With their father away as a chaplain in the Civil War, Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy grow up with their mother in somewhat reduced circumstances. They are a close family who inevitably have their squabbles and tragedies. But the bond holds even when, later, male friends start to become a part of the household.
Over the years, a child's romantic ideals about death blossom into necrophilia, the study of embalming and the most profound relationship of her life.
After exposing police corruption, a journalist is drawn into an underground world of violent vigilantism.
