Plot

A single mother of four young-adult daughters is just about to remarry when her first husband returns 20 years after deserting his family.

Nan Masters, a single mother living with her four marriageable daughters, plans to marry businessman Sam Sloane. Suddenly her first husband Jim returns after having deserted his family 20 years earlier. Worldly wanderer Jim gets a cool family reception at first, but his warm personality gradually wins his daughters' affections; in fact youngest daughter Buff, who has her eye on her own maverick, Gabriel Lopez, is pleased when Jim approves their relationship. She plans to elope with Gabriel on her mother's wedding day--but "unpredictable" is Gabriel's middle name.—Gary Jackson <[email protected]>

As they have done for many years, San Francisco-based fashion designer Nan Masters, her four single young adult daughters--Cora, Tinka, Linda, and Buff--and their faithful longtime housekeeper Penny are spending the summer in Carmel, renting local businessman Sam Sloane's seaside house. All the daughters are at various stages of courtship with a local, the focus of the summer being Buff's aspiring playwright boyfriend Johnny Heming mounting a community-theater production of his latest with a small part for aspiring actress Cora. While some of the daughters may believe they are on the brink of walking down the aisle, it is Nan who makes the surprise announcement that she plans to marry self-described "boring" and "pedantic" Sam--only with her daughters' blessing, which they do provide. He is the antithesis of the girls' own father, charming, outgoing Jim Masters, who abandoned the family 20 years ago in his wanderlust; the girls don't really remember him beyond the emotional pain his desertion has caused Nan over the years. On the very day the Masters women welcome Sam into their family and seat him at the head of the dinner table, who should suddenly show up but Jim, wanting to reclaim his place in the family after 20 years of globetrotting. While the girls want to dislike their father, they may be captivated by that same charm that won Nan over when they were courting, although they still want their mother to marry Sam. Meanwhile, Buff is captivated by the excitement of meeting local scammer Gabriel Lopez whose crimes aren't truly criminal but do border on immoral. Gabriel admits that he just wants to escape his life and actually visit the places of which he's only been able to dream so far. Buff could follow in her mother's footsteps, and not in a way that Nan wants despite seeing Gabriel as not a bad sort overall, although he could bring Buff grief in the long run.—Huggo