Betty Wales confronts a sudden collapse of the ploshkin novelty market that jeopardizes a small entrepreneurial venture tied to her college circle. Friends and student organizations mount imaginative schemes, social events, and businesslike improvisations to revive sales and support one another. A lively newcomer from Montana shakes up campus life, prompting initiations, pranks, and a dramatic disappearance that tests loyalties. Dances, dinners, a prom, and debates about suffrage and modern womanhood complicate romances and ambitions. Practical problems and personal choices are worked through, leaving the group with renewed purpose and plans for the future.