When North Anchorage High School student and rising star is found dead at the bottom of the film club staircase, everyone assumes it was an accident. After all, the stairs are poorly lit, and a person in a hurry could easily miss a step and take a tumble. Besides, who would want to kill someone so universally loved? Except, it turns out, the dead girl wasn't loved at all.

Virginia and Katie, amateur sleuths and former 8th grade sweethearts, are determined to find out what really happened to their classmate, a girl keeping some very dangerous secrets. But first they must work through their own issues, like why did Katie and her parents suddenly leave Alaska, and why does she want nothing to do with Virginia now--three years later?