Macaulay Culkin may have his name high up on the credits, but luckily he doesn't have enough screen time to spoil this occasionally charming tale. Anna Chlumsky plays a young tomboy who is trying to come to terms with life and the fact that her mortician father (Dan Aykroyd) is starting a relationship with the woman (Jamie Lee Curtis) who makes up the bodies at his funeral parlour. It's one for the less cynical members of the family, although younger viewers may find some of the unhappier moments distressing.

Vada Sultenfuss is obsessed with death. Her mother is dead, and her father runs a funeral parlor. She is also in love with her English teacher, and joins a poetry class over the summer just to impress him. Thomas J., her best friend, is "allergic to everything", and sticks with Vada despite her hangups. When Vada's father hires Shelly, and begins to fall for her, things take a turn to the worse...