Plot Synopsis

New York magazine writer Cynthia Tamerline is less than thrilled when her boss sends her to Slow Creek, Illinois to write about the town's wishing well. Out of place and uncomfortable from the moment she arrives, she plans to write her story and get out of there. While taking a look at the well for herself, Cynthia meets 10-year-old Abby Jansen, a loyal believer in the well's wish-granting powers. On the other hand, Abby's father, Mark, who owns the town's local newspaper, stopped believing in miracles after his wife's death a few years before. But things begin to change after Abby and Cynthia wish for the same thing simultaneously: To simply be happy. On the flight home, Cynthia dozes off on the plane, and the next thing she knows, she wakes up back in her hotel room in Slow Creek. She only gets more confused when the people who should know her don't, those who do recognize her claim to have had interactions with her that she doesn't remember at all, and all of her expensive clothes and gadgets have been replaced with average ones. At first, she is convinced she's the butt of a very thorough practical joke, but in just the few days she spends there, she'll see the life she could be living and will have to decide where she belongs.