To feel worthy of Madeline, the love of his life, George takes on the scars of the nation and goes mad.

SYNOPSIS:

In 1960, young George and Madeline are deeply in love. But such depth of feeling scares him – he doesn’t feel worthy of her, not as smart, good-hearted, or good looking. He thinks he needs to earn the love she freely gives him. Because both are history majors, he attempts to write “An American Saga: From Lincoln to the Present.”

They argue in the car over his growing obsession with the new Presidential candidate, John F. Kennedy. The car crashes, crippling Madeline. George feels responsible. His subsequent caretaking while she’s wheelchair bound strengthens their bond.

As George idolizes Kennedy, a MYSTERIOUS MAN whispers doubts — the Bay of Pigs, womanizing, Cold War brinkmanship with Khrushchev, the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, and looming world catastrophe.

The MYSTERIOUS MAN claims that only a martyr can pass civil rights legislation and avert war in Vietnam. He threatens to harm Madeline if George fails to cooperate.

November 22, 1963, School Book Depository: George tries to fire warning shots in the air — but his rifle only clicks. Real shots ring out.

As the nation mourns, wheelchair bound Madeline watches the funeral on TV. George blurts out his “role in the assassination.” She sees attention-seeking madness. He accuses her of marrying him “to be white” and staying with him because of her disability.

In fury and love, she stands and walks for the first time since the accident. They collapse in each other’s arms, reborn in grief.

At her mother’s funeral, pregnant Madeline learns she was conceived through incest and endured long-denied abuse from her stepfather. The truth reframes her life; George holds her as she grieves.

By 1983, Madeline is an eminent attorney with offices atop the World Trade Center. Their son, Johnny, conceived the night of Kennedy’s funeral, struggles as the only white player on the Ole Miss football team.

September 11, 2001. Madeline talks on the phone to panicked George as smoke fills her office. She forbids him to die. The line crackles as the tower falls.

October 2001. Armed with a gun, George confronts the elderly MYSTERIOUS MAN, who admits that Kennedy’s death solved nothing — Vietnam came, racism endured. George holds a gun to the Mysterious Man’s head but cannot shoot.

Time Fracture - George awakens in 1983 with Madeline alive. He wants to prevent her move to the World Trade Center, but he fails.

In 2031, The new, multiracial President moves through a cheering crowd. George pushes forward to deliver the warning he failed to give Kennedy. He’s shot dead by panicked Secret Service Agents.

CODA

1983 - On a sunlit highway, Madeline’s car pulls up. The passenger door opens. Old George runs to her, struggling. Now he's Young George, running in broad, youthful strides. Young George: “My soul, my Madeline, loving together, in all times, for all of time, eternal flame, forever.”

Young George gets into the car, and they drive off.