The Cranes Dance is the story of Kate Crane and her younger sister Gwen. Both are extremely gifted at dance and left home as teenagers to attend school and dance with a ballet company in New York City. Kate as the older sister always sought to protect her younger sister until it became obvious that Gwen had developed some serious mental problems. The book begins with Kate having called her parents to come get her sister and follows her as she begins the biggest year of her career while dealing with feelings of guilt about not being able to deal with her sister's problems. It is very obvious that the author is/was a dancer and she seeks to convey the world of a ballet company in deep detail. Sometimes it is great at setting the scene and really taking you into the world, but at other times I found it to be too much detail for someone who does not live and breathe ballet. My other quibble with the story is that the fact that is told completely from Kate's perspective. Even with flashbacks of the relationship between Gwen and her and her stated feelings about the situation I never quite felt like Gwen was more than a 2 dimensional character most likely because I had in depth access to Kate's thoughts and feelings while only getting glimpses of Gwen's actions with little reasoning behind them. Overall though I really enjoyed the book and couldn't wait to pick it back up again when I wasn't reading it. I found Kate to be a really well drawn character who had her share of faults but not so many that she was unlikeable, but who was also relatable even as someone living in a very specialized world most of us will never enter.