Romy's Year of Living Dangerously

The friction between twelve-year-old Romy and her mother over her father's gradual abandonment of the family spills over onto a wider landscape where institutional neglect by her mother's Child Protective Services office threatens the life of Ethan, an abused eight-year-old boy. Romy is appalled that her mother cannot legally help the child. At the same time, she feels guilt that her father has tricked her into helping his girlfriend move to an apartment more convenient for their affair.

Having lost her former circle of friends when she gave up on her career as a gymnast, Romy leans on her only remaining girlfriend, Marcie, whose cynicism about the adult world surpasses even her own. When Marcie is hospitalized due to an accident caused by drug use, it causes an unhelpful cascade of counseling and other interventions by parents, counselors and, eventually, the police.

As her father's arrogance and cruelty escalate, Romy begins to confront her mother about long-held family secrets. She starts a clandestine, adventurous romance with Brandon, a teenage boy who has a car. She is enamored of him but afraid to become sexually involved. Despite their difficulties, she recruits him into trying to help Ethan. Parents and police try to crack down on Romy's activities, but her rash attempt to save Ethan has already gone too far to stop.

Romy had always focused on pleasing her father by getting straight A's in school. She has now lost all interest in grades, but she successfully persuades her English teacher, Ms. Gill, to stop assigning ponderous English novels to her middle school class. Ms. Gill is impressed that Romy is speaking up for the other students and invites her to a leadership class; but Romy instead tries to express her feelings by writing - first a really bad play, then a moving, bitter poem.

Romy's father, enraged that Romy questions his behavior at Thanksgiving dinner, throws his phone at her. Romy does not tell her mother about the incident but decides for herself that she is through with him. Romy finds solace in caring for her three little cousins, and she finds a role model in her Aunt Lucia, who is willing to overlook Romy's impetuous behavior and work around the ensuing complications in order to save Ethan. Lucia finally takes decisive action to get Ethan removed from his father's custody while at the same time covering up Romy's questionable methods.

Romy's father begs her for one last chance, and she gives up a Mexican vacation with Marcie's family and stays home for Christmas to give him that chance; but he doesn't show up at all on Christmas. As her mother finally accepts the fact that her marriage is over, Romy tells Brandon that their age-inappropriate romance is not to be. Romy and her mother reconcile under a Mexican sunset, both of them satisfied that Lucia has agreed to become Ethan's foster mother, and that mother and daughter finally understand each other