Genre: Drama / Supernatural
Tone: Heartfelt, emotional, with elements of magical realism
Themes: Time, legacy, reconciliation, the bonds between
fathers and daughters, mortality

ACT I — THE BURDEN OF TIME
Prologue – Iraq, 1991
In the chaos of Desert Storm, Sergeant Vance Winstock collects sand in a jar to remember “the sands of time.” The battlefield freezes around him, and he encounters the enigmatic Father Time—a leathery, Victorian-clad figure wielding a cane with an hourglass. Father Time warns him: not all wars are fought on the battlefield; some are waged within. Then time resumes, leaving Vance shaken.

Present Day – Orlando, 2025
Decades later, Vance is a worn-out veteran, now in his 50s, battling Stage Four liver cancer. At the VA hospital, he brings roses to the nurses and visits his old commander Dusty Caster, who is dying. The two joke like old war buddies, but Dusty admits he’s out of time. His daughter, Stacee, arrives too late to say goodbye, and Vance is crushed by guilt. Back home, Vance lives alone with his loyal dog Gunner. He spends nights scouring old contacts, trying to find his estranged daughter Destiny, who hasn’t spoken to him in years. He relives the traumatic night his wife Shari died in a motorcycle accident—and Destiny, then a teen, blamed him, screaming that he should have been there. She kicked over his bike and left him emotionally broken. In various visions and guises, Father Time returns, reminding Vance that his “sand is running out”. Time is relentless. The question is what legacy he will leave behind.

ACT II — THE SEARCH FOR DESTINY
Friends and Intervention. Vance hides his illness until poker night with his old tank crew. When Sophie Tucker (his loyal gunner and closest friend) learns he has cancer, she rallies the crew to stage an intervention. They demand he stop running from his past and find Destiny before it’s too late. Vance resists, wallowing in guilt and self-destruction, culminating in a DUI arrest. But Sophie doesn’t give up. She stays at his side, feeding him, nursing him through fevers, and urging him to reconcile with his daughter. Sophie carries her own pain—her father abandoned her as a teen—and she knows how devastating an absent father can be.

Meanwhile – Destiny’s Story
Far away, Destiny Winstock, now in her late 20s, serves as a medevac medic in Afghanistan. She’s fearless, scarred by combat, and hardened against loss. She saves lives but carries deep trauma and survivor’s guilt. Off-duty, she numbs herself with alcohol and a hookup gone wrong. She’s haunted by her mother’s death and her father’s absence, clinging to a grudge as her shield. When her childhood friend Kelsey tells her that Colonel Grimes (Vance’s old commander) has been calling, Destiny shuts down. She wants nothing to do with him. But seeds of doubt are planted.

Father Time Appears Again
Vance continues seeing Father Time in different guises—sometimes as a landscaper, sometimes as a doctor. Likewise, Destiny is welcomed home by Father Time is welcomed as a WWII veteran. Sophie is met by Father Time, the hospital volunteer. Always cryptic, always reminding him and Destiny that unfinished business festers, and that legacy lives through relationships, not solitude.

ACT III — RECONCILIATION ON BORROWED TIME
Vance Collapses. His illness worsens. In a heartfelt discussion about Father- daughter relationships, Vance becomes unconscious, and Sophie rushes him to the hospital, and pleads with the doctors. Vance hovers between life and death, visited again by Father Time the Doctor, who shows him visions of Shari, Dusty, and Destiny. Time is nearly up.

Destiny Returns
Through Grimes’ persistence and Sophie’s determination, Destiny finally agrees to come. A tense, emotional reunion unfolds at Vance’s hospital bedside. At first, Destiny is defensive and angry—years of resentment spilling out. But as she sees the frail man before her, she softens. Vance apologizes for not being there the day her mother died. Destiny admits she ran instead of facing him. In an emotional breakthrough, Destiny reveals she’s pregnant—a child conceived during her chaotic hookup — an attempt to cope with trauma. Vance smiles through tears, telling her she’ll make a fine mother. Legacy will continue.

The Final Goodbye
When Vance’s heart gives out, hospital staff prepare to honor his DNR order. But Destiny, true to her medic’s oath, fights desperately to save him—screaming, “No one dies on my watch!” It mirrors her battlefield rescues, her refusal to let go. Despite her efforts, Vance slips away. As his hand falls open, an empty hourglass lies in his palm. Father Time and the Grim Reaper fade from view.

EPILOGUE: THE LEGACY OF TIME
At Vance’s funeral, comrades, Sophie, and Destiny honor him
with full military rites. After her father’s funeral, Destiny embarks on one last
mission of her own — to deliver the blood-stained letter a wounded Marine pressed into her hands in Afghanistan. Dressed in full uniform, she travels to a modest farmhouse in Kansas where the soldier’s mother, Maxine, greets her with weary grace.

With trembling hands, Destiny offers the weathered envelope, explaining how her son died protecting her. Together, they sit at the kitchen table and read his final words aloud, tears falling between them. In that moment, Destiny not only honors the Marine’s sacrifice but also fulfills her duty to carry his voice home, giving his mother the closure he could not. It is an act of service that heals them both — and helps Destiny finally begin to heal her own fractured heart. Months later, Destiny, now visibly pregnant, rocks on her father’s porch wearing the WWII veteran’s coin Father Time gave her. She has chosen to carry her father’s legacy forward—with compassion, forgiveness, and resilience. When Father Time reappears as a simple landscaper, Destiny recognizes him at last. “Do I know you?” she asks. He replies with a smile: “Everyone gets to know me sooner or later.” The sands of time continue to fall—but Vance’s legacy endures through the daughter who forgave him, and the child who will carry his name.