Phyllis Spencer

Divisions Phyllis Spencer

Eleanor and Elizabeth Cole are twin sisters but couldn?t be more different from one another. In fact ? they don?t even know the other exists. Eleanor moves to Kingston Ontario in the early 60?s. It is a time of social upheaval for the country when rights for immigrants, the disabled and women are all being demanded by a new crop of Canadians demanding some choices and power of their own. Fired up with the opportunity to teach, she runs into resistance when she learns that real change can be frustratingly slow to materialize. Eleanor goes through an ill-fated prison pen pal relationship, a disjointed teaching career, and begins to doubt her own choice. She finds the security of marriage to a young man with old money, and ideas that belong to a previous time to be more constraining than comfortable. When a group of intellectually challenged adults need a program leader, Eleanor finds herself in a role where she blooms. There, she is inexplicably drawn to Betsy, a young woman with Down syndrome, and the two connect over their mutual joy of music. The divisions between them narrow, and it is the beginning of a new life and unearthing of old family secrets.