It is 1929 and Cordelia Grey and Letty Larkspur have always dreamed of running away from their dull lives to the glamorous New York City. For Letty, New York means a chance to become the star she is destined to be. However, the path to stardom is not as easy as she thought it would be and finds herself conflicted between her desire for stardom and sticking with her morals. For Cordelia, New York is where her long lost bootlegger father lives. However, when Cordelia finds herself falling for the son of her father's sworn enemy she finds herself stuck in a Romeo and Juliet type scenario.
Filling the pages of her beloved journal, the main character, known as the Girl, chronicles her life as she begins to make the transition into becoming a teenager. Along the way, the Girl encounters numerous life altering events. For example, the Girl writes in her journal how after she moves to a new home in a new town she must cope with becoming the new kid again as she starts at a new school.
Living in the small conservative town of Snope City, Tennessee, Haven Moore has lived a quiet and sheltered life. Simple and easy going as her life may seem, since Haven was young she has had visions of a past life. In her visions, Haven lives as a young girl named Constance whose life is filled with both a fairytale romance with a boy called Ethan as well as her untimely and mysterious death. After several years without thought of her past life, while Haven watches television she sees an image of infamous socialite Iain Morrow.
As his dad lay dying in the hospital after a car accident, Buddy Rivers, an African-American teenager, finds himself alone. While visiting his father in the hospital Buddy meets Angela, the abused daughter of his father's nurse. Peering over his father's bandaged body, Buddy and Angela immediately form a bond of friendship and of love. Their relationship only grows stronger as Buddy witnesses the constant physical and physiological abuse Angela endures by her parents. After one final drunken attack by her father, Buddy is forced to take Angela to the hospital.
Marni Bates, an aspiring 19 year-old author, writes of her battle with trichotillomania in her autobiography, Marni. Trichotillomania, a disorder in which the person has urges to pull out their hair, plagues Marni throughout her entire high school experience. Marni begins her story in elementary school, describing herself as the favorite of her father in her dysfunctional family. As she grows older she begins to realize that the favoritism her father shows towards her is no more than him fulfilling his job as a father and nothing more.
Kenzie is a typical teenager who just got grounded. The reason why? Levi. Her life was perfect before she accidentally dropped her acne medicine down the bathtub, that one accidental act prompted Levi, Levi the demon to pop out from the demon world below. Kenzie closed the portal from hell that Levi opened by driving the family minivan into the kitchen (hence the grounding) but, when Kenzie thinks her life will finally go back to normal, Levi tells Kenzie that when one portal closes another one opens.
