After Mom and Tess thoroughly clean house in preparation for a visit from Aunt Alice and Cousin Kate, both mothers and daughters admit that they prefer a "normal" mess.
Unable to deal with her mother's disregard of her interest in a musical career, fifteen-year-old Julia Leaves Seattle to live with her father and grandmother near the Cascade Mountains, where she encounters a ghost who helps her make important decisions about her future.
Twelve-year-old Lou's attempt to play matchmaker for her mother and Richard are foiled by a mandatory visit with her grandmother, which is marked by boredom, Brussel sprouts, and Memaw's own plans for Mom's love life.
Lou and her friends find romance when they spend summer vacation at a posh beach house, while Lou's mother travels on a book tour for her new science fiction novel.
Lou finds it confusing and difficult to be thirteen, especially with her mother and Richard's romance heating up, being separated from her best friend Mina at school, and getting another letter from Paul when she never answered the first one.
Audrey, the sixteen-year-old daughter of a superhero, must access powers she never knew she had to defend Minneapolis from terrifying demons that have emerged to threaten the city and everyone she loves.