Sweet Autumn

Logline

Aunt Dee splits her candy shop between her niece, Maggie, and maple farmer, Dex. Following letters Dee left, the two uncover the reason for her decision, during the Sweet Autumn festival.

Synopsis

Maggie Murphy, who operates her own investment brokerage firm in Minneapolis in partnership with her ex-boyfriend Jonathan Richardson, returns to her small hometown of Brattleboro, Vermont six months following the passing of her beloved Aunt Dee for the "no tears" will reading. Maggie and her sister Jody, who still lives in Brattleboro with her husband Eddie, was raised by Dee and her traditions, including always being around "Aunt Dee's", her small homemade candy store, and being involved in the organization of the town's Sweet Autumn Festival, which Dee started, for which Jody has taken over the organization, and the start of which this year coincides with Maggie's return. Although entering into the will reading with no expectations, Maggie is happy to learn that Dee has left her half ownership of the candy store, which Maggie, as she and Jonathan have done with many such small family businesses, would like to expand to make Aunt Dee's a household name nationally as she believes Dee would have wanted. However, Dee has left the other half of the business to Dex Walters, who has been helping in the store since he and his father Ron Walters moved to town a couple of years ago to operate the local maple tree farm. The problem is not only that Dex has no desire to expand as he believes Dee would have wanted, but that he and Maggie have had an antagonistic few encounters in her short time in town. Both Maggie and Dex want to buy the other out of the business, neither who seems to want to back down. For the remainder of Maggie's stay, they decide at least to meet in the middle to get to know where the other is coming from to be able to reach a compromise. What factors into what happens is that Dee has left each of them a series of inspirational letters, one for each of the seven days of the Sweet Autumn Festival, which may provide some insight into the larger picture of why she left the two of them each as half owner of the business.