A high-strung exec with an anxiety disorder inherits her great-aunt’s country house, which unexpectedly includes a band of colorful misfits she must evict before selling the property.    

SYNOPSIS:

Synopsis:

LILLY (30) is an ambitious corporate climber who has alienated herself from her family. Now, that family is all but gone when she receives a letter from her great-aunt’s attorney saying Aunt Beatrice has died leaving her everything. Upon her arrival to the small yet vibrant town of Still Waters, she finds that the cottage Aunt B lived in is now owned by the hunky handyman, WILL (35). However, the “big house” Lilly didn’t know about, belongs to her.

Unbeknownst to Lilly, her aunt collected a family of her own—a mixed bag of needy people who rely on each other for emotional support. Things are complicated when the calm, kind handyman turns out to be Aunt B’s Harvard attorney in charge of helping Lilly with the estate. When she announces that she’s selling the house, much to Will’s regret, this includes evicting his dear friends whom Beatrice loved and invited into her life.

ROBERT “Sheff” SHEFFIELD (100) is a WWII veteran suffering from end-stage dementia. He is never seen without his wooden heart-shaped BOX that he cradles tenderly. In the mornings, he can be found sitting in the backyard on a handmade bench beneath the oak tree.

DYLAN (18) is a moody kid with blue hair and nail polish. A child of life-long foster care, he was found sleeping on the church steps when Will brought him back to Aunt B who saw something special in him—as she did so many others. She invited him to stay.

COOKIE (22) is as sweet and innocent as her name. With Down Syndrome and a passion for baking, she was sent to Still Waters on a work program through a Christian orphanage, and came to live with Beatrice who helped her begin a baking business for the local church coffee shop.

DIMITRI and CHARLOTTE (40’s) are French bohemian artists who indulge their pet chicken named Copernicus. When their RV broke down passing through town, Aunt B invited them home for dinner, and to her delight, they never left.

The morning Sheff is to be committed to a care facility, Lilly finds him outside sitting on his bench, and joins him. As usual, the conversation is painfully one-sided. When his beloved heart-shaped box suddenly falls to the ground, Lilly realizes he is cold to the touch. Sheff is gone. In tears, Lilly opens the box and discovers ticket stubs, mementos, and photos of a young couple—Sheff and Beatrice—healthy and in love. There are also war time medals from his esteemed military career.

It’s well-known that Aunt B’s faith and acceptance of people’s flaws and broken pieces made her a case study in grace and unconditional love. But what Lilly finally learns is that Sheffield built the big house for Aunt B for her future security, and to look after him in his final days. They were childhood sweethearts, but his non-verbal condition afforded Lilly no sign of that romance.

At Sheff’s funeral, there is an Honor Guard and bagpipes with representatives of the Army. Lilly is ashamed as she listens to testimonies about Sheffield—the generous patriarch of the family, the great love of her aunt’s life, and how the town benefitted from his charity. When Lilly realizes she was evicting Sheff from his own home, she has an epiphany, finally seeing what her aunt saw in each member of her adopted family. Dylan has a sentimental side, while Dimitri and Colette create beauty where there was none. Cookie is the purest expression of acceptance, and Will is a rock with a quiet, reliable strength.

All this, and a visit from a well-disguised ANGEL who appears several times throughout the story, determines that Lilly belongs in Still Waters and to the people who truly care about her. She has a family again, which includes a handsome handyman husband. Together, they carry on Aunt B and Robert’s legacy by turning the house into a fulltime nonprofit called…

… Bob and B’s Heart Project.