Plot Summary

Despite admitting that she was scared of him in her never-ending quest to please him, 35-yearold housewife and mother Alice Hyatt is devastated when her husband Donald is killed in an accident. With few job skills except that as a singer, Alice, along with her precocious 11-year-old son Tommy, decides to move from their current home in Socorro, New Mexico to her hometown of Monterey, California, the only place she has ever felt happy. She plans on getting singing gigs along the way to earn money to get back to Monterey by the end of the summer and the start of Tommy's school year. Alice's quest for a job at each stop leaves Tommy often to fend for himself. His behavior is fostered by Alice, as their relationship is often more as trouble-making friends than mother and son. Alice's plans often do not end up as she envisions, especially as she is forced to take a waitressing job at Mel and Ruby's Diner in Tucson, Arizona, which entails working with a disparate group, including Mel, the establishment's gruff owner/short-order cook, and her fellow waitresses, the wisecracking, foul-mouthed Flo, and the naive and shy Vera. Alice also falls into old habits, namely relying on men to make her feel fulfilled, specifically the much younger Ben, and farmer David. Those relationships may also provide her with a better perspective on her life and her bad choice of Donald as a husband.—Huggo