A naturalistic family comedy/drama centering on a shy young adolescent Bevvie Sue caught in the web of her hilarious but powerful mother's fantasies of gaining fame and fortune through complusive contest entries her beloved immigrant father's broken dreams and ambitions and her rich judgmental relatives. Set in a small midwestern city in the middle of World War II the story sweeps through a year in this American Jewish family's life as Bevvie Sue struggles to disentangle herself and emerge as her own person: a young woman eager for life on her way to finding her own place in the sun.