Dress Coded follows Molly Frost, the protagonist and narrator of the novel, as she starts a podcast to talk about the dress code at Fisher Middle School. The inciting incident is her classmate Olivia’s experience being dress coded, but it is only the trigger—as the dress code has been an issue for a while. Thus, the dress code protest kicks off from conception to fruition. Although Molly plans to begin her podcast with Olivia, the latter refuses to share her story publicly; Molly and her friends instead console her privately. However, Molly cannot let the dress code issue go, as she believes the situation is unfair on multiple levels. She thinks it’s wrong for teachers to bribe students for compliance and target girls.

Molly chooses to protest the dress code in ways that do not harm anyone else. She decides to flout the dress code since the class camping trip has already been cancelled, and her classmates won’t be penalized for her behavior. She does this with her parents’ permission, revealing her plan to her mother and garnering her support first. Molly both acts on her own and uses her podcast as a space for other students to share their experiences being dress coded.