An overambitious party planner relinquishes her need to be the perfect mother by overcoming her self-doubt after realizing the true meaning of family.

SYNOPSIS:

Summary of Story

In Act 1, we meet Janet, a wife, mother of two teenagers, a sixteen-month-old, and a full-time party planner who is struggling to be the perfect mother and is beyond burnout. Janet’s family life is non-cohesive and in complete disarray, which is why she created a master schedule to help provide some order to her family. Janet's day starts with misplacing her keys and rushing yet again. Alyssa’s and Chris’s family dog, who eats everything but his dog food, vomits and poops under the kitchen table; the teenagers disappear, leaving Janet to clean it up. Janet gets a traffic ticket, and the teenagers are late for the 3rd time this week at their new preppy school. Next, the principal belittles Janet and tells her that “Mothers can’t have it all.” Janet sees the light at the end of her dark tunnel of despair after meeting Harietta, a wounded scientist with mommy issues, at the grocery store. Overhearing Janet’s desires, Harietta sees her opportunity to shine as a great scientist and confirms that mothers can have the balance they seek and offers to help Janet. Later that day, Janet’s husband, Logan, tells Janet that her overly critical mother-in-law, Mrs. Avery Axelbaum, is coming to live with them for six weeks while her kitchen is being remodeled. Janet awakens from a panic attack, and while doing laundry, she finds a boy's phone number in her daughter’s jacket. Out of desperation, she contacts Harietta for help and ends up making a copy of herself with memories and fears, but Harietta tells Janet that the copy only lasts for four weeks. Janet still agrees, as she believes this is her chance to get her life in order.

In Act 2, Janet’s copy appears on her front lawn, and with the help of her replica, Janet revisits her love for cooking, bonds with her children, and shines at work. Due to Janet’s effectiveness in managing her workload and potential Senior Partner material, Mr. Evers, Janet’s boss, assigns the annual community Thanksgiving dinner task to Janet, rather than to her jealous and outlandish coworker, Tiffany. As a ploy to befriend her enemy, Tiffany invites Janet to a women's gathering to learn her secrets of being a successful mother and woman. Janet’s mother-in-law continues to criticize her. Janet manages to keep her duplicate a secret from everyone, including her family, until her replica forgets that she’s supposed to stay in the basement. Soon after her family discovers her secret, Janet’s copy disintegrates in her office closet. Desperate to keep her illusion of perfection, Janet visits Harrietta at her haunted-looking house. She finds that Harrietta is leaving the country and tricks Harrietta into making five more copies. The family enjoys having the additional clones, but life is far from what Janet really wants. During her workshop with Tiffany and the ladies, Janet discovers that running a tight ship is not the answer to being a perfect mother; building quality relationships supersedes control. However, she doesn’t apply her newfound knowledge, and the Thanksgiving dinner is a disaster. Alyssa is no longer the “cool girl”, and Chris is about to be expelled. Janet is fired, and the whole town discovers that she is not the mother she appears to be.

How does it end?

In Act 3, Janet’s husband, children, and mother-in-law apologize for their part in Janet's decision to seek a clone. Janet decides to redeem herself by hosting a Christmas Party and enlists the help of her family and maximize their gifts. The Christmas party is a success. Mr. Evers offers Janet her old job back with the promotion she initially wanted, but she refuses. The family goes on to develop a party-planning family business.