Miss Mackle's third graders share December holiday traditions --Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Three Kings Day, and Korean New Year-- with each other and with Harry's great grandfather, who has just moved to a nursing home.

An excited, eighteen-year-old Cherry Ames enters the training program at Spencer Hospital that will lead her to a nursing career in just three years.

Now that she's graduated, Audrey Nelson decides she doesn't want to go to college. She wants to moves to Seattle, and to save money starts working the night shift at the nursing home. Seth O'Malley works there too. When Audrey saves his ex-girlfriend's life at the beach, she becomes a viral sensation. She's enjoying life, going drinking with her supervisor and discovering sex with Seth. When an opportunity to move to Seattle arrives, is she ready...