Somewhere high in the Alps, a lone rider makes his way along a hidden path and reaches a small village, tucked away between the steep mountains. This stranger goes by the name of Greider; nobody knows where he's from and, met with blatant distrust, nobody wants him in the village. The sons of Old Brenner, the village patriarch who holds the entire community under his threatening, violent ways, would have chased him away if Greider hadn't given them...

Screen legend Paul Newman delivers a brilliant performance as Sully, an out-of-work, hard-headed and hard-working construction worker with bad knees and a worse attitude. When the son he walked out on shows up with his grandson, Sully is forced to deal with emotions he'd prefer to forget. Sully's overbearing landlord, Jessica Tandy, Melanie Griffith, are the women in his life that get to see a bit of his softer side. But it's the new relationship...

Shang-Chi must confront the past he thought he left behind when he's drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organization controlled by his father, a man who gained immortality and the desire for unlimited power when he acquired an ancient artifact centuries ago.

Episodic story, divided into five chapters, each bearing the name of a character; main characters appear in most chapters. Most of the characters are connected by the fact that they hang out or work at the Brooklyn Cigar Store, where they tell stories and smoke a lot. Chapters explore the interpersonal relationships between this large and diverse group of characters.

When a friendly, successful suburban teacher and father is prescribed cortisone for a painful, possibly fatal affliction, he grows dangerously addicted to the experimental drug, resulting in his transformation into a psychotic and ultimately violent household despot. "This Eisenhower-era throat-grabber, shot in expressive CinemaScope, is an excoriating take on the nuclear family. That it came in the day of Father Knows Best makes it all the more shocking...