Plot summary

Ambushed by her best friend Connie Phillips on the sensationalistic "Toni" national daytime talk show, Chicago-based housewife Birdee Pruitt, a former prom queen, not only finds out that her husband Bill Pruitt, her high school sweetheart, and Connie have been having an affair, but that they want to get married. As such, Birdee, with her and Bill's adolescent daughter Bernice Pruitt in tow, decides to head back to their hometown of Smithville, Texas to live temporarily with her mother, Ramona Calvert, basically to hide-out until she figures out what to do. Beyond the issues of Bill's infidelity and Connie's deceit, Birdee eking out a life in Smithville is difficult for many reasons. Birdee doesn't have any marketable job skills to support herself and Bernice. Many of Birdee and Bill's high school colleagues have their own views of Birdee then and now, which taint how they treat her. Birdee has her own views of how she sees her life, it, now without Bill, not what she had envisioned for herself. So Birdee is living out a somewhat self-fulfilling prophesy of the failure that she sees her life. Although Birdee holds onto her martial vows for as long as she and Bill are still married, Bernice holds onto the notion of their family even stronger, she largely blaming Birdee for their current problems as she asserts that Birdee didn't love Bill enough for him to want to stay married. As such, Bernice openly wishes for her father to come take her away. Bernice's negative view of life in Smithville is exacerbated by being bullied by a classmate known as Big Dolores. Through it all, Ramona hopes that Birdee will get together with Justin Matisse, who, with Birdee, were each other's first kiss when they were adolescents. Justin has always been attracted to Birdee and thus wants at least to get to know a now grown up Birdee. Birdee has to decide how much she is willing to give of herself now to anyone who isn't Bill, whether it be Justin or someone else.—Huggo