Patty Duke is a mother desperately searching for her son, a beloved child, who has suddenly stopped making contact with everyone he loves. Tim Dolan (Robert Floyd) is a handsome, sweet, and trusting young man who falls in love with a beautiful, intelligent, and business-savvy woman who comes from a well-to-do family. What Tim Dolan doesn't know is that, in addition to his girlfriend's many assets, she also has a deep, dark, and disturbing side that will cause the advent of Tim's eventual demise.
The film illustrates a side of relationship violence rarely witnessed, except behind closed doors: when violence comes from the woman's end and not the man's. "When He Didn't Come Home" showcases a woman's inability to control her anger, but Carolyn's anger, Tim Dolan's girlfriend (played by Kelly Rowan), is no ordinary anger. Carolyn's fits of uncontrollable rage stem from familial dysfunction, one that has long infiltrated her own family. Carolyn's own mother and father coexist in this kind of dysfunctional relationship, where the mother's rage controls an effeminate husband's inability to resist a harpy of a woman's reign over an entire family.
The film is also an excellent example of primetime Lifetime Movie Network potential, as well as an excellent vehicle to showcase Patty Duke's depth as an actor. She is capable of the lightest demeanor when she's trusting, to the most disturbed, painful state of mind that only a mother suffers when her beloved child finds a most terrible fate.
