Elizabeth Lancaster, an English professor at Pasadena City College, finds her perfectly dull but perfectly orchestrated life upended one summer by three men: her movie–star ex–husband, a charming political operative, and William Shakespeare. Until now, she'd been content living in the shadow of her high–profile and highly accomplished family. Then her college boyfriend and one–time husband of seventeen months, A–list action star FX Fahey, shows up with a job offer that she can't resist, and Elizabeth's life suddenly gets a whole lot more interesting. She's off to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for the summer to make sure FX doesn't humiliate himself in an avant–garde production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.