The scoop: Just as in Louisa May Alcott's seminal 1868 novel, Greta Gerwig's new adaptation follows four sisters — Amy, Jo, Beth, and Meg — who live with their mother, Marmee March (Laura Dern), in Massachusetts during the Civil War era, played by Florence Pugh, Saoirse Ronan, Eliza Scanlen, and Emma Watson, respectively. Since their funds have dwindled and their father is away at war, the girls come of age together while experiencing life's highs and lows — love and loss, success and failure, birth and death.