The next morning, the family sings about what it’s like working on the dairy farm and go about their morning chores. It seems like a normal day, but some strange things are happening. A shovel goes missing and a tractor turns on by itself. At breakfast, Sadie shows her mom one of the dresses she’s considering, and Bev pulls out her own butter sculpture from when she was crowned Princess Kay.

Sadie practices her interviewing skills for the competition, and through her answers we learn that the small dairy farming industry is struggling and having a hard time competing with large industrial farms. Dean is concerned about the family’s expenses. Bev is practicing baking pies to enter one in the State Fair. The kids offer her fake smiles, but Dean tells her it tastes like soil.

We learn that other farm families in their area have been selling their farms to larger operations because strange things happened. Cows went missing and full tanks of milk were found empty. Eugenia believes that there must be an alien!

Emmett is out in the barn playing the guitar and trying to sing like Johnny Cash. Dean comes in and tells Emmett that he needs to be ready to take over the family farm should anything happen to him. He explains that Sadie and Eugenia are likely not interested in taking it over. It is also implied that Emmett will be the one to take over the farm because he is the only boy. Emmett says that Dean can count on him and they should not sell the farm. Sadie overhears their conversation. Mootilda, Sadie’s 4-H cow, is acting up, but they don’t know why.

Eugenia and Sadie sit on the roof. Eugenia is listening to her radio show and using her radio telescope to listen to the stars. Sadie seems nervous about the Princess Kay competition. Eugenia reassures her, and they tease each other a bit.

Bev puts a little cayenne pepper in her pie batter then goes to scold Eugenia for listening to her radio show again. Dean also puts a little cayenne pepper into the pie batter, not knowing that Bev had already done so. Then when the kitchen is empty, we see an otherworldly light and a small, grey creature peeking inside the window. The cayenne jar floats out of the cabinet on its own. The lid screws off and the entire jar empties into the pie filling. The mixing spoon mixes the batter on its own!

Sadie is still on the roof, and she sings about how she wants to shine and win the Princess Kay competition. Mootilda starts mooing, and we see the otherworldly light shining from the barn. Sadie goes to investigate.

Sadie encounters an alien in the barn. Eugenia and Emmett show up as well. They decide to take the alien to the State Fair with them to keep an eye on her and to ask Eugenia’s radio show host for help.

The family packs up their car and trailer to head to the State Fair. The kids sneak the alien in a trunk that gets tied to the roof. Once at the fair, Bev and Dean leave the kids alone. It’s decided that Sadie will watch the alien for an hour before her Princess Kay interview while Emmett takes Mootilda to the 4-H pens and Eugenia looks for Upton F. Overton, the radio host. They elect to name the alien Louise. Sadie takes Louise on a dairy tour of the fair and sings “Minnesota’s Known for Dairy.”

Meanwhile, Dean is at the Dairy Farmers’ Association meeting. Chock Hubbard, an industrial farm owner, reminds Dean of his generous offer to buy his farm. Chock gives Dean six tickets to the Johnny Cash Show at the Grandstand which Emmett is dying to go to. Taking the tickets feels like a bribe, but Dean ends up taking them.

Back in the 4-H pen, Emmett is working on a new song in the style of Johnny Cash. Palmer, the teen in the next cow stall, tells him how much he dislikes country music. Palmer then comes into Mootilda and Emmett’s stall and says that Mootilda is not a prize-winning heifer. Emmett gets competitive and tells Palmer that Mootilda is the finest breeding heifer and Palmer and his cow Skim will not stand in their way.

Bev is in line with the other Minnesotan ladies to turn in her pie for judging. The ladies gossip about neighbors, and Bev’s rival, Paula Jean, tells her that her husband saw Dean talking to Chock Hubbard. Paula Jean remarks that she didn’t know Bev and Dean were going to sell their farm. This is news to Bev, and she feels blindsided.

Sadie and Louise are at the meet-up point, the All-You-Can-Drink Milk Tent, but Eugenia is nowhere to be seen. While Sadie buys a cup of milk for Louise, Louise wanders off.

Eugenia pretends that she’s in space looking for the host of the radio show. The radio show didn’t have its own booth, so she thinks she’s looking for a blonde, middle-aged man. She’s unable to find him. She bumps into someone her own age who says her astronaut helmet is rad. She then realizes that she’s late to rendezvous with the alien!

Louise is at the milk tent drinking her 179^th cup of milk and drawing a crowd of onlookers. Emmett manages to get her away. He is upset because there is a lot of pressure on him to take over the farm, and Louise is stressing him out. He puts her in a trash can, but then she appears right in front of him. He tries again, but it doesn’t work. He tells her to stay and starts to walk away when he runs into Eugenia. While they are talking, Louise disappears. They go in separate directions to look for her. We see a shadowy figure in a hooded raincoat emerge and follow Eugenia off.

Sadie is at her interview, and it’s not going well. She is trying to emulate her mother’s responses, and they’re not landing. Meanwhile, Emmett and Eugenia search for Louise with the shadowy figure following behind. Sadie tells the interviewer that what she really wants is to take over the family farm and bring it into the future. She doesn’t believe that will happen because her father is old-fashioned. The interview turns around, and Sadie speaks more freely and honestly about what she actually thinks will help the small farm industry. Emmett and Eugenia are just about to close in on Louise, when Bev grabs them by the ears. They were late to meet her to get seats for the Princess Kay coronation. They exit while the shadowy figure catches up to Louise.

The Berglunds are at the Princess Kay coronation ceremony, and Palmer sits behind them. Dean comes in to join them and surprises them with the tickets to the Johnny Cash Show. Emmett is aware that Palmer is there and says that he no longer likes Johnny Cash. Bev wants Dean to tell them where he got the tickets. He doesn’t, but Bev shares that Paula Jean told her that he got them from Chock Hubbard. She’s upset that he kept this from her.

The ceremony begins, and the emcee announces the runners-up. There’s a hubbub in the crowd, and we see the shadowy figure scoop up Louise in a burlap sack. Sadie does not win and isn’t one of the runners-up. She puts on a brave face as everyone cheers for the winners, and we enter intermission.

Sadie is in the rotating, refrigerated case in the Dairy Building getting her head carved out of butter. She monologues about how she feels unmoored. She’s so passionate about dairy farming, but she knows that her father isn’t considering her to run the farm. Her dad helps her out of the case and tells her about the offer from the Hubbard Dairy farm.

Eugenia is searching for Louise and overhears two vendors talking about how a small kid is drinking all of the milk at the fair. There’s only one stand left with any milk to spare. Eugenia heads in that direction.

Emmett and Palmer eat Pronto Pups together, and Palmer tries to show Emmett that there’s interesting people and things happening all around him. Emmett feels like he doesn’t fit in.

Eugenia finds Louise and the shadowy figure and chases them. They run into Ye Old Mill, a flume ride. On the ride, Eugenia discovers that the shadowy figure is a kid about her same age. He introduces himself as Upton F. Overton, the radio host she’s been looking for!

At the 4-H competition, Dean talks with Paula Jean. She tells him about their time in Florida now that they’ve sold their farm to the Hubbard family. She shares that her husband wears shorts now and is in therapy. This frightens Dean. Bev talks with Chock and tells him that they won’t be using the tickets to the Johnny Cash Show. Chock tells her that he is a good friend to have and says that he’ll put in a good word for her at the pie competition. He shares that he is the pie judge. Meanwhile, Mootilda and Sadie win the 4-H competition! Chock congratulates Sadie and tells her that he’d be interested in hiring her in their Research and Development Department.

Sadie, Emmett, Eugenia, Upton, and Louise all gather together. Louise mimes out that she needs to go to the Space Tower ride. Unfortunately, the ride is out of order. They plan for Eugenia and Upton to go to the control room, and Emmett, Sadie, and Louise will meet them there at night while most of the people are at the Grandstand concert. Emmett leaves Sadie and Louise to go write down a song he’s been working on. Left with Louise, Sadie confides that she didn’t win the Princess Kay competition and her dad is selling the farm. Louise makes the ground shake. There’s a flash of light, and Sadie and Louise disappear.

At the pie judging, Dean and Bev express how frustrated they are with each other. When Bev’s pie comes up for judging, both Chock and Paula Jean taste it. It is really spicy. Bev and Dean tell each other about adding the chili powder. They agree to tell each other everything moving forward. They laugh at Chock and Paula Jean who are struggling with the spicy pie and go out to the fair to find their kids.

Emmett sings Palmer the new song he wrote about how he feels like he’s an alien on the prairie. Palmer really likes the new song. Palmer surprises Emmett with two front-row tickets to the Johnny Cash Show. Emmett turns them down because his sisters really need him tonight. He has one thing that Palmer can help him with, though.

Sadie and Louise appear in a void of space. Louise appears as Eugenia to lessen the strain on Sadie’s brain. This is a form of communication Louise can use, but it runs the risk of melting Sadie’s brain. Louise explains that she was royalty on her planet but had been denied her inheritance of planetary rule. Eager to prove her worth, she journeyed to Earth. They had intercepted radio broadcasts of A Prairie Home Companion, and she wanted to bring back Garrison Keillor or a recipe for their rhubarb pie. Her ship was inoperable, and she was unable to return home. It wasn’t until she met Upton that she realized her family was trying to contact her. Their message had detailed instructions for converting the Space Tower ride into a vessel to get her home.

Louise then comforts Sadie and helps her see that there are many possibilities of her being happy in life and that her life has really only just begun. Sadie thanks her and bows as Louise is a real-life Princess Kay of the Milky Way.

Chock Hubbard is angry about the chili-powder pie and starts investigating why all of the milk at the fair is gone. He learns about Louise drinking all of the milk and winning games at the Midway. Vendors help connect Louise to the Berglunds. Chock calls the FBI.

Eugenia and Upton give the Space Tower security guard tryptophan-laced turkey legs to drug him and make him fall asleep. It doesn’t work, so they knock him out and tie him to his chair. Emmett, Sadie, and Louise show up. Sadie manages to get the Space Tower booted up, but the FBI shows up. Dean and Bev wiggle their way in and tell their kids that they need to be honest with each other moving forward.

Hullabaloo ensues. Palmer and the 4-H kids come out and overtake the FBI agents while making animal noises. They chase the agents off stage, and then they get chased by Mootilda.

The Berglunds and Louise do a classic Minnesotan Long Goodbye. Louise gets into the Space Tower, and it spins faster and faster until it climbs the tower and lifts off into the air. Chock and the FBI agents run in. The FBI agents determine that there’s nothing extraterrestrial and take Chock away instead. Dean tells Chock that he won’t be selling the farm, and if she would like to, Sadie will take it over.

Back at the farm, we see that all is well with the Berglund family. The family is a lot closer after their experience, and Sadie ends up taking over the farm.