Having been cruelly abused by her mother until the age of sixteen, a young woman numbs the pain with drugs and loses herself until she finds God through the Mormon Church.

In order to avoid juvenile detention, fifteen-year-old Katie McBride, the daughter of an abusive alcoholic, goes on a "handcart trek" that mimics that of the Mormon pioneers, and, in addition to finding and reading the journal of one of her ancestors, she also finds friendship, self-respect, and faith.

To avoid his alcoholic mother's problems, Nick, seventeen, stays with his aunt's family near the Oregon coast, where he works at his uncle's car wash and falls into a complicated relationship.

Josie Little and her girlfriend Annette Anderson have traveled halfway across the country to attend Brookwood Academy, a prestigious boarding school in Connecticut, and get away from Annette's abusive mother, but as soon as they get there things begin tounravel--the undercurrents in the school are poisonous, Annette seems more interested in drinking with the in-crowd, and a boy declares that he is in love with her.