DJ's grandmother is a former fashion model who has restored an old mansion and turned it into a boarding house for rich teenaged girls who are interested in fashion, presenting DJ with a conflict between retaining her tomboy identity or changing her style, as she decides whether or not to try to fit in.

As graduation and last good-byes approach, the Carter House girls make prom plans and find themselves in heated competion for the limelight in a Mother's Day fashion show.

Sixteen-year-old Caitlin O'Conner keeps a six-month diary in which she records the day-to-day events of her life as well as her struggles to understand herself and God's plan for her future.

Life at the Carter house is in an uproar, with Taylor coming home from rehab treatment, Kriti developing a possible eating disorder, and Eliza creating competition between the girls for the New York debut at Spring Fashion Week.

"Emma Burcelli has given up on romance. Not just because she's suffered over a decade of dating disasters. Not because her parents' marriage ended on New Year's Eve. No, Emma concludes that love is officially dead when her grandfather Poppi passes away, leaving the last true romantic's other half, Nona Burcelli, devastated. Emma helps by working in the family's bookstore, which Nona insists must be completely decked out in sweetheart décor as Poppi...

As Mrs. Carter becomes increasingly distracted by General Harding, her boardinghouse girls find more opportunities to get into trouble, especially during a weekend getaway to a luxurious Vermont ski lodge, to which some of the girls have invited boys.

When Maddie joins her journalist aunt on vacation in Mexico, she finds a rival for Ryan's affection, a friend who has a drinking problem, and most important, a new trust in God.

Sixteen-year-old Maya's commitment to live her life for God wavers after she joins a Christian rock band.

When sixteen-year-old Chelsea Martin's future stepmother gives her a total makeover, she attracts all of the wrong boys and drives away many girls, but her friend Janelle keeps telling Chelsea to be true to herself, while helping her find a way to catch the eye of Nicholas, the one "non-jerk" at school.