"Sunny, Ward of the State" is a true story of a family's struggle with catastrophe in the 1930s, the years of the Great Depression. Sunny, six years old, is a happy little girl living with her parents and three siblings when her mother Tina is diagnosed with advanced tuberculosis and is sent to a sanitarium. Gus, the father, has no idea how to handle the household single-handedly, and the kids run wild, avoiding school and turning the house upside-down. After months of chaos, Gus hands the kids over to the State of New York for care while Tina battles for life in the hospital. The four kids are then placed in charitable children's institutions and Sunny, in brilliant recall, relates this wrenching experience in a quirky mix of desperate longing and detached humor.