Workaholic Mike Flaherty is the Deputy Mayor of New York City, serving as Mayor Randall Winston's key strategist and much-needed handler. Mike runs the city with the help of his oddball staff: an anxious and insecure press secretary; a sexist, boorish chief of staff; an impeccably groomed gay activist running minority affairs; a sharp and efficient, man-crazy accountant; and an idealistic young speechwriter. Like Mike, they are all professionally capable but personally challenged.

Grace King Bichon, who is managing her father's riding-stable, discovers that her husband Eddie is deceiving her with another woman. After confronting him in the middle of the night on the streets of their small home town, she decides to stay at her sister Emma Rae's house for a while to make up her mind. Breaking out of her everyday life, she starts to question the authority of everyone.

Urban horticulturalist Brontë Mitchell has her eye on a gorgeous apartment, but the building's board will rent it only to a married couple. Georges Fauré, a waiter from France whose visa is expiring, needs to marry an American woman to stay in the country. Their marriage of convenience turns into a burden when they must live together to allay the suspicions of the immigration service, as the polar opposites grate on each other's nerves.

Adventurous Huck Finn prefers rafting on the Mississippi River rather than being a part of civilization.

When struggling, out of work actor Michael Dorsey secretly adopts a female alter ego - Dorothy Michaels - in order to land a part in a daytime drama, he unwittingly becomes a feminist icon and ends up in a romantic pickle.

When the Circus Came to Town chronicles the life of Mary Flynn (Montgomery), a woman nearing middle age living in a small town. When the circus comes through town, she realizes nothing will ever change unless she does something different, so she leaves her boring sheltered life to run away and join the circus. While adapting to her new life, she finds herself challenged, and in the end, happy with her new life.

As a famous man lies dying, his family—including both his wife and his mistress—gathers inside, while members of the media converge outside for news of his death in this filmed-for-television staging of Edward Albee's play.