Tess, thirty, is a clumsy, obsessive compulsive vegetarian floundering in a dreary life. After an act of kindness goes wrong, Tess lands on probation. She must keep her job as a telemarketer selling frozen meat, stay within fifty miles of Albany and meet with her probation officer once a week to stay out of jail. All Tess wants is a break from her spiritless existence and the dismal rain but on her limited horizon, there is no break in sight. Then Tess meets Molly.

Molly, mid-seventies, is a vibrant woman with a zest for living, a terminal diagnosis and a dying wish. Hell-bent to find a mysterious artifact from her past, Molly eyes Tess and her clunker of a car as the ticket to fulfill the mission. Even though they just met, Molly asks Tess to help her run an errand. Kind-hearted to a fault, Tess agrees only to learn the “errand” requires a five- hundred mile round-trip drive to Martha’s Vineyard. Unable to resist Molly’s magical charm, desperate to break the monotony of her life, and under the false impression she will return before anyone notices her absence, Tess sets off with the enchanting stranger.

From the moment the women land on the island, Tess is swept up in Molly’s free-spirited passion for living. Molly is in pursuit of a secret gift that Warren, her first love, left prior to his death. Problems ensue when Molly reveals that Warren did not specify where he hid the package. As Tess desperately tries to buy time from her bastard of a boss and dodge the authorities who can throw her in jail, Molly happily leads the women on an all-island scavenger hunt. As they search for the relic, the women retrace the days of Molly’s youth before her multiple divorces, exotic world travels and Warren’s death. Anxious to return home, Tess fights to keep the women on a tight time schedule. Molly, on a more terminal timeline of her own, dawdles to bask in the simple beauty of the island and relive the summer when she fell in love with Warren.

As a day of errands turns into a week away, Tess soaks up the lessons Molly has to offer and begins to blossom. She meets a handsome Irishman with a guitar, finds a mother she never had and learns to savor the flavor of crispy bacon. Faced with the possibility of losing her job and going to jail, Tess enlists the aid of fellow telemarketer, Dan Verann, to hide her absence. With antiseptic hand gel and an inflatable doll as props, Dan does what he can to help Tess dodge a pink slip.
As Tess’s probation officer, her boss and Molly’s son close in on the women, Tess’s creative deduction allows the women to finally find Warren’s bittersweet token of love. At peace, Molly surrenders to her illness. Transformed, Tess quits her job, wiggles out of probation and heads off to travel. Tess finally gets her break and finds herself dancing naked on a beach in Spain as warm rains shower down on her.

Copyright 2009 Heather Ferrell
All Rights Reserved