Taking Chances (2011) Spoiler-Free Summary – What It's About

In a world where the distant echoes of war ripple through ordinary lives, a young girl grapples with fears far beyond her years. Kiek lives with a constant, gnawing anxiety—her father is deployed to a war zone, and every day brings fresh worry about whether he will return safely. While other children her age concern themselves with school and play, she carries the weight of an absent parent and the unspoken dread that hangs over families of service members.

Her response to this overwhelming uncertainty is both strange and unexpectedly poetic. Convinced that tragedy follows patterns and that she can somehow influence fate through improbable logic, Kiek devises a plan rooted in a child's understanding of probability and coincidence. She becomes determined to find a dead dog and a dead mouse, operating under a belief that defies rational explanation: if she can accumulate these specific losses, the universe will somehow spare her from the third—a dead father. In her mind, no one she knows could possibly possess all three.

The film explores the fragile boundary between magical thinking and genuine grief, following Kiek as she navigates a world where adults offer comfort but cannot promise certainty. Her quest is both heartbreaking and oddly hopeful, revealing how children process the unimaginable through frameworks they can control. The tone balances gentle humor with emotional depth, capturing the resilience of a young mind reaching for agency in circumstances entirely beyond her influence.

Through Kiek's journey, the story illuminates the quiet struggles of those left behind when loved ones serve in dangerous places—and the unexpected ways love, fear, and hope intertwine.