It's 1995, and 11-year-old Heidi Williams is just getting used to junior high school when tragedy strikes. One night, her house catches on fire, and she and her parents and adopted brother, Danny, are forced to move into an old rundown house while their house is reconstructed. Heidi is separated from her only friends: her elderly neighbor, Violet and her niece Jenny. She has no clothes or possessions, and everyone at school stares at her like she's some kind of a freak. While in her new neighborhood, though, Heidi meets Dorothy, the girl next door who befriends her and takes Heidi on new adventures while at her temporary house. With Dorothy's friend Stacey sometimes along for the ride, they go trick-or-treating, take bus trips to the mall, babysit, celebrate Stacey's birthday, attend a school dance, and try to find out if a popular eighth grade boy may have a crush on Heidi. What starts as a tragedy turns out to be one of the best things that could ever happen to her.