Nadia Pravdina is a nine-year-old Russian girl who escaped to the United States during the Soviet Union's final days. Now, it's just her and her mother, living in a rundown little apartment in the wealthy city of Farringham.

Nadia knows her thrift-shop dresses are different from the stylish outfits worn by the other girls in her fourth grade class. Usually, she doesn't mind being poor. But this November, she wants more than anything to enjoy a real American Thanksgiving dinner.

If only she could win the school's upcoming Thanksgiving contest. But to do so, she'd have to...