Natalie is excited about a job offer to write a weekly column for a New York newspaper. The fact that the job would make her miss school as well as bring her unnecessary pressure causes her to get into an argument with her mother. During the argument, Natalie brings up the fact that she's adopted, this leads her adopted mother to give her the name of her birth mother.

The girls are shaken by the sudden death of Natalie's father and wonder how to ease her pain.

Mrs. Garrett and the girls are all excited about Natalie's graduation and buy her a bookcase with a brand new set of encyclopedias on the assumption she's going to college. To her friends surprise, Natalie has a very different plan for life after high school.