Maya Doolittle can't fit in at school because of her special gift of being able to talk to animals, so her mother sends her to a ranch to find herself, but at first all she can find is lots of hard work.
Maya (Kyla Pratt) is a grown woman now living in San Francisco. Though she was then an antisocial individual more interested in her science projects, Maya has transformed into the typical teenager. Like her sister Charisse, she inherits their father John's capacity for communicating with fauna (she is a part-time veterinary assistant), her life is turned upside down on all fronts. Carl (O'Ryan) is a student in Maya's school who also likes animals, and he is the only person who likes Maya.She routinely lands in trouble with her parents. When she crashes her mother's car (trying to avoid hitting a dog who was roaming on the roads), she is grounded and punished by not being allowed to go to a school party.
Vivica (Chelan Simmons) is Maya's best friend and knows about her talents. Maya wants to fit in with her school crowd and breaks the curfew imposed by her mother to attend the party. While dancing with the school's popular gang they notice that Maya is talking to a Capuchin Monkey and realize that she is talking to animals. The school friends believe that Maya has gone crazy.Lisa discovers this and is livid with Maya. Maya again tries to blame everything on the animals. Lisa believes that Maya has a gift, and she needs to learn to accept it and use it for the greater good, rather than as a party trick.
With John away on animal expeditions, Maya's mother Lisa (Kristen Wilson) sends Maya (with her dog Lucky (Norm Macdonald) following along) to a ranch named "Durango", so she can find herself. Lisa had attended the Durango ranch herself when she was a teenager. The ranch is owned by Jud (John Amos), and his son Bo (Walker Howard). The program at the ranch is for 6 weeks and Jud says that in that time all the ranchers will be trained for the upcoming rodeo competition in the individual category.The other students at the ranch include Brooklyn (Luciana Carro), Clayton (Tommy Snider), Tyler (Calum Worthy) and others.Brooklyn and Maya are both attracted to Bo and vie for his attention. Maya is appalled at the facilities at the Ranch, and is not used to the rural lifestyle as she is a through and through city girl.
While there, Maya, who desperately tried to keep her talents under wraps so as not to arouse suspicion. The neighboring ranch "Silver Oaks" is owned by a weasel of a man named Walter (John Novak). Walter wants to take over the Durango ranch and has been loaning Jud money so that he can get by. But then suddenly calls all the money in, knowing fully well that Jud can't possibly make the payments and hence would have to hand over the ranch.
The Silver Oaks also always beats the Durango ranch at the team event of the local rodeo, which offers a huge award. That's because Durango always hosts a bunch of city slickers, who never stand up to the pro ranchers hosted by Silver Oaks. Silver Oaks ranchers include Kiki (Tara Wilson), Skip (Ryan McDonell) and Chip (Chenier Hundal).Lucky tells all the animals at the ranch that Maya can speak to animals and now they all reach out to her with their problems.
The Durango ranchers get going, with Maya having a specifically tough time. Jud & Bo build a rodeo mock-up, to train the ranchers for the real deal, but not much progress is made. The events include rodeo, catching chickens, catching pigs and lassoing.Lucky tells Maya that she is acting like a snob, but she defends herself saying that she is only trying to fit in.
Jud and Bo take the entire group of ranchers for camping, which is aimed at improving team bonding and improving their survival skills in the jungle.They attend a bar in the city for one night where the Silver Oaks ranchers beat them at every bar game, until Maya steps up and defeats Kiki at Karaoke. Durango realize for the first time that the Silver Oaks can be beaten.
It finally comes out that the Durango ranch is in financial trouble & Jud is having to sell the animals & the ranch to the Silver Oaks to settle the debt. Regardless, the bank will foreclose on the property if Jud cannot make the payments, and this is the last time the Durango ranch is hosting ranchers.The animals hold a meeting & call Maya & plead her to use her talents, get the other kids to help & save the ranch.
Maya starts uses her talent to "talk to the animals" in order to save Durango from being taken over by Walter. All the other ranchers decide to rally behind Maya & enter the rodeo team competition as a team. Under Maya' guidance, the team starts to perform a lot better.With her help, the Durango ranch enters a rodeo competition with a $50,000 award and wins it. Also, she shares her first kiss with Bo and finally wins his heart.
