Melanie "Mel" Gemeinhardt has had anything but an easy life. Her parents divorced when she and her twin sister were only 6 years old. Melanie begs to have custody given to her father, who happens to be an alcoholic and a heroin addict, just so that she can escape her abusive mother and sister. She and her father end up keeping the house that they have always lived in, while the other females of the family settle on living their dreams. After two years of living on the brink of starvation and homelessness, Melanie takes the last $100 that her father has and enters into an illegal street race, figuring this was her last option. She races on the piece of junk that her father calls a motorcycle and ends up winning race after race. She leaves the races with $10,000, a new bike, and a brighter future then she would have ever thought existed. As a teen, Melanie expands her racing and founds a a racing team by then name of Gemeinhardt 17. She attends public high school, along with her jealous sister where the sibbling rivalry continues. She has developed nasty habits from the time she started racing until now, the start of her tenth grade year, to cope with the collisions of the two racing teams, one founded by her, the other her sister in an attempt to be the 'best' Gemeinhardt. After she returns to school, the battles continue to get worse between the twins until Melanie gets into a near fatal accident. The accident challenges the relationships that she has built over the last 8 years, the love that she refuses to believe in, and the fame she has created for herself and her father. Will she succumb to the accident and disappear off the face of the earth or will she defy the odds and come out on top?