Middle-aged, successful, Francine and her physician husband accidentally get involved with an inner city family whose life is ruined by drugs. Suicide, death and disappointment overwhelm their optimism. Despite their best efforts, they achieve only modest success with two of the children--a teen-age boy who has attachment disorder and becomes an addict himself, and a younger girl who acts out to get attention. A probing look at the foster care system, the effects of crack addiction, the influence of intervention at various stages of a child's life, and the failure of the liberal ideal.