This book begins at Teddie's fifteenth birthday celebration, a family supper, during the summer of 1928.

Her family has decided that she must begin learning to be a lady that summer, so they try to set the mood with a cake decorated in rosebuds served with strawberry ice cream. Teddie, however, feels no inclination to be a lady. She would much rather learn about life, a subject she defines as "the things that happen to you whether you want them to or not, plus all the things that you wish would happen, plus the things you're afraid are going to happen, and why they happen that way, and how to get the good things and not the bad ones". She is certain that it is not even remotely related to baking, sewing, ironing, and other "womanly" tasks.

Her family prevails, and she receives for her birthday gifts a cookbook...