Maggie Hardin, the director of business development and outreach for the art and design students at
The New School in New York City, decides she wants to have a child, and enlists a former college acquaintance, Guy Childers, a math major and pickle entrepreneur, to donate his sperm. At the university, she meets John Harding, a "ficto-critical anthropologist", who is married to a tenured professor at
Columbia University. Repeatedly bumping into each other on campus, John confides in Maggie that he is writing a novel. Maggie begins reading it, and they start meeting on a regular basis to discuss it. Maggie attempts to inseminate herself with Guy's sperm, but the process is interrupted by an unexpected visit from John. He confesses that he is in love with her and wants to be the father of her child. Three years later, Maggie and John are married, and they have a daughter, Lily. She constantly finds herself having to put her professional goals on the back burner to take care of her and her two stepchildren, and to support John's writing. Taking Lily for a walk, Maggie runs into Guy, who initially thinks Lily is his daughter, but she tells him she is John's child. At a book signing, Maggie approaches Georgette, John's ex-wife, and tells her that she knows Georgette is still in love with John, and realizes she wants to help them get back together. Although initially resistant, Georgette decides to go along with the plan. Georgette gets Maggie's help to get John to attend a conference in Canada, which she will also be attending. At the conference, the former couple make up and sleep together. Returning home, John confesses everything to Maggie, who tells him he belongs with Georgette. John accidentally learns that Maggie had planned to reunite him with Georgette through a drunk friend of Maggie's. He leaves Maggie and Lily, and disappears for a while. Maggie goes to speak to Georgette, in order to try to find out any news about John, and ends up taking Georgette and the children to her home. There, Georgette spends the day reading John's novel. Meeting with him later, she tells him her opinion about the novel, as she returns it to him as a bag of ash. Realizing that she knows him better than he knows himself, John forgives Georgette for her part in the scheme, and they reconcile. Sometime later, the blended family goes out ice-skating. Maggie is surprised when Lily begins to recite numbers, as neither she nor John are mathematically inclined. She sees Guy walking towards the ice rink, with the look of revelation on her face. == Cast ==