Maryanne and her friends take in a man from London after they lose a friend to AIDS complications. Mary Anne is a self-centered woman. Her husband Brian loves her to pieces, but he has issues with her job and limited availability. She works as a newscaster and can be called in to get a story at any time which often trumps the couple has in place. Brian has a bit of an anger management problem that limits his ability to keep a job as a cook. He really wants to be a househusband and raise the baby that Mary Anne keeps putting off.
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The couple lives in a large house divided into apartments. Mrs. Madrigal the landlord grows marijuana which she freely shares with her tenants who are like family. She's Transgender and has lost contact with her eccentric feminist lesbian daughter Mona.
Michael lives downstairs and has just lost his lover Jon to complications with the AIDS virus. He is mourning and his friends gather around and try and help with the adjustment. Jon's energy is all over the apartment.
Mary Anne meets Simon while on assignment covering the Queen of England's visit. He's a young man who has jumped the naval ship, tired of the formality and intrigued with San Francisco. She befriends him and invites him to meet her housemates. Brian is a bit less than thrilled. Simon wants to stay a while and is looking for a house swap for his London apartment.
Mrs. Madrigal hooks Michael up with a plane ticket and everyone hopes he will take the time get away and regroup. He does.
Meanwhile, Mary Anne has childhood friend from Ohio who also lives in San Francisco. She is pregnant by choice through one of two possible lovers. Ecstatic about becoming a Mommy she berates Mary Anne about her air of indifference around the subject. Mary Anne confides that she has captured a bit of Brian's sperm and had it tested. He's sterile. She refuses to break his heart with the news. Connie suggests her brother who is a doctor as a donor. Mary Anne is appalled.
As Michael gets comfy in London he is befriended by a young Aborigine Wilfred. Sixteen and handsome with chocolate skin and blond dreadlocks. He lives upstairs from Michael with his alcoholic dad. Wilfred is gay and his dad won't stand for a son who is not heterosexual. He beats Wilfred and Michael lets him crash at his place.
Simon's nanny comes by to check on him and meets Michael. She's been Simon's nanny since he was a small boy. He was told he'd lost his parents in a fatal car crash. The nanny is really his birth mom and she doesn't want to crush him with the news. She was unmarried and traveled as an actress when she got pregnant. Simon's parents wanted a child and they worked out a secret agreement.
Michael sees Mona Mrs. Madrigals daughter who runs away when he calls her name on a London street. Mona has changed. Her hair is now blonde instead of black and she's decked out like Princess Di. Totally conservative and absolutely unlike her usual bohemian self.
Michael and Wilfred trail her and learn she's living at a Lord's mansion. They take the guided tour and Mona confronts Michael. She doesn't know Jon has died and takes the news hard. She explains that she needed to get out of CA and is on assignment to marry Lord so he can become an American citizen. He's gay as well and wants to play in San Francisco. He has served as landlord of the mansion for many years collecting rent from various tenants and is ready to live his life. Michael tells Mona she is a phony and selfish woman. He lets her know how much her Mrs. Madrigal misses her.
Mona decides to stay after the ceremony and take collect the rent money and invites Wilfred whom she gets along with very well to take a room and stay as long as he likes.
Brian spends a night with the widow of a rock star Mary Anne interviewed. She wants Brian to go on his own so she can seduce Simon. He resembles a young Brian and if she can get pregnant by him her problem with Brian's sterility is solved. They sleep together and Brian calls her own her stuff the next morning. He's had a vasectomy and he knows Mary Anne set him up.
Brian doesn't sleep with the rock star's widow citing that he loves his wife. They'd done a lot of coke the night before and when he comes home early he knocks on Simon's door and gets a less than welcome response. He goes upstairs to his apartment and finds his wife not at home. He puts two and two together when Mary Anne comes through the door a few minutes later. Although he has a bad temper he doesn't hit her, instead he leaves. She begs him not to drive while still high off cocaine and many drinks.
Connie dies during delivery and her brother brings the baby with a note to Mary Anne Connie's request is for Mary Anne to raise her daughter Shawna. In this case the baby saves the marriage. Brian gets to be the house dad he has wanted to be. Mary Anne gets to keep her career.
Mona asks Michael to stay in London and he declines. He is happy they reconnected. Simon returns to London after falling in love with San Francisco, if not Mary Anne.
Best part of story, including ending:
I liked that things worked out for Wilfred.
Best scene in story:
My favorite scene was when Simon called Mary Anne out after sleeping with her.
Opinion about the main character:
I disliked that Mary Anne thought she was smarter than everyone.
