Summary:
Ryden Malby has planned her academic life since she was in high-school to get a college scholarship; now she has just graduated in English and in her master plan she expects to get a job as assistant editor in the publishing house Happerman & Browning, in Los Angeles. Her platonic best friend is Adam Davis that has a crush on her and is frequently close to her. However, her arrogant classmate Jessica Bard gets the position and Ryden is forced to return home in the suburb to live with her optimistic father Walter that wants to do everything by himself; her careful mother Carmella that administrates the short resources of her family; her eccentric grandmother Maureen; and her weird little brother Hunter that wishes to race in a boxcar derby. Ryden unsuccessfully seeks a job position and feels frustrated but is emotionally supported by Adam. When Walter accidentally runs over the cat of his next-door neighbor David Santiago with Ryden's car, they visit him to give their sympathies. Ryden feels attracted by the handsome Brazilian and has a brief affair with him, forgetting Adam that decides to move to New York to study in the law school of Columbia. Meanwhile Ryden is invited to join Happerman & Browning and she discovers that feelings cannot be planned.
