Extremely shy Lars finds it impossible to make friends or socialize. His brother and sister-in-law worry about him, so when he announces that he has a girlfriend he met on the Internet, they are overjoyed. But Lars' new lady is a life-size plastic woman. On the advice of a doctor, his family and the rest of the community go along with his delusion.

An aging cop is assigned the ordinary task of escorting a fast-talking witness from police custody to a courthouse, but they find themselves running the gauntlet as other forces try to prevent them from getting there.

Haunted by memories of the six people she brutally slaughtered years earlier after becoming convinced she was the famous ax murderer Lizzie Borden, mental patient Cassie escapes the hospital and tries to hide out by enrolling in a local college. But when her class begins discussing the original Lizzie Borden killings, Cassie's violent alter ego emerges with plans for a bloody climax to the upcoming dance.

The fate of a young Australian boy is somehow linked with that of a young Roman boy who had traveled to Australia by ship during the time of the Roman Emperor, Nero.