A Good Mother

As the sun rises, eight-year-old Grace is gone! Her tent is cut, while strange footsteps lead from deep in the forest to her family’s campsite and back. Days turn into weeks with no sign of Grace, although her mother, Jackie, refuses to give up hope.
Detective Duncan Jewell stumbles upon Grace’s kidnapping investigation while searching for a missing teen. The two cases seem connected, but how? As he focuses on finding answers, he tries to ignore his growing feelings for Jackie, which have been just under the surface since they were kids. She is married—he has lost his chance.
When his investigation reaches a dead end, he seeks help from his beloved Aunt Anna. She can see things that nobody else can see. Yet even he, an experienced police officer, is dumbfounded by what she discovers!

ACT 1: July 2015 - December 2021
It’s July 2015, the dead of night. It’s wild outside, waves crashing against the rocky shores of Silver Birch Bay. A car bursts through the dark. Glenn Quinn rushes his pregnant wife, Farah Patel, to an old farmhouse on the island. Jackie Watt, a doula, delivers their baby girl on her living room floor, forever linking the two families. Years later, in December 2021, Farah and her daughter, Izzy, are caught in a horrific car attack in Toronto, the work of a disturbed man seeking revenge against women. When Izzy dies in the hospital, Farah plunges into a deep depression while Glenn, the owner of two five-star hotels (one in the city, the other on the island), immerses himself in work. The tragedy begins to unravel their marriage.
Meanwhile, Jackie has struggles of her own. Her husband, Brandon, died of COVID early in the pandemic, and she has recently married Simon Tremblay. But the marriage is already in trouble. Simon wants Jackie to quit her beloved job as a doula to give more time to their young family. He also wants her help in the restaurant they own beside Glenn’s hotel. She digs in her heels. Their lives intersect with Glenn again after Simon begins a business relationship with Quinn. His hotels are thriving, while his family life is falling apart. As grief from losing Izzy consumes Farah, Glenn suggests they adopt a foster child. She agrees but only half-heartedly.

ACT 2: June - July 2022
Duncan Jewell, a detective in Toronto, becomes more central to the narrative as time progresses. When his soul-sucking job gets the better of him, he escapes to Silver Birch Bay, where his beloved Aunt Anna lives. After his parents died in a boating accident, his aunt and late Uncle Philippe raised him on the island. It’s home to him. A sex-trafficking case involving a missing teen, Amelia Crow, leads Duncan to Glenn’s hotel in the city. He speaks to Farah, the manager, but gets nowhere. Frustrated by the dead-end investigation, Duncan seeks help from Aunt Anna, who claims to be psychic. He questions her strange ability until her disturbing visions help him identify the main suspect in a sex-trafficking operation, Denis Ivanov.
At the same time, Jackie’s life spirals after her daughter vanishes on a family camping trip at White Pines Provincial Park, where danger lurks amid the breathtaking, two-million acres of lush trees, glimmering lakes, and granite rocks. The frantic search for Grace consumes Jackie for weeks. She stays with her sister-in-law, Eve, at a B&B in town at night, and they search the park during the day, while Simon is home looking after their son Oliver (3) and the restaurant. The possibility that Grace is caught in a sex-trafficking ring emerges. Duncan’s investigation into Ivanov and his partner, Chad Green, becomes intertwined with Grace’s case, as evidence suggests that Grace, Amelia, and another victim, Carly, may all have been kidnapped by the same traffickers. The investigation not only brings Duncan and Jackie closer, but it also drives a wedge between Jackie and her husband, who is secretly struggling with family life and financial problems.

ACT 3: September - December 2022
When their plans to adopt a foster child fall through, Farah flies to Las Vegas to meet a surrogate, though that doesn’t work out either. With a history of failed IVF treatments too, she’s desperate to have a child. Fed up with the dark cloud hanging over their family, Glenn hires strangers to abduct Grace Watt in a twisted attempt to replace Izzy. Nobody sees it coming. Farah is horrified when he brings Grace home—and wants nothing to do with her. However, she feels trapped by his threats, so she makes the child their own. She changes Grace’s appearance and homeschools her to avoid detection. Since the Quinns and the Watts live hours apart from each other, and never socialize, Glenn and Farah’s secret seems safe! The abductors didn’t hurt Grace physically, but the traumatic events created a wild child that Farah can’t stand—and then she slowly finds herself bonding with her. In fact, she couldn’t give her up now no matter what! When Grace asks to be called Ruby, a friend from kindergarten, she unwittingly buries her identity even more and Farah breathes a sigh of relief.
Duncan continues to close in on Ivanov and the trafficking ring as Grace makes a surprising disclosure to Farah. She stayed in an apartment in the city with her abductors and two teens—Amelia Crow and Carly Tucker—before coming to the Quinn household. Though she was not abused, the teens were. When her conscience gets the better of her, Farah makes an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers. Duncan and his partner rescue the teens not long after. Eventually, Aunt Anna’s cryptic vision leads Duncan to Farah and Glenn’s place, where he’s shocked to find that the little girl playing in the snow is Grace! At the hospital, Grace’s reunion with her biological family is anything but joyful! She rejects Jackie and Simon and begs to return to Farah and Glenn, sobbing.

ACT 4: December 2022 - February 2023
Even Christmas can’t draw Grace from her room for long. She hits her brother, acts out, or isolates herself from everyone, all signs she’s suffering from severe trauma. Her therapist diagnoses her with PTSD, exacerbated by the teen’s abuse she witnessed in captivity. When Grace accuses Jackie of giving her away—Jackie’s heart breaks—but then she’s able to set the record straight.
Jackie’s emotional connection with Duncan intensifies further. While Simon has grown distant, Duncan has supported Jackie through the worst nightmare of her life. Jackie eventually discovers that Simon’s sister Eve was complicit in Grace’s kidnapping, having been manipulated by Glenn with the promise of financial assistance. When Eve tells Simon she gave Grace a shot to keep her quiet in the tent that night, Simon is appalled! Still, Jackie can no longer stay with him. She overheard him confess to his sister he “can’t stand Grace” and “was relieved when she was gone!” While walking in the snowy woods, Jackie tells Duncan that her marriage is over, but she can’t date him until Grace is more stable. It could be a long time. In an emotional scene, Duncan gathers her up in his arms and kisses her, then says he’ll “wait for as long as it takes.”

ACT 5: June - October 2023
The final act of the story brings justice to the Quinns. Glenn pleads not guilty and opts for a trial, while Farah, overwhelmed by guilt and remorse, accepts a plea bargain. At Farah’s sentence hearing, Jackie delivers an emotional victim impact statement, detailing the agony of not knowing her daughter’s fate. Farah tearfully insists she was a good mother to Grace, but Jackie remains unforgiving. Then she sends her a letter in prison admitting that Grace refers to Farah as her “other mother,” acknowledging the bond between them. Tucked inside the letter is another page: Grace has drawn a picture of two stick figures—one tall with long dark hair, the other short with brown hair and glasses—holding hands. They are at The Aquarium, where Farah took Grace. And underneath the figures are the words Mommy and Me. Farah’s heart bursts.
By October 2023, the story closes on a hopeful note. Jackie’s family celebrates Thanksgiving at the newly acquired B&B Duncan helps Anna run after leaving his soul-sucking job on the police force. Although Jackie and Duncan are not officially a couple, their mutual affection is evident, and the prospect of a future together seems inevitable. Anna’s psychic vision of an older Duncan walking Grace down the aisle at her wedding hints at a bright future for all involved and despite trauma and loss, healing and happiness are still possible.
Writing similar to that of David E. Kelly, Melanie Marnich, Liz Tigelaar, and Gillian Flynn (Big Little Lies, Apples Never Fall, Little Fires Everywhere, Gone Girl, based on novels of the same names)