A Stranger to Love is an original CBS movie based on the true story of James McDonnell. A Stranger to Love first aired on Sunday, March 24, 1996. Occasionally, A Stranger to Love airs on the Lifetime Movie Network and the Hallmark Channel. The true-story family drama is directed by Peter Levin and written by Richard Leder. Beau Bridges, Tess Harper, Pam Dawber, and Billy Forester star in the movie, Variety reports. A Stranger to Love movie based on a real case A Stranger to Love: What's It About? Adam, a restaurant owner and chef, loves his life and his family. But tragedy strikes after Adam is robbed during a carjacking. When a dead body turns up in the local river, he is declared dead. But a few years later, his family begins to believe that they may have buried the wrong person, and that Adam could be suffering from amnesia and living in another location. The true story that inspired A Stranger to Love involves the amnesia-disappearance case of James McDonnell, also known as Jim...