Six year old Sheila was abandoned by her mother on a highway when she was four. Asurvivor of horrific abuse, she never spoke and never cried. She was placed in a class for severly retarded children after committing an atrocious act of violence against another child. Everyone thought Sheila was beyond salvation - except her teacher, Torey Hayden. With patience, skill and abiding love,she fought long and hard to release a haunted little girl from her secret nightmare - and nurture the spark of genius she recognized within Sheila's silence. This is the remarkable story of their journey together - an odyssey of hope, courage, and inspiring devotion that opened the heart and mind of one lost child to a new world of discovery and joy.