Head of School Audre Robinson welcomes new students on Move-In Day while quietly grieving the recent suicide of student Cinnamon Peters.

Tiffin Academy's national boarding school ranking unexpectedly jumps from #19 to #2, sending the entire school into celebration.

East leads new student Charley through a hidden basement tunnel to an abandoned bomb shelter and proposes turning it into a speakeasy.

While searching for a missing student, teacher Simone discovers the basement tunnel and East kisses her for the first time.

East recruits Chef Haz to help renovate the bomb shelter by offering him $30,000 plus a share of future profits.

Charley's mother arrives at Family Weekend with her new husband Joey despite Charley's repeated requests that he not come.

An anonymous app called Zip Zap launches at Tiffin, immediately posting secrets about students and staff.

Davi gives Charley a full makeover before the Kringle dance, launching their close friendship.

After Davi privately emails the school psychologist about her eating disorder, Zip Zap posts about it publicly the next morning.

Davi ends her friendship with Charley, convinced that Charley betrayed her secret to Zip Zap.

An IT specialist traces Zip Zap's posts back to the school newspaper office, exposing students Grady and Levi as the creators.

East finishes renovating the bomb shelter into a speakeasy called Priorities and invites a small group of close friends to use it.

Olivia tells Simone that several students are disappearing from their dorm beds on Saturday nights.

Audre plays East's secret voice recording of Simone confessing to their inappropriate relationship and fires Simone immediately.

After graduation, the Priorities group reunites on the Senior Sofa and Charley invites East to join them.

When Tiffin Academy's national ranking unexpectedly jumps to #2, Head of School Audre Robinson hopes for a fresh start after the prior year's tragedy. Instead, student East secretly recruits new arrival Charley to help him build an underground speakeasy, while also beginning an inappropriate relationship with new teacher Simone. An anonymous app called Zip Zap begins exposing everyone's secrets, destroying friendships and destabilizing the school, until an IT specialist traces the posts back to two students in the newspaper office. With Zip Zap shut down, East opens his speakeasy — called Priorities — and gathers a close circle of friends there each Saturday. When East's secret recording exposes Simone's misconduct, Audre fires her, and the school year closes with Charley and the Priorities group reuniting on graduation day.

The headline events that define a chaotic year at Tiffin Academy.

East jumps into Jewel Pond on Move-In Day and races new student Charley across the water, surprising everyone watching.

Tiffin defeats their longtime rival Excelsior in the opening football game of the season.

Teacher Rhode helps a very drunk Simone out of the Alibi bar while Chef Haz secretly assists and files the moment away.

Hakeem corners Dub in the locker room and physically threatens him over his close relationship with Taylor.

Northmeadow's head of school formally launches an ISNEC inquiry into how Tiffin earned its new #2 ranking.

Teacher Rhode takes Simone on an expensive date to a Vermont cottage, but Simone drinks so heavily she vomits on him.

Zip Zap posts that Taylor wants to lose her virginity to Dub, exposing their private text conversation to the entire school.

Tiffin loses a crucial football game after a drunk Hakeem returns from a recruiting trip and drops two key passes.

Davi spends Thanksgiving break at Olivia's home in Boston and grows increasingly irritated by Olivia's obsessive behavior toward her.

Simone tears apart Charley's dorm room in a surprise inspection, searching for contraband, but finds nothing.

Cordelia calls McGill University, uncovers Simone's past dismissal as dorm fellow, and brings the information to Audre, who dismisses it.

Dub takes Taylor to Piano Night at the Grille, where he spontaneously sings a duet for the first time since Cinnamon's death.

Davi walks out of the school's Mean Girls production and Charley pressures her until Davi agrees to seek help for her eating disorder.

ISNEC formally clears Tiffin's #2 ranking as legitimate after completing its full investigation.

East shows up outside Charley's dorm room at night with roses, insisting he pursued Simone only to protect Priorities.

Beneath the main drama at Tiffin, a web of smaller conflicts shapes the school year for students and staff alike. The football team's surprising success is complicated by tension between players Dub and Hakeem over Taylor, while Zip Zap exposes private conversations and forces difficult confrontations. Teacher Rhode relentlessly pursues Simone despite her disinterest, culminating in a disastrous and expensive date in Vermont. At home and over breaks, students like Davi struggle with isolation, complex family situations, and the hollowness of popularity. These secondary storylines ultimately feed into the novel's broader themes, as characters slowly learn to find genuine support in one another rather than in gossip, social media fame, or the false safety of secrets.

The rivalries, relationships, and revelations running beneath Tiffin's headline drama.

Audre delivers the school's opening All-School Meeting speech and announces Tiffin's #2 ranking to a chapel erupting in cheers.

Charley joins the school newspaper and meets editor Ravenna, who wants to expose the gap between Tiffin's polished image and its reality.

During Family Weekend, Charley hides in the library bathroom and overhears Davi secretly purging.

On the night of the Kringle dance, Zip Zap posts that Audre privately suspects Big East bribed his way to a higher ranking.

Simone follows voices into the basement during the Kringle dance and discovers Charley and East kissing beneath the chandelier.

Zip Zap posts about Simone's past disciplinary removal as dorm fellow at McGill University, shocking the campus.

While watching the school's production of Mean Girls, Charley realizes the story mirrors life at Tiffin with herself as the new girl Cady.

East and Charley have sex for the first time in the renovated bomb shelter during a school snow day.

Zip Zap posts about East and Charley's encounter, and they are relieved the post misunderstands what actually happened in the basement.

Simone returns to campus early from spring break and confronts East after spotting him unloading lumber from his truck.

Rhode spots a wine cork on East's dorm room floor and deduces that Simone was drinking alone with East over break.

Simone drinks an entire bottle of wine, enters East's dorm room while he is out, and steals his key to the basement.

East secretly records his confrontation with Simone in his dorm room and sends the voice memo to retired professor Roy Ewanick.

Simone brings Rhode down to Priorities to prove East's wrongdoing, but the room has already been completely emptied of all alcohol.

Charley breaks up with East at graduation after rumors spread through the school about his secret relationship with Simone.

While the main plot moves forward through action, it is shaped by a series of pivotal discoveries and quiet decisions. Charley's recognition of Davi's eating disorder, Simone's dangerous attraction to East, and Audre's own doubts about the school's ranking all simmer beneath the surface before Zip Zap forces them into the open. Several scenes mark turning points that raise the stakes: Simone stumbling upon Charley and East kissing under the chandelier, East choosing to record Simone rather than confront her directly, and Simone drunkenly stealing East's key. Each revelation pushes a character toward consequences they can no longer avoid, culminating in Simone's firing, Charley's breakup with East, and the tentative reconciliation that closes the novel.