When a stray bullet from senseless gun violence claims the life of a ten-year-old storyteller, her Irish-American mom must fulfill her daughter’s dying wish to have her ashes spread on a ‘fairy tree’ in Ireland, or the mom will never find closure, and the daughter’s stories will be forgotten forever. [In Feature and MOW formats]

SYNOPSIS:

REGAN DORAN (early-30s), a successful land acquisitions attorney in Boston, strolls through a city park that her firm wants to develop into condominiums. She is with her little redhead daughter, ROWAN (10), eating ice cream cones, when a drive-by shooter kills the girl and injures two others by a majestic, old tree. Coincidentally, earlier that day in school, Rowan read her story about lone “Fairy Trees” in Ireland. Rowan’s story and her untimely death inspire Regan to spread her daughter’s ashes in Cloonfad, Ireland.

Initially, Regan must navigate the grieving process past her estranged mother, MRS. DORAN (60), and an impatient boss, CHARLES THATCHER (55), who demands Regan immediately convert the park into condos, despite Rowan’s death. And, Regan is hounded by DETECTIVE SEAN DONAHUE (40), who thinks the drive-by shooting is politically related, and connected to Irish Republican Army activities near Cloonfad where Regan’s father was a suspect in 1986. In preparing for the trip to Ireland, Regan is surprised to find dozens of Rowen’s written stories, establishing her as a true Irish storyteller. Regan plans to read one story per day to minimize postmortem depression.

Once in Ireland, Regan is assisted by a wise-cracking car rental agent, PETR NOVAK (30), and a history-loving hotel clerk, CONNOR MURPHY (20), while thwarting a nosy Irish detective, CHIEF INSPECTOR EOIN GROGAN (50), who is assisting Detective Donahue in establishing a political motive for Rowan’s killing. The AR-15 used in the drive-by shooting can be traced to IRA terrorist activities in 1987, a week before Regan’s parents immigrated to Boston.

However, the heart of the story is in the growing mother-daughter relationship between Regan and her daughter. Rowan’s stories come alive in Ireland, as Regan visits a university and pub in Galway, and meets her parent’s former colleagues and makes new friends. Regan suspects her father has ties to the IRA, but realizes she must reconcile with her mother, despite her parents’ past. It takes two trips to Cloonfad for Regan to finally part with Rowan’s ashes around a fairy tree in a pasture. But, this time, Regan is not alone. She is surrounded by new friends, who help conduct a grand Irish wake around the tree. Throughout her travels, Regan learns to treasure her daughter’s wisdom and stories even more.

Regan returns to Boston and quits her job, which saves the park and the tree from her boss’s development firm. She comes to grips with her mother’s militant past, self-publishes Rowan’s stories, opens a Center for Nonviolence in Rowan’s name, and repairs her own mother-daughter relationship. The grieving process teaches Regan how to live, how to love, and how keep her daughter’s stories alive forever.

STRAY BULLET