Ricky “Maverick” Santana comes home after twenty-one years. Suffering from the traumas of abuse and neglect, that go hand-in-hand with our American prison systems, he has become a loner, hardened over his lengthy sentence. He is a master of manipulation, who trusts no one. His PTSD is triggered by feelings of inadequacy, indecision, or disrespect. The hopelessness that has crept into his face gives him a more rugged look than in his youth. There are layers of frustration and fear, just underneath his heavy penetrating stare. Maverick hikes eight hours from an upstate prison, along the Old Croton Trailway, to his Mom’s small project apartment in the Bronx. He meets several new family members, but none more important than his twenty-year-old daughter, Ellie.

 

A constant state of alertness has made it difficult for Maverick to ever really relax. He rarely sleeps and, when he does, he has nightmares. At a “Welcome Home” party for Maverick, Ellie is pinned against a wall by her baby’s daddy, Nestor. The assault progresses to forceful kisses. Fortunately, Maverick is close by and rescues his daughter. Later that night, Ellie and swollen-eyed Maverick sit on the couch still contemplating the day’s events. Ellie checks the bruise under Maverick's eye, kissing it gently to ease the pain. There's a silent tension, as they stare at each other for two beats too long. Between these related strangers something raw, primal, and forbidden has been released.

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Maverick’s mother, Janet, gets him a job at a clothing store, working for an under-sexed woman, Valerie, from her church. Trying to connect her son, with an entrepreneur and a Christian, is exactly the type of passive-aggression Janet has always displayed. It’s never really mattered what anyone wanted. Janet always knows best.

 

Maverick and Valerie have sex several times, but he soon grows tired of her and ends their relationship. Meanwhile he is feeling more comfortable at home and getting closer to his daughter, but the signs of affection that they share are always awkward. To make matters worse, his PTSD triggers are being activated with more frequency, which causes him to get thrown in jail for a weekend.

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His ex-wife, Sally, bails him out and he mistakes her kindness for affection, which makes him try to win her back. Soon after, Janet uncovers a secret between Maverick and Ellie that shatters her soul. Janet ends up blaming herself for ignoring her suspicions and commits suicide. Losing his mother, ending his relationship with his daughter, and being rebuffed by Sally, causes Maverick to fall deeper into depression and paranoia.

 

He decides his only chance at redemption is to go to Nestor's apartment and leave NYC with Ellie and Elijah; to protect them. Will his plan backfire sending him back to prison for good or will it work, convincing his daughter to run away with him where they will live ... happily ever after? -- This is a tragic story of what happens when two broken souls, who have never met, finally do connect, and give into their feelings of love.

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