A conscientious American pilot and a closeted RAF surgeon are torn between love and duty as they battle a vindictive philanderer and institutional chauvinism for their forbidden WWII lesbian romance and careers.

SYNOPSIS:

It's 1940. JEN MORGAN (18) is the conscientious daughter of a WWI pilot. After discovering her envious brother sabotaged her college applications, she leaves for Britain to ferry RAF training aircraft for a civilian group, the Air Transport Auxiliary.

She meets reticent, lesbian Royal Air Force surgeon, ALLI PARKER (25). The attraction is mutual but Jen hasn't accepted her sexuality, and Alli has her own unresolved relationship issue. Neither can forget the other.

Jen is stranded one November night near Coventry when the Germans launch a devastating air raid on the city. The death and destruction Jen witnesses shock her profoundly and she turns to Alli.

Their fledgling romance is jeopardized when Jen is badly hurt in a crash and sent to Alli's hospital.

Seeing them together, Alli's ward’s vindictive philanderer, GODFREY WINTERBOTTOM (35), suspects they're more than friends. After trying to blackmail Alli for sex and being rebuffed, he assaults her then outs them to a tabloid newspaper, engulfing them and Alli's hospital in scandal.

To save their careers, Alli accepts a post abroad.

This is a story set mostly in Britain in 1940. It explores themes like the tension between duty and forbidden love. 'The English Patient' meets 'Atonement', this WWII romantic wartime drama flips the genre on its head with a female couple. The first ten pages of the script is downloadable below. A December 2024 (Slated.com) 3-reader evaluation earned two considers and a pass. I'm working on a redraft to address the issues noted.

A WOMEN'S WAR, TOO