When fourteen-year-old Samantha West and her younger brother, Tommy, are placed in a foster home, Sam feels as if she's been thrown into a Hallmark movie, full of perfect looking people-actors. The only person not acting, is Spencer Randal, her sixteen-year-old foster brother who hates her. By way of a broken leg, getting hauled home by the cops, and a haunted house, Sam and Spencer each learn what it truly means to be a Randal-Do your best, don't give up, set goals and work towards them, be a good person, and make things right whenever you can.

However, just when Sam's life has become as perfect as a Hallmark movie, she and Tommy are returned to their mother, where nothing has changed. As the cycle of living on the streets returns, Sam decides it's time to make things right.