Lotta Muller's family has come to America from Germany, dreaming of a life of opportunity but finding only cruel disappointment in 19th-century immigrant Boston. None of them speaks English and, with Lotta's father out of work, they fall on hard times. When Lotta becomes friends with Louisa May Alcott, they are rescued by the Alcott family and, through the Alcotts, Lotta discovers a new world of books, ideas, and the possibility that she can live her dream.