Aleksey Teodorovic Vlassov (Yul Brynner), a high-ranking KGB official who defects while he is in France, has highly classified information as part of a deal with Western intelligence for his arrival in the United States. The debriefing is held at Langley by DCI Allan Davies (Henry Fonda) and MI6 representative Philip Boyle (Dirk Bogarde). Vlassov hands a list that he has of enemy agents in Western Europe, including a deep penetration into NATO.

Davies wants to begin operations to arrest the agents, but those on the list suddenly begin to die off. The CIA also has suspicions over the authenticity of Vlassov's claims. The CIA discovers that a defection photo of Vlassov had been taken in the Soviet Union, not in Turkey, because of the contours of Mount Ararat in the background. Vlassov outsmarted a lie detector test of the CIA by telling a minor lie to cover his real intentions.

Orphan Rebecca Rowena Randall is sent to live with her dour aunts, Jane and Miranda Sawyer. She has trouble adjusting to her new home at first, and tries to run away. Eventually her light-hearted optimism wins over her aunts and attracts the interest of local boy Adam Ladd.

The plot revolves around a group of British teenagers: Dino, who is the most popular guy at school, and his two best friends, Ben and Jonathon. Dino really likes a beautiful girl named Jackie, the most popular girl in school, but she is unwilling to give him what he wants. This gives Dino the chance to get it from other girls behind Jackie's back. Yet problems arise in Dino's family that causes him to realize sex may not be what he needs. Jonathon likes Deborah, but she is overweight; fearing condemnation from his friends and because of a disgusting looking bump on his penis, he fears showing his true feelings. Ben has been secretly seeing his teacher, Miss Young. He used to love it, but now it overwhelms him. Ben tries to break it off in order to pursue a girl his own age but it causes big trouble for him, Miss Young and his new girlfriend.

A man, the youngest of 12 children, decides to wander off from his rich parents' house. Upon his return, he finds his parents have died and his brothers have shared all the lands among themselves, thinking he was dead. They offer him 12 mares as compensation, and when he goes to check them he finds all of them have a foal, and that one has yet another foal, a very sleek dapple-gray one. When he praises the beauty of the foal, it replies back and tells him that he'll be more splendid if the young man would go and kill all the other foals and let him feed on all the mares' milk for a year. The young man decides to heed to this advice and finds him a year later being quite large and sleeker. The colt tells him that he would be even more splendid if the young man were to go again and kill the 12 foals that have been born since, which the young man agrees to do. Yet again he returns the next year, finding the horse being huge an incredibly sleek, and yet again the horse asks him to kill the new foals and let him have the mares' milk for one more year, to which the young man agrees again. At last, he returns a year later to find the horse impossibly large and radiant, and the horse decides then to go with him.

The brothers are surprised that he has such a horse, and on the horse advice, they give him horseshoes and a golden saddle and a golden bridle, in exchange for the 12 mares and their new foals. Then, the man rides the horse, whose name is Dapplegrim, to the kingdom's capital. The king's daughter had been kidnapped by a troll and the king had promised her hand and half his kingdom to whomever could rescue her. Dapplegrim promises the man that he'll help, but the man needs to request the best food and stables for the horse. The king, upon seeing the man riding in such superb horse agrees. Envious knights urge the king to send the man to rescue the princess or else he should be killed, to which the man reluctantly agrees. Dapplegrim asks him to request for iron and silver horseshoes, and after obtaining them takes him to the troll's cave on top of an almost vertical stone wall on a hill, and manages to ride up, the man putting the princess on top of the horse before the troll can even stand up.

Upon his triumphant return with the princess, however, the ill-advised king asks him that in order to marry the princess he needs to get rid of the ridge that prevents the sun to shine in his hall. Dapplegrim again says he can help, but the man needs to request even heavier silver and iron horseshoes. Then the horse jumps on top of the ridge until it finally sinks. Once again, however, the king asks something else: the man needs to procure an equally splendid horse for the bride, or else he will be killed. Dapplegrim agrees to help again, and this time demands for even larger horseshoes, as well as an assortment of things, for they must go to hell where another horse like it lies. After a number of adventures, Dapplegrim fights the hellish horse and defeats it, at which point the man puts the bridle on it and they return together, the second horse happening to be identical to Dapplegrim in every single detail.

Yet, the king has still one more trial for the man: the princess must hide twice and be found, and then the man must hide twice and the princess be unable to find him. The princess transforms first into a duck, and then into a loaf of bread, but on both occasions Dapplegrim told the man, so he finds her. When it is his turn, the man, transforms into a tick and hides in Dapplegrim's nostril, and the second time into a clump of dirt hiding in between the horse's hooves and its horseshoes. The princess is unable to find him, due to Dapplegrim not allowing her to come close. At last, the man and the princess ride in their horses to the church to get married.

Samatarou Kamiyama is the son of a god and must live in the human world with his family to learn about them, in order to become a better god when the time comes to succeed his father. His closest friend is Tenko, Samatarou's guardian angel since birth. One day he falls for Kumiko Komori, a girl who just transferred to their school, and decides to win her heart without relying on any of his relatives' godly powers, oblivious to the fact that Tenko herself has a crush on him.

Ivan Tsarevitch had three sisters, the first was Princess Maria, the second was Princess Olga, the third was Princess Anna. After his parents die and his sisters marry three wizards, he leaves his home in search of his sisters. He meets Marya Morevna, a beautiful warrior princess, and marries her. After a while she announces she is going to go to war and tells Ivan not to open the door of the dungeon in the castle they live in while she will be away. Overcome by the desire to know what the dungeon holds, he opens the door soon after her departure and finds Koschei, chained and emaciated. Koschei asks Ivan to bring him some water; Ivan does so. After Koschei drinks twelve buckets of water, his magic powers return to him, he breaks his chains and disappears. Soon after Ivan finds out that Koschei has captured Marya Morevna, and pursues him. When Ivan catches up with Koschei, Koschei tells Ivan to let him go, but Ivan does not give in, and Koschei kills him, puts his remains into a barrel and throws it into the sea. Ivan is revived by his sisters' husbands – powerful wizards who can transform into birds of prey. They tell him that Koschei has a magic horse and that Ivan should go to Baba Yaga to get one too, or else he will not be able to defeat Koschei. After Ivan survives Yaga's tests and gets the horse, he fights with Koschei, kills him and burns his body. Marya Morevna returns to Ivan, and they celebrate his victory with his sisters and their husbands.

Jason played an everyman character called Peter Barnes and Jacqueline Clarke played his wife Sheila. Wilson and Armstrong played a range of petty officials and bureaucrats whose actions frustrated Barnes' attempts to deal with the necessities of everyday life. The title ''A Sharp Intake of Breath'' refers to the reactions of various characters to seemingly simple requests by Peter, generally followed by a denial. The show made use of the fourth wall plot device.

A little girl named Marcella returns home from school one day and immediately rushes upstairs to her nursery playroom to put away Raggedy Ann, her favorite doll. When Marcella leaves, the various toys in the playroom come to life, and Ann tells them of the wonders of the outside world ("What Do I See?"). She then shares the news that it is Marcella's seventh birthday, and the toys notice a large package in the corner, presumably a present for her. Ann's brother Raggedy Andy is trapped under the package, and, once freed, complains about the feminine nature of the nursery ("No Girl's Toy"). Marcella opens the present to reveal a beautiful bisque doll from France named Babette. Ann leads the toys in welcoming Babette to their nursery ("Rag Dolly"), but she is too homesick for Paris to accept their greeting ("Poor Babette"). Meanwhile, Captain Contagious, a ceramic pirate who lives in a snow globe, notices Babette and is immediately smitten ("A Miracle"). After tricking Ann into freeing him, he kidnaps Babette and leaps out the nursery window with his crew ("The Abduction/Yo Ho!"). Ann decides to rescue Babette, with Andy volunteering to accompany her.

Ann and Andy leave the playroom and enter the woods, where they reaffirm their courage and love for one another while exploring ("Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers"). As the dolls travel, they come across the Camel with the Wrinkled Knees, a blue stuffed animal who has been abandoned by his previous owners ("Blue") and regularly envisions a ghostly caravan of camels beckoning him to an unknown home. Ann promises that once they find Babette, he may return with them. With Ann and Andy in tow, the Camel chases down the caravan and blindly rushes off a cliff. They find themselves in the Taffy Pit, where an enormous sentient blob of candy known as the Greedy lives. The Greedy explains that, despite endlessly eating the various delicacies that compose his body, he never feels satisfied, as he lacks a "sweetheart" ("I Never Get Enough"). He thus attempts to take the candy heart sewn inside of Ann, but the toys successfully escape his lair.

During a moment of rest, the toys encounter the obnoxious knight Sir Leonard Looney, who welcomes them to the realm of Looney Land, the source of the world's practical jokes ("I Love You"). Looney pursues the toys through Looney Land and into the court of its diminutive monarch King Koo Koo. Koo Koo laments his tiny stature ("It's Not Easy Being King") and explains that the only way he can grow is by laughing at the expense of others. He thus intends to keep the toys his prisoners so they may keep him laughing; in the event that the toys lose their comedic value, they face transformation into one of the many giggling robotic inhabitants that clutter his court. The dolls escape this fate by triggering a large fight with cream pies, then slipping away and fleeing Looney Land in a boat. The furious King Koo Koo follows them with the aid of an enormous sea monster named Gazooks.

While sailing, Ann, Andy and the Camel notice Contagious' pirate ship and eagerly board, only to discover that Babette has staged a mutiny and made herself the new captain to return to Paris ("Hooray for Me!") while imprisoning Contagious in the galley with only his pet parrot Queasy for company ("You're My Friend"). When Ann tries to tell Babette that she must go back to Marcella, the French doll becomes enraged and has the trio tied to the mast. Meanwhile, Queasy successfully unlocks Contagious' shackles, and he returns above deck, freeing the other dolls and pledging his love for Babette. Before she can respond, King Koo Koo and Gazooks attack the ship and seize all but Ann, Babette, and Queasy to subject them to tickle torture, making the monarch swell to mammoth proportions. Babette sees that her selfishness has endangered everyone and begs forgiveness, only for her and Ann to be captured and tickled as well. The dolls realize that King Koo Koo's literally-inflated ego is "full of hot air" and Andy tells Queasy to pop him, which creates a massive explosion that sends them spiraling through space.

The next morning, Marcella discovers the dolls and toys lying among the leaves in her backyard, having been presumably blown back there by the force of Koo Koo's demise. She returns all but the Camel to the nursery, where Babette apologizes for her actions and accepts both Ann's offer of friendship and Contagious' affections. The heroes are happy to be back in the playroom ("Home"), and Ann notices the Camel gazing at them through the window. The dolls eagerly welcome him to their family and express joy at being together once more ("Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers Reprise"). The next day, Marcella finds the Camel among the dolls and, after a moment's confusion, hugs him tightly, accepting him as her newest friend.

A land known as Virg was under the command of a powerful king. Every king was selected at the "Tournament of Champions". A demon from Hell, was hell-bent on world domination, so he sent five phantoms to possess every combatant in the tournament. The demon turned the contenders into enemies where they would have them battle one on one (similar to battle royale). The phantoms possessed every contender except for one. As one phantom ambushed Durill, the strongest of the competitors, an unknown disease struck him. Durill ended up defeating the phantom, but collapsed due to mind poisoning. After he died, his son Kerrel vowed to avenge his father, and defeat the evil demon.

Katherine "Katy" McLaughlin has dreams of running her father's Wyoming horse ranch, but her father, Rob, has other plans. He is grooming her older brother, Howard, to take over the ranch and sends Katy away to a private school where she feels like a misfit. Rob is having trouble understanding his daughter as she continually defies his authority to follow her own path. When she comes home for the summer, Katy is met with her father's disapproval because she did not finish a writing assignment at school, but is greeted by her mother, Nell, and Howard. Howard wants to attend college. While out riding, Katy finds a black wild mustang, and feels a connection with the horse. She sets off to tame "Flicka" (Swedish for little girl), despite her father's protests.

Flicka is captured during a roundup, and Rob asks Katy not to go near Flicka. Determined to prove she can run the ranch, Katy starts training Flicka at night. Flicka slowly warms to Katy and the two develop a close bond. However, Rob sells Flicka to the rodeo, leaving Katy devastated. Nell and Howard are furious at Rob about making the decision without including them. Howard then stands up to his father and says that he does not want the ranch, but Rob refuses to take Flicka back. In turn, Howard and Nell refuse to help Rob with the ranch, which he is now considering selling, since Howard does not want it. Katy starts writing about Flicka to escape her pain.

At the rodeo, Howard and Katy enter the competition that Flicka is being used in, hoping to get the horse back. Flicka runs from Katy until the girl calls her name. Rob tries to intervene, and Katy freezes at the sight of him. Howard boosts his sister onto Flicka, and the two escape. Katy becomes lost in the mountains, and allows Flicka to make her way towards the ranch. The family reconciles and searches for Katy as a fierce thunderstorm moves in. Katy and Flicka are attacked by a mountain lion. Flicka bolts, throwing Katy to the ground and the lion goes to attack her. Flicka protects Katy, but is badly wounded in the process. Katy binds Flicka's wounds and refuses to leave her in the storm, resulting in her developing a fever. Rob finds the two and brings a delirious Katy back to the house. As her fever spikes, Katy calls for Flicka as Nell tends to her. Rob thinks Flicka is mortally wounded and believes she should be put down. Overhearing the argument, a dazed Katy stumbles into the room and gives her father permission to "shoot us now."

Rob goes outside and begins to cry as he finally understands his daughter's feelings, her pain and what a prideful and selfish person he's been to his family over the years. A gunshot is heard and Katy bursts into tears, thinking Flicka is dead. The next morning, Nell finds Rob walking back to the house, supporting the injured Flicka. She runs outside to help and finds out that the gunshot was him shooting at the mountain lion. Both are stunned that Flicka is alive and decide not to put her down. Katy's fever breaks and she begins to recover. As he watches over his daughter, Rob reads the story that Katy had been writing about Flicka, eventually typing the story and sending it to the school so that Katy can pass for the year. When Katy wakes from the fever, she and Rob reconcile and he takes her to see Flicka. Rob apologizes to Howard and gives his son his blessing and Howard prepares for college. As a family, they decide to not sell the ranch, making it both a working ranch and a refuge for wild mustangs.

Ted and Mary Hocken move to a remote, windswept, tiny East Coast island with their two young daughters. The Hockens are determined to forget losing their son and spend a quiet, uneventful summer.

An immense flock of birds begins massing around the small town of Gull Island. A marine biologist is the target of a mysterious, grisly attack. Before long, the sky is darkened by a hideous onslaught of screeching birds. An old timer recalls a similar, horrific outbreak three decades ago in Bodega Bay, California.

Set in contemporary New York City, ''Shortbus'' revolves around Sofia Lin (Sook-Yin Lee), who is married to the handsome but unambitious and slightly dim-witted Rob (Raphael Barker). She works as a couples counselor/sex therapist. She comes into contact with a couple: A slightly egotistical former child star Jamie (PJ DeBoy) and former sex worker James (Paul Dawson), the film's other lead character. At the outset, James suggests to his boyfriend that they open up their relationship to have sex with others. During their first consultation, Sofia snaps, slaps Jamie, and then apologetically reveals her "pre-orgasmic" status. The couple suggests she attend a weekly social/artistic/sexual salon in Brooklyn called "Shortbus," which is hosted by drag artist Justin Bond (playing vself). Sofia slowly opens up to new experiences; this includes a friendship with a dominatrix who goes by the name Severin (Lindsay Beamish). Sofia's inability to achieve orgasm begins to cause conflict with Rob, who in turn begins attending Shortbus with Sofia.

James and Jamie meet a young ex-model and aspiring singer named Ceth (pronounced "Seth" and portrayed by Jay Brannan) and the three begin a sexual relationship. Meanwhile, James and Jamie's life is being closely watched by their across-the-street stalker neighbor, Caleb (Peter Stickles). Caleb fears the inclusion of Ceth in James and Jamie's relationship might break them up and thus destroy his ability to live vicariously through them, so he attends Shortbus, where he confronts Ceth. Sofia begins to go daily to a spa with a sensory deprivation tank to meet with Severin, and the two begin to have intense conversations. Severin begins to help Sofia loosen up sexually; Sofia helps Severin achieve a deeper human connection than she had experienced before. One evening at Shortbus, Severin discusses with Sofia the idea of giving up sex work to pursue her dream of being an artist. The two then have an unplanned sexual experience, and once again Sofia is left unsatisfied.

Throughout the film, James is seen making a film about himself and his relationship. It turns out to be a suicide note. He attempts to take his own life and is rescued by Caleb, who calls for help, but is too embarrassed to wait with James for the help to arrive. He writes his phone number and email address on James' face while he is unconscious. When James wakes in the hospital, he calls Caleb. James goes to Caleb's home to be consoled, but does not contact Jamie or Ceth, neither of whom can understand why he wouldn't call them or come home.

There follows an interlocking trio of scenes showing connections between the characters' emotional problems and their sexual lives. * At Caleb's house, he and James have sex, and James allows Caleb to penetrate him, something he has never allowed anyone to do before. Afterward, in a dramatic revelation, James is seen in the window of Caleb's apartment by Jamie, who realizes in that moment that James is alive and okay. * Rob and Severin have a paid encounter where Rob asks to be flogged, something he couldn't ask Sofia to do. As this progresses, Severin loses control and Rob tries to comfort her. * Sofia seems to have a dream of struggling through an overgrown, wild forested area to a gentle seashore where she tries to achieve orgasm again. On failing, she screams, and in the real world the lights go off across the city, seemingly caused by the simultaneous and collective frustration of the characters.

The film ends with a song by Justin Bond at Shortbus during the blackout. Sofia arrives and finds Rob with Severin and after acknowledging him sits down by herself. James and Jamie also arrive followed by Ceth and Caleb. Justin's song starts on a wistful note, but as it progresses it becomes more energetic and positive thanks to the arrival of the Hungry March Band. This is mirrored in the actions and emotions of the actors. Jamie and James make out on the floor, and Ceth and Caleb start to hit it off. Rob seems to find a friend, and Severin progresses from nervous anxiety to happy elation upon the arrival of the band. Sofia engages in a threesome with a couple she has seen several times before and who appear to meet her prerequisite of "just beginning to experiment sexually" (Nick and Leah, played by Jan Hilmer and Shanti Carson), and finally achieves an orgasm, and the blackout affecting New York ends, as does the film.

The story starts off with a face-off between two rival superheroes, ZET and Alphas, and then traces their origins – Jin Kanzaki, a young man with the ability to transform into a superhuman being known as ZET, and Kouga Amagi, a young man with a strong sense of justice who uses technology to fight as Alphas.

The fates of these two men and those around them intertwine as they fight to protect mankind and destroy monstrous abominations known as Players, who ironically are the creations of the Amagi Corporation, the company founded by Kouga's grandfather, Mitsugai Amagi.

Rebecca Winstead, a musically talented orphan, is under the guardianship of her stepfather Harry Kipper. She auditions for the radio role of Little Miss America and wins it, but leaves the studio believing she lost it. Kipper regards her as a loser and a burden, and dumps her on the farm of her Aunt Miranda.

Tony Kent, the radio advertising executive who approved Rebecca for the role of Little Miss America, lives next door to Miranda. He recognizes Rebecca, and asks Miranda's permission to feature Rebecca on his radio show. When Aunt Miranda refuses to allow Rebecca to associate with show people, Kent broadcasts secretly from his house with Rebecca joining him on the sly.

Kipper hears Rebecca's broadcast and returns to the farm looking for easy money. As Rebecca's legal guardian, he forces Aunt Miranda to surrender the child. He takes her away from her friends and loved ones to New York City. There, he signs a contract with Kent's competitor Purvis to star Rebecca on another radio show.

Rebecca suddenly develops laryngitis and cannot sing. After a doctor is called and informs him that she will recover in a year or two, Purvis angrily voids the contract. Kipper sells his legal guardianship to Aunt Miranda for $5,000. Rebecca reveals to her friends she feigned hoarseness to free herself from Kipper. The film ends with Rebecca and Aunt Miranda's farm hand Aloysius costumed as toy soldiers performing a dance on a flight on stairs.

Subplots include a romance between Kent and Rebecca's cousin Gwen, a one-sided romance between radio singers Orville and Lola, and the rekindling of an old romance between Aunt Miranda and neighbor Homer Busby.

Book 1

The poem begins with an invocation to Apollo and briefly recounts his prophetic warning to Pelias, king of Iolcus, that his downfall will be the work of a man with only one sandal. Jason has recently emerged as the man in question, having lost a sandal while crossing a swollen stream. Consequently, Pelias has entrusted him with a suicidal mission to Colchis to bring back the Golden Fleece. A ship, the ''Argo,'' has already been constructed by Argus, a shipwright working under Athena's instructions. Meanwhile, a band of heroes has arrived to help in the venture. The locals marvel at such a gathering young Jason has been given an impossible mission yet this band of heroes just might help him pull it off. His mother fears the worst. He bids her to stay strong and calm.

Jason urges the heroes to elect a leader for the voyage. They all nominate Heracles. Heracles however insists on Jason as leader and the others submit to this choice. Rejoicing in his election, Jason orders the crew to haul the ship down to the water. The Argo is then moored for the night so that they can enjoy a farewell feast. Two bulls are sacrificed to Apollo, wine flows and conversation becomes animated. Jason however becomes withdrawn and glum. One of the heroes, Idas, accuses him of cowardice; the prophet Idmon in turn accuses Idas of drunken vainglory. A fight almost breaks out but Orpheus soothes everyone with a song about the cosmos and how the gods and all things were created. At dawn, Tiphys, the ship's helmsman, rouses the crew. The ship itself calls to them, since its keel includes a magical beam of Dodonian oak. The shore cables are loosed. Jason sheds a tear as they pull away from his home, Iolcus. The oars churn up the sea, wielded by heroic hands in time to Orpheus's stirring music. Soon the eastern coast of Thessaly is left behind.

The first major port they reach is Lemnos, where the women, led by their Queen Hypsipyle, have recently murdered all their menfolk, including husbands, sons, brothers and fathers.Only Hypsipyle's father was spared, cast adrift in a wooden chest The all-female parliament decides that the heroes should be encouraged to stay. Jason, as leader, is summoned and he goes to town wrapped in a magnificent cloak made for him by Athena. Hypsipyle falls in love on the spot and he settles into the palace. His crew is taken home by the other women all but Heracles and some comrades, who prefer to stay with the ship. Thus the voyage is postponed day after day. Finally Heracles assembles all the Argonauts for a strong talk. He tells them that they are not behaving like heroes and the Golden Fleece won't bring itself back to Greece. Thus chastised, they immediately prepare to leave. Jason tells the queen that, if she bears him a son, she should send him to his parents when he reaches maturity. He is the first back on board when the ''Argo'' sets sail again.

Traveling through the Hellespont, they reach an island/peninsula that is home to savage Earth-born men ( ) with six arms each. Their neighbours are the Doliones, a civilized people descended from Poseidon. The savages are hostile but the Argonauts receive a friendly welcome from Cyzicus, the newly wed king of the Doliones who is, like Jason, in his adolescence. The 6-armed giants hurl rocks at the argonauts but Heracles destroys them all. However, the Argonauts and Doliones end up fighting each other in the dark, mistaking one another for enemies. Cyzicus is killed by Jason. His widow Cleite hangs herself in despair. Shared grief and a magnificent funeral reconcile the two sides. Meanwhile, the Argonauts are kept there by adverse winds. Finally the seer Mopsus learns from omens that they are meant to establish a cult of the mother of the gods (Rhea/Cybele).The mother of the gods, Rhea, is associated with Cybele, the rites being established on a Cyzicus mountain, Dindymum (not to be confused with Dindymon in central Phrygia) W. Race, ''Apollonius Rhodius: Argonautica,'' 91 The cult is soon established, the weather changes for the better and the Argonauts set off again.

Their next landfall is by the river Cius, where Heracles's handsome young companion Hylas is abducted by a water nymph while filling an urn at her spring. Heracles and his comrade Polyphemus are still searching for him when the rest of the Argonauts set sail again. When at last the absences are noticed, Telamon accuses Jason of leaving Heracles behind on purpose. Just then the sea divinity Glaucus emerges from the depths, assuring them that the loss of their three crewmen is the work of the gods. He vanishes back into the water and they continue the voyage without their three comrades.

Book 2

The Argonauts reach a gulf in the Propontis, home to the Bebrycians, whose king Amycus demands a boxing match with the champion of these "sea-wanderers" ( ). He does this with all travellers and he doesn't even ask who they are. Angered by such disrespect, Polydeukes volunteers and the fight begins. Amycus is a man-mountain but the young Argonaut is skilled with his fists and eventually lands a lethal blow. The Bebrycians rush on the victor, weapons drawn, but they are intercepted and chased off by his rampant crewmates. Some sheep are herded on board and the Argo leaves the following day. Their next stop is on the opposite coast, near the home of Phineus, once a king of the Thynians. He too doesn't ask who these travellers are. He already knows. His powers of prophesy are so great that Zeus has punished him for giving away divine secrets, afflicting him with extreme old age, blindness and daily visits from the harpies. Jason and the Argonauts are destined to rescue him from the harpies and thus he welcomes them as his deliverers. Zetes and Calais, sons of the north wind, duly chase the pests away, and the blind old man gratefully reveals the safest route to Colchis and how best to sail past the Clashing Rocks.

Passing through the Clashing Rocks (thanks to the advice of Phineus, the pilot skills of Tiphys, and the aid of Athena), they enter the Black Sea and arrive at a deserted island, Thynias, where they observe Apollo flying overhead on his way north to visit the Hyperboreans. The island shakes with his passing. There they build an altar and a shrine (lasting memorials of their voyage). Next stop is an outlet of the river Acheron, one of the entries to Hades, where they meet Lycus, king of the Mariandynians and an enemy to the now defunct king of the Bebrycians. He receives them very hospitably. Their departure is delayed when the prophet Idmon is killed by a wild boar and Tiphys dies of illness. Two tombs are built (some more lasting memorials of their voyage) and the Argonauts set off again.

Their next two landfalls bring them into contact with some old comrades of Heracles, left behind after his campaign against the Amazons. One is Sthenelus, whose ghost beckons to them from his tomb by the sea, and the others are three men stranded at Sinope. The Argonauts pour libations to the ghost of Sthenelus and the three survivors gain places aboard the Argo. They arrive next at the river Thermodon, where the Amazons have their harbour, and they leave the next day before the women can assemble for battle. The Amazon influence however reaches even to the deserted Island of Ares, where they have built a temple to the god of war. When the Argonauts arrive, it is only defended by birds. They fight off the birds and then chance upon four survivors of a shipwreck. These are the four sons of the exiled Greek hero, Phrixus, and they are also grandsons of Aeëtes, king of Colchis. Jason welcomes them as god-sent allies in his quest for the Golden Fleece.

Approaching Colchis, the Argonauts see the eagle of Zeus flying to and from the Caucasus mountains, where it feeds on the liver of Prometheus. It glides through the air as large as another ship, disturbing the Argo's sails as it passes overhead. (There is a bit of a discrepancy in timing between myths. Heracles joined the Argonauts after completing his labors, but the eagle was killed and Prometheus was freed by Heracles during one of his labors.) Soon after, the heroes enter the Phasis, the main river of Colchis, and furtively anchor in a backwater.

Book 3

The third book begins by invoking Erato, the Muse of love poetry. The Argo is still hidden in a Colchis backwater when the goddesses Hera and Athena retire to a private room on Olympus to consider in secret how best to help Jason. Hera thinks the daughter of the Colchian king might prove useful if she could be made to fall in love with him. She then suggests enlisting the help of Aphrodite. Athena likes the plan but, being a virgin conscious of appearances, asks Hera to do all the talking. They find the goddess of love indolently combing her hair in her apartment. She has been bickering with her young son Eros and doubts if the unruly child will fire any arrows at Medea just to please her. Hera, an experienced mother, advises her to avoid quarrels with the boy and Aphrodite subsequently buys his support with the gift of a fabulous ball, composed of gold and intricately fashioned so as to leave a trail like a falling star when thrown at the sky.

Jason advises his comrades that they should try persuasion before attempting to take the Golden Fleece by force and then he leads Phrixus' sons home to the palace of Aeëtes. Their unexpected arrival is greeted by Medea with a cry that brings everyone running, including her sister Chalciope (mother of the four castaways) and Aeëtes, the king. Meanwhile, Eros invisibly joins the throng, squats at Jason's feet and fires off the fateful arrow, departing then with a laugh. Medea's heart floods with the sweet pain of love. Aeëtes however is filled with rage when his grandsons ask him to hand the Golden Fleece to Jason for return to Iolcus. He accuses them of conspiring with foreigners to steal away his kingdom. Jason delivers a soothing speech and Aeëtes responds with a mock compromise – he can have what he came for if he first ploughs the Plain of Ares with fire-breathing oxen, next sows four acres with dragon's teeth and finally cuts down the crop of armed men before they can cut him down. It's a task that Aeëtes, son of the Sun (Helios), has often performed. Jason accepts the challenge reluctantly. He sets off for the ship to inform his crew and Medea's thoughts flutter at his departing heels ( ), torn between love and anguish.

That night, in a dream, she envisions herself performing Jason's task for him. She wakes fearing the wrath of Aeëtes and the danger to her reputation if she helps Jason without good cause. The safety of her sister's four sons depends on his success. She wonders if Chalciope can be enticed into asking her to help Jason for their sake. Even this seems too bold for a young virgin and finally she surrenders to sobs of dismay. Her sister comes in response to the noise. Medea tells her that she is worried about her nephews, since they are doomed if the stranger fails. Chalciope then asks her to help Jason and Medea gladly agrees. Alone in her room again, she continues to be torn between hope and fear. She contemplates suicide, opens her chest of drugs looking for poison but instead selects a drug that will help Jason in his trial of strength.

Arrangements for a secret meeting are made. The tryst is outside a temple of Hecate, where Medea is the priestess. At first they are as speechless as lofty pines rooted together on a mountainside, until the force of love comes like a sudden gust of wind. He reminds her that he is utterly at her mercy and he promises to make her famous throughout Greece if she assists him. She draws the drug out from between her breasts and hands it to him. If he ever forgets her kindness, she warns him, she will fly to Greece on the wind and there rebuke him to his face. He urges her to forget the wind and sail back with him instead, as his future wife. She doesn't commit herself to anything and returns home as if in a dream. He returns to the crew, welcomed by all but Idas, who considers his reliance on a woman's help to be unheroic.

The day of trial arrives and so do the people of Colchis, gathering on the hillsides as spectators. Aeëtes rides about in his chariot, glorying in his own magnificence. The Argo comes upstream and moors by the river's edge. Jason steps forward. Secretly fortified by Medea's spells, he manhandles the monstrous oxen and sows the deadly field with teeth. He pauses briefly for a drink then, cheered on by his comrades, returns to the scene of action, where an army of men is springing from the broken soil, ready to attack him. These he routs single-handedly, relying on a trick taught him by Medea. Dumbfounded, Aeëtes returns to the palace, all the while wondering how best to cheat Jason of his promised reward.

Book 4

The poet calls upon the Muse to describe Medea's state of mind: is it shame, alarm or love that leads her to flee Colchis? Her treason is already known to her father and self-poisoning seems like an option again. She decides instead to flee Colchis with her nephews, the sons of Phrixus, camped with the Argonauts by the river. Doors open for her by magic as she hurries barefoot though the palace, and the moon laughs at her outdoors, recalling the many times that she was captured and brought to earth by Medea's cruel love spells (a reference to the moon's passion for Endymion). Arriving at the camp, Medea warns the others about her father's treachery and offers to help steal the Golden Fleece from its guardian serpent. Jason solemnly pledges to marry her, she puts the snake to sleep with a spell and then the hero takes the Fleece back to the Argo, exulting in its sheen like a young girl who has caught moonbeams in the folds of her gown.

The fugitive Argo is pursued by two Colchian fleets, ships numerous as flocking birds. One of the fleets sails into the Propontis through the now-motionless Clashing Rocks. The second is led by Medea's half-brother, Apsyrtus, and it takes the same route as the Argo, up the river Ister (Danube). A distant branch of the river eventually leads the Argonauts into the Sea of Cronus (Adriatic), where Apsyrtus finally corners them on the Brygean Islands. Peace talks result in a deal Jason can keep the fleece, since he won it after all, but Medea's fate must be decided by a mediator chosen from the neighbouring kings. Fearing the worst, Medea comes up with an alternative plan. She lures Apsyrtus into a trap with promises of rewards. Jason murders him and the body is dismembered to avoid retribution from the Erinyes. The leaderless Colchians are easily outwitted and, rather than return home empty-handed to a wrathful Aeëtes, they disperse and settle around the nearby coast.

Indignant at the brutal murder, Zeus condemns the Argonauts to wander homeless for a longer term. A gale blows them back north and they enter the river Eridanus (Po), whose different branches eventually bring them into The Sardinian Sea (Gulf of Lyons), on the western side of Ausonia (Italy). Here the enchantress Circe absolves the lovers of blood-guilt. Meanwhile, Hera has a friendly chat with the sea nymph Thetis. The goddess advises the nymph that her infant son Achilles is destined to marry Medea in the Elysian fields and then she sends her on an errand to secure the Argo's passage south. The Argonauts safely pass the Sirens, whose song though not more melodious than Orpheus's music causes Butes to fall overboard; they get past the Wandering Rocks, from which Argo is saved by the Nereids, like girls on the beach passing a ball to and fro. Thus the Argonauts arrive at Drepane (Corfu) off the western coast of Greece. It is here they encounter the other Colchian fleet. Alcinous, the virtuous king of Drepane, offers to mediate between the two sides, later confiding in his virtuous wife, Arete, that he means to surrender Medea to the Colchians, unless she happens to be married. The queen reveals this to the lovers and they are duly married in a sacred cave on the island, where the bridal bed is draped with the Golden Fleece. Disappointed, the Colchians follow the example of the first fleet and settle nearby rather than return home.

The Argonauts can't return home either: another gale drives them off course, this time south towards the Syrtes, an interminable sandbank off Libya. Here they can see no means of escape and they resign themselves to an inglorious end, parting from each other to die in private, while Medea and her maids lament their fate in a forlorn group. Jason's isolation soon ends with a visit by three nymphs, the guardians of Libya, with mysterious instructions about how to survive. Peleus interprets the instructions on his behalf: they must carry the Argo across the desert. Twelve days later, their ship on their shoulders, they arrive at Lake Triton and the garden of the Hesperides. They receive some astonishing news from the Hesperides: Heracles raided the garden just the day before. He has already vanished into the distance and so they must depart without him yet again. Meanwhile, they lose another two comrades, Mopsus and Canthus, one dying from snake bite, the other from a wound inflicted by a local shepherd belonging to the ancestral family of the native Garamantes and Nasamones. Shortly afterwards, Triton reveals a route from the lake to the open sea and entrusts Euphemus with a magical clod of earth that is destined to become the island of Thera, from which Libya would later be settled by Greek colonists. Triton carries off a tripod, as an offering of thanks. The story ends with a visit to the island of Anaphe, where the Argonauts institute rites in honour of Apollo, and Aegina (not far from Jason's home), where they establish a festival competition, fetching water and racing one another with full amphorae on their shoulders.

Edward William "Win" Bear is a Ute Indian who works for the Denver Police Department in a version of the United States in an alternate history of 1987 to be controlled by an anti-capitalist, ecofascist faction complete with a new police force created in 1984 called the Federal Security Police (FSP, or "SecPol" as it is more commonly known) reminiscent of the Gestapo. Henry M. Jackson is president, citizens' freedoms are very limited, and many laws and regulations have been passed. Examples include hoarding precious metals, such as silver and gold, is illegal and due to strict gun control policies, only the police and citizens with federal permits are allowed to carry guns.

Bear is called to investigate the unusual murder of physicist Vaughn Meiss; he eventually finds himself projected into the North American Confederacy by means of the "Probability Broach", an inter-dimensional conduit originally developed as a means for interstellar travel in the North American Confederacy by a bottlenose dolphin physicist, named Ooloorie Eckickeck P'Wheet, and her human compatriot, Dr. Dora Jayne Thorens.

Win encounters his NAC counterpart, Edward William "Ed" Bear, and Ed's neighbors, most notably the "healer" Clarissa Olson and Lucy Kropotkin, who is later revealed to be 135 years old. Lucy's life becomes the vantage point by which Win is acclimated to life in the NAC and Laporte, the NAC equivalent to Denver. Win and Ed unravel the mystery of the Meiss murder and learn that he was killed to hide an effort by SecPol to conquer the NAC with the help of Hamiltonian forces on the NAC side, led by John Jay Madison, a.k.a. the infamous Prussian expatriate and 1918 war hero Manfred von Richthofen, known here as the Red Knight of Prussia. Win, Ed, Lucy and Clarissa lead the effort to notify the nascent NAC government of the threat. En route to the meeting of the Continental Congress, Ed and Clarissa are kidnapped, leaving Win and Lucy to reveal the plot.

After fighting (and winning) a duel with a SecPol agent, Win and Lucy rescue their friends and track Madison and the Hamiltonians to a small town outside Laporte. Win sets off an explosion that eliminates all of the Hamiltonians.

Win elects to remain in the NAC and marries Clarissa. Ed marries Lucy, who at the time of the story is awaiting a delayed "regeneration" because of an accident involving massive radiation exposure, and they then set out for the Asteroid belt to build a new life for themselves on the NAC frontier.

The Continental Congress agrees to begin a massive propaganda campaign to force Win's United States (and the rest of the globe) toward a similar Gallatinist revolution.

The story is about young gamer Kaito Suzuki, who one day discovers a video game that transports the player to a different dimension.

Upon reaching this strange new world, Kaito discovers a boy known as the "navigator", aptly dubbed "Nata". In Gamerz Heaven, the real world is referred to as the "Second Zone". All enemies in Gamerz Heaven are after Nata and Kaito can only beat the game by saving him.

Kaito soon discovers in the game that everything that happens in it also affects the real world, which poses a problem from the start. Another posing threat is that Gamerz Heaven is only a beta version, so Kaito has a limited number of saves.

Soon after starting the game, Kaito is attacked by the class president, Ogura. Ogura falls to Kaito and vanishes from the Second Zone. Now no one believes that Ogura ever existed except for Kaito's best friend Kawashima, who loves video games just as much as Kaito. Later, Kaito eventually convinces other friends Rio, and Ren, who didn't believe him until a "meteor" hits the center of Tokyo, which was actually the work of the first area boss of Gamerz Heaven, Rush.

The Galactic War has begun and robots that can automatically rebuild themselves have been created as ultimate weapons by the Pernitia Empire, who keeps adding planets from multiple sectors to their growing empire and their regenerative technology becomes entrenched permanently into them. The Resistance have developed new weapons to defeat the pernitians but they were captured alongside supplies, useful information and key designers of the resistance forces that were cryogenically suspended and were all put inside pods and placed into conquered planets of the empire. The player is assigned to recover the pods so that the resistance fighters can have all of the necessary elements to stop the empire from spreading and free planets conquered by the pernitians by piloting the only fighter craft prototype left: The Cybermorph TransmoGriffon morphing attack craft, or T-Griffon for short, which is transported by intersolar cruisers and only usable in planetary territory. It also uses similar technology used by the pernitians and comes equipped with Skylar, a holographic intelligence agent designed to give mission and battle information. After recovering multiple pods and setting free the planets from multiple sectors, the player is sent into the last pernitian stronghold to destroy the multiple battle stations and recover the last pods within. After recovering all the critical pods and cleared the sectors, the Resistance manages to defeat the Pernitia Empire.

In 1850, Karl Oskar, his wife Kristina, and their three children, along with Karl Oskar's brother Robert and Robert's friend Arvid, have just arrived in what is now known as the Chisago Lakes area in Minnesota after enduring an arduous trip from Sweden. With the family initially sheltering in a shanty, Karl Oskar puts all of his energy and resources into building a more permanent house. He begins clearing the land of the pine trees, and, with the help of Robert, Arvid, and some of their Swedish neighbors, completes a small farmhouse before winter comes. At the housewarming party, the assembled Swedish settlers, which include Danjel, Kristina's uncle, and Ulrika, a woman who has become a very close friend to Kristina, discuss whether they regret emigrating. Kristina, feeling homesick, bursts into tears.

Kristina, aided by Ulrika, gives birth to a son, who she names Danjel after her uncle. Ulrika later marries Pastor Jackson, a friendly Baptist minister who lives in a nearby town. Pious Lutheran neighbors attempt to persuade Kristina and Karl Oskar to shun her due to this, but they refuse.

Robert takes Arvid to seek their fortune in the California Gold Rush. After being gone for several years, he returns, alone, to Karl Oskar's farm and gives Karl Oskar and Kristina a big stack of banknotes. He has always felt that Karl Oskar looks down on him, so he says the money is only a small part of what he got for the gold he found, but, via a series of flashbacks, we learn that his adventure was plagued by a series of misfortunes. After slowly working their way west, Robert and Arvid got lost in the desert when looking for a stray donkey, and Arvid died after drinking poisoned water. Robert was rescued by their Hispanic guide, who brought him to a village in the Sierra Nevada. The guide caught yellow fever, and Robert nursed him, despite being warned of the risk. Before succumbing to his illness, the guide gave Robert a sack of coins. After spending some time on his own in a small town, Robert exchanged the coins for lighter banknotes before heading back to Minnesota. Karl Oskar discovers that Robert has been cheated, as the banknotes are worthless. Robert is distraught and, having refused to seek medical help for a persistent cough, dies a short time later.

In the following years, Karl Oskar becomes an American citizen and tries to volunteer to serve in the Civil War, but he is rejected because he walks with a limp. Kristina, who still misses Sweden, is glad that her husband will not be a soldier and become a murderer. She gives birth to two more children, Ulrika and Frank, after which a doctor advises her that, after so many pregnancies, her insides are torn up and another pregnancy will kill her. Ultimately deciding to disregard the warning and leave her fate in the hands of God, Kristina becomes pregnant again. She suffers several miscarriages, and then falls ill just as the Dakota War of 1862, during which the starving Dakota people rose up and killed hundreds of settlers across Minnesota, erupts. Among the murdered settlers are Uncle Danjel, his eldest son, and his pregnant daughter-in-law. Karl Oskar stays by Kristina's bed as she dies, the uprising is put down, and 38 of the Dakota warriors are subject to a mass execution in Mankato.

Overwhelmed by grief after Kristina's death, Karl Oskar withdraws into solitude as his children grow up and start families of their own. He often visits Kristina's grave overlooking the lake, tending to the plot while, in the distance, hammering sounds can be heard as the other Swedes who have also begun moving into the area in large numbers establish their farms. On Kristina's grave marker, beneath her name, it reads: "We Shall Meet Again".

Karl Oskar dies peacefully in his sleep on 7 December 1890. Because all of his and Kristina's children have forgotten Swedish, a neighbor, Axel J. Andersson, writes a letter to Karl Oskar's sister Lydia back in Sweden to inform her of the death. Included with the letter is a family photograph showing Karl Oskar surrounded by his many children and grandchildren.

The film centres on the journey of David Copperfield, from experiencing an impoverished and miserable childhood to becoming a successful and famous author (for more detail, see ''David Copperfield (novel)'').

The frame story deals with the elderly Dr Harshom, who lives in Herefordshire and has a very rare family name, all of whose bearers are in one way or another related and are in some contact with each other.

In the early 1950s the Harshoms, scattered throughout England, are greatly mystified by the appearance of a young man named Colin Trafford, who systematically and persistently meets each and every one of them, asking about a young woman named Ottilie Harshom whom none of the Harshoms has ever heard of and who is evidently very important to him. Dr Harshom decides to talk to Trafford and the story consists mainly of what Trafford eventually tells him.

Trafford is a physicist who was involved in a laboratory experiment that went wrong. He lost consciousness and woke up to find himself in a parallel universe. It is similar to ours, but there was a divergence that is not precisely identified, but seems to have occurred in late 1926 or early 1927, preventing or greatly diminishing the effects of the Wall Street Crash in 1929. Adolf Hitler never came to power and the Second World War never happened. India is still a British possession in 1954 and there are mass demonstrations in Delhi calling for the release of Jawaharlal Nehru from prison. Rab Butler is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Winston Churchill's career was much less distinguished than in reality. Clement Attlee never became Prime Minister and the opposition Labour Party still calls for nationalisations that it did not get a chance to carry out. Nuclear power and nuclear bombs are still no more than theoretical possibilities, but scientists are getting worried about the long-term implications of experiments being conducted in Germany and petition the League of Nations, which still exists, to assume control. Noël Coward was killed in an accident and had a daughter named Amanda. Ivor Novello is still alive in 1954.

Trafford finds himself in the body of his counterpart in the parallel universe. As the story unfolds, he meets some old friends who have different partners. At one point he is taken aback to meet Martin Fells, a friend who lost two fingers of his left hand near the Rhine in 1945 but has an uninjured left hand in the parallel universe. Trafford also catches a glimpse of his late wife Della, who in the original timeline died after a year of what he calls "satisfactory marriage", but who in the alternate world is alive, accompanied by another man, and does not recognise him.

As Trafford discovers, his counterpart is a successful author. Looking through the counterpart's best-selling novels, he discovers a streak of brutality that becomes increasingly pronounced from book to book, making him resent seeing his name on their covers. This, he discovers, was also manifested in the counterpart's rather troubled relationship with his wife Ottilie. They had married for love some three years before, but she was increasingly neglected and had resigned herself to her husband having a series of openly flaunted affairs.

Trafford quickly falls in love with Ottilie and spends several weeks rekindling their relationship, overcoming Ottilie's initial distrust and residual hurt. He is then distressed to find himself, suddenly and without warning, transported back to his own world, leaving Ottilie behind.

Trafford then begins his search for Ottilie's counterpart in our own world. All he has is her maiden name, Ottilie Harshom, and there is no record of her at Somerset House (home of the General Register Office for Births, Deaths and Marriages when the story was written). He writes to and visits every member of the Harshom family to try to locate her. All of them say that she does not exist.

Feeling sympathetic to the young man and half-believing his story, Dr Harshom worried about Trafford's obsessive "chasing after a ghost" and hopes that he will find another woman to love. The story concludes as Trafford finds that an analogue of Ottilie does exist, though in this world her name is Belinda Gale and she lives unmarried in Canada with her mother. Trafford marries her in Canada and brings her to England.

It turns out that Dr Harshom's son, killed in a car accident in 1928, had left a pregnant girlfriend who was never introduced to his parents. After his death she married a man named Gale who raised her daughter Belinda as his own in Canada. In the other universe Harshom's son survived, married his girlfriend and raised her daughter Ottilie in England. Dr Harshom is rewarded for his kindness to Trafford by being (re)united with a granddaughter of whose existence he had not known.

A physicist, Colin Trafford, stages a demonstration of a particle accelerator to a number of people, including Sir Henry Larnstein and Trafford's long-time friend Tom Lewis. The demonstration goes wrong and Trafford, with his same memories, finds himself in a parallel universe with significant differences from our own: John F. Kennedy is Secretary General of a still-existent League of Nations, Leslie Howard did not die in the Second World War because it never happened, and no one ever succeeded in climbing to the peak of Mount Everest. Trafford also discovers that he is a famous author, an alcoholic, and a womaniser with a beautiful wife, Ottilie. Trafford instantly falls in love with Ottilie, whereas his parallel self was constantly unfaithful to her and she is on the brink of divorcing him.

With the help of Sir Henry and the physical evidence of the absence of a childhood scar, Ottilie accepts that this 'new' Trafford is not the same man she had originally fallen in love with and married. The couple fall in love once again, but Trafford then discovers that Ottilie has a terminal heart condition that is incurable in that world. Very soon she dies in Trafford's arms. At that instant he regains consciousness in a hospital bed in his original reality, where he has been for three weeks since the accident. He determines to track down Ottilie's alter ego and finds her just in time to get her to hospital for treatment of her ailment. As she recovers, Trafford goes to visit her with a bunch of her favourite flowers and introduces himself.

While hunting in The Spine, 15-year-old Eragon finds a mysterious blue stone. He keeps it, thinking that it can be sold or bartered. However, the stone is actually a dragon egg. Eragon names the dragon Saphira from the list of dragon names he heard from the storyteller Brom. Saphira's hatching attracts the attention of the cruel king Galbatorix. The king dispatches servants to Eragon's village to find the dragon. They are unsuccessful and Eragon's uncle is killed and his home burned down. Brom, whom Eragon considers as nothing more than an old storyteller, helps him fight his way out of the village. He then gives Eragon an old sword, known as Zar'roc in the book series.

Eragon and Saphira make their way to Daret, where they are attacked in the docks. They find the rest of the town on fire and hold off a swarm of the king's servants as the villagers try to put out these fires. After leaving Daret the three are pursued by a group of Ra'zac. The group are caught in an ambush: Saphira becomes trapped under debris and Eragon must both try to free her and hold off the Ra'zac. After defeating the nearby enemies, the group make their way to Gil'ead, where Eragon and Brom sneak through the city and keep to try and free Arya. After a lengthy battle through Durza's fortress, Eragon meets Arya and Murtagh, who now join the group. This helps alleviate the mournful situation when Brom jumps in the way of a spear intended to kill Eragon and is fatally injured and dies.

The group escape from Gil'ead on Saphira's back, but face some Kull in the ruins of Orthiad. After defeating many Kull and Urgals they make their way to the Beor Mountains, where more Urgals lie in wait. They then sneak through an Urgal encampment, and make their way through a misty gorge. The group get to the Varden's hideout and defend it against hordes of Urgals. Eragon and Saphira then face Durza a second time, mounted on the back of a huge, batlike monster, eventually killing him.

The story involves three children, named Jenny, Amanda and Scott, who are painting a mural on a school wall in Acton, London (''Through the Dragon's Eye'' was filmed at Derwentwater Primary School, Shakespeare Road in Acton, London). The dragon in the mural winks at the children and they are transported to a land called Pelamar, where the dragon, named Gorwen, asks the children to undertake a task to save the magical land.

In order to save Pelamar, the children, with Gorwen's help, must recover the pieces of the Veetacore (the life source of Pelamar), which recently exploded. Until they succeed, the land of Pelamar turns increasingly barren and its inhabitants start to fade away. The instructions for the reconstruction of the Veetacore are written in a book, and the children must use their reading skills to help the Veetacore keepers, thus showing the young audience the importance of reading. The art of reading has been lost in Pelamar – this is a sore point with Doris, but the Veetacore keepers do start learning to read as the series progresses.

Unfortunately, three of the pieces have been thrown into the distant land of Widge, forcing Amanda and Scott to travel to Widge with Gorwen, Boris, and the giant mouse Rhodey in order to find them, leaving Jenny to help determine how to reassemble the Veetacore (Made harder both by her own lack of confidence at reading and the fact that the pet caterpillar of Morris, the third keeper, has eaten at some of the pages in the book). The "baddie" of the story is Charn, "The Evil One", who wants to hijack the Veetacore for his own evil purposes, and who it is implied triggered the original 'explosion' of the Veetacore in the first place.

Fortunately, the inability to read also afflicts Charn, allowing Jenny to display a written message to her friends when Charn forbids her to divulge his presence (She tricked Charn into allowing her to knit a scarf due to the cold of Pelamar, drawing out a pattern that actually spelled out "HELP! CHARN!" without him knowing, which she could then show to the others over a video phone). Although Gorwen is able to defeat Charn, he is dangerously weakened, nearly killing himself before the last Veeton is discovered and the Veetacore restored. Although the show ends with the children returning to their school at apparently the moment they left, the presence of their notebooks and three miniature versions of the Veetons they recovered proves that the experience was genuine.

Damn Cat or DC, is in the habit of prowling the neighborhood at night and stealing food from a neighbour named Greg. His owners, Patti and Ingrid Randall (also known as Inky) look after him while their parents are away on holiday.

One night DC returns home with a wristwatch round his neck. Patti determines that the watch belongs to a bank teller, Helen Jenkins, who was kidnapped by two bank robbers.

One day DC discovers a duck Greg has caught and takes it away to eat, much to the agitation of Greg, who says that if DC takes anything else from him he'll shoot him.

Zeke Kelso, an FBI agent, puts surveillance on the cat in the hope he will lead them to the kidnappers. Zeke has a cat allergy, which makes it difficult for DC to like him. Zeke gets DC's paw prints on ink for evidence. They are both helped and hampered by Patti, Ingrid and their neighbors. The FBI keep an eye on where DC travels to see if he goes back to the bank robbers' lair, but with little success at first.

Jenkins tries to find ways of escaping, which is difficult because Sammy and Dan, the robbers, live in an apartment building, and keep the radio and air conditioning on so that if she screams it'll be muffled. One night she creates a fire to get help, but is the robbers stop her in time. One evening, while tracking DC, Zeke and the neighbours hear a gunshot. Patti confronts Greg, who she suspects trying to kill DC, but he explains that he was not trying to shoot DC, but rather fired because he saw a man on his property.

On the final evening DC, with Zeke tracking him, finally reaches the apartment building where the criminals are holding Jenkins hostage. Zeke confronts Dan and Sammy, who recall the time DC came around. Seeing that Dan and Sammy are the criminals he's looking for, Zeke throws DC at them as a diversion and arrests them.

The next day DC is all over the papers as the spotlight of the news, and people are gathering round his house wanting his autograph. Not caring about being famous, DC remains on his usual routine, prowling the streets and tailing Greg.

The gift of prescience, rather than a blessing, is a curse for the mythological character Cassandra that she cannot control. She sees the future all the time and cannot turn it off. In Cherryh's story, Crazy Alis leaves her burning apartment each morning and heads for the bombed-out coffee shop, passing charred corpses on the way. She knows it's going to happen but can do nothing about it. When the bombs do come and fire engulfs the city, her foresight actually saves her, but at what cost? She is the sole beneficiary of her misfortune in an otherwise non-functional existence.

It tells the story of Hugues Viane, a widower overcome with grief, who takes refuge in Bruges, where he lives among the relics of his former wife - her clothes, her letters, a length of her hair - rarely leaving his house. However he becomes obsessed with a dancer he sees at the opera ''Robert le diable'' who bears a likeness to his dead wife. He courts her but in time he comes to see she is very different, coarser, and their relationship ends in tragedy.

One day, Sector V of the KND are playing a videogame, when suddenly, the Toilenator appears, and ties up everyone except for Numbuh 1, who was too distracted by a new simulator helmet Numbuh 2 designed.

After Numbuh 1 beats him and frees the team, they inform him that the Toilenator was, in fact real, just as Numbuh 86 calls in to tell everyone the organization's greatest foes have escaped from the Arctic Base Prison, and orders Sector V to recapture the villains, and transfer them to the KND Moonbase afterwards.

First on the list is Gramma Stuffum, who has taken over the Sprinkle Puff Donut Shoppe and is filling the donuts with liver and spinach creme. Numbuh 1 makes his way though the place, confronting Gramma Stuffum and her Chuck Wagon in her new lair. After he defeats her, Numbuh 1 gets a call from Numbuh 4 informing him that the KND Treehouse is covered in snot. Numbuh 1 deduces that all the snot means the Common Cold has invaded the Treehouse, all while a mysterious person steals the engine core from the Chuck Wagon.

Arriving back at the treehouse, Numbuh 5 finds out that the Common Cold has hacked into the Treehouse Security System and turned the defences against her, so she roams through the snot infested Treehouse to try and turn off the defense grid, and free Numbuh 4.

After Numbuh 5 achieves this, the Common Cold introduces his Snot Bomber, which happens to be floating outside the treehouse. Numbuh 2 appears piloting the KND C.O.O.L.B.U.S, which he uses to chase and fight the Common Cold through the skies. Afterwards the same mysterious person appears in a jetpack and takes the power core from the Snot Bomber, causing it to plummet to the ground.

After that ordeal, Numbuh 4 desperately needs to use the restroom, but the toilets are still clogged up with snot, so he uses ‘the toilet we never use'. Suddenly, the power goes out and one-by-one, Count Spankulot breaks into the treehouse and turns the other KND members into spank-happy vampires. Numbuh 4 discovers his team's transformation and travels through the treehouse to defeat them and return them to normal.

Once the KND are back to normal, they decide their next course of action is to catch all the hamsters to repower the treehouse. Unfortunately their recent brawl has tired them out, aside from Numbuh 3, who thinks this mission is a game, so she's assigned to catch all the hamsters throughout the treehouse and restart the power core. Once Numbuh 3 powers up the treehouse, Numbuh 1 heads off to apprehend Count Spankulot personally, and heads out through the neighborhood freeing children, defeating the Count's minions, and ultimately confronts the villain at the School Clocktower.

After Count Spankulot's defeat, Numbuh 86 reports again, stating Sector P has spotted Stickybeard and the Sweet Revenge off the coast of South Dakota. But their plan of using Numbuh 2's T.A.R.P.O.O.N to anchor a rope so Numbuh 5 may board the ship and capture the captain had to be adjusted because of Numbuh 4's curiosity of pressing buttons.

Once the new T.A.R.P.O.O.N. is built, Numbuh 2 fires it at the Sweet Revenge and Numbuh 5 slid along the T.A.R.P.O.O.N. rope to the ship.

Numbuh 5 then makes her way through the ship, defeating all of the pirates until she confronted Stickybeard in his candy treasury room. After Numbuh 5 defeats Stickybeard the mysterious person is revealed to be Numbuh 5's older sister Cree, who then proceeds to trap her under Stickybeard, take his candy cane peg leg and leave.

Later that night, Numbuh 86 informs Sector V that Knightbrace is collecting fireflies for his new 'Bug Brite' glow in the dark toothpaste. Knowing Knightbrace has to be stopped, Numbuh 3 volunteers to browse the neighborhood for fireflies. After finding and befriending one of the fireflies, she convinces it and any others to take her to the School Clocktower, where the rest are being held.

The fireflies, grateful at being freed, help the KND find the location of Knightbrace's lair, the Cavity Cave, from where Numbuh 1 fights his way pass the Dentedrones, until he finds Knightbrace in his Dental Assault Chair.

After Numbuh 1 defeats Knightbrace, Numbuh 4 finds the Toilenator has returned to try and flood the Treehouse with sewage (as he has tried to do at the beginning of the game). Numbuh 4 makes his way through the flooding treehouse, defeating the Toilenator's new henchmen, all the way to his room. When Numbuh 4 finally wins, the Toilenator is sent to the C.O.O.L.B.U.S with the other villains.

The KND begin to take off after they have checked the villains. With everyone accounted for, they blast off to the moon in the C.O.O.L.B.U.S., only to be greeted the DCFDTL's Mega-Mansion.

But no sooner have the KND defeated them, the DCFDTL's Mega-Mansion sends out a beam which merges the villains into a giant monster dubbed the Amalgamation. In a desperate act, Sector V and Numbuh 86 activate the T.R.E.E.H.E.M.O.T.H. After the Amalgamation is defeated, an explosion destroys the creature and sends the villains flying. Later at the Moon Base, Sector V is given celebratory medals by Numbuh 86. Immediately after this, the adventure is revealed to just be a game Sector V was playing. Numbuh 1 reminds the team they need to be ready for anything. As he says this, the Toilenator arrives at the Treehouse just like in the beginning, suggesting the events in the game are going to repeat themselves in reality.

It is set in the British colony of Kenya in the 1940s, and tells the true story of murder of Josslyn Victor Hay, the 22nd Earl of Erroll, as seen through the eyes of 15-year-old Juanita Carberry, the daughter of John Carberry, a friend of Broughton's.

As a new generation of mutants begins maturing across the globe, a long-lost Master Mold A.I. and Sentinel production facility in the jungles of Ecuador is uncovered by a mysterious woman called Cassandra Nova. She uses the last surviving relative of Bolivar Trask to gain control of the wild sentinels and has the man order the Sentinels to massacre the entire population of the mutant nation of Genosha. However, Cassandra Nova's presence shows up on the newly created mutant detection machine Cerebra, created by Beast, leading to Cyclops and Wolverine finding Cassandra and defeating her. But it's too late, as the nation of Genosha falls to the deadly might of the Sentinels and nearly the entire population of the island state is killed off.

As the X-Men search the rubble, they find former X-Men villain and teacher Emma Frost as one of the survivors, having survived the Sentinel onslaught thanks to her body undergoing a new secondary mutation. At the X-Mansion, Beast investigates the biological origins of the powerful enemy they have just captured, while also revealing the possibility of mankind's genetic extinction within the next few generations. When Cassandra suddenly overcomes her imprisonment and effortlessly makes her way to Cerebra (in order to take over Charles Xavier's mind), Emma Frost (who moments before the battle began had left the X-Mansion, intent on revenge against humans for the genocidal Sentinel attack on Genosha) shows up again to snap Cassandra's neck. But Emma arrives too late, as Cassandra has swapped bodies with Xavier and shoots him (now in Cassandra's body) to keep Xavier from revealing what has just happened.

Days pass; Jean Grey and Cyclops reflect upon the marital problems that have popped up due to Cyclops's post-traumatic stress disorder (brought on by Apocalypse possessing Cyclops's body for over a year) when they turn on the TV and see "Xavier" out himself as a mutant on live television.

The program opens with the other ''Peanuts'' characters singing the title song to Charlie Brown.

In the next scene, Schroeder plays Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" and Lucy sings along. She tries to tell him that they should get married. Schroeder ignores her, then Lucy says, "My aunt Marian was right; never try to discuss marriage with a musician."

Charlie Brown hopes for the first time to be able to keep a kite but he once again fails. Sally writes a letter to Ann Flanders about the Valentine's Day card she gets.

Charlie Brown gives Lucy a Valentine's Day card and mistakenly says, "This is for you, Lucy. Merry Christmas!" Charlie Brown sees Marcie and thinks that she is going to give him a Valentine's Day card but she does not. Lucy comes up to Schroeder again and talks about saucepans, and, again, Schroeder cannot stand it.

Snoopy imagines that he is a wild animal. Charlie Brown, Schroeder, Linus, and Lucy work on their book reports on Peter Rabbit ("Book Report"). Lucy teaches Linus about nature in her own way while Charlie Brown tries to correct her, to no avail ("Little Known Facts").

Charlie Brown writes a letter to his pencil pal about his downfall at his baseball game. Charlie Brown pleads his baseball team to win the game by chanting "T-E-A-M" but fails. Lucy dreams of becoming a queen but gives up dreaming. Charlie Brown tries to get the Little Red-Haired Girl to know him better but fails.

Schroeder's Sing Along has songs for the play in "The Concert" by singing "Home on the Range" with his friends. And the five friends sing while Lucy, Linus, and Sally argue. Lucy wanting her pencil back from Linus, and threatening to tell Sally what he said about her if he did not give back the pencil (Linus called Sally an enigma). Snoopy sings a song devoted to "Suppertime" when he sees Charlie Brown serving him his supper.

In the end, Charlie Brown and all of his gang learn all about "Happiness" and why it's all around them; the special ends with Lucy telling Charlie Brown that he is a good man.

In the early 16th century, a young boy helplessly witnesses his father killed by Kabai Sengh, the ruthless leader of the Sengh Brotherhood, who attacked their ship. The boy jumps overboard and is washed ashore on Bengalla, an island where local tribesmen find him and take him to their village. There he is given the Skull Ring, swears to devote his life to the destruction of piracy, greed, cruelty, and injustice, and as an adult, adopts the identity of "The Phantom", a masked avenger. The role of The Phantom is passed on from father to son through 400 years, leading people to believe in a single, immortal figure.

In 1938, Kit Walker, the 21st Phantom, finds Quill leading a mercenary group in the jungle searching for one of the Skulls of Touganda, which grants its owner a tremendously destructive power. The Phantom saves the native boy they kidnapped to be their guide and captures Quill's men, leaving them for the Jungle Patrol to pick up. Revealed to be a Sengh Brotherhood member and the man who killed Kit's father - whose ghost frequently appears to give Kit advice - Quill flees with the Skull and returns to the United States.

In New York City, Kit's college ex-girlfriend, Diana Palmer, is a frequent traveler whose uncle, Dave Palmer, is the famous owner of the ''World Tribune'' newspaper. The paper has been investigating power-hungry businessman Xander Drax, a shady character with a reputation for dealing with criminals. Palmer has uncovered Drax's connection to a mysterious spider web symbol, which he traces back to the Bengalla Jungle. He sends Diana to investigate but makes the mistake of telling New York's corrupt police commissioner, who is allied with Drax, of Diana's trip. Drax's female air pirates led by femme fatale, Sala, hijack the plane; Diana is abducted and taken to their waterfront base in Bengalla. Having been informed of Diana's abduction by the Jungle Patrol's captain, Phillip Horton, the Phantom rescues her and escapes from Quill and his men to his headquarters, the Skull Cave.

In New York, now dressed as his civilian self, Kit meets with David Palmer at the ''World Tribune'' and once again meets with Diana, who has mixed feelings about him since his sudden disappearance several years before. Diana's would-be husband Jimmy Wells mentions he had seen one of the skulls in the Museum of World History, so Kit and Diana hurry there. Drax and his men capture them, steal the second Skull and unite it with the first, revealing the location of the third Skull on an uncharted island in the Andaman Sea, known as the Devil's Vortex. Kit manages to escape and, as the Phantom, evades the police outside the museum. Meanwhile, after Sala reveals that Diana is the Phantom's girlfriend, she flies Drax, Quill, and Diana to the Devil's Vortex, not knowing that the Phantom has managed to hitch a ride on one of the plane's landing pontoons.

On the island, Drax meets with the pirate Kabai Sengh, direct descendant of the Brotherhood's original leader, who possesses the third Skull. Sengh warns Drax of the Fourth Skull's existence, which controls the power of the other three. The Phantom appears and battles both men, with Kabai Sengh killed by sharks, and Diana and Sala cooperate to defeat the other villains. Drax unites the three Skulls and turns their power against the Phantom; Quill is accidentally hit and disintegrated in the process. The Phantom uses the Fourth Skull – his ring – to turn the Skulls' power back against them, destroying them and Drax in a powerful explosion. As the energy destroys the island, the Phantom narrowly escapes with Diana and Sala.

Returning to Bengalla, Diana reveals to the Phantom that she has figured out his secret and double identity. Kit removes his mask, telling her that he can only disclose all of his secrets to one person, the woman he intends to marry, but she leaves again for New York. Kit's father laments his son's failure to pursue Diana but states that she will return to the Phantom's jungle, and Kit, one day.

Danica has begun to fit into serpiente society more and more, but other people do not have her courage or motivation. The avians and the serpiente, in spite of the royal union, are hardly warming up to each other. Neither of the sides is willing to try to join the other. Stirring things up is Syfka, a powerful aplomado falcon who has just arrived to drag a falcon criminal back to the island of Ahnmik.

Syfka has absolutely no respect for the reunification of the two cultures and with her falcon magic, she has no problem with trying to destroy the fragile peace. There is little that Zane and Danica can do to try to stop her, considering her ability to use powerful magics almost casually and the fact that she is several thousands of years old. On top of that the avians and serpiente are nowhere near capable of defending themselves against the falcon empire. It seems best to just hand Syfka her criminal and make sure she feels no need to come back. But Rei, the leader of the Royal Flight and the man who Danica loved before she met Zane, becomes increasingly agitated during Syfka's search and the question arises of what would happen if the "criminal" turned out to be someone loyal to Zane and Danica. After hearing a young woman's stories about her experiences on the falcon island, Zane and Danica are forced to wonder whether they can hand someone over to the falcons with a healthy conscience.

Complicating things is the fact that Danica is pregnant. Neither the serpiente nor the avians are crazy about the idea of a mixed-blood child taking the throne. A child of a cobra and another serpent is always a cobra, a child of a hawk and another avian is always a hawk. But a cobra-hawk child has co-dominant genes and as a mixture between the two, it would end both royal lines. Both sides are worried about being dominated by the other and both are putting enormous pressure on Zane and Danica to raise the child ''their'' way.

Nicias is the child of Kel and Andreios, resident falcons of Wyvern's Court. He is the best friend and guard of Oliza Shardae Cobriana, Arami of the serpiente and heir to the Tuuli Thea.

After Nicias's falcon magic awakens he is left with two frightening options: stay in Wyvern's Court and hope he will be able to control his magic so it won't kill him, or travel to Ahnmik, the island where his parents were raised but later fled. Nicias's choice is soon made for him, after a frightening dream in which a cobra tries to strangle him. He wakes up to find his ribs aching and his breathing painful. His magic is clearly out of his control and he has to go.

Lillian, a local peregrine who has lived among the avians and the in Wyvern's Court using the disguise of a raven, offers to take him with her when she returns to Ahnmik. However, bringing him to Ahnmik also means bringing him to Araceli, Nicias's grandmother and the woman both of his parents fear above anything else in the world. Before Nicias leaves, his father Andreios shows him the scars that Araceli left on him in her anger about giving him up. He warns Nicias about the infinite cruelty of the white city, and about the torture that awaits those who do not show complete loyalty for the Empress Cjarsa.

When Nicias arrives in Ahnmik, he finds it very different from the hell his father informed him about. Araceli appears to be affectionate, wise, and sad about what happened between her and her son. She explains the terrible scars on Andreios's skin as something that was necessary to keep his power from destroying him while he lived away from Ahnmik. The white city also does not appear dangerous or cruel. Its beautiful white roads are soft as carpets, and they sing to all who have falcon magic. The falcons' sky dances are beautiful and captivating. Nobody appears to be tortured or afraid. Also, Lillian's friendship with Nicias gradually becomes something more. The closer they grow, the less evil Nicias sees in Ahnmik.

The only thing marring the beauty of Ahnmik are the shm'Ecl. Held in a violet tower and guarded by Servos, one of the member of the royal family of Ahnmik, the shm'Ecl are a painful reminder of the dangers of falcon magic. Ecl is the Void, it is the absence of even nothingness that surrounds Mehay (existence). This is where falcons flee when their magic overwhelms them or they enter Ecl as an escape from the pain of the mortal world. Darien appears to be one of the shm'Ecl and nothing more. However, she has not succumbed completely to oblivion, and calls to Nicias in his dreams, asking him to come to her, and telling him to beware of the falcons and Araceli. Nicias manages to ignore her calls for several days, but eventually he goes.

In Darien, he finds the key to the truth about many things. Darien was once Kel's best friend and partner in Cjarsa's Mercy, and together they found out a horrible secret Cjarsa and Araceli hid. The knowledge of their secret was why Darien succumbed to Ecl, to escape the execution and torture that awaited her in return for knowing, and for daring to tell what she knew. And that was why Kel fled the island, unable to live with what she had learned and unable to torture Darien to death as Ahnmik's laws dictated.

The avians and serpiente had been fighting for thousands of years. Nobody remembered how the fighting got started, except the falcons. The avians and the both have differing views on how the war began. Avian history says that the serpiente killed Alasdair first, but serpiente history says that the avian guards slaughtered the serpiente, thus beginning the long war. Both these versions are true, and the responsibility for all of these events lies squarely at the feet of the falcon Empress and her Heir, Araceli.

When Anjay Cobriana travelled to Ahnmik to seek the falcon's aid in the avian-serpiente war, he developed a close relationship with Darien. In fact, he was Hai's father. After he left, she kept an eye on him, and she was watching when he rode to the Hawk's Keep with the intent of killing Nacola and Danica Shardae. She was watching when Xavier Shardae stabbed her lover in the back, causing the avian poison concocted by Araceli to start killing him. Darien called on Cjarsa to help Anjay, but Araceli refused, saying that it wasn't the falcon's fight. When Araceli lied to her, the twists in the falcons' magic allowed Darien and everyone in the room with her at the time to see the truth.

When the coven of the Dasi split, the magic of both the serpents and the falcons, which had once balanced each other, became unstable. The falcons' magic balanced itself, as it is the magic of stillness and silence, bringing anyone overcome by their magic to Ecl. The serpents' magic, however, was more unstable, as it was the magic of reckless freedom and chaos, with much power to destroy everything around them. Cjarsa saw danger in this destructiveness and so, in a period of recklessness, she dived into Ecl and manipulated fate to take away a part of the serpent's magic. This part was unable to be destroyed, and the falcons were afraid of what the serpiente would do if they were to discover the truth. So Cjarsa and Araceli took in a human girl. They taught her magic, giving to her and, thus, all her descendants, the part of the serpents' magic they had removed. This girl, Alasdair, was the first avian. With the falcons' help, she quickly became led her people to prosperity. Although they are drawn together, since each of them was the missing half of the other's magical powers, Araceli had made sure that the avians were created as the exact opposite of the serpiente, strict and controlled, so that the two cultures could never blend together without one of them being destroyed. This was to prevent the reunition of Anhamirak's powers, as that could cause great chaos and eventually destroy both their worlds. Araceli then used persuasion magics on Kiesha to make her stab Alasdair in the back, and manipulated the minds of Alasdair's guards so that they would retaliate instantly and violently by killing the serpiente leaders. And then the war between the two sides began, and it would not be ended for another few thousand years.

Darien, Kel, Lillian, and a few others learned this truth the night Anjay Cobriana died. Araceli wanted them executed but Cjarsa protected them. Darien tried to share her knowledge with the rest of the falcon world and was arrested. Kel, not being able to inflict the Empress's violent punishment on Darien, the person she loved most, fled from the island and Darien gave herself to Ecl rather than face Cjarsa's punishment. Lillian forced herself to forget. She became the head of the Elite Silver Choir, Araceli's Mercy, now that the previous two favorites were out of the way.

After Nicias learns of this, he turns on the falcon empire. He only wants to return to his home in Wyvern's Court, even if he is an outcast there. Darien agrees to help him escape Ahnmik, but only if Nicias will bring her half-serpiente daughter, Hai, back to Wyvern's Court. Hai gave herself to Ecl after having her wings broken when she was a dancer. As she had no bonds in the mortal world to hold her, she surrendered completely to Ecl and gave up her life of pain.

Nicias returns to Wyvern's Court with his magic under control. Besides the knowledge of truth, Darien had also taught him about Ecl. If one enters Ecl out of free will and without fear, they can control their magic easily. Moreover, Nicias has royal blood, which makes it easier for him. After learning how to better control his magic, Nicias can now survive away from Ahnmik, and he is eager to do so.

However, there are a few serious obstacles in the way of his return. Araceli has not agreed to let him go, and having let go of her own son Sebastian, she is reluctant to give up her grandson so easily. The falcons also think that Wyvern's Court is doomed, as Oliza's children will have the full powers of Anhamirak and the magic will overwhelm them and eventually destroy their world.

When Nicias returns to Wyvern's Court, Oliza is worried that she has stolen the throne from Hai, as Anjay Cobriana, Hai's father, was the older brother of Oliza's father, Zane Cobriana and so Hai is the rightful Arami of the serpiente. However, Nicias reassures her by saying that Hai is lost in Ecl and it is unlikely that she will ever return.

Out of fear for Oliza's safety, Nicias returns to Ahnmik to find that Cjarsa has requested an audience with him. Cjarsa explains about the danger of a race with Anhamirak's magic without the balance of Ahnmik around to control it and tries to give some justification for starting the avian-serpiente war. Then Araceli bursts in and confronts Cjarsa. Araceli is power-hungry with no sense of balance and has been planning to topple Cjarsa for a long time, as Nicias stands between the two women he discovers a shocking secret: Syfka.

Syfka, an aplomado, is the third in line of the hierarchy from the Dasi coven. When Araceli's son Sebastian was young she helped him flee the island and become Andreios. She has also proven herself to be helpful when she helped Kel and Andreios return to the avians and serpiente after Araceli abducted them. On top of that she gave Nicias the opportunities he needed to speak to Darien and get out of the city with Hai. But the falcons never do anything that they will not gain from, and Syfka is no exception to this.

As Araceli's magic flows over him, Darien instructs him to find a pattern which she suspects exists but she is unable to see as she is not of royal blood. Inside Araceli's magic, Nicias discovers incredibly subtle and discreet persuasion magics of the same kind that Lilian used on him to keep him from seeing the evil of Ahnmik. These were woven by Syfka, who had been planning on using Araceli to destroy Cjarsa. In the process Araceli would also have been destroyed and as third in line to the throne, Syfka would have ruled Ahnmik. Araceli's children were in line before her and so she did everything she could to help both Sebastian and Nicias leave the island. She almost succeeded but Nicias exposes her magic. Lillian and Araceli instantly retaliate, and Syfka is immediately taken into custody.

Nicias then receives permission to leave Ahnmik and return to Wyvern's Court, on the condition that any children he has must be with another peregrine falcon. On his return he discovers that the vow Hai made to him, a promise to try to return from Ecl, has produced results. Hai is awake, and she is every bit as powerful as the gyrfalcon and the cobra in her combined. Oliza is no longer the first in line to the serpiente throne, and Wyvern's Court future is uncertain.

In the South Indian kingdom of Cholapuram Paalayam in the year 1771, Raja Mokkaiyappar and his queen, Rani Bhavani Ammaiyar are in desperate for a child, as all their previous twenty-two children have died at birth. Unknown to them, Bhavani's brother, Sangilimayan, who is also the Rajaguru (High priest), is responsible for the death of their children. Sangilimayan is shocked to see that his sister has given birth to twins. Before informing the king about the birth, he calls the palace astrologer, Chinnavadayaan, who predicts that the elder twin will be incapable of making decisions on his own while the younger one will be smarter. Sangilimayan orders the palace doctor, Kailasakaruppan, to kill the younger ones, but Chinnavadayaan tells Sangilimayan that his actions would not be good for the kingdom. Instead, Sangilimayan orders the palace doctor to abandon the child in a nearby river. The elder child is named Pulikesi XXIII. Maragathavalli, Kailasakaruppan's childless wife, rescues the abandoned child from the river, and the couple decides to raise him as their own, naming him Ukraputhan.

Twenty-five years pass, and Pulikesi is now the king of Cholapuram Paalayam. As foretold, he is foolish as well as lecherous. He is a puppet in the hands of Sangilimayan, who collaborates with the British for his own personal gain, and does not attend to the needs of the people of his kingdom. Pulikesi also tortures his subjects. He creates an outdoor stadium for different castes to fight against each other and punishes his palace guards even when they make the slightest of mistakes; he also uses his guards as targets for shooting practice. Ukraputhan, now an educated revolutionary, collaborates with his friends to overthrow the British. Ukraputhan falls in love with Vasantha Sundari, who reciprocates his feelings. When Ukraputhan plots to overthrow Pulikesi for serving the British, he is shocked to see that they look alike.

Ukraputhan then learns about his birth from his foster-parents. To save the land from Sangilimayan and the British, Ukraputhan switches places with an unconscious Pulikesi as the king whilst sending Pulikesi to prison. As the king, Ukraputhan joins Agandamuthu, the commander-in-chief, and helps bring about new reforms. He converts the palace harem into a playground and helps fund and provide for the education of children; to grow crops, he creates fertile land for tilling the soil. In a break with past policies of the kingdom, Ukraputhan refuses to pay tributes and taxes demanded by the British. Bhavani Ammaiyar praises Ukraputhan's reforms, unaware that Ukraputhan is disguised as Pulikesi. In jail, Pulikesi is taken care of by Soolayini, who provides refreshments to the soldiers. Eventually, the two fall in love.

All of this happens while Sangilimayan is away on a business trip visiting British officers in Chennai pattinam. When he learns of the new reforms, he confronts Ukraputhan, who defies him. Later, Pulikesi escapes from prison and overhears a conversation between Ukraputhan, Agandamuthu, and Chinnavadayaan. Pulikesi learns the truth about his birth and realizes his mistake. He reconciles with Ukraputhan to reform the kingdom, but is beaten by one of Sangilimayan's men and is locked up in the palace. However, he escapes with the help of Kollan, the palace blacksmith. Believing that Agandamuthu was responsible for Pulikesi's change of mind, Sangilimayan arrests him and Ukraputhan. After escaping, Pulikesi appears before Sangilimayan as Ukraputhan but is recognized by his minister, Mangunipandiyan when he inadvertently uses his catchphrase. A fight between the twins and Sangilimayan follows; Sangilimayan is overpowered by Ukraputhan and is about to be killed when Bhavani Ammaiyar intervenes. Feeling guilty for betraying his kingdom, Sangilimayan, at the behest of his sister, has a change of heart and apologizes to her; she forgives him. The kingdom attains independence from British rule and Pulikesi and Ukraputhan marry their respective lovers, Soolayini and Vasantha Sundari. Pulikesi then introduces 10 ordinances for the welfare of the people of Cholapuram Paalayam.

Seh-hee and Ji-woo (Ha Jung-woo) are a young couple two years into their relationship. Though he never acts on his impulses, Ji-woo has something of a roving eye and Seh-hee is intensely jealous and fearful that Ji-woo will soon lose interest and leave her. Believing that Ji-woo is bored with seeing the same, boring her all the time, Seh-hee takes drastic action, leaving him without warning and having drastic cosmetic surgery, taking on a new face, which she hopes to use to snare him again, under an assumed identity, once she has healed. But when Ji-woo shows interest in this new and "improved" Seh-hee (Sung Hyun-ah), it triggers only more self-doubt and loathing. After all, he may love the "new" girl, but does this mean that he has rejected the old? Seh-hee is utterly trapped in her own insecurities, a situation that prompts Ji-woo to take drastic action of his own.

As mutant culture takes center stage in the world media, a new movement propagated by book ''The Third Species'' begins to affect human/mutant relations. Several school shootings occur where the assailant takes mutant organs to graft to themselves, believing they will transcend to a higher state of evolution (somehow superior to the natural mutations occurring). Cyclops and Emma investigate the impetus behind this movement by confronting John Sublime, the book's author. He reveals himself to be leader of the U-Men, a radical group that doesn't improve themselves by changing their own genes, but by harvesting mutant parts from unwilling donors. Cyclops and Emma are taken hostage for fatal surgery.

Meanwhile, Wolverine is following a lead on a new mutant, arriving just in time to stop a crew of U-men from killing Angel Salvadore for her insect wings. Despite her reluctance in accepting her mutation, and anyone's help in coming to grips with it, she does follow Wolverine back to the institute, where several squads of U-men are about to assault and slaughter the student body. Jean Grey, with help from her students, fends off the attack, eventually manifesting a phoenix raptor display in psychic dominance. Emma Frost and Cyclops escape from their captors, with Emma confronting John about the damage done to her cosmetically enhanced face, threatening to drop him from the highrise window his office sits in. John forces himself from Emma's grip, seemingly convinced by Martha Johansson, a floating brain in a jar John used to exert psychic control of his captives.

Back at the mansion, Hank McCoy staggers from his ICU bed onto the front lawn. He cradles Cassandra Nova's body in his arms, revealing that Professor Xavier's mind has been switched and he is trapped. Emma and Jean psychically probe Nova's body, discovering that she and Xavier were fraternal twins, but the instant Xavier became aware, he tried to kill his twin in the womb.

In the far reaches of space, the Shi'ar empire is being slowly torn apart by the possessed Charles Xavier. Empress Lilandra sends Smasher through 4-space to warn the Earth of the villainess' coming. Smasher arrives in a field populated by cows, and he loses consciousness before finding someone to spread his message.

The X-Men convene in Cerebra to share what they know about Cassandra Nova. As Jean and Emma's psychic excavation reveals, she is a living entity of pure emotional energy, who used Charles' DNA to form a body. In her mind, the universe and the womb that housed her brother are one and the same. Only she and Charles Xavier are real. Thus, her competition for survival is her twin "brother," and he must be killed. Inside a body booby trapped with numerous degenerative disorders, Xavier telepathically requests a last press conference for the X-Men to communicate his final message to humanity about mutantkind. Cyclops leaves to Xorn, in an attempt to find a way to save Xavier from dying.

During the press conference, Beast discovers that the minor annoyance of a flu epidemic is in fact, a systematic nano-Sentinel attack. This news is overshadowed, however, by the sudden reveal that the Imperial Guard is about to sterilize the entirety of mutantkind, starting with the X-Men. Aboard the Shi'ar Superdestroyer, Cyclops pleads with his and Xorn's captors that the Charles Xavier they are allied with is the very same Cassandra Nova entity they seek to fight, to no avail. At the X-mansion, the Stepford Cuckoos ally with Angel to overthrow the invading Shi'ar, while Jean and Beast shelter the rest of the student body and the visiting media. Beast and Wolverine fend off the assaults of the Guardians, when Smasher is finally found and able to convince Gladiator of the X-Men's innocence. As Cassandra Nova drives Lilandra to command her fleet to die, Cyclops and Xorn fight their way to freedom, saving Lilandra in the process.

Angel and the Cuckoos find Beak, who advises using the Guardian Stuff to free Emma Frost. Xorn heals the X-Men of their sentinel infestations. Afterwards, Jean Grey and Charles Xavier trick Cassandra into using Cerebra for her original goal of erasing mutantkind; however, the moment she uses Cerebra to connect to the worldwide mutant population, she finds one thing in common to all of them: Charles. In the same moment, Jean Grey, who at the moment was becoming increasingly more powerful due to a manifestation of the Phoenix Force, psionically attacks Cassandra and forces her out of the Professor's body. With Charles Xavier's mind restored to his body, Emma Frost uses Stuff's malleable body as a trick to entice Cassandra Nova back into her own body, now a mental prison for her boundless energy. Finally, Charles Xavier is now miraculously able to use his legs.

The book's first narrator is Rupert Venables, the junior "magid" responsible for Earth and the Koryfonic Empire, a collection of Ayewards worlds. The multiverse contains Ayeward (generally good, pro-magic) and Nayward (the opposite) worlds. It is the task of the magids to urge the worlds in an Ayewards direction. When the Emperor of the Koryfonic Empire is assassinated, no heir can be found. Earth's senior magid has also died, and Rupert must find his replacement.

Venables draws the candidates for Earth senior magid together in an unlikely place: a science fiction convention in the town of Wantchester. Maree Mallory, the book's second narrator, is one of the candidates. Maree's Uncle Ted is to be the guest of honor at the convention in Wantchester. Ted's wife Janine, Maree, and Ted and Janine's son Nick are to accompany him.

All arrive at the convention, where the reserved Venables is somewhat stunned at the bizarre nature of the convention and its attendees, particularly as it is housed in the strange, Escher-like Hotel Babylon, which appears to be centered on a powerful magical node. He seeks out each magid candidate, but is disappointed to find each of them entirely unsuitable. His opinion of Maree Mallory rises, however, as they encounter each other several times at the convention.

Pleas for help from the unsettled Koryfonic Empire force Venables to cross over to the Ayewards world Thule to seek help from his magid brother Will. Maree and Nick unwittingly follow him through the gaps between worlds, nearly killing themselves in the process. The plot culminates with a trip into a bizarre, nightmarish land whose existence is the "Deep Secret" of the title, and the restoration of the Koryfonic Empire to its rightful ruler after his memory is restored.

Ismay Sealand believes that her younger sister, Heather, murdered their stepfather Guy when they were teenagers. Ismay and her mother, Beatrix, returned from shopping for a new school uniform to find Guy drowned in his bath and only Heather home. Although both Ismay and her mother believe Heather drowned Guy – who was weak from a virus – there was no evidence and so at the inquest the death was ruled accidental. Ismay thinks Heather murdered Guy because he made sexual advances to her, Ismay, and Heather wished to protect her. In fact Ismay encouraged Guy's interest and hoped he would come to her bedroom and have sex with her.

Now in their twenties, Ismay and Heather live in the same house, which has been divided into two flats. They live together downstairs, and their mother, who became mentally ill after Guy's death, lives with her sister Pamela in the upstairs. Ismay remains haunted by what happened all those years ago. Ismay is desperately in love with Andrew Campbell-Sedge, who looks very like her dead stepfather, and who does not get on with Heather.

Meanwhile, Edmund Litton's mother, Irene, tries to set him up with Marion Melville, a thin darting woman with bright red hair who has befriended a number of elderly people in the area. Horrified by this idea Edmund sets up an alternative date with a woman who works in the catering department of the hospice where he works, Heather Sealand. Their date is more successful than expected and the two begin to fall in love. This causes a rift with Edmund's mother, who enjoyed being the only woman in his life, especially when Edmund goes to stay overnight at Heather's flat.

As the relationship between Heather and Edmund becomes more serious, Ismay worries whether or not she should tell him what she believes about Heather's past and, eventually, records a tape telling him what she thinks happened when Guy drowned. She hides it in a box which formally contained the cassette 'Rainy Season Ragas' and puts it out of sight.

Edmund and Heather's relationship causes another rift; this time between Ismay and Andrew. Edmund sees Andrew on an outing with another woman but chooses to keep this information to himself as he doesn't want to hurt Ismay or Heather. Andrew cannot stand Heather and Edmund being in "our flat". Andrew has a row with Edmund during which Edmund confronts Andrew with his knowledge of Andrew's infidelity and Andrew behaves very aggressively in response. Edmund leaves the flat, never to return and soon Heather joins him, living at his mother's house. Unhappy that Ismay didn't ask them to leave first, Andrew splits up with Ismay. Edmund proposes to Heather and they become engaged and begin seeking a flat of their own.

Marion takes advantage of Irene's dislike of Heather and spends a lot of time with her, hoping to be included in her will. Marion has morphine sulphate in her bathroom cabinet, that she obtained from a previous elderly friend who died, and left her sufficient money to buy a flat and hopes to use it on one of her other elderly "friends". Irene invites Marion for Christmas, and Marion meets Avice, an elderly lady who frets about leaving her rabbits at home alone. Marion is soon rabbit-sitting, cleaning and cooking for Avice regularly.

Fowler, Marion's homeless brother, sometimes visits her flat for a meal, drink or a bed for the night. On one visit he finds the morphine in her bathroom cupboard and substitutes it for cough mixture so she won't notice. Edmund and Heather are married, and after a scene with Irene at the wedding, move out to a rented flat whilst they wait to complete the sale on a flat of their own. Ismay decides to destroy the recording she made for Edmund regarding Guy's death and puts it into her handbag to throw it away somewhere in London.

Ismay is distraught at losing the love of her life, wandering around the places she and Andrew went at all hours of the night and drinking heavily. She even confronts Andrew and his new flame, socialite Eva Simber and then has her bag stolen on the tube; the bag containing the tape she made for Edmund. Heather, hoping that Andrew would return to Ismay without the presence of Eva, begins to contact the young woman regularly, asking her to leave Andrew. Eva refuses to do so, although she speaks to Heather on the phone quite often all the same.

After Avice leaves Marion some money in her will, Marion tries to poison her with her morphine, but discovers Fowler's robbery when Avice says her food tastes like cough mixture. She instead turns her attentions to Irene's neighbour, Barry Fenix, a flirtatious retired 'civil servant' who loves all things relating to India.

Eva Simber goes for her daily run and is murdered. Ismay discovers Heather had been in contact with her and thinks that Heather has killed Eva in order that Andrew would return to her. Ismay sits with Beatrix quite a lot whilst Pamela goes out with Ivan, a man she has met on 'romance walks'. Although he will not spend any money to take her out and she does not much like his character, Pamela fancies him enough to become his lover.

Marion tells Fowler that she is to become engaged and he leaves her an engagement present of a Marc Jacobs handbag he found in a West End bin and its contents, which include a tape, 'Rainy Season Ragas'.

Pamela decides to end things with her lover, but when she does he becomes violent and beats her up, rapes her and kicks her down the stairs of his flat. She is taken to hospital and Edmund and Heather move in with Beatrix to care for her. Ismay comes home from work to discover Andrew inside her flat, he has returned to her. She hides the fact that Edmund and Heather are currently living upstairs with her mother and the two are reconciled.

Marion listens to the tape to see if it is suitable to play to Barry on a romantic evening and discovers what Ismay has said on it. She decides to blackmail Ismay, who is desperate to keep the tape's contents a secret from Andrew, who has decided to move in with her. Marion extorts several hundred pounds from Ismay and becomes engaged to Barry. When Marion boasts that she shall shortly be 'Mrs Barry Fenix', Ismay remembers the name in connection to Guy's death – Barry was the officer who led the investigation all those years ago. She tells Marion to stop the blackmail or she will tell Barry what she has been up to. Marion gives up her blackmail and she and Barry are married shortly after. Fowler blackmails Marion into giving him her flat.

Following a teenager's arrest for the murder of Eva Simber, Ismay confronts Heather and asks her whether she killed Eva and Guy. Heather is shocked that Ismay could think she killed Eva but admits to killing Guy, not to protect Ismay but because he was sexually abusing her, Heather. Heather tells Ismay that Guy was no longer interested in pursuing her because she was 'obviously interested' in him and that Guy wanted someone who didn't want him, so he turned his attentions to Heather. Guy got into the bath that day and asked Heather to join him in the bubbles, saying "the water's lovely". Heather also tells Edmund of the murder she committed as a thirteen-year-old and he is deeply saddened by the information. The two head off for a belated honeymoon.

Pamela is reconciled with a Michael, a former fiancé who left her after Guy's death, and the two plan to move in together and have Beatrix living with them. Ismay and Andrew get engaged and start looking for a shared home, too.

On Boxing Day an earthquake in the Indian Ocean triggers a tsunami in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand. Fearing for Heather and Edmund, who are honeymooning in Sumatra in Indonesia, Ismay asks Andrew to ring a friend who is a diplomat. There is a news report that four British citizens have been killed in a tsunami, but no names can be released until the next of kin have been informed. The next of kin are Heather's mother and Edmund's mother.

The film takes place over a summer by the seaside and follows three girls through a summer that will change their lives. The story is told by Keira St. George (Caroline Dhavernas), a girl who is trying to decide what to do with her life. She constantly throws away her college letter without reading it, but her father always retrieves it, annoying her more. Her two best friends are Glory Lorraine (Amanda Walsh) a beautiful but somewhat bitchy girl obsessed with marriage, and Lisa MacDougall (Holly Lewis), an awkward, born-again, religious girl who is obsessed with sex.

Glory babysits for Keith Clark (David Boreanaz) and his wife, who works the night shift four times a week. Keith is a 32-year-old husband and father, who loves to ride his motorcycle, gamble with friends and smoke pot. One afternoon, Keira talks to Gordon Gruber (Donnell MacKenzie), who is a bit slow, trying to get information from him about Keith, who has taken Gruber under his wing. Gruber tells Keira about the pot growing in Keith's backyard. That night, Keira and Lisa decide to take some of Keith's pot. While leaving, they hear what sounds like Keith and his wife having sex. Sex crazed Lisa decides to take a closer look. When Kiera joins her, the two discover that Keith isn't with his wife but with Glory! Later that night, Glory arrives at the bonfire. Keira and Lisa tell Glory about seeing her with Keith. Glory defends her actions, saying she loves Keith and he loves her.

The next day, while Keira works at the food stand, Glory tells her more about Keith and her relationship with him. Wheels begin to turn in Keira's head, and after debating with herself, she decides to go to Keith's. He thinks she wants to buy pot, but she tells him she will "babysit" too. She convinces him to let her in. He tells her he's married and she's half his age, but it is obvious both are attracted to each other. She leads Keith into the bedroom.

The next day, Lisa arrives at the stand to tell Keira that she's going to sleep with Keith Clark. Keira tells Lisa that she's supposed to be religious and wait until she's married and that she will hurt Glory, but according to Lisa, since she hasn't been baptized yet, it's okay. She is concerned that when she marries, her virgin husband will not be satisfying. Not heeding Keira's repeated warnings, Lisa continues with her plan. When she arrives at Keith's house, he is in the garden. During their awkward conversation, in which Lisa makes it clear that she wants to "babysit" too, Glory arrives and is angry at Lisa and hostile to the others. While Keith tends to his crying daughter, Glory yells at Lisa for what she is doing. Eventually, Keith agrees to allow Lisa to babysit that night.

While babysitting, Lisa calls Keira to tell her she's at Keith's house. Keira begs her not to follow through with her plan, angering Lisa, who only wants Keira to come over and support. Keith arrives home and Lisa jumps him in an attempt to have sex, saying it's okay with Glory. Keith, obviously weirded out, eventually agrees to help Lisa lose her virginity. Keira and Glory arrive outside to watch through the bedroom window. While Keith and Lisa have awkward sex, outside, Keira admits to Glory that she also slept with Keith and Glory punches her, making her nose bleed. Glory is furious and storms into the house and into the bedroom. An argument ensues between the girls and eventually all three leave.

Glory later refuses to talk to her best friends. She goes to Keith's house to discuss matters, but Keith rebukes her. Heartbroken and professing again that she loves him, Glory joins her friends in Keira's bedroom where Keira tells them about her plan. Keira and Lisa decide that since all three girls want Keith, then they should share him. Keira explains that with Sue, Keith's wife, working four night shifts, each girl could have him for a night and they could all "hang out" on the fourth night. Keith initially balks at the proposal but Keira threatens him with the fact that if people ''somehow'' find out: he will be considered a "pervert pothead who molests young girls". Keith reluctantly agrees.

The nightly sessions take a toll on Keith, who cannot stay awake anymore. He has performance problems and is upset that he has not been intimate with his wife and has a responsibility to his family. Keith becomes upset when the girls nearly tip off his wife and is hostile to the girls, but Keira restates her threat. Later, the girls are frightened when Lenny (Paul Spence), a biker friend of Keith's, arrives and begins to beat up Keith. As later revealed, Keith and Lenny plotted the attack to scare the girls, but it backfires when the girls take the baby and run. Keith is startled when he finds Gruber in the basement. Gruber tells Keith he has seen what Keith has been doing and that he knows about Keith and Lenny's plan. Keith is not intimidated.

When he realizes his daughter is missing, Keith freaks out and takes off to find her. At the dock, he grabs Lisa hard, screaming at her to tell him where his daughter is. Gruber attacks him from behind, knocking him out with a tire iron. Donny (Colin C. Berry) arrives at the scene and all five teens take Jasmine and the unconscious and bleeding Keith back home and debate whether to call 911. Keira hangs up the phone when Keith awakes but a colleague at the hospital tells Sue that there was a hang up call to 911 from her house. Sue leaves to investigate. Meanwhile, at the house, Glory again professes her love to Keith but he rejects her, saying she is crazy to think he would leave with her. She tells him that she's pregnant, which shocks everyone.

The teens disperse. Donny drives Glory, Gruber and Lisa home. As Glory sits crying, Donny holds her and comforts her. Keith's wife returns home, shocked at the mess and her husband's injury. Keith lies to her, telling her it was Lenny how injured him. She calls the police, which leads Lenny to punch him out. Lisa leaves for her religious boarding school where she still seems to be freaky. Donny and a pregnant Glory begin to date. Keira ends up going to college and knows she's going to enjoy it...

Cast

David Boreanaz as Keith Clark Caroline Dhavernas as Keira St-George Holly Lewis as Lisa MacDougall Amanda Walsh as Glory Lorraine Colin C. Berry as Donny Chesniak Donnell MacKenzie as Gordon Gruber *Paul Spence as Lenny

U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Charles 'Chappy' Sinclair and his friends Ernst Leichmann, Palmer and Horikoshi run a classic World War II aircraft exhibition at an air show, where they stage dogfights by shooting each other with paint pellets and are "shot down" by landing with smoke emissions. Upon hearing that an old friend named Ramon Morales was killed in a crash in the Gulf of Mexico, Chappy is summoned to Lethridge Air Force Base in Brownsville, Texas, where the remains of Ramon's plane are being examined. Chappy mentions that among Ramon's surviving family members are his sister Anna, who graduated from UCLA on an athletic scholarship, and his father, the mayor of a small Peruvian village. It is discovered that Ramon was shot down while carrying several kilograms of cocaine, which places this case under DEA jurisdiction.

Meanwhile, in Izquitos Village in Peru, former Nazi captain Gustav Kleiss runs a drug cartel while holding Anna, the mayor's daughter, hostage. He is also being aided by USAF General Simms in delivering the drugs overseas. Simms has secretly sided with Kleiss after being informed that his airbase is to be closed down in a matter of months and his forces will be transferred to other bases, and that his command will be terminated and he desires to use his cut on a lavish retirement. As the cartel begins to smuggle their contraband in barrels disguised as U.S. Air Force property, Anna breaks free from her prison and sneaks into the cartel's cargo plane, telling her father she will return with help. After the plane lands in Lethridge, she meets up with Chappy, who informs her that Ramon was killed. She then begs for his help, as Kleiss will kill her family and everyone in the village in four days. Chappy goes to DEA Agent Warren Crawford, who offers to help him if Anna can pinpoint the cartel's location.

During an air exhibition, Chappy's P-38 Lightning is damaged after Leichman's Bf 109 is sabotaged with some live ammunition mixed with the paint rounds, nearly killing Chappy if not for his well-executed emergency landing. Seeing that someone in the Air Force wants him out of the equation, he and his flight team rush to Anna's apartment, where she gives him the location of Kleiss' cartel. The information is handed to Crawford, who finds nothing from surveillance cameras. Following Ramon's funeral, Chappy's friends decide to join him on his flight to Peru. Chappy also convinces air show promoter Stockman to loan him the four World War II planes, promising to return them without a scratch. For this mission, the planes are retrofitted with laser-guided missiles, with Anna providing the targeting from the ground.

Anna and Stockman land in Peru, only to discover that Tee Vee, her landlord, has stowed away during the flight. The mission is compromised when Tee Vee is caught and he and the laser targeting equipment are taken back into the hideout, prompting Kleiss to order his fighter planes to scramble and shoot down the four veteran aces. As the aces fend off the enemy jets, Anna sneaks into the prison compound, frees Tee Vee and recovers the equipment, while at the same time rallies the villagers to revolt against the cartel. Palmer's Spitfire is shot down during a dogfight, but Chappy manages to destroy the cocaine factory. As Simms takes off with a shipment in his cargo aircraft, DEA helicopters led by Warren arrive to assist the aces. Meanwhile, Anna has the villagers safe in the church, only to find out that it has been rigged with explosives. The villagers escape before the church is blown up.

Chappy and Horikoshi pursue the cargo aircraft. After sustaining heavy damage, Horikoshi's Mitsubishi Zero does a kamikaze run that destroys the cargo aircraft, killing himself and Simms. Kleiss arrives at the scene with a prototype Messerschmitt 263, shooting down Leichmann's aircraft. Chappy, however, outsmarts Kleiss with an inverted roll aided by booster rockets before destroying the prototype jet. Kleiss ejects from his jet and lands in the jungle, where he attempts to bribe Anna into taking the jeep behind her, only to be impaled by a spring-loaded Punji stick trap.

Back in Texas, Chappy, Anna and the surviving aces celebrate with a barbecue. Stockman informs Chappy that the Air Force has given him a fleet of mothballed F-86 Sabres to replace the destroyed aircraft, and for him to shut up about the cartel incident. Chappy is also told that the P-38 Lightning is now his; he decides to name it "Shadow Warrior" in honor of Horikoshi.

Jesse W. Heywood graduates from dental school in Philadelphia in 1870 and goes west to become a frontier dentist. As a "city slicker", he finds himself bungling in a new environment.

On his way west, his stagecoach is held up and robbed by two masked bandits. A posse catches one of them, Penelope "Bad Penny" Cushing. Facing prison, Penelope is offered a pardon if she will track down a ring of gun smugglers that also involves a local Indian tribe. Because the wagon train she plans to accompany will not permit single women to join, she tricks Heywood into a sham marriage.

Jesse, excited for his wedding night and not realizing that his marriage is a sham, looks for Penelope, who is investigating crates of "Bibles" that the Preacher and his minion have in their tent. Jesse startles Penelope, alerting the camp. Her investigation foiled, she goes to bed dragging along her bungling husband.

As the wagon train draws near the town, Indians attack. Jesse fumbles with his six-shooter, but Penelope expertly shoots the attackers. Jesse, believing that he was responsible, is proud of his accomplishment and is treated as a hero by the wagon train and the entire town, which hears of his deeds.

The Preacher, believing Jesse to be an undercover federal agent, hires the local outlaw Arnold the Kid to challenge Jesse to a gunfight. Jesse practices for the gunfight while Penelope meets her contact in town. Around the corner, Arnold listens for Jesse to use up his rounds, and after the sixth shot challenges Jesse, even offering him the first shot. Penelope, feeling pity for Jesse, shoots Arnold from a window. With the killing of Arnold the Kid, Heywood becomes the legendary "Doc the Heywood".

Later that night, Penelope leaves to search the church where the Preacher resides, but Jesse confronts her and demands to know where she is going. Penelope explains her situation and Jesse offers his help, believing himself to be a crack shot. Penelope, not wanting Jesse to hurt himself, tells him the truth about her assistance on the wagon train and with Arnold. Penelope leaves, apologizing to Jesse, who is heartbroken.

Penelope investigates the church and is kidnapped by the Preacher and his minion, who take her to the Indian village outside of town. Meanwhile, Jesse walks into the saloon and admits the truth of his deeds to the town, who laugh at him. As a drunken Jesse stumbles out of the saloon, he sees Penelope being taken out of town by the Preacher. Jesse follows them to the Indian village to save Penelope.

In disguise as an Indian woman, Jesse frees Penelope but suggests they wait for the entire village to get even more drunk before making their escape. Eventually Jesse is discovered and the Preacher and his minion challenge Jesse to a gunfight. Jesse is confident because he knows Penelope is armed and ready in the shadows. As Penelope sets her sights, she is grabbed by two marshals who have come to the village to save her. Two gun shots ring out and Penelope leaves the village, crestfallen, yet Jesse stands victorious with the Preacher and his minion shot dead. Jesse is surrounded by the rest of the village and appears doomed.

Back at the town, the gates are barred and the townspeople prepare for a battle. To everyone's surprise, Jesse rides with the Chief at his side and the remainder of the tribe behind them. Jesse has made peace with the Chief and replaced his missing teeth. He orders the Chief a rare steak and is reunited with Penelope, who hugs him.

Part 1

A minor earthquake in Seattle forms the trigger to a magnitude 10.5 earthquake which destroys San Francisco and then Los Angeles. The earthquake creates fault lines in the sea floor, which in turn creates a massive tsunami which capsizes a large cruise ship (which heavily resembles the ''Queen Mary 2'') and causes massive damage to Honolulu, Hawaii. It turns out to be only the first of a series of seismic events, including the awakening of an extinct volcano in Sun Valley, Idaho and sudden instability of aquifers in Monument Valley. Deforestation takes place at Kings Peak, Utah, and Hoover Dam in Boulder City, Nevada collapses when Lake Mead starts to heat up and expand beyond the spillway's capacity. Las Vegas, Nevada is then destroyed when acidic water undermines underground limestone, creating a massive sinkhole which causes many buildings to simply sink into the sand. The worst of the seismic events is a massive fault which opens up under South Dakota, destroying Mount Rushmore in the process, and begins to travel southward towards the Gulf of Mexico.

The geologists at the United States Geological Survey in Colorado do not understand why seismic events that are very rare or impossible would be happening so rapidly, but Dr. Samantha Hill remembers that her father had once theorized that the Earth's tectonic plates would reach a point of maximum separation, at which point they would reverse direction. The theory also states that related seismic activity would be vastly accelerated during the initial period of reversal. However, Dr. Earl Hill had been ostracized by the USGS for that theory, and had abandoned geology to become a successful professional poker player. When Las Vegas sinks into the ground, he is caught in the casino of the (fictional) Atlas Hotel. Samantha concludes that the massive faultline traveling towards the Gulf of Mexico threatens to re-create the Western Interior Seaway when it reaches the ocean.

Part 2

The second part of the miniseries begins with Dr. Hill's rescue from the ruins of the Atlas Hotel just before it is swallowed up completely. At the same time, a massive fault line forms in North Dakota, passing through South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma. If it reaches Houston, Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, as predicted, the Midwestern United States will be covered by a new ocean. A massive evacuation of the region is ordered, as an earthquake strikes Sedona, Arizona destroying the Chapel of the Holy Cross in the process. However, a nuclear plant in fictional Red Plains, Texas, is right in the fault's path. If it is destroyed, the entire area and hundreds of miles around will be contaminated by nuclear waste.

Dr. Earl Hill comes up with a desperate plan to divert the fault around the nuclear plant by opening up a secondary fault running east, by a controlled demolition which explosively ignites the massive natural gas reserves in the area. The main fault follows the new path around Red Plains, saving the nuclear plant, and comes to a halt. The scientists at the USGS cheer, only to find that nothing can stop the fault altogether. Once again it turns south, slicing through the middle of Houston to reach the Gulf of Mexico, while the northern end of the fault reaches Hudson Bay. However, the end result of the fault is different from what the USGS had expected: when the waters rush into the fault, instead of flooding the entire area, they create a new riverlike seaway that splits the United States and Canada in half. The President declares that although the country is now divided geographically, the American people will not be divided spiritually.

In Texas in 1932, after stopping her youngest daughter's wedding, Wilma McClatchie (Dickinson) takes over her late lover's bootlegging business, but gets caught while doing the delivery route with her two daughters. After handing over all her money and her ring to the sheriff, they are let go and she begins her crime spree.

While Wilma is at a bank trying to cash a fake check, the bank is held up by Fred Diller (Skerritt) and his gang. In the melee, Wilma and her daughters, Polly (Robbie Lee) and Billie Jean (Susan Sennett), grab some money bags from behind the counter and escape, but not before Diller gets in their automobile and leaves with them. Afterwards, they decide to pair up, and Diller and Wilma also become lovers.

During a subsequent con, Wilma meets the refined yet dishonest gambler William J. Baxter (Shatner) and falls for him. He joins the group and becomes Wilma's lover, much to the chagrin of Diller. The gang proceeds with several more heists, each time getting more money. Eventually, they kidnap the daughter of a millionaire in hopes of getting rich off the ransom. When the ransom is paid, federal agents who had been tracking them arrive with the police.

Baxter is captured, but Wilma, Polly, and Billie Jean escape with the suitcase full of money, and Diller stays behind, providing cover with his Tommy gun, which he uses to kill the handcuffed Baxter, who had been working as an informant with the agents. As the three women drive off, the mortally wounded Wilma's bloodied left arm is seen hanging down on the left side of the car.

In the 1950s, Win Berry and his wife have five children, John, Franny, Frank, Lilly, and Egg. The Berrys decide to open a hotel near the prep school that John, Franny, and Frank attend; they call it the Hotel New Hampshire.

John loses his virginity to the hotel waitress. Frank comes out to Franny and John. Franny is raped by big man on campus Chip Dove and his buddies, and is rescued by Junior Jones and other black members of the football team. John confesses that he's in love with her. The family dog, Sorrow, dies and Frank has him stuffed. Sorrow's reappearance at Christmas causes grandfather Iowa Bob to suffer a fatal heart attack.

A letter arrives from their friend Freud, inviting the Berrys to move to Vienna and run Freud's gasthaus. The family flies to Europe; tragically, the plane carrying Mrs. Berry and Egg explodes, killing them. In Vienna, the family moves into the gasthaus and renames it Hotel New Hampshire.

An upper floor houses prostitutes and the basement is occupied by various political radicals. Assisting Freud, who has gone blind, is Susie the Bear, a young lesbian who lives her life almost completely in a bear costume. One of the radicals, Ernst, resembles Chip Dove and Franny becomes infatuated with him. Susie and John, who are both in love with Franny, try to keep her away from him. Susie is initially successful in seducing Franny, who soon ends up with Ernst. Lilly, now an adult but still in a 13-year-old body, begins writing a novel called ''Trying to Grow''.

Miss Miscarriage, a radical, grows very fond of the family, and especially of Lilly. She invites John to hers, sleeping with him, then warns him to get the family out of Vienna. For her trouble, another of the radicals murders her. Back at the hotel, John and the rest of the family are caught up in the radicals' plan to blow up the Vienna State Opera with a car bomb. The blind Freud, to spare the family, volunteers to drive with one of the radicals. As he leaves, the Berrys attack the remaining radicals and Freud detonates the bomb right outside the hotel. Ernst is killed and Win is blinded in the explosion.

Hailed as heroes by the Austrians, the Berry family decides to return home. Lilly's novel is published and the interest in the Berrys' story leads to a biopic, written by Lilly and starring Franny as herself. The Berrys are in New York City when John and Susie run into Chipper Dove on the streets. The group lure him to Franny's hotel suite and take their revenge upon him, until Franny calls it off.

Meanwhile, John's love for Franny has not abated. She finally calls him over to her room, and hoping to get him over it once and for all, has sex with him for almost a day. Franny's Hollywood career is beginning to take off, with Frank acting as her agent and with Junior Jones back in the picture. Lilly's writing career has stalled, and depressed and suffering from writer's block, she commits suicide.

Later, John is staying with his father at the latest Hotel New Hampshire, which stands empty. Susie comes to stay with them and she and John become involved. Win heartily approves because, as he puts it, every hotel needs a bear.

The game is set in 16th century Japan during the Sengoku period. After a young Kurenai witnessed the brutal execution of her father Ryo by the Black Lizard clan, the girl herself was brutally hung with a tetsugen from a tree and left to die. Miraculously, she survived and was rescued and adopted into a ninja clan where she obtains complete mastery of her adopted weapon, the tetsugen. Pledging her undying loyalty to her new family, Kurenai now lives to avenge her father's death and will go to any means necessary.

The Combine, a multidimensional empire which has enslaved Earth, has used the destruction of their Citadel to open a massive portal. This will allow them to summon reinforcements and destroy the Resistance. In the mountains outside City 17, Resistance fighters Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance escape the wreckage of the train they used to escape the city. At an old transmission station, they establish communication with resistance scientists Dr. Kleiner and Eli Vance at the White Forest base. They learn that the Resistance may be able to close the portal using a copy of a Combine transmission Alyx is carrying.

At an abandoned mine, Alyx is critically wounded by a Combine Hunter. A vortigaunt leads them to an underground Resistance shelter. Gordon recovers larval extract from a nearby antlion colony, necessary for the vortigaunts to heal Alyx. While the vortigaunts are preoccupied healing her, the mysterious G-Man contacts Gordon and hints at Alyx's importance to his plans; he revealed that he saved her life at the Black Mesa Research Facility despite objections from an unspecified third party. He instructs the unconscious Alyx to tell her father to "prepare for unforeseen consequences".

After Alyx recovers, she and Gordon proceed in an old Resistance vehicle, battling Combine troops and surviving an encounter with a Combine Advisor, a high-ranking Combine alien with powerful psychic abilities. At White Forest, they are reunited with Dr. Kleiner, Eli, and Alyx's pet robot Dog. Gordon is introduced to the egotistical Dr. Arne Magnusson. The scientists are preparing a rocket which they plan to use with the Combine portal code and the satellite array launched by Gordon at Black Mesa to close the Combine portal.

After Gordon fends off a Combine attack on the base, Alyx gives Dr. Kleiner the message from Judith Mossman recovered at the Citadel. It contains footage and the coordinates of the ''Borealis'', an Aperture Science research vessel built within an icebreaker similar to the USCGC ''Healy'', Kleiner explains, vanished along with part of the surrounding drydock. Kleiner insists that it should be used to aid the Resistance effort, while Eli counters that it is impossible to control and must be destroyed. They agree that Alyx and Gordon will travel to the ''Borealis'' and attempt to find Mossman.

Alyx unconsciously delivers the G-Man's message to her father, troubling him. Alone with Gordon, Eli reveals that it was the G-Man who provided the test sample that caused the Black Mesa incident, and that he whispered the same warning to him as Gordon entered the test chamber. He promises to explain more after the portal is closed.

While the scientists prepare the rocket, White Forest comes under attack by the Combine. Gordon destroys the attacking Striders using experimental explosive charges created by Magnusson. The scientists launch the rocket and close the portal, trapping Combine forces on Earth. Alyx and Gordon prepare to leave for the ''Borealis'' and Eli warns Gordon about the ship's "cargo". The three head to a hangar, intending to board a helicopter, but two Advisors burst into the hangar and restrain them. As Eli tries to free them, he is killed by one of the Advisors. As the second one prepares to kill Alyx, Dog bursts in and chases the Advisors away. Alyx, sobbing, clutches her father's body.

The film (often categorized as a tragicomedy, but the comedic elements are limited) concerns two Israeli car salesmen who initially think the world is their oyster after a rare 1985 Lincoln Continental limousine – curiously with Quebec license plates (perhaps a nod to the largely Québécois production crew, although real plates in Quebec are actually only available in the rear of a car, not the front like in the film) – falls into their laps at their used-car dealership in Tel Aviv. After reviewing a publication by the corporate German dealership Auto Decker in Düsseldorf, they are led to believe that the car could net them as much as €50,000 and sail with the vehicle to Germany in order to sell it. While learning that the task may not be as easy as hoped, they are also confronted with a number of emotional episodes. Shmuel (portrayed by Avi Kushnir) is an Ashkenazi Jew, whose parents were Holocaust survivors, and is surprised to find how affected he is by the voyage. His companion Siso (played by Moshe Ivgy) is a Mizrahi Jew of modest means who, unlike his companion, has no working knowledge of English (spoken routinely by Shmuel to the various German characters they encounter), and is therefore often overwhelmed and confused during their experience. To Siso, Shmuel's history is largely unknown, and a tragic curiosity.

The dialogue between Siso and Shmuel is in Hebrew, but due to the circumstances, much of the film is also in English and German.

Nomad (Patrick Swayze), a swordsman, wanders through the desert in a post-World War III world. He searches for his mentor's killer, the assassin Sho (Christopher Neame). In the past, Nomad had a position of privilege as a soldier of the elite guard. Nomad's family were killed and this continues to torture him. Nomad encounters a group of settlers in the town of Meridian. Damnil (Anthony Zerbe), a local landowner, and his gang are attacking the town to gain a monopoly on the local water supply. Nomad stays at a local farm owned by the widow Kasha (Lisa Niemi). She has a son, Jux, who quickly endears himself to Nomad. Kasha reveals to Nomad that she has a source of pure water under her land and plans to eventually irrigate the whole valley.

Nomad teams up with Kasha's foreman, Tark (Brion James), to oppose Damnil and his bullying tactics. Meanwhile, Nomad and Kasha's relationship becomes romantic. Sho and some of Damnil's men show up in town, leading to Sho and Nomad having a brutal staff fight. Tark gets in the way and is stabbed in the abdomen by Sho and dies. Jux is kidnapped by Damnil's men. Nomad plans to rescue Jux, but is locked in a safe with his sword by Kasha. She goes to Damnil's farm alone, offering to reveal her source of water if they free Jux. A stand-off ensues, allowing Jux to escape. As Damnil's men chase him down, Nomad comes just in time to save Jux's life. Nomad and Jux return to Damnil's farm to rescue Kasha. Nomad has a final battle with Sho. Nomad is victorious and kills Damnil as well. The valley begins Kasha's irrigation project. Nomad bids farewell to Kasha and Jux. They watch as he walks into the desert.

The film, made in wartime, celebrates the work of the Stage Door Canteen, created in New York City as a recreational center for both American and Allied servicemen on leave to socialize with, be entertained or served by Broadway celebrities. The storyline follows several women who volunteer for the Canteen and must adhere to strict rules of conduct, the most important of which is that their job is to provide friendly companionship to and be dance partners for the (often nervous) men who are soon to be sent into combat. No romantic fraternization is allowed. Eileen is a volunteer who confesses to only becoming involved in the Canteen in order to be discovered by one of the Hollywood stars in attendance. She ultimately finds herself falling in love with one of the soldiers.

Cosmo Reif, an affectless mob bookie who lives in the basement of a retirement home, is promoted to hitman against his will. He learns his new trade from Steve, a seasoned killer, and proves to be a natural marksman despite having no experience with firearms. He falls in love with a yoga teacher, Jasmine, and must figure out a way to leave the mob so they can be together.

The cycle follows the life of Kristin Lavransdatter, a fictitious Norwegian woman living in the 14th century. Kristin grows up in Sel in the Gudbrand Valley, the daughter of a well-respected and affluent farmer. She experiences a number of conflicts in her relationships with her parents, and her husband, in medieval Norway.

''The Wreath''

Kristin Lavransdatter is the daughter of Lavrans, a charismatic, respected nobleman in a rural area of Norway, and his wife Ragnfrid, who suffers from depression after the loss of three infant sons and the crippling of her younger daughter Ulvhild in an accident. Raised in a loving and devoutly religious family, Kristin develops a sensitive but wilful character, defying her family in small and large ways. At an early age, she is exposed to various tragedies. After an attempted rape raises questions about her reputation, she is sent to Nonneseter Abbey, Oslo, a Benedictine nunnery, which proves to be a turning point in her life.

Despite being betrothed to a neighboring landowner's son, Simon Darre, Kristin falls in love with Erlend Nikulaussøn, from the estate of Husaby in Trøndelag. Erlend has been excommunicated by the Catholic Church for openly cohabitating with Eline, the wife of a prominent judge; Eline left her elderly husband to live with Erlend, flouting both religious and social law. They have had two children together, Orm and Margret, who have no legal rights since they were born of an adulterous relationship.

Erlend and Kristin begin a passionate romance which is sealed with Erlend's seduction of Kristin and their eventual complicity in Eline's death, both grievous sins in the eyes of Church and State. Lavrans forbids their relationship, but after three years of Kristin's defiance and the death of Ulvhild, he no longer has the strength to oppose Kristin. He consents to her marriage to Erlend. Erlend and Kristin are formally betrothed, but she becomes pregnant before the wedding. Out of shame, she keeps this a secret from everyone, including Erlend, and is wed with her hair loose and wearing the family bridal crown —- privileges reserved for virgin brides.

This section of the trilogy is named for the golden wreath Kristin wears as a young girl, which is reserved for virgins of noble family. It symbolizes her innocent life before she meets Erlend; after he seduces her, she is no longer entitled to wear it, but does so out of fear of her sin coming to light.

''The Wife''

The second book opens with Kristin's arrival at Husaby. She is suffering from remorse for her sins and fears for her unborn child. Her relationship with Erlend is no longer the careless one of days past, as she can see that he is impetuous and wasteful of his possessions although his passion for her is unchanged. She gives birth to a son, Nikulaus (Naakkve for short), who to her surprise is healthy and whole in spite of the circumstances of his conception.

After confessing to her parish priest, Kristin undertakes a pilgrimage to St. Olav's shrine in Trondheim to do penance and give thanks for her son's birth. She donates her golden wreath, which she wore undeservedly after her seduction by Erlend, to the shrine.

Over the following years, Kristin and Erlend have six more sons together and Kristin becomes the head of the household. She must deal with her husband's weaknesses while running the estate, raising her children as well as those of Erlend's former mistress, and trying to remain faithful to her religion. During these years, her parents die and her remaining sister Ramborg is married to Simon Darre, although he secretly still loves Kristin. Ramborg is only fourteen when she is married, but has pushed for this wedding as she has loved Simon since her childhood. She understands little about what marriage means, particularly to a man who has been in love with someone else for many years.

Erlend becomes a leader in a plot to depose the king and install the last king's son on the throne. During this time, in part to spite Kristin's coldness towards him, he has a one-night affair with another woman, who finds letters on him related to the plot and turns him into the authorities. The plot, which would likely have succeeded and elevated Erlend and his sons among the nobility, is thus foiled by Erlend's impetuousness. Through the efforts of Kristin's former fiancé, Simon, his life is spared but his property must be forfeited to the crown. Husaby is lost to them and Erlend's sons are left without an inheritance. The only property left to the family is Kristin's childhood farm, Jørundgård.

''The Cross''

Kristin, Erlend, and their children return to Jørundgård but fail to gain the acceptance of the community. Hardship forges strong family bonds and highlights Kristin's sense of obligations to her family and her faith. However, she and Erlend become estranged from Simon and Ramborg after Erlend and Ramborg become aware that Simon has never ceased to love Kristin.

Kristin becomes increasingly concerned about the future of her sons now that Erlend has lost their inheritance. After a fierce argument on this subject in which she compares him unfavorably with her father, who had preserved his estate and inheritance even as more and more farmers around him were taking on debts and losing their land to the crown, Erlend leaves the manor and settles at Haugen, the former home of his aunt Aashild and the place where she was murdered by her husband.

He and Kristin reunite there briefly during his absence after the dying Simon extracts a promise from Kristin to ask Erlend's forgiveness for her harsh words. They conceive an eighth son together, but Erlend refuses to return to the manor, instead insisting Kristin must move to Haugen to be with him. Kristin is very angry and hurt, and when she gives birth, she names her son Erlend. This is a terrible breach of custom, as local superstition maintains that children must not be named after living relatives or one of the two will die. In this way, she demonstrates that she considers her husband dead to her. The superstition is borne out, as the child weakens from the time he is given his father's name and soon dies.

Due to the jealousy of her foreman's estranged wife, Kristin is publicly accused of adultery and complicity in the death of her child. Her sons rally around her, and Lavrans rides to inform Erlend. Erlend immediately sets out for Jorundgård, but upon his return to the farm he is slain in a confrontation with the locals and dies, without a confession to the priest, in Kristin's arms after asserting her innocence.

After handing the farm over to her third son and his wife, Kristin returns to Trondheim, where she is accepted as a lay member of Rein Abbey. When the Black Death arrives in Norway in 1349, Kristin dedicates herself to nursing the ill. Shortly after she learns that her two eldest sons have succumbed to the plague, she herself succumbs to the plague, but not before performing a final good deed which allows her to die in peace.

Related works

Undset wrote a tetralogy, "The Master of Hestviken", which takes place around the same time as Kristin Lavransdatter. Kristin's parents make a brief appearance in this book, near the end of the part called "The Snake Pit". They are depicted as young married people, playing with their baby son. They are a happy and prosperous couple at their first home in Skog, before Kristin's birth. The unfortunate life of Olav, the main character of "The Master of Hestviken", stands in stark contrast to the happiness and good fortune of the young couple, though Kristin's parents eventually lose all their sons in infancy, and suffer many other misfortunes and sorrows.

''Johnny, My Friend'' is narrated by 12-year-old Krille. Krille is a naive youth, having grown up in a safe, supporting family in 1950s Stockholm. A new boy, Johnny, appears in Krille's life, and quickly impresses the neighborhood boys with his bicycling prowess. His popularity aside, Johnny is a bit of a mystery, rarely saying anything about his life. The boys of the neighborhood do not know where he lives, and sometimes he disappears for long periods, only to turn up again without explanation. Krille determines to solve the mystery of Johnny.

The movie, following the plot of the book by the same name, starts with young teenager Claudia Kinkaid feeling unappreciated at her home in New Jersey, so she decides to run away, taking along her younger brother Jamie. They run away to New York City, and end up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They stay in the museum for several nights, sleeping in beds featured in the museum, hiding from museum guards, and bathing in the fountain. For money, they grab coins out of the bottom of the fountain and use them to get food out of the vending machine. Eventually, Claudia finds a statue of an angel she believes was carved by Michelangelo, so she decides to find the previous owner of the statue. This owner, Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, tells Claudia and Jamie that she will leave them the secret of the angel statue in her will if they give her a full account of their adventure.

The story is told through the eyes of Stanley Mitchell, a thirteen-year-old boy, the younger of two children. The Mitchells are the owners and proprietors of the only drive-in theater in Dumont. Stanley discovers a tin box containing a collection of troubled love letters that ultimately lead him to a burned-out house, the mysterious deaths of two young women and various secrets that the Dumont leaders would prefer remain buried. Stanley's ally is Buster Smith, the projectionist at the drive-in theater, an elderly black man whose attempts to drown his demons in alcohol are doomed to failure, but who has a depth that only Stanley is aware of. In attempting to solve the mysteries of the deaths of the two women, Stanley exposes himself, his family and his friends, to danger.

Dr Raymond Akande is Wexford's new GP and one of the few Black British people in Kingsmarkham. When Akande's daughter goes missing, and a body of a young black woman is found, Wexford is confronted by his own prejudices.

In the near future (year 2029), the player takes the role of a young man who has attended a Christmas party in a newly developed hotel set in a Space Station. As the festivities proceed, problems arise with monsters running rampant across the Space Station. Most of the inhabitants are slaughtered and devoured, with the player character trapped in the Space Station's main control center and separated from his girlfriend, Naomi (Sayaka in the Japanese version). Elsewhere in the monster-infested hotel, the cocktail waitress Rio Hohenheim (voiced by Mariko Suzuki in the Japanese version and Kristen Miller in the English version) has been locked in a detention cell for her own safety during the assault. The player character, referred to as the operator, has access to all Space Station mechanics via the control room and is able to observe everything in the area through cameras. Noticing Rio as she attempts to contact the monitor room, the operator establishes contact through her headset, and assists her through the perils of the station, as well as to discover the mystery behind the threat.

After fighting their way through monsters and getting past difficult puzzles, Rio and the operator learn that the monsters are not aliens as previously thought – they are humans mutated through an attempt to recreate the Philosopher's Stone. This recreation, rather than healing someone, cursed them to stay alive, often mutating them beyond recognition. They also learn that the stone needed to be created in a zero-gravity environment and that the station is on a collision course with the Earth to return the stone for use as a weapon. Along the way, Rio meets with her father, now a disillusioned, disembodied brain in a jar incapable of recognizing her. The operator meets his girlfriend, who is the only mutant to keep their humanity. Both die moments after meeting them. In the end, Rio and the operator destroy the lead monster, and she meets the operator in person. She uses the operator's console to set the space station self-destruct to destroy the stone. As they escape, they are injured by various explosions, but make it to an escape pod without losing their lives. As Rio thanks the operator, the pod starts a descent towards earth.

The game has two story plots to play. One is "Team Kakeru" referring to the main heroes of the series, the other "Team Specter" which refers to enemy Specter and the monkeys. Each "team" has their own plot, which involves the same Gameplay, but the story has changed.

In "Team Kakeru" mode, the story starts with the main heroes gathering in Tokyo. The professor's computer program in the form of the character "Chall", alerts them of the disaster happening in the city. It is shown that Specter has joined forces with an alien race, to take over the world once more. However, it's later revealed that the "alien race" are mutant versions of the breed "Pipotron" which take the DNA of the Pipotron Monkeys, and uses it to create other creatures to help dominate the globe. The player is left to destroy any of the Specter's Robot's and Monkeys and restore order to the world. Once Specter has been defeated, monkeys run wild throughout the city, and the game takes a turn in a different direction, and the player is left to save the globe from being destroyed by mutant creatures around the world.

In "Team Specter", Specter is on vacation and is alerted by the Piposaru that the monkeys have started to take over the world, without his permission. He is shown that someone has created a Specter impostor, and Specter goes to save the world, before he is defeated. Once the impostor is defeated, it's revealed it was a Pipotron called "Meta" and it can take form of any living creature. The Pipotrons used Meta to take control of the monkeys, and now that he is gone, the monkeys have gone wild throughout Tokyo, and mutant creatures have taken over the city. It's now up to Specter and his team to save the world.

Wanda Nash (Carole Lombard), an actress from Brooklyn, decides to masquerade as "Princess Olga" from Sweden in order to land a film contract with a big Hollywood studio. On board the liner ''Mammoth'' bound for New York, she runs into King Mantell (Fred MacMurray), a concertina-playing band leader with a criminal record in his past. Both are blackmailed by Robert M. Darcy (Porter Hall), and after Darcy is killed, they become two of the prime suspects for the murder, and must find the real killer before the five police detectives traveling on the ship can pin it on them.

Hercules is on the road to the court of King Pelias of Iolcus to tutor Pelias' son Prince Iphitus in the use of arms. Pelias' beautiful daughter Princess Iole updates Hercules on the history of her father's rise to power and the theft of the kingdom's greatest treasure, the Golden Fleece. Some suspect—and it eventually proves true—that King Pelias has acquired the throne through fratricide. Hercules and Iole are attracted to each other and a romance eventually develops.

King Pelias is warned by a oracle about a stranger wearing one sandal who will challenge his power. When his nephew Jason, the rightful King of Iolcus, arrives in town wearing one sandal, Pelias takes fright and packs him off to retrieve the Golden Fleece from the distant land of Colchis. Jason and Hercules sail aboard the Argo with their friends Ulysses and his father, Laertes, Argos, the twins Castor and Pollux, the lyre-strumming Orpheus, the physician Aesculapius and others.

After weathering a tempest at sea, the Argonauts dally in a lush garden-like country with Antea, the Queen of the Amazons and her ladies. Jason falls in love with Antea, but, when the Amazons plot the deaths of the heroes, Hercules forces Jason to board the Argo and secretly set sail in the night. On the shores of Colchis, the heroes battle hairy ape-men while Jason slays a dragon and retrieves the Golden Fleece. The Argonauts embark for home with their prize.

In Iolcus, the populace greet the returning heroes but Pelias and his henchman Eurysteus steal the Golden Fleece, deny Jason's claim, and plot his destruction. A tense battle between Pelias' forces and the heroes follows. Hercules halts Pelias' cavalry dead in its tracks by toppling the portico of the palace upon them. The defeated Pelias drinks poison. Jason ascends the throne while Hercules and Iole set sail for new adventures.

Subplots involve the death of Pelias' headstrong son Prince Iphitus, and exploits for Hercules resembling the Labors of the Nemean Lion and the Cretan Bull.

Desvendapur is an anti-social Thranx poet native to the colony on Willow-Wane who believes he can find new inspiration for his poetry by coming in contact with the physically repulsive humans, an intelligent mammal race that is unlike the insectoid thranx. Desvendapur's aspirations lead him to a secret thranx colony in the Amazon Basin on Earth where he meets a petty human thief turned murderer, Cheelo Montoya. Desvendapur is fascinated by the first native human he comes across so, with great resistance on the part of Montoya, chooses to follow the human, using him as the basis of a series of poems. The mismatched pair flee from the authorities and from a pair of poachers who wish to sell Desvendapur to a private zoo, and ultimately demonstrate how the two races can get along and work together on common challenges.

By the end, the unlikely pair find a mutual understanding. The Thranx colony in the Amazon Basin is revealed to the Earth community and the diplomatic beginnings of the Humanx Commonwealth are greatly accelerated. Montoya becomes a celebrity despite his unwillingness to be in the spotlight and Desvendapur's poems he composed during his time on Earth become wildly popular amongst the Thranx.

It has been twenty years since the chance meeting of street thug Cheelo Montoya and thranx poet Desvendapur revealed the insectoid alien colony hidden deep within the Amazon Basin, and not much has changed.

Humanity has recently discovered the planet Argus V, better known as Treetrunk, with the intention of colonizing the planet when their survey team is visited by a new alien race, the Pitar. At first the humans worry that the Pitar will want to lay claim to the planet, but instead of wanting to claim territory, the aliens instead simply want to observe the humans.

The Pitar are a close human analog to humans, appearing to be perfectly human except for a wider variety of hair and eye colors (including blue and violet among them) along with nearly god-like physiques. Most humans almost immediately view the Pitar as perfect. This complicated matters for the insectoid Thranx who wish to form a closer alliance with the humans. Some xenophobic humans go so far as to invade the small Thranx colony in the Amazon, killing many of the insect colonists. While this causes a political nightmare for both humans and Thranx, it also brings together the human chaplain and Thranx spiritual advisor who form the United Church.

While the three races continue their political dance, a massacre occurs on Treetrunk. All 600,000 humans are killed by unknown attackers who then leave the planet. After an extensive search for the murderers turns up no clue, a single survivor is found hiding in a lifeboat on the smaller of Treetrunk’s moons. Allwyn Mallory claims to have witnessed the massacre and has proof of the attacker’s identity, a memory sphere that recorded the Pitar not only killing the humans on Treetrunk, but also eviscerating the females for the reproductive organs.

At first the Pitar deny the accusation, claiming that a single man’s accusations are groundless, but presented with the video proof the few Pitar on Terra at first flee, then either commit suicide when confronted or attack the humans attempting to place them under arrest resulting in their deaths.

The humans form a space armada with the intention of bringing war and destruction to the Pitar’s twin homeworlds. As humanity has spent its resources on offensive technology in order to support an expansionist policy, the Pitar have focused their energies on defensive technology. Their twin planets and the two asteroid belts nearby are bristling with hidden armaments. The war quickly becomes a stalemate for the humans who, even with their new Thranx allies, cannot break through the heavily concentrated and well-backed Pitarian defenses.

After some cooperation between species, Thranx scientists develop a new weapon - the SCCAM missile — and a clever delivery platform called a "stingship." Both vehicles possess small Kurita-Kita drives - the same that enable interstellar travel. These are not large enough for interstellar flight, but certainly powerful enough to evade interception. A starship's defensive screens are powered by its KK drive. If two KK drive fields intersect, the result is that the vehicles containing those drives are ripped apart. The SCCAM is designed to do just this - as soon as the drive is activated, the laws of physics cause it to automatically dive into the closest active KK field, destroying whatever is generating it. In cases where a starship deactivates its KK drive in order to avoid being ripped apart, the SCCAM has a backup plan - it has already locked onto its target, and the nuclear warhead it carries is sufficiently powerful to complete the missile's work. Although individual stingships might be blasted out of the sky, they are deployed in such massive numbers that it would be impossible to stop them all; and so a small, two-person craft - one human and one Thranx - could take out an entire warship by itself.

This proves to be the tipping point of the war, though when a ground invasion of the Pitar’s homeworld was begun, the arrogant aliens refuse to surrender, fighting even when the obvious result would be death. None would willingly be taken alive, and those who were trapped either fought to the death or retreated into a voluntary, terminal madness. This results in the eventual extinction of the Pitar. Only after the Pitar are exterminated is it discovered why they had eviscerated the women on Treetrunk: they were an incredibly narcissistic people, and couldn't stand the thought of other life forms. They wished to exterminate humanity and all of the other races, who they viewed as inferior and undeserving of life. However, they were unable to produce enough offspring to mount such an attack. Their birth rate being the lowest of any sentient species in that area of the galaxy, they decided to use genetically modified human embryos to create Pitar fetuses. These would be gestated in the stolen uteri until they could be transplanted to suitable Pitar women. This would give them the strength needed to bring their genocidal plans to fruition.

Brought up in poverty, hotel manicurist Regi Allen wants to marry a rich husband. Her new client, wheelchair-using hotel guest Allen Macklyn is immediately attracted to her and becomes her confidant. Despite his obvious wealth, Regi does not view him as a potential husband, and has no qualms about telling him about her goal in life.

Exiting his penthouse suite, she encounters a man playing hop-scotch in the hallway, and declines his invitation to join him. He makes an appointment for a manicure as Theodore Drew III, scion of a socially prominent family. Unaware that the Drews were bankrupted by the Great Depression, she accepts his invitation to dinner.

They have a good time, but Ted drinks too much and tells Regi that he is engaged to Vivian Snowden, heiress to a pineapple fortune. When Regi is unable to wake him from his drunken slumber, she lets him sleep on her sofa. He explains to her that he was supposed to sail to Bermuda last night (a trip paid for by his future father-in-law) and that he has nowhere to stay and no money. Regi reluctantly lets him live in her apartment until his boat returns from Bermuda, at which time he can return to sponging off of Vivian. Ted and Regi confess to each other that they intend to marry for money.

Ted and Regi play pranks on each other. In the first one, Ted frightens away Regi's date by pretending to be her abusive husband. Later, in order to convince Vivian that he is in Bermuda, Ted persuades Regi to telephone Vivian while posing as a Bermuda telephone operator. When Regi repeatedly interrupts in a nasally voice, Ted hangs up to avoid laughing in his fiancee's hearing. However, this backfires, as Vivian discovers that the call came from New York when she tries to reconnect. She hires private investigators to find out what is going on.

In the course of their stay together, Ted and Regi fall in love. On their last night before the boat returns, they admit their mutual love, but Regi ends the relationship, insisting that Ted would resent having given up his chance to be wealthy if he were to marry her. Early the next morning, Ted leaves without saying goodbye.

Vivian has a nasty confrontation with Regi at the hotel. After Regi leaves and Ted shows up, Vivian makes it clear that she knows what happened, but is still willing to go through with the marriage. Ted, however, asks to be released from their engagement. Meanwhile, Regi goes to her regular appointment in Allen's suite, but breaks down in tears. Allen had intended to propose to her, but he secretly puts away his engagement ring after she confesses she has fallen in love despite herself. When Ted finds her there, she agrees to marry him. On a bus, Regi and Ted discuss what they should do first: eat lunch, get married, or find a job for Ted. They toss a coin to decide; Ted jokingly says he will get a job if it lands on its side. Sure enough, it does when it gets wedged in a manhole cover.

The film takes place over the course of a single evening. Tepper, played by Erik Palladino, finds a wallet on his way home from work. He contacts the owner of the wallet by telephone, and then later discovers that the wallet contains the winning ticket in a $6 million lottery.

Complications arise when Tepper's friends come over for their regular poker night. One of the conditions of the game is that everyone purchase a ticket for the lottery, to be thrown into the pot. The game is played as a freezeout, with the winner collecting all the tickets and any prizes they may be worth. When the owner of the wallet, played by James Earl Jones, arrives, he realizes that the winning ticket is in the pot, and stays to play in the game.

The story begins in Rome during late spring, AD 71. Marcus Didius Falco and a group of the Praetorian Guard under the captaincy of Julius Frontinus are disposing of a decomposing corpse. Secrecy is paramount because he was the victim of a discreet execution, having been guilty of treason against the Emperor.

In his position as imperial agent, Falco is involved with the tidying of the conspiracy (The Silver Pigs) and the emptying of the traitor's house. Anacrites and Momus are also involved with this. When Falco and Anacrites arrive at the Palace to report to the Emperor, Falco runs into the Senator Decimus Camillus Verus and his daughter, Helena Justina. He then reports to the Emperor, who wishes to destroy any evidence that his son, Domitian, was involved with the scheme.

When a freedman bursts in to inform the Emperor that the Temple of Hercules Gaditanus is on fire, Anacrites is sent to the Transtiberina to find a freedman (Barnabas) who has been following Falco around, whilst Falco is sent to investigate the arson attack. There he discovers that Curtius Longinus, who had been summoned to Rome to account for his role in the plot, has been killed in the fire. He returns to the palace to be informed that Anacrites had been unable to locate Barnabas, the freedman immediately becoming suspect in the arson and death.

Falco is then sent to Magna Graecia in southern Italy in search of Aulus Curtius Gordianus, the brother of Curtius Longinus, who may also be in danger from Barnabas. Arriving in Crotone, Falco is almost immediately caught up in a brawl in the marketplace, being rescued by Laesus, a ship's captain, with whom Falco then shares a meal at the mansio.

Falco finally tracks down Gordianus at the Temple of Hera at Cape Colonna and informs him of the death of his brother. While Gordianus spends several days in mourning, Falco stays on the beach with a goat previously intended as a sacrifice, before an acolyte at the Temple informs him that Gordianus has returned. Falco suggests that Gordianus accept a better post in Paestum. This would be a generous gift from Vespasian to get the senator back on side with the new regime, but it would also put Gordianus closer to Rome and make it easier for Vespasian to keep him in line in future. Barnabas is once more implicated in an attack on the Deputy Priest, apparently mistaking him for Gordianus who would normally have been conducting the ceremony, but Falco is forced to return to Rome without tracking him down.

At the end of June, Falco travels to the Bay of Neapolis. This time he is travelling in the company of his friend, Petronius, and Petronius' family, as well as his own nephew, Larius. This "holiday" is in fact a cover for Falco trying to track down Aufidius Crispus, a senator who had also been implicated in the plot. His plan is to masquerade as a plumber in the company of his nephew. In that guise they travel around various country estates.

One estate that they visit is that of Caprenius Marcellus. There they run once more into Helena Justina. She is visiting her father-in-law.

Due to the amorous nature of their ox, Nero, Falco and Larius are arrested in Herculaneum. They are taken to see the local magistrate, Aemilius Rufus. There they again meet Helena, as well as her friend, Rufus' sister. Falco becomes a harp tutor to the sister.

Falco manages to track down Aufidius Crispus at the Villa Poppaea, where the senator is hosting a sumptuous banquet in order to gain support for his future political moves. On their return they once again find traces of Barnabas, but the freedman has vanished. After several days, Falco catches up with him, only to discover that "Barnabas" is in fact Atius Pertinax, the ex-husband of Helena Justina, believed dead. It is made clear that Marcellus expects to re-marry his ex-wife.

Pertinax and Crispus flee Imperial questioning on Crispus' yacht, but Crispus is killed when the yacht is rammed by a trireme under the authority of Rufus. Pertinax escapes, returning to Rome and attempting to force Helena Justina to remarry him in order to regain his money. He is tricked and is finally killed by Falco.

In ''Poseidon's Gold'', Falco returns from a six-month mission to Germania Liberia, only to become embroiled in the after-effects of a scam by his now-deceased, older brother Festus. The story recounts shipping scams, crooked antiques auctions, and hired thugs, all while Falco is trying to clear his family's name and sort out Festus' business dealings.

In ''Last Act in Palmyra'', Falco takes on a new spying mission for Vespasian to the east of the Empire. He also plans to investigate the disappearance of a young musician, Sophrona. Falco and Helena Justina travel to Petra, where they encounter a theatre group who have just lost their playwright due to drowning. Joining them, Falco attempts to fulfill his various investigations, whilst at the same time write his new play, ''The Spook Who Spoke''.

In the third and concluding novel of this trilogy, an uncomfortable archaeological alliance of Thranx, humans, and AAnn, explores the well-kept secrets of the lost civilization of the Sauun on the frontier world Comagrave. After a series of accidents that occur where the AAnn are convenient for helping an injured or stranded human, the chief Thranx scientist starts suspecting an anti-Thranx conspiracy. Meanwhile, on the planet Dawn, such a conspiracy seems to be up and running, for terrorists there plan vicious destruction to crush the infant commonwealth. Unexpected players in this engrossing drama are the padres, human and Thranx, of the anything but dogmatic United Church, which ministers to both species with a decidedly untraditional religious outlook.

Turner and Snead are the two (self-declared) best pilots with United Space Mail. They are given the task of piloting a new ship, the ''Helios'', on a mail run from Earth to Venus. The ''Helios'' has been fitted with a new force field that allows it to deflect solar radiation around itself, so it can safely pass within twenty million miles of the Sun, cutting the length of the trip from the usual six months to two.

The field engages automatically as the ship approaches the Sun, but the two men discover to their dismay that in the absence of solar radiation, the temperature on the ship keeps dropping. The Deflection Field remains on until they leave the Sun's vicinity; by then, the temperature has fallen to minus forty degrees Fahrenheit.

When Turner and Snead finally reach Venus, they are furious and threaten to assault their supervisor. The latter explains that if they had read the written instructions he gave them, they would have known that they could adjust the intensity of the Deflection Field, thus allowing some solar radiation through and keeping the ship's internal temperature at near-normal.

In a Waco, Texas, diner, Cadillac Jack's, crazed killer Millard Findlemeyer opens fire on the Leigh family, killing Jeremy and James, but leaving Sarah and her mother, Betty, alive. Findlemeyer is arrested and sentenced to die in the electric chair. After the execution, Findlemeyer is cremated, and his ashes are sent to his mother, a witch who mixes the ashes with a gingerbread spice mix. The Bakery, a pastry shop run by the Leighs, is in dire straits, and Betty has been reduced to a shotgun-toting alcoholic; Sarah sends her home with Bakery employee Julia. Jimmy Dean attempts to buy Sarah out, so he can knock down The Bakery, which he bemoans as an eyesore. After exchanging hostilities with Dean's daughter Lorna, Sarah defers the decision.

Sarah and Brick Fields, another Bakery employee, find a mysterious gingerbread spice mix left at their doorstep by Findlemeyer's mother. They set to using the mix, but Brick cuts himself, unknowingly allowing his blood to pollute the dough. Sarah permits him to leave early so he can pursue his amateur wrestling career as The Butcher-Baker at Wrestlepalooza. She makes a large gingerbread man with the contaminated dough and puts it in an industrial oven to bake. Lorna has returned and planted a rat in The Bakery so the health department will shut them down, but is discovered by Sarah. A fight ensues, during which Lorna hits a switch that causes a surge of electricity into the oven where the gingerbread man is cooking, animating it.

Amos Cadbury, Lorna's boyfriend, who has gotten tired of waiting outside for her, arrives on the scene. Sarah removes the gingerbread man from the oven, at which point the newly dubbed "Gingerdead Man" leaps up, taunting them. They attempt to lock the living cookie in the freezer, and Sarah tries to call the police but the line is dead. Lorna calls her dad on Amos’s cell phone before the batteries go dead. Betty comes back to look for her stash of alcohol, and Julia comes back looking for Betty. Betty loses a finger and is put into the oven, while Julia is knocked out by a frying pan, encased in frosting, decorated, and left in the freezer.

Amos returns to his car and retrieves a handgun. Jimmy Dean arrives to pick up Lorna. While he investigates Amos’s car, the Gingerdead Man takes Jimmy's car and, using a rolling pin to operate the accelerator, kills him by pinning him between the car and a wall. Amos and Sarah discover and rescue Julia from the freezer. Sarah tells Amos that she thinks the killer cookie is Millard. Lorna waits outside for her father, but discovers only his body sprawled over the hood of his car. She steals his ring and heads back inside, where she triggers a tripwire that lodges a knife into her forehead, killing her.

Sarah and Amos admit their feelings for one another before they find Betty and attempt to rescue her from the oven, but the Gingerdead Man locks Sarah in the oven and knocks Amos out with a hammer. Amos recovers, shoots the oven door's lock off, and saves Sarah. Brick returns to help, but the Gingerdead Man grabs Amos's pistol and opens fire. Julia and Brick manage to subdue him, and Brick eats the cookie's head. Shortly afterwards, Brick is possessed by the Gingerdead Man. He attacks Sarah before she is rescued by Amos and Julia, who push Brick into the oven and turn the heat on full, finally killing him.

Several months later, Betty, Sarah, and Amos are having a bake sale to raise money for the hospital, with a little help from two nurses. Two kids ask if they have any gingerbread cookies, and one of the nurses tells them that an older lady stopped by and dropped some off. The nurse opens the box, revealing five gingerbread cookies, who open their eyes. One of the gingerbread cookies is bought by a woman, who also buys a box full of pastries and ships them to her sister in Los Angeles.

Two plotlines run through this crime novel. The main adult protagonist is John Creevey who stumbles upon a series of hidden coded messages which he thinks must be the work of criminals or spies. John is unhappy and depressed. His wife Jennifer has left him for Peter Mullin, her old fiancé, and he cannot accept that she will not return to him. He is still affected by the murder of his sister 16 years ago and Peter, her fiancé, is equally unhappy. John becomes obsessed by unravelling the codes, spending hours trying to break them.

The coded messages are, however, being left by rival groups of public schoolboys. These boys are emulating the world of the 1980s spy fiction with the home team led by 14-year-old Mungo battling against Moscow Centre, run by boys at a rival school. Mungo is over six feet tall and has inherited the leadership from his older brother. The groups have moles and traitors. One of Mungo's team is Charles Mabledene, another 14-year-old, but Mungo is not sure if he is really on their side and sets out to test him.

Jennifer and Peter come round to John's house in one of their attempts to get him to agree to a quick divorce and Colin, a friend of John's, recognises from when he was a juror. He tells John that Peter pleaded guilty to indecent assault on a male child under the age of thirteen. John wonders how he can use this information to turn Jennifer against Peter and is also worried because a 12-year-old boy has been abducted from where Peter and Jennifer live on an afternoon when Peter was on his own.

John decides to intercept and alter one of the messages and gives instructions for Peter to be investigated. The message is sent to Charles and he interprets this as being the loyalty test he is expecting.

John confronts Jennifer with his information on Peter saying, "You can't love a man who molests little boys", but Jennifer stays loyal to Peter, to help him and to protect other boys. John then tries to cancel his instructions to Charles, but Charles ignores the new message, knows it cannot be from Mungo who is on holiday, and reads it as a trap.

Charles goes to Peter's House and meets him on the pretext of offering to wash his car. He immediately senses that Peter is attracted to him. Charles looks very young for his age and tells Peter he is just twelve years old. He is just over five-foot, has blond hair, an unbroken voice and is quite aware he is very attractive. His father is always telling him not to talk to strange men. Peter suggests a meeting in town. After they sit down, he leans forward to brush ice cream off Charles' cheek yet Charles maintains a cool exterior. On a later trip to the cinema, Peter puts his arm around the boy's shoulder. After the cinema, they go to eat supper in a derelict building, one of the boys' ‘safe houses'. Peter makes advances to Charles, talking about a 'physically loving' friendship he had when he was Charles' age, and puts his hand on his thigh. Charles jumps up and in the subsequent panic, Peter is accidentally killed and Charles escapes, leaving a burning candle which destroys the building.

In the 1970s, an impoverished and intelligent thirty-seven-year-old Mexican-American woman Consuelo (Connie) Ramos, a resident of Spanish Harlem, is unfairly incarcerated in a New York mental hospital due to her supposed violent criminal tendencies. She had been recently released from a previous voluntary commitment in a mental institution after an episode of drug-related child neglect, which led her also to lose custody of her daughter. Connie is caught within the government welfare and child custody labyrinth of 1970s New York City. She is after the first scene recommitted involuntarily by her niece's pimp on grounds of violent behavior, after she strikes him in the course of protecting her niece, Dolly (Dolores), from him. Dolly had sought Connie's protection because she was being forced by the pimp into having an (illegal) abortion.

One of Connie's chief abilities is her perceptiveness and empathy. As a result, before being committed, Connie had for some time begun to communicate with ("receive" from) a figure from the future: an androgynous young woman named Luciente. Connie retains her visions and her connection, which become more and more real, even while heavily drugged in the mental hospital in New York, based loosely on Bellevue and other mental institutions from that period. Luciente is time-traveling from a future (the date is given as 2137), in which a number of goals of the political and social agenda of the late sixties' and early seventies' radical movements have been fulfilled. Environmental pollution, patriarchy, homelessness, homophobia, racism, ethnocentrism, phallogocentrism, sexism, class-subordination, food injustice, consumerism, imperialism, and totalitarianism have been effectively dealt with in this world, which is governmentally decentralized in a loose version of anarchism.

In contrast to the contemporary 1970s setting in an abusive mental institution where patients are labelled "violent," "incapable," "irrational," etc. on the basis of their response to an unjust and harshly stratified class-, race-, and gender-ridden society, future dwellers experience enormous personal freedom and train one another in self-control and ways of producing win-win results in all social situations. In particular, the subjects of volition and free will, mental institutionalization, and interference in others' willed actions are key to the vision of the utopian future. Connie is introduced by Luciente to the agrarian, communal community of Mattapoisett, where children grow up in a culture where they are encouraged to know themselves and their own minds and emotions thoroughly through practicing a type of meditation from an early age ("in-knowing"), in the service of social harmony and the ability to communicate with others without domination or subservience.

This classless, gender-neutral (non-gendered pronouns are used, notably "per" or "person" for "he/she/him/her"), racial-difference-affirming society is sketched in detail, including meeting and discussion structures that eliminate power differentials as much as possible, the extensive use of technology only for social goods, the replacement of business and corporate agendas with general planning for social justice and respect for all human beings' individuality. Disputes between towns and regions are settled peacefully through discussion and merit-based competition of ideas, with the winning parties being obliged to "throw a big party for" or otherwise conciliate the losers in each case, in order to maintain friendly relations.

A 70s emphasis on individual freedom can be seen at times: each person lives in a private tent or one-room home, and children develop outside the womb of an individual and are adopted by three "mothers" (of any gender) who guard and teach them only until puberty; every person chooses their own name, and can also choose their field of study and work, as well as when to disengage from their community, or join a new one; total freedom also applies to one's mental and emotional choices—in this future world one can check oneself into and out of the equivalent of a sanitorium at will, go into or out of various kinds of therapy, or take a mental break in some other way, and no other person has the right to choose this on one's behalf. One's field of work is self-chosen, and dicta apply to both one's life path and one's mental or emotional desires, needs, and capacities: "Per must not do what per cannot do" and "Per must do what per needs to do" are applied to both personal/emotional and professional life choices insofar as possible. There are limits to this utopia, which threaten always at the margins: the death penalty is imposed on occasion, and war is in the background, but both are considered extreme and unusual measures.

Connie learns tools of emotional and physical survival from Luciente and the future population of Mattapoisett, and comes to feel that she is living at an important time in history, and that she herself is in a pivotal position; her actions and decisions will determine the course of history. In particular, it is slowly revealed that Luciente's utopia is only one possible future; alternate futures are a possibility, and the novel shows us one example— a future consumerist, hyper-capitalist, environmentally sick and strictly classist, racist, and gender-stratified society in which a wealthy elite live on space platforms, sustaining themselves by dominating and exploiting the majority of the population through total control of knowledge and technology, personal control extending to physical "farming" of bodies (harvesting organs regularly) and the surgical control of moods through the use of psychotropic drugs. Women in this intensely violent, misogynistic and homophobic world are valued and "grown" solely for appearance and sexuality, and plastic surgery that gives women grotesquely exaggerated sexual features is commonplace.

It does not decide for the reader whether Connie's visions are by-products of her mental instability or are literal time-travel, but ultimately, Connie's confrontation with the future inspires her to violent revolt against her institutional captors. She uses her limited means, despite her very restricted situation, in a desperate and apparently heroic way to prevent the dissemination of the mind-control technology that makes the future dystopia possible, putting an end to the mind-control experiments and prevents the lobotomy operation that had been planned for her and hundreds of other imprisoned patients. Connie acts in the tradition of revolts by oppressed or subaltern classes to put a wrench into the system of oppression within which she is caught. Though her revolutionary action ensures her own permanent incarceration and possible death sentence, and may not ensure the existence of the Mattapoisett future, Connie nevertheless sees her act as a victory, and perhaps the reader is encouraged to agree: "I'm a dead woman now too. ... But I did fight them. ... I tried."

Inspector Wexford is asked to look into the disappearance of his Kingsmarkham neighbour, Rodney Williams. Since Joy Williams is dowdy, Wexford assumes at first that her middle-aged husband has simply left her for someone younger and more attractive. Three weeks later, when Williams' abandoned car is found vandalised in a nearby town and the suitcase of clothes he had left home with is discovered in a field pool, Wexford starts to suspect that there may have been a murder.

It eventually emerges that Williams was a bigamist who had been dividing his time between one home in Kingsmarkham and a second in the neighbouring town of Pomfret. Years before, he had married sixteen-year old Wendy there and now has a fifteen-year-old daughter Veronica, in addition to the eighteen-year-old Sara in his other home in Kingsmarkham. The two wives only find out about each other after Williams' body is discovered in a shallow grave. He has died from multiple stab wounds.

Things become more complicated when a number of young men are stabbed by teenaged girls belonging to a radical feminist group called ARRIA, whose logo is a human-headed raven. This has a large following in the local girls' schools, including those attended by relatives and friends of the two Williams families. One girl mentions to Wexford that it was not true that the two families did not know of each other since she had seen "those two women" together months before. However, intensive interviewing of Joy and Wendy Williams brings no confession, although the murder weapon is discovered plastered into a redecorated wall in Wendy’s living room.

After an ARRIA member whom he has interviewed is discovered strangled in the garden of the house where they hold their meetings, Wexford finally realises that someone in the group must have been involved in the Williams murder. His suspicion turns to Sara Williams, who claims she was raped by her father when younger, since she has the motive for hating him. Wexford baits a trap for Sara, using her half-sister Veronica, and it emerges that it was these two "women" (in the eyes of ARRIA) who had been meeting secretly for months. Sara is a fantasist who had used the excuse of warning Veronica against her father to dominate her and had then used her as an accomplice in helping dispose of Williams' body once she had murdered him.

The film centers around three very attractive women who, after having many guy troubles themselves, decide to play a prank on a random man. Their goal is to seduce the man while catching the whole sequence on tape and ultimately humiliating him with the footage. Their plan runs into some snags, as the man they choose to prank knows what they are trying to do to him.

A man named Mark Sellers (Bill Bellamy) then has sex with Andrea Collins (Vivica A. Fox) and Lauren (Carmen Electra) while they video tape the intercourse, only for him to change both tapes. He then goes on a date with Emily (Stacey Dash) only to fall in love with her after finding that they both have a lot in common and they ''"look good together"''. In the end, they admit everything to each other, and after five minutes of begging, disturbing a couple eating dinner who they think that they are on a hidden camera show, decide to forgive each other and start out clean and honest.

Valentino plays José Dalmarez, a Brazilian author who is also popular with readers in the United States.

In the opening scene, young Vera Blaine (Marguerite Namara) is walking through a park in Florida when she encounters Dalmarez. He gives her his photo, the back of which has a love poem. Enchanted, Vera later gives José a book that's similarly inscribed. José tells her he has to return to Brazil and invites her to accompany him. Excitedly, Vera reveals that she'll take her mother's wedding ring for the ceremony, but José clarifies that he was only inviting her to be his travel companion, not his wife.

Dalmarez proceeds to Brazil without Vera. In Brazil, he woos Inez Salles (Aileen Pringle, billed as Aileen Savage), the young daughter of a government official. Inez's protective brother, Alvarez, spies José and Inez kissing on a park bench; a fight ensues between the two men.

Dalmarez returns to the United States. To obtain information on criminal law for a book he's writing, Dalmarez stops Hugh Conway's law office. Dalmarez is surprised when Vera, who is now Hugh's wife, drops by. Hugh invites him to join them for dinner that evening, and Dalmarez offers to drive Vera home. During the drive home Dalmarez asks Vera how her husband would react if he read the notes she'd written during her earlier infatuation. Vera replies that he'd understand she was young and naive at the time, but Dalmarez expresses his doubts.

During dinner Hugh asks Dalmarez whether his new book is true to life. Dalmarez, casting the occasional side glance at Vera, replies: "I knew a girl who gave herself to a man in just the way I describe, and I could show you the letters and a book of poems to prove it."

When Dalmarez returns home he surprises his butler taking a nip from the liquor cabinet. The two begin to struggle, and the butler grabs a dagger Dalmarez has hanging on the wall. Dalmarez overpowers the older man, sends him away and places the dagger on his desk.

Vera arrives at Dalmarez's house to obtain the letters. He refuses to give them to her. She lunges for the place where they're concealed; Dalmarez grabs her and tries to kiss her. Struggling, she reaches down to the desk, picks up the dagger and strikes him in the face. He falls to the floor and she escapes, convinced she's killed him.

In the murder investigation, police note that facial scratches on the victim point to a female suspect. Realizing that a thorough investigation would find the notes she'd written, Vera slips into Dalmarez's house that night to retrieve the books and letters. She's followed by another person on a similar mission: Alvarez Salles, who traveled from Brazil to retrieve letters his sister had written to Dalmarez.

Alvarez tells police he came in the room and saw Dalmarez getting up off the floor. Alvarez admits to picking up the blade off the desk and delivering the fatal blow to Dalmarez, thereby clearing Vera of the murder.

18-year-old Annabel Hope Jayquith is both beautiful and famous in her world of wealth and prestige. Daughter to billionaire Hollings Jayquith and the deceased artist Eleanor Hope Jayquith, as well as niece to the famous television news anchor Theodora Jayquith, Annabel is fighting internal demons of loneliness and self-doubt. While at a charity event in Manhattan, she meets and falls in love with 22-year-old Daniel Madison Ransom. Daniel is the son of Senator Madison Ransom who was assassinated for trying to reveal a corrupt industry. Along with his mother, the insane Catherine Ransom, Daniel wants to reveal to the world the real killer, whom they believe is Hollings Jayquith himself.

Meanwhile, Theodora Jayquith’s illegitimate 18-year-old daughter Jade O’Keefe has discovered the identity of her real mother after the death of her foster parents, and is now on her way to Manhattan to confront her mother and gain the fortune she feels she has been denied. In another strand of the plot, a young man who goes by the name Alex arrives in Connecticut seeking to avenge the murder of his brother.

Annabel and Daniel meet again at their mutual friends Venice Pierce and Michael Theil’s wedding in Litchfield, Connecticut. He's a groomsman, she's a bridesmaid, and it seems to be a night of romance. Then Daniel reveals what he and his mother want to do, expose Hollings on his sister’s own show. Annabel, too shocked to speak, flees to her home to comfort herself. However, her solace is invaded by the entrance of Jade, who has used her likeness to Theodora to charm Hollings.

After a kidnapping and rescue, it develops that Annabel's father is innocent of the murder, and the story ends happily.

In Jamaica in 1718, a band of pirates led by Captain "Red" Ned Lynch oppose the greedy acting Governor, the evil Lord Durant. Durant has ruthlessly imprisoned his Lord High Justice (taking over the role himself) and mercilessly evicted the judge's wife and daughter. The daughter, Jane Barnet, attempts to assassinate Durant by paying Lynch to ambush him at the port.

The ambush fails, resulting in Jane and three of Lynch's crew being captured and sentenced to death. The other prisoners, including the judge, are also awaiting execution.

Lynch returns to the island and joins forces with the local inhabitants to overthrow the military forces and return everything Durant has stolen to its rightful owners. In the process Durant is killed by Lynch and all the prisoners are released.

Poodles Galore, the queen of cosmetics, has blasted an enormous aerosol (hairspray) space station into orbit and set it off. The constant blast of aerosol will deplete the entire ozone layer within a matter of hours, leaving the planet at the mercy of the ravaging sun; she herself will benefit from this because her cosmetics production company markets sunscreen at an SPF level of 2001. It's up to Spy Corps and their top agent, Spy Fox (voiced by Mike Madeoy).

This time around, the Mobile Command Center is located above the bowling alley, which Spy Fox can enter using the correct juke box number. After disguising as one of Poodles' bowlers, Spy Fox rescues the cosmetics expert Plato Pushpin who gives Spy Fox a list of items needed to create the congeal pill to disarm Poodle's hairspray can. Spy Fox heads to the hairspray can after procuring the vital ingredients. Spy Fox can enter Poodle's moonbase to turn off the forcefield so Spy Corps can take her in. Spy Fox must unlock the right fingernail design in order to turn it off. Afterwards, Monkey Penny can come right in and send Poodles away to jail.

The film follows the script of the play. George Barber (Tom McCamus) is a mathematician having strange dreams. He continuously meets a woman, Joyce (Tilda Swinton), at a bar. Sometimes, she is a scientist, sometimes she is a stockbroker, and she doesn't seem to remember him from a moment to another. He has also a dream about strange men who move stones here and there on a rocky waterfront. There is a man in this dream, the Guide (Gabriel Gascon), who is also a neuroscientist in real life.

The neuroscientist is interviewed by two detectives (Sean McCann and Rick Miller) about a serial killer stealing the brains of its victims. After agreeing to follow him on a beach, Joyce with George, sees a distant red light flickering on the ocean horizon. In the neuroscientist's lab, many brains are connected to red lights, indicating brain activity. The neuroscientist lies near a machine containing a brain and tries to influence the brain by thoughts.

George goes to see a doctor, who is the neuroscientist, about his strange dreams. The detectives arrest the neuroscientist, now understanding he is the one stealing brains for his experiments on consciousness. George's corpse was found without his brain, which is now kept artificially alive in the machine.

Joyce Barber is told her husband's brain is still alive but experiencing life in a discontinuous dream state. In the final scene, George and Joyce are again reunited on the beach, but this time the red light on the horizon goes out for good. It is suggested the real-life Joyce agreed to end George's consciousness out of compassion.

Andy Bowman persuades her sister Laura to go on a trip to Burma after Laura's husband and son were murdered during a home invasion and Laura had gone into a deep depression. One night, unable to sleep because of nightmares, Laura leaves her hotel in Rangoon and gets caught up in an anti-government protest. She is very impressed by the bravery of Aung San Suu Kyi.

When her tour group leaves the country, Laura cannot leave with them as her passport was stolen the previous night. While staying behind waiting for her new passport, she meets U Aung Ko, who acts as an unofficial tour guide and drives an ancient Chevy. He takes Laura out into the countryside to a Buddhist monastery. The car develops problems, but fortunately they are able to coast to the house of some of Ko's friends and former students. Laura learns that Ko used to be a college professor, who was banned from teaching because of his support for the anti-government activities led by his former student Min Han. She has a breakdown and tells Ko what happened to her family.

The next morning, they learn that the 8888 Uprising began the previous day. Ko takes Laura to a station to get a train back to Rangoon. She sneaks on board, but the soldiers start beating Ko, and when Min Han intervenes, Han is shot and killed. Laura gets Ko into the car and they leave, pursued by the soldiers, but Ko is shot and wounded. They end up crashing into the Irrawaddy River, but manage to get away from the soldiers. They get on a raft taking bamboo to Rangoon. Laura, who is a doctor, operates on Ko to remove the bullet.

The next day, the raft stops at a village. Laura goes to find drugs to treat Ko. She reluctantly accepts a pistol from one of the crew. At a clinic, Laura finds the drugs she needs, but has to shoot a soldier to keep from being raped. When they arrive in Rangoon, the city is in the throes of a full-scale revolt. When Laura attempts to get into the US embassy, the military tries to arrest her for helping Ko, but the student demonstrators rescue them. After they witness soldiers killing civilians, they get put on a truck heading for the border. Near the border, the group has to abandon their truck and make a run through the jungle. There they meet up with a group of Karen rebels. Laura has a dream where her son Danny tells her she has to let him go. Ko urges Laura to do so, telling her, "All things pass, Laura. They are shadows as we are shadows. Briefly walking the earth, and soon gone."

The next day, Laura and her group of refugees make a harrowing river crossing into Thailand under mortar fire and reach a refugee camp. Having found a new purpose in life, Laura begins helping at the camp's hospital.

Setting

''Code Age Commanders'' is set in an , a fictional hollow world similar to a Dyson sphere, with people living on its internal surface. The center of the sphere is occupied by the "Central Code", a spherical structure which goes through a transformation called "Reborn" about every ten thousand years, destroying all life on the globe and allowing for the birth of a new one.

The game begins near the end of a Central Code cycle, while mankind has learned about the impending disaster and built "Arks", flying stations intended to float in the sky and house most of them in a deep sleep state for the duration of the Reborn. The operation works for one hundred years before objects falling from the Central Code hit the Arks and cause them to crash to the surface. Its passengers die or awake, now at the mercy of those who remained on the ground as well as the Otellos; a new, warped species which arose from the dropped pieces of the Central Code. The Otellos seek humans to turn them into mindless puppets named "Coded", although the mutation fails on people from the Arks and results in free and extremely evolved hybrids called "Warheads".

Knowing this, several humans seek Otellos voluntarily to become Warheads and try to protect mankind with the powers gained from the mutation. Several armed factions form with differing points of view on the way to save the world, while the Reborn still has not been completed.

Characters

The events of the game unfold successively from the viewpoints of four different Warhead protagonists. The first one is Gene, a young man who becomes amnesic after the Arks accident. He is the son of professor Alvin, one of the builders of the Arks, who disappeared some time after the accident. While searching for his sister Aliz kidnapped by a strange creature, Gene is mutated into a Warhead and watches his arm turning into a weapon during a battle against some Otellos. He is assisted by a small floating companion named Pake, and is later joined by the Warhead Kilroy, who was an assistant to professor Alvin, and Meme, a mysterious but determined, optimistic young female Warhead.

The second protagonist, Fiona, is a soldier of the White Army of Guinevere, who saved her life. Commander Guinevere, a Warhead, was a female scientist who worked in the Arks with professor Alvin. Fiona is initially very loyal to Guinevere, but becomes more reluctant following the death of a friend and the commander's changing, more dominating behavior.

The third protagonist is Gerald, a member of the Black Army of Sullivan. Also very loyal, Gerald nevertheless wonders why people do not unite to face the common threat represented by the Otellos. Commander Sullivan was another companion of professor Alvin and Guinevere, and also became a Warhead. His divergence of opinions with the White Army forced him to gather his own distinct army.

The fourth and final protagonist is Haze Healy, a member of the Keepers, a faction opposed to both the White and Black Armies.

Immediately after their adventure in ''Lion in the Valley'', the Emersons return home to England for the summer of 1896, as is their custom. Upon their arrival, Amelia finds that her despised brother James wants to dump his two children, Percy and Violet, on the Emersons for the summer. Amelia accepts, if only to instill some higher principles in the obviously spoiled children.

Kevin O'Connell enters the story as he reports on a supposed curse on a mummy in the British Museum. He's competing against a fellow journalist, M. Minton, who always seems to "scoop" him, and he pesters the Emersons for their knowledge and expertise on Egyptology and detection. Imagine Amelia's surprise when M. Minton turns out to be a young woman!

Meanwhile, Ramses and Percy hate each other on sight, Violet turns out to be an empty-headed doll who overeats and throws temper tantrums, and Ramses' belongings keep mysteriously ending up in Percy's possession.

The mummy "mystery" begins to take on more sinister portent as a masked figure stalks the Museum, a woman from Emerson's past turns up as the owner of an opium den, and the Emersons (including Ramses) are subjected to the usual attempts at injury and kidnapping. Eventually, Amelia, Emerson, and Inspector Cuff of Scotland Yard find themselves trapped in a cellar which is about to be flooded, with no backup and only Amelia's corset to save them...

45-year-old divorced mother Rosie (Michelle Pfeiffer) is a scriptwriter and producer for a TV show ''You Go Girl''. Insecure about her age, she uses cosmetics to maintain her appearance. Very close to her thirteen-year-old daughter, Izzie (Saoirse Ronan), they become even closer when Izzie falls for Dylan (Rory Copus), a boy in her class.

Despite her ex-husband's urging that she start dating again, Rosie is single. To Rosie and David (David Mitchell) (her British co-writer)'s dismay, her boss Marty (Fred Willard) decides the show can't cover controversial subjects. So, Rosie decides to cast a new character for the show. Taken with Adam (Paul Rudd), a bright and charming young man from one of her auditions, she casts him as a new, nerdy character to fall for the arrogant and self-centered lead actress's character, Brianna (Stacey Dash). The new character tests well, so Rosie persuades Marty to give him a chance.

Rosie continues to offer Izzie advice on Dylan, as she becomes smitten with Adam, who suggests they go clubbing. When he picks her up, he bonds with Izzie immediately through a video game she was playing to impress Dylan. While out, Rosie lies that she's 36, while Adam says that he is 32. She is nervous about their age difference, but when he goes onto the dance floor at the nightclub, she realizes they are equally free-spirited, and joins him. Kissing in Adam's car, Rosie admits she's actually 40, and is startled when Adam confesses he's actually 29.

Adam assures her that he doesn't care about their age difference at all, and they continue their relationship. Nevertheless, Rosie's insecurity over her age surfaces, egged on by her internal conversations with Mother Nature (Tracey Ullman), and she tells Adam she is not sure that their relationship is going to work, to his confusion.

Meanwhile, their relationship draws the jealousy of Rosie's secretary, Jeannie (Sarah Alexander). She sabotages them by stealing Adam's gifts to Rosie, and then his phone, putting a sexy photograph of Brianna on it, and then dropping it in Rosie's handbag. Rosie continues to be nervous when she hears a recording of Adam flirting with Brianna (he was told to in order to keep her calm and the center of attention). Things become worse when Izzie has a failed double date with Dylan, and becomes insecure about her appearance, something that concerns Rosie.

When Adam is first shown on television, he is an instant hit, becoming famous. This leads to Rosie becoming even more insecure, and worrying he will take advantage of his fame and start looking at younger women. Things get worse when the show is unexpectedly cancelled. Shortly after, Adam is given a role in an upcoming sitcom, and she is shocked to discover a speeding ticket sent to Adam showing him in a car with Brianna. Already in a foul mood, Rosie berates Izzie when, during a chance encounter with her friend, Henry Winkler, he reveals that Izzie and her friend had prank-called a number of celebrities in her phone book.

Rosie confronts Adam with the photograph of him and Brianna, and he is shocked, having never been in a car with her before. She angrily breaks it off. Despite this, Adam makes numerous attempts to reconcile, including refusing to film the new sitcom he has been offered until she is named co-producer. Meanwhile, Rosie is looking through a bloopers reel of her old show, realizing it was filmed at the time that the speeding ticket claimed Adam had been driving with Brianna, and deduces that Jeannie was behind it.

As Rosie confronts Jeannie, Marty calls to offer her a job on Adam's sitcom. She hits Jeannie in the face, reducing her to tears. She then reconciles with Adam. Later, at a school talent show, she sees Izzie has finally won Dylan over, and watches as they kiss. Mother Nature reminds her that, in growing older, she is making way for a girl like Izzie to replace her.

A high-school student named Freya McAllister (Navi Rawat) begins hearing voices in her head and is misdiagnosed with schizophrenic catalepsy. She spends nine years in an institution before a government doctor (Peter Horton) for the fictional "National Security Administration" realizes Freya might instead be telepathic – and he promptly whisks her away from the institution and commences training her on an isolated farm for the NSA (not the actual National Security Agency). Teamed up with Homeland Security agent Brendan Dean (Joe Flanigan) to track down an elusive assassin known as Gazal, Freya has been ordered not to reveal her powers to her new partner. They manage to uncover Gazal's identity and bring him to justice.

The series begins when a five-year-old boy named Matsui Takahiro is playing with his friend Teru and his dog; suddenly, they both notice a blue-haired young man staring at them named Yuuji. Matsui doesn't know him but is surprised to hear Yuuji say, "I want a dog" before leaving the scene. Many years later Matsui is now a teenager and is seen hanging out with his best friend Eiichi Yoshino, then after watching a high school swimming competition, he falls in love with the swim captain and decides, upon entering his freshman year of high school, to take up swimming. The two eventually become involved in a relationship. However, the swim captain's old gang isn't so keen on this new boy who is constantly occupying their friend's time and thoughts. Matsui's own friend is against the relationship, as well.

On a midnight train trip on the way to Limmeridge House as a drawing teacher, Walter Hartright sees a strange woman dressed entirely in white, apparently fleeing from someone and desperate to share a terrible secret with him. The signalman is scared because although he saw no-one, it was predicted a year earlier that in a 'year to this day', someone would be found dead on the railway track.

Walter meets his new students: Marian Halcombe and her pretty half-sister Laura Fairlie, who is heir to the estate which includes Limmeridge House. He tells them about his encounter, and they resolve to solve the mystery.

A love triangle develops as Walter and Laura quickly fall in love but Marian also falls for Walter and those feelings are not reciprocated. The peasants on the Limmeridge Estate sing and dance to celebrate the harvest. A girl is excluded from the festival because her mother believes her to be 'telling tales'. She tells Hartright of a ghost of a woman in all white. Hartright goes to the graveyard where the child saw the 'ghost' and meets Anne Catherick, who tells him her name and the name of the man who she is scared of: "Sir Percival Glyde". Marian tells Walter that Laura is engaged to a man of 'titled property': Sir Percival Glyde. Later Glyde arrives at Limmeridge, pretending to be a long-standing friend to Marian. He suggests that they move the wedding up from spring to Christmas and Laura eventually agrees.

Count Fosco, Glyde's friend and best man for the wedding, arrives and becomes attracted to Marian.

When questioned by Walter about Anne Catherick, Glyde tells him that she is mad. He mentions that he tried to help her, and she thinks that he is her enemy. Laura is reluctant to marry Glyde, but Marian encourages her to honor her father's dying wish. Walter receives all this news angrily and leaves for London, but not before Laura returns a picture he drew of her. Laura and Glyde are married. Anne Catherick decides to travel to Laura's side to help her, because she insists that Glyde 'knows no mercy'.

Marian moves into Blackwater House, Glyde's estate. Laura becomes angry and distrustful of Marian because her advice led her to marry a man whom she discovers to be a physically abusive husband; he only wants her for her money, to pay off his debt. Marian is determined to free Laura from this ill-fated marriage.

The next day, Glyde presents Laura with a document to sign, but he will not tell her its contents. Laura is immediately suspicious, and refuses to sign something she knows nothing about. Glyde is furious, but cannot force her to sign the document. The girls go for a walk to calm down, and meet Anne Catherick. They witness Anne being taken back to the Asylum. They are then completely convinced that Glyde and his friend Fosco are villains. Laura and Anne realize how similar they are to each other.

Marian eavesdrops on Sir Percival and Count Fosco, and overhears their evil plans to steal the Limmeridge Estate. She also overhears their plans for Anne Catherick, but Count Fosco figures out that he is being watched before he reveals anything important about the madwoman. He leaves the library to put Marian to bed. Marian, having gone to bed, starts to dream a montage of events that have occurred recently, mixed in with some noises. The noises, though not apparent to Marian, are actually Laura arguing and screaming.

Marian shortly is woken up by Count Fosco, who tells her that Laura was walking in her sleep and fell out the window. Marian is quite shaken by the tragic news. Fosco, avoiding drama, heads off to his house in London. However, being infatuated with Marian, he gives her his address in case she needs anything. At the village funeral Glyde suggests to Mr Fairlie that they get to the papers that need to be attended to. In a show of grief Glyde tries to shake Marian's hand but she ignores him, but vowing revenge for her sister she heads to find Walter.

In London, Walter has run out of money and gives his last coin to a beggar. Having heard the news through the grapevine of Laura's death, Walter expresses his grief at losing the love of his life. Coincidentally, Glyde, who is frustrated with paperwork, also shares Walter's feelings for Laura. Marian goes to London in search of Walter.

When Marian finds Walter, he joins her in her quest to learn the secret of Anne Catherick and avenge Laura's death. Marian believes that Anne's location is in a document that she witnessed Count Fosco sign the night she eavesdropped. Meanwhile, Glyde is happily betting the money that he has not yet received, which infuriates Fosco and leads to a split in their friendship. Marian and Walter are ready to leave for their visit to Count Fosco's. Marian is dressed specifically with the intent to use her feminine wiles against Fosco, which makes Walter suddenly realize his true feelings for her. Fosco, pleased with his part in the manipulation of everyone, gloats to himself and his pet mice.

Marian and Walter go to Fosco's home to retrieve the document, where he attempts to seduce Marian, not realizing that she is purposefully playing along. She sends him to the bathroom to shave as a diversion, whilst she searches for the document. She finds it, and discovers the location of Anne's asylum. When Fosco returns from the bathroom he discovers that Marian is visiting for another purpose. A rejected Fosco admits if Marian were really interested in him, he would have proposed marriage.

Marian and Walter go to the asylum to get the secret from Anne Catherick. However, when they arrive at Anne's cell, they find not Anne but Laura. Laura explains that Glyde put Laura in Anne's place at the asylum, killed Anne, then buried her in Laura's grave. In desperation the threesome head to Limmeridge House to try to learn the secret from Mr. Fairlie, who knows more about Anne Catherick than he says he does.

Meanwhile, Sir Percival Glyde has convinced Mr. Fairlie to give the Limmeridge Estate to him because he was married to Laura. Fairlie signs the document and Glyde goes off to catch a train.

Marian, Laura and Walter arrive at Limmeridge House after Glyde has left for the train. Mr. Fairlie reveals that Anne Catherick is in fact Laura's half-sister, and they look identical. Marian tells him of the conspiracy, but Fairlie sadly tells her that he already signed the document. The three run to the train to stop Glyde from getting away.

While still in Anne's white clothing, Laura pretends to be Anne and attempts to haunt Glyde if he does not tell the truth about the secret. "I had to drown your bastard child!" he exclaims. Laura reads between the lines and figures out the secret: Glyde had raped Anne, and drowned their child at Blackwater Lake. He tries to kill Laura to silence her but is run over by a train. The signalman's prediction comes true, but it is Glyde, not Walter, who lies dead on the tracks. Walter and Laura are happily married, Walter inherits Limmeridge House, and Marian is left heartbroken.

Friends Hermie (an aspiring artist), Oscy (a jock), and Benjy (a nerd) graduate high school in the spring of 1944, under the looming threat of World War II. At a post-graduation party, Hermie and Oscy are startled when Benjy tells them that he's enlisted in the Marines. While Hermie and Oscy spend their summer vacation working at a loading dock, Benjy goes to basic training. By the end of summer, Hermie and Oscy see Benjy off on his way to fight in the Pacific Theater.

At their fathers' behest, Oscy and Hermie go to college. Much of the film consists of slice of life vignettes depicting college life during wartime, with the effect of the war on the home front as a constant recurring theme.

While Hermie is serious about his studies, Oscy primarily sees college as an opportunity to pick up girls. On the campus newspaper staff, Hermie meets and falls in love with Julie, a well-to-do coed. At Julie’s suggestion, Hermie and Oscy join a fraternity and manage to successfully pass through the mandatory hazing rituals. Shortly after moving into the frat house, however, Oscy is expelled for bringing a prostitute into his room and Hermie is forced to deal with an annoying roommate. Oscy, soon after leaving and seeing no alternative, decides to enlist in the Army.

Hermie and Julie have a falling out after Julie tells him she intends to go out on a non-romantic date with an old boyfriend coming into town on shore leave. Hermie expresses his distrust of Julie and they break up. Back at the frat house, Hermie receives a phone call from his mother that his father has died unexpectedly. Returning home for the funeral, he's reunited with Oscy, who has passed basic training and is now a clerk typist on Governor's Island. Oscy then takes Hermie out for a night of drinking in his father's memory, culminating in a bar room brawl. Back at Hermie's house, a drunk Hermie voices his inability to accept his father's death before passing out. Oscy stays up through the night, watching over Hermie.

Hermie returns to college and is about to call for a cab at the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad train station when Julie arrives in her car. She tells him that Hermie's mother told her about his father's death, and that she's come to reconcile with him. Julie further tells Hermie that she's learned that he has passed his final exams for the semester and has successfully completed his freshman year. Hermie and Julie reconcile and climb into the back seat of Julie's car as the film ends.

Walter Hartright, a young art teacher, encounters and gives directions to a mysterious and distressed woman dressed entirely in white, lost in London; he is later informed by policemen that she has escaped from an asylum. Soon afterwards, he travels to Limmeridge House in Cumberland, having been hired as a drawing teacher on the recommendation of his friend, Pesca, an Italian language teacher. The Limmeridge household comprises the invalid Frederick Fairlie and Walter's students: Laura Fairlie, Mr. Fairlie's niece, and Marian Halcombe, her devoted half-sister. Walter realises that Laura bears an astonishing resemblance to the woman in white, who is known to the household by the name of Anne Catherick, a mentally disabled child who formerly lived near Limmeridge and was devoted to Laura's mother, who first dressed her in white.

Over the next few months, Walter and Laura fall in love, despite Laura's betrothal to Sir Percival Glyde, Baronet. Upon realising this, Marian advises Walter to leave Limmeridge. Laura receives an anonymous letter warning her against marrying Glyde. Walter deduces that Anne has sent the letter and encounters her again in Cumberland; he becomes convinced that Glyde originally placed Anne in the asylum. Despite the misgivings of the family lawyer over the financial terms of the marriage settlement, which will give the entirety of Laura's fortune to Glyde if she dies without leaving an heir, and Laura's confession that she loves another man, Laura and Glyde marry in December 1849 and travel to Italy for six months. Concurrently, Walter joins an expedition to Honduras.

After six months, Sir Percival and Lady Glyde return to his house, Blackwater Park in Hampshire; accompanied by Glyde's friend, Count Fosco (married to Laura's aunt). Marian, at Laura's request, resides at Blackwater and learns that Glyde is in financial difficulties. Glyde attempts to bully Laura into signing a document that would allow him to use her marriage settlement of £20,000, which Laura refuses to do. Anne, who is now terminally ill, travels to Blackwater Park and contacts Laura, saying that she holds a secret that will ruin Glyde's life. Before she can disclose the secret, Glyde discovers their communication, and believing Laura knows his secret, becomes extremely paranoid and attempts to keep her held at Blackwater. With the problem of Laura's refusal to give away her fortune and Anne's knowledge of his secret, Fosco conspires to use the resemblance between Laura and Anne to exchange their two identities. Sir Percival and Fosco will trick both individuals into travelling with them to London; Laura will be placed in an asylum under the identity of Anne, and Anne will be buried under the identity of Laura upon her imminent death. Marian overhears enough of the plan to understand they are conspiring against someone's life but not any of the details, but becomes soaked by rain in her hiding place and falls ill.

While Marian is ill, Laura is tricked into travelling to London, and the identity switch is accomplished. Anne Catherick succumbs to her illness and is buried as Laura, while Laura is drugged and conveyed to the asylum as Anne. When Marian visits the asylum, hoping to learn something from Anne, she finds Laura, who has been treated by her attendants as a deluded Anne when she protests her true identity as Laura. Marian bribes the nurse, and Laura escapes. Meanwhile, Walter has returned from Honduras, and the three live incognito in London, making plans to restore Laura's identity. During his research, Walter discovers Glyde's secret: he was illegitimate, and therefore not entitled to inherit his title or property. In the belief that Walter has discovered or will discover his secret, Glyde attempts to incinerate the incriminating documents but perishes in the flames. From Anne's mother (Jane Catherick), Walter discovers that Anne never knew what Glyde's secret was. She had only known that there was a secret around Glyde and had repeated words her mother had said in anger to threaten Glyde. The truth was that Glyde's mother was already married to an Irish man, who had left her, and was not free to remarry. While he had no problem claiming the estate, Glyde needed his parents' marriage certificate to borrow money. He therefore went to a church in the village where his parents had lived together and where the vicar (Church of England priest), who had served there, had died long ago, and added a fake marriage to the church register. Mrs. Catherick helped him obtain access to the register and was rewarded with a gold watch and an annual payment.

With the death of Glyde in a fire while attempting to destroy a duplicate of the register, the trio is safe from persecution, but they still have no way of proving Laura's true identity. Walter suspects that Anne died before Laura's trip to London, and proof of this would prove their story, but only Fosco knows the dates. Walter works out from a letter he received from Mrs. Catherick's former employer that Anne was the illegitimate child of Laura's father, making her Laura's half-sister. On a visit to the opera with Pesca, he learns that Fosco has betrayed an Italian nationalist society, of which Pesca is a high-ranking member. When Fosco prepares to flee the country, Walter forces a written confession from him in exchange for safe passage from England. Laura's identity is legally restored, and the inscription on her gravestone replaced by that of Anne Catherick. Fosco escapes, only to be killed by another agent of the society. To ensure the legitimacy of his efforts on her part, Walter and Laura have married earlier; on the death of Frederick Fairlie, their son inherits Limmeridge.

After their days at a prestigious Eastern university, eight devoted women friends go their separate ways. Wealthy and very beautiful Lakey, always regarded as their leader, leaves for Europe to begin a new life on her own.

The domestic lives of the others go mainly awry. Priss marries an overbearing, controlling doctor and has two miscarriages before she gives birth to a son. Kay, who was Lakey's pet and was always less sophisticated and wealthy than the other members of the group, marries an abusive playwright who cheats on her. After an unhappy affair with a cold, sarcastic painter, Dottie gives up a flamboyant lifestyle in Greenwich Village to settle down with a dull Arizona businessman. Pokey has her hands full with two sets of twins. Helena travels the world but is unable to find happiness at home, while catty and ambitious Libby becomes successful in the literary world despite lacking depth. Polly has an affair with a married man, but later finds real happiness with a kind doctor.

With the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939, Lakey then returns home. When the others discover that the woman with her is more than just a traveling companion, they realize that she is a lesbian. After a tragedy that results in the death of Kay in 1940, Lakey joins them at the funeral for one last time together as the group.

Shortly after the failed 20 July plot to assassinate him in 1944, Adolf Hitler appoints ''General der Infanterie'' Dietrich von Choltitz as military governor of occupied Paris. Hitler believes that Choltitz will obey his order that the Allies should not be allowed to capture Paris without the Germans destroying it completely, similarly to the planned destruction of Warsaw.

The French Resistance learn that the Allies are not planning to take Paris, but are bypassing it to avoid confrontation and are heading straight to Germany instead. The two factions within the Resistance react to this news differently. The Gaullists under Jacques Chaban-Delmas want to wait and see, while the communists under Colonel Rol-Tanguy want to take action. The communists force the issue by calling for a general uprising by the citizens of Paris and by occupying important government buildings. The Gaullists go along with this plan of action once it is set in motion.

Initially, Choltitz is intent on following Hitler's order to level the city. After his troops fail to dislodge the Resistance from the Paris Police Prefecture, he orders the Luftwaffe to bomb the building but withdraws the order at the urging of Swedish consul Raoul Nordling, who points out that bombs that miss the Prefecture risk destroying nearby culturally invaluable buildings such as the Notre Dame Cathedral. Choltitz accepts a truce offer from the Resistance (conceived by the Gaullist faction), but the communists want to keep on fighting, in spite of a lack of ammunition. Therefore, the truce is shortened to one day and the fighting resumes.

After learning that the Germans plan to destroy Paris (the Eiffel Tower and other landmarks are rigged with explosives), a messenger from the Resistance is sent across enemy lines to contact the Americans. He informs the Allies that the Resistance has already taken control of parts of the city and implores them to provide support to prevent the uprising being crushed as was then happening in Warsaw. He adds that France would never forgive the Allies if they permit the destruction of Paris. Later, General Omar Bradley agrees that the 2nd Armored Division under General Philippe Leclerc should move on Paris.

As the German military situation deteriorates, Choltitz delays the order to destroy Paris, believing that Hitler is insane and that the war is lost, making the destruction of Paris a futile gesture. When two SS officers arrive, he thinks that he is to be arrested, but instead they simply state that Himmler has asked them to rescue the Bayeux Tapestry for his private collection prior to the destruction of the Louvre.

Eventually, the French major persuades General Leclerc that it is essential for at least a token force of Allied tanks to move in and occupy Paris, as this symbolic gesture will save the city. A line of Sherman tanks set off. Although the equipment is American, they allow the Free French army to control them with just a small American escort. As the line reaches from Paris, German troops lay explosives in the Eiffel Tower and under various bridges. The Germans release some of the imprisoned men to help defend their strongpoints. The first Sherman arrives and is hit by an artillery shell, but the other tanks, each named for a French victory in the First World War, reach the town hall.

Choltitz chooses not to give the order for the detonations and to surrender shortly after the Allies enter the city. He phones Germany to ask that his family should not suffer for his inaction. Meanwhile, some officers continue to lay explosives. Two officers debate as they lay mines at Napoleon's tomb in Les Invalides.

Deaths occur on both sides but the civilians start to join in the battle. The fight reaches the Rue de Rivoli, where the Germans have their headquarters at the Hotel Meurice. As Allied soldiers enter his office, Choltitz asks that he be allowed to surrender to an officer. He is asked to command some of his officers to drive around with the Free French while displaying a white flag to convey the order of surrender to his troops.

The French tanks reach Notre Dame Cathedral and they reactivate the bells after years of silence. The crowd cheers and sings "La Marseillaise." Real-life documentary footage of the liberation crowds is shown. As the Free French forces and De Gaulle parade down the streets of Paris, greeted by cheering crowds, a phone receiver that is off the hook is seen with a voice in German repeatedly asking "Is Paris burning?" From the air, Paris is seen with its buildings intact, followed by a switch from black and white to color for the closing credits.

Advertising executive Bill Compton, his wife Joan, and daughter Melissa are a wealthy family living in New York's Upper East Side. Melissa has been living with her drug-dealing boyfriend. After Melissa overdoses and is sent to a hospital, Compton goes to her boyfriend's apartment to get her clothes. He confronts and kills the boyfriend in a fit of rage. At a nearby bar he hears factory worker Joe Curran ranting about how he hates hippies, and Compton blurts out that he just killed one. Joe reacts favorably, but Compton says it was a joke.

A few days later, Joe sees a news report about a drug dealer found slain a few blocks from the bar. He calls Compton and meets him. At first Compton is wary that Joe may be attempting blackmail, but Joe assures him that he admires Compton for killing the drug dealer. They become friends, and Compton and his wife have dinner at Joe's house with his wife. Melissa escapes from the hospital and returns to the family apartment, where she overhears her father discussing the murder. She storms out of the apartment house, saying to Compton, "What are you gonna do, kill me too?" Compton tries to restrain her, but she breaks away.

Joe and Compton search for her, and meet a group of hippies at a bar in downtown Manhattan. They join the hippies at an apartment, where the hippies share their drugs and girlfriends with the pair. They then abscond with drugs brought by Compton, which he had taken from the drug dealer, as well as Joe's and Compton's wallets. Joe beats one of the girls until she tells him that their boyfriends often spend time in an upstate commune. Joe and Compton drive to that commune, with Joe bringing rifles. In a confrontation at the commune, Joe and Compton kill all the hippies there, and Compton unwittingly kills his own daughter.

Three rookie cops, Roy Fehler (Stacy Keach), Gus Plebesly (Scott Wilson), and Sergio Duran (Erik Estrada), report for duty with the Los Angeles police department. Roy is married with a daughter and intends to eventually become a law student. Gus is a father of three. Serge is a native of East L.A., who never expected to end up patrolling its streets.

Each is assigned a veteran partner. Roy's is the greatly experienced Andy Kilvinski (George C. Scott), who has been on the force for nearly a quarter-century and has his own unique style of law enforcement. For example, he will drive a group of hookers, who he has supplied with liquor, around the city streets for hours, in a paddy wagon, simply to keep them off the streets for a night.

Gus rides with Whitey Duncan (Clifton James). As they answer a burglary call, at a market, Gus opens fire on a suspicious figure in a dark alley, only to discover, to his horror, that it is the owner of the store.

Roy begins to frustrate his wife, Dorothy (Jane Alexander), by becoming obsessed with police work, neglecting his family, and dropping out of law school. He likes the life on the street. But during a convenience store holdup, Roy tells a couple in a parked car to move. Because he was careless, he does not realize that they are the get-away crew for the robbers. Without warning, the man shoots Roy with a sawed-off shotgun before escaping, leaving him gravely wounded on the sidewalk.

Gus and Serge discuss their fear of being shot. Serge temporarily partners with Andy, and together they handle a call involving a slum landlord. During this encounter, Andy becomes enraged and threatens the landlord for exploiting the "wetbacks" living in the apartment, in deplorable conditions. Roy gradually recovers and quickly encounters a shootout, but doesn't flinch.

As the rookies mark a year on the job, Andy reaches his 25th anniversary and mandatory retirement. He discusses the difficulties of police work with the younger men.

Roy is assigned to the vice squad, where the job is anything but glamorous—mostly arresting "fruits" for homosexual behavior in public parks. Dorothy has had enough, saying she does not care about him anymore. She leaves for San Francisco (where she meets a real estate agent) and takes their daughter, Becky, with her.

The young cops are delighted to get a visit, at the police station, from Andy, who has retired to Florida but misses police work. He regrets never having spent more time on his personal life. After speaking with Roy one last time, on the telephone, Andy puts his service revolver in his mouth and kills himself.

Depression gets the better of Roy, who begins to drink on the job. He answers a burglary call and the victim turns out to be Lorrie (Rosalind Cash), a nurse who helped him after he got shot. Later on patrol, a prostitute (Bea Thompkins) named "Silverpants" driving a Lincoln Continental, speeds off with Roy hanging from the car door. He barely avoids serious injury and Lorrie helps patch him up, but he draws a three-week suspension for being drunk on the job.

Roy begins seeing Lorrie socially and comes to his senses, appreciating the need for personal relationships, remembering what led Andy to end his life.

He goes on a shots fired call, which leads to a car chase, followed by a foot chase. Exhausted after booking the suspects, he is on the way to ending his shift, when he encounters a woman on the street who appeals for help with her threatening husband. Reluctantly, Roy, Gus, and Serge decide to investigate. As Roy takes the back stairs, the husband suddenly appears and, without warning, fires a single shot from a handgun. Roy dies in Gus's arms.

''In the times before Christianity, only a few people believed in one God. Most people believed in many gods. It was mainly the believers in Jehovah who stood against a multitude of some 65,000 strange and different gods. Of these, two of the most notorious were Baal and Astarte, the male and the female. Gods of the flesh, not of the soul. They were supposed to renew the fertility of the earth every year. In exchange, they demanded of their believers the sacrifice of money, jewelry and human life. Out of these times comes our story, based upon the Parable of the Prodigal Son as told in Luke, Chapter 15.''

The story is loosely based on Jesus Christ's parable of the prodigal son, from the Gospel According to Luke 15:11-32, although considerable liberties are taken with the source material, chief among them being the addition of a female lead in the form of the high priestess of Astarte, Samarra.

Micah, a young Hebrew farm boy, sees Samarra and says he will have her. He demands that his father give him his inheritance and journeys to the city of Damascus. There Samarra seduces him into losing his inheritance and betraying his religious faith. Enduring a number of difficulties, Micah finally realizes where he belongs and returns home to his father, who forgives Micah all of his sins and orders a lavish celebration of his return.

Laura Reynolds is a free-spirited, unwed single mother living with her young son Danny in an isolated beach house in Big Sur, California. She makes a modest living as an artist and homeschools her son out of concern that he will be compelled to follow stifling conventional social norms in a regular school. Danny has gotten into some trouble with the law through two incidents, one of indecently touching a girl his age, and a third incident, the shooting of a fawn to see whether its a fun thing to do. In his mother's eyes these things are innocent expressions of his natural curiosity and conscience rather than delinquency.

The judge orders her to send the boy to an Episcopal boarding school where Dr. Edward Hewitt is headmaster and his wife Claire teaches, or the judge will send Danny to reform school. Edward and Claire are happily married with two student sons boarding away from home at a college-preparatory school, but their life has become routine and their youthful idealism has been tamed by the need to raise funds for the school and please wealthy benefactors.

At an initial interview, there is a fleeting attraction between Laura and Edward, but this quickly turns into tension brought on by their greatly differing world views and Laura's dislike of religion. Finally she storms out. She attempts to flee the area with Danny but the police quickly catch them and take the boy away to the school. He has trouble fitting in because his mother's homeschooling has placed him far in advance of boys his age in many subjects; the standard course of instruction at the school leaves him restless and bored. At Claire's suggestion, Edward visits Danny's mother to learn more about his upbringing.

Laura's unconventional morals disturb Edward because they conflict with his religious beliefs. After visiting her several more times he finds her irresistible and cannot get her out of his mind. They begin a passionate affair. Laura tells herself that Edward is a fling like her other lovers, but to her surprise she finds herself falling in love with him, becoming jealous of his wife Claire. He struggles with guilt, while she urges him to accept their love. Meanwhile, Danny flourishes after Edward relaxes school rules and allows the boy to choose more advanced classes.

Ward Hendricks, a jealous former lover of Laura, who had paid for her two years of art studies in exchange for her being his mistress, exposes the affair by making a remark to Edward within earshot of his wife. At first Claire is distraught, but later they quietly discuss it in the light of how their lives diverged from the idealism of the early years of their marriage. Edward declares that he still loves Claire and that he will end the affair. Still, they agree to a temporary separation while each decides what they want to do.

When Edward tells Laura that he confessed to his wife, she is outraged at what she perceives as an invasion of her privacy, and they part angrily. The school year over, Laura tells Danny that they can move away, but he has put down roots at the school and wants to stay there. His mother has a moment of pain but realizes Danny's need to be independent and agrees. Danny asks Laura to come to a church event to hear him and the choir sing. She is uncomfortable being at the church or near Edward and Claire, but because she loves Danny and wants to support him, she agrees. During the service, Edward resigns his position at the school and the church. In his resignation speech, he mentions some of the things he'll miss and although they sound generic, they are things he and Laura shared. Tears fill her eyes. After the service, Edward sees Laura and tells her he will be leaving the area and traveling down the coast. As a parting gift, Edward has arranged for Danny to attend school tuition-free. All Laura can do is look at Edward with tears in her eyes. On Edward's way out of town, he stops at Laura's place for a silent farewell. She and Danny are down on the beach. Edward up on the bluff looks down at them. Laura turns from her painting, looks up and smiles, then he turns and walks away.

Eddie Keller is one of the last POWs to be brought home from Vietnam, after several years of torture and deprivation at the hands of the Vietcong. During his captivity, he resists signing a "confession" admitting to war crimes repeatedly, but finally consents to save the life of another prisoner.

Having returned home, Eddie finds the world has moved on without him. His wife has fallen in love with someone new, and had a daughter, just after he became a POW. His mother has suffered a stroke, and requires constant (and expensive) medical attention. Eddie is initially called a hero when he is finally released, but when his signed confession is discovered his veteran's benefits are suspended by the Veterans Administration pending further investigation.

Eddie tries to reintegrate into society, but finds himself stopped at every turn. The Army refuses to help, he cannot find a job, and he is running out of options. The only bright spot in his life is Toni, a high-priced prostitute who picks Eddie up at a bar. Despite Toni's profession, the two begin a romance.

While trying to secure a loan, Eddie is witness to a bank robbery. He begins to plot a way to gain the funds he needs to provide for his mother, and also to avenge himself on a system that abandoned him in Vietnam, then turned him into a traitor.

Eddie plans to hold up a bank, but fails repeatedly in his efforts to embark on a life of crime. Eventually, he succeeds in stealing a briefcase full of bonds, which he arranges to sell to a mobster for $100,000. The mobsters plan to kill Eddie and take the bonds. Eddie turns the tables on the mobsters, leading to their arrest at his hotel.

Trapped, Eddie calls Toni, confessing to his crimes and tells her he'll turn himself in. She pleads him to escape with her, and they confess their feelings for each other. As the police evacuate the building, Eddie decides to confront them in his Army uniform. Much to his surprise, the officers are very patriotic, and assume him to not be their suspect. He is then rushed away from the scene, where Toni arrives and picks him up with both the $100,000 and the bonds.

In one of the closing scenes, a bank employee is seen delivering a large envelope to a man in an office. The envelope has the bank's address and is marked as being for the attention of the bank's president. The man opens the package a finds the bonds that had been stolen from them, and a note from Pryor's character saying "Thanks for the loan".

After a failed love affair with a married man, British Home Office assistant, attractive Judith Farrow meets handsome Soviet attaché Colonel Sverdlov while on vacation in Barbados, but their budding personal relationship does not go unnoticed by British Intelligence. Judith is enchanted by a story that the seeds of a tamarind tree on a certain plantation take the form of the head of a slave hanged from a tamarind, a tale mocked by Sverdlov. Returning to London, Judith finds a surprise gift from Sverdlov: an envelope containing a tamarind seed.

Convinced Sverdlov is recruiting Judith to be a spy, British Intelligence Officer Jack Loder has his hands full with a clandestine Russian spy, code-named ‘Blue’, when he learns his assistant, George MacLeod, is having an affair with the wife of a British diplomat, Fergus Stephenson, who is a conduit of state secrets. Loder cautions Judith who is to contact him if she hears from Sverdlov.

Meanwhile Sverdlov, assigned to the Soviet Embassy in Paris, suspects his boss, Soviet General Golitysn distrusts him and insists Judith can be recruited as a spy, a story he shares with Judith when he visits her in London. Amidst drumbeat of suspicions on the cusp of betrayal and blackmail a gaggle of real and possible double-agents abound in a tangled web amidst a budding Sverdlov-Judith love story that could also be a ruse.

Sverdlov pleads with General Golitsyn for more time to recruit demure Judith, a ploy that’s wearing thin with the suspicious General. Sverdlov steals the ‘Blue’ file, his bargaining chip with London to get asylum in Canada and he finagles a romantic stop in Barbados where he’s to meet Judith. Sverdlov eludes an assassination attempt by General Golitsyn’s agents at London Airport and meets Judith in Barbados where they are sequestered in a beachside bungalow rife with unrequited love. But the General is hot on his tail and jets a group of Soviet agents disguised as wealthy businessmen on holiday to attack the bungalow with napalm, an explosive bullet-riddled event that reportedly kills Sverdlov, destroys the ‘Blue’ file and traumatizes Judith who narrowly escapes with her life.

Loder now knows ‘Blue’ is Fergus Stephenson, a double-agent he can now manipulate. Loder meets convalescing shell-shocked Judith in Barbados where he divulges that newspaper accounts of Sverdlov’s death were a false cover; seconds before the explosion Sverdlov was whisked away to Canada. Her doubts dissolve when Loder gives her an envelope that contains a tamarind seed. In a bucolic Canadian mountain valley Judith and Sverdlov share a lovers' embrace.

The movie follows the chronological events of the battle. Some of them are shown ''in situ'', from the heart of the battle, at Dien Bien Phu, while others are reported by civilians at Hanoi city or by French Union soldiers stationed at Hanoi's civilian airport.

The Hanoi action is mostly focused on British-born American writer-reporter Howard Simpson (Donald Pleasence). Simpson's sources of confidential information include French military personnel (Patrick Catalifo, Eric Do), an Agence France Presse correspondent (Jean-François Balmer), an influential Vietnamese nationalist (Long Nguyen-Khac), a Chinese contrabander (Thé Anh) and a Eurasian opium dealer (Maïté Nahyr). Simpson sends scoop-worthy news to the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' daily newspaper, through a Hong Kong-based agency, in order to elude French military censorship that existed at the time in Hanoi and the rest of Indochina.

War scenes are seen through the eyes of several character archetypes illustrating human nature. At Dien Bien Phu, there were two kinds of men: the cowards and the brave. The first are mainly illustrated by the unnamed "Nam Yum rat" (Fathy Abdi); an example of the second type is the philosopher-friendly artillery lieutenant (Maxime Leroux), who refuses to obey orders to retreat and eventually dies for the sake of honor. Since they are archetypes, these characters have no name. The main characters have fictitious names, but are members of real units, like the 5th Bawouan Vietnamese paratrooper Lieutenant Ky (Eric Do) or Captain de Kerveguen (Patrick Catalifo)'s Foreign Legion company.

Schoendoerffer's movie contains autobiographic elements that sometimes appear in dialogues and is particularly illustrated by the military cameraman character. Actor Ludovic Schoendoerffer plays the role of a young Army Cinematographic Service cameraman using the same camera type as his father, Corporal Pierre Schoendoerffer, did in 1954.

''History'' concerns a Martian scholar named Ullen who is researching Earth's history. A former student named John Brewster tells him that he has just joined Earth's Home Defense in response to the outbreak of war between Earth and Venus. The Martians, being few in number, no longer fight wars, and Ullen finds the whole concept puzzling. Later, in a conversation with an Earthman in a fallout shelter during an air raid, Ullen casually mentions an ancient Martian weapon called a ''skellingbeg'', or fall-apart weapon. The next time Brewster visits, Ullen asks him about it. Brewster takes Ullen to see a physicist named Thorning in Washington, D.C., who questions him about the weapon. Being a historian, Ullen doesn't know the technical details, only that the ''skellingbeg'' could make iron, nickel and cobalt objects turn to powder. Thorning is able to pick up one or two clues from Ullen's description, but since the Martians long ago decided that science was a bad idea, they no longer have any scientific texts.

When the war starts going badly for Earth, Brewster confronts Ullen, saying they need more information on the Martian weapon. When Brewster implies that Ullen is holding back his knowledge on purpose to extort money from Earth's government, Ullen is insulted and refuses to say anything more. Ullen finally breaks down when Thorning threatens to have his historical work suppressed. He babbles some half-remembered details about the weapon, and one of Thorning's assistants realizes that Earth's scientists are working on something similar. The clues Ullen provides allow Earth to develop its own version of the ''skellingbeg'' and win the war. A grateful Earth government names a war museum after Ullen, much to the Martian's disdain.

In 2000, an American military pathologist orders his Korean assistant to dump 200 bottles of formaldehyde down a drain leading into the Han River. Over the next several years, there are sightings of a strange amphibious creature in the waterway, and the fish in the river die off.

In 2006, a slow-witted man named Park Gang-du runs a small snack bar in a park near the river with his father, Hee-bong. Other family members are Gang-du's daughter, Hyun-seo; his sister Nam-joo, a national medalist archer; and his brother, Nam-il, an alcoholic college graduate and former political activist.

A huge creature emerges from the Han River and begins attacking people. Gang-du tries to grab his daughter from the crowd and run, but he realizes he has grabbed the wrong person's hand and sees the creature snatching away Hyun-seo and diving back into the river. After a mass funeral for the victims, government representatives and the American military arrive and quarantine people who had contact with the creature, including Gang-du and his family. It is announced that the creature is the host of a deadly, unknown virus.

Gang-du receives a phone call from Hyun-seo. She explains that she is trapped in the sewers with the creature, but her phone stops working. Gang-du and his family escape the hospital and purchase supplies from gangsters in order to search for Hyun-seo. Two homeless boys, Se-jin and Se-joo, after raiding Hee-bong's snack bar for food, are attacked and swallowed by the creature. It returns to its sleeping area in the sewer and regurgitates them, but only Se-joo is alive. Hyun-seo helps Se-joo hide inside a drain pipe where the creature cannot reach them.

The Parks encounter the creature and shoot at it until they run out of ammunition. The creature kills Hee-bong due to Gang-du miscalculating the remaining shells in his shotgun when he gives it to Hee-bong. Gang-du is captured by the Army and Nam-il and Nam-joo become separated from each other. Nam-il meets an old friend, Fat Guevara, at an office building to ask for help and learns the government has placed a bounty on his family. Unbeknownst to Nam-il, Fat Guevara has contacted the government so he can claim the bounty, but Nam-il is able to escape after obtaining Hyun-seo's location. Gang-du overhears an American scientist say that there is no virus; it was made up to distract people from the creature's origin. They decided to lobotomize Gang-du to silence him.

When she thinks the creature is sleeping, Hyun-seo tries to escape from its lair using a rope she has made from old clothes. The creature awakes and swallows Hyun-seo and Se-joo. Gang-du succeeds in escaping from where he is being held by taking a nurse hostage. Nam-il meets a homeless man who helps him. The government announces a plan to release a toxic chemical called Agent Yellow into the river to attempt to kill the creature. Gang-du finds the creature and sees Hyun-seo's arm dangling out of its mouth. He chases it to the location where Agent Yellow is to be released, coming across Nam-joo along the way. The creature attacks the large crowd that has assembled to protest the chemical dump. Agent Yellow is released, which stuns the creature. Gang-du pulls Hyun-seo out of its mouth, but she is dead, though she is still clutching Se-joo, who is unconscious, but alive. Gang-du, enraged at his daughter's death, attacks the creature, aided by Nam-il, Nam-joo, and the homeless man. They set it on fire and Gang-du impales it with a pole, finally killing it. As they mourn for Hyun-seo, Gang-du revives Se-joo.

Some time later, it is seen that Gang-du has inherited his father's snack bar and adopted Se-joo. While watching the river, he hears a noise and picks up a double-barrel shotgun to investigate, but finds nothing. He and Se-joo have a meal together, ignoring a news broadcast stating that the aftermath of the incident was due to misinformation.

Picking up fifteen years after the events of the first movie, ''The Blob'', an oil pipeline engineer named Chester (Godfrey Cambridge) returns to his suburban Los Angeles home from the North Pole, bringing with him a small sample of a mysterious frozen substance uncovered by a bulldozer on a job site, a story which he tells his wife. Not aware that the substance is a piece of the Blob from the original 1958 incident in Pennsylvania, Chester comes home to store the substance in his home freezer prior to taking in to the laboratory to be analyzed. However, he and his wife Marianne (Marlene Clark) accidentally let it thaw, re-animating the Blob. It starts by eating a fly, then a kitten, then Marianne, and then, in an intentional anachronism by the film makers, while Chester is watching a television broadcast of the film ''The Blob'', it eats him, too.

Lisa (Gwynne Gilford), a friend, walks in to see Chester in the final stages of being consumed by the Blob. She escapes, but cannot get anyone to believe her, not even her boyfriend Bobby (Robert Walker Jr.). Meanwhile, the rapidly growing creature quietly preys upon the town. Some of its victims include a police officer (Sid Haig) and two hippies (Cindy Williams and Randy Stonehill) in a storm drain, a barber (Shelley Berman) and his client, transients (played by director Hagman, Burgess Meredith and Del Close), a Scoutmaster (Dick Van Patten), a farm full of chickens and horses, and (off-camera), people in a gas station, a bar, as well as various townspeople who turn up "missing." At one point, Lisa and Bobby find themselves trapped in Bobby's truck with the creature attempting to find a way inside. While panicking, the truck's air conditioning is accidentally switched on and the Blob retreats because of its vulnerability to cold.

The now-massive Blob consumes a hippie in a dune buggy, who inadvertently crashes in to it while it was crossing the road, followed by his girlfriend who tried to save him, and then invades a neighboring bowling alley during a championship tournament. After consuming dozens more people, the Blob moves on to an attached skating rink under renovation. It is finally stopped when Bobby activates the rink's ice mechanism, freezing it. While the frozen Blob is being filmed by a television crew, one of the crew's bright lights is positioned on the ground, melting a small portion of it, which oozes toward the sheriff and envelops his feet as he is speaking on camera to a nationwide television audience.

Daphne Manners, who has lost her immediate family in England, comes to India to live with her only remaining family member, Lady Manners. Lady Manners sends her to Mayapore to stay with her Indian friend, Lady Chatterjee.

While staying with Lady Chatterjee, whom she calls "Auntie Lili," Daphne meets Hari Kumar. He is an Indian who was brought up in England and educated at Chillingborough, a public school that Daphne's own brother attended. Hari speaks only English, but his father's financial collapse and suicide obliged Hari to return to India. Daphne learns to despise the attitudes of the English in India and also grows to love Hari.

Subsequent to Kumar's arrest and Daphne's association with him, the local police superintendent, Ronald Merrick, becomes infatuated with Daphne. Merrick, of lower-middle-class English origin, is resentful of the privileged English "public school" class and contemptuous of Indians. Hari thus represents everything that Merrick hates.

After Daphne and Hari make love in a public park, the Bibighar Gardens, they are attacked by a mob of rioters who by chance witnessed their lovemaking. Hari is beaten and Daphne is raped repeatedly. Knowing that Hari will be implicated in her rape, Daphne swears him to silence regarding his presence at the scene. But she does not count on the instincts of Ronald Merrick, who, upon learning of the rape, immediately takes Hari into custody and engages in a lengthy and sadistic interrogation that includes sexual humiliation. Merrick also arrests a group of educated young Indians, including some of Hari's colleagues at the ''Mayapore Gazette''.

Daphne steadfastly refuses to support the prosecution of Hari and the others for rape. She insists that her attackers were peasants and included at least one Muslim (although she was blindfolded, she could tell he was circumcised) and could not be young, educated Hindus like Hari and his acquaintances who have been taken into custody. The inquest is frustrated when Daphne threatens to testify that, for all she knows, her attackers could have been Englishmen.

Hari puzzles the authorities by refusing to say anything, even in his own defence (he has been sworn to secrecy by Daphne, and he honours that pledge to the letter). Because the authorities cannot successfully prosecute him for rape, they instead imprison him under a wartime law as a suspected revolutionary. And Daphne's refusal to aid a prosecution for rape leads to her being reviled and ostracized by the British community of Mayapore and of British India as a whole, where her case has become a cause célèbre.

Unknown to Hari, Daphne is pregnant; the child's paternity is impossible to determine, but she considers the child to be Hari's. She returns to her aunt, Lady Manners, to give birth, but a pre-existing medical condition results in her death. Lady Manners takes the child, Parvati, to Kashmir. Parvati's physical resemblance to Hari satisfies Lady Manners and Lady Chatterjee that Hari was her biological father.

After a young nephew's visit create's a woman's (Mary Tyler Moore) recollections of events that led to her mental disestablishment for the summer at their home in the south. He becomes closest to Jessica (Moore), the childlike aunt with a troubled past, who teaches him about life and friendship.

In the busy wholesale-retail world of London's East End everyone, it seems, has unattainable dreams. Then a small boy – Joe – buys a unicorn, in fact a sickly little goat, with just one twisted horn in the middle of its forehead. This, he has been led to believe by a local tailor, Kandinsky, will bring everyone good fortune.

The film has a haunting last image, of Kandinsky carrying the tiny body of the "unicorn" to the graveyard, whilst passing in the opposite direction is a Torah-reading Rabbi pushing a horn gramophone, a character that appears in the background several times during the film.

The novel begins with the story of Barbie Batchelor, a retired missionary schoolteacher, who finds a place as a paying guest with Mabel Layton, a member of the aristocracy of the English in India, at Rose Cottage in Pankot. Barbie and Mabel become close. Mabel tells Barbie that she will only go to Ranpur when she's buried, which Barbie interprets to mean that she wants to be buried in Ranpur, next to the grave of her late husband, James Layton. Barbie is not accepted by the upper-class of Pankot and is treated as a peculiar and unwanted intruder. She is haunted by the attack on Edwina Crane, another missionary schoolteacher, and by Edwina's subsequent suicide by fire. Pankot society does not know what to make of Barbie.

Barbie and Pankot society are disappointed that the important society wedding of Susan Layton and Teddie Bingham was held in Mirat and not Pankot. But they are consoled with the gossip of the momentous events: (1) Teddie's injury resulting from a stone being thrown at his car, (2) Susan's instinct to show obeisance to the Nawab, thus saving all from embarrassment at his being detained at the entrance, and (3) the appearance of Shalini Gupta Sen at the railway station when the couple are being seen off on their honeymoon and the scene she creates with her entreaties to Merrick which are later revealed to regard Hari Kumar's imprisonment.

Barbie buys a set of silver Apostle spoons as a wedding gift. In order to make up for having the wedding out of town, Mildred throws a buffet luncheon at the Pankot Rifles officers' mess for Pankot society. Barbie is puzzled that her gift of spoons is not displayed with the other wedding gifts.

Susan's pregnancy is announced and, several months later, news of Teddie's death arrives. While Sarah is in Calcutta visiting Merrick, who witnessed Teddie's death and was himself injured, Mabel Layton has a stroke and dies. Susan is witness to the old lady's death and the shock drives her into premature labor. Worried about the state of Mabel's soul, Barbie worms her way into the morgue at the hospital and thinks she sees the anguish of eternal torment on the face of her dead friend. She is then shocked to learn that Mabel will be buried in Pankot and not in Ranpur, as she had wished. She pleads with Mildred for her friend's last wish, but Mildred rebukes her harshly for interfering. Mildred gives Barbie until the end of the month to vacate Rose Cottage.

Susan and her son survive a difficult childbirth. Barbie moves in with the vicar and his wife, Arthur and Clarissa Peplow. Susan's behavior is troubling. She seems not to be relating to her child in a maternal way and is often distracted and distant. Remembering a fable about scorpions committing suicide when surrounded by fire told her by Barbie, Susan pours kerosene in a ring on the grass, puts her baby in the center and lights the fluid. The baby is quickly saved by a servant. However, it is now clear that there is something seriously wrong with Susan, and she is put under the care of a psychiatrist. Mildred blames Barbie for planting the idea in her mind and returns the Apostle spoons through Clarissa.

Barbie, deeply hurt by the insult, decides to make a gift of silver to the 1st Pankot Rifles. She then sets off in search of Captain Coley to deliver the goods. Arriving at Coley's bungalow in a rainstorm, Barbie sees Coley and Mildred having sex. Undetected by the lovers, she flees from the bungalow, but is caught in the rainstorm and falls seriously ill, coming down with bronchopneumonia.

It is discovered that Sarah is pregnant and that Jimmy Clark must have been responsible for it. Aunt Fenny agrees to take Sarah away surreptitiously for an abortion. Susan seems to be recovering under the care of psychiatrist Captain Samuels. Barbie, recovering from pneumonia, finally donates the spoons to the regiment. She gets a letter from Calcutta, offering her a position as a teacher in Dibrapur, the site of Edwina Crane's suicide.

Barbie encounters Merrick and presents him with her copy of the painting, "The Jewel in Her Crown". While leaving Rose Cottage, Barbie is physically and mentally injured in an accident and ends up at a sanatorium in Ranpur. Her view is of the Parsees' towers of silence of the title. Sarah visits her, but she cannot seem to get through. Barbie dies just as the atomic bomb is exploded over Hiroshima in August 1945.

The story covers in personal terms the humbling and hasty decamping of the British: the precipitous concession of power to a country fiercely bent on division; the travails of an honorable Muslim Congressman, Mohammed Ali Kasim, and his sons, one of whom had deserted to the Japan-directed Indian National Army; the quandary of the Nawab of the small fictitious princely state of Mirat, left in the lurch by the lapse of British Paramountcy; the suicide of a dysentery-debilitated and maladapted British officer; the prowling of the haunted Ronald Merrick. The new man on the scene is Sergeant Guy Perron, who was a pupil at a public school called Chillingborough, which Hari Kumar (as Harry Coomer) also attended when he lived in England. It is Guy who returns in 1947/8 to be an observer of India on the eve of Independence; this assignment soon turns into a personal inquiry into the truth behind the hushed-up story of Lieutenant-Colonel Ronald Merrick's death in Mirat. The tragic consequences of India-Pakistan partition are dramatized in a horrific train massacre in which Ahmed Kasim, the son of Mohammed Ali Kasim, is targeted by rioters and chooses to sacrifice himself in order to protect the rest of the people in his carriage.

Despite strict instructions to avoid provoking unnecessary confrontations with the ANC's armed wing, the Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), Karl Vorster, the South African Minister of Law and Order, authorises a raid by the 44 Parachute Brigade on suspected MK bases in Zimbabwe. Vorster—a hardline conservative and secret Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging sympathiser—is roundly criticised by President Haymans and his reformist Cabinet for his actions. However, the paratroopers succeed in recovering valuable intelligence on ''"Broken Covenant"'', a proposed MK operation to assassinate Haymans as he travels to Pretoria from Cape Town aboard the Blue Train for the parliament's summer recess. This incident comes at a time when negotiations between Haymans and the ANC are approaching a major breakthrough, so MK decides to abort the attack.

Sensing an opportunity to seize power himself with the current leadership eliminated, Vorster excuses himself from the Blue Train and eliminates the ANC courier assigned to transmit the abort signal to MK forces. The oblivious guerrillas carry out the attack as planned, killing Haymans and his entire Cabinet. A triumphant Vorster then assumes the presidency and declares a state of emergency, giving the South African Police free rein to crack down on anti-apartheid movements. Diplomatic relations with the rest of the world quickly sour, and thousands of those suspected of being affiliated with the ANC are executed or moved to remote internment facilities. Vorster also orders the South African Defence Force (SADF) to invade newly independent Namibia under the pretext of targeting MK training camps. At the behest of the Namibian government, thousands of Cuban troops redeploy from their bases in Angola to halt the SADF's offensive south of Windhoek. This leads to a prolonged war of attrition, with neither side being able to gain the upper hand.

Meanwhile, conditions in South Africa begin to worsen in response to Vorster's heavy-handed attempts at silencing domestic opposition. His use of lethal force against white dissenters and other Afrikaners in particular leads to militant secessionist movements in the Transvaal and Orange Free State. The fledgling regime also alienates the Inkatha Freedom Party and nominally independent KwaZulu, which results in a violent insurgency waged by Zulu radicals across Natal and an urban insurrection in Durban. SADF units in Cape Town also mutiny and intervene to protect civilians after several mass killings.

Taking note of these internal crises, General Antonio Vega, commander of the Cuban military mission in Namibia, proposes an invasion of South Africa itself. Bolstered by new shipments of Soviet arms, and troops from several other socialist African nations, Vega duly sends three tactical battle groups into the Transvaal. Having concentrated on the potential of a future Cuban attack on the Namibian front, South African intelligence agencies are taken by surprise. The SADF is also slow to mount an effective resistance because it is preoccupied with various revolts and a disproportionate amount of manpower and supplies are already committed to a major operation in Namibia.

As General Vega's forces advance eastwards towards Johannesburg, Vorster orders the deployment of South Africa's nuclear arsenal to save the city. A South African Mirage F1CZ drops a nuclear weapon on Vega's third tactical group, killing about three thousand Cuban and Libyan soldiers. The invasion force retaliates by bombarding SADF defenders with sarin gas at Potgietersrus; appalled by the carnage affecting innocent civilians, the ANC—which had previously embraced the Cubans as liberators—breaks off its alliance with Vega. Havana then authorises the use of human shields to discourage further South African nuclear strikes.

The war in South Africa triggers a global market crisis as the prices of precious metals spiral upward. Remaining Western support for Vorster's government evaporates shortly after a U.S. journalist, Ian Sherfield, leaks the truth about Broken Covenant to the international press. The United States and United Kingdom subsequently undertake direct military intervention in South Africa to depose Vorster and prevent Cuba or the Soviet Union from gaining control over the country's valuable mineral resources. U.S. Army Rangers launch an airborne assault on the Pelindaba with the intention of capturing all remaining South African nuclear weapons, while other allied forces make amphibious landings in Cape Town and Durban. When Vorster threatens to irradiate the mines on the Witwatersrand with nuclear waste material, American, British, and mutinous South African forces attack the Union Buildings and arrest him before the order can be given.

The remaining Cuban tactical groups are halted by U.S. air strikes just short of Pretoria; conceding defeat, Vega begins withdrawing his troops from the country. During the retreat, he and most of his general staff are killed by a disgruntled MK cadre. Because Vega sold them on an ultimate communist victory in South Africa, a humiliated Soviet leadership vows never to be involved in the continent again. Apartheid is formally abolished in the months after the fall of Vorster's government and a conglomerate of various political parties are brought to the table for establishing a multiracial federal republic with Johannesburg as its new capital. Vorster himself is later meted life imprisonment for his crimes.

The film focuses on three teenage friends in Ohio—high school sophomores Natalie, Jeff, and Polly. Jeff is having trouble getting along with his stepfather Gerry. After an argument, he storms out of the house and goes over to his friend Natalie's house. Natalie agrees to let Jeff stay at her house for a few days while her father is away on business (her mother is deceased).

Natalie and Jeff's friend Polly is upset that her crush, James Casey, is pursuing Natalie and not her. But she then meets professional baseball player and underwear model Zoo Knudsen. Polly and Zoo meet and talk and, while trying to avoid an obsessive fan, take cover in a lingerie store. Posing as an engaged couple, Zoo buys Polly a negligee. Later that night, Polly and Zoo make out in his car. Zoo asks her how old she is, and she says she is 18. Before he drives off, Zoo tells Polly to come to New York City and watch one of his games. Polly later writes Zoo a fan letter and puts the negligee under her pillow.

Jeff's mother talks to his football coach and convinces him to kick Jeff off the football team as punishment for leaving home. She also runs into Jeff in person and tries to convince him to come home, but he refuses.

Natalie and Casey begin to spend more time together. One evening, Polly goes over to Natalie's house. She finds Jeff sitting outside in a sleeping bag, to give Natalie and Casey some privacy. Polly then leaves, incorrectly assuming that Natalie and Casey are having sex. Later, Polly hears back from Zoo in the mail and receives a signed photo, but is disappointed when the letter turns out to be a typed, generic fan-response letter.

Frustrated over Zoo, and jealous of Natalie's relationship with Casey (and believing Natalie is no longer a virgin), Polly gets into a fight with Natalie. Natalie storms out of Polly's house. Polly then tries to seduce Jeff, to lose her virginity and become sexually experienced before she meets Zoo again. They start to get intimate, but Jeff walks out of the room when Polly talks about Zoo.

During a fire drill, Polly shouts out to Jeff, within hearing distance of Natalie, that Casey is flirting with their classmate Lisa. Casey then confesses that he never really stopped seeing Lisa. Natalie, heartbroken, tells Casey to leave her alone. She later lashes out at Jeff (who is friends with Casey), crushed that he didn't tell her that Casey and Lisa were still together the whole time.

Natalie wins an academic writing competition and goes to Washington D.C. She meets the Vice President, her state senator, and Williams, a White House Aide. Williams takes Natalie sight-seeing and tries to kiss Natalie, but she avoids the gesture. He then asks her to go back to his place, but Natalie declines and suggests they visit the Washington Monument.

Polly goes to New York City to watch Zoo play in a baseball game. She causes a commotion when she climbs onto the dugout and pulls out the negligee to get Zoo's attention. While being detained by police, Bill, a professional photographer, intervenes and pretends to know Polly in order to keep her from getting in trouble. Bill lets Polly stay at his apartment for the night and agrees to drive her to the airport the next morning.

Natalie's father arrives home and discovers that Jeff has been living with Natalie for the past several days. Natalie and Polly run into each other at the airport and reconcile. Jeff's mother is called by Natalie's father, arrives at the house, and demands that Jeff come home. Natalie comes home and is confronted by her father and Jeff's mother. Natalie apologizes to her father but expresses her dislike of him being away from home so often. Her father apologizes too.

Jeff and his mother talk on Natalie's porch. Jeff says that he is thinking about moving to California to be with his dad, but his mother reminds him that his father doesn't even have a home or a job. Jeff reminds her that Gerry is not his father, but she replies that Gerry is the only father he will ever really have.

Sometime later, Jeff is outside his house playing basketball with Gerry. Natalie and Polly come by on roller skates and pull Jeff away. The three friends make their way down the street, smiling and holding hands.

A redneck officer (Stephen Boyd) is put in charge of a squad of all black troops charged with the mission of securing an important hydro dam in Nazi Germany. Their failure would delay the Allied advance into Germany, thus prolonging the war. These African-Americans had been relegated to cleaning latrines and therefore have little real military training, but Captain Beau Carter has no choice. He leads the rag-tag unit to secure the dam and the men reveal themselves as heroic.

1986 in Jedah, the Communist Jiam separatist leader and his men stormed the camp S-11 on his home island Krujaba, he ordered a massacre of the present government soldiers and took 10,000 inhabitants as hostages. When government troops stormed the island, he had executed all the prisoners and killed himself on 9 May, since then the camp itself is May S-11 as a curse. A television team is this advantage, and turns in the stock S-11 a reality show in which the winner gets 5 million baht. The aim is to endure as long as possible in the eerie ruins, with the batch of eleven young people, including Dao and Yut, which were already at the last game this season and Kemtid and Jay. The ghosts make all of their lives difficult and die.

A team of Cardassian scientists arrive at Deep Space Nine to help build a relay that will allow communication through the Bajoran wormhole. A Bajoran priest, Vedek Yarka, tells the station's human commander Benjamin Sisko that an ancient prophecy predicts that this project will destroy the wormhole: "three vipers" (the Cardassians) will cause the "temple gates" (the wormhole) to be cast open and burned. Yarka is treated with skepticism, especially when it is learned that only two Cardassian scientists (Ulani and Gilora) are expected, not three. When they arrive, however, they explain that a third scientist will arrive later. This information makes Major Kira, Sisko's devout Bajoran second-in-command, begin to believe the prophecy. Yarka confronts Kira about her faith and her duty to help Sisko, whom Bajorans believe to be the Emissary of the Prophets.

When the third scientist, Dejar, arrives, she is greeted coldly by the first two. While Chief O'Brien and Gilora work on the station (complicated by the fact that Gilora misinterprets O'Brien's hostility towards her as a romantic overture), Sisko takes Ulani and Dejar through the wormhole in the USS ''Defiant'' to set up the relay. They discover a comet, which Kira believes to be the "sword of stars" mentioned in the prophecy. She discusses the prophecy with Sisko, but he chooses his role as a Starfleet officer over that of Emissary.

The relay is deployed and the test begins. A particular carrier wave causes the comet to change course and head towards the wormhole. If the comet enters the wormhole, a substance in its core, silithium, will cause the wormhole to be destroyed. O'Brien proposes modifying the Defiant's phasers to be able to vaporize the comet. Sisko, despite starting to believe in the prophecy, goes ahead with the plan.

Instead of vaporizing it, the phasers fire a standard burst that breaks the comet into three fragments; O'Brien's modifications never came online. Gilora accuses Dejar of sabotaging the phasers: Dejar was sent by the Cardassians' intelligence agency, the Obsidian Order, which opposes collaboration between Cardassia and Bajor, to sabotage the mission. To prevent the silithium from destroying the wormhole, Sisko and Kira guide the fragments through with a shuttlecraft. Some of the silithium nevertheless leaks out and reacts with the wormhole; the reaction enables the communications link to be established. Kira and Sisko realize that the prophecy has come true: the three vipers were the comet fragments, and the silithium ignited the wormhole, "casting open the temple gates" to allow communication through them.

The story is narrated by its main protagonist, Derfel Cadarn, an elderly monk who has converted to Christianity late in life after spending many years as a warrior in the service of Arthur, a renowned warlord who long ago fought to protect the kingdom of Dumnonia. In the monastery at Dinnewrac, the young Queen Igraine begs Derfel to record his tales of how he met the many famous heroes of Arthurian legend. Knowing that his unsympathetic master Bishop Sansum cannot read, Derfel pretends to write a Christian gospel. Most of the narrative is recounted in a series of flashbacks to his life as a young man, with regular intermissions in the present-day monastery.

Part One: The Winter King

The kingdom of Dumnonia is in chaos. Its forces, led by the Edling (crown prince) Mordred and Arthur (the king's bastard) have defeated the Saxons at a battle beneath White Horse Hill, but at a terrible price: Prince Mordred was slain, leaving the kingdom without an heir. High King Uther Pendragon blames his son's death on Arthur and exiles him to Armorica. Dumnonia's only hope is for Mordred's pregnant wife, Norwenna, to give birth to a son. Queen Norwenna is in labor, and there are fears that she and the child may die. Uther, a pagan, finally loses patience with Norwenna's Christian midwives and summons Merlin's priestess Morgan to deliver the child. The pagan magic seems to work and a male child is born, but with a crippled leg, which is seen as a very bad omen. The High King dismisses the sign and declares that the son will be named after his father: Mordred.

The infant Mordred and his mother are brought to Merlin's hall at Ynys Wydryn, where she and the child are placed under the care of Merlin's priestesses, Morgan (Arthur's sister) and Nimue (Merlin's lover). Merlin himself has not been seen in Britain for many months. The narrator, Derfel, is a young foundling at Ynys Wydryn who had been adopted by Merlin. Born of a Saxon woman named Erce, Derfel and his mother were once captured in a raid by Britons and enslaved. Their British captors were later raided in turn by Gundleus, King of Siluria, and his druid Tanaburs. Derfel was to be one of the sacrifices to the gods as a tribute from the victorious raiders, but survived being thrown into the "death-pit" and is henceforth considered by Merlin to be favoured by the gods. Having survived the failed sacrifice, he is also entitled to take the life of Tanaburs. Derfel is in love with Nimue, who binds him to her by scarring both of their hands and making Derfel swear that he must always obey her.

High King Uther summons a high council of the kings of Britain at Glevum. Morgan is summoned to represent the still absent Merlin and Nimue joins her, accompanied by Derfel. The tension between the British kingdoms is made clear as King Gorfyddyd of Powys does not attend and King Gundleus of Siluria is tardy. Uther makes it clear that no man other than his grandson Mordred will sit on the throne of Dumnonia. Since Mordred is only a baby, Uther appoints three guardians – King Tewdric of Gwent; Owain, Uther's champion of Dumnonia; and Merlin – and also a foster father to Mordred, who will marry the Princess Norwenna. Agricola, champion of Gwent, proposes Arthur, but Uther disowns Arthur as his son. King Gundleus is then appointed as Mordred's guardian and marries Norwenna. After Tewdric and Owain give their oaths as guardians, Morgan insists that Merlin will only take the oath if Arthur is appointed as a guardian, a demand Uther reluctantly accepts after Tewdric backs up Morgan. After Uther dies, Mordred, still only a baby, is pronounced King of Dumnonia. He is not, however, High King, because that title can only be given to a king accepted as higher than the other British kings; nor is he the Pendragon, as that title is only given to a High King who wins his rank in battle.

Following Uther's death, King Gorfyddyd attacks Gwent. Dumnonia and Siluria rush to the aid of Gwent. King Gundleus sends news of victory and announces he is coming to Ynys Wydryn to be with his new wife. Morgan and Nimue tell Norwenna that the war is not over, but she does not believe them. When he arrives, Gundleus kills Norwenna and, it seems, also the baby Mordred. Then, in retribution for Nimue's curse, he rapes her and plucks out an eye. Derfel rescues Nimue and while escaping runs into Morgan, who has the baby Mordred with her. She explains that Gundleus had actually killed the baby of the child king's nurse, who had been switched with the real Mordred. Derfel takes the sword of his dead swordmaster, Hywel, and later names it Hywelbane. The group flees with Gundleus in pursuit. As they reach the Dumnonian capital at Caer Cadarn, Derfel joins Owain's army, kills his first enemy, and prepares to enter the battle against the much stronger Silurian army. However, Arthur appears with his horsemen during the battle and defeats Gundleus.

Part Two: The Princess Bride

In the aftermath of the battle, Arthur imprisons Gundleus but treats him with respect, as Gundleus is still a king. Much to Derfel's displeasure, Arthur gives Derfel to Owain to train, but under Owain's leadership, Derfel learns the realities of war. Owain is dishonest and seeks war for profit. While Derfel is with him, Owain enters into an agreement with Prince Cadwy of Isca to massacre a group of Cornish tin miners who had been working in Dumnonia at Uther's invitation. Derfel is traumatised by the unwarranted slaughter, and as a result loses faith in Owain as a leader, though he has sworn an oath not to betray Owain's dishonesty. When Prince Tristan, Edling of Kernow, arrives in Dumnonia and demands recompense for the massacre, Owain blames an Irish raiding party. Arthur suspects Owain is lying and, after speaking with Derfel, challenges Owain to resolve the matter in a court of swords, a battle to the death where the gods are called on to give victory to the truth. Arthur defeats Owain and assumes complete power in Dumnonia, and then takes Derfel into his service to spare him the vengeance of Owain's supporters.

Arthur wishes to end the civil war and unite the British kingdoms against the Sais (Saxons). To do this, he enters into a peace treaty with Powys: he will return Gundleus to the throne of Siluria and then marry Ceinwyn, the daughter of Gorfyddyd. He travels north to Powys, where he is formally betrothed to Ceinwyn. However, when King Leodegan's daughter Guinevere enters the feasting hall, Arthur is immediately stricken with love. He abandons Ceinwyn and marries Guinevere, destroying any hope of alliance and plunging Britain back into civil war.

Part Three: The Return of Merlin

In the years following Arthur's marriage to Guinevere, Derfel grows into a great warrior and is given a second name, "Cadarn", meaning "The Mighty". Sagramor, Arthur's Numidian commander, initiates Derfel into the mysteries of the secret warrior cult of Mithras.

Arthur receives a summons from the Armorican kingdom of Benoic, to which he swore an oath to be the kingdom's champion, for assistance against the invading Franks. Unable to go himself, he sends Derfel with 60 men. Derfel is to join forces with Arthur's cousin Culhwch and to write to Arthur if more men are necessary. Before he leaves, Sagramor warns Derfel of the Edling of Benoic, Lancelot, saying he can be treacherous. Upon arriving, Derfel is taken to Ynys Trebes, the island capital of Benoic. There he meets King Ban, who is upset when he learns that Arthur is not coming but is delighted upon learning that Derfel is a literate warrior. Ban shows Derfel the library of Ynys Trebes, which is overseen by the foul-tempered Father Celwin. At dinner, Derfel meets Lancelot and the two instantly dislike each other. Derfel is only prevented from beating Lancelot senseless by the intervention of Galahad, Lancelot's half-brother. Galahad explains in private that Lancelot will not take defeat lightly and suggests that Derfel leave Ynys Trebes immediately. Derfel returns to shore accompanied by Galahad, who wishes to fight alongside him.

Derfel then spends three years in Benoic and learns quickly that Lancelot's fearsome reputation has nothing to do with his prowess in battle and everything to do with paying poets to sing his praises. Derfel and Galahad begin a campaign to slow the advance of the Frankish barbarian hordes. In this they succeed and become feared by the Franks. However, they are eventually pushed back to Ynys Trebes, where Lancelot has taken charge of defending the city. At a council of war, Lancelot insists that the kingdom can survive within the city's wall, as the city is self-sufficient. After several months under siege, the city falls. Lancelot, with his mother and followers and the kingdom's treasure, flees as soon as the city is breached. As a great massacre ensues, Derfel feels compelled to return to the palace, where he finds King Ban resigned to his fate and Father Celwin in the library frantically searching for a particular Roman scroll, both refusing to leave. As the Franks storm the palace, Father Celwin reveals himself to be Merlin in disguise. Merlin finds what he was looking for, saying that it contains the Knowledge of Britain. He then leads Derfel and Galahad out of the city and into a boat which he had already arranged for his escape.

Arriving back in Dumnonia, Merlin promptly disappears again. Meanwhile, Derfel learns that Nimue has been declared dangerously mad and has been banished to the Isle of the Dead, where the insane are exiled. Derfel assumes that this is why Merlin has disappeared. Believing Derfel and his men to be dead, Lancelot has already told Arthur and the men of Dumnonia that, despite his best efforts, Ynys Trebes fell and that it was Derfel's fault. Derfel arrives in time to hear this slander, declaring Lancelot a liar and challenging him to back up his story with his sword, but Arthur defuses the situation.

Part Four: The Isle of the Dead

Derfel is rewarded for his service to Arthur and is declared a lord, but shortly after learns that Merlin has gone north instead of to the Isle of the Dead. With the scar on his hand reminding Derfel of his duty to Nimue, he travels south to rescue her himself. He finds Nimue at the southern tip of the isle. She initially attacks him in madness, but he clasps their scarred hands together and Nimue's wits return. As he returns to the entrance, he finds that Galahad and his men have followed him south to ensure that he could leave the isle.

In the months following this adventure, Derfel and Nimue become lovers. Nimue considers leaving Merlin and the path of the Gods, but realizes that life with Derfel is an impossible dream. Arthur, meanwhile, is contemplating a final assault on Powys to end the war he knows he started. To do that, he must ensure that the Saxons, led by Aelle, remain at peace, and only money can achieve that. On the advice of Nimue he makes enforced loans from all Christian and pagan shrines, an act for which the Christians resent him. Meeting with Aelle, Arthur negotiates three months of peace in exchange for the gold and information on how to capture the Powysian stronghold of Ratae.

With Dumnonia's eastern border secure Arthur marches his army north into Gwent, where at Glevum he holds a council of war with Tewdric and Meurig, the Edling of Gwent. Galahad volunteers to travel north as an emissary to King Gorfyddyd to ascertain Gorfyddyd's intentions toward Mordred, accompanied by Derfel in disguise. Gorfyddyd discovers that Derfel is sworn to his enemy and threatens to kill both him and Galahad, but Merlin arrives and declares that Derfel is not to be harmed. Gorfyddyd tells Galahad that, upon defeating Arthur, he intends to adopt Mordred himself until he is old enough to serve on the throne of Dumnonia. In private Merlin tells them that Gorfyddyd is lying and that he will kill Mordred in order to fulfill his ambition of becoming High King. During his time in Powys Derfel meets Ceinwyn again, having first encountered her years before during her betrothal to Arthur. She reveals she has been betrothed to Gundleus in return for Siluria's assistance. Derfel tells Ceinwyn of Arthur's wish to marry her to Lancelot, whom he wishes to place on the throne of Siluria upon Gundleus' death to strengthen the alliance between the British kingdoms. Ceinwyn tells Derfel that she is tired of being used as a dynastic gaming piece and Derfel makes a declaration of love to which she does not appear to react, then swears an oath to protect her, which she accepts. Upon Galahad and Derfel's return to Glevum Tewdric refuses to commit his troops to the war, believing that Gorfyddyd was telling the truth and that Mordred will be safe. Arthur, however, believes Merlin and tries to persuade Tewdric to change his mind. Eventually Arthur gives up on Tewdric and his sworn men, including Derfel and Galahad, march north to confront Gorfyddyd alone.

Part Five: The Shield Wall

Derfel and his men undertake a night march to reach and capture Lugg Vale at dawn, guided by Nimue who has an uncanny ability to find her way in the dark. They succeed in taking the Vale and prepare to hold the position against Gorfyddyd's main army there. Arthur arrives in time to destroy the vanguard of Gorfyddyd's army and sends Galahad south in the hope that the men of Gwent will come and fight now that they know battle has begun. Arthur then offers Derfel his unique armour, which will give Arthur the opportunity to spring a trap on the rear of Gorfyddyd's army and hopefully drive them into panic. Derfel is confronted by Valerin, who was betrothed to Guinevere before she ran off with Arthur. Believing him to be Arthur, Valerin tells Derfel that Guinevere was a whore; Derfel cannot control his temper and fights Valerin. After killing him, Derfel finds a lovers' ring on his corpse with Guinevere's symbol on it, which he throws away. The battle then resumes with Derfel's troops being forced into retreat until Morfans, another of Arthur's commanders, gives the signal for Arthur to attack. Arthur's charge destroys almost a third of Gorfyddyd's army but the king sees the danger in time to defend against it. Arthur's trap has failed.

During a lull in the fighting, Galahad returns with the bad news that no one from Gwent is coming to reinforce them, except for perhaps a few volunteers. A handful of men from Kernow do arrive led by Prince Tristan, who wishes to repay Arthur for fighting against Owain. As the fighting resumes Derfel and his men are beaten further back. The battle stops once again as Cuneglas, Edling of Powys, offers them the chance to surrender; they refuse. Before the battle can recommence Merlin arrives and commands both armies to cease hostilities because he needs all Britons to help him in his quest for the Cauldron of Clyddno Eiddyn, one of the lost Thirteen Treasures of Britain. Gorfyddyd is furious that Merlin has interrupted his chance of becoming High King, but Merlin is the most revered druid in all of Britain and therefore protected from harm. Gorfyddyd refuses Merlin's requests and readies his troops again for battle. Merlin, turning to Derfel, informs him that he has convinced Oengus Mac Airem's Blackshield Irishmen, previously allied to Gorfyddyd, to switch sides and give Arthur victory. Sure enough as battle resumes the Blackshields attack Gorfyddyd and surround his retreating shield-wall.

In the aftermath, Gorfyddyd is fatally wounded but uses his last breath to curse Arthur and declare Guinevere a whore. Arthur demands to hear from Cuneglas that his father was lying and that he swear an alliance will exist between Dumnonia and Powys against the Saxons; Cuneglas concedes, bringing the civil war to an end. Derfel and Nimue continue into the Powysian encampment and find Gundleus barricaded in a hut, protected by Tanaburs. The druid threatens to unleash his most terrible curses on Derfel and tells him that he can show him his mother, but Derfel resists his power and cuts him in half. Nimue then slowly tortures Gundleus to death, attaining her long-sought vengeance.

Part One: The Dark Road

Arthur's unexpected victory over the combined armies of Powys and Siluria at Lugg Vale has brought peace and unity to the British kingdoms. Both Gorfyddyd, King of Powys, and Gundleus, King of Siluria, are dead. Gorfyddyd's son, Cuneglas, shares Arthur's desire for peace and also his dream of an alliance between the kingdoms that will destroy their common enemy, the Saxons. Derfel is ordered to follow Cuneglas to Caer Sws, capital of Powys, where the Edling is to be crowned king. As for the vacant Silurian throne, Arthur plans to make Lancelot the king and marry him to the Cuneglas' sister, Ceinwyn, the Princess of Powys, thus cementing the alliance between Dumnonia, Powys, and Siluria. Derfel himself is to be rewarded with land and made the new champion of Dumnonia as well as the caretaker for the boy king Mordred, as Arthur wants to remove Mordred from the growing influence of the Christian faction within Dumnonia.

Derfel does not reveal that he is in love with Ceinwyn and wants her for himself. As Arthur and his wife Guinevere arrive at Caer Sws for Cuneglas' acclamation, Derfel witnesses Ceinwyn's apparent happiness with her betrothal. Derfel speaks with Merlin, who tells him that Arthur wants him to marry Gwenhwyvach, Guinevere's plain and apathetic sister. Merlin asks Derfel to meet him and Nimue late that night on a hilltop, where he has Derfel drink a foul concoction. Derfel hallucinates about Ceinwyn and sees a Dark Road and a ghoul, who Merlin tells him is Diwrnach, the vicious Irish king of Lleyn. Merlin asks Derfel to accompany him on a quest to Diwrnach's lands to recover the Cauldron of Clydno Eiddin, one of the Thirteen Treasures of Britain, which was lost after the Romans sacked Ynys Mon four centuries prior. Merlin gives Derfel a bone and tells him that all he has to do is break it and his wish will be granted – namely that Ceinwyn will choose him over Lancelot – but warns that if he breaks it, he will be oath-bound to Merlin's quest.

On the night of Ceinwyn and Lancelot's betrothal feast, Derfel breaks the bone and Ceinwyn goes to Derfel instead of Lancelot. Ceinwyn refuses to be married as she wants to belong to herself and to no man, but nevertheless promises to love Derfel as a wife would. She also tells him that, since only a virgin can recover the Cauldron, Merlin has made her swear that she will remain a virgin until it is found, which means she will accompany them on the Dark Road. Derfel is reluctant to let her join the quest but she insists. Though Derfel and Ceinwyn have disrupted the political marriage he has arranged, Arthur is happy for his friend and congratulates Derfel, telling him that, once spring comes, he will call upon him to join his campaign to drive the Saxons from Lloegyr.

Arthur returns to Dumnonia, where he appoints his cousin, Culhwch, as Mordred's guardian. Culhwch puts down a rebellion by Prince Cadwy of Isca and in the process discovers that Christian noblemen and magistrates in Dumnonia had conspired to kill Arthur prior to Lugg Vale. Arthur orders that all the conspirators, including Nabur, Mordred's former guardian, be executed or removed. The only Christian to escape the purge is Bishop Sansum, who manages to remain as guardian of the Christian shrine of the Holy Thorn near Ynys Wydryn because he could not be implicated in the conspiracy, and because of his unlikely friendship with Morgan, Arthur's sister and druidess, who has great influence over Dumnonia in the absence of Merlin and Nimue.

Merlin's party travels along the Dark Road into Diwrnach's kingdom of Lleyn and crosses the narrow strait to the former druid fortress of Ynys Mon, where Merlin believes the Cauldron is hidden. Ceinwyn finds the Cauldron buried atop a hill, but the group is surrounded and besieged by Diwrnach's macabre warriors. Diwrnach demands the Cauldron and Ceinwyn in exchange for their freedom, but a heavy fog, apparently summoned by Merlin, allows the warband to escape undetected.

Part Two: The Broken War

Derfel and his men are celebrated upon their return as Warriors of the Cauldron, but he and Ceinwyn merely retreat to a quiet farm in Powys to live peacefully until spring, when Arthur will summon his warriors for the fight against the Saxons. The two are happy during their time away from the world and Ceinwyn becomes pregnant with their first child. When spring arrives, Arthur calls Derfel to a high council of the British kings in Corinium to discuss the upcoming war. Arthur also convenes a gathering of Mithras to induct Lancelot into the order. Lancelot has grown bored as King of Siluria and is angry at Ceinwyn's rejection. He has established his capital at Isca, as close to Dumnonia as possible without leaving Siluria, and has the twin grandsons of Tanaburs, the druids Dinas and Lavaine, at his service. Derfel refuses to support his rival's election to the cult of Mithras as he knows that Lancelot is no warrior. He is supported in this action by Agricola, a fellow Mithraist and a warlord of Gwent. However, Lancelot avoids the humiliation of rejection into the cult by publicly converting to Christianity and being baptised by Bishop Sansum, which ensures Lancelot's popularity with the Christians.

Marching east to meet the Saxons, Arthur's army successfully lures Aelle's forces into a trap and his war dogs are defeated by Merlin and Nimue, who bring bitches to the battle to distract them. Aelle is greatly weakened during the battle but not defeated. As the enemy retreats, the British kings are surprised by the sudden arrival of Lancelot and Cerdic, another Saxon king who is Aelle's chief rival in eastern Britain. Lancelot explains that he has negotiated an alliance with Cerdic, which infuriates Arthur, who understands that doing so has negated his victory over Aelle and only made Cerdic into a more dangerous enemy. Arthur sends Derfel to find Aelle and bring him to London, where a truce is negotiated. Cerdic wins Londinium and the valley of the Thames from Aelle, but the British kings force Cerdic to renounce any claim over the river lands of the Belgae. However, Cerdic insists that Lancelot be given control of this land as a king; as such, Lancelot is granted a new kingdom much richer and more to his liking than Siluria, which will instead be divided between Gwent and Powys. Arthur accepts these conditions with reluctance.

As the peace negotiations are conducted, Merlin and Nimue search for the last Treasure of Britain, the Chariot of Modron. When they find it, Cerdic arrives with Dinas and Lavaine and claims it as his own, since they are now in his kingdom. Dinas and Lavaine take the chariot and cut off a plait of Merlin's beard, which could allow them to cast powerful spells against the druid. On the way back to Corinium, Arthur tells Derfel that he wants him and Ceinwyn to become Mordred's guardians in Dumnonia, as Culhwch has been having difficulty raising the boy. As Derfel travels to Powys to fetch Ceinwyn, tragedy strikes: Merlin's hall at Ynys Wydryn is burned to the ground and the Cauldron is stolen.

Part Three: Camelot

In the years following Aelle's defeat and the uneasy truce of London, peace nevertheless occurs in Arthur's Britain as Aelle and Cerdic fight among themselves for mastery of Lloegyr. Lancelot establishes the capital of his new kingdom at Venta. Guinevere leaves the Roman villa at Lindinis and has a new palace, the Sea Palace (later known as Camelot), built on the border between Dumnonia and Lancelot's kingdom. Arthur attempts to forge a permanent alliance by inviting representatives of each of the British kingdoms to put aside their disputes and swear oaths of loyalty to each other in what he calls the "Brotherhood of Britain", though Merlin believes the oaths will prove meaningless.

Derfel and Ceinwyn move to Lindinis with the six-year-old Mordred, and their daughter, Morwenna, is born there. She is followed by two other daughters, Seren and Dian. Derfel and Ceinwyn soon discover that Mordred is an insolent, wicked child whom they have difficulty controlling and who enjoys inflicting pain on others. Merlin, who lost his hall at Ynys Wydryn the night the Cauldron was stolen and now lives at Lindinis, expresses the belief that a demon got into the boy king the night of his birth, while the Christians tended to him. Despite their concerns, Arthur refuses to consider removing Mordred and insists that he will grow into a responsible leader with time. Derfel, as the king's guardian and champion, serves on the king's council, alongside Arthur and, in a reversal of his fortunes, Bishop Sansum. After succeeding in returning to favour by his baptism of Lancelot, Sansum returned to a position of authority in Dumnonia when he succeeds in converting, and subsequently marrying, Morgan, Arthur's sister and Merlin's priestess. The conversion of Morgan is a blow to Dumnonia's pagan community, already badly shaken by the loss of the Treasures. Sansum and Morgan start training missionaries to spread the Christian religion through Britain. As the anniversary of the fifth century since the death of Christ is approaching, a frenzy begins to seize the Dumnonian Christian community as they become determined to convert all the pagans they can before that date and, they believe, the return of their god to Britain. Many of them begin to see Lancelot as their saviour due to the presence of a fish (a Christian symbol) on his shield, an assurance that Bishop Sansum encourages. Nimue, holed up half-mad and obsessed with gathering as much power as she can in the ravaged, abandoned tor of Ynys Wydryn, assures Derfel that even recent converts to Christianity remain fearful of the Old Gods, and that Merlin is only waiting for the day when those who stole the Cauldron try to use it and unleash its power on the world.

Although Derfel later comes to believe that those relatively peaceful years would be the best he had known, they were not without tragedy. Tristan, the forty-year-old Edling of Kernow, who had come to Arthur's aid at Lugg Vale and at the Battle of London, falls in love with his stepmother, the fifteen-year old Queen Iseult of Kernow. A daughter of Oengus Mac Airem, King of Demetia, Iseult is just the latest in a long line of women who have been married to King Mark, Tristan's father and the sixty-year-old King of Kernow. Tristan and Iseult flee Kernow with part of the royal treasury and find refuge in Isca, where Arthur's cousin Culhwch serves as governor and welcomes them. Mark appeals to Arthur, furious at his heir's treachery and fearing that he is going to lead a rebellion against him. Though he hates what he has to do, Arthur summons Mark to Isca and tells Tristan and Iseult that they must face trial. Since any trial against them will result in their conviction, Tristan appeals for a trial by combat, his only way to escape his father's punishment. As Arthur had once fought for Tristan against Owain, Derfel and Culhwch try to fight for Tristan but are immobilized by Mark's spearmen. Tristan is killed in battle by his father's champion, and Iseult is burnt at the stake for her treason. Angered by the injustice of his friend's death, Derfel angrily breaks off his friendship with Arthur.

The rift between Arthur and Derfel continues until the day Mordred is acclaimed King of Dumnonia on his fifteenth birthday. In a ceremony witnessed by the kings allied to Dumnonia, Mordred is brought to Caer Cadarn and granted his full power. Derfel, as his champion, issues the challenge to anyone who believes that Mordred is unworthy. Culhwch challenges and denounces Mordred, saying that he is unfit to be the king, but yields the fight before Derfel has to fight him to death. Forsaking his oath to Mordred, Culhwch swears his sword to Cuneglas and leaves for Powys. Mordred publicly humiliates Derfel for not killing Culhwch and dismisses him as his champion. Meeting in Lindinis, Arthur and Derfel reconcile as friends, having finally accomplished their oath to Uther to deliver Mordred's throne safely to him.

Part Four: The Mysteries of Isis

Shortly after his acclamation, Mordred sends both Arthur and Derfel on an errand into Powys to capture the traitor Ligessac, who years earlier had betrayed Dumnonia and caused the death of Mordred's mother Norwenna at the hands of King Gundleus. Arthur and Derfel are ambushed by Christian fanatics led by Cadoc while attempting to apprehend Ligessac. They defeat the Christians, but afterward Derfel decides to travel south separately from Arthur to find his mother, whom he has not seen since she was captured in a raid when he was very young. He finds his mother still alive, but she has been enslaved for years and does not remember him. Upon speaking with her Derfel realizes that his father is Aelle, the Saxon king.

Seeing fires burning on the other side of the Severn, Derfel discovers that Lancelot has suddenly attempted to usurp the Dumnonian throne by inciting religious unrest. Arthur and Derfel are presumed killed in Cadoc's ambush, and Mordred is believed to be murdered. Mobs of fanatical Christians are hunting down pagans all across Dumnonia, announcing Lancelot as their savior-king, and many of Arthur's oath-sworn bannermen have sided with Lancelot. Cerdic is besieging the majority of Arthur's army under Sagramor on Dumnonia's frontier.

Derfel eventually makes it home, where he discovers the druids Dinas and Lavaine have attacked his hall and are attempting to kidnap Ceinwyn and Merlin and bring them to Lancelot. Derfel and his men drive off Dinas and Lavaine, but during the battle Lavaine kills Derfel's youngest daughter, Dian. Derfel accompanies Ceinwyn and his daughters north to Powys and the protection of Cuneglas. Joining those who remain opposed to Lancelot at Glevum, they find Arthur there, in council with Kings Meurig of Gwent and Cuneglas of Powys. Mordred also joins the council, having been saved by Galahad from assassination. Confronted by Merlin, Mordred admits that it was Bishop Sansum's idea to distract Arthur and Derfel with the apprehension of Ligessac in order to enable the Christian uprising. Because of Mordred's incompetence in allowing Lancelot and his Christian followers to ravage Dumnonia, Arthur declares Mordred unfit to rule as king, a proclamation recognized by Cuneglas and Merlin.

Arthur and his few remaining allies devise a plan to reinforce Sagramor against Cerdic, sending Culhwch and Cuneglas' spears to his aid at Corinium, while he, Derfel and forty of their best spears rescue Guinevere and Arthur's son Gwydre, who are being held captive by Lancelot's men at the Sea Palace. Arriving there, Derfel and Arthur inadvertently catch Guinevere in the midst of her ritual worship of the goddess Isis, by which she intends for the goddess to favour Lancelot as King of Dumnonia. It is revealed that the carnal rituals have involved Guinevere sleeping with Dinas and Lavaine, as well as with Lancelot. Heartbroken and enraged, Arthur slaughters the worshipers and takes Guinevere and Gwydre away. At the same time, Derfel captures Dinas and Lavaine and, with help from Nimue, brutally kills them, exacting his revenge for the death of his daughter. They also discover all of the missing Treasures of Britain, including the Cauldron, which had been hidden in Guinevere's temple to Isis. Nimue's suspicions are revealed to have been founded: Morgan had stolen the Treasures the night Merlin's hall had burnt and given them to Sansum in exchange for his promise to marry her. Sansum had given them to Guinevere, Dinas and Lavaine, sealing his favour with them and setting the stage for the Christian uprising.

Abandoning his virtuous nature, Arthur storms and retakes the seat of kings at Caer Cadarn, a symbolic move which sends word to Dumnonia that Arthur lives and still has power. Lancelot's rebellion quickly loses momentum as word of Caer Cadarn's fall spreads and warriors from Dumnonia begin to rally to Arthur's side.

With Lancelot in retreat, Arthur grimly asserts to Derfel that their oath to the deceased Uther binds them to acclaim Mordred as Dumnonia's king, but he will be a pure figurehead, and Arthur himself will be the land's sole ruler. Derfel, remembering something Merlin said, suggests that Arthur be known as ''Imperator'', a Roman title understood to mean "ruler of kings."

The Secret Service Agent Morgan Sinclair has been charged with the mission to retrieve four mystical artifacts called Satan's Keys from the Louvre Museum. These four keys, when joined together, cause complete global annihilation. Morgan goes back in time to three periods in time when various kings used the Louvre as their residential palaces: Charles V Mediaeval period, Henry IV Renaissance period, Louis XV 1789 French Revolution period, and then return safely to present day. In this race against evil and against time, she needs to find the keys before the vengeful descendants of an evil cult of Black Templars combine these mystic artifacts, triggering Armageddon.

George Norton is a low-level bumbler who works for Chicago crime boss Charley Barker. A well-dressed mama's boy, George is in good standing with Barker, even gaining a promotion, until an incident that costs the mob a million dollars.

George is indirectly responsible when Archie, a mob courier, is killed at a barbecue. After the funeral, Barker instructs George to dig up Archie's body because $500,000 was stuffed inside the lining of each side of a blue suit that an unwitting George personally chose for the burial.

George opens the casket to find it empty, then later occupied by a different corpse. He sets out to retrieve the body and the money before Barker gets angry enough to arrange a funeral for HIM.

Teenage punk rock fan and high-school dropout Seeth (née Seth) and his older brother, geeky graduate student Kerwin, rescue a stranger from arrest at a bowling alley in their hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico, only to discover that the cops are killer aliens and that the bowling ball the stranger carries is intelligent. Seeth, Kerwin and the stranger, quickly joined by a valley girl-type named Miranda, soon find themselves on the run, not just on the streets of Earth, but among the stars as well, and in the middle of an intergalactic battle for Izmir, the "bowling ball".

Mary McCloud marries the seemingly peaceful Kansas schoolteacher William Cantrell, before finding out that he harbors a dark secret. He is actually an outlaw leader who attacks both sides in the Civil War for his own profit. After capturing a wagon loaded with Confederate uniforms, he decides to pass himself off as a Confederate officer. Her naive, idealistic brother Fletcher joins what he believes is a Rebel guerrilla force. Meanwhile, Cantrell's stern, but loving mother refuses to accept any of her son's ill-gotten loot.

A former suitor of Mary's, Union supporter Bob Seton, is captured by Cantrell and scheduled for execution. After being rescued by a disillusioned Fletcher McCloud, Seton and Mary Cantrell race to the town of Lawrence (site of an actual infamous Quantrill-led massacre) to warn the residents of an impending attack by Cantrell's gang.

Two friends, Bobby Todd (Carrey) and Jackson Reach (Thicke), travel from their hometown of Grimsby to the Club Med village in Copper Mountain. Jackson intends to hit the slopes and ski, while Bobby attempts to seduce women with impressions and routines. Eventually, Jackson wins a challenge race, and Bobby finds companionship by being himself.

~Plot outline description~

The play is set in 1904 at 1839 Wylie Avenue in Pittsburgh's Hill District. Aunt Ester, the drama's 285-year-old fiery matriarch, welcomes into her home Solly Two Kings, who was born into slavery and scouted for the Union Army, and Citizen Barlow, a young man from Alabama searching for a new life and in search of redemption. Aunt Ester is not too old to practice healing; she guides Barlow on a soaring, lyrical journey of spiritual awakening to the City of Bones.

Chazz Michael Michaels is a skillful single skater but raunchy sex addict. Jimmy MacElroy is an equally talented and effeminate but sheltered skater. From the start, the two rival skaters are clear polar opposites with different backgrounds. Chazz grew up on the streets and is a self-taught skater, while Jimmy was adopted by Darren MacElroy, a wealthy man who adopts children showing exceptional athletic ability.

At the 2002 World Winter Sport Games, Chazz and Jimmy tie for gold as Darren fires Jimmy's coach Darren Goddard over this. While standing on the awards podium after both skaters tie for gold, the two have an argument that escalates into a fight and ends with the World Games mascot being accidentally set on fire. As a result, Commissioner Ebbers of the National Figure Skating Association, despite their best defenses (Jimmy profusely and genuinely apologizing for his role, Chazz merely defending himself by picking up a sports magazine that declared, as did he, that "Chazz Michael Michaels ''IS'' ice skating"), strips both men of their medals and bans them from competitive skating for life. Darren immediately "unadopts" Jimmy.

Three and a half years later, both men have grudgingly taken on alternative occupations. Jimmy is working at a sporting goods store while Chazz performs on a children's ice show until he is fired for being drunk on the job. Jimmy's obsessive stalker Hector tells him of a loophole in the ban which only bans him from men's single skating, allowing him to compete in pair skating. In hopes of entering the upcoming World Winter Sport Games, Jimmy contacts Coach Goddard. Jimmy's search for a last-minute partner leads him to Chazz, but the two men start a fight at the ice show which gets them both arrested. Coach Goddard visits them in jail in order to convince them to skate as the first-ever male-male pairs team.

Coach Goddard informs them that to win, they will need to learn to get along and pull off a move that has never been performed successfully: the "Iron Lotus", an extremely complicated and dangerous maneuver that he had developed years ago. The only attempt of the maneuver was in North Korea, and resulted in the man decapitating the woman with his skate blade. Nonetheless, they practice the maneuver as Coach Goddard is convinced that two males would be better suited to successfully perform the move. Over time, Chazz and Jimmy become friends.

Meanwhile, brother and sister competitors Stranz and Fairchild Van Waldenberg, who are worried that their spot as the top team is threatened when Jimmy and Chazz perform well at the Winter Sports Games qualifiers, command their younger sister Katie Van Waldenberg to disrupt the duo by going out with Jimmy and then having sex with Chazz. When Katie falls in love with Jimmy after going on a date with him, her elder siblings threaten to harm him if she does not comply. Katie gets Chazz's attention after attending a sex addicts' meeting as the newest member, then invites Chazz to her room and tries to seduce him. Chazz refuses out of respect for Jimmy, delighting Katie, but cannot resist grabbing her breasts. Jimmy witnesses this and is outraged at their betrayals. Chazz attempts numerous times to apologize to Jimmy by voicemail.

In an attempt to sabotage the performance the following day, Stranz and Fairchild kidnap both Chazz and Jimmy, but both are able to escape. As Fairchild kidnapped Jimmy, she revealed to him that she and her brother commanded Katie to have sex with Chazz to make him jealous, and that he did not go through with it out of respect for him. Chazz and Jimmy arrive at the ice rink just in time to compete, where they reconcile quickly and begin their routine. Fairchild, seeing the two doing well, breaks her pearl necklace and throws a pearl onto the ice; Chazz skates over it and breaks his ankle, rendering him unable to perform his role in the Iron Lotus. Jimmy then offers to switch places with him. Although they have never practiced the other's roles, they perform it perfectly, and win the competition.

Jimmy reconciles with Katie, and the two pursue a relationship. Stranz and Fairchild are arrested for the foul play and desecrating a Canadian mascot. They begin arguing, then kissing each other incestuously before being handcuffed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Jimmy and Chazz receive the gold medal and fly off into the sky via rockets on their skates.

''Uncharted Waters Online'' also includes event storylines for each of the nationalities adding single player depth to a multiplayer environment. Each nation's storyline revolves around a protagonist and their journey much like in previous games of the series. The following contains a translation from the Beginner's Guide as well as basic character information.

Portugal

Portugal is a mercantile nation that prospers by trade from profits of the land facing the Atlantic Ocean. They quickly rode the advances of navigation, and were the first to round the Cape of Good Hope. Recently, after returning from the discovery of the Indian route, and fiercely compete with their neighbor, Spain.

:''Alvero Sarmiento'' (17) - A trader playing the marketplaces near Portugal. He is a leader among boys his age, and his smile endears himself towards people. :''Diego Sarmiento'' (42) - The head of the Sarmiento Company, a major company representing Portugal. :''Juan'' (10) - A boy who accompanies Alvero on his journeys. :''Vasco da Gama'' (28) - Portuguese naval officer born to a noble house. He became a national hero by discovering the Indian route. :''Sanjai'' (18) - Indian spice trader.

Spain

Spain is a powerful authoritarian kingdom dominated by the royal house of Habsburg. The Habsburgs' rise to the royal throne came because of the premature death of the late king's son. Spain came into possession of the Netherlands which is the territory of the current royal family.

In order to support the country's finances, the Netherlands have been taxed heavily, and as a consequence has raised support for their independence movement in recent years.

:''Baltasar Oliveira'' (38) - Captain of the mercenary fleet working for Spain. He lives to hunt down the leader of the Barbary pirates — Khair ad Din. He is the leader of the Black Orca fleet. :''Eduardo de Mascareñas'' (20) - The newest captain of the Black Orca fleet. He was born into just a normal house instead of the famed Hidalgo class. In order to fulfill his dream of promotion to a hidalgo he joins with Baltasar. :''Augustino'' (39) - An officer originally from an artisan family in the heart of Italy. :''Barbarossa Khair ad Din'' (38) - Leader of the Barbary pirates. He sails out into the Mediterranean from his base of operations in Algeria. :''Irene'' (29) - The barmaid at Marseilles. Sophisticated and "high-maintenance" she is known as an "adult woman" who is chased after by many adventurers.

England

England is a small island country to the north for whom wool is the key industry. However, the wool market became unstable because of the Spanish political meddling in the Netherlands, which is England's biggest trading partner. The wool trade decreased, and a heavy recession ensued. The Queen wishes to repair the situation, but there is no method to compete with powerful Spain.

:''Liza Middleton'' (21) - An English naval officer from the former pirate Middleton house. She has gained notoriety for her courage. :''Gordon'' (40) - A veteran crewman who has served the Middleton house for more than 14 years. He runs around trying to protect Liza. :''William Middleton'' (29) - The family head of the Middleton house who was pirating 10 years earlier. He has passed on naval activities to his sister. He maintains friendly relations with the courier Fredrik nowadays. :''Count Kilingrew'' (45) - The chief vassal who serves the English Royal Family. He treats the navy as his personal property. :''McGregor'' (35) - A pirate who stood out after he had beaten the Middleton family.

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a rising maritime courier nation facing the North Sea. They are a producer of wool fabric. The main Habsburg territory of the Netherlands became Spanish territory by inheritance of the Spanish king. The Spanish political meddling awoke the independence movement, but the military strength of the House of Alba prevents the movement.

:''Fredrik Van Metteren'' (24) - Specializing in the transport of 'dangerous' goods and naturally independent. :''Egmont'' (25) - A nobleman representative to the Netherlands government. Recently he has been trying to increase monetary support from other nations for the independence movement. :''Hoorn'' (28) - A revolutionary of commoner origins. :''Amalia'' (18) - A towngirl liked by many who lives in Amsterdam. She appears to be a normal beautiful girl, but... :''Ines'' (25) - The trusted retainer of the House of Alba, who indirectly rule the Netherlands, and is a female officer of the Spanish navy.

France

France is an agrarian kingdom holding territory from the Mediterranean to the North Sea. France is surrounded by strong ocean-faring countries, and its seafaring business was delayed because of a long line of monarchs who were obsessed with themselves. The half-century delayed Renaissance starts from the Italian peninsula, and there are many nobles who collect rare treasures and artifacts.

:''Julien Clarence'' (23) - A quiet man who belongs to a treasure hunting family who holds the patronage of many nobles. He has excellent eyes in regards to art. :''Countess DuBois'' (42) - The wife of a count in Marseilles who wields much power. She has a proud and sadistic demeanor. She makes servants out of those who are unable to pay for services. :''Augustine'' (39) - A one-eyed priest who recently came to Marseilles. :''France's Queen Mother'' (48) - The Queen Mother who holds real governmental power in France in place of the young King. At 17 she was married from the Medici family in Firenze, and after a while the king died. :''Ogun'' (20) - A warrior who travels the continent of Africa. He knows the spirit of animals and how to survive.

Venice

Venice is a small city-state floating on the sea. It is called the "City of Water". Venice's maritime industry had long been prosperous, and Venice had long held a monopoly on the profits of the Mediterranean trade on pepper from Alexandria. However, recently the Ottoman Empire appeared in the East and Portugal discovered a sea route to the Indies. The story line is intertwined with the French story line, and they have many of the same main characters.

:''Vittoria Orseoro'' (22) - :''Alvise Orseoro'' (30) - :''Harun'' (12) - :''Gradenigo'' (61) - :''Faisal'' (31) -

A retired Interpol officer tries to bring down the drug lord who killed his friend and threatens an entire village on the island of Sardinia.

Miss Hester's dog Fritz had bitten her cousin Eunice six times, so when Miss Hester receives an invitation to visit Eunice, she's not surprised to read "P.S. Please leave your dog home". Before leaving for her visit, Miss Hester asks Alan Mitz to dog sit Fritz and give him his afternoon walk. Alan does an admirable job of making sure Fritz does not destroy the house furniture with his sharp teeth.

However, while walking the dog, he comes upon a sign forbidding dogs into the garden of Abdul Gasazi, the retired magician. Alan takes the warning quite seriously and turns to leave, but Fritz tugs and snaps his way out of his collar and runs into the garden. Alan chases the dog all over the garden and almost catches Fritz. But after Alan falls down a flight of steps, Fritz disappears. While looking for Fritz, Alan notices that his dogprints lead the way to the House of Gasazi. Once Alan arrives at the mansion-sized house, Mr. Gasazi invites him in. Alan politely asks Mr. Gasazi to please give Fritz back. At first, Gasazi smiles and seems to grant Alan's request by saying "Certainly you may have your little Fritzie. Follow me".

While walking across the front lawn, Gasazi reveals that when he sees dogs digging up his flowers and chewing on his trees in the garden, he turns them into ducks. When one duck comes towards Alan, Gasazi tells him to take Fritz (who's now a duck) home and throws him out. As Alan's traveling home, a strong gust of wind lifts his hat off his head. Fritz flies out of his reach and grabs the hat in mid-air, but keeps on flying into the clouds. As Alan cries on his way home, he wonders how he'll tell Miss Hester the bad news.

To his surprise, when he finally gets back to her house, Fritz is there, apparently fine. Alan, relieved by the good news, waves goodbye to Miss Hester and goes home. But when Miss Hester calls out to Fritz, the dog comes up the front steps while chewing on Alan's hat and drops it at her feet. Miss Hester says, "Why you bad dog! What are you doing with Alan's hat?"

A southern town is rocked by scandal when teenager Mary Clay is murdered on Confederate Memorial Day. A district attorney with political ambitions, Andrew Griffin, sees the crime as his way to the Senate if he can find the right scapegoat to be tried for the crime. He seeks out Robert Hale, Mary's teacher at the business school where she was killed. Even though all evidence against Hale is circumstantial, Hale happens to be from New York (Leo Frank was a Southerner from Texas, but he was Jewish and had been raised in New York), and Griffin works with reporter William Brock to create a media frenzy of prejudice and hatred against the teacher. The issue moves from innocence or guilt to the continuing bigotry and suspicion between South and North, especially given the significance of the day of the murder.

The film shows the immense pressures brought to bear on members of the community to help in the conviction – the black janitor who is induced to lie on the stand for fear he himself will be convicted if Hale is found innocent; the juror who is the sole holdout to a guilty verdict; and the barber who is afraid to testify to something he knows because it could exonerate Hale. Michael Gleason, Hale's lawyer, does his best, but Hale is convicted and sentenced to death.

The governor of the state, with the support of his wife, decides to commit political suicide by commuting Hale's death sentence to life imprisonment because the evidence is simply insufficient to send a man to his death. The townsfolk are enraged, and the murdered girl's brothers, who have been threatening all along to take matters into their own hands if Hale is not executed, plot and carry out Hale's abduction and lynching with the help of a vengeful mob.

Afterward, Hale's widow goes to Griffin's office to return a check he had sent her to help her out, telling him he cannot soothe his conscience that way. As he and Brock watch her leave the building, Brock wonders if Hale was guilty. Griffin replies without much concern, "I wonder."

Anthony Smith and William Anti-Aut are full brothers who live in a "Post-Catastrophe" world where, due to concerns about humanity's limited genetic diversity, siblings who share both parents are rare (and identical twins are nonexistent). Not only are they full brothers, they also look alike, which is totally unheard of, not to mention embarrassing.

William pursues a career in genetic engineering, referred to as homology, and has been trying to understand and cure autism, hence his chosen surname. Anthony has gone into telemetrics, and is working on the Mercury Project, the purpose of which is to send a robot to Mercury. This is a problem because the positronic brain at the time is not yet adapted to such an environment, so a computer on Earth must direct the robot. However, the speed of light communications lag between Earth and Mercury can last up to twenty-two minutes, making computer control difficult. Anthony attempts to solve this problem by recruiting a homologist that can design a positronic brain that resembles a human brain. The leading homologist in this area is his brother William, and much to their mutual embarrassment, the two wind up working together.

William struggles to help form the brain, but when the robot is tested in Arizona, it is terribly clumsy. Anthony sees no hope in the robot, but William argues that it was designed for the environment of Mercury, not Arizona. When the robot is sent to Mercury, it operates smoothly, and the project is a success. The solution, William realized, was to use an autistic human rather than a computer to direct the robot. The story ends with William and Anthony befriending each other after being so long separated.

A drunken college student invites a dance hostess to the big college dance and then forgets he asked her. When she shows up at school, he tries to get rid of her, but she won't leave. Instead she stays and shows up both him and his classmates' snooty dates.

Ruby Weaver is weary of her long history of failed relationships with men when she meets Sam Deed (Vincent D'Onofrio) in a park. But after the two fall in love, Ruby becomes suspicious of Sam's past, his obsession with a "Chrystie Delancey", and "causal effect". Under pressure from her, he finally explains that he is really from the year 2470 and is what he calls a "back traveler". Ruby initially ignores this story, but after Sam's persistence, she begins to wonder. She takes him to see her therapist Meg Ford. Ruby becomes worried as to Sam's sanity when he reveals that everything he has done was a deliberate attempt to change her life. In the end, both Deed ''and'' Ford turn out to be time travelers and the fatal accident that would have killed Ruby is avoided.

In this version of Charlotte Brontë's novel, Jane Eyre (Georgie Henley) is raised as a poor relation in the household of her aunt, Mrs. Reed (Tara Fitzgerald). As a young woman (Ruth Wilson), Jane is hired by the housekeeper of Thornfield Hall, Mrs. Fairfax, to be a governess for young Adèle (Cosima Littlewood). The owner of the estate is Mr. Rochester (Toby Stephens), who is courting the beautiful Blanche Ingram (Christina Cole).

Episode One

After the death of her maternal uncle, the orphaned child Jane Eyre is left to the care of her uncaring and cruel aunt Mrs Reed. In their house at Gateshead Hall, Jane is ill-treated by her three first cousins and aunt alike and never feels at home. After one of many ill-treatments she is accused of being bad blood and in an attempt to get rid of her, Jane is sent to Lowood School by Mrs Reed. Like Gateshead Hall, Lowood School is a cold institution. Jane's only friend at school, Helen Burns, dies and Jane is left alone once again. Resolving to become independent, she takes on the profession of a governess.

At the age of eighteen, she is able to secure a position as governess to a girl at Thornfield Hall. Here Jane learns that her pupil, a French girl named Adele, is the ward of the master of the house, Edward Rochester, who had had her mother, Celine Verans, as his mistress, and that she had left her illegitimate daughter in his care. She is also informed that the master of the house is seldom at home. On one of his journeys back to Thornfield Hall, Jane at last meets Rochester. One night, Jane wakes to strange noises coming from Rochester's room. She follows the noise and realizes that Rochester's room has been set on fire and the master in danger.

Episode Two

After Jane is able to rescue Rochester just in time, she wonders who set the fire and from whom these strange sounds from the North Tower came. She barely receives an answer from Rochester who instead leaves Thornfield without notice the next morning. On his return to Thornfield, he brings along some acquaintances among whom are the beautiful Blanche Ingram and her mother Lady Ingram.

Rochester receives another unexpected and not wholly welcome guest. Mason, the guest, is severely injured one night. While Rochester fetches a doctor, Jane is left to take care of Mason in the North Tower. Once again strange sounds from the North Tower precede the incident. While looking after Mason, Jane is startled by loud noises from the other side of the door in the North Tower.

Episode Three

Jane receives a visitor from her troubled past. Bessie informs her of her aunt's illness and the request to see Jane before she dies. Jane asks Mrs. Reed why she always hated her niece. Mrs. Reed replies that it was because her husband had loved Jane more than his own children, even calling out for her on his deathbed. Jane also learns from her aunt that she has an uncle. This uncle asked to take care of Jane when she was still a child. Her aunt misinformed the uncle and told him that Jane died. Unlike her aunt, Jane is able to forgive Mrs. Reed on her aunt's death bed.

Away from Thornfield Hall, Jane realizes with more clarity that Thornfield has indeed become a home for her, something she never had before. However, the rumours of an upcoming marriage between Blanche Ingram and Mr. Rochester disturb her immensely. Is she to leave her beloved Thornfield?

In an attempt to discover Jane's real emotions, Rochester constantly teases Jane so that she finally reveals that she loves not only Thornfield Hall but Rochester as well. As these romantic feelings are shared by Rochester, he proposes to Jane and she accepts with joy.

Two days before the marriage Jane's wedding veil is ruined. Even her seeing a shadow of a tall woman in her rooms is, according to Rochester, "half dream, half reality." At the wedding, however, Jane finally learns of Rochester's wife Bertha living in the North Tower. Insanity runs in Bertha's family and as a result she was locked up for the safety of herself and others. This information is revealed by Richard Mason, who turns out to be Bertha's brother. Rochester insists that he still loves Jane and offers to live with her "as brother and sister" but Jane leaves Thornfield in the night.

Episode Four

Jane is left penniless and without any hope. She succumbs and lies down on the moors to die. She is, however, rescued by the clergyman, St John Rivers, who takes her home and nurses her back to health with the help of his two sisters. Jane, however, seems to have lost her memories.

Jane is told by St John that she has inherited some money from her uncle and that they are also related. St John Rivers also informs Jane that he knows about her past, including Thornfield Hall.

Jane cannot come to terms with the marriage proposal from St John Rivers or the prospect of living abroad as missionaries. As she begins to hear Rochester calling her name, Jane immediately knows that she belongs to Thornfield and Rochester. On her return she finds a weakened and blind Rochester and a burnt-down Thornfield. Jane is also told of the circumstances surrounding the fire and Rochester's blindness. He was injured while trying to rescue his wife Bertha, who did not survive. Rochester recognizes Jane upon hearing her voice and is very happy to have her back. The two are married and the entire family — Rochester, Jane, Adele, St. John Rivers' sisters, two children (presumably Rochester and Jane's offspring), and the dog Pilot — gather in the garden to have their portrait painted. Because St. John is away on his mission, he is painted to the side of the portrait.

Differences from the novel

The screenplay does deviate from the novel. The time devoted to the first third (Lowood School) and the final third (St. John) of the novel are reduced. The middle of the novel is instead developed and a few scenes from the novel are compressed or moved to different times and places in the narrative. The scenes surrounding Jane's flight from Thornfield until regaining her health are treated as a brief flashback sequence, with many pages of text condensed into a passage of a few minutes' length. Additional scenes were created for the screenplay to underscore the passionate natures of Jane and Rochester. One of the more significant plot changes occurs during the gypsy sequence as Rochester hires a gypsy rather than portraying one himself. Rochester also uses an ouija board as a supplement to this game, a scene which was written specifically for the screenplay.

For a full-length summary of Charlotte Brontë's novel, see ''Jane Eyre'' plot summary.

Part One: The Fires of Mai Dun

The novel begins shortly after the end of ''Enemy of God''. Arthur has taken full control of Dumnonia and Guinevere is imprisoned. Mordred, while still king, has had his power stripped from him. Lancelot has joined the Saxons. Meanwhile, the Saxon kings Aelle and Cerdric have put aside their differences. Although Arthur has persuaded Dumnonia, Powys and several Irish kings to unite against the Saxons, Meurig, king of Gwent will join them only if he is given Dumnonia, but Arthur refuses his demand. Instead Arthur sends Derfel to try to persuade Aelle, Derfel's father, to turn against Cerdic. Upon arrival, Cerdic demands Derfel's death, as all British emissaries are killed, but Aelle says his son must fight a Saxon champion in single combat. Derfel wins, but Aelle is not fooled by Arthur's false promises.

Merlin is preparing a pagan rite at Mai Dun that will bring the Old Gods back to Britain by gathering together the Thirteen Treasures of Britain, including Arthur's sword Excalibur, which is revealed to be the sword of Rydderch, one of the Treasures. Arthur realises that Nimue intends to sacrifice his son to bring the gods. Arthur's part in stopping the ceremony earns him the hatred of many pagans in Britain, who blame him for preventing the gods' return.

Part Two: Mynydd Baddon

Finally the Saxons invade. Derfel, along with Ceinwyn and Guinevere, leads a group of survivors who are trapped at Mount Baddon. Derfel is impressed by Guinevere's efforts in the battle, as she uses several tricks to hamper their enemies' forces, winning them much needed time and victories until Arthur reaches them. Eventually, Arthur arrives along with Sagramor and Cuneglas and manage to win a victory over the Saxons. He also succeeds in convincing Gwent to fight by appealing to Tewdric, Meurig's father who had abdicated to become a monk. Tewdric briefly reclaims his throne from his son and leads Gwent's thousand spears in battle against the Saxons.

During a respite in the fighting, Liofa, Cerdic's champion, humiliates a Powysian warrior before the British and Cuneglas tries to fight him but is killed, costing Arthur his staunchest ally and Derfel a man he considered a brother. Despite assistance from Tewdric, the Saxons still outnumber the British and, despite their heavy losses, they are likely to win the battle. However, after the British push back two assaults and expect the third to finish them off, Cuhlwch and Irish king Oengus mac Airen arrive with fresh troops and Merlin, who uses the dead body of a killed prince riding into battle to terrify the Saxons who believe a ghoul is attacking them. The Saxons are beaten and Cerdic flees with his army in ruins while Aelle's remaining forces are surrounded. Aelle asks his son to give him a warrior's death and Derfel obliges, despite his fear of his prophecy that 'a son will kill his father'. He buries Aelle according to Saxon rites and spares the lives of his men. Lancelot is caught trying to flee the rout, and Derfel forces him to accept a challenge to single combat; despite his cowardice, Lancelot proves to be a competent swordsman, but Derfel defeats him anyway, and has him hanged from a tree.

The power of the Saxons in Britain is broken. Cerdic is forced to retreat with a greatly weakened army and Sagramor conquers several parts of western Lloegyr. Tewdric is known as a saint for his actions at Mynyd Baddon and the Christians credit him with the victory. The old king once again renounces his throne after the battle and Meurig returns to power. The ageing warlord of Gwent, Agricola, is killed during the battle. Lancelot goes down in legend as the greatest hero of Arthur's retinue, when in truth he was a coward, a rapist, and a traitor.

Part Three: Nimue's Curse

Guinevere tells Derfel that Arthur's price for gaining Gwent's allegiance was giving up his power. As this is what Arthur had always wanted, he agreed and instead leaves Derfel and Sagramor as the leaders of Dumnonia's army: Derfel will command the spears and rule Dumnonia while Sagramor will watch the border with the Saxons. Arthur and Guinevere would leave for Silurian Isca to live in peace. Although Guinevere admits that it was not what she wanted for herself and Arthur, she wanted to be with Arthur. Arthur and Guinevere set up in Siluria, the kingdom which Lancelot abandoned and was divided between Powys and Gwent. They take a warband as Arthur still had enemies.

As he remains in the lands under Meurig's rule, Arthur becomes one of his tax collectors and soon comes to be known as the Governor of Siluria, as he uses his warband to solve disputes between Silurian chieftains and repel attacks from Demetia. With Cuneglas's death, Powys descends into chaos as several chieftains proclaim themselves king in opposition to the deceased ruler's son, Perddel. The latter manages to retain his throne but he does not have enough men to hold Powys. Eventually, his fractured kingdom is invaded by the Irish king of Lleyn, Diwrnach. Arthur takes his own warriors north to confront this new enemy and, after forcing him from Powys, he tracks Diwrnach on the Dark Road which leads to Ynys Mon and destroys his army. Diwrnach himself drowns during the battle and Arthur successfully reclaims Leodegan's kingdom of Henis Wyren, fulfilling the oath he had sworn to the deceased king.

At the same time, Mordred goes on war raids. First against what remains of the Saxons, reclaiming lands which become Dumnonia's new border in the east, and later in Broceliande against the Franks led by Clovis. In Dumnonia, Derfel attempts to live up to Arthur's legacy by enforcing Mordred's justice with help from Issa, his former second in command who is now a warlord with his own band of warriors. However, his efforts are undermined by Mordred's wife, Queen Argante, and Bishop Sansum, who has become the king's chief counsellor. Both take to undoing the rulings proclaimed by Derfel and the magistrates he appoints in exchange for money. As Mordred continues to fight against the Franks, drawing to him an important army of landless men, many in Dumnonia begin to hope that he will die fighting which would pave the way for a new king to ascend to the throne. Although Arthur (Uther's eldest living son and a well known warrior) refuses the throne, his son Gwydre appears poised to succeed Mordred. A faction begins to develop inside Dumnonia supporting the young man. Making the situation worse for Mordred, his wife is incapable of having children despite frequent visits from the King (and rumours that she has been sharing her bed with palace guards). In contrast, Gwydre and his wife Morwenna (Derfel and Ceinwyn's eldest daughter) have two children, Arthur-Bach and Seren. Gwydre is eager to take the throne because he believes that he can be a better King than Mordred, and his father, Derfel, Sagramor and Issa all appear willing to support him.

A messenger arrives, claiming that Mordred is dying while being besieged by a Frankish army. Derfel tries to avoid a succession issue and goes to Arthur who prepares his army to place his son on the throne. Because Meurig refuses to let the army pass through his kingdom, they must cross the sea. Derfel returns to Dumnonia to find Mordred still alive and learns that he faked his injuries and plans to take revenge on both Derfel and Arthur. Derfel manages to escape with the help of Taliesin, Guinevere's bard, but he learns that Issa has been killed and that Sagramor was defeated. Sansum has also been imprisoned because of his secret attempt to have Meurig seize the Dumnonian throne once Mordred dies. Derfel escapes with the bishop.

Derfel returns to Isca to find Ceinwyn is deathly sick. He is taken to meet Nimue in the far north of Britain who tells that she caused Ceinwyn's sickness and will only remove it if Derfel gives her Arthur's sword and Arthur's son. Nimue plans to use both to complete the ritual to return the Old Gods to Britain. She has also captured Merlin and tortured him into insanity to rip every last secret about being a druid from his mind. In his last moment of sanity, Merlin tells Derfel that he arranged a last trick for him and Arthur as they were the two men he loved most in the world. However, he refuses to lift Nimue's curse, saying that a part of him wants her to succeed where he failed. Derfel, having nowhere else to turn, goes to Morgan, now a Christian, who offers to remove the fever with her old pagan magic only if Derfel will agree to convert to Christianity and serve her husband, Sansum. To complete the spell, Derfel's hand is cut off.

Part Four: The Last Enchantment

Ceinwyn is saved and she converts to Christianity with Derfel, pledging to follow her man wherever he goes. Arthur and his army, carrying Gwydre's banner, travel the sea to Dumnonia but, before they can escape her, Nimue catches up with them. She kills Merlin as a sacrifice to the Sea Goddess, Manawydan, to destroy the fleet. Arthur's army is almost entirely destroyed by the following storm and only his ship makes it to shore. Realizing they can no longer oppose Mordred and his army, the survivors head to Camlan where Merlin has arranged for a ship to take them away to safety. At the last minute, they are joined by Sagramor and the last of his warriors. Mordred comes for Arthur, determined to end the greatest threat to his rule by killing both him and Gwydre. In the brutal battle that follows, Arthur kills Mordred but is wounded during the fight. As the battle seems to turn in favour of Mordred's remaining warriors, an unexpected combatant arrives: Meurig's warriors have come to take Dumnonia's throne for the King of Gwent.

To save Arthur and Gwydre from the latest pretender to the throne, Derfel sends them away on the ship arranged by Merlin along with Guinevere, Morwenna and their grandchildren, Arthur-Bach and Seren. Derfel remains to honour his oath to Morgan and serve Sansum. At the last minute, Ceinwyn decides to stay with him, reminding him of her own oath to always remain with him. As Meurig's forces finish off the remnants of Mordred's army, Nimue arrives to claim Gwydre and Excalibur. However, Derfel casts the sword into the sea, ending Nimue's hopes of bringing back the Old Gods.

Derfel's narration

The novel also completes the arc of Derfel's narration of the series, as he has been writing the story of Arthur (who was never seen again after Camlan) as a monk under the guise of writing the Gospel in the Saxon tongue.

After the Battle of Camlan, Derfel and Ceinwyn go with Sansum north to a monastery in Powys where Derfel is protected from the bishop's wrath by the protection of King Perddel and, later, of his son, Brochvael. The latter's wife, Igraine, was raised with stories of Arthur as he is portrayed in modern times. She asks him to write his story and provides him with the means to do it, protecting him from Sansum's suspicions. This serves as the thread the story follows.

Despite an apparent conversion to Christianity reflected in his writings, Derfel secretly retains his faith in the Old Gods and, when Ceinwyn dies, he secretly burns her body to allow her soul to join their family and friends in the Otherworld. He writes in his story his own desire to be burnt upon his death as opposed to a Christian burial and hopes that Igraine will grant him his desired funeral.

As the story progresses, the situation in Britain takes a turn for the worse. Despite Meurig's conquest of Dumnonia, Saxons continue to arrive in the weakened Lloegyr, greeted by Cerdic. Rebuilding their forces, the Saxons apparently overrun the combined forces of Gwent and Dumnonia and, as the story is completing, they are threatening Powys. Sansum returns the sword Hywelbane to Derfel so that he can defend their monastery against the approaching Saxons, an act which could lead the reader to believe that Derfel will be killed by the Saxons when they reach them. Derfel secretly hopes that they will and that he will cross the bridge of swords to reach Arthur, his family and their friends in the Otherworld.

A secretive sect of Freemasons is trying to decipher several Dead Sea scrolls found in Jerusalem, Israel, and is willing to go to great length in order to do so. The key storyline revolves around an upcoming supreme court nomination of a new judge. In order to secure to the nomination, the conspirators kidnap the wife of a U.S. Senator, which is the trigger to the entire plot. The supreme court will soon rule on legal evidence issue, which will impact the faith of a renowned Dead Sea scholar currently awaiting execution for killing his research team as well as for his wife murder, although her body was never found. The conspirators are looking to overturn the scholar's conviction therefore freeing him and allowing the decipher of the scrolls.

The story begins in Atlanta when Sara Collins (nee Jerome) vanishes from a dinner held in her honor. Sara is a teacher, in early 30's, and Senator Jeffrey Collins's second wife. She had previously told her husband that she had a secret to tell him, but disappeared before she could reveal it to him.

The investigation into her kidnapping starts to uncover secrets. While Senator Collins is clean and desperately wants his wife returned, even paying the ransoms will not get her back. He paid $5,000,000 in cash and then voted as requested by kidnappers to confirm a Supreme Court nominee. He initially held support for this nominee, despite being his long time close friend, because he knew the nominee seduced an underage girl.

What Senator Collins did not know was that the underage girl was actually his daughter, Marcy. Marcy ended the affair with the judge after being caught by Sara, but was later raped by him and subsequently became pregnant. Marcy believes she was then poisoned to induce a miscarriage.

Senator Collins' son, Max, had gotten into trouble over underage drinking and DUI. Sara urged Jeffrey to put him in a rehab facility. There, Max expressed a hatred for his stepmother, which was used against her by the conspiracy (his counselor Quinn was one of the conspirators).

Senator Collins' ex-wife worked her way back into Senator Collins's life via their mutual children. She confronted Sara over the birth of her child but despite her hatred of Sara, never revealed the truth, given her disappearance. Senator Collins' ex-wife was financially broke and eventually took a bribe from Senator Collins' chief of staff, which she gave to Marcy to help her daughter bail her boyfriend out of jail.

Sara went through torture and manipulation when she was in captivity. She was fed certain information and that made her believe that Collins took her kidnapping as opportunity to advance his career. These lies led her to flee to the last place where she felt anonymous and safe - the same place she fled the rehab facility once before, Gloucester, Massachusetts.

FBI Agent Graham Kelton solved many aspects of the kidnapping, and even managed to contact the mysterious person leaving St. Nathan prayer cards with clues for him. He found out that the person wanted the conspiracy undone more than Sara's rescue. He eventually solved the real ransom demand of the conspiracy, the supreme court vote, but after stopping the vote with a bioterrorist attack simulation, he was shot and killed by one of the conspirators, before he can give any details.

FBI Agent Lucas takes over after the killing of Agent Graham, and successfully tracks down more leads, leading to a raid on a conspiracy site where dead sea scrolls were being scanned into a computer. However, while he gets very close to Sara a few times after she escapes, he is unable to unravel the false trail Sara left behind her as she escaped to her safe place with Peter Manning.

Agent Lucas also discovers that a rehab facility, known as Encompass, was used as a front by the conspiracy to recruit addicted vulnerable youth. Sara, Ben, Max and Quinn all attended this same rehab facility, with Quinn later becoming a counselor and a recruiter there. Sara had been checked into this facility by her parents 12 years ago when she was a 19, however, she escaped. Quinn later shared that Sara was the only person to ever escape the facility, and it might have been a factor in her kidnapping. After Sara's escape she lived for few months under a false name in Gloucester, Massachusetts. There she worked as a waitress in a bar, got into a relationship with Peter Manning local fisherman, and later got pregnant by him. Sara then left without telling anyone, including her boyfriend, gave birth to the a baby girl, name Becca. However, her parents raised Becca as her sister for a reason not fully explained in the show. The FBI wonders why would Sara who was tortured at the Encompass facility conceived Senator Collins to send Max there, but this question is never addressed.

Ben Wilson, Marcy Collins' boyfriend, was released on bond from Marcy, who believed his story. He believes he is the father of Marcy's unborn child, and despite his innocence over prior events, was enraged by the rape of Marcy and murdered the Judge who attack her. In the end of the show it was unclear If he got away with it. It is also never confirmed if the Marcy's unboard child was a result of her affair with the judge or her relationship with Ben, as both took place at the same time.

Agent Lucas uncover the mystery around the scholar. After the scholar found the Dead Sea Scrolls he found hidden messages there he thought was so dangerous he destroyed his research, and killed of his research team. He also lied about murdering his wife in order to protect her. However, it was later revealed the conspirators found out his wife was actually alive and kidnapped her leverage to coerce his help with the decipher once he is released from prison.

Peter Manning is a man searching for the love of his life, who one day vanished from Massachusetts, where he worked on a fishing boat. He sees her again in the news as recently kidnapped wife of Senator Collins news. He still loves her, but his lead to the FBI is classified as low priority. He embarks on a mission to find her. He finds his child, but can't find a way to make things right. He gives up in the end, and returns to his boat to find that Sara is there. It's the place she ran to before; where she could be anonymous and find love. Judy Nash is a reporter covering Sara's kidnapping. She believes in her story about Peter Manning fathering a child with Sara, but is cut off as she doesn't have the proof. While Peter got her proof that he was the father, there is no proof about the mother. Without Sara, there is no story.

The series finale shows Senator Collins in a family dinner with his ex-wife and their two children. Sara, meanwhile, appears in aboard Peter Manning's boat. She says to explains that twelve years ago she was pregnant and was taken away by "them". Peter interrupts her, and says, "none of that matters now. You're home", and they embrace.

Black mine inspector Ralph Burton (Harry Belafonte) becomes trapped in a cave-in at a Pennsylvania coal mine. He can hear rescuers digging towards him, but after a few days they slow down and then stop completely. Alarmed, he digs his own way out. Reaching the surface, he finds a deserted world. (No bodies are seen at any time in the film.) Discarded newspapers provide an explanation: one proclaims "UN Retaliates For Use Of Atomic Poison", another that "Millions Flee From Cities! End Of The World". Ralph later plays tapes at a radio station that reveal that an unknown nation had used radioactive sodium isotopes as a weapon, producing a dust cloud that spread around the world and was completely lethal for a five-day period.

Traveling to New York City in search of other survivors, he finds the city vacant. Ralph busies himself restoring power to a building where he takes up residence. Just as the loneliness starts to become intolerable, he encounters a second survivor: Sarah Crandall (Inger Stevens), a white woman in her twenties. The two become fast friends, but Ralph grows distant when it becomes clear that Sarah is developing stronger feelings for him. Despite living in a post-apocalyptic world, Ralph cannot overcome the inhibitions instilled in him in a racist American society.

Ralph regularly broadcasts on the radio, hoping to contact other people. Eventually, he receives a signal in French, indicating there are at least a few other survivors. Then ill white man Benson Thacker (Mel Ferrer) arrives by boat. Ralph and Sarah nurse him back to health, but once he recovers, Ben sets his sights on Sarah and sees Ralph as a rival. Ralph is torn by conflicting emotions. He avoids Sarah as much as possible, to give Ben every opportunity to win her affections, but cannot quite bring himself to leave the city.

Ben finally grows tired of the whole situation, realizing he stands little chance with Sarah as long as Ralph remains nearby. He warns Ralph that the next time he sees him, he will try to kill him. The two armed men hunt each other through the empty streets. Finally, Ralph passes by the United Nations headquarters, climbs the steps in Ralph Bunche Park, and reads the inscription "They shall beat their swords into plowshares. And their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war any more", from the Book of Isaiah. He throws down his rifle and goes unarmed to confront Ben, who in turn finds himself unable to shoot his foe. Defeated, he starts walking away. Sarah appears. When Ralph starts to turn away from her, she makes him take her hand; then she calls to Ben and gives him her other hand. Together, the three walk down the street to build a new future together. The film ends not with "The End", but with "The Beginning".

The Gates are passageways through space and time that can, if misused, destroy entire civilizations. Such cataclysms had happened in the past, most recently to the ''qhal'', a species that at one time had enslaved other races, including humans. The Union Science Bureau had dispatched a hundred men and women on a one-way mission to destroy the Gates, closing them behind them as they traveled from one world to the next. Morgaine is the last survivor of that band.

In Vanye's world, they had been opposed by an evil ancient being whose knowledge of the Gates rivals Morgaine's own. The creature had taken over the body of Chya Roh, Vanye's cousin, then fled through the Gate of Ivrel to the land of Shiuan. There, he had amassed an army by promising men and half-breed qhal a way out of their dying world. It had taken all of Morgaine's guile to force a passage for her and Vanye through the Gate of Shiuan into a third world, but they were powerless to stop Roh from following with his forces.

Being two against a hundred thousand, they are forced to flee into the forests of Azeroth, finding shelter with friendly villagers. Eventually, the natives call on their qhal lord for guidance. Morgaine meets with Merir, lord of Shathan, and receives grudging permission to travel where she wills.

The invading army came through the Master Gate. Morgaine heads to Nehmin, where the Gate's controls are located, but on the way, they are attacked. She is seriously wounded, but manages to flee. Vanye is captured by humans led by Fwar, who has a grudge against him. Before he can be tortured overmuch, Vanye is seized by the khal, who resent Roh's power over them. They want any information of the Gates that the prisoner may have. However, Roh is informed and rescues his cousin.

Vanye finds the camp deeply divided: Fwar's barrowlanders resented by the more numerous marsh people, both groups hating and despised by the khal, nominally led by Hetharu, but themselves split into factions. Roh barely maintains control over the rabble because of his knowledge of the Gates, or Fires as they are called in this world. Knowing the situation to be unstable, Roh tries to leave quietly with Vanye and Fwar's band, but the khal are alerted and pursue. It is a close race, but some of them reach the shelter of the forest, where the few barrowlanders not caught and killed by the khal are dispatched by Roh and Vanye.

Vanye guides Roh to Merir, but the lord of Shathan has no news of Morgaine. Merir decides that they must go to Nehmin for answers. There, Vanye finds Morgaine, recovered from her near-fatal wounds. The guardians of Nehmin have ignored her counsel, distrusting her motives, and now they are under siege. At last, Morgaine forces them to recognize not just the immediate danger, but the ever-present temptation of the power of the Gates; they agree to close them after she and Vanye depart, even though they are their main defense against the horde.

Before she leaves, Morgaine offers her assistance against their common enemy. In the desperate fighting, Hetharu and Shien, his main khal rival, are killed. With Fwar already dead, the enemy is left leaderless; the various factions unexpectedly turn on each other, ending the threat.

There remains only Roh to trouble Morgaine. Even though the Gates will be shut down, he has the knowledge to reactivate them. Vanye has discovered first-hand that the Roh he knew and admired had not been killed when his body was taken over. Gradually, that Roh has regained control, or so Vanye believes. Morgaine is not entirely convinced, but allows Roh to remain alive (though under watch) when she and Vanye enter the Fires and leave Azeroth forever.

In the epilogue, Roh's bow is laid to rest by inhabitants of Azeroth (including a now-adult child Vanye shared a connection with during his time there). This reveals that Roh remained in control of his body until his death and that Morgaine's act of mercy was not misplaced.

Vadinho (José Wilker), Flor's irresponsible husband, drops dead while dancing in a street carnival party. Only Flor (Sônia Braga) expresses remorse after his death. Flor's friends and family see Vadinho's death as a chance for Flor to find happiness after the misery brought upon her by Vadinho's spendthrift ways and near-total lack of respectability.

Roughly the first half of ''Dona Flor'' recounts Flor's marriage with Vadinho in an extended flashback. What is made clear is that Vadinho was a great lover who admired his wife's respectability, but enjoyed protracted foreplay until she begged him to continue. Not only was he generally an inattentive husband who would rather go to the casinos and whore houses, but he beat Flor and stole the savings she made from her cooking school. Despite this, he changed a formerly inhibited girl into a wife who experienced carnal joy regularly.

The second half of ''Dona Flor'' involves Flor's meeting the respectable but extraordinarily dull pharmacist Teodoro (Mauro Mendonça), his courtship of her, and her marriage to him. Flor's friends consider Teodoro the exact opposite of Vadinho. Teodoro belongs in superior circles within Bahia's society, dresses elegantly, and treats Flor like a lady. What Flor's friends do not know is that Teodoro is also the opposite of Vadinho in one more respect: in bed, Teodoro is as lacking as Vadinho was accomplished. Flor finds herself unfulfilled, and wishes for her late husband to return.

On the anniversary of Vadinho's death, Vadinho reappears to Flor in the nude and explains that she called him to "share her bed" with him. Only Flor can see and hear the nude spirit of Vadinho, but he still manages to create chaos through his spiritual presence at casinos. She protests because she is now remarried and has pledged to be faithful to Teodoro, but after Vadinho laughs during Teodoro's pathetic attempts at love-making that night, Flor gives in and lives happily with both husbands.
The last two shots depict Flor in her new marital bliss. A shot toward the end of the film shows Teodoro lying in bed next to Flor, who kisses him on the cheek. The camera then pans to the left to show Vadinho on Flor's other side and she kisses him on the cheek too. Then (presumably the next day) as a large crowd exits Sunday Mass, we see Flor linking arms with both Teodoro and Vadinho, the latter of whom is completely in the nude without shame. Flor is seen to be very content.

The backward land of Andur-Kursh is split into many cantons, each with ambitious clans vying for power. The loyalty of a warrior of the nobility is given to one's clan. Vanye is one of them, if only the barely tolerated bastard son of the ruler of one of these cantons, the result of a mere night's amusement by a Nhi lord with a captive from an enemy clan, the Chya.

One day, he is brought before his father, after killing one legitimate half-brother and maiming the other with his sword, in a baiting that had gone awry. After turning down honorable suicide, he is made ''ilin'', an exiled, clanless warrior akin to the Japanese ronin.

Hunted by his half-brothers' vengeful maternal clan, Vanye is forced to enter Morgaine's vale, a place anyone less desperate would have shunned. By chance, he releases Morgaine, a beautiful woman of distinctive appearance, from the Gate there. Vanye recognizes her as a legend from the past. It is winter and Vanye is weary, cold and hungry. So when Morgaine provides food and shelter, he accepts them. Only then does he remember that she, alone of all women, has been given lord-right; she can and does claim a year of service from him in return for accepting her hospitality.

Morgaine is determined to complete the mission she and four companions had set out on a century before: to close the master Gate at Ivrel. She explains to Vanye that the Gates that dot the land are passageways through both space and time. One hundred men and women had been sent by the Union Science Bureau on a one-way mission to close all the Gates, lest humanity suffer the fate of another species. The ''qujal'' had found the Gates and tapped their powers to rule an interstellar empire of lesser beings, including humans. But one reckless fool had succumbed to temptation and gone back in time, triggering a cataclysm that had wrecked qujal civilization.

After many years, the last five Union survivors had reached this world and recruited allies to attack Thiye Thiye's-son, the master of the Gate of Ivrel. But they were betrayed and nearly their entire army was swallowed up by the Gate; only Morgaine and a few soldiers, bringing up the rear, survived. Fleeing before the enemy, she had been forced to seek refuge in a lesser Gate, there to wait in stasis until freed.

She seeks aid from Clan Leth, a former staunch ally, but finds it greatly changed and its lord, Kasedre, half mad. His chief counselor, Chya Liell, comes to them late at night and warns them to leave before harm befalls them, killing a guard to give them no choice in the matter. Privately, Liell tries to persuade Vanye to desert Morgaine.

Morgaine and Vanye travel into neighboring Chya lands and find themselves uneasy guests of Chya Roh, Vanye's cousin. After questioning and some rest, they are let go, only to be attacked by Thiye's men. Morgaine is forced to draw her sword, Changeling, which turns out to be more than it seems; it can tap the power of the Gates to send its victims elsewhere. The two manage to escape, but run into a Nhi band. Rather than chance another fight, the wounded Morgaine orders Vanye to bargain for shelter and protection. She is set free, though without her sword, while he is forced to remain behind by his brother Erij, now the lord of Nhi. Erij wants his brother to help him rule, knowing him to be trustworthy and bound to him by blood. When persuasion and threats alike prove useless, he draws Changeling, not knowing its powers. Vanye takes advantage of the ensuing mayhem to retrieve the dropped sword and escape to rejoin Morgaine.

Roh had warned him not to trust Liell, whose body (rumor said) had been taken over by another. Morgaine confirms that such a thing can be done using a Gate. She knows that Thiye has prolonged his life by this method and suspects her century-old betrayer also still lives. The aged Liell's attempt to suborn Vanye suddenly takes on a more sinister aspect.

After another clash with Nhi warriors, Morgaine is personally escorted by Roh out of his domain. Fearing her intentions, he knocks out a too-trusting Vanye when Morgaine is asleep and ties them both up, but his timing could not have been worse. Liell and his men easily capture all three. He takes Vanye to a Gate, intent on switching bodies. The unease of Liell's men in the unnerving presence of the Gate allows Vanye to escape. By chance, the horse he steals is carrying Changeling. But Vanye's luck still runs bad; he is caught again, this time by his brother Erij.

Erij, emboldened by his possession of Changeling and for a variety of reasons, allows himself to be persuaded to go to Ivrel. After driving off Liell's men with the deadly sword, they reach Thiye's fortress. They wait for night before Erij uses Changeling to force their way in. Vanye then takes his brother by surprise and retakes Morgaine's sword. In mortal danger, Erij has no choice, but to guard his back. Inside, they come upon the aged Thiye, but before they can react, the old man is killed by Roh. Roh informs them that Morgaine is loose in the fortress and that Liell is dead. He warns them to flee while they still can, then follows his own advice.

Vanye finds Morgaine and surrenders the sword to her, much to Erij's dismay. She confirms Vanye's suspicion; Roh's body now houses Liell's mind. Fearing Morgaine, Roh/Liell had sabotaged the Gate controls so that he could escape to another world, leaving his enemies trapped here. But Morgaine believes that he left too much of a safety margin before the Gates on this world close forever and that she can follow him. She departs in all haste. Erij surprisingly bids his brother to go after her and Vanye gratefully complies. Together, Morgaine and Vanye pass through the Gate.

Mija Jherun, a fey seventeen-year-old peasant woman, lives in a world inexorably being overwhelmed by the sea. One day, after looting a barrow, the tomb of a young warrior-king, she is chased by an armored man on horseback back to her village. He breaks into the poor home she shares with her family, helps himself to some food, and asks if anyone has seen a pale woman on a grey horse. After repulsing an attack by the men of the village, he departs for Shiuan, a richer land ruled by the ''khal'', another race that is enough like humans to successfully interbreed.

Jherun, yearning for a less bleak future than marrying the thuggish Fwar, runs after him. Instead of finding him, she stumbles upon his mortal enemies: his cousin, Nhi Vanye, and Vanye's lord, Morgaine, the pale woman.

They inform her that Chya Roh's body had been taken over by an evil creature who had extended his life countless times by this means. He had betrayed Morgaine and sent ten thousand men to their doom a century before. Fleeing her, he had passed through a Gate from Vanye's world to this one, closing the passageway forever, but not quickly enough to prevent Morgaine and Vanye from following.

Jherun knows of two Gates, which she calls Wells. The newcomers had emerged from one; the other is in Shiuan. Morgaine's mission is to travel from world to world, closing their Gates permanently, as they can (and have in the past) destroyed whole civilizations when their immense power is misused. She is the last survivor of a band of one hundred sent for that purpose. Vanye is a chance-met warrior, bound to obey her initially by his stubborn sense of honor and later for other reasons.

As they travel towards Shiuan, it begins to rain heavily. They become separated when Vanye is knocked off his horse by an uprooted tree carried by the rapidly rising, onrushing water. He finds Jherun, but not Morgaine. Knowing that Morgaine will make for the Well of Shiuan, he heads there also, accompanied by Jherun.

Along the way, Jherun persuades him to seek food and shelter at the fortress of Ohtij-in, held by half-breed khal. This proves to be a grave mistake, as Roh had preceded him there. He treats Vanye well, claiming that the Roh Vanye knew still coexists with his "murderer"; Vanye is uncertain and does not kill him when Roh deliberately gives him the opportunity.

Roh has promised the khal a way out of their dying world. The old lord, Bydarra, is skeptical, but his ruthless son Hetharu is more receptive. He murders his own father and puts the blame on Vanye. He assembles his forces and heads off to the Gate with Roh. Vanye is left behind, a prisoner of Hetharu's brother Kithan, but is rescued by Morgaine and an army she has recruited from Jherun's people and their neighbors, the marshlanders.

However, when they learn what Morgaine intends, they turn on her, forcing her to kill many with her advanced weapons. Morgaine, Vanye, Jherun and Kithan flee on horseback, followed by the mob on foot.

They reach the control room for the Gate of Shiuan, only to find that Roh has locked the controls. He has also left a message: he will allow Vanye safe passage through, but not Morgaine. She orders Vanye to go to Roh, wait his chance to kill him, and continue on with her mission. Knowing that the two of them stand no chance against Roh's army, he reluctantly obeys, taking the other two with him. Roh sees through the ruse immediately, but still accepts his cousin.

As they prepare to pass through the Gate, Morgaine attacks with the human rabble, with which she has forged an uneasy alliance. In the confusion, Vanye fights his way to her, and together they force their way through, to continue their quest on yet another world.

The rest, khal and human alike, follow, save Jherun and Kithan. Then the Gate closes.

Morgaine must meet her greatest challenge: Gault, who is both human and alien, and also seeks control of the world and its Gate. She will meet the true Gatemaster, a mysterious lord with power as great as, or greater, than her own.

''The Chronicles of Morgaine'' is a story in which the safety of all the worlds is threatened by the transdimensional Gates.

Jack Bagthorpe is beaten at everything by his family. Depressed at being an 'ordinary' child in a talented family, and by the failure to beat his younger sister at swimming, Jack Bagthorpe enlists the help of his Uncle Parker in hatching a scheme to become equal. Later, a series of events involving Zero (the family dog) and cousin Daisy result in the dining room being destroyed by a spectacular fire involving a box of fireworks. Jack has a clandestine meeting with Uncle Parker during which they conspire to turn Jack into a prophet or seer. His first prediction will concern Uncle Parker appearing in a lavender coloured suit. The meeting ends abruptly as Daisy, excited about the previous evening's events, dabbles with pyromania. Jack returns home to act "mysteriously", as a build up to making his first prophecy. His first attempt is disrupted when Mr Bagthorpe is goaded into attempting a headstand, breaking his writing arm in the process. Jack uses his father's immobility to corner him and make the prediction (''"I see a Lavender Man bearing tidings"'') and shortly thereafter Uncle Parker appears in his suit to complete the prophecy. Flushed with success Jack and Uncle Parker visit a store where they purchase a crystal ball and a set of tarot cards, and plot their next prediction which will involve a red and white bubble.

Life in the Bagthorpe family continues to be disrupted. Because of his broken arm, scriptwriter Mr Bagthorpe is unable to work; The arrival of a Danish au-pair causes turmoil amongst the younger family members as they squabble over her attentions; Jack makes prophesies and teaches Zero to fetch sticks; Daisy continues to set fires. As Rosie's birthday nears Mr Bagthorpe suffers further problems; twice he hides in the garden with a cassette recorder to record dialogue, and twice Zero mistakes the microphone for a stick and chews it up. Jack makes a prophecy concerning the giant bubble and bears, and worries the family by naming the date of Rosie's birthday party. Grandma chooses to interpret the bear as a symbol for her cat Thomas, previously killed under the wheels of Uncle Parker's car, and predicts his return. On the day itself, Mr Bagthorpe's literary frustrations reach a peak and he excuses himself from the al-fresco party to do some "serious reading". During his absence the prophecy is fulfilled by a giant balloon carrying two men dressed as bears; however Mr Bagthorpe returns brandishing Jack's diary containing evidence of the conspiracy, to destroy any mystical illusion. An argument is forestalled as smoke caused by Daisy's latest fire rises from the house

Finally the plot is exposed. On reflection the family praise Jack for his inventiveness and fine acting. Rosie is pleased that her party succeeds her grandmother's as the most disastrous ever. Mr Bagthorpe's mood lightens as he is revealed to have found Jack's diary only because his "serious reading" involved working his way through Jack's pile of comic books, where the diary was hidden.

George tells Jerry that he was out with a girlfriend. They went to see a play, during which he put his hand in his pocket to get some money and accidentally got some dental floss stuck to his hand. George worries that his girlfriend is going to leave him because of it.

Jerry has problems with a childhood friend, Joel Horneck, who persists in keeping in touch with him. He does not like Horneck, who does not pay attention to anything that Jerry says. Jerry says that he feels uncomfortable "breaking up with" Horneck, so George suggests that he should pretend that Horneck is a woman and break up normally. Jerry therefore attempts to break up with Horneck at Monk's Café, but Horneck bursts into tears. Deeply uncomfortable, Jerry assures Horneck he didn't mean it, and agrees to take him to see the New York Knicks, although he was supposed to take George.

As George tells Jerry that his girlfriend no longer wants to see him, Jerry tells George that he gave away his ticket to Horneck. Although Jerry offers George his own ticket, George does not go to the game with Horneck because he does not know Horneck. Jerry decides to give Horneck both tickets, claiming that he cannot make the game because he is tutoring his nephew. Later, the night of the Knicks game, Jerry is in his apartment talking to his ex-girlfriend Elaine. She jokingly tries to add to Jerry's list of excuses with which he avoids Horneck. He later discovers that Horneck took Kramer to the game and that Horneck is in the building. When Horneck meets Jerry and Elaine, Horneck invites them out to another Knicks game. They come up with more unusual excuses in an attempt to avoid going out. However, Horneck then gets out a newspaper and tries to organize a time when they can all meet, weeks in advance. Jerry realizes that no matter what excuses he comes up with, he cannot avoid Horneck.

Kramer, working under the name "Kramerica Industries", conceptualizes building "a pizza place where you make your own pizza pie". Jerry and George try to persuade Kramer to forget the idea, but Kramer is determined to go on with it. Kramer's pizza parlor idea reappears in later episodes such as "The Puffy Shirt" in season 5, and "The Couch" in season 6.

The novel's first chapter begins in London, with Karl Glogauer travelling through Kensington on his way to the Derry and Tom's Roof Gardens. There, on a bench in the Spanish Gardens, he fantasises about the past, trying to put "his mother, his childhood as it actually was, [and] the failure of his ambitions" out of his head with an imagined life in Regency-era London, filled with politics, gambling, women and duelling.

His imaginations are interrupted by a "deep, slightly hesitant, husky" voice, a greeting of "Good afternoon", a dark-skinned man who spends the entirety of the novel unnamed. He first asks if he may join Glogauer on the bench, and then goes on to explain that he's merely visiting London, and that he hadn't expected to find such a place in the middle of the city. Glogauer wrongly assumes him to be a rich American tourist, annoyed to have been disturbed from his reverie.

The man then asks Glogauer if he may photograph him; Glogauer, now flattered, assents. While he's being photographed, the man explains that he's from Nigeria, attempting to convince the government of England to buy copper at a higher price. Glogauer says that he's an illustrator. The man then invites Glogauer to have tea with him, and Glogauer, feeling guilty, and, despite recalling his mother's words to not have anything to do with people who make you feel guilty, agrees.

After journeying through the Tudor and Woodland gardens, they dine at the restaurant. During the meal, Glogauer attempts to introduce himself. The man, however, does not respond, merely offering Glogauer the sugar bowl. Glogauer realized that the man is using on him some of the same seduction techniques which Glogauer himself used when seducing girls in the past. When the Nigerian asks Glogauer to "come back with me", Glogauer says "Yes".

The second chapter, introducing a format that is followed by most subsequent chapters, excluding the last, begins, in italics, with a short scene in the man's hotel suite. Glogauer has taken his clothes off, and lies naked on the bed. The man touches first his head, and then his shoulders. Glogauer closes his eyes, blocking reality out, and begins a fantasy, similar to that which was interrupted by the man in the first chapter. The ending of the chapter is also another scene, in italics, that is set in the present.

The bulk of the book takes place during a single night at the hotel suite, during which the two have little sleep. The Nigerian introduces Glogauer to various aspects of Homosexual sex. Though completely new to it, Glogauer quickly sheds all inhibitions and starts acting in an (unspecified) provocative manner, startling the Nigerian: "You know how to be offensive, don't you? A short time ago you were just an ordinary London lad. Now you are behaving like the bitchiest little Pansy I ever saw" (Ch.15). During the night the two of them quarrel, reconcile, and have some more sex and a little nap. The Nigerian also makes Glogauer paint his skin black.

Gradually, it starts looking like the Nigerian is not what he seems. His English is suddenly changing; suddenly it looks like his eyes are blue; and at a certain moment Glogauer suddenly feels that he might be a woman, of an animal with teeth - and then he looks again like he was. The Nigerian says that "We are many people, there are a lot of different sides to one's personality". Later on, he expresses his objection to abortion because "I'm against the destruction of possibilities. Everything should be allowed to proliferate. The interest lies in seeing which becomes dominant. Which wins". This implies that the Nigerian is aware of Glogauer's experiencing the different lives he might have had - though he never refers to it.

The Nigerian offers to make Glogauer a successful artist and get his paintings bought. Later on, he offers to take Glogauer with him. Glogauer, suddenly realizing that this is a famous man whose photos often appear in the papers, refuses. The Nigerian reacts: "I offered you an empire, and you've chosen a cabbage patch". Finally they part on roof garden where they first met - and the Nigerian (if he is that) has turned into a white man.

The unnamed Nigerian could be an incarnation of Jerry Cornelius - an urban adventurer and hipster of ambiguous and occasionally polymorphous gender, who appears in several Moorcock books. In Behold the Man, and at the start of Breakfast in the Ruins, Glogauer is white but by the end of Breakfast he has become black (similarly, Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius is white in ''The Final Programme'' but black in ''A Cure for Cancer''.

Harry Mackenzie works in a factory by day and comes home to comfortable marriage at night, but it lacks excitement and passion. For his 50th birthday, his wife Kate blithely tells him to just go to his favorite corner tavern and have a good time.

An attractive barmaid, Audrey Minelli, captures his interest. Harry falls for her, and before long, shocks Kate by requesting a divorce. This decision horrifies their daughters, particularly Sunny, who is having a difficult marriage of her own, and Helen, who is about to be wed.

Kate goes through a difficult period of adjustment. She eventually lands a job in a beauty salon, changes her appearance, and tries to adopt a new outlook on life. By the time Harry attends his daughter Helen's wedding, most members of the family have found ways to move on.

Lucille has a mental disorder, which stems from her brother's death, which occurred when she was young, and which her father blamed her for, never forgiving her. It is never revealed how the brother died or why her father blames her but it made her mentally unstable.

While Lucille is telling Angel who her father is, Nadine rolls off the top of the building and kills herself. This leads Sid and Antoine to the brothel where they ask about Lucille. Angel's goons attack them and soon Angel and more goons show up which causes an even bigger gun battle.

From that moment on the character Lucille becomes the character Sid, the one we see working in the bar. The Sid that was looking for Lucille and was in the gun battle is dead and the Sid that is working in the bar and falling for Michelle is Lucille who believes she is Sid. For the rest of the plot, "Sid" is referring to Lucille as Sid and not the actual man. Also, all the other characters see Sid as Lucille, as a girl, and it is only Lucille that sees her reflection as that of Sid, a man.

Lucille, as Sid, leaves the apartment and starts walking down the road where Steve finds her and picks her up. He allows Sid to stay in the attic of his strip club in exchange for working there. Gus comes in one night and is shocked to see Lucille but surprised that she thinks she is Sid. He decides not to tell her directly and instead tries to use his psychology training to pull Lucille out again. Sid later begins to see things as Lucille's personality tries to "retake" her body and mind. Michelle decides to do some digging during this and calls Sid to tell him that she found some information on the girl he is "seeing".

Gus shows up just then and Sid points the gun at him, asking what he did to Lucille. Gus says Lucille is dead because she couldn't live with what she had done.

While giving a speech, the president is shot by a man holding a camera. The president's main Secret Service agent, Alex Thomas (Cuba Gooding Jr.), is grazed by the bullet that hits the president. Thomas and other Secret Service agents kill the shooter, but the president dies at the hospital.

Kate Crawford (Angie Harmon), an investigative journalist, starts asking questions about the assassination. Anyone she questions is killed. She goes to Thomas's house to tell him what is happening. As they head to his boat, Thomas sees some men hiding in the bushes. He sees a bomb on his boat, and throws Crawford into the water and dives in after her as the boat explodes. While the pair are underwater, the men move close and open fire on them. Thomas kills two of the hitmen while a third hitman drives off to inform his boss what happened. Thomas and Crawford are able to link the hitmen to a man called Jack Baldwin (Peter Greene).

Thomas and other Secret Service members attack Baldwin's location. Baldwin escapes but is later caught by Thomas. After a meeting with General Montgomery (Burt Reynolds), Thomas and Crawford become suspicious of Vaughan Stevens (James Woods), Thomas's boss, who turns out to have had previous links to Baldwin. While reviewing film of the assassination, Thomas discovers that Stevens handed the assassin a gun during the president's entrance. Thomas leaves to find Stevens while Crawford stays at his house.

When Thomas arrives at Stevens' home he finds him dead. Thomas sees a car with a female driver leaving the house. He then receives a call that Baldwin has escaped. Baldwin attacks Crawford, but Thomas arrives and kills him. Thomas arrives at the first lady's (Anne Archer) house to see the car that left Stevens' house pulling away. Thomas discovers that the first lady wanted her husband killed because he was being unfaithful to her.

A few weeks later Crawford and Thomas have dinner. Thomas decides that protecting the dead president's reputation is more important than implicating his widow, and tells Crawford that he still does not know who wanted the president dead.

''Δ Astray'' follows a team dispatched from Mars to Earth to establish contact with the coordinators of the ''ZAFT'' colonies and the humans on earth and bring an understanding to their constant warring. The team is led by Ergnes Brahe, a 16-year-old Coordinator. The main crew consists of Ergnes and his second in command Nahe Herschel, a 19-year-old Coordinator. They are joined later by Diego Lowell, a 16-year-old of unspecified genetic type who came to Earth ahead of the rest of the team, aboard Lowe Guele's ship ''ReHOME''.

The team is met with kind greetings at ZAFT but when they try to talk to the leaders of the Earth federation they are set up with the radical division known as ''Phantom Pain''. Ergnes is subjected to a beating and is interrogated of the martians possible intentions. They escape from the Phantom Pain and heads of to meet with the leaders of the Neutral country of Orb. The country is currently in a leadership crisis, and more radical leaders take control during the team's visit. The new leaders are in league with the racist terrorist organization known as the ''Blue Cosmos'' and issue the command to eliminate the genetically enhanced martians.

The martians face of against a team of Ace pilots from Orb that is aided by Sven Cal Payang, one of the main characters in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED C.E. 73: Stargazer''. Ergnes and Nahe manage to fend off the attackers, but in Ergnes battle with Sven, the martian is defeated.

After the Δ Astray became heavily damaged, a new mobile suit called the ∇ Astray (Turn Delta Astray) was introduced as the new title suit. Like the Δ Astray, the ∇ Astray utilizes the Voiture Lumiere technology.

The "William" of the book's title is German Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II. The book chronicles life in London under German occupation and the changes that come with a foreign army's invasion and triumph. Like Robert Erskine Childers's novel ''The Riddle of the Sands'' (1903), it predicts the Great War (in which Saki would be killed) and is an example of invasion literature, a literary genre which flourished at the beginning of the 20th century as tensions between the European great powers increased.

Much of the book is an argument for compulsory military service, about which there was then a major controversy. The scene in which an Imperial Rescript is announced in a subjugated London, excusing the unmilitary British from serving in the Kaiser's armies, is particularly bitter. There are also several vignettes exemplifying the differences between the English and continental systems of law – Yeovil's wife informs him that she must register his presence with the police and later he is fined on the spot for walking on the grass in Hyde Park. In another episode, he finds himself unintentionally but unavoidably fraternising with one of the invaders.

Sunday

David Allard, an orphan, returns to his hometown of Ashbury from boarding school to discover that his relatives-cum-guardians have nothing arranged for his summer and he will have to endure their mistreatment for his entire holiday.

While walking in the garden, in a fit of frustration he makes up words to use as a curse. David's words seem to cause the garden wall to crumble, and to release a boy a year or so older than himself with flame-red hair, who identifies himself as Luke. Happy to have made a new friend, David notices Luke's odd references to being released from his "chains" and "bowls of venom". The two hastily repair the wall, and David notices that Luke's touch seems to burn the bushes growing beside the wall. Luke says ruefully that he "can't bring the dead back to life." Luke also tells David that simply kindling a flame will summon him.

Monday

When David and his young cousin-by-marriage, Astrid (who seems the best of the awful relatives) are on a shopping expedition the next day, Luke duly appears when David lights a match. Luke ingratiates himself with Astrid, and when a bored David suggests it would be great if the building across from them caught on fire, the building suddenly does. People are trapped. It is only when David tells Luke that he wants the fire out, and reminds Luke that he cannot bring the dead back to life, that the fire dies down.

That evening, David escapes punishment because his uncle is upset that his gardener has found another job over at Thunderly Hill. David notices more odd things about Luke; he can entertain his friend with fiery doodles. Also, when Luke is asleep, he seems ageless, and heals uncommonly quickly.

Tuesday

In the morning, the new gardener Mr. Chew arrives. He is very interested in David, and in the place where Luke's release took place. Luke, who has slept over, seems afraid of Chew, castigating himself for his carelessness in scorching the plants. David helps Luke escape the house without Chew noticing, and they play cricket (David's obsession) down the street, where they meet a new friend, Alan. David is unable to escape the house in the afternoon, due to Chew's vigilance. David is sent again to his room without supper, though Astrid secretly brings him food.

Wednesday

The next morning, a well-dressed man named Mr. Wedding arrives and persuades David's relations to let him take David out for lunch in a car chauffeured by a beautiful lady. He quickly gains David's trust, and David gladly tells him all the things about school he could not tell his relatives. They arrive at a green island, linked to the mainland by a long arching bridge with a rainbow-like effect. While David is served a wonderful lunch, Mr. Wedding begins interrogating David about Luke, and David admits only to releasing Luke while trying to curse. David notices for the first time that Wedding is missing an eye.

Wedding tells David that Luke was imprisoned for doing something terrible. He tries frightening David, threatening to keep him captive, promising him a bribe, even shaming him. None of this is successful – David will not betray Luke – and eventually Mr. Wedding returns David home, seeming to admire David for his stubbornness. But first he makes a deal with David: if David can keep Luke free until Sunday, then Luke is safe for good.

Mr. Wedding sets a talking raven to watch David, but he is able to evade the bird and summon Luke. He tells Luke about the deal, who is confident that they will win against Mr. Wedding.

Thursday

The next day, David is blocked from leaving the house by two ravens – until he distracts them with a joint of meat while he drives off with Astrid. Luke appears when David strikes a match for Astrid's cigarette, and is suddenly caught by a fair, strong ginger-haired individual. However, after Luke is questioned by the fellow, he is released. It seems the individual, who seems very nice, has lost something. Luke denies any knowledge. David and Luke agree that the best course is for Luke to simply vanish until Monday.

Friday

But the next day, the Frys from down the street show up, followed shortly by Mr. Chew and Mr Wedding. When a confused Astrid needs a cigarette lit, the inevitable happens – Luke appears and is caught by the group. They begin shouting demands at Luke; Luke denies everything, and David defends him, saying Luke did not act out of revenge, but as a favour for someone now dead. Luke admits that he did help someone hide something so it might never be found. The crowd is grudgingly convinced that this is true, and Mr. Wedding strikes a new deal with David: since David has no idea what he is looking for, it is possible for him to find it (according to the rules of the charm Luke laid down). If David restores what the ginger-haired fellow lost by Sunday, Luke will remain free, otherwise he will be sent back to prison.

Astrid has figured out the puzzle, but Luke warns her not to tell David. David convinces one of the ravens to lead them to a house on Wednesday Hill, where David should find "three Knowing Ones under the tree." It is Alan's house, and through a secret door, David and Alan find a huge tree, with three blind crones, sharing an eye among them, washing, spinning, and cutting wool at a well. They refuse to talk until David captures their eye – then they tell David to go to the place (Wallsey) where Mr. Wedding took him and ask the man with the dragon where to look.

Saturday through Sunday

The next day, Astrid drives David, Alan, and her husband, Cousin Ronald, to Wallsey, which appears very different from when David saw it with Mr. Wedding. David searches the hall, which is filled with strong young men cheating pinball machines, until he finds what he was told to look for—a man with a dragon tattoo.

By the rules, the three must run a gauntlet before having their questions answered, which the boys do courageously and Ronald does in a cowardly fashion. The dragon man admits to taking the item they sought as revenge, on behalf of a woman who blamed Mr. Wedding for something that happened. The woman can be found on Thunderly Hill, where a hospital is now built.

David, Luke, Astrid, Ronald, and the ginger-haired fellow all proceed to Thunderly Hill, on the excuse that Ronald's minor injuries should be treated. When David and Luke step inside "Firestone Ward", they find themselves on a grassy hillside that burns but is never consumed. Luke admits that he set the fire, long ago, and it will burn until the end of time. David braves the flames (with Luke doing his best to suppress the fire) and discovers a cairn, on which a hauntingly beautiful lady in armour lies, not quite dead, but barely breathing. Across her chest rests a stone implement with a too-short handle. When David realises it is a hammer, suddenly everything falls into place and he realises who everyone really is. He returns to Luke, and is told that an entire day has passed – David has been outside time. He restores the hammer to the ginger-haired fellow, who is of course Thor. Mr. Wedding is Woden, chief of the gods. The dragon man is Siegfried, and the lady Brunhilda.

Astrid reveals that (no doubt with divine interference) David's other relatives have been exposed as financial frauds, and have fled. Astrid will now be David's guardian. Luke will be around – but at the final battle yet to come, he and Mr. Wedding will be on opposite sides.

"In the Machine"

"'''In the Machine'''", set in mid-to-late 19th Century New York, begins in the aftermath of a wake. Simon, a young man working in a factory had been accidentally sucked into a factory machine which crushed him to death. Due to the poverty present in the lower classes during the Industrial Revolution, Simon's family sends Lucas, Simon's disfigured younger brother, to work at the factory in Simon's place.

Lucas has a strange affliction in which he intermittently and uncontrollably spouts the poetry of Walt Whitman's 'Leaves of Grass' (Lucas' favourite book). Walt Whitman was a contemporary of the time and Lucas meets him during the course of the story. Lucas is also concerned Simon has become a ghost and inhabits not only the machine that killed him but all the machines that are becoming commonplace in the city as a result of the Industrial Revolution.

This concern leads Lucas to fear for the life of Catherine, Simon's bereaved girlfriend. Lucas believes Simon's ghost may try to inhabit the machines at the factory where Catherine works as a seamstress with a view to take Catherine to the afterlife by killing her through the machine's function. Lucas embarks on a mission to save Catherine by preventing her from going to work. .

Lucas' fear of Simon's ghost is, at the same time, a fear of the Machine and, on a larger scale, the Industrial Revolution in New York City itself. The machines replace humans, even kill them, and the industrial revolution has demeaned the importance of each human individual with its positioning of people as cogs in its own giant machine. In this light, Lucas' fears and Whitman's transcendental poetry represent the affirmation of humanity and each individual's importance.

US Marshal Ross Cooper, John Cooper's brother, has been tortured to death by the henchmen of a criminal known as Angel Face, and John vows to avenge him. In order to investigate the mysterious Angel Face, John sends Doc McCoy to the Eagle's Nest, Pablo Sanchez's fortress, to gather him and Sam Williams.

When Doc arrives, the fortress had been forcibly taken over by Rodriguez, Sanchez's rival bandit leader, and his friends were captured. After freeing the two, they reunite with John and Kate O'Hara in Santa Fe, where John has agreed to protect some settlers on their journey.

At a pass known as Eye of the Needle, they find a blockade of logs set up by the hostile Native Americans. After they manage to survive the ambush, a troop of US cavalry under Captain Clarke appears and takes an unconscious Indian prisoner. Suspicious of Clarke, John, Doc, and Kate follow the soldiers to a campsite, where they eavesdrop on them. Thereby, they learn that Angel Face has bribed Clarke and most of his men to orchestrate the Indian attack on the settlers, which will trigger a conflict between the US Government and the Native tribes. Kate follows Clarke as he transports the captive Indian to his base at Fort Wingate. As John and Doc keep listening, they know that the soldiers are about to attack the settlers again to silence all witnesses. They return just in time to join forces with Sam and Sanchez and successfully repel the raid.

At Fort Wingate, Kate enters the restricted area to find Hawkeye, the Indian prisoner, and see if he knows anything about Angel Face, but he's too weak after being severely beaten. When the others arrive, Doc sneaks into the prison and patches Hawkeye up. Hawkeye informs the group of a letter sent to Clarke. The group, with Hawkeye as the new member, breaks into Clarke's office to steal the letter. Using a piece of charcoal, John uncovers a signature imprinted on the letter, with the name Lester Lloyd Goodman (a.k.a. Angel Face). As they present the damning evidence to the fort's commanding colonel, they capture Clarke on the spot, but his loyal sergeant stages a revolt among the corrupted soldiers. John and his team intervene on the cavalry's behalf and manage to liberate the fort.

Having discovered Angel Face's true identity, the group returns to Santa Fe, where they kidnap Goodman's secretaries in order to find proof of his crimes in his accounting book. They coerce Morgenstein, one of the secretaries, to co-operate. But when John, Kate, and Sam present the evidence to the sheriff, he reveals that the old sheriff was murdered, and he's in cahoots with Goodman. After seeing the sheriff arrest his friends, Hawkeye sneaks through the city to alerts Doc and Sanchez. They free their friends from prison and recapture Morgenstein. Since Morgenstein has sealed the incriminating documents in the city bank, the group enlists the bank manager to open the safe. However, they are intercepted by Goodman himself just as they claim the documents. He flees with the evidence to the Sacred Mountains, the site of his latest railway construction project, after taking Kate with him. John and his team fight their way to the Santa Fe railway station, where John boards a train bound for the same destination. But the train derails upon arrival, and he gets captured.

Hawkeye and Doc arrive at Hawkeye's camp near the Sacred Mountain to convince the tribe to join the fight against Goodman, but Goodman's men had occupied the camp. The two kill the invaders to liberate the tribe and meet up with Sam and Sanchez, who have also infiltrated Goodman's camp. With the aid of the Indians, the four overrun Goodman's henchmen and save Cooper from being hung. The group pursues Goodman to a tunnel construction site, where he holes up with Kate as his hostage. They overpower Goodman's last men and escape before Goodman's lit cigar ignites some explosives and blows up the building, killing him.

In the end, John stands by his brother's grave with Kate, and they share a kiss. Later, a mysterious figure sneaks into Doc's apartment and poisons him, setting the stage for ''Helldorado''.

Judy Sanders, an employee of a genetic research facility named EMAX contacts television personality Lori Tanner. She is planning to meet after work so she can show Lori the atrocities and animal cruelty that go on in EMAX's laboratories. As she returns to work, an animal assailant attacks and kills her before being sedated by EMAX owner Dr. Jarret. He is a scientist performing vivisection and genetic engineering. Later, Lori arrives at EMAX with her camerawoman Annie. They break into the laboratory, film the various animals that are being experimented on and free a Tibetan Mastiff named Max before escaping with him. Jarret immediately goes to the police and reports that his dog has been stolen. Later that night, a mugger steals Lori's purse. Max chases the thief, brutally kills him and retrieves the purse.

Unaware that Max killed the mugger, Lori develops a bond with him much to the disapproval of her boyfriend Perry. He insists Max must stay in the backyard. However, Max can understand human conversations and becomes protective of Lori. Jarret is questioned by the police about Max and reveals that Max is a genetically altered dog, spliced with the DNA of various other animals such as big cats, snakes, chameleons, and birds of prey, giving him enhanced strength, speed, and senses. Max is also prone to violent rages, and Jarret regularly gives him a drug to keep him relaxed, but he fears that the effects of the drug will soon wear off.

Max acts loyal, obedient, and lovable to Lori, but he wrecks havoc in the neighborhood when she is not around. Max scares a paperboy, devours a cat, destroys the brake lines in Perry's car, and kills a mailman. In addition, Max mates with a collie that belongs to Lori's young neighbor, Rudy.

Noticing Perry's animosity towards their new dog, Lori decides to find Max a new home. She takes him to a junkyard and leaves him with the owner Ray, who assures her that Max will be taken to a ranch in a few days. However, when Lori leaves, Ray chains Max to the wall and beats him with a shovel to end his barking. When Max pulls loose from his chain, Ray burns his face with a blow torch but is quickly overpowered and killed. Max, now scarred, makes his way back to Lori's house. The police, after discovering the dead mugger and having Jarret clarify that it was Max who killed him, now intend to stop Max at any cost. By the time Max returns to Lori's house, Perry has replaced him with a new puppy named Spike. Max, feeling betrayed, burns Perry's face with acidic urine and attacks Lori before the police arrive, forcing Max to flee.

An ambulance takes Perry away, and the police demand Lori's help to catch Max. Later that night, Max returns and kills the officers watching the house. In an attempt to get him back, Jarret kidnaps Lori and Spike in hopes that Max will follow them to the EMAX building which he does. She first discovers him in the laboratory. Max relinquishes his aggressive, homicidal nature and begins to kiss Lori's hand. Jarret shoots Max with a shotgun before being knocked onto a large electrical cage, which kills him. Lori pets Max's head as he dies.

Three months later, Rudy's collie has given birth to puppies, most of which look like their mother, with the exception of a black puppy that resembles Max.

Mike (Greg Rowe) is a lonely young boy wandering through the fierce deserted coast of South Australia's Coorong, near the mouth of the Murray River. He and his reclusive father 'Hide Away' Tom (Peter Cummins) live in the isolated sand dunes facing the Southern Ocean. In search of friendship, Mike encounters another recluse in the wilderness, Fingerbone Bill (David Gulpilil), an Aboriginal man estranged from his tribal people. Fingerbone names Mike "Storm Boy" and enlists the child's help caring for three orphaned pelican chicks.

Eventually, Mike's Dad insists that he release the grown birds back into the wild. However one particular pelican, named 'Mr Percival' by Mike, returns. The bird forms a deep bond with the boy until sadly, Mr Percival is shot by duck shooters. With the wise guidance of Fingerbone Bill, Mike learns of the cycle of life and is eventually allowed by his father to attend school for the first time in a nearby village.

Howard Roark is an individualistic architect who follows his own artistic path in the face of public conformity. Ellsworth Toohey, the architecture critic for ''The Banner'' newspaper, opposes Roark's individualism and volunteers to lead a print crusade against him. Wealthy and influential publishing magnate Gail Wynand pays little attention, approving the idea and giving Toohey a free hand. Dominique Francon, a glamorous socialite who writes a ''Banner'' column, admires Roark's designs, and opposes the paper's campaign against him. She is engaged to an architect, the unimaginative Peter Keating (Kent Smith). She never has met or seen Roark, but she believes that he is doomed in a world that abhors individualism. Wynand falls in love with Francon and exposes Keating as an opportunist.

Roark is unable to find a client willing to build according to his vision. He walks away from opportunities that involve any compromise of his standards. Broke, he takes a job as a day laborer in a quarry that belongs to Francon's father and is near the Francon summer home. The vacationing Francon visits the quarry on a whim and spots Roark, and they share a mutual attraction. Francon contrives to have Roark repair some white marble in her bedroom. Roark mocks her pretense, and after the first visit, he sends another worker to complete the repair. Francon is enraged and returns to the quarry on horseback. She finds Roark walking from the site. He again mocks her, and she strikes him across the face with her horsewhip. He later appears in her open bedroom, forcefully embracing and kissing her passionately. In his room, Roark finds a letter offering him a new building project. He immediately packs up and leaves. Francon later goes to the quarry and learns that Roark has quit. She does not know that he is Howard Roark, the brilliant architect whom she had once championed in print.

Wynand offers to marry Francon, though she is not in love with him. Francon demurs and soon learns Roark's true identity when she is introduced to him at a party opening the Enright House, a new building that Roark has designed. Francon goes to Roark's apartment and offers to marry him if he gives up architecture, saving himself from public rejection. Roark rejects her fears and says that they will face many years apart until she alters her thinking. Francon finds Wynand and accepts his marriage proposal. Wynand agrees and commissions Roark to build him a lavish but secluded country home. Wynand and Roark become friends, which drives Francon to jealousy.

Keating, employed to create an enormous housing project, requests Roark's help. Roark agrees, demanding that Keating must build it exactly as designed in exchange for permitting Keating to take all of the credit. With prodding from the envious Toohey, the firm backing the project alters the Roark design presented by Keating into a gingerbread monstrosity. Roark, with Francon's help, rigs explosives to destroy the buildings and is arrested at the site. Toohey pressures Keating into privately confessing that Roark had designed the project. Roark goes on trial and is painted as a public enemy by every newspaper apart from ''The Banner'', in which Wynand now publicly campaigns on Roark's behalf. However, Toohey has permeated ''The Banner'' with men loyal to him. He has them quit and uses his clout to keep others out. He leads a campaign against ''The Banner'' s new policy that all but kills the newspaper. Faced with losing, Wynand saves ''The Banner'' by bringing back Toohey's gang, joining the rest in publicly condemning Roark.

Calling no witnesses, Roark addresses the court on his own behalf. He makes a long and eloquent speech defending his right to offer his own work on his own terms. He is found innocent of the charges against him. A guilt-stricken Wynand summons the architect and coldly presents him with a contract to design the Wynand Building, destined to become the greatest structure of all time, with complete freedom to build it however Roark sees fit. As soon as Roark leaves, Wynand pulls out a pistol and kills himself.

Months later, Francon enters the construction site of the Wynand Building and identifies herself as Mrs. Roark. She rises in the open construction elevator, looking upward toward the figure of her husband. Roark stands triumphant, his arms akimbo, near the edge of the tall skyscraper as the crosswinds buffet him atop his magnificent, one-of-a-kind creation.

The world of Mushihimesama is a wild, untainted one where large desertic areas abruptly change into lush forests, all inhabited by arthropods called Koujuu: such beasts (basically oversized insects) are capable of surviving due to their hardened shells and, upon their deaths, leave them behind for vegetation to grow around them, in a natural cycle of life and death. However, their life force, called '''Levi-Sense''', proved to be poisonous to humans to the point of being named the '''Miasma'''; only sparse human settlements were allowed to survive, one of them being the Hoshifuri village, in exchange for the sacrifice of a 15-year-old girl every 200 years. However, the daughter of the royal family, Reco, is apparently the next in line after being given an ornate bracelet by a mysterious boy in Shinju Forest, where she lost herself at a young age: by the day she turns 15, the Miasma contaminates the village. In order to save her people, she enters Shinju Forest once more, riding the golden Koujuu beetle Kiniro (with which the golden bracelet grants a telepathic link) on a quest to meet the Koujuu god himself.

100 years ago the Life Tree died and the elves began to die out. Brimhil, the eternally youthful queen of the elves, gave up her youth to revive the Tree. 100 years later, in the present, elves are being mistreated by humans and a half-elf Francis De La Cross attempts to obtain the power of the god-like creature to turn the tables and restore Brimhil's youth before she dies.

A young knight named Sir Lloyd von Roiental is transporting a holy staff known as the Wand of Kinan (카이난의 지팡이). He is ambushed and the staff is stolen by Francis, and Lloyd goes off to recover it. Along the way, he is joined by several other people who join his quest for different reasons.

When his rich grandfather, Howard "Red" Stevens, dies, Jason does not expect to inherit anything from his multi-billion-dollar estate. He strongly resents his grandfather because his father had died while working for him. There is an inheritance, in fact, but it comes with a condition: Jason must complete 12 separate assignments within a year in order to get it. Each assignment is centered around a "gift". Gifts of work, money, friends and learning are among the dozen that Jason must perform before he is eligible for the mysterious "Ultimate Gift" his grandfather's will has for him. Red's attorney and friend, Mr. Hamilton, and his secretary, Miss Hastings, attempt to guide Jason along the path his grandfather wishes him to travel.

He first goes to Texas where he works on his grandfather's friend Gus Caldwell's ranch for a month, learning what hard work is. On his return after completing the first task, everything he values is suddenly taken away from him – his luxury apartment, his restored muscle car, and all his money – and he is left homeless. His trendy girlfriend, Caitlin, ditches him when his credit card is rejected at a fancy restaurant, and none of his friends are willing to give him a place to stay despite him having done so many favors for them in the past. After his mother tells him she cannot help him, as part of the agreement, he miserably wanders the city alone. While sleeping in a park, he encounters a woman, Alexia, and her outspoken daughter, Emily. Jason befriends the two, and then asks them to go to the attorney's office and confirm themselves as his "true friends" in order to pass his assignment, but afterwards Jason walks away and ignores Emily's request to see him again. However, Jason accidentally discovers that Emily is suffering from leukemia, and sees a chance to develop a strong bond with someone.

From that point, he tries his best to help Emily have a great life while it lasts, and Emily encourages a romance between Jason and her mother. Another of his tasks requires him to travel to Ecuador and study in a library his father and grandfather built to help the people there. This brings him to address his resentment over the death of his father there, and he makes a trip into the mountains with a local guide to see where it happened. Jason learns from his guide that the story he had always believed about his father's death was a lie, fabricated by his grandfather out of guilt and shame for trying to push Jason's father into the oil business. Jason and the guide are captured there and taken hostage by militants for several weeks, until Jason manages to ensure their escape. He returns to America and discovers that Emily's condition has deteriorated, so he arranges for Gus to host a belated Christmas celebration at his home for them.

Upon completing his twelve tasks, Jason is given a sum of $100-million to do with whatever he pleases, and all of his property is returned to him. Caitlin, knowing that he has regained his wealth, makes an attempt to win him back, but Jason declines her offer. With his inheritance, Jason chooses to build a hospital, called Emily's Home, for children with terminal illnesses, but before the building begins, Emily dies. After the groundbreaking for Emily's Home, Jason is recalled to the law firm for one more meeting and told he has exceeded the expectations of his dead grandfather, and he is given the final gift of $2-billion dollars, rewarding Jason not only for his completing the tasks, but for using the $100-million to help others. That night, Jason is seen sitting on a bench in the park, when Alexia joins him. He thanks her for the help that she and her daughter gave him. Then they kiss, as a butterfly, representing Emily, flies around them.

The story concerns the starship ''George G. Grundy'', or ''Triple G.'', which has been chartered by the "Confederacy of Worlds" to investigate "Junior". The only nonscientist among the passengers of the ''Triple G.'' is 20-year-old Mark Annuncio of the "Mnemonic Service", who has been trained from the age of five to memorize and correlate vast amounts of information.

Over a century earlier, an attempt to colonize Junior had failed. After nearly two years on the planet, all 1,337 colonists had died for reasons unknown. The scientists of the ''Triple G.'' and Annuncio have the mission to find out what killed them. For the first two weeks after landing, everyone remains aboard while the scientists take readings. After Rodriguez, the expedition's microbiologist, declares that the local life forms are noninfectious, a handful of scientists, plus Annuncio, travel to the original site of the colony.

Relations between the scientists and Annuncio deteriorate rapidly. The Mnemonics are loners by nature, and their training makes them even more so. The mere mention of a word such as "albedo" causes Annuncio to mentally see a parade of planetary albedo numbers in his mind, inhibiting his ability to process conversation. The scientists, on the other hand, as specialists, tend to be contemptuous of a professional generalist like Annuncio. When Annuncio asks Rodriguez to explain how he came to a conclusion, the microbiologist regards the request as an affront to his professional reputation, and refuses to answer. The other scientists manage to offend Annuncio in various ways, as well.

When Annuncio finally realizes that the abnormally high concentration of beryllium in the soil and plants of Junior was what killed the colonists, and that they all have to leave immediately, he does not trust the scientists to deal with it. He returns to the ship and persuades the crew to mutiny and take the ship off from the planet. The captain is barely able to convince the crew to stop at the colony site to pick up the scientists. When Annuncio is put on trial for fomenting the mutiny, he explains his actions, is acquitted, and the ship returns to the Earth to seek medical treatment for its crew for beryllium poisoning.

The story is about a male ninja named Kagetora, whose job is to teach the arts of self-defense and combat to the female heir of a renowned family of skilled martial artists, Yuki. Kagetora falls in love with her, but since a ninja is forbidden to fall in love with their lord (or in this case, lady), he struggles to hold back his feelings. The story deals with Kagetora struggling with his sense of duty and his love for Yuki. Yuki also develops feelings for him later on. However, since it is forbidden for their love to be, how will they react to this? Will Kagetora be able to make it happen?

In this fantasy, screwball romantic comedy, Victoria Stafford (Ginger Rogers), is a wealthy girl who has been engaged three times, and each time has backed out at the altar.

On a train she meets the vision George McKesson (Cornel Wilde) dressed as an Indian, just like she envisioned her dream man when she was a child. He claims that he is a figment of her imagination and will disappear as soon as she stops thinking about him. He follows her home and causes much confusion within her family.

Determined to wed her fourth fiancé, Oliver H.P. Harrington (Ron Randell), Victoria is on the verge of saying "yes" when she meets the real version of her "dream lover," Johnny Blaine (Cornel Wilde), a firefighter who is the physical incarnation of George McKesson. Victoria, frustrated with George's advances, insists he stay at home to play cards with her father (Percy Waram), and while shopping she sees Johnny returning a negligee. Thinking he is "George," Victoria has him thrown out of the store for stalking her.

While watching her father's home movies, Victoria remembers kissing Johnny when he was a boy dressed in an Indian costume, and at the insistence of George, tracks Johnny down at the fire station where he works. Victoria boldly approaches Johnny and is persistent in her pursuit of him and his affection. It turns out he too has backed out three times at the altar, claiming it never felt right. Victoria is excited to discover that they have a lot in common, including a knowledge of baseball, favourite foods, and a love of the movie's title song, but Johnny isn't easily swayed by Victoria's eagerness to become a couple, and insists on doing things his way. He is initially not impressed with her brash behaviour, but soon starts to see things her way.

In the meantime, fiancée Oliver has a conversation with George, who alludes to the scandal of Victoria, having traveled with an Indian on a train. He gives Oliver the phone number of the conductor (Frank Orth) who witnessed the whole train adventure. Oliver, desperate to find out the truth, tracks down the train conductor, then calls off the wedding.

After spending several days together, Victoria convinces Johnny that they have subconsciously been in love since they were kids and that they are made for each other. He decides to marry her but wants to speak to her father first. Because the family thinks he is George, they dismiss his claims to be Johnny Blaine the firefighter, and alluding to the "train incident" Mr. an Mrs. Stafford (Spring Byington) discuss getting Victoria married off as soon as possible to avoid future scandal. Thinking that the whole family is nuts, and concerned about her train adventure with another man, Johnny leaves.

Oliver's father, Mr. Harrington (Thurston Hall) insists that Oliver marry Victoria in order to gain access to her family's money; Otherwise they will be in financial ruin, to the tune of three million dollars. So the wedding of Oliver and Victoria is on again at the insistence of both families, and they are about to marry when the vision of George McKesson shows up at the wedding, dressed as an Indian.

Knowing Victoria is marrying the wrong man, George places a call to report a fire at the wedding. This brings the real dream man, Johnny, to the Stafford home. The fire crew enter just as Victoria is deliberating whether or not to say "I do." Johnny carries a very willing Victoria over his shoulder and they leave the house. The movie ends with a tight shot of Johnny's moccasins hanging from his belt as the couple kiss on the speeding firetruck.

Twenty-year-old François is in love with the fiercely independent 25-year-old Anne. One morning, Anne's airline-pilot ex, Christian, visits her to tell her that it is over between them and that he will return to his wife. François just happens to see the two leave Anne's building together and becomes obsessed by the idea that she is cheating on him.

As he strolls aimlessly through the streets of Paris, he catches sight of Christian in a café with another woman. As they leave and jump on a bus, François decides to follow them. A 15-year-old girl he has never met, Lucie, figures out what he is up to and playfully joins in with his amateur espionage.

Throughout the day, their stories and explanations for Christian's action become increasingly complex and outlandish. Eventually, they lose track of Christian in a taxi and they both leave, promising to write to each other if they ever discover what Christian was really up to. François returns to Anne where he learns that all was not as it seemed between Christian and the blonde woman.

Later that night, François goes to Lucie's flat seemingly to place a postcard in her mailbox directly, saving money on a stamp. He spots Lucie embracing a young man (who is coincidentally a co-worker of François'), obviously returning from a date. He leaves, although stops on the way home to buy a stamp and posts the postcard to her.

At an English public school, five students – Liz (the narrator of many flash backs), Mike (the protagonist of most of the student's time in The Hole"), Alex, Frankie and Geoff – are lured into an abandoned cellar by a malevolent prankster named Martyn. All is well for the three days, in which they socialise and get to know each other better; but when three days pass and Martyn is nowhere to be seen, the group must face the possibility that they are trapped indefinitely.

Flash forwards of a "dream summer" section punctuate the story, narrated by Liz, reveal that most of them got out of the hole (Liz interacts awkwardly with Alex at one point) and Mike and Liz are now living together while Liz writes a book based on everything that happened within the Hole. Liz also keeps tapes of interviews with a girl named "Lisa" who talks of her romantic relationship with Martyn.

In the Hole, they become increasingly desperate for food, beginning to face up to the fact that Martyn's experiment was really to play God with all of them. Mike and Liz meet at night in the small bathroom section and talk a lot. At one point Mike believes he sees the keyhole of the trapdoor locking them in the Hole "winking" at him, but dismisses this on grounds that he is hallucinating, or so he thinks.

The water supplies go off. Mike tells Liz his experience with the "winking" keyhole and from this she decides that Martyn must have bugged the main room but not the bathroom area where Mike and Liz have been talking. Liz formulates a plan to test their theory, by saying how lucky they are to have light, and see if Martyn turns off the electricity. They then sleep together.

Liz follows through with it, and everything goes to plan. The electricity goes off. Liz tells the others that a friend of hers knows about the prank and if she doesn't return he will come and rescue them. Everyone rejoices, but Mike is suspicious.

Lisa's story goes on in parallel to this, via the tapes Liz has made of "interviews" she had with Lisa. On the same day Liz plots this, Lisa goes over to Martyn's house and tries to break up with him. Martyn barely listens and, in anger, rapes Lisa. After this, he walks out and supposedly never returns. Lisa goes into his office, searching for him, and sees the tapes of The Hole. She realises everything that has gone on and goes to the Hole, rescuing everyone.

At this point, Liz's narrative ends and there is an extremely ambiguous epilogue written by Dr. Phillippa Horwood, who casts the whole of Liz's testimony in doubt by saying that Michael ("Mike") Rollins died on the sixteenth day in the Hole, that Liz was the "sole survivor" and that no records of the infamous Martyn exist, heavily implying that Liz created Martyn to place blame on someone other than herself. It is also heavily implied – but never actually decided – that Liz and Lisa are the same person.

A car pulls up in front of a wooden gate. Teenage Pauline (Amanda Langlet) gets out of the car to open the gate to allow her older cousin Marion (Arielle Dombasle) to drive inside their family's vacation home, on the north-western coast of France. As the girls settle into their trip, Marion quizzes Pauline on her love life and Pauline confesses that she has not had any serious affairs of the heart.

On the beach, Marion spies her ex-lover Pierre (Pascal Greggory). As they are getting reacquainted, a middle-aged man named Henri (Féodor Atkine) approaches and scolds Pierre for abandoning their windsurfing lessons. The quartet agree to have dinner together. Afterwards, they each talk briefly about their ideas of love in Henri's living room. Henri is happy to be free from any serious commitments, as he travels the world as an ethnographer. Marion wants to fall passionately in love at first sight and she regrets her failed marriage to a man that she did not really love. Pierre is more cautious and feels that love cannot form in an instant. Pauline listens quietly throughout and confesses that she agrees most of all with Pierre's idea of love but that she has learned a lot from listening to all of them.

Henri suggests that they go dancing at a nearby casino. At the casino, Pierre confesses that his love for Marion has been reignited by seeing her again. She does not want to resume a relationship with Pierre, due to his jealous nature. Instead, she chooses to sleep with Henri.

Back at the beach, Pierre tries to teach Marion and Pauline how to windsurf, when some local boys approach. Sylvain (Simon de la Brosse) takes a liking to Pauline. Marion steals away to visit Henri. Before they make love again, she prods him about the nature of his feelings, worried that she is just a meaningless conquest to him. Meanwhile, Sylvain and Pauline begin an affair of their own.

While Marion and Pauline are visiting Mont Saint-Michel, Henri does sleep with someone else, seducing Louisette (Rosette), who has a job selling snacks on the beach. Sylvain is watching TV downstairs at Henri's house, while Henri is upstairs with Louisette. Seeing Marion pull into the driveway, Sylvain goes upstairs to warn Henri. Louisette hides in the bathroom and Henri shoves Sylvain after her, closing the door on them as Marion climbs the stairs. Once Marion hears the pair in the bathroom, Henri opens the door and lets Sylvain and Louisette leave rapidly, explaining to Marion that he had caught the two in his bed making love.

As it happened, Pierre had been walking by and had chanced to see Louisette naked in Henri's bedroom. He warns Marion about Henri but she assures Pierre that it was Sylvain, not Henri, who was sleeping with Louisette. Pauline hears the false story about Sylvain and Louisette and is hurt but not heartbroken. Henri's lie unravels as those involved begin to compare stories. When Marion is called away for a brief meeting in Paris, Pauline learns the truth about Sylvain and she and Pierre go looking for him.

They run into Henri and Sylvain at a restaurant in Granville and they all return to Henri's house to make up over a glass of champagne. Henri apologizes for having caused everyone so much trouble. Pauline does not completely forgive Sylvain, not understanding why he didn't object to Henri's deceit. As they break up for the evening, Pierre and Sylvain get into a scuffle over Pauline, who decides to stay at Henri's, since Marion is still away. In the morning, Henri tries to seduce Pauline but she fends him off. He decides to leave on a two-week sailing trip and writes a farewell letter to Marion.

Back at their cottage, Marion reads Henri's letter; Pauline suggests that they cut short their vacation. Both have been disappointed in their love affairs. After they drive out of the gate, Marion turns off the car and says to Pauline that she is going to choose to believe that Henri did not sleep with Louisette, because believing otherwise would be too painful. She hints that Pauline can still honestly believe that Sylvain too did not sleep with Louisette. They agree to each maintain their own version of events and begin the drive back to Paris. The film closes with the same shot of the cottage gate it opened with.

Three young boys rob a minimart and the salesclerk is killed. Police chase the boys and they end up taking a family hostage. The house taken hostage was owned by Sonny Benza, a man who rules over the West Coast's most powerful Mafia empire. Sonny arranges for his men to kidnap the small town's police chief, Jeff Talley's, family. Talley goes to the location where his family is being held. A man named Marion Clewes executes Benza and his associates for their failure because Marion's employer in New York feels that Benza had betrayed the trust of Marion's employer by failing to retrieve two discs that would shut down Benza's organization and put Benza away for good. The police obtain one of the discs. Rather than killing Talley and his family, Marion lets them live.

Blanche is freshly installed in Cergy-Pontoise, a trendy new town near Paris. She has a new apartment, a new job with no one over and no one under her. She meets Léa at lunch one day, and soon she meets an acquaintance of Léa, Alexandre, whom she approaches somewhat awkwardly. The film then follows the time-honored plot of exchange of relationships, as Blanche and Léa switch boyfriends.

Ninth-grader Marcy Lewis is a smart and sensitive girl who nevertheless lacks confidence. Being overweight, she is embarrassed to draw attention to herself, and she is failing gym class due to her reluctance to change clothes in front of the other girls (resulting in numerous creative excuses for why she doesn't have her gym clothes, such as the titular "the cat ate my gymsuit"). Her verbally abusive father Martin belittles and criticizes the entire family, while her nervous mother Lily encourages her daughter to ignore his behavior and try not to set him off, leading to Marcy's inability to talk about how she really feels.

When her English teacher leaves his job, Marcy's English class receives a new teacher, Ms. Finney. Ms. Finney is a creative and challenging free-thinker who encourages the class to analyze their emotional reactions, leading them to create a school club called Smedley, where they are encouraged to consider not only their feelings, but those of others. Through Smedley, Marcy begins to make new friends and starts to learn to stand up for how she feels. However, her father dislikes Marcy's new assertiveness, while the school administration dislikes Ms. Finney's unorthodox teaching style. Finally, Ms. Finney is dismissed on the grounds that she refuses to say the Pledge of Allegiance.

Marcy and her friends from Smedley start a protest against Ms. Finney's dismissal until the principal, Mr. Stone, suspends the whole group. To Marcy's surprise, her mother, who is the president of the PTA, takes Marcy's side against both the school administration and Marcy's father, who is furious that Marcy got herself suspended for what, to him, seems a trivial reason. The entire school—students, parents, and administration alike—are divided over Ms. Finney's firing, with the parents forcing their children to end friendships with each other over the disagreement. The children, however, refuse to go along with this.

Ms. Finney brings a legal case against her firing, with some of her former students speaking in her defense in court. The court determines that the school administration had no legal grounds to fire her, because it is unconstitutional to force her to recite the Pledge. The school board reluctantly reinstates her, but Ms. Finney, realising that her return would only continue to divide the community, declines to return. Marcy and her friends feel betrayed, but come to understand her reasons. The class gets a new, more conventional English teacher, and Ms. Finney finds a new job as a therapist elsewhere.

In the aftermath, Marcy comes to the conclusion that she and her father are simply too different to ever be close, and that while she can never change her father, she can continue to try to change herself. Her mother also learns this lesson and decides to take night classes at the local college in order to improve and fulfill herself. Marcy finds that the friends she made during their struggle to save Ms. Finney continue to be supportive, and she is even surprised to learn that the crush she has on one of the boys is requited.

In August 1951, French police come to arrest American John Robie at his villa in Vence near the Côte d'Azur. He escapes, leaping over the garden wall. In the late 1930s, Robie was a daring, supremely athletic burglar, known as ''Le Chat'' ("the cat"), who specialized in jewel thefts from hotels and villas on the French Riviera. He was caught and sent to prison in 1939.

During the German occupation of France in World War II, the Germans released many convicts from French prisons, including Robie. He and many other released convicts joined the French Resistance (the ''Maquis''), and fought against the Germans.

After the war, there was an unofficial amnesty for those released convicts who had been ''maquisards''. Their previous sentences were not remitted, but as long as they refrained from new crimes they would be left alone. Some returned to underworld occupations, but Robie retired. He had saved some of the proceeds of his thefts, and did not need to steal. He bought his villa, tended his garden, and played ''boules'' with the townsfolk, including his friends ''Commissaire'' Oriol and Count Paul. He comforted Paul during the tragic death of his wife Lisa from tuberculosis.

Then in 1951, there were new jewel thefts on the Riviera, exactly in the style of ''Le Chat''. Robie was suspected, but he assured Oriol that ''Le Chat'' was dead – killed in the Resistance. But after more thefts, Oriol's suspicion returned, and he tried to arrest Robie.

After escaping, Robie contacts Bellini in Cannes. Robie wants to leave France, but Bellini asks him to help catch the new ''Le Chat''. The police are cracking down, threatening to send all the old ex-prisoners back to prison. The thief is using Robie's methods, so Robie can help them catch the thief, and get the police off their backs.

Jean-Pierre disguises Robie as a pudgy, middle-aged man. As "Jack Burns", vacationing American businessman, Robie scouts Riviera nightclubs and casinos. He identifies three likely targets for the new ''Le Chat'': Mrs. Stevens, the Souzas, and the Sanfords. He works out ''Le Chat''-style plans for burgling their residences. Unfortunately, Mrs. Stevens becomes attached to "Burns". He stands next to her in a casino (to study her jewelry), making small, cautious bets at roulette. Mrs. Stevens copies him with big bets, wins two million francs, and uses the money to buy a diamond dog pin with emerald eyes. She decides that "Lucky" Burns is her personal good-luck charm, buys him drinks, and copies his bets, attracting unwanted attention.

Bellini provides Robie with Danielle, a pretty girl to escort "Burns" in the casinos. This annoys Claude, Danielle's muscular would-be boyfriend, but keeps Mrs. Stevens away. "Burns" has also attracted the attention of Francie Stevens, who is suspicious of men who may want to exploit her trusting mother.

The thief strikes again, and ''Sûreté'' headquarters in Paris sends senior detective Lepic and additional agents. Mr. Paige announces an offer to buy back the jewels for 20% of their value – no questions asked. Then Robie encounters Count Paul in Cannes. Paul doesn't recognize him, but Robie has to stop his scouting. He dismisses Danielle.

Francie Stevens has guessed that "Burns" is ''Le Chat''. She mistakenly thinks that he is the leader of a gang, which staged all the apparent feats of ''Le Chat''. She is excited to meet a master thief, and suggests that he rob her mother, whose jewelry is insured, except the diamond dog, which must not be taken – even though this would be an obvious giveaway.

Bellini provides Robie with six tough ex-''maquisards'', including his old comrades Coco and Le Borgne. If they catch the thief and recover the jewels, they can share Paige's reward. Robie sets Coco and two men to watch the Souzas' cottage, and Le Borgne with two men to watch the Sanfords' chateau. He himself will watch in Mrs. Stevens' hotel. He has determined that the thief must strike by night.

That night, Mrs. Stevens goes out for an all-night gambling session, wearing most of her jewels. Francie (wearing the rest) has Robie take her out for the night. He complies, since there is nothing for the thief to steal. But Mrs. Stevens loses her stake quickly and comes home early. After she goes to sleep, the thief strikes.

Count Paul is among the crowd attracted by the alarm over the theft, and recognizes Robie. Paul won't expose him, but he wants an introduction to Danielle. She reminds him of his beloved Lisa, and he ''must'' meet her. Robie tells him who she is, but deliberately rejects Paul's offer to help him.

Francie thinks Robie's gang stole the jewels. She demands the return of the diamond dog, threatening to expose him. Robie plays for time. Robie thinks that perhaps Danielle, who is clever, and Claude, who is athletic, are behind the thefts. Bellini investigates, and clears Claude.

At the Souzas' cottage, Coco dismisses one of his crew, a quarrelsome gypsy, and Robie joins him on watch. The next day, at the beach, he introduces Paul to Danielle. Later, Robie tells her about Lisa.

Francie again pressures Robie for the diamond dog, and he tells her the whole story; also, how he came to be ''Le Chat''. His parents were circus acrobats, as was he. Orphaned when young, he came to Europe, was stranded, and took to burglary.

Two nights later, Robie spots a figure sneaking away from the Souza cottage. Then Detective Lepic shoots the man dead. It is the gypsy, who tried to use Robie's ''Le Chat''-style planning. This seems to exonerate ''Le Chat'', but the stolen jewels are still missing. Robie is certain that the gypsy was not athletic enough to be the hotel thief. The thief is still at large, and will strike again.

The target will be the Sanfords. The next weekend is their gala house party, and the guests will bring fabulous jewels. Francie wangles an invitation for "Burns". But Count Paul is also a guest. Paul demands that Robie leave, and won't listen to his explanation. Lepic and Oriol also arrive to protect the guests' jewels.

Robie abandons his disguise and lies in wait for the thief on the roof of the chateau. Late that night, he pursues the thief over the roof. The police are aroused, and Oriol demands Robie's surrender. Robie catches up with the thief, who is Danielle. Reflexively, he joins her in evading the police. They slip through the window of Paul's room. Paul hides them from Oriol, and now listens to Robie's story. Danielle too was a hungry young orphan acrobat. She deliberately mimicked the famous ''Le Chat'', and never recognized "Burns" until they met on the roof.

Paul, who is in love with Danielle, asks her to marry him. He can pay what is required to save her freedom. But Robie has a better idea – since she still has the stolen jewels. Danielle and Bellini take the jewels to Paige, who tells Oriol and Lepic that the jewels have been returned and "Burns" was his company's agent. With the jewels restored and the gypsy dead, the case is closed.

Robie can now return safely to Vence, where he has everything he wants – except, he now realizes, Francie Stevens. He finds her packing to leave for America...

When master thief “The Tornado” steals priceless artifacts from around the world, the French government assembles a “Dream Team” of detectives to solve the case. Inspector Clouseau is reassigned from his task as a parking officer by Chief Inspector Dreyfus to join the detectives in Japan, site of the Tornado's latest heist. As soon as Clouseau crosses the borders of France, news breaks that the Pink Panther diamond has indeed been stolen, prompting Clouseau to gloat that his presence has kept the diamond safe and that he had known it would happen all along.

Clouseau joins the other members of the Dream Team: Detective Randall Pepperidge, from Great Britain; Vincenzo, from Italy; Kenji, an electronics specialist from Japan; and Sonia Solandres, a researcher and criminology expert from India. They go to Rome to investigate a black market fence, Alonso Avellaneda. Assuming Avellaneda is the Tornado, the Dream Team question him while Clouseau snoops around. Avellaneda demonstrates that he lacks a bullet-wound the Tornado received years ago; after the detectives leave, Avellaneda meets with the real Tornado.

That night, Clouseau and his partner Ponton spy on Avellaneda at a restaurant using an audio bug. The mission is compromised when they find Vincenzo and Nicole, Clouseau's girlfriend, together at the restaurant. Banned from the restaurant for burning it down months earlier, Clouseau disguises himself as a dancer and switches the bug to Nicole's table, burning down the restaurant again in the process. Meanwhile, the Tornado steals the Pope's ring, turning public opinion against the Dream Team.

When Clouseau's acts of foolishness aggravate the situation, he is voted off the team; only Sonia sympathizes with him. Clouseau is later called to an office to find the Tornado has killed himself, leaving a suicide note that claims he destroyed the Pink Panther – considering it so beautiful that he could not allow anyone else to own it – and left the other treasures to be recovered. Examining a key found in the Pope's Chambers, the Dream Team match the dead man's DNA with DNA recovered from when the Tornado was shot, and believe they have solved the case; Clouseau is unconvinced.

A celebration is thrown in the Dream Team's honor. Uninvited, Clouseau discovers a clue from the license plate of Sonia's car and calls Ponton. Clouseau tries to tell Dreyfus that the real thief is still at large, but is ignored. Dreyfus announces to the group that Clouseau believes Sonia was the thief, and the detectives jokingly work out a plausible explanation: as the Tornado's ex-lover, she would have in-depth knowledge of his methods, and could have drawn attention to the thefts of the other artifacts, leaving her free to sell the Pink Panther. Nicole, realizing Clouseau could be correct as she, too, was suspecting Sonia and having seen how Clouseau caught the same trick used during his first big break, asks Sonia to empty her purse. After initially trying to leave, Sonia ultimately pulls out a gun, threatening to shoot Nicole, and shoots Clouseau but the bullet ricochets off his Légion d'honneur medal. A chase ensues, with all members of the Dream Team but Clouseau making fools of themselves through various accidents caused by Clouseau's clumsiness.

Finally cornered, Sonia threatens to destroy the Pink Panther and, goaded by Clouseau, she does. Attempting to escape, Sonia is knocked out by Ponton and arrested. Clouseau reveals that what Sonia destroyed was a fake gem, as Clouseau kept the real diamond in his possession in order to protect it. Clouseau had a feeling that the gem would be stolen again, so before anything could happen, he had the Pink Panther diamond at the museum swapped with a replica he was given before leaving France. The Tornado, an expert on gems, would have recognized the Pink Panther to be a fake; therefore, Clouseau deduced that his suicide note was forged and he was murdered. Clouseau reveals that he had ticketed Sonia's car two days before the Pink Panther was stolen – contradicting her alibi of being delayed to the original crime scene by her flight – which revealed to him that Sonia was the culprit and that she used the Dream Team as a strategic cover. Dreyfus tries to claim credit for having appointed Clouseau to his parking job, which Clouseau, remembering Dreyfus told him to deny this to anyone who asked, rebukes.

Clouseau marries Nicole in a ceremony officiated by Dreyfus and attended by the Dream Team, ending in chaos when Dreyfus accidentally destroys a security camera with a champagne cork, summoning the Black Berets. Clouseau and Nicole leave for their honeymoon as the animated Pink Panther watches, before closing the doors and winking at the camera.

A sultan agrees to help an evil witch destroy a mysterious beauty if the witch will bring his young son back to life.

Set in the Highgate-Archway area of North London, the novel's protagonist is Martin Urban, a young accountant leading a comfortable, complacent and rather dull bachelor life, in his own flat, attended by a peppery, older male cleaner, and visiting his doting parents regularly. When Martin unexpectedly wins a large sum of money in a football pool, he shrinks from telling or sharing his win with one of his clients, a dashing, feckless actor he secretly admires but affects to disapprove of. It was this client who procured Martin the winning ticket. Instead, Martin decides to give half the money away to personally-identified worthy causes, all of whom, to Martin's bemusement and dismay, entirely misinterpret his gestures of generosity. Suddenly, Francesca enters his life, a mysterious young woman who works in a flower shop and captures his heart. He also meets Finn, the self-sufficient, twisted son of his mother's cleaning lady, Lena, a vulnerable eccentric absorbed in astrology, crystals, tarot and so on. Finn works as all-round handyman for a dodgy landlord, who pays him to evict (or murder) sitting tenants from his rental properties. Martin's naivety and misplaced good intentions become fatally entangled with Finn's macabre madness and the machinations of others around Martin he completely fails to understand. The tragic outcome opens Martin's eyes and destroys his world.

Category:1980 British novels Category:Novels by Ruth Rendell Category:Hutchinson (publisher) books

''Day'' is the story of a Holocaust survivor who is struck by a taxicab in New York City. While recovering from his injuries, the character reflects on his relationships and experiences during the Second World War, coming to terms with his survival and the deaths of his family and friends. The book was published in the UK as '''''The Accident'''''.Bloom, Harold. [https://books.google.com/books?id=1rjZP2Nldi0C&pg=PA69 ''Elie Wiesel's Night'']. Infobase Publishing, 2009, p. 69.

The novel starts several hundred years after most of mankind is wiped out by a plague and tells the story of a family of immortals who seek to conquer the world with advanced science. Its story concerns a brother and sister who have become immortal. In "Dawn of the Flame" the sister, Margaret of Urbs, known as "Black Margot", is a Joan-of-Arc-type, leading the battle against the mutated of mankind. By the time of "The Black Flame", she is jaded and finds that being an immortal can be boring.

A relatively quiet evening at home in 1897 for the Emersons is disturbed by the appearance of Reggie Forthright and his grandfather, Viscount Blacktower. The two visitors have information about Blacktower's older son, Willoughby Forth, who disappeared fourteen years ago in the desert west of the Nile in the Sudan. They tell the story of a lost civilization in the midst of the desert. Lord Blacktower's story would have been discounted, except the map he produced was on the back of a page from Emerson's own notebook, drawn by Willie Forth himself. Blacktower wants the Emersons to lead an expedition to find the missing heir, but the Emersons decline.

Surprisingly, Radcliffe, Amelia, and Ramses do travel to the Sudan, to excavate at Gebel Barkal and Napata, the first Nubian capital. The sudden appearance of Reggie Forthright causes them to alter their plans. Reggie is set on seeking his long-lost uncle, and when he disappears in the western wastes, the Emersons have no recourse but to go after him.

But the rescuers need rescue themselves when all but one of their men desert them, and their camels die off one by one. Finally, the last faithful servant takes a chance and looks for a promised oasis ahead. Nearly dead from heat and thirst, they suddenly find themselves in a world 3,000 years out of place.

Amelia suffers the worst of it, taking weeks to fully recover. She is spurred on because they find themselves in a place where ancient Egypt is still alive and functioning. And they find that their servant was in fact one of two brothers struggling for power in the ancient land.

They soon learn that anyone who thought life in ancient Egypt was simple would have been grossly mistaken. The intrigues, politics, and social mores push and prod the Emersons in ways they never expected, and they still need to discover what happened to Willie Forth, his wife, and his nephew.

Dinner with princes and a queen, clandestine meetings with priestesses, and plans to escape all jumble together until the god Aminreh appears to make his decision, and all three Emersons are in the midst of the action when Aminreh makes the choice no one expected...

Nefret Forth is introduced, and the source of her later wealth is established. So too is the devotion the family has to a young woman they did not know the existence of just a short while before.

The actual story is a revival of the very first Musha Gundam storyline focusing on Ark's "Seven of Light" defenders, seven brave Musha Gundams who defend the land of Ark by order of the Shogundam. This basic story was presented in Musha Retsuden Zero, whilst Musha Retsuden was set a few years later. Just about all of the legendary defenders have fathered sons and are training them to one day assume their father's roles.

After the war against Yamikoutei (闇皇帝), Ark is ruled by evil forces. Descendants of the Seven of Light defenders scattered across the land, in search of the Bukabuka (武化舞可) armour that can bring peace to the world. One day, when Retsumaru's family was threatened, a sword from the armour set appeared in front of Retsumaru, and so the story began...

'''Volume 1'''- Years ago, the forces of good and evil met in a climactic battle. Now, Ark is ruled by various tyrannical warriors. Retsumaru, son of the legendary hero Rekka Musha Gundam, sets out to form a new band of heroes and restore Ark's former glory. '''Volume 2'''- Uniting with their fathers, the new generation of defenders prepare to strike the final blow against the demonic warlord Capiturn. *'''Volume 3'''- With the defeat of Capiturn, the young defenders have gone their separate ways. However, Retsumaru soon becomes aware of an even greater danger. Matured by his adventures, Retsumaru must launch a covert mission into the heart of enemy territory.

This form of the storyline was backed up by a model kit line which featured all of the fathers and sons, as well as their Mobile Musha secret weapon. Each of the kits had elements of interchangeable armour, with a story point being that one certain combination gave the central father and son pair a Dai-Shogun form. This form itself was released as the final kit of the line, based on how it appeared in Gundam Evolve 14.

The instructions for the model kits also presented a full colour manga side story. This sidestory, despite using elements from the main manga, appears to conflict with it, most notably in the portrayal of characters. The sidestory was primarily used to show the gimmicks of the kits (such as armour changing) in action in a story setting. Additionally, some of the kits had brief 4-panel humour comics on the bottom of their boxes. These comics made reference to events happening in the main manga story.

Set in Caldwell, Kansas on the Kansas-Oklahoma border, the film begins with intertitles describing the end of the reign of cowboys and cattle on the open range that would soon become farmland and homesteads. Cowboys sing of their rambling lifestyle as "tumbleweeds." And one of those tumbleweeds is their foreman Don Carver (William S. Hart), who respects the rattlesnakes and wolves that roam the prairie more than the land-grabbers who will soon be arriving.

The cattle are being gathered at the home ranch of the Box K, where Carver drops off a couple of orphaned wolf pups before heading south to get details on the coming land rush. Cowhand Kentucky Rose (Lucien Littlefield) asks to accompany the foreman, and together they ride to the cow-town of Caldwell, population 200. That's where the "advance guard" of the homesteaders is gathering at the Kansas-Oklahoma border.

Kentucky meets a widow named Mrs. Riley (Lillian Leighton), who has come to claim a new homestead for her three children. The cowpoke helps her fix a slipped rein on the team of horses that pulls her covered wagon. As she pulls out to catch up with the rest of the advance guard, Kentucky sighs and says maybe these homesteaders are alright after all. But Carver can't wait to get back to his cows, which by government order need to be moved off the rich grazing land.

On the trail drive west, the Box K crew comes across other ranchers moving their herd off the Cherokee Strip—the Triple X outfit, the Circle Dot and the Diamond Bar. Carver says, "Boys, it's the end of the West." And sure enough, the influx of would-be settlers turns little Caldwell into a teeming city almost overnight. That's where Carver has a run in with hooligan who was bullying a puppy-toting boy named Bart (Jack Murphy). Carver gives the hombre an impromptu lesson in proper manners.

After get soaked in a horse trough by the cowman, the bully meets an old buddy who now goes by the name Bill Freel (Richard Neill). They start planning to illegally stake a claim to the Box K ranch. Meanwhile, Carver takes the round-up report to his boss, Joe Hinman (James Gordon), who treats him and Kentucky to some whisky in the local saloon. The boss also suggests that Carver might want to get a piece of land for himself and settle down, but the cowboy says the only land he will ever settle on will bear his tombstone.

That attitude is about to change, however, when Carver accidentally lassoes Molly Lassiter (Barbara Bedford). For the foreman, it is embarrassment and love at first sight. She is the sister of the boy he helped, Bart. They have come to the Strip with their older half-brother Noll Lassiter (J. Gordon Russell) to stake a claim, which causes Carver to say he's thinking about doing the same. Maybe they'll be neighbors.

Then, Molly introduces Carver to Noll. It is the same hombre he drenched in the trough earlier. That is a hiccup in the relationship, but it does not dissuade Carver from joining the land rush, hoping to be close to Molly. And as the day of the big event, signs are posted warning everyone not to jump the gun or they will be prosecuted as "Sooners."

Kentucky manages to find Mrs. Riley in the long line of registrants for settling permits, and he holds her baby for her while she signs in. Elsewhere, Carver tells Bart all about the Box K, which he hopes to claim for himself. And Noll tries to persuade Molly to let Freel come courting, but she has no interest in the man, and she goes to meet Carver in the hotel's Ladies Parlor, where she receives a bouquet of prairie flowers to the cowboy along with an invitation to join him for the town's street celebration the next evening.

When Noll overhears Carver tell Hinman he's going out to the Strip one last time to look for Box K strays, the conniver gets Freel to report the cowman to Cavalry Major White (Taylor N. Duncan) as a Sooner. The local Cherokees inform Carver that the "white soldiers" are coming after him. If he wants, the warriors will help the cowboy fight them, but Carver says he will go peaceably if they arrest him.

By 8:30pm the next evening, the celebration is in full swing. Kentucky has got himself all dressed up to take Mrs. Riley out for the festivities. However, poor Molly has had no word from her date and is waiting on pins and needles when Freel approaches her to be his companion for the evening. She declines the offer and says she will wait for Carver. That's when Noll informs her that her date is not coming. He has been arrested as a Sooner.

Just then, Major White brings Carver into town as a prisoner and the celebrants suddenly turn into a lynch mob. The soldiers manage to keep the angry crowd at bay and get the suspect to their encampment. Boss Hinson informs White that the cowboy was only acting on his orders to bring in strays, but because Carver had registered for the land rush, he was prohibited from setting foot on the Strip prior to the official opening. His horse and weapons are confiscated and he'll have to sit out the big event in the cavalry stockade.

Before sunrise, Freel and Noll set out for the Box K to stake a claim ahead of the rush. A mounted soldier spots them and says they are under arrest, but their reaction is deadly—Freel shoots him, unaware that Kentucky has been following the two crooks ever since they left town. That is when Noll sees him and shoots the witness's horse. As the duo ride off, Kentucky packs the dead man on his cavalry horse, rides back to town and notifies Major White.

By now, it is just an hour before noon, when a cannon will be fired to signal the start of the land rush. Kentucky goes to the stockade to tell Carver what's happened. The prisoner says to gather up his outfit and meet him at the live oak. If he is not there when the cannon fires, Kentucky should go stake his claim alone.

At twenty minutes to twelve, Molly is still waiting at the hotel for brother Noll to pick her up for the rush. Carver tries to bribe a guard to let him out of the stockade, but it is no use. All along the east edge of the Strip, wagons, horses and even bicycles are lined up for miles to take settlers to their new homesteads. Kentucky waits patiently by the oak with his friend's horse and gear.

Feeling sorry for Molly getting left behind, the Hotel Proprietor (Fred Gamble) offers to lend her his horse and carriage. The bugle sounds "ready." White gives the signal "set." The cannon fires "go." And the stampede begins, with Kentucky off to the races along with everyone else except Carver, who is still in custody. But not to be left out, the foreman's startled, riderless horse returns to the stockade, where Carver grabs a long staff and uses it to pole-vault the wall.

Guards fire on the escaping prisoner but he is too fast. He dashes past wagons, many overturned when they lost wheels to the rough prairie surface. And Mrs. Riley's team runs out of control, heading for a ravine. Only quick action by Carver averts disaster. Even with that delay, the cowboy races past other riders, knowing exactly where he is going. He arrives first at the Box K, only two find two horses hitched outside the ranch hose—Freel's and Noll's.

There's a shoot out. Carver corners the two men, but Freel manages to escape when the cowboy fires wide of his mark with the next to last bullet in his revolvers. Freel gallops off to find Molly and tell her that Carver has jumped Noll's claim. Molly does not believe a word of it and insists on proof. They ride toward the Box K, where Carver has spared Noll and let him go free for the sake of his sister.

When Molly, Bart and Freel arrive at the ranch house, Carver has already placed his claim marker in the front yard. Molly sees it and accuses her former romantic interest of being a thief as well as a Sooner. She orders Carver out of her sight. Freel adds his two cents, which gets him a blistering left uppercut in response.

Carver mounts his horse and rides off. Along the trail his sees a rattler and shoots it, in no mood to be nice to critters this day. Not far away, Kentucky has helped Mrs. Riley stake her claim to fertile land called "the bottoms." He says it is time to be drifting on, but replying that she and the kids will be lonesome, the widow snares his vest with her ringed finger and pulls him in for a smooch. His reaction, "Ah shucks. Let's get married."

Seeing Carver ride by, Kentucky calls out to him the good news. But Carver is despondent and says, "Women ain't reliable—cows are." He adds that he is "headed for South America where there's millions of 'em." Off he rides. That's when Mrs. Riley steps in and tells her husband-to-be to hop over to the Box K and "tell that gal she's a fool." Off Kentucky rides.

Land-hungry Noll and Freel are not done doing their bad deeds yet. They ride up on a defenseless elderly couple (George F. Marion and Gertrude Claire) and brazenly order them off their claim. Fortunately, the location is in Carver's path and he comes to the rescue, disarming both men, tying them up and escorting them back to Caldwell to face military justice for the death of the cavalryman. And being honest to a fault, Carver turns himself in for his alleged crime and escape.

The Major, of course, knows a good man when he sees one and sends Carver over to the Caldwell House Hotel, where Molly has just returned the borrowed horse and carriage. As he walks in the front door, he is greeted with the cry "DON!" Molly has forgiven him and we see them together, embracing and overlooking the vast tumbleweed-strewn prairie.

The player takes the role of Kenny Smith, code name "Viper", an agent of the 98th Special Forces. He is assigned by his superior, Commander Jones, to investigate a large drug syndicate that covers most of South America (Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Paraguay, Argentina, Bolivia). Smith's objective is to rescue a missing agent in each of the syndicate's seven hideouts and uncover clues of the Syndicate's true mastermind.

Stéphane Miroux (Gael García Bernal), is a shy young man whose vivid dreams often interfere with his waking life. After the death of his divorced father in Mexico, Stéphane moves to Paris to live closer to his mother Christine. He moves into his childhood home and starts a new job his mother has found for him in a calendar printing company. Stéphane shows his new colleagues his drawings, a collection of twelve illustrations depicting unique disasters, he calls his collection "disasterology". But nobody at his new job appreciates his talents, the job is for nothing more than typesetting work, leaving Stéphane frustrated, as revealed in his dreams.

While leaving his apartment to go to work one day the new neighbour Stéphanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg) invites Stéphane into her apartment, Stéphane soon realizes that Stéphanie is creative and artistic. They plan to do a project together, a short animated film based around a boat Stéphanie was making.

As the story begins to unfold, surrealistic and naturalistic elements begin to overlap within Stéphane's reality, and the viewer is often uncertain of which portions constitute reality and which are dreams. One dream sequence in which Stéphane dreams his hands become absurdly giant, was inspired by a recurring nightmare director Michel Gondry had as a child.[5] As the line between dream and reality gradually becomes more blurred, Stéphane becomes enamoured with Stéphanie, and he shares his inventions with her, such as the ‘one-second time machine’. Stéphane's dreams begin to encroach on his waking life, making him unsure of reality and whether Stéphanie's feelings for him are real.

Stéphanie's toy horse is named Golden The Pony Boy, a reference to ‘The Outsiders’, the meaning poignantly hinting at Stèphane's regression and childlike behaviour around Stéphanie, which could stem from the loss of his father. Stèphane implants a mechanism inside Golden the Pony Boy that will make it gallop, he later receives a call from Stéphanie thanking him, she reveals the pony was named after Stéphane.

To Stéphane's surprise, the calendar manufacturer accepts his "Disasterology" idea and the company has a party in his honor, but he begins drinking excessively after he witnesses Stéphanie dancing with another man. The next day, Stéphane and Stéphanie have a confrontation in their hallway when Stéphane announces that he doesn't want to be Stéphanie's friend any longer. Stéphanie offers that they discuss their issues on a date, but on his way there Stéphane has a vision that she isn't there, he runs to her apartment and bangs on her door when in actuality, she is waiting for him at the café. Stéphanie returns home, while Stéphane decides to move back to Mexico. Before leaving, Stéphane's mother insists that he says a formal goodbye to his next-door neighbor, Stéphanie. In his attempt to do so, he becomes crass, making offensive jokes. As his antagonistic behaviour pushes her, Stéphanie asks Stéphane to leave but he climbs into her bed, noticing two items on her bedside: his one-second time machine, and the finished boat they planned to use in their animated film. The film closes with Stéphane and Stéphanie riding Golden the Pony Boy across a field before sailing off into the sea in her boat.

The story is set in New York City in December 1932, in the last days of Prohibition. The main characters are Nick Charles, a former private detective, and Nora, his clever young wife. Nick, the son of a Greek immigrant, has given up his career since marrying Nora, a wealthy socialite, and he spends most of his time cheerfully getting drunk in hotel rooms and speakeasies. Nick and Nora have no children but they own a female Schnauzer named Asta. (In the film adaptation, Asta is a male wire-haired fox terrier.) Charles is drawn, mostly against his will, into investigating a murder. The case brings them in contact with the Wynants, a rather grotesque family, and with various policemen and lowlifes. As they attempt to solve the case, Nick and Nora share a great deal of banter and witty dialogue, along with copious amounts of alcohol.

''Ys'' was a precursor to role-playing games that emphasize storytelling. The hero of ''Ys'' is an adventurous young swordsman named Adol Christin. As the story begins, he has just arrived at the Town of Minea, in the land of Esteria. He is called upon by Sara, a fortune-teller, who tells him of a great evil that is sweeping the land.

Adol is informed that he must seek out the six Books of Ys. These books contain the history of the ancient land of Ys, and will give him the knowledge he needs to defeat the evil forces. Sara gives Adol a crystal for identification and instructs him to find her aunt in Zepik Village, who holds the key to retrieving one of the Books. With that, his quest begins.

Sean Crawley is a struggling young man trying to make ends meet by painting houses in suburban Los Angeles. One day, Sean meets "Duke" Wayne, who introduces Sean to his boss, a shady real estate developer named Ray Matthews. Ray hires Sean as a spy and orders him to follow Eric Gatley, an accountant who has been investigating Ray's company. Problems start when Ray, while drunk, offers Sean $13,000 to kill Eric. Sean accepts his offer and, although ambivalent, ends up killing Gatley by breaking into his house and beating him to death. When Sean goes to collect his pay, however, he is double-crossed and when he insists that they pay him, he is kidnapped and taken to Ray's secluded farm. It emerges that Matthews never had any intention of paying Sean for the killing, for he only wanted to use and eliminate him. But Sean survives from having a bullet put in his head then reveals that he had taken Gatley's work file of evidence and hidden it along with his documentation of events leading to the murder.

When torture fails to make him disclose the whereabouts of the file, Sean is then brutally beaten about the head with golf clubs many times by Ray and his henchmen daily for weeks in an effort to destroy his memory. After suffering a heavy amount of trauma, Sean escapes, killing Duke, and finds his way to a downtown homeless shelter where Gatley's widow, Susan, takes him under her wing, oblivious to his role in her personal tragedy. After she nurses him back to normal, he feels he has been reborn and they become lovers and he moves into her house. But after a few weeks, Susan finds his file describing the murder and, enraged, physically attacks him. Defending himself, Sean accidentally kills her.

Having lost what he saw as his redemption and rebirth, more angry and cynical than ever, Sean returns to Ray's farm and methodically and ruthlessly exacts revenge on his captors; having arrived before Ray, he finds Duke's body and decapitates it, removing the wounds that would implicate his involvement. While waiting for Ray, Sean burns Duke's head in a fire pit along with pictures of Susan, exclaiming that if it wasn't for him and his friends he could have had a happy life. He hides in the house while Ray's henchmen search for him. Sean jumps Carl upstairs and hits him in the chest with a sledgehammer and kicks him down the stairs. Carl lies on the floor unable to move from internal bleeding. Beckett comes into the house to find Carl when Sean breaks his leg and hits his back, paralyzing him.

With the two henchmen unable to move, he moves on to Ray, dousing him in gasoline and setting him on fire. He returns to the house to deal with the wounded Carl and Beckett, who is begging him for medical assistance and asking why. Sean simply replies asking if there needs to be a reason for his revenge. Sean turns the stove on and leaves the house. He changes Ray's shoes to make it appear that the trio were working on the house when an accident occurs. Sean lights one of Ray's shoes on fire and throws it in the house; Beckett and Carl scream and cry as Sean walks away from the house before it explodes.

Scientist Dr. Edward Pretorius has been developing in his mansion the Resonator, a machine that allows whoever is within range to see beyond normal perceptible reality by stimulating the pineal gland. His assistant, Dr. Crawford Tillinghast, manages at last to make the machine work, and sees strange creatures swimming in the air. He approaches them but he is bitten. He runs to notify Pretorious about the machine's functionality and the dangerous encounter. Pretorius, driven by lust for power and knowledge, turns the machine on and becomes mad with the feelings the Resonator causes. The Resonator malfunctions at full power, causing Crawford to panic and flee. When the police arrive due to the call of a scared neighbour, they find Pretorius decapitated, yet no trace of blood or of his missing head. Crawford is arrested for murder.

Crawford is committed to a psychiatric ward. The police request Dr. Katherine McMichaels to evaluate his sanity and ability to stand trial. After Crawford gives his account of Pretorius' death, Katherine orders that Crawford undergo a CT scan, showing that Crawford's pineal gland is indeed enlarged and growing. Convinced of Crawford's innocence, Katherine has him released to her custody, and takes him back to Pretorius' house and the Resonator. They are accompanied by Detective Bubba Brownlee, who investigated Pretorius' death.

Katherine and Crawford rebuild the Resonator. Crawford reactivates the machine, which causes more creatures to appear along with a naked Dr. Pretorius. His consciousness now altered and expanded, Pretorius tells of a world beyond, that is more pleasurable than normal reality. He claims that his death was a necessary rite of passage to access this realm. He then starts to morph into progressively more monstrous form and attacks Crawford, Bubba, and Katherine with slime-covered arms. Crawford shuts off the Resonator, making Pretorius and the other creatures vanish.

Katherine is fascinated by the event and tries to convince the other two to turn back on the Resonator, claiming that it could help victims of schizophrenia and brain damage, but Bubba and Crawford are not convinced. While the two are asleep, Katherine gets up and turns the machine on alone, bringing forth the now further mutated Pretorius. Pretorius grabs Katherine, preparing to eat her mind and take her to the world beyond. Crawford and Bubba go down into the basement to shut off the power, but encounter a giant worm-like monster, which attacks Crawford. Bubba succeeds in shutting off the power, rescuing Crawford and Katherine and sending Pretorius away once more.

Bubba decides they should leave the house. Pretorius somehow returns and the Resonator turns back on, as all three of them run up into the attic to deactivate it. Katherine and Crawford are attacked by bee-like creatures, and as Bubba pushes them out of the way, he is devoured to the bone. Crawford fights off Pretorius and frees Katherine, but then his enlarged pineal gland pops out of his forehead. Katherine short circuits the machine by spraying it repeatedly with a fire extinguisher.

She takes Crawford back to the hospital, where she is evaluated for insanity and schizophrenia, since her story was just like Crawford's. As Katherine is being prepared for electroshock treatment by a sadistic staff member, Crawford develops an overwhelming hunger for human brains and kills Katherine's superior Dr. Bloch. Katherine escapes and drives back to the house with a bomb. A crazed Crawford follows her, after other acts of cannibalism.

Katherine places a timed bomb on the Resonator. Crawford attacks her. As he is about to eat her brain, she bites off his pineal gland, reverting him to his senses. Dr. Pretorius' will reconnects the severed wires of the Resonator and fixes the short circuit damage. Pretorius returns and eats Crawford's brain. Before Pretorius can do the same to Katherine, Crawford's consciousness fights for control within Pretorius, the opposing consciousnesses tearing their shared body apart. Katherine escapes through the attic window just as the bomb explodes, destroying the Resonator and killing both Pretorius and Crawford.

Landing outside, Katherine breaks her leg and the neighbors gather around her as she suffers a mental breakdown, saying "It ate him!" in between mad laughter and crying.

The Doctor and his three companions travel to Arkhaven. It is one of the last cities on a doomed alien planet. The city has one plan for survival, no backup. However, there are underlying plans threatening to sabotage this as various people vie for power the disaster might bring.

The Doctor then must deal with the 'Creeper', an entity prowling the outskirts of Arkhaven. His companions cannot help him, as one becomes lost and the other becomes mentally ill.

Nine people, mostly strangers to each other, are linked together when they are held hostage in a bank robbery gone wrong. In each episode, viewers learn new details of the 52-hour standoff, of which only brief snippets are seen.

The pilot episode establishes the events which the rest of the series will embellish. Two men enter the bank, armed, and quickly restrain both the security guard and an off-duty police officer. Viewers see details of what brought each person to the bank that day.

Some time after the end of the standoff, the former hostages arrange a meeting with one another in an effort to stay in touch and help each other. Various characters also form relationships apart from the group and maintain regular contact with each other during the week, while others are connected through relationships that predate the events in the bank.

''Steambot Chronicles'' begins with a personality quiz, answers to these questions affecting the personality of the character and how others will react towards him. Afterwards, a young male named Vanilla awakes on the shore of Seagull Beach, a seemingly cheerful girl named Coriander (shortened Connie) beside him, and currently suffers from amnesia due to a shipwreck nearby that occurred before the events of the game. The player learns that Connie is picking herbs to use as medicine for her bed-ridden mother, Rosemary, who lives in Nefroburg. Vanilla spots a vehicle on a nearby cliff that shoots a bazooka, trapping the two in Seagull Beach.

Connie must get home to Nefroburg on the last bus, but cannot because of the fallen boulder blocking her path. They go to a nearby cottage that, the player finds out, holds bad memories for Connie, evidence of this being her in a picture with two unknown figures. The two stumble upon an old run-down Trotmobile resembling a bipedal automobile, which they use to leave Seagull Beach. Connie discovers that the bus already left minutes ago, and requests that Vanilla take her to Nefroburg.

On the trip, the two encounter a hoodlum from a gang known as the "Killer Elephants", who challenges Vanilla to a duel. After defeating him, the two encounter Marjoram, one of the members of the Garland Globetrotters (a band in which Connie is the lead singer). Vanilla will have to find Basil, another member of the band, and take him back to Marjoram and Connie.

The four later head back to Nefroburg. On the way, they encounter a humongous quadruped mechanical fortress (operated by the "Killer Elephants"), and Vanilla must destroy it before they officially head to Nefroburg, where they encounter yet another member, Fennel (who is suspected of firing the bazooka as Connie and Vanilla on the beach). After attending a concert at night, the player may choose to change the plot and Vanilla himself.

Lok, who was elected chairman of the Hong Kong triad Wo Lin Shing at the end of the first film, contemplates breaking tradition by seeking to be re-elected for a second term once his two-year term expires. He faces challenge from his protégés Jimmy, Kun and Jet.

Jimmy has been trying to distance himself from the triad's criminal activities and focus on legitimate businesses in Hong Kong and Mainland China. During a trip to Guangzhou, Jimmy gets arrested by the Mainland Chinese police and meets Assistant Police Chief Shi, who makes a deal with him: If Jimmy wants to continue doing business in Mainland China, he must become Wo Lin Shing's next chairman and help the police maintain peace and order among the triads. Jimmy reluctantly accepts the offer and becomes one of the candidates in the upcoming election.

Lok negotiates with Kun and convinces Kun to team up with him for the election, claiming that the triad elders will support them. Kun then kidnaps Jimmy's business partner Mr Kwok and hides him in a coffin together with Big-Head. Lok also sends Jet to assassinate Jimmy but Jet fails. Jimmy lets Jet go but warns him that Lok will get rid of him too eventually. Meanwhile, Lok takes the Dragonhead Baton, the symbol of the chairman's authority, and hides it in Guangzhou. He also murders triad elder Uncle Teng when the latter criticises him for breaking tradition and becoming too greedy for power.

In the face of an escalating conflict, Jimmy and his supporters kidnap Lok's lieutenants and intimidate or bribe them into siding with him. Jimmy also exposes Kun for kidnapping Mr Kwok and Big-Head, causing Kun to go on the run from the police. He then orders Lok's lieutenants to murder Lok when Lok is exhausted after chasing his estranged teenage son. With his opponents eliminated, Jimmy wins the election and becomes Wo Lin Shing's chairman.

When Jimmy visits Guangzhou again, Assistant Police Chief Shi congratulates him on his victory and passes him the Dragonhead Baton, which the police have seized. He also tells Jimmy that he hopes that Jimmy will serve as Wo Lin Shing's chairman indefinitely so that the triad becomes a "family enterprise". Jimmy, who had initially hoped to go "clean" once his two-year term expires so that his family will not be affected by his association with the triad, is furious and horrified to hear that. When he learns that his wife is now pregnant, he contemplates how his family is going to be stuck in a life they do not want to be in.

The player is left a voice message by their Uncle Mortimer (Brian Greene), an eccentric inventor and theme park owner with a voice and personality similar to Doc Emmett Brown, who has reviewed the player's roller coaster designs. Enamored with the designs, he tasks the player with managing his theme park, Thrillville. After successfully managing Thrillville, a competitor, billionaire Vernon Garrison, enters the market with his brand Globo-Joy. The player is assigned to manage Thrillville Timewarp, a park with many rides and attractions that are broken down. Additionally, it is discovered that Globo-Joy is sabotaging the park. After restoring Timewarp and undoing Globo-Joy's sabotage, the player is sent to manage Thrillville Paradise, where Globo-Joy is using bugs to commit corporate espionage and steal Mortimer's ideas. After discovering the bugs, Mortimer designs a fake flea-themed park, which Mortimer allows Garrison to think is a real idea. Meanwhile, the player must manage Thrillville Adventures to compete with the increasing popularity of Globo-Joy parks. Finally, Garrison is tricked into stealing Mortimer's idea and creating Lice Land, whose catastrophic failure leads Garrison to file for bankruptcy. The player is then given access to Treasures of Thrillville, the fifth and final park.

Set in a world of anthropomorphic dinosaurs, brothers Bernie (blue), Bruno (pink), Bubba (green), Buck (yellow) and Bugsy (purple) were born with special powers to help fight crime. Each brother's special power was related to a specific part of their anatomy; Bernie's legs, Bruno's arms, Bubba's tail, Buck's mouth and teeth, and Bugsy's telekinetic eyes. In the day, they make up a singing group that perform at the Dragon Company in Rep City. The group rode out on their Rexmobile to battle "Big Boss" Graves, crime kingpin of Rep City, and his evil organization The Corporation which also consists of Little Boss, Adder, Madder, Shooter, Cuddles, Axe, and the Doctor. Kid sister Ginger was part of the singing group, but didn't know about her brothers' secret identities.

One of the show's other noteworthy elements was giving the T-Rexes imitation celebrity voices: Jack Benny, Art Carney, Bing Crosby, Humphrey Bogart and Jimmy Durante.

''Charley and Mimmo'' ( ) consists of a typical family (father, mother, son, and baby sister) in a suburban town. The son, Charley (and his subanthromorphic teddy bear Mimmo), are the main characters. Charley and his family and friends are penguin/seal-like creatures (with round orange clown-like noses instead of beaks, and they live in a warm area rather than Antarctica. They have penguin-like feet and coloring, but have mitten-like "hands" rather than wings or flippers). Charley and most of the characters are a standard black and white, typical of real penguins, although some of the other characters are brown.

A 2004 movie entitled "T'choupi" was released by Gebeka Films, but only in France and South Korea. The plot follows Charley and his friends working together to find out who has stolen all the toys. "T'choupi" is Charley's name in French and "Doudou" is Mimmo's name in French.

''Incubus Dreams'' apparently takes place a few weeks after the events of ''Cerulean Sins''. As usual, Anita must juggle several problems simultaneously. * First, in her job as an animator, Anita must respond to the request of Barbara and Steve Brown that Anita raise their dead son, Stevie Brown, a high school student murdered three years earlier, probably by an acquaintance. Anita explains that it is not possible to raise a murder victim and question them, because that kind of zombie has only one purpose (to kill the murderer), but agrees to assist the police in investigating the murder. * Second, Anita continues to wrestle with the metaphysical problems raised by her recent increase in power. She, Jean-Claude, Richard, and Damian are all experiencing unexpected increases in their magical power, with unpredictable results. * Third, Anita continues to assist Jean-Claude with vampire politics, as Jean-Claude confronts a challenge from The Dragon and her offspring, Primo and as Anita and Jean-Claude realize that the vampires in town that follow Malcolm rather than Jean-Claude have not been bound by blood oath, leaving them as essentially unrestrained predators. * Fourth, Anita's personal life becomes increasingly complex, both as a result of Anita's increasing ardeur and as a result of the personal problems of the various people involved. In particular, Nathaniel has decided that his relationship with Anita should advance to a sexual relationship, Damian continues to struggle with his role as Anita's vampire servant, and Anita's love/hate relationship with Richard remains as powerful as ever. Anita also must deal with jealousy from Jessica Arnett, an RPIT detective with a crush on Nathaniel, and with increasing distrust by various police officers as a result of her close relationship with the city's vampires and shapeshifters and as a result of her increasingly sexually-based abilities. * Fifth, Anita attempts to assist the police in solving a series of vampire serial killings, apparently focusing on area strip club workers or patrons.

Unlike previous novels, although Anita resolves some of these issues by the end of the book, many remain unresolved. * With regard to the Stevie Brown murder, although Anita agrees to investigate, she is unable to make progress on the investigation during this novel, and notes in the epilogue that she intends to review Brown's personal effects with Evans soon. (Evans is a very powerful psychometrist). * With regard to Anita's metaphysical problems, she makes considerable progress. Anita learns that she can partially control the ''ardeur'' by drawing power from others' lust and by ensuring that her other desires, such as physical hunger, do not go unfulfilled. Richard realizes that a great deal of his unstable behavior in recent novels is a result of his acquiring Anita's rage through their spiritual link, and Jean-Claude begins to stabilize his own power after Anita gives him permission to feed on the lust of his club patrons. * Anita also makes progress on resolving the vampire politics issues that arise in this novel. Using her own powers and her link to Jean-Claude, she binds Primo to Jean-Claude's service, and, with her challenge defeated, The Dragon expresses interest in negotiating with Jean-Claude. Anita also accepts Wicked and Truth, two other warrior vampires, into Jean-Claude's service, greatly increasing Jean-Claude's ability to resist physical challenges. However, the issue of Malcolm's vampires remains unresolved, as both Anita and Jean-Claude believe that without a blood oath, some of the vampires of the Church of Eternal Life will eventually revert to predators. * Anita's personal life also resolves in a number of ways. She accepts Nathaniel as the fourth of her concurrent lovers, and she and Richard also agree to renew their relationship. (Although Nathaniel and Micah appear to accept or want Anita as their only lover, Anita reluctantly agrees to accept Richard's decision to date other people, and allows Jean-Claude to begin feeding his lust from others, at least spiritually). The major unresolved issues in Anita's personal life appear to be her relationship with Damian, who she attempts to offer more independence but who also wants to be one of her lovers, and her role as a law enforcement officer, which is becoming more and more difficult as she continues to identify with the "monsters." * Anita is unable to resolve the serial killer investigation fully. Although she and the police kill several of the lesser vampires responsible for the murders, the more powerful vampires escape to kill in another city, particularly their leader, Vittorio. Anita promises herself that she will track Vittorio and his remaining followers down.

In the epilogue, Anita explains that she has bought gifts for her various lovers (except for Richard), and that she is committed to continuing her life as a vampire executioner, and to resolving the remaining open plotlines discussed above.

The film opens on two separate storylines intercut with each other. In Marseille, a man and his girlfriend board a yacht. He retrieves a bundle of opium attached to a sea buoy and delivers it to a man in a chateau who processes the opium into heroin. The chateau man transfers the processed heroin to the ringleader who takes it to the docks and hides the drugs inside bicycle frames designated for transport to the U.S. In Washington, D.C., Jeannie Allen gets picked up for school by her boyfriend. After school, Jeannie’s boyfriend buys some heroin and injects Jeannie with it. She has a fatal overdose.

Nick Allen is horrified to visit his daughter's grave. He tracks down the drug dealer who sold the heroin and nearly beats him until the dealer convinces Nick that the real villains are the ones supplying him. The Director of Nick's unnamed federal agency offers his condolences over Jeannie’s death and suggests an easy assignment to get Nick’s mind off the tragedy. Nick suggests instead going after the head of the heroin ring. Nick’s supervisor wants nothing to do with the conversation and washes his hands of Nick.

Nick assembles a team of outcasts by pressuring each in different ways. Agent Dutch Schiller is near retirement and frustrated that his violent tactics get drug pushers released back onto the streets. Nick convinces him to go to France and reconnoiter on the drug cartel. Nick offers an addict prostitute, Sherry Nielson, a daily supply of dope. He also enlists Barry Strong, a former military sniper by pressuring him on his unpaid taxes. Mike Willmer is a former Navy sailor whose wife was raped and killed by a junkie. Elderly Ida & Herman have mysterious backgrounds in clandestine operations and they had a son who died from drug addiction.

The Director of Nick’s agency sends two goons, Carlin & Crosby, to assassinate Nick, but he escapes and hurries his team to a hideout in the fictitious coastal town of Hamilton Point, British Columbia. Dutch presents all the intelligence he’s gathered on the heroin operation and identifies nine targets, claiming that the cartel will collapse if they are killed. The team trains for a week before heading to Marseille where they carry out their operation.

Herman kills his target with a shotgun in a movie theater as the man watches ''The Godfather''. Ida stabs hers in the bathroom at a restaurant. Mike shoots the yachtsman with a speargun as he tries to retrieve another package of opium. Barry and Dutch drive straight onto the grounds of the chateau and shoot the opium processor. Sherry poses as a waitress and poisons another leader of the ring. Barry and Sherry go to a fashion house and assassinate two other ringleaders there. Meanwhile, Nick poses as a gas serviceman digging a new trench for a pipe at the mansion. He kills his target with a bazooka.

The Director confronts Nick after the operation is complete and offers a solution to coverup what happened, claiming the French are furious at the U.S. Nick sees through the ruse and says that the Director is furious because Nick showed how easy it was to destroy the cartel with a ragtag team. The Director threatens to have Nick killed. Nick smiles and leaves.

The film opens on a mansion balcony overlooking the sea. A young man, Robert Troy (Zalman King), approaches a woman, Scarlett (Carol White), who is wearing a funeral veil. They discuss the young man that they are mourning. Troy asks Scarlett if she loved him, and she answers that she did.

Troy visits a carnival where he pays $1 to enter a "Sleeping Beauty" attraction. Inside the tent, a carny is dressed up as a doctor (Logan Ramsey), alongside two women dressed as nurses. The doctor makes a show of examining the Sleeping Beauty (Tisa Farrow) to demonstrate that she is healthy. He then announces that "red-blooded men" can pay another $1 to kiss the Sleeping Beauty and try to wake her.

After the show, Troy presses the carny for details about the woman, finding out that she has been asleep for eight years. The doctor offers to leave Troy alone with her for $50. Instead, Troy asks how much it would cost to buy her. The carny suggests $20,000, and Troy agrees. The carny gives Troy a bottle and explains that its contents will keep the woman asleep. Troy takes the woman back to the mansion.

Troy announces to Scarlett, who is in bed with a bald female lover, that he has purchased a Sleeping Beauty. Troy then goes to his regular gig at a nightclub, where he plays baritone sax and leads a 6-piece band. After his set, he checks in with a junkie named Jeff (Richard Pryor) to make sure he is taking the pills that Troy bought for him.

Scarlett and Troy live a cloistered life of privilege in their mansion. They play elaborate games with each other and a string of women. Currently, Scarlett is pretending to run a finishing school. Her newest student is a young woman named Angelica (Veronica Anderson), who dresses as a French maid and waits on Scarlett and Troy. Scarlett gently corrects mistakes in Angelica's service.

Meanwhile, the Sleeping Beauty awakes, and Troy discovers that her name is Jennifer. He gradually shows her around the house, as she acclimates to being awake for the first time in years. Together, they watch Scarlett and Angelica do a dance routine while dressed as nuns. When the jukebox switches to a tango, Troy hastily shuts it off and closes a curtain to hide the women from Jennifer. He puts her to bed. Jennifer thanks him for waking her, quoting Alfred Tennyson's "Sleeping Beauty": "I ’d sleep another hundred years, O love, for such another kiss." Troy jokes that he did not kiss Jennifer to wake her, and she responds that she did not sleep for 100 years.

Troy heads back downstairs, turns the jukebox back on, and lifts the curtain. Scarlett and Angelica have remained frozen in the same position from when Troy closed the curtain. The resume their dance.

The next day, Troy and Jennifer dress up and go out on a date to the jazz club, which is empty save for Jeff. Troy plays a song and dedicates it to the two people he loves the most: Jeff and Jennifer. When he comes home, he announces to Scarlett that he is going to take Jennifer away. He explains that he is having genuine feelings when he interacts with Jennifer. After so many years of the pretenses that he and Scarlett employ to amuse themselves, he is shocked to find that he does not want to create a false reality with Jennifer.

Scarlett convinces Troy to let Jennifer stay for a while, in order to ascertain if his feelings are genuine. Back at the club after closing, Troy gets a waitress to dance topless as a cheerleader for him. He gives her a very elaborate premise about whom she is rooting for, and encourages her to make it more genuine. She takes off her skirt and tries one more time, but Troy has gone home, where he makes love to Jennifer for the first time.

Realizing that his feelings are indeed real, he takes Jennifer away from the mansion in the Sleeping Beauty van included with his purchase of her. After a little while away, they return to the mansion where Scarlett and Angelica don their nun costumes. Scarlett reveals that Angelica shaved her head in order to join their order. Troy puts on a priest costume, and Scarlett pretends to initiate Jennifer as a novice. Troy is heartbroken by the ruse. He pours some of the sleeping potion into the wine that Jennifer must drink during the ceremony.

Realizing that Troy does not want to keep up the pretense, Jennifer asks him why he does not want to continue the game. She explains that she wants to keep playing the game forever, as if she were a child. As she grows tired from the potion, Troy tearfully picks her up and carries her away. The film ends with Jennifer back in the Sleeping Beauty tent. Troy is now playing the role of the doctor, and Scarlett plays his nurse.

In this sequel to ''The Cat Ate My Gymsuit'', Marcy Lewis finds herself as a counselor in training at the summer camp near Woodstock, New York run by her former English teacher, Ms. Finney, whom Marcy has missed after Ms. Finney had been fired from her job. Marcy not only has to deal with the sudden attentions of Ted, her new boyfriend, but when she has to go to Woodstock he starts hanging out with Betty, who has a crush on Ted. Marcy has lost a lot of weight, and is now being noticed by boys. At the camp, she is put in charge of a group of young girls, whom she is expected to shepherd through the beginnings of adolescence. When she finds a bat in her bunk (bunk five), she is sure that this summer will be a summer to remember for eternity.

She also loves to read and write, and she tried to be Ginger's friend, who only likes Barbara Finney. After various trials and tribulations at the camp, she gets fed up with people letting her down and being mean to her. Then all the girls in Marcy's bunk trick her into thinking there is another bat. She gains confidence that she is not petrified anymore, and then realizes that it was a toy bat, and on the bat is a note that entitles the name "August Fool". Once she starts to win over the boys in her cabin, she finds it easier to deal with the various problems that develop at camp.

Number Six awakens to find the Village completely deserted, along with water and electricity shut off as well. He sees this as an opportunity to escape. He takes numerous photos before assembling a raft and taking flight by sea for 25 days. He takes careful notes as to headings and times as best he can, but has an unfriendly encounter with gun-runners who steal his belongings and throw him in the sea. Clambering on board their boat, he takes control of it, but is later overwhelmed and ends up on a deserted beach. Wandering, he encounters a small band of Romani who speak no English.

He eludes what appears to be a police manhunt and stows away on a truck which takes him to what he now recognises as London. A Mrs. Butterworth now occupies his old townhouse and drives his Lotus Seven. She is unperturbed when he approaches her, seems intrigued by his plight, and feeds and clothes him. He mentions that the next day is his birthday. Receiving Number Six's promises that he will return, Mrs. Butterworth says she might even bake him a birthday cake. He returns to the underground car park/office from the theme sequence, where he presents himself to his old boss. His photographs and other evidence of The Village meet with considerable scepticism. Former colleagues "The Colonel" and "Thorpe" are not entirely convinced that Number Six has not defected and now returned as a double agent, but after verifying all the details of his escape and evasion story, they seem to be more reassured.

With the assistance of some military officers and a map, they determine the general vicinity of the Village ("coast of Morocco, southwest of Portugal and Spain"; "might be an island"). He leads a jet fighter pilot in a sweep of the area and spots the Village from the air, but it turns out the pilot was switched at the base with an agent of The Village, who causes Number Six to be unceremoniously ejected. Number Six parachutes in, and is greeted in his cottage by the new Number Two: Mrs. Butterworth. She offers him "Many happy returns!" and a birthday cake, while Village residents once again parade outside on the piazza.

The novel begins with a Prologue, which describes the setting, the physical landscape around the two towns, Truth on the American side and the reserve Bright Water on the Canadian. The two towns are separated by the Shield river, which also marks the national border, and ineffectually connected by an uncompleted bridge and a "ferry," an old iron bucket suspended over the river on a steel cable.

We first meet the three central characters, Tecumseh, his dog Soldier and his cousin Lum, on the riverside. Lum is training for the long-distance run to take place at the Indian Days festival, which he hopes to win. The two boys see a truck approach the coulee; a woman emerges from the vehicle, throws a suitcase into the river and jumps after it herself. However, when the boys and the dog run down to the river to see what happened to her, she has disappeared and Soldier just finds the small skull of a child long dead.

The story branches out from this point to touch the stories of other characters connected to Tecumseh, his mother, who yearns to leave Truth to move to a big city and become an actress. His aunt Cassie, his mother's older sister and sometime role-model, who left the reserve to travel the world, but who has a mysterious guilt in her past that seems to bring her back to her home.

One of the most central of these storylines involves Monroe Swimmer, who refers to himself as "famous Indian artist," and who, like Cassie, has returned to the reserve. Monroe, a specialist in restoring paintings, buys the abandoned Methodist missionary church building and proceeds to paint it "out of" the landscape. The narrator leaves no doubt that the church actually becomes invisible even to Monroe himself when he is finished. Tecumseh becomes his assistant in a number of artistic endeavors (such as setting up metal buffalo statues to lure back the real buffalos chased away—or actually exterminated—by the white settlers in the nineteenth century), and Monroe is the only one of the adults who actually takes him seriously. Monroe tells Tecumseh important things about himself, even if he does it so that Tecumseh can then compose songs about his, Monroe's, heroic deeds. Eventually, Tecumseh finds out from Monroe that he not only restored nineteenth-century landscape paintings when he worked for museums around the world, he had also painted Indians "back into" the paintings and taken Native remains collected in these museums to take back. Monroe claims he is "going to save the world" (131). Another "heroic deed" of Monroe is his grand giveaway festival, to which he invites the whole town and at which he gives away all his possessions (these gifts also have symbolic meaning, e.g. Cassie receives an Inuit sculpture of a woman with a child on her back, Tecumseh gets the piano). Finally, it turns out that Monroe, wearing his characteristic wig, was the mysterious "woman" on the river and the skull the boys found one of the re-appropriated pieces of Native American history stolen from various Indian nations.

Another story-line takes up Elvin, Tecumseh's father, a carpenter and smuggler, who tries to get things done and to be a good father, but who continually falls short. Tecumseh's parents are separated, but the father makes a number of ineffectual attempts to lure Tecumseh's mother back into a relationship. A chair that one of the members of the Indian band ordered, but which Elvin never gets done, is a running joke and emblematic of Elvin's inability to finish what he sets out to do. It comes as a complete surprise to everyone, including the narrator, when he drives to the Indian Days festival in the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia, the car he had been promising to fix for Tecumseh's mother throughout the novel.

Lum is perhaps the most tragic character in the novel. His abusive father Franklin (Elvin's brother) told him his mother was dead, but Lum does not believe him and hopes she will come back. There is a moving scene in which he talks to the child's skull they found in the river imagining "he" is crying for his lost mother: "'Stupid baby' [...] 'She's not coming back!' [...] 'She's never coming back!" (177). Franklin injures Lum so severely one day that he is unable to participate in the race that he had been training so hard for. He is aggressive and unpredictable in his interactions with his younger cousin and gruff with Soldier, but the dog is undeterred and absolutely loyal to him. When Lum finally runs off the unfinished bridge into a certain death in the river, Soldier follows him blindly, after the two boys have performed Monroe's funeral rites for "their" skull and throw it in the river.

Many of the storylines remain open. There is no conclusive answer, for example, to Tecumseh's question "Who's Mia?" (55) even though Mia seems to be the key to Cassie's guilt and the reason why she came back. There is a track of clues that runs through the novel and ends at the point when Cassie burns the baby clothes from a suitcase Tecumseh's mother has given her. One of these clues is Cassie's tattoo which spells AIM (American Indian Movement), but in the mirror reads "Mia." Another clue is the strange fact that Cassie sends presents to Tecumseh, at a time that has nothing to do with his birthday, and which to him are "girls" toys, e.g. a doll and a pink box with a mirror (117). Another unsolved riddle is the identity of the woman Tecumseh and Lum observe in intimate interactions with Monroe in the church one day (both Cassie and Tecumseh's Mother had had a relationship with him in the past). In addition, Tecumseh once walks in on his mother and Cassie having a conversation whilst going through old baby clothes. Helen indicates that she had an affair fifteen years ago, at the time that Tecumseh would have been conceived (122). Also, Helen asks Cassie if she's going to "give it up?" (122), to which Cassie responds "Why not... Gave it up the first time" (122). Given the context, this conversation indicates that Cassie has returned because she is pregnant. Additionally, she had been pregnant before, and this child was given up. The name Mia is also related to her former pregnancy. Also, the novel ends with Tecumseh's mother carefully trimming a bouquet of purple freesias "until there is nothing left but the stems" (266), but the narrator never learns who gave them to her.

Raj Kumar or Raj (Chiranjeevi) is a rich audio company owner who owns a modern dance school. Dance is his passion and his life until he meets and marries Shanti (Simran). They have a daughter Akshaya (Anushka Malhotra). Raj believes in his friends and does anything for them. However, they take advantage of him and usurp his wealth. Though Raj and his family are happy in their not-so-lavish lifestyle, their happiness is shattered when Akshaya becomes ill with a heart condition. Raj, instead of bringing the money Shanti had stored in the bank to the hospital to save Akshaya, uses it to save his former dance student Gopi (Allu Arjun), who was hit by a car. Shanti, who is pregnant, leaves him because she feels that he killed their daughter.

Six years later, Raj, who is once again wealthy, sees his second child, Aishwarya, who looks exactly like his Akshaya, in whose honor he builds a foundation that takes care of poor, unhealthy children and their families. He builds a relationship with Aishwarya without Shanti's knowledge. However, Shanti finds out, and tries to reconcile with him after realizing her mistake, but doesn't because she sees him with the same friend who took advantage of them earlier. Raj agrees to leave, says a final goodbye, and as he is about to leave, sees his child caught in an accidental fire at her school function. He saves her, but he is wounded. Shanti sees how much he loves her and Aishwarya, and they finally reunite.

Late one night on New York's poor East Side, a man is stabbed to death on a street corner, and his body is searched by his attacker. Nearby, Glimpy shows Muggs McGinnis a jeweled necklace he just found outside their tenement. While Glimpy and Muggs are investigating the area, the attacker spots them and gives chase, but is interrupted by the arrival of the police. Muggs and Glimpy then return to their tenement and learn from neighbor Mrs. Darcy, a war refugee from Toscania, that a thief just stole a valuable necklace from her. After she identifies the found necklace as hers and speculates that the man who attacked the boys was Compeau, an accomplice of the Toscanian Gestapo, she asks the boys to keep the heirloom until the next day. Unknown to the boys, Saundra, Mrs. Darcy's niece, is the princess of Toscania and is living in obscurity out of fear of the Gestapo.

At a mansion, Compeau, meanwhile, reports his bungled robbery to Prince Igor Mallet, Saundra's ambitious cousin. Mallet, who has convinced Toscania's recently arrived prime minister that he is a concerned supporter of the princess, has hired Compeau to kill Saundra so that he can inherit the throne, and has offered the thief the necklace, a crown jewel, as payment.

The next morning, Muggs calls the East Side Kids together for a meeting, and after they learn that Compeau's victim was a known thief, they decide to have one diamond from the necklace appraised at Kessel's pawnshop. At the same time, the penniless Saundra goes to Kessel's to pawn an imitation of the necklace, unaware that she is being followed by Compeau. When the boys arrive at the shop a few minutes later, they stumble upon Kessel's stabbed body and are arrested by the police. At the police station, Capt. Jacobs then forces Muggs to hand over the diamond, but none of the boys will reveal its source.

After Compeau and Mallet realize that the necklace from Kessel's is an imitation, Mallet sneaks into Saundra's apartment, but discovers that she and her aunt have moved out. Mallet finds a coded message left behind by Mrs. Darcy for Muggs and deduces that it is the address of their new location. Compeau, meanwhile, responds to a newspaper item about the diamond and, while convincing Capt. Jacobs that the gem is his, learns that Muggs and the gang retrieved it. After the boys are released, Compeau follows them to their clubhouse and demands the necklace at gunpoint. Glimpy takes Compeau by surprise, however, and grabs his gun and the necklace. Compeau escapes the clubhouse, but Skinny and Sam follow him to the mansion, then report his whereabouts to Muggs.

At the same time, Marty, Glimpy's Merchant Marine cousin who is in love with Saundra, unwittingly reveals to the police that he went to Kessel's just before he was found dead to buy an engagement ring, and is arrested on suspicion of murder. Mrs. Darcy then phones Muggs at the tenement and informs him of their new address, but before the gang arrives there, Mallet shows up. Saundra is alone and, not suspecting her cousin, happily invites him inside. Mallet starts to strangle Saundra, but is interrupted by the arrival of the boys.

After Mallet escapes unharmed, Saundra informs the gang that the necklace they took from Compeau is a fake. The boys pledge to retrieve the real necklace and head for the mansion, while at the police station, Saundra and Mrs. Darcy reveal their identities to Capt. Jacobs and get Marty out of jail. After Capt. Jacobs informs Saundra and Mrs. Darcy that the prime minister is in the country, the boys, who are staking out the mansion, see the women being taken inside and assume they have been kidnapped.

Muggs sends Glimpy to notify the police, then he and the others break into the house and take Compeau by surprise. Before they can claim the necklace from him, Mallet shows up, and a fight ensues. The boys soon overpower Mallet and Compeau and expose them as criminals both to the police and the prime minister. Later, Marty proposes to Saundra, and the happy couple contemplate the day when they can return to Toscania as prince and princess.

Young Kate Barker is brutalized by her father and older brothers, who rape her. Thirty-five years later, the middle-aged Kate 'Ma' Barker, now brutalizes innocent people herself, while indulging her monstrous sexual appetites. She lives by robbing banks with her four sons; the pragmatic Arthur, the sadistic Herman, the bisexual Fred, and the loyal, drug-addicted Lloyd. It all begins in the late 1920s when Ma leaves her husband, George, and her Arkansas home and embarks on her own with her four sons on a robbery-murder spree to make her own fortune, while keeping them under a tight leash.

When Herman and Fred are arrested and imprisoned for petty theft charges, Ma takes over the group and leads Arthur and Lloyd on a bank robbery spree to gain enough money to get her sons out of jail. The gang is joined by a gunman, Kevin Dirkman, who was Fred's cellmate during his incarceration (and his strongly implied lover). The group is also joined by a local prostitute, Mona Gibson, whom Herman frequented before his imprisonment. The gang resorts to more violent action and robberies.

While hiding out at a cabin in Kentucky, Lloyd is approached playfully by a young woman named Rembrandt, who swims up to him as he dangles his feet in the lake. The encounter begins flirtatiously, but quickly turns into rape and abduction, after Lloyd shows her the needle marks on his arm. Lloyd tells her he's a Barker, in spite of Ma's warning to use an alias. Not wanting the woman to report their location to the police, the Barkers hold her captive and Ma kills her by drowning her in the bathtub, despite the protests of her sons.

Some time later, the gang arrives in Tennessee where they abduct a wealthy businessman, Sam Pendlebury. Holding him for a $300,000 ransom, the sons, particularly Herman, bond with their captive whom they see as the decent father figure they never had. When Herman and Mona go to collect the ransom, they are chased by a pair of FBI agents and barely escape. The ransom is eventually paid in full, and the plan is to leave Sam untied at the hideout, giving them plenty of time to escape before he can talk to the police. But Herman wants to see Sam's eyes--which when uncovered, remind him of their father. Sam says he can't see any of them (almost certainly true, given his head trauma, and the fact he's always been straight with them, even when it put his life in danger).

Ma still insists Sam be killed, so as to avoid any possibility of his identifying them. He's led into the woods to be shot, but the boys, now seeing Herman as their leader, set him free, lying to Ma about killing him. (There is no indication this leads to the gang's ultimate downfall). Later, to explain why they need to leave the territory immediately, Herman tells Ma of the deception, and knocks her to the ground, saying she's no longer the boss. The trust between them is gone.

The gang hides out in Florida Everglades where Lloyd soon dies from a morphine overdose and Mona leaves Herman and the gang after she reveals that she's pregnant and does not want to be around them anymore out of fear for the safety of her unborn child, which Herman fathered. Her fears are justified when Herman and Kevin give away their hiding place a little later. A local handyman and caretaker, Moses, witnesses them shooting an alligator out on a lake with a Tommy gun and calls the police to report his suspicions. When asked, he says their cars have Tennessee plates, and the authorities quickly deduce these are the Barkers.

At the climax, a large contingent of FBI agents and local police arrive at the Barkers' hideout and a huge shootout ensues between the authorities and the surviving members of the gang. Kevin, Fred, and Arthur are all killed (along with many officers). Herman commits suicide to prevent himself from being sent to prison again. Ma is the last one to fall, firing her Thompson machine gun at the police, screaming in rage and anguish, unable to accept that her boys are dead because of her.

In 1974, Los Angeles teenager Todd Bowden arrives at the doorstep of elderly German immigrant Arthur Denker, accusing him of being a wanted Nazi war criminal named Kurt Dussander. The old man initially denies the allegation, but eventually acknowledges his true identity. Rather than turning Dussander over to the proper authorities, Todd asks to hear highly detailed stories about his crimes, having recently become interested in the Holocaust. However, Todd still threatens Dussander with exposure should he refuse his demands. Over the next several months, Todd visits Dussander daily under the pretext of reading to him, all the while badgering him into revealing more details of his atrocities. Todd soon gives Dussander a replica ''SS Oberleutnants'' uniform, forcing him to wear it and march on command.

As his relationship with Dussander continues, Todd also begins to have nightmares and sees his grades slip. After being confronted by his father about his grades, he forges his report cards before giving them to his parents. Eventually, Todd finds himself in danger of failing several courses. Ed French, Todd's guidance counselor, requests an appointment with the Bowdens. Todd and Dussander concoct a ruse, having Dussander go to French's appointment while posing as Todd's grandfather, Victor. Dussander falsely claims that Todd's grades are the result of problems at home, and promises to make sure his grades improve; French believes Dussander's story, but notices that Todd's "grandfather" does not mention him by name.

Knowing that Todd has been doctoring his report cards and knowingly socialized with a war criminal, Dussander blackmails him into spending his visits studying. With great effort, Todd is able to sufficiently improve his schoolwork. Since he no longer has any use for Dussander, Todd resolves to kill him and make it look like an accident. Todd had earlier claimed to have given a letter about Dussander to a friend; if anything should happen to Todd, the letter will be sent to the authorities. However, before Todd can kill Dussander, the old man realizes Todd's intentions and claims to have written about Todd's involvement with him, and put his statement into a safe deposit box that will be found upon his death. However, it is revealed that Dussander, like Todd, is also bluffing.

Over the next few months, Todd murders several homeless vagrants; he finds that committing murder somehow helps with his nightmares. As years pass, his visits to Dussander become less frequent. He loses his virginity, but finds sex unsatisfying compared to the thrill of committing murder. He rationalizes that his failure at sex is because his girlfriend is Jewish. When circumstances do not allow him to continue his serial killings, he picks a concealed spot overlooking the freeway and aims at people in passing cars with his hunting rifle. Dussander, suffering from his own nightmares, has also taken to killing the homeless for essentially the same reason as Todd, burying the bodies in his basement. Despite the link between them, Dussander and Todd are not immediately aware of each other's exploits.

One night when Dussander is digging a grave for his latest victim, he has a heart attack. He summons Todd, who buries the body and cleans up the crime scene before finally calling an ambulance. At the hospital, Dussander happens to share a room with Morris Heisel, an elderly Jewish man and Holocaust survivor who recognizes "Mr. Denker" but cannot place him. When Todd visits Dussander in the hospital, Dussander admits he was bluffing about his bank deposit box, as was Todd's threat about his letter. Dussander has read about the homeless men murdered by Todd and tells the boy not to get careless. Dussander declares that "we are quits."

A few days later, Heisel realizes that Denker is Dussander, the commandant of the camp (the fictional "Patin") where his wife and daughters were murdered in the gas chambers. An Israeli Nazi hunter named Weiskopf visits Dussander, telling him that he has been found out. After Weiskopf leaves, Dussander steals some drugs from the hospital dispensary and commits suicide. When Dussander's identity is revealed to the world, Todd convinces his parents that he didn't know about Dussander's past. Meanwhile, a police detective named Richler, accompanied by Weiskopf, interviews Todd and is not so easily convinced. A vagrant recognizes Todd as the last person seen with several of the homeless victims and notifies the police.

Meanwhile, French meets Todd's real grandfather. French brings up their previous conversation, but the real Victor Bowden obviously doesn't recall their meeting and bears no physical resemblance to Dussander. French becomes suspicious and checks Todd's old report cards, finding that they have been tampered with. Later, he identifies Dussander as the man who met with him about Todd's grades. French confronts Todd, who responds by fatally shooting him. Todd's sanity finally breaks. He takes his rifle and ammunition to his hideout by the freeway and embarks on a shooting spree, resulting in his death at the hands of the authorities five hours later.

Townrow is a fund distributor stealing from the fund he is in charge of. He is contacted by the widow of an old friend, Elie Khoury. They had met ten years previously, in 1946, in Port Said after he had been thrown from a horse in front of the Khourys' beach hut. Mrs Khoury wants Townrow to go to see her in Cairo because she believes her husband was murdered.

After thinking it through, Townrow accepts Mrs Khoury's offer of a plane ticket to Cairo. He stops over in Rome where he converses with an Israeli journalist who accuses the British government of failing to prevent the Holocaust. The discussion ends on a friendly note.

In Cairo, Townrow makes a joke about marrying Mrs Khoury for her money to an immigration officer, which leads to him being interrogated. He is kept in a cell and is released once his train has departed. Townrow doesn't go straightaway to see Mrs Khoury when he arrives in Port Said, instead opting to stay in a hotel. Here he considers having no one who really cares about him in his life.

Townrow visits a bar he used to frequent while serving here as a sergeant. The owner of the bar, Christous, recognises him and kicks out his clientele for some privacy. Townrow asks about Elie's death. Christous tells him that Mrs Khoury, with great difficulty, took her husband's body back to Lebanon to be buried. Because of her actions, Colonel Nasser took the Suez Canal as Egypt's. Townrow is not sure whether to believe any of this and gets so drunk he blacks out. He awakens naked and alone, and is attacked by a passing camel-driver, causing his head and one eye to be bandaged for most of the remainder of the novel.

After the discussion with Christous and Townrow's subsequent blackout, the novel becomes much more dream-like and at times surreal, with Townrow a very unreliable narrator who cannot remember his nationality (though he asserts that he is Irish as part of a scam he tries to run on Mrs Khoury) nor whether his mother is alive. He imagines that Elie is still alive, or that he is watching the burial at sea. He meets an Egyptian Jew, Leah, who is married and repels his attentions though apparently she later becomes his lover and develops an obsession for him. Townrow walks through scenes of mob unrest, is arrested as a spy, and watches bloody gunfights between Egyptian and British troops with bemused detachment. He imagines digging up Elie's grave to make certain he is really dead, then apparently actually does so.

At the end of the novel, though it is uncertain how much of what was related actually took place or how much was a fever or drunken dream, Townrow comes to believe that a citizen is not responsible for the morality of his government and has only himself and his own actions to answer for.

In Mutant Town, New York City's growing mutant ghetto, a monster is on the loose. At least, that's the public sentiment. When Xorn investigates the incidents sparking rumors of a "mutant, dog eating killer," he finds twelve-year-old Sonny Bean, in the midst of his adolescent mutation. Grown to a behemoth, dragon-like form, Sonny is looked after by his mother, who has decided to poison herself and Sonny rather than have him be persecuted by humanity. Though Xorn tries to save them both, his attempts are stopped by a confused Sonny's rampage, ending with Sonny's death by police shooting. Xorn reflects on this experience as something far removed from his meditations in a Chinese prison.

Due to the rising violence and aggression against mutants worldwide, Charles Xavier founds the X-Corporation, a global organization meant to provide support to "civilian" mutant populations. The Paris branch, largely consisting of Banshee's X-Corps members, is dispatched to the Channel Tunnel after a train wreck possibly involving a "gene-hazard." Jean Grey and Professor Xavier meet to discuss Jean's recent manifestations of the Phoenix, but their conversation is interrupted by a group of paramilitary officers searching for Fantomex, the self-proclaimed "most ''notorious'' mutant criminal in Europe," who is hiding in the X-Corp offices and asking for the asylum promised by Xavier. Fantomex warns Xavier that his emergency response team in the tunnel is probably already dead, killed by something called Weapon XII.

Cyclops sits in a darkened room, discussing his doubts about his current relationship with Jean Grey. It is revealed that his confidante is teammate (and telepath) Emma Frost. Back at the X-Corp offices, Jean and Xavier use their abilities to stall the armed task force, while Fantomex calls on his "partner:" E.V.A., a biological craft resembling a flying saucer, and apparently Fantomex's '''external''' nervous system. Sneaking away to an undisclosed hideout, Fantomex reveals the true incident emerging in the tunnel. Weapon XII is the latest experiment in the Weapon Plus program, a human-sentinel hybrid developed in "the World," a time-accelerated laboratory manufacturing new ways to deal with the "mutant threat." Fantomex corrects the professor's mention of Wolverine as Weapon X: "...it's Weapon '''Ten''', not Weapon X."

Despite feigning the intention to sell all information on Weapon XII to Xavier for one billion dollars, Fantomex eventually reveals his true intention is not to make money on the deal, but kill Weapon XII. After arriving at the entrance to the Channel Tunnel, Jean Grey is able to subdue the weapon, but only temporarily. Fantomex fights his way through the crowds of passengers that had been taken over by the viral mental control of Weapon XII, including X-Corp member Darkstar. Xavier asserts control of Multiple Man's bodies to oppose Weapon XII on equal mental footing. Upon finding the surviving passengers as well as the containers housing the weapon, Jean Grey discovers the truth behind Fantomex: he was never a European super-thief, but Weapon XIII gone rogue. Fantomex activates Weapon XII's off-switch, then convinces Jean Grey to let him flee to England.

As Darkstar is laid to rest, Archangel teaches a class of fliers, including Beak and Angel Salvadore. Beak wishes to journey along with the Xavier students travelling into space to help the Shi'ar relief efforts, but his self-consciousness is limiting his potential to fly (or so his teacher argues). With antagonist prodding from Angel, Beak leaps from the starting cliff...only to fall like a rock. Angel meets him on the ground, and rather than see him wallow in self-pity, grants him a passionate kiss to liven his spirits. Angel hauls Beak up to the spaceship in low-atmosphere orbit. While Beak is ecstatic enough to quit the space mission, Angel quietly collects winnings from her bet to kiss the ugliest member of the flying class. Elsewhere, Scott takes his private telepathy sessions with Emma Frost to a much more personal and physical level...

In the wreckage of Genosha, Unus the Untouchable is found huddled, shivering, gasping of "ghosts... millions of ghosts all buzzing... millions of voices... following her." Unus' descriptions lead the professor to believe Polaris is on the island, but other matters concern him. Several other life signatures have been found in ruins and with the giant remains of the wild sentinel morphing into a face of Magneto, the X-Men confront Toad and his followers as they construct a monument to their fallen leader. Eventually, Xavier and the X-Men find Polaris wandering naked, somehow conjuring electromagnetic "ghosts," revealed to be the last surviving thoughts of those killed on the island, preserved by Magneto to be put in an airplane flight recorder.

In Afghanistan, Wolverine busts up a mutant slave ring, only to bump into Fantomex, stealing rich people's names for blackmail. In response to Wolverine's disgust, Fantomex dangles the secrets of the Weapon Plus program in front of him, even using his birth name, "James." Before they are interrupted by reinforcements, Fantomex tells Wolverine the young Afghan girl unconscious in the tent is responsible for the slavers' deaths, not he. In Mumbai, India, Jean Grey stops an assassination on Professor Xavier after he averts a plane hijacking. Oddly enough, the marksman was none other than his lover and wife, Lilandra, who believed Cassandra Nova still possessed Xavier's body. After the professor leaves to deal with Shi'ar representatives, the rest of the X-Corps team meet Wolverine and Jean Grey at the Mumbai offices, as well as learning the rescued mutant refugee is Sooraya, a sand elemental.

The Shi'ar ship in orbit returns the Institute students preparing to travel into space, spokesman Araki 6 claiming that the troubles the X-Men bring wherever they go have caused the empire too much harm, and ties must be severed. Even Lilandra ends her relationship with Charles Xavier, and Araki mentions the Phoenix being a looming threat once again.

When two young boys are savagely attacked and killed by a legion of rattlesnakes in a small California desert town, the local sheriff (Tony Ballen) calls upon herpetologist Dr. Tom Parkinson (Sam Chew), a Los Angeles college professor, to discover why the snakes are displaying abnormal aggression and swarming behavior. The sheriff teams Parkinson with war photographer Ann Bradley (Elisabeth Chauvet).

As more people in the desert town are killed by the vicious rattlesnakes, Parkinson's and Bradley's investigation leads them to a nearby army base, where the commanding officer, Colonel Stroud (Dan Priest), seems strangely reluctant to help them. Parkinson and Bradley are, however, assisted by the base's chief medical officer, Captain Delaney (Ron Gold).

Shortly afterward, Palmer (Darwin Joston) and Woodley (Gary Van Ormand), two soldiers on night patrol, stop to change a flat tire on their jeep and are killed by a horde of rattlesnakes. Delaney then summons Parkinson and Bradley back to the base, without Stroud's knowledge, so they can investigate the soldiers' strange deaths.

Eventually, Parkinson discovers that the colonel ordered, and then covered up, the illegal disposal of an experimental nerve gas called "CT3" in one of the local desert caves. The exposure of the snakes to the nerve gas had made them unusually aggressive. When Delaney drunkenly confronts Stroud and threatens to expose his crime, Stroud kills him. Stroud then engages the local sheriff's department in a gun battle and is killed.

Jeanne, a young philosophy teacher, cannot go home to her flat in Paris because her cousin Gaëlle is having a rendezvous with her boyfriend Gildas, who is in the military. It is not any better at her own boyfriend's apartment which was left in poor condition (apart from some fresh flowers in a vase) and she decides to leave and go to a housewarming party where she meets Natacha, a younger student who studies music. They become friends quickly, whereupon Natacha invites Jeanne to her home to stay with her. She lets Jeanne use the father's bedroom as he is always at his young girlfriend's home. However, the father, Igor, stops by the next morning to pick up some clothes, and is surprised by Jeanne, who has just returned from a shower in an awkward moment.

When the father leaves, the two new friends discuss a trip to Natacha's family's country house in Fontainebleau. Natacha, who dislikes her father's girlfriend Ève, probes Jeanne about her perceptions of her father thinking there could be a potential relationship to cultivate. She discreetly sets up a scenario that has Igor, Ève and Jeanne all at the country house at the same time. Over dinner, Jeanne discovers that Ève has a similar academic background in philosophy. Feeling left out of the conversation, Natacha becomes angry and insulting when Ève tries to engage her in the discussion. The argument escalates and Ève decides to leave the cottage abruptly. Jeanne offers to leave instead, but it appears Igor and Ève's relationship was becoming strained before the visit and Ève leaves, possibly for good.

The next day, Natacha's boyfriend from Paris, William, suddenly visits and they abruptly and awkwardly leave Igor and Jeanne alone for the day. Not knowing what to do, and knowing Natacha attempted to set them up together, the two read in the garden and stay distant. Being polite, Igor offers afternoon tea inside the home. Both the father and Jeanne agree that they have been set up and briefly discuss the possibilities of a relationship—Igor admitting Ève was a fling and not important. At the end of a quick kiss, Jeanne decides that the entire family relationship was going too far and departs back to Paris to pack up her things. It is becoming clear that Jeanne would just be in the same predicament as Ève over time.

Natacha comes into the apartment looking for Jeanne and is clearly disappointed that things did not work out according to plan. Jeanne returns to her flat and finds fresh flowers as a gift from Gaëlle. She goes to her boyfriend's flat, presumably to resume their relationship and finds the vase of flowers wilted and dead. Jeanne then places the gifted flowers on the table.

Vincent Sforza (Danny Nucci) works for a large, influential research firm, and he has been put in charge of locating several people who were part of an old experiment from the 1970s—an experiment in which a group of college students were given a dose of a chemical called LOT-6. Apparently, the victims of the experiment have won a class action lawsuit and need to be found so that a check can be issued. Included on the list is Charlene "Charlie" McGee (Marguerite Moreau), the offspring of two of the participants in the experiment.

When Charlie was a kid, her mother Vicky (Karrie Combs) was murdered by agents for the now-defunct Shop, the government department that wanted to harness her pyrokinesis as a military weapon, and her father Andy (Aaron Radl) was killed by John Rainbird, a professional killer hired by the Shop. Ever since then, Charlie has been in hiding to protect herself. Under an assumed name, she now works at a university library, where she secretly researches how to suppress her pyrokinetic abilities.

When Vincent finally locates Charlie, he unintentionally triggers a series of events with deadly consequences. It turns out that the class action lawsuit settlement is nonexistent. John Rainbird (Malcolm McDowell), thought to have been burned to death by Charlie, is still alive, scarred from the burns—and he is looking for Charlie, still obsessed with her. Rainbird has been using the nonexistent class action lawsuit to lure the original LOT-6 experiment's victims out of hiding, so they can be killed individually in order to keep things quiet.

James Richardson (Dennis Hopper), one of the victims of the LOT-6 experiment, helps Charlie, with the experiment having enabled him to tell the future. When Vincent discovers that he has been duped into luring Charlie back to Rainbird, he also decides to help Charlie.

Rainbird has been working on perfecting the LOT experiments, and has created six young boys with rather unusual abilities. One has the power of suggestion, another can sense truth and deception, two can move things with their minds, one has a destructive voice from Hell, and the most dangerous one of them all is an energy sink, someone who can suck the life and energy out of anyone or thing.

Rainbird is using these children to rob a bank as a test of warfare in the new decade. With Vincent and James on her side, Charlie must decide whether to keep running, or fight Rainbird to the end. Charlie chooses to fight to the end, and after Rainbird kills Vincent, Charlie kills Rainbird—right in front of his boys—by taking him into a fiery embrace, and literally turning him into a pile of ashes.

Charlie then engages the energy sink and uses her powers to destroy it, and the other boys realize that Charlie was being honest when she said that they become a little less human every time they use their abilities. Charlie, finally no longer needing to hide, later boards a bus to Canada.