About the Special

It’s the early 1940s, and the war in Europe is winding down. Anne Shirley (Barbara Hershey, Beaches, Portrait of a Lady) – now a successful, middle-aged writer – has returned to Green Gables on Prince Edward Island for an extended visit. On a whim, she’s agreed to write a play for her theatre producer and friend, Gene Armstrong (Ron Lea, RACE TO MARS, THIS IS WONDERLAND), a play that will be performed as part of the White Sands Hotel’s summer stock season.

Anne is forced to admit that the play is nothing more than a distraction – a way to take her mind off troublesome recent events in her life. Her only son, Dominic (Marc Bendavid, MAYDAY), has yet to return from the war. The play, she reasons, will keep her busy – at least busy enough to not go out of her mind with worry.

But a long-hidden secret discovered under the floorboards at Green Gables provides a distraction of its own. As Anne struggles to complete the play she has promised to Gene, she delves into long-buried memories, reliving the troubled years before she arrived as an orphan at the Cuthberts’ farmhouse. Over the course of one remarkable summer, Anne Shirley discovers the truth about her parents, the origins of her quest for “kindred spirits,” and the roots of her brilliant, magical imagination.
 

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