What is the great mystery surrounding Merriweather Abbey? Will it be discovered in time to save a friend in great peril? Life at Merriweather Middle school is exciting enough with its myriad Home Ec. disasters and the malevolent bully, Espin Alldread, but just follow Laurel Lemay and members of her Secret Society of the Merriweather Club from their first entry into the mysterious Abbey to their discovery of its most profound secret, and you will be forever changed. Will their love of classic literature, of the courageous heroines of Dickens, Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters, somehow aid the club members as they journey through the heights and depths of the labyrinthine passageways leading to the Secret Pavilion?

A jovial band of middle schoolers belonging to "The Secret Society of the Merriweather Club," joins forces to battle bullies, overcome hysterical home economic disasters and attend advanced etiquette classes, all while facing personal challenges ranging from identity crises to classic, adolescent awkwardness. Each member believes she has a secret, inner gift, but it takes time to discover exactly what that is, and middle school demands vie constantly for their time and attention. The Merriweather Club boasts it's own poet laureate, Lucy Lyric. Lettie Penn's comic hair- dyeing disaster brings her to the brink of a long- kept family secret. Linda Hubb, Miss Merriweather's favorite, gracious, and refined niece, longs to join others dancing at the annual cotillion, but must dream from the confines of her wheelchair. Laney Penneypacker's move from her family's upscale Manhattan co-op to a tiny, run- down house in the town of Merriweather, is more than enough motivation for her to attempt some Dickensian cost-cutting measures at dinner time. Their fearless leader, Laurel LeMay, adds the club's ongoing mystery of the month to make things even more intriguing. At the beginning of the school year, they are mystified by the latest secret surrounding Merriweather Abbey: where are the two missing portraits in the ballroom? Why will Miss Merriweather herself not even admit the paintings have disappeared? And just what is the secretive butler, Rubay Omar hiding from them all?