In nineteenth-century Massachusetts, with their father away serving in the Civil War, the women of the March family--the loving matriarch, Marmee, and her four daughters, Jo, Meg, Amy, and Beth--are left all alone to fend for themselves. Faced with genteel poverty, the fledgeling author, Jo March, is struggling to make a name for herself in male-dominated New York City; considerate Meg is now married, and the artistically inclined, Amy, is in Paris with their affluent Aunt March. However, the news of talented Beth's illness will reunite the sisters under the same roof. But, more than anything in the world--much to the disappointment of the handsome next-door neighbour, Theodore "Laurie" Laurence--the fiercely independent Jo yearns for freedom. Must all stories end with a wedding?—Nick Riganas