[2] Inspired by true events, Loggerheads tells the story of an adoption "triad" — birth mother, child, and adoptive parents — each in three interwoven stories in the days leading up to Mother's Day over the course of three years, and each in one of the three distinctive geographical regions of North Carolina: Appalachian Mountains, Piedmont (a broad, gently hilly plateau) and Atlantic Coastal Plain.

In mountainous Asheville, Grace (Bonnie Hunt), an airport car-rental agent living with her mother (Michael Learned), quits her job and embarks on a long-delayed quest: facing the legal barriers that keep her from finding the son she gave up for adoption when she was a teenager.

Across the state in Kure Beach, Mark (Kip Pardue), a young man obsessed with saving loggerhead sea turtles, meets George (Michael Kelly), a friendly motel owner, who offers him a place to stay.

In the center of the state is the small town of Eden, where a minister's wife (Tess Harper) struggles to confront her conservative husband (Chris Sarandon) over their estrangement from their son.

[3] Irish singer-songwriter and composer Mark Geary wrote the original score as well as two songs for the film.