It's 1994 - a time when nobody can seem to agree on anything, except how much they all enjoy using an acronym (The IRA, The UDA, The RUC). Armed police in armoured Land Rovers, British Army check points and "peace" walls are all an everyday reality for 16-year old Erin and her friends.

Erin lives with her uncompromising mother, her long-suffering father and the fearsome 'Granda Joe', a man whose love for his daughters and granddaughters is surpassed only by his contempt for his son-in-law.

Erin is used to seeing her country on the nightly news. This is a time of armed police in armoured Land Rovers and British Army check points. But it's also the time of Murder She Wrote, The Cranberries, MJ and Lisa Marie, Doc Martens, bomber jackets, The X Files, Nirvana and Wayne's World. And while The Troubles may hang over her home town, Erin has troubles of her own...

Terrible with boys and convinced nobody understands her, Erin would love to be a rebel, and sometimes flirts with the idea of standing up to those in authority, like her Principal - the eternally unimpressed Sister Michael, or divorcing her parents, à la Macaulay Culkin, but she never quite has the nerve. She has grand ambitions to become a famous writer and thinks of herself as thoroughly liberal and worldly, yet she's never ventured further than Buncrana...

The bane of Erin's existence is her 15-year-old cousin Orla McCool who lives next door with her ditzy mother Sarah. Whimsical, unpredictable Orla orbits her own planet and thinks nothing of reading her cousin's diary or borrowing her knickers.

Equally responsible for Erin's inability to better herself are her two best friends - Clare Devlin, clever, ambitious and, when faced with Sister Michael, an enthusiastic grass, and Michelle Mallon, mouthy, man-hungry and unashamedly offensive.

Last and, as far as the girls are concerned, very much least, is Michelle's cousin James - 'The English Fella' - who's just moved to Derry and is the ultimate outsider. Amid concerns that his English accent may cause trouble for him at the boys' school, James is forced to attend the all-girl Our Lady Immaculate College. But as he quickly discovers, the boys' school would have been a much easier ride.