Our story begins in 1979, with a chance meeting in a Salt Lake City parking lot where filmmaker Trent Harris is approached by an earnest small-town dreamer from Beaver, Utah. Harris jumps at the chance when the young man invites him to come to the small town to film a talent show. At the show, the man dons a blond wig and performs in drag as Olivia Newton John. Harris captures it all on tape: A portrait of a true outsider. Harris shot a dramatic piece, "Beaver Kid 2" based on the documentary; This interpretation of the story, made in 1981 on a home video camera with a budget of $100, features a young Sean Penn as "the Beaver Kid". Still possessed, Harris then rewrote the script, cast up-and-comer Crispin Glover in the lead, and created the final segment, "The Orkly Kid", with funding from the American Film Institute. The trilogy unveils the inner world of a fantastic character in three incarnations.

A boy finds an old sailor and an ironbound submarine in a junkyard.

Joseph Gainer is a high priced attorney, notorious for getting guilty criminals off the hook. But Gainer is forced to take another look at the price you pay for defending the guilty when he takes on a case of three young men accused of a heinous crime. And when he discovers that his ex-wife is the prosecuting attorney, Gainer finds he suddenly has more on the line than he ever imagined.

For the past four years, San Francisco cop Jack Cates has been after an unidentified drug kingpin who calls himself the Ice Man. Jack finds a picture that proves that the Ice Man has put a price on the head of Reggie Hammond, who is scheduled to be released from prison on the next day.

Three women plot to catch wealthy husbands by throwing a party at a mansion to which they have temporary access. Obvious love stories follow involving an ex-ballplayer, a secretly wealthy mechanic and an ad exec.

Detective Tori Raines must go undercover when beautiful dancers start being brutally murdered at the Van Slake theatre.

Terrifying Tales contains three independently-produced shorts running about 20 minutes apiece. Only one of the three; Paul Bunnell's "Final Destination: Unknown" (copyrighted 1989), is actually horror. The other two; Armand Garabidian's "Ten Seconds to Countdown" (copyrighted 1986) and Ephraim Schwartz's "Creatures of Habit" (also 1986), are, respectively, science fiction and drama with only slight mystery components. The three used here are connected only in that they were shorts made by UCLA graduate students. Sadly, none of them is very good. The opening title screens and closing credits have been left intact for each.

Andy Colby is doomed to another typical day of babysitting. But this day is anything but typical when Andy's little sister is pulled through the TV and Andy is sent on an incredibly awesome adventure to save her!

A bordello catering to rich and wealthy clients, run by Lil Hutton experiences a series of crises as one girl ends up pregnant, and another dead. As a subplot, a young woman, Julie Taylor, makes a trip to LA to surprise a friend, but never finds her. Julie is mugged, and seeks help from Lil Hutton. She sees how much the prostitutes are making, and is tempted into the lifestyle. On her first "job" is hired by a rich father for his 18-year old virgin son as a birthday gift, and they fall in love. But the relationship comes to a quick end as soon as the son learns she is a "whore"; Julie breaks down and runs off after realizing prostitution is a cold and loveless occupation that cannot fulfill her emotional emptiness.

Larry (Crispin Glover) organizes a talent show in an attempt to get on TV but the small town of Orkly, Idaho, isn't ready for his Olivia Newton-John impersonation.

The story about a blue-collar Boston bar run by former sports star Sam Malone and the quirky and wonderful people who worked and drank there.