Boiling Point

Madame Olga is the owner of a luxurious brothel in London, England. One of the brothel's new clients, a young man, falls in love with her. He wishes to have more than sexual relationships with the woman.

An intense and imaginative artist, revered Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh possesses undeniable talent, but he is plagued by mental problems and frustrations with failure. Supported by his brother, Theo, the tormented Van Gogh eventually leaves Holland for France, where he meets volatile fellow painter Paul Gauguin and struggles to find greater inspiration.

Moved to another town, Jamin is now in eleventh grade, living with his alcoholic mother, and the beneficiary of court-ordered protection from his abusive father. A few more negative experiences and Jamin snaps.

The Talbots, formerly one of the Eastern Shore's first families, have gone to seed: Pap is a drunk, soddenly decaying in his ruined ancestral home, and three of his sons (William, Carol, and Ezra) are lazy, shiftless young men. Mulligan, Pap's second son who supports the entire family by oyster fishing, falls in love with wealthy Anna Lee, but when he first kisses her, she calls him "white trash."

A Chicago sports radio shock jock is changed by a Christmas season encounter with a 15-year-old fan who is dying of cancer who forces him to be nice for a day.