The Aviator's Letter.

How the season unfolds

Each beat scaffolds into a real scene + shot when you start the project. Edit, rearrange, or drop any of them as you write.

1. S0101
   The Channel Rescue

   Field nurse Margot drags a downed pilot from the surf at dawn. He is breathing. He hands her a sealed letter and a name.

   Cliffhanger

   He whispers: 'If I don't make it, find her. She's in Belmont. She thinks I'm dead.'

   beach dawn2 cast
2. S0202
   The ICU at Three AM

   The pilot fights to survive. Margot reads the letter under a hooded lamp. It is to a woman named Iris.

   Cliffhanger

   The letter ends: 'When the war is over, I will know your face by the way the light falls on it.'

   hospital icu night3 cast
3. S0303
   The Pilot's Watch

   Margot stares at his pocket watch on the nightstand. The inscription says 'For Iris — until the war.'

   Cliffhanger

   She opens the back. The photograph inside is — herself. A version of herself she has never seen.

   hospital icu night1 cast
4. S0404
   The Letter to Iris

   Margot tracks down Iris in Belmont. Iris reads the letter. She has been engaged to another man for two years.

   Cliffhanger

   Iris says: 'I never sent that photograph to him. I have never owned that photograph.'

   opera house grand1 cast
5. S0505
   The Lighthouse Storm

   Margot writes to the pilot every night for six weeks. He answers in pencil. The letters cross at the lighthouse.

   Cliffhanger

   The pilot writes: 'The Iris I love is the one who pulled me out of the water.'

   lighthouse storm2 cast
6. S0606
   The Newsroom

   VE Day. The war is over. Margot reads in the newspaper that the pilot is being decorated in London tomorrow.

   Cliffhanger

   The accompanying photograph shows him with Iris on his arm. The caption: 'The pilot and his fiancée.'

   newsroom bullpen2 cast
7. S0707
   The Departure Lounge

   Margot waits at the airfield. The pilot arrives off the transport. He sees her. She has not written in three days.

   Cliffhanger

   He hands her his watch. The inscription has been changed. It now says 'For Margot — after the war.'

   airport departure lounge2 cast
8. S0808
   The Last Letter

   She reads the letter Iris gave back to her — the original. The handwriting matches the pilot's. The name on the envelope is Margot's.

   Cliffhanger

   The envelope is dated three days before the crash. He wrote to a Margot he had never met. He knew her name.

   beach dawn1 cast