Five short film adaptations from the stories written by O. Henry. In 'The Cop and the Anthem' a homeless man (Charles Laughton) attempts to get arrested in order to escape the winter weather. The film features an early appearance from Marilyn Monroe. In 'The Clarion Call' a policeman (Dale Robertson) realises his friend (Richard Widmark) is a killer. In 'The Last Leaf' a young woman (Jean Peters) asked her artist neighbour (Gregory Ratoff) to help save her dyring sister (Anne Baxter). In 'The Ransom...
These stories of loss and remembrance, acceptance and affirmation, are set in the rural American Midwest in the middle and later years of the twentieth century. They chronicle the lives of three different families, a son and his parents, a wife and a husband, and a boy and his mother, all struggling to maintain themselves in difficult times and learning what it means to be together—and apart. In each story a moment comes when it seems that something cherished—a place, a way of life, or a prized possession...