Jason is in need of a collaborator to give him inspiration. Phoebe is a small-town English teacher with an urge to write. On the day Jason is being married, Jason and Phoebe meet and form a partnership.

Marian Rose White is placed in a State Home for the feeble-minded by her uncaring mother when her father dies. She is a young teenager and there is nothing wrong with her except for some clumsiness, mostly caused by poor vision. State law (in 1934) requires sterilization of all inmates. Sympathetic nurse, Bonnie McNeil, befriends Marian and protests her treatment.

Walter is a successful doctor, and so is his wife Evelyn. Wealthy and good-looking, they should be a happily married couple, but they're not. Walter is so caught up in his career that he fails to keep up with Evelyn. So when she falls for the charms of Greg, a real estate Romeo, it takes Walter by surprise. Even more so, because he finds out about it from Stephanie, Greg's deserted TV weather girl girlfriend.

An elderly, venerable priest goes over the side of the Golden Gate Bridge and everyone except his nurse, Sister Benecia, believes that it was suicide. Sister Benecia finally manages to convince the police department to assign a detective, the cynical, irascible Paul Silver, to investigate. The "Mad Nun" and the "Mad Cop" become a formidable investigative team -- and much, much more.

Private detective Moses Wine is hired by his former college girlfriend to investigate a political smear campaign and he sets out to find out who is responsible, with deadly results.