American ballet dancer Joy Womack is accepted into Moscow's infamously tough Bolshoi Ballet Academy, with the dream of becoming a great ballerina.

Bartek's mother wants to prepare her son for what is worst and at the same time inevitable: her own death. She secures his financial and legal future and teaches him what to do and how to do it when the time comes. Although the boy listens to her carefully, there are completely different thoughts running through his head and heart.

A stay-at-home mom and avid reader of crime stories discovers the deepest secrets of a small town's residents while investigating a woman's murder.