The entire Stanley family is excited to live in Italy for a year, all except for gloomy sister Amanda, who's at that awkward age where she's not happy to be anywhere. Amanda perks up when the boy she likes invites her to meet him in secret...only to find that she's gotten herself and the other Stanley kids embroiled in a kidnapping scheme for a ransom that doesn't even exist. But the Stanley kids are more resourceful than they look, and the kidnappers find themselves getting more than they bargain for when their prisoners put their heads together and plot an escape.