Unlike the rest of her family, Maggie Walsh has always done the right thing - that is until the day she leaves her husband and takes refuge with her friend Emily, a screenwriter in Los Angeles - a city where even the palm trees are skinny. Soon Maggie's doing all sorts of things she's never done before, such as wearing sunglasses in the shower and pitching scripts to studio executives - and meeting a mysterious man named Troy, who is so non-stick he's known as Human Teflon.