The Herlihys are a working class family from Chicago whose three children take wildly divergent paths: Brian joins the Marines right out of High School and goes to Vietnam, Michael becomes involved in the civil rights movement and after campaigning for Bobby Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy becomes involved in radical politics, and Katie gets pregnant, moves to San Francisco and joins a hippie commune. Meanwhile, the Taylors are an African-American family living in the deep South. When Willie Taylor, a minister and civil rights organizer, is shot to death, his son Emmet moves to the city and eventually joins the Black Panthers, serving as a bodyguard for Fred Hampton.
Josh Hamilton
as Michael Herlihy
Julia Stiles
as Katie Herlihy
Jerry O'Connell
as Brian Herlihy
Jeremy Sisto
as Kenny Klein
Jordana Brewster
as Sarah Weinstock
Leonard Roberts
as Emmet Taylor
Bill Smitrovich
as Bill Herlihy
Annie Corley
as Mary Herlihy
Donovan Leitch
as Neal Reynolds
David Alan Grier
as Fred Hampton
Charles S. Dutton
as Reverend Willie Taylor
Cliff Gorman
as Father Daniel Berrigan
