It's the summer of 1937 in Bridgeport, Connecticut and 12-year-old Daniel Cooper (Chris Petersen (actor)) along with his 10-year-old sister Sarah (Katy Kurtzman) are looking forward to summer vacation, most particularly, the annual Independence Day (United States) festivities. Sarah soon befriends the town's gentle misfit, Albert Cavanaugh, known by the town's children as "Snowman" (Geoffrey Lewis (actor)), a highly decorated and now brain-damaged World War I veteran, after she defends him from the town's resident bully, "Red" Doyle (Eric Shea). When Snowman finds himself accused of a terrible murder, Sarah, believing him to be innocent, convinces her successful attorney father, Ed Cooper (Dean Jones (actor)) to defend him. Amid courtroom allegations of communism and insinuations of a potentially inappropriate relationship with Sarah, Ed Cooper and the town's children must try to prove Snowman's innocence, before he can be sentenced to jail for the murder.