The Promise is a 1979 American romantic drama film released by Universal Pictures which starred Kathleen Quinlan, Stephen Collins, and Beatrice Straight. It was directed by Gilbert Cates and produced by Fred Weintraub and Paul Heller. Weintraub and Heller also wrote the source story, which Garry Michael White dramatized; the resultant film was novelized by Danielle Steel. It was remade in India as the Hindi film Yeh Vaada Raha (1982). Plot In a rich-boy/poor-girl story along the lines of Love Story, college students Michael Hillyard (Collins) and Nancy McAllister (Quinlan) are in love. While visiting a park overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, they hide a costume jewelry necklace under a large rock, promising that they will love each other as long as it remains undisturbed—which they expect to be forever. Michael goes to his mother, Marion (Straight), and announces his plans to marry Nancy, but she thinks Nancy will hurt Michael's career with their family business. Michael storms out of his mother's home, calls Nancy and makes plans to elope. He asks his best friend Ben Avery (Michael O'Hare) to be best man. On the way to the ceremony, the three are involved in a horrific car crash. Ben escapes with minor injuries, but Michael is rendered comatose, and Nancy suffers severe facial injuries. While Nancy is still groggy and heavily bandaged, Marion makes an underhanded deal with her: Marion will send Nancy to California and pay a plastic surgeon to restore her face; Dr. Peter Gregson (Luckinbill) is the surgeon Marion has chosen, since she can also, and eventually does, bribe him heavily to serve as her barrier against Michael. The catch is that Nancy will not be permitted to return to Boston or contact Michael again unless he contacts her, with the implication being that he will decide if he wants the relationship to continue after the trauma of the accident. Believing that Michael will find her once he wakes up, Nancy agrees. However, when Michael comes out of his coma, Marion lies to him, telling him that Nancy had died in the accident. Time passes, and Nancy undergoes a series of successful surgeries to repair her face (although she looks significantly different than before the accident). Once healed, she changes her name to Marie Adamson and becomes a successful photographer. Michael becomes a successful architect with his family's business, designing multimillion-dollar business skyscrapers. His company takes a contract