After telling her fiancé, Dana, that her entire family is dead, Manhattanite Alex whisks off to her childhood home in South Carolina to serve as bridesmaid at her high-maintenance, estranged sister Jeannie's wedding. As she tries not to steal Jeannie's thunder by telling her family that a) she's engaged, and b) the man she's going to marry is a Jewish African American, things get a little mixed up.

A working-class family struggles to get by on a limited income in the fictional town of Lanford, Illinois.