Lily Manning, separated from her husband, and Rick Sammler, divorced for 3 years, meet by chance when her daughter, Grace, injures her ankle in a soccer game. They go out on a date, and are instantly attracted to each other.
Rick and Lily ponder taking their relationship to the next level.
Rick and Lily's families gather at the school carnival. Lily and Karen, who don't know of each other at this point, are paired to work together in a booth there.
After meeting Rick, Judy expresses to Lily her misgivings about Lily's blossoming relationship with him.
Rick introduces Lily to his kids under awkward circumstances.
Lily faces the reality of being on her own and Judy begins to pull away from her Lily. This happens after Rick offers to remodel the bookstore and Judy feels like the ""odd man out"" because Lily and Rick's relationship, she feels, leaves…
Being divorced means Karen and Rick must both go to Eli's weekend basketball tournament, creating some awkward moments for them.
Lily and Rick deal with the ghosts of their failed marriages. Rick's becoming consumed with a project at work triggers Lily's memories of Jake doing the same thing in their marriage, causing its downfall. Meanwhile, Eli's frustration with…
While Lily is at a convention, Judy allows Grace (and Rick and Karen allow Eli), to go to a party that ends up with bad consequences.
Lily's father decides to invite Jake to Thanksgiving at Lily's house against her wishes. Her father has difficulty in deciding whose side of the divorce to support.
Jake gets into trouble with his business. A small fire at Lily's house causes a lot of worry. Karen struggles with Eli's moving into the basement.
Lily tells Jake she wants a divorce, and tells Rick about her one-night stand with Jake. Rick can't forgive her, putting their future in jeopardy.
Jake and Lily begin mediating their divorce, and the future of the house hangs in the balance. Meanwhile, Rick struggles with a demanding client, complicating his partnership with David. At Jennifer's insistence, Grace fills in as an…
Eli feels tempted to cheat on Jennifer. Karen feels attracted to a younger co-worker.
Rick and Lily begin to mend their relationship. Judy meets a man who might fulfill her dreams.
Lily hires a divorce attorney. The last straw is after Jake reneges on his promise not to max out their credit card. She finds this out after it's rejected at a store. Grace meets a boy who seems to think like her.
Lily and her family cope with a life-altering accident.
Aaron proves to be a source of comfort and renewal for the Manning family; Lily gains ground in the divorce proceedings.
Karen pushes herself far beyond her comfort zone when her involvement with Leo becomes more serious. Eli plays his parents against each other in order to get into a bar to see his friends' band play. He gets in trouble when he sees his…
Lily's new job helps her put her priorities in order. While talking to Grace, Tiffany lets it slip that her relationship with Jake started BEFORE Lily and Jake split up, possibly altering her relationship with her father forever.
When Judy's continuing affair with Sam is discovered, she takes steps to prevent any more pain from entering her life. Lily realizes just how much she's taken Rick for granted when he's sick in the hospital. Grace continues to have…
Lily says that the kids in the two families should meet. So they schedule a night for that. Zoe is concerned about the environment. Grace again has conflicting feelings about Eli. Jennifer reveals to Grace that Cassidy is cheating on Eli.…
Lily and Rick try to blend their families together, but it doesn't go smoothly. Jesse has trouble adjusting to high school.
Judy turns the bookstore into a ""book club for singles."" This attracts an interesting clientele, including Jake (who's tiring of his girlfriend Tiffany) and Lily's boss Christie. Judy isn't sure of her attraction to the handyman who's…
Parental pressure bears down on Eli to get his act together for college. However, Eli wants to form a music group.
It's Thanksgiving and that means both the Sammler's and Manning's get together for dinner, whether they want to be there or not. It turns out that the two mothers get along quite well. It's Rick and his mom that have issues. She questions…
Changes in the design of Miles' building that Rick's firm are designing means a dinner meeting for Rick - and a reluctant Lily -- with Miles and important clients. When Lily puts her two cents worth in at the dinner, it makes for an…
Jesse is taken to a psychiatrist to find out why she isn't eating. Karen's firm is hired to oppose the building of Miles' building -- the one Rick is designing.
Grace gets her learner's permit. She has a crush on Pace, a boy from her driver's education class, who seems oblivious to her feelings. So she goes out with Paces' annoying friend, Spencer, in an attempt to maybe make Pace jealous enough…
Lily thinks she might be pregnant, and the reaction she gets from Rick wasn't what she was hoping for. She begins to think that he's not who she thought he was. Grace has an accident in Rick's vehicle after being distracted spotting Carla…
Layoffs at her workplace make Lily even uneasier there. But the new management consultant reverses those firings, putting Christie on edge and making Lily look foolish for speaking up at a staff meeting. Christie fires Lily for meeting…
Judy finds herself drawn between two men: the intellectually stimulating Paul, and the physically stimulating Will. Eli grows tired of Carla always wanting to get into trouble.
Jessie's glitter is missing, and Grace and Carla are the prime suspects. Rick discovers some unsettling news about both sides of his project with Miles. Evidence is discovered concerning Jessie's progress in therapy.
Jesse doesn't want to go to a dance by herself, which frustrates Karen because they bought a dress for it. Christie and Graham continue to clash at work. Karen's worried that her relationship with Leo isn't building towards something.…
Rick and David are served with a notice to get an injunction to stop the Atlantor project - and the hearing is on Valentine's Day. Grace is troubled by the fact that a building that is helping those who need help is being torn down to…
Tensions between Benny (a busboy) and Giancarlo (the chef) at Jake's restaurant boil over. Jake separates the two and tells Benny to go home. He returns with a gun to confront Giancarlo. But he isn't there and can't be reached, so Benny…
Rick and Lily celebrate their engagement. Tiffany reveals to Grace that she's pregnant, but Grace pretty much had that figured out when she heard Tiffany throwing up in the bathroom. Lily and Rick tell their kids about the engagement, and…
Aaron returns for an extended stay and impresses everyone with his improvement. Grace and Spencer go back to the restaurant to write about their experience there, but Spencer gets nervous (because he was scared then) and goes home. The…
Will returns to repair ice damage to Lily's house, making for awkward moments for Judy. Judy runs into Paul (the guy who went off on her when she broke it off with him), creating more awkwardness for Judy. Lily grows agitated with…
Lily and Rick begin their wedding plans and want Judy to help, but Judy seems hesitant. Jesse faints and falls in the girls' locker room. Grace learns of it and voices her concern to Judy. Judy tells Karen, who tells Jesse, and argument…
Karen finds out that a grand jury is being impaneled to investigate the Atlantor project. The District Attorney wants Karen to help them, but she is reluctant. She acts nervously around Rick and refuses to discuss the investigation with…
Miles gets indicted and work on the Atlantor project is indefinitely suspended. Rick is invited to appear on a local talk show to tell his side of the story. But instead, he gets ambushed by the host on the air and leaves in the middle of…
Rick and his kids start to move their stuff to Lily's and Lily gets a call to sign the divorce papers. Carla tells Eli that she's not going back home because she's convinced that her parents hate her. So Eli asks Grace to ask Lily about…
As the wedding approaches, hardly anything is finalized. Lily's father appears to her in her dreams. He asks her to ask Jake ""what's been lost"". Grace gets a letter from Carla, who's living with her brother, saying that she misses…
As the two families merge into one house, disagreements over Jesse and Zoe's room decorations dominate the breakfast discussion. Lily's employer, Pages Alive, shuts down, so she's out of a job. Eli's busted for marijuana possession…
Grace doesn't know what to make of her new teacher. Judy asks Lily to work at her planned bookstore/cafe. Lily also interviews at a radio station. Karen brings up the idea of hiring Jake to work on the bookstore/cafe. Lily isn't…
Sam returns to town, further complicating the lives of Judy, Lily, and Rick. Sam wants to hire Rick to be the architect for a project he has. Judy, however, wants to hire Rick to redo her bookstore. Colin is agitated over Sam's…
Jessie and Grace both audition for the same role in a school production of ""As You Like It."" Mr. Dimitri throws them a curve when he announces that he is planning a musical version of the play. Judy and Sam Blue spend the night together…
A boy in the play school play asks Jesse out. Grace is less than happy with the news, because she thought that the boy was flirting with her during rehearsal. Karen is upset that Rick didn't left her out of the loop on this. Les takes…
The women (and Grace and Zoe) want to hold a baby shower for Tiffany. This doesn't excite Jake. He doesn't want Grace - and especially Zoe - to have expectations about him and Tiffany. So Jake discourages the idea of having Zoe at the…
Lily and Karen both have unrealistic expectations for Thanksgiving celebrations. So naturally, nothing goes as planned. The lighting board at the theater goes out, so rehearsal is postponed. Lily does all the cooking herself after the…
Grace finds an ""adult magazine"" in their home recycling bin. This leads to a whole ""will you talk to Eli about this?"" talk coming from Lily to Rick. Rick is amazed at Sam's continued inability to be with only one woman at a time.…
When Eli loses his job and Grace's teacher questions her acting, they both learn the hard way that real self-confidence can be one of life's toughest accomplishments. Both learn that tough love can be a powerful motivator.
Amid complete chaos, a surprise Christmas Eve delivery of Tiffany and Jake's baby unites the Manning and Sammler families like never before. Meanwhile, Judy's first encounter with Sam's eleven-year-old son doesn't go very smoothly.
Flashbacks in the series' interview style recall a telling incident in the lives of Rick, Karen, Sam Blue's estranged wife Jeannine, and Sam himself, who rues another dalliance. Also, when Sam and Judy's relationship becomes the talk of…
A tragic accident shakes Karen from her deep depression and sets her up for the toughest battle of her life. This makes Eli and Jessie learn the hard way that their parents are more fragile than they'd thought.
Jessie's anxiety and guilt about her mom's slow recovery causes tension with every member of the family, especially Lily. Meanwhile, Eli is in denial about the seriousness of his mother's condition.
Grace pursues her teacher and Jessie develops an attraction for her friend Katie.
Sam places his dream of committing to Judy and having a family squarely on the shoulders of his ten-year-old son. Meanwhile, Jake finally realizes his feelings for Tiffany and his new baby daughter.
When Lily's brother Aaron expresses a desire to move out on his own with a young woman who is also mentally disabled, she finds it emotionally impossible to let him go.
The prospect that Grace may be romantically involved with her creative-writing teacher troubles Lily, infuriates Jake, and imperils the career of the instructor.
Just when Lily thinks life can't get any more complicated, her mother begins to show early signs of Alzheimer's disease.
Rick and Lily face more life-altering decisions when he is offered a major architectural position in Australia and she is offered a chance to take her Chicago-based radio show into national syndication. The Series Finale Episode…
