Rain Murphy is a man sentenced to life in prison, choosing to do his time in near-isolation, and engages in distance running when given the opportunity for free-time. While his form and speed capture the attention of prison officials who believe he could be competitive for the Olympics, Murphy expresses disinterest. But when the one man he has befriended is taken advantage of by political groups within the prison, Murphy decides to pursue the opportunity presented to him in his memory. This action not only has profound changes on him, but also on the atmosphere of the inmates in the prison and their outlook on the accomplishments he can make.

Brooklyn, 1988. Crime is rife, especially drugs and drug violence. A Russian thug is building his heroin trade, while everyone laughs at the cops. Brothers have chosen different paths: Joe has followed his father Bert into New York's Finest; he's a rising star. Bobby, who uses his mother's maiden name, manages a club. Bobby too is on the rise: he has a new girlfriend and a green-light to develop a Manhattan club. Joe and Bert ask him to help with intelligence gathering; he declines. Then, Joe raids Bobby's club to arrest the Russian. From there, things spiral out of control: the Russian puts out a hit on Joe, personal losses mount, and Bobby's loyalties face the test.

A young man finds out his long lost father is an assassin. When his father is murdered, the son is recruited into his father's old organization and trained by a man named Sloan to follow in his dad's footsteps.

Music teacher Christine Radcliffe thought Karel Novak to have been killed in the war. She loves him more than ever and insists they marry. At their reception her benefactor and former lover offers Karel the chance to solo his new cello concerto. Hollenius torments Christine and she shoots him. The concert is a success and Karel promises to stand by Christine.

Kanji Watanabe is a longtime bureaucrat in a city office who, along with the rest of the office, spends his entire working life doing nothing. He learns he is dying of cancer and wants to find some meaning in his life. He finds himself unable to talk with his family, and spends a night on the town with a novelist, but that leaves him unfulfilled. He next spends time with a young woman from his office, but finally decides he can make a difference through his job… After Watanabe's death, co-workers at his funeral discuss his behavior over the last several months and debate why he suddenly became assertive in his job to promote a city park, and resolve to be more like Watanabe.

Garland's novel centers on a young nicotine-addicted traveler named Richard, an avid pop-culture buff with a particular love for video games and Vietnam War movies. While at a hotel in Bangkok, he finds a map left by his strange, whacked-out neighbor, who just committed suicide. The map supposedly leads to a legendary island paradise where some other wayward souls have settled.

Clay Hardin, a Deputy U.S. Marshal, is about to turn in his badge and take the job as the territory's Indian commissioner until the notorious Ben Thompson slays the marshal when he tried to make an arrest. Clay turns his back on a white-collar job and his girl to pursue the gang. Picking up a bounty hunter and a beautiful half-breed woman along the way, the little band follows the trail into Apache land where the lawman discovers that the outlaws plan to sell repeating rifles to the Indians.

Traveling through rural Mexico on their way to a job in Central America, a small band of American mercenaries halts their journey to bivouac in the countryside for a few days. Their leader, Colonel Burckhardt (Blacula's Charles Macaulay), plans for the men to mix a bit of training with R&R as they wait to rendezvous with additional personnel. The six mercs under Burckhardt's command are a motley crew of combat vets, and they're either completely amoral or murderously psychotic.