John is a mild-mannered banker who has never been lucky in love. Fed up with waiting for the right girl to come along, John takes a chance on a Russian mail-order bride arranged via the Internet, where he is introduced to Nadia. John's fondness for Nadia grows... until the sudden arrival of Nadia's gregarious cousins makes John realize that he's in over his head.

Harry Sands is a self made man, happily married with two children. When he learns that his daughter has gone missing in Istanbul, he flies out to find her. To Harry's horror, he discovers from Olivia's best friend, that the two of them have been working as nightclub dancers and not as the charity workers like Harry was led to believe. So begins the hunt for his missing daughter and a journey that turns into a nightmare as Harry is forced to face his own prejudices and mounting paranoia....

In 79 AD, one of the infamous natural disasters in human history occurred when Mount Vesuvius erupted. With speculative dramatizations of various inhabitants' final hours along with detailed documentation of the known facts concerning the eruption, the horrific day is vividly brought to life.

A squadron leader and a retired milkman decide to bury their differences and move in together after they are both widowed on the very same night. They become a companionable if odd couple, until their unlikely friendship is threatened by the arrival of an alluring woman with a hidden agenda.