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.

"When the world turns upside down, the trick is coming out on top."

Credits

Steven SoderberghDirector

Jesse BradfordAaron Kurlander

Jeroen KrabbéMr. Kurlander

Lisa EichhornMrs. Kurlander

Karen AllenMiss Mathey