When a young ballet dancer learns about a dispiriting pattern with a role she earned in the Nutcracker, she finds help with an unusual mentor.

In 1972, young Vickie realizes her dream to study ballet at the National Ballet School in Toronto. However, Vickie finds herself struggling with that life's discouraging realities like demanding teachers and petty student rivalries. To cope, Vickie imagines a mentorship with the hailed hockey star, Phil Esposito, who has his own challenges with the fabled Summit Series hockey tournament against the Soviet Union team. With such support in mind, Vickie perseveres and excels to become cast as the female lead of the Nutcracker, only to have a rival rattle her with a rumoured Curse of Clara where dancers cast as such would meet disaster. Against that nagging fear, Vickie must find the confidence to be all she can be, and in the strangest coincidence, finds that she is not the only cast member who needs some help.—Kenneth Chisholm ([email protected])