This funny, poignant coming-of-age story follows a momentous summer in the life of precocious 11-year-old Vada (Anna Chlumsky). While her widowed undertaker father (Dan Aykroyd) starts coming out of his shell thanks to makeup artist Shelly (Jamie Lee Curtis), Vada moons over her English teacher and spends time with her best friend, Thomas J. (Macaulay Culkin). Before the summer's over, Vada will learn powerful lessons about love and loss.