One summer, prior to starting her first day at Merry Weather High School, 13-year-old Melinda "Mel" Sordino goes to a house party with three other friends and is raped by a senior, Andy Evans.

[4][5] She finds solace in her art class and teacher, Mr. Freeman, where she has a year-long assignment of drawing a tree which plays a major role in her life.

Throughout the year she slowly creates a hidden room for herself in an old janitor's closet, which acts as her safe haven, and is the setting for the climactic ending of the novel.

These events include her parents giving her art supplies (showing that they care), her only companion and friend Heather leaving her for the clique called the Marthas and saying Melinda needs therapy, seeing things written about Andy on the bathroom wall and cutting school the next day.

In Anderson's 2002 novel Catalyst, Melinda Sordino appears for a few pages, now in tenth grade at Merryweather High and having regained control over her life.

It is stated that Andy Evans is found guilty but does not go to prison; instead, he is sentenced to probation and has to register as a sex offender, typically is under house arrest (an alternative to prison), must be electronically tagged by an ankle monitor when completing his penalty, having limited contacts to others except his caregivers (his parents and other immediate family members), ordered to stay away from Melinda, her family and friends, and his other victims at all time.

Her mother buys her clothing, which she dislikes, and her lips are always bloody and dry from the fact that she bites them when she sees Andy Evans, or when something bad happens to her.