A widow raises her polio boy with dignity. He returns from Sydney to teach her to walk after a stroke.
BASED ON THE PUBLISHED MEMOIR:
IRIS, at 21, is too beautiful and ambitious for Hardscrabble, Illinois and escapes to Washington D.C.
She marries BUNNY, and has two sons, JIMMY and GRAYSON.
Bunny dies suddenly and two-year-old Gray is diagnosed with polio. Iris returns to Hardscrabble. Over nightly exercises she excites him with tales of world travel.
On his 13th birthday, the doctors give Iris the news. Gray will always limp, but can walk without the braces. She breaks down with joy.
In the family tradition, Jim graduates from Virginia Military Institute. When he develops melanoma and dies, Iris sees a tradition of widows continue. After college graduation months later, Gray at 21, handsome and charismatic, tells his mother that just as she had so many years earlier, it is time for him to move away from Hardscrabble.
Rupert Murdoch has hired him as a journalist in Sydney, Australia.
Later, Iris suffers a stroke. So now it is Gray’s turn to return to Hardscrabble. Gray is successful and happy; and lovingly, he nurses his mother back to health, telling her colorful stories of the world he has seen and giving her the therapy which now teaches her how to walk again.