Beverly Hills sorority queen Elle (Reese Witherspoon) is shocked when her boyfriend Warner (Matthew Davis) takes her out for a meal and then dumps her, saying that because he is about to attend Harvard Law School, he should now start dating a more serious-minded woman. Elle refuses to take this lying down and follows Warner to Harvard, enrolling herself in the law school and taking on the bookworms in an all-out contest of designer-wardrobed Malibu frivolity versus mean-spirited Ivy League ambition. When Elle and Warner then begin working as interns in a prestigious law firm, the California girl gets a chance to prove her worth by defending a fitness instructor who has been accused of murder.