When humble rancher Rick Patterson marries movie star Sabrina Eastman, his son Josh (10) finds himself with a new step-sister, Lacey (14). Josh is an introverted boy who doesn't have a lot of confidence and Lacey is a spoiled Hollywood brat who's angry at Sabrina for not letting her have her own reality show. The two kids do not get along and neither do their respective dogs: Josh's dog Meatball is a scruffy, farm mutt who's laid-back and friendly; Cassie is a prim, spoiled, purse city dog who is not into country living. Rick and Sabrina go on their honeymoon for a couple of days, leaving Lacey and Josh in the care of Krystal, a hippie-trippy New Age neighbour. When Lacey sees some people outside the house one night, she starts to think someone is watching the house but Josh dismisses her fears. However, as Cassie quickly develops her 'country nose', she learns that Lacey wasn't wrong. She and Meatball discover that a pair of bumbling crooks, Louie and Terrance, are plotting to steal ...

Faced with the absurd competitiveness surrounding his son's youth league baseball team, Max Morris, a famous comedian, decides to get to know the colorful parents and coaches of the team better in an attempt to find the inspiration for his next movie.

Cabiria is a wide-eyed waif, a streetwalker living in a poor section of Rome where she owns her little house, has a bank account, and dreams of a miracle. We follow her nights (and days): a boyfriend steals 40,000 lire from her and nearly drowns her, a movie star on the Via Veneto takes her home with him, at a local shrine she seeks the Madonna's intercession, then she meets an accountant who's seen her, hypnotized on a vaudeville stage, acting out her heart's longings. He courts her. Is it fate that led to their meeting? Is this finally a man who appreciates her for who she is?

Lt. Dave Robicheaux, a detective in New Iberia, Louisiana, is trying to link the murder of a local hooker to New Orleans mobster Julie (Baby Feet) Balboni, who is co-producer of a Civil War film. At the same time, after Elrod Sykes, the star of the film, reports finding another corpse in the Atchafalaya Swamp near the movie set, Robicheaux starts another investigation, believing the corpse to be the remains of a black man who he saw being murdered 35 years before.