Jake Cunningham (Shawn Christian) is an uptight FBI agent assigned to protect Brandi O'Neill (Jami Gertz), a lower-class cocktail waitress who recently helped with the tax fraud investigation of her billionaire boyfriend. When Jake's wealthy parents (Tyne Daly and Winston Rekert) unexpectedly call him home for the holidays, Jake must bring Brandi with him in order to keep her safe prior to the trial. They pose as a couple in order to keep the proceedings a secret until the court date.
Sixteenth century Spanish sailors beach their launch on the Manzanita beach. They carry a treasure chest up Neahkahnie Mountain, leading a manacled African slave. The treasure is buried and the slave is killed and laid on top of the ground to "guard" the treasure and frighten away the local Indians.
At the beginning of the story Ray Talloway (Neale Donald Walsch) is a construction manager whose business is near bankruptcy. His semi-estranged daughter Cheryl (Sarah Rutan) quarrels with him on the slightest pretext, while her husband Alex (Gregory Linington) is one of a small group of minor criminals. Cheryl and Alex have one daughter, Grace (shared role by Meghan McCandless as older Grace and Angelina Hess as younger Grace), who is the indigo child of the story, and who eventually reunites the family.
Set in 1941, the film centers around Joel Carter (Mclean), a print operator, who is unable to afford the bicycle his daughter Carol Lee (Maddox) has asked Santa Claus for as a Christmas gift. The film follows Carter's attempts to acquire a bicycle for Carol Lee. Due to the Great Depression and the onset of World War II, Carter does not receive a holiday bonus and is denied a bank loan as he lacks collateral; therefore Carter is unable to either afford or acquire a bicycle.
The Keller family are the owners of a successful garment business based in Los Angeles, California. The story mainly revolves around Jacob Keller's (John Saxon) youngest son Joseph (Freddy Rodriguez). Because Jacob treats Joseph as if he is his favorite son, Joseph's brothers Ashton, Simon, and Robert plot to eliminate Joseph.
In the Australian countryside, five children are best friends, including a set of siblings, an English war evacuee, and Aboriginal Neza. They boast to three strangers, Long Bill, Jim and Blue, about the mare belonging to the father of one of them. The next day the mare has gone.
During Christmastime in New York City, idealist Harry the Cat and wisenheimer Tucker the Mouse read Christmas stories as they hide in the sewers from the cantankerous, miserable, selfish and noisy humans of the city. They recall their friend Chester C. Cricket, who could play his wings like a violin and was reputed to have calmed a New York crowd with his playing.
Conway is Vernon Praiseworthy, only heir to his uncle's fortune, who faced poverty and misfortune during the Great Depression but managed to build up his riches despite these hardships. To become eligible for the inheritance, Vernon must suffer as his uncle did by becoming a migrant hobo for a time. Soon after, Vernon and the dog sent to protect him are caught up in a dognapping scheme.
Harold Hall, a young man with little or no acting ability, desperately wants to be in the movies. thumb|365x365px|Harold Lloyd in "Movie Crazy" ad from The Film Daily, 1932 After a mix-up with his application photograph, he gets an offer to have a screen test and goes off to Hollywood. At the studio, he does everything wrong and causes all sorts of trouble, but he catches the fancy of a beautiful actress.
thumb|thumbtime=15|The Younger Generation (1929) The child of Jewish immigrants, Morris Goldfish finds success as an art dealer. He moves his family to Fifth Avenue and changes his name to Maurice Fish. There, he finds his family to be damaging to his social status.
James Furlong is the last in a long line of Furlongs who were each blessed or cursed with a strange ability. His grandfather, Charlie went temporarily blind when he thought about sex. His father, Philip could turn off anything electrical when he was frightened.
Joe (Palminteri) is a small-time con-man and dice-hustler who works with a group of men with similar interests. They shave cards and dice, doing small-time cons at card games and union picnics. He's in a long-term relationship with Janice (Lahti) and has a son with Down syndrome, Joe Jr.
Having graduated from college, Matthew Anderson travels to Florida to spend some time with his older brother while deciding what career to pursue. He is not motivated by money or desire for worldly success; he spends a great deal of time observing marine creatures at the local marine life observation station, and successfully defends his right (against the landlady) to have a small aquarium in the rented apartment. He also earns a significant paycheck by writing radio advertisements, but that sort of work repels him.
After his mother died, 12-year-old Seth George (T.J. Lowther) goes to live with his grandparents on their farm. Grouchy old Murdock (Michael Ansara) is not very happy with the presence of his grandson and is rather hard on him.
In 1890s San Francisco, firemen George Ball and Tom Watson rescue "Nugget Joe" McDermott from committing suicide by drowning. Joe wants to die because his girlfriend Rosette no longer loves him. Joe receives a telegram the next morning from Rosette claiming that she still loves him.
Martha and Jed Richards are a pioneer couple living in Oregon in the year 1862. They and their two young daughters moved there to make a new life, unfortunately later along the way both of their daughters tragically died after contracting cholera. This has left Martha an emotional wreck, and she is unable to move on with her life and cope with the loss.
Charismatic Jim Masters returns home to Carmel, California, after a globe-roaming 20-year absence to find that his wife, Nancy, is about to marry Sam Sloane, a dull pillar of the local community. The four Masters daughters are also upset that their irresponsible father has re-entered their lives after so long away. Meanwhile, the youngest, Buff, has grown cold on her playwright boyfriend and is drawn to malcontent Gabriel Lopez, whose irrepressible wanderlust reminds Jim Masters of himself.
The new town sheriff (Bill Oberst Jr) moves into a large creepy old house with his family. It seems that in the town of Salem there’s a special house for the sheriff to live in for free. Unfortunately it’s haunted by witches that have a strong craving for sheriff’s blood.
An old artist (Rolf Harris) sets up some paintings at Luna Park, Sydney, planning to sell them, but has trouble attracting any people, so he starts telling his granddaughter about their origins. British convict ship the "Northern Star" sails towards a tiny colony on Sydney Cove with sixty-four convicts on board. Six of these convicts are a young boy named Toby Nelson; his older sister Polly; "Big George" Tomkins, a blacksmith; Jake "Dipper" Davey, a professional pickpocket who has become old and slow; William Watts, a "village idiot" nicknamed "Silly Billy"; and Jack Doolan, a highwayman.
The Smith family with a secret past is visited by a sweet-talking southern gentleman who is looking for small town humanity. But they will soon find out kindness towards strangers is not always rewarded and the secretive stranger will find redemption does not always come easy.
A boy named Jimmy Warren who lives along the Massachusetts coast is upset with the unfairness of modern life when his father scolds him about his school grades. He plays on a wrecked ship along the shore with a girl named Kathy Mannering. He picks up an odd brass jar and wishes to be back in the olden days on a pirate ship.
A Palestinian family living in a small Muslim village in Galilee gathers to celebrate the wedding of one of their daughters, as war rages between Israel and Lebanon. Its many members symbolise a community struggling to maintain its identity, torn between modernity and tradition. In the midst of it all is a forbidden love story between the youngest daughter, Hajar (Hafsia Herzi), who has returned from studying abroad, and her Christian lover (Tom Payne).
Chester Wooley and Duke Egan are traveling salesmen who make a stopover in Wagon Gap, Montana while en route to California. During the stopover, a notorious criminal, Fred Hawkins, is murdered, and the two are charged with the crime. They are quickly tried, convicted, and sentenced to die by hanging.
Twelve-year-old Greta's dad Tom is moving the kids cross-country, promising a California paradise and packing half the household into a dented station wagon. Mom is supposed to join them later. But as they travel through forests, plains and deserts, stopping at fast food joints, shoddy motels, and a poor substitute for the Grand Canyon, Greta gradually realizes that her family is falling apart.
