Blank-faced bug killer Bill Lee and his dead-eyed wife, Joan, like to get high on Bill's pest poisons while lounging with Beat poet pals. After meeting the devilish Dr. Benway, Bill gets a drug made from a centipede. Upon indulging, he accidentally kills Joan, takes orders from his typewriter-turned-cockroach, ends up in a constantly mutating Mediterranean city and learns that his hip friends have published his work -- which he doesn't remember writing.
"Dedication" is the story of a maid working in a hotel who uses a black magic spell in the hopes of harnessing the talent of one of the hotel's frequent guests - an eccentric writer - and passing it on to her unborn son.
During the Boer War, three Australian lieutenants are on trial for shooting Boer prisoners. Though they acted under orders, they are being used as scapegoats by the General Staff, who hopes to distance themselves from the irregular practices of the war. The trial does not progress as smoothly as expected by the General Staff, as the defence puts up a strong fight in the courtroom.
A 50-year-old housewife, Manana, struggles with her dilemma - she has to choose between her family life and her passion, writing, which she had repressed for years - she decides to follow her passion and plunges herself into writing, sacrificing to it mentally and physically.
A woman on the run from the mob is reluctantly accepted in a small Colorado community in exchange for labor, but when a search visits the town, she learns that their support has a price.
As his sanity boils in the hot, syrupy dark void of his dying soul, Aden Tanner, a cocaine-addicted, undercover cop infiltrates the criminal underworld at the expense of his own identity.
A young woman is confronted with the conflict of growing up and pushed to her mental limits. Nothing seems to be working or going the way she thought it would. Her inner life is becoming more fragile. How long can she put up with this?
On a hot summer day in the countryside, Ines, a young teenager, gets involved in a friendly ball game between boys her age, and among them Malik, the one she has a crush on.
Three separate short stories by Jan Drda from the collection The Dumb Barricade: The Dynamite Watchman, Hatred and Traces.
After escaping from her homeland and now abandoned by the man she loves, Medea must find strength from within to fight against growing injustice - how far is she willing to go?
When a circus trio have a particularly disastrous show, Mandy the Acrobat must decide whether to run away from the circus, or to stay and help her friends.
A character is inside a cubical room; there is a hole in the roof, which is too high to reach. But pushing on the walls distorts the room in various ways, always appearing to bring the hole closer while still leaving it tantalizingly inaccessible.
Prague, night station in winter. Radka with a small daughter, a suitcase on wheels and a sports bag get off the bus. Luděk slowly walks back home through the streets of the same city, knowing that no one is waiting for him. A few hours before dawn, the initially purposeful intersection of lonely destinies can resemble a family. A Night with Agama is about the meeting of people who are dependent on the help of others, yet have to help themselves first and foremost.
Between two Thanksgivings, Hannah's husband falls in love with her sister Lee, while her hypochondriac ex-husband rekindles his relationship with her sister Holly.
Jean-Dominique Bauby, editor-in-chief of French fashion bible Elle magazine, has a devastating stroke at age 43. The damage to his brain stem results in locked-in syndrome, with which he is almost completely paralyzed and only able to communicate by blinking an eye. Bauby painstakingly dictates his memoir via the only means of expression left to him.
A lonely doctor who once occupied an unusual lakeside home begins exchanging love letters with its former resident, a frustrated architect. They must try to unravel the mystery behind their extraordinary romance before it's too late.
A dying man in his forties recalls his childhood, his mother, the war and personal moments that tell of and juxtapose pivotal moments in Soviet history with daily life.
Four actors go to a cabin in the woods to write, direct, and act in a film that will jump-start their careers. Their idea is a horror film about a man with a bag over his head, but what happens when that man mysteriously shows up?
Mae and Gemma spend one last night together knowing that, in the morning, their relationship will be over. Mae struggles to get through to Gemma, who does everything to cling onto what she thinks is the perfect relationship. Through manipulation and seduction, the two women try to understand how what is tearing them apart is also what is keeping them together.
A woman who has been watching her next door neighbor for some time develops an intense affection for her neighbor's cat. This love will eventually end in regret.