Brief

An antiques collector finally acquires the ancient unbreakable glass vessel he has spent his life pursuing. He wonders what the vessel means but before he can research it further, his wife, a disgruntled socialite, performs the ritual herself. The vessel transforms her into her 21-year old self for a day, but as with all ancient pagan rituals, it comes with its own prices.

What We Liked

- This is a very well-researched fantasy. All of the magic in the book is justified with ancient research texts, allowing the audience to easily suspend disbelief and follow along with the mystery of the vessel. Additionally, the novel contains strong themes about the triumphs of love, second chances, and revenge;
- As a film, this would be a great feel-good movie about second chances and coping with loss.
- As a TV show, this could either work as a limited run series or could expand into an anthology series wherein different characters each week realize long-awaited goals by regaining their youth for a day;
- Unique concept; Appealing fantasy of youth; Multiple target audience age groups; Historical background; Mysterious.

Synopsis

Lauren Drake is a tired socialite in her late 50s. Her marriage is crumbling, something that started with the death of their daughter Emma at the age of 21, and compounded by the fact that her husband, Peter, spends his days obsessively searching for an unbreakable Roman glass. Lauren gets mad when she finds out that Peter has spent tens of thousands of dollars on his newest glass vessel. Peter performs his usual ritual with the glass, and is shocked when it doesn't break like the others had. While alone with the glass, Lauren becomes furious and sarcastically performs the ritual he had suggested--only to immediately transform into her 21-year-old self.

Her husband returns home and is enchanted by his young wife but worried that the goddess will take a year off her life in exchange for a day of youth that ends at midnight, leading Peter to coin the glass as a "Cinderella vessel." Lauren is determined to enjoy her one night of youth and goes out onto the town. Despite the immense pain from the transformation back, Lauren becomes determined to transform again, with Peter. After doing more research, they realize what they want to do when they transform together next--they want to honor the goddess by having a child. They arrange with their lawyer for a young woman to carry the egg fertilized by two "anonymous donors" who are secretly the younger versions of Peter and Lauren.

The operation is a success, but the transformation back into his old body nearly kills Peter. Peter dies shortly before their baby is born. At the funeral, Jamie meets with Lauren and asks her to show her the vessel. Lauren finally agrees to meet, and Jamie brings her friend Taylor with her, a crippled professor. Lauren insists that the two sign non disclosure agreements before seeing the glass, and while Jamie refuses, Taylor agrees. Jamie leaves, but Taylor learns more from Lauren and the two soon become friends. They connect over their losses. Taylor had been a marathon runner before she found her husband cheating on her and drove enraged, getting into an accident that rendered her paralyzed from the waist down. Taylor is wary when Lauren insists that she try out the transformation of youth for herself. Still, Taylor shows up on the proposed day to find that Lauren has signed her up for her old favorite time of running the Boston marathon.

Taylor performs the ritual and runs the marathon, but while running realizes that she has other plans for her day of youth. Posing as a young college junior, she meets up with her ex-husband at a bar and, while he attempts to seduce her, she takes a broken piece of glass and slices through his Achilles tendon, rendering him unable to run just as she has been. Taylor transforms back and agrees to keep the secret of the Cinderella vessel.

About The Author

In addition to An Accidental Prophet, Robert Lerner has also published The Cinderella Vessel, and as part of Multi-Media Publications’ Lessons From History Series, three non-fiction books that interweave Ancient Roman business practices with the modern workplace - Entrepreneurship and Ethics in Ancient Rome: The Management Lessons of Pliny the Younger, Career Turbulence: Ancient Lessons for Survival in the Modern Workplace and Customer Acquisition Strategies: Modern Lessons from Ancient Rome’s Greatest Entrepreneurs.