In an attempt to understand why her best friend committed suicide, eighteen-year-old Cody Reynolds retraces her dead friend's footsteps and makes some startling discoveries.

Bad things don't happen to popular girls like Lizzie Lovett-- until her disappearance became the one fascinating mystery the sleepy town of Griffin Mills has ever had. Hawthorn is convinced she'll turn up at any moment, and comes up with her own theory for Lizzie's disappearance. A theory way too absurd to take seriously... at first. She decides to immerse herself in Lizzie's life, getting a job at the diner where Lizzie worked and hanging out with...

Greg has managed to become part of every social group at his Pittsburgh high school without having any friends, but his life changes when his mother forces him to befriend Rachel, a girl he once knew in Hebrew school who has leukemia.