Give Up the Ghost

Institute History

Description

Give Up the Ghost is the story of Henry, a 20 year-old orphaned thief living in the shadows of a major city. Henry stalks potential marks, breaks into houses, and wanders cheap hotels. He steals what he needs to live while also collecting photos, letters, and other tokens of an emotional life he is too guarded to experience himself. Aside from the companionship of a feral cat, his is a solitary existence.

This all changes late one night in the subway when Henry saves a woman named Jackie from falling into the path of an oncoming train. Jackie is intrigued by Henry and they start a relationship based on strange acts of intimacy. The two gradually open up to one another, but Jackie receives mysterious phone calls and rarely allows Henry at her place. It is clear she is harboring secrets.

This comes to a head one night when an older man named Georgie shows up to collect money that Jackie owes him. Georgie has been taking care of Jackie's son while she overcomes a drug addiction. Now that she's clean, Georgie will only return the child if she pays him what she owes. She enlists Henry to commit an ambitious robbery to get the last of the cash she needs. While prepping the job, things go awry and Henry's own connection to Georgie surfaces - a secret that he has been keeping from Jackie. As the robbery approaches, these three desperate and damaged individuals find themselves in a tangled web of love and obsession.

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