Dan Burns is a local newspaper advice columnist. He has three daughters and is a widower. He brings the family to his parent's house for a family gathering. When Dan goes to a local bookstore, he meets Marie. When he gets home, he finds out that Marie is actually dating his brother Mitch. Dan's mother Nana announces that she met an old acquaintance of Dan's, Ruthie Draper and that she has set up a date between Dan and Ruthie. Dan refuses to go. Mitch...

Lawrence Wetherhold is a recently widowed literature professor who is a numb and chilly intellectual. He rebuffs his students, ignores his own teenage children, James and Vanessa, and spurns cries for financial assistance from his ne'er-do-well but rather soulful adopted brother, Chuck. After an accident and Lawrence goes to the hospital, he is deprived of the right to drive. Janet is a physician and former student of Lawrence who remembers her disappointment...

Widowed Navy nurse, Helen North, the mother of eight children, marries handsome Navy officer, Frank Beardsley, who is the father of ten.