Summary A special edition of the program featuring a harrowing and multi-faceted account of the impact of heroin addiction on an average, middle class Australian family. Using remarkable and powerful home video footage, diaries, letters and the contrasting personal accounts of six different family members and friends, the program pieces together the life and death of a boy called Guy. Guy, brought up in Sydney, died in Brisbane on Valentine's Day this year. Guy's mother, Pat introduces herself in the story by saying: "I'm Pat Assheton. I'm the mother of a son who's considered a leper in society." We first meet Guy as a well-adjusted extroverted fourteen year-old clowning for the camera at a family barbecue. Later we see him as an emaciated figure quoting from Hamlet (he learned many of Shakespeare's plays off by heart during a brief spell in prison) "To be, or not to be..." Finally we see him dead in an open casket at his funeral. Guy seemed to be improving when he suddenly overdosed. In raw, frank and painful interviews, which produced tears on both sides of the camera, Guy's friends and family are uncompromising as they talk about what happened and why. They spare nothing in their descriptions of Guy's descent from straight-A student to hopeless addict, prostituting himself, pimping his girlfriend, stealing from his closest relatives. They tell of a teenager with an incredible zest for life who loved Shakespeare and wanted to be an actor. But he had a taste for money too and ended up working as a croupier at the Gold Coast casino. He started using marijuana to help him cope with night shifts and eventually got involved with a girl who was a heroin addict. In trying to help her, he got hooked himself. Around the story of Guy, there are other stories and conflicts ... Guy's divorced parents, both in new relationships, adopted completely different attitudes to the problem. Guy's mother, Pat found herself caught in a 'love triangle' between her son and her new partner. Guy's father and his new wife refused to have anything to do with him after Guy started stealing from them. His father now deeply regrets his actions. He says: "I'm sure I wouldn't take the hard line attitude again. In essence what you're doing, you're slamming the door on your own child. The hard line attitude doesn't work. I took the hard line and in essence that hurts me because maybe I assisted in killing my own son." What also emerges is an intense frustration with the actions of the authorities and a seeming inability on their part to deal either with the causes, or more importantly, the consequences of heroin addiction.

• Documentary
• Biography