Dara Palmer dreams of being an actress, but when she does not get a part in the school play she wonders if it is because of her different looks as an adopted girl from Cambodia, so Dara becomes determined not to let prejudice stop her from being in the spotlight.

Eighth-grader Ethan Isaac is looking forward to the soccer season, but he gets a shock when he finds out that their new coach is Ms. Brezinka, his tough seventh grade science teacher--some of the players quit the team, but Ethan does not have that option, and he soon learns that Ms. Brezinka is as demanding a soccer coach as she was a teacher.

Marley is comfortable with being gay in Winston-Salem, but he never had any real passions until he met Christopher, son of a bigoted television evangelist; the two become an inseparable couple until Christopher's parents send him to a religious program intended to "cure" him of being gay, and outraged Marley tells a very big lie--and then has to deal with the repercussions.