A "Classics Illustrated" account of pioneer female journalist Nellie Bly, who became a legend through her exposes of corruption and inhumane conditions in New York of the 1880s in "The New York World."

Author Bret Harte relates the story of the discovery of gold in California at Sutter's Mill, and how that discovery changed the history of the west forever.

A grim incident from American pioneer history is recreated as a determined group of settlers, facing almost insurmountable odds, struggles to reach California in 1846. Already divided by internal dissension over the choice of a leader and the selection of a route, the wagon train is soon decimated by Indian raids, a scarcity of food and water, and the unrelenting forces of nature. Finally after months of hardship, the party reaches the High Sierras, only to be stranded in the middle of the pass by an early snowstorm. And as fear of an agonizing death from starvation forces the abandonment of conventional rules of human behavior, the pioneers face a new enemy - each other.

In the 1950s, a young American man goes to Denmark and makes headlines for having the first sex-change operation.

A scientist builds a machine that will enable him to travel back and forth in time, but when he puts it in motion, he gets more than he bargained for.

A prostitute and a skier who have been "brought back" from the brink of death relate their experiences to a skeptical doctor, who begins to believe them.

An old man observes a boy bullying his playmates and treats him to a morality lesson. The man tells the story of the epic cross-country race between a young Mark Twain and his rival, Mike Fink. The bulk of the film depicts the race, which proves to be more a test of character than of stamina