widower coast of Maine orphan boy

Homer is an orphan who was never adopted, becoming the favorite of orphanage director Dr. Larch. Dr. Larch 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. What will Homer learn about life and love in the cider house? What of the destiny that Dr. Larch has planned for him?

Out in the farm-lands near Portland, the Widow Walters lives with her daughter Ethel. As far as affections are concerned, those of the widow are confined to her daughter, until Squire Lang, a fat old widower, with his son Harry, moves onto the adjoining farm. One day Harry leaves his plowing, when he catches sight of Ethel. They rush to the gate to exchange felicities, but the squire wants Harry to return to his plowing, and the widow desires Ethel to resume her housework.

A state welfare agent persuades a Maine lobsterman to take a troubled orphan boy aboard.

A young widow and an orphan boy are drawn together by grief when he stops her from walking into the sea, perhaps to join her husband’s ashes.

A young African American man, reeling from the tragic loss of his wife, travels to rural Maine to seek answers from his estranged mother-in-law, who is herself confronting guilt and grief over her daughter's death.

A New England fisherman's second wife prefers his son.

The only black American family in Maine has a son, a blind bodybuilder, who falls in love with a white "mer-boy."

A colonial family seeks a better life in Maine's wilderness in this powerful adventure. When William Hallowell leaves behind 13-year-old son Matt to safeguard their claim, the boy relies on his new friendship with the Penobscot Indians for survival.

When twelve-year-old Donn Fendler gets tired of waiting for his father and brothers to join him on the summit of Maine's highest peak, he decides to find his own way back to camp. But Donn doesn't count on a fast-moving fog that obscures the path. He doesn't count on falling down an embankment that hides him from sight. And he doesn't count on taking a turn that leaves him alone to wander aimlessly for nearly two weeks in the empty mountain wilderness.

In a little New England village dwelt this aged and lonely father who waited for the return of his prodigal son who had gone away many years before to join the navy.