In the piano-making town of Grand, Pa., Janice Pasetti (Pamela Reed) keeps house for factory owner Harris Weldon (John Randolph) and for Weldon's newlywed niece and her husband (Bonnie Hunt, Michael McKean), while raising her teenage daughter (Sara Rue). In the opener, Janice's estranged husband (Ed Marinaro) calls after having gone out for cigarettes - three years earlier.