Set in rural Pennsylvania, 15-year-old Shaw, a bullied outsider, is trying to cope with his mother’s death and a reunion with his estranged, alcoholic father.
After winning over the staff and students of Milford High School, chemistry teacher Richard Martinez aka Bianca Del Rio sent her nemesis Vice Principal Deborah “Debbie” Ward to jail in a flawlessly executed plan. When Debbie is released from jail, she conjures up a scheme to do away with Bianca Del Rio once and for all, by luring her on a dangerous journey to Russia to accept a teaching award and cash prize.
Myra Smuldanski has done the unthinkable. After years of shunning men she accepts a date with Reginald Baron, an account executive at the office where she temps. The only man in her life up to this point has been Ludlow, Myra's bi-polar younger brother who aspires to be the next Jackson Pollack. Lud is not to happy with the new man in Myra's life and tries his best to destroy any budding relations
Four horror stories occur in sequence connected by time and space. The first deals with a writer and his wife who move into a large house only to find it is already occupied. The second follows three college couples on a weekend camping trip where tall tales and legends are more real than fiction. The third segment follows a TV crew as they prepare for the taping of their hit show, "World's Most Haunted Places". The final story is about a hack psychic who discovers that practice really does make perfect.
Soon-to-be-wed graduate student Finn Dodd develops cold feet when she suspects her fiancé is cheating on her. In order to clear her head, Finn visits her grandmother, Hy, and great aunt, Glady Joe Cleary, in Grasse, Calif. There, Finn learns that Hy and Glady Joe are members of a group of passionate quilters, and over the course of her visit she is regaled with tales of love and life by women who have collected rich experiences and much wisdom.