Ransom!

As the CEO of the family vacuum cleaner manufacturing business, Dave Stannard has carved out a comfortable and loving upper middle class life with his wife Edith and their eight year old son Andy. Beyond the vacuum cleaners themselves, Dave and the Stannard name have some profile as the company sponsors a weekly live television show. When Andy is late arriving home after school one day, a series of telephone calls in and out of the Stannard house points to what would be Dave and Edith's worst nightmare if true: that Andy has been kidnapped. Calling in the police with the investigation led by Chief Jim Backett, Dave and Edith follow the advice of the Chief and his team who should know proper protocol in such matters, advice which includes only letting those that need to know what's going on, they such as Jesse Chapman and Shirley Lorraine - their two loyal household domestics - Dave's older brother Al Stannard, and the family physician Dr. Paul Gorman. Some others in the "should not know" category do find out, such as Mrs. Partridge, the principal of Andy's private school where he was last seen, but who is more problematic for the investigation is Charlie Telfer, a newspaper reporter out for an exclusive. That fear of it being a kidnapping is ultimately confirmed with the Stannards receiving the $500,000 ransom request, Andy's life or death in the balance. While hysterical Edith wants them to do whatever it takes for Andy's safe return, she leaves it up to Dave to decide how best to handle the situation. Absorbing all the advice from those around him, family, friends and professionals alike, Dave decides to take a calculated risk which will not only have a direct effect on what happens to Andy, but will indirectly affect the entirety of his life, both professionally and personally.