The story continues from where ''Sharpe's Challenge'' left off. On their way home to England, Richard Sharpe (Sean Bean) and Patrick Harper (Daragh O'Malley) reluctantly agree to escort Marie-Angelique Bonnet (Beatrice Rosen) to the hill fort of Kalimgong, where her fiancé, Major Joubert (Pascal Langdale), is stationed. They encounter a baggage train heading to Madras, made up of soldiers from the King's and the East India Company's armies, commanded by the young Ensign Beauclere (Luke Ward-Wilkinson), engineer Major Tredinnick (David Robb), and Subedar Pillai (Rajesh Khattar). Included in the train is a redcoat prisoner named Barabbas (Amit Behl), an Indian princess (Nandana Sen) and her retinue, and Tredinnick's pregnant wife (Caroline Carver). When the train is attacked by forces of the bandit Chitu, the Subedar is wounded. They are saved by the timely arrival of Colonel Dragomirov (Velibor Topic) and his cavalry squadron. With no one more qualified, Sharpe is forced to take command.

Trouble comes from within the train as well. Sharpe discovers that Barabbas is in fact the son of Obadiah Hakeswill, the man who murdered Sharpe's first wife. Flying into a rage, Sharpe almost kills Barabbas on the spot, stopped only by Harper's intervention. They also face opposition from Colour-Sergeant Wormwood (Steve Speirs), a British soldier who dislikes Sharpe's methods and fosters feelings of resentment among his men, which grows when Sharpe punishes two of Wormwood's men for drunkenness and attempted rape.

Arriving at Kalimgong, Sharpe and Harper find the entire garrison killed, with the exception of the fort's commander, General Sir Henry Simmerson (Michael Cochrane), Sharpe's old enemy. Strung up naked in the courtyard, Simmerson's mind is addled with the heat and he seems to only speak nonsense, such as "save the harvest." Major Joubert is not among the dead, to Marie-Angelique's relief, but neither are the Company ledgers that reveal what has been stolen from the fort. The Subedar dies.

Continuing on, the train finds a farming village destroyed by bandits, the entire harvest stolen, and everyone dead but a young girl who witnessed the attack. Between what the girl saw and Simmerson's addled ramblings, Sharpe realises that not only were these people growing opium for the Company, but Colonel Count Dragomirov and Major Joubert were responsible for the slaughter in the village and at Kalimgong, using bandits as scapegoats.

The train is forced to leave mounts and wagons behind when the bridge over a river is found to be destroyed. While crossing, they are attacked by Dragomirov and his men. Joubert grabs Marie-Angelique and rides off with her. Sharpe tries to pursue, but Wormwood uses the chaos to try to kill Sharpe, managing only to wound him in the shoulder. Harper drags Sharpe to safety.

Dragomirov's troops retreat. Once his wound is treated, Sharpe takes a horse and leaves to rescue Marie-Angelique, putting Harper in command of the train. When Sharpe finds Joubert, they fight. The weakened Sharpe is disarmed, but Marie-Angelique shoots and kills Joubert with his own pistol. However, Dragomirov's cavalry find them and take them to their field headquarters on the Indian plains. Meanwhile, during the night, the seriously wounded Tredinnick sneaks away, as he is slowing down the train. He tries to ambush Dragomirov, but his shot misses, and Dragomirov stabs him and leaves him for dead. Lance Naik Singh (Raza Jaffrey) finds Tredinnick and hears his dying words: Dragomirov's lie that Sharpe is dead.

Dragomirov shows Sharpe around his field headquarters, where Indian slaves produce opium. He offers Sharpe Joubert's position and promises to keep Sharpe's people prisoner rather than kill them, but Sharpe turns him down. Later, Dragomirov threatens to give Marie-Angelique, who has been dosed with opium, to his men, so Sharpe agrees to lead Dragomirov to the train and convince Harper to surrender. During the night, Dragomirov has Sharpe chained in a pit with cobras, but he gets free, rescues Marie-Angelique, and catches up with the train. Dragomirov follows, but Sharpe uses gunpowder to create a roadblock.

When the train comes to a village, Mrs. Tredinnick goes into labour. Sharpe has no choice but to stop and defend the place. He gets the village's leader, the real Chitu (Ulhas Tayade) and the rest of the residents on-side for the upcoming battle. Singh repairs a very old cannon. Wormwood wants to desert, but his two cronies decide to fight alongside Sharpe. That night, Sharpe apologises to Barabbas for his earlier treatment and agrees to let him fight, but later, Wormwood frees Barabbas and tells him that Sharpe plans to execute him in the morning. Both Barabbas and Wormwood ride away separately. Wormwood joins Dragomirov and tells him all about Sharpe's defences.

When Dragomirov attacks the next day, Sharpe's men resist strongly. Beauclere is fatally wounded while defending the women. Wormwood kills one of his former comrades (with the other also perishing in the battle), but Harper kills him in a hand-to-hand fight. At the last moment, British cavalry soldiers arrive, led by Barabbas, who had ridden the entire night to bring reinforcements. Sharpe duels Dragomirov and kills him.

After the battle, Sharpe says his goodbyes to Marie-Angelique, who talks of visiting Sharpe's farm in Normandy, and to Simmerson, with whom he has an almost-friendly conversation, before he and Harper ride off for home.

Act 1: In the office of the Minister of War: The minister of war receives Salvator Waltz - " a haggard inventor, a fellow author" - who declares that he controls a new machine of immense destructive power called ''Telemort'' or ''Telethanasia'' that can blow up cities, mountains, even countries. The minister dismisses him as a nut. Shortly thereafter a mountain in the vista of his windows blows up exactly at the time predicted by Waltz. He is called back and explains to the dubious minister that this was indeed the planned experiment to showcase his weapon; the minister and his advisor are not yet convinced and do not know what to do. Trance (in Russian her name is ''son'', meaning ''dream''), a journalist who becomes Waltz's assistant suggests to appoint a committee. Annabella appears and indicates that on the mountain lived once an old enchanter and a snow-white gazelle.

Act 2: In the Council Hall of the Ministry: A committee of bumbling old generals is in session to decide what to do after more experimental explosion have made it clear that the power of the weapon is enormous. Trance suggests to buy it. Waltz is called and offered money but refuses to sell it. He declares that he has the weapon to create a new world order, war and military and politics become superfluous. Waltz shows his side as a poet when he extols the New Life where he will be the "keeper of the garden key". Annabella, the daughter of a general, objects to the "bad dreams" Waltz has, but Waltz prevails and is welcomed as the new ruler.

Act 3: In the office of the Minister of War: Waltz is in charge but bored by the day-to-day drudgery of governing. There was an assassination attempt on him presumably by a foreign agent, and in response he blows up the city of Santa Morgana. He plans to move to the island of Palmera and from time to time check on the affairs of government which should be easy as no country will be able to resist him. He demands luxury and servitude. His dream is becoming a nightmare. A parade of women is shown to him to please him, one of them citing a poem he had written a long time ago, but he wants Annabella. He summons her father who, however, refuses to submit; he will not deliver his daughter to Waltz. Waltz threatens to blow up everything, but Trance now makes it clear: there is no Telemort machine. It all was the imagination of Waltz. Reality now sets in, the real interview of Waltz takes place. The minister rejects him in less than a minute, opens the window, the mountain is still there, and Waltz is taken to the madhouse.

A group of young archaeologists go into the deep forest in Ratanakiri province to search for the old temple that was abandoned many years ago. As they go through the forest, at first they arrive at a local village but when one female Archeologist has a vision that the group of archeologist are involved in the ambush she warns the others of her vision, but they fail to listen. Later they are given a tour guide to help them find their way through the forest, but guide dies of a mysterious snake bite. The archeologists get lost and one archeologist (Asay) dies when he goes to urinate and falls into a pit of scorpions. After the group built a grave for him later, they meet a group of robbers who want to find the treasure also while exploring.

The robbers use the archeologist as a map when one robber dies by falling in a pit of snakes and a snake going into his mouth and coming out of his heart. There is no danger until they awaken a giant snake and many other monsters that existed there for hundreds of years because of a curse of a queen who was lost in the waterfalls while trying to evade traitors led by a treacherous commander who wanted her treasure. The female archeologist that had the vision is choked to death by the large snake. Later, another robber dies by the same fashion when the team is split into three groups. One male archeologist is caught in vines in a grotesque fashion: all his limbs fall off and are cut off as an arm is removed when a female wanted to help him out.

Later, a robber is eaten when the group meets up. The robber leader accuses the lead archeologist of causing the death of his men, when the snake appears. They build a raft and try to sail away but the snake catches up to them and the robber leader and an archeologist are strangled while the raft falls down a waterfall, a female was stabbed by bamboo through the stomach, and dies while the last male dies. Only one selfless female lives at the end it says happiness stems from not being greedy.

The episode begins with Mrs. Garrison crying in front of her class as she recounts the story of a pregnant transsexual who appeared on ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'' a week before the episode's release. She claims that having a baby makes her a woman and that Mrs. Garrison herself is still a man deep down inside. She then explains that she is no longer happy as a woman, but is unable to return to being a man because her penis was destroyed after her sex-change operation in a previous episode. After launching into a rage, Garrison is removed from teaching by Principal Victoria until she gets her personal life in order, and Cartman is appointed as temporary teacher in Garrison's place. The kids in class then steal the answer sheet for the next day's test from Garrison's desk, and as a result pass with high scores. Impressed by the high scores, the Denver County school board asks Cartman to teach a struggling inner-city classroom at Jim Davis High School.

Mrs. Garrison sees a news report describing how scientists can use a mouse to grow a human ear, and decides to have the same experiment performed on her to get a new penis, but when she opens its cage to look at it, it escapes from the lab and begins to race all over town, causing stereotypical hysterical reactions in all the women who see it.

Meanwhile, Cartman, taking Kyle's warning about the dangers of inner-city students who will "fucking murder him", disguises himself as a middle-aged Hispanic man named "Mr. Cartmenez", and teaches his students how white people are able to succeed even when they cannot: by cheating, citing New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick's success after cheating in the Spygate football scandal. Cartman often wonders aloud "How do I reach these kids?" When the kids do amazingly well, they are then challenged to take the hardest, most secure standardized test in the state. When the kids begin to doubt Cartman's methods, he again points to Belichick, implying that after he decided to win a game "for real", he ended up losing (to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII). The kids are encouraged by this, and all receive perfect scores (by cheating).

While Mrs. Garrison is moping in the park, the mouse with his penis shows up and allows itself to be caught, and Mrs. Garrison undergoes an operation to become Mr. Garrison again. He arrives back at school and explains that he now realizes that the true judge of gender is whether someone can get pregnant. The episode concludes when one teacher objects that his wife cannot have babies because of ovarian cancer, and Mr. Garrison responds with, "Well then get an AIDS test, Thomson, 'cause your wife's a dude, faggot!... Yeah! I'm back!" while jumping in the air as the mouse (who grew the penis) lets out a squeak.

Tom has finally perfected one of his latest inventions, a ''noiseless airship''. This is a project Tom has been working on since the last few volumes, and now that it is finished, it appears that Tom is suddenly under scrutiny by United States border agents, who are tracking smuggling operations which utilize airships to move goods out of Canada, and avoid paying duty tax. Once Tom convinces the agents that he is not involved in smuggling, he is hired to help break up the operations.

The story is inspired by a real life fact and set in the 1930s when, at the Institute of Physics of Via Panisperna, in Rome, physicist Enrico Fermi managed to involve a group of brilliant young students—Emilio, Bruno, Edoardo and Ettore (all of whom became famous scientists)—forming a working group committed to scientific research who would achieve great discoveries in the field of nuclear physics.

These young men's lives—full of anxieties as well as enthusiasms—are related with pathos and sensitiveness, mainly looking at their private side, with their youthful energies, but also their fears and weakness.

The story has among the main themes the relationship between Enrico and Ettore, the former becoming both a sort of father and of elder brother to Ettore, with the typical disputes (misunderstandings hiding affection) happening in a family. Unfortunately, the fascist political regime, the racial laws, Ettore's disappearance into nowhere (suspicious death or suicide, it will never be known)—he who already realized how their exciting discoveries could become powerful destruction weapons in wrong hands (attentively see the scene set in Sicilian fields)—all proves to be more decisive than the love for physics which had drawn them together so much and, finally, the boys turn different ways.

The film revolves around a comical story of four unlucky shepherds living high in the mountains of Armenia. One day for dinner they have a feast of the neighbour's sheep, which had come to their flock. The shepherds easily agree on ransom with the former master of the sheep. However, a serious young policeman, despite the protests of his friends, starts a case of embezzlement of sheep and tries to give the incident an official move, interfering with a profitable deal.

''Subdivision'' is a comedy/drama which focuses on the change a community goes through when city developers take over. The plot centres around Digger Kelly (Gary Sweet) and his son Jack (Ashley Bradnam), both carpenters who build homes in Hervey Bay. Their world is turned upside down when a southern property developer led by hot young executive Tiffany (Brooke Satchwell) moves into town.

The protagonist of the film is a nameless detective, who is interested in the Bluebeard's case. He drives to question him, at the same time making a phone call to his wife. His overly jealous wife tries to persuade him to return immediately, as she suspects him of infidelity. But the detective is fascinated with the story of Bluebeard, who suddenly appears in front of him.

Bluebeard says he was sincerely looking for a happy married life. He "lived alone, all alone in the world" and "wandered around the castle, waiting for [his] brides". Bluebeard wished to be "a husband and a father" and to have, like other people, "family, love and duty". However, his first wife, Marianna, was a terrible fashion-monger, who tormented Bluebeard with recent fashion trends. She cut his beard, completely renovated the interior of the castle and didn't pay Bluebeard any attention, calling him old-fashioned. In the end, exasperated Bluebeard trod on the tail of her personal dragon, causing him to breathe fire, and Marianna was burned alive. His blue beard grows again.

The second wife, Lilyanna, was a health worker. She noted that Bluebeard suffered from "total thinness" and that he treated himself with criminal negligence: "You're on the brink of the grave, but I'll take your case." Lilyanna made her husband do gymnastics, yoga, prohibited drinking wine, eating meat, etc. Extremely exhausted Bluebeard endured it due to his love for her. He finally poisoned her with an toxic mushroom Amanita, which, ironically, she took away from him and ate just as he was about to eat it himself, driven to extremes by this kind of life.

The third wife, Vivianna, was very beautiful, sociable and cheery. Unlike the previous wives, she had butterfly wings. At first Bluebeard and his wife feasted happily, surrounded by the friends and neighbours of the duke. Vivianna, singing "love has no boundaries", flew around the castle: "If it is possible to embrace all living creatures, I am ready to embrace them all". One day Bluebeard went hunting and returned only to find Vivianna in bed with one of his own friends. After short mêlée combat Bluebeard was killed by a stab in the back - possibly by Vivianna.

The Detective writes down the story. On the way home he calls his wife to tell her about a successfully completed investigation. His paranoiac wife doesn't believe him and starts a quarrel. She accuses her husband of infidelity and promises to divorce him. The detective spitefully answers "I'll be home in a moment, my dear", and an exceptionally long blue beard grows on his face.

A vain, overconfident, utterly amoral adventurer who calls himself Liane the Wayfarer is traveling through the forest, contemplating a magic ring he has just found. The ring allows him to hide himself by stretching it into a hoop and lowering it over himself, transporting him into a mysterious world of complete darkness. Liane encounters a creature called a Twk-Man, tiny blue men who ride dragonflies and exchange gossip for tiny quantities of items such as salt. The Twk-Man tells Liane of a beautiful woman, a witch named Lith, who lives nearby.

Liane travels to Lith's reed hut and immediately asks her to be his lover. Lith, seeing that Liane is a "bandit-troubadour" with fancy clothes and a handsome appearance with bright, golden eyes, responds that she will love him if he recovers for her the other half of a golden tapestry of Lith's homeland, Ariventa. It was stolen by a man or monster named Chun the Unavoidable, who hung it in a marble temple in the ruins of the ancient city of Kaiin. Liane, overconfident, immediately accepts her offer. Liane spends the next night in an inn in the civilized section of Kaiin, where the guests demonstrate magical wonders to one another. When Liane mentions the name of Chun the Unavoidable, the other guests are silent and depart for their rooms immediately, while Liane is demonstrating the ring's "magic from antique days". Liane, oblivious, continues drinking.

The next morning, Liane asks an old man where to find Chun's lair. The old man sadly directs Liane to Chun's ruined temple, but warns Liane that many before him have failed and died. Liane ignores the warning, and giving it some thought, decides that the old man might be Chun's accomplice, and casually murders him.

Liane finds the tapestry in the temple, but when he pulls it down, Chun is directly behind it, wearing a robe studded with human eyeballs. Chun chases Liane out of the temple and into the streets, but Liane cannot escape. As a last resort, he pulls the ring over his head and enters the dark world. The last words he hears are "I am Chun the Unavoidable" from right behind him.

Later that night, Lith hears Chun's voice from outside her barred and shuttered hut. Chun tells her that he is leaving her two threads, because the eyes were so bright and golden. Later, Lith collects the threads and weaves them into her half of the tapestry. She then, weeping, says that when the tapestry is complete, she can go home to Ariventa.

Cedric Ames is the absent-minded and easily distracted president of a large business, which is largely run by his subordinates, including his nephew Donald. Cedric impulsively hires an assistant named Joe Cork, who sees the businessman as an easy mark. While touring a candy company that is located in one of the buildings he owns, Cedric meets a "chocolate dipper" named Minnie Hawkins. Influenced by his new assistant, he buys a dress shop for Minnie, who is a gold digger, to manage. Donald tries to fix things by going to the dress shop to examine the books. Colleen Reilly, the bookkeeper at the dress shop, is angry that Donald plans to close it. When newspaper headlines about the "businessman who bought a dress shop for a chocolate dipper" bring business to the shop, Colleen uses the opportunity to stage a fashion show. The increase in customers begins to make the shop profitable for the first time. Colleen convinces Donald to keep the shop open. Donald asks her to dinner to discuss her plans for the shop. She says yes, then reveals that she is engaged, by coincidence, to Joe Cork. Joe, meanwhile, begins to see Minnie. Joe and Minnie concoct a plan to have Cedric adopt Minnie, and then Joe will marry her. When this news gets picked up in the gossip columns, Cedric's wife Alicia is scandalized and forces Donald to close the shop. But Donald is in love with Colleen and she's in love with him. Minnie and Joe are both fired. In revenge, Minnie sues Cedric for five million dollars for breaking his promise to adopt her and Joe sues Donald for five million dollars for stealing Colleen. They are both bought off with $25,000. Colleen is also fired, by mistake, and given a check for $10,000 to give up any legal claims she may have. Donald calls Colleen to ask her to marry him, and she berates him and hangs up before he can explain that it was a mistake. Brokenhearted, Colleen accepts an offer to open a dress shop on an ocean liner. It turns out that Donald is on the same ship, with Cedric and his wife. Donald and Colleen find each other, reconcile, and get engaged.

Lola Daintry (MacDonald), an unemployed actress and infidel hired to play a part in a scheme by Australian "Bully" Haynes (MacDowell) and a sailor named Chunky (Force) are cast upon the South Sea island of Menang, where are found Cyrus Flint (Ellis), who owns the copra produced from coconuts, and a missionary named Reverend Mead (Dowling). Cyrus is attracted to the young woman and shields her from the attentions of the Nabob of Menang (Boris Karloff), the island's Mohammedan ruler. Haynes, who had planned the castaway stunt with Lola and Chunky, arrives and attempts to break the hold of the mission people on Cyrus so slavery can be reinstated, and to force Cyrus to sell his copra interests. The Nabob becomes a party to the scheme.

After playing her game and luring Cyrus, Lola realizes that she has been duped and that Cyrus and Mead are not the unworthy men they have been painted to be. She confesses to the missionary, during which he discovers that he is Lola's father, but decides not to reveal this to her as she has begun to have faith in him. Lola is scorned by Cyrus, who decides to sell out. He goes aboard Haynes' schooner for a voyage to Australia to sign the papers, leaving the Christians at the mercy of the Nabob.

Lola is rowed out to the vessel by a crew of natives and succeeds in getting aboard. She entreats Cyrus to return to Menang and to send a radio message to an American cruiser to suppress an uprising on the island. Cyrus sees the island buildings in flames and realizes that he has been fooled by Haynes, and attempts to use the radio, but Haynes wrecks the instrument. Cyrus reaches his secret radio, which brings the cruiser to the rescue, which lobs a few shells causing the palace of the Nabob to topple, killing him. The missionary also dies, trusting Cyrus with caring for Lola, whom he has converted. Lola will never know that the missionary was her father.

The novel began with an introductory chapter about the graduation day from kindergarten of Maya, Lea's daughter. A program and a celebration were held. In the beginning, everything in Lea's life was going smoothly – her life in connection with her children, with friends of the opposite gender, and with her volunteer work for a human rights organization. But Lea's children were both growing-up – and Lea could see their gradual transformation. There were the changes in their ways and personalities: Maya's curiosity was becoming more obvious every day, while Ojie was crossing the boundaries from boyhood to teenage to adulthood.

A scene came when Lea's former husband came back to persuade Ojie to go with him to the United States. Lea experienced the fear of losing both her children, when the fathers of her children decide to take them away from her embrace. She also needed to spend more time for work and with the organization she was volunteering for.

In the end, both of Lea's children decided to choose to stay with her – a decision that Lea never forced upon them. Another graduation day of students was the main event in the novel's final chapter, where Lea was the guest-of-honor. Lea delivered a speech that discusses the topic of how life evolves, and on how time consumes itself so quickly, as fast as how human beings grow, change, progress and mature. Lea leaves a message to her audience that a graduation day is not an end because it is actually the beginning of everything else that will come in a person's life.

Published after ''Celia novelista'' (1934), the book picks up the story that was left off in ''Celia en el colegio'' (1932).

Celia's uncle, Tío Rodrigo, had arrived at the school where Celia attended class with the nuns and had rudely taken her away, without her parents permission or consent, because he strongly believed that the nuns were a poor influence for Celia, and her mind would only be filled with uncultured foolishness rather than educational nourishment. Celia is taken to her uncle's home in Madrid, to live with Basílides, Rodrigo's servant, and Maimón, a young Moor boy; two characters who could hardly stand each other's presence. Rodrigo wants the nine-year-old girl to "see the world", but not the world as in "earth", the world as in "real life". Living with her uncle, Celia spends many days without the company of boys and girls her own age, but rather that of older people. Her uncle asks her to behave when he takes her out with his friends to restaurants or to the park, but Celia hesitates; the grown-ups she spends time with make such curious, sometimes silly, remarks that Celia feels she must have a say in their conversation. Rodrigo's rule for Celia in order for her to be a well-behaved little lady, is for her to speak only when spoken to and to remain still the rest of the time. At home Celia deals with constant arguments between her uncle and Basílides, as well as the latter's beloved pet owl, and the battling between the servant woman and Maimón. Celia, Rodrigo, Basílides and Maimón, as well as the animals, the owl Casimira and the cat Pirracas, spend their summer in a French villa. Basílides has a hard time adapting to this strange place where no one can understand her Spanish, but Celia manages to make a couple of very good friends. The young girl Paulette becomes Celia's best friend and companion during the summer, visiting each other at their houses or spending time at the beach. The two have another friend, a girl named Claude. Claude is from a poor family and has an older brother named Raymund that cannot join her during her vacation, because their family cannot afford to send them both on holiday to the beach. Celia comes up with a plan to help Claude's brother through numerous schemes to earn money from people, including the selling of Rodrigo's berries and flowers as well as telling the people she meets at the beach about the sad situation of Claude's family, especially her brother's. Celia's aunt and Rodrigo's sister, Julia, arrives just in time to help Celia's cause, but soon the aunt contributes to a lot of bothersome hassle within the French villa. When summer's over, Tío Rodrigo bids farewell to Basílides and Maimón as he sends them back to Madrid, Spain on train. Rather than return home, Celia and her uncle and invited to spend Christmas with Paulette's family in a grand castle, where Celia again stirs up plenty of trouble. When the two girls are severely punished over a series of mischief, Celia tries to escape with Paulette, who's being sent off to a school in Paris, and manages to crash the car she had stowed away into against a tree. Unconscious and believing herself dead, Celia wakes up to the voice of her own father, who's come to return her to Spain, because he wants his daughter to bloom as a Spaniard, and believes the constant changing of culture and language is too much for her young mind.

The book is told in first-person from Celia's perspective, like in all previous books, following a third-person introduction from author Elena Fortún's.

Rod McLean (Mayo), a South Seas trader, saves derelict Tony Heritage (Hughes) from some natives, and Tony repays him by stealing his money and escaping to France. There he marries Joie (Lorraine), the daughter of Captain Jean Malet (Lanoe) who is scheduled to take a post in the South Seas. When the officer learns of Tony's past misdeeds, he repudiates his daughter's marriage and takes Joie with him to the South Seas. Tony then turns up there and Captain Malet, to keep him away from Joie, gives him a job helping Rod McLean establish a new trading post on another island. Rod has fallen in love with Joie, but after he discovers that she is married (although he does not know to whom), he rejects her as a flirt.

Back at the new post, Rod discovers that Tony has gotten the natives drunk and they are burning the island chapel. He finds out that Tony is Joie's husband, but is stopped by the minister from killing him. Tony uses Rod's boat to escape to a steamer. Rod goes after him, followed by the minister who wants to prevent any killing, while Joie stays behind and awaits the film's climax on the main island.

The story opens with a discussion between Barton Swift and an old friend, Alec Peterson. Alec is trying to convince Mr. Swift to finance an expedition to locate a hidden opal mine, but Mr. Swift is reluctant. In the middle of the conversation, Tom is flying one of his airships, but gets tangled up in power lines. Mr. Peterson cuts the wires, saving Tom's life. Tom is so grateful to Mr. Peterson that Tom is willing to finance the expedition himself.

In the meanwhile, the story segues to Tom's next invention, a cannon bigger than any that has been built to date. Tom hopes to sell his invention to the United States government, for use in protecting the Panama Canal, which was still under active construction at the time of the story.

Within the most storied city in the world lives Jake (Ernie Hudson), a homeless man who calls all of Manhattan his home. Jake discovers Cameron (Graeme Malcolm), a man down on his luck and sleeping in a tree in Central Park.

Taking Cameron under his wing, Jake teaches him how to survive on the streets. Jake's friendship with Cameron winds up threatening Jake's way of life, a life no one ever thought could possibly exist, lived with heart and spirit, and a charming embrace of the city. In this heartwarming and beautifully-shot film, homelessness is shown in a new light, illustrated with a stellar performance by Ernie Hudson, alongside a number of star-studded cameos.

Tom and his father are arguing about Tom's latest idea, a photo telephone. Mr. Swift is adamant that the idea will not work, but Tom has some ideas in mind, and refuses to back down. Tom read about a recent news event where a photograph was transmitted over telegraph lines, and there is no functional difference between the wires used for a telephone to those used in telegraphs.

In the meantime, some shady occurrences are happening in the neighborhood. Tom and Ned are almost run over by a speeding motor boat, operated by a con-artist known as Shallock Peters. The feud between Mr. Peters and Tom begins when Mr. Peters refuses to acknowledge the accident. The animosity between the two only grows deeper as Mr. Peters tries to buy Tom out of some of his inventions, under the guise of making a profit. Tom refuses to allow anyone other than himself permissions to his patents, and this infuriates Mr. Peters. Later, Tom learns that his good friend, Mr. Damon, is having serious financial troubles. As the plot gets thicker and thicker, one of Tom's airships is stolen, and then Mr. Damon unexpectedly disappears. All this while Tom is desperately trying to get his latest invention working.

Young society beauty Ninon Le Compte (MacDonald) deplores the lack of energy and physical fiber among the men of her acquaintance, including Frederick Van Court (Washburn), who regularly proposes marriage to her. Her uncle's death leaves Ninon the owner of a fur trading settlement in the Hudson Bay country. She decides to go there and is accompanied by her friend Flora O'Hare (Elvidge) and Frederick.

Arriving at the post, she finds Lazar (Lewis), the Canadian in charge, is a dangerous man who covets the estate and also evinces a desire to possess her. Ninon also learns that Lazar is wanted by the police for murder and threatens his exposure unless he leaves the settlement within 24 hours. Lazar leaves, but before he goes, he burns down the warehouse.

Ninon, accompanied by Frederick and an Indian guide Lawatha (McDonald), set out by dogsled to notify the police. Overtaken by a blizzard, they are forced to seek refuge in a cabin in which Lazard is already sheltering. Lazard attacks Ninon and Frederick comes to her aid, but is badly injured. Just as he is about to succumb, Lawatha joins the struggle. Lazar fatally stabs the Indian guide, but as he dies, Lawatha manages to shoot and kill the renegade.

Ninon and Frederick struggle back to safety through the snow, the young woman bringing her injured lover triumphantly home. She realizes that Frederick is her idea of a real man and she agrees to marry him.

The game is set in 2009 in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, where Takumi lives in a cargo crate on top of an apartment building. He discusses the recent "New Generation Madness" ("New Gen") serial murder case in Shibuya with his friend Grim over the internet, when someone with the username "Shogun" sends Takumi image files depicting a man pinned to a wall with stakes. Later, Takumi witnesses a girl he does not recognize committing the murder portrayed in the image files, and he flees the murder scene. A few days later, she sits next to him in school. He thinks she will kill him, but is told that they supposedly have been friends for a year and that her name is Rimi Sakihata.

Convinced that Shogun is targeting him, Takumi tries to avoid getting involved in the murder case, which draws the attention of the police. As he becomes a suspect and more murders occur, Takumi worries that Shogun is targeting him and experiences paranoia and hallucinations, and becomes unsure of what is real and who he can trust. In one of his delusions, Shogun appears as an old man in a wheelchair and tells him that more people will die unless he awakens.

When Takumi sees a girl carrying a large sword in public and notices that only he can see it, Ayase Kishimoto – a student who recently transferred to Takumi's school – tells him that he needs a "DI-sword" to be saved. She makes such a sword materialize in her hands, and tells him about how Takumi, the girl carrying the sword – Sena Aoi – and her friend Kozue Orihara are Gigalomaniacs: people with the ability to project delusions into reality, which is called "real-booting".

The Nozomi Group, a technology company in Shibuya, is revealed to be using their Noah II machine to synthetically use Gigalomaniac power, and have staff carrying transmitters to increase Noah II's signal reach.

Takumi learns that he himself is a projected delusion with fabricated memories: a copy created by Shogun, who is the original Takumi. His sister Nanami is held in the location of the real Noah II, where she is made to awaken as a Gigalomaniac and obtain a DI-sword. Rimi – also a Gigalomaniac – tries to save her, but is attacked by Norose and taken prisoner in Nanami's stead. Shogun again meets with Takumi to tell him that he had intended to stop Nozomi from taking over humanity with Noah II, but that his body – aged from disease and overuse of Gigalomaniac powers – hindered him, prompting him to create Takumi to do it in his stead. Takumi obtains a DI-sword, and destroys the transmitters, revealing the nurse Hazuki to be the New Gen killer in the process by reading her memories and projecting them onto the screens on the buildings. An earthquake occurs, destroying much of Shibuya; Takumi rescues the other Gigalomaniacs from the destruction, and continues to the location of Noah II. He fights Norose, but Noah II overwhelms him with delusions; he reaffirms his existence with the help of the other Gigalomaniacs' delusion synchronization, and destroys Norose and Noah II with his DI-sword. Lying in the ruins of Shibuya, depending on what the player chooses during the synchronization, he either gives up his life along with the dying Shogun's (in the "A" route), or stays alive with Rimi (the "AA" route). In ''Chaos;Head Noah'', players are locked onto the "Silent Sky" route the first time they play the game – similar to the original's "A" route – and it also features additional routes dedicated to the female main cast.

Tae-joo, a murderer serving a life sentence in prison, is given a temporary release to save the life of a seriously ill young girl, Se-hee, who suffers from Wilson's disease and desperately needs a liver transplant. Se-hee is the daughter of Yeong-woo, an old friend of Tae-joo's who is now a police officer. Upon discovering that Se-hee's now deceased mother was his ex-wife, Tae-joo realises that he is in fact her biological father, and does everything he can to try and save her life.

Two men, Sam ("a country") and Jack/Guy ("a man"), are homosexual lovers. Their interaction is an elliptical, often fragmented political dialog. Sam is the aggressive one and Jack/Guy initially his enthusiastic follower, who, however, in the process of the play becomes more and more disenchanted. Sam is clearly identified as the American government that touts American hegemony and foreign intervention, and Jack is his lover, who becomes a disillusioned follower by the end.

Nazi Germany in 1941. The title character is ''Luftwaffe'' General Harras, a highly decorated World War I veteran contemptuous of the Third Reich and the World War II attempt to conquer Europe. Initially courted by ''SS'' officials, he continually mocks the Nazi leadership, which leads to friends turning into enemies and suspicion from ''SS'' and Gestapo of what may be treason.

He is temporarily arrested by order of Heinrich Himmler and, after his release, is determined to break his deal with the devil. He backs the sabotage action of his flight engineer, threatens an ''SS'' officer at gunpoint and finally crashes his aircraft into the control tower of his airbase.

On September 4, 1939, the British ocean liner RMS ''Goliath'', carrying 1,860 passengers, is torpedoed by a German U-boat and sinks within minutes while on a transatlantic crossing to the United States three days after the outbreak of war.

Scientists aboard a research ship in 1981 discover the wreck of the ''Goliath'' lying upright in 1,000 feet (305 m) of water, and divers are sent down to investigate the wreck. Oceanographer Peter Cabot (Mark Harmon) hears systematic banging and music coming from the ship and is shocked to see the face of a beautiful young woman (Emma Samms) inside a porthole. Cabot and his colleagues discover 337 people, survivors and their descendants, living in an air bubble in the wreck caused by the vessel's having slowly sunk in relatively shallow water. The residents of ''Goliath'', who have invented some technologies to help them survive, some not even known to the outside modern world, live in a superficially utopian society under the autocratic leadership of John McKenzie (Christopher Lee), a junior officer at the time of the sinking credited with saving a sizable number of passengers and crew. The scientists are surprised to discover that McKenzie and some of the ship's residents are not at all interested in being "rescued", and that there are outcasts and rebels opposed to McKenzie's seemingly beneficent leadership, which also includes brutal discipline, mandatory contraception, euthanasia, and outright murder disguised as a mysterious disease.

Complicating things, the ''Goliath'' had been carrying some sensitive documents to President Roosevelt. A joint American/British military team is sent by Admiral Wiley Sloan (Eddie Albert) to retrieve and destroy the documents.

Michael Scott (Steve Carell) calls an emergency meeting asking everyone to come up with an idea to "reinvigorate" the office. Michael asks Stanley Hudson (Leslie David Baker) for ideas, but Stanley is preoccupied with a crossword puzzle and refuses to participate. Michael keeps asking him, and Stanley snaps, "Did I stutter?" in a loud, threatening tone, after which Michael ends the meeting. Toby Flenderson (Paul Lieberstein) encourages Michael to take disciplinary action against Stanley, and Michael, initially resistant, pretends to fire him to teach him a lesson. Stanley responds by threatening to sue him and tell corporate of Michael's antics. When Michael tells Stanley that the firing was actually an attempt at teaching him a lesson, Stanley goes on a rant, yelling and insulting Michael. Michael barks at him to stop it, and tells everyone to leave the office, making everyone think he is about to berate Stanley. The camera crew sneak back in to film the exchange, where Michael tearfully (much to Stanley's annoyance) asks Stanley why he picks on him. Stanley states that he simply does not respect him, and when Michael suggests that Stanley does not know him very well he replies "Michael, I've known you for a very long time. And the more I've gotten to know you, the less I've come to respect you." Michael then takes a professional tone with Stanley, and says that, while he accepts that Stanley does not respect him, he cannot take such a disrespectful tone with him, because he is his boss. Stanley responds by saying, "Fair enough," and the two shake hands.

Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer), after spending the night at "a friend's" (Jim's) house, forgot her contact lens solution, so she must wear her glasses. She finds it difficult to handle Michael's criticism and Kevin's sexual advances, and spends the rest of the day without her glasses, reducing her productivity. Ryan Howard (B. J. Novak) comes to Dunder Mifflin's Scranton branch. After a talk with Toby, Ryan tells Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) that he is giving him an official warning about his job performance. Ryan denies that his action is motivated by Jim's previous complaints to David Wallace, saying he thrives on constructive criticism (while Toby's comments to the documentary crew indicate he is not upset about the warning, owing to his envy of Jim's relationship with Pam).

Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) is selling his 2001 Nissan Xterra for $8,700. Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) pressures him into selling it for $1,500 less than the asking price, because according to Dwight, "[the] car is crap". Dwight assures Andy that he will only use it as a wagon, dragged by a mule on Dwight's beet farm. Andy sells it to Dwight, who, in a passive-aggressive method of getting back at him for dating Angela Martin (Angela Kinsey), washes it and posts a sign asking for $9,995 for the vehicle, which upsets Andy when he finds Dwight's advertisement posted on the cabinet in the office kitchen. Dwight declares that it is already on eBay, where he claims it is the subject of a three-way bidding war.

Frank Hopper (Bon Jovi) is a former lawyer, who receives a credit card in the mail, and believes he's hit the jackpot. It's not long before he's working his way toward financing his dream – an all-woman hockey team. He's also put himself in debt to more than $300,000. He winds up in court when his plan backfires.

Bud Reeves is a naive young man who lives in a small town in Indiana. After inheriting $1,100 ($ today) from his aunt, he decides to use the money to move to New York City to find a job and start a new life. His dog Duke follows him to the railroad station, and the station agent says he will take care of the pup but only as a loan, because he is certain that Bud will return home in a month or less, having spent some time in the city himself and being well aware how tough life can be there.

Once in New York, Bud rents a modest but spacious hotel room and soon meets his much older, slick-talking cousin Gibby. Gibby immediately begins to fleece Bud out of small amounts of his cash to buy things. He also introduces him to chorus girl Vida Fleet and her friend Faun. Bud quickly falls in love with Vida.

Trouble soon starts when Gibby purchases a large amount of liquor and champagne from a local bootlegger and arranges a party in Bud's room. In addition to Vida and Faun, others joining the party include Jackie Devoe and more chorus girls, as well as three men: Stacky, Shep, and Lenny. Later in the evening, after considerable drinking, Shep and a very drunk Lenny begin arguing about who will take unconscious Jackie home. A fight ensues; furniture is overturned; and lamps are broken. As the lights go out, Shep and Lenny continue their brawl. Bottles are also being wildly thrown and used as weapons in the darkened room. When the lights come back on, the revelers discover that Jackie, lying on a couch, is dead, killed by one of the bottles hitting her head. Everyone except Bud hurriedly leaves the hotel room, even Vida. The house detective, Hummel, soon discovers Jackie's body after seeing Vida, who has returned to get Bud. The young couple flees, but are later arrested along with some of the other partiers. All are finally cleared of any charges when back at the hotel Hummel finds the real killer, Lenny, whose corpse is hanging in a closet. Evidence shows that he committed the crime, and that in his guilt and remorse over Jackie's death he hanged himself.

After a tearful goodbye with Vida, Bud goes back to Indiana, to find Duke patiently waiting for him at the station (the station agent collects on a bet he made over this). A telegraph he sends via the agent indicates he intends to return to New York after saving enough money, presumably to marry Vida.

A lawyer who's still recuperating after the untimely death of his wife, must defend his probably dirty brother-in-law, a stockbroker under investigation. He discovers that everyone has dark secrets, including himself.

When last seen in Turow's ''The Burden of Proof'', Sonia Klonsky was a prosecutor with the U. S. Attorney's office in Kindle County with a failing marriage, an infant daughter, and a single mastectomy. She becomes one of the narrators here. Now she is a Superior Court Judge presiding over the murder trial of one Nile Eddgar, who is accused of arranging the murder of his ghetto-activist mother. The story is told in two parallel narratives, one regarding the current trial and the other taking the reader through the 1960s.

Many of the minor characters in ''The Laws of Our Fathers'' also appear in Turow's other novels, which are all set in fictional, Midwestern Kindle County.

Category:1996 American novels Category:Novels by Scott Turow Category:Farrar, Straus and Giroux books

Category:Legal thriller novels

''Reversible Errors'' revolves around three 1991 murders for which Rommy Gandolph was convicted. It begins with attorney Arthur Raven being assigned to handle the final appeal of said death row inmate. Though the lawyer does not even want the case, he discovers some problems with the conviction. Unlikely allies are found, including the police officer who made the arrest and the judge who presided over the initial trial. It becomes a race against the clock to determine the truth. The novel's 42 chapters are arranged in two parts, titled ''Investigation'' and ''Proceedings''; the action is set in 2001.

Many of the minor characters also appear in Turow's other novels, which are all set in fictional Kindle County, located in the Midwestern United States.

A young woman and two other people are killed in a Kindle County local bar. Experienced detective sergeant Larry Starczek (Tom Selleck) begins investigation on the murders. Soon everything points to the small-time thief Squirrel. Larry arrests him and makes the thief confess. After a short trial Squirrel goes to the prison where he will be executed.

The story now moves seven years later, as new evidence surfaces. Nobody is so sure any more that it was Squirrel who actually killed those three people years ago. Furthermore, it seems that the judge from his trial wasn't completely clean.

The novel begins with Robbie Feaver seeking advice from attorney George Mason, the narrator. Feaver admits that he has been bribing several judges in the Common Law Claims Division to win favorable judgments for years. U.S. Attorney Stan Sennett has uncovered Feaver's secret and wants Feaver to strike a deal to get at the man he believes to be at the center of all the legal corruption in the metropolitan area, Brendan Tuohey, the Presiding Judge of Common Law Claims and heir apparent to the Chief Justice of Kindle County Superior Court. An undercover scheme is put in motion to trap the guilty parties. The novel follows the FBI as it pursues the legal community of Kindle County in a web of tapped phones, concealed cameras, and wired spies.

Like Turow's other novels, it is set in fictional Kindle County in Illinois, and he revives some familiar characters, including George Mason from ''Personal Injuries'' and Rusty Sabich, the hero of his acclaimed fiction debut, ''Presumed Innocent''. Mason is now a judge, faced with the challenge of deciding a high-profile case involving a rape case that reawakens his long-suppressed guilt over his own role in a similar incident decades before. To compound this inner struggle, Mason finds himself the object of threatening e-mails from an unknown source, all while trying to care for his cancer stricken wife.

Omar the Tentmaker (Post) becomes an outcast because of his radical writings and improved calendar (Omar wrote the Iranian first solar calendar circa A.D. 1073). Omar's wife Shireen (Faire), whom he secretly married and impregnated, is desired by the Shah (Noah Beery), who has her brought to his harem. She repulses the Shah and is thrown into prison, where she gives birth to a daughter. The daughter Little Shireen is smuggled out of the prison and brought to Omar Khayyam, although he does not know the baby is his daughter.

Omar has been wandering about in a rage. He is arrested for harboring a Christian Crusader (Flynn). When Omar is about to be tortured, his wife, who has finally escaped from prison, recognizes him and sends for the Grand Vizier, who is a former associate of Omar's. Omar is freed and finally finds happiness.

At the New York Metropolitan Museum, four horsemen dressed as 12th-century knights storm the gala opening of an exhibition of Vatican treasures and steal an arcane medieval decoder. Archaeologist Tess Chaykin (Mira Sorvino) and FBI agent Sean Daley (Scott Foley) engage in a chase across three continents in search of the enemy and the lost secret of the Knights Templar.

Ranch hand Tex Gardy (J.B. Warner) comes to the aid of the father (William A. Berke) of the girl he loves (Aline Goodwin). The old man's ranch is being threatened by an outlaw gang led by a woman known only as The Hellion (played by Marin Sais).

The film tells the story of Imri, who at 19 goes to live in Tel Aviv, but dreams of moving to Japan. Through his relationships and encounters and in diverse cinematic tools, we are introduced to the young man's life. An exploration of living in the exotic city of Tel Aviv is presented through a hero who is himself in the midst of exploring his own choice of an exotic place. A unique correlation is formed between the hero's misconception of Japan and ours of him. The movie was constructed by both improvised and pre-scripted scenes, as required by the nature of each scene.

An evil magician moves into a small town in Asia and becomes enamored by Anahita, a poor girl who is in love with the local prince. The magician wishes to enslave Anahita, so she and her friends scheme to overthrow him.

Buckley "Buck" Duane is the son of a famous Texas gunslinger, a fact that brings him almost nothing but trouble. Duane shoots a man who threatens him and flees his hometown of Wellston to avoid the law. Mixing with outlaws while on the run, he clings desperately to the last of his principles until he rescues a girl named Jennie from the hands of an outlaw king. However, he loses her shortly after the escape and then begins to wander aimlessly, desperation growing as the worth of life slips away.

Three years into his life on the run, he begins to hear of a Texas Ranger captain who seeks to meet him. After running in with vigilante posses of homesteaders and nearly being lynched in a town he'd never been for a murder he didn't commit, he finally seeks out the ranger captain to discover he is wanted to infiltrate and break up an elusive gang of cattle rustlers in exchange for a pardon from the governor.

In Medieval Scotland, Princess Merida of the clan Dunbroch is given a bow and arrow by her father, King Fergus for her sixth birthday to the dismay of her mother, Queen Elinor. While venturing into the woods to fetch an arrow, Merida encounters a will-o'-the-wisp. Soon afterward, Mor'du, a huge demon bear, attacks the family. Merida flees on horseback with Elinor, while Fergus and his men fend off Mor'du, though the fight costs him one of his legs.

Ten years later, Merida, now 16 years old, discovers that she is to be betrothed to the son of one of her father's allies. Elinor explains that failure to consent to the betrothal could harm Dunbroch, reminding Merida of a legend of a prince whose pride and refusal to follow his father's wishes destroyed his kingdom.

The allied clan chieftains and their first-born sons arrive to compete in the Highland games for Merida's hand in marriage. Merida twists the rules, announcing that as her own clan's firstborn she is eligible to compete for her own hand. She easily bests her suitors in an archery contest, shaming the other clans, and after a heated disagreement with Elinor, runs away into the forest. Wisps appear, leading her to the hut of an elderly witch. Merida bargains for a spell to change her fate, and the witch gives her an enchanted cake.

When Merida gives Elinor the cake, it transforms her into a bear, unable to speak but still retaining most of her human consciousness. Merida returns to the witch's cottage with Elinor, only to find it deserted, and discovers a message from the witch: unless Merida is able to "mend the bond, torn by pride" before the second sunrise, the spell will become permanent. Merida and Elinor are led by the wisps to ancient ruins, where they encounter Mor'du. Realizing that Mor'du was the prince in the legend, Merida vows that she will not let the same thing happen to her mother, and concludes she needs to repair the family tapestry she damaged during their argument.

They return to the castle to find the clans on the verge of war. Merida intends to relent and declare herself ready to choose a suitor as tradition demands, but Elinor prompts her instead to insist that the firstborns should be allowed to marry in their own time to whomever they choose. The clans agree, breaking tradition but renewing and strengthening their alliance.

Merida sneaks into the tapestry room with Elinor, while Fergus, looking for his wife finds out she's gone. Elinor, who is losing her humanity, attacks Fergus, but suddenly regains her composure and flees the castle. Mistaking the Queen for Mor'du, and thinking it has eaten his wife, Fergus pursues the bear with the other clans, locking Merida in the castle. Merida escapes with the assistance of her identical triplet brothers, Harris, Hubert, and Hamish, who have also eaten the enchanted cake and are now bear cubs. Merida repairs the tapestry and rides out after her father. Fergus and the clans capture Elinor, but Merida thwarts them before the real Mor'du arrives. Mor'du battles with the clan warriors and targets Merida, but Elinor intercedes, holding off Mor'du and causing him to be crushed by a falling menhir (standing stone). This releases the spirit of the prince, who silently thanks Merida for freeing him and transforms into a wisp. Merida covers her mother in the repaired tapestry, but she remains a bear. As the sun rises for the second time, Merida realizes the mistakes she has made and reconciles with Elinor, unknowingly fulfilling the true meaning of the witch's message and reversing the spell's effects on her mother and brothers.

With Mor'du gone, Merida and Elinor work together on a new tapestry when they are called to the docks to bid farewell to the other clans, and ride their horses together.

British spy Finn McMissile infiltrates an oil rig owned by a group of lemon cars to rescue fellow spy Leland Turbo, who has blown his own cover. He witnesses the lemons, seemingly led by German weapons designer and scientist Professor Zündapp, load an electromagnetic pulse generator, disguised as a TV camera onto a shipping crate. After discovering Leland's death, a burst of flames reveals his presence to the criminals, and he escapes by faking his death.

Five years after the events of the first film, after winning his fourth Piston Cup, Lightning McQueen returns to Radiator Springs to spend his off season with his friends. However, Italian formula race car, Francesco Bernoulli, challenges Lightning to race in the World Grand Prix, an international three-race event created by former oil tycoon Sir Miles Axlerod, who intends to promote his new environmentally friendly fuel, Allinol, and invites race cars from the world to compete. Lightning and his best friend Mater — along with Luigi, Guido, Fillmore, and Sarge — depart for Tokyo for the first race of the World Grand Prix.

At a World Grand Prix promotional party event, Mater makes a scene after eating a bowl of wasabi and leaking on stage, embarrassing Lightning in front of everyone. While cleaning up, Mater interrupts a fight between American spy Rod "Torque" Redline (Finn's contact) and lemons Grem and Acer. Redline plants his tracking device on Mater, causing Finn and his associate Holley Shiftwell to mistake him for the spy. Meanwhile, Redline is captured and killed by Zündapp, who reveals that Allinol is set on fire when hit with the EMP from earlier. He informs his superior, an unknown mastermind, that Redline passed on his information. Holley finds and recruits Mater to stop Zündapp's plot.

At the first race, three racers are ignited by the camera, making their engines explode. Lightning places second in the race after Bernoulli, due to miscommunication with Mater, who was evading Zündapp's henchmen with help from Holley and Finn. Lightning angrily snaps at Mater, who then goes to the airport to return to Radiator Springs, but is abducted by Finn as the lemons close onto both, and they flee in Finn's jet, Siddeley. After traveling to Paris, to collect more information from Finn's old friend Tomber, they travel to Porto Corsa, Italy, where the second race is being held. During the race, Mater infiltrates the criminals' meeting, just as a few racers are flamed out by the camera, causing a multi-car pile-up, while Lightning wins. Due to increased fears over Allinol's safety, Axlerod lifts the requirement to use it for the final race in London. However, when Lightning decides to continue using it, the criminals plan to kill him in the race. Frightened by the realization that his best friend is in danger, Mater accidentally blows his cover, causing him, Finn, and Holley to be captured and tied up inside Big Bentley, where he admits to them that he is not the spy they think he is.

When the race starts, Lightning takes the lead before passing Big Ben. However, the camera was inexplicably defective on him. The criminals tell Mater they planted a time bomb in Lightning's pits as a backup plan, spurring him to break free and escape. Finn and Holley escape soon after but realize that the bomb was fitted on Mater's air filter when they were passed out as the criminals predicted that Mater will easily escape to help Lightning. Mater had already arrived at the pits when they tell him this, so he flees down the track while Lightning chases after him to apologize for his outburst in Tokyo. Finn apprehends Zündapp when he attempts to escape. The other lemons arrive and outnumber Finn, Holley, Mater, and Lightning, but they are soon rescued by the arrival of the other Radiator Springs residents. Mater and Lightning go to Buckingham Palace, where Mater exposes Axlerod as the mastermind behind the plot, proven after forcing him to disable the bomb. It is revealed that the World Grand Prix was a cover-up by Axelrod to turn the world against Allinol and other alternative fuels, and he was also the one who was leaking oil in Tokyo, blaming Mater for it. After Axlerod is arrested by the authorities, Mater receives an honorary knighthood from the Queen and Lightning and Mater reconcile.

Back in Radiator Springs, Mater tells everyone there about his story, just when Finn and Holley stop over. Fillmore then reveals that Sarge swapped the Allinol with Fillmore's organic fuel, which explains the camera's ineffectiveness on him. A "Radiator Springs Grand Prix" is held featuring all the World Grand Prix contenders. Mater declines an invitation from Finn and Holley to go on another mission, choosing to stay in Radiator Springs. Though his weapons get confiscated, he gets to keep the rockets and catches up to Lightning with speeding off with Mater behind him, just as Siddeley speeds into the distance.

Fear runs rampant throughout Tokyo with the revelation that demons in fact exist amongst us. Paranoia and the darker side of humanity boils onto the streets as people turn on one another, suspecting that anyone could in fact be a demon hiding in human appearance. Amidst the growing tensions, tragedy strikes Akira causing his mind to snap. Retreating into his subconsciousness, this allows his devilish alter-ego Amon to break free from Akira's cage of flesh and wreak havoc on both humans and demons alike.

''Amon: The Darkside of the Devilman'' is an alternate setting to the last chapters of the original ''Devilman'' manga. Where in the original, Devilman faces Satan after seeing his slain lover Miki Makimura's severed head, Amon sees Akira lose control of himself, and due to his sadness and depression from not being able to protect Miki, allows Amon to gain control of Akira and his powers again.

In Volume 2, we start to see the origins of both Amon, and Sirène, and see more of Earth under the demons' rule.

Dr. Marc Seidman has been shot twice, his wife has been murdered, and his six-month-old daughter has been kidnapped. When he gets the ransom note, he knows he has only one chance to get this right. But there is nowhere he can turn to and no one he can trust.

The backstory of the game is described in the fourth case, Turnabout Reminiscence. Ten years prior to the game's present, the secretariat of the Cohdopian Embassy was accused of murdering Cece Yew, a witness to a smuggling ring's connection to the embassy. Prosecutor Byrne Faraday and detective Tyrell Badd attempted to convict the secretariat, but he went free after key evidence was stolen. Feeling that the justice system was powerless to those who stand above the law, Faraday, Badd, and Yew's sister Calisto, started stealing corporate files detailing illegal or unethical activities and exposed them to the media, under the name Yatagarasu. Three years later, another murder occurred at the embassy. During the trial, in which Faraday was the prosecutor, the suspect, Mack Rell, claimed that he had been told by Faraday to commit the murder, and said that Faraday was the Yatagarasu. A recess was held to replace Faraday with another prosecutor, Miles Edgeworth; before court was reconvened, both Rell and Faraday were found dead. Edgeworth discovered that Calisto had murdered Faraday with help from Rell, then killed Rell and made it look like Faraday and Rell had killed each other. When confronted, Calisto says that she is Yatagarasu, not mentioning her two partners, and that she is part of the smuggling ring. Faraday's daughter Kay is comforted over Faraday's death by Edgeworth, Badd, and detective Gumshoe; she believes her father to be the true Yatagarasu, and vows to catch the fake.

The game's second case, Turnabout Airlines, takes place in the present, and has Edgeworth becoming involved with the smuggling ring during a trip aboard an airliner. Ackbey Hicks, an Interpol agent investigating the smuggling, is murdered during the trip, and Edgeworth and a flight attendant become the main suspects. Another prosecutor, Franziska von Karma, works with Interpol to expose the smuggling ring; she and Edgeworth discover the murderer to be another flight attendant, Cammy Meele, who is working with the smuggling ring. In the third case, The Kidnapped Turnabout, Edgeworth is called by Ernest Amano, whose son Lance has been kidnapped and is held at an amusement park. While attempting to exchange the ransom money, Edgeworth is also kidnapped, but is freed by Kay, who calls herself the true Yatagarasu. They release Lance, and find the dead body of Oliver Deacon, who Lance identifies as one of the kidnappers. As Edgeworth investigates the mystery, he meets Interpol agents Shi-Long Lang and Shih-na, who believe that Amano's business group is involved with the smuggling ring; the ring's counterfeit money has ruined the economy of their home country Zheng Fa, so they seek to bring an end to the ring. Edgeworth learns that the kidnapping was a ploy by Lance to get money from his father, and that Lance had killed Deacon after the latter tried to back out of the plan. Evidence is found tying Amano to the smuggling ring, and Lang brings Amano in for questioning.

In the first case, Turnabout Visitor, Edgeworth finds the dead body of Detective Buddy Faith in his office. He learns that the murderer was Jacques Portsman, a prosecutor who was working for the smuggling ring, and was trying to steal evidence from the murder ten years ago from Edgeworth's office; when Faith got too close, Portsman killed him. The fifth case, Turnabout Ablaze, takes place at the former Cohdopian embassy; civil tension in Cohdopia forced the country to split into Allebahst and Babahl, which share the same embassy building. The two countries planned to announce their reunification at the embassy when the fake Yatagarasu appeared, setting fire to the building and killing two people. The bodies are found at the embassies' respective offices; one of them is discovered to be the former secretariat of the Cohdopian embassy, who now was the secretariat for Babahl. Shih-na is revealed to be Calisto in disguise; she insists that she did not murder the secretariat, and is revealed to be an accessory to the crime. As she is taken away, she reveals that she is not Cece's sister, that "Calisto" was just an alias she took while working for the smuggling ring, and that she became part of Yatagarasu on orders from the ring's leader. Edgeworth reveals the ring's leader to be Allebahst's and formerly Cohdopia's ambassador Quercus Alba, who had committed murders and covered the tracks of the ring, and brought counterfeit money into Zheng Fa. Alba, Amano and others are convicted of their crimes, while Edgeworth and his companions recommit to their vows to defend the truth.

Esmeralda "Esme" Fajardo, a young, spirited, and ultra-liberal teenager who lives in Cebu goes to Manila to study for college, only to fall in love with a guy named Waldo, a beguiling and charming gentleman (Eddie Gutierrez) who seemingly has the same feelings for her. Her (often clandestine) rendezvous with him eventually resulted in her getting pregnant, which made her stop schooling. Left with no choice, she lives with him under one roof, only to find out that he is cheating on her. After a violent confrontation, she flees and resorts to doing odd jobs to earn money. Several months pass and she soon gives birth to Abbey. But unfortunately, she gives her daughter to her relatives, who were at that time leaving the country and migrating to the United States, in hopes that Abbey will find a better life there. 27 years later, Esme has now become an extraordinarily wealthy jewellery trader. She is turned ecstatic upon hearing that her daughter Abby is coming back to the Philippines as a liberal New Yorker. Esme, now having 2 sons named Boboy and Pipo, both of which were born from two different fathers, welcomes her daughter to her real family. This then leads to violent, often humorous confrontations with other people around Esme and her family, ranging from one of her son's "secret" girlfriend, to her rival neighbor. A couple of months later, after her constant battles with other people finally tears her family apart, but is then reunited when she develops a heart attack -forcing her sons and daughter to forgive their mother for all the trouble she has caused. After several weeks in the hospital, Esme, now fully recovered, though still brash, decides to meet her long lost husband once more. The film ends 3 months later, Abbey is in the United States once again, only to be surprised by her mother, who subsequently follows her and plans to live with her in New York City.

Alan and Geraldine MacNally are a married couple, who are doubting if they did the right thing by marrying each other. Meanwhile, David and Wanda Holland are in the final stages of their divorce. It so happens Alan is the attorney who arranges their divorce. This makes him and Geraldine fall even further apart. Everything changes when Wanda commits suicide after she loses custody of her son. The MacNallys then start thinking about what is really important to them.

The Merchants Hotel is hosting a convention for morticians and a mediation meeting between aircraft manufacturers and their workers. This makes hotel manager Puddle worry about a newspaper article criticizing the hotel's convention hostesses, sisters Faith and Hope Banner. Tommy Hopkins, a reporter in love with Hope, has tried to get her to take another job with "regular" hours, but she needs the money to pay for the education of her younger sister Charity at an expensive private school. However, right after Hope and Tommy's argument, Charity shows up and announces that she is going to quit school to be a hostess like her sisters. They try to change her mind.

Meanwhile, a dead body is found in the hotel. The sisters, worried about the hotel's already damaged reputation, decide to dump the corpse somewhere else. Hope tries to talk Tommy into doing the moving, but he sees a scoop for his newspaper after recognizing the victim is in fact the missing labor mediator everyone has been waiting for. Hope is unable to persuade him to keep quiet, so they take the body down the fire escape and hide it in a room. Unfortunately, it is discovered by the mortician occupant; he telephones for the police, then runs out.

Hope and Faith retrieve the body and hide it in a laundry cart. Tommy steals it from the girls and, looking for a hiding place from a police search, stumbles upon a high-stakes poker game. He has no choice but to set the body down at the table, calling him "sleepy Joe". The corpse wins every hand he "plays" (with Tommy's help), and the others call him a "lucky stiff". Hope and Faith barge in. Thinking quickly, Hope claims she has been looking for her misbehaving husband. The girls carry "Joe" out, but have to take him into a random room to avoid the chief of police. They dump it in a coffin in mortician Josephus Wiegel's room. The coffin is then hauled away into the morticians' convention room. Fred Chambers, Tommy's editor, finds him, but when Tommy tells him he lost the body, he fires him. Charity, who is strongly attracted to Tommy and has been kissing him at every opportunity, tells him where the body is. After he leaves, Charity tells Hope that Tommy is in love with her.

When the ''Chronicle'', Tommy's former newspaper, reports he found the corpse, the police chase after him. Tommy ends up at the mediation meeting and poses as the mediator. He appeals to both parties' patriotism and manages to get them to reach a compromise.

Afterward, the chief of police arrests him. Hope persuades Puddle to give the body to Tommy, but they drag it into a room full of policemen and are taken into custody themselves. On the way out, Tommy is promoted by the editor, who has learned that he prevented the strike.

When the body is carried out through the hotel lobby, a drunk named Charlemagne recognizes it and, with a clap of his hands, brings it back to life. It turns out he had just put the man in "suspended animation" through hypnosis. Everyone is released. Tommy offers to let the police chief off the hook for false arrest if he can get a marriage license immediately, rather than having to wait days. Hope believes it is Charity he intends to wed, but Tommy corrects her. When Charity shows up and continues lying about her relationship with Tommy, Hope puts her over her knee and spanks her. Faith joins in, followed by Puddle.

Zavarov, a psychotic Russian thief who likes to steal religious icons, is on the run from a group of undercover cops who don't know Zavarov has planted an informant amongst them. Zavarov makes his getaway on a train, only to discover the police were able to board before leaving the station. He hijacks the train and demands passage to Austria. The police cleverly run the train in a loop and mask a Hungarian train station as if it were in Nickelsdorf, Austria (the actual station filmed is in Szabadbattyán). This fools Zavarov into thinking he is in Austria, and when he exits the train, the police surround him.

Dagwood Bumstead (Arthur Lake) is forced to receive a college diploma in order to remain a worker at the Dithers Construction Company. He goes to school with his wife Blondie (Penny Singleton), until they get the news that married couples are not allowed. They decide to pretend they aren't a couple. A dilemma starts when Laura Wadsworth (Janet Blair) begins to flirt with Dagwood, while Big Man on Campus Rusty Bryant (Larry Parks) does the same with Blondie. Even more problems come to Blondie when she discovers she is pregnant. Afraid to tell Dagwood out of fear of expulsion from class, she decides to keep it a secret.

As described in a film magazine review, Captain Drake's services to the government has gone unrecognized, and he has grown to be a bitter old man. His daughter Polly carries on and becomes the captain of a rum-running schooner, known only as Captain Joe. Jerry Burke of the Secret Service has been assigned to ferret out the illicit traders. He becomes interested in Polly but the young woman's confederate, Pietro Castillano, learns Jerry's identity, so they shanghai him. In a battle between bootleggers and hijackers, Jerry escapes with the young woman to an island. Here they are captured by the gang, but are saved when she signals the marines. Jerry and Polly are then wed.

As described in a film magazine review, a telegram informs Chaddie Green that her father has committed suicide, leaving her penniless. She has been reared in luxury, but, during her passage to the United States, she is so lonely that she makes an acquaintance with Duncan MacKail, a rugged appearing man from the American plains. He loves her and they decide to get married. At his ranch, she is extremely out of place, not knowing the method of ranch life or work and untrained for hard farm work. She is frightened by the presence of Ollie, the caretaker for Duncan. Nearby is Percy Woodhouse, an Englishman seeking health on the prairies. Chaddie is obliged to stay at his ranch over night when her horse bolts from her and she is unable to get a mount from Percy. Duncan is angered when she does not return and accuses Percy. Later, Ollie is found dangling from a rope in the barn. Chaddie's picture of her father is found in the room of Ollie, which is explained by a note saying he had killed the man. A son is later born to Chaddie, who has grown content to live and work on the prairie with Duncan.

The film takes place behind the scenes of a fictional vaudeville play. The story centers on a recently divorced woman. She decides to use her alimony settlement to produce her own show. Unfortunately her chief backer insists on starring in it. She is saved by a talented man, who puts everything on risk to replace the talentless chief backer.

The story consists of two parts. The first describes the events that took place on Earth from a few thousand years to a few million years after the present day. The climate on Earth is getting warmer and warmer, oceans are slowly disappearing. People are gradually moving towards the poles, becoming more and more barbaric. Mankind is steadily dying out because of the lack of water, until there are only a few decades left.

The second part starts in a small village in the desert. There is only one man left in the village: young Ull. A very old woman, the only company for the man, died just before. Ull starts a journey in search of other people using his knowledge of old legends. In a few days, extremely thirsty and tired, he finds a small settlement. Ull enters one of the houses and finds nothing but a dried-up old skeleton. Depressed, he starts searching for water and finds a well with a little water in it. Trying to reach the string to pull up a dip-bucket, he falls into the well and dies. And after the death of the last man, mankind totally has vanished.

''Bukowski'' follows Los Angeles poet Charles Bukowski to San Francisco on 21 November 1973, for a poetry reading. The full 60-minute documentary begins with footage of Bukowski in his Los Angeles home and neighborhood as he discusses his history as a postal worker as well as his approach to and perspective on poetry. The film then shows him flying with Linda King to San Francisco for the poetry reading followed by interactions with attendees after the show. One night the window of his room is broken during a fight between some guests and then a fight between Charles and Linda causes her to leave. Interviews follow with Liza and Linda about their relationship with Charles. Bukowski is shown betting at the track and explaining his betting strategy.

"A cinema-verite portrait of Los Angeles poet Charles Bukowski. At age 53, Bukowski is enjoying his first major success (a San Francisco poetry reading nets him 400 dollars). Until 1969, Bukowski worked in the Post Office to support his writing, and the camera captures his reminiscences of those days as he walks around his Los Angeles neighborhood. Blunt language and a sly appreciation of his life form the core of the program, which includes observations by and about the women in his life" — TV guide, 25 November 1973.

Ji-ho (Ha Ji-won) is a promising pianist who has been studying and playing abroad for years, but her career takes a blow when she is struck with stage fright. Upon returning home, Ji-ho is reunited with her old school friend, Seung-ryong (Cha Tae-hyun), who saw her returning home and they eventually met while Seung-ryong was busy trying to gaze at the stars in the middle of the day. Ji-ho then learnt how Seung-ryong become mentally disabled through her aunt and she takes initiative to rekindle their friendship.

Seung-ryong often sells toast near the high school of his younger sister where he can be near to her sister who he guards with his life as that was the gift from his mother. Ji-in (Park Ha-sun) hates the fact that her brother is selling toast near the school and frequently chastise him for being mentally disabled.

In a flashback of a memory of Ji-ho, she mistaken that Seung-ryong burnt the piano that was donated to the middle school which eventually led to Ji-ho to be mad at Seung-ryong but the fire was actually started by Sang-soon who was smoking near the piano while the rest were having physical activity in the field but all the kids blamed Seung-ryong for causing the fire but Seung-ryong mother believed that he didn't started the fire.

Ji-ho then walks surrounding the area where she lived as a child and frequents a café that was run by Sang-soo (Park Hee-soon) which was coincidentally went to the middle school as Ji-ho and Seung-ryong. In the café, one of the worker is fond of Sang-soo but she is held hostage by a gangster whom she owes money to and resort to sell her body to repay the debt which causes Sang-soo to be angry which led to him drinking accompanied by Seung-ryong.

Sang-soon eventually wakes up at Seung-ryong house and told Ji-in (Park Ha-sun) to consume the breakfast that her older brother prepared for her but she was adamant that she hates toast. One night whilst Ji-ho was walking in the snowy road, she overheard Seung-ryong sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and realized that Seung-ryong were the one who helped her performed the song in front of the church she was attending which she later told Seung-ryong.

One day, Seung-ryong noticed that Ji-in (Park Ha-sun) was tardy while going to school and learning that she was sick through the conversation from her class-mates. Seung-ryong barged into her school and clarified to her teacher that she is her sister. Ji-ho then gifted Seung-ryong a new pair of shoes which he eventually cherishes.

Ji-in eventually was told by her attending doctor of the sacrifice that Seung-ryong have made since he was a child selling toast and eventually the two siblings become closer and eventually her illness was cured.

Sang-soo (Park Hee-soon) later falls into trouble with some gangsters after trying to safe her loved one from being in trouble and the mob boss sent someone to eventually kill Sang-soon but the two hit-men didn't know what Sang-soo looks like and eventually attacked Seung-ryong and he eventually succumb to his injury.

Upon learning of the passing of her older brother, she eventually saw what made Seung-ryong be so positive and have such strong will to live. Sang-soo eventually take over the toast shop from Seung-ryong whilst Ji-ho who were able to recover from her stage fright played in a grand hall with attendance with ease and eventually she paid homage to what Seung-ryong had done for her to recover from the stage fright.

First Act

The first act (a prelude) has the old king working alone in his private room when his young son, Perival, enters. After the two discuss such subjects as love, marriage, governing the kingdom, and the inevitability of death, the conversation turns to a door behind a tapestry. Perival says there are rumors that anyone who walks through the ivory door will be killed by the demons in the passage inside. The king says that he does not know whether that is true or false, because he has never been through the door and does not know anyone who has. He shows Perival the door and warns his son to not tamper with things beyond his understanding when he becomes king.

Second Act

Perival, now a young man who has been crowned king upon his father's death, frets over his upcoming marriage to Princess Lillia, the daughter of a king from a nearby land. His sergeant-at-arms Baram comforts him, saying it is natural to be nervous about a marriage to a woman he has never met, and suggesting he should do something to distract himself. King Perival decides to go through the ivory door, and Baram reluctantly agrees to the plan, but only after Perival agrees to return within three hours or be declared dead.

Behind the door, Perival finds a tunnel. His clothes become dirty and torn as he walks through the tunnel, but he is not otherwise injured. He emerges into bright sunlight beside a nearby river, and decides to walk back overland to the castle. Along the way, he is distracted by mummers who are traveling to the castle to perform at the upcoming wedding. Then Perival hears the alarm bells from the castle and a crier announcing the death of the king. He returns to the castle but is not recognized because his clothes are torn and soiled. When he claims to be the King, he is called an impostor. He protests that he went through the tunnel behind the ivory door, but Baram calls him a "demon" and orders his arrest.

Princess Lillia confronts Baram and demands to know why the king was arrested. Baram says that it was not the king, but rather a demon who had emerged from behind the ivory door to impersonate the king and lead the kingdom astray. Lillia is convinced that the stories about the ivory door are nonsense and before Baram can stop her, she opens the door and walks through.

Third Act

Lillia, now dirty and wearing torn clothing, is thrown into Perival's dungeon cell. They do not recognize each other, as they have never met, but soon realize that they are the king and his betrothed. They are eventually let out of the cell, and taken to the throne room, where Baram is standing before a large crowd. Baram accuses Lillia and Perival of being demons, and Perival insists that there is nothing behind the ivory door but a very ordinary passage. No one listens to Perival.

Eventually, Baram speaks with Perival and Lillia privately. He tells them that he knows who they are, but the people's fear of the ivory door is too great to allow them to believe that there was really nothing there all along; they believe in the demons and want to kill them. Perival protests that he knows there are no demons because he didn't see any when he went through the passage. "Do not take our stories away!" is Baram's response.

Baram says he will do what he can to save Perival and Lillia's lives, but they will have to leave and never come back. Lillia protests that she is a princess and knows nothing of survival and Perival is likely no better; Baram says that he is sure they will find a way because they have seen the truth. Perival says that at least he and Lillia will be together, but his words ring hollow because, as Lillia points out, they only just met that day and if they aren't getting married for politics, they should see if they like each other before getting married. Baram assumes the mantle of Protector of the Kingdom and orders the "demons" exiled.

Some productions include an epilogue, in which an old man wearing a king's crown listens to a young boy ask if the stories about how Baram the Great defended the kingdom from demons are true.

The TV movie is about a woman, Beth Hammersmith, who attends Fallbridge College for Girls under the name Karen Oxford, to find out why her sister, who attended the college, is believed to have committed suicide. Once she is enrolled, she soon discovers a Satanic cult of witches, who call themselves "The Five", who want Beth to join the cult. The Dean is played by Kate Jackson, who portrayed the character of Roberta Lockhart in the original 1973 film.

Danielle (Julie Benz), Tiffany (Nicole Bilderback) and Brooke (Monica Keena) are the three richest, most popular girls in their high school, nicknamed "The Huns" due to the exclusive housing estate they live in, Hundred Pines. Danielle and Tiffany are cruel and spiteful, whereas Brooke is kind but is easily intimidated and manipulated by Danielle and Tiffany. While the leader Danielle is used to getting what she wants, she is unable to attract lonesome ex-jock Drew (Jonathan Brandis) due to his mourning over the death of his girlfriend Charity Chase (Tanja Reichert). Although Charity was believed to have committed suicide, this wasn't the case as Danielle, Tiffany and Brooke lured Charity to a cliff, hoping to terrorize her into breaking up with Drew, but ended up killing her by accident.

A year to the day of Charity's death, Romanian foreign exchange student Katarina (Suzanna Urszuly) arrives during the class of clumsy Media Arts Professor Mr. Chauncey (Christopher Lloyd). Katarina and Drew immediately become friends. Jealous from this, Danielle tries to do everything in her power to stop this friendship developing into love. In an attempt to get close to Drew, Danielle works at the elderly home where Drew is also working. While there, she is assigned to look after an old lady (Janet Leigh) whom she believes is catatonic. Danielle, Tiffany and Brooke use this opportunity to raid the old lady's cupboard and eat her box of chocolates.

In the following two weeks, the three girls begin to notice that something strange is happening to them, they are receiving back pains and their hair is turning gray - to their horror they discover that they are aging at a rapid speed. They believe this has something to do with Katarina whom they now think is in fact Charity's ghost coming back to seek revenge. The three decide the only way to regain their youth is to kill Drew to let his spirit be with Charity. On the night of Danielle's 18th birthday party, the three lure Drew to the same gorge where Charity died and attempt to shoot him. Katarina shows up and says she is not Charity's ghost. Danielle briefly ponders this but decides to shoot them both anyway. However, Brooke finally stands up for herself and says that they have gone too far. She tries to prevent Danielle from pulling the trigger to which Drew disarms her due to Danielle being frail and weak and also distracted by a party guest dressed in a clown suit from her party (who is secretly Chauncey) who she shoots, and both Tiffany and Danielle are overcome from exhaustion.

Now in the old age home, Tiffany is hooked on a life support machine and Danielle is barely alive. At that moment, Mrs. Witt (the old woman who Danielle was meant to be caring for) shows up and reveals that she was Charity's grandmother. Also, while she had been briefly unable to speak due to a stroke, she had very good hearing and sight and overheard Danielle bragging about Charity's murder. Witt then reveals she poisoned the chocolate box (knowing that the girls would eat it) with an aging chemical (thanks to her late roommate's husband that worked with biological warfare technology); Brooke wasn't dying as she demonstrated self-control while Danielle and Tiffany had eaten most of the poisoned chocolate. Tiffany presumably dies during Witt's revelation, and Danielle flips the bird to Witt in response and then dies shortly afterwards.

At Danielle and Tiffany's funeral, everyone is in attendance, including Drew and Katarina (now an official couple) attends. Brooke is also in attendance after a plastic surgeon's operation to try and improve her appearance, but only so much could be done and she still looks fifty years old. Chauncey forgives her as he knew she wasn't as cruel as Danielle and Tiffany, and she regrets what she has done. Danielle and Tiffany are then revealed to be in a luxurious room with their youth restored and are convinced that they are in heaven. But it is revealed that they are actually in hell as they are forced to forever endure the company of their school's most annoying dork, Jonathan Wharton (Aaron Paul), who is completely devoted to Danielle's every move. As such, he reveals that he committed suicide just to be with her forever and briefly morphs into the devil, to her and Tiffany's horror.

"Vitamins" begins with an unnamed male narrator telling the story of how his wife starts a home business selling vitamins. His wife Patti starts selling vitamins because she wants a job for her self-respect. Patti takes her job very seriously and she feels hurt when girls quit on her. One night one of her employees, a girl named Sheila makes a pass at Patti by telling her she loves Patti. Then she grabs Patti's breast. Patti tells her she "doesn’t swing that way", but says that she loves Sheila, just not in the way Sheila loves her.

After that incident, the narrator describes a party that he and Patti hold for all of Patti's employees. The vitamin business was not doing as well as before so Patti holds a party to cheer all her employees up. All the girls are dancing with other girls, but the narrator dances with a girl named Donna. Sheila is the first person to get drunk and pass out. The narrator and Patti move Sheila's sleeping body out onto the porch and they forget about her. The party winds down and the narrator makes attempts to have sex with Donna. Donna tells him not now and she leaves the party. Sheila wakes up and walks into the house. After complaining, she asks the narrator where Patti is and that Patti has to take her to the hospital. The narrator says that Patti is asleep and he kicks Sheila out of the house. The next morning Patti asks the narrator where Sheila is and he tells her that she went to Portland. Patti complains of dreaming of vitamins and that her life is becoming consumed by vitamins.

A couple of days after the party the narrator invites Donna to a bar called the Off-Broadway for a drink. He describes it as a "spade" bar. While there, a man named Benny approaches them. Benny walks over with his friend Nelson, a veteran of Vietnam who has just arrived home. Nelson jokes about how Donna and the narrator are not married and that they must be good friends. To tease them, he pulls out a box with a cut off ear from a Vietnamese soldier. Khaki, the owner of the bar walks over asks if everything is alright. Benny assures him that everything is fine. Nelson then offers Donna a couple hundred dollars to 'French' him (perform oral sex). The narrator and Donna leave, disgusted. While in his car, Donna remarks that she could have used the money and that she is deciding to leave for Portland.

The narrator returns home. He pours himself a glass of Scotch and he takes it into his bathroom. Patti wakes up and runs into the bathroom, fully clothed. She yells at the narrator saying that he let her oversleep and that she has to get to work to sell vitamins. The narrator tells her to go back to sleep. The story ends with the narrator commenting that all the medicine was falling out of the medicine cabinet.

A fictionalized version of Custer's Last Stand, set at a real building site in Paris, France. Marcello Mastroianni stars as General George Armstrong Custer. Buffalo Bill Cody (Michel Piccoli) portrays a charlatan media impresario. Ugo Tognazzi gives a fictional portrayal of Mitch Bouyer one of Custer's Native American scouts, who runs a business selling Native artifacts made in sweatshops by white women. Alain Cuny plays Sitting Bull who must defend his people when their apartment building homes are destroyed by the Union Cavalry. The film climaxes with the Battle of the Little Bighorn held in a large construction excavation where Les Halles market once was.

Set in the early 1930s, Larita meets John Whittaker in Monaco. They marry and he takes his bride to the family mansion near Flintham in rural Nottinghamshire to meet his mother, Veronica Whittaker and father, Major Jim Whittaker and his two sisters, Hilda and Marion. Veronica, already predisposed to dislike her new daughter-in-law, is further disappointed to find that Larita is American and, like Jim, speaks fluent French. Larita also meets John's former girlfriend and neighbour Sarah Hurst, who is gracious about the marriage.

Larita makes some inadvertent gaffes, accidentally killing the family chihuahua and giving some joking advice to Hilda that unfortunately results in embarrassment to, and enmity from, the sisters. Sarah comes to the Whittakers' parties, and to play tennis, accompanied by her brother Philip, on whom Hilda has a crush. Philip, however, is infatuated with Larita, which further angers Hilda. Larita reveals she has been previously married and remains calm in the face of her mother-in-law's disdain. To Larita's disappointment, John is not eager to leave the estate so that they can find a home of their own. Larita is bored and miserable in the countryside and hates blood sports like hunting, and any of the entertainment that country English people seem to enjoy. She reads ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'', shocking the female relatives, and she will not play tennis. She dislikes Veronica's stuffy decor, her constant entertaining of her friends, and the overcooked food. She tries to get along with Veronica who refuses to accept her and resents her attempts to bring American traditions into the home.

Veronica and her hunting party discover John and Larita having sex in an outbuilding. Larita becomes increasingly isolated and demoralized by her mother-in-law's derision, verbal attacks and dirty tricks. Apart from Jim, Larita's only friends are the servants, whom she treats better than Veronica does. Larita retreats to Jim's workshop to work on his motorcycle. Still troubled from having lost all his men in the Great War, Jim has lost interest in the estate. Any love between him and his wife has long since disappeared. The Whittakers have fallen on hard times. John loses his independence and seems immature as he is drawn into family life. John's affection for Larita seems to be waning, as he complains about his wife to Sarah, who finds his overture inappropriate.

Hilda receives a newspaper cutting from her uncle in America revealing information about Larita's first husband, an older man dying of cancer. Veronica and her daughters assume that Larita had married her first husband for his money, and even imply she killed him. John withdraws from Larita, while Jim scolds his daughters for their cruelty. Larita explains that she loved her first husband and helped him to die on his own terms and end his suffering.

At Veronica's Christmas party, John refuses to dance with Larita, so Jim dances a tango with her. She determines to leave the marriage, and on her way out of the mansion, she apologises to Sarah for having interrupted her relationship with John. She hopes that Sarah will take John back. Veronica and her daughters confront Larita one last time, and an argument ensues in which Veronica and Larita trade barbs, and Larita advises the daughters to leave and see the world, in their own eyes, while they still can. Larita destroys a large statue as she leaves the house, with a heartbroken John onlooking. Jim goes with her in her car and Furber wishes them both well.

In May 1940, as the German invasion of the Netherlands is under way, the British government decides to send a team to the Netherlands on board to secure stocks of industrial diamonds before the invaders can get to them. Accordingly, two Dutch diamond experts, Jan Smit (Peter Finch) and Walter Keyser (Alexander Knox), with a British Army Intelligence officer, Major Dillon (Tony Britton), are dropped by ship off the Dutch coast. They survive a German air raid and escape the attention of a suspicious Dutch policeman. Needing a car, they commandeer one driven by Anna (Eva Bartok), who is trying to commit suicide because she blames herself for the death of her Jewish fiance's parents. Anna turns out to be a member of the Dutch security forces and agrees to help the mission.

The four of them drive to Amsterdam where they meet Jan's father, Johan (Malcolm Keen), at his diamond business house. Johan agrees to try to persuade other dealers to bring their diamonds later that day for transport to Britain. However, many of the stones are stored in a time-locked bank vault which won't open for 24 hours because of the Whit Monday holiday so they recruit Dillon's contacts, a Dutch resistance group, to break in.

Fifth columnist elements in the Dutch army launch an attack outside the bank but the group manage to break into the vault and recover the diamonds. Jan kills the leader of the fifth columnists, a Dutch army lieutenant (Tim Turner). While the resistance fighters withstand the attack, the three agents and Anna make their escape. They drive back to the coast, dodging a German air attack on the way, but find that their boatmaster has been killed. They commandeer a tugboat to take them back to the waiting destroyer, but Anna elects to remain in the Netherlands and work with the nascent resistance movement.

Shizuku Kanzaki is a junior employee in a Japanese beverages company, Taiyo ("Sun" in Japanese) Beer mainly focusing on selling beers. As the story opens, he receives news that his father, from whom he is estranged, has died. His father was the world-renowned wine critic Yutaka Kanzaki, who owned a vast and famous wine collection. Summoned to the family home, a splendid European style mansion, to hear the reading of his father's will, Shizuku learns that, in order to take ownership of his legacy, he must correctly identify, and describe in the manner of his late father, thirteen wines, the first twelve known as the "Twelve Apostles" and the thirteenth known as the "Drops of God" ("Kami no Shizuku" in the original Japanese edition and "Les Gouttes de Dieu" in the French translation), that his father has described in his will. He also learns that he has a competitor in this, a renowned young wine critic called Issei Tomine, who his father has apparently recently adopted as his other son.

Shizuku has never drunk wine, in part a reaction against the ruling passion of his late father, nor had any previous knowledge about wines. However, with strong senses of taste and smell, and an uncanny ability to describe his experiences from those senses, Shizuku submerges himself in the world of wine and tries to solve the mysteries of the 13 wines and defeat Issei. In this, he is also helped by knowledge gained from his time as a child with his father, and supported by his friends, including trainee sommelier Miyabi Shinohara and colleagues in the newly formed wine department of his company, which he now joins.

'''Side one: NIGHTSIDE—DECEMBER 31, 1999''' (24:10)

• '''Mark's Awakening (Midnight)''' (4:40) Solo astronaut Mark Time, launched from Earth in 1979 on an exploratory voyage to "Planet X", returns to Earth just before midnight on New Year's Eve, 1999. Mark is awakened from hibernation by the rocket's computer system.
• '''''The Years In Your Ears'' with Jim & Nellie Houseafire (recorded in May 1995)''' (6:30) A prerecorded history video plays to bring Mark up-to-date on the events that have taken place on Earth during the latter half of the 20th century while he was away.
• '''Tweeny and "The Welcome Home" (pre-programmed in October 1995)''' (10:55) Mark is unable to communicate with his Earth landing site, but is greeted on landing at the abandoned launch facility by an aged caretaker robot named "Tweeny", the sole inhabitant of what is now the "President's Memorial Space Museum". Society has forgotten all about Mark; there are only holographic recordings of an Air Force general and deceased President William D. Gazatchorn (who sounds like Richard Nixon) left to welcome and congratulate him on accomplishing his mission. As Mark resigns himself to his imminent retirement, he is drugged unconscious by Tweeny, who is then deactivated.
• '''Manny, "Shortstop", and Lady Ann (Dawn)''' (2:05) Mark is kidnapped by Manny and Shortstop, two robotic minions of a mysterious "Mr. M", along with the holographic recordings Mark made of his voyage to Planet X.

'''Side two: DAYSIDE—DECEMBER 31, 1999''' (16:45)

• '''Consumer Instruction Section with Patsy Pending & Bruno Uvula (Manditory)''' (2:10) The commercially prepared instruction header from one of Mark's holographic recording tapes is heard.
• '''Mark, Mr. Motion, and The Memory Loops with Manny and "Shortstop" aboard the ''Gilda'' (Noon)''' (8:05) Mark awakens aboard Mr. Motion's zeppelin, to a hologram recording of his landing on Planet X. Motion tells Mark he plans to sell the recordings as entertainment. Mark protests that his research should be made available to the news media and freely disseminated to the public, but Mr. Motion tells him that Mark's news would be judged as no more important than any of the other stories continually published by an "all news, all the time" media. Mark protests his information is "not entertainment, it's real", to which Mr. Motion counters that Mark simply went on location and took photos: that's entertainment. Motion brings the zeppelin above the theme park, "Panoramaland 2000" (similar to 2008 Las Vegas) that features life-sized holographic replicas of world-famous buildings and monuments, and he begins to show Mark's holograms to the public. Mark's holograms combine with the theme park holograms, and the squid-like inhabitants of Planet X appear to cavort around the theme park. Mark escapes from the zeppelin and is interviewed by reporter Chiquita Bandana.
• '''Emergency Program Over-Ride with Jim Dundee and W. C. Bingle (Live from Panoramaland 2000)''' (5:55) Mark's interview is interrupted by an emergency bulletin by Dr. Progresso Sweetheart, who announces that a black hole is approaching the Earth.
• '''The System vs. The Black Hole (New Year's Eve)''' (:45) The black hole puts Mark into a time loop, and he finds himself back in his spaceship just before midnight, repeating his landing approach to Earth.

Sheriff Lundy is called into action to solve the mystery of the unexplained forces at work on the Dill Farm. A supernatural tale of extreme horror, where even the confines of the grave aren’t able to contain the brutal spirit of serial killer Edgar Dill, and his legion of monstrous Treehuggers.

During the Irish War of Independence, a five-year-old girl went out in search of the mysterious Demon's Castle. She hoped to recruit the services of the infamous Black Swordsman, who was portrayed as a dark, albeit skilled, swordsman. She wanted the swordsman to protect her village from an imminent attack by English soldiers; however, the Black Swordsman would only accept a particular genre of books as payment for his services. Upon receiving the book, the swordsman immersed himself in reading the novel, the cover of which shows that its title is "Denny's comedy". The second night in the castle, while reading the book on top of a tree, was the only time that the girl saw him smiling. While she anxiously waited for the Black Swordsman to finish the novel, the English approached the Irish village. As an attack was imminent, the Black Swordsman finished the novel and rushed to intercept the raid and quickly finished off the English soldiers. The bodies disappeared; the girl knew where to, but the swordsman told her not to not tell anybody about it, nor the way he smiled while reading the novel, or he would kill her and devour her. As he's about to leave the village, the girl runs to him to thank him. When turning to her, it is shown that the Swordsman has red stains on the lower part of his face and his neck.

David and Elizabeth Beck, both 25 years old and married for less than a year, are celebrating the anniversary of their first kiss at a secluded lake when Elizabeth is abducted and later murdered. Although the killer is found and prosecuted, David never gets over the tragic incident. On the eighth anniversary of Elizabeth's death, two long-dead bodies are unearthed at the same lake where the kidnapping occurred. In addition, David receives a shocking email from an unidentified source that mentions a phrase only David and Elizabeth should know.

"The End" is a response to the Argentine epic ''Martín Fierro'', which Borges had discussed in a long essay published earlier that year. In the story, a man who presumably has had a crippling stroke winds up half seeing and half hearing a definitive fight between a "negro" guitarist who has been dwelling in the man's store and a mysterious stranger who turns out to be Martin Fierro whom the negro has been waiting for. The story ends with Fierro's death at the hands of the negro.

Literary scholars debate on the interpretation that Fierro is a Christ-like figure. He himself has faced a myriad of trials and tribulations, and now has to face them.

Devchata is a romantic comedy set in an isolated Russian logging camp, in the late 1950s. A pig-tailed young girl, Tosya, arrives from school with a cooking degree, and joins a group of other women who work in jobs supporting the loggers. Tosya is assigned as a cook for the camp.

Once in her dorm-like room, she cheerfully prepares herself a meal of tea and a giant loaf of bread slathered with jam; all of it from her roommates' food stockpile. When the four other girls return after a day at work, they are generally taken by Tosya's youth and good nature. However, one woman is upset that she is eating her food without permission, and a fight ensues. When the dorm-mate makes some rude comments, Tosya throws a boot at her head without hesitation. Tosya and her roommates go to the dancehall together. At first, no one will dance with her, but eventually she begins to dance with another very tall girl who is also passed up by several young men.

Meanwhile, two groups of loggers engage in a friendly dispute; one has just lost their position as the most productive in the camp, and their portraits are being taken down from a "wall of honor" by an official, who replaces them with pictures of the rival group. They leaders of the two groups play checkers, and in order to concentrate, Ilya, the leader of their group, calls out for the music to be turned off. A very tall and imposing companion carries out his order. However, Tosya, who is now enjoying her dance, marches over to the phonograph and puts the music back on. Ilya calls for the music to be turned back off, and Tosya, to the amusement of the onlookers, seems prepared to fight him in order to keep the music playing.

Impressed by Tosya's tenacity, Ilya approaches her and asks her to dance. After telling him to first throw away his cigarette and take off his hat, she proclaims that she doesn't want to dance with "your type."

Following this episode, Ilya bets with Filya, the leader of the rival group, that within a week he can win Tosya's heart. The winner gets the other's hat. Ilya and his gang quickly make a plan, they will first insult Tosya's cooking to break her down. They dramatically throws Tosya's stew into the snow, proclaiming it to be inedible, and bringing her to tears. Despite the ill-treatment, Tosya carries some mushroom soup to the men a few days later to their work-site in the forest. The starving men can no longer resist, and Ilya and Tosya begin to show some real affection for one another. We also learn that Tosya is an orphan and that Ilya is interested in exploring ways to increase the productivity of the logging operation through new techniques and technologies.

One night, Tosya's dorm-mate Anfisa reveals to the other girls the bet that Ilya has made, and there is a debate over whether to break the news to Tosya. The other girls want to keep Tosya's faith in men and love alive. When Ilya asks Tosya to a big dance, however, the girls decide that they must tell her the truth. It is a heartbreaking scene, especially when Tosya asks quietly, "And the bet was just for a hat?" Within minutes her despair turns to indignation, and she marches off to the dance. When they reach the dance, after she calls over Filya, she asks him point blank whether there was any bet, and when he sheepishly admits that there was, she grabs Filya's hat and shoves it into Ilya's hands. She then runs out into the night (without a coat) and sobs behind a wood pile as Ilya searches for her and calls out her name.

In the weeks that follow, Ilya attempts to convince her that the bet was just a stupid prank, that he is sorry, and that he really does love her. But Tosya will not be easily swayed.

Eventually, though, during a scene in which the entire camp is pitching in to build a newly married couple their own house, Tosya and Ilya find themselves in an attic, each with a box of nails. This simple moment leads to their reconciliation, and we leave them snuggling outside on a log, flirtatiously exploring a first kiss and talking about their future.

In the novel, Arturo, a small boy, grows up on the island of Procida in the Bay of Naples. The island is the location of a penitentiary. Arturo lives in a gloomy mansion bequeathed to his father. The boy's education comes from books dedicated to male hero worship and chivalry in the mansion's library. Arturo idolizes his dead mother. She died giving birth to him. He worships his tall, blond father, who is often absent. Arturo is a natural athlete who enjoys boating and swimming on the island.

The only creature with whom he can share joy is his dog, Immacolatella. The building of the same name, including its historic fountain, is a famous edifice that stands at the water’s edge at the port of Naples. As Arturo's mother died giving birth to him, his beloved dog dies, giving birth to her only litter of pups.

When Arturo is 14, his father brings home a new bride, Nunziatella, a woman only two years older than Arturo. Hearing his parents make love at night disturbs the boy. Soon Arturo falls in love with Nunziatella, who is attracted to him but rejects his sexual advances. Nunziatella gives birth to a blond child who, for a time, replaces Arturo in her affections. Later, Arturo discovers that his father has fallen in love with a prisoner in the island's penitentiary. In the novel's finale, the convict is released from the penitentiary. Feeling betrayed by his father, Arturo leaves the enchanted island for the mainland.

Category:1957 novels Category:20th-century Italian novels Category:Novels set on islands Category:Novels set in Naples Category:Strega Prize-winning works Category:Giulio Einaudi Editore books

Death envelopes the planet of Antikon. And it is sought after by the Dar Traders.

At a royal ball on an alien world, time is out of joint. And the spiders are breaking through.

A lieutenant (known in the book only as "The Lieutenant") becomes dictator of England after a world war. The Lieutenant leads a ragtag army fighting for survival in a Europe ravaged by 30 years of atomic, biological and conventional warfare. As a result of the most recent war, a form of biological warfare called ''soldier’s sickness'' has ravaged England, and the U.S. was devastated by nuclear war. At the start of the novel, a quarantine placed on England due to the soldier's sickness prevents The Lieutenant from returning to England from his encampment in France. The Lieutenant commands the Fourth Brigade, which is composed of one hundred and sixty-eight soldiers from multiple nations, leading them throughout France in search of food, supplies, arms and ammunition. Soon, Captain Malcolm informs The Lieutenant that all field officers are being recalled to General Headquarters (GHQ) with their brigades to report to General Victor, the commanding officer at GHQ.

Upon the brigade's arrival at GHQ, The Lieutenant is informed by General Victor and his adjutant Colonel Smythe that he is to be reassigned and will be stripped of his command. He is confined to his quarters and is told his entire brigade will be broken apart and assimilated into another brigade. Meanwhile, in the barracks at G.H.Q., the Fourth Brigade learns of crucial news through back channels: the existence of a vaccine for the soldier's sickness, and General Victor's plans for their brigade. The men decide to rebel, and break through the defenses of the barracks, free The Lieutenant and kill Captain Malcolm. The Fourth Brigade successfully escapes G.H.Q. in France and begins to make their way to London, along with other soldiers who are dissatisfied with General Victor's command. A battle ensues between General Victor's men and The Lieutenant's troops. The Lieutenant and his expanded Fourth Brigade eventually successfully take control of London and subsequently all of England and Wales.

The Lieutenant's government runs smoothly for years, until the battleship USS ''New York'' arrives from the U.S. carrying two United States Senators and Captain Johnson, captain of the ''New York'' and commander of the U.S. fleet. Under threat from the U.S. battleship, The Lieutenant negotiates terms to transfer power to the Senators' associates – General Victor and Colonel Smythe. If anything happens to General Victor and Colonel Smythe, the country would be controlled by its officer corps, chaired by the Lieutenant's confidant, Swinburne. In addition, The Lieutenant requests that immigration of Americans to England be kept to no more than 100,000 per month, and demands that a favorable price be set for the purchase of land from their English owners. After these terms are established, The Lieutenant opens fire on General Victor and his men and a battle ensues. General Victor, Colonel Smythe, The Lieutenant, and several of The Lieutenant's men are killed. Years later The Lieutenant's men still control England, and a flag flies honoring his memory. A memorial plaque at Byward Gate on Tower Hill reads: "When that command remains, no matter what happens to its officer, he has not failed."

American marine biologist Zachary Wallace went on an expedition into the Sargasso Sea to witness giant squids. While there, the sonar picked up a reading that the military had named the Bloop. As the bloops closed in, the three passengers aboard the submarine witnessed the giant squid mercilessly get torn apart by a number of unidentified creatures. The submarine's acrylic bubble suffered severe damage as Zachary, Hank, and the pilot quickly race to the surface. Before reaching the research boat, their submarine's bubble pops, allowing the unforgiving Atlantic to flood in killing the pilot and drowning Wallace as he pushed Hank to safety. Miraculously, Wallace survived, and sadly, after returning to South Florida to take his position at Florida Atlantic University, he finds out that David blamed him for the destruction of the sub and the death of their pilot. Fired from the university, Zachary's life goes downhill, spending all of his savings on drinks and in nightclubs. Weeks after, he receives word that his biological father is on trial for murder. His father, Angus Wallace, lives in a village on the shores of Loch Ness in Scotland. Zachary has not seen his father since his mother divorced him and moved back to the United States seventeen years ago. However, he agrees to go visit Angus when his half brother says he is needed in the trial. Zachary reconnects with some old friends back home and prepares to help his father. However, this is complicated by the fact that during the trial, Angus testifies that he is not guilty of the murder and that he actually witnessed the victim being attacked by the Loch Ness Monster. The British Tabloids go berserk and soon the Loch is full of boats and crews searching for Nessie. Desperate to salvage his academic reputation, Zachary must discover the truth among his friends, family, the mysterious Black Knights (a branch of the Knights Templar) and other secrets.

Sir John and Jeremy are sent to East Anglia to investigate smuggling, but when the smugglers turn to murder, Sir John takes it as a brazen assault on the law.

Category:2001 American novels Category:Sir John Fielding series Category:G. P. Putnam's Sons books

Dr. V is intent on bringing the world to its knees by infecting it with his Rage serum and transforming all of mankind into mutated, murderous monsters.

The terrifying tale of how Carleton Hendricks becomes the merciless Captain Howdy, and the sadistic path of revenge he takes against the seven individuals responsible.

A new nano-technology developed to cure Alzheimer's disease (the Project: Born Again chip) is somehow bringing the dead back to life with an insatiable hunger for human flesh, and it's going to take three “enhanced” female government ops known as the G.R.A.V.E. (Genetically Refined And Virally Enhanced) Grrrls to solve the mystery and put the dead back to bed. But that only raises more questions- both to the zombie plague and their own origins.

Set three years before DWTS I, an Organization Soldier named Michael Labou leads a crew that includes his longtime friends Danielle and Malcolm. Charged with tracking down and capturing a person wanted by The Organization, it's anything but business as usual on the streets of New Marshall.

Vampires - Demons - Zombies - Werewolves - The Mob.

In Victorian London, Thomas Brewster is haunted by his dead mother, as well as the Doctor.

Vaudeville era magician Presto DiGiotagione is famous for a hat trick wherein he pulls his rabbit Alec Azam out of his top hat. A hungry and irritated Alec is locked in a cage, unable to reach his carrot. After Presto returns from eating a meal, he begins practicing his act with Alec, revealing that his top hat is magically connected to a wizard's hat kept backstage with Alec. Anything that passes into either hat will emerge from the other.

Intending to feed Alec, Presto realizes that his show is starting and rushes onstage instead. Alec refuses to cooperate with the act until he is given the carrot, and turns the hats against Presto in a variety of ways that lead to escalating degrees of humiliation, such as letting him catch his finger in a mousetrap, hit himself in the eye with an egg, and get his head sucked into a ventilation shaft; each of these mishaps is interpreted by the audience as being part of the act. Presto continues to antagonize Alec at the same time, first turning the carrot into a flower and later smashing it to pulp with a piece of a ladder, resulting in Alec sticking Presto's hand in an electrical socket via the wizard's hat.

Fed up with Alec's behavior, Presto storms backstage after him, but releases a set of hanging stage props and gets his foot caught in a rigging rope. He is yanked up into the fly space above the stage; when his foot comes loose, he falls and finds himself in danger of being crushed by both the props and a falling piano. Realizing this, Alec uses the hats' magic to save Presto, earning the audience's wild approval for the both of them. Presto gratefully gives Alec the carrot (having used his magician skills to return it to its original form) and starts to give him second billing on the posters advertising the act.

In ''Moon'', the year is 2058 and the United States has established a series of stations on the Moon to perform scientific experiments and construct a Mars launch facility. An extraordinary discovery has been uncovered at one of the dig sites, a sealed hatch leading beneath the Moon's surface. The player assumes the role of Major Kane, the leader of a special task force sent to investigate the mysterious hatch and reveal its secrets.

The player controls Major Kane, who is en route to a Moon base, where several mysterious hatches are uncovered. Upon Arrival, Kane has a brief conference with General Lambert. Alpha Team's helmet feed is seen on the secondary Monitors, when a burst of energy knocks out communications, and kills the members of Alpha team. En route to the hatch, Kane comes across a mysterious canister filled with a blue liquid, which he unknowingly inhales, and loses consciousness. Hours later, Kane awakens to find his vitals the same as a world class athlete. Kane proceeds to the hatch, and finds crates of canisters identical to the one he found, earlier. After Kane destroys the boss, the core is set to self-destruct. Kane escapes in the nick of time, only to find the Moon base overrun with sentries. Kane then secures the garage, and heads to the next hatch, via a Moon rover, referred to as the Lola-RR10. in this next hatch, he finds the shocking truth about the canisters: they contain human organ extracts. Disgusted, he leaves, only to be abducted by a spaceship. Kane then must fight his way off, destroying the ship in the process. A mysterious frequency is found, apparently friendly, helps Kane navigate through the maze of a lab. Kane then gets access to a shuttle, which takes him to an urbanized Saturn. Kane then fights his way to the supreme commander, which levels the aliens' civilization. The game ends with Kane warping back to Earth, followed by three enemy spaceships.

''My Brother, My Executioner'', tackles the narrative about two half brothers – ''Luis Asperri'' and ''Victor''. ''Luis'' is the biological, yet illegitimate, son of ''Don Vicente Asperri'', a rich feudal landowner. At a young age, Luis was taken by Don Vicente from his underprivileged mother and half-brother, Victor, who were both living in Sipnget, Rosales in Pangasinan, a province in the Philippines. After studying in Manila, Luis became a writer and editor for a radical left-wing magazine. When Luis was finally able to return to Rosales, he found out that his half-brother, ''Vic'' – the nickname of Victor - became a full-pledged leader of rebels who were against the existence of rich landowners. Thus, the brothers meet again both “as allies and as adversaries” because of their opposing social beliefs, views, status and principles. These conflicts are their mutual misfortunes in life as brothers. Luis identifies with the luxury offered by city life, while Vic detests these materialistic privileges. Furthermore, although Luis considers himself as a liberal, he is more like his father, Don Vicente. He followed the will of Don Vicente by marrying ''Trining'', his cousin – instead of a girlfriend in Manila – in order to preserve the wealth of the family. Luis Asperri is against putting down his status as a wealthy landowner for the benefit of the peasantry. He is against the goals of the uprising of the ''Hukbalahap'' or ''Hukbong Bayan Laban sa mga Hapon'' – a “people’s army against the Japanese occupiers” represented by the leadership of his half-brother, Vic. The event occurred in Philippine history during the 1950s. The Hukbalahap remained active even after World War II.[http://www.powells.com/biblio/9780375752438?&PID=32442 Don Vicente - Two Novels, ''Tree'' and ''My Brother, My Executioner'', Synopses and Reviews, Powells.com]

The cartoon begins with four anthropomorphic flapper cats singing "Crazy Town". Chef Bimbo waits on a hungry gorilla and then goes to the kitchen to prepare the order, roast duck. When he is about to bring it to the gorilla's table, he sees Betty Boop performing on stage and falls in love at first sight. He forgets about the hungry gorilla and dances on stage with the duck. The gorilla, furious, goes after Bimbo, who escapes on a wooden train.

The Boy meets and marries The Girl. A year later, the two walk down the street with a baby carriage carrying a bottle instead of a baby when they run into The Girl's brother who asks the couple to do him a favor and babysit his children. They accept and the remainder of the short consists of gags showcasing the difficulties of babysitting children. At the very end, The Boy discovers some knitted baby clothes in a drawer (implying that The Girl is pregnant).

In 1948 Istanbul, a young Hans Bärlach accepts a bet from his associate Richard Gastmann that Gastmann can commit a crime in front of him Bärlach cannot prove. Shortly after, he witnesses the woman he loves (Rita Calderoni) fall from a bridge into the bay. Convinced Gastmann had pushed her but indeed unable to prove it, Bärlach leaps into the water too late to save her as Gastmann disappears.

Thirty years later, Bärlach (Martin Ritt) has become a Swiss police commissioner and is facing death in less than a year from stomach cancer, for which an uncertain operation is planned. In the countryside his assistant Lt. Robert Schmied (Donald Sutherland) is found shot dead in his car by the side of the road and Bärlach takes pains to remove a red folder from Schmied's files. The case is assigned to the young, aggressive detective Walter Tschanz (Jon Voight); Tschanz appears well-informed about the case, but is stymied by Commissioner Bärlach's revelation that two bullets were found at the scene, unaware that the Commissioner himself had planted the second one. After a disastrous funeral for the late Lieutenant, Tschanz strikes up a stormy romance with Schmied's girlfriend Anna (Jacqueline Bisset). He finds a cryptic letter G regularly occurs in Schmied's datebook, leading him to Gastmann (Robert Shaw), who has become a wealthy industrialist with an expansive remote estate.

Spying on Gastmann's dinner party from a window, Tschanz is shocked to see Anna in attendance. The stakeout is exposed when the Commissioner, who had accompanied him, is attacked by Gastmann's watchdog and Tschanz is forced to kill it. After harsh words with Gastmann's attorney von Schwedi (Helmut Qualtinger), Tschanz hears screaming from an upstairs window and, peering in again, is greeted by Gastmann himself and a disembodied woman's head. During the incident, the dog's body disappears. Gastmann's bodyguards force Tschanz off the property and he drives the Commissioner home, who quietly puts away a pistol and a leather bite guard from his arm that the dog had supposedly mauled. Von Schwedi makes a formal complaint the next day to Lutz (Gabriele Ferzetti), the chief of police, and alleges that Schmied's undercover attendance at Gastmann's parties was a spy attempt by a foreign power. As if in confirmation, the Minister of Justice instructs Lutz to stop the investigation of Gastmann, citing his importance to the national economy.

Tschanz is frustrated by the dead end and perplexed by the Commissioner's behaviour, who lives in an unkempt apartment and whose illness appears to be worsening. On Bärlach's suggestion he speaks with writer Friedrich (original author Friedrich Dürrenmatt, in a cameo), who reveals Gastmann and Bärlach's fateful bet and that the Commissioner had pursued Gastmann for his numerous crimes since Istanbul. Unbeknownst to Tschanz, the Commissioner returns to Gastmann's estate and Anna, there as a long-term guest, explains her history with Gastmann and that her dalliance with Schmied was only in the hopes he would rescue her. Gastmann later visits Bärlach's apartment and taunts the Commissioner for sending Schmied to observe him, claiming he will commit yet another crime the Commissioner can't prove and takes Schmied's red folder as he departs.

At the airport, the crime is revealed as the ineffective von Schwedi's murder, whose bloodied corpse falls from the baggage carousel. Tschanz confronts Anna over her association with Gastmann, who lets slip that the Commissioner had been at Gastmann's; an unknown assailant then tries to murder the Commissioner in his apartment that evening. Tschanz asserts Gastmann is responsible for the attack and for Schmied's murder and therefore must be brought to justice, but the Commissioner demurs. Gastmann kills the Commissioner's driver and hijacks his car to have him killed as well, but is intrigued when Bärlach says if he cannot make him pay for the crimes he has committed, he will make him pay for one he hasn't. Gastmann instead drives Bärlach to the train station and the Commissioner warns Gastmann that he has "sentenced" him.

As Bärlach promised, the next day Tschanz shoots Gastmann and his bodyguards and places the gun used to kill Schmied in one of the guards' hands. Tschanz is startled to find Bärlach already aware of Gastmann's death and celebrating with rich food and ample wine in apparent exceptional health. He gives Tschanz a gift: the bullet Tschanz used to kill the watchdog, the corpse of which the Commissioner had quietly removed, which matches the gun used to kill Schmied. The Commissioner explains he knew that Tschanz murdered Schmied because he was jealous of his success on the job and with Anna, and to extract Bärlach's revenge on Tschanz, manipulated him into framing and murdering Gastmann. With Gastmann dead, Tschanz, the unknown assailant, now has no one to frame for another attack on Bärlach and departs in disgrace with Anna. He tells her he did it for her and after abandoning her by the side of the road, drives off a bridge.

The Commissioner decides not to have surgery, as the anaesthetist had been hired by Gastmann to kill him, and thus robs Gastmann of his last, posthumous crime. In the epilogue, he reasons to Anna he will still have a year to live regardless.

The Simpson family heads to a tailgate party, and while Homer and Bart steal other tailgaters' food, Lisa busies herself by filming the events for a school project, and notices life in its own perspective. Lisa shows the film to her teacher, who reviews her film and says he enjoys it, but gives it a 3 out of 5. When she complains to Principal Skinner, who has a secret cinema passion, he tells her a good film should have plenty of drama. Lisa concludes that the only true source of drama is her family, which Skinner understands, knowing Bart. With Skinner granting her access to the school's A/V equipment, Lisa begins to film her family doing their everyday activities.

Superintendent Chalmers takes notice of Lisa's filmmaking and convinces Skinner to enter Lisa's film in the Sundance Film Festival. The Sundance organizers agree to premiere Lisa's film, as she is an intellectual misfit, and her movie is not a mainstream production. Lisa's movie, ''Capturing the Simpsons'' (a play on the title of the Sundance documentary ''Capturing the Friedmans'') is accepted. When the family learns Lisa's film had been accepted, they all go to Park City, Utah, anxious to see the premiere of the film. ''Capturing the Simpsons'', produced by "Chalmskinn Productions" begins. Lisa shows her family in all of its dysfunction. Audience members begin making sour remarks about her family. One scene features Bart breaking dishes and Homer walking in with bare feet. Marge cleans up after them and Lisa wishes her a "Happy Birthday," embarrassing the entire family. The film ends, and receives a standing ovation. Homer, Marge, Bart and Maggie are all appalled at how Lisa portrayed them in the film.

Comic Book Guy posts a glowing review of the film on his blog, which attracts worldwide attention and leads to some film distributors negotiating with Skinner and Chalmers to buy Lisa's movie. Meanwhile, Lisa's family realize others hate them because of the way they were portrayed in the film (with one person of the original audience going as far as to swear Maggie's death), and approach the family and ask them to act the way they did in the film. Lisa feels sorry for what she did to the family, and while deep in thought, Jim Jarmusch approaches her and says he can relate because his movies are also about "social misfits experiencing the dark side of the American dream". Lisa however, feels that she may have subconsciously humiliated her family on purpose. He tells her the answer to her question of whether or not her family will forgive her can be found in a film: ''Life Blows Chunks'', a documentary by Nelson Muntz which had been in production by Chalmskinn Productions at the same time as Lisa's film. It shows Nelson's struggling life, where Mrs. Muntz is a thief and drinks heavily. When his film ends, Lisa learns that although her family may embarrass her or infuriate her, there are other families with tougher problems. She apologizes to her family, and they gratefully forgive her. Nelson and Mrs. Muntz, who are now in the spotlight, enjoy the attention.

During the tag scene, Skinner and Chalmers meet John C. Reilly, who unsuccessfully tries to audition for Chalmskinn's next movie, ''Ghost Willie''.

Elizabeth (Eleanor Parker) has recurring headaches and is plagued with insomnia. She is receiving letters from a woman called Lizzie, but Elizabeth can't remember knowing anyone named Lizzie. When Elizabeth is under hypnosis, her psychiatrist, Dr. Wright (Richard Boone), discovers Elizabeth has three personalities: The shy Elizabeth, the Mr. Hyde-like Lizzie, and the kind, well-adjusted Beth, the woman she always should have been. It is up to Dr. Wright to help Elizabeth to become Beth completely.

In 1821, a British sailing ship, the ''Becket'', anchors off the New Zealand coast. Philip Wayne (Hawkins) and Paddy Clarke (Purcell), respectively First Mate and Bos'un, land to explore. They discover a Māori burial cave, but are captured by the local tribe. Accused of sacrilege, they manage to impress the tribesmen enough to be offered a trial by challenge, in which Wayne succeeds. The Māori chief, Hongi Tepe (Inia Te Wiata), is impressed enough to adopt Wayne and allot him a portion of land. The sailors return to the ship which sails back to England.

Arriving there, Wayne and Clarke are set up by the corrupt Captain Bryce on charges of murdering the natives and bringing Britain into disrepute because they have a severed Māori head in their trunk. This had been presented to Wayne as a traditional gift by the Māori chief, but, rejected by him, Bryce had recovered it. Found guilty, Wayne and Clarke have to pay heavy fines to avoid imprisonment. Wayne decides to leave Britain to find a new life and to return to New Zealand. Nevertheless, his fiancée, Marion, still wants to marry him. They sail over, with Clarke, on a private ship and Wayne builds a house close to the Māori tribe he had met before.

The house is completed and a tenuous peace is established with the local Māori, although some remain hostile. Marion starts teaching Hongi Tepe and some others English, using the Bible, and tells them about her Christian religion. The chief's wife hovers around Wayne frequently.

The ''Becket'' returns and Wayne confronts Bryce, who is found to be smuggling decapitated heads of dead Māori captives into Britain as potentially profitable 'souvenirs'. News later arrives by the six-monthly ship that Wayne has been appointed a justice of the peace for his locality, and also that he and Clarke have been exonerated by a court of appeal.

Wishart and Sergeant Paul join the small group just as Marion finds herself pregnant. After the birth, Hongi Tepe's wife follows Wayne when he goes hunting, and as he settles down to sleep she joins him and they kiss. Hongi Tepe sees them and wants to kill his wife, as is the tribal custom, but his new-found Christianity sways him to let her live. However, a rift between the English and Māori begins.

Wishart accidentally shoots a Māori's dog (thinking it is a goat) and the owner starts fighting him. His gun goes off and shoots the warrior dead. The Māori capture Wishart. Wayne is determined to dispense justice, telling the Māori that he is acting with the authority of his own powerful king. The chief's loyalties are also torn as he knows about Wayne's treachery. Wayne gets Wishart away by promising the Māori that he will be returned to England for trial by his own people. However, they then fear a reprisal attack by the Māori.

Wayne tells Marion that he has been "unfaithful" and although deeply hurt she says she still loves him. Meanwhile, Hongi Tepe's tribe has formed a truce with their local enemy, and the enemy tribe declare a desire to kill the colonists. Hongi Tepe's wife hears this and goes to warn Wayne, but she is waylaid by the hostile Māori.

A battle begins in the night, and the colonists defend themselves. Initially successful because of their muskets, the colonists eventually find themselves outnumbered and under siege. The attackers use large catapults and fire-bombs to set the house alight. Hongi Tepe's tribe appear and start fighting their old enemies. In mid-battle, Wayne saves Hongi Tepe's life by shooting his attacker. As the battle appears won, Wishart is killed by a spear, and then, with the house ablaze, the roof collapses, killing all the colonists.

The sole British survivor is Philip and Marion's young baby, Richard, whom Marion had secreted in a safe place outside, and who is found and adopted by Hongi Tepe.

Finally, the friendly Māori watch a new group of colonists arriving on the beach.

Anne Leeds is a school teacher with only four weeks of experience. She takes a part-time job as a secretary to an ex-bootlegger and horse-playing gambler by the name of Rocco. He's a Broadway nightclub owner with a heart of gold who falls in love with Anne. However, he knows he's too old for her, so keeps his feelings to himself.

Anne "thinks" she's in love with his younger partner Tony Armotti, a typical playboy type who is afraid to fall in love because it might mean marriage. Tony lives in a walkup apartment above the nightclub, where he often entertains beautiful women. The stairs to the apartment are on the alley behind the club.

The entire nightclub loves Anne but Tony resents her because he wants to take care of her and protect her. Eventually after confronting Tony, Anne quits because Tony tells her he does not love her and never will. After she quits the entire nightclub patronizes Tony over whether Anne quit or was fired. He goes to where she is currently working and, after helping her escape when police raid the gambling den, convinces her to take back the job she quit.

In 1916, during World War I, a German and a French fighter ace by the names of Gunther von Beckman (Hoffman) and Jo Cavalier (Belmondo) manage to drag each other out of the sky. An argument and subsequent fistfight about who is to be whose prisoner is interrupted by an artillery barrage on their position, forcing both to work together in order to survive. In a humorous side scene, Corporal Adolf Hitler (Meisner) is berated by his frustrated First Lieutenant Rosenblum for his clumsiness.

In 1936, 20 years later, Jo and his team of boxers travel to Germany to participate in the Olympic Games in Berlin. On the train Jo meets young Simon Rosenblum (Ferrache), the grandson of aforementioned First Lieutenant Rosenblum and a Jew, and a beautiful reporter named Gaby Delcourt (Pisier), who is to interview Hitler. When his grandfather doesn't show up at the station, Simon asks Jo, whom he idolizes for his World War I days, to accompany him to his grandfather's bookstore. Arriving there, Jo gets into a fight with Gestapo agents who are demolishing the place, and subsequently he is asked by the whole Rosenblum family to hide them. Knowing no other place, he takes them to his team's hotel, which also happens to be Gaby's domicile. Jo begins to flamboyantly flirt with Gaby, who seems to return his affections.

The next morning, just before they depart for the stadium for the opening ceremony, Jo re-encounters his old friend Gunther, now a general of the Luftwaffe. He fast-talks Gunther into borrowing his car, which he gives to the Rosenblums for their escape to Austria. Due to a critical blunder on the Rosenblums' part, however, the whole family is caught before they reach the border, and only Simon escapes. The boy phones Gaby, who informs Jo. Torn between his affection for Gaby, his sense of duty for Simon, and the need to see his team in the games (though not in that order), Jo decides to settle the matter as quickly as possible and goes off to fetch Simon.

However, things do not go as planned. The Gestapo is hot on Jo's heels, a bear drives him and Simon from their forest camp, and they temporarily pick up its cub, whom they spontaneously name Beethoven. Finally they are captured and taken to the next police station, where the rest of the Rosenblums are also held. Gunther arrives to secure the release of his friend, but Jo won't abandon the Rosenblums and takes Gunther for all appearances hostage. As they drive to the Austrian border, Gunther advises Jo to go with the Rosenblums since he is now considered a fugitive criminal, and Jo reluctantly agrees.

However, due to circumstances the group misses the way and ends up right in Hitler's Berghof residence on the Obersalzberg. Mistaking it for a simple hotel, they are taken in by the grounds' caretaker, Hitler's sister Angela (again played by Meisner). As it so happens, Gunther has been invited by Hitler to the Berghof for a staff conference, along with Gaby, to whom Gunther has also taken a fancy. Jo is quick to find out about the residence's true nature, however, when he comes face to face with Hitler himself while following the Olympic boxing finals on the radio in the latter's personal office. He procures an officer's uniform, reveals himself to Gunther and Gaby, and devises a plan to rescue the Rosenblums by stealing Hitler's personal car, while a very reluctant Gunther is to create a diversion by eloping with Angela Hitler.

The film ends with a furious car chase between Jo, the Rosenblums and Gaby in one car, and Hitler and his adjutants in another, during the course of which the elderly Rosenblum reveals himself to his old subordinate. Startled by the unexpected encounter with his former commanding officer, Hitler is sent crashing into a duck pond, while Jo and company successfully escape to Austria (a humorous hint on the Anschluss which would follow two years later), where they also encounter Beethoven again.

The greedy nephew Philip Hastings of eccentric Matilda Reed seeks to have her judged incompetent so he can administer her wealth. In an informal meeting with Philip and Dr. Doremus, Judge Alston rules that she will be saved if her three long-lost adopted sons, whom she can trust, appear for a Christmas Eve reunion.

Separate stories reveal with the help of Private Detective Gimlet that: * Michael is a bankrupt playboy loved by loyal Ann Nelson; * Mario is a seemingly shady character tangling with a Nazi war criminal in South America and a beautiful lady, Claire; * Jonathan is a hard-drinking rodeo rider who falls for a flirtatious woman Jean Bradford at the station, who is revealed to be a policewoman in disguise chasing after an orphanage that doesn't seem to do right.

Finally, the gathering at Christmas Eve happens, featuring the three sons and Jean. Jonathan and Jean, end up bringing three girl orphans from the orphanage. Mario confronts Phillip about taking the rap for a bad deal in New Orleans ten years ago, for which he makes sure to have each leave town before Matilda gets hurt. Aunt Matilda feels like the day she got the three little boys for adoption.

The titular quartet are Yugoslavian-born Danilo Prozor, who arrived in America at the age of twelve and ever since has been trying to distinguish between the reality of his adopted homeland and the idealistic vision of it he brought with him; overweight, Jewish mama's boy David; Tom, the attractive WASP jock who has a way with the ladies; and free-spirited, self-assured Georgia, who fancies herself the reincarnation of Isadora Duncan, dreams of a successful career as a dancer, and is loved in turn by each of her three friends.

The film is a series of vignettes whose primary focus is on Danilo: his conflicts with his father, his struggles with his heritage, his courtship and thwarted marriage to Long Island debutante Adrienne Carnahan (who is murdered by her own father in a murder-suicide at the wedding reception because of his refusal to accept the marriage due to incest) and his lingering relationship with Georgia.

Set in London in the swinging sixties, middle-aged advertising executive David Cooper cheats on his wife Linda. When he meets the young and beautiful Claudia Parker, David wants to marry her. However, Claudia has different ideas; she wants to be a model, an actress, and a star. When Linda finds out about the affair she ends the marriage and files for divorce.

At first protesting, David finally relents and moves into an apartment with Claudia. After six months however, the pair are sick of each other and now that the divorce is finalized, Linda has started seeing Hollywood film producer Jay Grossman. Realizing his mistake in letting Linda go, David fails to win her back and falls into an alcoholic stupor that renders him virtually impotent and only able to perform with his mousy spinster secretary, Miss Fields, who ultimately falls pregnant with his child.

The film is set in modern Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The infamous opening sequence[http://www.varietyasiaonline.com/content/view/2030/], Variety Asia Online review, 2007-09-05 depicts the protagonist lying on the designer sofa in his apartment watching a cookery segment on his TV, in which a carp is swiftly scaled, gutted, cooked and served alive, its mouth still slowly opening and closing.

Jie ambles around his almost bare apartment, cooking instant noodles, tending his treasured marijuana plants in their closet nursery and explaining his problems to counsellor Chyi on the suicide hotline. A former stockbroker, recently fired, he resorts to selling off his remaining designer furniture at a nearby pawn shop to maintain his paltry existence.

Chyi, the counsellor he compulsively requests from the hotline call center, is a young but overweight woman. Jie pleads with her over the line for more satisfying contact, but she is reluctant to accede. Jie fantasises about Chyi, idealising her as beautiful girl in a revealing costume pleasuring herself to the sound of his voice and exhaling the marijuana smoke he breathes onto the telephone handset. When she leaves work for her marital home she finds her husband in a frenzy of activity, preparing an enormous gourmet meal for her. She eats alone whilst he watches TV with his conspicuously attractive friend, who he informs her will be staying with them for a while. He fills the bathtub with live eels whilst she sits watching in her underwear. She attempts to maneuver her husband into sex, but he flinches away from her touch. Left alone in the bathroom, Chyi playfully pushes them around with her toes. Later in the evening, as she walks past the two of them playing pool on her way to the kitchen for a tub of ice cream, the camera pans to reveal that both men are naked from the waist down.

In the street kiosk below, the betel nut beauties sit at a counter above street level and wait for customers. The newest employee, Shin, struggles to fit in with the more established girls. Jie pays her for cigarettes with an out-of-circulation coin and earns her a reprimand. One night, as she tries to remove her scooter from the crowded rank outside the building, Jie stops to assist her. In return he asks her to drive her somewhere.

They arrive at a used-car lot, and whilst Shin waits on the scooter Jie slips into the lot and opens one of the cars using a key he has brought with him, revealing it to be yet another piece of property he has given up since losing his job. He and Shin drive around the city, taking their own photograph using a speed camera, and eventually park up somewhere in the city for Jie to smoke a joint of his home-grown marijuana. He cups his hands around his and Shin's faces to allow her to breathe his exhaled smoke.

Abruptly, the couple are shown copulating in a number of extraordinarily acrobatic positions, most of which involve Jie suspending Shin completely in his arms. As they relax in bed afterwards, Jie at his laptop and Shin lying next to him, Chyi contacts Jie on MSN. Her personal image is of her and a thinner co-worker who Jie assumes must be her. Chyi is too ashamed to deny it and plays along. The next day Jie waits outside the hotline office for the woman in the photo, who he follows around the city for a while. He mentions the details of her itinerary to Chyi when he next calls in, provoking confused denials.

At the street kiosk one of the more established girls, who has formed a more personal relationship with a regular client in an expensive car, leans in on the promise of another gift and the man attempts to drive off with her. She is dragged along the road for a few feet before she finally falls back to the street and the car speeds off. The other girls take her inside to console her and Jie brings her some of his marijuana, which he then shares with all of the betel nut girls. This scene implies that his plants produce a powerful sexually intoxicating effect. Jie ends up on the roof of the apartment building in a languid threesome with two betel nut girls. Brand logos are projected across their entangled bodies from an unseen source.

The next morning Shin comes up to Jie's apartment. He had asked her to bring water, and she has brought two small bottles of mineral water. She quickly realizes that the apartment's water and power have been turned off due to his non-payment of his bills. She offers to help him pay his bills, implying a furtherance of their relationship, and he stubbornly refuses to discuss it. He becomes aggressive with her, angry that she has misunderstood his request for water – he needs industrial quantities to keep his marijuana plants alive. Shin is outraged by his attitude and pulls his plants out of the cupboard, smashing the pots underfoot and trampling them into the floor with her patent leather boots.

Shin takes a bus back to a rural area and finds work on a large plantation. Back at the apartment building, Jie appears remorseful and hangs around the kiosk, asking after her. When he begs one of the other girls to text Shin, she informs him that Shin does not want to speak to him. He sells the rest of his possessions, including his TV and sofa, and uses the proceeds to buy lottery tickets.

Jie calls the hotline and leaves a message for Chyi, who is eating at a roadside restaurant and watching the cooking program that demonstrated the live carp preparation in the opening sequence of the film. It is her husband and his lover presenting it, on location at an ostrich farm. They are attempting to cook an ostrich egg omelette, but when they break the egg into the pan, a dead baby ostrich is released into the hot oil. At the sight of this gruesome image, Chyi runs to the riverside to be sick. As she recovers, she receives a text from her office saying that Jie has called to say that he plans to kill himself. He has left an address and she hurries to his apartment building.

Shin watches the shower of lottery ticketsIn his apartment, Jie attempts to kill himself by turning on the gas canister for his stove and lying on the floor. He awakes later, dazed but alive, to discover that the canister is empty. He opens the street-side windows and steps onto the windowsill as Chyi hurries up the stairs. Meanwhile, Shin returns and approaches the street kiosk.

Chyi bursts into the apartment to find it empty. Standing on the street below, Shin is suddenly covered in a shower of lottery tickets. Jie has apparently disappeared somewhere between the window and the street.

Fontaine Khaled is the wife of a wealthy Arab businessman, Benjamin Khaled. She spends his money on her nightclub Hobo, partying, shopping, and lovers. She hires a manager, Tony Blake, to run her club, but it is understood that his job security is dependent on him satisfying her sexual demands. Tony loses interest in Fontaine and turns his attention to her young step-daughter Alexandra, who uses him to make another man she is interested in jealous. Tony, oblivious to this fact, pursues Alexandra while double-crossing Fontaine by making a deal with businessman Ian Thaine to buy his own club by saying that Fontaine is in on the deal. Meanwhile, Benjamin's attentions stray to model Dolores after he finds out about Fontaine's various affairs. When Fontaine is faced with Benjamin divorcing her and Tony double-crossing and leaving her to set up his own club she puts the wheels in motion to turn the tables.

When two straight friends go into couples therapy, they're so convincing that even they start to question their relationship.

Oskar, a meek 12-year-old boy, resides with his mother Yvonne in the western Stockholm suburb of Blackeberg in 1982. His classmates regularly bully him, and he spends his evenings imagining revenge, collecting clippings from newspapers and magazines about murders. One night he meets Eli, who appears to be a pale girl of his age. Eli has recently moved into the next-door apartment with an older man, Håkan. Eli initially informs Oskar that they cannot be friends. Over time, however, the two begin to form a relationship, and exchange Morse code messages through their adjoining wall. Eli learns that Oskar is being bullied by schoolmates and encourages him to stand up for himself. Oskar enrolls in weight-training classes after school.

Earlier, Håkan stops and kills a passerby on a footpath to harvest blood for Eli, but is interrupted by an approaching dog walker. Eli is prompted to waylay and kill a local man, Jocke, making his way home after having said goodnight to his best friend, Lacke. A cat-loving recluse, Gösta, witnesses the attack from his flat but, in disbelief, decides not to report the incident. Håkan hides Jocke's body in an ice-hole in the local lake. Håkan makes another effort to obtain blood for Eli by trapping a teenage boy in a changing room after school. When he is about to be discovered by the boy's friends, Håkan pours concentrated hydrochloric acid onto his own face, disfiguring it to prevent the authorities from identifying him. Eli visits Håkan in the hospital; Håkan offers his neck to Eli for feeding, and Eli drains him of his blood. Eli goes to Oskar's apartment and spends the night with him, during which time they agree to "go steady", though Eli states, "I'm not a girl".

During an ice skating field trip at the lake, some of Oskar's fellow students discover Jocke's body. At the same time, the bullies again harass Oskar, who hits their leader Conny in the head with a metal pole, splitting his ear. Sometime later, unaware that Eli is a vampire, Oskar suggests that he and Eli form a blood bond, and cuts his hand, asking Eli to do the same. Eli, thirsting for blood but not wanting to harm Oskar, laps up his blood before running away. Lacke's girlfriend, Virginia, is subsequently attacked by Eli. Virginia survives but discovers that she has become painfully sensitive to sunlight. Virginia visits Gösta, only to be fiercely attacked by Gösta's cats. Soon after this, Oskar confronts Eli, who admits to being a vampire. Oskar is initially upset by Eli's need to kill people for survival. However, Eli insists that they are alike, in that Oskar wants to kill and Eli needs to kill, and encourages Oskar to "be me, for a little while."

In the hospital, Virginia asks an orderly to open the blinds in her room. When the sunlight streams in, Virginia bursts into flames. Lacke tracks Eli down to the apartment. Breaking in, he discovers Eli asleep in the bathtub. He prepares to kill Eli, but Oskar interferes; Eli wakes up, jumps on Lacke and feeds on his blood, killing him. Eli thanks Oskar and kisses him. However, an upstairs neighbor is angrily knocking on the ceiling due to the disturbance. Eli realizes that it is not safe to stay and leaves that night.

The next morning, Oskar is lured out to resume the after-school fitness program at the local swimming pool. The bullies, led by Conny and his older brother Jimmy, start a fire to draw Mr Ávila, the supervising teacher, outside. They enter the pool area and order the children, aside from Oskar, to clear out. Jimmy forces Oskar under the water, threatening to stab his eye out if he does not hold his breath for three minutes. While Oskar is being held underwater, Eli arrives and rescues him by killing and dismembering the bullies, except for the most reluctant of their number, Andreas, who is left sobbing on a bench.

Later, Oskar is traveling on a train with Eli in a box beside him. From inside, Eli taps the word "kiss" to Oskar in Morse code, to which he taps back "small kiss".

As described in a film magazine reviews, in one of the provinces of Spain, cut off by impassable roads, is a people who are ruled by a tyrannical governor and his friend, Cabraza. The ward of the governor, Senorita Catalina, is sympathetic with the peasants and convict labor and, by impersonating a "Lady Robinhood," seeks to gain for them relief. An American, Hugh Winthrop, enters the province and is captured by La Ortiga (the feminine of Robinhood). He escapes and returns to the palace of the governor where he notices the similarity of the Senorita Catalina to La Ortiga. Confronted, she breaks into tears. Each confesses their love for the other. Raimundo sees the love scene and warns the troops that La Ortiga is in the palace. A raid follows. La Ortiga, Hugh, and Marie are captured. La Ortiga escapes to the hills where she calls her people together and a raid is made upon the palace in time to prevent the death of Hugh and Marie. The governor is seized.

This plot is presented in chronological order. During the American Revolution, a group of Rebels, hiding beneath the future Keyhouse, discover a portal to another dimension, the plains of Leng, filled with demons who can mesmerize anyone that sees them and possess them through touch. However, when the demons attempt to enter the real world, they are transformed into "whispering" iron which young smith Benjamin Locke forges into a variety of magical keys, including the Omega Key, which seals the entrance to the dimension. The magic of the Keyhouse gradually evolves over the years, including a spell which causes occupants to forget about the keys and the magic of the house when they pass their 18th birthday. In 1988, a group of teenagers, having used the keys extensively in their high school years to their great delight, decide to open the black door with the Omega Key, hoping to trick a demon into entering the real world in order to provide more metal with which to make more keys. Rendell Locke's younger brother follows the group and is mesmerized by the door and when attempting to walk through it, he is stopped by Dodge who accidentally puts his hand through the door, becoming possessed by a demonic being. After plotting and attempting to kill his friends and enslave the others at the behest of the Child of Leng possessing him, Dodge is killed by Rendell.

Many years later, Dodge's spirit re-enters the physical world through the well at Keyhouse, due to actions taken by Dodge prior to his death. Trapped in the well, Dodge's spirit reaches out to a young abused prodigy, Sam Lesser, and convinces him to attack the Lockes and kill Rendell, looking for the Omega Key, as well as the Anywhere Key, which is capable of freeing Dodge from the well. After the gruesome murder of their father, the Locke kids, Tyler, Kinsey, and Bode move with their mother Nina across the country to Keyhouse and begin discovering its secrets. Sam escapes prison and follows the Lockes to Massachusetts. He attacks the family again at Keyhouse, at which time Dodge tricks Bode into bringing him the Anywhere Key. Dodge escapes from the well, kills Sam and returns to Lovecraft in the same body as he had thirty years before.

Dodge re-enters high school under the guise of a new student, intimidating his way into the home of one of Kinsey's teachers and Dodge's former friends. Over the next year, Dodge secretly tries to recover the various keys – in particular the Omega Key – from the children, collecting many, though hindered by Tyler and Kinsey. Dodge is eventually discovered but manages to switch bodies and possess Bode before they can kill him. Now free to explore the house as Bode, Dodge finally finds the Omega Key and plans his takeover after-prom party in the caves. He releases several demons and many of the students are killed. Dodge is ultimately undone by Tyler and Dodge's spirit is forced back into the well, though Bode's empty body is cremated before Bode's soul has a chance to return to it. In the epilogue, Tyler returns to the well to finally free Dodge's spirit from the demon, having used a sliver of whispering iron inherited from his father to forge an "Alpha Key" capable of undoing possession. Tyler is able to speak with his father one last time, and he restores Bode's physical form.

The episode begins with a flashback to 1956, when 16-year-old Emily Locke (Holland Roden) is preparing for a date with a man twice her age. Her mother tries to stop her from going out, but Emily leaves anyway and is struck by a car. The trauma triggers the premature birth of John (as an adult portrayed by Terry O'Quinn). John's life is monitored by Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell) (who at John's birth and throughout his childhood looks the same age as he does in present day) and Matthew Abaddon (Lance Reddick), each of whom attempts to influence his life. The existence of Mittelos Bioscience is revealed when John is invited to spend the summer there as a highly gifted high school student.

In the present day, Locke, Hugo "Hurley" Reyes (Jorge Garcia) and Benjamin Linus (Michael Emerson) are attempting to find a cabin inhabited by Jacob, the ''de facto'' leader of the Others. They are initially unsuccessful, but an apparition of deceased DHARMA Initiative member Horace Goodspeed (Doug Hutchison) assists Locke by pointing him to the Initiative's mass grave. There, Locke extracts a set of blueprints from Horace's jacket, and uses it to locate the cabin.

On the freighter ''Kahana'', mercenary Martin Keamy (Kevin Durand) returns from his unsuccessful attack on the Barracks, the former home of the Others. Enraged that his mission was unsuccessful and several of his colleagues were killed, he accuses Gault (Grant Bowler) of giving him up to Ben, but Gault tells Keamy that Michael is the actual spy. He tries to kill Michael by shooting him, but just as in "Meet Kevin Johnson" when Michael tries to commit suicide, the gun jams. Gault then tells Keamy that Michael is vital to repairing the engines, because he is the one that sabotaged them initially. Sayid Jarrah (Naveen Andrews), fearing Keamy's intentions, uses a Zodiac boat to return to the island, hoping to save as many people as possible. Desmond refuses to accompany him, saying that he would never return to the island after he left.

Several hours after Sayid leaves, Keamy stages a mutiny. A soldier receives a message from the island saying they found the body of ship doctor Ray (Marc Vann) (as shown in "The Shape of Things to Come"), but the doctor protests that it's impossible since he's alive on the boat. Keamy orders Frank Lapidus (Jeff Fahey) at gunpoint to prepare the freighter's helicopter; Lapidus refuses, and Keamy kills the doctor and Gault in response. Lapidus acquiesces and Keamy leaves the freighter with a group of mercenaries, intending to "torch the Island". When the helicopter passes over the survivors' beach camp, Frank drops a bag containing a satellite phone onto the beach.

At the end of the episode, Locke enters the cabin alone and meets the figure of the deceased Christian Shephard (John Terry), who claims he is speaking on Jacob's behalf and is accompanied by his daughter Claire Littleton (Emilie de Ravin). Christian warns Locke that Keamy's mercenaries from the ''Kahana'' are already en route to the Island, and that the Island must be moved.

When the show boat ''Cotton Blossom'' arrives in a Mississippi town to give a performance, a fistfight breaks out between leading man Steve Baker and Pete, the boat's engineer who has been making passes at Steve's wife, leading lady Julie La Verne. Pete knows a dark secret about the couple: Julie is part black and therefore their marriage is illegal. When Pete shows up with the town sheriff, Baker pricks Julie's finger and sucks blood from it, meaning he now has "negro blood" in him as well. Unfortunately, since black and white actors are not allowed onstage together, Cap'n Andy is forced to dismiss the Bakers along with Pete.

Julie's best friend Magnolia becomes the new leading lady and riverboat gambler Gaylord Ravenal is hired as her leading man. The two become successful, fall in love, and marry. They leave the boat and move to Chicago, where they live on Ravenal's gambling winnings until he goes broke and walks out on Magnolia.

Ellie Shipley and Frank Schultz, formerly the dance team on the show boat, take Magnolia to audition at the Trocadero nightclub, not realizing the club already has a singer: Julie Baker. Julie overhears Magnolia audition, learns from the nightclub manager that Ravenal deserted her, and quits so that he will have no choice but to hire Magnolia. Cap'n Andy attends her opening night, where he helps Magnolia confidence conquer her stage fright. Magnolia reveals that she is pregnant with Ravenal's child. She returns to the show boat with Cap'n Andy, where she gives birth to a daughter, Kim.

About five years pass. Ravenal is gambling on board a packet boat, on which a drunken Julie is trying to sing. After punching her escort because he slapped Julie, Ravenal goes out on deck. Julie, who has been keeping track of Magnolia, finds out who Ravenal is, and not realizing that he knew nothing of Magnolia's pregnancy, tells him off. Ravenal is overcome with guilt and returns to the show boat the next day, where he meets his little daughter Kim for the first time and returns to Magnolia, with whom he is reconciled.

An American reporter and doctor (British and French in the original version) comes to a military base in Pakistan to document the P.O.W. conditions. While being there, the Soviet prisoners rise up and take over the base.

Hank and the guys are building a new shed, since Dale had blown up Hank's old shed. Cotton shows up and kicks the shed down in disapproval over it not being as good as the one he built back in World War II. Lucky and Luanne are talking about a restaurant, a teppanyaki steakhouse ''à la'' Benihana, where they are planning on eating that night. Bobby isn't allowed to go since the night out is for adults only, and Cotton volunteers to stay and watch Bobby. Peggy leaves Bobby a lasagna in the fridge to heat up for dinner later; Cotton refuses to eat the lasagna cold but will neither allow Bobby to heat it up nor do it himself, since they are both men. Cotton instead drives Bobby (at night, without glasses or a license, and using a mop to reach the pedals) to the restaurant to join his family for dinner.

They arrive at the restaurant, but Cotton doesn't want anything to do with it since the restaurant is Japanese. He gets into an altercation with the chef at their table, even though the chef only speaks Spanish, and winds up in the hospital after falling on the grill and burning himself. The doctors don't think Cotton is going to make it, and Hank refuses to believe them. He goes home to rebuild the shed his father knocked down. Dale visits Cotton in the hospital and learns that Cotton's last wish is to knock down Hank's shed one more time. Lucky and Luanne take Bobby in while Cotton is in the hospital so that they can practice being parents. It doesn't go well. Dale tries to knock down Hank's shed, but only hurts his shoulder. Hank wants to know what he's doing and Dale tells him about his father's last wish. Hank realizes that if his father is making a last wish then he must really be dying, so Hank heads to the hospital where he tells his father he loves him. Cotton taunts him for this, so Hank tells him he does not love him. Just then, Cotton flatlines and Hank rushes out of the room just as the doctors rush in to work on their coding patient.

Back home, Peggy is telling Hank that it's okay because Cotton had made his life hell when they get a call from the hospital informing them that Cotton is still alive, which offers Hank a second chance to tell his father that he does love him. When Hank tries, however, Cotton flips out on him and Hank leaves the room. Peggy then gives Cotton a piece of her mind and tells him she will no longer put up with his rude and selfish behavior (Peggy loosely implies that she and Hank plan on putting him in a nursing home if he recovers from this ordeal) and that she hopes he lives forever and is always in pain. Cotton, after saying "Do ya, now?" and laughing at Peggy's statement, finally dies. Hank comes back in the room and Peggy tells him that Cotton had told her that he loved Hank before he died.

Later, back in Hank's yard, Hank places a plaque on the door of the newly rebuilt shed dedicating it to "Cotton Hill: American". Just when everyone stands back to admire the shed, Dale blows it up as a tribute to Cotton.

Renee becomes increasingly jealous and controlling after her lack of proper medication begins to take effect, and convinces Daniel that Betty is in love with him; meanwhile, Betty and Christina discover her dangerous past. Henry tells Betty that Charlie will be staying in New York until the baby's born after she has a panic attack at the airport, while Betty grows ever closer to Gio. Gina Gambarro returns to Queens with a new life, and Mode tries to woo a designer who is only shooting for one fashion magazine.

The ''Ramayana''

The film uses a pared-down adaptation of the legend that retains many of its finer details while adopting a perspective sympathetic towards Sita; in the director's words, the film is "a tale of truth, justice and a woman's cry for equal treatment."Director Nina Paley's [http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/press.html long synopsis] from the press section at [http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/ SitaSingstheBlues.com], retrieved May 4, 2008

The plot joins the legend at the exile of the prince Rama from the kingdom of Ayodhya, at the behest of king Dasharatha's favorite queen, Kaikeyi. Having earned the right to any single favor by saving the Dasharatha's life, Kaikeyi attempts to secure her own son's inheritance over the eldest and favorite, Rama, by ordering him banished from the court. Sita, Rama's wife, determines to accompany her beloved husband, although the woods are dangerous and overrun with demons and evil spirits.

The demon king Ravana, encouraged by his spiteful ogress sister, Shurpanakha, hears of Sita's beauty and determines to kidnap her. He sends a golden hind, Maricha, past their dwelling to distract Rama, who tries to impress Sita by hunting the hind into the woods. In his absence, Ravana abducts Sita and demands that she submit to him on pain of death. Sita remains staunchly devoted to Rama and refuses to entertain the idea; Ravana sets a deadline for the ultimatum and Sita waits faithfully for Rama to rescue her.

Aided by the monkey prince Hanuman, Rama eventually discovers Sita's location and brings the monkey army to assist in her rescue. Ravana is slain and Sita is restored to her husband, although he expresses serious doubts concerning her fidelity during her confinement. She submits to a trial by fire, a test of her purity; upon throwing herself into the flames, she is immediately rescued by the gods, who all proclaim her devotion and fidelity.

She accompanies Rama back to the palace and soon falls pregnant. Rama overhearing one of his subjects beating and ejecting an unfaithful consort (claiming he is no Rama to accept and forgive her unfaithfulness), he reluctantly orders his brother Lakshman to abandon Sita in the forest. In the company of ascetics owned by the Sage Valmiki, she gives birth to her twin sons, Lava and Kusha, and raises them to love and praise their absent father.

Years later, Rama overhears their hymns of adoration to their father and locates their dwelling. Distressed and disappointed by Rama's actions during her reunion with Rama, Sita prays to the earth goddess, Bhumi-Devi, to swallow her as final proof of her purity and devotion, and the prayer is duly answered, despite the pleas of Rama and Lakshman.

Contemporary parallel

In an episode taken from the director's own life, animator Nina Paley starts the film living happily in a San Francisco apartment with her husband and cat. Her husband then accepts the offer of a six-month contract working in Trivandrum, India, and moves there alone to take up the position. After a month of no contact, he calls to inform his wife that the contract has been extended another year.

Bewildered by his callous indifference to their separation, Nina sublets their apartment, leaves their beloved cat behind, and joins her husband in India. Upon her arrival, he appears deeply unenthusiastic to be reunited and demonstrates neither affection nor sexual interest. A while later, Nina flies to a meeting in New York, where she receives a brief e-mail from her husband telling her that their relationship is over. Sad and alone, she stays in New York, finding comfort in a new cat and her study of the ''Ramayana''.

Wendy Watson, a struggling artist, is recruited by a secret agency to fight against evil forces. Wendy lives in an illegal sublet apartment with her young, photogenic, animal activist friend Lacey, across the hall from lyric-spouting Noser, and had a boyfriend in film school named Ben. The Middleman is a freelance fixer of "exotic problems", which include mad scientists bent on taking over the world, hostile aliens, and various supernatural threats. Because of Wendy Watson's coolness under pressure and photographic memory, Ida, a robot in the form of a grumpy schoolmarm, and the Middleman recruit her to become the next Middleman.

The series includes various pop-culture references, including many comic books, such as when Wendy calls herself "Robin the Boy Hostage", a quote from ''The Dark Knight Returns'' by Frank Miller, demonstrating how Robin was often kidnapped or held at gunpoint by Batman's enemies. And in the pilot episode features a super-intelligent ape who escapes captivity, murders several members of the Italian Mafia, spouts a half dozen catchphrases from American movies on the subject including ''Scarface'', ''Goodfellas'' and ''The Godfather'', before being revealed as the pawn of the true villain.

... The film is set in 1918, St. Petersburg, Russia. The new government has announced a Red Terror, and now a merciless extermination of "counter-revolutionaries" is underway. Eugene Pavlovich Adamov, general of the royal army and professor at the Military Academy of Law, is arrested and placed in a kind of "room" which is arranged as a prisoner's cell. However, it does not only contain the king's soldiers, officials and aristocrats, but also ordinary criminals. Every day prisoners who are shaking from fear are being taken away for "trial" from the horrible room. And the verdict is almost always the same – execution by the firing squad.

Adamov has no illusions as he quietly waits for death, but suddenly a miracle happens: he is freed. Being an honest and principled man, Adamov in 1905 refused to bring charges against two sailors, who had disobeyed their captain's criminal orders. Now the new government considered this sufficient grounds for release of the old tsarist general. However, Adamov has no place to go: his apartment with numerous rooms has been given to other people a long time ago, and the general has to go back to the place of his recent confinement where he finds a job as a launderer.

Some time later Adamov is offered a job as an investigator and he begins to serve the new government. However, as he investigates the murders of the military confiscation unit ("prodotryad") members, the general is faced with an attempt of lawlessness on the part of the "reds" and resolutely tries to prevent this. Alas, no one listens to Adamov, innocent people are shot without trial, and the general himself falls into the hands of the "whites". Adamov tries to explain to the officer of the detachment his reasons for him going over to the Bolshevik side, but he sees only a traitor in Adamov, and he orders the old law professor to be shot.

Book one

''Princess in the Palace of Snakes'' follows two cousins from birth until their wedding day. The sudden death of their fathers on a hunt for rubies sends Anju and Sudha's mothers into premature labor, and the two girls are born twelve hours apart. From a young age the girls become best friends, sisters, and each other's constant companion.

Anju and Sudha grow up in a household run by their three mothers: Pishi, Gouri, and Nalini. Even though Anju and Sudha call each other sisters, they are technically cousins. Pishi is the girls’ aunt. Pishi's youngest brother, Bijoy Chatterjee, married Gouri. Anju is their daughter. So in addition to Pishi and Gouri, there is Nalini, Sudha's mother.

Beautiful and calm, Sudha is a storyteller and dreams of designing clothes and having a family. Anju has a fierce spirit and longs to study Literature in college. The girls get caught skipping school and this event, along with a health scare in the family, suddenly changes plans for college to plans of marriage. Book one ends with Anju and Sudha getting married on the same day. Sudha will move in with her husband and in-laws who live in another part of India. Anju's husband works in the United States, and she plans to join him after getting a visa.

Sudha learns a dark secret about their family's past. Shame and guilt over keeping this secret causes Sudha to pull away from Anju. But her love for her sister does not falter, and she even refuses to elope for fear it would damage Anju's reputation. On the night of their double wedding, Anju becomes aware of her husband's attraction to Sudha. Anju does not blame Sudha, but it is with some relief the two young women begin to live separate lives.

Book two

In ''The Queen of Swords'' Sudha quickly learns the ways of her demanding and controlling mother-in-law. After five long years, Sudha is elated to learn she is pregnant. Meanwhile, Anju's life in the United States has not entirely turned out as she expected. Anju and Sudha exchange regular letters and short phone calls, but their old intimacy is missing. The friends discover they are pregnant at the same time and both seem finally happy.

Sudha's mother-in-law finds out that Sudha's child is a girl. She demands Sudha abort the baby, believing the first child should be a son. Sudha has nowhere to turn, leaving her husband would be grounds to talk to each other again as true sisters. Refusing to tie her life to another man and realizing Anju needs her, Sudha and her daughter decide to go to the United States. After many years, the sisters are reunited, but future obstacles still loom.

Detective Inspector Jack Regan and Detective Sergeant George Carter become embroiled in a deadly political scandal. One of the leading members of the British government, Charles Baker (Ian Bannen), is about to secure a huge deal with OPEC, stabilising the world oil market and boosting Britain's position within it. Baker is a rising star in the government, regarded as a future prime minister, and he is closely controlled by his urbane, manipulative American press secretary, Elliot McQueen (Barry Foster).

That night, Regan is forced to drink alcohol, and completely intoxicated drives his car into a crowded market. The following day, he is suspended from duty for at least two weeks.

When a prostitute (played by Lynda Bellingham) dies in mysterious circumstances, Regan investigates as a favour to one of his informants. He becomes aware that Baker and McQueen might be involved. A spate of killings follow - which sees Regan take on both the criminals and the hierarchy of the Metropolitan Police Service and the British security services.

Ultimately, despite having an injured foot, Regan returns from his suspension and he is reunited with DS Carter.

At Tilbury, East London, Regan and Carter gather around a group of men with Elliot McQueen due to be arrested, but McQueen is shot dead by a sniper riding in a black taxi. DS Carter shouts the final words, "They didn’t kill him; you did!"

Part 1

In flashforwards to January 2005, the Oceanic Six—Jack Shephard, Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly), Sayid Jarrah (Naveen Andrews), Sun-Hwa Kwon (Yunjin Kim), Hugo "Hurley" Reyes (Jorge Garcia) and Claire Littleton's (Emilie de Ravin) infant, Aaron—arrive in Honolulu, where Hurley and Sun are reunited with their parents; Jack with his mother; and Sayid with his girlfriend, Nadia Jaseem (Andrea Gabriel). In the ensuing media circus, a press conference is held, where they lie about everything that has happened on the island; claiming that they are the only living survivors and that Kate gave birth to Aaron on the island. Sometime later, Hurley's dad (Cheech Marin) gives Hurley his newly rebuilt 1970s Camaro, at a surprise birthday party. Hurley, however, becomes panicked and runs away when he notices that the car's odometer displays the numbers. In Seoul, South Korea, Sun visits her father and informs him that she used the money from her settlement with Oceanic Airlines to buy a controlling interest in his company because she blames him for her husband's, Jin-Soo Kwon (Daniel Dae Kim), death. In the final flashforward, Jack eulogizes his deceased father, Christian Shephard (John Terry). After the ceremony, Carole Littleton (Susan Duerden), Claire's mother, reveals to him that Claire is his half-sister; as she walks away, she smiles at Aaron in Kate's arm, oblivious to the fact that she is staring at her grandson.

On December 30, 2004, following the events of "Cabin Fever", Jack and Kate follow the tracking signal on the phone given to them by Frank Lapidus (Jeff Fahey), who dropped it onto the survivors' beach from a helicopter. They encounter James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway), Aaron and Miles Straume (Ken Leung); Kate returns to the beach with Miles and Aaron. Jack and Sawyer meet up with Lapidus at the helicopter, but decide to rescue Hurley, who is with Ben, the mercenaries' target, before leaving for the freighter. Meanwhile, Sayid arrives at the beach on the freighter's Zodiac boat and informs the survivors that they must go to the freighter as soon as possible because the mercenaries' secondary objective is to kill everyone on the island. He and Kate go after Jack and Sawyer, but are captured by Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell) and the rest of the Others. After unsuccessfully attempting to convince his crush, Charlotte Lewis (Rebecca Mader), to leave the island, Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davies) starts ferrying people to the freighter. Sun, Jin, and Aaron arrive at the boat, only to discover a bomb, consisting of a large amount of C4 explosives, on board.

Meanwhile, in their quest to move the island, Ben, Locke and Hurley arrive at the Dharma Initiative Orchid station, which is disguised as a greenhouse. Ben sends Locke to the real part of the station and surrenders himself to Martin Keamy (Kevin Durand) and the other mercenaries from the ''Kahana'', who had previously arrived. A final montage shows the Oceanic Six and Ben in their respective predicaments.

Parts 2 & 3

On the island, Jack and Sawyer meet up with Hurley and Locke at the Orchid station. Jack and Locke once more argue about the nature of the island; Locke implores him to lie about the island once he and the other survivors leave. At the helicopter, Kate, Sayid, and the Others free Ben by ambushing and killing the mercenaries, except Keamy, who feigns death. In return, the Others allow Kate, Sayid and the other survivors to leave the island on the helicopter. Ben returns to the Orchid, where he gets in a hidden elevator with Locke.

Inside the underground part of the Orchid station, Ben puts every metal item he can find into a small compartment at the back of the room, while Locke watches the orientation video for the Orchid. On the tape, Dr. Marvin Candle (François Chau) using the fake name of "Edgar Halliwax" begins to discuss time travel involving "negatively charged exotic matter" when the VCR malfunctions and the tape rewinds itself. Shortly, Keamy arrives and tells Locke that if he (Keamy) dies, the C4 on the freighter will detonate, due to a remote trigger linked to a heart rate monitor he is wearing. Regardless, Ben kills Keamy with no remorse or sympathy for those on the boat, in order to avenge his adopted daughter Alex (Tania Raymonde), whom Keamy executed. Ben seals and then activates power to the compartment he had loaded with metal items, blowing a hole in the back of it. Ben, now wearing a parka, tells Locke that whoever moves the island is forced to leave it and never come back; Ben must do it so that Locke can stay and lead the Others. Locke then goes to the Others, who welcome him home. Ben climbs through the hole and down a rocky tunnel beyond it into a frozen chamber, cutting his arm in the process. He then turns a very large metal wheel. As he completes the rotation, an eerie sound and white-yellow light soon envelop the entire island. Ben disappears, only to reappear several months later in the Sahara Desert (as seen in "The Shape of Things to Come").

Jack, Kate, Sayid, Sawyer, Hurley, and Frank Lapidus leave the island on the helicopter, but discover a fuel leak on board. In order to lighten the helicopter, Sawyer jumps out after whispering something in Kate's ear and kissing her. The helicopter makes it to the ''Kahana'' in the nick of time; they refuel it, fix the leak, pick up Desmond Hume (Henry Ian Cusick), Sun and Aaron and leave seconds before the C4 detonates. The resulting explosion kills Michael Dawson (Harold Perrineau), who is told that "he can go now" by a vision of Christian Shephard. The status of Jin, who is still on the boat, is left uncertain as a cliffhanger. Sawyer swims back to the island and laments the destruction of the boat with Juliet Burke (Elizabeth Mitchell). The people on the helicopter decide to return to the island, but as they approach, they see the island vanish in the white-yellow light. With nowhere to land, the helicopter runs out of fuel and the survivors are forced to ditch into the ocean. They drift in a rescue raft for several hours, where Hurley suggests that Locke succeeded in moving the island, but Jack refuses to believe it. Jack convinces the other survivors that they must lie about their experiences on the island, to protect those left behind.

That same night, the survivors are rescued by Penny Widmore (Sonya Walger), Desmond's girlfriend, with whom he is finally reunited. In keeping with the faked wreckage of Flight 815 found in the Java Trench, the Oceanic Six are dropped off near the island of Sumba, where they are found by local villagers.

In flashforwards to late 2007, following those in "Through the Looking Glass", Jack, Kate and Walt Lloyd (Malcolm David Kelley) all recount stories of being approached by Jeremy Bentham, the dead man in the coffin. Kate has a dream in which Claire tells her not to bring Aaron back to the island. In London, England, Sun confronts Charles Widmore (Alan Dale), Penny's father, who sent the ''Kahana'' to the island, and tells him that they have common interests involving the island. After finding out that Bentham is dead, Sayid breaks into the mental hospital where Hurley is staying and convinces him to go "somewhere safe". Jack returns to the funeral parlor, where he is confronted by Ben, who says that the island will not allow Jack to return without everyone else who left joining him. This includes Jeremy Bentham's body, who is finally revealed to be John Locke.

Cantor Rabinowitz (Eduard Franz) is upset that his son Joey (Jerry Lewis) has left home to pursue a career as a singer/comedian after showing no interest in carrying on the family's tradition of being Cantors in the synagogue. After five generations of doing so, it appears that Joey is more interested in making jokes and singing jazz music.

After a few years on his own, Joey, who now calls himself Joey Robbins, gets an opportunity to perform on the television show with Ginny Gibbons (Anna Maria Alberghetti). Unfortunately, his father falls ill during his rehearsal performance, and he runs to his side, putting show business aside for his family obligations.

Papito is a young actor grown up in "El Mamey", the most dangerous marginal district of La Habana, which he dreams to leave someday along with his small theater group. Don Arturo arrives in Cuba full of promises and souvenirs. But the millionaire does not last more than 24 hours. During his first "encounter" with Yoli he dies from a cardiac arrest because of overdose of sexual enhancement drug. In the family the panic spreads: They have lost the great opportunity that was going to let them out of the misery. When Papito thinks that nothing could go worse, he receives an "order" from "La Caimana". He must be taken for dead, travel with Yuri to Spain and get all the Euros he can. In spite of the danger and the threats, Papito thinks it's an opportunity to make amends with his love and accepts the treatment. In order to escape the confusion, Papito will have to make the best out of his talent and benefit from his double identity.

Sunday Simmons is an aspiring actress. The daughter of a South American father and French mother, she left Rio de Janeiro to attend a drama academy in London. Two days after her departure, her parents were killed in a car crash.

Charlie Brick was forty and famous. He was one of the best comedic actors in the world, but his relationships with women had never failed to disappoint him, including his cold, unloving wife Lorna.

Herbert Lincoln Jefferson was working as a chauffeur for one of the Hollywood film companies. While his grotesquely fat wife, Marge, watched TV and ate all day, he was indulging in perverse sexual fantasies.

The lives of the three characters intertwine when they meet in Hollywood.

Yawny Come Lately

The characters are preparing to celebrate Yawny Yumpalot Day, a day which Iggy explains to Kira is to honour the great spirit Yawny Yumpalot, who supposedly created the entire Kookamunga Park. He also tells her that the Great Bamzeani used to be three fur traders who were turned into a totem pole by Yawny after they captured him. Iggy says that in honour of Yawny's prankster nature, everyone plays practical jokes on each other, and then everyone starts commenting on what an easy "yumping" target Jiggers is. Later, while everyone is hearing Iggy's announcement on stage, a huge spirit wearing his underwear on the outside appears behind him, saying that he feels insulted by the way they "honour" him. Yawny then says he will turn them all into a totem pole if they don't pay homage to him in a respectful way. Terrified, Iggy and the others try to find impractical jokes to use, but when they present their ideas to Yawny, he admonishes them, and leaves them with ten more minutes to think something up. Jiggers points out that he keeps mentioning a totem pole, and that this might mean something. Iggy agrees,"Of all the things Yawny is supposed to have created, the Great Bamzeani is the one we know for sure!", and leaves Jiggers to direct the whole town as they stand on top of each other like a totem pole. He tells them to wear their underwear on the outside, to be safe. As they balance on top of each other, Jiggers tells them to repeat what he says, and says the traditional phrase said when yumping someone else: "You've been ''yumped''!" He then reveals his joke to everyone else, and Iggy gives him a wedgie in response.

Petition Impossible

Iggy and Jiggers return home from protecting the river during the rainy season, to find that amongst their mail from the past week is a letter that, due to a contract from the 1940s, there will be a highway built through the middle of Kookamunga National Park. They notice the petition available to contest this construction, and head to Mooseknuckle to collect signatures. When there, they explain the situation, and even Catfish Stu makes it a point to force everyone into signing when he finds out that the highway will not allow anyone to stop and book in at his Adventure Camp. However, the petition, which needs 200 signatures, is missing most of the requirements, so Iggy and Jiggers head all over the park gathering signatures from the residents and tourists; finally resorting to wild yaks' hoof prints when nothing else is available. They are then left with just one more signature, and Iggy suggests going to Spelvin, the hermit crab, for help. However, Spelvin says he'll need them to renovate his domain if he's to even consider it; and when they are done, he decides not to. Iggy realizes that he still hadn't signed, and does so; upon which Jiggers tyrades about how Spelvin also took his bottle-cap collection. Iggy cuts him off and tells him they must hurry back to give the full petition to Quilpie, the courier. While Zoop tries to delay the punctual kangaroo back at Mooseknuckle, Iggy and Jiggers narrowly escape a hungry panther, but make it back to Mooseknuckle by five o'clock, to deliver the petition. The episode ends with Zoop telling them that it's Tuesday, and since the petition was due Wednesday, Jiggers finishes his tantrum about losing his bottle-cap collection for nothing.

Two mates (Richie Harkham and Adam J. Yeend) get into more than they can handle when a plan to off popular jock David (Nathaniel Buzolic) goes wrong.

As described in a film magazine review, Tamea, whose mother was Polynesian and her father French, leaves the island where her father governs and goes with him on a trade trip to San Francisco. When they arrive in port, the health officers find that the father is a leper, and he jumps into the water and is drowned. Tamea is taken to the home of Dan Pritchard, the junior partner of the firm that her father traded through. With his friend Mark Mellenger, Dan tries to show the visiter a good time around town. Although Dan is engaged to Maisie Morrison, a young society woman, his affections are drawn to Tamea. When she hastily leaves for home, Dan follows her. She falls violently in love with him and they are married according to the native custom of the island. The South Seas gets into his blood and Dan falls into moral dissolution. Mark arrives on the island to visit him with Maisie in tow. Dan returns to San Francisco and marries Maisie while Mark on the island to comfort Tamea.

It has been eighty years since King Gilgamesh defeated "the tower" single-handedly, and now the tower is reborn again. The "Summer of Anu" is a season that comes every few years during which the powers of the monsters within the Tower wane thanks to the grace of the great god Anu. Each Summer of Anu, the armies of the Uruk Kingdom secure their strongholds within the Tower, aiming to eventually conquer the upper floors. The story begins with the third Summer of Anu. The city of Meskia is the first stronghold built on the first level of the Tower. In addition to the Uruk Army preparing for their third campaign against Druaga, innumerable adventurers called "climbers" have been drawn to Meskia by rumors of the Blue Crystal Rod, a legendary treasure believed to be hidden on the top floor of the Tower. Jil, a young guardian, has traveled to the tower and Meskia, the last safe stop on the first floor of the tower. The story follows Jil, a new climber who wishes to reach the top floor of the tower. On the top floor is the evil lord Druaga, and numerous monsters and traps inhabit the floors along the way.

The second season, titled ''The Tower of Druaga: The Sword of Uruk'', picks up "half a year after" the events of the first season. With Druaga's guardian defeated, the monsters of the tower have disappeared and a period of peace and prosperity have descended upon the people. Jil and Fatina, having survived the tower's collapse, attempt to move on with their lives while still coming to terms with Neeba and Kaaya's betrayal. This all changes when they rescue a mysterious girl from a group of soldiers. They learn that this young girl, Ki, may be the key to unlocking a great secret within the tower. Armed with this knowledge and haunted by a troubling vision of the future, Jil once again prepares to climb the tower.

As described in a film magazine review, Adela, a wealthy sculptress, finds in Jean, a leader of a Parisian Apaches, the model for which she has been looking when he comes to rob her house. He poses for her and incurs the jealousy of Marie, his underworld sweetheart. A rival faction of the Apaches kills Jacques, Jean’s friend, and a terrific battle between the two factions ensues, in which Marie is killed. Adele finds happiness with Jean, who promises to reform.

After Ryan Howard (B. J. Novak) gives Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) a warning about his job performance, Jim tries to land his biggest client ever (Phil Reeves). He takes the potential client golfing, bringing along co-workers Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) and Kevin Malone (Brian Baumgartner). When Jim tries to talk business, the client reveals that he is not interested in switching paper suppliers. But after much persistence and negotiation, Jim lands the account.

Michael Scott (Steve Carell), Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer), Oscar Martinez (Oscar Nunez) and Darryl Philbin (Craig Robinson) set up a booth at a local job fair to find a student for Dunder Mifflin’s summer internship but while other companies are prepared and have provided materials and products for their booth, Michael only brought a single white piece of Dunder-Mifflin paper. The fair proves unsuccessful, as Michael drives away the only interested student, Justin (Trevor Einhorn) because Justin is not cool enough for him. After everyone else either ignores the booth or tells Michael off, Michael tries to recruit Justin as their intern, only for Justin to call Michael out for treating him badly and walk away. Michael then makes such a commotion that the teacher (Lori Murphy Saux) calls security and has him removed from the fair. After, Pam ventures to a booth advertising graphic design, where she discovers that she has yet to learn many graphic design programs. The man working at the booth recommends she goes to either Philadelphia or New York City to learn about the graphic design technology.

Meanwhile, Michael has left Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) in charge of the office, but none of the employees obey his wishes. When most of the employees leave in the middle of the day, Dwight is left alone except for ex-girlfriend Angela Martin (Angela Kinsey), causing the two to interact awkwardly for the rest of the day. When Jim and Pam meet up again in the office, they share two long, passionate kisses having accomplished both of their goals (Jim making the sale and Pam finding out the next step for her future in graphic design).

V.I. Warshawski isn't crazy about going back to her old South Chicago neighborhood, but she's never been a woman who breaks a promise. Returning to her old neighborhood for a school reunion, she finds herself agreeing to search for a childhood friend's missing father, a man her friend never knew and about whom her friend's dying mother will not speak. What ought to have been a routine missing-persons case rapidly turns up a homicide; and Warshawski must battle corrupt local politicians and businessmen, who do all they can to derail her investigation.

Various musical notes set up sheet music in preparation for a performance of "The Blue Danube." As the music begins, however, it becomes apparent that a note is missing. The note (a red-faced "High Note") is revealed to be drunk, staggering out of the "Little Brown Jug" sheet music.

The irritated music-note conductor chases the intoxicated note, intending to put him back in his place so the waltz can properly continue. Throughout the pursuit, many objects are created from the simple musical notes: a dog, a slide, a clothes hanger, a lasso, horses, and more. Eventually, the rogue note is put back into place, but is again missing when the performance starts over. This time, though, the balance of the remaining music is also gone. The conductor discovers that all the notes have gone into the "Little Brown Jug" to get drunk. The original High Note, who is in Irving Berlin's "How Dry I Am," replaces the "I" with "We."

Mathias, an innkeeper with several other businesses, seeks to be burgomaster of a small Austrian hamlet. In order to gain favor with local leaders, he offers food and alcohol on credit, but often refuses to collect, much to the dismay of his wife Catharine. Mathias is deeply in debt to Frantz, who seeks Mathias' businesses. He will forgive the debt if Mathias allows him to marry his daughter, Annette. Mathias refuses, and is worried about the debt which will come due soon.

One evening a Polish Jew enters Mathias' inn. The man displays a money belt filled with gold, which Mathias, having had much to drink with the man, eyes closely. When the man leaves in a blizzard, Mathias pursues and kills him; before he dies, the man shakes a set of horse bells at him. Having come into money through murder, Mathias pays off his debt, provides a dowry for his daughter to marry, and is elected burgomaster. However, he is haunted by the sound of bells and hallucinations of the man he killed. The man's brother comes and offers a reward, bringing a "mesmerist" to help find the murderer. Mathias is pursued by the mesmerist and his own guilt throughout the rest of the film. He suffers hallucinations and nightmarish dreams of the murdered man until the final reel, in which he confesses his crime aloud to the ghost, then collapses, dead.

Sheriff Buford Pusser continues his one-man war against moonshiners and a ruthless crime syndicate after the murder of his wife in late 1960s Tennessee.

The story takes place five years after the death, at 78, of celebrated painter Oscar Feldman, the "great man" of the title. Two competing biographers, both working to document the life and times of a man who made his fortune painting nude women, turn for information to the women who had shared his life: his wife, his mistress, and his sister, who is also a painter.

Oscar Feldman was married to Abigail, the daughter of a rich Jewish family. They have a son who has autism.

For many years Oscar had an affair with Teddy. Together they have twin daughters, Ruby and Samantha. Ruby never married whereas Samantha is married and has children.

Oscar´s sister Maxine was quite successful as a painter earlier, but later was almost forgotten by the art community. Her brother had always been more famous than Maxine, which was quite ironic: Oscar became well known in the art world for a diptych of two female nudes, ''Helena'' and ''Mercy''. ''Helena'' was actually painted by Maxine. It was a picture of then lesbian lover.

One year has passed since the ambush that killed his wife, and Buford still has difficulty dealing with it. At his wife's grave, he breaks down, telling her he regrets ignoring her request to not become sheriff.

Buford visits the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to find why John Witter is not in jail. They tell him they have no case against Witter. Pinky Dobson is paralyzed, and his girlfriend retracted her statement implicating Witter. Buford's friend, attorney Lloyd Tatum, tells Buford to be patient and let the TBI do their job. In New York City, Witter tells his boss that he will finally settle with Buford conclusively. The boss tells Witter he should accept that Pusser beat him and let it be at that. Because of Witter's mistakes, he is forced to cede 25% of his territory.

While Buford and Grady stake out a still run by O. Q. Teal and his brother Udell, Buford witnesses O. Q. beat his son Robby. Buford intervenes and beats O. Q. in the same manner. After blowing up the still, he takes Robby to an orphanage. At his office, Buford finds a message from Luan Paxton, a prostitute who helped Buford defeat the state line gang. When he meets her at her hotel, he is surprised when she tells him she now works in real estate. At home, Buford's father, Carl, tells him that he has incurred too many expenses as sheriff, and Buford says he will ask for a raise after re-election. Carl asks if he really wants to remain sheriff, and Buford says it is the only thing he knows how to do.

The next morning, O. Q.'s lawyer, French, demands he drop the charges against O. Q. to avoid police brutality charges; Buford refuses. Sheriff Clegg of Hardin County requests Buford investigate a new club, the 3 Deuces, in unincorporated land. As Buford reluctantly agrees, three boys steal his car and go on a joyride. After Buford and Clegg catch them, Buford handcuffs them and forces them to clean the courthouse lawn. French objects, but Buford says the alternative would be much worse. A witness phones Witter, who realizes he can use this to throw the election. At the 3 Deuces bar, Buford is disappointed to see Luan is working as a prostitute. The owner sees her talk to Buford and tortures her. Angry that Witter has opened the bar without his consent, Witter's boss forces him to shut it down.

Buford and French are scheduled to debate, but Buford leaves when a body is found; Lloyd speaks on his behalf. When the body is revealed as Luan's, Buford storms into the 3 Deuces, orders everyone to leave, and burns it down. On election day, Carl tells Buford he has lost. Witter returns home elated. Buford tells his secretary he will apply for the highway patrol, and his parents worry about their finances. When the Teal brothers start a fight with Buford, the new sheriff warns Buford not to cause trouble. Overwhelmed, Buford visits his wife's grave, where his daughter, Dwana, reassures him everything will be alright.

Mel Bascum, a Hollywood producer, is inspired by news reports to sign a film deal. Though reluctant, Buford agrees. Witter is annoyed at the resulting publicity, but his boss orders him to leave it alone. Buford buys minibikes for his children, a car for himself, and plans to play himself in the next film. A thug from the 3 Deuces bar sees him after he meets with producers, and Buford's car subsequently loses control and crashes, killing him; Dwana arrives shortly afterward and cries. When Witter contacts his boss to discuss more business opportunities, the boss puts a hit on Witter.

Daniel (Matthias Schweighöfer) and Laura (Marie Zielcke) are a young couple vacationing in Morocco. They rent an off-road vehicle for a day trip to the desert. At a gas station they meet a shady stranger (Jean-Hugues Anglade), who offers them to show them the desert. Declining his offer the two continue their trip and spontaneously decide to veer off the road. After making love on a dune they find out that their vehicle does not start. They set out on foot, but are soon lost as their tracks have been blown away by the wind.

Luckily the tight-lipped stranger appears out of nowhere and helps them repair their vehicle and promises to show them the way out of the desert. They follow him on his motor bike with their vehicle but become suspicious of motives when they find out that he seemingly leads them away from the road. Tensions appear, not only between the couple and the stranger, but also between Daniel and Laura. When Daniel walks away from the vehicle after having an argument with Laura, the stranger seduces Laura and makes love with her. Daniel, who senses what has happened punctures the tires of the stranger's motor bike with a knife. Together the couples drives away, arguing on the way. When they reach an ancient and deserted town in the middle of the desert Laura walks away. Daniel tries to find her in the narrow alleys of the town, but suddenly encounters the stranger, who has seemingly followed them. He draws his knife and attacks the stranger, but is soon disarmed. Laura comes to his help and strikes the stranger with a stone on his head. They try to bring the stranger to a hospital, but ultimately leave him in the desert after being convinced that he is dead. Following power poles they drive back to the road. A few days later they return to the place where the left the stranger. They only find a bloody bandage and footprints leading away from the place.

Setting

Midnight's Choice is set in the city of Dublin, in Ireland. The events of the book take place "a few days after New Year", although exactly which year is uncertain.

Plot introduction

Tess faces a terrible choice between the eternal purity of a phoenix's existence, and the darkness that is the unlife of a vampire.

Plot summary

In the form of a phoenix, Tess flies out of her room to join Kevin, who is now permanently in the shape of such a magical bird. She tries to ask Kevin what has happened to him since they last spoke, but her mind is overwhelmed by the purity and beauty of the phoenix's nature, and she instantly loses interest in asking questions. The following night, she becomes worried about the restless behaviour of her pet rat Algernon, and her animal-mind detects a telepathic summons being sent to all the rats in the city. Algernon breaks out of his cage and escapes into the sewers, and as a rat Tess follows him to an empty house filled with thousands of his kind. There, she discovers that the source of the mysterious call is a male Switcher. The next day, Tess investigates the house, and sees a red haired boy standing in the doorway of a house across the street. Somehow sensing that he is the Switcher, she resolves to speak to him when she gets the chance.

Upon reading a newspaper article, Tess discovers that the phoenix has been captured in the Phoenix Park, and is now on display in Dublin Zoo. Therefore, she sets off to visit the Switcher and ask for help in breaking her friend out of confinement. Tess finds the boy (Martin) sleeping in the darkness of his room, and tells him that she knows he is a Switcher. Martin agrees to help her, but only on the condition that she return to his house that night so that he can demonstrate his skill as a Switcher to her. When she does return, he takes her for a walk through the streets, and then demonstrates the truly awesome and horrible skill which he has learned by Switching into a vampire. Martin feeds on her blood, the shock of which stimulates Tess' survival instincts, and she Switches into the only form in which she will be safe from Martin: a vampire. Once she is in this form, all of Tess' revulsion toward the concept of vampirism vanishes, but Martin warns her not to kill her victim when she feeds, as doing so would arouse suspicion. After much hunting, the two come upon a young couple in a car, on whose blood they feed.

For the next few days, Tess behaves scornfully toward her parents, upsetting them greatly. At last when her mother mentions the phoenix, the memory of her time as one of those glorious, pure bird dispels the lingering aspects of the vampire personality, and she apologises for her behaviour. The family visit the zoo to see the bird, and there Tess meets Lizzie, who claims to be worried about something. The old woman informs her that the phoenix is a powerful force of good, and will change many lives, but according to the nature of the world, some dark force must have come into existence to balance out the presence of the phoenix. Upon entering the building in which the bird is caged, Tess is suddenly overcome by a feeling of joy and warmth, and realises that the bird is having this effect on everyone who sees it. Outside, she and her parents enjoy a game of Frisbee, all their arguments forgotten, not even becoming upset when Tess accidentally loses the Frisbee in the bushes. However, Lizzie tells Tess that she has "work to do", and is wasting time.

Tess visits Martin again, and he explains to her the gruesome circumstances of his father's death. She is horrified, but he seems not to care. He takes her into the crypt which he plans to make his home, and she realises that he has been using the rats to excavate this crypt. She tells him that she never wants to return to being a vampire, but Martin claims that now he has bitten her, she will become one of the undead as soon as she dies. He tells her that his fifteenth birthday is the following day, and, because he intends to remain a vampire, he offers her the chance to join him willingly. She refuses, claiming that if she chooses to become an immortal phoenix, she will never succumb to death or vampirism. So as to destroy Tess' confidence, Martin sends the city's rats to kill Kevin at the zoo, but the phoenix escapes with Tess's help. He and Martin confront each other in the park, and Tess steps between them, where she is confronted with the choice between becoming like either of them. Martin uses his hypnotic powers to coerce her, and in turn Kevin uses his purifying powers to draw her toward him. Tess alternates between allegiances and the struggle within her becomes so strong that it begins to damage her mind. As she tries desperately to choose her path, Tess suddenly remembers some prior advice given by Lizzie, and realises what she is doing wrong: She has been convinced that she must choose to be either a vampire or a phoenix, when in fact, the option of simply remaining human was never closed to her. Tess chooses to retain her humanity, and this somehow transforms both Martin and Kevin back into their human forms. Martin, his defences lowered, breaks down over the loss of his father, but when Tess tries to comfort him, he realises he is vulnerable and runs off into the trees. Tess follows, but slips on the Frisbee which she lost earlier.

Tess enters Martin's home in the form of a cat, and but doesn't see Martin there. She checks on Martin's mother, on whom Tess has realised that Martin had been feeding for a while before she met him. However it seems that his mother is still alive, though exhausted. Tess takes Kevin back to her home, where they discuss the events of the past few days. Kevin claims that because he and Martin balanced each other out, Martin's return to humanity meant that Kevin too lost his supernatural form. Their discussion is interrupted by the arrival of Algernon, who informs them that Martin has disappeared, and that his control over the rats of the city is broken. Tess and Kevin realise that Martin has chosen to remain human, and decide to help him through his newly exposed grief.

In the form of a phoenix, Tess flies out of her room to join Kevin, who is now permanently in the shape of such a magical bird. She tries to ask Kevin what has happened to him since they last spoke, but her mind is overwhelmed by the purity and beauty of the phoenix's nature, and she instantly loses interest in asking questions. The following night, she becomes worried about the restless behaviour of her pet rat Algernon, and her animal-mind detects a telepathic summons being sent to all the rats in the city. Algernon breaks out of his cage and escapes into the sewers, and as a rat Tess follows him to an empty house filled with thousands of his kind. There, she discovers that the source of the mysterious call is a male Switcher. The next day, Tess investigates the house, and sees a red haired boy standing in the doorway of a house across the street. Somehow sensing that he is the Switcher, she resolves to speak to him when she gets the chance.

Upon reading a newspaper article, Tess discovers that the phoenix has been captured in the Phoenix Park, and is now on display in Dublin Zoo. Therefore, she sets off to visit the Switcher and ask for help in breaking her friend out of confinement. Tess finds the boy (Martin) sleeping in the darkness of his room, and tells him that she knows he is a Switcher. Martin agrees to help her, but only on the condition that she return to his house that night so that he can demonstrate his skill as a Switcher to her. When she does return, he takes her for a walk through the streets, and then demonstrates the truly awesome and horrible skill which he has learned by Switching into a vampire. Martin feeds on her blood, the shock of which stimulates Tess' survival instincts, and she Switches into the only form in which she will be safe from Martin: a vampire. Once she is in this form, all of Tess' revulsion toward the concept of vampirism vanishes, but Martin warns her not to kill her victim when she feeds, as doing so would arouse suspicion. After much hunting, the two come upon a young couple in a car, on whose blood they feed.

For the next few days, Tess behaves scornfully toward her parents, upsetting them greatly. At last when her mother mentions the phoenix, the memory of her time as one of those glorious, pure bird dispels the lingering aspects of the vampire personality, and she apologises for her behaviour. The family visit the zoo to see the bird, and there Tess meets Lizzie, who claims to be worried about something. The old woman informs her that the phoenix is a powerful force of good, and will change many lives, but according to the nature of the world, some dark force must have come into existence to balance out the presence of the phoenix. Upon entering the building in which the bird is caged, Tess is suddenly overcome by a feeling of joy and warmth, and realises that the bird is having this effect on everyone who sees it. Outside, she and her parents enjoy a game of Frisbee, all their arguments forgotten, not even becoming upset when Tess accidentally loses the Frisbee in the bushes. However, Lizzie tells Tess that she has "work to do", and is wasting time.

Tess visits Martin again, and he explains to her the gruesome circumstances of his father's death. She is horrified, but he seems not to care. He takes her into the crypt which he plans to make his home, and she realises that he has been using the rats to excavate this crypt. She tells him that she never wants to return to being a vampire, but Martin claims that now he has bitten her, she will become one of the undead as soon as she dies. He tells her that his fifteenth birthday is the following day, and, because he intends to remain a vampire, he offers her the chance to join him willingly. She refuses, claiming that if she chooses to become an immortal phoenix, she will never succumb to death or vampirism. So as to destroy Tess' confidence, Martin sends the city's rats to kill Kevin at the zoo, but the phoenix escapes with Tess's help. He and Martin confront each other in the park, and Tess steps between them, where she is confronted with the choice between becoming like either of them. Martin uses his hypnotic powers to coerce her, and in turn Kevin uses his purifying powers to draw her toward him. Tess alternates between allegiances and the struggle within her becomes so strong that it begins to damage her mind. As she tries desperately to choose her path, Tess suddenly remembers some prior advice given by Lizzie, and realises what she is doing wrong: She has been convinced that she must choose to be either a vampire or a phoenix, when in fact, the option of simply remaining human was never closed to her. Tess chooses to retain her humanity, and this somehow transforms both Martin and Kevin back into their human forms. Martin, his defences lowered, breaks down over the loss of his father, but when Tess tries to comfort him, he realises he is vulnerable and runs off into the trees. Tess follows, but slips on the Frisbee which she lost earlier.

Tess enters Martin's home in the form of a cat, and but doesn't see Martin there. She checks on Martin's mother, on whom Tess has realised that Martin had been feeding for a while before she met him. However it seems that his mother is still alive, though exhausted. Tess takes Kevin back to her home, where they discuss the events of the past few days. Kevin claims that because he and Martin balanced each other out, Martin's return to humanity meant that Kevin too lost his supernatural form. Their discussion is interrupted by the arrival of Algernon, who informs them that Martin has disappeared, and that his control over the rats of the city is broken. Tess and Kevin realise that Martin has chosen to remain human, and decide to help him through his newly exposed grief.

While browsing an office-chair catalog, Michael Scott (Steve Carell), who has broken up with Jan Levinson, becomes enamored of one of the female chair models. As a result, he decides to resume dating with the help of the office employees, even going so far as threatening to fire them if they do not help. No one in the office wants to set up any of their friends with Michael, but when Michael learns that the chair model had died in a car crash some time ago, Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) takes pity and sets him up on a blind date with her landlady (Brooke Dillman). The date does not go well, beginning with Michael pretending he is not who she was supposed to be meeting. After Michael admits his own blind date was a failure, Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) convinces him that he needs closure on this person he loved who is gone. The two end up in a cemetery at the grave of the chair model, where Michael "grieves". They are both singing "American Pie" by Don McLean and dancing on her grave.

With Michael busy, Kevin Malone (Brian Baumgartner) and Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) work to reclaim parking spaces that they have lost due to the parkings of construction workers working in a neighboring office. They arrange a meeting with the bosses of the office park, and are given the parking spots back. Kevin feels happy to have won his space back, as his fiancée Stacy broke off their engagement and it's been a hard time for him.

While flirting, Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) drops a hint about proposing to Pam, even going as far as telling her that he is not going to do it at work ("because that would be rather lame") and when he does it, it will "kick her ass". Pam is not sure if he's joking. Alone with the camera, Jim reveals that he was not joking and shows an engagement ring that he bought "the week after [they] started dating." After work, while walking back to his car, he stops and gets down on one knee. When Pam stops and looks he says he has a question to ask her. After a second or so of hesitation, he asks her if she will wait while he ties his shoes. She laughs and they continue walking hand in hand. At the end of the episode, Michael and Dwight are seen singing "American Pie" and dancing in the same cemetery at night, having never left.

From the bookjacket

"Kaeleigh and Raeanne are 16-year-old identical twins, the daughters of a district court judge father and politician mother running for Congress. Everything on the surface of their lives seems Norman Rockwell perfect, but underneath run deep and damaging secrets. Kaeleigh is the good girl-her father's perfect flower, something she has tried so hard to be since she was nine and he started sexually abusing her. She cuts herself and binge eats, desperate to feel something normal. Raeanne uses painkillers, drugs, alcohol, sex, and purging as an outlet to numb the pain of not being Daddy's favorite. Both girls must figure out how to become whole, but how can they when their world has been torn to shreds?"

The film is based on the 2000 book of the same name by Emmanuel Carrère which is inspired by the real-life story of Jean-Claude Romand. ''L'Adversaire'''s protagonist Jean-Marc Faure (Auteuil) pursues an imaginary career as a doctor of medicine in a plot more closely based on Romand's life and Carrère's book than was Laurent Cantet's 2001 film ''L'Emploi du Temps''.

When the protagonist realizes that he can recall having lived his life before, he decides to try to change it. But he discovers that because human choices tend to be mechanical, changing the outcome of one's actions is extremely difficult. He realizes that without help breaking his mechanical behavior, he may be doomed to repeat the same mistakes forever.

On November 8, 1519 the Spanish Conqueror Hernando Cortés and his small army rode into the Aztec capital of the vast Aztec Empire, where they were welcomed by the Emperor Moctezuma. Within two years, the Aztec civilization was in a state of collapse, the survivors having lost their families, homes, language, temples, and traditional religion.

''The Other Conquest'' opens in May 1520 when Topiltzin (Damián Delgado), a skillful Aztec scribe who is one of Moctezuma's illegitimate sons, survives the Massacre of the Great Temple by hiding under a corpse. After the Spaniards leave the sacred site, he finds his people dead, including his mother.

By 1526, Topiltzin is still striving to preserve the cult of Tonantzin, based upon the Aztec Mother Goddess. When a squadron commanded by Captain Cristóbal (Honorato Magaloni) and Friar Diego (José Carlos Rodríguez) discover the clandestine human sacrifice of a beautiful Aztec princess, two incompatible ways of life come face to face and violence erupts. Topiltzin manages to escape by making Friar Diego believe he is drawn to the statue of the Virgin Mary that accompanies the Spaniards wherever they go. He is eventually captured and presented to Hernando Cortés (Iñaki Aierra), who has just returned from an ill-fated campaign to Las Hibueras (today's Honduras). In an attempt to create a hybrid empire, Cortés has taken Emperor Moctezuma's daughter and heiress, the notorious Tecuichpo (Elpidia Carrillo), as his new mistress and interpreter. She reveals that Topiltzin is her half-brother, and a skeptical Cortés spares the young man's life, but in turn decides to convert him to the new Spanish ways with the aid of Tecuichpo (from now on, Doña Isabel) and Friar Diego. After being subject to a brutal ritual of conversion, Topiltzin (now called Tomás) is confined in the Franciscan Monastery of Our Lady of Light.

Five years later (1531), under the tutelage of Friar Diego, Tomás is struggling to reconcile two worlds which could hardly be more different, but which also share some basic truths. However, Friar Diego realizes that Tomás and Doña Isabel are forging Cortés's correspondence with Charles V, King of Spain. Things become even worse when Friar Diego discovers them making love inside the monastery, in a desperate attempt to perpetuate their race. Friar Diego takes it upon himself to save Tomás's soul, and asks Cortés to keep Doña Isabel from returning to the monastery. A pregnant Doña Isabel is secluded in a dungeon.

The overwhelming absence of his half-sister erodes what is left of Tomás's world. He falls into a state of desolation and illness. A well-meaning Indian nun (Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez) applies medieval remedies to him, but these only help turn his feverish attacks into hallucinations that merge Christian and Aztec imagery. Tomás has a vision whereby the Virgin Mary is revealed as the Aztec Mother Goddess.

The arrival of the statue of the Virgin Mary in the monastery, a token of gratitude from Cortés to Friar Diego, now causes Tomás to become genuinely drawn to the statue as a substitute for all he has lost, and he sets on a personal crusade to conquer her. If he absorbs her powers, if he fuses with her, redemption will follow.

Friar Diego's begins to question the sincerity of Tomás's conversion, as well as his own sanity. Although he puts many obstacles to keep Tomás from entering the sacristy and consummating his obsession with the statue, he finally allows providence to decide whether Tomás's mission is legitimate or not.

A woman has a hard time embracing reality after a personal tragedy. Molly (Vinessa Shaw) is a young widow having a hard time putting her life back together after her husband's death. Molly obsesses over the leftover artifacts of his life, and she believes that his spirit walks the house they used to share, though her attempts to photograph the ghost are a failure. Molly supports herself by working at a photo shop, where the manager (Amy Van Nostrand) is convinced Molly needs to remarry, and isn't shy about dropping hints. But Molly seems to have built an emotional wall around herself until she meets an uncouth neighbor (Tim Blake Nelson) who lives in the neighborhood with his uncle. While she doesn't think much of him at first, Molly in time makes friends with the man, and under his spell, she develops a daring and impulsive streak.

When invited to Jack's office, Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) is asked whether or not she would mind having her former boyfriend, Dennis, appear on ''TGS with Tracy Jordan'', a fictional sketch comedy series. Since they last met, Dennis saved somebody's life at a subway station and has become a local celebrity. Liz and Dennis meet up, and she agrees to let him appear on the show. Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) is wary and warns Liz not to let herself fall in love with Dennis again. When Liz realizes she does still have feelings for him, an excuse to get rid of him is presented when Dennis' "15 minutes of fame" are up and Liz revokes her invitation. Liz later follows him to 47th–50th Streets–Rockefeller Center subway station, where he tries to regain his subway hero title by throwing her onto the tracks of an oncoming train.

Jack is looking for a famous face to represent the Republican political party. After struggling to find somebody, he selects Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) for the position. One of Jack's failed candidates, Bucky Bright, befriends Kenneth during a tour of 30 Rockefeller Plaza; Bucky shares a number of horrifying backstage stories about the early days of television that wind up traumatizing Kenneth.

The show was going to be a mix of comedy and sci-fi about the day-to-day life of the captain of an intergalactic spaceship.

Yosemite Sam is the royal chef for a king; Sam is in a bad temper for not only does he have to buy food and cook every day but his employer is a spoiled king who shouts at him "Where's my lunch? Where's my dinner?" After Sam prepares the king's latest meal, the king orders Sam to fix him some hasenpfeffer. Sam doesn't know what this new dish is and the King throws a custard dish into Sam's face. While Sam is looking up the recipe, Bugs Bunny knocks on the door and explains that he's come to borrow a cup of diced carrots. Sam tricks Bugs into thinking that the king has invited Bugs for dinner. Bugs demurs, saying that he is not prepared; but Sam assures Bugs that he will "prepare" him.

Realizing there's no time to cook Bugs, Sam shuts him in the pot and serves him to the eager king. The angry king orders Sam to take it back to the kitchen and prepare it the right way, or else Sam will be "drawn and quartered". Sam shoves Bugs into the oven and demands that he stay there until the cooking time is up. Bugs escapes the oven and leaves. When the king lifts the pot lid, a spring loaded custard pie springs out and hits the king in the face. Sam realizes that his goose has just been cooked. A pair of clumsy guards rush in, arrest Sam, and lead him to the dungeon to await execution.

Bugs, now the new royal chef, serves the king a giant carrot and calls it hasenpfeffer. The king comments, "If I didn't know this was hasenpfeffer, I'd swear it was carrots." Bugs breaks the fourth wall and closing one eye remarks: "It just goes to show ya that a one-eyed jack rabbit can beat a king!"

In New York City, English journalist Cleo James finds her husband having sex with her best friend, and she knows it's time to end the marriage. In London, Muffin, the hottest nude model in town, finds her man wants more from her than she can give.

Miss Frizzle embarks on adventures with her class on the eponymous school bus. As they journey on their exciting field trips, they discover locations, creatures, time periods and more to learn about the wonders of science along the way.

Librarian Lulu Smith shows up late to work for the first time in eight years—the victim of spring fever. Frustrated by her loneliness, she withdraws her life savings and buys a ticket for a two week romantic cruise to Havana— advertised as the "land of romance". On the ship, she meets Bob Grover, a lawyer with political ambitions, who mistook her room 66 for his room 99 after a few too many drinks. They have dinner together, and soon they develop a romantic attraction. In Havana, they spend their time together gambling, drinking, riding horses, and taking moonlit walks on the beach. When he asks why she came to Havana, she answers, "To meet you".

After they return, Lulu leaves her job in the Midwest, following Bob to the city. She takes a job as a clerical assistant for the ''Daily Record'' newspaper, where she is pursued by brash reporter Al Holland. A few months into their romance, Bob comes to Lulu's apartment for dinner, bringing two Halloween masks that they playfully wear. She is eager to reveal that she is pregnant with their child. Their merriment is interrupted by a phone call from Al, whose marriage proposal to Lulu prompts Bob to confess that he is married to an invalid wife whom he cannot abandon. He informs her that their relationship must end. Lulu begs him to continue their affair, but Bob refuses to let her waste her life on him. Furious, Lulu throws him out of her apartment without telling him that she is pregnant. A few months later, Lulu gives birth to a baby girl.

Two years later, Bob has become district attorney and Al is now city editor of the newspaper. Because Al's newspaper helped elect Bob, he feels that Bob now owes him a few favors. When Bob refuses to help him, Al vows to ruin him, and leaves. After Bob hires a detective to find Lulu, he comes to her apartment, where Lulu introduces him to his daughter Roberta. Soon after, while Lulu and Roberta are waiting to meet Bob, Al spots her and questions her about Roberta. When Bob arrives, Lulu tells Al that the baby is Bob's adopted daughter in order to protect Bob's reputation. She also tells Al that she is the baby's governess. Bob adopts Roberta, taking her home the next day to present to his wife, Helen, who has just returned from a health cure in Vienna. Helen is delighted with the child but questions Lulu's ability to care for the baby, believing her to be crazy or drunk. She tells Bob that she wishes to choose a different governess, and Bob tells her she can do as she wishes. Lulu runs out, and when Bob catches up with her, she ends their relationship for good. She leaves him and their child because she cannot bear living in his household— watching Helen be the mother to her daughter, and the wife to the man she loves.

Turning to Al for a job, Lulu becomes the "advice to the lovelorn" columnist for his newspaper. Al tries to get information from Lulu about Bob and Roberta in order to undermine Bob's political career, but she refuses to say anything. Years pass, and Lulu follows Bob's career as he becomes mayor, congressman, and eventually senator. She also follows her daughter becoming a beautiful debutante. Lulu is still working at the newspaper for Al, who has become managing editor. He continues to pursue her, but she remains in love with Bob.

On the night Bob is nominated for governor, he comes to Lulu's apartment, disheartened and ashamed of the hypocrisy of his secret life. He is finally ready to leave his wife and run away with Lulu. When he threatens to confess the truth to the public, Lulu talks him out of ruining his career and reputation. The next day, Lulu asks Al to marry her, knowing that Bob will not reveal the truth now that she is married.

On the night of Bob's election, Al reveals to Lulu that he knows all about her, Bob, and Roberta. He reads her a recent letter that he'd intercepted from Bob, who had written to Lulu of their relationship and their daughter. When she tries to retrieve it, Al hits her across the face, sending her sprawling across the room. Faced with the threat of Bob's destruction, Lulu shoots Al dead to prevent him from publishing the story. As she stands holding the gun, the radio announces Grover's victory as governor.

Under a year later, Lulu receives a pardon from Bob after serving a short jail term. She visits Bob who is on his deathbed, and he shows her his new will, which reveals everything about their relationship and leaves her half of his estate. After he dies, however, Lulu tears up the will and throws it away, in order to protect Bob's memory and their daughter Roberta, who is engaged to be married.

A group of particularly violent armed robbers, who are committing bank and payroll robberies across London, are taking just £60,000 from each robbery, leaving behind cash in excess of this sum. The robbers are willing to kill anyone who gets in their way: they even kill badly injured members of their team to ensure they cannot inform. As Regan puts it after the first raid, "I've never seen so many dead people". Meanwhile, a subplot takes place in a large hotel, in which the Flying Squad deals with an eccentric man armed with a bomb (who turns out to be in the CIA).

A bent senior officer, Detective Chief Superintendent Jupp (Denholm Elliott), is asked to resign over allegations of corruption, and – just before leaving his post – instructs his subordinate, Regan, to take down the gang. The gang, armed with gold-plated Purdey shotguns, evade the Flying Squad for quite some time, leaving a trail that leads Regan to Malta and back, before he finds encouragement from Jupp, who meanwhile has been convicted of corruption – Regan having refused to testify in court for him.

While driving through the Alps, thief Roger Beckermann is killed when his car crashes into a bulldozer deliberately parked in a tunnel by the Mafia who then dispose of him and his car by pushing it into a nearby river. Meanwhile, Charlie Croker is released from prison following a sentence for an undisclosed crime, and reunites with his girlfriend Lorna to enjoy his first taste of freedom. He then heads for a meeting with fellow thief Roger who had been planning a job in Italy. However, Croker is surprised to meet with Beckermann's wife, who reveals that her husband was killed while in the Alps, but insists that he continues with Beckermann's plans, which had been completed before his death. Croker discovers that Beckermann had conceived a strategic heist that would involve trapping a security convoy in a traffic jam while it travels through Turin, and stealing from it $4 million in gold bullion – a down payment to the Italian government by China for a Fiat car factory near Peking.

Croker approaches British nationalist crime lord Mr. Bridger for financial backing for the plan. Bridger is initially unconvinced to begin with, but soon offers support when he learns of the heist's target. With help from Bridger's organisation, which Bridger runs while serving time in Croker's former prison (having bribed all the staff, including the governor, and several fellow prisoners to work for him), Croker recruits several members to his team, including Lorna, Bridger's right-hand man Camp Freddie, and computer expert Professor Peach, the latter required to help sabotage Turin's traffic control system. After securing the needed equipment, Croker begins training up his team, as Bridger does research into Beckermann's plan. As the crew finalise preparations, Croker receives a summons to meet Bridger in a faked funeral ceremony and attends it with his team. At the meeting he learns that Beckermann was killed by the Mafia, who have gotten word about the heist, and Croker is warned not to return without the gold.

After leaving for Italy, Croker and some of his crew are confronted by the Mafia in the Alps, at the same spot where Beckermann was killed, led by their boss Altabani, who seek to dissuade them from their plans. The group soon find themselves deprived of their getaway cars (two Jaguar E-Type's & Croker's Aston Martin DB4 convertible); they are about to be shot, but are spared by Altabani after Croker warns him of Mr. Bridger enacting mass retribution on the Italian community in the UK if they are killed. Wanting to protect his fellow Italians, Altabani tells Croker and his gang to go home, not believing that they can complete the job. Despite the confrontation, Croker goes ahead with the heist, and has his crew infiltrate the Turin traffic control centre later that night, so that Peach can replace one of the computer's magnetic tape data storage reels with another that will sabotage the computer system. The next day, as the gold arrives, the crew prepare for the heist, though Lorna is sent away by Croker to Geneva to protect her and the plan, while Peach disappears and is later arrested for molesting a woman on a tram. Croker sends a gang member, disguised as a football fan, to sabotage the closed circuit television cameras that monitor traffic, as the computer system malfunctions and begins creating a chaotic traffic jam.

The crew swiftly ambush the gold convoy outside the Museo Egizio as it is stalled by the traffic jam, subduing the police and moving the van inside the building, before transferring the gold into the boots of three Mini Coopers. While most of the crew escape the building disguised as football fans, Croker leads the rest out of the city in the Minis as the police begin making moves to stop them. However, Croker leads the cars to follow the escape route devised in Beckermann's plan (driving through areas such as sewers, viaducts and across rooftops), which allows them to escape the city and the police, and reach a coach to collect them. Once aboard, the group unload the gold, and then dispose of the Minis in the Alps, before rendezvousing with the rest of the crew. As Bridger celebrates with his fellow prisoners and staff back home in England upon hearing of their success, the crew celebrate with beer as they travel along a twisting mountain road. However, the coach suddenly spins out of control and teeters over a cliff, with the gold balancing over the edge. Croker soon contemplates how to save themselves and the gold (which slides further away as he tries to get it), and claims he has a "great idea" as the film concludes on a literal cliffhanger.

Herbert Landis is sent to supervise the construction of a bridge in Oregon by James Travers, a railroad magnate and father of Anne Travers, whom Herbert is secretly in love with. Herbert is dismayed when Anne invites Hilary Fenton, high-society playboy, to accompany them to a rural encampment where the project is headquartered. Anne is attended by Mrs. Edgerton, who acts as a chaperone.

Herbert is dismayed by Anne's interest in Hilary, who is wooing her in an attempt to access her family's fortune. Ole Bergson, Herbert's cabin roommate, devises a plan to help make Anne fall in love with Herbert: Ole disguises himself as Blackie Blanchette, a local desperado, and kidnaps Anne, urging Herbert to "rescue" her from him.

Ole's plan is foiled when he himself is kidnapped by the real Blackie Blackfoot. When a forest fire breaks out in the area, Herbert confronts Blackie, who has brought Anne to a secluded cabin. Blackie is killed when the cabin catches fire, while Herbert and Anne manage to escape the blaze by seeking shelter in a river. The dramatic event leaves Hilary exasperated, finding country life too difficult, and he returns to the city. Upon Hilary's departure, Anne determines Herbert to be the true object of her affection.

Handsome sailor Felipe (Hughes) and nasty Governor Don Fernando (D'Arcy) are rivals for the favors of Spanish dancer Valencia (Murray). When Felipe deserts his ship, Don Fernando throws him in prison, but Valencia obtains his release and shares his disgrace and exile.

Joel and Garda Sloane, a husband and wife sleuthing duo, sell rare books in New York and dream of taking a vacation to escape the sweltering heat of the city. Joel decides to take Garda to Seaside City, where his pal, Mike Stevens, is managing a popular beauty pageant. In addition to his vacation plans, Joel, who has invested $5,000 in the pageant, plans to supervise the financial developments of the event and "keep an eye on" the contestants. Soon after arriving in Seaside City, Joel discovers that Eric Bartell, the unscrupulous promoter of the pageant, is duping Stevens. When Joel is made a beauty judge by Stevens, Garda balks at the appointment, especially when her husband begins to socialize with the contestants in the days prior to the pageant. Joel senses trouble when New York racketeer Ed Connors arrives to monitor Bartell's activities, and when Lily Cole, Bartell's publicity director, lashes out at contestant Jerry Lawrence for vying with her for Bartell's attentions. Joel is convinced that something foul is afoot in Seaside City when a detective tells him that Bartell will be arrested on swindling charges as soon as a warrant is issued. When Bartell is mysteriously murdered, Stevens, who was the last person seen with Bartell, is arrested. Stevens is suspected of the crime because he went to see Bartell to demand that he return all the money he loaned him. Although Joel and Garda are warned by Chief Miller not to get involved in the case, the duo, with the help of newspaper columnist Ted Bentley, begin to investigate the murder. Soon after, an attempt is made on their lives when a falling elevator nearly crushes them. Joel does not believe that Stevens was the murderer, but instead suspects Lily, because she and Bartell were involved in a dispute prior to the murder. Later, when Joel discovers that Jerry smokes the same brand of cigarettes as the one found smoldering at the scene of Bartell's murder, he interrogates her and she names Connors as the murderer. Connors, overhearing her accusation, attacks her and tells Joel that she is merely trying to frame him. When Jerry is found murdered, Joel deduces that the murderer must be Bentley, because he is the only person who knew that he had proof against Jerry. Joel tricks Bentley into confessing his guilt, but Bentley, in an attempt to silence Joel, tries to kill him. However, he is prevented from doing so by the police, who arrest him. Eventually, Joel learns that Bentley killed Bartell because Jerry threw him over for Bartell, and that he killed Jerry because she knew too much.

A Marine sergeant named "Let-It-Rain" Riley falls in love with a young lady and goes AWOL in order to meet up with her before a sailor aboard his ship (who he competes with for girls) can take his shore leave to go meet her. During the events that follow, Riley and the girl expose the criminals behind a mail robbery. Riley winds up getting his commission as well as the girl.

Emanuelle (Laura Gemser) is sent to a violent women's prison. While she is in prison, she comes into confrontation with the "top dog" inmate Albina (Ursula Flores), ending in a series of fights. Albina gets the worse of it, including a broken arm, a knife in her leg, and her wig pulled off. Following a series of cat fights and arguments, the women's lives are interrupted by the arrival of four male death row inmates led by "Crazy Boy" Henderson (Gabriele Tinti), who break into the prison. The male convicts proceed to rape, mutilate and torture the female inmates (involving a sick game of Russian roulette) and executions. One convict is killed when a SWAT team attempts to invade the prison. Another is killed by a female inmate who hides a razor blade inside her vagina before enticing him to have his way with her. Henderson and the remaining male cons attempt to break out using the warden (Lorraine De Selle), Emanuelle and a wounded sheriff as human shields. After a gory finale, Emanuelle and the sheriff (Carlo De Mejo) are the only characters left alive and the sheriff promises to reopen her case.

Bill Turner, a construction worker, steals from the corporate payroll for a gang and frames his lookalike Jeff McCloud for the crime. After Turner gets killed in an armed robbery by Jim Breed, Jeff escapes from prison and takes Turner's place in the gang, which is smuggling firearms across the Mexico–United States border. After an ambush McCloud is cared for by Babs, who was betrothed to Turner by her grandfather. Breed appears and reveals Jeff's ruse, but he and Babs are rescued by law enforcement.

George is a sailor and smooth-talking lady's man who believes in the adage "love 'em and leave 'em" when it comes to women. While on leave in Morocco, George meets Lorette, a fiery French dancing girl who falls madly in love with him, unaware that he has a girl in every port. Initially thinking of her as just another diversion, George soon discovers that he can't get rid of the girl. She follows him to the United States; he does his best to avoid her. Amused by George's predicament and feeling sorry for the girl, his two best friends, Tom and Jerry shanghai him aboard a vessel and arrange things so that George is unable to avoid Lorette. As a result, George surrenders to the inevitable and marries her.

In 1880, young Scrooge McDuck has travelled to America to seek his fortune. Making his way to New Orleans, he looks up his Uncle Angus "Pothole" McDuck, and helps him as a deckhand on his steamboat alongside the inventor and engineer Ratchet Gearloose, racing to be first to a site along the Mississippi river to salvage a shipment of gold from a ship that sank 30 years earlier while transporting it for the government. The Beagle Boys are also in pursuit of the gold and comes to fight Scrooge and Pothole about it.

After being caught by the Beagle Boys, Scrooge tricks them, and their riverboat is destroyed. In the end, no one gets the gold, as the government takes it back. Scrooge then takes full employment on Pothole's boat, and after a few years when Pothole retires, Scrooge buys it for himself. However, this just as the steam powered locomotives are gaining popularity as a mean of transportation and railroad is being laid across the nation, making riverboats somewhat obsolete.

During one later boat ride, Scrooge transports more government gold, when he comes across a lady giving away free firewood - a deal that Scrooge simply cannot resist. However, the lady turns out to be a Beagle Boy in disguise. The Beagle Boys takes the gold and locks Scrooge and Ratchet in the boiler room, after having loaded and locked shut one of the boilers full of pine knots and pitch - to make the boiler pressure overload and explode the boiler due to pressure. Scrooge and Ratchet seeks protection in the other boiler among loads of stuffed cotton.

In the meantime, the boat, only running on one boiler, makes a turn on the water and runs ashore, violently following the Beagle Boys across land. Upon reaching their hideout, the boiler - and with it, the boat - explodes. Scrooge and Ratchet, having hidden in the other boiler, are all right, while the Beagle Boys are taken to jail.

Since he no longer has a riverboat, Scrooge decides to move west, along the railroad and so he takes a job as a fireman on the Wabash Cannonball.

Setting

The (very short) first chapter of this book takes place in Dublin, however the majority of the book is set in County Clare, in Western Ireland. The story begins a few days before Tess' fifteenth birthday.

Plot introduction

Tess is sent to stay with her cousins while her parents are on holiday, but unfortunately finds that her fifteenth birthday will fall while she is still away from home. As she struggles with the choice of what permanent form to take when she loses her powers; a choice in which a mysterious and chilling force soon takes an interest.

Plot summary

At her cousins' farm, Tess discovers that the house is infested with rats, which enrages her (easily angered) uncle Maurice, who is planning to sell the nearby wood for development. Tess' cousin Orla protests, but when she mentions 'Uncle Declan', Maurice becomes furious, and terrifies them all into silence.

The next morning, Orla claims that she is going to see their uncle Declan, but Tess declines the offer to join her. Kevin (who has come to help Tess through her birthday) poses as an exterminator, and Maurice agrees to pay him £100 to get rid of the rats. Kevin sets about his work, playing a flute and pretending to lure the rats in a manner similar to that of the Pied Piper; in fact he is using his knowledge of the rats' telepathic language to send out a sort of evacuation order. Unfortunately, Maurice finds the corpse of a rat a few days later and takes this as proof that Kevin did not complete his contract. He therefore decides not to pay Kevin, and orders the youth to leave.

While Maurice is showing a property developer around the woods, Tess explores the area with her cousins. She is suddenly dazzled by a flash of light, and when she recovers the three children have disappeared. Maurice and the developer arrive moments later, and they all see Kevin standing nearby, seemingly implicating him as a kidnapper. Maurice commands his wife not to call the police, after which he sets out to find the children. Tess asks her aunt Deirdre about Declan, and is shocked to learn that he is Maurice's long-dead twin brother.

When Tess finds Kevin, he is adamant that he has not been anywhere near the woods since Maurice ordered him to leave. Tess explains the situation, and he informs her of his belief that an ancient, magical presence may be abroad in the woods, one which even they, with their experience of the supernatural world, have never imagined. In the form of a rat, Tess summons the rats of the area to see if they know anything of her cousins' disappearance. One white rat (identifying herself as "Cat Friend") transmits an image of four pairs of feet, which Tess recognises as Colm's, Orla's, Brian's and, unfortunately, Kevin's. Returning to the farm, Tess again asks about Uncle Declan, and Deirdre reveals that twenty years previously, Maurice's brother Declan disappeared near where the children went missing. The loss of his twin traumatised Maurice, and he spent days searching for Declan in the woods.

Tess tracks down Cat Friend, but is surprised when the rat provides her with an image of her cousins and Kevin walking straight through the face of a crag. At Cat Friend's suggestion, Tess becomes a rat and holds onto Cat Friend's tail, allowing Cat Friend to pull her through the rock-face. Inside, Tess finds an enormous fairy sidhe, within which she finds her missing cousins along with Kevin and another boy. Orla introduces the boy as Uncle Declan, and Kevin explains to Tess that the person she saw kidnapping her cousins was in fact Declan, who used a glamour to disguise himself.

Declan tells Tess that he and Maurice were both Switchers in their younger days, and that on their fifteenth birthday they agreed to become members of the Tuatha Dé Danaan so that they could retain their powers; however, at the last moment, Maurice broke his promise and remained human. Ever since then, Declan has resented his brother for abandoning him, and has harassed him in various forms. Declan goes on to explain that all Switchers are descended from the Tuatha de Danaan, which is why they possess the ability to change their forms. When Declan states that his kind are forced to return to Tír Na nÓg when their homes are destroyed, Tess realises that Maurice had intended to sell the land in the hope that Declan would be banished from his life forever, and that Declan is therefore holding Maurice's children hostage. However, Orla speaks up, claiming that her father loves Declan, and moved by her words, Declan agrees to speak to his brother. They find each other in the woods, and reveal the years-old sorrow borne by each at the loss of the other, Maurice explaining that he didn't abandon Declan, but simply hesitated when he considered what their disappearance after their transformation would do to their parents, the hesitation causing him to pause just long enough for him to miss his chance to transform. The rift between them is healed, and Declan agrees to let the children go, as long as Maurice promises not to sell the land, a condition to which Maurice happily agrees.

Once the children are safely with their father, Declan offers to show Tess the possibilities which face her if she chooses to become like him. She agrees, but promises Kevin that she will return to speak to him before her time is up. With Declan, Tess discovers the true extent of her powers and her heritage: She learns how to Switch other objects, how to control the weather, and how to ride the wind, as well as dancing with her immortal ancestors on Ben Bulben. With the moment of her fifteenth birthday only a few minutes away, Tess rides the wind back to where Kevin waits, informing him of her choice to remain a fairy. However, having spent the past few hours considering everything, Kevin insists that this is the wrong choice, and that she should remain human. He reminds her of one of Declan's prior statements about fairies adapting to human perceptions, and tells her that becoming like Declan may make her nothing more than "a figment of someone else's imagination". Furthermore, he claims that with their knowledge of the animal world, he and Tess can fight for the world's animals, and protect them from the ever-more-dangerous human race. Tess agrees, and chooses to live out a mortal life as a human. Despite Declan's original fury at this rejection, he accepts Tess' choice.

At her cousins' farm, Tess discovers that the house is infested with rats, which enrages her (easily angered) uncle Maurice, who is planning to sell the nearby wood for development. Tess' cousin Orla protests, but when she mentions 'Uncle Declan', Maurice becomes furious, and terrifies them all into silence.

The next morning, Orla claims that she is going to see their uncle Declan, but Tess declines the offer to join her. Kevin (who has come to help Tess through her birthday) poses as an exterminator, and Maurice agrees to pay him £100 to get rid of the rats. Kevin sets about his work, playing a flute and pretending to lure the rats in a manner similar to that of the Pied Piper; in fact he is using his knowledge of the rats' telepathic language to send out a sort of evacuation order. Unfortunately, Maurice finds the corpse of a rat a few days later and takes this as proof that Kevin did not complete his contract. He therefore decides not to pay Kevin, and orders the youth to leave.

While Maurice is showing a property developer around the woods, Tess explores the area with her cousins. She is suddenly dazzled by a flash of light, and when she recovers the three children have disappeared. Maurice and the developer arrive moments later, and they all see Kevin standing nearby, seemingly implicating him as a kidnapper. Maurice commands his wife not to call the police, after which he sets out to find the children. Tess asks her aunt Deirdre about Declan, and is shocked to learn that he is Maurice's long-dead twin brother.

When Tess finds Kevin, he is adamant that he has not been anywhere near the woods since Maurice ordered him to leave. Tess explains the situation, and he informs her of his belief that an ancient, magical presence may be abroad in the woods, one which even they, with their experience of the supernatural world, have never imagined. In the form of a rat, Tess summons the rats of the area to see if they know anything of her cousins' disappearance. One white rat (identifying herself as "Cat Friend") transmits an image of four pairs of feet, which Tess recognises as Colm's, Orla's, Brian's and, unfortunately, Kevin's. Returning to the farm, Tess again asks about Uncle Declan, and Deirdre reveals that twenty years previously, Maurice's brother Declan disappeared near where the children went missing. The loss of his twin traumatised Maurice, and he spent days searching for Declan in the woods.

Tess tracks down Cat Friend, but is surprised when the rat provides her with an image of her cousins and Kevin walking straight through the face of a crag. At Cat Friend's suggestion, Tess becomes a rat and holds onto Cat Friend's tail, allowing Cat Friend to pull her through the rock-face. Inside, Tess finds an enormous fairy sidhe, within which she finds her missing cousins along with Kevin and another boy. Orla introduces the boy as Uncle Declan, and Kevin explains to Tess that the person she saw kidnapping her cousins was in fact Declan, who used a glamour to disguise himself.

Declan tells Tess that he and Maurice were both Switchers in their younger days, and that on their fifteenth birthday they agreed to become members of the Tuatha Dé Danaan so that they could retain their powers; however, at the last moment, Maurice broke his promise and remained human. Ever since then, Declan has resented his brother for abandoning him, and has harassed him in various forms. Declan goes on to explain that all Switchers are descended from the Tuatha de Danaan, which is why they possess the ability to change their forms. When Declan states that his kind are forced to return to Tír Na nÓg when their homes are destroyed, Tess realises that Maurice had intended to sell the land in the hope that Declan would be banished from his life forever, and that Declan is therefore holding Maurice's children hostage. However, Orla speaks up, claiming that her father loves Declan, and moved by her words, Declan agrees to speak to his brother. They find each other in the woods, and reveal the years-old sorrow borne by each at the loss of the other, Maurice explaining that he didn't abandon Declan, but simply hesitated when he considered what their disappearance after their transformation would do to their parents, the hesitation causing him to pause just long enough for him to miss his chance to transform. The rift between them is healed, and Declan agrees to let the children go, as long as Maurice promises not to sell the land, a condition to which Maurice happily agrees.

Once the children are safely with their father, Declan offers to show Tess the possibilities which face her if she chooses to become like him. She agrees, but promises Kevin that she will return to speak to him before her time is up. With Declan, Tess discovers the true extent of her powers and her heritage: She learns how to Switch other objects, how to control the weather, and how to ride the wind, as well as dancing with her immortal ancestors on Ben Bulben. With the moment of her fifteenth birthday only a few minutes away, Tess rides the wind back to where Kevin waits, informing him of her choice to remain a fairy. However, having spent the past few hours considering everything, Kevin insists that this is the wrong choice, and that she should remain human. He reminds her of one of Declan's prior statements about fairies adapting to human perceptions, and tells her that becoming like Declan may make her nothing more than "a figment of someone else's imagination". Furthermore, he claims that with their knowledge of the animal world, he and Tess can fight for the world's animals, and protect them from the ever-more-dangerous human race. Tess agrees, and chooses to live out a mortal life as a human. Despite Declan's original fury at this rejection, he accepts Tess' choice.

Dong (Vic Chou) was dating Fan, but was infatuated with Yan (Li Bing Bing). Dong suddenly dies in a fatal car accident, and Yan is badly affected. She relies on medication to escape from the reality and her true feelings toward Dong. Three years pass, and Yan takes advice from Dr. Yuen (Roy Cheung) to finally relinquish the medication. She starts seeing Dong repeatedly in her dreams and begins to suspect that her encounter with Dong is real. At the same time, she realizes that she is slowly falling in love with Dong. At last, Yan frees her true self to Dong and he fades away gradually as they both defeat the affliction within their hearts.

Martijn (Phillipe), a gifted Dutch jazz pianist, flies to Morocco to set up a food assistance program. When he arrives, however, he and his travel guide, Gavin (Meaney), are quickly kidnapped by terrorists, taken to an undisclosed location, bound and blindfolded. The captors swiftly shoot Gavin and then begin methodical attempts to extract information from Martijn about where he obtained the money to set up the program by cutting off his fingers one at a time.

Martijn insists that he has no idea where the money came from, though in time it becomes clear that all is not what it seems. Martijn at first denies everything as he and his captor Ahmat (Fishburne) begin to play a game of chess. Ahmat expresses his love for the game stating that there is no bluffing in chess but calculation. Martijn loses the second round and refusing to answer questions, loses his first finger. Later, Aicha (Torres), a woman arrives to tend Martijn's wounds. As Martijn refuses to give up the names, he suspects Aicha being a part of the ruse and refuses to tell anything further. Aicha then cuts off Martijn's second finger as he refuses to tell the truth where the money came from.

Later, Martijn wakes up to find his hand strapped into a vice to prevent himself from escaping torture as Ahmat returns to give Martijn familiar information from newspapers such as Germany and Poland seeking a labor deal and six Palestinians killed in an airstrike by the Israeli Air Force so Martijn can be familiar with them. He then begins to present Martijn a theory that he is a CIA agent trying to find information on Hassan Fikri which Martijn denies after hearing a phone call of himself making an inquiry about Fikri's whereabouts. Still convinced that Martijn is lying, Aicha cut Martijn's third finger off as he refuses to give up the names of his friends and more of the information. The next day, Aicha offers kindness to Martijn by removing his soiled clothing and giving him a bath when he soils his own pants. As he is bathed, Martijn tells Aicha that he hates the CIA and tries to build common ground by stating that he is an idealist who wants to change the world, and that a dozen 9/11 attacks all over the world would have larger corporations begin effecting social change. Aicha accuses him of being trained by the CIA and threatens to take another finger if he is lying. Martijn allows her to cut off his index finger.

Whenever Martijn is tortured, several flashbacks show his happy life back home in the Netherlands with his girlfriend Saadia.

As the torture continues, Ahmat tries his hardest to get answers from Martijn. Eventually, Martijn reveals to Ahmat that he is, in fact, a terrorist and was going to poison fast food with bacteria, killing potentially thousands of Americans. After giving up the names of those within the Holland terrorist cell funding him for his alleged food program, Youseff, a man who had been filming Martijn, kills him. Ahmat is revealed to be a CIA agent and Gavin, still alive, is revealed to be an American who had been working with Ahmat the entire time. Ahmat and Aicha, revealed to be his girlfriend, go for a drink, showing the Statue of Liberty revealing they had been in New York City the entire time.

Dominique Pinon talks to the camera describing his likes and dislikes, ranging from the simple such as "I hate men with a beard but no moustache" to the more touching, "I like to think that after death can't be worse than before birth." Each of his examples is accompanied by a visual demonstration.

The actress Marie-Laure Dougnac (Pinon's collaborator in ''Delicatessen''), also makes a cameo appearance. Jean-Pierre Jeunet reused this technique in his 2001 film ''Amélie'' when introducing the characters.

A villainous rival sends in four double agents to sabotage the exam preparations of the student body of Hadi Hodja's private education institute in a holiday village in Antalya. But when the students uncover the plot they take revenge.

The special starts off with an introduction sequence zooming in on the area the Gogs live. It then shows the dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures living in the area, and finally the Gogs cave and the Gogs themselves. The first few minutes show the Gogs in their cave, doing things such as entertaining the baby, Girj, and eating an apple.

Suddenly, the ground starts to shake and rocks fall. Outside the cave, rocks are rising up from the ground in fire. The Gogs start to climb up a hill when suddenly, Tyrannosaurus Rex appears, and sees Girj, who had been accidentaly left on the ground. The T.Rex is just about to eat Girj when he is lifted up by a rock, and is then reunited with his mother.A large falling boulder kills the T.Rex. The Gogs reach the top of the hill and see the ruins of the land around the cave. They start crying when suddenly, Oglas sees what appears to be a shooting star. The Gogs then head where the star is going.

In the desert, many of the Gogs are tired,and Gogas is in much pain because he has no shoes. He then sees two dead, dog-like creatures, and uses them as his shoes. The group continue on until they see a large, real-life monitor lizard, at which point they burst into laughter.Igi sees the carcass of a mammoth, with the skin still on. Everybody heads inside, but the carcass is still full of flies.

Next morning, Igi climbs a tree and sees an egg, which soon hatches into a vulture chick. Near the carcass, Oglas massages Ogla's back, and Gogas goes to sleep and has a flashback. In the flashback, he is still living with his wife. They have a child (Oglas), but one day, Gogas and his wife are seperated by an army of pygmy soldiers. At the end of the nightmare, Gogas sees their leader- a person in a Pteranodon skull and mask.Gogas wakes up suddenly sweating. Ogla finds out that Oglas is making bacon,eggs and a sausage on her back. They start to fight until the sun goes down, at which point they sleep. Next morning, Ogla awakes to see the baby vulture's parents have eaten the skin of the carcass. He cracks the skeleton, destroying it. The Gogs head into a forest.

In the forest, the Gogs see a dead dinosaur carcass and some hot springs before finally heading into a cave. They fail to notice the cave is in the shape of a human skull. Igi's vulture goes back to the hot springs, causing her to leave the group. The other Gogs light a fire in the cave, but hear childish laughter twice. Gogas sees the pygmies, which then capture the Gogs.Igi heads back into the cave, where she discovers the Gogs in a cauldron (presumably as food for the pygmies). Gogas finds out that his wife is a cook in the pygmy caves. She gives the Gogs reeds to breathe through (although she is not seen giving them). Meanwhile, Igi uses the dead dinosaur carcass to create a hot air baloon.

At feeding time for the pygmies, their leader appears again, and opens the cauldron. Gogas jumps out, followed by the rest of the family. With the help of Gogas' wife, they manage to escape onto an open cliff. With nowhere to go, they are cornered by the pygmies and their leader when Igi's dinosaur baloon rises up. The gogs manage to get on and escape. The pygmies then use Pterosaurs to attack the baloon. Igi turns the basket part of the baloon into an aeroplane, but she looses the baby vulture in the process. The baloon part explodes with the leader on it.

Igi's vulture flaps its wings when it falls, making it fly.The leader smashes into the plane, knocking Gogas and his wife off. They hang on to the baloon until the leader is eaten by a T.Rex. The Gogs see the shooting star but then suddenly crash into a lush, green valley. The Gogs make this their home. Gogas and his wife find a tree full of clubs for them. Igi is sad because she lost her baby vulture. Suddenly, she sees the 3 vultures-parents and child-and the baby flies to her, carrying a flower. Gogas threads the flower in her hair.

Girj jumps into a puddle of poo, and Ogla picks him up. All the gogs see the shooting star, heading towards them. It gets larger and redder as ominious music plays. It finally zooms out from the valley, and eventually showing the world, where it is revealed that the star was an asteroid all along. The Gogs scream as the asteroid hits the earth.

The Marsh family are performing various online activities one evening when Sharon sends them all to bed for the night, insisting that the Internet will still be there the next morning. The next morning, Stan discovers that he has no Internet connection. It is soon discovered that no device in the home has Internet access, which leads to panic. After a visit to the neighbor's and to Starbucks, it becomes apparent that the entire town's internet connection is down. The streets fill with a panicked horde. The TV news, which has nothing to report without the Internet, reports vague rumors of Internet access in Silicon Valley.

After eight days without Internet, the Marsh family decides to "''head out Californee way''." Various people they pass also mention their lack of Internet. At an overnight stay at a camp, a man tells a tale of his two children starving due to waiting three days for a web page to load, with the loading progress bar having reached around half.

When the Marshes reach California, they are placed in a Red Cross "Internet refugee camp," where only one computer is available to serve the visitors, and each family is allowed only 40 seconds of access per day. Users whose time is expired are dragged away from the computer desk by camp staff. Camp staff shut down Internet access until the next day and lock the computer away in a shipping container shed for the night, disappointing those who did not get to use it.

Randy sneaks into the shed at night to use the computer secretly. He looks up bizarre sexual fetishes such as "Japanese girls puking in each other's mouths," bestiality, and "Brazilian fart porn". As he masturbates watching the videos, his moans attract attention, and he is discovered covered head-to-toe in semen. He shifts the blame to a "spooky ghost" who allegedly slimed him with ectoplasm. A guard angrily discovers that Randy has used up the little amount of connection time they had left.

Meanwhile, the government has attempted to find a way to fix "the Internet", a large machine resembling a giant Linksys wireless router, which has stopped functioning for an unknown reason. Several attempts are made to repair it: negotiating with it, communicating with it musically, and even shooting at it. Acting on a hunch, Kyle disconnects and reconnects its power cord. The network indicator now glows green and the bars of the connection strength indicator gradually light up again, much to everyone's joy.

After the Internet is restored, Randy delivers a speech advising against taking access for granted, wearing a Native American-esque outfit, warning about the overuse of "natural resources" (a parody of the long monologue speech that Steven Seagal gives about the environment at the end of ''On Deadly Ground''). Randy says that people should learn from the experience and stop "over-logging on" because they may be unprepared if the Internet is lost permanently as a result. He advises people to stop browsing pointlessly, to only use it when truly necessary, and to only view porn "''twice a day... max.''"

Bruce Gaynor (Paul Reiser) advises David Morgan (Short) while Nancy (Joanna Kerns) advises Kathy (O'Toole) on how to go about their third and most intimate date.

Although they have dated twice, they have not revealed their biggest secrets. This third date challenges their relationship as the truths surface. Both parties find that honesty really is the best policy.

The Plan

The Plan was simple. Amos knew what was going on over at Bert's. When the construction jobs dried up at the compound, Bert had told Amos that he could come to him if he ever needed anything. It was when he repeated himself and said emphatically, "Anything", that Amos understood. Amos always turned down Bert's offer for "legal" work. But one night in a drunken conversation with the doctor at a local bar, Amos finds out about a chemical that the doctor is working with at the University. The research indicates that the chemical kills anything that it comes into contact with, but that it leaves virtually no trace of itself. The research project on the chemical, which the University had named Veritin-22, was originally funded to see if there could be possible uses for it as a pesticide, but the research indicates that there is no control over what it kills. It kills basically everything that it comes into contact with, and the doctor speculates in passing that even a small amount could kill a large population of buffalo, or elephants, or monkeys, or even people. And as a product of the chemical decomposition, it would not leave a trace of itself. The perfect chemical weapon. They decide to have a meeting with Albert Lai to see if any of his friends could use such a powerful stealth weapon. Both of these guys need a big score. They do some simple math and realize they could potentially put hundreds of thousands of dollars in their pockets, if their consciences could take it. And hell, to these guys, that's like millions.

The Meeting

The Meeting took place at the compound, which Amos was happy about, as any trip to the compound was more exciting than his average day. And considering that he helped build it, he knew the ins and outs of the place, which made him feel smart (which he liked a lot). The idea intrigued Lai and he liked the fact that a scientist was involved. Actually, his first thought was that the Doctor may be involved with the authorities, but he knew a quick background check would clear up any of his concerns. He figured that they could all make millions with his connections in China and Nicaragua, and the Doctor indicated that he could basically produce an endless supply of this as long as the "research project" continued. Lai was definitely interested, as long as everything checked out okay. He insisted that the Doctor and Amos stick around for one of his patented shindigs, which was already going on outside the cabana at the pool. When the meeting adjourned, they allowed themselves the pleasure of a few drinks and some casual flirting with some of the local college ladies.

The Party

The party was fantastic, from the viewpoint of Amos. They left the meeting and went to the bar. Of course, the parties, although large and exciting, were invite only. Bert insisted that they meet some of the girls that were mulling around. He introduces Amos to Shelby as a business associate, which made Amos feel important. Shelby acted really interested in everything that Amos said as he was the first business associate of Lai's that she had met who seemed vulnerable. In the two months that she had been hanging around Lai's there was never any talk of business around the ladies. Never. She could not seem to penetrate his business dealings, until she met Amos. She sensed his weakness and figured she would go even deeper undercover than her job had ever required. But that was Amy, always going the extra distance, and besides, this guy actually seemed really innocent. And he was attractive. And she had not had any sexual relations in some time. So Amy, or Shelby as Amos knew her, engaged Amos in the time of his life. He was in love immediately. A beautiful, smart, funny girl, and she was young, and best of all, she seemed to like him. When the Doctor was passing out near the guest house, Shelby and Amos were sitting quietly by the pool getting to know each other.

The Deception

What seemed like weeks went by and Amos could not believe it. This was his first real girlfriend, truly amazing. Walks in the park, hikes that led to waterfalls, and trips to the zoo packed Amos' next few days. He spent all of his free time (which was most of his time) with Shelby. He even let on to her that they would take a vacation together to the islands as soon as some money came in, which would be soon. You see, the future was bright. He was nervous that she would get bored of him, and so he told her how rich he was going to be, hoping that she would stay with him. It was not before long, and not without ample prodding by Shelby that Amos told her all about the plan to make the chemical weapon and sell it and retire to the islands. The Chemical Warfare Brigade, he called the three of them. She finally had some insider information into Albert Lai's dealings. And it just so happened that her knowledge of the plan could save potentially hundreds of thousands of lives. But then the plan changed. Amos ultimately convinced Doctor Von Stadt that if they left Lai alive they would end up dead, and if they made the chemical, thousands of people would die. Amos was able to convince the Doctor that killing Lai was absolutely necessary. They could always back out, but they were already knee deep in this thing. And the truth was, however they could get the money, they would at this point. So they revamped their plan yet again. It was official. Plan B. Go in shooting, take the money, and get the hell out of there.

The Confrontation

Everything went exactly as planned. Amos knew all about the security systems on the compound. He had installed most of them. They came in and took out one guard, and then went for the security mainframe. When it was disengaged, they waited at the bottom of the stairs for the second guard. As he came down the stairs, they took him out. They went up the stairs to Lai's office. Before he could even say anything, he was shot. A shootout with the three bodyguards that were remaining ensued, and Amos and the Doctor were the last men standing.

The Outcome

As they left the house, they heard the helicopters, and saw the floodlights. They heard the sirens in the distance. The cops were there. Already. The Doctor never told anybody about this. Who had Amos told? Before Amos could even give a reason for why it was okay that he told Shelby what he was doing that evening, the Doctor, formally a meek man, turned his gun on Amos, and at once, removed his face from what was once his head. And then he started to run. He ran for his life. And as he ran, all of the facts of the story started to flash randomly through his mind. Flashbacks. He is running so hard, he starts to hallucinate. The lights are shining from the sky. There is faint screaming in the distance, and he knew that the law was on his tail. He has always stayed in good shape, but he was never prepared for this kind of a chase. The Doctor, when backed against the wall by a group of screaming agents, knows that there is only one thing that he can do. He realized that he can not live through the horror of a trial and a life in prison with a possible death penalty. He knew the truth. Death was an inevitable part of life. Everyone's time would come, and his had. He had had fantasies for many years. Big dreams. Maybe in another life. The doctor turns the gun on himself and pulls the trigger.

Rick Belrow Livingston (Farley Granger), on his way to elope with self-obsessed Broadway star Lisa (Ann Miller), is sentenced to 30 days in jail for speeding through a small town. Quite by accident, he meets the daughter of the judge, Cindy Kimbell (Jane Powell). He persuades her to let him out for one night, so that he can visit Lisa on the premise he is seeing his "poor sick mother" (Billie Burke) on her birthday. After spending a night out on the town with him, Cindy starts to fall for Livingston, but Papa Schlemmer (S. Z. Sakall) wants her to marry his son (Bobby Van) whose real ambition is a career on Broadway.

The book records the life and times of a good-natured serial killer (William "Mackerel" Burton) who murders for the fun of it.

In a Roman Catholic convent in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, during evening prayers, the nuns hear screams coming from the room of Sister Agnes, a young novice. Agnes is found in her room bleeding profusely, and in a basket, Mother Superior Miriam finds a dead infant.

Sister Agnes is suspected of killing the baby, so psychiatrist Martha Livingston is assigned by a court to determine if she is competent to stand trial. In an interview, Agnes claims she does not remember being pregnant or giving birth, and shows a lack of understanding of how babies are conceived. Mother Miriam tells Livingston that Agnes is an "innocent" who was kept at home by her mother and knows nothing about the world. She is desperate to keep Agnes naive, and declares that she could not have known what pregnancy was or remember the father.

Mother Miriam tells Livingston about the time Agnes stopped eating in the belief she was getting fat, and then exhibited stigmata in her hand that healed itself within a day. Agnes tells Livingston of her friendship with Sister Marie-Paul, the oldest nun, who showed her a "secret place" – a bell tower, which she then shows Livingston. They argue about Agnes' mother and birth, and how much Agnes knows about sex and pregnancy.

Mother Miriam tells Livingston that Agnes must have conceived on January 23, because that is the night Agnes burned her bedsheets confessing they were "stained". While looking around the convent grounds, Livingston comes across a barn. She and a young Monsignor argue about whether her lack of faith will leave her unable to treat Agnes with dignity. Livingston learns that Agnes' mother was verbally and sexually abusive, telling her she was a "mistake"; and that Agnes is Mother Miriam's niece.

Livingston receives permission from the court to hypnotize Agnes, but Mother Miriam is strongly against it, believing it will strip her of her innocence. While hypnotized, Agnes admits she gave birth and that another woman in the convent knew she was pregnant, but will not reveal who. Livingston discovers that a workroom in the convent has a concealed staircase to a tunnel leading to the barn. (A historian explains that many old convents have "secret" tunnels, to let the nuns move between buildings during the winter.) Mother Miriam tries to have Livingston removed from the case, but she appeals to the court authorities and is retained.

Livingston obtains a second court order to put Agnes under hypnosis again. Mother Miriam admits that she knew Agnes was pregnant and put the wastebasket in her room, but denies she killed the baby. Under hypnosis, Agnes reveals that on the night Sister Marie-Paul died, she told Agnes she had seen "Him" from the bell tower and directed Agnes to meet "Him" in the barn. Under questioning, she appears to describe an encounter with a real presence – human or divine. Suddenly, Agnes exhibits stigmata in her hands, and begins bleeding profusely. Agnes declares that "He" raped her, and that she hates God for it. She admits that Mother Miriam was present when the baby was born, but then left briefly; whereupon Agnes killed the child believing that, like herself, the baby was a "mistake".

Agnes is found not guilty by reason of insanity and returned to the convent where a doctor can "visit" periodically. She tells the judge that she heard "Him" singing beneath her bedroom window for six nights in a row, and then on the seventh night he lay on top of her, implying that she may have been raped and impregnated by a trespasser.

''Forest of Piano'' is a story that follows Kai Ichinose, a boy who lives in the red light district but escapes at night to play the piano in the forest. Shuhei Amamiya, the grade-school son of a professional pianist, transfers to Moriwaki Elementary, Kai's elementary school. But it doesn't take long before Shuhei is picked on by the class bullies, and gets involved in a dare to play the mysterious piano in the forest, leading to his meeting with Kai, who seems to be the only one capable of getting sound out of the thought-to-be broken piano. Kai's ability earns him the respect of Shuhei and his music teacher, former master pianist Sosuke Ajino. Both Shuhei and Ajino try to get Kai to take proper piano lessons, but Kai is at first resistant to refining his piano-playing technique. However, after hearing Sosuke play a Chopin piece he just can't seem to play himself, he relents.

Harry Palmer (Michael Caine) is forced into early retirement from MI5. He receives a telephone call offering a mysterious job opportunity.

Harry flies to St. Petersburg, Russia, where he is met by Nikolai (Jason Connery). They are followed and shot at by Chechens, before Nick (as Harry insists on calling him) and Natasha (Mia Sara) can deliver Harry to his potential employer, Alex (Michael Gambon). Alex tells Harry that a deadly binary biological weapon called Alorex has been stolen; he wants Harry to find it. Harry cannot turn down the pay: $250,000.

Louis (John Dunn-Hill), one of his old contacts, tells him that the Alorex will be on a train, the Bullet to Beijing. Ex-KGB Colonel Gradsky (Lev Prygunov) and his men are also passengers, as are Nick, Natasha and Craig Warner (Michael Sarrazin), yet another unemployed spy, this time formerly with the CIA. When Harry and Nick try to find out what is in the crate Gradsky is transporting to the North Korean embassy, Gradsky (as a professional courtesy) merely has them thrown off the train. Conveniently, though they are in Siberia, there is an airport nearby, and they are able to board a crowded, ramshackle Aeroflot Antonov An-30 aircraft. Though the plane runs out of fuel and has to set down 300 miles from the train's next stop, Harry and Nick just barely manage to get back aboard the Bullet.

When they go to confront Gradsky, they receive several surprises. Natasha, whom they find in the colonel's compartment, turns out to be Gradsky's daughter. Then, they learn that Gradsky also works for Alex. Finally, Harry guesses that Alex is selling the Alorex to the North Koreans for heroin, a specialty of Craig's. Nick, who sincerely thinks that Alex is the man to lead Russia in the troubled times ahead, refuses to believe it. Harry talks Gradsky into dumping his half of the Alorex and replacing it with vodka and urine. But where is the other component? Then, Harry remembers that Louis' grandson had given him a seemingly innocent gift, a Matryoshka doll. Inside, he finds a vial.

Nevertheless, they have to pretend to deliver the Alorex. At the North Korean embassy, Palmer meets another old spy acquaintance, Kim Soo (Burt Kwouk). Kim Soo has orders to get rid of Harry because he knows too much. Nick rescues him by lying and saying Alex will deal with him later. Later, when Harry asks him why he did it, Nick tells him that he thinks Harry is his father. During the Cold War, the Soviets had attempted to suborn a British spy by having a woman agent seduce him. Harry denies being that man, but Nick doesn't believe him.

On the way back to St. Petersburg, Harry explains to Nick that Alex planted the specifications for Alorex in his passport (which was confiscated by Kim Soo), but Harry was not fooled. He burns the valuable but deadly information and tips off both a rival gangster and the police about the incoming heroin shipment. Complications arise when there is an attempt on Harry's life by men working for Kim Soo, which Craig surprisingly foils. The American, it turns out, is working for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Harry and his friends emerge relatively unscathed from the chaotic final shootout.

The novel begins in present time. Lucie returns to her mother's house when Gracie has fallen ill. While her mother is in the hospital, Lucie stays at Gracies house, and her memories take her back to different parts of her childhood. We are offered a glimpse into a very bleak reality. Lucie is required, at the age of four, to make breakfast for Gracie and her current boyfriend, J.D. One morning while Gracie is sleeping off the drinking from the previous night, J.D. begins to verbally abuse Lucie. He mimics her; he tells her shes trash and so is her mother. All of this is being said while the four-year-old makes him breakfast. After J.D. sexually molests her, Gracie decides to take Lucie to the farm to stay with Lizzie. Unaware of the abuse, she only sees that J.D. is upset with Lucies lack of respect for two years, and most of the novel takes place during this time. It is here that Lucie hears more stories of her heritage. Arriving a child wise beyond her years to the pain of the world, Lucie's time at the farm allows her to learn how to be a child, to play, to pretend.Voices from the Gaps: Women Artists and Writers of Color, An International Website. ©2004 Regents of the University of Minnesota. http://voices.cla.umn.edu/vg/Critique/review_fiction/faces_in_the_moon_by_betty_louise_bell.html Accessed 20 April 2008.

It is Lizzie, a "full-blooded" woman, who mediates the young girl's relationship to the traditional past. Lizzie not only represents an alternative to Gracie's dissolute lifestyle, but she also helps preserve the history and meaning of the lives of the women in the family by telling and retelling stories imbued with what she thinks it means to be an Indian woman. Years later, when Gracie is hospitalized, Lucie returns to Oklahoma, and with her return come the memories of childhood.Sanchez, Greg. American Indian Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Spring, 1995), pp. 268-269. University of Nebraska Press, 1994.

Roland plays The Cisco Kid, who sets out on a double mission. He must prevent a girl from marrying a wealthy suitor in order to save her family's hacienda, thus forsaking her true love in doing so; and also apprehend the outlaws who robbed a stagecoach carrying gold to a local mission. He eventually finds that the wealthy suitor is behind the gold robbery, a revelation that makes his task much easier.

Jenny Jeffers, a sixteen-year-old girl, takes a babysitting job for a child named Donny. While babysitting, she gets menacing phone calls from someone and finds a threatening note in her backpack. She soon figures out that Donny's father, Mr. Hagen, was the one making those calls after finding a stash of newspaper clippings in his closet. Apparently, Donny had a sister when he was younger, but she died in an accident when a previous babysitter wasn't paying attention to her.

After Chuck, Jenny's love interest, comes over while she is babysitting, Mr. Hagen catches them kissing and becomes angry, having told Jenny never to invite over friends while she was babysitting, explaining how his daughter had died due to neglect of the babysitter. Mr. Hagen then offers Jenny a ride home, but she soon finds out that he is actually taking her out to a rock quarry that had been deserted for years. When they get out of the car, Mr. Hagen forces her to move to the edge of the quarry right beside a deep pit. He tries to push her, but he misses and falls to his inevitable death.

Jenny Jeffers is going through a period of distress and fear, as she has narrowly survived a murder attempt by Mr. Hagen, the crazed father of a babysitting charge, who tried to push her into an abandoned rock quarry. She begins seeing a psychiatrist, Dr. Schindler, because of continuing nightmares. In Jenny's nightmares, Mr. Hagen rises from the quarry as a zombie to take revenge on Jenny. A different family has contacted her for her babysitting services, but Jenny is worried about going back to babysitting after her frightening experience, and she isn't sure if she should take the job or not. After discussing it with Dr. Schindler, she decides that she should go ahead and take the offer. As she leaves, Dr. Schindler's receptionist, Miss Gurney, compliments Jenny on her shirt.

When Jenny arrives at the residence, Michael and Rena Wexner issue a strange warning about their ten-year-old son, Eli. It seems that he is an egotistical brat with genius intelligence. Jenny is instructed to just try to stay on his good side. After Eli's parents leave, Jenny goes upstairs to Eli's room, where he boasts that he is a genius. He built a computer from a kit, and he even fabricated his own telephone that he's kept secret from his parents. It's hard for Jenny to tell if he's just a boastful brat, or if he's trying to push his limits and see how far he can pester Jenny. Eli enjoys trying to scare Jenny and tricks her into putting her hand into a shoebox with a tarantula inside. Later on, a dead tarantula appears in Jenny's purse and she blames Eli.

The next morning, Jenny is again babysitting Eli. Before his mother leaves for the day, Jenny explains what happened and they both go to confront Eli. He denies making any practical joke and seems very insulted and mad. He proves this by showing his tarantula cage. All three tarantulas are present. Jenny is still unsure, so Eli then throws a crying tantrum. Downstairs a few minutes later, Jenny hears a crashing noise from upstairs. She runs up to Eli's room and finds it in complete disarray. Eli, who is near death, is lying on the carpet motionless, staring up blankly, with a puddle of blood under his head. As it turns out, that was practical joke too.

The culprit is revealed to be Miss Gurney, Dr. Schlindler's receptionist, who had earlier complimented her on her shirt. Miss Gurney had put the dead tarantula in Jenny's bag and takes Jenny to the rock quarry where she had nearly been killed. Miss Gurney and Jenny fall to the bottom of the quarry, which is filled with water, and tries to drown Jenny. Jenny resists but can't escape. Jenny knows she's going to drown, and she begins to faint. Dr. Schindler arrives just in time with police and her boyfriend, Cal, and Cal saves her. Dr. Schlindler explains that the tapes from Jenny's interview sessions were disappearing, and when he noticed Miss Gurney was gone, he called the police. Miss Gurney was earlier a patient of Schindler's, because of violent jealous outbursts and attacks. Dr. Schlindler coaxes Gurney out of the quarry, and she is apprehended by police on the side of the quarry. Alone, Cal makes a joke about seeing a movie now that everything is over. Jenny says she does not know what is out, and Cal says that a zombie movie is coming out. Jenny says he has a sick sense of humor before kissing him.

Debra Jeffers, the cousin of Jenny Jeffers, now has a babysitting job and invites Jenny to spend the summer with her. Jenny is shaken because this reminds her of the exact problem she was trying to escape. She dismisses it, determined to recover. Later, Debra begins to experience haunting phone calls just like Jenny used to get, and she begins to fear she has brought the terror with her. Debra finds herself being attacked and tries to find out who is after her. Later, it is revealed that Jenny attacked Debra, as Mr. Hagen had taken over her mind completely. Jenny is then taken away to be put in a mental institution.

After being released from a mental institution, Jenny Jeffers moves to another town and reluctantly accepts a new baby-sitting job next door in an attempt to finally put her dark past behind her by overcoming her fear. When unexplainable events begin to happen, she begins to fear her dark past has come back to haunt her. However, in an entirely different plot outline, she is terrorized by two murderous ghost children.

Thirteen-year-old Cameron Joshua Kelsey has a serious heart condition, and urgently needs a transplant. He has been given hope and turned down twice. So in desperation, Cameron's father secretly contacts Dr. Richard Bryce, a transgenics expert. Cameron, a.k.a. Cam, finds out through coming home early and discovering his parents arguing about it. Cameron's mother, Catherine, is not happy that his father arranged this without her being involved and does not want her son to have a pig's heart. Cameron decides he wants to see his fourteenth birthday, and the rest of his life, and thus chooses to have the transplant.

However, Cameron is sworn to secrecy about the nature of the transplant, but secretly he tells his best friend Marlon. Meanwhile, Cameron goes to see Trudy, the pig that will be donating a heart to Cameron. His mother announces she is pregnant because she does not want her baby to be damaged by the X-Ray needed to see the pigs. Cameron is delighted and proceeds to make recorded videos for his unborn sibling, in case he dies during the operation, which eventually goes ahead and is successful. But Cameron is furious when he discovers that Marlon has told his parents, who in turn have told the newspapers about the pig heart. Cameron is let out of hospital, but he is now famous and his family are constantly bothered by the media. Even worse, the girl Cameron likes does not want to be near him anymore because she thinks he has germs, and some animal rights protesters threaten him and his family. At some point in the book, Cameron is out with his friends (having made up with Marlon) joking about on their way to the burger shop. Then a friendly lady politely asks Cameron if his surname is Kelsey. Cameron trusts her and says yes, only for her to reveal she has a bucket of red liquid behind her back and hold it high above her head. Cameron knows what is coming and put his hands up in protest as she tips the liquid on him. He tastes the liquid and realises it is pig's blood. Marlon screams abuse and Cameron is taken to casualty.

Cameron has always liked swimming, and decides he is now fit enough, so he spends more time at the swimming pool, trying to touch the bottom like his friends did. He finally manages it, but gets trapped underneath the surface and accepts that he is going to drown. However, Marlon saves his life. Dr. Bryce tells Cameron that his new heart is being rejected by his body, and that he will need another transplant. Cameron refuses, as he is sick of the attention. However, when his grandmother dies, he realises that life is important, and he wants to be around for his younger brother or sister, whom he has decided to call Alex.

David Gordon, a popular science fiction author, widowed two years prior as they were trying to adopt a child, is finally matched with a young boy, Dennis. Initially hesitant to adopt alone, he is drawn to him, seeing aspects of himself in him.

Believing he is from Mars, Dennis protects himself from the sun's harmful rays, wears weights to counter Earth's weak gravity, eats only Lucky Charms, and hangs upside down to facilitate circulation. He refers often to his mission to study Earth and its people, taking pictures, taking things to catalog, and spending time consulting an ambiguous toy-like device with flashing lights that produces seemingly unintelligible words.

Once David decides to adopt Dennis, he spends time getting to know him, patiently coaxing him out of the large cardboard box he hides in. Soon, David is cleared to take Dennis home and meet David's dog, "Somewhere." In Dennis's bedroom is a projector of the solar system that he pronounces inaccurate. With the help of his friend Harlee and sister Liz, David tries to help Dennis overcome his delusion by both indulging it and encouraging him to act like everyone else. Dennis attends school but is quickly expelled for repeatedly 'stealing' items for his collection. Frustrated, David tells Liz that perhaps Dennis is from Mars.

Meanwhile, David's literary agent, Jeff, pushes him to finish writing his commissioned sequel, which is due soon. He struggles to make time for writing, regularly pulled away from it to deal with Dennis. While sitting down to write, the flash from Dennis's Polaroid camera catches him off-guard and he accidentally breaks some glass. David picks Dennis up and carries him across the room. Upset by David's abrupt action, the boy fears he is going to be sent away. David explains that he was just worried he'd get cut by the glass and that he loves him more than his material possessions. Assuring him that he will never send him away, he encourages Dennis to break more things. They move to the kitchen and break dishes and then spray ketchup and dish detergent at each other. Lefkowitz, from Social Services, appears in the window and sees the mayhem. He rebukes David, setting up a case review.

David encourages Dennis to be from Mars only at home; though he must be from Earth everywhere else. Passing his interview by saying he was pretending, he stays with David. Now his adoptive father, he insists Dennis acknowledge being from Earth, making him hurt and angry. David leaves him with Liz to attend the reveal of his new book, supposedly a sequel. He confesses to Tina, the publisher, that rather than being a sequel, it is a new book titled Martian Child, about Dennis. In her fury, Tina makes a scene, but takes the manuscript as David leaves to be with Dennis.

Meanwhile, Dennis has left the house with his suitcase of earthly artifacts. When David arrives home, he finds the police and learns the boy is gone, he remembers the place he'd said he was found. David asks Harlee to drive him to the location, where they spot Dennis high up on the outside ledge of the museum's domed roof. David climbs up to him as the police and Liz arrive. Dennis points out a bright searchlight in a nearby cloud as someone coming to take him home, but David assures him it's just a helicopter. David professes his love for Dennis and asserts he will never ever leave him. Eventually Dennis trusts David and they hug.

David's voiceover tells about the parallel of children who come into our world, struggling to understand it, being like little aliens. As Tina reads the manuscript aboard an airplane, she begins to cry.

Set at Markov's School of Dance and Drama in Richmond, it was a portmanteau show in which different students took centre stage from week to week. It showed training, auditions and performances.

On a foggy night, the car of a man called Michael Starkwedder breaks down near an isolated house and, entering it, he finds the body of a dead man slumped in a chair. A woman stands over the corpse, gun in hand, and confesses to the murder. She gives her name as Laura Warwick, the wife of the dead man. She explains that he was always drunk and abusive. Michael decides not to turn her in to the police, and the two decide to come up with a cover-up story to protect Laura. In the end, they settle on an enemy from the past, by the name of MacGreggor, whose son was run over by Richard Warwick, the dead man, several years ago. They slip a paper in Richard's pocket with the date of the accident, saying "Paid in full." Then they stage the murder so it appears to have been recent, alerting the residents of the building.

The police are soon alerted and begin to investigate. It is revealed that MacGreggor is dead, and suspicions are exchanged. Meanwhile, Michael discovers that Laura was having an affair with another man, whom she believes murdered Richard. He, however, believes her to be guilty. Finally, it is revealed that Michael is MacGreggor and he had come to avenge his son. He shouts this to Laura, along with the fact that he cares for her, and jumps through the window, running away.

Category:1999 novels Category:Novels based on plays Category:HarperCollins books

On the first day of the cold spring of 1953 two events occur, not comparable in importance: fireman Fedya Aramyshev is arrested and "the greatest leader of all times and peoples" Joseph Stalin is found lying on the floor of his dacha.

Some time before these incidents, we see events from the life of military-medical service general Yuri Klensky. In the Soviet Union, the ''Doctors' plot,'' in which a group of predominantly Jewish doctors are accused of a plot to kill Stalin, is in full swing. But Klensky, himself Jewish, cheers himself up with almost non-stop drunkenness, hopes that Soviet justice will not touch him. However, a number of events suggest that Klensky's hopes are futile, and that his arrest will soon follow. In an early scene, the general meets his own double in the hospital, and then there is a "foreigner" in his house bearing news about a relative who allegedly lives abroad. Klensky, suspecting that this is a provocation, throws the "foreigner" down the stairs, but a local snitch manages to report in time to the MGB senior about the doctor's contact with foreigners.

Klensky tries to escape, but ends up getting arrested. The general's family is evicted and is placed in a crowded communal apartment, and Klensky himself, after being detained, is left to the criminals who brutally beat and rape him. But then a miracle happens: the bloody general is driven directly from the cell to the country to a certain "high-ranking" patient, who the shocked Klensky learns to be the "Great Leader". Stalin's state is hopeless, he is dying while wheezing and agonizing, and Beria's voice full of triumph utters the first sentence of post-Stalinist Russia, "Khrustalyov, My Car!".

Klensky is immediately released, but he does not return to medicine. Instead, the general "goes to the people". At the end of the film he is the commandant of a train. Drinking happily, he balances a glass of port on his shaved head.

A mysterious man (Marins) emerges naked from the ocean and proceeds to affect the lives of townspeople, the country, then the world.

As he wanders through the town unclothed, he helps a woman in a wheelchair to walk by frightening her into running, then rescues a woman and her child from attackers when he startles them with his appearance.

He enters the well-decorated home of a woman with fashionable clothing. Seeing him, she goes to her wardrobe and chooses several pieces of her costumery which he puts on. The outfit includes an ornate turban, a sash, and a pointed baton. He walks through the streets of Santos dressed in this fashion, attracting increasingly more followers and admirers.

He shows no surprise at people's reaction to him; he regards it all with a deadpan acceptance.

When he later stops in a church and approaches the altar to fill the chalice with holy water and drinks it, he is observed by a priest who utters "Finis hominis". The strange man replies, "What"? The priest again states "Finis hominis, the end of man".

When the protagonist is later asked his name by the police after he assaults a photographer, he pauses, then replies: "Finis Hominis".

He saves the life of an adulteress and that of a young girl while gaining more followers all over the country as huge crowds follow him through the streets. He soon gains a messiah status after appearing to resurrect a dead man who actually was suffering a temporary nervous catalepsy. Nuns announce that Finis Hominis has come to save the world. Leaders of other countries warn of his dangerous "supernatural powers".

He announces that the time has come for him to leave and eventually gives a farewell speech from a mountaintop that is watched and listened to from all over the world.

In the final scene, two men in white uniforms see Finis Hominis approaching in the distance, and they seem pleased, saying, "Here he comes. I told you. He always returns." As the camera pulls back, it is revealed that the place Finis Hominis has returned to is an insane asylum.

Clarissa Hailsham-Brown is the wife of a foreign diplomat Henry. There are three guests in the house – her godfather Sir Rowland "Roly" Delahaye, Hugo Birch and a young man named Jeremy Warrender. When Jeremy is given the opportunity of being alone with Clarissa, he confesses his love for her. But Clarissa, taking her duties of being a faithful wife to Henry and a step mother to Pippa, rejects his proposal. Later when Pippa returns from school she indulges herself in exploring parts of the manor house with Jeremy and reveals a secret passage.

The three guests then make their departure to the local golf club. Meanwhile, Clarissa is confronted by a visitor to the house, a man named Oliver Costello, who happens to be Pippa's mother's second husband as well as a drug addict. He states that in future Pippa will have to stay with her mother. He leaves the house and is escorted off by Miss Peake, the manor house's gardener. A few minutes later Henry Hailsham-Brown arrives home and innocently reveals the intended secret arrival of the Soviet Premier in London. He has to go and meet him at the local airport and will return later.

The room empties and Costello is seen sneaking around the living room. Clarissa soon discovers his body in the drawing-room. It is believed that Pippa has killed him with a golf club in desperation and dilemma. Clarissa devises a plan with the three returning guests to dispose of the body. Unfortunately, before they can dispose of the body, the police arrive and say that they have had an anonymous phone call, suggesting that a murder has taken place at the house. When questioned, Clarissa and the guests all lie about the facts, hoping to cover up the murder that it is thought that Pippa has committed. Clarissa on being asked to tell the truth, changes her story a number of times and gets herself entangled in a 'spider's web'. The police soon find that Costello's body is missing. It was taken by Miss Peake to an upper bedroom so that the police wouldn't come across it while they searched the house, and the individuals are interviewed.

Later, when Jeremy is alone, in an attempt in pretending to comfort Pippa, he tries to smother her with a pillow, but stops as Clarissa approaches him. Clarissa, who is keen and acute at understanding things, discovers that it is Jeremy who had murdered Charles Sellon, an antique shop owner and the previous owner of the manor house, because he had something valuable in his possession. The item which Jeremy has been looking for, is somewhere in the house and not the antique shop. That was why Costello approached Clarissa, thinking that she was Mrs Brown, the owner of the manor house and the partner in his antique shop business. It is then revealed that Miss Peake is Mrs Brown (Clarissa is Mrs Hailsham-Brown). Since Jeremy was on the same mission as Costello, Costello had to be eliminated. The item which the rogues have been searching for is a postage stamp, which would have fetched the sum of £14,000. Jeremy tries to kill Clarissa as she is the only one remaining who knows his secret. However, the police are eavesdropping on them and arrest him. The three guests leave and Henry returns home. Clarissa learns that the Premier was not at the airport as part of a security set up, but is still expected to visit the house. The play closes as Clarissa and Henry get ready for the visit of the Premier.

Category:2000 novels Category:Novels based on plays Category:Novels set in Kent Category:HarperCollins books

Bill Morgan is a young American who is eager to join the military and fight for his country during World War II, but his 4F status prevents him from enlisting. Bill does his bit for the war effort by collecting scrap metal. Among the discarded junk he discovers a mysterious brass bottle which he rubs to clean off the grime.

Suddenly, Ali, a Genie, appears and offers to grant him three wishes. Without thinking, Bill says he wants to be in the US army. In a puff of smoke, Bill finds himself a foot soldier in George Washington's Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. After a run-in with some Hessian soldiers, Bill escapes by wishing himself into the Navy. Once again the Genie transfers him, but this time to the crew of Christopher Columbus's ship on his maiden voyage to the new world. Once on shore, he agrees to buy Manhattan Island from a local native.

Bill next finds himself whisked forward in time to New Amsterdam in the mid-17th century. When he claims that he owns the Island, he is thrown in jail. Ali finally gets it right and Bill finds himself in the right time and place by the end of the film.

The movie fictionalized Milgram as academic psychologist Stephen Turner, a somewhat quiet man consumed with Nazi concentration camp imagery. He was portrayed by William Shatner. Because the fictional Turner was not Jewish (as Milgram was) but a “WASP", this obsession was pathological, a reflection of guilt and a need for martyrdom, according to Turner's friend Ben, a black psychologist played by Ossie Davis.

With horror-movie music in the background, the movie showed Turner's experiments going forward, particularly emphasizing the intense nervous reactions of subjects, but did not let viewers themselves know that the "learner" was not being shocked until the play was more than half over, thus emphasizing the film's portrait of the psychologist as crazy.

Turner was subjected to an ethical inquiry after one subject, Barry, a student who had served in the army during Vietnam, had a breakdown during the experiment and destroyed the equipment. Many of the subjects that viewers had seen breaking down earlier during the trials testified to the value of the experiment, including Barry. “Had I been over there in My Lai, I would have shot dogs, cats, women, children, old men, babies. I would have wasted them all," he told the ethics board. "I’m grateful to Dr. Turner, ‘cause you see I know what is inside of me."

The last scene of the movie focused on a confrontation between Turner and his former lover, another psychologist on faculty, who demanded that he see the comparison between himself and his subjects: “You’ve been tested like your subjects. You had a choice, you could have stopped. Your ends, which were knowledge, for that you knowingly inflicted pain." The film ended with Turner sobbing on her shoulder.

Kirk Kettner is a TSA agent at Pittsburgh International Airport. He attempts to reconcile with his ex-girlfriend Marnie, despite her treating him poorly. Meanwhile, an attractive and successful woman named Molly McCleish, arrives at the terminal to board a flight. Kirk is the only TSA agent who does not flirt with or attempt to harass her, attracting Molly, especially after he saves her from his boss who makes unwanted advances on her. After boarding, she calls her cell phone accidentally left behind at security, Kirk answers it and arranges to return it the following evening, deepening the attraction.

Kirk and his friend Devon arrive at the Andy Warhol Museum the following evening to return Molly's phone. While there, Kirk is wrongly accused of spilling a drink on the museum director and is asked to leave. Molly feels bad and offers Kirk tickets to a Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game. Kirk brings his friend, Stainer, to the game, where they meet Molly and her friend Patty. While Stainer and Molly are away from their seats, Patty tells Kirk that Molly is interested in him.

Molly asks Kirk out a few days later and he agrees. Stainer predicts their relationship will fail, he refers to Molly as a "10", and Kirk as a "5", saying that is too big a difference. Patty meanwhile believes Molly has only chosen Kirk because he is "safe". While on their date, Kirk tells Molly that he dreams of becoming a pilot, while Molly shares her story of how she was once a lawyer before realizing her love for event planning. At the end of the night, they kiss in Kirk's car.

Molly accompanies Kirk to a family lunch, where she charms the men and makes Marnie jealous. After returning to Molly's apartment, while making out, Kirk ejaculates prematurely in his pants and moments later Molly's parents arrive. Desperate to conceal the stain on his pants, Kirk seems discourteous by not standing up to shake hands and leaves quickly. Believing he fled to avoid meeting her parents, Molly ignores Kirk's calls. Kirk tracks her down and admits the true reasons for his leaving and she forgives him.

At Molly's sister Katie's 21st birthday party, Kirk is troubled by Molly being intentionally vague about Kirk's line of work to her parents. Molly's ex-boyfriend Cam, a stunt pilot, then arrives and alludes to Molly having a physical defect. After the party, they return to Molly's apartment and partially undress. Kirk discovers Molly's "defect" is slightly webbed toes, which Kirk considers so minor that he decides that she is indeed too perfect for him. Upset with Kirk over his insecurities and wishing that there was something wrong with her to justify them being together, Molly confesses that Cam had the same problem. She admits she asked Kirk out because she considered him safe, causing Kirk to break up with her. Kirk resumes his relationship with Marnie and makes plans to attend a family vacation in Branson together.

Later, Stainer asks an ex-girlfriend of his if he was good enough for her, she tells him that his insecurities caused her to end their relationship. Realizing he caused Kirk and Molly's break-up by telling Kirk that Molly was too good for him, Stainer phones Patty and gets her to bring Molly to the airport. Stainer tries to get Kirk off the plane he has boarded, but to no avail. He has Jack stop the plane, causing everyone to have to de-board. Kirk flees from Marnie, who chases after him, and Kirk breaks up with her in the process. Kirk meets Molly at the terminal gate, where she confesses Kirk's insecurities about himself are justified, but that she wants to be with him regardless. They reconcile and resume their relationship. Later, Kirk surprises Molly with a mystery trip to Cleveland via small aircraft, revealing that he has fulfilled his dream of becoming a pilot.

Keima Katsuragi, a second-year high school student, is an avid player of gal games (video games that involve interactions with anime-styled pretty girls). He is known on the Internet as for his legendary skills to be able to "conquer" any 2D girl in games. However, in his actual school life, Keima is called , a derogatory portmanteau of the two words and .

At the start of the series, Keima receives an e-mail offering him a contract to "conquer" girls and, thinking it is an invitation to a game challenge, he accepts. In response, a cute demon from Hell named Elsie appears: a Spirit Hunter. She asks for his cooperation to help her in catching the evil spirits that have escaped to the Human Realm: the "Loose Souls", which were once Old Demons from Hell. These evil spirits hide themselves inside the hearts of girls, feeding off the hosts' negative emotions to replenish their power and strength, thus becoming whole demons once again (and in turn, the host becomes an empty shell of a person). Elsie suggests that the only method to force the evil spirits out is by "conquering" the girls' hearts, making them fall in love with him and filling up the gaps which the escaped evil spirits hide in, in which she is then able to capture them. Interested only in video game girls, however, Keima is appalled by the idea, and refuses the assignment as he has no romantic real life experiences whatsoever. Nevertheless, with the contract already agreed, Keima has no choice but to help Elsie no matter what, as they will be beheaded by an invisible (to others) purple collar around their necks if they fail.

After winning the hearts of fourteen girls (and capturing the spirits residing in them), Keima and Elsie are given an even greater mission: to awaken the six goddesses known as the Jupiter Sisters. Each sister is dormant in the heart of a girl among those they have previously helped, thus Keima must locate them and conquer their hearts a second time. This time however, they remember the encounters he has had with them already, due to the goddesses inside them, causing high tension and constant possible failure as he tries to conquer the girls simultaneously. However, his time is limited as a rebel demon faction called "Vintage" is planning to capture the goddesses and take over the world.

After Vintage's plans are thwarted, Keima starts seeing visions of a child who is somewhat familiar to him. The goddesses send Keima and Elsie to the past with the task of helping her. Upon arriving, they team up with a mysterious girl who apparently has some connection with Dokuro, Elsie's superior in the underworld, and Keima discovers that several occurrences in the past are different from what he remembers, leading to a tragic chain of events that he must avert to ensure that the present stays unaltered, as well as another demon faction which releases giant humanoid monsters.

As Keima completes his final mission, he discovers the truth about one of the giants and is able to reconcile with it. He is relieved from the collar and returns to his normal life in the real world.

In addition to Keima's romantic comedy adventures, the series makes fun of and parodies common, and popular cliches about dating sims, anime character stereotypes, and pop culture.

A neighbourhood is terrorized by a serial killer who kills and hangs his female victims in a uniquely specific way . When struggling crime fiction novelist Kyung-ju kills his landlady, he stages it to resemble the other murders. Realizing that the crime appears to be a copycat, he sets out to find the killer with the help of his detective friend.

The book follows the lives of six Beverly Hills High School students, class of 1986, and deals with the challenges and anxieties of teenage life in modern America.

''Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia'' takes place after ''Castlevania: Symphony of the Night'', sometime in the 1800s, right after the era of Richter Belmont. Since the Belmont Clan had vanished by that time, several organizations are created in order to research countermeasures against Dracula and his eventual return. Among these organizations, the most promising was the Order of Ecclesia, who created a triad of magical glyphs based on Dracula's power, named "Dominus." Shanoa is a member chosen by the order's leader, Barlowe, as the human vessel for Dominus. As the ritual begins, the Dominus glyphs (Anger, Hatred, Agony) are stolen by Shanoa's colleague Albus, and Shanoa loses her memories and emotions. She goes to retrieve them, unaware of his true intentions.

In her pursuit, Shanoa arrives in the deserted Wygol Village and finds out that Albus kidnapped its inhabitants, brought them to different hidden locations, and imprisoned them. As Shanoa rescues them throughout the game, she learns that Albus captured them to perform some kind of experiment on them which involved taking samples of their blood. On two occasions, Shanoa tracks down Albus, who willingly gives her two of the Dominus glyphs. When she finds him to be possessed by the power of the third glyph, she is forced to fight him. After killing Albus, his mind and soul are absorbed by Shanoa together with the last Dominus glyph. Albus explains that his true intentions were to find a way to defeat Dracula without Shanoa using Dominus, as he knew that it would kill her if she used it. Her lost memories and emotions were actually taken by Dominus, and not Albus, as Barlowe had told Shanoa. He also reveals that the reason he experimented on the villagers was because they were the last descendants of the Belmont Clan, and he believed their blood would have the power to help him control Dominus without it consuming him.

Confronting Barlowe after learning the truth, Shanoa learns that his true objective is to bring Dracula back to life, using Shanoa as a sacrifice. After Barlowe is defeated in a fight, he offers his own life to revive Dracula, and Dracula's castle appears. Eventually confronting Dracula, Shanoa successfully defeats him using Dominus, seemingly at the cost of her own life. However, Albus appears and reveals that only a single soul has to be offered. He sacrifices his own soul in Shanoa's place, but not before he restores her memories and emotions and asks her to smile for him. The castle crumbles, and Shanoa escapes.

Sakurai Mikito is a high school student and is bullied everyday, but doesn't fight back, as he dislikes violence. One day a mysterious orb works its way into his bag and while Mikito sleeps the orb bounces to his bed, works its way into his mouth and he swallows it. In his dreams he talks to a strange boy who is called Zakuro, who asks simply "what is your desire?" After Mikito wakes up he no longer needs his glasses and has a massive appetite. When the bullies at school attempt to extort him for money, but Mikito is overcome with an unfamiliar sensation, Rage. when Mikito refuses to pay the bullies coerce him saying "you will always be lower than us!" Mikito, finds this comment to his disliking and promptly breaks the delinquent's jaw with a single punch. Apparently, he has also gained superhuman strength, later a large group try again to extort him, however, this time he brutally beats them down discovering he enjoys the sight of blood after hating it for so long. Unfortunately his power comes with a price, he starts harboring violent thoughts, becomes short tempered and most disturbingly, starts to view other humans as "Meat" even nearly attacking his own sister. He develops an insane hunger for human flesh which he refuses to indulge, but his instincts are difficult to repress. Then one night he senses something off in the distance, a person he must meet. He rushes towards this person, and finds a man standing over the corpse of a woman whom he killed. At first the man is confused by Mikito's presence then identifies him as a comrade. Suddenly a cloaked man carrying strange weapons and wearing a bell on his right ear swoops down from the rooftops and attacks the murderer. Then the murderer changes shape turning into an ogre, the cloaked man an ogre battle for a moment and the man gets the upper hand. The ogre implores Mikito to transform and help. However, the man kills the ogre and attacks Mikito, but his weapon seems to have an effect on him as it saps his strength. With the last of his strength he yells at a fleeing Mikito that, he will kill his family if he doesn't let the cloaked man kill him. Apparently the orb he swallowed was an ogre core which transforms a human into an Ogre. Mikito is then discovered by "Ogre Hunters" and the story develops from there.

The movie begins with Badrol and Lim watching the news covering about the sudden disappearance of durians in Badrol's home village, Kampung Durian Runtuh. A news reporter interviews Badrol's grandfather Tok Dalang about the previous night (a durian fell but something managed to eat it and leave the durians shell clean). Tok Dalang and the locals dub the "something" a durian ghost since its unknown of who or what is eating the durians late at night. Badrol gets skeptical and decides to go to the village, taking Lim along with him.

After riding on a bus which gets its tire punctured, the two are forced to walk to the village which is 5 km away. After a few complains from Lim, a truck driver named Mr. Singh noticed the two and decided to give them a ride much to his friend and boss Pak Mail's chagrin. Badrol then tells them about their journey with Pak Mail talking about an abandoned house.

At the village Upin and Ipin are playing in, Uncle Muthu's outdoor restaurant while Sally is impatiently waiting for his pastries, Mak Uda, called Opah by Upin and Ipin's as she is their grandmother, arrives. The twins greet Opah who tells them to come home with their older sister Kak Ros, Opah then asks Sally to see if he has finished making her clothing and ushers to fix it as Sally tells Opah that he couldn't finish sewing the clothes simply because the buttons keep popping out and is ruining his nails. After Sally complains about Opah, Opah then asks Ah Tong about the news of the durian ghost, but Ah Tong claims the durian ghost to be unreal, Opah claims Ah Tong that he 'never believes in anything'. Sally leaves as he lost his appetite as Singh and Pak Mail drops Badrol and Lim on the shop the two then decided to ask Muthu for directions to Tok Dalang's house since Badrol hasn't been in the village for a while and he doesn't remember the way to his house but due to Muthu's unclear directions, he decided to ask Upin and Ipin to lead Badrol and Lim instead while Kak Ros drops by to deliver the pastries but decided to follow her brothers as she is forced by Uncle Muthu.

Upon arriving at Tok Dalang's (called by Atok) house and having a reunion, Badrol and Lim took Atok's suggestions which is to explore the village, Badrol and Lim then have a motorcycle race, knocking out a child named Rajoo, who forces the two to replace his radio (when Rajoo sees the two heading towards him he jumped into the water with the radio) and his one-horned cow Sapy into the water. Badrol and Lim are telling him that they going home to Tok Dalang's house.

At night, Tok Dalang talks about the Durian Ghost, and Badrol and Lim sleep, with Lim wanting to go to the bathroom. The next day, they go to Tok Dalang's durian orchard with Rajoo's wagon, with an impromptu musical number ensuing. After Upin, Ipin and Rajoo ride a leaf, they find a fox-like creature named Oopet. Kak Ros, Badrol and Lim find them and at night, they go camping. A monster then chases them and they go to the cave, where they get chased by a snake monster and attacked by large leeches. Tok Dalang, Opah, Muthu and Ah Tong then go to the orchard to find them. Oopet is then revealed to have been eating the durians. Oopet tells Rajoo to find his mother. Badrol and Lim get kidnapped by Uncle Singh (revealed to be disguised as the monster) to the cabin. Rajoo then sneaks to the cabin that Uncle Singh and Pak Mail have some plans for haunting the orchard. They manage to save Badrol and Lim and escape the cabin. Oopet tries to help his mother but Pak Mail catches him, with his mother then attacking Pak Mail and Uncle Singh for wanting to kidnap her son. They escaped, but his mother is chasing them. They go to the cave again and Oopet tells them to run while Oopet's mother is fighting the snake monster.

They say farewell to Oopet, and Tok Dalang, Opah, and Muthu find Upin, Ipin, Badrol, Lim and Rajoo, with them the accusing Abang Salleh of following Mr. Singh's and Pak Mail's plans. Lim hands Rajoo his CD player and calls him, along with Upin, Ipin, Badrol and Kak Ros part of a "gang". In a mid-credits scene, we see Pak Mail and Mr. Singh roaming in Oopet's world, with them getting chased by Oopet's mother.

The story begins when a wizard named Arriman the Awful, living in Darkington Hall, decides to choose a wife from his hometown of Todcaster; his ulterior motive is a prophecy that foretells that another, darker wizard will take over Arriman's burden of smiting and blighting, which bores him by now. It is proposed by his servant that the prophecy must have meant Arriman's son. Since Arriman has no son, nor even a wife, he decides to hold a contest in which the seven witches of Todcaster (Mabel Wrack, Ethel Feedbag, Mother Bloodworth, Nancy Shouter, Nora Shouter, Madame Olympia, and Belladonna) are to take part that will decide whom he will marry: whichever witch performs the blackest act of magic will be his bride. However, most of the witches of Todcaster are downright revolting and nasty. The exception to this is Belladonna, who is beautiful and secretly loves Arriman, but is a white witch, unable to perform any black magic.

Before the contest begins, Belladonna encounters a small orphan named Terence Mugg. She helps rescue him from the orphanage and a mean matron by using an uncharacteristically dark spell to root the matron. Believing that Terence's pet worm, Rover, is her familiar, an animal that is key to her working dark magic, she and Terence agree to work together to win the competition.

While the other witches' magic goes hilariously or horribly wrong when it is their turn in the competition, there is one problem Belladonna didn't count on. Madame Olympia, a truly evil enchantress, joins the contest and is willing to do anything to make sure she will win the hand of Arriman to gain his teeth for her necklace.

After spending time with Arriman, Terence discovers the perfect piece of magic for Belladonna to do: raise the ghost of Sir Simon, Arriman's friend, which Arriman has been trying to do for years. Olympia, on her day, performs a terrifying piece of magic known as the "Symphony of Death." It seems that unless Belladonna can perform her necromancy, she will certainly lose.

However, the day before her turn, her familiar goes missing. Only Terence is aware, as Rover was with him at all times. Without telling Belladonna, Terence devises a plan with Arriman's servants, who all agree that Belladonna would be the best wife for Arriman. Terence goes into town to hire an actor to play Sir Simon. Belladonna performs as scheduled. After an amazing display, Sir Simon appears to everyone, alive. Arriman is overjoyed to see his friend.

One day after Belladonna's act, Terence goes missing. He is found back at his old orphanage. However, a message from the actor's mother reveals that he was unable to arrive on time for the performance, which jolts the plotters into the realization that Sir Simon has truly been resurrected. The same night, Terence goes to the kitchen for a drink when the matron catches him. Out of nowhere, he turns her into a spider, then returns to Darkington. It turns out that Rover was kidnapped by Madame Olympia. Arriman and his servants successfully return Rover to Belladonna, but it turns out that it was not Belladonna who completed the spell after all. It was Terence, who held Rover for all her performances and imitated her spell-casting. Delighted to have found his prophesied replacement, Arriman marries Belladonna and they take Terence in as Arriman's student.

Alex, a computer programmer from a cold place very far away, receives a visit from an intruder named Anja, but before she breaks in; he writes an important message to a colleague, at a greyhound racetrack, named Susie, transfers it to a floppy disk and gives it to his dog, PC warning him that he should give it only to Susie and trust no one. He hides PC just before Anja breaks in with her vicious dog, Sibelius and threatens him for money. He tells her that the money is in the retirement fund, after which she kills him. But later she finds that the money is missing and sees the initials SA on the file name which she discovers, in the nearby address book; to stand for Susie Arkwright and starts spying on Susie.

PC reaches Susie's neighbourhood but gets hit by a car and is taken in by the family of 14-year-old Zac (the film's main narrator along with PC) who had recently moved to Sydney from Melbourne with his mother Amy, step-father Stephen and his younger sister Binky. Zac thinks the disk is one of his and keeps it. Zac is then introduced to his new neighbour Susie, who grew up in Sydney, and her daughter Samantha who moved from London and live next door and they recognise PC. Then they learn of Alex's death and PC continues to stay with Zac's family. PC uses Zac's computer to make a translation programme that could translate any language or sound into plain English, even his barking. He demonstrates it to Zac who gives him a new voice with a Scottish accent and installs the software onto a palmtop computer with a microphone in a bow tie so he can talk away from the desktop.

Zac's relationship with PC is strained and after a spate of incidents, often involving Anja and Sibelius, the dog decides to tell him the truth. PC was originally from Iceland where Alex wrote computer programmes and he was married to Anja who was his assistant but she never loved him. Anja stole Alex's programmes and made at least a million dollars from them. Alex got heartbroken when he found the money which he withdrew and fled to Australia with PC to escape from her but Anja found him somehow.

Zac finds the floppy disk which has a clue on where to find information on where to find the money. Zac goes with PC and Sammy to Alex's flat and completes the crossword puzzle on the computer to see a video of Alex saying "A note to follow so" followed by a picture of a pea-like object. After singing Do-Re-Mi they figure that the password is LAP then they see another video of Alex this time saying "Well done. The rest is in and under your nose. Bonne Chance". Anja arrives and threatens them with a dagger so Zac deletes the file to stop her but she kidnaps PC.

Back home Stephen, who Zac had previously seen taking a loan from Anja, agrees to help them and they go to the greyhound track where Alex and Susie worked. PC tricks Sibelius into letting him out of the cage but when Zac comes to help him he lets out Anja's dog who chases after them. Sammy deciphers the clue but takes "LAP in" to be the French word for rabbit and tells PC who is then catapulted into the commentator's box where he announces that the money is in the rabbit. Anja takes this to mean the mechanical rabbit on the track and starts tearing it apart but gets stuck and is dragged around the track not finding any money. Binky find's Sammy's Hollywood pin badge, which Alex gave her, and asks "What's a Hollywood?", and Sammy explains that it is a place in L.A. then they realise that the clue means L.A. pin and they find jewelry inside it.

The film ends with PC making out with Sammy's dog Cordelia.

After fighting the Soviets as a volunteer during the Winter War in Finland, Max Manus, haunted by his experiences, returns to Norway, finding it occupied by the Nazis. He joins with the Norwegian resistance movement in their fight against the Germans, producing illegal propaganda, but his cell is soon detected and he is arrested after jumping out a window. After being hospitalised, he manages to escape to Scotland where he receives British Commando training in sabotage and disinformation. Returning to Norway with his friend Gregers Gram, his first mission is an attack on German supply ships. He is spectacularly successful, and becomes a special target for the local Gestapo chief Siegfried Fehmer. Manus, however, avoids capture, and with Gram and Gunnar Sønsteby forms the so-called "Oslo Gang" and along with others, receives a medal from the Norwegian king.

Stockholm in neutral Sweden becomes a meeting point for Norwegians in allied military service. Here Gram introduces Manus to "Tikken", a married woman who works as a Norwegian contact for the British consulate, and the two develop a relationship. As the war becomes more brutal, many of Manus' friends lose their lives, and he starts to blame himself for being the survivor. Late in the war he succeeds in sinking the SS Donau which was sunk on 16 January 1945. After the war, at a loss due to his poor prospects, he meets an imprisoned Fehmer and realises that everyone is just a victim of the meaninglessness of war.

''Kung Fu Tootsie'' is set in Hong Kong, the story of Tien and Tao, twins separated at birth. When Tao, living with his wealthy mafioso father, Ma Yong Hai, is mutilated by a rival gang, Ma must find his lost son Tien, living in poverty with his mother, to become the next head of the family.

Antics ensue, however, when Tien turns out to be more 'Sonny and Cher' than 'Sonny Corleone'.

Jim is a car mechanic who is drawn into danger after he robs a convenience store while driving a client's bulletproof car. He returns the car to the client, Keller, who demands that he bring him a Ferrari held by a couple in the mountains. Jim also meets a young woman, Gem, who he tries to impress. He's successful in bringing Keller the car, only for him to order Jim to bring him a Ferrari and then a Corvette. He manages to acquire the cars, but with great difficulty and collateral damage. While acquiring the Corvette Jim is confronted and threatened with death, but also manages to save Gem from an abusive boyfriend. He is also pursued by a man called Mr. Lawrence, who wants the diamonds hidden in the Corvette.

Ultimately Jim manages to bring Keller the Corvette, which is now demolished from all of the action and from having exploded due to an accident. Keller orders him to leave, which Jim does, taking the burned Corvette to fix it. Just as he's leaving, Mr. Lawrence and Keller, as well as their men, open fire on each other. Meanwhile, Jim and Gem board a bus and leave town and Gem asked Jim, what happened to Keller and he doesn't know.

While stopping at a gas station late one night in a small New Mexico town called Little Creek, a young girl gets out of the vehicle while her father goes inside. Exploring the empty main street of the town she meets a local boy, and both are soon mesmerized by a column of light from above. After a minute or two the light disappears and the young girl runs back to her father's car and they soon leave.

Twenty-five years later the deputy marshal of the town, Wayne, (Vincent) is investigating a strange case of cattle mutilations with few leads to follow. His efforts are soon hampered by Jennifer, a scientist from California (Shepard) who is overseeing a geology project in the area. As the two disagree over the mutilations and their possible causes, they find themselves attracted to one another in an almost-familiar way as if they share some unknown bond. As events unfold, they discover that they were the children shown at the beginning of the film and that the night depicted then changed their lives. Wayne stayed and became a police officer while Jennifer went back to California and ended up working for her father's company. Jennifer claimed, however, that she always felt a strange urge to return.

The mutilation case comes to a head when the culprit appears to be a crazy old prospector hermit living alone on the outskirts of town (Schiavelli). The hermit claims that not only were the children visited by aliens 25 years ago - so was he... and he hasn't aged a day since. Claiming to be on a mission from the aliens, the hermit says that the mutilations have a purpose - he has been using a "knife" made of energy to carve out parts of the cattle and teleport them into space using a device hidden in the cave behind his cabin. While confronting him in the cave, Jennifer is subdued while the hermit explains that the aliens gave him a purpose that night. He then expresses jealousy that the aliens would choose someone else as well and is shocked when an otherwise fatal blow from the alien "knife" fails to kill or even harm her. After being saved by Wayne, it becomes apparent that it was all an experiment by the aliens.

A variety show about life as a teenager as seen through the eyes of eight actual teenagers (Crispin, Julie, Jill, Nicolas, Kevin, Lisa, David and Janet) who perform skits, songs and dances that relate their views between childhood and adulthood.

Bobby Barbato (Michael Keaton) is a pro ice hockey player in Chicago. As always, he expects cheering crowds and beautiful women coming after him. But one day, a gang of youths begin to mug him but he manages to fend them off and then catches the youngest member of the gang, Louis DeLeon (Ajay Naidu). He then gives Louis a ride home and meets the boy's mother, a Hispanic woman named Denise (María Conchita Alonso). After a fight, Bobby moves on with his life but then he and Denise begin to fall for each other and Louis eventually becomes close friends with the hockey player.

The novel is told from the first person perspective of a woman, Helen, who lives in Melbourne near her family. A friend Nicola, who is ill with bowel cancer, comes to stay with Helen in order to pursue alternative therapy for her disease. The cancer is considered terminal by her doctors. Helen is suspicious of the treatment and becomes more so as she sees its deleterious health effects. As the three weeks of the novel progress Helen becomes increasingly angry with Nicola for denying the seriousness of her illness, forcing those around her to do emotional work on her behalf in confronting her death, and in making light of them for doing so. At the end of the novel, Nicola returns to mainstream oncology treatment, and the doctors find that some of her symptoms are due to cancer having destroyed part of her vertebrae. The novel flashes forward to the months ahead, where Nicola returns to Sydney and eventually dies. A number of friends and family, including Helen, take turns as her caretaker. Nicola only truly embraces her death when a Buddhist friend tells her that in dying, she has something to teach them.

The novel draws heavily on both events and details from Garner's life. The narrator Helen lives next door to her daughter Eva and Eva's children, as Garner does with her daughter Alice Garner and her children, and plays the ukulele as Garner does. The events in the novel are based on Garner's spending a period caring for her friend Jenya Osborne when Osborne was dying. Garner chose to use her own first name for the narrator character as she wanted to admit to the least attractive or acceptable emotions that she felt as her friend died.

After the world-altering events of ''Kamandi: At Earth's End'', a period of cleansing is taking place. A group of emotionless, logical cyborgs named the Biomech Sevens are overseeing Earth's return to greatness. For the last year, Superman has been regaining his lost strength in a hovering city, where he is able to receive the benefits of the sun's rays. While recuperating, he learns that Gotham City is next in line to be "cleansed", via a nuclear bomb. It has been overrun with mutants and other such degenerates.

After battling the Biomech Sevens' leader Ben Boxer, Superman goes down to Gotham to stop this cleansing process. Although the Batman of this Elseworld is long since dead, Superman is attacked by bat-like mutants that bear a striking resemblance to the Dark Knight, as his strength has been sapped, even though it claimed he had been restored to full strength. He is saved by a cadre of mohawked youth traveling in a pack of motorcycles, who shoot the monsters. Following them back to their hideout, which turns out to be Wayne Manor, Superman is horrified to find out Batman's corpse was stolen from its crypt by a mysterious group called "the DNA Diktators" who also kidnapped the children's parents, who are being held in an underground fortress beneath the city. They get into the Batcave and walk on for at least 30 miles.

When Superman breaks into the underground fortress, he discovers that their parents have been altered into mutated, mindless creatures. These unfortunates are being accosted by giant "Harvester" robots, serving the wishes of the Diktators. Superman fights off the robots with what remains of his strength and retreats back to the Batcave with the children. As he prepares to storm the DNA Diktators' fortress, one of the children suggests he use the "Expunger", an oversized gun which Batman recovered on his last case. Superman refuses because guns are against his principles, and they set off. After encountering the Diktators' army of mutated lionmen, Superman is shocked to find out who the leaders of the Diktators really are: twin clones of Adolf Hitler, who killed their creators.

Too weak to go on, Superman once again retreats with the child gang. Faced with no other option, Superman takes the Expunger with him and returns, defeating the Diktators' legions of lion-men and mutant SS troopers in a hail of gunfire. The Hitlers retreat to their inner sanctum and reveal a huge mutated Batman-creature. Superman at first believes it to be a resurrected Bruce Wayne, as it possessed all of his memories, but quickly realizes the monster does not breathe, nor does it have a pulse. Using what little strength he has left, Superman kills the monster with a single punch, only to fall prey to the Hitlers' machine guns. In his weakened state, the bullets inflict mortal wounds. With his last ounce of strength, Superman picks up the Expunger and, blaming the real Hitler for starting the arms race, he opens fire, killing them both.

Superman walks away triumphant, though mortally wounded. Bleeding to death, Superman carries the remains of his friend back to Wayne Manor where he builds a bonfire to make sure Batman's remains are never misused again. A recalcitrant Ben Boxer offers to make the Man of Steel into a cyborg like himself. Faced with immortality in a world that is no longer his own, Superman turns down the offer, scoops up the remains of his friend and walks into his own funeral pyre. As he burns alive, one child gang member throws his gun into the fire, saying that if it wasn't for guns, Superman would still be alive.

Anya lives with a cruel stepmother and stepsister. On New years Eve, the queen of the land, who is quite spoiled and demands anything she wishes right away, offers a reward of a basket of gold coins to any person who can bring her galanthus flowers, although the flowers bloom in springtime.

Hearing this, Anya's sister and mother fling her out into a terrible snowstorm to find the flowers. Anya despairs, knowing she will freeze to death before finding flowers of any kind, much less the galanthus. Deep in the forest, she encounters the spirits of the 12 Months of the year, who are impressed with her sweet nature and politeness. They invite her by their fire and April presents her with an hour of Spring so she may find the flowers. As she leaves, April gives her a ring that, should she throw it and call "Roll along, roll along ring! Pass through the gate of spring, pass through summer, pass through autumm, over the carpet of winter without any fear! Roll up to the door of the waiting new year!" and the ring will bring her back to them. The make her promise to keep their meeting a secret and Anya promises, grateful for her life and the gifts they've given her.

Upon returning home, the queen insist Anya tell her where the flowers are. Anya resists, keeping her promise, despite an entire royal party trying to force her to tell. The queen asks for more flowers and Anya returns to the 12 Months, this time followed by her step sister who marks the way with a handkerchief. Now when the queen asks again, the sister and monther declare that they know where the flowers are and Anya is dragged along with them. They come upon the site, but he 12 Months are not there. The queen, frustrated, takens Anya's treasured ring from her and threatens to throw it away if she does not tell her where the flowers are, but Anya remains silent. As the queen throws the ring, Anya cries out her verse. The 12 Months suddenly appear, cause a wind that blows the guards away, and spirit Anya off. The mother and sister are turned into dogs and it seems the queen and her remaining royal party are going to be left to freeze in the snow. Suddenly, the 12 Months appear once more with Anya in a fabulous sleigh and warm fur coat. Although teh queen has wronged her, Anya offers an extra coat and ride in the sleigh to the queen. The queen adopts her as her sister and Anya is finally able to be happy.

Phfax, a mystic being, and wielder of the Emerald Magic, consented to offer his life to protect the stones of Rune. For centuries he dwelled within the plasma of energies of the stones where the Runes were hidden. Until at last it drove him insane. Such was the power of the stone that even the bitter hallucinations of his madness were given life. Six deadly beings appeared, stealing the Rune Stones. Cebo the most promising of the young Magicians of Dace, must enter the castle, exploring the realities. But do not trust your senses - what you see, what you hear may all be a lie.