In 1981, Margie Stevens, a 26-year-old aspiring writer, moves from Maryland's Eastern Shore to New York City. Initially overwhelmed by the contrasts between small town life and NYC, Margie takes a job at Radio City Music Hall to pay the bills while she slowly learns how to navigate city life with help from a menagerie of friends-a punk waitress from the neighborhood diner; a gay couple from her apartment building; a dreamy Hispanic man from her writing group; and her fashion-crazed roommate.

As the harsher aspects of living in the Big Apple-the cocaine crisis and a mysterious nameless disease-affect people she knows, and a huge anti-nuclear demonstration for world peace shakes her world view, Margie's writing pivots in a surprising new direction.

However, pressure from her father, with whom she has a troubled relationship, begins to wear on her, particularly when tragedy strikes within her "New York family." Despite a budding romance with a fellow writer, Margie has to decide whether to stay on her New York career course or retreat home to Maryland and her Eastern Shore roots.