Erin (Hope Davis) is a nigh-shift nurse who has been dumped by her activist boyfriend and has since become cranky, cynical and monastic. Erin’s overbearing mother is determined to help her find a man, so she places a personal ad for her in the local newspaper. Erin is appalled and refuses to cooperate until, in a moment of weakness, she checks her messages – all 62 of them! A sequence of comically nightmarish dates ensues.

Meanwhile, across town is Alan (Alan Gelfant), an ambitious ex-plumber struggling to fulfill his dream of becoming a marine biologist. Alan is juggling numerous problems of his own: a seductive classmate, a narcissistic brother, a father with a gambling problem, and his own incurable debt that won’t go away. As Alan searches for a way out, Erin searches for the night man. Fate pushes their parallel stories further and further apart, until…