In a Single Moment

On the hottest day of the 1976 heatwave at Lincoln County Hospital, two babies are born in the same labour ward. Michelle delivers her fourth child, a girl named Donna, while her husband Dean is at the pub. Despite their small house already being full, Michelle believes the family will manage as a happy, chaotic unit. In the next bed, Sylvie, at forty, gives birth to her first child, a daughter named Leonora. Exhausted and dressed in an impractical lace-trimmed white nightgown, Sylvie wants to rest while her husband Jeremy hovers nearby, wanting to sketch the moment. The midwife suggests Sylvie will bond with her baby after sleep, though Sylvie is uncertain. The two girls are taken to their separate homes, connected only by their shared birth date. Years later, their paths cross again when Michelle seeks out Sylvie, searching for answers about something that occurred on that sweltering day—something both women deserve to understand.