Like other teens in California, the lives of the Laguna Beach teenagers are filled with sandy beaches, beautiful friends and love triangles. But unlike other teens, they had cameras following them around. It may look like fantasyland, but they're not acting: they really are this rich and beautiful. For them, life really is a day at the beach.

Small lives begin at the end of high school for this surreal society. A senior who married young must contend with her life, love, and pursuit of individuality and femininity in a narcissistic, misogynistic world of irony. Gwen Adams, her husband Holden, and school rival Hilary complete the love triangle as Principal Mann makes their lives living hell.