 15 months earlier the kids of small-time crook Jack Charles (Patrick Swayze) are put in a corrupt state-run home called Bigelow Hall when their mother dies of cancer.Jack's 18-year-old teenage daughter Kelly (Sabrina Lloyd) escapes Bigelow by breaking a window and fleeing in the night, and convinces Jack to pick up her 10-year-old younger brother Eddie (Brian Bonsall).While at a custody hearing, Jack realizes what's going on by seeing a line of kids handcuffed and chained together in a line, and decides to break Eddie out of Bigelow.