 A young woman (Dedee Pfeiffer), struggling to become a novelist, has her life go into a tailspin. Her first novel is rejected, her non-committal boy friend (Eric Close) decides to take a powder, her best friend (Laura Leighton) moves to Mexico for an acting job, and her Mother (Teri Garr) announces that her long presumed dead father (Howard Hesseman) is actually a hippie photographer who has come to town to meet her. Sinking into a depression at being a total failure at 28, she starts fantasizing about suicide. In her depths of despair she meets various eccentric characters including a chain-smoking Santa Claus (Chris Elliott) and an obnoxious literary agent (Sean Astin in a cameo). But her belief in herself is only restored when she meets a patient (Bert Remsen) in a hospital where she does volunteer work.