A literary drama offering the parallel tales of two wounded souls, director Mehdi Norowzians tale of redemption and the struggle to find ones place in life finds an ex-convicts correspondence with a young boy offering hope for the future despite the fact that the boy has yet to find his own place in the world. Believing that her husband has been unfaithful, Mary Bloom (Elisabeth Shue) embarks on an affair with a young handyman (Justin Chambers) that results in her pregnancy. Racked with guilt when her husband dies in a car accident shortly thereafter, Mary begins to hate her son, Leo (Davis Sweat), leaving the youngster hungering for affection. Assigned correspondence with a convict for a class project, the withdrawn Leo begins to form a close bond with Stephen (Joseph Fiennes), who increasingly relies on his communication with Leo as a form of cathartic repentance. When Stephen is released from jail, he gets a job at a diner where concerned co-workers Vic (Sam Shepard) and Caroline (Deborah Unger) attempt to help him establish himself on the outside. Simultaneously brutalized by local drunk Horace (Dennis Hopper), Stephen decides to leave the diner and search for the boy whose letters carried him through his darkest days. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide