A group of demons in the ancient Japanese capital of Heian is dismembering members of a family of Japanese nobles.

When a childless couple learn that they cannot have children, it causes great distress. To ease his wife's pain, the man finds a stump in the backyard and chops it and varnishes it into the shape of a child. However the woman takes the root as her baby and starts to pretend that it is real. When the root takes life they seem to have gained a child; but its appetite is much greater than that of a normal child.

Hong Kong nihilism. December 22, a street quarrel leads to the death of a gang leader's son. Next day, he seeks revenge on his brother, a rival boss. He calls on Liu, a fixer, to import a hit man from the mainland. Lai Fu, a tough and youthful hick, arrives with a day pass. The cops, led by the morose Milo, hear about the killer; they open a full-scale Christmas Eve operation to find the warring brothers and Lai Fu. Lai Fu rescues a hooker, Dan Dan, from a sadist and asks her to help him find his way around Mongkok. By nightfall, Liu has double crossed Lai Fu, the brothers are hiding, the cops are everywhere, and Lai Fu and Dan Dan are on the run. Peace on earth, good will to all?

Wong Fei-Hung and sidekick Chung arrive in Peking just as the Empress announces a Lion Dance martial arts contest. Also accompanying him is cousin Yee, his young, Westernized aunt-by-adoption, to whom Wong is secretly betrothed. Wong faces a possible romantic rival in a Russian diplomat, Tumanovsky, whom Aunt Yee knew back in school, and a martial arts rival in the brutal Club Foot, who beats up Wong's father. Club Foot works for the slimy Leung Fun, who is determined to win the prestigious Lion Dance contest at any cost. However, by the time the spectacular Lion Dance contest occurs many things will change.

A look back at one of the more curious fads in American professional sports, the sudden rise and precipitous fall of the North American Soccer League, spanning its existence 1968-1984, as seen through the experience of its most famous club, the New York Cosmos. The NASL made very little impact in the US, where soccer had virtually no following, until in 1975 the New York Cosmos succeeded in signing the most famous player in the world, Pele. Attendence for Cosmos games exploded, outdrawing even the New York Giants and New York Jets of the NFL, to where exhibition games in Seattle were drawing huge crowds, and when Pele announced his retirement in 1977 his final game drew the biggest crowd to ever see a soccer game in the US. His retirement from the game began a slow but steady decline for the NASL as money issues for the league and the spending practices of the Cosmos became a running controversy.

A vicious Ogre rules over a town that has been stuck in time since the 1800's.

When the call center he manages in Seattle is outsourced to India, Todd travels there to train his replacement. Housed in a new building that looks like an above-ground bunker, the call center is staffed by willing novices whom Todd trains to sound American. One star on the staff is Asha, who teaches Todd that he should learn about India, and proceeds to do just that.

Twenty-Five miles from town, a million miles from mainstream society, a loose-knit community of radicals live in the desert, struggling to survive with little food, less water and no electricity, as they cling to their unique vision of the American dream.