The Footlocker

April, 1945 - Second Lieutenant Joseph Traver huddles at the Navigator's table, fighting the freezing temperature in the nose section of the B-17 bomber. A terrifying experience left him wondering if he would live to see his children for the first time. On the return trip from his first bombing mission over Germany, he holds two letters. One is from his wife. The other from a woman he met months before his departure to join the war effort. His conflicted feelings for both women have his mind racing, a distraction he can ill afford at this critical juncture in the war.

May, 2009 - Mark Traver travels from Central Florida to Sandusky, Ohio to settle the estate of his father, Joseph Traver, a man he barely knew. He hoped the task would be simple - dispose of the house and the few personal belongings of his long-widowed father. His two sisters offer no support. Mark's feelings are twisted as they plunge his thoughts into a past he banished from his memory. The gloomy atmosphere that once permeated the Traver home taunts him, dragging him closer to despair.

As Mark meets Sandusky residents who knew his father, they paint an entirely different picture of the man he lived with until he left home in his early twenties. When he ventures up to the dust-filled attic, he finds the footlocker and the letters within. After reading them, everything he thought he knew about his early life evaporates. He is trapped in an emotional whirlwind as the secrets within the footlocker are exposed.