Find Books and Movies By Plot

Fiction Menu is a site that lets you search for books and movies by plot details. The methodology is very unscientific, so it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be able to find a book you half remember reading as a child. Really, it lets you search other people’s descriptions of recommended books and vote their description up and down. The descriptions vary in quality. Here’s the description for Crime and Punishment:

A poor student kills an old woman, money-lender. But money is not the only stimulus. The murder is grounded on the student’s theory of morality.

Wow. Not much to go on.

Still, it’s a great idea. If the site takes off it could become incredibly useful.

Edit to add:

The original site has been discontinued and replaced with this one!

316 responses

  1. I have been trying to figure out this movie for over a year now. Whenever I tell someone, no one knows what I am talking about!
    I dont remember who is in it exactly, maybe edward norton or Giovanni Ribisi. But someone is on trial for a crime of some sort, I think it was a bad one. They are retarded and so his lawyer doesnt think he did it and tries to get him off.
    The last scene s what I remember : The lawyer goes into a jail cell I believe and is talking to his client and he won the case to his client is free to go. All this time he has been studdering and acting retarded, he walks out of the jail and turns back and says something to his lawyer in perfect english. At that moment the lawyer knows that he wasnt innocent and that he was played the whole time.
    If you know what the movie is or who plays in it, anything at all, PLEASE let me know! Thank you

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  2. I am trying to find an old movie. I think it starred Audrey Hepburn as the mother but I could be wrong. The plot: The daughter is about to get married and asks her mother the secret to her marriage. The mother says she will tell her daughter put she can not tell anybody. The mother reveals that she used a dog training book on her father and shows her the book. The daughter ends up telling about the book and her father finds out.
    Thank you for your help!

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  3. Looking for a movie that has a sister and brother travel to Miami and take their father back up north after his wife dies and he is thrown out of his home. His kids now are forced to put him in an assisted living facility. The daughter is sad even though he wasn’t a very good father.

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  4. phil
    the movie about the rally driver is called ‘FreeJack’ starring Emilio Estevez, Mick Jagger, Renee Russo and Anthony Hopkins

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  5. I am trying to find a book i read about 10 years ago. It about these two guys that go hunting for mountain lions out in the desert. One guy accidentally shoots a photographer they come across thinking he was a mountain lion. The other guy, the ‘hero’ wants to go to the police but the ‘killer’ guy won’t let him. The ‘killer’ then takes all the ‘hero’s water and clothes and sends him into the desert to die so no one will know what he did. Can anyone help me with the title?

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  6. A movie with someone who is or looks like Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal when they are teenagers. They are abandoned on an island and the girl gets pregnant. Then they care for the baby on the island, and i forgot the rest. HELP!

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  7. This is a stretch! I am looking for a book that I picked up in the New Fiction section in mid-2007. It’s about a middle-aged couple that absolutely can’t stand each other. It’s told from the husband’s point of view. He begins to loathe his wife who has spent thousands of his dollars on plastic surgery. He begins to fantasize about killing her and having a younger more beautiful lover. In the end the wife dies of natural causes. I know it sounds grim, but it is hysterically funny in a dark sort of way. I guess you could classify it under satire. All I remember is that the jacket cover was red! Old age.

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  8. I need to find the title of a book. The plot involves teenagers that when they turn sixteen, their blood turns silver and they gain special abilities. One character can astral project, the other can read and understand every language, and there are a few more. Its a series, and each book is told by the perspective of a different character. Thanks.

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  9. I’m looking for a movie I saw on tv several years ago. It stared a big name actor who played a rich serial killer who targeted and shot couples in their bedrooms after watching them. He is observed doing it by a man in an apartment who threatens to expose him if he won’t take him on a kill and to give him the thrill of killing at random. He sets the man up to take the blame for the killings after killing him himself at the scene.

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  10. I’m looking for a movie I saw on tv several years ago. It stared a big name actor who played a rich serial killer who targeted and shot couples in their bedrooms after watching them. He is observed doing it by a man in an apartment who threatens to expose him if he won’t take him on a kill and to give him the thrill of killing at random. He sets the man up to take the blame for the killings after killing him himself at the scene.

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  11. Trying to remember a book that my teacher read to the class around 1982. The plot involved a person altering a government controlled weather machine to make it rain. Her punishment was to be frozen for years and then unfrozen at a later date. The person accidentally woke up before the sentence was over. This was a futuristic book.

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  12. I have been looking for a movie that was black and white. A man falls in love with a woman that was an artist. They have a spat or he is going away and wants her to come with him and she doesn’t. Then at the last minute she changes her mind and tries to call the airport to let him know. Meanwhile he is trying to call her at home to tell her he wants her to come with him. She starts out to go to the airport and runs out of gas. He ends up marrying a socialite and has two kids. She never marries and goes to New York and becomes a big time fashion designer. They run into each other and begin to have a love affair because his wife is a drunk. She has red hair and his son who is about 12 figures it out because he overhears someone talking about it. They want to be together but he feels obligated to stay with the wife because of the kids. At the end the wife is drunk and gets behind the wheet and he is a passenger and tells her he wants to be with his true love. His wife drives like a maniac and they get into an accident. The wife is killed instantly but he lives long enough to tell his children to go live with his love. They do and at the end, she has her arm around them and is crying and thinking back about what if she wouldn’t have run out of gas and would have made the plane and they would have kissed, boarded the plane and lived happily ever after. It was quite the tear jerker. Any clue as to the title of this movie? Thanks

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  13. Can anyone remember the title of a film that was probably 1950’s or before, (possibly with Cary Grant), and began with an opening sequence of an American locomotive hurtling along with apropriate whistle sounds, and which when the camera pulled back was revealed to be a model train set.

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  14. This one was one of those “Heaven can Wait” type plots. All I can remember was that a character called “Smiley” was walking down an American sidewalk and descended on one of those lifts that used to take goods to the cellars and ended up talking to the Devil. I presume he had to keep coming back to Earth to redeem himself.

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  15. I watched a very old movie on TV back in the 70’s (presume it was made just after ‘talkies’ came out). All I can recall of the plot is that the characters were ‘spirits about to be born’. The setting was a room filled with columns and couches, very old Greek like, and when their time came to be born, they would go through a doorway, board a ship and go away. Strange, but haunting. Any clues would be appreciated!

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  16. trying to remember a sci fi book i read years ago, earth climate was changing and the main character was one man who was picked as the one person that the world would listen to to do what needed to be done to save the planet. I remember that they had wall to wall plants inside their homes to purify the air there. not much to go on but thought someone might have an inkling, thanks

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  17. Hi ,I am looking to find the detials of an old 1960s ? movie .It is set in africa proberbly at the turn of the last century ,a group on safari/expedition upset the local natives and are captured I gets bludgeoned to death 1 gets roasted alive ,the 3rd is stripped and let loose to start a chase ,he is given a start the distance of an arrow fired from a bow …the story is all about the chase …..any help would be appreciated ,Alex

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  18. The book I’m looking for is recently published. It is the story of a family whose mother has died told from the point of view of the younger son. The father is the janitor at the school where the boy and his sister attend. There is an older brother. Two young hoodlums threaten the sister and tease her as though they were going to rape her. The older brother tricks them into entering the family’s home then kills them. He is arrested and then escapes and runs away on a horse. The family go in search of him, get caught in a blizzard at a woman’s house. They are being chased by the authority also looking for the older son. In the end, the father falls in love with the woman, a bad guy kills the son but miraculously the father dies in the younger boy’s place. Any ideas?

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  19. I am looking for the title of a book I read a few years back and lent only to forget the name of the book and who borrowed it. Its about a submarine crew who find a cave on the sea floor and when exploring it end up in a new world at the centre of the earth. when some of the crew want to leave the utopia they are sent back 100 years before they left so as not to give away their discovery

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  20. I’m looking for a book written about a couple- he’s rich and she’s poor-that are either married or are getting married against his mothers wishes. On the way back from a county fair(where they buried some carnival beads under a rock) they are in an accident. Her face is distroyed. His mother makes a deal with her that she’ll pay for her reconstructive surgery only if she agrees never to contact the guy again. She agrees. The mother tells the son that the girl is dead, so he won’t look for her. Years later, their paths cross, but she realizes that he doesn’t know her. Her therapist has fallen in love with her, and it is through a painting she’s painted that he discovers she’s alive. They meet again at the rock where the beads are buried. I think his name is Michael. I read it in the 70’s-80’s. Any help is so appriciated!

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  21. Im looking for the name of a movie i thought jake gyllenhaal was in it but not sure now. Its about a father whose son is killed by i drunk driver. The father ends up getting a lawyer and come to find out its the lawyer that killed the boy.

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  22. I’m trying to find a movie I saw some years ago. It is about 2 Irish barbers who take jobs selling wigs door to door. They can win a contest by selling the most number of wigs, which they do when they secure the Irish Republican Army as clients.

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  23. i’m looking for a western/romance book. plot= ‘basically this girl’s family dies so she marries this rich man out west without knowing him. he abuses her and makes her pregnant. he is killed by a ranch hand that she liked, and she is blamed for it and about to be hanged when some outlaws come and save her. she gets away from them and lost in woods. some indians find her and take her in. she lives there with her child. she fell in love with a native and he was a good husband. she has another kid. later, he gets killed in a battle. the indians are forced on a reservation. a sheriff notices her and takes her off the reservation. she marries him and moves out west. the end.’ if you know the name of this then please help me. thanks!

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  24. Need name and author of book form 50′ or 60’s
    about Philadelphia. Starts with girl from Ireland coming to America and becoming a maid. She ends up pregnant by the son in the house she works at. It goes through her life and the life of her daughter and end with her grandson. He becomes a lawyer and they want him to run for mayor. part of the book was made into a movie, I think something like The Philadelphians or Young Philadelphia. help I need to find this book.

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  25. i want to find out the name of a movie, it goes as one boy and one girl fell in love, the girl’s family moved away. She married another man. The boy tried to send her letters everyday. But her mom kept all his correspondence. She finally broke up with her husband. She got to know her ex-boy friend on the newspaper. They met and made love. The woman end up losing her momory. He told their story to her everyday. The died on the same bed

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  26. a baby girl is abandoned by a junkie mom at her aunts door step. The girl turns 5 or 6 and shows signs of the stigmata. Around the ame time her mom reappears and wants to take her back her new boyfriend/fiance but he just wants to kill the little girl because he is evil. He almost succeeds in a cemetary filled with a group of evil elders.

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  27. I’m looking for a beloved childhood book that I read in either the late 80’s or early 90’s. The cover had a picture of a witches house with a white fence made from bones. The story was about 3 boys (brothers) who were captured by the witch, the two older brothers plan to escape and leave the little brother behind but he is the clever one who sets traps along the way to stop the witch catching them again. In the end she slips on a bar of soap and falls over a cliff. If anyone can tell me what this book might be called or who it is by, I would be eternally grateful!!!

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  28. I am trying to find a movie I saw on OnDemand one late night a while ago and I can’t remember much. Something with a father and son. The father is in a mental institute or something. At some point he wrote a book and the son starts reading it after he visits his father one day. What I got from it was that the son figures out that his father went “crazy” b/c he got trapped in his own book. I think the title of the movie is the same as the title of the book in the movie. Please HELP!!! I have been searching the internet for hours.

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  29. im looking for an old movie , storyline is young english guy in America around 1930s falls in love with beautiful young woman but mother disaproves as his parents aer dead. he has to leave US to retuen to london as his granfather has died. he returns 1 year later as duke of westminiter the richest man in the world. grandfather duke before him. the girls mother is keen for them to be reunited but daughter is annoyed he didnt say anything

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  30. I curious to know the title of the film or the casts of this film. it’s an 80’s film, about a little girl who lives in a prostitute house w/ her mother. Along the film, she tells her life to an adult man who interested on her story. She told him how her mother thought her to be a whore someday and she doesn’t realized it.

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  31. I am looking for a movie I saw in the 80s. it takes place in the 40s or 50s a boy and girl meet and are attracted to each other then find out they are long lost siblings. Some “bad guy” is after them. Sort of a thriller. I think the title is something about the moon.

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  32. Chellie Letson
    the movie sounds like it might be Bless The Child. Kim Basinger is the auntie and the cop/FBI agent that helps her used to be on NYPD Blue or Law & Order.

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  33. From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler by E. L. Koningsburg (story about 2 runaway kids at a museum trying to find clues about a statue maybe created by Michealanglo”

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  34. Looking for the name of a movie about 1800 officer with sick wife. He wants a child and in a business arrangement, ayYoung woman agrees to bear his child, giving up all rights to the child. She later annomiously returns as the child’s nanny. Any help is appreciated to find the name of this movie. Thanks!

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  35. I am looking for an old movie maby from the 80s. Its a story about a group of surburbian housewives and moms taken place in like the 50s-60s and 70s. How these woman change and the pain in their lives. One I remember is how this wife lived to be the perfect wife and mom and he husband leaves her and she tries to take her life. I think the message was mainly about life in surburbia and how everyone had this mask of who they were expected to be. I think it was a tv movie. I would appreciate any help in finding this movie.

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  36. I am seeking a book. The plot consists of a man that finds an old book in the library titled “(his name) life.” He begins to read the book until he reads, “man’s name finds the book.” He reads on an finds out how when and where he will die. He spends the balance of the book attempting to change history and his fate. Thanks for you help.

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  37. I’m looking for a movie about a guy who was picked on in high school but then years later he invites them back to what I think was the school. They thought they were going to a reunion or something but then he starts killing them off one by one. Like I think he kills the jock or prom king in the Biologly Classroom. So if anyone can help that would be great!

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  38. i forgot the name and the character of the movie, movie is about the big plane which hit the eaffal tower and fell in the ocean, and drown in the sea without any crash, and then people made their way out of the plane. kindly tell me the name of that movie

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  39. the movie is a black and white movie it’s about a ww2 bomber, and they’ve lost the wheels of the plane and had to land on the bottom gun turret, but inside there was a man stucked, he was a very good painter and he drew a scetch of the plane with new wheels and then the wheels showed up on the plane…

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  40. I am looking for a book written by Indian female author(I think she’s british-Indian) about fictional tale of young indian girl who lives in a rough area in London, reluctantly working at a sandwish bar meets a young, handsome and rich hotel owner. He dumps his beautiful GF and choose her in the end. It was bit like a modern fairy-tale but I found it really hilarious!! I can’t recall neither how the book called or the auther’s name…someone help me??

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  41. trying to find an old film its like shes all that but much older a girl young girl blonde walks down the stairs after her mum or stepmum gives her a makover she gets rid of her braces and horrible clothes then walks down the stairs and gets dates after that

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  42. I am looking for the title of an old movie (maybe 1940s)I once saw a part of some time ago. There were two men visiting thier mother. One son was married and the other was engaged. The mother was controlling even to the extent of forcing the married couple to sleep in separate rooms. At the end the married son left with his wife and the future daughter in law left with them, leaving the other son behind with his mother. I am familiar with many old films, but for the life of me I can’t seem to locate this one. I appreciate your help!

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