Ramona is excited for her first day of third grade, but all does not go exactly as planned. Her new shoes squeak, she cracks an egg on her head, and to top it all off, her teacher, Mrs. Whaley thinks she's a nuisance!
Beezus and Ramona are disgusted when they find out what their dinner's mystery meat really is. After refusing to eat it, their parents suggest they make dinner for the family the next night.
Tensions run high in the Quimby household after inclement weather keeps them all indoors. Mr Quimby suggests they go out to dinner, and they end up learning a lesson about family from a mysterious stranger.
Beezus and Ramona return home from school one day to find that their cat has died. On the same day, they find out that there will soon be a new addition to the Quimby family.
Ramona has a day when everything seems to go wrong at home, at school and at Howie's house. It ends with her parents having a fight, and she and Beezus fear they will get a divorce.