Hope and Michael Steadman are still adjusting to parenthood while struggling with money problems and best-friend crises. After some intercut scenes of a courtship, wedding and pregnancy, we see married couple Michael and Hope Steadman at breakfast with their 7-month-old daughter Janey and their dog Grendel. At work, Michael tells off an important client over the phone, to the dismay of his good friend and business partner Elliot Weston. Both men realize that their fledgling advertising agency could be in danger of folding. Hope goes to meet her old friend Ellyn at a restaurant, but the occasion is ruined when Janey won't stop crying. Michael comes home to find Gary, his old friend from college, there with Hope. Arriving on the scene next is Michael's cousin Melissa, who is distraught because of a philandering boyfriend. From the conversation, it's revealed that Gary and Melissa have had a past romantic relationship.