A man returns home to care for his father who’s riding a downhill early-onset Alzheimer’s spiral, but dark secrets revealed about the family patriarch’s past shock him to the core, dramatically altering the course of that care... and the direction of his own life.

SYNOPSIS:

As Danny Patrick, the son of the once-powerful and robust Lou Petronsky, 71, drives through his old hometown, wife Ash notes how dead everything seems. A NY actor, Danny’s come home to check in on his father, whose mind has been rapidly short-circuiting. Sister Joanie has abandoned her father for reasons unknown, and brother Tommy has warned Danny that it’s time to do something. Danny feels he doesn’t even know his siblings anymore and wants to find out why. He and Ash settle in for a visit, Ash already champing at the bit to get back to her job at the fashion magazine. She doesn’t hit it off with Graciella, Lou’s live-in help.Shocked by how far his father’s condition has deteriorated, Danny decides to stay home awhile, and sends Ash back to New York, but not before she fires Graciella.

Lou seems even more lost without his "Gracie" and Danny's job is now even harder, Joanie reveals to Danny that their father abused her sexually when she was just a child. Danny will never look at Lou the same way again and confronts him with these revelations. But Lou, lost in his world of chaos, overlapping time, and self-pity over the loss of Graciella, is mentally unreachable. Joanie agrees with Tommy that Lou should be put in a home, but Danny’s still torn. He tries to crack into the dementia to get at the truth about Joanie, and coerces Tommy to take them on a fishing excursion to Lighthouse Creek, which seems to momentarily reinvigorate Lou. But he quickly falls back into the dark, deep waters of his disease.After Lou’s 72nd birthday party, Danny rehires Graciella and convinces Joanie to talk to her father, but she is still unable to forgive him, even conjecturing that their mother’s death may have been caused by Lou’s past behavior, which is something Danny won’t even consider.Ash shows up unexpectedly and rightly senses there is something going on between Graciella and Danny. Ash heads right back to NY.

When Lou wanders off, the entire neighborhood, including Danny’s old pals whom he has neglected over the years, turns out in force to search. Two days later, Lou turns up blocks away, hunkered down in a doghouse. Danny finds what amounts to his mother’s suicide note. He steals his brother’s boat and takes Lou out to their old fishing haunt... where, in quiet desperation, he chooses to end Lou’s life, pushing him overboard. Seconds later, he dives in and pulls him back to safety. But while Danny’s back is turned, goes overboard... this time on his own.Danny loses his father, but has renewed his relationship with his siblings and old friends, and with Graciella by his side has found a way to deal with his father’s dark and horrifying past and move into a brighter future.

WHIRLABOUT