SYNOPSIS (with spoilers)

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SENT AWAY,  a hopeful story about two boys struggling for independence and safety and a father’s redemption, is based on events in my own childhood.

 

When MICHAEL and DAVY’s mother MARY tells them they will be staying with their father ETHAN for a summer, they should be happy to escape their abusive stepfather FRANK, but they don’t know Ethan; he’s been in prison for 9 years for killing a home intruder, an incident that Michael, who was four at the time, continues to have traumatic flashbacks about.

 

Over the summer, Michael and Davy discover Ethan is a kind, gentle father, so they beg their mother to stay through the school year. She says no, but Ethan, who has seen the boys’ scars from Frank’s abuse, determines to go for custody.

 

At the hearing, the judge refuses to hear the boys’ testimony about Frank’s abuse and orders them returned to Mary. Horrified and despairing, the boys concoct a hasty plan to run away and hide in the woods—with Ethan’s knowledge. When Frank and Mary arrive to take the boys and find them missing, Frank beats Ethan into a coma.

 

Hiding out in the forest with Davy, Michael has a flashback that reveals someone else was in the house the night of the intruder killing. The boys sneak into the hospital to tell Ethan, but Frank catches them. As Frank drives them across state lines, Michael secretly records him confessing to killing the intruder and framing Ethan—with the help of Mary! 

 

Michael sends the recording to a friend, and soon after the police show up to arrest both Frank and Mary. Ethan’s conviction gets set aside, and he’s awarded permanent custody of Michael and Davy.