Twelve-year-old Zoe, famous for advising other people using her unwritten rules, has her hands full with chairing a school dance committee, training a new student to fit in, keeping her grandmother out of a nursing home, and trying to find a husband for her mother.

Seventh-grader Zoë's status as best advice-giver at Allencroft Middle School is in jeopardy when sixth-grader Devon Sweeney begins to take over, and until she finds out what is really going on in Devon's life, Zoë will do just about anything to regain her exalted place in the school hierarchy.