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Every day, Mary (JENA MALONE "For Love of the Game," "Stepmom") discovers magic. She finds it in candlelight and memories of the ocean. She sees it in the images that play through her mind and hears it in her sister's laughter. Despite the illness that ha splagued her since childhood, 16 year old Mary savors every moment.
For her older sister, Penny (MARY STUART MASTERSON "Fried Green Tomatoes," "Bed of Roses"), home is a refuge. In their tenement apartment dappled with color, she can retreat into Mary's world, away from the streets until nightfall. At one time Penny could sense the same magic that her sister does. But now she can't believe in anything.
Instead, it's up to Mary to believe for both of them, giving shape to their dreams in the beautiful and mystical volume she keeps - her "Book of Stars and Lovely Things."
In the "Book of Stars" Mary traces their years, and wehn a mysterious young man (KARL GEARY "Hamlet") moves in next door, he, too, appears in the Book. As Mary's health grows weaker, she hopes that he can touch Penny's heart - or if not, then their friend, the Professor (DELROY LINDO "Malcome X," "Ransom") or perhaps the prisoner (D.B. Sweeney "Memphis Belle"), who writes to Penny, inspired by the poetry she wrote as a girl.
People like these, Mary thinks, might form a bridge from Penny's past to her future because although the "Book of Stars" chronicles the sisters' life together, Penny must be the one to live out the ending.
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