杰克（杰克?尼科尔森 Jack Nicholson 饰）是一个作家。一个冬天，他得到了一个看管山顶酒店的差事。这正合杰克的意思，他正好可以有一个幽静的地方写作。于是杰克带着妻儿搬进了酒店。冬天大雪封路，山顶酒店只有杰克一家三口。从他们一搬进来，杰克的妻子温蒂（谢莉·杜瓦尔 Shelley Duvall 饰）就发现这里气氛诡异，杰克的儿子丹尼（丹尼·劳埃德 Danny Lloyd 饰）经常看到一些他不认识的人，但这里除了他们一家别无他人。而杰克除了一整天闷头写作外，脾气亦变得越来越古怪。直到有一天，温蒂发现丈夫这些天来一直写就只有一句话：杰克发疯了！

Passages from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake 1965 16mm film 90minsThis was the first attempt to cinematize the works of Irish author James Joyce. Based more on a stage adaptation by Mary Manning than the Joyce novel itself, the film concentrates on Dublin pubkeeper Finnegan (Martin J. Kelly), who while in the throes of inebriation has a vision of his own death. As the bemused Finnegan lies in his coffin, his friends gather for his wake. The "corpse" tries to cut through the keening and platitudes by probing the innermost thoughts of those closest to him. The surprising aspect of this film is that so much of its difficult text works on screen--a tribute to the loving care of scripter/director/ editor Mary Ellen Bute, who, while preparing this film spent her waking hours picking the brains and burrowing through the resource materials of the James Joyce Society.Although director Mary Ellen Bute’s highly regarded Finnegans Wake (aka Passages from Finnegans Wake) is a unique film that is likely to baffle anyone unfamiliar with James Joyce, it cannot be dismissed merely as a literary exercise. The director was right in claiming that her film was “not a translation of the book but a reaction to it”. It is actually based on a stage play by Mary Manning, who was also responsible for the screenplay. Joyce’s elliptical rhetoric and intricate punning, which might be considered a formidable barrier to the filming of this most opaque of his works, proved to be an attraction to Bute, whose enthusiasm for the ‘visual’ and ‘kinetic’ quality of his language led her to the surprising but well-judged move of running subtitles from the original text to support the dialogue.Visual music pioneer Mary Ellen Bute's final film was also her first feature film. James Joyce's classic story of Irish tavern-keeper who dreams of attending his own wake is brought to the screen with a sparkling energy which highlights its maker's career-long exploration of kinetic abstract animation. Perhaps best described as a 'film poem,' Passages from Finnegans Wake was the first attempt to 'cinematize' the works of James Joyce, featuring the author's highly original language spoken by characters and presented as text on screen.

该作品以动画的方式拍摄哥哥的家庭记忆，并由这些记忆延伸至两则发生在周遭的社会案件：有一位青少年被谋杀了，事发地点在哥哥年少时常去的网络咖啡厅，而这件事在新闻上被制作成了示意图。另一个事件也同样发生在老家附近，有人目击了一只狗游荡在街头，嘴里叼了一颗女人头颅，面孔因腐烂而无法辨识身份。一名警员依据头骨的外形，想象并绘制出女人生前的脸孔。这两个事件分别在公众媒体上被制成了肖像画—新闻业者以3D软体制作的漫画示意图，与警察以铅笔素描描绘的被害女人头像的警员，以及新闻动画的分镜师，透过他们绘图技术的思考，尝试在创作中构筑哥哥的记忆图像。

书生杨子畏被书院辞退, 回乡途中, 见一民女被恶霸马武强娶为妾, 民女投湖, 子畏奋身营救, 惜民女已返魂无术. 子畏终日只顾吟诗作对, 又屡遭豪门拒亲, 子畏父狠狠教训他一顿, 子畏愤然出走, 栖身于离家不远的破书斋. 女鬼连锁于书斋出现, 子畏始知彼即为当日投湖的民女, 二人重逢, 虽人鬼殊途, 却一见钟情. 事为子畏父母发现, 他们便请道士替儿子驱鬼, 道士不慎将书斋烧毁, 连琐失踪. 子畏决定到苏州教书, 临行前梦见连琐, 她告诉他恶霸马武已死, 但仍要强娶她为妻, 此时马武已找上门来, 与子畏和连琐扭作一团, 最后马被箭射中, 再死一次. 子畏到达苏州后, 见一女子与连琐极为相像, 查问下原来当日连琐托梦报仇成功后已投胎还阳. 子畏遂与连琐从此相爱到白头。