Plot: Having lost her mother in birth and with her whole life encircled by death, Vada Sultenfuss, the gloomy 11-year-old daughter of Harry Sultenfuss, the town's funeral parlour manager, it is no wonder that death became almost an obsession to her. In addition, Vada has no friends in school, she is a hypochondriac tomboy, her grandmother has Alzheimer's, and worst of all, her best friend is Thomas J. Sennett, another unpopular kid who is allergic to just about everything. During the summer break in 1972, Vada will have her first crush, she will join a poetry writing class, but most of all, when the cheerful and quirky Shelly DeVoto takes up the position of make-up artist at Harry's mortuary, she will gradually find the maternal figure she always needed. Far too much for a girl to handle..
Alternative Plot: Tomboy Vada Sultenfuss (Anna Chlumsky) has good reason to be morbid: her mother died giving birth to her, and her father (Dan Aykroyd) operates a funeral service out of their home. The other kids think she's a freak, and it certainly doesn't help that her best friend, Thomas J. Sennett (Macaulay Culkin), is a boy. To make matters worse, Vada is desperately in love with her English teacher, Mr. Bixler (Griffin Dunne). What's an 11-year-old girl to do?
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