In 1841, young Ishmael signs up for service aboard the Pequod, a whaler sailing out of New Bedford. The ship is under the command of Captain Ahab, a strict disciplinarian who exhorts his men to find Moby Dick, the great white whale. Ahab lost his his leg to that creature and is desperate for revenge. As the crew soon learns, he will stop at nothing to gain satisfaction.

The controlled explosion of an atomic bomb in the Arctic Circle awakens a frozen dinosaur that will wreak havoc in New York City.

Two retired insurance salesmen have been visiting the scenes of accidents and crimes, feeling that they have a responsibility to learn why such things happen. One of them has found an aggressive, hostile woman whom he considers to be a prime candidate for a personal disaster. On a blisteringly hot day, the two follow her as she does some shopping, and watch as she antagonizes several persons. After some discussion, they decide to take a chance on helping her, and they go up to her apartment to talk to her.

A dead man is found in the basement of a theater, and a detective comes to investigate. He learn that the deceased had been seen near the theater asking for Fabian, the ventriloquist. As the detective questions Fabian in his dressing room, a voice comes from the box in which Fabian's female dummy is stored. When the dummy, Riabouchinska, continues to talk, the detective is annoyed, thinking that the ventriloquist is trying to be funny. But the detective humors him and 'talks' to the dummy, and he soon learns about a web of tensions involving Fabian, his wife, and his manager. Much of the tension concerns the dummy - and there is also a connection with the dead man.

A little boy whose dreams transcend reality is sucked into his own fantasy, which is everything he has dreamed of, until he unleashes an old secret that may not only destroy this perfect dream world but reality itself.