Comedy based on the popular autobiographical novel by Augusten Burroughs. A child of the 1970s whose alcoholic father Norman (Alec Baldwin) and delusional, unpublished poet mother Deidre (Annette Benning) could serve as dictionary definition of the word 'dysfunctional', Augusten (Joseph Cross) is sent by his mother to live with her eccentric psychiatrist Dr. Finch (Brian Cox). Finch's house is a sprawling, decrepit mansion filled with strange things and his even stranger family. Suddenly thrust into an environment that is as unfamiliar as it is unpredictable, young Augusten forms a curious relationship with Natalie (Evan Rachel Wood) one of the doctor's two whimsical daughters while learning to adapt and survive under even the most unusual of circumstances. He also discovers a fledgling gay tendency with one of Finch's former patients, the suave-but-unstable Bookman (Joseph Fiennes).