Anastasia Again!

Twelve-year-old Anastasia Krupnik reacts with horror when her parents announce over chocolate pudding that the family is moving from their Cambridge, Massachusetts, apartment to the suburbs. Her father, Dr. Myron Krupnik, is a Harvard English professor and poet; her mother, Katherine Krupnik, is a painter. Anastasia protests, rattling off stereotypes about suburban homes with matching furniture and paint-by-number pictures, nothing like their apartment full of books, original paintings, and an embroidered sunflower covering a couch stain. Her father accuses her of making "premature assumptions." She retreats to her two-and-a-half-year-old brother Sam's room, takes his beloved yellow blanket, and tells him the movers will refuse to transport it, provoking a tantrum she presents as proof that Sam opposes the move too.

Dr. Krupnik declares the family is a "benevolent dictatorship" but offers Anastasia a role in choosing the house. The family lists requirements: Katherine wants good light and a painting studio, Dr. Krupnik wants a study with bookcases, and they add a yard for Sam. Anastasia devises what she believes is foolproof sabotage: She demands a tower room, certain no suburban house could have one. Her father writes it down without objection.

Meanwhile, Robert Giannini, a boy from Anastasia's class who carries a briefcase everywhere, invites her to ride bikes along the Charles River. When Robert asks about Sam, Anastasia tries to explain that her brother developed at different rates, his brain far ahead of his body. Robert misinterprets this as meaning Sam has a physical disability and shares a personal story about his cousin Pete, who has a severe intellectual disability and lives in a special facility. By the time Anastasia realizes the misunderstanding, Robert has been so vulnerable that she cannot bring herself to correct him.

Anastasia reluctantly accompanies her parents to see a house, coaching Sam to cry and say he is allergic to it. During the drive, she notices with alarm that she actually likes the suburban scenery. When they arrive, she experiences something she compares to falling in love: Her stomach hurts, her heart races, and she fights back tears, because the house has a tower. Each family member is silently captivated: Dr. Krupnik by a book-lined study with a fireplace, Katherine by an octagonal solarium flooded with natural light. The confused real estate agent, mistaking their silence for disapproval, suggests tearing out the shelves and demolishing the solarium. Anastasia climbs the tower staircase and gazes out at lawns, elms, and the distant Cambridge skyline. Sam follows and asks if he should cry as planned. Anastasia says no, and her father tells the agent they will buy the house.

Packing is bittersweet. Anastasia's best friend, Jenny MacCauley, helps her box up belongings, and they confess they no longer fully hate certain boys. Anastasia finds her mother crying while wrapping dishes, sad about leaving the stained-glass cupboard doors she has loved for years. Anastasia kneels on her bare bedroom floor and writes on the wallpaper: "This is my room forever. Anastasia Krupnik." She discovers her father has done the same in his study. Sam cries because his blanket "wants to live here," so Anastasia cuts it in half, leaving one piece and taking the other. She calls Jenny to say goodbye; they promise to visit and never see Casablanca without each other. As the movers arrive, Anastasia sits beside her goldfish Frank's bowl and writes in her notebook: "The Mystery of Saying Goodbye."

At the new house, the family struggles to settle in. Anastasia diagnoses her miserable parents with "Post-moving Depression," a term from Cosmopolitan magazine. Sam reports that a "witch" lives next door, so Anastasia goes to borrow a pitcher. Mrs. Stein, an elderly woman with tangled gray hair, opens the door gruffly and refuses. But when she spots Sam with his blanket and thumb in his mouth, her demeanor softens, and she invites them in for cookies. Sam nicknames her "Gertrustein," pronouncing it the way he says "Frankenstein." Inside, Gertrustein explains she has no one to walk with and that all her friends are dead. Sam volunteers to be her friend and suggests she push him in his stroller. Gertrustein agrees.

Anastasia feels jealous that Gertrustein declared she does not care for "middle-size" children. Katherine explains that lonely people become defensive and that Gertrustein can risk liking Sam because he is too young to disappoint her. Anastasia decides to buy Gertrustein a goldfish. She delivers it in a decorated bowl, and Gertrustein names the fish Mr. Stein because it has bulging eyes like her ex-husband. Gertrustein tells Anastasia about her brief marriage to Lloyd Stein, a cookware salesman who ran off with a mandolin player, and reveals that the man she truly loved was Edward Evans, who grew up in Anastasia's house and married someone else 47 years ago. Anastasia begins fixing Gertrustein's tangled hair, since arthritis makes it impossible for Gertrustein to manage alone.

As Anastasia settles in, a boy named Steve Harvey comes to the door offering to mow the lawn. He will be in her seventh-grade homeroom and invites her to play tennis. Tensions surface with Jenny, who reveals she has seen Casablanca with Robert at the Brattle Theater, breaking their promise. Anastasia retaliates by boasting about Steve. She confides to her mother that she feels destined to marry Robert because no other boy will love her, but Katherine reassures her, and Steve's timely arrival at the door reinforces the point.

Anastasia hatches a plan to help Gertrustein out of isolation. She arranges a free permanent at a local salon for Saturday morning, then visits the Senior Citizens Drop-In Center, where she tells 14 seniors about her lonely neighbor. They agree to come to Anastasia's house Saturday afternoon so she can lure Gertrustein over. Saturday is also the day Robert and Jenny plan to bike out for a visit, and Anastasia's attempts to cancel them fail. When the Drop-In Center director calls to request sugar-free Kool-Aid for three diabetic guests, Katherine grows suspicious and eventually imagines Anastasia has joined a gang.

Saturday arrives. Robert and Jenny bike over; Sam goes with Gertrustein to the salon. In the tower room, Robert peels back layers of old wallpaper and uncovers faded pen-and-ink writing on the bare plaster beneath, but Anastasia is pulled away before she can read it. The seniors arrive in a van, and the party fills the house: Robert shows rocket plans to retired engineers, someone plays "Alexander's Ragtime Band" on the piano, and Katherine realizes the "gang" is a group of elderly people. Gertrustein arrives reluctantly, hiding under a large green hat because Sam told her she looks like the singer Art Garfunkel. The seniors welcome her warmly, and Steve arrives with his older sister Anne, a nearly six-foot-tall professional ballet dancer, who performs a dance using Gertrustein's hat. Everyone admires Gertrustein's new silver curls.

Sam, who has been hiding upstairs, descends wearing only his raincoat, yells "FLASH!" and opens it to reveal himself naked before scampering away. The room erupts in laughter. Robert privately tells Anastasia he now believes Sam is not physically disabled but "emotionally disturbed."

After the guests leave, Anastasia helps Gertrustein climb the tower stairs and shows her the faded inscription on the plaster: "Edward loves Gertrude. Always." Gertrustein reads it aloud and blushes. She says she would not want to find Edward now but admits it would be nice if he could see her new hair. She mentions the dancing may have helped her arthritis and considers joining the Drop-In Center's folk-dancing class.

Anastasia writes the final chapter of her mystery novel, bringing all her characters together and including Sam's episode. She resolves the mystery of her title: "The young girl realized, after they had all left, that there were many different ways to say goodbye." The novel closes with the line that "Mozart was still dead."