Det. Quinlan has left his alcoholic wife, sprouting a bloom of insecurity, anger and self-motivation within him to expose the corrupt police force that surrounds him. He abandons his 'straight' life to partner in crime with his co-worker, Det. Church, in order to get on the inside of the circle of double-agents. He sides privately with a reporter, Reynolds, and an Internal Affairs lawyer, Ferguson, to expose them to the press. Once they have gathered enough information, all the corrupt police, including the newly recruited Quinlan are arrested. Ferguson then works to get Quinlan a reduced sentence for helping them.

Tomek is 14 and a good student. He's interested in astronomy and plays football to please his father. The only thing is, he lives in a poor little border town plagued by unemployment, whereas across the river lies Germany with all its relative affluence. Tomek meets Marta at a disco and falls in love with her. He starts to think up ways of earning money in order to keep her interested. He approaches a pimp who seeks out local boys for his German clients. Tomek has no idea of the brutal fate which awaits him.

Set in the early 1950's, during the Stalin's Personality Cult. The story opens in a provincial town. Tomek's father, a former member of the Home Army is arrested so the mother is left with the task of raising two kids alone. The neighbor upstairs commits suicide when her husband is also arrested and transported to the prison camp. It's winter so the kids keep their hands warm at school by hand-beating themselves. The teachers at school are mean, narrow minded idealists, When they ask the kids who goes to church on Sundays, the whole class stands up to defeat the purpose of the propaganda lesson. Tomek is sent to the training school in the summer. There he absorbs most of the ideology pumped into his head, and when his father is released from prison he finds another boy he has left.

Steve is a man who has it all, a successful career, wonderful children, beautiful home and a loving wife. However, returning to his home after work on his birthday, he finds his house deserted and darkened with almost all the lightbulbs missing, all easy access outside cut off and a videotape waiting for him. Playing that tape, he watches a bizarre and grueling recording in which his wife explains her grievance with him, her reasons for disappearing with the children and her revenge for how he treated her in a way he would never forget.