A career-oriented lawyer inherits a waterfront condo and visits it to fall in love with a brother she didn’t know she had. They combine forces to save the condo complex from eminent domain when a senator wants to destroy it for a Coast Guard Station.

SYNOPSIS:

The Reason Why is a story about identity, family, and discovering the essence of who we really are. SARA HITCH, 30, a D.C. lawyer, was raised by her single mom, VICKY, 47, and, thinking she never had a father, has a psychological wound that seems to follow her every career move. But, the judge whom she clerks for is actually her biological father who was secretly involved in her life from its inception.

The same man, Judge George Collins, got another girl pregnant in college and married her to raise a son, HUNTER, 28, but in reality, Hunter's mother, TAMMY, 50, was pregnant from another man and tricked George into marrying her.

The setting for this dramedy is a condominium overlooking the Chesapeake Bay. Ospreys hatch and learn to fly in nests within yards of the condo. Glorious sailboats traverse the channel in front of the condo docks. This peaceful setting is an extreme dichotomy to the normal Washington D.C. city life of Sara and Vicky.

The judge lies in a coma. Tammy pressures Hunter to disconnect him from life support but he can't do it. Neither can the judge's father, EDWARD, 70's, a retired lawyer's lawyer. Edward, the administrator of the judge's will, tells the judge's law clerk, Sara, that the judge has left his fabulous waterfront condo to her in his will. In the inciting incident of the script, Hunter meets Sara and the central question of the story is asked by all: why did he leave her the condo? Sara's mother thinks it is because he wanted Sara to discover the wonders of the Chesapeake Bay and life outside of the city. Hunter thinks it was because his father wanted him to meet Sara. Tammy thinks it was because Sara was sleeping with her ex-husband. Sara thinks it was because the judge wanted her to save the condominium complex from a federal eminent domain action conceived by the antagonists, SENATOR PUSHKIN, 50's, and Ginger, who want a Coast Guard station to be built where the judge's condominium now stands.

Sara and Vicky visit the condo for the first time and meet Hunter, a local boat builder, who, on the weekends, grew up in his father's condo that Sara will inherit. He takes Sara for a ride in his boat, ostensibly to show her the surroundings, but actually to grill her about why she is in his father's will. While they are gone, Hunter's mother, Tammy, who looks more like 40 than her actual 50, sends her gossip-queen friend MRS. BALDWIN, 50's, to question Vicky about the relationship between Sara and Ginger's ex-husband, the judge. She discovers Vicky has never been married. When called a Baby Mama, Vicky shows Mrs. Baldwin photos Vicky found of the judge as a high school football player and explains he is the Baby Daddy. Shocked, Mrs. Baldwin rushes off to tell the news to Tammy, who immediately calls Hunter.

But Hunter and Sara are discovering they are attracted to each other and don't answer texts and calls from their mothers. Sara catches her first fish and Hunter now thinks the reason his father gave Sara the condo was because he wanted Sara to be Hunter's girlfriend.

Act One ends as they return to the docks to meet Senator Pushkin, the local senator who is pushing through a federal eminent domain action to turn the condos into a Coast Guard station and his financial backer LOUIS LIDO, a Jeff Bezos type from NYC. When Hunter and Sara see their mothers, they both learn that they are brother and sister.

Act Two introduces the new relationship between Sara, who is shocked to find out the judge she clerked for was her father, but who is thrilled to have a brother, and Hunter, who is disappointed he can't pursue Sara as a girlfriend. Sara, upset with her mother about never revealing the truth, and now filled with self doubt because her job clerking was an act of nepotism rather than something she earned, stays in the condo and dives into the eminent domain case, thinking the reason the judge gave her the condo is because he wants her to save it from demolition. She also reads books on how to sail, then impresses Hunter when they take the judge's prized sailboat out.

At the mid-point in the story, Sara has researched eminent domain, understands there is nothing she can do against the power of the federal government, and, defeated, returns to D.C. and to her original city-girl identity to seek a job clerking for another judge. Louis Lido is attracted to Vicky and takes her to his house on an island a mile from the proposed Coast Guard Station, where she sees photos of his 150-feet-long mega yacht and architectural plans for a new dock for it.

Hunter visits his mother and discovers she and Senator Pushkin are in a relationship and will own the Coast Guard Station building to be rented to the federal government guarantying future wealth. They want Hunter to be involved but first he must sign off on his father's removal from life support. He asks that Sara also be included and his mother confesses that the judge isn't his father; she was already pregnant when they met. Stunned, Hunter summons his grandfather Edward, Sara and Vicky and tells them the truth.

Sara has now lost the brother she thought she had and the condo she thought she could save, because even after a speech at the public hearing for the eminent domain, the county officials allow the project to proceed. Edward decides to disconnect the judge from life support.

But, George doesn't die. Hunter and Sara visit and determine he was actually about to be murdered, so they sneak him out of the hospital and take him to the condo, then out on his beloved sailboat. In a lightning storm, the judge wakes up.

Sara determines the actual reason why the eminent domain action was filed; to allow get Louis's boat to make it through the narrow, shallow channel. She uses this to force Senator Pushkin to decline to back the project and the condo is saved.

Hunter expresses his love to Sara and decides to leave his life on the bay to move to D.C. so Sara can clerk for a Supreme Court Justice. The judge recovers and moves to the condo to live with Vicky.