Walter Lee Younger is a young man struggling with his station in life. Sharing a tiny apartment with his wife, son, sister and mother, he seems like an imprisoned man. Until, that is, the family gets an unexpected financial windfall.

To combat the problem of drug-dealing juvenile delinquents operating in racial gangs, two recent police academy graduates are sent to a local high school, posing as students. [Initially released in theaters in 1960 as "This Rebel Breed", it was re-released as "The Black Rebels" five years later, re-edited with the addition of a handful of dialogue-free scenes of youths making out in a bedroom, with partial female nudity.]

An artist living in a quiet Connecticut town is the main suspect in the disappearance of his shrew wife. Things turn ugly when the townsfolk attempt to take the law into their own hands.

Tatsuhiko and Shofumi are hoodlums living in downtown Hawaii, having flown out of Japan and entered the country illegally for a reason. The two make a living by trafficking pakalolo – marijuana – under the pretext of selling tea leaves, but they are in a foreign land where they don't speak the language well. When they get busted by the chief of police, they're forced to make a deal and and help get a local crime boss masquerading as a benevolent celebrity arrested.

The once-prominent Compson family of Jefferson, Miss., has been reduced to near-penury by generations of alcoholism and sin. Levelheaded Jason struggles to keep the family together, but his teenage stepsister, Quentin, chafes against his strictures. When Quentin's estranged mother reappears in town, and carnival worker Charles attempts to seduce the virginal teen, the family may finally be headed for complete collapse.

Inheriting a family resort in Hawaii, the Wyatts find it in such a run-down condition that they decide to sell it after trying to fix it up. Amidst confusing goings-on among the triplet teenage girls and the boys they meet, Jeffrey meets an old high school rival who promises to keep the resort as-is if Jeffrey will sell it to him. He has other plans in mind, however, and they are not limited merely to Jeffrey's resort

The story, set in Kansas during the 1920's, covers less than a year in the life of a black teenager, and documents the veritable deluge of events which force him into sudden manhood. The family relationships and enmities, the fears, frustrations and ambitions of the black teenager in small-town America are explored with a strong statement about human values.