Lawyer Stella Sheridan would like to give her career a boost with a big case, when her mother pays her a visit: After being married for 40 years, Stella’s father is leaving her.
But Barbara’s visit also throws her private life off track: Her boyfriend Josh, who has proposed to her, bemoans the fact that the unhappy Barbara not only demands a lot of attention, but also his place in the bed beside Stella.
Even a multi-tasking talent would get dizzy with all the balls small-town lawyer Stella Sheridan has to juggle at the same time. On the one hand, Senator Maureen Holmes’ prestigious custody case demands Stella’s full attention. Despite her degree from an elite university, the young lawyer has not ended up in some fancy law firm, but has her feet planted firmly and literally in cow dung on the American East Coast. Her client portfolio is made up of stubborn farmers, and their cases revolve around damaged tractors and the quality of breeding bulls’ sperm. When she manages to reel in local politician Maureen Holmes’ case, which is bound to attract media attention, it looks like the tide has finally turned: it’s the chance she’s been waiting for!
On the other hand, Stella faces some personal challenges too: After Stella accepts his proposal, Josh wants to get down to the wedding planning right away. But Stella doesn’t have a clear head for that. Her time is absorbed by her desperate and helpless mother Barbara, who just can’t believe that her husband Stanley has left her for the younger fitness trainer Jazzy, who went to high school with Stella. Barbara threatens to throw a spanner in her daughter’s plans: not only does she push out her fiancé Josh from their bedroom, she also starts an affair with Stella’s legal adversary Richard Duncan, influenced by fortune teller Rita’s predictions.
As the lawyer’s day-to-day life increasingly goes out of kilter, Stella’s chaotic sister Maddie pays a visit from New York too, to give some smart tips about how their parents might reconcile. After Barbara moves in with Richard Duncan, the other half of Stella’s bed becomes available again: Josh has long since left, however, and so Maddie now ends up taking the place in Stella’s bed. But the sisters don’t remain alone for long: Their remorseful father Stanley suddenly shows up at Stella’s front door too.
