16-year-old Mary Alice is in trouble with her parents because she has been concentrating more on her social life than her schoolwork, and she has until the semester to bring up her marks to at least 80% in all subjects. She vows to improve, and then goes Christmas shopping with her best friend Lil. All is well until her brother, returning from fetching the mail, falls outside the house, gasping for breath. The dreaded influenza plague of 1918 has struck her family and will strike down others until it runs its course. Mary Alice finds that she has to be able to face the terrors of the disease to help her family survive.