In this Depression-era tale, Calef McKinney, traveling from Michigan to California, stops in Spooner, Missouri, where Lute hires him for odd jobs. Calef gets involved with Lute's niece, Hannah. But she's married to Sidney, a wife-beating drunk who hopes to inherit his uncle-in-law's money. Sidney and an eccentric preacher plot against Calef, who finds it difficult to conceal his mysterious past and his growing affection for Sidney's wife.

A mutant sheep is on the move near a ranch in the American West.

To help with an upcoming election, a bookstore clerk is indicted for selling obscene material. The defense attorneys need to find the mystery of the original publication of the book.

Three strippers seeking thrills encounter a young couple in the desert. After dispatching the boyfriend, they take the girl hostage and begin scheming on a crippled old man living with his two sons in the desert, reputedly hiding a tidy sum of cash. They become house guests of the old man and try and seduce the sons in an attempt to locate the money, not realizing that the old man has a few sinister intentions of his own.

A small suburban town receives a visit from a castaway unfinished science experiment named Edward.