Dr. Wilfred Manz performs a magical experiment on a beetle-shaped amulet. His patience exhausted, he smashes his fist into some bottles and a few drops of blood fall onto the scarab. His laboratory is rocked by an explosion, the god Khepera appears and Manz is transformed into a demi-god magician. Thirty years later, Manz has assumed the name Khepera and lives in mysterious castle. Using his magical powers, he is killing heads of government and causing the collapse of major financial institutions. Jack Murphy, an American correspondent, witnesses the pandemonium following the suicide of the Spanish prime minister and notices an attractive nurse, Elena, take a small scarab which has fallen from the prime minister's lapel. Later, he visits an occult shop where the scarab is identified as being associated with the Egyptian god, Khepera. Murphy is captured and Elena — who was tricked into sacrificing her brother when they were children — once more takes up the sacrificial dagger...

It's the late sixties, a time of peace signs, free love and revolution; and Kent like others of his generation, is looking for a meaning to his life. Driving alone along the Big Sur, he flashes back to difficult memories about college, drugs, family and relationships. The flashback over, Kent is back in his car, but he loses control and crashes over an embankment. Stunned and hurt, Kent starts hitchhiking, not caring which direction. He wanders aimlessly, taking rides from strangers, never making real contact. Then he meets Julie who intrigues him and they move in together. Kent still has to find himself and the meaning of his existence.

A man feels obligated to hijack the plane his boss is on after he has gambled himself into overwhelming debt.

A herpetologist investigating a series of fatal rattlesnake attacks discovers that the creatures have been infected by a mysterious nerve gas disposed of in the desert by the military.