It illustrates many of the difficulties facing an increasing number of the grandparents who are raising their grandchildren in the United States today, because of family crises related to drugs and prison.
[1][2] The film follows 18 months in the life of Viola Dees (89 years old) as she tries to persuade Los Angeles authorities that she can care for her grandson, 9-year-old Walter.
While contending with her own declining health, and a bureaucratic and legal system that continually threatened to separate her from her grandson, Dees fights the misconception that age supersedes one's ability to love and care for a child.
However, when treatment was completed, social workers determined that Dees was too frail to care for him, and Walter was placed again in a foster home.
Walter's aunts and uncles were unable to take him in, possibly because they felt unqualified to deal with his often threatening and troubled behavior.