Four-year-old Desi learns to accept her father's death by sending him a letter on a balloon--to which she receives a reply.
Based on a true story, the poignant film stars Jodelle Ferland as Desiree Gill. Desi was just 3 years old when her father died. It is now a year on, she is still struggling to accept her fathers absense. Her mother (Samantha Mathis) who has recently moved away with her daughter to live with her parents, is concerned that Desi does not understand what has happened, as she still asks where her father is and only refers to herself in the third person. Desi was told before what a wonderful place Heaven was but always asks when her father will be home. Fighting her own battle of the loss of her husband, her mother doesn't have the heart to tell her that he is gone forever and simply says he's away and she'll see him again one day, but not for a long time. Her grandmother (Ellen Burstyn) suggested that Desi should write a letter to her father, in order to help Desi express her emotions. They leave the letter at her father's grave, and every day Desi waits for the postman to bring her a reply. However, when the letter is returned to them, Desi's emotional and mental state worsen. Desperate, Desi and her mother go to the carnival with a local pilot, where Desi is given a balloon with a picture of a mermaid on it. Her grandmother had the idea of attatching the letter to the balloon and sending it off to Heaven. 4000 miles away, a man duck hunting on the Mermaid River outside the town of Mermaid finds the balloon. Bringing the balloon home to his family, touched and saddened by Desi's letter, he and his wife reply with encouraging words. Upon receiving their letter, Desi begins to recover, slowly understanding the death of her father and the two families form a bond.
