Two Misfit High School Students Defeat the Odds to Find Friendship and Romance in the Engaging Drama the Restless Years. Melinda Grant (Sandra Dee) Is An Outcast in Her Rigid Hometown: Not Only Is She a Fatherless Child But Her Delicate Mother (Teresa Wright) Is Losing Her Grip on Reality. Everything Changes with the Arrival of Will Henderson (John Saxon), a Boy from the Wrong Side of the Tracks Who Faces His Own Family Battles. Based on the Play Teach Me How to Cry, This Sensational Portrait of 1950S Small-Town America Will Resonate with Film Fans of All Ages.