Count of St. Germain and the Chupacabra, respectively.

''Afterflight'' dealt with elements of the mystery airship flap.

''Fight the Future'' was the official film adaptation, "Fight the Future" being the film's subtitle used to differentiate it from the television series.

''Season One'' adapted some of the episodes from the first season: "Pilot", "Deep Throat", "Squeeze", "Conduit", "Ice", "Space", "Fire", "Beyond the Sea" and "Shadows". Two others, "The Jersey Devil" and "Ghost in the Machine", were solicited but never published.

Despite coinciding with the film, ''The X-Files Special'' will not be an adaptation but is set in what the writer calls "the classic period of the X-Files" – between Season 2 and Season 5. While this is a stand-alone story, he will be writing two more which fit into the broader conspiracy theory that developed, saying "the next ones that I am going to write tie into the mythology of the show not in a way that changes the path but deepens it a little bit."

Damião (pronounced ''Da-mi-ow'') is a young man who escapes from a seminary. Afraid that if he returns home, his father will force him to return to the seminary, he goes to ask help of Miss Rita, a widow and the lover of Damião's godfather, João Carneiro. She agrees to help him, and he hides in her house, where she has a number of girls working for her.

When Rita asks why he does not speak with his father, Damião tells Rita that his father does not listen to anyone. Rita suggests that he seek help from his godfather. At first, Damião resists, but eventually agrees, and João Carneiro is sent for.

While they wait for João Carneiro at Rita's house, Damião tells jokes to the girls. In one of them, a slave named Lucrécia, is distracted from her work. Seeing this, Rita threatens to beat Lucrécia with a stick, the usual punishment, if she does not finish her work. Feeling sympathy for the small scared black girl Damião decides that if Lucrécia does not finish the work, he will try to protect her, but says nothing.

João Carneiro arrives and Rita tries to convince him to intercede with Damião's father. She is insistent, and sends him off. Then she tells Damião to go eat dinner.

Some local women come to Rita's house for coffee and conversation. After the women leave later in the day, Damião becomes increasingly nervous and, certain that if he remains at Rita's house, his father will find him and send him back to the seminary, he decides to try to escape. Clad in a chasuble, he begs Rita for some plain clothing. Laughing, she tells him to relax, and that everything will turn out well. But soon a note from João arrives with the news that the father is unconvinced. Damião sees that Rita is his only hope. She takes a pen and paper and writes a note to João telling him that if he cannot convince the father, they will never see each other again.

Then Rita goes to the collect the work from the girls. Seeing that Lucrécia has not finished her work, she takes Lucrécia by the ear and tells Damião to fetch the stick. He is torn between his desire to help the girl, who begs him for help, and his desire to escape the seminary, he feels remorse, but gives Miss Rita the stick.

Category:1891 Brazilian novels Category:Portuguese-language novels Category:Works by Machado de Assis Category:Works originally published in Brazilian magazines Category:Novels about slavery

Schoolteacher and family man Ed Avery has been suffering bouts of severe pain and even blackouts. His strange illness begins to concern his wife, Lou. After he collapses at home one night, Ed is hospitalized with what is diagnosed as polyarteritis nodosa, a rare inflammation of the arteries. Told by doctors that he probably has only months to live, Ed agrees to an experimental treatment: doses of the hormone cortisone.

Ed makes a remarkable recovery, and begins to spend more time with Lou and their young son, Richie. Lou subsequently learns that, prior to his illness, Ed had taken a second job as a taxi dispatcher to help pay their bills. Shortly after beginning his cortisone regimen, Ed is subject to turbulent mood swings and begins relying more and more on his pills. Ed begins overtaking the medication, and lies to his doctor and a pharmacist in order to obtain additional prescriptions. Though Ed has taken a sabbatical from his teaching position, he remains on the local Parent–Teacher Association board. At one of their meetings, Ed blatantly insults a mother about her child's intelligence, and seems unbothered when his colleague, Wally Gibbs, informs him the woman is the association president.

Later, Wally stops at the Avery home and informs Lou of Ed's extravagant and abrasive behavior. Ed returns in the midst of the conversation, and makes a snide remark implying that Wally is attracted to Lou. When Wally leaves, Ed insults Lou, deeming her intellectually inferior to him and unworthy of their marriage. After consuming another full prescription of cortisone, Ed impersonates a doctor and forges a new prescription at the local pharmacy. Later, while playing football with Richie, Ed grows disproportionately aggressive, pushing the child beyond his limits. The incident disturbs Lou, who observes it from the kitchen window.

Wally later confronts Lou with research suggesting that cortisone can trigger psychosis in some patients when taken in high doses. Ed's mental state further declines, and he continually insults those around him, expressing abject arrogance, grandiosity and anger over minor inconveniences. When Lou attempts to inform Ed that the cortisone may be negatively affecting him, Ed reminds her that his polyarteritis will recur without it, and that he will not survive. That night, Ed forces Richie to stay up late into the night to study mathematics, and verbally abuses the child when he is unable to solve certain problems. At dinner, Ed announces he wishes to divorce Lou.

A desperate Richie raids Ed's medicine cabinet the following day, hoping to steal his father's cortisone pills and dispose of them. When Ed corners Richie in his bedroom, Lou phones Wally for help. To chastise Richie, Ed reads a passage from the Bible recounting the binding of Isaac. When Lou pleads with Ed, Ed states he plans to carry out a murder–suicide, killing her and Richie before ending his own life. In a rage, Ed locks Lou in a coat closet, blares the volume on the family's television set, and chases Richie through the house, armed with a pair of scissors. When Ed begins to hallucinate, Richie flees downstairs just as Wally bursts into the house. In a scuffle, Wally manages to beat Ed unconscious. Ed is subsequently hospitalized and heavily sedated. His doctor, Dr. Norton, informs Lou that the cortisone may have resulted in irreversible brain damage, and that he may never return to his prior mental state; despite this, Ed will still require strictly-meted doses of the cortisone to survive. Norton states that, should Ed be able to recall the events of the previous weeks, he may have a chance of mental recovery. Lou and Richie visit Ed in his hospital room. Ed awakens and, though disoriented, soon recognizes them both. Ed, fully able to recall the events, embraces his wife and son.

Oishinbo is a drama featuring journalist Shirō Yamaoka who works for Tōzai Shimbun. He is a cynical food critic who is tasked by the newspaper's owner, along with the young Yūko Kurita, to provide recipes for the "ultimate menu". During their search, they encounter Yamaoka's fastidious and demanding father, Yūzan Kaibara, a famous gourmand who tries to sabotage Yamaoka's project.

Jack (Lillard) is a con artist who sets out to enlist a couple to help him with a scam. Jack eventually meets up with two petty criminals, Max (D'Onofrio) and Jamie (Valeria Golino). Max is a small-time thief with high aspirations and low self-esteem, while Max's hot-tempered girlfriend Jamie collects poisons. After a game of cat and mouse, the couple agree to help with Jack in exchange for a piece of the action. Jack's scam involves recovering mysterious stolen merchandise, known as the Spanish Judges, and a briefcase containing a million dollars. With a buyer all lined up, Max and Jamie enlist their friend Piece (Mark Boone Junior), along with his girlfriend Mars Girl (Tamara Mello) for extra help. As the situation explodes, allegiances are tested and the slippery nature of the truth is finally revealed.

A Swedish woman is found dead in Blackpool, leading to speculation she was murdered.

An attractive brunette, Simone Mattei (Patty Shepard) is drunk and argues with her husband Sandro (Frederick Stafford). This visits his best friend Tiffany (Claude Jade) and complains her his suffering in the marriage crisis. While Sandro stays at Tiffany, Simone makes love with a lover. The tough guy penetrates her and starts at the same time to strangle her. He keeps on strangling the beauty until she is dead. An hour later, Sandro, who is a private investigator, finds his dead wife Simone. He comments the murder with "poor little bitch", but beside the victim he also discovers a photo showing a man on a motorcycle and a woman with glasses in the background. Now he wants to find the murderer. His girlfriend Tiffany, who works as a photographer, makes a "Blow-up" from the photograph. Tiffany recognizes as the woman with glasses a certain Laura Damiani (Femi Benussi). Sandro and Tiffany are looking for her and they found her as stripper in a night club in Rome. While Tiffany has an unrequited crush on him, Sandro start to fall in love with Laura, mistress of an unscrupulous lawyer (Alberto de Mendoza). And Laura is mixed up in blackmail, crimes and shady business.

June 1906 in an unnamed New England town. 17-year-old Richard Miller is about to graduate and go to Yale. He already feels worldly wise, thanks to reading Shaw, Wilde, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam, Swinburne and Marxist tracts. He adores the neighborhood girl Muriel McComber, but she is afraid of being kissed.

Richard’s father, newspaper editor Nat Miller, is a kind, wise man. Richard has three siblings: older brother Arthur home from Yale; sister, Mildred; and Tommy, the youngest. Uncle Sid and Cousin Lily live with the family. Sid keeps proposing to Lily, but she refuses, ostensibly because he once got involved with a bad woman; his not-so-secret drinking is the real problem. Sid travels to his new job in Waterbury.

At graduation, Richard drops his valedictory speech and Nat reads it. Nat turns a burst of applause into a final acclamation, forestalling Richard’s planned Marxist call to arms. After the ceremony, Nat asks if Richard’s conscience will allow him to drive the family’s Stanley Steamer. Of course, he is thrilled and asks Muriel to come along.

On the morning of the Fourth, the street explodes in fireworks. The fired Uncle Sid reappears, but says that he has the day off. Lily hints that she would accept a proposal now. Sid doesn’t act, and Lily is hurt. Muriel's father storms in, accusing Richard of corrupting his daughter's morals. He gives Nat the letters and a farewell letter from Muriel, then threatens to pull his advertising, and storms out.

“Samples of the new freedom,” Nat says, showing Richard’s letters to Sid, who reads aloud a stanza from Swinburne’s ''Laus Veneris''. He stops and they both read silently. “Hail and Hallelujah!” Nat whispers. However, he is truly concerned. He tells Richard about Macomber’s visit; Shocked, Richard reassures his father: He plans to marry Muriel. When Richard reads the letter, he is heartbroken: “Geewhillickers!” he sobs, and bursts into tears.

Mildred goes to a box social, Nat and Sid go to a men’s club picnic, the women go to a hen party, and lovelorn Richard walks and walks. Arthur’s friend Wint asks Richard to go on a double date with “a couple of swift babies” that night. The family reassembles at supper. Sid, who was given back his old job at Nat's newspaper, is drunk again and can barely stand. At the table, he has everyone laughing; but when he goes up for a nap, Lily says that they all encourage him — and maybe they should not. Richard blames women for driving men to drink and marches out to meet Wint.

In a hotel bar, Wint has disappeared and Richard is sitting with Belle, a floozy. His innocence is painfully obvious. At Belle’s nod, the bartender slips something into Richard’s sloe gin fizz. A customer tells the bartender that Richard is underage, he throws him out. When he learns he is the son of a newspaper editor, he throws Belle out. Richard comes home drunk and miserable, declaiming: "But he does not win who plays with Sin In the secret House of Shame." Horrified, Essie assumes the worst. Sid takes charge.

On the next evening, Muriel and Richard meet. She explains that her father made her write the letter. They finally kiss and Richard sighs, “Gosh, I Love You.” Richard returns home, transported. "That’s love, not liquor", Nat reassures Essie. Nat and Richard have s serious talk, about the fact that "no woman wants to give her love to a stupid drunk" and about women like Belle, "whited sepulchers" who can "ruin your whole life." Nat gives him a punishment that is no hardship—go to Yale and stick with it.

Sid and Lily are in the swing, drinking lemonade (Sid spikes it.) Mildred and Art are walking with their sweethearts. Macomber is reconciled. "We are completely surrounded by love," Nat says. Richard kisses his parents and goes out to gaze blissfully at the moon. Nat quotes the Rubaiyat "Ah, that Spring should vanish with the rose...Spring isn’t everything", he says to Essie. "There's a lot to be said for Autumn.. and Winter, if you're together."

The novel, apparently autobiographical, describes the world as discovered and seen by a three-year-old child born in Japan to a Belgian family. It encompasses the themes of self-awareness, language acquisition, bilingualism, and developmental psychology.

The Japanese believe that until the age of three, children, whether Japanese or not, are gods, each one an okosama, or "lord child." On their third birthday, they fall from grace and join the rest of the human race. The narrator of the novel has spent the first two and a half years of her life in a nearly vegetative state until she is jolted out of her plant-like, tube-like state, and gains a peculiar but complete awareness of the world around her. Her parents see how their 'plant' becomes a child and discover that she can move. Their enthusiasm does not last long though, because their daughter is now very active. She screams all day and gets tantrums as if she must catch up on the time she lost as a 'plant'. Only when she discovers the existence of pleasure by eating white chocolate she comes to a quiet. Most fascinating to the narrator is the discovery of water in oceans, seas, pools, puddles, streams, ponds, and, rain - one meaning of the Japanese character for her name and a symbol of her amphibious life. However, she also discovers the language, Japanese, the pond with carp, time, and death. This discovery despairs her to the point of attempting suicide, but she is rescued from drowning in the pond with the carp.

Recently orphaned country girl Danielle "Daisy" Brooks leaves her ranch and her boyfriend William behind to pursue her college degree, and transfers to Berkshire college, an elite New England private school haunted by the mysterious death of a young college student, Alexis Baldwin. Her first week as a college freshman makes a big impression, not only attracting the notice of the dean's handsome son Blake, but also singling her out for a prestigious internship in Washington D.C.

Blake quickly becomes infatuated with Daisy and asks her out on a date; much to the disapproval of his father, Andrew Graves.

Daisy's arrival also piques the interest of the Ivy Society, a close-knit secretive sisterhood to whom the lucrative scholarship is traditionally granted. The head of the Ivies, an attractive and ambitious student named Azalea Berges with a long history of truancy and illicit affairs with teachers, breaks into Blake's home, offering sexual favors in exchange for his help in boosting her chances with the internship.

Upon learning that one of the considered candidates is Daisy, she invites her to join the Ivies. Daisy (initially) refuses, preferring to continue her studies and consummate her relationship with Blake. But when an error in her tuition payments threatens to erase her name from the college system, she is left with other no choice but to agree. Late one night, she and two other students take part in an initiation ritual at the Ivy household. Pledging allegiance to the sisterhood, they drink from drugged ceremonial wine, are stripped naked and tattooed with the Ivy insignia.

Initially, Azalea and the Ivies seem willing to help Daisy with anything she needs, outfitting her with a fashionable new wardrobe, solving her financial issues and introducing her to a popular new lifestyle. But Daisy's new social status distances her from her roommate Magenta Hart, who is still mourning the death of her friend Alexis. She is awarded a place in the scholarship by Dean Graves, but breaks up with Blake for ignoring her after they slept together.

Blake, distracted by his relationship with Daisy, he fails to honor his agreement with Azalea. Having recorded Blake and Daisy's first night of lovemaking in secret, she and the Ivy sisters leak the video onto the internet and set fire to Blake's sports car. With her reputation destroyed, Daisy soon gets wind of the Ivies' true nature as a power-hungry group of sirens who manipulate men to their advantage and employ blackmail and seduction to achieve their aims, wishing to use the government internship to gain a political foothold in society. She also learns that Alexis Baldwin's death was not an accident and is one of a large history of killings that have been covered up by the dean.

Azalea is shocked when Magenta takes her place in the list of candidates applying for the scholarship, and, furious at Blake's deceit, declares war on the Graves family. She threatens to destroy William's land deed when Daisy attempts to extract herself from the clique and tasks her with a test of loyalty. Dressed in provocative lingerie, Daisy breaks into the administration building to infiltrate Professor Graves's office, but upon learning she is to have sex with him, balks at the suggestion and breaks rank. Having failed to make Daisy one of her own, Azalea seduces Graves herself, impaling his head on a sharp ornament during their coital encounter and framing Daisy for the killing.

A police investigation is launched following Graves's murder and Daisy becomes the prime suspect; due to her extensive interaction with the Graves family. Facing jail time, Daisy makes amends with Blake and upon discovering that the Ivies have been manipulating her all along, visits Azalea's home to seek solace. Through desperate pleas of forgiveness, she manages to get Azalea to admit her murderous behavior and the attempt to set her up. Discovering that the confession has been recorded, Azalea attacks Daisy in a rage with a sword and a fight ensues in the Ivy swimming pool. Daisy pretends to drown, overpowers Azalea from behind and knocks her head on the pool steps. Having admitted her part in the cover-up, Dean Graves leads the police to the scene, where Daisy submits the recording proving her innocence and an unconscious Azalea is taken into custody.

Following the ordeal, Daisy is given the rest of the semester off. With four years of a prestigious scholarship ahead; she leaves Berkshire campus, returning to her farm in Iowa to resume her relationship with Will for the summer. As the two reunite, her Ivy tattoo is shown to now depict a daisy.

Anne Barron is a teacher's aide at a daycare center in Boston. One evening, she is relaxing on the playground carousel when someone pulls up on a motorcycle, wearing a black motorcycle helmet. She is startled as the stranger pulls out a kukri and starts spinning the carousel. The terrified Anne goes around until the kukri hits her. Lt. Judd Austin is the policeman assigned to the case. As he gets to the scene, he sees the girl decapitated with her head in a nearby bucket. The distraught director of the center tells Judd that Anne worked there during the day and was attending night classes at Wendall College.

At the hospital, Judd and his partner Taj discuss a similar case from the previous week, in which another girl was found decapitated with her head in a pond. They wonder if there's any connection between the two murders. At Wendell, the administrator Helene Griffin tells Judd that Anne was close to a girl named Kim Morrison. When asked if Anne had a boyfriend, Kim tells Judd that Anne was indeed involved with someone, but she doesn't know who. Judd enters Professor Millett's anthropology class to speak with him about Anne. The professor doesn't provide much information, but he introduces Judd to an exchange student named Eleanor Adjai. Eleanor leaves the school and goes to the local diner. There, she is creeped out by Gary, the busboy who appears to have mental issues. The waitress Carol asks Eleanor if she's in Millett's class and implies that he sleeps around, irritating Eleanor and she leaves. Gary follows her home. When she realizes this, she runs the rest of the way and quickly locks her door. She gets into the shower but someone tries to break in. Frightened, she gets out of the shower, only to find that it's Professor Millett, her boyfriend who had been locked out by accident.

Kim works at the local aquarium. About to leave work, she takes off her diving suit and is decapitated by the figure in a motorcycle helmet. A woman who was previously looking at the turtles screams after she sees Kim's head fall into the tank. Judd pays a visit to Professor Millett and is surprised to see Eleanor, who explains that she is his research assistant. Judd then informs Millett that a second student of his has been killed and asks him if he has had any affairs with his pupils. Annoyed by the question, Millett tells Judd to leave. Eleanor and Millett get into an argument and she goes to the diner to be alone. The professor follows her, and she tells him that she is three months pregnant. He's sympathetic, although he still manages to flirt with Carol. After the diner has closed, Carol is left to clean up. When the power goes out, she heads to the basement to investigate. The killer appears and attacks her. Carol escapes, but is then caught in an alley and killed. The next day, Carol's head is found in a water-filled sink and her body in a dumpster. Judd and Taj go to Gary' house since he is now considered a prime suspect, but Judd doesn't believe he was involved.

When Judd goes to Professor Millett's home again, he finds a collection of skulls taken from tribal headhunters from around the world. Eleanor doesn't see anything wrong with this. At Wendell, Helene tells Millett to stop sleeping around with his students and counsels student Kathy, who confesses that she too has been intimate with the professor. Helene invites the girl to spend the night at her house, resulting in the two sleeping together. Helene is killed when she gets up to answer the phone, and Kathy is killed shortly after discovering Helene's head in the toilet.

Judd is on his way to speak to Helene when he sees the killer fleeing. He chases the killer to Professor Millett's apartment. Inside, the killer is revealed to be Eleanor. She confesses the killings to her boyfriend and justifies the crimes by comparing them to tribal rituals he teaches in his courses. As the police are approaching, Millett puts on the helmet and flees on his motorcycle to divert the suspicion from Eleanor. During a chase with Judd and Taj, Millett is struck by a car and killed. Eleanor attends his burial and the police believe the case has been solved, although it is implied that Judd suspects Eleanor was the killer and Millett sacrificed his life to protect her. However, the case is closed and Eleanor moves back to England. After the case is closed, Judd gets in his car and is suddenly attacked by the killer, only to reveal it was a prank by Taj.

Two young people looking for a place to make love are brutally murdered in an Etruscan tomb which had recently been violated by a group of archaeologists, led by Prof. Porter (Alex Cord). The corpses are positioned so as to indicate they were murdered as sacrifices to the Etruscan Death-god Tuchucha. Several other murders occur, focusing on members of the archeology team and friends of Prof. Porter's. The victims have their heads bashed.

Librarian Flynn Carsen (Noah Wyle) is in England bidding on a priceless Ming vase for the Library. He is simultaneously on the phone with Charlene (Jane Curtin) and with his girlfriend, Katie (Beth Burvant), who is at the end of her rope. Frantic and distracted, he bids £1 million and loses Katie. He signs for the vase and promptly breaks it, revealing the philosopher's stone, which changes anything it touches into gold. Flynn deftly defends the stone and races to meet Katie: She has flown home.

Meanwhile, in Carpathia, a group of former KGB agents led by Sergei Kubichek (Dikran Tulaine) plot to bring back the defunct Soviet Union by resurrecting the famous vampire, Prince Vlad Dracula, using the "Judas Chalice.” In Bucharest, they kidnap Professor Lazlo (Bruce Davison), a genius historian with a penchant for vampire lore who has searched for the chalice for years. The elderly, disabled professor joins them unwillingly and directs them to New Orleans.

In the Library, Charlene chastises Flynn for going over budget. Combined with the loss of Katie, this is the last straw: He has a full-blown meltdown. Judson (Bob Newhart), Charlene (Jane Curtin), and the sword Excalibur (his best friend) suggest that Flynn take a vacation. Charlene wonders if he'll come back, and Judson replies that the Library has plans for him.

Charlene drops by Flynn's apartment after her combination-speed-dating-and-wine-tasting to give him some travel brochures and advice: “Follow your dreams.”. That night, Flynn's strange dreams point him to New Orleans. There, he meets Andrew ( pronounced André) (Werner Richmond), a guide. In a church-turned-nightclub, he encounters singer Simone Renoir (Stana Katic), the woman in his dreams. She guards the first marker for locating the Judas Chalice. After narrowly escaping Kubichek's men, Flynn and Simone do the town and spend the night together.

In the morning, Flynn has a magical encounter with Judson, who explains that the Judas Chalice is the vampire version of the Holy Grail, formed from the 30 pieces of silver given to Judas Iscariot after he betrayed Jesus Christ. Judson tells Flynn to intercept the chalice and gives him crucial information about staking vampires: The stake must be of aspen wood because Judas, the first vampire, hanged himself on an aspen.

Flynn deciphers the clues on the first marker. Andrew takes him to the tomb of Marie Laveau, the "voodoo queen" of New Orleans, where he discovers the second marker, only to be grabbed by Kubichek's men. Kubichek introduces Professor Lazlo. They poison Flynn with a hallucinogen so that they can stage an accident. Before it kicks in, Flynn escapes his bonds. He and Professor Lazlo, working in nearly perfect synchrony, decipher its clues. It is a lens with a map inscribed on it. The professor tells Flynn to run. He flees through a Carnival-style street party until Kubichek's men corner him. Simone attacks the henchmen, turning into mist and exerting inhuman strength until one blasts her in the chest with a shotgun. Flynn causes a gas fire, giving him time to carry Simone's dead body outside. Flynn grieves—until she rises.

He passes out and wakes in Simone's home. She is a vampire, born in Paris, France in 1603, and turned at age 25. She had been a promising opera singer, deeply in love with a university teacher (played by Noah Wyle), until a chance encounter with a vampire changed her. She wants to destroy her maker so she can die in peace. When she learned of the Judas Chalice, she vowed to protect it and aid the monks who hid it in New Orleans. She has done so for two hundred years. Simone shows Flynn a 1,000-year-old painting that represents the fight of the Library against Evil. It shows the Scholar, the first Librarian, builder of the Library. The Knight/Scholar's shield is blazoned with the Tree of Knowledge. His name is Yahuda, “Hebrew for Judson,” Flynn murmurs.

Andrew takes them into the bayou to the wrecked pirate ship and last resting place of Jean Lafitte—and the chalice. They are again overtaken by Kubichek and his men, with Lazlo in tow. They leave Flynn and Simone trapped on board. Simone is too weak to break free because she has not fed. Flynn uses a ship's cannon to blast down one of the doors. Once free, Simone steals Andre's boat, abandoning Flynn for his own good. Hurt but determined, he makes his way back to the mainland and finds Kubichek's hideout.

Simone arrives at the same time, and they are captured. Kubichek performs the ceremony on Vlad Dracula's body amidst gusting wind and thunder—with no result. Laughing, Professor Lazlo drinks from the chalice and is transformed. He is Vlad Dracula, the vampire who turned Simone. His handicap was not a lie. He was infected during a cholera outbreak. He has been feeding on Kubichek's henchmen, turning them into a new army of vampires.

Kubichek and his remaining henchmen, Flynn, and Simone battle the vampires. Flynn follows Vlad outside to retrieve the chalice. Kubichek sends Simone after them and blows up the hideout with a grenade. Flynn literally runs into an aspen tree and tricks the overconfident Lazlo into coming close enough to be staked. He dies in a pillar of fire. At peace, Simone asks Flynn to help her watch one last sunrise. They kiss goodbye, and she gently dissolves in a drift of sparkles.

Flynn remembers Simone's words about living with purpose and passion and returns to the Library to resume his duties. He gives Charlene the first marker on a cord. He starts to read the inscription but instead tells her that it says "follow your dreams"—her advice to him. Where did your dream take you? she asks. Home, he replies.

Judson will not admit to Flynn that he is the scholar/knight in Simone's painting, Yahuda. (In season 4 of ''The Librarians'', it is clearly stated that Judson is indeed the founder of the Library.) Flynn accepts his destiny as part of the fight between good and evil without regrets. The camera pulls up to show the shape of the Tree of Knowledge seen in Simone's painting, built into the Library.