Transmission done???

I own a ford contour 98 SE, and my transmission is taking about 10 seconds to kick into gear, I have to start it in 1st gear manually then go to second before it will even work in drive, it also only holds about a quart of tranny fluid when it's bone dry and I know it's suppose to hold more then that. I took the tranny cover off hoping to find a filter but havn't had any luck at all finding any kind of filter. The only good thing is there isn't any metal shavings in the cover so there's slight hope of fixing it without getting a new one. You can also only press the gas pedal slightly or the car won't go, and it's like that at any speed. The first sighn of trouble was the car wouldn't move in reverse and drove in neatrul about two months before this bigger problem, I reved it in park and it caught itself and worked again, but now it's barely movable. Is there anyone that knows what this could be, and possibily where the filter is?? thanks- Preston