In the opening moments of this drama, we see a man brutally murder a woman, and in the story that follows, we look back at the events that led up to this tragedy as the killer awaits trial. Archie Landrum (Frank Whaley) is a brilliant mathematician who is socially inept and doesn't interact well with others. He takes a job as a caretaker at a ranch in New Mexico owned by Katherine Samuel (Blythe Danner). Archie has a good reason for wanting to work for Katherine; her daughter Lucy (Sheryl Lee) is the star of the TV show "Banyon's Band" and has appeared in a series of R-rated sexploitation films; Archie is obsessed with Lucy, and he hopes that working for her mother will bring him closer to her. Sure enough, Lucy comes to New Mexico to pay her mother an extended visit, but familial warmth is less a factor than Lucy's need to dry out from her periodic bouts with alcohol and drug abuse. Archie tries to ingratiate himself with Lucy, hoping that she might develop a romantic or sexual interest in him, but it soon becomes obvious that this is not to be. This does nothing to ease Archie's fascination with her; he begins spying on her and reading her diary, until the inevitable day when his obsession turns violent. Mark Medoff wrote the screenplay, adapted from his own play "The Homage That Follows;" Bruce Davidson appears as the public defender assigned to represent Archie in court.