Worlds Apart

Los Angeles 1966. Matthew Banning is a quirky 14-year-old preacher's kid who is victimized by his classmates and alienated by his mentally ill mother. Expecting a summer full of surfing and romance his dreams are dashed when he and his two brothers are spirited away by his missionary father to Haiti.<p> Matt discovers the perilous road through paradise-and the poverty disease and hopelessness of the Haitian people. Once at the mission he innocently becomes the target of reprisals from the corrupt head missionary. On a day-trip to Port-au-Prince with one of the seminarians Matt falls in love with Rachel a rich mulatto daughter of a rebellious government dignitary. Matt endures a strange aphrodisiacal ritual a voodoo ceremony and a violent storm in his quest to be with the girl of his dreams. But Rachel's father leads a failed coup against dictator Papa Doc Duvalier and Rachel and her family vanish. Heroically Matt leads the militia on a perilous chase across Haiti to reunite with her.