Valerie Flake is an overqualified supermarket cashier in her early thirties with a graduate degree and a past as a talented painter. Since her husband’s death, she has successfully severed all bonds with the people who love her and replaced intimacy with a succession of one-night stands. After a fight with her sister, she drives to Palm Springs to attend a party for her late husband’s parents, whom she still holds dear. On her first night, she meets newly divorced Tim Darnell, who is a saint and the polar opposite of Valerie. They begin a fast and furious romance that fulfills a need each has but ultimately leaves Tim brokenhearted. Valerie reveals through a videotaped “confession” to her in-laws exactly why she has had trouble coping with her pain before she leaves it all behind in Palm Springs to start anew.