He fixes clocks. She refuses to live by one.

LOGLINE

After the death of his abusive father sends meticulous antique-clock repairman Arthur “Artie” Falco into a psychiatric rehabilitation hospital, he meets Ruby “Squirrel” Bell, an unpredictable former theatrical wardrobe assistant who leaves people before they can leave her, and is recruited into her Escape Committee—a secret society of lovable misfits planning a breakout nobody intends to attempt. But when their ridiculous hospital friendship becomes an unlikely romance, Artie and Ruby must discover whether two people whose survival instincts are designed to keep everyone out can build a life together without turning love into another form of confinement.

THE STORY

Arthur “Artie” Falco repairs time for a living because time behaves. Gears fit. Springs have tension. A clock can be opened, diagnosed and returned to order. People have never offered him the same courtesy. After the death of his abusive father triggers a breakdown, Artie enters a psychiatric rehabilitation hospital determined to follow the rules, keep to himself and leave precisely when he's supposed to. Then he meets Ruby “Squirrel” Bell, a funny, unpredictable former theatrical wardrobe assistant who has spent her life mastering the art of leaving before anyone gets the opportunity to leave her. Ruby recruits him into the Escape Committee, an underground society of hospital misfits devoted to planning an absurdly elaborate breakout none of them actually intends to execute. Through midnight sound games, stolen pudding, dysfunctional visiting hours, makeshift Parisian dinners and increasingly ridiculous adventures, Ruby begins dismantling Artie's carefully regulated existence. Then she learns her estranged grandfather may be dying. For the first time, the Escape Committee has somewhere it actually needs to escape to—and Artie discovers that helping Ruby break the rules may be the most responsible thing he's ever done.

Getting out turns out to be easier than living outside. After discharge, the schedules disappear but the damage doesn't. Family wounds reopen. A beloved friend relapses. Ruby's impossibly stable ex-fiancé returns, offering a version of adulthood that makes Artie feel like another temporary stop in her life. And the very instincts that once kept Artie and Ruby alive begin tearing them apart: he needs reassurance that she will return; she needs reassurance that she is still allowed to leave. Their relationship becomes haunted by a question neither can answer—if they could erase the worst things that happened to them, would they also erase the people those experiences forced them to become? Artie must accept that control cannot protect him from loss, while Ruby must discover that choosing to stay is different from being trapped. Months later, she appears outside Artie's new clock shop carrying one small suitcase and absolutely no plan. Artie looks at the clocks surrounding him. Then, for once, he doesn't. He closes the shop without checking the time.Together they walk into an ordinary, completely unscheduled day—neither cured, neither certain, but finally willing to participate in whatever happens next.

TIME DOESN’T HEAL EVERYTHING. PEOPLE DO.

Getting out is the easy part.