Character study of a Doctor who saves a local criminal from a mob who are trying to hang him, but then tries to control the life of the young man, realising that he can exploit his secret.

The daughter of the President of the United States goes off to college after insisting that she be able to enjoy her school years without the omnipresence of the Secret Service. The government agrees to her demands but assigns a young agent to go undercover as a student in order to keep an eye on her. The first daughter and the agent fall in love, until she learns his true identity.

Close to the entrance to Death Valley is the God-forsaken town of Trona. It's nearly empty: dry, with polluted water and poisoned soil. Dilapidated houses hold slackers and stoners. The town is virtually owned by Dirk, a heartless young meth dealer. In the midst of this lives Ray Tuckby, a naïf, unhappily married with a slothful son. The highlight of Ray's day is chatting with Nora, a clerk at the market. When Ray comes home early from work and finds his wife in bed with his brother, a few things start to change. Then he meets Merl, who's putting in a Chevron station, and Merl encourages Ray to dream. Can he? A recipe for meringue may hold one of the keys.

During the year 1962, a young prepubescent boy in rural Austrailia watches painfully as his best friend and first love, an older girl, blossoms into womanhood and falls for a thuggish rugby player, setting off a chain of events that irreversibly changes the lives of everyone involved.

Tess and Sam work on the same newspaper and don't like each other very much. At least the first time, because they eventually fall in love and get married. But, Tess is a very active woman and one of the most famous feminists in the country; she is even elected as "the woman of the year". Being busy all the time, she forgets how to really be a woman and Sam begins to feel negleted.

A young man desperately in love with a nightclub singer sees an opportunity to spend some time alone with her when they're traveling through the Nevada gold country, and he takes the carburetor off her car and throws it in the river, stranding them there. They wind up staying at the cabin of a crusty old prospector, and soon the manager of a nightclub act shows up with his bevy of beautiful showgirls. Things get weirder from there.