The story starts with a shot of the ocean before a shot of Poppy Moore sleeping. She then wakes up before remembering her dad's girlfriend is moving in. In a bid to get attention she gets her heap of very fake friends to trash all her dad's girlfriend's stuff. She proceeds to jump off the cliff with some clothes, which her father is not pleased about. He tells her he is sending her to boarding school in England.
Her room-mates Drippy, Kiki, Josie and Kate] take a disliking to her spoiled ways and she immediately alienates herself with her attitude towards the school and other girls, resulting in Matron putting her whole dormitory in detention. After this Poppy tries to find a way to leave without much success. She sneaks into the computer room at night to send an email to her best friend Ruby and sees Drippy sneaking into the freezer to have some ice cream after an embarrassing eyebrow tint. When a fire drill practice happens whilst Poppy is out of her dormitory, she sneaks outside and climbs up a ladder into one of the rooms so she does not get caught. A male voice from behind a bath curtain asks her name and helps her get out without being caught.
During a lacrosse practice Poppy laughs at Harriet's attempts to be a good lacrosse player and the two get into a fight on the ground when Freddie drives up and uses Poppy's name making her realise that his was the male voice she heard. When she goes to the headmistress's office, Mrs Kingsley gives her the novel Alice in Wonderland, telling her it might help. When Harriet is forcing a first year to "age" her clothes for the upcoming school dance, she sees Poppy sitting on a bench under the window and pours the dirty water all over Poppy. Room-mate Kate finds Poppy upset and alone in their room and finds out that Poppy's mum passed away when she was eleven years old. She tells Poppy she will have to get herself expelled if she's serious about escaping.
As she reads Alice in Wonderland, her roommates sneak up on her and decide to help her get expelled.