Ice Castles

Sixteen year old Lexie Winston, from the small town of Waverly, Iowa, is a gifted figure skater who does it because she loves it. She is coached locally by her friend Beulah Smith, the proprietress of the local run down bowling alley combination ice rink. Beulah was a regional champion in her own figure skating days twenty years ago, she who realizes that she can only teach Lexie so much compared to world class coaches. Believing Lexie has what it takes, Beulah tries to convince Lexie's widowed father, Marcus Winston, to allow Lexie to skate competitively for the first time at the Upper Great Lakes regionals. Marcus, who has always resisted getting Lexie into competitive skating because of the pressures and what he considers the unrealistic expectations, reluctantly agrees. At the regionals, Lexie catches the eye of world class coach Deborah Machland, who wants to train Lexie and believes Lexie can win at the Olympics in three years despite her lack of formal training up to this point and Lexie's advanced age. Lexie also catches the eye of Brian Dockett, a sports reporter, who is not only doing an extended piece on her expected speedy trajectory to the top of the figure skating world but who has a romantic interest in her. As Lexie gets thrown into the cutthroat world of competitive skating, which includes narrow minded judges who have a preconceived notion of who should win, intimidation tactics by and against other skaters, and coaches who have a win at all cost mentality, she also gets caught up in the fame and adulation. Her long time boyfriend, Nick Peterson, who is going through his own crisis of identity, feels like he is losing her, both figuratively and literally, to this new world. But when her figure skating life is in jeopardy, Lexie has to muster up the courage to decide what to do regardless of the obstacles. In the process, she finds out who her true supports in life are.