A modern woman who is stuck in her present life finds herself reliving a past existence as a courtesan during the French revolution and discovers it is her second chance to fulfill her destiny and find true love.

SYNOPSIS:

Insecure Maddy is stuck, literally and figuratively. She’s trapped in an elevator with Frank, a client coming to see her boss Steve, a sleazy personal injury lawyer. She dreams of a fulfilling career helping people, but has settled for security, just as she has with selfish actor Bill. She’s afraid to leave her comfort zone. Also, a mysterious song has been going around in her head on a loop. She’s close to office manager Sofia, and her best friend Liz. One day, Liz offers to spice up her life by taking her to the opera, having lucked out on tickets. Unknown to them, globe-trekking doctor Wolf donated them. The opera tells the true story of André Chenier, a French poet who participated in the Revolution, only to become a victim of it. “A la Dickens,” his mistress takes someone else’s place and dies alongside him. Maddy gets caught up in the excitement of the performance, until she hears “her” song. It’s the trigger that makes her disappear from the present, and go on a physical journey to a French opera house, where she undertakes an emotional journey of sacrifice and rebirth against the backdrop of the French Revolution.

At first Maddy, or Madeleine, thinks she’s in a lucid dream, since the people she knows are also there, although their names and appearance are altered. A Star Trek fan, she then reasons that she either time traveled or is in a parallel universe, and tries to convince her maid Sofia/Sophie and Liz/Marie-Elizabeth, a feminist aristocrat, that they must help her get back to her time. Her behavior confuses them, as she’s never acted like this before. Sophie, realizing that her mistress Madeleine is literally not herself, leaves a book on reincarnation for her to find. She starts reading it, and realizes that this existence is karma keeping her “stuck” in her present life. This is a second chance to redeem herself and walk the “path to enlightenment” and change her present. Standing in her way is Steve/Etienne. He’s still a ruthless lawyer and will stop at nothing to seduce Madeleine, or advance his ambitions with Robespierre, the historical figure who started the Reign of Terror. Bill/Guillaume is a spy who turns out to be much worse than a harmless showoff. She meets her soul mate Wolf/Jean-Loup, an idealistic painter in what’s becoming a dangerous world. Frank/François-Joseph is her client, a nobleman disillusioned with the Revolution. He commissions Jean-Loup to paint Madeleine as Athena, the goddess of reason, a quality lacking in the Republic. Marie-Elizabeth involves Madeleine in her feminist causes, which are at odds with Etienne’s camp. Time passes, and most of Madeleine’s memories as Maddy fade. Madeleine and Jean-Loup’s passion develops while history unfolds, with the ensuing chaos. Her rejection of Etienne leads him to launch a witch-hunt of her allies. Marie-Elizabeth escapes to the United States to an expatriate colony. She tries to convince Madeleine and Jean-Loup to follow, but he thinks there’s still hope for the Republic. Their bleakest moment is when Jean-Loup is arrested and convicted of crimes against the Revolution. The sentence is the guillotine. Madeleine tries to bribe Etienne to save Jean-Loup, and even offers herself. He spurns her, arrogantly thinking she’ll come of her own free will once Jean-Loup loses his head. Through her connections in the prison, she takes Jean-Loup’s place. Even Etienne cannot save her in time, and the blade falls. It’s her final triumph over him.

Maddy jolts awake to a radically different present. She’s in a war-torn refugee camp in Africa with Liz, who’s now a journalist and filmmaker. Maddy is a confident, well-known actress on Star Trek who is the newest UNICEF children’s ambassador. She and Liz are there to shoot a PSA. She now has an important role to play in making the world a better place. Maddy sees an article on her laptop about a painting of Athena by the French artist Jean-Loup Rousseau that just sold at auction. He was famous for helping end the Reign of Terror, but also for his mistress’s sacrifice on the guillotine to save his life. Maddy convinces Liz, along with herself, that what she experienced before waking was a dream conjured by her subconscious after reading the article. It becomes clear that Maddy living life differently in the past has also impacted other people in the present. Liz is in the headlines with her article about Sofia, a judge who has delivered stiff sentences to Steve and Bill for white-collar crimes, as karma catches up with both of them. A short time later, Maddy and Liz attend to an emergency medical arrival. A medevac lands, and seeing Dr. Wolf brings back hazy, but intense memories for Maddy. Still trying to change the world for the better, they escape a potentially mortal encounter with rebel forces in this equally dangerous world. They philosophize as they did in the past. Wolf wonders if they haven’t worked on a mission together before. Maddy teases, “In a past life maybe.” The last image is of the candlelit painting of Madeleine/Athena after it’s been returned to its original owner Frank/François-Joseph, the buyer from the auction.