Crows Over a Wheatfield

When Joel Ratleer, a criminal defense lawyer, wins a controversial child murder case against a nanny (who pleads guilty) by maligning the character of the children's father, even the defendant protests. Ratleer's children, Melanie and Matthew, whom he dominates with cruelty, react in different ways. Forced to help his father with the case, Matthew, 15, consumes an enormous quantity of LSD and has to be institutionalized. Melanie becomes obsessed with work and ultimately becomes a judge in New York, dealing firsthand with cases like her father's. In two such cases, she encounters Mildred Steck, founder of the Railroad, a network of safe havens for parents and children caught in the Family Court system. Through this new-found friendship, Melanie acknowledges her past and finally begins to heal.