stoopid python question (language, not reptile)

ETA: solved!

Very basic python question for folks what know python.

So, I'm messing about with python a bit (rev 2.7.3), and I'm doing some very basic just-above-hello-world stuff. I want to take two lines of input and merge them, but if the second line starts with a + (like some text clients do when inserting a line break), I want to delete the +. But this:

import sys
line1 = sys.stdin.readline()[:-1]
line2 = sys.stdin.readline()[:-1]
if line2[0] == '\+'
 line1 = line1 + line2[1:]
print line1

fails with this error message:

  File "foo.py", line 4
    if line2[0] == '\+'
                      ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

I tried using " quotes and with and without the \ escape character. What's the right syntax, here? (google was unhelpful, or at least I had too much trouble distilling the results down to things that were relevent.)
also, man, python is weird!