Man At the Helm

the long version

Not long after her parents' divorce, heralded by an awkward scene involving a wet DAILY TELEGRAPH and a pan of cold eggs, nine-year-old Lizzie Vogel and her sister and little brother are packed off to a small, slightly hostile village in the English countryside. Their mother is all alone, only thirty-one years of age, with three young children and a Labrador. It is no wonder that she becomes a menace, a drunk - and a playwright. Worried about the bad plays - though more about becoming wards of court and being sent to the infamous Crescent Home for Children - Lizzie and her sister decide to contact, by letter, suitable men in the area. In order to stave off the local social worker they urgently need to find someone to be the new man at the helm.