Frank Bettag

Freddie, a volatile, heavy-drinking veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, finds some semblance of a family when he stumbles onto the ship of Lancaster Dodd, the charismatic leader of a new "religion" he forms after World War II.

Small-town bartender Owen Peadman goes to Los Angeles to raise money to help save his father's Minnesota restaurant. He tries to find a way into Hollywood society, where he meets socialite Lisa and her uptight actor boyfriend. Can he balance his growing feelings for Lisa with surviving the sordid lifestyles of the Hollywood elite?

Haunted by a failing relationship, Gabe devises a risqué game for escape. He invites Irene to dinner at a lavish mansion. Unhappily married, Irene finds the temptation irresistible when Gabe invites her on a second date. To her surprise, she meets him at a humble suburban home. Playfully, Gabe admits that he broke into both houses for their trysts. A frightened Irene returns to her husband. Unable to make peace with his past, Gabe escalates his pursuit of Irene, who ultimately surrenders to the thrill of abandoning her life and having sex with Gabe in strangers' homes. House after house they push the limits, defying reality by living stolen lives. But is there really an escape from life? And how far can they go before their past catches up with them?

Wunderkind horror novelist Stephen Grimes is hard at work coming up with new ways to kill people when, on a late-night drive, he hits a young man and rushes him to the hospital. A tentative friendship between the two men erupts into a heated affair. Stephen is soon trapped in a dangerous plot, as Emett and Emett's friends reveal a sinister side that could be a storyline from one of his own novels.