During the reign of Emperor Renzong of the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a water monster on the banks of the Bianhe River. The Kaifeng government was instructed to send its saber-bearing guard Zhan Zhao to pursue the clues. They deduce that the beast is made of a machine and, with Deng's introduction, they go to the Qiankun Palace, the residence of the most famous machine master, Sheng Luban
A ghost writer, a piano player and a clerk, three characters united by frustration, who will have to fight to get out of their crises, facing their insecurities, repressions and bad memories in a world of fantasies and mysteries.
Jean-Christophe, about twenty, meets his father for the first time. In a forest where they have decided to meet, reality transforms itself and takes the form of a fantastic tale. For Jean-Christophe, the hour is of disappointment in front of the fantasized father who turns out to be very different from what he had dreamed.
Although Jo Jo Dancer has achieved success as a stand-up comedian, he hasn't found happiness. After receiving severe burns in a narcotics-related incident, Jo Jo remains in a coma, and, while in this state, he looks back on his life. Drifting off into memories of his troubled childhood, Jo Jo revisits his youth, recalling his eventual rise to fame and the decadence that followed. As he considers his existence, he must decide if he wants to go on living or not.
Graziella is employed as a housekeeper for a reclusive and wealthy bourgeois family who live in a town house. A monstrous thing is locked up inside it, a very old man who has desperately been waiting to die for years. When Graziella and the monster meet, something is awakened in them.
Sparta Academy is the nation's top prep school, where students with poor grades undergo frightening torture under the school headmaster's direction. Kekko Kamen makes her appearance at the school in outrageous attire, completely naked except for her red mask, boots and gloves, and attacks the torturing teacher.
In a theater, as the actors agree to set a new play, our protagonist goes to the theater basements full of old costumes to look for Dracula's costume. But, by chance, finds a magic book, which once he opens, it instantly displaces reality and leads him to phantasmagorical journeys.
A priest is officiating at a convent, when suddenly he is transformed into the devil, who frightens away the nuns and turns the place into pandemonium.
Robert, who ran away from home as a boy, returns to reveal he's become a master thief. His parents want to send him away again, afraid he'll wind up on the gallows.
Amid an urban crowd, a man is sleeping—or perhaps unconscious. Nobody pays him any attention, but then an insect crawls into his body. He begins to experience strange events at the threshold between reality and fantasy.
In his new, contemporary reincarnation, Grisha lives with his mother in Jaffa, but his soul has been wandering the world for 400 years. Born in the 17th century in a Jewish shtetl, he dies and is reincarnated, journeying through centuries, across countries, and into different bodies. What compels him to return to Earth time and time again? An unforgiven sin or an all-consuming love for his soulmate? What is life—a blessing or a curse? His mother, Marina, is skeptical of all his fantasies. To her, “Life is the one and only; everything else is just a beautiful metaphor.”
The communal justice system accuses Don Evaristo, 80 years old, of the murder of his granddaughter Yana-Wara, 13 years old. During the hearing, everyone learns the tragic story of this young girl.