In 1899 Manhattan, the drowning of beautiful Elizabeth Holland, daughter of New York society's ruling family, brings to the surface the scandalous behavior of several teenagers of varying social class.

At the dawn of the twentieth century, several families in New York remain stunned by the antics of mischievous socialites, including Henry, Penelope, and Lina.

After a knee injury destroys sixteen-year-old Cody's college hopes, he drops out of high school and gets a job in his small Montana town; but when his ex-girlfriend disappears from her Vermont boarding school, Cody travels cross-country to join the search.

While on a school skiing trip, guardian-in-training Rose faces everything from misunderstandings between friends to fights among factions of Moroi as reports of horrific Strigoi attacks raise tensions, ultimately leading Rose and some of those closest to her into a battle that teaches her much about life, death, and love.

After the death of Elizabeth Holland, all of New York speculates about her unfortunate demise and wonder what role her mischievous sister, Diana, and notorious cad Henry Schoonmaker played in the events leading up to her death.

High school sophomore Lily opens herself to new possibilities when, despite warnings, she becomes friends with "ghetto girl" Hazel, a new student at the private Vaughn School which Lily, following in her elitist mother's footsteps, has attended since preschool.

Thirteen-year-old Hazel leaves her comfortable, if somewhat unconventional, London home in 1913 after her father has a breakdown, and goes to live in the Caribbean on her grandparents' sugar plantation where she discovers some shocking family secrets.

In 2036 kidnapping rich children has become an industry, but when thirteen-year-old Charity Meyers is taken and held for ransom, she soon discovers that this particular kidnapping i

Wealthy Massie is determined to exclude middle class Claire, the daughter of her father's old friend, from her seventh-grade clique at a very exclusive private school in Westchester, New York, but after Massie steals her only friend, Claire strikes back.

Charlotte Simmons is a brilliant girl from a very poor, very strict Appalachian mountain family. She finds her way to a top college where she hopes to live the life of intellectual pursuits. But when she arrives at Dupont, an elite University in Pennsylvania, she finds that all anyone cares about is sex, status, and drinking. Desperately lonely and unhappy, she goes further and further trying to fit into this new world, with terrible results.