In the last months of high school, charismatic eighteen-year-old Sutter Keely lives in the present, staying drunk or high most of the time, but that could change when he starts working to boost the self-confidence of a classmate, Aimee.

Feeling awkward and ugly is one of several reasons sixteen year old Kevin is uncomfortable with the publicity about his act of accidental heroism, but when a reporter photographs him apparently being unpatriotic, he speaks out and encourages people to think about what the symbols of freedom really mean.

A series of poems reflect the thoughts and feelings of various people--students, the librarian, parents, the principal, and others--about the seemingly perfect Laura Li and her life inside and out of Tower High School.

Just as sixteen-year-old Josie and her mother finally begin trusting men enough to start dating seriously, the father Josie never knew comes back to town and shakes up what was already becoming a difficult mother-daughter relationship.

A group of friends who are all named Jane get together and try to make their small town beautiful by engaging in subversive art, and the main Jane wrestles with her affection for two different boys on Valentine's Day while she runs out of money for continuing her artwork.