Rebecca, from an upper class Los Angeles family, and Henry, from choir-singing, tradition-bound Midwestern roots, are in love. Henry pops the question just before Christmas and the kids plan on gathering their families for the holidays in order to surprise them with the good news. The families collide-oops-meet the week of Hanukah just before Christmas in Madison, Wisconsin. It's a wild, whacky ride of good intentions and missteps as the two families try in vain to respect each others' traditions. It's not long before Rebecca and Henry learn the hardest part about being married might be dealing with each other's in-laws.

Sam Dalton is determined to save the only home she has ever known, the faded, dusty Romanian Princess ranch. Sam writes to a distant relative of her Aunt Christine hoping he can prevent the ranch from being repossessed. But it's J. T. Swinton, a teen-age boy who shows up. In desperation they turn to a seemingly futile hope, the treasure of Whisper Island. But does the Civil War treasure really exist? The answer seems to be trapped somewhere in the wishful delusions of Aunt Christine. As the teens search for treasure in a race against time, they must also search Christine's past and unravel a web of romance, intrigue and betrayal that spans a lifetime and beyond. What they find, changes their lives forever.

Living in suburban Sydney, Pete and Jerry aren't just cousins, they're best friends. Jerry falls in love and starts a relationship with Cheryl, though he knows Pete likes her too. Pete, a small-time drug dealer, doesn't understand why Jerry suddenly wants to settle down and make plans (he gets a job at a fast-food place and works for a pittance). Then Pete has to lie low with his dealing for a while because the police are tailing him and Jerry gets him a job at the chicken restaurant. But Pete makes trouble and walks out, losing Jerry his job as well.

When things get tough for offbeat Carys Reitman, she does what any emotionally isolated, modern girl would do - she goes to strangers' funerals. At one fateful funeral, she unexpectedly meets Tyler, a man mourning his fiancée. Despite the warnings of her undertaker best friend Shane and her roommate Lila, she finds herself connecting to someone for the first time. Searching for answers, Carys goes to see her estranged mother to confront her past. And as she tries to open herself to the risks of love with Tyler, she realizes she may have more to fear than just a broken heart.

In a marksmanship contest, Lin McAdam wins a prized Winchester rifle, which is immediately stolen by the runner-up, Dutch Henry Brown. This "story of a rifle" then follows McAdams' pursuit, and the rifle as it changes hands, until a final showdown and shoot-out on a rocky mountain precipice.

In South Los Angeles, while bringing his beloved son Junior back home from school, the paroled ex-convicted O2 promises his son that he would always come back to him and never leave him alone. However, his car is hijacked and Junior is kidnapped. Without any lead, O2 forces the street vendor Coco to help him to find where his car might have been sent for disassembling. Meanwhile, O2's addicted brother Lucky discovers that the cruel leader of the Outlaw Syndicate, the drug lord Meat, is keeping the boy arrested in a room and asking a ransom of US$ 100,000.00 that he believes O2 have from an old heist. O2 and Coco plot a scheme to put the pimp P-Money and Meat against each other and steal their money.

Rosalee Futch is a grocery clerk living in rural West Virginia. But even a small-town girl can have big dreams, and Rosalee's is to someday--somehow--meet her big-screen idol Tad Hamilton. The somehow arrives in the form of a contest--the grand prize: a date with Tad Hamilton--and the someday is now. Rosalee wins, much to the chagrin of her best friend and co-worker Pete, who is deeply, hopelessly--and secretly--in love with Rosalee. The Win a Date contest was cooked up by Tad's agent, Richard Levy, and his manager, also named Richard Levy, to clean up Tad's bad-boy image. Someone should have told them to be careful what you wish for. When Tad meets Rosalee and gets a taste of what he's been missing in the real world, he decides he wants seconds and moves to West Virginia, turning Rosalee's dream come true into a nightmare for Richard Levy, Richard Levy and, most of all, Pete.

Despondent over his breakup with Desiree, Zia slashes his wrists and goes to an afterlife peopled by suicides, a high-desert landscape dotted by old tires, burned-out cars, and abandoned sofas. He gets a job in a pizza joint. By chance, Zia learns that Desiree offed herself a few months after he did, and she's looking for him. He sets off with Eugene (an electrocuted Russian rocker) to find her, and they pick up a hitchhiker, Mikal, who's looking for the People in Charge, believing she's there by mistake. They're soon at the camp of Kneller, where casual miracles proliferate. They hear rumors of a miraculous king. Can Zia find Desiree? Then what? Where there's death there's hope.

When a rap mogul from Atlanta tries to join a conservative country club in the Carolinas he runs into fierce opposition from the board President- but it's nothing that he and his entourage can't handle.

Cody Jarrett is the sadistic leader of a ruthless gang of thieves. Afflicted by terrible headaches and fiercely devoted to his 'Ma,' Cody is a volatile, violent, and eccentric leader. Cody's top henchman wants to lead the gang and attempts to have an 'accident' happen to Cody, while he is running the gang from in jail. But Cody is saved by an undercover cop, who thereby befriends him and infiltrates the gang. Finally, the stage is set for Cody's ultimate betrayal and downfall, during a big heist at a chemical plant.