Judy is a young girl just past her fifteenth year. Her parents are musiciansstaff members at the Music School at Aspenand they are anxious for her to share with them some of the enchantment of the famed music festival in Colorado. But for Judy other plans and other dreams are more important. A part in the new theatre group? Romance? Adventure? Anything but the dreary routine of piano lessons and practice. In her attempt to escape the discipline of the musician's life, she explores Aspen and inadvertently finds herself caught up in the lore of the early mining history of that community. Baby Doe, the old Opera House, the ghost town of Ashcroft are mysterious wonders which begin to awaken in her a new interest in her surroundings. Her meeting with Karl, a talented refugee from Nazi Austria, and their adventures together on the snowy mountain cliffs help to fulfill her dreams of romantic lovean experience through which she attains not only the depth and understanding of her parents but her own maturity.What threatens to be a dismal summer for Judy becomes a time of discovery of herself, of music and of America.