Followup movie to the TV series about 250,000 aliens, or "newcomers" as they are known, who have by now settled alongside the humans in California. Most of the newcomers were slaves, and the slave masters are now looking for them. They send Aponso to earth to locate the slaves ready for the aliens to pick them up.
Womanising, right-wing Dan Hanson and quiet, liberal Lorie Bryer work for the Baltimore Sun. Rivals for the job of new writer of a vacant column, the paper ends up instead printing their very different opinions alongside each other, which leads to a similarly combative local TV show. At the same time their initial indifference to each other looks like it may evolve into something more romantic.
Hoyce and Bess Guthrie are long married Montana ranchers who come to a major crossroads in their lives. An oil company has offered to buy them out and Hoyce wants to sell while Bess hopes to keep the land in the family for future generations.
Jesse is nine months pregnant and lives with her underemployed husband Hank in a dilapidated mobile home in a rusty trailer park. During an afternoon of talk, Jesse discovers that Hank has been spending time with Bonnie, their young, bovine neighbour. Jesse is hurt and furious, and Hank is defensive, claiming that the baby has pushed him out. While Hank is elsewhere, the other woman pays a surprise visit to Jesse. Healing begins, and when Jesse's labour starts, it's Bonnie who comes to the rescue.
A hard-drinking family man has been successful in his business despite his alcoholism. His daughter, a professional, struggles to meet her father's high expectations while she becomes addicted to prescription drugs; his son, who works for him and who serves as both his whipping boy and his drinking buddy, is becoming an alcoholic like his dad. Then the father's drinking finally takes its toll on his health, and he demands that his son bring him liquor in the hospital as his son's life, and his daughter's, fall apart at home.
