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PETE AND ALICE IN MAINE

Book adaptation - Development 2025

At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a NYC playwright and her family flee to their house in rural Maine to endure lockdown, but after recently discovering her husband's ongoing affair, she struggles to forgive and make their marriage survive.

- Year of production
- 2025
- Genres
- Book adaptation, Social issues, Drama
- Countries
- USA
- Languages
- ENGLISH-UNITED STATES
- Budget
- 3 - 5 M$
- Synopsis
- When the COVID-19 pandemic hits New York City in March 2020, playwright Alice Laughton decides to take her two daughters, 11-year-old Sophie and 5-year-old Iris, to the family's vacation home in rural Maine to escape the virus. Her husband Pete, a wealthy finance executive, is reluctant but eventually agrees. They arrive at the isolated house only to find the locals are unwelcoming and suspicious of outsiders, especially New Yorkers who may carry the virus. Their car gets blocked into the long driveway by felled trees and they receive threatening notes ordering them to leave. After learning of Pete's affair only days earlier, the couple is now forced into a pressure cooker of marital conflict. Pete manages to get them unstuck, but Alice refuses to go back to the city.
  
  Tensions ebb and flow between Pete and Alice in Maine. Alice resumes online sessions with her therapist Lois, and takes an online memoir writing class to communicate her thoughts. The complexities of her struggles of still loving Pete while not being able to forgive him take a toll on her, forcing her to face her own flaws and regrets. All while parenting two young children through an unprecedented and tumultuous time. On a hiking trip, little Iris nearly drowns in a river until Pete heroically pulls her out, jarring everyone into a realization of how divided their family has become. Ultimately, the isolation causes each family member to reckon with who they are and what they truly need from each other. But in the winter, Pete is required to go back to work in the city, and before the wounds can heal, the family is separated.
  
  Their separation leaves Alice distraught and increasingly isolated. Sophie snoops and finds Alice's private journal detailing her doubts about forgiving Pete, shattering her hope of seeing her parents reconcile. One night, Alice discovers a lump in her breast, terrifying her. She calls Pete in tears and he begs her to allow him to return to Maine to be with her, no matter the pandemic risks. The story ends with Alice looking out into the winter night, phone to her ear, on the verge of her ultimate decision, will she do what is best for her family, or what may be best for herself?