Trama

Based on a true story, an adoring wife and mother is taken hostage during a robbery and brutally murdered.

In April of 1974, Dr. Ross Colburn and his wife Irene are due to return home from a trip to Hong Kong. Their youngest son, Terry, prepares for their arrival by tidying up the house. Terry is sixteen and takes flying lessons. Soon he will make his solo flight. Terry has two brothers and a sister. His oldest brother, Matt, is recently divorced and working as a realtor. Brother Jeff and his wife have recently adopted a baby girl. Sister Gretchen is a college senior and secretly engaged to Luke, a young medical student. The Colburns are a close-knit family and Irene is known for being a super-mom.

Everyone gathers to welcome home the doctor and his wife. Gretchen badly wants to tell her parents about her engagement but she and Luke agreed to wait until he finds a ring. When Ross and Irene arrive they have several rolls of camera film, which Matt says he will drop off to have developed. Irene bought a crystal vase for her roses, asking Terry if he remembered to water them.

Jeff calls Irene into the kitchen. He reminds her that she asked him to tell her if Luke ever wanted to buy a diamond ring. At one time Jeff had a jewelry business and he has several pieces left. Irene is delighted and tells Jeff to pick out a nice stone. If it is more than Luke can afford, she will make up the difference. Jeff reminds her that the engagement is a secret and Irene steels herself to act normally around Gretchen.

Once everyone has gone, Irene and Ross go to their bedroom. He is on call that week and must stay near a phone. When it rings, Ross hollers for Terry to answer it. But his son is intent on a project he is working on and doesn't hear. Later, Ross visits Terry in his bedroom and asks if he is doing homework. He seems displeased when Terry tells him no.

The next day Terry makes his solo flight. Matt drops by, lonely and not wanting to go home to an empty house. He is dissatisfied with his real estate career. Ross is not very sympathetic and tells him to stop feeling sorry for himself. If real estate isn't working for Matt, he should try something else. Irene asks Matt to stay for dinner. The photo shop calls to say that the pictures are ready. Matt doesn't want to take the time so he calls the flight school, hoping that Terry will still be there. He is but he doesn't want to pick them up either, as there is nowhere to park and he must go to the library. Matt tells him to use the Hi-Fi shop's parking lot. The shop is owned by Ross's nephew. Reluctantly, Terry agrees but warns if the Hi-Fi lot is full, he isn't stopping.

Some time later, dinner is ready but Terry isn't home yet. Irene is worried but Ross tells her he is just running late. Irene insists that if Terry was going to be this late, he would call. Her fretting only increases and Ross is irritated. He reminds Irene that Terry is sixteen and can take care of himself. She asks Ross to look for him but he reminds her that he is on call. At last, angry and upset, Irene sets off to search for Terry. She goes to the library and talks to his friends but they haven't seen him. Then she goes to the Hi-Fi shop. Terry's car is parked outside the back entrance.

Meanwhile, Ross and Matt play billiards. They aren't particularly concerned over Terry's and now Irene's failure to return home. Ross feels that Irene babies the children too much.

A flashback shows Terry arriving at the Hi-Fi shop. He chats briefly with the two young employees, who are filling in for his cousin who is out of town. They remind him that the shop is closing in a few minutes, so he hurries next door to pick up the pictures. When he returns, the shop is dark but the front door is unlocked. Puzzled, he goes inside and heads to the basement, calling his friends' names. Suddenly a gun is directed at his head. A man tells him to shut up and lie down or he is dead. Another man is taking stereos to a van parked outside. Obviously Terry has interrupted a burglary.

Sometime later, Irene arrives at the shop, parking her station wagon next to Terry's car. Tentatively she goes inside and calls Terry's name. She is overpowered and forced to the floor. Terry tells her he is all right. The father of one of the employees,a Mr. Zenner, also arrives; concerned because his son is late getting home. He is bound and gagged like the others. The men finish filling the van with stolen merchandise and retrieve a bottle containing an unknown substance. Donning rubber gloves, they tell the victims that they are being given a German drug to make them sleep. But it is evident that the liquid is corrosive, as everyone who drinks it begins coughing and gagging. Seeing that the victims are not dying right away, the men decide to shoot them. Terry and Irene are shot in the head. Mr. Zenner lets the liquid trickle out of his mouth after he sees what it does to the others. Before they can shoot him, the men panic and flee the scene.

Back at the Colburn home, Matt has left and Ross is starting to get worried. Terry and Irene should have been home hours ago. He plays a few bars of "Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey" on the piano but is interrupted by the telephone. The caller asks Ross if his nephew owns the Hi-Fi shop. Ross says yes and is told to turn on his TV, as there has been a mass shooting there. Ross hurries to the scene, which is filled with cops and ambulances. After spotting his wife's and son's cars, he demands to be let inside. The detective in charge assures him that his family is not there. Ross is briefly taken to the basement and asked to identify the two young employees, who were shot and killed. He doesn't know them and hurries to the hospital.

Terry and Irene were brought to the emergency room, both suffering from gunshot wounds to the brain and damage from the corrosive substance. No one can figure out what it is and Terry's airway is swelling. The doctors treat him as best they can, positive that he will die within the hour. Irene dies and is taken to the morgue. One of the interns recognizes Terry as Dr. Colburn's son.

The family quickly gathers at the hospital. Ross goes to the morgue to see Irene and is overcome with grief. But he pulls himself together and reminds his children that Terry is the only thing that matters now. He is not expected to live and one of the doctors thinks it would be merciful to let him die. But he hangs on and after a few hours has brain surgery. It is successful in that the bullet is removed, but it did irreparable damage.

In the days and weeks that follow, the Colburns say goodbye to Irene. The burglars are caught and charged with first degree murder. One of them was suspected of killing a man the previous year but there wasn't enough evidence to arrest him. Terry's esophagus was scarred by the liquid he was forced to drink, which was identified as Drano. He is still in a coma and might never come out of it. Jeff is very angry and Ross reprimands him, reminding him that self-pity won't bring his mother back. Matt feels guilty for asking Terry to get the pictures, feeling that he should have gone himself. Gretchen returns to college but has a hard time concentrating on her studies.

After several surgeries, Terry gradually awakens from his coma. But he does not remember what happened at the Hi-Fi shop and asks repeatedly for his mother. A psychiatrist warns Ross that if Terry is forced to remember before he is ready, he might mentally shut down. So Ross and the family tell Terry that his mother can't be with him right now. For a while, he accepts this explanation.

Gretchen graduates from college and returns home to take care of her father. She says nothing about her wedding and Ross finally confronts her. She is sad because her mother never knew she was engaged. Ross reveals that Irene did know because she helped buy the diamond in Gretchen's ring. Jeff told him about it afterward. He offers to help plan the wedding with her and she agrees.

Terry can speak now but is still on a liquid diet. His face is scarred from the Drano. He has been in the hospital for several months and is accustomed to the attention he receives from the nurses. Sometimes he lashes out in anger at his father. The family is getting a little concerned because the trial is coming up and they are afraid Terry will overhear something on the TV news about it. Gretchen tells him about her upcoming wedding and asks him to be an usher, although he cannot walk very far due to the brain injury. One of his hands is permanently paralyzed. His friends from school visit him but don't know how to handle how different he is now.

Ross tells Matt that he understands now how hard it is to come home to an empty house. They have dinner together and come to a new appreciation and understanding of each other.

On Labor Day, Ross takes Terry, Gretchen, and Matt up to the family cabin. Terry is still in a wheelchair and cannot easily hold a rod, but he manages to catch a fish. On the way home, he asks about his mother. Ross tells him once more that she can't be with them but this time Terry doesn't accept that. Ross pulls the car over and quietly tells Terry the truth. He collapses in tears and is comforted by his father. They drive to the cemetery and for the first time Terry sees his mother's grave.

Gretchen and Luke are married the following month. Terry was not able to attend the ceremony but Matt and Jeff bring him to the reception. Before the family picture is taken, as a surprise for Gretchen he gets to his feet unassisted. One of the doctors present remarks that this is a day he never thought he'd see. The movie ends with a paragraph explaining that Terry went on to graduate from high school with his class. He is now married and living in Seattle.