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 This
is the birthday of the young and fragile Alice Jackson that Caroline
Wilson visits a man in prison, Gus, who happens to be Alice's father.
Imprisoned for several years for having shot a policeman who threatened
his daughter, Gus has always proclaimed his innocence. It is thanks to
Caroline and to the support of the influential C.C. Capwell that Gus
gets to be released on parole shortly before Christmas 1986. As a
generous man of integrity, Gus finds with a great joy his daughter,
Alice, who finally takes back a taste for life after being interned in a
mental institution during all his incarceration.
Gus
gets from the beginning of 1987 a job as a waiter at the restaurant the
Orient Express. But the law of series is going after him : a theft of
money is committed at the restaurant, and Eden Capwell is convinced to
recognize Gus as the black man who assaulted her. The real thief, a man
named Zach, puts evidences against Gus at his home. Despite the support
of Julia Wainwright and Cruz Castillo, Gus is arrested and thrown in
jail. As Gus's trial begins, Zach makes a mistake and, to bail out,
takes as hostages at the Lockridge mansion Alice, Caroline and Lionel
Lockridge. Gus intervenes and saves Caroline's life by throwing himself
in a fight with the thief.
But
Gus has to face another ordeal when, after these events, Caroline
decides to show sincerity and to confess to Alice the secrecy
surrounding her birth. Despite Gus's opposition, Alice learns that she
is Caroline's daughter, contrary to what her father always told her. At
the time of their romance, a marriage between an African-American man
and a young woman of the southern states was unthinkable, what explains
the abandonment of Alice by Caroline after her delivery. Gus manages to
be forgiven by his daughter, which shows even more grievances against
Caroline who left her in her asylum for years without intervening.
When
he gets a job opportunity in Chicago, Gus offers his daughter to go
alone with him. After a final farewell to Caroline, Gus leaves Santa
Barbara with Alice to finally catch up the time he lost with her and to
start more serenely a new life...
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