Patricia works hard to give her family a good life, supplying her daughter, Pamela, with everything a girl could possibly want. Pamela misses her father, Ryan, whom she never had much of a relationship with because he placed his job as a real estate agent-and office poker games-above his family. Upon being transferred thirty miles away to the coastal town in California, Pamela's life backslides. Pamela's father, who becomes a prominant Sunday school teacher at the local church, meets another woman while trying to drum up real estate business, while Patricia engages in an affair of her own. After finding out about his wife's indescretions, Ryan falls in love with the former Las Vegas showgirl and abandons his family. In the meantime, Pamela meets Bill, a boy from Rochester, New York. Bill proves to be different from the other boys Pamela has dated in the short time of her adolescence. Pamela is smitten by Bill and falls head over heals in love with him letting her schoolwork take a backseat. Both of Pamela's parents are oblivious to their daughter's activities, too busy with their own emotional turmoil. As Pamela navigates the many obstacles of adulthood, it becomes apparent how much a girl truly needs her parent's guidance in school and in her relationships with the opposite sex. Patricia shows her daughter how much she loves her by saving money for a European high school graduation present. The trip comes at a time when Pamela needs it the most because of the events that unfold in her life the night after she turns eighteen.