After accidentally discovering that she’s been adopted, a young aspiring journalist’s desperate search for her birth mother, in spite of her father trying to stop her, reveals a deep family secret that may lead to tragedy.

SYNOPSIS:

We begin our story with BECCA, a young woman, who is dropped off on a quiet residential, tree lined street. She stands looking at a house as if she is remembering her connection to her past and the people that were part of it. Inside, she meets with, CHAR, a devoted friend, and tells her that “You are the connection to my past.” Besides Char, Becca doesn’t remember much else and when Char asks her if she remembers “JEANNIE”, “your daughter”, she doesn’t!

Twenty years later, JEAN (aka Jeannie), a young journalist in New York, who has a best friend, KAT, and an unsupportive boyfriend. She gets a call from her father, EDWARD, a conservative, loving husband, that her mother has suddenly died. In going through her adopted mother’s belongings, she finds a diary which reveals that she’s been adopted. She confronts her father who says that when they adopted her, the birth mother was unknown and that probably she wasn’t alive anymore. Jean doesn’t buy it, and believes she is alive. and she sees this as a second chance to have a strong relationship with her birth mother, which she didn’t have with her adopted mother, and therefore, is determined to find her.

We shift back twenty years to Becca, where further speaking with Char reveals that when her daughter was less than two, both Becca’s parents were killed in an accident and she & “Jeannie” disappeared soon after.

Then, with some initial clues from her adopted mother’s diary, Jean begins her search. She meets, BRIAN, an intelligent young man, who is attracted to her, and who offers his help. These initial clues lead nowhere. Undeterred, Jean learns some facts from her father, but little does she know, he is desperately trying to prevent her from finding her birth mother.

His tension and guilt build as Jean shares and uncovers each new clue. She asks him: “I found out my mother’s name today, why does it seem like you don’t want to know?”

Still not finding her mother, Jean becomes emotionally frustrated and takes it out on Brian. In spite of this, Brian reveals to Jean that his single mother was an alcoholic and therefore he spent his childhood being bounced around foster homes. Later, they find out that after Becca’s parents were killed in an accident, Becca suffered and emotional breakdown and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. They obtain her records and learn that Becca developed amnesia, suffered from hallucinations and delusions. During this time, a man named Peter, visited her.

Unexpectedly, after two years, Becca regains her sanity. She is released, but is faced with the unthinkable news that when she was deemed mentally incompetent, her daughter, Jeannie, that she didn’t initially remember, was taken from her in a permanent adoption.

With this revelation, Jean at least learns that her birth mother didn’t abandon nor give her away, rather, she was taken.

Our story now continues as a juxtaposition of Jean’s search for her birth mother against Becca’s search for her “stolen” daughter.

Ultimately, Becca’s as well as Jean’s searches, lead to disappointment.

Jean’s frustration gets the best of her as she effectively ends her developing relationship with Brian. She shares her disappointments with SUSAN, a family friend, “I came here to bury one mother, but now it feels like I’ve lost both .” Seeing Jean’s grief, Susan has a bout of conscience, due to her regretful role in hiding the truth with Edward, and she reaches out to him. Her ultimatum: “If you don’t tell your daughter, I will.”

Faced with this ultimatum, Edward, for the first time in twenty years, visits Becca and reveals that he adopted their daughter. Jean, sadly unsuccessful, returns to her life in New York where she learns that, in her absence, Kat has slept with her boyfriend. It isn’t long, though, before she receives an anonymous letter containing just an address. She returns to the small Pennsylvania town to have an emotional reunion with her birth mother. Now knowing everything, Jean stops by her family home to confront her father, but in the stillness of the afternoon in the backyard, she discovers that she will never be able to do so. Edward writes: “What I regret the most is losing your love and respect.”

Our ending is bittersweet, where her father’s death is a tragedy, but Jean can now has a future with her birth mother and her new love interest, Brian.

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The central theme revolves around our need to have strong relationships with the people we love, but that maintaining them, is often elusive. Edward’s conflict stems from desperately trying to hold on to his relationship with his daughter, which he certainly stands to lose, but it hinges on her not discovering his affair with Becca, while he deals with guilt from keeping mother and daughter apart all these years. Jean, unknowingly thwarted by her father, regrets not being closer to her adopted mother and through her search, ultimately wins that chance with her birth mother. Becca struggles with discovering her past, and longs for reuniting with her Jeannie. Brian, through helping Jean, finds closure for being neglected by his own mother.

I hope you enjoyed it, but of course, the full richness and mystery in this story, its compelling emotional interactions and its impactful ending can only be unlocked within the screenplay.