While going to the town of Ashby Wake, the drifter Cassie is hit by a car driven by Marion Kirkman and loses her memory. Marion invites Cassie to stay in her huge old house with her family, while recovering from the trauma. Cassie becomes very close to Michael, the young son of Marion's husband Simon Kirkman. He is researching a recently discovered buried church from the First Century, with images of the crucifixion of Jesus and many anonymous persons watching it. Cassie starts having visions and premonitions with some locals, and decides to investigate the weird and nasty mechanic Frederick Michael Argyle. Her findings about who she is and the mystery relative to the locals and the town surprises her.

When virtually all of the residents of Piedmont, New Mexico are found to have died after the return to Earth of a space satellite, the head of the US Air Force's Project Scoop declares an emergency. Many years prior to this incident, a group of eminent scientists led by Dr. Jeremy Stone advocated for the construction of a secure laboratory facility that would serve as a base in the event an alien biological life form was returned to Earth from a space mission. Stone and his team - Drs. Dutton, Leavitt and Hall - go to the facility, known as Wildfire and try to first isolate the life form and to determine why two people from Piedmont, an old wino and a months old baby, survived. The scientists methodically study the alien life form unaware that it has already mutated and presents a far greater danger in the lab, which is equipped with a nuclear self-destruct device should it manage to escape.

Virginia small town local Ford Sawyer, a comics artist, takes an instant liking to his new neighbor, Cilla McGowan, a former child TV starlet who moves from L.A. to renovate her Hollywood celebrity grandmother Janet's rural last residence and start a career after passing the local contractors exam. Grumpy old neighbor Carl Hennessy is suspected of the vandalism on her garden, garage and home, even knocking friendly ex Steve Chensky. Seeking comfort and security, Cilla comes to depend on Ford, who elected her as model for his next hammer-swinging Celtic comic heroin, and they fall in love. Janet's stuff yields intriguing information which proves relevant for the present aggression, with unexpected ramifications.

When a friendless old widow dies in the seaside town of Crythin, a young solicitor is sent by his firm to settle the estate. The lawyer finds the townspeople reluctant to talk about or go near the woman's dreary home and no one will explain or even acknowledge the menacing woman in black he keeps seeing. Ignoring the towns-people's cryptic warnings, he goes to the house where he discovers its horrible history and becomes ensnared in its even more horrible legacy.

Betty has a crush on her tennis coach Mike. He keeps on promising to call, but never does - she doesn't know that he's a little dealer. After a failed deal in someone else's district he has to disappear for three months. He contacts Betty again, but she waits in vain - he's killed before they meet. Now she tries to find out what happened, asks around among his friends. This leads her right into the drug scenery.