Sam Greenfield (voiced by Eva Noblezada) might just be the world’s unluckiest person. The 18-year-old protagonist is an expert in poor timing, unhappy accidents and minor disasters.

Luck tells the story of how Sam momentarily comes into better fortunes, loses that opportunity and sets out to find it again. Early in the film, we see the young protagonist moving into her own apartment, starting a new job and taking online college courses. She is a foster kid who was never adopted and has now, at 18, aged out of the system. Her departure from the Summerland Home for Girls is a bittersweet one: She’s leaving the only home she’s ever had as well as her closest friend, Hazel (Adelynn Spoon), a young foster girl at the centre.

Life outside of Summerland is not easy because Sam attracts disaster. On her first day as an official adult, she misses her morning class and wakes up with less than an hour before she must clock in at Flowers & More, a garden retailer where she works. Everything that could go wrong – locking herself in the bathroom, toast falling jelly-side-down on the floor, a deflated bike tire – does. Work doesn’t go well either: Sam destroys so much merchandise that her boss (Lil Rel Howery) assigns her to cart patrol, a job she can’t possibly mess up.

To make matters worse, she runs into the cat again. Not only can he talk (his name is Bob and he’s voiced by Simon Pegg), but the coin was his good luck charm. The surprising interaction leads to a vigorous chase through the streets of this unnamed but richly detailed city. When they reach a quiet alley, Sam watches Bob jump through a mysterious portal. She follows suit, ending up in the Land of Luck.

The Land of Luck is a composite of items and animals representing good luck across the globe, it is a place of rules, systems and extensive monitoring of the human world. Leprechauns polish good-luck tokens. And the whole operation is helmed by a benevolent, giggling pink dragon (voiced by Jane Fonda). Underneath the Land of Luck is the Land of Bad Luck, which operates similarly but with a more sinister edge. The worlds are distinguished from one another by a vibrant colour palette – Good Luck is filled with bright greens and blues, while Bad Luck is marked by deep purples and violets.