| Director | Meg Ryan |
|---|---|
| Genre | drama film |
| Runtime | 88 min |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $5 million |
In 1942, Homer Macauley is a determined 14-year-old who seeks work delivering telegrams to take care of his widowed mother Katie, his older sister Bess and his 4-year-old brother Ulysses. He aims to be the best and fastest bicycle telegraph messenger of the small fictional town of Ithaca, California.
The very first telegram Homer delivers is to a Hispanic woman who is illiterate in English. She asks him to read it out loud. It's from the Secretary of Defense, informing her of her son's death in the war.
Homer's older brother Marcus, along with most of the young men of the town, has gone to serve in World War II, leaving the families worried. Their father has died recently in the war.
Marcus writes regularly, telling them about his life in the war. He reminds Homer that he's the man of the house in his absence.
At Homer's job he has to make sure the telegrapher Willie Grogan stays alert. He wakes him with cold water and strong coffee. Homer loses his boyish innocence as he delivers telegrams bringing messages of love, wishes, pain, and death, hoping that one of them announces the return of his brother.
Homer is envious of Ulysses as he seems fearless and oblivious to the war. Restless, he goes in to the telegraph office in case he's needed.
Katie regularly 'sees' her husband, Matthew. When Homer wakes to a nightmare and the next day when he tells her his envy of Ulysses' fearlessness, she sees him. Later that day, even the little boy gets spooked by a half man, half machine window display. That night, Homer reads a letter from Marcus out loud to Mr. Grogan, saying he'll shut out the world if his brother dies in the war.
The next afternoon, Homer checks in on Mr. Grogan, only to find him dead after typing out one last telegraph message. It is the one he's been dreading since his brother left. Toby, Marcus' fellow soldier, and Homer arrive at the Macauley house to deliver the news of Marcus' demise.