Angelina is too sick to dance well during the tryouts for the lead in the "Princess of Mouseland" ballet, but when the leading ballerina sprains her foot, Angelina is ready to prove she is still the best dancer of all.

Fifteen-year-old Phebe Knight, a lifelong ballerina who seems to have lost her focus on dance, decides to spend the summer in Switzerland with her father where she meets teenage chess champion Nikolai Kotalev and becomes involved in his obsessive quest to find the perfect teacher.