As she tries to bloom into adulthood, shirley deals with feelings of being treated like a child. Especially when she butts heads with Mrs Farrow, played by Verna Felton. Shirley is much the typical teen, even by some of today's standards, sneaking out of the house, demanding privacy, sassing those in authority positions, testing the limits of her liberties, and desiring to push those limits farther. Doesn't anybody understand her?