For Ellie Sanders, her father was always the rock that she could cling to when her mother's emotional troubles became too frightening. He was the one constant in a world that seemed to be forever changing. But when he comes under the thrall of the Tomato Girl, who raises vegetables for sale at the general store that he runs, Ellie sees her security slowly slipping away as she is forced to deal directly with her mother's gradual slide into madness.<BR>Tomato Girl journeys into the mind and soul of a terrified young girl who is forced into adulthood years before she is ready, and who, to compensate, retreats into a world of fantasy in which there are only happy endings. But when the realities of her life finally become inescapable, Ellie finds the strength to let go of the past and to deal with the future. As she says at the end of her story, "I am tired of carrying so many dark and broken things inside me. I can never do magic with so many fears, hurts, and secrets. They weigh down my heart like a stone."