Deep in my heart, a part of me will always be barefoot, running through the shallows of Mulberry Creek, with my eyes closed and my arms stretched out like I could fly.

Once a gifted ballet dancer, Julia Costell understands the joy of body and soul lost in a perfect moment. But after buckling under the demands of a professional dance career, she's landed with a thud as a guidance counselor at a performing arts high school. Living with her parents and feeling lost, Julia is afraid she'll never soar again. Until the day young Dell Jordan is sent to her office.

In Dell's writing, Julia recognizes not only her own despair, but also luminous sparks of hope. But as Julia fi ghts to forge a brighter future for one disadvantaged student, she is drawn into startling undercurrents of conflict and denial within the academy. Only then does she begin to discover where real meaning and fulfillment lie, and realize that even though her life has seemed off course, she's been on the right path all along.