Plot summary

In Kissimmee, Florida, a little boy named Dicky (Aiden Malik) runs to his friends, six-year-old Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) and Scooty (Christopher Rivera), and brings them to a nearby seedy motel, called Future Land. The three kids run up to the second floor balcony and start spitting on a car. The car's owner, Stacy (Josie Olivo), comes out and reprimands the children, just as Moonee spits on Stacy's granddaughter Jancey (Valeria Cotto).Stacy goes next door to the Magic Castle Motel where the kids stay. She gets the manager, Bobby (Willem Dafoe), to knock on the door of Moonee's room. Her young mother Halley (Bria Vinaite) answers and is told by Bobby about the issue. The kids are then forced to go clean up Stacy's car.Halley and her daughter Moonee live at the Magic Castle for an extended stay since they are poor, as are most of the other residents in the motel, including Scooty and his teenage mother Ashley (Mela Murder), who works at a restaurant and hooks Moonee up with free food for her and her mom. Halley previously worked as a stripper but was fired after a couple of days and is struggling to come up with rent money.Another day later, Moonee and Scooty go out to play and go look for Dicky, but his father has him grounded for the spitting incident. The kids then go to Future Land and invite Jancey to hang out with them. They walk across the strip and go to an ice cream shop where they ask for change from strangers so that they can purchase and share a single ice cream cone.That evening, Moonee and Scooty witness a young tourist couple that arrives at the motel by mistake since they meant to get booked at the Magic Kingdom hotel next to the Walt Disney World parks, but instead got sent to the crummy motel.The kids spend their summer break together from school around the motel or the general neighborhood. They spy on a middle-aged woman sunbathing topless, just as Bobby comes by to tell the woman to cover up. On another occasion, the kids sneak into the maintenance room and turn off the power to the motel, causing everyone to get angry since it's a hot day. Bobby must run to the room and flip the power back on.Another day or so later, Dicky and his father leave the motel to move to New Orleans after Dicky's father has landed a new job. They give the other kids some of Dicky's old toys before saying goodbye to his friends.Moonee, Jancey, and Scooty go play by an abandoned house where they start breaking things and messing around. Scooty uses a lighter he stole and sets fire to a pillow under a chimney. This causes a big fire that spreads throughout the house. The kids run back to their homes to avoid getting in trouble. The other Magic Castle residents head over to see the house burning as firefighters try to put it out. Ashley suspects Scooty of being involved and she forbids him from hanging out with Moonee anymore.In response to Ashley's new rule, Halley brings Moonee to the restaurant where she works and makes Ashley take her order and bring them a lot of food, which Moonee quickly eats. Halley then makes Ashley pack the uneaten food to go, but Halley just tosses it on the walk back to the motel.One day, while painting outside the motel, Bobby notices an old man, named Charlie (Carl Bradfield), wandering where the kids are playing. Suspicious that the man might be a pedophile looking to abduct one or more of the kids, Bobby approaches him and asks Charlie what he's doing around there. He claims to have been looking for a soda vending machine, so Bobby takes him to one. After getting him his soda, Bobby suddenly smacks it out of Charlie's hand and aggressively sends him away, even going as far as to taking Charlie's wallet so he gets his name and home address to call in to the sheriff's office should he ever come around the motel again.Another few days later, Halley takes Moonee around town selling perfume so she can round up some money. This stops when they come across a country club and a security guard catches them. The guard tries to get Halley to go to the office to wait for the cops, but Halley tries to make off with her bag of perfume before the guard pulls it and takes some of the perfume that falls out.Another day later, Halley steals and sells four Magic Kingdom bands in the parking lot of a discount ticket stand.Halley then starts secretly working as a prostitute while keeping Moonee hidden in the bathroom, occupied by taking a bath. One of the Johns (Macon Blair) returns to confront Halley at her room over the magic bands she stole from him, while Halley feigns ignorance. Bobby comes by to settle the issue, indicating he knows what Halley's been doing, but he speaks on her defense and sends the John away. However, Bobby orders Halley to have any visitors of hers check in at the front desk. Halley throws a fit and follows Bobby into the lobby, where he threatens to kick her out if she doesn't leave the lobby. She does so but then sticks a used menstrual pad on the window.Because none of the residents of the motel are legally allowed to take up permanent residence, they exploit a loophole by staying at a nearby motel for one night a month before returning to their rooms. Bobby tries to send Halley and Moonee to another motel down the road, the Arabian Nights, which had previously agreed to a special low rate for these nights. When Halley gets there, the new owner tells her that the price has been raised by $10. Halley makes a scene again and forces Bobby to go there to talk to the managers where they inform him that they are no longer honoring the arrangement they had with the previous owners. Bobby offers to pay the difference, but the managers are so disgusted with Halley and Moonee's belligerent behavior that they refuse to allow them to stay. Halley dumps her drink out onto the floor of the office and storms out. Halley and Moonee stay the night with Stacey and Jancey at Future Land.Back at the Magic Castle, Halley goes to Ashley's room to try and make amends but also to ask her to spot her for rent money. Ashley tells her everyone in the motel knows about her prostituting herself and threatens her if she finds out Scooty was up there while Halley did that. Halley responds by attacking Ashley and hitting her until she gets a black eye. Halley returns to her room, vomits into the toilet and then cries on the floor. The next day, agents of the Department of Children and Families arrive to interview Halley and Moonee. When they leave, Halley and Moonee clean the room together and Halley gives the last of her drugs away.The next morning, after taking Moonee to a nearby hotel to eat the complimentary breakfast, Halley returns to her room to find DCF agents and two police officers at her door. They are investigating her work as a prostitute and are going to send Moonee to live with a foster family. Moonee is brought to Ashley's room to say bye to her and Scooty. Halley starts to act aggressively toward the agents and officers, just as Moonee is resisting one of the social workers trying to calm her down and take her away. Moonee runs away, leading the agents and officers to go looking for her.Moonee runs to Future Land to Jancey's room. She starts crying and is unable to say what's wrong. Jancey takes Moonee's hand and runs away with her, going all the way on foot to Walt Disney World park and running to the Magic Kingdom castle... and the movie ends here.