While dining out with friends, Sy (Wallace Shawn) suggests the
difficulty of separating comedy from tragedy. To illustrate his point,
he tells his guests two parallel stories about Melinda (Radha Mitchell) ;
both versions have the same basic elements, but one take on her state
of affairs leans toward levity, while the other is
full of anguish. Each story involves Melinda coping with a recent
divorce through substance abuse while beginning a romantic relationship
with a close friend's husband.
