In a forgotten but defiant bayou community cut off from the rest of the world by a sprawling levee, six-year-old Hushpuppy exists on the brink of orphanhood. Buoyed by her childish optimism and extraordinary imagination, she believes that the natural world is in balance with the universe until a fierce storm changes her reality. Desperate to repair the structure of her world, this tiny hero must learn to survive an unstoppable catastrophe of epic proportions.