In 1910, John Flinders is warden of Red Rock Territorial Prison, in Arizona. When a condemned man's last request brings Flinders into contact with the man's widow, Flinders finds himself falling in love. Meanwhile, a new convict, Mike Sullivan, turns out to be an old friend of Flinders'. They talk over old times, but it's clear that Sullivan has plans to leave the prison before his time is up. When those plans come to pass, Flinders sets out to re-take his old pal.

Zane Ziminski is an astrophysicist who receives a message that seems to have extraterrestrial origins. Eerily soon after his discovery, Zane is fired. He then embarks on a search to determine the origins of the transmission that leads him into a Hitchcockian labyrinth of paranoia and intrigue.

A screenwriter is sent to Mexico to develop a story that can be used to wrap up a movie presently in production. Given a very short time allotment, the writer immerses himself in the seamier side of a Mexican beach resort, but soon finds himself involved in a 'body organ for profit' operation. Drugged, he has one of his own kidneys removed, and then, with a woman he isn't sure he can trust, he sets out to expose the ring...