The novel centers on Tallahassee "Tally" Higgins, a twelve-year-old girl who has spent her life living a carefree, chaotic, and rootless existence with her single, free-spirited mother, Liz. When Liz decides to move to Hollywood to pursue an acting career, she abandons Tally with her estranged, highly conventional Aunt Thelma and Uncle Dan in suburban Maryland. Tally hates the new "house rul…