A middle-class boy from Atlanta finds his worldview changed as he spends the summer with his deeply religious grandfather in the housing projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn.

A cricket team are dismissed by a moustachioed serial killer with a razor sharp cricket glove and an arsenal of sharpened stumps. One by one the killer exacts revenge for the torment he endured 20 years earlier.

Successful doctor Artur Planck, his wife Clara and their two daughters are seeking shelter from the Nazis storming Poland. They find a safe house in the farm of Emilia, their local grocer who is all alone after her husband fought for his country and never returned. Amidst the horrors of the war that surrounds them, an impossible love triangle erupts as Emelia uncontrollably falls in love with Artur. Such a fragile arrangement is sustained by love - or is it just the will to survive? The answer to that question may not even be made known to those who make it out alive.

As Phil Walden wanders the streets of his deserted hometown, the memories of a fateful childhood summer return. The summer he grew up. The summer that turned this once idyllic paradise upside down. The summer the stranger came to town. This stranger doesn't beg for change, peddle ointments or speak soothe, Eli Cottonmouth builds models - enchanting models, and this sleepy southern town will be the perfect subject. His charm bewitches the townsfolk. His intentions concern the town fathers. And his secrecy captivates two curious boys. As Eli works to re-create the true essence of the community, the boys act as his eyes and ears. Armed with his ancient camera, they snap vignettes of small town life. But, shot-by-shot, Eli changes the way they look at the town. Childish wonderment turns to despair as the boys' eyes open to the true nature of the world around them. That understanding, and Eli's hidden purpose, threaten the existence of the entire town.