Fourteen-year-old Dorothy Alston had to grow up fast when her father's alcohol-induced carelessness resulted in a house fire that claimed her mother's life. She finds a new life on her uncle's farm in Florida...but not for long. Now, thirty-four years later, Dorothy's in a permanent vegetative state and it's up to Ellen Steward - the hard-working, slightly jaded administrator at an upscale rehab facility - to unravel the mystery that landed Dorothy...