Ten-year-old Miranda Stevens approaches the fifth-grade classroom with trepidation. She must face the same snobby classmates that she met when she came to Montana at the end of the last school year to attend this small rural school, and worst of all, Christopher Bergman, the classroom bully who takes special delight in making Miranda's life miserable. 

When she makes friends with Laurie Langley, a new girl in school, prospects look brighter - until she gets into a playground fight with Christopher and bloodies his nose. Chris says he won't tell on her if she'll ride one of the horses in the neighboring field. And that's when she sees, Starlight, the horse of her dreams, for the first time - and her troubles begin. 

Her attempt to mount Starlight fails painfully. Not to be defeated, she rides a gentler mare, which Starlight chases across the field. Mr. Taylor, the owner of Shady Hills ranch, doesn't take kindly to having a kid ride one of his horses. He forbids her to set foot on his property again. Miranda plans to obey, but when Chris asks for her help with his thoroughbred mare, Queen, she agrees, only to find when she gets there that Queen lives at Mr. Taylor's stables. She goes in search of Starlight, finds him, and accidentally lets him escape his paddock and become injured. She'll risk anything and everything, including Mr. Taylor's wrath, to save Starlight. 

Friendship, loyalty, courage, and lesson's learned the hard way are all part of Miranda's story as she lives with her grandparents on their dairy farm. Her mother is in California seeking her fortune, and she doesn't know where her father is, or if he even exists. If only she had a horse of her very own, she thinks, nothing else would matter.