Barbara by the Bay

A young girl cannot understand why she should feel so alone in a house filled with so many. Or why her mother collects people like others collect stamps or teacups. The six-bedroom house is filled with children and elderly adults, noise and confusion. Anything can happen at any moment. Her mother insists that Barbara Ann has everything a child could ever want…but Barbara Ann feels something is missing.

A teenage girl feels lost and alone. Certain that something is seriously wrong with her. She’s thinks she might be dying. For how else can she explain why her parents whisper about her behind closed doors, why she feels like she’s choking all the time, why she can’t stop crying, or sleep at night - why her whole world is falling apart.

In the 1970s, outside the town of Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada, Barbara Ann is 13, going into grade seven, and starting a new school. She wants what most other teenage girls want: the right hair, the right clothes, the right friends, the right boyfriend, and everything else that leads to love and happiness. Innocence allows her to believe it’s all easily within her grasp, with the only obstacle being her overcontrolling mother. She fights and pushes against boundaries to gain the freedom she wants. Each step a power struggle between mother and daughter.