In the late 1930s, Sheilah Graham’s Hollywood column quickly becomes popular for its biting tone. At a party, she meets author F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the two begin a torrid affair. Scott laments that his writing has fallen out of fashion, and when he is fired from his screenwriting position, he...
A charismatic charlatan begins a business — and eventually romantic — relationship with a roadside evangelist to sell religion to 1920s America. Based on Sinclair Lewis' novel of the same name.
Cattle baron Matt Devereaux raids a copper smelter that is polluting his water, then divides his property among his sons. Son Joe takes responsibility for the raid and gets three years in prison. Matt dies from a stroke partly caused by his rebellious sons and when Joe gets out he plans revenge.
An intelligent, articulate scholar, Harrison MacWhite, survives a hostile Senate confirmation hearing at the hands of conservatives to become ambassador to Sarkan, a southeast Asian country where civil war threatens a tense peace. Despite his knowledge, once he's there, MacWhite sees only a...
Luther Heggs, a typesetter for the town newspaper, pitches an idea for a story about a local haunted house where a famous murder/suicide occurred 20 years earlier. After the editor assigns Luther to spend one night alone in the mansion, Heggs has a number of supernatural encounters and writes a...
Tax collector Lorenzo Charlton comes to the Larkins' farm to ask why Pop Larkins hasn't paid his back taxes. Charlton has to stay for a day to try to estimate the income from the farm, but it isn't easy to calculate when the farmer has such a lovely daughter.
Middle-class suburbanites Larry and Kitty grow bored with their lives and respective marriages. Although each always found the other's manner grating, they fall in love when thrown together--without their spouses--on vacation. On returning home they try to break things off, only to grow closer. A...
After her father's funeral, Ann Chapin thinks back over the last five years of his life, years of apparent political and personal failure dominated by a selfish and dissatisfied wife, eased only by alcohol. But it starts to emerge that he had in fact one brief and unsuspected period of happiness...
A private eye is hired by an insurance company to investigate a shipping magnate suspected of deliberately sinking his own ships for the insurance money. He finds himself involved in a web of deception, double-crossing and murder.
The wedding of Ellen and David is halted by a stranger who insists that the bride is already married to someone else. Though the flabbergasted Ellen denies the charge, the interloper produces enough evidence that his accusation must be investigated. Ellen and David travel to the small coastal town...
Kay Kingsley, a sophisticated and successful songwriter in New York City. falls in love with a widowed rancher, Chris Heyward, she meets at the Madison Square Garden Rodeo and they get married, and leave for his ranch in the west. Her friends warn her of an early disillusionment with life on a...
Once a famous Ziegfeld star, Dodo Delwyn is reduced to playing clowns in burlesque and amusement parks as a result of his drinking. His son Little Dink idolizes Dodo and faithfully believes in a comeback. He persuades "Uncle" Goldie, Dodo's agent in the good old days, to find a booking for Dodo. He...
A plane is forced to land at sea just off the Japanese coast. A young American boy is later befriended by a fisherman's son, with the two setting off on an unintended journey across the country.
