An unnamed teenage girl, described as being of Black and Mexican descent, is deeply troubled by a female politician's loss of a certain high political office to a much less qualified man. She finds this experience mirrored in her own life when she runs for sophomore class president of her elitist boarding school and loses to Jonah, a white boy who cares significantly less than she does and who is showered with awards without even working for them.
As the girl loses out on opportunity after opportunity, her focus shifts to achieving the position of valedictorian. Authority figures consistently pass her over for recognition. She and Jonah develop a sexual--but not a romantic--relationship, but she still seethes over the fact that everything he wants comes to him so easily. She concocts a plan to take him out of the equation forever so that he no longer stands in the way of her ambitions. One night, after what is inferred to be a night of lovemaking, she stabs him to death and dumps his body into a nearby body of water. As police interrogate her, she manages to escape suspicion, but still feels that she can hear Jonah's heartbeat through the water, which threatens to drive her mad.