Plot
Sue Ellen Crandell is a 17-year old high school graduate who, due to lack of funds cannot go to Europe for the summer with her friends. Sue Ellen remains optimistic about a summer of freedom with her siblings: stoner Kenny, tomboy Melissa, ladies man Zach and TV fanatic Walter while their mother travels to Australia. Much to Sue Ellen's dismay, her mother hires a live-in babysitter, Mrs. Sturak, a seemingly sweet, humble old woman who assures Mrs. Crandell that she can take care of all five children. Eventually, Sue Ellen and her siblings find that Mrs. Sturak had died in her sleep. Instead of telling the authorities and their mother (which would ruin their summer), they agree to stuff the babysitter in a trunk and drop her off at a local funeral home, with a note attached reading "Nice old lady inside, died of natural causes".
With no money to pay the family's bills, Sue Ellen finds work at a fast food restaurant called Clown Dog. Despite a budding relationship with an attractive co-worker named Bryan, she quits because of the obnoxious manager. Sue Ellen then forges a resume under the guise of a young fashion designer and applies at General Apparel West (GAW), hoping to secure a job as a receptionist. However, Rose Lindsey, a company executive, finds her resume so impressive that she offers Sue Ellen a job as Rose's executive administrative assistant, much to the chagrin of Carolyn, a receptionist on Rose's floor who was initially in line for the job.
At GAW, Sue Ellen has to balance the adult responsibilities thrust upon her while still trying to enjoy herself as a teenager. The double life causes a strain on her relationship with Bryan when she discovers that he and Carolyn are brother and sister.
Sue Ellen finds herself tested when she learns that GAW is in danger of going out of business. She takes it upon herself to create a new clothing line and Rose suggests holding a fashion show to exhibit their new designs. Sue Ellen offers to host the party, convincing her siblings to help clean up the house and act as caterers. Although she manages to pull off the party, it comes to an end when Bryan unexpectedly shows up to apologize for their breakup, shortly followed by Mrs. Crandell herself, who has come home early from Australia. With her cover blown, Sue Ellen has no choice but to confess the truth in front of everyone.
While apologizing to Rose after the party, Sue Ellen learns that her unique designs had saved GAW. Rose then offers the real Sue Ellen the job as her personal assistant, which she respectfully declines in favor of going to college first.
In the end, Sue Ellen and Bryan make up, but are soon interrupted by Mrs. Crandell, who inquires about Mrs. Sturak's whereabouts. As the credits roll, the scene cuts away to the cemetery, where two morticians look over a gravestone that reads "Nice Old Lady Inside, Died of Natural Causes".
Read more about this topic: Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
“If you need a certain vitality you can only supply it yourself, or there comes a point, anyway, when no one’s actions but your own seem dramatically convincing and justifiable in the plot that the number of your days concocts.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“There saw I how the secret felon wrought,
And treason labouring in the traitor’s thought,
And midwife Time the ripened plot to murder brought.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)