Living in Philadelphia, married thirtysomething couple, Hope and Michael are struggling with everyday adult angst. Michael runs an ad agency with his friend Elliot. Elliot's marriage to Nancy is beginning to show the cracks of age, as is the friendship between Hope and her best friend Ellyn. Michael's best friend, Gary, on the other hand, is trying to get on with his womanising life, and get over the mutually-destructive affair he had with Michael's cousin, Melissa. The domestic and professional lives of a group of young urban professionals living at the height of the Reagan years.