Crooked Heart

Paper Moon meets the Blitz in this original black comedy set in World War II England, chronicling an unlikely alliance between a small-time con artist and a young orphan evacuee.

When Noel Bostock-aged ten, no family-is evacuated from London to escape the Nazi bombardment, he lands in a suburb northwest of the city with Vera Sedge-a thirty-six-year-old widow drowning in debts and dependents. Always desperate for money, she''s unscrupulous about how she gets it.

Noel is mourning his godmother Mattie, a former suffragette. Wise beyond his years, raised with a disdain for authority and an eclectic attitude toward education, he has little in common with other children and even less with the impulsive Vee, who hurtles from one self-made crisis to the next. The war''s provided unprecedented opportunities for making money, but what Vee needs-and what she''s never had-is a cool head and the ability to make a plan.

On her own, she''s a disaster. With Noel, she''s a team.

Together, they cook up a scheme. Crisscrossing the bombed suburbs of London, Vee starts to make a profit and Noel begins to regain his interest in life. But there are plenty of other people making money out of the war-and some of them are dangerous. Noel may have been moved to safety, but he isn''t actually safe at all.