SYNOPSIS:

Tessa O’Neill has a loving relationship with her two teenage children as well as a rewarding job as a high school English teacher, and she has recently married Mike, a regular guy who truly loves her. In addition, her brother Steve, who is a couple of years younger, is as close as a twin. When Steve is senselessly murdered outside a strip club, Tessa’s happy life collapses. Her daughter is old enough to be on her own, but her teenage son still needs her. Her grief is so overwhelming she can’t be there for him or for her new husband who has family problems of his own. Tessa quits her job and sometimes cannot even leave the bedroom. Her son Brad withdraws from her, his grades plummet, and she worries he’ll self-destruct before making it out of high school. Seeking to understand what has happened to her family, Tessa enrolls in graduate school to study criminal justice. She also starts writing about the tragedy as a way to cope with her hurt. Then she wakes up in the middle of the night and realizes she needs to make a documentary about the murder and she needs to interview Luke, her brother’s killer, in the documentary. But she soon learns she faces enormous obstacles. For one thing, she has never made a film before and she doesn’t have any money to make a film. More importantly her son is adamantly opposed to the idea. Then there’s the fact that what little money they do have is needed for legal fees so that Mike can get custody of his three young children. Tessa also has allies: a friend from school who wants to help finance the film; a criminology professor who believes in her; and an advocate for restorative justice who wants to help her get into the prison and interview Luke. Going two steps forward and one step back, Tessa starts to make headway on her project. But in the process she seems to be losing her son Brad. Mike loses patience as well and a young flirtatious bartender catches his eye. But Tessa’s love is stronger than her son’s anger and stronger than a momentary infatuation and as she strives toward her goal she manages to pull the two men who matter the most to her back into her orbit. However, she’s not stronger than the prison warden who is determined to keep Tessa and her cameras out of the prison. At this point with everything on the line, Tessa has to “let go” of the situation and have faith that things will work out. Call it a miracle or call it a bad case of food poisoning, but the warden’s sudden illness gives Tessa the one chance she needs to get in the prison and do the interview.