17-year-old Lisa feels certain that she inadvertently played a role in causing a traffic accident that claimed a woman's life. In her attempts to set things right, she meets with opposition at every step. Torn apart with frustration, she begins emotionally brutalizing her family, her friends, her teachers, and, most of all, herself. She has been confronted quite unexpectedly with a basic truth: that her youthful ideals are on a collision course with the realities and compromises of the adult world.

When a single, unattributed missile is launched at the United States, a race begins to determine who is responsible and how to respond.

Political intrigue and deception unfold inside the United Nations, where a U.S. Secret Service agent is assigned to investigate an interpreter who overhears an assassination plot.

Margot and her son Claude decide to visit her sister Pauline after she announces that she is marrying less-than-impressive Malcolm.

The relationship of a contemporary married couple, charting their evolution over a span of years by cross-cutting between time periods.