Sixth-graders Ashley and her best friend Maya were banished from the live "News at Nine" broadcast at John Dos Passos Elementary in Baltimore after an embarrassing incident in the previous year; at loose ends the pair, together with their classmate Brielle, decide to become investigative reporters with their own online broadcast: "The Underground News"--and soon they stumble upon a major story about an educational software company that is illegally tracking and selling student data.