When Maggi, a young and independent New Yorker, decides to become a single mother and inseminate herself with the help of a former college acquaintance (Travis Fimmel), she appears to be - as always - in perfect control of her life. Yet, this meticulously planned transaction nonetheless runs up against the unpredictability of fate when Maggie falls for a "ficto-critical anthropologist" named John (Ethan Hawke), whose marriage to Georgette (Julianne Moore)- a brilliant but time-consuming Columbia University Professor - is falling apart.
A few years later, when Maggie - now married to John - realizes she's falling out of love with her new husband, she comes up with yet another "perfect plan": reuniting him with his ex-wife!