 Lily Manning (Sela Ward) is a 40ish suburban soccer mom living in Deerfield, Illinois. Recently separated from her philandering husband Jake (Jeffrey Nordling), Lily is doing the best she can in the raising of her two daughters, insecure, anxiety-ridden 14-year-old Grace (Julia Whelan), and wide-eyed, innocent 9-year-old Zoe (Meredith Deane). Lily is a woman who, in her own words, has "always wanted to be safe." Now, for the first time in her life, she sees no clear direction as the life she had always imagined for herself and her family seems to be slipping away. Although well supported by her younger sister, Judy (Marin Hinkle), at whose bookstore, called My Sister's Bookstore, she works, she still feels very anxious about the future. Then, one day, she discovers an unexpected new possibility for herself when she meets Rick Sammler (Billy Campbell) in the principal's office at Grace's school, Upton Sinclair High School. Rick is a single father and co-head of an architectural firm, Sammler/Cassili Associates, which is located in downtown Chicago. Rick has been divorced from his uptight ex-wife Karen (Susanna Thompson), for three years and has two children, Eli (Shane West), a 16-year-old basketball player at Sinclair High who suffers from a learning disability, and sensitive 12-year-old Jessie (Evan Rachel Wood), who longs for the days before her family's disintegration. Lily and Rick share an immediate mutual attraction and begin dating. Their budding relationship causes problems in both of their respective families. Jake, who still maintains a close relationship with Lily's parents, Phil and Barbara (Paul Mazursky and Bonnie Bartlett on a recurring basis), is in the midst of remodeling and reopening their restaurant, Phil's, which they have left to him before retiring to Florida. His high level of continued personal involvement with them keeps them from accepting Lily's relationship with Rick right away, even as Jake gets them all into increasingly worse financial situations in his endeavor to get the restaurant up and running again. Grace strongly objects to Lily and Rick's relationship as she still hopes to see her parents get back together. Judy doesn't care much for Rick, but still supports her sister since it seems like no one else is going to. Karen, a public interest attorney at the downtown law firm of Harris, Riegert, and Sammler, is worried about the toll Rick's new relationship would take on their children, particularly Jessie, who is shy and emotionally fragile. She is also working through her own feelings of jealousy that Rick is moving on to a new relationship. The stories presented on 'Once and Again' explore the wonder and the difficulty of a second chance at love, as well as the family dynamics of divorce and subsequent remarriage, parent and child relationships, and the search for love, self-discovery, and personal fulfillment. |
