Based on the Depression-era bildungsroman memoir of writer A. E. Hotchner, the film follows the story of a boy struggling to survive on his own in a hotel in St. Louis after his mother is committed to a sanatorium with tuberculosis. His father, a German immigrant and traveling salesman working for the Hamilton Watch Company, is off on long trips from which the boy cannot be certain he will return.
Jesse Bradford
as Aaron Kurlander
Jeroen Krabbé
as Mr. Kurlander
Lisa Eichhorn
as Mrs. Kurlander
Karen Allen
as Miss Mathey
Spalding Gray
as Mr. Mungo
Elizabeth McGovern
as Lydia
Cameron Boyd
as Sullivan
Adrien Brody
as Lester
Joe Chrest
as Ben
John McConnell
as Patrolman Burns
Amber Benson
as Ella McShane
Kristin Griffith
as Mrs. McShane
