Dire financial straits and a desire for a fresh start take Meg and her teenaged daughter Sally from a comfortable life on Long Island to a tucked-away hamlet in upstate New York: Arcadia Falls, where Meg has accepted a teaching position at a boarding school. Med is determined to make the best of it and to make a good impression on the school's dean, Ivy St. Clare. But everyone at the school is distracted by the sudden death of one of Meg's students during Arcadia's First Night bonfire.