Amanda Vaughn, once the ultimate high school "mean girl," is forced to return home in disgrace after her marriage ends in scandal. As Amanda and her teenage kids try to adjust to their new lives, the ladies from her past alternate between sympathy and scheming.

While the young scientist, Julius, steadfastly researches the asexual reproduction of worms, his natural curiosity leads him to discover some inconvenient truths about those around him. He witnesses his mother's infidelity and suspects his grandfather for the same, all while he believes he is losing his best friend Shiley to a rival named Chase. These disappointments are forefront while he also wrestles with his father's mysterious departure years ago. Julius keeps a diligent eye, but unfortunately, all of his heartbreakingly acute observation seems to prove that no solution will restore the people he cares about to their appropriate roles. How can Julius hold together a family that seems as though none of its parts can stay intact? How can he build his own romantic relationships under the shadow of rumors about his father's homosexuality?

Jimmy lives in the tranquil town of Eagle Rock, Louisiana, with his father, stepmother and his best friend Rainy, a German Shepherd. When Jimmy's father gets a promotion, the family must relocate to an apartment in New York City that has a strict no pet policy. Unwilling to let his master go without a fight, Rainy embarks on a cross-country journey to New York but navigating the Big Apple is just the beginning of his challenging adventure.