After she is in a horrific car crash when drunk, Los Angeles high school student Gabriella Gardiner assumes she stole her rich boyfriend's car and smashed it into a tree, but she cannot remember anything about the events of the evening.
When Maxie's best friend from elementary school returns years later after a horrible act of violence against him, Maxie feels guilty about how she treated him and conflicted over whether or not she wants to befriend him again.
Briar Academy senior Luke prefers avoiding conflict and letting others make his decisions, but he is compelled to choose whether or not to stand by the best friend whose reckless behavior has endangered Luke and may have caused another student's death.
Justin spends time with Jinsen, the unusual and artistic new student whom the school bullies torment and call Buddha Boy, and ends up making choices that impact Jinsen, himself, and the entire school.
When Jake Garrett arrives at F. Scott Fitzgerald High, the students immediately take a liking to him and he becomes one of the most popular boys in school, but when a dark secret is revealed, the same students begin to fear him.
Thirteen-year-old Ellie misses curfew by going to a park with a boy she just met, gets caught lying to her father and stepmother, and is put in a dangerous situation in London by her two best friends.
Recounts the events that occur at the end of seventh grade, when a group of friends plan to trick Carlos, an annoying "problem" student who says he is visited by aliens, while they are on a field trip in the mountains of New Hampshire.
Ten-year-old Nicki Fleming, a natural with animals, volunteers to help her mother train a service dog, not realizing how much responsibility she is taking on and how much she will have to give up along the way.
