Gran

The media storm following the recently discovered photo of successful children’s book author Patricia at age nine holding a pro-choice protest sign in support of the pending Roe Vs Wade decision in 1973 has brought the firing of best friend Max and a tenuous relationship with new conservative editor Emily. Patricia’s wife Jan tries to be supportive, though the controversy continues to impact her reelection campaign for US congress. Arnold, the lovable but stern Director of Children’s Literature at Wheeling Publishing, insists Patricia do her first tour in thirty years to support her most recent book and tidy her public image. There’s only one problem: Patricia is afraid of children. On Max’s suggestion, she begins teaching a writers group of 9 year-olds at the local elementary school in their hometown of Burlington, Vermont. Patricia is quickly impressed by the brilliantly precocious leader of the writers group Lily, and her humorously earnest classmate Oliver, whose novel Lily is bringing to life as editor. Their second session is interrupted when Lily comes across a breaking news article about a highly personal, still quickly unfolding new scandal: Patricia’s estranged daughter Rebeka is publishing a book of her ‘unreturned letters’ sent to Patricia as an adult. Furthermore, Rebeka claims to have invented Patricia’s beloved central characters shortly before Patricia left her at age five with a former partner to become a successful author. Patricia faces pressure from all sides to reconnect with Rebeka. The hastened book tour disrupts her only source of solace: the young writers group. As she begins to read the latest draft of Oliver’s novel on the flight to her first tour stop, she receives a terrible voicemail: Max has died in a drunk driving accident. She quickly returns home to focus on the writers group, which now includes the students Max was teaching. Wheeling Publishing cuts ties with Patricia following the publication of Rebeka’s tell-all book, prompting her to begin a bumpy but ultimately successful journey of reconciliation when she and Rebeka work together with Lily on the follow-up to Oliver’s novel, the highest debut ever by an 11 year-old, thanks to Patricia’s guidance and connections made by Lily through one of Max’s former students in the writers group.