At an elite, old-fashioned boarding school in New England, a passionate English teacher inspires his students to rebel against convention and seize the potential of every day, courting the disdain of the stern headmaster.

Two criminal drifters without sympathy get more than they bargained for after kidnapping and holding for ransom the surrogate mother of a powerful and shady man.

A runaway orphan, young Sonora, persists in a menial job mucking stables in Doc Carver’s travelling stunt show. Her great wish is to become a death-defying “diving girl,” but Doc refuses her pleas. Undaunted, Sonora’s gutsy resolve finally convinces him to give her a break. On the brink of stardom, however, a cruel twist of fate threatens to destroy her dream.