We first meet Katie Byrne at seventeen. A tall and lanky
beauty with reddish-gold hair, she has always wanted to be
an actress. Her two best friends share her passion for the
theatre, and the three girls have spent much of their
childhood rehearsing plays in an old barn in Connecticut.
Leaving early one day to help her mother prepare dinner,
Katie realizes she has left her schoolbooks at the barn,
and she and her older brother return to retrieve them.
When they arrive, they find that the barn, the setting of
so many happy dreams, has become the scene of a nightmare:
one of Katie's friends has been raped and murdered and the
other lies unconscious.
Ten years later, katie, a struggling actress in New York,
is still haunted by the tragedy. Her friend Carly remains
in a coma, and Katie desperately wants to achieve success
and stardom not only for herself but also for her two old
friends. Her big chance comes when she is discovered and
wins a major role in a Broadway play. A promising love
affair adds to the excitement of working in the theatre;
but Katie must face the demons of the past before she can
embrace the possibilities of the future.