Orphaned and alone except for an uncle, Hugo Cabret lives in the walls of a train station in 1930s Paris. Hugo's job is to oil and maintain the station's clocks, but to him, his more important task is to protect a broken automaton and notebook left to him by his late father. Accompanied by the goddaughter of an embittered toy merchant, Hugo embarks on a quest to solve the mystery of the automaton and find a place he can call home.

Poindexter "Fool" Williams, his brother Leroy, and their family face eviction from their rented home in South Central Los Angeles. Their landlords are a greedy, uncaring couple who live in a mansion that's as huge as it is eerie. Leroy has a plan to burglarize the mansion, but what the boys find inside is not what they expected.