Homer is an orphan in remote St. Cloud, Maine. Never adopted, he becomes the favorite of orphanage director Dr. Larch, who imparts his full medical knowledge on Homer, who becomes a skilled, albeit unlicensed, physician. But Homer yearns for a self-chosen life outside the orphanage. When Wally and pregnant Candy visit the orphanage Dr. Larch provides medically safe, albeit illegal, abortions Homer leaves with them to work on Wally's family apple farm. Wally goes off to war, leaving Homer and Candy alone together. What will Homer learn about life and love in the cider house? What of the destiny that Dr. Larch has planned for him?

Cameo: [John Irving] novel's author plays the stationmaster.

Dr. Wilbur Larch:
Goodnight, you princes of Maine, you kings of New England.

Revealing mistakes: Several of the wooden lobster traps, including the one that Candy picks up, are missing their cement weights in the bottom on the traps, thus making them unusable.

Music by Richard A. Whiting
Words by Gus Kahn
Performed by Vaughn DeLeath
Published by Bourne Co. (ASCAP)/Whiting Music Corp. (ASCAP)/Gilbert Keyes Music (ASCAP) c/o SGA
Courtesy of Columbia Records
By Arrangement with Sony Music Licensing