Four year old Carla doesn't understand why she has to leave home. Sure, Momma doesn't come home for days at a time, but her brothers and sisters look after her. Little does Carla know that this loss is only the first of many in her life. By the time Carla is fourteen, she will have suffered abuse from baby-sitters, her own stepfather, and even from supposed friends. She will know the despaire an dloneliness of living with an alcoholic mother. her neediness will drive her into unhealthy relationships with both men and women. But through it all, Carla keeps praying and writing in her journal. She is powerfully drawn to every gospel song she hears. And then one day, she meets professor Lawson... and everything changes forever.