Dani Miller Joey Heatherton headlines a shocking case when 15-year-old Dani is accused of murdering Rick Lazich, the latest lover of her mother, Valerie Hayden Miller Susan Hayward. As Dani’s father, Luke Miller Mike Connors, rushes to her side, he sits with the girl and recounts the sequence of events that led to the tragedy, trying to hold together a family already pulled apart by secrets and resentment.
Near the end of World War II, Army Air Forces hero Luke Miller finds himself in San Francisco for a parade and encounters Valerie Hayden. Their meeting unfolds against the backdrop of a guarded, influential family led by Mrs. Gerald Hayden Bette Davis, who invites Luke to dinner and offers a job and a dowry if he will marry Valerie. He storms out, but Valerie follows, admitting she cannot defy her mother’s will, even as she admires his resolve. A relationship takes root and blossoms into marriage, though a former suitor, Sam Corwin DeForest Kelley, warns that the union may not endure the pressures that come with power and money.
As time passes, Luke becomes a successful architect while Mrs. Hayden uses her banking connections to tighten the financial screws on him, blocking loans that could help his career. Reluctantly, Luke accepts a position within her company. Dani is born into this tense household, and the family’s dynamics spiral: Luke slides into alcoholism, Valerie embarks on a more liberated, sometimes reckless lifestyle, and the couple’s bond fractures. The marriage deteriorates further when Luke discovers Valerie with another man, and Mrs. Hayden insists Valerie divorce him. Years roll by, and Dani grows up to find herself stepping into her mother’s world, eventually becoming her rival for the same man.
In the present, Dani claims she acted in defense of her mother during an attack, and the courtroom reaches a verdict of justifiable homicide. The question of Dani’s placement becomes central, but investigators face a wall: neither Marian Spicer Jane Greer nor psychiatrist Dr. Jennings Anne Seymour can coax Dani to open up about her inner world. Mrs. Hayden petitions for custody, while Valerie contends that Dani’s actions were a defense against an attack and that Rick’s death occurred only when he intervened. Valerie ultimately returns home and takes her own life, leaving Luke to shoulder the task of helping Dani rebuild her life and navigate a future shaped by a family’s complicated history.
The story moves between glances of old ambitions and the present-day consequences of those choices, painting a portrait of a family whose members are bound by love, control, and the aftermath of war. Throughout, the film threads together themes of loyalty, power, and the costs of keeping family secrets, all while Dani fights to carve out a life defined by her own terms rather than the shadow of her mother and grandmother.
