In 2001 in New York City three friends, who all showed signs of brilliance in their youth, reach their 30s without having achieved the promise they showed a decade earlier. Danielle Minkoff is the only one of her friends to hold a steady job, working as a producer for a TV program that makes documentaries. Marina Thwaite is the daughter of a revered literary critic and author, Murray Thwaite, who was offered a book contract to write about children's fashion years earlier and, having used up all her advance money and facing a hard deadline, moves back into her childhood home with her parents. Meanwhile, Julius Clarke, a brilliant and witty critic for "The Village Voice," cannot sustain himself with his literary work and is forced to take temp jobs to supplement his income which, he finds demeaning. At one of his temp jobs he meets a successful, slightly younger, man called David Cohen and seduces him, eventually moving in with him and allowing himself to be kept like a housewife. He keeps Marina and Danielle away from David.