Senior Kara Jagger returns to Trinity, a private boarding school in New Mexico, after completing a student exchange year in Australia. She needs the comfort of familiar surroundings, but realizes her friends have changed. Her ex-boyfriend, Ryan, is heavily into a new romance with Christie, a girl who has copied Kara's look. Christie forbids Ryan to speak to Kara and tries to intimidate Kara into doing the same.Meanwhile, Kara experiences reverse culture shock. She misses Ben, the boyfriend she left in Australia, and the sense of security that her relationships with both Ben and Ryan previously gave her. So why not try to win Ryan's attention again, Kara justifies to herself, since jealous Christie accuses her of it anyway?Still, playing a part in a love triangle means someone's going to be the odd one out. Kara's rekindled passion for Ryan leaves her feeling confused and causes Christie to act with increasing desperation. The three are eventually enveloped in scandal that threatens to further isolate Kara from her friends and peers.As the end of high school approaches, Kara must find a way to emotionally graduate to the person she wants to be, or risk hanging back in the darkness of a painful past