A bored motorcycle messenger Dave Munday begins training for a major stunt riding competition, where he'll attempt a death-defying jump known as the Devil's Leap.

In the class-obsessed and religiously divided UK of the early 1920s, two determined young runners train for the 1924 Paris Olympics. Eric Liddell, a devout Christian born to Scottish missionaries in China, sees running as part of his worship of God's glory and refuses to train or compete on the Sabbath. Harold Abrahams overcomes anti-Semitism and class bias, but neglects his beloved sweetheart in his single-minded quest.

A commuter's race to catch a rush-hour train, narrated in the style of a horse race.

A lonely man with punctilious habits listens to a tape cassette of ambient barroom sounds, which include the hushed tones of two men plotting to kill him; but when a policeman listens, all the sounds are there except those of the two men. Later, Skipling receives an unwanted visit from a doctor and a welcome visit from his "befriender