"Wherever Nina Lies" by Lynn Weingarten is a young adult novel focusing around the efforts of sixteen year-old Ellie Wrigley to find her missing older sister, Nina. The novel begins with Ellie revealing the circumstances surrounding Nina's disappearance, that one day, she simply didn't come home. Ellie admits to feeling lost and listless, searching for a purpose. One day, while visiting her best friend Amanda at work, Ellie comes across one of her sister's drawings in a box of junk with a phone number on it. Ellie calls the number, and the person on the other end denies knowing Nina. Ellie and Amanda track down the person who dropped the junk off, and go to a house-wrecking party he is throwing. Ellie meets a boy there named Sean, who says he will be happy to help Ellie find Nina.

Ellie and Sean head to Nebraska. This is the last time Nina makes a purchase with her credit card. They discover another one of her drawings of a bus that leads them to Denver, Colorado. They then trace Nina to a tattoo shop she visited and worked at briefly, which leads them to a band that Nina catches a ride with. One of the members of the band, Peter, had feelings for Nina, and wrote a song about her. The lyrics contain a line that direct Ellie and Sean to San Francisco. Yet as the near San Francisco, Amanda and an unidentified stranger warn Ellie against Sean, but Ellie ignores the warnings.

At a motel, Ellie goes through some of Sean's things, and discovers that he has murdered his own stepbrother, Jason, whom was dating Nina. Sean wants to find Nina to kill her, and Ellie convinces Sean that she wants Nina dead, too. Both of them head to San Francisco, and track down some of Nina's friends, who are wearing t-shirts she designed. They direct Ellie and Sean to Nina. As Sean prepares to kill Nina, Ellie tackles him, and uniformed police officers swarm in to arrest Sean, who confesses to his crimes. Ellie and Nina then fly home to reunite with their mother, Jane.