"A quirky love
story revolving around the unexpected wedding and unconventional married life
of a 26-year-old widow and her late husband's brother, a handsome 30-year-old
cardiologist." (IMDB)
A handsome cardiologist and his late brother's wife enter
into a marriage of convenience while realizing that the harder they work to
maintain their "pretend" union, the deeper their love for one another
grows. When successful, 30-year-old Washington, D.C. surgeon Jake Lever (Adam
Kaufman) learns that his estranged older brother Benjamin has died, the news
comes as a startling surprise. Jake and his mother Janice (Mercedes Ruehl)
hadn't spoken to Benjamin since he moved away to become a rabbi and began
devoting all of his time to his faith and his rabbinical duties. They aren't
religious, so when they arrive in Benjamin's Hasidic, Brooklyn, New York
community and meet his young widow Leah (Lauren Ambrose), Jake and Janice are
virtual strangers to the people Benjamin devoted his entire life to. When the
still-single Jake is asked to honor an ancient Levirate marriage law stating
that he marry the childless Leah in order to carry on his brother's name or
reject Benjamin's existence entirely, he finds latter prospect unthinkable
despite being seriously involved with beautiful surgeon Carol (Christy Pusz).
On a whim, Jake suggests to Leah that they marry under accordance with Levirate
law and secretly maintain a plutonic relationship. Realizing that this may be her
one opportunity to follow her own dreams without disappointing her domineering
mother Malka (Susie Essman), Leah accepts. But love works in mysterious ways,
and over time, Jake and Leah's affections for one another blossom into true
love.
