7-year-old Olive, wearing glasses and with a small belly, dreams of becoming famous overnight and firmly believes that she will be elected Miss America one day. Her father is a lecturer who sells success courses. He believes that "there are only two kinds of people in the world, successful people and unsuccessful people", and sells his "Nine Steps to Success" everywhere; her brother is an autistic man who worships Nietzsche. In order to be admitted to the flight academy, he swore a vow of muteness and did not speak to his family for nine months; her uncle, who claims to be the best Proust researcher in the United States, is homosexual, his lover and colleagues ran away, he lost his job, attempted suicide, and his life is in chaos; her grandfather (played by Alan Arkin), an old rogue who was kicked out of the nursing home, is foul-mouthed and takes drugs; her mother is the only normal person in this crazy family. With the support of her family, Olive participated in the "Little Miss Sunshine" beauty pageant, and the family embarked on a collective dream-seeking journey. Can Olive be elected as she wishes? How can the family members overcome their respective crises?