Love can be ecstasy only to be lost. It can lift then desert. Love is forever one day, never the next, always forgiven, never forgotten. Love can act like a dream, react like a nightmare. Yet, in life\'s long picture, love is everything. It is life lived, and life is worth living only for love, but there is always something terrible about love. Helen Baird loves her only child, Kristen, with her whole heart, yet Kristen is a runaway. Helen desperately tries to track Kristen down. When Helen\'s initial attempts bungle, she asks local nun, Sister Maria Carmelite, called Carmie, a former runaway herself, for help. Carmie drives Helen into New York where the two ramp up the search for Kristen. Years have accumulated with no leads about Kristen\'s whereabouts. Helen enters therapy in search of healing after the tormenting loss of her daughter. Guardedly, Helen allows her own life to unfold as her estranged brother, a boss with personal information, and her high school boyfriend all resurface.