Free-spirited Zoe Busiek (Joely Fisher) leaves her job as a blackjack dealer in Las Vegas and returns home to Chicago, where her nieces and nephew struggle to cope after their mom is killed in a car crash. Zoe's plagued with uncertainty about her ability to raise rebellious teen Taylor, withdrawn middle-child Cliff and 8-year-old Hannah. Her search for employment, meanwhile, leads only to dead ends, but she makes headway in piecing together the circumstances surrounding her sister's death.