JO

Logline

Three strangers fleeing their old lives wash up in an unmapped, tide-governed harbor town hiding a mysterious, heartbeat-humming factory — and must decide whether to keep running or finally let themselves arrive, before the outside world catches up with them.

Synopsis

Cal, a former founder addicted to momentum; Mira, fleeing a life whose evidence she still carries; and Noa, the most spiritually attuned of the three, each wash up in Tidewell — an unmapped harbor town reachable only by an infrequent bus and a tide-dependent ferry. At the edge of town stands a modest factory whose true output is never fully explained. It may not be making objects at all, but restoring the people who pass through it. Jo, the town's elder, teaches by proximity rather than instruction. Each stranger is tested in turn, building to a finale that mirrors the story's opening image — but now with a fourth figure walking beside them.

In the tradition of The Leftovers, Severance, Midnight Diner, and Local Hero.