Paul Giamatti is an actor who becomes so impassioned with the characters and roles that he plays that he has trouble disassociating himself from the character after the scene is done. As a result, his mind and spirit are a tangled mass of emotions that he seems to have trouble separating from his own feelings. As he struggles to play Uncle Vanya, he reads an article in The New Yorker regarding "Soul Storage," a procedural clinic that physically removes one's soul from his body. While hesitant at first to go through with such a procedure, being unsure how it would affect him, Paul decides to go ahead. On visiting the clinic he discovers that most souls come out as gray matter or clouds. He decides to go ahead, declining the offer to look at his soul as it happens. He is distressed to discover that his soul comes out looking just like a chickpea. He has it stored in the clinic and returns to his life with 5% of his soul remaining. He is told this is like residue, enough to leave him with some emotional reaction, like affection for his loved ones and hobbies but not very deep or complex feeling to new things. He at first feels more relaxed, however his life begins to fall apart; he has trouble associating with or making love to his wife Claire despite wanting to. Lacking in emotional intelligence in new situations, he is easily bored and says insensitive things, such as telling a friend to just "pull the plug" on her comatose mother, and his acting for the Chekhov play lacks believability. Not wanting his soul back just yet, he instead obtains the soul of what he is told is a Russian poet, whose memories entice him to be curious about her and her life as well as obtain a curiosity of his own. This Russian soul allows him to play Uncle Vanya excellently, but the experience overwhelms him and he decides to get his own soul back. Paul's world is turned upside down when Nina, a Russian soul mule who transports people's souls to and from Russia, steals Paul's soul for the wife of her boss at the Russian soul-storage operation, who aspires to be an actress. She receives Paul's soul, believing it to be the soul of Al Pacino. Her acting and happiness improve. Nina, the mule who carried Paul's soul and has become curious about him, eventually reveals the whereabouts of his soul, helping him to get it back. As the pair investigate the soul of Olga the poet, which he had 'rented' during this period, they learn that she committed suicide after not being able to get it back after selling it. Paul and Nina get his soul back, and after looking into it through the use of special goggles to reassociate himself to it, he returns to New York a happier man. Nina's soul is found, but Paul is told that it is unrecoverable due to the residues of souls that she has carried.

After Sal loses Zoe, the love of his life, in a car crash, he falls into deep depression. His sister Ebe, who watches her brother with growing concern, wants to help him. She works at Aeternum, a company that offers the new technology "Another End" to give the bereaved the opportunity to say goodbye to deceased loved ones in a special way. The memories and consciousness of the deceased, which are stored in the company's database, are fed into a suitable host. The grieving relatives can then interact with the loved one (in someone else's body) in one or more sessions. According to the company's motto, this is intended to enable "another end" for them. The brain of the host absorbs the memories of the deceased every time they fall asleep. They forget everything, but this process cannot be repeated indefinitely. At first, neither Sal nor Zoe's parents want to try this method of coping with their pain. Sal blames himself for Zoe's death, as he was at the wheel in the car accident that claimed her life, and tries to kill himself with pills and alcohol. Ebe finds him in time and is able to prevent the attempt. She also manages to convince Zoe's mother to agree to Zoe's "resuscitation". Sal also finally agrees after a therapist and colleague of Ebe's tells him more about the process. However, he remains skeptical as to whether he will be able to feel a connection to "his Zoe" when she doesn't look like herself. He recognizes Zoe in Ava's body when he follows the therapist's advice and starts an argument with her. He falls in love with her again, is happy and doesn't want to say goodbye to her. He manages to persuade Ebe to give him more time together with Zoe-Ava, even though this jeopardizes her job. However, when the program comes to an end, he doesn't want to stand idly by and watch his newfound love disappear again. He follows the host Ava to her workplace in a strip club and meets up with her several times without revealing that he knows her through the host program. In the process, he learns that Ava has lost her child and is offering herself as a host to escape the daily grind. Since they exceeded the recommended amount of sessions, Ava seems to remember little things from Zoe's past. She finally finds out who Sal is and withdraws. Sal becomes depressed again, but then learns from Ebe that Ava has contacted her and wants to meet up with him again. Ebe is fired from the company because she was resuscitating her brother Sal the whole time, who had already died, as Ebe couldn't handle Sal's death. The Sal/Rental Body and Zoe/Ava wake up together after spending the night together and smile.

Based on historic events, this dramatic film concerns the 1939 voyage of the German-flagged MS St. Louis, which departed from Hamburg carrying 937 Jews from Germany, bound for Havana, Cuba. The passengers, having seen and suffered rising anti-Semitism in Germany, realized this might be their only chance to escape. The film details the emotional journey of the passengers, who gradually become aware that their passage was planned as an exercise in Nazi propaganda, and that Germany had never intended that they disembark in Cuba. Rather, they were to be set up as pariahs, to set an example before the world. As a Nazi official states in the film, when the whole world has refused to accept the Jews as refugees, no country can blame Germany for their fate. The Cuban government refuses entry to the passengers while the ship is on its way, and next the liner heads to the United States. As it waits off the Florida coast, the passengers learn that the United States also has rejected them, as Canada subsequently does, leaving the captain no choice but to return to Europe. The captain tells a confidante that he has received a letter signed by 200 passengers saying they will join hands and jump into the sea rather than return to Germany. He states his intention to run the liner aground on a reef off the southern coast of England, to allow the passengers to be rescued and reach safety there. Shortly before the film's end, it is revealed that the governments of Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom have each agreed to accept a share of the passengers as refugees. As they cheer and clap at the news, footnotes disclose the fates of some of the main characters, suggesting that more than 600 of the 937 passengers who did not resettle in Britain but in other European nations instead were ultimately deported and murdered in Nazi concentration camps.

Con artist Marla Grayson makes a living by convincing the justice system to grant her guardianship over elders who she pretends cannot take care of themselves. She places them in an assisted living facility, where they are sedated and lose contact with the outside world. She then sells off their homes and assets, pocketing the proceeds. She and the court deny a man, Mr. Feldstrom, access to his mother after he attempts to force his way into the facility. He later threatens her outside the courthouse, saying that he hopes she is killed. Dr. Karen Amos informs Marla about a potential case, a wealthy retiree named Jennifer Peterson with no apparent husband or close family. A judge appoints Marla guardian after she and Dr. Amos falsely testify that Jennifer has dementia, confusion, and loss of mobility. Marla moves Jennifer into assisted living and gets to work selling Jennifer's furniture, car, and home. While rooting through Jennifer's possessions, Marla discovers the key to a safe deposit box. It contains a watch, gold bars, bank notes, and hidden, loose diamonds, which she takes and stashes away. As Marla's girlfriend and business partner, Fran, oversees the renovation of the house, a cab arrives driven by Alexi Ignatyev, who says he is there to pick up Jennifer. Fran says that Jennifer has moved. Alexi returns to his employer, Roman Lunyov, distressed. Roman, a crime lord, is revealed to be Jennifer's son. He threatens Alexi and orders him to find his mother and report back. Mafia lawyer Dean Ericson offers to pay Marla $150,000 in cash to release Jennifer but she refuses, willing to do it only if she is paid $5 million. He threatens Marla and takes her to court. The judge dismisses the case as Ericson cannot prove Jennifer hired him. Fran discovers "Jennifer Peterson" is an identity stolen from an infant who died of polio. When Jennifer refuses to tell Marla her real identity, Marla teams up with property manager Sam Rice and withdraws filling many of Jennifer's basic needs. Finding his mother's safe deposit box rifled, Roman sends three thugs to Jennifer's facility to take her. This effort fails, and Marla helps police apprehend Alexi, who is one of the men. Fran's police contact tells them that Alexi is the sibling of two other mafia bosses who supposedly died in a fire. Having failed to rescue his mother, Roman has Dr. Amos killed at her office. After hearing this news, Marla and Fran move into an unsold property of a previous victim. Jennifer is baited into attacking Marla when she visits the facility and is moved to a psychiatric ward. Marla is tranquilized and kidnapped while Fran is attacked in their home. Marla is taken to Roman and demands $10 million to arrange Jennifer's release. He refuses, and his associates knock her out with chloroform and send her in a car into a lake. She escapes and returns home to find Fran beaten unconscious as gas fills the house. They escape an explosion and flee to another unsold property. Marla shows Fran the diamonds she has hidden there. She offers Fran a choice: they can use the diamonds to start a new life elsewhere, or they can get revenge. Marla and Fran track down Roman and kidnap him. They force drugs into his body, burn his car, and leave him on a forest trail. He will be discovered high on drugs and with no identification. Roman is discovered by a jogger, and is rescued. With no identity, Roman is designated a "John Doe" by a judge, who appoints Marla as Roman's legal guardian. Marla visits Roman and offers to release him and Jennifer from her guardianship for $10 million. Instead, Roman offers her a partnership in a global business based on her scam. She accepts and, using his money and connections, becomes a powerful, wealthy CEO. Roman is reunited with Jennifer, while Marla marries Fran. While leaving a TV interview, Marla is shot by Feldstrom. He says that his mother died alone in the facility because no one would let him see her. As Feldstrom is arrested, Fran cries out for help as Marla bleeds to death in her arms.

Recent Georgetown University graduates Alec Newberry, Leslie Hunter, Kevin Dolenz, Jules Van Patten, and Kirby Keager wait to hear about the conditions of their friends: Wendy Beamish, a sweet-natured young woman devoted to helping others, and Billy Hicks, a former fraternity boy and now reluctant husband and father, after a minor car accident caused by Billy's drinking. At the hospital, Kirby spots an intern named Dale Biberman, with whom he has been infatuated since college. The group gathers at their favorite college hangout, St. Elmo's Bar. Billy has been fired from the job that Alec helped him secure. At their apartment, Alec pressures Leslie to marry him, but she thinks they are unprepared. Kirby is telling Kevin of his love for Dale when Billy shows up, asking to spend the night as he cannot cope with his wife Felicia. Jules accuses Kevin of being gay and loving Alec. When Kevin visits Alec and Leslie for dinner, Alec confesses to Kevin that he recently had sex with a lingerie saleswoman. Billy and Wendy get drunk together, and Wendy reveals that she is a virgin. They kiss, and Billy, tugging at her clothing, makes fun of her girdle. Wendy insists they remain platonic friends. At St. Elmo's during a Halloween party, Jules reveals to Leslie that she is having an affair with her married boss Forrester Davidson. Billy sees Felicia with another man in the crowd and attacks him. Billy is thrown out of the bar but reconciles with Felicia. The women confront Jules about her affair and reckless spending, but she insists that everything is under control. Kirby takes a job working for Kim Sung Ho, a wealthy Korean businessman, and invites Dale to a party at Mr. Kim's house, which he is using without Mr. Kim's permission. Wendy arrives with Howie Krantz, an ungainly Jewish boy whom her parents want her to marry. Alec announces that he and Leslie are engaged, upsetting her. She confronts him about her suspicions of his infidelity, and the two break up. Alec accuses Kevin of telling Leslie about the tryst with the lingerie woman. Jules gives Billy a ride home, and Billy makes a pass at her. Furious, Jules orders him out of her car; Felicia witnesses the confrontation. When Dale skips the party, Kirby drives to the ski lodge where she is staying and meets her boyfriend Guy. Kirby's borrowed car gets stuck, and Dale and Guy invite him in. The next morning, as Kirby prepares to leave the lodge, Dale tells him that she is flattered by his interest in her. He kisses her, and then Guy takes a photo of them before he leaves. Leslie goes to Kevin's apartment to spend the night after the breakup and discovers photographs of her. Kevin confesses his love for her, and the two have sex. Alec goes to the apartment to apologize to Kevin and finds Leslie there. Wendy tells her father that she wants to be independent and move into her own place. Jules has been fired from her job, fallen behind on her credit card payments, and her possessions have been seized. She locks herself in her apartment and opens the windows, intending to freeze to death. Her friends attempt to coax her out, but she is unresponsive. Kirby fetches Billy, who landed a job at a gas station courtesy of Kevin, to calm Jules down. Billy convinces Jules to let him in, and they talk about the challenges of life, overheard by the rest of the gang. Wendy moves into her own place; Billy visits and informs her that he is getting a divorce and moving to New York City to try making it as a musician, and the two have sex. At the bus station, the group gathers once more to say goodbye to Billy. Billy urges Alec to make up with Leslie, but she declares that she does not want to date anyone for a while. Alec and Kevin make up, and the group makes plans to meet for brunch. However, they decide not to go to St. Elmo's and instead choose Houlihan's because there are "not so many kids" there.

In March 1975, a Sino-Soviet border conflict escalates into full-scale war in which biological warfare destroys most of the human race. U.S. Army Col. Robert Neville, M.D., is a scientist based in Los Angeles, California who tests the efficacy of various vaccines. As he begins to succumb to the plague, he desperately injects himself with an experimental vaccine, which renders him immune. By August 1977, Neville believes he is the only immune survivor of the plague. Struggling to maintain his sanity, he spends his days patrolling the now-desolate Los Angeles, hunting and killing members of "the Family", a cult of plague victims who survive, but were rendered homicidal nocturnal albino mutants. Through flashbacks, Neville remembers how martial law was imposed, and the majority of people who succumbed to the plague were killed instantly. At night, living in a fortified apartment building equipped with an arsenal of weaponry, Neville is a prisoner in his own home. He is besieged by the Family, who seek to kill him. The Family's attempts to extract Neville from his residence have failed, due in part to their insistence on using archaic weaponry and siege warfare. When not hunting Neville, the Family destroys any remnant of science, blaming technology for the war, hence their reluctance to attempt more modern means to kill Neville. One day, as Neville is in a department store helping himself to new clothing, he spots a healthy woman, who immediately flees. He pursues her outside, but later chalks it up to imagination, having earlier hallucinated about multiple telephones ringing. He finds the corpse of a Family member and remarks that the final stage of the disease will kill them all. On another day, the Family finally captures Neville. After a summary trial, he is found guilty of heresy by the Family's leader, Jonathan Matthias, a former news anchorman. Neville is sentenced to death and nearly burned at the stake tied to a large wooden wheel representing modern technology in Dodger Stadium. He is rescued by Lisa, the woman he had earlier dismissed as a hallucination, and Dutch, a former medical student. Lisa and Dutch are part of a group of survivors holed-up at a former radio transmitter in the Hollywood Hills, none of whom exceeds the age of 30. Although their youth has given them some resistance to the disease, they are still vulnerable to it and will eventually succumb to it. Neville realizes that salvaging humanity would take years, as he will need a considerable amount of time to duplicate the original vaccine. He believes extending his immunity to others may be possible by creating a serum from his own blood. Neville and Lisa return to Neville's apartment, where they begin treating Lisa's brother Richie, who is succumbing to the disease. Neville and Lisa are about to have a romantic evening together, just as the generator runs out of fuel and the lights go off. The Family then attacks, sending Matthias' second-in-command, Brother Zachary, to climb up the outside of Neville's building to the open balcony of his apartment. Neville leaves Lisa upstairs as he goes to the basement garage to restart the generator. Neville returns to the apartment to find Zachary right behind an unsuspecting Lisa. Neville shoots him, and he falls off the balcony to his death, dropping his spear on the balcony as he goes. If the serum works, Neville and Lisa plan to leave the ravaged city with the rest of the survivors and start new lives in the Sierra Nevada wilderness several hundred miles north of Los Angeles, leaving the Family behind to die. Neville successfully creates the serum and administers it to Richie. Once cured, Richie reveals to Neville that the Family's headquarters are in the Los Angeles Civic Center, but insists that the Family is also human and that Neville's cure should be administered to them, as well. Consumed by his hate for the Family, Neville disagrees with him, so Richie goes to the Family by himself to try to convince them to take the serum. Matthias refuses to believe that Neville would try to help them, accuses Richie of being sent to spy on them, and has him tortured and executed. After finding a note that Richie left, Neville rushes to rescue him, but instead finds his brutalized dead body tied to a judge's chair in a courtroom. Meanwhile, Lisa quickly and unexpectedly succumbs to the disease and becomes one of the Family. Returning home, Neville tells Lisa about Richie's death, but she already knows and has betrayed Neville by giving Matthias and his followers access to Neville's home. Matthias, who finally has the upper hand, forces Neville to watch as the Family sets his home and equipment on fire. Neville breaks free, and once outside with Lisa, he turns and raises his gun to shoot Matthias, who is looking down from the balcony. The gun jams, giving Matthias enough time to hurl Zachary's spear at Neville, mortally wounding him. The next morning, Dutch and the survivors discover Neville dying in a fountain. He hands Dutch a flask of the blood serum and then dies. Dutch takes Lisa away, weakened and compliant because of the sunlight, and the survivors leave the city forever.

Volunteers arrive for a psychological study led by Dr. Archaleta (Stevens), among them Travis (Brody), a proud anti-war protester, and Michael Barris (Whitaker), a 42-year-old man who still lives with his domineering mother. After interviews measuring responses to scenes of violence, a chosen 26 are driven to an isolated prison setting with 24 hour camera coverage. The group is split into six guards and 20 prisoners, thereafter referred to only by number. Travis is assigned as a prisoner (#77), and Barris as a guard. Prisoners are required to fully consume three meals a day, participate in 30 minutes of daily recreation, remain within designated areas, and avoid speaking to guards unless spoken to first. Guards must ensure prisoners obey the rules and deal commensurately with transgressions within 30 minutes. Archaleta stresses that the experiment will end immediately at the first sign of violence or quitting. If all rules are followed for two weeks, each man will be compensated $14,000. Travis' cellmates are Benjy, a graphic novelist, and Nix, a member of the Aryan Brotherhood who served prison time before. Barris, concerned that some guards may be capable of violence, tries to dissuade them from aggressive behavior. Instead, the guards grow more forceful to make prisoners 'obey at all costs'. Barris gradually becomes more sadistic. Realizing that the defiant Travis is influencing prisoner dissent, Barris instructs other guards to abduct him, shave his head, and urinate upon him. When Archaleta fails to intervene, Barris reasons that his actions were "commensurate". When fellow guard Bosch dissents, Barris pressures him to continue. Travis discovers that Benjy, now severely ill, concealed his need for insulin, believing he could cure his diabetes merely through dieting. Bosche tries to help find Benjy's insulin, but is caught by other guards. Barris provides Benjy's insulin, but later has all the guards beat Bosche severely and orders Travis to clean the prison toilets. When Travis taunts Barris, the guards respond by shoving his head into the toilet, nearly drowning him. One morning during roll call, Travis removes his shirt as a sign of protest, followed by the other prisoners. He climbs up to one of the cameras and demands they be released, but the guards choke him. When Benjy tries to defend Travis, Barris bludgeons him. Guards lock Travis into an old boiler pipe overnight, attack the remaining prisoners, and handcuff each man across the cell doors. While locked in the boiler, Travis discovers a hidden infrared camera. As his despondency turns to anger, he manages to escape and interrupts a guard’s attempt to rape a prisoner. The intended victim and Travis beat the guard and knock him out before freeing the other prisoners. Finding Benjy dead from his head injury, Travis leads an assault against the guards, chasing them through the building. As the remaining guards try to lift the garage door to escape, Barris tries to keep them in, unwilling to forfeit his power. A vicious brawl ensues with the prisoners overwhelming the guards. Travis personally confronts Barris, who tries to stab him, only for Travis to stop the blade with his bare hand. Shocked by his own actions, Barris allows Travis to beat him to a pulp. Only then does the door open, signaling the end of the experiment. The group emerges into bright sunlight and sits on the grass in silence until a bus arrives. Audio news snippets suggest that Archaleta is being tried for manslaughter in Benjy's death. Travis, having received his payment, travels to India to meet his girlfriend.

In 1983, two Russian cosmonauts hear something moving outside their spaceship. The ship then crashes in Kazakhstan. The sole survivor is Konstantin Veshnyakov. The military takes Veshnyakov to a military research facility run by Colonel Semiradov. Veshnyakov cannot remember the crash. The facility's scientist, Yan Rigel, tries and fails to cure the amnesia. Semiradov decides to recruit a controversial psychiatrist named Dr. Tatyana Yuryevna Klimova. Klimova quickly discerns that Veshnyakov shows symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Semiradov shows Klimova that at night, an alien emerges from Veshnyakov's mouth as he sleeps. Semiradov explains the creature emerges every night without Veshnyakov's knowledge, and that it is responsible for Veshnyakov's survival. The facility tried to extract the alien, but it is now symbiotically bonded to Veshnyakov and both will slowly die if separated. Klimova agrees to investigate how to separate Veshnyakov from the alien permanently – much to Rigel's jealous chagrin. Klimova decides she must test how Veshnyakov's hormones react to stress. She provokes him with accusations of abandoning his son and causing his colleague's death. Afterwards, Klimova asks for Veshnyakov to stay in a normal room during daylight hours instead of a cell, to see how he reacts to normal civilian life. She apologizes to Veshnyakov for her harsh words, and he tells her that he only found out about his son one week before his space mission. He had planned to meet his son after going home, but is now stuck in the facility. At night, Klimova interacts with the emerged alien from behind protective glass. She notices it fixate on a toy that belongs to Veshnyakov, and daringly removes the glass so she can give the toy to the alien. The creature ignores Klimova and plays with the toy. But when Klimova tries to touch the creature, it attacks her. Soldiers extract Klimova and contain the creature. Klimova theorizes the alien has merged with Veshnyakov, and it took interest in the toy because it reminds Veshnyakov of his son. She requests to take Veshnyakov to Moscow for treatment. Semiradov reveals this is impossible. His superiors in Moscow want to terminate Veshnyakov, and Semiradov has been lying about their research progress to keep Veshnyakov alive. While reviewing surveillance footage of the alien, Klimova realizes it is edited. She confronts Rigel, and he takes her to see Semiradov feeding live humans to the alien at night. Rigel reveals that the creature needs cortisol from a living, terrified human to keep itself and Veshnyakov alive. Disgusted, Klimova asks Veshnyakov to meet in secret. Veshnyakov incapacitates his guards, and Klimova shows him the bodies of the alien's victims. She explains the alien chose Veshnyakov as its host because his co-pilot had Addison's disease. Veshnyakov reveals he can remember everything the creature experiences, but has been hiding it because he wants the Moscow authorities to approve his release. Klimova is horrified that Veshnyakov could accept sacrificing human lives, but Veshnyakov explains that he will do anything to return to his son and his mother. Semiradov summons Klimova and reveals he knows she spied on the feeding. He defends his actions by explaining the alien is a powerful weapon the Soviets need to maintain peace, and that he only feeds it prisoners who have committed monstrous crimes. Semiradov allows Klimova to watch another feeding. However, Klimova requests to enter the feeding area and sings Veshnyakov's favourite song to the alien. At first, the creature softens and backs away. But when the prisoner tries to run, the creature kills him anyways. Klimova decides she must stop the experiment and help Veshnyakov escape. She convinces Rigel to help her. Then she convinces Veshnyakov that Semiradov will never let him leave. She plans to inject Veshnyakov with hormones that simulate Addison's disease, tricking the alien into rejecting Veshnyakov and permanently separating them. Rigel gives Klimova and Veshnyakov a set of car keys, and then confesses everything to the Moscow authorities by telephone just before Semiradov murders him. Semiradov's soldiers intercept Klimova and Veshnyakov. Cornered, Veshnyakov injects himself with the hormones prematurely, forcing the alien to emerge and attack the soldiers. The resulting chaos allows Klimova to drag Veshnyakov into the car and drive off. But Veshnyakov begins dying, and Klimova realizes he still needs the alien to live. Klimova allows Semiradov to catch up, knowing he will bring the injured alien to Veshnyakov. But before he can, Veshnyakov takes voluntary control of the alien and uses it to kill Semiradov and his men. Klimova spots trucks coming from Moscow thanks to Rigel. However, Veshnyakov decides he must die with the creature to avoid more killing, and shoots himself in the head. Klimova survives and adopts Veshnyakov's son.

Rogue Trader tells the true story of Nick Leeson, a young employee of Barings Bank who after a successful spell working for the firm's office in Indonesia is sent to Singapore as General Manager of the Trading Floor on the SIMEX exchange. The movie follows Leeson's rise as he soon becomes one of Barings' key traders. However, everything isn't as it appears – through the 88888 error account, Nick is hiding huge losses as he gambles away Barings' money with little more than the bat of an eyelid from the powers-that-be back in London. Eventually the losses mount up to well over £800 million and Nick, along with his wife Lisa, decide to leave Singapore and escape to Malaysia. Nick doesn't realise the severity of his losses until he reads in the newspaper that Barings has gone bankrupt. They then decide to return to London but Nick is arrested en route in Frankfurt. Nick is extradited to Singapore where he is sentenced to six and a half years in jail. While in prison, Lisa divorces him and Nick is diagnosed with colon cancer. Because of this, he did not complete his sentence.

Robin Wright is an aging actress whose career suffered because of her erratic behavior and reputation for being fickle and unreliable. Her son, Aaron, suffers from Usher syndrome, which is slowly destroying his sight and hearing. Aided by Dr. Barker, Robin barely manages to stave off the worst effects of Aaron's decline, although his condition is sliding into its terminal stage. Robin's longtime agent, Al, takes her to meet Jeff Green, the CEO of Miramount Studios, a film studio that offers to buy her likeness and digitize her into a computer-animated version of herself. Realizing that she may be unable to find future work with the emergence of this new technology, Robin agrees to do it for a hefty sum of money. The contract also requires that she never act again. After her body is digitally scanned, the studio can make films starring her, using only computer-generated characters. Twenty years later, Robin travels to Abrahama City, where she will speak at the "Futurological Congress", Miramount's entertainment conference. Abrahama City is an animated, surreal utopia that is created from figments of people's imaginations, where anyone can become an animated avatar of themselves but must use hallucinogenic drugs to enter a mutable illusory state. In the decades since she was scanned, Robin's virtual persona has become the star of a popular film franchise, Rebel Robot Robin, making her and Tom Cruise the only remaining movie stars. While discussing her new contract with Jeff, Robin learns that Miramount developed a new technology that will allow anyone to devour her or possibly transform themselves into her with the hallucinogen. Robin agrees to the deal, but has a crisis of conscience, believing that no one should be turned into a product. When asked to speak to the public at the Congress, Robin publicly voices her contrary views, upsetting everyone there before being taken by security guards. The Congress is then interrupted by rebels opposed to the technology industry. They seemingly assassinate the head of the Congress. During the attack, Robin is rescued by Dylan Truliner, who was Miramount's lead animator for her films. They escape, but she is soon captured by "Miramount Police". Robin is seemingly executed by Jeff as a punishment for rebelling against Miramount and the Congress. Robin is shown on a hospital bed while doctors discuss her case. One doctor reveals that Robin's execution was her hallucinating, that her rescuers were from Miramount. The doctors decide that Robin has become so intoxicated by the hallucinogen that she must be frozen until a treatment for her condition can be found. Twenty years later, Robin is revived while still hallucinating an animated world. She reunites with Dylan, who says that the hallucinogenic technology is now widespread. People can take on whatever form they wish through it and as a result many negative aspects of humanity no longer exist. Dylan and Robin fall in love and take a journey through a colorful imaginary world. However, Robin is still desperate to return to the real world and be with Aaron. The only way to do that is by using a capsule that blocks all hallucinogenic effects. It is, in the animated world, equivalent to a suicide capsule. Dylan negotiated for one as part of his forced retirement package from Miramount, and he gives it to Robin. Re-entering the real world, Robin finds herself in a dystopian environment. A tiny elite hovers over ruined cities in large airships. Most people have left for an existence in the animated world. Aaron did it only six months earlier when his condition left him virtually blind and deaf and he had given up hope of Robin's return. Because Aaron likely created a new identity for himself in the animated world, there is no way for anyone to find him. Dr. Barker gives Robin an inhalation ampoule that will allow her to return to the animated world, though as her experiences have changed, her hallucinations will as well, and she will never be able to re-enter the same world she had left. Taking the drug, Robin sees Aaron's entire life flash before her eyes. She eventually discovers Aaron in the middle of an animated desert.

During the Civil War, Judah P. Benjamin, CSA Secretary of State and chief advisor to Jefferson Davis, successfully convinces France and Britain to aid the CSA militarily by framing the issue as one of "states' rights", not slavery. The combined troops defeat the Union at Gettysburg, and Ulysses S. Grant surrenders to Robert E. Lee in 1865. Abraham Lincoln attempts to flee the country with the help of Harriet Tubman, who disguises him in blackface, but the two are arrested by CSA troops in Michigan. Tubman is executed, while Lincoln is convicted of war crimes, imprisoned, and eventually exiled to Canada, where he stays until his death in 1905. The CSA annexes the North, Dixie becomes the nation's national anthem, and northern cities are burned and pillaged. Lee becomes remorseful when seeing the atrocities and advocates for emancipation, but Virginia congressman and wealthy slaveowner John Ambrose Fauntroy successfully campaigns for the continuation of slavery. The Davis Plan, which is overseen by Fauntroy and quickly revives the institution of slavery in the former Union, levies an income tax on all non-slaveowning northerners. Slave status is legally extended to all individuals of mixed-race descent per the one-drop rule. William Lloyd Garrison convinces 20,000 abolitionists to flee for Canada, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, Mark Twain, Wendell Phillips, and Susan B. Anthony, who will help lead Canada toward women's suffrage in 1912. After a slave murders two white children and runs away, doctor Samuel A. Cartwright uses his theory of drapetomania to encourage torture for potential runaway slaves. Fauntroy receives the Democratic presidential nomination in 1880, but suffers a stroke and dies two years later. Nevertheless, his family will become such a powerful influence in CSA politics that many will consider them royalty. In response to a gaunt period known as the "American Holocaust", Garrison and Frederick Douglass form the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement for Chattel People), which smuggles hundreds of slaves into Canada. The CSA demands Canada return all 'property', but Douglass's rhetoric sways Parliament into refusing, though many Confederates still demand reparations to this day. Native Americans are crushed in the 30-year Plains Indian Wars and their children sent to boarding schools; meanwhile, Congress in the 1890s legalizes the enslavement of Asian immigrants and bans all religions not based in Christianity (Catholicism will fall under Christianity after 'much debate'). Davis, close to death, strongly opposes the act because of Sec. Benjamin and his pleas convince young congressman Fauntroy II to add a clause allowing a small number of Jews to stay on the 'reservation' of Long Island. Literature of the time aims to reconcile and romanticize relations between the North and South by minimizing the desire to preserve slavery and the suffering of the enslaved in favor of the 'heroism' of both sides' white soldiers and the quest for the states' freedom. Seeking a 'tropical empire', the CSA conquers the Caribbean in 1900, then Mexico. The former reinstates a slave-based plantation economy, while the latter institutes apartheid. The CSA then exposes existing divisions within South America to conquer the entire continent, marking its bloodiest event since the Civil War. ' Manifest destiny ' becomes associated with a God-given right to dominate the entire world, not just the American West. By 1929, the entire Western Hemisphere, except Canada (and potentially Alaska), is under CSA rule, with the captured territories now named Mexican America, Southern America, and the Confederate Islands. The Great Depression cripples the Confederate economy and sends the nation into isolationism until Fauntroy II, now a senator, revives the slave trade with African nations, though it is implied these nations only participate on the basis that the CSA will now otherwise leave them alone. Meanwhile, the CSA builds friendly relations with Adolf Hitler, who invites the nation to collaborate with him to implement the Final Solution, though Secretary of State Fauntroy III tries to convince Hitler to enslave the Jews instead. While Hitler declines, he nonetheless becomes a good friend of the Fauntroy family. While the CSA remains neutral regarding World War II's European Theatre, they are the ones who bomb Japan on December 7, 1941, not the other way round, as they deem its empire a threat to CSA territorial expansion. The casualty rate of the Pacific War is so high that the enslaved are recruited to fight, starting with enslaved Japanese-Americans in the west and later extending to African-Americans under the promise of freedom. The 129th Fighting Bucks are assigned to the war's most dangerous missions and fight valiantly, but once the CSA declares victory, they are returned to their owners. The CSA enjoys a peaceful postwar boom until the John Brown Underground, a splinter group of the NAACP, wages 'a war against slavery' by attacking major cities across the CSA. The CSA demands that all JBU members be extradited, which Canada refuses. The events spur a nationwide paranoia against abolitionism and the construction of the Cotton Curtain, a wall against the Canadian border. When the JBU supposedly assassinates Fauntroy IV, the CSA launches an airstrike on Canada. The Summit Nations institutes a global embargo on the CSA to prevent further aggression against Canada (only South Africa remains an ally), causing the economy to contract and nationwide support of slavery to dip to less than 30%. As a result, Republican John F. Kennedy defeats Democrat Richard M. Nixon in the 1960 presidential election, becoming the first president from the North since the CSA's founding. He promises a progressive new frontier for the CSA likely to include emancipation and women's suffrage, but is too distracted with international affairs, notably a cold war with Canada and the Vietnam War (which is deemed an 'expansion effort'), to enact many of these reforms. Meanwhile, Black Canadians prosper, and Canada becomes a hotbed of Black-inspired literature, music, and art, with talents like Elvis Presley and James Baldwin residing there rather than being censored and arrested in the CSA, whose culture has evolved little beyond 'government-inspired propaganda'. Canada also outperforms the CSA in the Olympic Games thanks to Black athletes. As close as social reform may seem, JFK's assassination shatters all progress, and violent slave rebellions flare up in L.A. and Newark. The Family Values Initiative of the 1980s and early 1990s, sponsored by Ronald Reagan 's Commerce Secretary Fauntroy V, attempts to steer the nation's moral track back toward trust in slavery, patriarchy, and heterosexuality, and modernizes the institution of slavery with innovations such as online slave shopping, which popularizes slave ownership amongst younger generations and generates $500,000,000 for the CSA annually. Fauntroy uses the momentum to launch a bid for the 2002 Democratic presidential nomination and invites BBS interviewers to boost his public image. However, the reporters are secretly given instructions to a rendezvous organized by JBU leader "Big Sam". There, the reporters are met by Horace, whose family has been enslaved by the Fauntroys for generations. He reveals on tape that Fauntroy I had an affair with Horace's great-great-grandmother, and that Fauntroy V is a descendant of the affair, making him mixed. The tape is published, and Fauntroy denies the accusations, claiming, " my great-granddaddy did not have sexual relations with that woman ", but declines to submit to a DNA test. The allegations cost Fauntroy the election, and he commits suicide on December 12, 2002. A mandatory DNA test is ordered and released days later; the results prove negative.