Meg (Margaret) Terry is 15, almost 16 years old. Her natural talent for acting is extraordinary, a fact acknowledged by expert professionals. One of these, Gino Lucci, is director of a summer camp for talented young actors and actresses. During a talent hunt, he sees Meg in a school production. Impressed, he offers her a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, one of ten scholarships to the costly summer camp. But there's a serious catch. Scholarship winners must pay a room and board fee of $2000.

Meg's mother is a single mom who is self-employed as a seamstress with a limited clientele and...