Seven Perfect Things

Grieving widower Elliot Colvin prepares for his wife Pat's final days. When a young hospice volunteer, Julia, arrives, Elliot gets a rare chance to leave the house. He takes his old hunting trophies to a consignment shop and later tells a coworker, Roger, that he has given up hunting and become a vegetarian. He explains that Pat's illness has profoundly changed his perspective on death. Roger suggests Elliot retreat to his hunting cabin in the foothills after Pat is gone. Back home, Elliot holds Pat's hand and believes he feels a final, faint squeeze in return. Elsewhere, thirteen-year-old Abby Hubble is pulled out of class to be questioned by the principal and the parents of her friend, Jamie Veitch, who has run away. After school, Abby finds Jamie hiding in a nearby hunting cabin whose padlock was recently cut. She convinces Jamie to go home and stays behind to tie the cabin door shut with a piece of rope.

Walking home along the river, Abby sees a man in a red convertible throw a burlap sack off a bridge. The sack moves, and Abby, a strong swimmer, dives into the river to retrieve it. She cuts it open and finds seven live puppies inside. Meanwhile, Abby's mother, Mary Hubble, endures her controlling husband, Stan. He discovers her hidden stash of escape money, and she lies that she was saving it for his birthday. Mary then secretly meets her friend Viv for a picnic, telling Stan she is at a quilting bee. Stan tracks her down and later confronts her at home, smashing a sentimental coffee mug and revealing he knew about her lie. After their fight, Mary realizes Abby is late coming home from school and begins to worry.

Abby takes the puppies to the county animal shelter, but the officer, Linda, informs her that the shelter is full and the puppies will likely be euthanized. Unwilling to surrender them, Abby takes them to the abandoned hunting cabin. She sets them up in the shed for the night with milk and two throw pillows she takes from the cabin. When she gets home late, she tells her mother a partial truth, claiming she took the puppies to the pound but omitting that she kept them. Abby smashes her piggy bank, retrieving only sixty-two dollars, and resolves to care for the puppies herself, relying on her own judgment instead of that of adults. She begins a secret routine of caring for them at the cabin, lying to her mother about extra swim practice. She names the puppies and decides to keep all seven. Mary soon notices Abby's lies, along with puppy bite marks and paw prints on her clothes. Realizing the truth and relieved it is not a secret boyfriend, Mary gives Abby fifty dollars from her own escape fund to support her daughter's newfound source of joy.

After Pat's memorial service, a distraught Elliot drives to his cabin for solitude. He finds the cabin and shed have been burglarized, with his generator, snowmobile, and other supplies stolen. Inside the empty shed, he discovers the seven puppies. Assuming they belong to the burglars, he takes them to the pound. There, Linda recognizes the puppies and tells Elliot the story of their rescue by a thirteen-year-old girl. Moved and realizing their grim chances at the shelter, Elliot takes them back to the cabin.

When Elliot returns, he finds an angry Abby waiting for him. They argue, but Elliot explains what he learned at the pound, concluding that the person who rescued the puppies and the person who burglarized his cabin must be mutually exclusive. He returns the puppies but tells her she must find another place for them. While searching for a new shelter in a dilapidated barn, one puppy, Patches, severely cuts his paw on broken glass. Elliot finds Abby on the road in distress and drives her and all seven puppies to the vet. Patches requires stitches, and Elliot pays the costly vet bill. He tells Abby she can work off the debt by cleaning his neglected cabin. He takes the other six puppies back to the cabin and, following Abby's advice to lie on the ground with them, finds a fleeting moment of happiness. After Abby returns with Patches, Elliot teaches her basic dog training and agrees to let the puppies stay in his shed, revealing he is considering adopting two of them himself.

A neighbor's report of seeing Abby with an older man sends Mary hiking to the cabin, fearing Abby is with a predator. Elliot calmly explains the situation, and a relieved Mary asks him not to tell Abby she was checking up on her. Later, Elliot helps Mary with her dead car battery and gives her his business card, offering his guest room in the city as a safe haven. Mary's nosy neighbor, Effie Winger, sees them together. Following Viv's advice, Mary hides the card inside a used poetry book. After Abby tells her the truth, Mary visits the cabin openly. She and Elliot go for a hike, during which he uses a ruse about a flash flood to make her confront the depth of her fear of Stan. He reiterates his offer of help, and she agrees to consider it.

Abby and Mary return home to find Stan has discovered their secret, his phone displaying a photo of Mary and Elliot outside the cabin. He has begun packing to move the family away. When Mary resists, Stan becomes aggressive, forcing Abby into his truck and threatening Mary into complying. He drives them to his brother Merle's house in Oregon, leaving behind the poetry book containing Elliot's card. At Merle's, Stan keeps them under tight control, locking Abby in the basement at night. Mary calls Viv, who reports that Elliot and the puppies are gone from the cabin. Meanwhile, Elliot, finding Abby's house empty, learns from Effie that the family has gone to Oregon. Believing they will try to contact him, he drives back to the city with all seven puppies but finds no messages. At his home, one puppy, Tippy, repeatedly escapes to the yard of his widowed neighbor, Mrs. Ellison. Recognizing the quiet puppy is unhappy with the boisterous litter, Elliot allows Mrs. Ellison to adopt her.

Mary and Abby escape from Merle's house and return to their hometown. With help from Viv and her new boyfriend, a sheriff's deputy named Gerald, they trace the poetry book to a woman named Mrs. Whitman, who bought it at the thrift store, and they retrieve the card. Before they can leave town, Stan ambushes Mary. Abby intervenes, and Gerald arrests Stan for kidnapping and assault, giving them a forty-eight-hour window to disappear. Mary and Abby take a bus to the city and arrive at Elliot's house, where Abby has a joyful reunion with the six remaining puppies. She sees Tippy happy next door and agrees Elliot made the right decision.

Four months later, Mary is working part-time at Elliot's company. Believing her feelings for him are unrequited, she tells a heartbroken Abby they must find homes for some of the dogs so they can afford to rent their own apartment. Elliot confronts Mary, asking why she is planning to leave. She shows him a letter she wrote to Viv detailing her feelings. He asks them to stay, explaining that he needs time to grieve but that their presence makes his house feel alive again. Mary agrees. Abby returns home and joyfully thanks Elliot as the puppies run through the house, and the new, unconventional family settles into a hopeful future.