 Adapted from the novel "Be Ready With Bells and Drums," by Australian author, Elizabeth Kata, A PATCH OF BLUE is the story of a chance encounter beneath a tree in a city park and the friendship that ensues. Accidentally blinded by her mother when she was five, Selina knows very little of the world beyond the dirty walls of her grandfather s tenement apartment. Enduring a life of servitude to her prostitute mother, Roseanne, and "Ole  Pa," her drunkard grandfather, Selina spends her days cleaning the apartment, washing and ironing her mother s and grandfather s clothes, and preparing their supper. Her only companionship is the radio until Mr. Faber (for whom she strings beads to bring in money) one day offers to take her to the park. "The sky s blue, ain t it?" she asks. "I remember blue." When she meets Gordon who becomes her only friend, the park is quickly transformed into the center of her universe. Knowing Gordon only as the kind and caring person that he is, Selina s feelings for him deepen. Only after Roseanne catches sight of Gordon escorting her daughter back to the apartment, one day, does Selina discover that Gordon is black. Her blindness has given Selina perspective which is sorely lacking in Roseanne and Ole Pa. To get her away from Gordon, Roseanne makes plans to move into an apartment with her friend Sadie. They will start their own "business" where Selina might provide yet another source of income. How will Selina escape the future that Roseanne has planned for her? Will she ever see Gordon again? The end of the story was changed in this film adaptation.