Cameron has been shoplifting and kissing her friend Irene Klauson while her parents die in a car accident at Quake Lake, which they visited every year.

Cameron begins renting VHS movies and decorating her old dollhouse to cope with her grief, and stops spending time with Irene.

At Aunt Ruth's request, Cameron begins attending a new church, Gates of Praise, and its youth group, Firepower.

Lindsey is a lesbian and tells Cameron about her experiences with gay pride in Seattle, where she lives during the rest of the year with her mother.

Reverend Rick Roneous, the leader of a new full-time school that treats gay people called God's Promise, visits a Firepower meeting, which makes Cameron and Coley uncomfortable.

Cameron feels upset after work that day when Coley doesn't visit her and decides to make out with her coworker.

At God's Promise, Cameron meets her roommate, Erin, and her new friends Jane Fonda and Lakota Two Spirit Adam.

Cameron tells the officers who come to investigate that the camp's entire mission is to make the kids hate themselves, but God's Promise carries on.

Susan Carpenter of the Los Angeles Times called Danforth a "talented wordsmith" with "impeccable phrasing but emotional and visual clarity, drilling down into individual moments and dwelling there in slow motion to help readers experience Cameron's hopes and fears.

"[2] Teen novelist Malinda Lo wrote that Danforth's writing style in Miseducation was "multilayered in the best way, with a gradual, deliberate accretion of details that creates a resonant whole.

"[3] A review in School Library Journal offered praise for the writing and sense of place that Miseducation evoked while also criticizing the pacing and length of the novel.

The film co-stars Jennifer Ehle, John Gallagher Jr., Forrest Goodluck, Sasha Lane, Melanie Ehrlich and Quinn Shephard.