The Promise Of '42

The Promise Of '42

Joe Nash in a teenaged garage mechanic living with his parents above their family's grocery market in Wakefield, Rhode Island. It's the summer of 1942, his older brother has just been killed in action overseas and its a struggle to keep life continuing on as normally as possible. There are bonfires on the beach, car races with his two best friends and time alone with his pencils and pad, sketching the sea. Then "the richies" arrive, the elite summer people who vacation at the pier each year. When Joe crosses paths with Sofia Mandzechoska, a wealthy young woman about to enter a prestigious college and engaged to a boy back home, he knows better than to even consider any relationship between them. But Sofia gets what she wants, and she wants Joe. After Joe enters an art exhibition, he is offered a gallery show in New York. Sofia decides to abort her college plans, break off her engagement and go with him. Disowned by her family, she marries the 19-year-old grocer's son and the two leave Rhode Island for life in the big city. Joe's success comes hard and fast and he soon learns he is going to be a father. Then, this world of dreams comes to a crashing end. Upon discovering that Sofia is suffering from a serious mental illness, Joe is overwhelmed with the responsibility of caring for her. He struggles with the question of whether or not both their lives would have been better had they not fallen in love... had he not made a promise to her in 1942 that he would never leave her.