This will be one momentous and emotional summer for precocious 11-year-old Vada Sultenfuss (Anna Chlumsky) - the summer of her first kiss, her first crush and her first big step on the path to growing up. Vada, a hypochondriac tomboy whose best friend is the shy Thomas J. (Macaulay Culkin), lives in an eccentric household headed by her widower/mortician father, Harry (Dan Aykroyd). When Shelly (Jamie Lee Curtis) comes to work at the funeral parlour as the new cosmetologist, a change comes over Harry. Emotionally detached, even from his family, since the death of his wife, Harry suddenly becomes happier than Vada has ever seen him, causing a confusing sensation of jealousy in Vada, who craves more love and attention from her dad. With the help of Shelly and Thomas, Vada learns to deal with the changes overtaking her family as well as within herself. 1991 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.