Director Bruce Beresford makes a foray into the genre of psychological mystery with this film, which stars Richard Dreyfuss as psychologist Dr. Jake Rainer. The doctor has gone into retirement after the trauma of having an autistic child under his care commit suicide. Thus, when approached by local sheriff Michael Rivers (J.T. Walsh) with a request that he try to get through to an autistic nine-year-old boy Tim Warden (Ben Faulkner), who likely witnessed and possibly committed the double murder of his parents, he initially demurs. However, he puts aside his reservations after hearing that another psychologist, Dr. Harlinger (John Lithgow), intends to drug the boy into revealing the truth. When police entered the murder scene, they had found, along with the bloody victims, the boy brandishing a knife, and his teenaged sister Sylvie (Liv Tyler), cowering in the closet. Since the girl saw nothing, Rainer begins to work slowly and patiently with this boy who has never spoken, using a method based on the fact that the the autistic mind thinks in terms of rote sequences. He also gains the trust of the haunted Sylvie, and gradually the children unfold their tale of terror.