Synopsis
Frankie, a 9 year-old deaf boy, his mother Lizzie and grandmother Nell move constantly to run away from Lizzie’s abusive ex-husband. Most recently they have arrived in a seaside Scottish town. Wanting to protect her son from the truth, Lizzie has created a fictitious identity for his father as a crew-man on a ship sailing the globe. Frankie’s idealized view of his dad is fed by fake letters from exotic lands, in reality penned by his mother. As Frankie tracks the ship’s progress around the world, he discovers that it will dock in the local harbour in a few days. Cornered into revealing the truth or find someone to play the part of his father for just one day, Lizzie chooses the latter. She hooks up with a stranger who agrees to pose as Frankie’s dad. The arrangement extends into a full weekend. The new family’s unity is destabilized when it emerges that Frankie’s real dad is dying.