Kevin Meyer
Melanie is married to Keith Bauers, she has two beautiful children and she is rich. She decides to engage a girl au pair, Janine, who arrives from France. Everything seems to run perfectly. Janine looks shy and timid and well disposed towards the family. But casually Paula, Melanies's sister, finds out that Janine and Keith are lovers and afterwards she dies in an accident.
When a mentally imbalanced prisoner (Robby Benson) gets out on parole, he tracks down the journalist (Jennifer O'Neill) who interviewed him while he was behind bars and persuades her to hire him as an assistant. But when she denies his advances, he aims for her adolescent daughter (Lydie Denier). The girl thinks she can stave off his disturbing desires -- at least for a while. But her naïveté is no match for his perversity.
Jethro Creighton (Todd Duffey) is a young man of nine years from Southern Illinois who is growing up during the outbreak of the American Civil War. Helping his father farm is all he really knows. This makes things difficult when his kin fights for the Union Army, as well as the Rebel cause. He doesn't know who what to do. Should he fight for the Yankees, the Rebs, or just continue working on the farm? He has a cousin who is a deserter which he helps with food and a blanket; this is a crime not taken lightly. He writes Abraham Lincoln for advice on the matter. The president responds in a letter which guides him some, but more or less provides him with comfort; when a nine year old is in the midst of war, what is more important?
