The Hawthorne family has it all: great jobs, a beautiful house in one of the most affluent areas of northern California, and three charming kids with perfectly straight teeth. Then comes eldest daughter Angela&;s senior year of high school. Suddenly, everyone is floundering. As Angela writes and rewrites her application for Harvard her father's alma mater&;and struggles to maintain her position as valedictorian, Nora Hawthorne's career hits a rough patch, taking her away from a newly distracted husband and uncharacteristically anxious younger daughters. And as the secrets everyone has been keeping will come to light, it sets the family on a final collision course that will force them to reevaluate, with humor and heart, the value of achievement.