Nic and Jules are in a long term, committed, loving but by no means perfect
relationship. Nic, a physician, needs to wield what she believes is
control, whereas Jules, under that control, is less self-assured. During
their relationship, Jules has floundered in her "nine to five" life,
sometimes trying to start a business - always unsuccessfully - or being the
stay at home mom. She is currently trying to start a landscape design
business. They have two teen-aged children, Joni and Laser, Nic who is
Joni's biological mother, and Jules who is Laser's biological mother.
Although not exact replicas, each offspring does more closely resemble
his/her biological mother in temperament. Joni and Laser are also
half-siblings, having the same unknown sperm donor father. Shortly after
Joni's eighteenth birthday and shortly before she plans to leave the house
and head off to college, Laser, only fifteen and underage to do so, pleads
with her to try and contact their sperm donor father. Somewhat reluctantly,
she does. He is late thirty-something Paul, a co-op farmer and
restaurateur. Despite his seemingly successful businesses, Paul has always
shirked responsibility, most specifically in his personal life. After Joni
and Laser meet with Paul, Nic and Jules learn what their children have
done, and although they don't want Paul infiltrating their lives, they want
to meet him especially as Joni and Laser seem to want to maintain some sort
of relationship with him. As Paul's relationship with the entire family
grows, which also includes him hiring Jules to design and construct his
back yard, they have an effect on what he wants in life, and he in turn
affects the family dynamic as well as each person's relationships outside
of the family.
In LA, Nic and Jules are a couple with a daughter, Joni, on her way to
college and a son, Laser, at 15 a good athlete but maybe hanging out with
the wrong pal. Laser wants Joni, who's now 18, to find out who their
biological father is - a sperm donor. Without initially telling their moms,
they meet him. He's Paul, a cool guy with a motorcycle, a restaurant, and
an organic garden. Although Nic doesn't like the idea, the five of them get
together a few times and the kids spend time with Paul. He hires Jules,
who's had many brief vocations, to landscape his back yard, and Nic, who's
an OB/GYN, decides to be a good sport and get to know Paul better. Can a
family add a new member?
At the urging of her 15 year-old brother Laser, the now 18 year-old Joni
makes contact with their biological father, Paul, who as a teenager himself
donated his sperm to a cryo-bank. Their parents, same sex couple Jules and
Nic, aren't quite sure what to make of it when they learn what their kids
have done. Jules likes him far more than Nic who begins to feel that he is
taking their family away from her. It all becomes very complicated when
Paul and Jules begin sleeping together and Paul starts to fall for her. A
family dinner at Paul's house leads Nick to realize what is going on and
when the kids overhear their argument, they're in on the secret as well
leading to a crisis for everyone.
