Didn't see the beginning - can anyone explain it for me?

I haven't seen the movie in awhile, but it is Matilda and her biological mother out for a drive and I believe the car brakes down. The mother takes her daughter out of the car and they go to look for help in the middle of winter. The mother freezes to death and Steve Martin's character finds the baby daughter.

Well, there are actually two car crashes. the one listed above, and then the other one with the brother and his g/f crashing, which leads him to find Steve Martin's character's Gold, and steal it....

Actually it begins with Steve Martin (as a middle-school music teacher)nervously awaiting his wife with the results of a late term pregnancy test (ostensibly to determine their child's gender). While he is waiting, a fellow teacher gives him a gold coin as a gift for the child because gold is "always there when you need it" in his friend's words. When his wife arrives, she tells him the baby isn't his. The next scene fast forwards about five years (if I remember correctly) and he is living a hermit's life in a small rental house where he pays the bills by building furniture.

An important early scene shows him getting out a stash of gold coins (apparently he took up collecting in lieu of a bank account) and doing whiskey shots as he counts and fondles his gold. After he passes out, the younger Newland brother breaks into his house and steals the gold.

I personally love this movie and consider it one of the best movies for young fathers. Other notables are To Kill a Mockingbird (the book is far better than the movie and the movie is great), and The War (with Kevin Costner and Elijah Wood). The title sums up perfectly the random events that buffet us all our lives. I also thought the musical selection was great (banjo rendition of Red is the Rose--yeah baby!).