Keeping Faith

Mariah White, a dollhouse maker who values order, finds her structured life disrupted when a series of minor mishaps keeps her and her seven-year-old daughter, Faith, at home on a Wednesday. They return to their house for Faith’s forgotten ballet leotard and discover Mariah’s husband, Colin, home early from a business trip. Mariah finds him in their bedroom with another woman, Jessica. The event triggers memories of a previous affair, which led to Mariah’s suicide attempt and her commitment to the Greenhaven psychiatric facility, where she was pregnant with Faith.

Three days later, Mariah is in a severe depression, cared for by her mother, Millie Epstein, while Faith has become mute. Colin serves Mariah with divorce papers and soon learns that Jessica is pregnant. In a parallel storyline, Ian Fletcher, a famous teleatheist, faces declining ratings. He proposes an “antirevival” tour to debunk miracles, starting with a “Jesus Tree” in Maine.

To lift their spirits, Millie takes Mariah and Faith to the circus in Boston. During a parade, Faith is chosen to ride an elephant. The animal is spooked by a dog, causing Faith to fall. A clown accidentally bumps a juggler, causing the knives to fall and slice her back, requiring twenty stitches. At the hospital, Faith awakens and speaks for the first time in weeks, calling out for her mother. Back home, after a tense visit from Colin, Mariah falls into another depression. Faith has a vision of a figure in a white nightgown who calls herself Faith’s “guard.” Mariah later finds Faith on the swing set at night, singing a verse from Genesis and claiming her guard told her to go there. Mariah takes Faith to a child psychiatrist, Dr. Mary Keller, who initially suggests the guard is a healthy imaginary friend. However, when Faith mentions her guard’s friends are Catholic saints, Dr. Keller theorizes Faith may be seeing God and recommends a trial of the antipsychotic drug Risperdal.

Faith reveals a secret from Mariah’s childhood, that she accidentally drowned her cat, Priscilla, which Mariah had never told anyone. Shaken, Mariah begins to believe her daughter and takes her to see Rabbi Marvin Weissman, where Faith appears to miraculously cause a feuding couple to reconcile. An expert, Dr. Grady De Vries, confirms Faith is not psychotic and takes her off the medication. He presents her case anonymously at a psychiatric symposium, where reporter Allen McManus picks up the story. Ian Fletcher’s team tracks the family to New Canaan, New Hampshire, and a cult called the Order of the Great Passion follows his Winnebago to their house. Mariah arrives home to find a crowd of reporters and cult members on her lawn. During an argument with Ian, Millie suffers a cardiac arrest and is pronounced dead. While at the hospital, Faith kisses her, and Millie miraculously revives. Later, Faith plays with and kisses a sore on Rafael Civernos, a baby with AIDS, who is subsequently reported as cured. The events attract more religious figures, including Father Joseph MacReady and Rabbi Daniel Solomon, but the local Catholic Diocese ultimately rejects Faith’s claims as heretical.

One night, Ian finds Faith trying to run away and discovers her hands are bleeding through her gloves. A hand surgeon, Dr. Blumberg, is baffled by the clean holes through her palms and suggests the possibility of stigmata. After receiving an anonymous tip from Ian, Allen McManus breaks the story of Mariah’s past institutionalization. Colin sees a television report on Faith’s stigmata, flies back from Las Vegas where he has just married Jessica, and confronts Mariah, threatening a custody suit. Fearing she will lose her daughter, Mariah flees with Faith.

With Millie’s help, Mariah and Faith escape to the airport and take the first available flight to Kansas City. By coincidence, Ian Fletcher is on the same flight for his secret weekly visit to his autistic twin brother, Michael, who lives in a nearby care facility. Mariah assumes Ian followed them. He uses this assumption to his advantage, offering to hide them in a rented cabin as a “truce” while secretly planning to expose Faith by having her attempt to heal Michael. Their relationship deepens, and Ian rescues Faith when she falls into a lake and gets trapped under a dock. He takes them to visit Michael, but the visit disrupts Michael’s routine, causing an outburst, and the healing fails. Devastated, Ian gets drunk and later confesses his family history to Mariah. She comforts him, and they make love. The next morning, Ian visits Michael again and finds him briefly lucid, able to speak and hug him before regressing.

A call from Millie informs Mariah that Colin has filed for custody, forcing them to return to New Canaan. On the plane, Ian confesses his original plan but now admits he believes Faith healed Michael and vows to help Mariah win her case. The custody hearing begins before Judge A. Warren Rothbottam, with Malcolm Metz representing Colin. The night before the trial, an argument with Colin triggers a severe stigmata episode in Faith. She is rushed to the hospital, where her condition deteriorates; she develops a high fever, seizures, renal failure, suffers two cardiac arrests, and falls into a coma. In court, Metz successfully argues for a restraining order, barring Mariah from the hospital based on the theory that she has Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSP).

The trial proceeds. Metz’s expert testifies that Mariah is harming Faith, while Joan’s expert offers an alternative psychological explanation for Faith’s condition. Ian testifies as Metz’s witness but subverts the testimony to praise Mariah as a protective mother. Metz then reveals Ian’s anonymous tip to the reporter and plays a damaging video of Mariah’s earlier outburst at the hospital, creating a rift between her and Ian. Kenzie van der Hoven, the guardian ad litem, believes Faith is dying and defies the court order, helping Mariah sneak into the hospital. Mariah speaks to the comatose Faith, who immediately awakens, fully recovered.

The trial resumes, and Joan brings the healthy Faith into the courtroom. Metz’s expert claims Faith’s recovery proves his MSP theory, but Joan’s expert argues that her recovery in Mariah’s presence rules it out. Kenzie takes the stand, retracts her initial report, and recommends Mariah be granted custody. After a private lunch with Faith, Judge Rothbottam awards custody to Mariah, stating the key issue was that Mariah was the parent who truly listened to her child. Ian holds a press conference, declaring religious belief a private matter and effectively ending the media circus. Mariah and Ian reconcile. In the final scene, Faith is alone in her room and calls for God, but there is no answer. Hearing her mother approaching, she pretends to be talking to God, leaving it ambiguous whether her visions were real or a manipulation to gain her mother’s attention.