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.

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.

Now that the Pretty Committee is no longer boycotting boys, the eighth-grade friends cannot decide who has a crush on whom, putting the Clique in jeopardy again.

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.

Sixteen-year-old Celestia is a wealthy member of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, where she meets and falls in love with Peter, a hired hand who lives in the valley below, and by the time of the torrential rains that lead to the disastrous Johnstown flood of 1889, she has been disowned by her family and is staying with him in Johnstown. Includes an author's note and historical timeline.

Presents a television adaptation of the class Jane Austen novel in which two sisters of opposing temperaments share the pangs of tragic love, and discover that after their mutual suffering brings a closer understanding between them, true love finally triumphs.