The last detail: Two hard -boiled career petty officers, Buddusky and Mulhall, are detailed to take a young sailor, Meadows, from a Virgina naval base to a New Hampshire naval prison to serve an eight-year sentence for a trivial offense. Buddusky and Mulhall take a liking to Meadows and are determined to show him a good time on their journey north.

Avalon: based loosely on Barry Levinson's own family and their real experiences emigrating to Baltimore in the early 20th century from Eastern Europe.

Gardens of stone: A war-toughened sergeant passionately longs to train soldiers for fighting in Vietnam, but instead is assigned to a special division away from the battle zone, and the sergeant's girlfriend is a Washington Post reporter fervently against the war.

Birdy: To escape am irrational world, Birdy, a Vietnam veteran, sits in an almost catatonic state in an army hospital, where he has come to believe he is one of the feathered creatures of his boyhood dreams. In an effort to break Birdy's silence, his psychiatrist brings in Al Columbato, Birdy's loyal best friend of his youth. Al desperately tries to reach the disturbed Birdy and bring him back to reality. The answer may lie in their youth, where the eccentric Birdy first donned wings and the happy-go-lucky Al helped him fly.