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The Edge of the Garden
Year - 2011
Studio - Hallmark Channel
Stars - Rob Estes, Sarah Manninen, David Lewis, Kelly Monaco, David Richmond-Peck, Anne Marie DeLuise, Reg Tupper, Karen Elizabeth Austin, John Hainsworth
Director - Michael Scott
Writing Credits - Duane Pool
Music - Graeme Coleman
Synopsis
Brian Connor (Rob Estes) is a workaholic executive with his family's tech business. His exasperated fiancé, Julie (Kelly Monaco), breaks off their relationship when he forgets to attend their engagement party. Brian leaves to spend some time with a new web hosting acquisition in Seabrook, Maine. Although he plans to rent an apartment there, a realtor shows him an old, rural cottage that has been uninhabited for many years. The price is surprisingly reasonable for the charming home, and Brian buys it.
Working on the building's plumbing, he finds an antique locket in a bathroom sink drain trap. A few minutes later, he notices a woman outside his window, seated on a garden bench. When he approaches her, she is frightened, demanding to know what he is doing in HER house. She identifies herself as Nora Hargrave (Sarah Manninem). She notices the locket he is holding and says that it belongs to her. He attempts to hand it to her, but his hand passes right through hers. Brian continues to have encounters with the ghostly Nora, and he eventually realizes that she exists in the year 1960. They find that they can communicate by leaving written messages in a tin box placed inside the fireplace.
Dr. Bowers (Reg Tupper) is called when Nora becomes ill, but her husband Thomas (David Lewis) refuses to believe that her condition is serious. Brian calls a doctor friend, describes the symptoms, and specifies that any prescribed medications must have been available in 1960. Nora asks their handyman, Frank Clemmons (David Richmond-Peck), to drive her to the pharmacy. The medicines cure her illness, but her husband begins to believe that she is having an affair with the handyman.
Brian realizes that Nora may still be alive now in 2011, and he searches phone books for the surrounding areas. He finds a listing for Thomas Hargrave, calls him and arranges a meeting. The old man arrives and says that Norah died many years ago but leaves in anger, when Brian asks how she died. He then learns from an internet search, that she died in a fire in her home. Desperately, Brian warns Nora to leave her husband, which she immediately begins to do. But the husband locks her in the bedroom.
Brian's ex-fiancé arrives to discuss their situation, but both realize that the relationship is irretrievably broken. She finds the old locket on the fireplace mantle, and accidently drops it into the fire. The resulting sparks spread to a stuffed chair, and the room is set ablaze. When Brian attempts to rescue Nora, the husband attacks them with a shotgun. But Nora and her husband vanish into thin air.
Brian now finds a phone directory listing for Nora Hargrave and goes to that address, but is informed that she has moved to a nursing home. When he finds her there, she instantly recognizes him, and says that she knew he would one day find her. He gives her the locket, and Nora (now played by Karen Elizabeth Austin) introduces him to her daughter, Sarah (also played by Sarah Manninem). Sarah is intrigued to meet the Brian Connor she has heard so much about from her mother over the many years.