Kit Kittredge (Abigail Breslin) lives with her mother, Margaret (Julia Ormond) and her father Jack (Chris O’Donnell) in Cincinnati, Ohio in the early days of the great Depression. Her parents own and run a boarding house and Kit is exposed to all sorts of people, both good kind souls and those with not so good intentions. She has a passion for writing, and is often writing about the people that come and go at the boarding house. She has big dreams-to become a writer when she grows up and would love nothing more at the moment than to be published in the local paper. Things take a turn for the worse when their home goes into foreclosure and her father is forced to leave for Chicago to look for work, hoping to earn enough money to home to her mother to prevent the family from losing their home. Kit is forced to grow up quickly and use her talent for writing to help support her family.