It is summer, 1987. Ten-year-old Colin Grayson faces the most challenging time of his young life when his parents decide to separate. Lonely and insecure, he has only his fantasies of himself as the powerful wizard-warrior Alexander the Avenger, who puts the local bullies in their place. Then, whether by magic or miracle, Colin is invited by his retired movie star Great-Aunt Sophia, whom he has never met, to spend time during the summer at her New York home. Colin's visit turns out to be everything he had hoped for, and Aunt Sophia turns out to be the perfect companion for the imaginative and talented Colin. In time, however, a shadow falls over the proceedings when Aunt Sophia's estranged, gold-digging daughter, Dianne, threatens to publish a scandalous memoir of her childhood, during which her father died under suspicious circumstances and Sophia struggled with alcoholism. It seems that during this summer, Aunt Sophia needs Colin as much as he needs her.