Bright Katie Woods, a junior majoring in art history, has just transferred from her local community college to prestigious and expensive Montlake College which arguably has the best art history program in the country. She and her working class parents can barely afford the cost, even with the student loans Katie has secured, but she hopes that the end of a good interior decorating job after graduating will ultimately justify the cost. But once settled in, Katie finds that life at Montlake is a little more difficult financially than she anticipated, especially as she wants to attend a prestigious summer program at the University of Florence, an extra cost above and beyond for what she had budgeted. It isn't until she accepts a blind double date with her classmate and new friend, wealthy Tessa Bouillette, and has a good time being pampered by her handsome, suave and rich date James Smith, does Katie learn that Tessa and few other girls at Montlake find such dates on the Sugar Babies website, where young women avail themselves to wealthy men of various ages in exchange for financial compensation in one form or another. Tessa's date, forty year old Leo Granger, has long been her steady sugar daddy, and despite coming from money herself, the relationship with Leo allows her to live in the manner to which she is accustomed. Katie is initially torn as she truly likes James and believes he truly likes her, but does not want to be financially tied to him, although she does reconsider as she faces one financial hurdle after another which James seems more than happy and willing to pay in spending time with her. Ultimately Katie and the other girls have to decide if they want to continue with relationships which ultimately are at their core business transactions and which can be viewed as one step away from pure prostitution, perhaps at the risk of finding something "real", Katie whose alternate path may be in the form of poor student Sean Clark. Some of the girls may find that their sugar daddies will make those decisions for them.
