You didn't show us the parser code that produces $line[0]. The best place for this would be in the parser.
However, here is a quick fix to preprocess the text file while reading it. (I am assuming you read it line by line):
while (my $line = <$fh>) {
if ($line =~ tr/"//) {
# This block will be executed if there is exactly one double-quote
+ in the line
while (1) {
my $nextline = <$fh>;
die unless defined $nextline;
$nextline =~ s/^\s+/ /; # remove indent
$line .= $nextline; # join lines
break if ($nextline =~ tr/"//) % 2 == 1;
}
}
# now parse the $line just like you would normally do using the code
+ that you did not show us ;-)
parse_line();
}