This is about the stigma of not being able to read.
Valerie Bertinelli has dyslexia. She got confused in school (years before they actually understood dyslexia), so her father (wonderfully played by Robert Donat) put her in a school for the retarded. This was even worse, so he pulled her out of the school system, and shut her away in the house (rarely to venture out into the world).
So, she grew up knowing that she was "brain damaged." This frustrated her, but she deals with it. She DOES have social poise, and spends some time in fancy socials (and modeling).
One day, her rent-a-limo broke down (while she was at the doctor). She needed to get home, to see a favorite movie. They called a taxi, who promptly took her to the address she said (only backwards). Instead of having him find her real address, she ran out of the car, leaving her Shakespeare book (with her address in it) in the car. Later, the cabbie gave the book back to dad, and was rewarded by being the new "limo." Besides being a cabbie, he is also a frustrated author of short stories and book-length treatments (who thinks that college has been a waste of time, and crushes creativity).
They spent time together, and he eventually finds out that she can't read. He talks to his girlfriend (Shelley Long), who tells him a UC Berkeley professor suggested Dyslexia as the problem.
Over the next months, Valerie learns to read (tell time, and other useful things) by the cabbie, instituting a program of ways for her to re-program her mind (including a Mickey Mouse watch on her right hand, to know which way is right).
This movie shows a vulnerable side to Valerie. Shelley Long put in a good performance, as the UC Berkeley graduate student, who really wants her boyfriend to attend graduate school.
