Trama

Wearied bookie Max Phillips, learning of his grown soldier son Pip getting wounded during combat in South Vietnam, gets to spend one last delightful hour with a ten-year-old version of Pip at an amusement park after dark.

In the early 1960s, small-time bookie Max Phillips (Jack Klugman) hates his life. His only pride is his son, Pip, who is serving the U.S. Armed Forces in Vietnam. When a young man uses company funds to place a bet with Max, the man loses the wager. Max then returns his money, which angers Max's bosses.—David Stevens

Bookie Max Phillips really doesn't care that George Reynold lost the $300 he embezzled from his place of work and bet on a long shot. After he learns that his son Pip has been wounded in Vietnam, Max realizes that he hasn't done much with his life. He gets George his $300 and gets wounded in the process. He wishes that he could see his son just one more time. Stranger things have happened in the twilight zone.—garykmcd

In Vietnam, Private Pip is seriously wounded by fragments of a grenade. Meanwhile, his father, the bookmaker and conman Max Phillips, learns that his son is near-death. He has an argument with his partner and his bodyguard, kills them both and is also wounded. He goes to an amusement park where he meets Pip when he was ten years old, spending a long period with him.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Opening narration:

"Submitted for your approval, one Max Phillips, a slightly-the-worse-for-wear maker of book, whose life has been as drab and undistinguished as a bundle of dirty clothes. And, though it's very late in his day, he has an errant wish that the rest of his life might be sent out to a laundry to come back shiny and clean, this to be a gift of love to a son named Pip. Mr. Max Phillips, Homo sapiens, who is soon to discover that man is not as wise as he thinks--said lesson to be learned in the Twilight Zone."

After learning that his beloved son Pip (Bob Diamond), now a soldier, has been critically wounded in South Vietnam, alcoholic bookie Max Phillips (Jack Klugman) feels a tremendous remorse for not having been a better father. Out of kindness, he returns three hundred dollars to a luckless bettor--an action that earns him a bullet from one of his boss's gunmen. Stumbling into an amusement park he used to visit with his son--now closed for the night--Max is amazed to see Pip appear before him, magically transformed into a boy (Billy Mumy) again. The park comes alive and the two relive past pleasures. Suddenly, Pip grows solemn and runs away. When Max catches him, Pip explains that he's dying and disappears. Sobbing, Max offers God a trade: himself for the boy. He dies. But his sacrifice is not in vain--Pip survives.

Closing narration:

"Very little comment here, save for this small aside: that the ties of flesh are deep and strong, that the capacity to love is a vital, rich and all-consuming function of the human animal, and that you can find nobility and sacrifice and love wherever you may seek it out; down the block, in the heart, or in the Twilight Zone."