Alison attempts to hypnotize the girls in Spencer's barn, argues with Spencer, and walks outside into the night, never to return.

Police arrive and question Spencer, Aria, Emily, and Hanna about the night Alison disappeared from Spencer's guest house.

Emily brings a welcome basket to Alison's old house and meets Maya St. Germain, who has just moved in.

Aria meets a charming young man named Ezra at a local bar, and they kiss in the bathroom.

Hanna and Mona slip stolen jewelry into their bags at Tiffany's and walk out of the store undetected.

Spencer's family has dinner with Melissa's new boyfriend Wren, and Spencer is immediately and powerfully attracted to him.

On the first day of school, Aria realizes the man she kissed at the bar is her new English teacher.

During English class, Aria receives an anonymous text containing personal secrets only Alison could have known, signed from A.

Spencer finds Wren unexpectedly in the family hot tub, and the two share a charged, intimate encounter.

Officer Darren Wilden arrests Hanna and takes her to the police station after the mall catches her shoplifting on camera.

Spencer kisses Wren in the barn closet while Melissa sleeps inside, then finds A's warnings flooding her computer screen.

Melissa discovers Spencer and Wren together through the barn window, then enters and coldly asks Wren if he is coming.

After Sean rejects her at a party, Hanna steals his BMW, drunkenly races another car, and crashes into a telephone pole.

Workers digging for a new tennis court at Maya's house uncover Alison's body buried under a concrete slab.

The four girls reunite at Alison's memorial service and all simultaneously receive a text from A claiming to know everything.

Pretty Little Liars opens on the night Alison DiLaurentis vanishes from Spencer's barn, setting off years of grief and secrets for her four best friends. Three years later, Spencer, Aria, Emily, and Hanna are navigating new and reckless relationships while being stalked by a mysterious figure called A. The tension escalates as Spencer is caught kissing her sister's boyfriend, Hanna drunkenly crashes a stolen car, and Aria falls for her English teacher. Everything changes when construction workers uncover Alison's body buried beneath Maya's yard, forcing the girls to confront the truth. Reunited at Alison's memorial, the four friends discover they have all been receiving A's messages, and the killer could now be anyone. The book closes on all four girls receiving one final, chilling text from A.

The headline events driving the story from Alison's disappearance to the final threat.

As police question the girls about Alison's disappearance, Hanna nervously asks Emily whether she told them about The Jenna Thing.

A year after Alison vanishes, the girls' grief shifts quietly to relief, knowing their secrets are now safe with her gone.

Emily's mother sends her to deliver a welcome basket to the new family moving into Alison's old house.

Aria's family returns to Rosewood after two years living in Iceland, and Aria dreads confronting the past she left behind.

Aria drives her younger brother to lacrosse tryouts without a license and flirts casually with Noel Kahn in the parking lot.

Hanna's mother defuses the shoplifting situation at the police station by falsely claiming she was with Hanna at Tiffany's.

Spencer announces her near-perfect PSAT score during a family game called Star Power and earns the right to move into the barn.

Emily and Maya skip swim practice and jump from a stone bridge into the creek at the Marwyn trail.

Aria kisses Noel in English class during an oral report on Waiting for Godot in a deliberate attempt to make Ezra jealous.

Emily tells her parents she wants to quit the swim team, and her mother insists her father will set things right.

Emily's mother reveals her racial prejudice by telling Emily she has a bad feeling about girls like Maya.

At Noel's party, Sean leads Hanna into the woods and tells her she is not the right girl for him.

Emily and Maya kiss in a photo booth at Noel's party, and Ben walks in and throws beer on them both.

Aria goes to Ezra's apartment after the party, and they spend an intimate night together before A's texts flood her phone.

Spencer's family confronts her at the kitchen table after Melissa tells them what she witnessed through the barn window.

While the main plot charges forward, a second layer of significant events reveals how deeply each girl is unraveling on her own terms. Aria returns from Iceland, reconnects with Noel Kahn, and brazenly pursues Ezra through classroom theatrics. Emily is gently nudged toward Maya by her own mother before her family becomes an obstacle, culminating in her defiant decision to quit swimming. Hanna's mother quietly enables her daughter's recklessness by charming the police officer who arrests her, while Hanna herself is brutally rejected by Sean at Noel's party. Spencer outmaneuvers Melissa at the dinner table with a near-perfect test score, winning the barn she covets. Each of these moments feeds the growing chaos that pushes the girls toward the crisis at the story's center.

The supporting moments that shape each girl's spiral across the school year.

Alison smoothly flatters Melissa about her relationship with Ian until Melissa agrees to leave the barn to the younger girls.

Spencer recalls having once kissed Melissa's former boyfriend Ian and remembers Alison's threatening offer to tell Melissa about it.

Emily finds an anonymous note in her school locker referencing her kiss with Maya, signed from A.

Spencer notices a flash of blond hair in Alison's old bedroom window and feels a chill, suspecting someone is watching her.

Spencer opens an email from A after the hot tub encounter with Wren, warning her about lusting after what is not hers.

Aria goes to Ezra's office before school to try to continue their relationship, but he firmly turns her away.

Maya confesses to Emily at the creek that she may not be sure she likes boys.

Hanna's eating disorder resurfaces when she secretly binges in her car and then purges alone at home, feeling ashamed.

Aria receives a text from A during English class linking Ezra's interest in his students directly to her father's past affair.

Spencer recalls that Toby Cavanaugh secretly witnessed Alison during the incident that blinded Jenna but stayed silent to protect his own secret.

Hanna receives a letter from A containing a newspaper photo of Kate alongside her father, revealing his engagement to Isabel.

Emily finds her old love letter to Alison returned to her bicycle wheel with a message on the back signed from A.

Aria goes to Ezra's apartment seeking comfort after learning Alison is dead, but he rejects her after reading A's texts on her phone.

Wren secretly visits Spencer after her family's confrontation, kisses her, and tells her his relationship with Melissa is over.

A police officer approaches Spencer at Alison's memorial to announce the case is being reopened and request a formal interview.

Beneath the surface of every plotline in Pretty Little Liars are the quiet but devastating moments of revelation that change everything. From Alison's masterful manipulation of Melissa on the night she disappears, to Spencer's buried memory of kissing Melissa's ex, the past casts a long shadow over the present. A's messages arrive as precisely targeted strikes, returning Emily's old love letter, exposing Hanna's eating disorder, and connecting Aria's affair with Ezra to her father's hidden betrayal. Emily slowly realizes her feelings for Maya go beyond friendship, while Hanna confronts the painful truth about her father's affections. By the time Jenna and Toby appear at Alison's memorial and police begin asking questions, the girls understand that nothing they have buried will stay buried for long.

The key discoveries and emotional shifts that expose each girl's deepest secrets.