On her day of graduation, Felicity asks a longtime high school crush, Ben, to sign her yearbook; after she reads his message, in which he says that he would have liked to have known her better, Felicity changes her lifelong college plans to follow Ben to a New York school. There, she meets her quirky (and smitten) resident advisor Noel and her first new friend Julie.

When Felicity learns a male called the admissions office requesting a copy of her application essay, she assumes it was Ben — the subject of said essay — and sends him a copy. Meanwhile, Felicity's parents pop up in New York again.

A disappointed Felicity faces the drive home to California without Noel, until he unexpectedly asks her to fly to Berlin with him. She accepts, but Ben's reaction makes her rethink her plans. Meanwhile, Elena's relationship with Prof. McGrath progresses along with her growing unease about the consequences of their affair.