The Clockwork Aviary

This is a screenplay
The Clockwork Aviary is a fantasy adventure screenplay set in 1894 Chicago.

The Thompson family-John, Melony, and their mechanically gifted 16-year-old son Alex-arrive in the city seeking a new home. While running an errand, Alex encounters a brass mechanical finch that steals his address card and leads him into the Clockwork Aviary: a towering, enchanted refuge filled with living and clockwork birds, self-moving staircases driven by great clockwork mechanisms, and a mix of ordinary and magical residents.

Alex's skill with mechanisms quickly earns him temporary work. His parents follow him inside and, mistaking fairy reception fruit for ordinary food, eat a small piece. They shrink to three inches tall, sprouting translucent wings. The transformation will become permanent after the third sunrise unless reversed.

Susan, the Aviary's pragmatic manager, explains that the antidote requires the fruit's seed and the inventor Arthur Collins's Duplication Engine on the roof. The engine's feed governor is broken, so the race is on: Alex must help repair it and prepare the antidote before time runs out, navigating the Aviary's living machinery, eccentric staff, and magical rules while keeping his tiny parents safe.

The story blends steampunk clockwork wonder, family stakes, and light fairy-tale magic in a single, high-stakes night (and the days that follow).