This story is about the five Cain children whose mother suffers from mental instability. When she is finally committed to an institution, the children are fostered by a childless couple who soon grow to love them as their own. Just as they are settling down to their new lives and enjoying the affection and warmth that they have never had, Callie re-appears in their life and decides she wants them back. The children's lives are in danger of being torn apart as they are caught up in a desperate tug of war between the mother they have learned to fear and the foster parents they have grown to love.