In New York City in 1980, Dexter Mitchell plays half-willing big brother to his neighbors, a trio of exchange students from the People's Republic of China.
Will, an unemployed and aimless playboy living in Brooklyn, has spent his 20s skating on easy charm from one casual, distant affair to the next. Noticing his friends’ happiness as they gradually settle into steady jobs and committed relationships, Will decides to trade apathy for effort in order to find someone with whom he can start the next chapter of his life.
Set on a game reserve in Africa. Askari is an angry old elephant, the only survivor of the "A' family group which has been anhilitated in a government cull and he has turned rogue. Involved in the culling are Patrick Khumalo, a corrupt government official and Ribshaw, an unscrupulous white poacher accompanied by Ndhlovu, an old African tracker who is being blackmailed by Ribshaw. Anxious to save the elephants are game warden Joss Mckinley and his conservationist wife Paula who is studying and monitoring various family groups of elephants. When Paula's sixteen year old niece Emma Crawshay is orphaned she is sent to live with her aunt and uncle at Morena Game Park. She feels alienated but is gradually drawn into her aunt's passion for her work and her favourite elephant family the 'O' group, in particular a calf named Ollie.
Billy is a teenage outcast in search of his life's true meaning. Day by day, he slaves away at the local burger joint, only to return home to a paraplegic father, whose own dreams of happiness have faded away in an alcoholic haze. Nonetheless, Billy tries to bond with his delusional father, but cannot break through the many layers of pain and regret that surround him. Frustrated, Billy longs to escape the dead-end existence that has engulfed his father, and now appears to be closing in on him as well.
Harold Krebs went off to fight in World War I, "the war to end all wars." But when he comes home, Harold finds that he doesn't fit in any more. He needs peace and quiet to figure out what has happened to him and who he has become, but his mother pressures him to rejoin society.
Samir Majan a young man born and raised a Muslim in the Middle East attends college in America. While at college Samir becomes a Christian, and must go home and face his family.