It all starts when Aunt Sally reminds Alice that now that she's about to turn thirteen, she's the Woman of the House. Alice has always assumed that her father and her older brother, Lester, were there to take care of her. How can she possibly take care of them?
Alice's attempts to take charge of her household lead to one problem after another, culminating in a disastrous surprise birthday party for her father. And things aren't much better at school, where the seventh-grade boys are evaluating the girls in a way that has Alice and her friends pretty nervous. Alice doesn't think life can get any more complicated -- until a totally unexpected event shows her how wrong she is.
