Terry Reynolds, longtime assistant to Gwen Leonard, creative executive at a Manhattan marketing and promotions firm, announces to Gwen that she's been let go from her job. The self-centered Gwen's reaction is predictable: she wonders how this will affect her. But she soon finds out that she's a victim of the same corporate downsizing. A few months later, Gwen shows up at the SoHo loft where Terry lives with her brother Danny, an aspiring writer who works at the bar downstairs run by Guy Mann. Without Terry to look after her finances, Gwen has spent all her money and has run up unpayable debts, resulting in her being kicked out of her high-priced condo. Desperate, she pleads with Terry to let her stay with her until she can get back on her feet. Part of that effort includes filing for unemployment benefits, where Gwen is confronted with the unsympathetic civil servant Mrs. Francis. Later Gwen tells Terry that their talents compliment each other and that they should go into business for

Terri and Gwen disagree over Guy's suggestion for their first client, a would-be comedian known as Little H. His father, who wants to see him succeed, is a mobster known as Bobby H., a man who usually gets what he wants and who people want to stay on the good side of. Trouble is, Little H. has no apparent talent.

Terry insists that Gwen get rid of some of her possessions that are cluttering up the apartment. Gwen reluctantly participates in a tag sale out on the street. Guy comes by to hit on Gwen, but he does prove his worth by talking up the price on an item to a customer. Unfortunately, one of Gwen's old friends, Alyssa, sees her. Gwen explains that she was just hunting for bargains and suggests that Terry is some poor wretch she's helping out. After Gwen has lunch with Alyssa, Terry is not too happy, but Gwen got a contact for a new client, a radio station-owning millionaire. The women need an office to make a good impression, so they blackmail Danny into letting them use the one in which he's been carrying on with a businessman's daughter.

In the office, Gwen and Terry have an argument over whose job is harder to do. Both claim they could do the other's job. So when the client comes in, Terry assumes Gwen's identity and vice-versa, even sending Gwen out for coffee! Tom Whitman is a brash,

The women are searching through the pockets of Gwen's clothes looking that she'd forgotten about in her more prosperous days when Terry finds a receipt for part ownership in a race horse calle Living Large, a purchase that also slipped Gwen's mind. Terry of course wants to sell the horse and put the money into the business. The impractical Gwen wants to hang onto the mare, which hasn't won a race in three years. Finally she agrees to sell the horse if it doesn't win its next race. Also among Gwen's things, Danny finds the number of basketball pro Karl Malone. He calls the number and finds out that, amazingly, Malone is familiar with his play ""A Stork in Winter."" What's more, Malone writes himself, and promises to send Danny a screenplay for him to read.

Terry, Gwen, Guy and Danny all head to the track to watch Living Large run. Terry is adamant that she won't bet on any races, but her resistance wears down and she does. She ends up winning several races in a row, making a substantial a

Lunching at Clockworks, Gwen and Terry are both attracted to James Collins, a young man who's a new client, but they both agree (Gwen very reluctantly) that he should be off-limits while he's involved with them professionally. He proves too tempting for Terry, though, and she agrees to go out with him the first time he asks. He promises not to tell Gwen. However, the first time he's alone with Gwen he goes through the same routine with her, with the same results. When James comes by the apartment later, both women act like they're seeing him for the first time since their business lunch. As soon as he's alone with either one of them, he begins to put a move on her.

Terry confesses her guilt to Danny, who sees it merely as fodder for a story. When Guy and Danny both agree Terry shouldn't tell Gwen the truth, she decides that she should do it anyway. At the restaurant Terry and Gwen are both about to confess to each other when they see James there kissing another woman. Terry tells Gwen

Gwen's monopolizing of the bathroom and other personal habits are beginning to rub some nerves, so Terry proposes some house rules. Gwen is against them until Danny keeps her up at night playing around with his new girlfriend, a model named Lana. Some rules are hashed out: Gwen is limited to thirty minutes in the bathroom and restrictions are put on Danny's frolics with females.

Gwen goes to the unemployment office see Mrs. Francis, who is about to leave for home, and is surprised to learn that since she's no longer unemployed, she will no longer receive benefits. Gwen convinces Mrs. Francis to let her come home with her and use her bathtub. Gwen luxuriates in the tub listening to a relaxation tape and doesn't notice the water is overflowing, causing the downstairs ceiling to collapse. Meanwhile Danny has to find a new place to make out with Lana. He takes her to a dark storage room where he accidentally gets poked in the eye. At Clockworks, Terry takes over for the injured Danny behin

Gwen is depressed: she's been invited by the Mayor to present the Humanitarian of the Year Award, but she's mortified by the prospect of seeing her old acquaintances again and having to explain her poverty and unemployment. Ashley is upset too, worried that his dress won't be ready for the ""tri-state 'Hello Dolly' competition."" Gwen realizes for the first time that Ashley is Guy's son. Terry encourages Gwen to go to the gala anyway and reluctantly agrees to make a new dress for her. Gwen unsuccessfully tries to recruit Danny as her date for the evening, but has to settle for Guy. When Guy arrives to pick her up, Gwen promptly rips her gown in the loft's heavy door.

The resourceful Guy helps do a quick remodeling job on another dress--Ashley's--and Gwen is able to arrive at the gala looking good. At the gala, Gwen's pretentious friends ask about her dress and her date. Gwen says she's wearing a Terry Reynolds original and that Guy is a Spanish count. Guy surprises her by speaking fluent

Gwen is laid up with illness for a few days and she has nothing to do but lay around watching infomercials and eating Terry's delicious soup made in a pressure cooker. She gets a brainstorm and decides that she and Terry could market pressure cookers as a way to make this delicacy. They find a dealer with a warehouse full of the cookers and make arrangements with him. Gwen recruits Guy to be in their infomercial and Danny to write it, though much of his strident working-class rhetoric is red-penciled. Gwen uses the soup to bribe Mrs. Francis into providing them the name of an out-of-work celebrity to endorse the product. June Lockhart is contacted. She's suitably impressed and agrees to endorse the cookers. The first broadcast of the infomercial is a ringing success with orders pouring in. But then the women find out that their supplier Mr. Tolafa has reneged on the deal and is selling them himself, touting them ""as seen on TV!"" June comes by in a fury and tells the girls in terms she