One summer morning, 12-year-old Arnold Hillerman and his 17-year-old brother Eugene wake at dawn to pick peas and perhaps shoot a wild duck on their family's Montana farm. In a nearby pasture, Arnold's gun fires accidentally. His brother is killed instantly.
Isolated by emotions he can't comprehend, Arnold (Jason Presson) must now come to terms with his grieving family - including his angry father (Academy Award- winner Robert Duvall), his frightened mother (Oscar- nominee Glenn Close), his antagonistic uncle (Oscar- nominee Frederic Forrest) and his gentle, straight-talking grandfather (Wilford Brimley) - while his family must come to terms with Arnold. Linda Hamilton and Dean Cain co-star in this haunting drama that critic Richard Freedman of Newhouse Newspapers calls 'profoundly moving... a magnificently acted tribute to the human spirit!'