Miranda Wells is a hard-working young widow struggling to raise three children while managing her boyfriend Tucker Middendorf's seafood restaurant in New Orleans. Bray Johnson is an engineering professor from
Vanderbilt University looking to meet Miranda to deliver an envelope. After Bray misses Miranda on his first try going to her house, they inadvertently meet when she rear-ends his truck with her car. He offers to fix Miranda's broken bumper, so he follows her to her home, after which she invites him to stay for dinner. Until they drive back he doesn't realize she is the same Miranda he came looking for. Bray and Miranda's son Greg fix the car bumper together. Miranda's kids, Bess (the youngest), Greg, and Missy, want pizza for dinner, which Miranda cannot afford. Bray stresses the power of positive thinking just as a delivery person appears at the door with pizza ordered by Tucker. As Bray has never found the moment to give the envelope to Miranda, he leaves it in the mailbox before departing. A
hurricane hits that night, washing away the mailbox and causing a tree to fall through the roof. Bray comes back to check on them, sees the mailbox missing, and offers to fix the roof as best as he can. Miranda and the kids leave with the kids' grandmother, Miranda's late husband Matt's mother Bobby, to stay over at her place while the house is fixed. The next day, Tucker proposes to Miranda publicly at the restaurant's reopening, which she reluctantly accepts. Bobby offers to stay with the kids that night so Tucker and Miranda can be alone. On the following day, at Missy's 16th birthday party, Bobby shows Miranda a news article about an invention with Bray's photo. The invention was also something Matt was linked to. Bobby assumes that Bray stole it from her son, so Miranda confronts Bray. He explains that he and Matt were working on it together but in the fateful plane crash he died and Bray survived. He tries to explain that his sole purpose in coming was to give her a copy of the patent. Miranda doesn't believe him and asks him to leave. Bray sends another copy of the patent to Miranda, who realizes the money from it would solve their family's problems. The family finds the old mailbox with the original copy of the patent, confirming that Bray was telling the truth. Miranda calls off her engagement with Tucker, knowing she does not truly love him, and also resigns her job at Tucker's restaurant. A few days later, Miranda ends up at Bray's house to clear the air and meets his sister, who exclaims that Bray has gone to Miranda's. They meet at a
Waffle House and embrace. Sometime later, Miranda's family is living with Bray, and Bray buys a
pony for Bess. ==Cast==