The Polish-American father of three daughters takes great pride in entering the annual polka contest each year with one of the girls. Last year, when his oldest daughter married, the second daughter Theckla danced and won the contest with Papa. However, this year, Theckla is in love, and she refuses to put on the old-country costume and dance.

A well-liked policeman dreams that he will have a shoot-out with a criminal on a specific day. While walking his beat on that night, he encounters the thug of his dreams.

An average citizen witnesses a murder. His family then faces intimidation from the killer.

A group of shady characters from a mining town wind up stuck in a blizzard with a naive young couple. The situation brings out the best, and worst, in everyone.

The rise and fall of a corrupt politician, who makes his friends richer and retains power by dint of a populist appeal.

Two college students hitching their way back to school. A fierce storm arises, and they take shelter in a local farmer's barn. The next day on the radio they hear that the daughter of the farmer who gave them shelter has been murdered, and the boys are shocked to hear that a description of the killers matches them perfectly.

A tough veteran cop, expecting to be promoted to a supervisor position, is passed over, and finds himself assigned to a homicide by the man who took what he considered to be his job. His new boss warns him against using the brutal tactics he is infamous for, but the cop soon ditches his partner and pays a visit to the suspect in the case, in order to "interrogate" him--alone.

Elderly Aunt Violet lets it be known that she's particularly afraid of one of her heirs, who she thinks is greedy enough to do away with her to get her money. Not long after hiring a new gardener, Violet disappears. Her friends and neighbors suspect that she has been killed by the greedy heir, but her niece Helen decides to search the entire countryside to find out what happened to her aunt.

A sophisticated, upper-crust British lawyer turns to a much shadier colleague to clear him when he's charged with murdering a somewhat disreputable woman.