Pearly orders his men to Beverly's home, believing that saving her is Peter's "miracle" and spiritual destiny and that he can destroy Peter by preventing it. They tell each other their stories and fall in love. When Peter assures her that he no longer wishes to commit robbery, Beverly offers to make him a cup of tea. While her publisher father Isaac ( William Hurt) and younger sister Willa are not home, Beverly discovers Peter preparing to rob the house. The mansion is the home where Beverly Penn ( Jessica Brown Findlay) lives, a young woman dying of consumption, whose fever is so high she sleeps outside in a tent in the winter cold. In a confrontation, he is rescued by a mysterious (winged at times) white horse, his guardian angel.Īlthough Peter hopes to move to Florida and come back in the summer, the horse encourages him to steal from one last mansion. Peter is marked for death when he decides to leave Pearly's gang. In 1916, the baby boy has grown up to become Peter Lake ( Colin Farrell), a thief raised by a supernatural demon posing as the gangster Pearly Soames ( Russell Crowe). The parents break the display case containing a model of the ship and place their baby inside it on the water, then watch him float to the New York City shoreline. When their infant son is not allowed entry to the country without them, the family is forced to return to their ship named City of Justice.
In 1895, a young immigrant couple is refused entry into Manhattan because they have consumption ( Tuberculosis).