The story of a middle-class family coping with the sudden passing of their beloved patriarch Patrick, a whimsical inventor who touched the lives of all who knew him. Devastated, his family finds hope in a guide book he created for his sons.

Thirteen-year-old Kayla endures the tidal wave of contemporary suburban adolescence as she makes her way through the last week of middle school — the end of her thus far disastrous eighth grade year — before she begins high school.

A crime she committed in her youthful past sends Piper Chapman to a women's prison, where she trades her comfortable New York life for one of unexpected camaraderie and conflict in an eccentric group of fellow inmates.