Set early during World War II, the film has a lot to say about love, honor, relationships, commitment and power. Keeping their promise to their dying black housekeeper, a white family takes in her teenage mentally-slow son. The movie details the joys and conflicts the family faces as a result of their decision.

Lee Reston is a widow whose police officer son Greg dies in a car accident. Greg's friend and fellow officer Chris Lallek tries to help the Reston family in Greg's absence. Soon, he and Lee grow close and fall in love. But Lee is fifteen years older than Chris, something that upsets most of her family, including her college-aged daughter. When Chris proposes marriage, Lee must decide whether to risk alienating her family in order to be with the man she loves.

After a brutal nighttime attack on a woman alone in her suburban home, police investigators zero in on teenager Eric Sutter. When the victim identifies Sutter as her attacker, the legal system closes in on the boy as friends, neighbors and the media turn against him. Only through the dogged determination of his mother, and her loyal boyfriend does Eric and the victim have a chance for justice to be served.

An iron-willed Georgia boy accepts the burden of a man on his young shoulders. Fifteen-year-old Terry O'Kelly is fatherless and his remaining parent, his mother, is dying. Anguished, the soon-to-be orphan makes a surprising grown-up decision: Terry promises to care for his six brothers and vows to keep the family together. Steadfast to his word, Terry takes on the struggles of parenthood, which yields some difficult and unpleasant surprises.