Summaries

Synopsis

Katie Gibbs, an aspiring singer, is overworked, harassed, and bullied by her adoptive family, the Van Ravensways. They include a trouble making adoptive younger brother named Victor, a bratty older adoptive sister named Beverly "Bev," and a shallow stepmother named Gail. Because her parents passed away before the events of the film, Katie obeys their orders without protesting, even though they treat her horribly, out of fear that Gail will return her to foster care.

Katie dances in a music video for her hit song "Run This Town" while she is dreaming. Victor then calls for breakfast, waking her up. Guy Morgan, the English president of Kensington Records, enrolls his son, Luke, at the Wellesley Academy of the Arts, where Gail serves as headmistress. Katie smuggles her demo CD into Guy's briefcase in an attempt to improve her life. Guy wants Luke to produce a showcase at the Academy soon, but Luke is not thrilled about being his father's son.

However, Bev is a bad singer; the more she practices, the worse she sounds. Back home, Bev hopes to get a recording deal with Guy. Gail is shocked to learn that Guy adores Katie's demo ("Bless Myself") when he calls her on her cell phone. Gail tells a falsehood, saying that Katie stole it and that it belonged to Bev. Victor locks Katie out of the house while she is naked after stealing her clothes and towel while she is taking a shower. After tripping over a visiting Luke and being unable to return inside, Katie quickly covers herself with the WELCOME mat. Luke, finding the situation amusing, hands her his jacket. Gail storms into Katie's room and makes her sing while Bev greets Luke. Then, after forcing Luke out of the house, Gail uses Katie's voice to try to land Bev a record deal. Bev agrees to this despite her reluctance in order to gain Luke's love.

Katie and her best friend, Angela, who wants to be a dancer, hear Luke and his best friend, Mickey O'Malley, singing in the music room at school ("Knockin"). The enthralled Katie confesses her feelings for him and composes a song for him. Angela gives Katie a costume to wear and encourages her to sing for him at the Bollywood Ball that evening. Then Angela has to hide when Gail storms in.

Due to her desire for Bev to win Luke over at the Ball, Gail gives her stepdaughter the responsibility of watching Victor tonight. Gail's guru, Ravi, who is actually a half-Indian, half-Italian method actor and a former KFC employee from New Jersey named Tony Gupta who needed the job, is persuaded by Katie to watch Victor while she attends the Ball. "Extra Ordinary" is sung by Katie as she leads Luke outdoors. Her voice has him spellbound. Gail is distracted by Angela, who also challenges her to a Bollywood dance competition ("Oh Mere Dilruba"). After losing, Gail departs from the Ball. Katie makes unsuccessful attempts to beat her stepmother at home. Now it is Katie's turn to be blackmailed: unless Katie sings for Bev, Gail promises to expel Angela from the Academy, ruining her chances of getting into Juilliard. Katie agrees to Gail's scheme in order to preserve Angela's dancing career. Katie receives a grounding from Gail for defying her and attending the Ball.

Even though assistant principal Ms. Dorothy Plumberg is attempting to discipline Luke with detention and a crazy girl is pursuing him, Luke still wants to find the girl who sang for him. He witnesses Bev lip-syncing to Katie's voice ("Make You Believe") in the music room. The obvious but incorrect conclusion is that Luke falls in love with Bev and asks her to collaborate with him on more songs. He takes her to a restaurant that night, much to Bev's chagrin. Luke is in awe of Bev's musical talent and does not realize that Katie is texting her the right words because Bev made her assist, but it ends badly. Luke visits the house the following day and quickly becomes friends with Victor, teaching him how to play the guitar. When Katie has to go out again, this time to discard Gail's priceless portrait that French painter Maurice was creating for her, which Victor ruined by removing her face with his mother's Gandhi knife, Katie also re-establishes her relationship with Luke, who is not happy about it. After interrupting Luke, Bev uses tiny electronic devices to trick him, forcing her brother to assist her so Katie can guide her through another date. When Katie spontaneously composes a song ("Possibilities"), Luke performs it, believing it to be Bev's. It breaks Katie's heart when she and Luke kiss.

Unaware that Bev's singing and songwriting abilities are actually Katie's, Luke falls in love with her. Gail later discloses that she has found a way to access the savings account that Katie's late father had set up for his daughter in order to gain Katie's cooperation; consequently, if Katie refuses to comply with the wishes of her adoptive family, Gail will cut her off without a dime. Overhearing, Victor discovers that Katie is the legitimate owner of his family's business. It turns out that Victor is regularly mistreated by his sister and their mother; he is not more affectionate with them than Katie is, and he only cooperates with their abuse of Katie out of fear of what they would do to him if he didn't. Victor agrees to assist in exposing the fraud committed by his family because he feels bad about not having a better relationship with his stepsister over the years, including the fact that she is the only one who remembers his birthday.

To Gail's ire and Katie and Bev's concern, Victor destroys Bev's iPhone, which contains Katie's recorded singing voice, during her performance of "Make You Believe" at the showcase. Bev encounters jeering from the audience onstage as she frantically tries to hide the fact that her microphone has broken. Relentlessly, Gail makes Katie perform live backstage. Luke is curious and goes backstage to see what is going on. There, he spots Katie. He is initially perplexed as Katie tries to persuade him to go, but she eventually confesses to Luke that Bev is not a singer. Finally, he recognizes that voice as being Katie's and that Bev is a fraud.

Luke exposes the entire charade by stealing a video camera and filming Katie singing backstage during Bev's second performance. In the meantime, Bev is humiliated and flees as Angela shoves Katie onto the stage to finish the song. Katie is convinced to go onstage to perform her demo ("Bless Myself") by Luke and the audience. After embracing and kissing, Katie and Luke confess their love for one another. Guy also thinks Katie's performance is fantastic, so he gives Luke permission to produce an album for her for Kensington Records. He even consents to assist Angela in gaining admission to Juilliard.

Gail makes a feeble attempt to win Guy over in a scene during the credits, but he gets tired of her lies and tells the school board about her fraud and deceit, which leads to her being fired as headmistress of Wellesley Academy. To Gail's surprise, even Bev, who is accustomed to Gail's manipulative tactics, is happy to get rid of her mother. Soon after, Gail finds herself back where she began decades ago: performing (badly) at a ranch, where she is jeered off stage and showered with fruit.