Claude (Mark Evan Jacobs) is a hapless blue-collared loser living in Providence, Rhode Island whose life changes for the worse when he is unfairly fired from his job, his girlfriend cheats on him, and his apartment burns down resulting in him falsely arrested for arson.
His life take a turn for the positive when he meets and befriends Beatrice (Irène Jacob) an emigrant French woman who cares for a young Cambodian orphan girl. Beatrice moves in with Claude and his dysfunctional family where she persuades him to get his life back on track while both of them slowly fall in love with each other.