Boston model Christine McMurray knows the fiery car crash she survives is
career-ending. She knows it before she sees the slash on her face and the burn
scars on her body, even before she tries to walk on her damaged leg. She hears
the truth in her beauty-obsessed father's discussion of reconstructive surgery
and her fiancé's excuses for avoiding hospital visits.
After a lengthy hospitalization and convalescence, Christine's physical
scars have begun to heal but emotionally she is still fragile. She seeks respite
at photographer Anders Larsson's Montana ranch, where the raw beauty and
sweeping landscape rekindles her desire to paint. In time, she buys land with
the intention of building a home and artist studio.
While the house is being constructed, she returns to Boston and Cape Cod
to pack up her old life. There she meets and mentors a young burn victim,
renews a high school friendship and has an encounter with her ex-fiancé that
jeopardizes her return to Montana.
Christine regresses more than once during her journey to find new meaning
in her life, but eventually discovers her inner compass points outward and west.
A Light in the Heart is a complex, inspirational story of living through pain and
loss to find purpose and love.