After four years of marriage and living in San Francisco, college professor James Brower announces to his surprised housewife Amy Brower, both who are late twenty-somethings, that he wants a divorce, and immediately moves out. Not only did Amy have no idea that he felt that way, but she also still deeply loves him, and wants him back regardless of the reason for him wanting the divorce. Amy finds that she is ill-equipped to handle being on her own, from not having any marketable jobs skills despite being a college graduate, to having to do the types of chores that only James would have done in their marriage, to the perception that many, most specifically men, have of her as an attractive, young, somewhat "single" and vulnerable woman. In navigating her new life, she gets help from various people, including: Gert Meredith, the cynical head of the Divorcées' League of Marin County; Joseph Provo, the elderly widowed local grocer, who may be able to provide a better perspective of life alone following the end of a marriage; and Madge Frazier, Amy's best friend who just wants her to meet nice, young men. Among those men that Amy meets indirectly through Madge is Howard Carpenter, a computer analyst on an extended business trip in San Francisco from New York. However, before Amy can move forward with her life, relationship or not and Howard or not, she first has to deal not only with the legal aspects of the divorce, but the emotional aspects of the break-up, knowing that James no longer wants to be with her.
—Huggo