In the wealthy, seaside community of Neptune, the rich and powerful make the rules, they own the town and the high school, and desperately try to keep their dirty little secrets just that…secret. Unfortunately for them, there's Veronica Mars, a smart, fearless 17-year-old apprentice private investigator dedicated to solving the town's toughest mysteries.

Veronica (Kristen Bell) actually used to be one of the popular girls, walking the halls of Neptune High with the rest of the "beautiful people." But it all came crumbling down around her after her best friend Lilly was murdered and her then-Sheriff father Keith Mars (Enrico Colantoni) was removed from office for naming Lilly's billionaire father, Jake Kane, as the lead suspect. After Jake was exonerated, the scandal cost Keith his job, his home and wife, and Veronica was ostracized by her popular friends, including her boyfriend Duncan Kane (Teddy Dunn), Lilly's brother.

During the day, Veronica must negotiate high school like any average teenage girl. Along with fellow outcast, sophomore Wallace Fennel (Percy Daggs III), she bravely maneuvers her classes, wary of former in-crowd friends, like Duncan and his best friend Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring), and edgy outsiders, like Weevil (Francis Capra) and his P.C.H. Bike Club boys.

At night, Veronica helps with her father's struggling, new private investigator business, sneaking through back alleys and scoping out no-tell motels with a telescopic-lens camera and her math book in an attempt to uncover the California beach town's darkest secrets.

Pushed to the edge of this multicultural, venomous little Peyton Place, Veronica Mars relentlessly continues to search for evidence that will clear her father's name and get her back into the "in-crowd," but what she finds may tear the town of Neptune apart at the seams.