Joy (Jane Adams), the youngest sister, is overly sensitive and lacking direction. She works in telephone sales, but leaves to do something more fulfilling - teaching at an immigrant-education center. Her students call her a scab because their original teacher was striking, and she begins to feel empty in that job, too. Joy is also constantly let down in her personal life. After a rejected suitor, Andy (Jon Lovitz), calls Joy shallow at the beginning of the film and then goes on to kill himself, Helen tries to set her up with other men. Expecting to hear from a suitor, she instead gets an obscene call from Allen. Later, one of her Russian students, Vlad (Jared Harris), offers her a ride in his taxi, and they end up having sex. She is initially smitten, but she soon realizes Vlad was using her and that he may be married. After being attacked by his wife and lending him $500 in return for the guitar and stereo he stole from her, she is back to being alone.