 Julie Messinger (Dyan Cannon) has it made. She is a New York housewife whose husband, Richard (Laurence Luckinbill), is an editor for a prominent photography magazine. They have a small circle of friends, including well-meaning, but inept Dr. Timothy Spector (James Coco), photographer Cal Whiting (Ken Howard) and Cal s live-in girlfriend Miranda (Jennifer O Neill). Julie s mother (Nina Foch) spends her days getting pedicures and manicures, applying make-up and fake eye-lashes and buying expensive clothes, all the while criticizing her daughter for her looks and behavior. When Richard goes into the hospital for a minor mole-removal surgery, Julie gets more than she bargained for. Richard suffers from complications and goes into a coma, supposedly caused by a rare surgical factor, and she gathers friends and family together, culminating in a hilarious "quasi-cocktail-party" scene in the blood donation center of the hospital. While dealing with red tape, hospital bureaucracy and clueless doctors, Julie discovers her husband s "little black book," which contains the names of her friends. She confirms that her husband had been sleeping around and proceeds to make a fool out of him by getting it on with his male friends. When the complications get more ominous, guilt opens the door to her liberation as a woman. A scathingly funny examination of the dirty rich partying while one of their number lies on the brink of death.