An urban fairy tale and romantic comedy in which aspiring songwriter Nola leaves her abusive Kansas home and heads to New York City to find her biological father--and finds much more.
Nola (Emmy Rossum) leaves her abusive stepfather and blows as fast as a tornado, out of Kansas, for New York City to follow the faint trail of her biological dad, whom she's never known. With nothing more to go on than a nickname, Nola has readied herself for the impossible search, with the dream of also making it as a singer/songwriter. After a cold night spent in Central Park, Nola lands a job at an East Village diner owned by an eccentric and mysterious woman named Margaret (Mary McDonnell), who runs an escort service. Margaret recognizes in Nola a fellow outsider. She soon offers Nola a place in her extended family that includes: Ben (James Badge Dale), the diner's cook and part-time law student; tabloid columnist Leo (Steven Bauer); and a transvestite named Wendy (Michael Cavadias), who is one of Margaret's "girls." Nola comes to see that, while the City may be daunting in many respects, it is also --- quickly --- disarmingly welcoming, and takes her up as one of its own.
After fleeing from her abusive stepfather, Nola (Emmy Rossum) travels to New York City searching for her biological father. She spends her first night sleeping in Central Park, but her luck changes when she is hired by the owner of a small diner. She ends up staying with the fry-cook/law school student Ben (James Badge Dale) until the real owner of the diner, Ben's landlady Margaret (Mary McDonnell), hires Nola as her assistant for her escort service.
Things go well at the escort service until Niles (Thom Christopher), a billionaire client of Margaret's service, has a bad session. Niles likes to receive rough physical activity from men cross-dressing as women, but only to a point. Wendy (Michael Cavadias), one of Niles's favorites, went a little too far and sent Niles into a rage. Niles demands Margaret rough Wendy up or else he will have it done, along with inducing the police to investigate the escort service. Nola attempts to help by making up Wendy to look battered and bruised, documenting it with photos, then sending her out of the country until Niles can calm down. Niles's informants spot Wendy, no longer wearing the bruise makeup, trying to flee. Niles responds by arranging a subpoena for Margaret to appear before a grand jury and calling Nola directly, threatening her by revealing detailed information about her upbringing.
Further events lead Nola closer to finding her real father, but not without the help of a journalist (Steven Bauer), who is in need of a story on escort services.
