When Lori Reimuller (Meryl Streep) learns that her young son Robbie (Seth Adkins) has epilepsy, she first trusts the judgment of the hospital staff in how best to bring it under control. As Robbie's health slides radically downhill, however, she becomes frustrated and desperate, and so does her own research into the existing literature on treatments. When she decides to try an alternative treatment called the Ketogenic Diet, devised long ago by a doctor from Johns Hopkins, she is met with narrow-minded resistance from Robbie's doctor, who is prepared to take legal action to prevent Lori from removing him from the hospital. This movie is an indictment of those in the medical profession who discuss only the treatment options they favor. Several of the minor characters are portrayed by people who have been not just helped, but cured by the Ketogenic diet.

"Ketogenic" means causing ketosis, a state where the urine is high in ketone because the body is burning fat. The Atkins diet produces a mild state of ketosis, while the ketogenic diet depicted in the film involves a severe state of ketosis. Recently, Johns Hopkins researchers have reported that a milder, Atkins-like ketogenic diet may also reduce the symptoms of epilepsy.

Music by Harold Arlen
Lyrics by E.Y. Harburg
Performed by Aretha Franklin