Cornelia Fuller is a single mother, and

her Little girl, Liwie, is the single most

important person in her life. By sacrifice

and hard work at her g amorous job as a

casting director, Cornelia has managed to

give Liwie the most precious gift money

can buy: a place at The Boston School,

Manhattan s most prestigious school for

girls, where Cornelia spent so many

happy years as a child.

But the school is changing. And when

without warning a letter from the

headmaster informs Cornelia that Livvie

will not be accepted for the next term,

Cornelia s self-esteem is shaken. To have

her Liwie singled out as a "slow" student

in a fast-track school is something she

cannot accept.

While Cornelia is ready to wage a one-

woman campaign to keep Liwie there,

attending school provokes such anguish

in her daughter that Cornelia reaches out

for guidance from Dr. Dane Nilssen, an

attractive and sympathetic psychiatrist.

And with Dane s wise advice--and loving

support--she is gently prodded to con-

sider that The Boston School may be pro-

viding the wrong environment for her child,

It is Dane, in love with Cornelia by this

time, who also detects that Liwie is fearful

of something or someone at the school...

and may be keeping a secret about some-

thing too threatening to reveal.

But the terror-stricken seven-year-old is

not the only one at The Boston School

with something to hide. For as Cornelia

begins to uncover her daughter s

heartbrealing secret, she discovers a

network of dark scandals and perverse

passions beneath the posh facade of the

school. Most devastating of all, Cornelia