Thirteen-year-old Mary Lou grows up considerably during the summer while learning about romance, homesickness, death, and her cousin's search for his biological father.
Four girls, and their mothers, continue their mother-daughter book club via videoconference between Massachusetts and England, reading Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice, " and try to put friendship before romance.
As the Mother-Daughter Book Club reads Jane Eyre, the girls and some of their mothers are involved in some serious competitions, Becca finds romance when the Wyoming pen pals come for a visit, and a wedding brings the British Berkeley brothers and even Stinkerbelle to Concord.
An aviator whose plane is forced down in the Sahara Desert encounters a little man from a small planet who describes his adventures in the universe seeking the secret of what is really important in life.