Lucy is a lonely, orphaned young woman who works at the Chicago train station. The highlight of her day is when a handsome commuter comes by her booth every morning. She believes he is the perfect man, her
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| Lucy Moderatz |
prince charming. She hopes that one day she will speak to him and introduce herself, but the opportune moment hasn’t come yet.
The story begins around Christmas. Lucy is trying to pull her Christmas tree into her apartment through her window by a rope. However she ends up breaking the window below her. Her landlord doesn’t charge her for it, but while speaking to him, she does have a run in with his sloppy son, Joe Jr., who is “still single”.
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| Jerry tries to bribe Lucy |
The next day at a hot dog vendor, Lucy’s boss, Jerry, approaches her and attempts to bribe her into working on Christmas since she is the only employee who doesn’t have a family. She eventually relents.
Christmas morning, Lucy sits alone in her booth, depressed. She doesn’t even notice her prince charming come up to the booth until he speaks to her, wishing her a merry Christmas. Before she can respond, he walks away. She had missed her moment and begins beating herself up for it. She watches him, longingly. She sees two men approach him and after a moment one of the men pushes him onto the tracks. Lucy races to where the commuter fell, his attackers already gone. He is unconscious and she ends up jumping on the tracks herself. She sees a train coming and rolls him out of the way just in time.
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| Fate steps in |
At the hospital, Lucy attempts to see him, but isn’t allowed to. She muses to herself “I was going to marry him” and is overheard by a nurse. The nurse takes her to his hospital room, where he is hooked up to a heart monitor (among other things). They are interrupted by a loud, frenzied family. The doctor explains that the
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| "Who's she?" |
commuter, whose name is Peter Callaghan, is in a coma. The family begins asking how it happened at which point Lucy speaks up and says that he was pushed onto the tracks. When they ask who she is, the nurse tells them she is Peter’s fiancee. An uproar breaks out and Lucy doesn’t manage to get a word in edgewise. The grandmother has to sit down because of her heart problem. Then, the mother hugs Lucy, sobbing hysterically and Lucy can’t bring herself to tell her the truth.
Later, the family sits in the waiting room with Lucy. She is too embarrassed to say anything. They begin asking her about how she met Peter. Lucy finds out that Peter had another girlfriend, Ashley Bartlott Bacon. Eventually, Lucy tells them a vague story that’s basically true about how they “met” and they accept it wholeheartedly.
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| "I didn't mean for this to happen." |
Late that night, Lucy visits Peter in the hospital and apologizes for the situation. Then she begins confessing to him about her loneliness and how she hasn’t done much with her life and how she wished she had someone special in her life. Unbeknownst to her, Saul, the Callaghan’s next door neighbor heard the entire confession.
Lucy wakes up at the hospital the next morning. The Callaghans enter just as she’s leaving and invite her to spend a belated Christmas with them. As she’s leaving, a nurse gives her a box of Peter’s belongings. Then she is stopped by a colleague of Peter’s, who tells her about an accident Peter had earlier that year. Later that day, Lucy tells Jerry about the entire situation and he advises her not to say anything for the time being, especially since the grandmother has a heart condition.
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| Saul and Lucy talk |
Lucy decides to go to the Callaghans' that night. Saul catches her outside and they sit on the porch for a little bit. Saul reveals that he is Peter’s godfather. Lucy tells him about how her father died a year earlier after a long sickness and that she never knew her mother. Saul tells her that he lost his wife, but the Callaghans took him in as part of their family.
They finally go inside and celebrate Christmas. The family completely accept Lucy, they even hung a stocking up for her and had a present ready and wrapped for her. Lucy starts to fall in love with the quirky family.
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| Lucy starts to fall in love with the Callaghans |
Late that night, while Lucy is asleep on the sofa, the Callaghan’s younger son, Jack, gets home. He meets his sister, Mary, at the door, who points out Lucy. Jack is intrigued by the idea of Peter being engaged and his fiancee being asleep in their living room. He decides to stay the night.
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| Jack Callaghan |
The next morning, Lucy tries to sneak out, but Jack is sitting on the stairs and surprises her. They have a short chat before Lucy has to leave.
While at church, Jack asks his father more about Lucy, wondering why Peter would not have told them about her or getting married. Eventually their talk turns to business where it is revealed that Jack runs their family business.
At her apartment, Lucy is going through the box of Peter’s things that the hospital gave her. She finds a can of cat food and realizes that Peter must have a cat that hasn’t been fed for days. She leaves to go to his apartment.
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| "Peter doesn't have a cat." |
Jack arrives at her apartment building and finds Joe Jr. working on a car outside. He asks him if he knows Lucy and Joe Jr. tells him that he’s dating her.
At Peter’s apartment, Lucy is impressed with the richness of the furnishings and decor. As she searches for the cat, Jack arrives. Lucy ends up smacking him in the face with a door. As Lucy fusses over him, Jack asks how she got in. She tells him she has a key and he assumes that she stays there a lot. She uncomfortably tells him that she comes by to feed the cat. Jack tells her that Peter doesn’t have a cat. However, just then, a cat appears. As Lucy goes to feed the cat, the phone rings and Jack wonders if she’s going to answer it. She doesn’t, so Jack answers. It’s for Lucy. It ends up being the hospital saying that friends and family traditionally come down and give blood. Jack suggests that they go together.
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| "If she wanted to prove it, she'd prove it." |
At the hospital, Jack tries to get more information out of her. When they’re in Peter’s room with the rest of the family, he basically interrogates her. The family wonders why he's asking so many questions and he tells them that Lucy has a boyfriend, Joe Fusco Jr. Lucy laughs and says that Joe Jr. is delusional, but Jack is not convinced. Elsie suggests that Lucy could prove it if she wanted. Lucy hesitates, but then reveals that Peter has one testicle. He had an accident earlier that year (the story his colleague told her earlier).
That night, Joe Jr confronts Lucy claiming she stood him up on their “date”, but she says she never agreed to go on a date with him. She has to hide him in a closet because Saul comes by. He tells her that he knows the
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| "You stood me up." |
truth. He advises her not to tell everyone else because having her in their lives has brought them closer, plus he can tell that it's doing her good as well. After he leaves, Jack arrives with an engagement present from his parents, some furniture. Lucy suggests that he put it in Peter’s apartment and says she’ll go with him, since she doesn’t want him coming in and discovering Joe Jr.
They drive to Peter’s apartment in the moving truck. At first, Lucy thinks the gift is a beautiful rocking chair, but Jack corrects her and points out that the gift is actually a sofa. However, he admits to building the rocking chair and appreciating her praise. She is very impressed and highly suggests that he go into business, but he dejectedly says he can’t because of the family business.
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| Jack's handmade rocking chair. |
The two of them begin to move the sofa up to Peter’s apartment. Jack is temporarily stopped by a doorman who doesn’t recognize them, but Jack assures him that Lucy is Peter’s fiancee. Once they manage to get the sofa up to Peter’s apartment, it gets stuck in the door. After several tries, they get it through, but at a cost. Lucy knocks over a vase full of colored water right onto the white carpet, so Jack suggests putting the sofa over the stain.
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| Long walk home. |
Outside, they find that the truck is blocked in between two cars because Jack had parked too close to the car in front in the first place. Lucy decides to walk home and Jack joins her. While walking, they talk about many things. Jack asks her about her father. Then he asks her where the one place in the world she wants to go is. She immediately answers with, Florence. She shows him her passport, which she carries with her at all times, and he finds that she doesn’t have any stamps.
When they finally get back to Lucy’s apartment building, they have a little misadventure of slipping on an ice patch, where one slips and grabs onto the other, then as soon as they’re standing, the other slips. They
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| Slipping on the ice. |
end up having a rather intimate moment after pulling each other up and are clinging to one another face to face. However, it is ruined when they both suddenly slip and crash to the ground (and the seat of Jack’s pants rip). After they say goodnight, and Lucy is watching Jack leave from her window, she suddenly has a realization that horrifies her.
The next day, she approaches Jerry with her realization, that she likes Jack. But he thinks she is engaged to Peter and she doesn’t know what to do. Jerry suggests telling the truth, but Lucy thinks if Jack realizes she lied to his family he will never speak to her again, as well as the rest of the family whom she has grown to love.
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| "I was never envious of anything you had... until now." |
In Peter’s hospital room, Jack “plays” poker with Peter. He starts to talk about their childhood and how Jack was always the troublemaker while Peter was the perfect child who had everything. But Jack was never jealous of Peter because he always aspired to be just like him one day, but now he was starting to feel envious of something he had. He makes a deal that he’ll cut the deck of cards and “high card gets Lucy”. However, he ends up losing and decides they’ll do best 2 out of 3.
That night, Lucy goes to the Callaghans for dinner. Lucy and Jack keep stealing glances at each other all through the night. Finally, when Lucy is leaving, they get caught under the mistletoe. After some prodding
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| Caught under the mistletoe. |
from the rest of the family that it’s a tradition, they share a quick kiss.
On New Years Eve day, Mary comes by Lucy’s booth with her friend, Lucy invites her inside for a moment, and Mary says that Lucy is going to marry her brother to her coworker. As Mary and her friend are leaving, Lucy’s coworker asks Lucy if she is pregnant to which Lucy sarcastically says she is. However, Mary’s friend overhears and seems to think it was serious.
That night, Mary announces to the rest of her family that Lucy is pregnant. Jack immediately leaves while the rest of the family falls into uproar.
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| Jack thinks Lucy is pregnant. |
Lucy gets ready for a party in her apartment when Joe Jr. arrives with some flowers. She says she can’t accept them which he assumes is because of “that other guy”. She ends up hugging him, which Jack witnesses.
Lucy runs into Jack pacing outside. He offers to drive her to her party and follows her inside. He ends up blurting out loudly that she is going to have a baby, embarrassing and upsetting her so much that she leaves.
Jack chases her down and tries to sort out the misunderstanding and accidentally lets slip something about “the Joe Jr. thing”. Lucy makes him explain. He does, saying she was leaning when Joe Jr. gave her the flowers. Lucy doesn’t understand. He elaborates and even demonstrates exactly what leaning is, saying it's a very intimate, expressive gesture. They are interrupted by Joe Jr. himself saying he’s concerned because it looks like Jack is leaning.
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| "Leaning involves wanting and accepting." |
Their conversation turns back to the original problem and Jack explains the misunderstanding. Lucy tries to go, put out, but Jack stops her by saying that he doesn’t think that she is Peter’s type. When he doesn’t answer when she asks who’s type she is, she tries to leave again. When he comes after her, she tells him off for ruining her New Years. He tries again and she asks what he wants from her and he tells he he doesn’t want her to be unhappy. She points out that he’s not exactly happy either since he wants to leave the family business, but won’t do it. They argue a bit over how to keep a family happy, ending with Lucy
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| "Who's Lucy?" |
telling Jack he has no idea what it’s like to be alone. He tries to console her by pointing out that she has Peter, but she says she doesn’t have anybody.
At the hospital as the doctors and nurses are celebrating the new year, Peter wakes up.
Lucy is called down to the hospital urgently and only when she gets there does she find out that Peter’s awake. She desperately wants to leave, but stays put. Peter looks at each family member, but stops on Lucy, not recognizing her. The family automatically assume he has amnesia. Lucy approaches Saul and he says he’ll tell them. However, he disappears apparently to the bathroom and the family tells Peter of his “condition”.
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| Jack apologizes |
Jack drives Lucy home. He apologizes for all the stupid things he did that week. Lucy thanks him for becoming her friend. Before she leaves, Jack says that he didn’t mean what he said before about her and Peter, and that he’s glad she won’t be alone anymore.
The next morning, Jack joins his father for breakfast. They talk about work and Jack finally admits that he wants to leave the business. His father is not upset and accepts Jack’s choice of career.
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| "You're a putz." |
At the hospital, the Callaghans try to get Peter to remember Lucy to no avail. Saul talks to Peter alone, his original intent to tell him that he is not engaged to Lucy, but ends up telling him that he needs to realize she is his true love and he should propose for a “second” time.
Lucy visits Peter later, and brings him back his box of things. They have a small talk, where Peter is completely enthralled by her because of what Saul told him.
Meanwhile, a woman arrives at Peter’s apartment building and is stopped by the doorman. She tells him that she is Ashley Bartlott Bacon, Peter’s fiancee. He tells her that she’s not his fiancee, confusing her.
Jack arrives at the hospital just as Peter is getting into a wheelchair, about to be moved to another floor since he no longer requires intensive care. Jack offers to drive the chair and meet the nurse by the elevator. Peter
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| "I've never been faithful to a woman." "I'm gonna leave." |
tells Jack that he feels reborn and that if he were a priest, he’d confess his entire life to him. Jack tells him not to, but Peter starts to anyway. Jack gets annoyed and threatens to leave. Disgusted by some of the confessions, he asks if Lucy knows any of them. Peter says it’s all in the past and that he’s making a clean start. He begins to wonder about Lucy. Jack makes a full analysis of Lucy (obviously in love with her). But Peter shoots it down, only half listening. Completely annoyed, Jack leaves.
Outside, Lucy finds Saul. She finds out that he didn’t tell the Callaghans or Peter the truth. She fires him from the job of telling and decides to do it herself. She goes in at the same time as Ashley, but they go to
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| Ashley confronts Peter |
different floors. Ashley ends up going to Peter’s new floor. She confronts him about being engaged when he had proposed to her. He points out that she said no. But she argues that she was only confused and had stepped back, but didn’t think he was going to run off and marry the first person he came across. They break up and she storms out.
Lucy is directed to the right floor and finds Peter. He is enlightened after his breakup and cuts her off before she has a chance to really say anything. He confesses he hasn’t been very happy with his life, but now he wants a second chance. And now since his family loves her, he might as well too. So he proposes to her.
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| Peter proposes to Lucy "again". |
That night, Jack comes to Lucy’s apartment building. Lucy is trying to decide which shoe would go best with the white dress she is going to wear to her wedding. She yells angrily at the knock at her door, thinking it’s Joe Jr., but it turns out to be Jack. She invites him in. He gives her an early wedding present, a snow
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| Jack's wedding gift to Lucy |
globe of Florence. He also tells her that he thinks that Peter is a very lucky guy, which he immediately covers with he had to say because she’s going to be his sister-in-law. He leaves, but Lucy goes after him and asks if he could give her a reason why she shouldn’t marry his brother. After a moment of hesitation, he says he can’t. Then he leaves, leaving Lucy disappointed.
Lucy leaves a post-it note on Jerry’s desk. It’s her wedding invitation for the next day. She tells him that she’s not crazy because her meaningless life will finally come to an end by marrying Peter. He asks what happened with the other guy and she sadly responds with “he didn’t want me”.
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| "I am in love with your son. Not that one... that one." |
The next day, Lucy arrives late at the hospital for her wedding. At the front, she objects. Surprised, Jack objects too. Encouraged by Jack’s objection, Lucy tells the Callaghans that she’s in love with their son, not
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| Lucy confesses everything |
Peter, but Jack. She goes on to explain the entire situation of how she became confused as Peter’s fiancee, but then couldn’t bring herself to tell them the truth because she fell in love with them. She thanks them for allowing her to be a part of their family. Then she apologizes and walks out just as Ashley storms in claiming to be Peter’s fiancee, followed by another man whom Peter identifies as Ashley’s husband. The family turns to uproar while Jack watches Lucy leave.
Lucy is visited by Joe Jr. who expresses his condolences that things didn’t work out with “that guy”.
Some time later, on Lucy’s last day of work, a ring drops into her booth. It’s Jack with the rest of the Callaghans in tow. He says he needs to ask her a question and asks if he could come in the booth. She says she can’t unless he gives a token. He does and she lets him in. He proposes and she accepts. They kiss, with the family happily watching from the outside.
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| The final proposal (notice that he leans over her XD) |
