The film takes place in a small suburb where new student, Violet Jacobs, finds herself dealing with a social hierarchy. When things go bad she recruits the help of a new friend, and editor of the paper, Cornelia Nixon. Together they create a tabloid called THE TATTLER. It has stories on all the "A-List" kids in the school. But things take a turn for the worse when power hungry Cornelia writes a false story about Brandon, Violet's crush. The story ends when the tabloid is crushed by Violet blackmailing Cornelia with evidence of a plastic surgery she had long ago. Then a retraction is published for all the people who got hurt.