Kimber Delaney is the seventeen-year-old flaky and endearing editor of the Westfield High School literary magazine. Her wealthy, handsome, two-faced boyfriend Lou is giving her nothing but grief, while her pot-smoking brother and sulking father are driving her crazy.

Troubles are contagious during this senior year at Westfield High, and all of Kimber’s friends are afflicted. Fickle Deena misses her collegiate boyfriend Phil madly and constantly pines for him. Bodacious Martha gets into more trouble than she can handle and has to be rescued by Lou, Mr. Suave and Heroic. Meanwhile, Jason has a fervent and not-so-secret crush on Kimber—and anyone else who looks his way. All this makes for a great state of social and romantic upheaval. New beaus, old flames, and straying loves all add to the intrigue.

As the Senior Prom approaches, the lives of Kimber and her friends turn into a complicated web of love, jealousy, loyalty, betrayal and confusion. On prom night, all is chaos: dates break up, fights break out. But later in the night, at a reunion on the beach, Kimber and her friends all reach important conclusions on life and love, vowing to put romantic conflicts in perspective and value their friendship and youth while they can.

Richard Posner is the author of Sweet Pain and four other novels for young adults. He is a teacher in the long Island, New York public school system.