Eric Desmond, a committed environmentalist, is accidentally involved in the transfer of Ben Corbett, a ruthless killer, from an isolated Alaskan village, along a long route, to civilization; but the prisoner is determined to escape at any cost.

A police detective tracks a serial killer who is stalking young women on a beach front after each game that a baseball pitcher wins.

Floyd, the owner of a bar on the Texas coast, has been depressed for a year after his wife disappeared in a swimming accident. He lives with his senile father-in-law "The General" and is helped by Jimmy, a former asylum inmate, and the good-natured Louise. The bar is rapidly losing money and Charlie wants to buy it cheaply before it becomes publicly known that a nearby bridge is to be built. Louise offers her savings to go into partnership with Floyd, but Floyd decides to sell when he is forced to pay his back taxes.

Carrie Watts is living the twilight of her life trapped in an apartment in 1940s Houston, Texas with a controlling daughter-in-law and a hen-pecked son. Her fondest wish – just once before she dies – is to revisit Bountiful, the small Texas town of her youth which she still refers to as "home."

Set in the Napa Valley in 1895, an immigrant family struggles to keep their vineyards from industrialists.