- A fourteen-year-old aspiring violinist finds herself under an increasing amount of pressure to keep secrets for herself, her family and her newfound best friend.
- Emily Lindstrom, 14, is an aspiring concert violinist; she's spending the summer practicing for a big audition while her girlfriends are at camp. She's also got a thriving neighborhood business: for 50 cents, she'll keep your secret. Her mother is very pregnant, and her parents seem more concerned about the new baby than anything Emily cares about. A new family moves in next door; their son, Philip, 12, becomes Emily's friend. Eventually, the weight of Emily's secrets - her own, the ones she's keeping professionally, and a secret Philip tells her, send her life temporarily crashing down.—Jon Reeves <jreeves@imdb.com>
- A tale centering on Emily, a plucky pre-teen (and violin virtuoso) who is entrusted with her young neighbors' most private and cherished secrets. Every Wednesday, Emily sets up a booth in her backyard which regularly attracts the guilty young souls of the neighborhood. These include Philip - the new kid on the block - whose clumsiness with an expensive chess piece (and his interest in Emily) make him one of her most challenging clients. But comedic complications ensue when the Secret Keeper 'normally so trustworthy' suddenly finds it difficult to keep all of her neighbors' secrets to herself.—Sujit R. Varma
- Emily Lindstrom is a 14-year-old girl who aspires to get into the Youth Symphony. On her free time, she runs a business where she will keep your secret for 50 cents. Some of the children's secrets are revealed. Gregory steals money from his father's wallet; Lea has been adopting kittens; Isabelle impersonates her older sister Jenny; and Mikey is digging to China. Meanwhile, Emily's mother Caroline is excited about giving birth to a baby. Emily watches a video message from her friends Laurel and Jenny at camp, and she sends a video recording of her own. Children have lined up to confess their secrets to Emily. At the same time, a new family moves in to town, the Lenox family--father Don, mother Elaine, and sons David and Philip.
At the mall, Emily and her mother go shopping for baby materials. Emily gets freaked out by the screaming children that she stands outside. She runs into David, whose mother abandoned him at a linen sale. At the Lenox house, Philip accidentally destroys a chess piece and tries to hide it. Little does he know is that Emily and her mother have gotten back from their shopping spree. Emily catches Philip and offers to keep the broken chess piece a secret.
At home, Emily learns that her parents watched her friends' video recording from camp. She requests that she goes to her room and change for the Samuel Cordon concert on PBS. Eddie, her father, had reserved the TV for the baseball game that night. Emily goes to the Lenox residence to watch the concert, introducing herself to the new neighbors.
The next morning, Emily goes to Pauline and tells her that she is in love with Kurt Bestor. On her way home from her violin lesson, Emily sees Philip alone. His father is at his new job, his mother is unpacking, and David is at tennis camp. At the Lindstrom residence, Emily and Philip enjoy high tea using the former's mother's expensive china. Emily and Philip accidentally break the cups, causing the two to go into town to find replacements. The trouble is that the particular pattern, Crown Darby, had been discontinued a long time ago. However, the salesman tells Emily and Philip the best secret in town: Greenbacks sells Crown Darby sets for $14.99. Emily buys them at the store, and she keeps extras in handy. Afterwards, Emily and Philip go to a street performer, who is shown playing the violin. Emily offers to play the violin, causing the audience to applaud in delight.
Emily and Philip enter the concert hall and look around on the stage. They talk about their aspirations. Emily also goes on about how her parents are more concerned about the baby that is coming into her family. Later, Philip is seen taking piano lessons. At dinner, Caroline and Eddie convince Emily to help plan a baby shower, block party, and end of Summer barbecue. Emily still feels discouraged that her sister is going to be the most spoiled child ever. Her parents are distraught that Emily is harboring a secret that she does not want to tell.
Mikey is seen digging a hole. Lea is shown with a package of kitty litter, talking with a lady who is handing out kittens in front of Greenbacks. Isabelle gets an email from Jordan telling Jenny that he will be in town on Wednesday afternoon. Gregory is shocked to find ants in his sleeping bag. After the next round of talking to the children about recent events, Caroline comes in and tells Emily a secret of her own. They are having another daughter, and the first biological daughter for Eddie and Caroline. Emily is upset that Caroline would tell the doctor about this. At night, Emily and her father talk about how the newborn would make him (at 50) stay younger forever. Emily plays on her violin and Eddie sings along to the tune. Philip plays the same tune on the piano.
Later, Emily gets another tape from her friends, who perform the "Wit Wwa Rap". Philip comes in through the back door and sees the tape. He also asks Emily what "wit wwa" means. She responds that this is between her and her friends. Philip records Emily playing the Mendelssohn for her friends. Her mother comes in and applauds her daughter, and tells the baby that she would grow up to be a musician like Emily.
At the music store, Pauline and Emily have a conversation on having children. She then gives Emily the Brahms music sheet to play for Caroline and the expected baby (whom Emily calls Grace). At the Lenox house, Philip is still figuring out what "wit wwa" means. Emily comes in with the pizza. Don and Elaine get a call from David, saying that he and a few people are getting kicked out of tennis camp for drunk driving, which unnerves Emily when she learns about it from Philip. After hearing the story, Emily tells Philip what "Wwhap The O Wit Wwa" means.
Next week, Gregory steals from Greenbacks; Mikey is washing his clothes; Lea kidnaps Midnight (whom she names Leticia); and Isabelle lies to Jordan about Jenny's death and tells him to disable his account to "stay loyal to Jenny". On Wednesday, children have lined up to talk with Emily. Mikey destroyed his shirt from the laundry accident. Gregory tells her that it is now easier to steal from the store. Lea found a cat, which is a "missing cat" on wanted posters all over the neighborhood, and Isabelle tells Emily that they have to write an obituary on Jenny for the newspaper. Emily closes down her stand and decides she needs a break.
Later, Emily is shown preparing a reunion for her friends, who have gotten back from camp. Jenny is distraught that Jordan is not online anymore. Jenny also accidentally breaks a teacup in the process. Jenny and Laurel also find out that Emily is acting strange, even though Emily denies it.
Meanwhile, Philip is playing street hockey all by himself. David, seemingly grounded from the tennis camp episode, said that going outside was not one of the things that his parents took away from him as part of his grounding. Emily is seen riding her bike, and both brothers run to her. David talks to Emily about their encounter at the mall a couple of weeks ago. They also bicker about their feelings for Emily, who then rides away to her violin lesson. At home, Emily is relaxing in her room due to all the stress she is endured. Meanwhile, the children have lined up to meet with Emily, who tells them that she is "on vacation", and they walk away. David comes to help Emily remove the stand from the presence of the children. Philip sees this from the piano room.
At one of her violin lessons, Pauline notices that Emily is starting to mess up on the Mendelssohn piece she has been trying to master for the audition. Both women have a talk about what Emily is going through and Pauline tells her to sort this out by Monday, which is her audition. Pauline proposes to meet Emily at the Lindstrom residence on Sunday for a run-through to see what is troubling Emily. Luckily for them, Emily's family is hosting a baby shower in the front yard. Pauline tells Emily to relax for a while. Meanwhile, David is at the music store and he sees Emily, who then tells him that he should be playing tennis or the harmonica. David also tells her that "he has a lot on his mind".
At home, Philip runs his own "Secret Keeper" stand, in which he charges 75 cents to talk with the children about their secrets. Emily calls him out on this as this is not only her idea, but charging 75 cents is robbery. Philip tells Emily that it is inflation and that he gives free lemonade.
At the baby shower, Eddie enters Emily's bedroom to tell her to play for the guest of honor: Caroline. Later, Emily comes downstairs and meets up with her friends. While the girls are getting their food, Lea approaches Emily and tells her that she was forced to come against her will. She also adds that Gregory was only invited because there was going to be cake. As Emily and her friends were confused about Lea, and the fact that Isabelle refused to attend the baby shower, Caroline tells Emily to get her violin. Emily suggests waiting for Pauline to come. Emily reconsiders and runs to her room, only to see David looking at a poster of Kurt Bestor. After much arguing on why Emily keeps ignoring David, she tells him that Philip told her about what had happened that got him kicked out of tennis camp. Angry, David grabs Philip by the shirt and talks him down for telling another person about what David had done. Emily tries to talk David down, telling him that he had to do it, so Emily can tell Philip her own secret. Betrayed, Philip breaks the secret code to Emily's friends, Laurel and Jenny. Deeply hurt, Emily runs to her room crying. David tries to follow her, but Emily tells him to leave.
Hours have passed and the baby shower is over. Caroline and Pauline knock on Emily's bedroom door so the latter can have a heart-to-heart with Emily about what is going on. Emily tells Pauline that she is overwhelmed with the amount of secrets that she has been keeping from other people. Pauline tells her her own personal secret, in which Pauline was released from the orchestra when principle players from Julliard were brought in. Emily talks to Pauline about making a comeback, but Pauline is happy with her life as a teacher. Emily resolves not to keep any more secrets. As she is trying to retrieve her violin from the roof, Emily falls off and sustains a head injury causing her to go to the hospital. Her violin also breaks in the process. Guilty about what had happened, he goes to Emily's dollhouse to get the broken chess piece from the chest. Don, Elaine, and David are in the kitchen still devastated from the events of the baby shower. Philips runs inside and admits the truth. He broke the chess piece on accident and has been harboring that secret from the parents. However, his parents are forgiving. At the hospital, Eddie, Caroline, Pauline, Laurel, and Jenny break down in tears after Emily had been admitted in the hospital. Pauline assures that Emily will be alright.
The next day, David tells Philip that Elaine and Don are going to drive both brothers down to the hospital. Philip tells David that there is one important thing they have to do. Both brothers go to Jenny's house to get the tape for the audition. They head down to the Symphony Hall where tryouts for the Youth Orchestra are taking place. The brothers present the tape of Emily playing the Mendelssohn for her friends to the group of panelists. David asks the panelists when they first saw "The Nutcracker". Meanwhile at the hospital, Caroline's water breaks, much to Eddie, Pauline, Laurel, and Jenny's shock.
While both brothers leave the Symphony Hall to head to the Hospital, Caroline goes into labor with their first biological daughter named Grace. At the same time, one of the doctors tells Eddie that Emily is making a full recovery. In Emily's room, Laurel and Jenny recount the events of Caroline suddenly going into labor. Emily is disappointed that she missed her audition, but Pauline assures her that Emily has many years ahead to play in the symphony. Emily apologizes to Laurel and Jenny for breaking their friendship code. Laurel forgives her, as the only thing that mattered was what "wwhap the o wit wwa" means. Philip enters the room and tells Emily that he and David showed the panelists the tape of her playing the Mendelssohn, and David won them over with the story of Emily's ballet lessons. Caroline and Eddie enter the room to see Emily alive and well. Emily asks where Grace is, but she is having some tests. Jenny asks whether or not if Grace looked like Emily when she was born. This surprises Caroline and Eddie. Emily finally tells her friends and family the truth: she was adopted. Her biological parents were killed by a drunk driver. Emily was amazed that she was alive. She is sad that she never knew them that much as she was only 10 months old when this happened. As everyone leaves, David enters from behind the curtains and asks Emily what happened with the drunk driver. After colliding with Emily's biological parents, he served a year in prison. Shortly after his released, he got into another accident, this time killing himself. David vows not to repeat the same mistake that he did that got him kicked out of tennis camp.
After being released from the hospital, Emily receives a letter from the director, saying that she is officially in the orchestra. Philip sees this and he is pleased that Emily managed to make it into the Youth Orchestra. Emily has another unfinished business: meet up with the children and return some of their broken merchandise. She also offers them a refund, which she obtains from a street concert with the loaner violin that Pauline has brought over.
Later, Emily is running her secret keeper stand for the last time. This time, she meets up with the children that turned to her and return some of their broken merchandise. For example, Emily proposes to Gregory that he will work at Greenbacks to pay off any monetary damages for any thievery he's done to his father and the store. Lea offers to give Dixie to Emily, while Noreen goes to the Lenox residence. Meanwhile, Mikey digs up the backyard and sees a dinosaur head fossil. After thanking Philip for ending her business for good, and thanking David for his help in securing Emily a spot in the symphony, David and Emily share a kiss.
Back at home, Emily returns a piece of the broken teacup to her father. Surprisingly, Eddie happens to accidentally break another tea cup. Upon delivering Caroline her tea, Eddie tells Emily that something came in for her today. A new violin is in Emily's room. It is signed by Caroline, Eddie, and even Grace. Emily begins playing her violin, and the movie ends with the camera panning from Emily's room to the neighborhood.
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