Mark is a desperate unemployed writer who lives in a world where everyone unfailingly tells the truth. People don't even know what fiction is. Every thought, no matter how humiliating or harsh, tumbles out unvarnished. Then one day, Mark becomes so desperate he concocts a lie. In a world where everyone is unfailingly honest, a lie is believed with total and absolute gullibility. Mark can get anything he wants. The one thing he truly wants is the love...

Norma and Arthur Lewis are a suburban couple with a young child. After Arthur losses his job, they receive a simple wooden box as a gift, which bears fatal and irrevocable consequences. Arlington Steward is a mysterious stranger who delivers the message that the box promises to bestow upon its owner $1 million with the press of a button. But, by pressing this button it will simultaneously cause the death of another person somewhere in the world, someone...