Sixteen-year-old Cicely Ellis 'knows' her parents abandoned her for new lives where they don't have to deal with a kid like her and she should be grateful to the aunt and uncle who put a roof over her head. However, while they didn't leave her homeless, they don't understand the passion she has for horses, and they They won't pay for lessons, much less the training her goals require. Cicely works at Salmon Pond Stable, watering, mucking, cleaning tack, grooming, saddling – performing any horsey chore just to have the chance to 'catch' a ride on the horses which makes her a 'catch rider' and causes some of the regular students to consider her their personal groom or servant. When the woman who sponsors Cicely to show her Paint mare, Pallas Athena moves the 'horse of her heart' to Shamrock Stable, she goes too. Now, she has new things to learn, but also the secret of the parents who left her behind years ago. Everything comes with a price, but will the cost she's expected to pay be too high?
