Agnes MacDonnell, a strong and self-confident Englishwoman, owns a large estate on an island off the west coast of Ireland. When she begins a passionate but dangerous affair with her new estate manager, Agnes wages a desperate struggle to dominate this charismatic but destructive man.
When schoolteacher Kieran Johnson discovers that his father was not a French sailor (as he had been led to believe) but rather an Irish farmer, he looks to his mother for answers. When she refuses to provide any, Kieran travels to Ireland.
Set in 1950s rural Ireland, this is a powerful story of the relationship between father and so. Amid emigration and war, John Doyle’s feud with Ben Moran resurfaces after Ben’s son dies in Korea. As John's son Eamon falls for Una Moran, old hatreds threaten young love in a tragic, modern Romeo and Juliet tale.
Squanto is a high-born Indian warrior from a tribe on the Atlantic coast of North America which devotes its life to hunting and rivalry with a neighboring tribe. Everything changes forever after a ship arrives from England, prospecting the region's commercial potential for the rich Sir George, who uses all his wealth and influence only for ever greater profit. When it returns, several Indians find themselves captives on board, including Squanto. The arrogant Christians consider themselves utterly superior to the 'heathen savages' and treat them as brutally as they do beasts. Squanto fights a bear in a circus, not understanding how men can be so cruel to that creature either, and manages a spectacular escape, but where must he go? He finds shelter and help in a rural monastery, where it takes his protector some effort to prevent the others considering the unknown as diabolical. In time sir George's men come looking for him most brutally...
In the midst of trying to legitimize his business dealings in 1979 New York and Italy, aging mafia don, Michael Corleone seeks forgiveness for his sins while taking a young protege under his wing.
After defeating France and imprisoning Napoleon on Elba, ending two decades of war, Europe is shocked to find Napoleon has escaped and has caused the French Army to defect from the King back to him. The best of the British generals, the Duke of Wellington, beat Napolean's best generals in Spain and Portugal, but now must beat Napoleon himself with an Anglo Allied army.
A 30-year-old man, who has been in a coma since birth, is finally restored to consciousness by a breakthrough brain operation. Although physically an adult, the man is "reborn" in the eye of an infant; the doctors caring for him must teach him to walk, talk and prepare for life in the outside world. Tension builds as he escapes from the hospital, wanders among people who do not realize his identity, and is hunted by the police.
A nebbish schoolteacher begs his smooth (and misogynistic) pal to teach him 'the knack' – how to score with women. Serendipitously, the men meet up with a new girl in town, as well as a friendly lunatic who can’t help but paint things white.
Naive Stanley Windrush returns from the war, his mind set on a successful career in business. Much to his own dismay, he soon finds he has to start from the bottom and work his way up, and also that the management as well as the trade union use him as a tool in their fight for power.
In 1921 Dublin, the IRA battles the "Black & Tans," special British forces given to harsh measures. Irish-American medical student Kerry O'Shea hopes to stay aloof, but saving a wounded friend gets him outlawed, and inexorably drawn into the rebel organization...under his former professor Sean Lenihan, who has "shaken hands with the devil" and begun to think of fighting as an end in itself. Complications arise when Kerry falls for a beautiful English hostage, and the British offer a peace treaty that is not enough to satisfy Lenihan.
Scotland Yard Inspector George Gideon starts his day off on the wrong foot when he gets a traffic-violation ticket from a young police officer. From there, his 'typical day" consists in learning that one of his most-trusted detectives has accepted bribes; hunts an escaped maniac who has murdered a girl; tracks a young girl suspected of involvement in a payroll robbery and then helps break up a bank robbery.
Three vignettes of old Irish country life, based on a series of short stories. In "The Majesty of the Law," a police officer must arrest an old-fashioned, traditional fellow for assault. The man's principles have the policeman and the whole village, including the man he slugged, sympathizing with him. "One Minute's Wait" is about a little train station and glimpses into the lives of the passengers, with a series of comic setups. The third piece, "1921," is about a condemned Irish nationalist and his daring escape.