Plot

On Coney Island in the 1950s, a lifeguard tells the story of a middle-aged carousel operator, his beleaguered wife and the visitor who turns their lives upside-down.

In the hustle and bustle of 1950s Coney Island, where the buzzing crowd comes and goes trudging slowly over the wooden boardwalks, silent stories of the everyday toilers who give life to the attraction unfold. Somewhere in a clam bar, there's the sad waitress Ginny, a one-time actress and now a suffering wife who's been given a second chance by the side of the well-intentioned but uncouth carousel operator, Humpty. On the other hand, there's Humpty's 26-year-old estranged daughter, Carolina, who left the familial nest and a preordained future seeking adventure as a mobster's wife; only to return home with her wings broken, begging for forgiveness. And from the lifeguard's high tower, where all is in plain sight, the young and charming lifesaver and hopeful playwright, Mickey, is the inadvertent but potent catalyst that binds everything together. Shattered dreams, reckless love and betrayal, all under the bright lights of Coney Island.—Nick Riganas

In Coney Island, in the 50's, the thirty-nine year-old waitress Ginny is a former aspirant actress married with the carousel operator Humpty in an unhappy marriage. She has a problematic son from her first marriage, the arsonist boy Richie. She is a frustrated woman that is having a love affair with the younger lifeguard Mickey, who is an aspirant writer. When Humpty's estranged daughter Carolina arrives in Coney Island seeking for shelter from her husband, who is a gangster, Humpty learns that Carolina has denounced him to the police and now he wants to kill her. Humpty lodges Carolina at home, affecting their lives.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Mickey Rubin, a Coney Island life guard with aspirations to be a playwright like Eugene O'Neill, narrates through the fourth wall. Carolina, the daughter of Humpty Rannell, arrives at the boardwalk looking for Ginny Rannell, her father's second wife who works as a waitress at the clam shack. She begs Ginny to let her live with them, but Ginny leaves it up to Humpty, who angrily kicked her out when she married her mobster boyfriend Frank and threw away her college education and chance for a better life. Carolina tells him she is on the run from Frank, who she believes wants to kill her because she gave evidence of mob activity to the FBI. Humpty lets her stay, on the condition that she saves money to return to college and better her life. Ginny gets her a waitress job where she works..

Coney Island, 1950s. Carolina is on the run from her mob-boss husband after talking to the FBI. She goes to live with her father, Humpty, and his new wife, Ginny, and her young son, Richie. She and her father had a falling out five years ago and haven't spoken since. This makes things initially quite awkward between the two but slowly they reconcile. Ginny is having an affair with a lifeguard, Mickey, a man much younger than her. Mickey is also attracted to Carolina, and Ginny does her best to not lose him. Meanwhile, the mob are still out to find Carolina.—grantss