Novella Nation (Natalie Portman) is a heavily pregnant 17-year-old from Tennessee who has no-one in her life except the father of her baby Willie Jack ().She's never even been part of a real family before.
The two are heading to California in a beat up Plymouth. En Route the couple stop at a WalMart in a small town called Sequoyah, Oklahoma. Novella uses the opportunity to relieve herself while Willie fills the car.
However on her return from the bathroom Novella realises that Willie and the Plymouth have gone, and everything she owned has gone with him, except a Polaroid camera which is now in place of the car. She has been abandoned, at a WalMart of all places.
She has no job, no qualifications or skills and a mere $5.55 in her pocket so she decides to hide out in the WalMart where she stays until her baby daughter, Americus is born six weeks later.
Novalee decides to raise her daughter and rebuild her life in Sequoyah, with the help of eccentric but kind strangers who take her under her wing.
Now she has the family she always yearned for, Novalee is transformed from a homeless teenager to a very successful , happy and strong young woman in a place she can easily call home.
Based on the best-selling novel by Billie Letts.
Where the Heart Is is a Film programme that first aired in 2000 and has been classified a 12 certificate.
