Novalee Nation (Natalie Portman), 17 and very pregnant, has never been part of a real home. The closest thing to family for the hard-luck teen is her selfish, would-be musician boyfriend, Willy Jack, with whom she's traveling from Tennessee to California in a rust bucket that used to be a Plymouth. A bathroom stop en route, at an Oklahoma Wal-Mart, changes Novalee's life forever. For when she leaves the store, she discovers that Willy Jack and the Plymouth are gone. Forced to take refuge back in the store, Natalie has her baby in the aisles of Wal-Mart and becomes an overnight celebrity. At long last, Natalie begins to put her life together with the help of the quirky strangers who become her surrogate family.