Foster children Andi and Bruce have been placed with a flaky couple who care more for their aspiring rock careers than their charges. Their mischievous tendencies repeatedly get them into trouble. After a close call with the local pound, the kids end up searching for Friday, their secretly adopted dog, in an abandoned old hotel where they find several other stray dogs seeking shelter. They, along with three other local kids, begin caring for the strays....

Marty Bronson raises his son and daughter on his own. He has to sell his homey motel to Barry Nottingham who promises to make Marty's son manager. But, Nottingham pulls down the motel and builds a pricey hotel. Now grown up, Marty's son, Skeeter, works as a janitor and general servant. He still dreams of becoming the manager. When Nottingham announces a brand-new hotel, built on an existing school's property, he makes his future son-in-law, Kendall,...

Jon and Wendy Savage (Hoffman and Linney) are two siblings who have spent their adult years trying to recover from their abusive father, Lenny (Bosco). Suddenly, a call comes in that Lenny's girlfriend has died and he cannot care for himself. Lenny suffers from dementia and her family dumps Lenny on his children. Despite the fact Jon and Wendy have not spoken to Lenny for twenty years and he is even more loathsome than ever, the Savage siblings feel...

Olive is a little girl who dreams of winning the Little Miss Sunshine contest. Her family wants her dream to come true, but they are so dysfunctional that they can barely make it through a day without some disaster befalling them. Olive's father, Richard, is unsuccessful as a motivational speaker. He is barely on speaking terms with Olive's mother. Her uncle Frank has attempted suicide following an unsuccessful romance with a male graduate student....

On the eve of his 90th birthday, a celebrated thespian summons his three grown children to his Manhattan apartment for a celebration they will never forget. When the party's over, he plans to make his 'final exit.' Morris is not ill or depressed - he just wants to go out the way he's always lived - on his own terms. Now it's up to his angst-ridden offspring to put aside their own excess baggage and convince Morris to go on.

When Myra agrees to date the charming but vulnerable Reggie, her eccentric brother Ludlow sets out to destroy the budding relationship, forcing Myra to finally take charge of her own life.

Skeeter, the handyman of a hotel once belonging to his father, agrees to watch his sister's two children and finds his life changed when the stories he tells the kids at bedtime begin to come true.

Reverend Eric Camden and his wife Annie are hit with troubling news when their son Simon is in a serious car accident, but after his recovery leaves home to start college. Meanwhile, Ruthie discovers the trials of having a boyfriend, all while helping Annie care for the twins. Lucy and her husband celebrate their first year anniversary. Eric and Annie become grandparents for the first time.

Ben Singer is a failed folk singer, newly unemployed proofreader, and every-other-weekend dad to his young daughter. The only thing he takes comfort in is smoking marijuana and chess games with Ibou, his Senegalese roommate. When Ibou becomes ill, a municipal employee exacerbates the emergency situation, and Ben pours his energy into a lawsuit against the city. Meanwhile, Ibou's beautiful sister Khadi arrives from Senegal, and Ben's life begins to...

Mac and Dal, two brothers who fought on opposite sides in the Civil War, return home to Texas to discover that their sisters and Dal's sweetheart have been kidnapped by rampaging Rebel guerrillas refusing to accept the defeat of the Confederacy. With the help of their notorious uncle, Mac and Dal must rescue the women before they can be sold into a Mexican brothel.