Love In The Present Tense

So much of how it started was when that cop got out and came up to me. But I didn't know all this when it first happened. I didn't know there would ever be a Leonard, or that this man would be his father, or that anybody would have to die..."

For five years Pearl has tried to keep the past from catching up with her and her little boy, Leonard.

Growing up surrounded by violence, Pearl's life ran along the dangerous edges of poverty and underage sex. As a teenage mother, she wants to give Leonard a chance of a better life than the one she had, and moves them to a safer place. But Pearl feels she'll never be safe from a violent secret in her past. And one day, a man returns to take her away. Pearl knows, if she is going to preserve her dignity, she has to get in his car. With a heart full of agony she leaves five year-old Leonard with the next-door neighbour, Mitch. And never returns.

This is the story of Leonard's endless love for Pearl, of their unbreakable bond and of the invisible connections that tie one magical, young and troubled family together.