Sixteen-year-old Dana Mallory is a front-runner to win a prestigious state art scholarship; but, a wealthy newspaper editor wants Dana eliminated from the contest so that her daughter can compete. It is June 1949 in Wild Cone, a small river town in Northern California.
Dana's mother, beset with financial problems and in need of her daughter's help refuses to sign the application for the contest. Dana takes matters into her own hands in a series of deceitful, misguided and desperate acts.
In the midst of this family saga is the unexpected arrival of Great Aunt Hattie, bearing a box of priceless crystal. Although intent on helping Dana, she only succeeds in getting her grandniece mired in deeper trouble.
With only two days left before Dana must submit her application, she is forced to commit an unscrupulous act. Her deed is uncovered and she is blackmailed and her name stricken from the list of statewide contestants. All seems lost until an unusual turn of events catapults her back in to the contest. In the end, two previously divided families are drawn together in a most remarkable way.