Lucy Hall has been picked as new victim by the exceedingly unpleasant Melanie Prosser and her gang. Beginning their campaign on Lucy's 11th birthday, they demand 'prezzies' and ruin her new shoes. Angus Burns sees what is going on and tries to help, but Lucy is not keen on accepting his evident concern. The entire class seems mesmerised by these three chilling girls. Some of them have been victims before, and no one seems capable of sorting them out. The truly horrid threats, name-calling and physical abuse continue until one day Lucy is shamed by the gang making fun of her in front of their classmates. Melanie shoplifts a cassette tape and plants it on Lucy, and it is only Angus' taking the blame that saves her. Full of misery, Lucy finally realises that action must be taken. She and Angus and some other classmates plan to write out their experiences for a newspaper that is to be displayed on the classroom wall. When Melanie sees what they have done, she goes quite wild and tries to bully one of the children again - whereupon the others form a solid circle - a non-violent protest. Lucy is saddened when she learns that Melanie's father physically abuses her; in fact, there have been scenes throughout the book of Melanie's unhappy home life. It is unclear as to exactly why Lucy cannnot confide in her parents, who are represented as loving, but when she finally does, her mum goes to Melanie's mum to complain - with disastrous results. It is only the children themselves who can sort out the problem. Harrowing, but realistic.