Old traditions conflict with modern notions when a girl determined to define her own place graduates from a rural one-room schoolhouse to a small town's bustling school, in Newbery medalist Avi's sequel to The Secret School.

Attending high school in Steamboat Springs is Ida Bidson's dream--it's her next step toward becoming a teacher and her best shot at escaping a life of milking cows.

It's 1925, and from using telephones to attending movies, Ida is thrilled by her new experiences in Steamboat. She and her school friends even form a club, the Secret Sisters, to celebrate everything modern. But when they accidentally antagonize the strict, traditionalist principal, Ida's high school career may be in jeopardy.

It's up to the Secret Sisters to confound the old-fashioned principal's notions and save Ida's dream!