After the death of her closest two friends, young Daphne Lessing suffers a loss of faith, then a lapse in memory. Confronted with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and a pregnancy she neither planned nor is able to explain, Daphne is forced into a terrible choice: lose her child or lose her mind. "The Substance of Things Hoped For" traces Daphne's desperate search for the past she cannot recall, the father she never had, and the child she may never know.
Would you be willing to walk away from everyone and everything you've ever known in exchange for your safety? This is the question facing career criminal Bobby "Bats" Batton (Tom Sizemore); on the outs with the mob and facing prosecution for a number of serious crimes, Batton is offered a deal by the FBI in which he will be given immunity in exchange for testifying against his former partners. However, Batton will have to join the Federal Witness Protection Program, which means that he, his wife, and his children will never again see their friends and family.
Susan and Mark move to a seaside town to buy an old house and open an inn. They came to look at one house, but Susan is inexplicably drawn to another. The house is high on a cliff overlooking a lonely beach. Something eerie is going on. A scary black dog appears. One strange guest stays at the inn. Susan finds letters in the attic written long ago by a wife who was terrified of something.