Alice O'Connor is ready to leave New York and give up on her dream of becoming a writer when her mother drops a bombshell: Alice's idol, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Bram Shepherd, is her dad. When idealistic Alice goes to see Bram, she finds he's not the man she hoped he'd be. In fact, as Molina describes him, he's ""venal, self-centered...and greedy,"" with ""no interest in fatherhood.""

Alice moves in with Bram, and when things do not go as smoothly as hoped. Bram takes out his frustrations on her cat.

When Bram is short on money, he suggests a poker game with his downstairs neighbor. Things go wrong when he can't cover a bet and offers Paul to the winner.

Despite feeling judged by Alice, Bram does what he has to do to get an invite to the big party, while Alice chafes at her ""goody two shoes"" image.

When an attractive student asks Bram to read her novel, he has Alice read it—under the pretense that it is his book, which he has been working on for years.