An investigator stays in a family home in order to become acquainted with the family and all their intricacies while he investigates the case of family's adult son, who has threatens to kill the president of the United States to spare the lives of those involved in Vietnam.

A group of children in a family lives with their grandmother, but she is mean and abusive. The children soon become tired of her abuse and plot to kill her in various ways, though the task is complicated by logistics.

In a small rural American town in the late 1800s, a woman's eldest son is accused of committing murder. She takes her younger children to watch him be executed, hoping they will not follow a similar path.

In 1930s Boston, a ten-year-old Black girl looks after a relative's baby, and grows attached to the child. When the baby contracts an unknown illness, the girl learns the realities of life and death.