Alice likes her life, but she senses things are changing. She gets a little bored by her best friends Elizabeth and Pamela's constant chatter about clothes and makeup, and sometimes she feels excluded from their conversations. Her relationship with Patrick is becoming more complicated, too.

From her cousin Carol, Alice learns that there are no easy answers to some of her questions about life. Then a school experiment and a new friend with a painful secret reveal some unsettling truths about the world Alice lives in. Growing up is even trickier than Alice thought -- is she ready for the challenge?