Sheena's parents were archaeologists who died in the jungle when she was about six years old, leaving their daughter Shirley Hamilton. She was taken in by Kali, a local Shamaness of a tribe who brought her up, and five years ago she was taught how to morph into animals and birds, acquiring their abilities, even flight. Further, she became a mythical creature called "The Darachna" who relies on people' fear of the unknown. For this she covers herself in a dark liquid mud which allows her to be largely unseen in the low light of the jungle, and with more than normal strength, agility and speed, and armed with a pair of gloves with bone claws, she is a formidable one woman fighting force. She does kill sometimes.

A small suburban town receives a visit from a castaway unfinished science experiment named Edward.

The Narrator tells us how the radio influenced his childhood in the days before TV. In the New York City of the late 1930s to the New Year's Eve 1944, this coming-of-age tale mixes the narrator's experiences with contemporary anecdotes and urban legends of the radio stars.

As a young and naive recruit in Vietnam, Chris Taylor faces a moral crisis when confronted with the horrors of war and the duality of man.