Over Spring Break, Diane returns to her hometown when she runs into Bobby, the love of her life. Why does her heart beat so quickly just thinking about meeting Bobby again after all these years if she's happy dating Ken? She knows she adores Ken.
Ken is a sensitive, responsible, upper-middle-class person who is pursuing a PhD in physics. Diane's mother urges her to invite him to meet the family at their house, but she is hesitant. She starts to doubt whether she is genuinely ashamed of her working-class parents as a result. As her lover indicates, Diane Bayer's only real desire is to leave her little village and travel.
She is given the chance to travel back to Penn State with Kim's recently returned brother, Brad, who transferred, as she reunites with her best friend and neighbor Kim. Kim's inquisitive brother bothers Diane and makes her feel unworthy. Then, as if to validate those feelings, Ken abruptly ends his relationship with her.
Diane quits school after her father gets hurt over the summer. She hires a job to help out at home and meets her crush, Bobby, right away. When Bobby asks her out, she learns that he is keeping a significant secret from her.
Diane agreed to travel with Kim and Brad when they returned to Penn State. Brad seems a touch too taken with her and Bobby in Diane's opinion. But given that he is having issues with his own partner, why does Brad care who she dates?
She receives a card that is inscribed, "from your secret admirer," just as she begins to question whether anyone could ever truly love her. However, who sent it?
A splash of comedy can be found in My Secret Admirer, along with a dash of hope that love can be blind, deaf, and dumb as long as Diane finds her true love.
