Cassandra Jovanovich has finally found a home where she feels she belongs. All she wants to do is forget her past and pursue her dream of becoming an actress. But her new friend, Leanna Mets, "the most annoying person she has ever met," wants to know how Cassandra became an orphan and encourages her to write her story. Cassandra's memories reveal how the death of her grandmother and the cruelty of the other adults in her life turned her from a happy child into the distrustful, secretive twelve-year-old she has become. Leanna's friendship helps Cassandra to see beauty in the pattern that is her life and to hold on to her dreams.