Hearing her biological clock ticking very loudly, magazine editor Max (Lord) decides to have a baby and looks for a sperm donor. She picks a suitably charismatic unpublished writer (Johansson) and offers to make him a literary success if he will do his part (baby-making wise) and then get lost. He does, she does, and Max raises their daughter while he moves to France. But they just can't quite let go completely.