Dr. John Carpenter takes the job of running a health center in a low-income district. He enlists three women to help out who — unbeknownst to him — are actually nuns in street clothes. The church wants to improve the neighborhood but fears that nuns in full habit would not be well received. Unaware of her unavailability, John falls for Sister Michelle, serenading her with his guitar — which, luckily for him, effectively wears away at her religious resolve.
Jenny is an autistic teenager. Her father is concerned about her being withdrawn and hopes that employing her in his own business will bring her out of her shell. He also employs a new young assistant called Brian.
A group of educators led by Fernand Deligny are working to create contact with autistic children in a hamlet of the Cevennes.
A young couple is overjoyed when they find out that, after having had two girls, the wife is pregnant again, and this time it will be a son. However, the boy turns out to autistic. Unhappy with the diagnoses and treatments available, they decide to work out their own therapy program for their son.
A simple-minded gardener named Chance has spent all his life in the Washington D.C. house of an old man. When the man dies, Chance is put out on the street with no knowledge of the world except what he has learned from television.
After an autistic man impulsively marries a young widow, she must move to the city and ensure the welfare of her new family, against the glare of societal judgement and financial struggle.
Bill is on cloud nine. He has just become a big brother to the lovley Bolla. At first she seems like any other toddler, curious, jovial and sweet. But as the months turn into years and Bolla continues to live in a world of her own, it becomes clear that she is not quite like other children. Based on the book by Gunilla Bergström, creator and author of the Alfons Åberg (Alfie Atkins) books.
Milly and Louis, and their recently-widowed mom, Charlene, move to a new neighborhood. Once there, they all deal with a variety of personal problems, but Milly finds a friend in Eric, her autistic next door neighbor. Eric has a fascination with flight, and as the story progresses, he exerts an enthralling force of change on all those around him.
When car dealer Charlie Babbitt learns that his estranged father has died, he returns home to Cincinnati, where he discovers that he has a savant older brother named Raymond and that his father's $3 million fortune is being left to the mental institution in which Raymond lives. Motivated by his father's money, Charlie checks Raymond out of the facility in order to return with him to Los Angeles. The brothers' cross-country trip ends up changing both their lives.
Backstreet Dreams is the story of a man, who has a disturbed child. He and his wife take their son to a clinic, where he is diagnosed by a talented psychologist (Stevie), as being autistic. After catching his unfaithful wife with another man, Dean tells Lucy to leave, and is faced with the task of raising Shane on his own. Stevie believes that she can improve Shane's condition, going back to Dean's apartment and later convincing him that he can provide a better world for his son. Angelo, who lives in the same apartment building and is like a father to Dean, urges on the relationship, sensing that Stevie is luring Dean away from backstreet dealings, and giving him courage to face life in a positive way. Together, they build a foundation for a better life outside of the violence and danger of the backstreets where they live.
An animated documentary short made by people with autism.
A mentally ill young woman finds her love in an eccentric man who models himself after Buster Keaton.
When Ruth Matthews's husband is killed in a fall at an archaeological dig, her daughter Sally handles her father's death in a very odd manner. As Sally's condition worsens, Ruth takes her to see Jake, an expert in childhood autism. Jake attempts to bring Sally out of her mental disarray through traditional therapy methods, but Ruth takes a different route. She risks her own sanity by attempting to enter her daughter's mind and make sense of the seemingly bizarre things that Sally does, including building a wondrous house of cards
A man with a low IQ has accomplished great things in his life and been present during significant historic events—in each case, far exceeding what anyone imagined he could do. But despite all he has achieved, his one true love eludes him.
When an autistic boy witnesses his parents' double murder, controversial therapist Dr. Jake Rainer seeks to probe the child's mind in order to solve the case.
In a remote woodland cabin, a small town doctor discovers Nell — a beautiful young hermit woman with many secrets.
An autistic child growing up in the 1940's and 50's with a mother who is bitter because her fear of success has denied to herself a possible career in opera. This anger translates into an over-protectiveness of her mentally ill daughter, even into the child's adulthood. But a loving sister, herself having an arm that is paralyzed, is a bastion against the limitations imposed by the mother and finally helps her sister to live a more full life.
Renegade FBI agent Art Jeffries protects a nine-year-old autistic boy who has cracked the government's new "unbreakable" code.
A group of strangers find themselves trapped in a maze-like prison. It soon becomes clear that each of them possesses the peculiar skills necessary to escape, if they don't wind up dead first.
A mentally challenged girl proves herself to be every bit as capable as her "perfect" sister when she moves into an apartment and begins going to college.