A widow's life is thrown into turmoil by her hippie daughter, her rebellious teenage son, and an ill-starred love affair she is having with a much younger man -- and then a former suitor comes back into the picture.

A dedicated social worker organizes a train trip for a group of slum orphans in 1894, taking them from New York City to the Midwest in search of new families and new lives.

A precocious young girl and her younger brother run away from home and hide in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.