When she turns 18, unhappy Lidda Daniels leaves Southern California to look for Charlie, her father, a professional gambler who abandoned her years before. On her way to Las Vegas, she picks up Colonel, a video store clerk who she finds attractive even though they have never spoken.
Automne 1989. La télévision diffuse les images de la chute du mur de Berlin, tandis que l'écrivaine Hanna Flanders téléphone dans son appartement de Munich au dramaturge Ronald pour lui annoncer son suicide avec de l'arsenic. Ils se décident à fumer encore une cigarette, Ronald convainc Hanna de lâcher la bouteille.
Teenager Todd Baker (Merriman) and his former astronaut grandfather Gus (Wagner) team up to rebuild a Mercury Redstone Rocket for Todd's school project.
Danny (Adrian Lester) is an English teacher in a South London comprehensive. When three youths break into his class and threaten one of his pupils, Patrick "Shinehead" (Alexis Rodney), Danny intervenes and is himself threatened with a knife before the youths leave. A shaken Danny confronts Patrick and demands that he tells him the name of the ringleader.