In a Maine coastal village toward the end of the 19th century, the swaggering, carefree carnival barker, Billy Bigelow, captivates and marries the naive millworker, Julie Jordan. Billy loses his job just as he learns that Julie is pregnant and, desperately intent upon providing a decent life for his family, he is coerced into being an accomplice to a robbery. Caught in the act and facing the certainty of prison, he takes his own life and is sent 'up there.' Billy is allowed to return to earth for one day fifteen years later, and he encounters the daughter he never knew. She is a lonely, friendless teenager, her father's reputation as a thief and bully having haunted her throughout her young life. How Billy instills in both the child and her mother a sense of hope and dignity is a dramatic testimony to the power of love.
Robert Goulet
as Billy Bigelow
Mary Grover
as Julie Jordan
Pernell Roberts
as Jigger Craigin
Marlyn Mason
as Carrie Pipperidge
Charles Ruggles
as The Starkeeper / Dr. Selden
Michael F. Blake
as (as Michael Blake)
Jack DeLon
as Mr. Snow
Linda Moulton Howe
as Louise
Patricia Neway
as Cousin Nettie (Nettie Fowler)
Marge Redmond
as Mrs. Mullin
Jim Taylor
as Dancer
