A friendless girl, teased mercilessly at school because her uncle manages the town dump, finds a friend in Mrs. Fish, the school custodian, and gradually life becomes more bearable.
The death of her abusive, manipulative older sister prompts seventeen-year-old Em to remember their unpleasant life together, with their parents and then later on their own.
A friendless girl, teased mercilessly at school because her uncle manages the town dump, finds a friend in Mrs. Fish, the school custodian, and gradually life becomes more bearable.
The relationship of Nina, a nineteen-year-old college sophomore, and Mitch, a college dropout, relieves Nina's loneliness but further complicates her life.
Despite their different backgrounds, Sarabeth, a teenager living with her mother in a trailer and transferring to a new school, makes friends with Grant and her affluent friends, including troubled Patty who shares a painful secret about her uncle.
Fourteen-year-old Terri remembers only life with her father, but then she discovers that he kidnapped her from her mother after a divorce and that her mother is still alive.
As she watches her friends with their fathers, fourteen-year-old Jessie decides the family she shares with her mother and her great-great-aunt is not enough, so she sets out to learn more about the father who left when she was just a baby.
