At twelve years old, Marie Winters experiences life as any typical pre-teen girl. Talkative and full of energy, she transcribes her world of friends, crushes and school life into a diary of bittersweet innocence. At times poignant but mostly whimsical, Winters barely treads beyond her bubble of childhood dreams and optimism as she sprinkles her heart among the pages.

At sixteen, the world she sees begins to change, like a dark cloud moving slowly across a clear blue sky. Withdrawn and confused, she runs to her journals, her only reliable outlet, to sift through...