John is a man of many talents, including one forbidden skill: he can read. When he teaches a young slave girl named Sarny to read and write, she learns an unforgettable lesson about the power of words and the true meaning of freedom.

Billy Robinson has become the hottest hot-rodder on the professional motorcycle-racing circuit. But when he returns in triumph to his hometown to bask in all the adulation, he also skids into some pretty rank jealousy from envious motorcycling wanna-bes. And when a local race is organized, Billy must shift gears completely and compete against his best friend, Rick, for the top prize.

A hippie radical, Huey Walker has been a fugitive for decades, accused of a crime that he may not have committed. Finally apprehended, Walker is escorted to trial by uptight 20-something FBI agent John Buckner. While the two seem to be polar opposites, it turns out that Buckner may have more in common with Walker than is initially apparent, a point that is driven home when the pair faces off against a sinister small-town sheriff.

Three criminals run into complications when they attempt to smuggle emeralds across the Mexican border.

A forty-something ex-policeman named Joe initiates an online relationship with twenty-something Tanya Sullivan. Conflicts arise after Tanya flies to Atlantic City to seduce Joe, and she reveals to him that she is married.

When his best friend dies of a heart attack, Ray Macklin becomes a man obsessed with his own mortality. Convinced that all his aches and pains are an indication of his imminent death, Ray's life turns into a slapstick farce of health-crazed anxiety and hypochondria.