Marg Duffield (Lee Remick) is the Maine wife of Al (Joseph Sommer) whose daughter Peg (Marlee Matlin) is deaf. Peg__APOS__s husband is killed in a car accident on the way to visit the Maine house, and the Duffield__APOS__s take in Peg__APOS__s six year old daughter, Lisa, while Peg recovers. Since Lisa is a speaking child, Marg thinks of her the way she wanted Peg to be, and seeks guardian custody.
Remick__APOS__s role is secondary to Matlin__APOS__s, though she is presented as a tragic figure, particularly as Al refuses to help her plan to gain Lisa. Peg__APOS__s deafness is said to be from a childhood case of spinal meningitis, and the teleplay by Louisa Burns-Bisogno, with story by Louisa and Tom Bisogno, reduces Remick to a textbook mother who is self-hating from guilt and therefore cannot love her own daughter. In a memorable scene, Peg angrily signs her exit to Marg, since Marg has refused to learn sign language, though Peg has learned to speak for her mother.
The treatment uses the Tennesee Williams play, The Glass Menagerie, for therapy, to help Peg overcome her grief and also Marg `lose her unicorn horn__APOS__ and embrace her daughter. Whilst Peg choosing to act in this play may seem an odd choice for someone grieving, what is more noticable is that Matlin is far too more glamourous to be believable as Laura. The Bisogno__APOS__s include Michael O__APOS__Keefe as Dan, Peg__APOS__s deceased husband__APOS__s best friend and director of Actors Theatre for the Deaf, to offer Peg a new romantic interest, and thankfully she rebukes his protestations of love. Although his opinion may be influenced by his `crush__APOS__, Dan tells Peg that being different is better than being normal, since the normal ones are as `common as weeds__APOS__. This philosophy reads as rather Nietzschean, on the level of artists not being restricted to the common moral code.
Director Karen Arthur either has those signing also speaking or those signing being translated for the audience, though in one scene the sound of lapping waves drowns out the dialogue between Dan and Peg. She also gives Matlin some good moments, one being her scream of horror when she hears the news of the death of her husband, and another when she chases Remick down a flight of steps, hitting her.
