Little Women is a coming-of-age novel written by American novelist Louisa May Alcott. The story follows the lives of the four March sisters - Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy - and details their passage from childhood to womanhood. The story of the lives of the four March sisters Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. The sisters and their mother, whom they call Marmee, live in a new neighborhood. Having lost all his money, their father is serving as a chaplain in the American Civil War, far from home. Meg and Jo must work to support the family: Meg tutors a nearby family of four children; Jo assists her aged great-aunt March, a wealthy widow living in a mansion, Plumfield.