A family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus.
A boy who communicates with spirits that don't know they're dead seeks the help of a disheartened child psychologist.
Strait-laced Rose breaks off relations with her party girl sister, Maggie, over an indiscretion involving Rose's boyfriend. The chilly atmosphere is broken with the arrival of Ella, the grandmother neither sister knew existed.
An ambitious carny with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words hooks up with a female psychiatrist who is even more dangerous than he is.