Meet Sophie Gold, an eight-year-old girl living in Queens with her parents and three sisters. As the third daughter, Sophie often feels on the outside: not the adorable youngest, like Jane (five), and not a teen like Amy (twelve), and Hannah (fourteen).

When her parents get in a fatal car crash, causing her mother's death, her father is riddled with guilt and spends decades suffering from severe PTSD. Her grandparents move in to help care for the girls, but Sophie is acutely aware that the grown-up world around her is withholding something.

Sophie tries a ballet class at the behest of her best friend and neighbour, Chloe. She's immediately hooked. At ballet Sophie immerses herself in fine tuning every shape shown. Every position becomes an opportunity to perfect her imperfect reality. An obsession is formed. A sanctuary found.