Only child Susan fantasizes that she's an abandoned Frankenstein-like creation, when her Mom Margie becomes a zombie from hardship and bereavement. Susan and her friend Terry fear that Margie will be taken over by a lifeless doll, if Susan cannot figure out how to bring Margie back. In her quest to rescue Margie, Susan becomes more entrenched in her elderly neighbors' lives to create a supportive family, that is, when she is not pissing them off like Mrs. Sosa, an older woman who does not want to be adopted by Susan. At home, when making her Frankenstein monster make-up, more extreme, Margie hardly glances at her, and at school and in the neighborhood, it's the opposite--too many notice Susan! In the process of Susan's struggles, she and Terry fortuitously find a lonely stray cat, and the apartment Manager's keys to the rooftop. There, they decide to make a secret garden and cat hideaway, while they plot to rescue Margie. Many others are warming up to Susan's ideas, but Margie is not. One day Susan makes a startling discovery about her real family. Fed up with rejection, she explodes and goes on a moonlit rampage worthy of Frankenstein's Monster.