Seven years ago, the best-selling novel "The Nanny Diaries" introduced us to Nan Hutchinson, an intelligent and compassionate nanny. Through her eyes, readers watched wealthy New Yorkers focus on their social lives and neglect the emotional needs of their children — including little Grayer, the son of Nan's employers, Mr. and Mrs. X.

Now (in fictional story time) it's 2008, a decade later. Nan is 33, married and building a business as a consultant. Her nanny days would seem to be long behind her. But fate sweeps her back into the lives of Mr. and Mrs. X and to Grayer, now a surly teenager who follows family tradition by treating her like dirt.

So we begin "Nanny Returns." And the toxic-parenting mess Nan encounters looks a lot like the one she left. It takes only four pages for the first outrage to pop up, as a rich blond mom rushes toward her delighted toddler on the street, only to drop her shopping bags with relief on the kid's stroller and keep on walking as her shocked child wails.

It gets worse, as we meet the parents at the pricey private school Nan comes to work for. And even Nan's girlhood friends from her private-school past, now well-off young mothers, behave no better. To the grown-ups in this world, children seem to be little more than annoyances. And don't get them started on nannies.

In the midst of this, Nan tries to reclaim Grayer and care for his sweet 7-year-old brother, Stilton, both of whom are eventually abandoned by Mr. and Mrs. X. All this while she resists her husband's pressure to have kids of her own.

Authors Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus tell a fast-moving tale, full of callous and over-the-top behavior by their wealthy targets. There's a Cirque du Soleil command performance at a children's event that's more terrifying than entertaining.

It's fun to read as long as you don't think about what this world does to the kids and spouses.

In any case, if you don't happen to be rich, it sure lets you feel morally superior.

There is a happy ending. Well, it's an ending that suggests a potentially happy future for little Stilton. But in this case, perhaps it takes a sequel to raise a child.