In Miss Charlotte's Finishing School for Wayward Readers, four readers choose a piece of Victorian-era literature and respond to it together, a few chapters at a time. Their guide on this journey is the titular Miss Charlotte Sampson, an expert on Victorian Lit.

As they discuss the book in a thorough but irreverent manner, the readers compete for points to see who will be the Teacher's Pet and who will be the Class Dunce again.