Rudolf is imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. He attempted to escape many times but was unsuccessfull, he realizes that he is in for the long haul and decides that his wife Sandra should remarry for the sake of their children Melody and Mark who have been made to believe anyway that he is already dead. Many years has been passed he was informed that the real culprit has been caught and he is being released. However, instead of being happy, he is saddened by the fact that he cannot go back to his family anymore. Nevertheless he pretends to be a piano tuner so that he can visit his children.

The story of Jody, a misguided, 20-year-old African-American who is really just a baby boy finally forced-kicking and screaming to face the commitments of real life. Streetwise and jobless, he has not only fathered two children by two different women-Yvette and Peanut but still lives with his own mother. He can't seem to strike a balance or find direction in his chaotic life.

Ex Con Armstrong Cane (Ving Rhames) returns to home a changed man looking to take over his father's old church and congregation. The neighborhood though is full of drugs and gangs. Those who are able are leaving for more prosperous areas and falling in with a slick preacher (Ricardo Chivara). Even with a dangerous gang leader (Dean McDermott) threatening his flock, Armstrong won't give up.

Dolemite is a pimp who was set up by Willie Greene and the cops, who have planted drugs, stolen furs, and guns in his trunk and got him sentenced to 20 years in jail. One day, Queen B and a warden planned to get him out of Jail and get Willie Green and Mitchell busted for what they did to him.

In the rail yards of Queens, contractors repair and rebuild the city's subway cars. These contracts are lucrative, so graft and corruption are rife. When Leo Handler gets out of prison, he finds his aunt married to Frank Olchin, one of the big contractors; he's battling with a minority-owned firm for contracts.

A writer of pulpy book series in which he's the hero and his beautiful English roommate is the love interest attempts to finish his new book in time at the publisher's demand.

Reformed parolee Steve Lacey is caught in the middle when a wounded former cellmate seeks him out for shelter. The other two former cellmates then attempt to force him into doing a bank job.

Set in Melbourne in the mid-1970s is the story of Sparra Farrell, a very private man in his twenties who is trying to make a life for himself in a new city. He has found honest work and becomes engaged to the beautiful Paula. But the prospect of his new life is challenged when the charismatic Pommie tracks him down. Sparra finds himself drawn back into a world that he thought he had left behind.

A man who spent his formative years in prison for murder is released, and struggles to adjust to the outside world and escape his lurid past. He gets involved with a cheap dancehall girl, and when her protector is accidentally killed, they go on the lam together, getting jobs as farm labourers. But some fellow workers get wise to them.

After serving a 12-year sentence for killing the man that slept with his wife, a man ponders whether he should try and reconcile with his family, or take revenge on those who turned him in.

Thief Duke Anderson—just released from ten years in jail—takes up with his old girlfriend in her posh apartment block, and makes plans to rob the entire building. What he doesn't know is that his every move is being recorded on audio and video, although he is not the subject of any surveillance.

After his release from prison, notorious ex-con and moonshine distiller Gator McKlusky moves in with his father in a cabin in the Okefenokee Swamp. His bootlegging plans are cut short, however, when a federal agent tells McKlusky that he will lose custody of his 9-year-old daughter unless he helps bring down local crime lord Bama McCall. McKlusky enlists the help of reporter Aggie Maybank and a few local eccentrics to bring down McCall's empire.