Troubling questions arise after airline pilot Whip Whitaker makes a miracle landing after a mid-air catastrophe.

Commercial airline pilot Whip Whitaker has a problem with drugs and alcohol, though so far he's managed to complete his flights safely. His luck runs out when a disastrous mechanical malfunction sends his plane hurtling toward the ground. Whip pulls off a miraculous crash-landing that results in only six lives lost. Shaken to the core, Whip vows to get sober -- but when the crash investigation exposes his addiction, he finds himself in an even worse situation.

Teenager Danny Masters, the son of the late Harry Masters, considered the second best escape artist in history, wants to follow in his father's footsteps, he already a skilled but untested magician. As far as Danny knows, his father died in a dangerous escape routine. Escaping from under his grandmother's roof, Danny, in a step to achieve his goal as they have all his father's old professional paraphernalia, reunites with his Aunt Sibyl and Uncle Burke in the town of Harding where they have a mind-reading act, she who actually can read minds but which only impinges on the smoke and mirrors they've developed with the act itself. In his wanderings around Harding, Danny gets involved with corrupt Stu Quiñones, and indirectly with Stu's equally corrupt father, the town's mayor, Leon Quiñones. This father/son pair no longer associate with each other as although Stu aspires to be as corrupt as his father, Stu's activities are a little too brazen and public for a politician with which to deal. In those dealings, Danny devises what is largely seen as a publicity stunt in reality to get the one up on the Quiñoneses, but in which he will have to show his true mettle as a great escape artist. In the process, Danny may also provide some justice for his father, the true nature of his death which Danny learns along the way.

A veteran detective gets stuck with a rookie cop when in pursuit of a German crook.

Jake Van Dorn is a businessman from the American heartland who shares strong Calvinist convictions with most of his countrymen. His teenage daughter is missing from her church youth convention trip to California and Van Dorn hires a private investigator to find her. The result of the investigation is his daughter is spotted in a cheap X-rated movie. Van Dorn decides to bring her back personally and during the quest he becomes familiar with the pornographic underworld.