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 SHIFT is set in the South, where prison inmates work for giant corporations. Something clicks between Melanie (Alethea Allen) and a charming telemarketer named Louis (Christopher Meloni). He laughs at her jokes, shares her dreams, and finally tells her the truth: he’s in prison. The surprising romance that blossoms into a human connection between two alienated people is volatile and poignant, and the considerable talent and chemistry between the handsome Meloni and playful Allen brings to life this tale of love in the face of adversity. Melanie used to wonder how she and her husband Eddie ended up married. How they ended up in their late twenties already, stuck in the sprawling suburbs of North Carolina. How he ended up without a job, she ended up waitressing at the airport coffee shop, and her dreams ended up dead. But lately, she’s not wondering. She’s just getting through the day.  A phone call changes everything. It’s a telemarketer named Louis, asking Melanie to participate in a "lifestyles" survey, to answer questions about dishwashing liquid, preferred means of travel, and plans for the future. She talks and he listens. It’s a playful conversation, flirtatious even, and it lingers long after Melanie has hung up the phone.What she doesn’t know is this: Louis is incarcerated in a prison across the state. He makes less than twenty dollars a week as a telemarketer, a job made possible through a pilot partnership between the prison industry and a private corporation. And if a statewide initiative currently on the ballot is approved, all other inmates will be required to enroll in prison labor programs just like this one.  The phone calls with Louis begin as a flirtatious foray, but Melanie soon is re-thinking her stagnant marriage, her dead-end waitressing job, and her rootless existence in North Carolina’s suburban sprawl. For Louis, recently divorced and a prison loner, Melanie becomes an anchor to the outside world.Melanie and Louis enter into a dialogue that plunges them headlong into a sexual and emotional relationship that takes them both by surprise. They get closer with each call, but when she presses for personal information, he hedges repeatedly. After weeks, he decides at last to tell the truth about his situation. Melanie retreats at the news — but only momentarily. Her friend and co-worker Diane urges her to end the relationship, convinced it’s a typical convict scam. Louis’ cellmate Monty warns of a prison crackdown on the telephone abuses that have made the long-distance romance possible. But Melanie and Louis only listen to each other. They’ve discovered someone else who understands, someone else who dreams. As the momentum of the ballot initiative requiring prisoners to work intensifies, Melanie takes notice, watching the news constantly and debating with Diane about the ethics of prison labor. When Eddie gets suspicious and says so, Melanie lashes out about his chronic unemployment. Bitter silence fills the shell of their marriage.  Finally, things explode for both Louis and Melanie. Louis is fired from his prison job for "unauthorized telephone contact." He naively requests a review, which is both humiliating and unsuccessful. In anger, he severs all contact with Melanie. Meanwhile, the phone bill arrives and Eddie gets wise to Melanie’s affair. In a heated exchange, he rips the phone out of the wall and takes the car.During the ensuing silence, all Melanie knows is that she still wants out of her marriage and her stagnant routine. She drives to the prison to see Louis, but narrowly misses him because, in a measure by prison officials to squelch the telephone abuse scandal, he’s been transferred across the state. The ballot initiative passes. Staring out a van window at the new prison, Louis tries to find hope in his situation. The new law means a job in prison and, despite the politics of working for peanuts, Louis prefers work to the yawning chasm of inactivity. The gates close behind him. In the visitor reception room of the old prison, Melanie debates tracking Louis down. As she stares at the waiting wives and mothers around her, she finds her answer: her future isn’t with Eddie, but it isn’t with Louis, either. She leaves the prison and heads onto the road.
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