Holly is tired of traipsing around the state, ruining her relationships, and missing major
life stones in both her life and her sister’s, each time their mom has her heart broken.
She hatches a plan to stop her mom from falling in love, and to consider staying put in Brooklyn.
Holly a 16-year-old high schooler, and her 7-year-old sister Zoey, a spelling bee aficionado,
are forced on a road trip to start off another adventure, when their mom Jean suffers another
break up, that result in a cake bashed face.
Their new house does nothing to impress Holly, and she shares her feelings with her online
journal and blog where she goes to express her feelings.
She arrives to her new high school, and quickly makes friends with bubbly Amie, and she is
quick to warn her that her stay in town will be quite short.
Jean starts work at the bakery and gets to meet everyone.
She showcases her expertise in baking to her new friends.
In class, Holly gets in an argument with a boy Adam over seats, Adam claims the seat
is his, but since there are no names attached to the seats, Holly claims dibs on it.
Adam goes to another seat, but they feel a connection between them.
Holly visits her mom after school at the bakery, she is introduced to her friends, and on their
way out, Lenny, the bread manager, approaches them and drops his ‘heaven’ line, which
gets Jean to smile but does not impress Holly.
Later, Jean concludes that she is ready to get back into the dating scene, and disrupts
Holly writing on her blog.
She tells her to help her scan her photo on a dating site.
They get into an argument; Holly is exasperated with her mom, and she advises her to try and
get a guy the normal way.
Jean forces her to help her out, as she reminds Holly that she needs to get a man soon before
old age sets in.
At her school for a parents, teachers and students meeting, Holly isn’t quite happy
that she and her mom are in attendance.
She complains that there was no need for it, since they would be leaving town soon.
Jean hushes her and tags it “negative imaging”.
Holly makes a funny face to her friend, and also notices Adam as he keeps stealing glances
at her.
Jean embarrasses her daughter, by asking a question on opportunities for single parents
in the school.
It gets the hall laughing, a man supports her and also volunteers, and this leaves Holly
mortified.
In the following scene, Holly is brushing her teeth aggressively, and ignores her mom’s
attempt to discuss what happened at the meeting.
With hurt etched on her face, she flares up on her mom, and tells her that the meeting
was for students, but in her usual manner she had to make it all about her.
On her blog later that night, Holly admits that she is tired of moving around and changing
addresses.
In school, Adam approaches her at her locker, and tries to put her at ease about the meeting,
he makes a Krispy Kreme truck joke which brings a smile to Holly’s face and lifts her spirits.
Holly tells her friend Amie about her mom and her relationship woes.
She admits that she does not want to leave here as she just arrived.
Amie takes her to an upscale bistro, and introduces her to her uncle Ben who owns the bistro.
Ben who is on the phone sounds like an expert in women’s affairs, he gives them a little
tutorial on appropriate flowers for a woman.
Holly decides to take a few lessons from him on how to make her mom happy.
She makes a plan to create an imaginary perfect man, who sends orchid flowers to her mom that
will make her feel special and happy, and not so desperate to find another man.
She buys the orchid flowers with extra money from Amie with a promise to repay her.
They place the flower at her doorstep.
Holly goes in and asks Amie to press the buzzer, so her mom could come out.
When she goes in, she finds her mom engrossed in solving her puzzle, while Zoey has her
headset on while doing her homework.
Holly tries to distract them, but it does not work.
Through her window she sees Amie, as she walks off obviously tired of pressing the buzzer.
After several attempts of giving a hot chase to an old man, who keeps stealing the flowers,
and buzzing the bells herself and climbing up and down the window, Jean opens the door
and is surprised to find flowers.
She is besotted by the flowers and the accompanying note.
She wonders who sent the flowers.
Zoey sees it as scary; Holly calms her down and tells her to quit questioning it and enjoy
the process.
She agrees and places it by the window side.
In school, Holly is ecstatic about the success of the plan.
She commends Ben for his brilliance.
She discovers a drawing of a face that looks just like hers on Adam’s desk.
She accuses him of drawing her but he denies it.
They chat about his home situation and his parents’ divorce.
Adam asks Holly if she has attended a comic drawing convention.
She is uncomfortable, and tries to run but Adam stops her.
She declines his invitation to a comic drawing convention, with the excuse that she is not
much of a planner and escapes the room.
The reason has to be because they might move out before the convention which takes place
in 6 weeks’ time.
At the bakery, Jean tries to know if anyone came looking for her.
Her friend Delores shows her a baking contest ad and tells her to join.
Jean does not consider herself good enough, and refuses to join the contest.
Her friends are quick to call her out on her double standards, of not recognizing the flaws
in her choice of men, but quick to point out flaws within herself.
They leave her to think about this.
A wilted yellow rose flower is shoved in her face.
She turns thinking to see her ‘secret admirer’ but sees Laney.
She tries to figure out if he sent the orchids, but nevertheless accepts his invitation to
a ‘Sticks Concert’.
Holly tries hard to stop her mom from attending the concert with Laney, but to no avail, Holly
and Zoey are not impressed with Lenny, when he makes a lewd comment concerning Jean’s
dressing, and also his poor attempt at acting nice.
At the insistence of her mom, Holly is forced to act nice to Lenny.
The girls watch through the window as Laney goes on like a drone about his car, and asks
Jean to remove her shoes before entering his car.
At the concert, Jean is dismayed when she finds out that they are watching a tribute
band play, and not the main band she came for.
She sticks out like a sore thumb as the crowd keep cheering for the band amidst all the
noise.
At the bistro, Holly and Amie ambush a busy Ben, to pick his brain on what makes a man
perfect for a woman for a supposed English assignment.
Without giving out too much information of her mom, Holly tries to know what to give
her mom to make her happy.
Ben suggests music and gives her a cd to cheer her up.
He also gives them more advice, they are interrupted by Amber a beautiful and sophisticated woman,
who’s talking about wedding plans.
Holly and Amie are smitten by her.
Holly thinks that Ben and Amber are planning their wedding, Amie does nothing to help when
she calls the two of them “winners of a genetic lottery”.
Lenny arrives Jean’s house in his loud car, when he cuts the ignition.
Holly peeps at them through the window, and does not look too happy when she sees her
mom with Lenny.
Jean walks out of the car, bare feet.
Lenny stumbles through his speech, and ends up sharing an intimate moment with Jean.
This leaves her flustered.
Holly looks on in disgust and confronts her mom when she comes inside.
She continues sulking after Jean tells her she had a good time.
In class, Holly plans with Amie to pose as her mom’s admirer, and write a letter to
her so she would stop going out with Lenny.
She shares a moment with Adam, they talk about his comic drawings and end up having lunch
together.
During bath time, Zoey shares with Holly that because of their constant moving, she hasn’t
entered in any competition.
She would be happy to take part in the spelling bee competition that her teacher has entered
her into.
Jean shares the love letter she got from her perfect man with her daughters.
Holly reads it out loud and they are all impressed especially with the disc that came with it.
They are all happy and dance along to the music.
Holly is glad to see her family happy again.
At dinner, Holly tries to convince her mom that her admirer is a great guy despite his
secrecy.
Jean is worried about his physical features.
Holly’s excuse that he writes well so he would be handsome does not hold water.
Holly decides to get a picture of Ben, so her mother would feel more connected to her
admirer.
She goes to the bistro with Amie and Ben is swamped with work.
They trick him by asking a silly question that makes him smirk, and Amie takes a picture
of him.
In the next scene, Jean gets to see the picture with her daughters and also know her secret
admirer’s name.
She likes his name and even Zoey wants to meet him.
His letter says he is in China to open a restaurant, and phone lines are choppy, so there will
be limited communication between them until he comes back.
To make her plan real enough, Holly thinks about sending mails to her mother posing as
her ‘secret admirer’.
Adam helps her continue with her charade by allowing her to use his computer to send the
emails, as she cannot use the computer at home or be helped by Amie.
Holly goes to and fro Adam’s house posing as the secret admirer to exchange emails with
Jean.
The emails keep coming and going, and a lot of information is shared between the two of
them.
Jean also shares her love for making fudge brownies.
The friendship between Holly and Adam also blossoms.
The two share lots of stolen glances between them.
Jean approaches Lenny in the bread room, she tries to break it off with him but he wouldn’t
let her speak out.
Lenny sees himself as the perfect man, but eventually Jean succeeds in breaking it off
with him.
To make Ben the admirer seem more real, Holly messages Jean.
She makes quite a few fumbles but is able to cover them up.
Jean shares her dreams and the challenges she has faced raising her kids without a good
education, and this makes Holly emotional and sees her mom in a new light.
At home, she notices her mom is in her feelings, and she gives her the baking contest ad with
a pen to enter the competition.
She writes in her blog the need to give single mothers some break, as they are trying their
best.
Lenny makes a poor attempt to give a speech about coffee through the intercom directed
at Jean, this leaves both shoppers and workers in the bakery confused.
Jean comes out, all dressed up and announces to her daughter and Amie that she has a bridal
shower date with her friends at ‘the River bistro,’ where Ben works.
This puts the girls in a state of confusion as they make up silly excuses to stop her
from going there.
Jean ignores them and leaves the house.
The girls plan to do everything within their powers to see that Jean and Ben’s paths
do not cross.
Holly goes to his house to stall him, while Amie goes to the bistro to check things out.
At home, Ben is playing some puzzle game as the buzzer sounds, he is confused when he
hears Holly because he is not expecting her and Amie is not with him.
He buzzes her in.
Holly is surprised to see how perfect his kitchen is, and knows that her mom would kill
to have such a kitchen.
She also notes that Ben solves puzzles with a pen just like her mom.
Her brain tries to connect all the dots that are glaring.
She launches into a tirade of how she needs guidance from him because she has no father
to turn to, all in a bid to stall him from going anywhere.
It all gets too much for Ben as he looks quite confused, and doesn’t know where to start
from.
He is saved by the phone which rings and he could not escape soon enough.
Lance from the bistro informs him that the oven has broken down and he needs to come
over.
Holly tries to stall him from going but he does not take her bait.
She calls Amie and tells her to create a big distraction so things get rowdy at the bistro.
Amie writes on a sign that a free beer awaits all Jets fans at the bistro.
Some rowdy construction workers nearby take advantage of the ad and flock into the bistro.
Ben arrives in a cab with Holly and sees the sign at the entrance and doesn’t know what
to make of it.
He carries it in.
He is surprised to see his bistro rowdy and filled with construction workers.
Nobody has any idea who wrote the sign.
He agrees to 1 free beer for the workers to make peace.
Holly notices her mom leave her friends bridal shower table, and approach the bar.
She goes to her and turns her the other way.
Amie also tries to cause havoc on her side, but nothing really happens.
Holly although sorry, decides to do something more drastic.
She turns on a lighter and this triggers the fire hydrant.
As water starts gushing from all corners in the bistro, everyone is confused.
The bistro turns into a circus as customers get drenched with water and are fleeing in
haste.
Holly and Amie dry off in a room and Amie is impressed with their success.
Holly ponders on how similar her mom and Ben are.
She seems remorseful about how difficult she has made the whole situation with her lies.
She believes Ben is perfect for Jean, but they cannot work out because she has already
lied too much.
She regrets buying the orchid which started the scheming.
The next day in class, Holly asks for a favor from Adams.
She tells him to help her break up with her mom, but Adam laughs it off.
She is considerate about her mom’s feelings and prefers it is done over a call than email
and he reconsiders.
At home, Holly eagerly waits for the phone to ring as her mom prepares dinner.
At the first ring, she picks it up and ignores Adam’s refusal to go along with call, she
hands the phone over to her mom.
At the sound of Jean’s voice, Adam distorts his voice to sound older, albeit sounding
awkwardly.
Jean is surprised to hear Ben over the phone, and goes to the balcony to answer the call.
Holly picks up the second phone to listen in to their conversation.
Adam tries to break up, but he senses that she is crying.
Jean expresses her happiness at hearing from him.
Adam reconsiders the plan, and rather concentrates on Holly’s picture on his computer screen,
and starts talking about his feelings towards Holly, forgetting that he is on the phone
with Jean.
Holly is gob smacked by the 360 turnaround from her plans.
When it seems like things are getting a bit heated up, she crouches to the connection
and turns off the phone from its switch, just in time to cut him off from confessing his
feelings.
At school the next day, Holly marches to Adam and confronts him about what happened during
the call.
To shut her up, he cuts her off with an intimate moment and admits that he was distracted by
her, leaving Holly’s mouth agape and confused.
Holly wants to confess to her mom, but they are distracted by horrible singing and noise
coming from outside their house.
Holly and sister go to the window, while Jean goes to the balcony to see what the noise
is.
Holly can’t believe her eyes when she sees that Lenny is the one singing, accompanied
by his radio.
Jean is all shades of embarrassed to see that his grand singing gesture is directed at her.
A male neighbor, obviously not enjoying the noise, shouts at him to keep quiet.
A crowd gathers to watch, as Lenny displays his acrobatic skills, climbing through the
balcony stairs to get to Jean.
He almost loses his balance but finally succeeds to reach Jean with his offkey singing.
Annoyance is evident on Holly’s face at his blatant display, but the crowd downstairs
applaud his performance.
Lenny goes on a knee and whips out a ring box, because of his clumsiness, the ring falls
down but he picks it and asks Jean to marry him.
Inside, Holly is worried and hopes Jean does not say yes to the proposal.
Jean informs her girls that she will think about the proposal.
Another argument about Ben and Lenny ensues between the duo.
Jean talks about her fear of winding up alone, when her girls grow up and leave home.
Holly goes to the balcony and makes a call to her mom; she distorts her voice and poses
as Ben’s secretary.
She tells her that Ben is in town and sets up a meeting between them the next day.
Holly prints all the conversation between the perfect man and her mom, and ignores the
messages from Adam.
She goes to the bistro to see Ben but is informed that he is at a wedding.
She concludes that the wedding is between Ben and Amber the bride.
She gets the venue of the wedding from Lance and rushes out.
She apologizes to a dog watcher when she collides with a couple of dogs in her haste to get
to Ben.
At the venue, chest heaving from the run, she interrupts the priest officiating the
wedding and announces that Ben cannot marry Amber, because he has an obvious connection
her mother.
Ben tries to cut her off but she carries on with her speech, the bride watches on in surprise
as her wedding is ruined.
Holly realizes that Ben is not the one wearing a lapel for grooms on his suit, like the man
behind him has on, as she connects the dots in her head, the bride Amber slaps her groom
who surprisingly is not Ben.
The groom topples to the ground along with a vase of flowers.
Ben stares at Holly with a “see what you caused face”, realizing her mistake, she
apologizes and gives an excuse of looking for another wedding and not this one, and
escapes like her back is on fire.
The people are left in shock at the turn of events and whiplash caused by Holly.
Ben goes after her, she apologizes for the mistake and for thinking that he was the one
marrying Amber.
Ben clears the air that Amber is his close friend, and he is just catering for the wedding.
Jean is seen as she waits for her perfect man who is running late.
She is surprised to see Holly approach her.
She confesses that she made up ‘the perfect man’ just to make her mom happy and stay.
Jean is hurt over this deceit, they go over the same argument on happiness, constant moving
and selfishness.
Holly asks for a perfect mom who is talented, pretty, funny, cooks great, dances great and
does not need a man to do those things.
Jean walks away and leaves Holly alone with a sad face.
Dinner is a somber activity with only Zoey enjoying her meal.
Holly and Jean are both sad faced, mopey and staring at their food without touching it.
In school, Holly apologizes to Adam for not calling him back.
He gifts her a drawing of her as a princess who is afraid of people getting close to her.
She does not wait to see all the drawing; she gets angry and leaves him with Adam calling
back after her.
She announces to her mom that she wants to move this time, for herself.
She packs her things and sits solemnly on the bed looking unhappy.
Her mom opens the door to Adam, she informs him that Holly is packing because they are
moving to Arizona.
He hands over the drawing to her for Holly.
Jean opens the drawing and sees the second part that Holly missed.
She sends a message to Adam, and pretends to be Holly just like she did to her.
She tries to mend the relationship between the two kids.
Meanwhile, Ben finds a printed copy of the conversations between Jean and himself her
supposed ‘Perfect Man’.
At home, Jean unpacks their things already packed, Zoey meets Holly at the door and informs
her that she got to be in her schools spelling bee competition.
Jean informs her that they are staying back.
This infuriates Holly and she storms into her room sulking.
Jean hot on her trail tries to explain that she is ready to set a good example to her
girls, starting with staying back and getting to know other people.
She brings up the drawing from Adam and keeps it beside Holly.
She encourages her to turn over the drawing and fix things with him.
Holly does and discovers her mistake of not turning to the other side of the drawing,
where Adam draws the two of them with the promise to be there for her.
Jean is conscious of people in the bakery as she returns the ring to Lenny, and ends
the situation between them.
Surprised to see the ring, he asks her if she wants a bigger ring.
Zoey is seen as she aces her spelling bee competition to a loud applause from her family
and the spectators.
The next scene shows Lance with the construction workers from the bistro as they cheer and
drink beers during a jets match.
Jean is declared the winner of the baking competition, and it is a happy moment for
her family and friends as they hug each other.
Holly and Ben are peeping through the window of the new bakery where Jean works, and Holly
points out her mom to him and disappears.
Ben walks in and orders for fudge brownies from the conversations between perfect man
‘Ben’ and Jean.
She sights him and goes to serve him.
They smile as they recognize each other.
He invites her on a dinner date, Jean declines with the excuse of trying to get her feet
back on the ground.
They go back and forth in comfortable camaraderie amidst smiles.
He takes his package to go, at the door he turns and informs her that he will be picking
her up for the date, she agrees to it with a wide smile on her face.
In a monologue, Holly describes how happy she is that they did not move, as she tries
on a beautiful red gown with her mom, for her dance date with Adam.
Zoey invites Adam in, and they both are star struck when they see Holly step out like a
vision in red.
Adam approaches her, and tells her the Krispy Kreme truck joke with a box that contains
a floral bracelet.
He helps her try it on with shaky hands.
Holly teases him as she tries to calm him down, he smiles and they leave for their dance.
The movie ends with Holly declaring that she has finally settled down, and has not just
a home page which is her blog but also a happy home.