Instead, having found an ad in a newspaper earlier that day for a diving horse girl, Sonora slips out of the house during the night to follow her dreams.

Marie's employer, Doc Carver, tells her she is too young but gives her a job as a stable hand due to her ability with horses, and she begins traveling with them.

She later surprises Doc by taming and riding him, so he promises to train her to be a diving girl if she can mount it while it's moving, which she succeeds after multiple attempts.

During the months that follow, Al writes to Sonora as she continues to make successful dives on lightning but Doc hides all his letters and she thinks that he has forgotten about her.

Doc hasn't found any places for them to perform at, but then, Al announces he has arranged a six-month contract to do so at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey, as he knew this was always Sonora’s dream.

Sonora searches for Doc's jacket to give Al confidence on his first show, and finds one of his letters in it that confesses his love for her, and she lets him know that she feels the same.

The horse is jittery unlike Lightning, who has become a steady performer, and he falters and trips off the end of the diving board after shying from cymbals crashing below.

Her voiceover states that she continued diving for eleven more years, with the audience never learning of her blindness, and of her happy marriage to Al.

[3] Stephen Holden gave the film a positive review in The New York Times, praising Anwar and Robertson's performances and the script for not succumbing to sentimentality.

He wrote, "The film's most touching moments evoke the wordless understanding that develops between [Robertson's] demanding taskmaster and his equally strong-willed student.