Time and Misplacement
Drama • Family Drama • Historical Drama
Gene Harper has spent a lifetime trying to leave Vietnam behind.
Now an aging veteran struggling with memory, grief, and the death of his wife finds the past returning with startling clarity—especially the memories of Phu Nu, the young Vietnamese woman he loved and was forced to leave behind during the fall of Saigon.
When Gene learns that she may have survived—and that she was carrying his child when he left—his fading memories become the only map he has to find the family he never knew existed.
With an old Army buddy at his side and his daughter desperately trying to understand the father she thought she knew, Gene begins one final mission.
This time, he’s not trying to escape the past.
He’s trying to find his way back to it.
Logline
After losing his wife and beginning to lose his grip on the present, an aging Vietnam veteran sets out with an old Army buddy to find the Vietnamese woman he loved and the child he never knew—turning a journey through fading memories into one last chance to reunite a family separated by the fall of Saigon.
About the Screenplay
Time and Misplacement is an emotional drama about memory, aging, family, and the unfinished promises that can follow a person across a lifetime.
Gene Harper is a Vietnam veteran who has spent decades building a life with his wife, Beverly, while carrying memories of a very different life he left behind in Southeast Asia.
After Beverly’s death, Gene’s world begins to unravel. His home is lost, his independence begins slipping away, and increasingly troubling lapses in memory lead his daughter, Ashley, to move him into an assisted-living facility. But while Gene sometimes struggles to understand the present, pieces of his distant past remain remarkably vivid.
Especially one woman.
Phu Nu was Gene’s first love during the war. When Saigon fell in April 1975, chaos separated them before Gene could keep a promise to get her out. Decades later, an encounter with Mickey, an old military friend, reveals something Gene never knew: Phu Nu survived the evacuation—and she was pregnant with his child.
Suddenly, the memories everyone fears Gene is losing become the clues to something he desperately needs to find.
Gene and Mickey embark on an unconventional search for Phu Nu while Ashley races to find her increasingly unpredictable father. Their journeys gradually uncover a family history buried beneath war, guilt, immigration, sacrifice, and decades of silence.
At its heart, Time and Misplacement isn’t simply about a man losing his memory.
It’s about the memories that refuse to leave him—and whether there is still enough time to put the people separated by history back where they belong.
Screenplay Details
Author: James Leach
Genre: Drama • Family Drama • Historical Drama
Format: Feature Screenplay
Page Count: [Page Count]
Setting: Contemporary United States / Saigon, Vietnam
Time Period: Present Day / Vietnam War Era (1975)
Status: Completed / Available for Option
Available Materials
Screenplay
Synopsis
Treatment
Character Sketches
Pitch materials / Storyboards
About the Screenwriter — James Leach
James “JC” Leach is a U.S. Air Force veteran, technical writer, and screenwriter who has been developing original screenplays since 2008. His work spans historical drama, military and geopolitical thrillers, science fiction, suspense, horror, and stories inspired by real events.
With a professional background in technical writing, instructional design, and simulation development, JC brings extensive research, technical authenticity, and a disciplined approach to storytelling. His military experience in electronic warfare and aviation provides an additional foundation for stories involving military operations, technology, and high-stakes environments.
JC has developed a diverse portfolio of feature-length screenplays. His work includes original material as well as two adaptations of public-domain literary works, giving him experience translating existing stories into cinematic narratives.
He is currently adapting his screenplay portfolio into novels, expanding his stories across both film and publishing. JC is interested in connecting with producers, representation, and creative collaborators seeking distinctive, character-driven material with strong cinematic potential.
JAMES LEACH Author • Screenwriter 