Greg Heffley recounts his daily experiences during summer vacation as he tries to live out his ultimate fantasy of spending the days indoors playing video games with no responsibilities and no rules, despite his mother's attempts to pack the summer with outdoor activities and family fun.

For 12-year-old Julia Richards, life seems to be full of a lot of waiting: waiting for the cicadas to emerge, waiting with her best friend Taylor for the summer to get interesting, even waiting for her parents to let her move into the much cooler room down the hall. But perhaps the waiting might be over after new girl Alyssa and her plushy pink chair arrive across the street on Darcy Lane. However, when Alyssa challenges Julia for Taylor's friendship...

Judy's big plans for the summer seem ruined when two of her best friends go away, and then her parents leave her and Stink with Aunt Opal, but a new "thrill-a-delic" plan has her racing toward fun.

Law student Jack Mullen puts his own life, and those of his friends on the line when he enlists their help in going up against the local East Hamptom authorities, as well as some of the wealthiest people in the country, in an effort to prove that his younger brother Peter, found dead at the Beach House of ultra-rich Barry Neubauer, was murdered.