When, just ten years in the future, oil supplies run out and global warming leads to devastating storms, senior high school classmates Tom, Niki, Gwen, Hector, and Brock realize that the world as they know it is ending and lead the way to a more environmentally-friendly society.

When her parents decide to move from Connecticut to her father's home town in Alabama just before her senior year of high school, Annie at first resents the change and resists accepting Southern customs, but her grandmother's insistence that she be a debutante brings Annie some surprising discoveries.