11-year-old Anne Greenwald and her 15-year-old sister Barbara were living a comfortable Midwestern middle-class lifestyle with their mother in Peoria in 1945 when their father returns home after being in the US army for 6 years due to World War II. Thanks to the GI bill, the Greenwalds can move to the suburbs in any city as long as Anne finishes 9th grade in Peoria High School. 5 years later in 1950, Anne is now living in Levittown as a new girl in General Douglas Mac Arthur High School. She can't ask Barbara for high school advice since she's in college studying for her business degree and newly engaged to Gregory Mancini, a charming Italian American greaser. Since her friends in Peoria and Barbara aren't by her side she has to deal with being the new girl on her own. Her life changes when she joins the school cheerleading team, where she makes new friends and even meets a handsome baseball player. But when one of her old friends humiliates and betrays her, she feels more lost than when she first moved to Levittown.
