In a fam­i­ly home, Aman­da’s moth­er is scrub­bing marks off the TV when Aman­da intro­duces her friend, Jef­frey Magee. How­ev­er, Mrs. Beale inter­rupts, busy with her task, only to engage with Jef­frey once she’s fin­ished. They share a moment of excite­ment, recall­ing how Aman­da lent him a book, much to her dis­may when Mrs. Beale goes on about it.

Sud­den­ly, their atten­tion shifts to a chaot­ic scene in the kitchen: Hes­ter, aged four, is on the coun­ter­top, and her three-year-old broth­er Lester is on a chair below, amidst shat­tered glass and the smell of sauer­kraut. Soon, they all head out­side to play with Mani­ac Magee, who is quick­ly inte­grat­ed into their fam­i­ly.

Mr. Beale returns home from work to find Mani­ac at din­ner, join­ing in with the fam­i­ly fun, even help­ing Aman­da repair her book. The evening con­tin­ues with Mani­ac enjoy­ing fam­i­ly time, read­ing “Lyle, Lyle, Croc­o­dile” to Hes­ter and Lester as well as the adults, all of whom pre­tend to be unin­ter­est­ed. After the kids are sent to bed, Mrs. Beale reminds Mani­ac that it’s time for him to go home.

Mani­ac awk­ward­ly asks Mr. Beale to drop him off. When Mani­ac points out a house, Mr. Beale real­izes that it’s in a neigh­bor­hood inhab­it­ed by black fam­i­lies, which sur­pris­es Mani­ac who claims he has no real home, except for a deer shed he has been stay­ing in. Under­stand­ing the grav­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion, Mr. Beale makes a U‑turn and returns to their home.

Upon enter­ing, Mrs. Beale imme­di­ate­ly insists that Mani­ac stay with them, and soon after, he finds him­self in Amanda’s bed while she is tak­en to sleep with her younger sib­lings. Before he goes to sleep, Mani­ac takes a moment to appre­ci­ate the num­bers on the Beale’s front door with a smile, real­iz­ing that he final­ly has an address. This marks a sig­nif­i­cant turn­ing point in his jour­ney, pro­vid­ing him with a sense of belong­ing he has long sought.