Simon’s parents were so disappointed that their only child was not what they expected that they have abandoned him, emotion-ally if not physically. Other kids at school and Sunday school tease and torment him. Nevertheless, Simon has a beautiful and patient spirit. Despite a lack of religious training at home (his parents don’t even attend church), he has a spiritual maturity that surpasses that of most adults, certainly that of the dour and humorless priest and Sunday school teacher, who barely tolerate him. He is convinced that God made him the way he is for a reason, that everything that happens is part of a plan and not an accident, that he is God’s instrument and has a destiny to fulfill, and that he is going to be a hero. Most of the adults and other children around him find this ludicrous, especially the last part. (You have to get to the end of the film to see how this works out.)

The only people who treat Simon kindly and regard him as a human being, not a freak, are Joe Wentworth and his mother, who have become a surrogate family for him. Joe is something of an outcast himself, as his beautiful and vivacious mother has never married and refuses to tell Joe or anyone else who his father is. She is dating Ben, another kind-hearted (if gauche) soul, and marriage is a possibility, but “fate” intervenes — or is it the will of God?

The two boys work up a scheme to find out who Joe’s real father is. Along the way they have adventures and get into a number of scrapes, some of them hilarious — they’re hardly angels.

There is a certain amount of normal adolescent sexual curiosity, but nothing in this movie that would make it unsuitable for middle-school-age and older children and adults. This tender and thought-provoking film raises the questions of what our purpose on earth is, whether God is really in control, and why things happen the way they do. A word of warning, though, if you see it — bring three hankies.