A fiercely independent teenager tries to make her own way in the world while wanting to get out of her hometown of Sacramento, California and to get away from her complicated mother and recently-unemployed father.
Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson is a high-school senior from the "wrong side of the tracks". She longs for adventure, sophistication, and opportunity, but finds little of that in her Sacramento Catholic high school. Her senior year improves: she finds her first romance, participates in the school play, and--most importantly--applies for college.—Dehlia
Christine McPherson is an outspoken senior at a Catholic high school. Like most girls her age, she dreams of leaving her hometown of Sacramento, California, to attend a prestigious college in New York City. However, with her average grades and the family's financial struggles, attending a public university closer to home would be more affordable and safer, especially in the aftermath of the devastating 9/11 attacks. As she navigates her college applications, budding teenage sexuality, and a strong-willed mother, Christine must find a way to make her dreams come true. Will Lady Bird survive life's bumps and cracks?—Nick Riganas
Sacramento, California, 2002. Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson is in her final year of high school. She longs to leave Sacramento and go to college on the East Coast. However, her protective, obsessive mother, pessimistic at her chances, is determined to keep her in California, ideally near home. Lady Bird's final year of school will be one of discovery, new experiences, and finding herself.—grantss
Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson fights against but is exactly like her wildly loving, deeply opinionated and strong-willed mom, a nurse working tirelessly to keep her family afloat after Lady Bird's father loses his job. Set in Sacramento, California in 2002, amidst a rapidly shifting American economic landscape, Lady Bird is an affecting look at the relationships that shape us, the beliefs that define us, and the unmatched beauty of a place called home.—A24 Films
Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) is a senior student at a Catholic high school in the suburbs of Sacramento, in 2002. She lives with her parents, with whom she has a strained relationship, her older brother, who is adopted, and his girlfriend. Lady Bird is best friends with Julianne "Julie" Steffans (Beanie Feldstein). Lady Bird and Julie join their school's theatre program, where Lady Bird meets a young man named Danny O'Neill (Lucas Hedges). They develop a romantic relationship, leading to Lady Bird joining Danny's family for Thanksgiving dinner rather than doing so with her own family. Their relationship is abruptly broken when Lady Bird finds Danny making out with a boy in a bathroom stall. At the behest of her mother, Lady Bird takes on a menial job at a coffee shop, where she meets an edgy musician named Kyle Scheible (Timothée Chalamet). He and Lady Bird begin a romantic relationship, and she begins to drift away from Julie in favor of a friendship with a popular girl named Jenna Walton (Odeya Rush).
After Jenna is reprimanded by nun teacher Sister Sarah Joan (Lois Smith) for wearing a short skirt, Jenna bonds with Lady Bird by harmlessly vandalizing Joan's car. Lady Bird tells Jenna that she lives at an address which actually belongs to Danny's grandmother. Lady Bird drops out of the theatre program and is later confronted by Danny outside of the coffee shop, where she consoles him after he expresses his struggle to come out. She loses her virginity to Kyle after he falsely refers to himself as a virgin, leading her to find consolation in her mother. Jenna discovers that Lady Bird lied about her address, which essentially ends their friendship. Lady Bird is told that her father has recently lost his job and discovers that he is battling depression.
Lady Bird begins applying to colleges, hoping to be accepted into one that is out-of-state (with an financial assistance letter provided by her father), despite her mother's insistence that the family could not afford it. She receives several rejections letters, but is elated to discover that she has been placed on the wait list for a university in New York. Despite her uneasy relationship with them, she sets out for her high school's prom alongside Kyle, his friend, and his friend's date but they decide to go to a party. Lady Bird asks them to drop her off at Julie's apartment, where the two rekindle their friendship and go to the prom together. Lady Bird passes her driving test and repaints her bedroom, removing drawings, photos, and writing from her walls. Her mother discovers that she has applied to out-of-state universities behind her back, causing her mother to give her the silent treatment.
In 2003, on her eighteenth birthday, Lady Bird's father shares a cupcake with her and jokes that he and her mother cannot afford a divorce. Now of legal age, Lady Bird buys a pack of cigarettes, a scratch-off ticket, and an issue of Playgirl from a convenience store. Lady Bird eventually leaves for New York; her mother coldly drives her to the airport, where Lady Bird heads to the terminal with her father. Lady Bird believes her mother does not want to see her or say goodbye to her, but in reality, her mother does not want Lady Bird to see her cry. While driving, she has a change of heart and rushes back into the airport, but Lady Bird has already left.
In New York, after finding thoughtful letters written by her mother and salvaged by her father, Lady Bird decides to go by the name Christine again. She is briefly hospitalized after drinking an excessive amount of alcohol at a party. After leaving the hospital, she observes a Sunday church service. Outside the church, Christine calls home with her cell phone and leaves an apologetic message for her mother.
