The Missing Child

Patrick Smithers is eleven years old in 1948 Britain. He has a loving mother and grandfather, but a difficult and harsh father. When his father accuses him of a terrible crime, Patrick runs away from home in fear and confusion. The trauma causes the sensitive boy to lose his ability to speak, setting off a series of life-changing events. Patrick soon finds himself in a home for waifs and strays, where an unscrupulous manager arranges for him to be sent away as an orphan on a migration ship bound for Australia. Fortunately, Patrick is taken under the wing of a kind Australian man named Stan, who becomes a guiding light in his young life. Many years later, fate brings Stan and Patrick s mother, Sarah, together, and a romance blossoms between them, bringing new hope and healing to them both.