Meet the girls of Siddons, a posh private school in New York City. There are Alex and Suki, troublemakers and best friends since kindergarten. Kitty Johnson and Saby Cohen, who have also know each other since kindergarten but only turned exclusive in tenth grade. Lisa Van de Ven, who is going too far with Miss Wilkes. Marlene Kovack, the scholarship girl with dirty hands. And then there's Astra Dell, "that pale girl from the senior class, the dancer with all the hair, the mass of red hair, knotted or braided or let to fall to her waist, a flame and she, a candle." Astra Dell, the girl with cancer. As Astra Dell fights for her life in the hospital, her classmates, Siddons's graduating class of 1997—minus one—concern themselves with boys, teachers, exams, dance recitals, college applications, graduation, and, of course, poor Astra Dell. With sublime prose and acute psychological insight, Christine Schutt brings to life the girls of Siddons: privileged, naive, subversive, and restless.