Jack Townsend and Nina Lawrence were a couple for three years, four months, and ten days (according to Nina's mother, Marie, who has kept count while faithfully attending confession and observing saint's days). They nearly made it to the altar, but Nina got cold feet. Now Jack landscapes rich people's gardens in Washington, D.C., and plays hoops with his buddies, while Nina paints and fends off the ministrations of her large family.

At loose ends, Jack meets another woman, only to find that Nina, too, is being wooed, by a man Jack knows - a lawyer, of all things, with a BMW and a jump shot that clangs like a doomsday gong. While Marie prays to Saint Anne - her patron saint of unmarried women - Jack and Nina seem to go their separate ways. How Jack tries to rekindle the interest of his old flame forms the engaging plot of this novel, which offers a touch of romance while making good fun of the whole enterprise.