 She abandons her ambition to be a pianist and shortly before graduating high school also loses her mother in a car accident where Phoebe was driving.The double losses cause Phoebe to become a reckless party girl in university where she drinks heavily and is sexually promiscuous with little regard for her own health.At school she meets Will Kendall, who has recently transferred to the college after a slow crisis of faith caused him to abandon his religion and leave his studies at a religious college.