Rocca is an 11 year old girl whose mother died in childbirth. She has been living with her father, an astronaut on the ISS, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, where instead of regular schooling she has been experiencing much of the astronaut training program, giving her maturity and self-confidence.
She is sent to Hamburg to live with her maternal grandmother who still resents her for the death of her mother, and to attend fifth grade in regular school. When both pilots and most of the passengers on her flight to Hamburg are stricken with food poisoning, she is able to land the plane, but leaves before her identity is known.
She moves in with her grandmother, but unfortunately when she takes in an injured squirrel to nurse back to health, it inadvertently results in her grandmother becoming hospitalized, causing the Child Welfare administration to become concerned about her situation living alone. When she visits the hospital, her grandmother becomes angry and tells her she is just bad luck for everyone.
Meanwhile, Rocca befriends some of the local homeless and becomes concerned about their treatment by society; she also befriends the outcasts in her class and becomes concerned about how they are bullied. Her innate resilience and resourcefulness allow her to come up with a plan to help these disadvantaged groups by identifying herself as the mystery pilot who saved the plane, leveraging the media attention that brings into becoming an internet influencer, and using that platform to urge people to be kinder and more generous. Her grandmother’s heart is touched by this and the two are reconciled.