Christmas, 1861. The March sisters – Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy – prepare for a Christmas without presents or their father, a Union army chaplain who is away at war. Learning to appreciate the smaller things in life, the sisters strike up a friendship with their charming new neighbor Laurie, and his tutor John Brooke.

As autumn of 1862 sets in, the family receives the terrible news: Mr March has been taken ill in an army hospital in Washington D.C. The girls anxiously await news of their father’s fate, as their mother Marmee, accompanied by John, rushes to his side.