[beautiful awakenings: synopsis]

Stacie Anderson is 25 years old and has just graduated from The Julliard School of Dance. Upon graduating, she manages to secure the coveted female lead in the biggest dance production in New York City to date, and instantly appears on the radar of the dance industry’s most important and prolific figures.
The head choreographer and head of production Benjamin Conrad is known for his fantastic reputation, as each of his productions has opened to masses of success and critical acclaim.
However, he later divulges to Stacie that in order to ensure his success every single time, his creative vision has to be compromised and approved before he is allowed to take control and direct the production in the way that he would like. He then tells Stacie that he is leaving the production in the pre-production stages to pursue his own dreams of creative freedom with a low budget, independent production in Connecticut.
Stacie realizes in one swift moment that not only will she lose a close friend, but her dreams of furthering her career and a shining start as a reputable female lead could well be in jeopardy at this sudden departure.
Ben tries to do his best to reassure Stacie that this will not be the case, as Ben wastes no time in telling Stacie that she has a god given talent for dancing and what she does will be recognized and praised no matter what happens or where she ends up.
However, the atmosphere takes on a melancholy ambience as they both cannot predict the future, and both of them are immensely saddened and tense about what will happen next.
Stacie does her best to remain positive and happy for Ben, and she is happy that he will have the chance to fulfill his dreams and ambitions, but in the back of her mind, her head cannot stop being distracted by the possibility of everything being turned upside down.
Ben assures her that everything will be OK, and starts to tell her about his replacement – Daniel Thomas, who is a producer and choreographer, well known for his music videos that have elevated him to stardom and fame, being praised everywhere he goes, and with the media spotlight following his every move.
Stacie still remains dislllusioned to the fact that all of this is really happening, and confides in Ben that things will cease to be the same again now that he is leaving, without a return date in sight.
Stacie and Ben talk about everything that has happened, all the preparations, the planning, the constant rehearsals, in particular her grueling schedule of rigorous dance rehearsal and training for the past six months to ensure that Stacie is able to play the part to perfection.

Both are unsure of the time, and don’t know whether they have been sitting down talking and reminisicing for hours or minutes, but to Stacie it feels like mere seconds have gone by, her own mind still struggling to process what was happening and trying to understand and make sense of it all, her thoughts reeling desperately as all of this had come out of nowhere. Stacie and Benjamin eventually stand up to hug each other goodbye, Stacie unsure of when she will see Ben again, determined not to cry but failing as she feels sllent, salty tears run down her cheeks, staining her cheeks with long trails of mascara.
They hug goodbye, their arms wrapped around each other, feeling like they are holding each other for an eternity all wrapped up in one moment as the hug each other and say goodbye, Stacie pullng back from Benjamin as she stands opposite him and watches him as he walks out of the door, leaving her alone and upset, without much of a clue of what is going to happen next, her heart physically aching as once again she can’t stop herself from thinking her dreams are over.

Stacie is a perfectionist and finds catharsis with her dancing. She breaks up with her first boyfriend while stil at Julliard, but the result of that difficult break up still sometimes has an effect on her. As of late, she throws herself into dancing to escape and let herself go, whilst all the time striving to be the best dancer she can, allowing nothing and nobody to come in her way. She works better like this, but at times, even with her family and friends around her it can be isolating.
She reaches for her mobile phone and types in a number that she isn’t used to seeing on her screen. She waits for it to ring before she leaves the studio, and drives to her parents house, and knowing her best friend will be busy, longs to find the escapism she needs now more than ever within her seemily perfect family unit.

At her parents house, she finds her older brother Darren also waiting for her. She enquires about his life, as he has just told his family that he and his childhood sweetheart of 10 years, Natasha Baila, is pregnant, and they are getting married in the fall.
Stacie and Darren both engage in playful banter before turning their attentions quickly towards their parents. When previously speaking to her mother on the phone as Stacie was driving towards her childhood home, her mother had requested that she be here anyway, and pressed upon its importance. Stacie and Darren are both surprised by the fact that this event turns out to be such a formal kind of family dinner and gathering, their mother Gail reasoning with them that she doesn’t get to spend much time with her children. Gail tries to act normal, but Darren and Stacie cannot deny that the atmosphere is weird and the room is filled with tension, the silence suddenly overwhelming and awkward.
Their father, Simon, has been acting erratically for the entire evening, and suddenly apologies and starts to get up to leave the table. Gail grabs him and tells him he has to stay and confess everything. Simon is unable to do this to the point that he remains unable to say anything before Gail confesses to their children that Simon has a drug problem and that he has been taking cocaine for the past year.
Darren challenges his father to look at him and start talking, whilst Stacie remains in shock and anger at what has managed to unfold in the space of 24 hours.
Darren gets up from the table, unable to listen to anymore, and before he leaves the house, punches his father in the face as he tries to soothe his rising chagrin, and Darren swears that he will never see his grandchild.
Stacie rushes out of the house after him to find Darren gone, and phones Natasha to ask if she has heard from Darren. She tells her that she hasn’t and Stacie spends the night worried, and unable to sleep at all over everything that has happened.

The story then switches over to Darren’s narrative voice, where we pick up the story with him and his fiancé Natasha at his favourite place in New York City, on a hill that overlooks the rest of the city. Natasha is about 6 months pregnant now, and she suspects Darren’s intense vulnerability and distant manner, and how much all this confession from his father has actually affected him. She tries to be his voice of reason and logic, but Darren seems unable at this point to get past and recover from his father’s mistake.
Sensing his distant manner, she assures him things are going to be OK, and they go home, and make love to each other that evening, wanting to be closer to one another, and achieving this through showing their love for one another when words won’t work.

Darren is woken up by a phonecall from Stacie the next morning, asking that he attend a family meeting at a restaurant later on that evening. He Says he doesn’t want to talk about it, but is later persuaded by Natasha to attend once she tells him honestly that he has to be the bigger person when dealing with all of this.
He agrees and goes along to the dinner. He sees the rest of his family at the table in the restaurant, laughing and joking like nothing has happened, as if they are all blissfully oblivious to what is going on.
He tells his dad reluctantly that he has his support in trying to overcome his addiction, but Darren tells his family that it is too much for him to see them all act like nothing has happened, and hastily starts to get up to leave. His father once again tries to persuade him to sit down, and then confesses that he talked to Tasha who assured him that he would be able to see his grandchild.

This upsets Darren who goes home to find Tasha upstairs, and confronts her about her conversation with his father, telling her that he doesn’t want her involved, and all of this is none of her business. She quickly reminds him that she is part of his family now, and it is her business If it affects the man she loves. They are unable to agree, so Natasha asks Darren to leave.

The narrative voice then switches back to Stacie, and within a week she is back in the dance studio, and meets Daniel Thomas, who is the replacement for Benjamin. She is drawn to him through their mutual love of dance, and confides in him almost immediately, her own feelings catching her off guard and throwing her completely.
Daniel suggests that the choreography for her main lead showcase needs to change, and Stacie, puzzled by this, agrees, and they start to spend more and more time together, and start to develop real intense feelings for one another. Finally Daniel persuades Stacie to go for dinner with him, and then he confesses that he is falling for her. She is all to aware of her own feelings for Daniel and although they match his own, she is well aware of who he is and refuses to succumb and be another woman in a long list of affairs and brief relationships of his. At the end of the night, she firmly assures him that things aren’t going to work out between them, and they should just concentrate on their professional relationship instead of a personal one. Daniel reluctantly agrees, for Stacie, and they agree to just remain friends.
More weeks pass, and they spend more and more time in each other’s company, and Stacie finds herself blissfully happy more and more every day, but at night she is tore apart by her feelings – she wants to take things further, but refuses to let anyone or anything develop the potential to damage her career, even the possibility of love.
Darren and Stacie are back around at their parents home a few days later, agreeing to keep in close contact for the sake of getting their family back on track. Simon tells Darren that he has decided to go to a rehabilitation centre to ensure he gets the professional help he needs. Darren approves of this but can’t help but notice that there is something wrong with Stacie. He confronts his younger sister and despite her best attempts of rebuffing him, they start to talk about her feelings for Daniel.
The next day at the studio, Stacie’s dancing becomes affected and she finds herself unable to concentrate and losing her focus completely. She hates to admit to her own feelings but finally allows herself to meet up with Daniel, and telling him how she really feels, they kiss for the first time.

The next few weeks they spend together, Stacie and Daniel become more and more wrapped up in each other, and Stacie’s best friend Winona starts to tease her about her new relationship.
Daniel tells her he loves her when they are together at his apartment, and Stacie is unable to believe her ears. She doesn’t know what to say, and tells him that she loves him but she isn’t in love with him – not yet.
Daniel is hurt and upset by this, but hides it from Stacie completely, and instead offers her a dress to wear as he wants her by his side for the biggest party of the year within the music and dance industry.
Meanwhile, Stacie is all too aware of Daniel’s assistant, Sonja Matthews, and her constant infatuation with him, who unbenowst to both Stacie and Daniel is about to spiral wildly out of control.
Stacie is reluctant to accompany Daniel to the party as she is still unsure of his true feelings about being rejected by her, but also because it is her birthday on the date of the party.
She accompanies Daniel regardless, and after a couple of hours, leaves Daniel’s side to get some air on her own and gather her thoughts, leaving Daniel drinking and socializing, surrounded by a crowd of people. Sonja sees this and stays by Daniel’s side until the crowd slowly starts to disperse once again and talk amongst themselves in small clusters. By this point, Daniel is quite drunk and she escorts him upstairs to somewhere more private. Sonja then uses vulnerability against him until he confides in her he was rebuffed by Stacie, and they share a kiss together before Daniel pulls away quickly and tells her he is in love with Stacie and he won’t cheat on her.
Sonja nods, seemingly full of understanding, and gives a small smile before going back downstairs. Inside she is full of pain and torture, as she goes and find Stacie sitting down outside. She tells Stacie all about her history with Daniel as his assistant, most notably all his women, his past relationships, his personality, and the fact that he will never change. She then tells her that she and Daniel slept together upstairs, telling Stacie that she knows from Daniel that she couldn’t tell him that she loved him.
Stacie upset and enraged, goes upstairs to find Daniel and confront him, leaving Sonja smling wickedly on the bench behind her.
Stacie shouts at him and leaves, asking Daniel what really happened, and Daniel confides to her that he is really upset at the fact that she couldn’t say she loved him.
Not wanting to hear anymore, and assuming Sonja’s accusations must be true, Stacie storms out, not giving Daniel a chance to explain.
She goes home, and gets drunk, and cries herself to sleep, ignoring all of Daniel’s phonecalls. She stays away from the dance studio for two weeks, and during that time, Stacie discovers she is pregnant with Daniel’s baby.

She schedules in an abortion, and asks that Winona pick her up from the clinic afterwards. Winona cannot help but try and tell Stacie her own opinion, but Stacie refuses to listen, still consumed by a rage of feelings – shock, anger, disbelief and upset all affecting her mind and body. On the way back from the clinic, Winona ends up driving by the dance studio, and sees Daniel walking out of the studio, and he looks up and notices, and starts running after the car, wanting the car to stop so he can talk to Stacie. Winona pulls up at a traffic light, and Daniel bangs on the car window door, wanting Stacie to get out of the car.
Stacie gets out of the car, her expression glassy and numb, and tells him that its too late, and she turns away from him, but he grabs her arm, turning her body back towards his, and demands to know why they can’t be together. Stacie tells him about the baby, before he lets go in shock, and she walks away from him and gets back into the car.

A couple of weeks pass, and Daniel visits Stacie at her home, where she assures him they can’t ever be together again, and that nothing either of them can do can change that. Unbenowst to either of them, Sonja has been stalking Daniel ever since he said he wanted her to leave her job, and that he never has or never will have any feelings for her. She pulls up outside Stacie’s house, following Daniel’s each and every move, and from a distance she sees someone come out of the house, and in her rage, she stops and doesn’t think, quickly coming to the conclusion that it is Stacie, and drives straight towards them in her car, driving into them and knocking them down from behind. Daniel’s body crashes and falls down on top of the windscreen, crashing it completely. Sonja suffers a fatal blow to the neck, breaking it and killing her immediately but not before, to her horror, her last image is seeing Daniel’s bloody face and the man she loves on the ground. Daniel crashes to the floor, and hearing the commotion and crash, both Stacie and Winona rush outside. Stacie screams and rushes over to Daniel, holding his hand, as Daniel tries to desperately apologises for all the hurt he has caused her. Stacie dismisses this and tells him she never stopped loving him, and the ambulance arrives to take him to the hospital.
After 2 days of waiting, and in a critical conditon, the doctors finally tell Stacie that Daniel is in a coma and is unconscious. The doctor then tells Stacie that he will wake up, but is unsure as to when this will be, and will remain comatose until his brain can heal on his own, after suffering a cardiac arrest.

Stacie is distraught and convinces herself that Daniel will not wake up from all of this, but cannot bear to tell the doctors to turn off his life support machine.
In the midst of all of this, Stacie is overcome with grief and starts to exist on Oxycontin to help her through her grief as well as stimulants and barbiturates.

Stacie goes round to Daniel’s apartment to start to clear his things out, but finds herself unable to do this, finding solace in Daniel’s best friend Jude Reynolds.
Stacie seeks refuge and solace in Jude and they sleep together one night, however Stacie is still overcome by grief and exhaustion, while Jude realizes Stacie’s intense vulnerability.

Jude starts to admit his feelings for Stacie, and for the next year and a half, Stacie cannot find it in her heart to allow herself to fall in love and be with Jude after her heartbreak over Daniel.
Finally one night, Stacie confides to Jude that she needs to let go of Daniel, and understand that he won’t wake up – she needs, and wants to find closure.

Stacie and Jude find themselves falling in love with each other, and Jude finally confesses that he has a little daughter of his own, Simone.

Stacie feels adrift and is not sure how to react to this news. Later on that year, Stacie discovers that she is pregnant again, but this time she miscarries the baby.
Later on, after another year and one miscarriage and one cot death, Stacie is unable to deal with this grief, and relapses into her previous drug dependance. When she goes to see the doctor, he tells her it is now impossible for Stacie to have children due to the state of her womb and the physical effect that the drugs have had on her body.

In the meantime, the narrative switches back to Darren’s own narrative voice, and Darren and Natasha get married and shortly after they have a son of their own, named Cameron.
Natasha develops bipolar disorder, which causes he r to act erratically. Natasha starts to behave out of character, her mood swings become violent, explosive and out of control, and this unleashes a constant need to have sex with her husband everywhere and all the time.
Unable to take much more after this goes on for six months and finding himself solely looking after his son as Natasha proves an unfit mother for most of the time, Darren finds himself cheered up with a chance meeting with an old friend from School, Maria Watson, and he finds out that she is now a singer in a bar whilst looking for a record company to sign her. He offers his help and expertise in trying to land her a record deal and they start to reminisce about old times, and more siginificantly their time together.
Maria is not surprised to hear about Darren’s marriage to Natasha, but sooner or later Darren starts to confess to her about the true state of his marriage to the woman he loves so much.
In a moment of weakness, they share a kiss, before Darren leaves hastily and goes back home. In the next few weeks, Natasha starts to return back to herself and apologises whole heartedly to Darren before they make love to each other passionately again, holding each other in their arms. Darren reassures Natasha that everything is going to be OK.
The next day, he gets a phonecall from Maria who says it was good to see him, and that she has just been signed to a local record label on his own recommendation, and as a result has to move to somewhere within their own neighbourhood.
Maria shows up the next day, and Darren hastily introduces her to his wife, and slowly but surely, the two women becomes friends, and sooner or later find themselves to be each other’s best friend.
Maria confides in Natasha that she is jealous of the love between Natasha and Darren, and confesses that she is thinking about saying yes to an offer of marriage from a guy who has fallen in love with her. She tells Natasha that she isn’t in love with him, but someday she could be, but she wants a piece of married life to find out who she really is, and whether it will determine who she will become.
Maria gets married, and both Natasha and Darren attend the wedding. Although they are still in love with each other, the spark has gone out of their marriage, but both find themselves afraid to admit this to one another just in case this really is the end of their marriage altogether. As the two families live in close proximity, they become closer and closer and Darren cannot help but feel a sudden attraction towards Maria, and one day, afraid to hold it in any longer, they sleep together, and Darren feels the same spark he was missing.
Maria and Darren continue to have an illicit affair together, until they are found out. Maria’s husband, Jason, is distraught, and Natasha and Darren’s marriage falls apart, but Natasha finds herself unsure what to feel over the betrayal between her best friend and her husband.

Natasha and Darren divorce, but she later confides in Stacie that maybe the divorce was a mistake. Stacie confesses to Natasha that Darren is a wreck without her, and they should try and make things work out between them.

The story turns back to the narrative voice of Stacie, and Jude tells her is in love with her and wants to marry her. Stacie is shocked and doesn’t know what to say, leaving him without an answer, and choosing to answer her mobile phone instead.
Stacie finds out from the hospital that Daniel has woken up from his coma and is asking for Stacie, the only person he will see or speak to. Stacie doesn’t know what to say or can even comprehend what is happening, and drops her mobile phone to the ground in shock.
She apologises to Jude and goes to the hospital to see Daniel, where she tells him he has been in a coma, before filling him on everything else that has happened during the two years he has been comatose.
Daniel dismisses all of this information, and asks her why she has left out everything about her own life and what has happened.
She tells him everything, and Jude turns up after a few weeks to tell her how much he loves her, and despite her love for Daniel, he is a changed man, and she has changed too much to go back, that however much she loves him, she can’t keep living her life in the past, and she has to move forward.

Stacie agrees with him but tells Jude she can’t leave him and chooses to spend her life with Daniel. Although Daniel wakes up from his coma, Stacie and Daniel spend a happy two years together, but Daniel eventually dies, leaving him brain dead.

Stacie attends the funeral, heartbroken, where Jude also attends, and she is comforted by her parents and her best friend Winona. She stays with Winona back at the flat and throws herself back into her dancing. She eventually goes back to Jude’s house to tell him how sorry she is and her true feelings about him, but he tells her that he is going to try and give his relationship with Rosalie another go for the sake of his daughter Simone, and that its too late, and they should be happy for each other in their respective lives.

Stacie agrees and leaves, and focuses on her dancing. She finishes the production and her contract as the female lead expires, before she gets offered another prestigious lead in another production that also opens up to critical success and rave reviews. She eventually learns that Benjamin has decided to return to oversee and direct as head of production from negotiating a new deal with the financiers of summit company, the company in charge.
Stacie is happy to have Benjamin back in her life, but Ben can see that the light in her has dulled and is about to die out. A month passes, and the story ends, with Stacie going into the dance studio, resuming her everyday routine to find Jude waiting for her. They wrap their arms around each other, embrace and hold each other tightly, and kiss.