Erica, an enthusiastic high-schooler thoroughly involved both socially and scholastically, is shaken and hurt when her mother accepts a job for one year on the other side of the continent. Her distress at the separation and the changes it brings is made worse by a smear campaign against her father's weekly newspaper. Erica herself is a victim of slanderous gossip and threatening notes. The tension mounts as even a state senator becomes caught up in the conflict - or is he the cause of it?