Black Swan

Helen Thompson and her young daughter Ellie live in the small town of Hopeville, located on the shores of the Bay of Fundy. It's the day before the annual Swan Festival, the biggest event in town. The event took on a new life twenty years earlier when a non-indigenous Australian black swan was spotted for the first time. Now, legend has it that spotting that black swan has special meaning, for some good, for others bad. It does more so for Helen, whose mother, Mara, died that day when she was washed away by the tides. Helen was told then that her body sailed down to Florida. Helen hates the town, and dreams of moving away, anywhere - but most specifically Florida - someday. Today, the local grocer, Mr. Yung, is missing and presumed murdered, and his store was burglarized. Helen believes her shiftless boyfriend, Carl, had something to do with it. Among others, four people also arrive in town that day. One is wheelchair-bound Albert, who comes into town every couple of years and has a special but dysfunctional relationship with Helen. Two is a mysterious woman wandering the shores, she who comes every year to the festival. And three and four are Clive and Bella from Montreal, who didn't come for the festival but are stuck in town as their car has broken down. Helen sees Clive as her possible ticket out of town.