The career of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo is halted by a witch hunt in the late 1940s when he defies the anti-communist HUAC committee and is blacklisted.

A coastal town is plagued by a supernatural man-eating shark. A ghost hunter joins forces with a sea captain to uncover the secrets of the area's dark past and find a way to exorcise the spectral predator.

Two rival politicians compete to win an election to represent their small North Carolina congressional district in the United States House of Representatives.