Frankie (Jack McElhone) does not know his father because his mother, Lizzie (Emily Mortimer), ran away from the abusive lout when Frankie was just a baby. Instead of telling the truth to her deaf son, she concocts an elaborate lie, telling him that his father is a merchant seaman on the MS Accra. She even writes letters for Frankie posing as his father. But when the actual MS Accra docks in their small Scottish town, Lizzie quickly needs to find a fake father for Frankie.