Child of the Disappeared

Seattle, 2024. Maria (mid 60s) survives her ordeal with the help of a sympathetic young soldier, DIEGO, and now lives with her loving husband DAN WAITE, a recovering alcoholic. A meeting with DR. KAPOOR reveals that Maria has cancer for the second time and needs to start treatment but is reluctant. Maria receives a disappointing letter from the Argentinean government regarding her request for information about her past. She files it away in one of dozens of boxes along with thousands of other documents.

Journalist SARAH PACKARD, her sister-in-law, arrives at Dan's request to convince Maria to start her cancer treatment but Sarah also has an ulterior motive: she's doing a report on the Dirty War and wants to interview Maria but Maris refuses. Sarah then tells Maria she discovered what had become of Maria’s first husband, JAVIER, who was arrested along with her, and how he was murdered.

Maria gets sicker and collapses, hitting her head, which puts her temporarily in the hospital. Dan confronts Sarah over her actions and confesses he fears he's losing his wife. He has a relapse and in a moment of weakness gets drunk. Maria reveals her latest tests show she has Stage Four cancer and, with little time left to live, she wants more than ever to find the baby she had in prison.

Against Dan’s wishes, Maria leaves heads to Argentina without him to meet LEOPOLDO (70s), Sarah’s source in Buenos Aires. Leopoldo helps in the search for her child. Meanwhile she continues to be haunted by memories and fear. She visits the Monument to the Victims of State Terrorism where she finds Javiers name on a plaque. Just when the search seems futile, she discovers a ledger of personnel assigned to her prison.

Maria tracks down a solider who has since died but his widow points her in the direction of his stepbrother who also was assigned to the prison. She follows the new lead and finds Diego. She learns she delivered a boy who was given to RAMON CRUZ, a retired military leader and politician, and his wife MAGDALENA. Leopoldo warns Maria further research was needed before she confronts Ramon. Then to her horror she learns Leopoldo was responsible for her and Javier’s arrest and flees from him. When she calls Dan in panic the call goes to voicemail.

An impatient Maria finds JUAN living with his parents along with his young daughter, CATALINA. She conspires to meet him on the street just to see him up close and to hear him speak. As she leaves, she spots Ramon watching her. When she returns to the hotel, she discovers Dan waiting for her.

Maria convinces Dan they need to return to the house to confront Ramon and Magdalena. After an awkward confrontation at the gate, Maria and Dan are let into the house. Ramon admits he wasn't initially told the truth about Juan's birth and, later, was told not to ask questions or the baby would be taken away. Juan does not know he's adopted, and Ramon has lived with regret for many years. Juan overhears the conversation.

Juan struggles to come to terms with the lies of his past and to accept that Maria is his true mother. When he departs in a haze of anger and confusion, Maria fears she's lost her chance to get to know him as she and Dan must leave Argentina the following day.

The next day Maria meets Leopoldo and says she may never forgive him but that he should forgive himself. That a part of each of them died during the Dirty War. At the airport, Maria and Dan are stunned when Juan turns up to see her off. Maria returns home, finally at peace. Sometime later, Maria is buried and Juan is at her funeral, where it's revealed they managed to have a relationship in the last days of her life. It's also revealed Maria agreed to be interviewed by Sarah, during which Maria thanked her friends and family for being the key to her survival. The report ends with a reminder that Maria's story is only one of many and there remain countless women who were abused and silenced during the war.