Winnie relates the events of her twelth year and the many changes in her relationships and in her attitude toward growing up.

Fifteen-year-old Carly's summer volunteer experience makes her feel more real than her life of privilege in Atlanta ever did, but her younger sister starts high school pretending to be what she is not, and both find their relationships suffering.

High school freshman Jane believes that she would do anything to be popular until she is selected to be in the school's most exclusive clique and learns that popularity has a price.

Having grown up in a California commune, Bliss sees her aloof grandmother's Atlanta world as a foreign country, but she is determined to be nice as a freshman at an elite high school, which makes her the perfect target for Sandy, a girl obsessed with the occult.