Plot
In 1957, 7-year-old Bryce Loski moves in next door to Julianna "Juli" Baker. Looking into each other's eyes, Juli knows it's love, but Bryce is unsettled and avoids her.
Four years later, Juli is still completely enamored, rarely leaving Bryce alone. Desperate to get rid of her, he pretends to date Sherry Stalls, a popular girl Juli dislikes. Bryce's best friend Garrett tells Sherry the truth, so she dumps him. Embarrassed, Bryce hopes that in the upcoming seventh grade, Juli will finally meet someone else.
The following year, Bryce's grandfather Chet Duncan moves in. Juli adores an old sycamore tree in their neighborhood, so when one day they start to cut it down, she tries to protect it by climbing it, refusing to come down. After much attention from the town, her father Richard talks her down and it is removed. Juli is inconsolable until he gives her a painting of it, which calms her. An article is printed about it in the local paper.
Juli starts raising chickens in their backyard using chicks from a school project and they soon start laying eggs, which she sells to their neighbors but gives to the Loskis as a gesture. She is hurt upon discovering Bryce has been throwing them away because of his father's fear of salmonella. Referencing their yard's poor state, Juli is embarrassed, so decides to fix it up.
After reading the article about Juli, Chet helps her with her yard work. He grows fond of her, as she reminds him of his late wife. When Bryce's father Steven criticizes the Bakers' seeming lack of pride in their property, Chet points out they rent. Most of their finances go into caring for Juli's mentally disabled uncle Daniel, so it's the landlord who should maintain the yard. As Chet spends more time with Juli and encourages Bryce to open his mind, Bryce realizes he has feelings for her.
Meanwhile, as Juli is encouraged to broaden her mind by Chet, she starts to question if she actually likes Bryce. Going with her father to visit Daniel on his birthday, they have a difficult but ultimately positive interaction. Afterward, Juli is told by a classmate that Bryce has been admiring her, but she overhears Bryce agreeing with Garrett as he makes fun of her and Daniel, causing Juli to completely lose interest. Unbeknownst to her, Bryce is disgusted with Garrett's attitude and distances himself from him, but they remain friendly.
Feeling bad about their apathy towards the Bakers, Bryce's mother Patsy invites them over for a family dinner. Bryce is excited to see Juli, but Juli confronts him privately and tells him that she overheard him making fun of her and her uncle, calling him a coward for not defending her. Dinner starts awkwardly but is a success. Afterward, Juli apologizes to Bryce for her behavior, and he realizes she feels completely indifferent to him, leaving him confused and hurt.
As the annual school basket boy auction charity event approaches, Bryce discovers he has been selected as a basket boy so will be auctioned off to the other students along with a homemade lunch. Juli discovers Sherry's plans to bid on him but acts uninterested. Bryce hears a rumor that Sherry and another girl are going to bid for him and Juli is seen with a lot of cash, but out of sympathy, she bids on the rejected boy Eddie Trulock instead. Sherry wins Bryce.
During the lunch, Bryce is completely uninterested in Sherry's conversation and instead watches Juli with Eddie. Overwhelmed with jealousy, he gets up and tries to kiss her in front of everyone, but she runs off, humiliated. Bryce runs after her, and Garrett confronts him for abandoning the prettiest girl in school. When he makes fun of Juli, Bryce definitively ends their friendship. He tries to talk to her and explain, but she won't see or speak to him.
Two days later, with Richard's permission, Bryce plants a sapling sycamore tree in their front yard to show her how he truly feels. When she sees this, she joins him and realizes that after all these years, they have never really talked. As they plant the tree, their hands touch, they look into each other's eyes and share a knowing smile.
