This contemporary story is set in Waverly, a Midwestern town with three high schools. Two of the schools are one-story modern buildings; the third, Waverly Hills Senior High School, which Debbie and her sister attend, is a three-story brick structure with a packed-dirt schoolyard in an old part of town. Students from the other high schools look down on Waverly Hills and call its students losers. Debbie hopes that they are wrong.

Debbie lives in a loud household with her parents and sister. The rule among the Palermos is to yell first and ask questions later. Debbie's friend Karen's house is quite different: it is quiet and reserved, and her parents are determined to maintain a proper existence. The contrast in the two families shapes the friends' separate personalities.