The life of the youngest of three sisters in a musical family is complicated by the separate arrivals of a charming composer and a cynical music arranger.

When Alex enters the lives of the musical Tuttle family, all three daughters fall for him. He is charming, good-looking, and personable. Laurie and Alex seem to be made for each other, and they become engaged. When Barney comes into the picture to help Alex with some musical arrangements, matters become complicated. Laurie sees him as a challenge; she can't believe anyone could be as cynical as he is, and she is more than a match for his gloomy outlook on life.—Ron Kerrigan <[email protected]>

Gregory Tuttle is the Dean of a music foundation in a coastal town in Connecticut. He has passed on his love of music to his three young-adult daughters Amy, Fran, and Laurie, who live with him and his spinster sister, the girls' Aunt Jessie. Gregory and his daughters often rehearse together as a musical quartet. The girls support one another however they can, but each is an individual with her own distinct personality and wants, including ideal-husband wishlists. After only seven dates, Fran becomes engaged to developer Bob Neary, a man with prospects and wealth aspirations which match Fran's own. After Fran and Bob's announcement, Laurie and Amy vow to be spinster sisters together, despite practical but deep-in-her-heart romantic Amy's long courtship by unassuming plumber Ernie Nichols, who dotes on her. Only fun-loving Laurie truly believes that she will never marry. Their collective lives change with the entry into their lives of two men. The first is Gregory's old friend's son, composer Alex Burke, who is in the process of writing the songs and incidental music for a Broadway musical. He easily gets a job at the foundation using his natural and sincere charm which he applies to all equally, those charms which he also uses to get temporary lodging at the Tuttle home while he spends most of his time writing. Many women misconstrue that charm for romantic interest. The second is Alex's orchestrator and arranger, Barney Sloan. Barney has a chip on his shoulders about what life has dealt him, which he uses in turn as a reason for living a reckless life. The two men make each of the three daughters re-examine what she thinks she wants in life, or more precisely who she wants, which for all may be the same person, and affects what all three end up doing in their romantic lives.—Huggo