SYNOPSIS –
HARPER EMERSON, a best-selling novelist, screenwriter, and recovering alcoholic, has struggled with depression since her son, Jared, died in a fire at her ex-husband’s house two years ago. She is a loner who rarely leaves home, spending most of her time sitting at her desk and writing.
She is the top female crime and thriller writer in the world and a multimillionaire. However, despite her success, none of her 22 books has ever been adapted into a movie—until now. A major studio has purchased the rights to her latest novel, Perfect Murder.
Harper tells CONCETTA HARLOW, her best friend, that she can’t come to New York for Christmas because she has a deadline to adapt Perfect Murder into a screenplay. The truth is that Harper is preparing to end her life on Christmas Day. She has struggled with depression since Jared’s death, and now all she wants is to be with him again.
One night, while traveling to her cabin in the Poconos, where she plans to spend her final night, Harper stops at a gas station. When she looks toward the convenience store, she spots her ex-husband, GARY EMERSON, in the distance. In the passenger seat of his car, she sees a little boy who looks remarkably like Jared.
When Gary and Harper make eye contact, he jumps into his car and speeds away. Harper gets into her car to follow him, but another driver rear-ends her. As the woman apologizes and attempts to exchange insurance information, Harper races after Gary in her car. Unfortunately, he is already long gone.
When Harper tells Concetta that she saw Gary with a child who looked like Jared, Concetta is skeptical. After all, Jared’s death was officially investigated and the case was closed two years ago. However, when Harper tells her AA sponsor, private investigator MIKE EVERSON, what happened, he believes her. She hires him to find Gary and possibly her son.
Meanwhile, Harper is constantly followed by an overzealous fan named TIM JACKSON, who appears to be intellectually challenged and harmless. However, Mike discovers that Tim was once a medical examiner at the Philadelphia morgue—and that he performed Jared’s autopsy. Tim’s behavior of being mentally challenged was merely an act designed to help him get close to Harper. When she threatens to call the police, he finally tells her the truth. Gary paid him to falsify Jared’s autopsy report and death certificate.
Gary wanted to take Jared away from Harper because, during their bitter divorce, she had threatened to move with Jared to her house in Spain, where Gary would never see his son again. Harper made the threat to punish Gary for cheating on her.
When Mike discovers where Gary and Jared are hiding, he devises a plan with Harper and Tim to rescue the boy. At Gary’s cabin, Mike enters through the back door and reaches Jared’s bedroom. Meanwhile, Harper and Tim enter through the front and confront Gary.
Gary grabs his gun and shoots Tim. Before he can shoot Harper, she uses her martial arts skills to knock the gun from his hand. During the ensuing struggle, she kills Gary by breaking his neck with a rear-naked choke. By the time the police arrive, Tim has succumbed to his gunshot wound.
On Christmas Day, Harper celebrates new beginnings at home with Jared, Concetta, her three children, and Mike. Before Jared’s supposed death, he had asked his mother for a puppy for Christmas. After two years apart, Harper finally gives him the present he had always wanted. And she has a miracle present—her son back.
