Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken

In 1932, Sonora Webster lives with her sister, Arnette, and abusive Aunt Helen during the Great Depression. Aspiring to be like a magazine clipping of a beautiful girl in Atlantic City, she cuts off her waist length hair, causing her Aunt to make her wear a bag on her head. After a series of troubles, including accidentally letting the cows loose and getting suspended from school, Sonora's treasured horse, Lightning, is sold by her Aunt Helen. Instead, having found an ad in a newspaper earlier that day for a diving horse girl, Sonora slips out of the house during the night to follow her dreams. She travels to the county fair and sees a performance by Marie, a diving girl who rides a horse off a platform, and aspires to do so, too. Sonora's great wish is finally realized when she meets Doc Carver, who gives her a job as a stable hand due to her ability with horses.