When life spins out of control, standing up for yourself isn't easy. Marilee Carson Cooper, daughter of a good Southern family, had expectations. But now they are dashed. After her husband leaves her for a young man when she is pregnant with their second child, she pins her career hopes on being appointed Chair of Clinical Law. The Chair goes to Dwight Hurley, a hometown boy who once broke her heart. The Dean makes clear that Dwight was awarded the endowment because he's written a soon to be published textbook. Even worse, Marilee is in danger of losing the career she loves if she doesn't produce a law review article before the end of the semester, when she's on maternity leave. She has started drafts of a dozen papers for law journals but her difficulties finishing them provide wonderful comic moments. As Marilee tries to come to grips with her long-buried feelings for Dwight and her suspicion that he hasn't written a book at all, the troubled clients of the legal clinic are presenting Marilee and her student lawyers with grave issues. One of them—an unwed teen mom—is accused of child abuse, while another client's DNA tests cast doubt on the parentage of her child.