An overweight teenage girl stumbles upon a mermaid and thinks her dreams of taking mermaid lessons have come true. But when her hypercritical mother takes her mermaid tail away, the girl has to decide whether to accept her restrictive life, or try something new.

In Baltimore in the late 1800s, a child named Benjamin Button is born with the appearance and demeanor of a 70-year-old man. As time progresses, Benjamin ages backward, moving from elderly fragility to youthful exuberance, challenging the natural course of life.

In a town full of people with tuberculosis, the healthy young daughter of a nurse is teased by two wealthy but frail sisters. When she is caught lying about the cause of her father's death, the girl must figure out how to be proud of who she is.