Grace Dragotta has always wanted to be a ballerina. When she is orphaned, she chooses the ballet as her home, imagining herself forever ensconced in a transcendent world of light and beauty so different from her poor, immigrant upbringing. Years later, Grace has become the company's new prima ballerina-though achieving her long-held dream is not the triumph she once envisioned. Then she attracts the attention of the enigmatic Master La Rosa as her personal patron. As Grace begins to unlock the Master's secrets, she discovers that there is beauty in darkness as well as light, finds that true friendship cannot be broken by time or distance, and realizes there may be another way entirely to achieve the transcendence she has always sought.