Fortysomething Ellen Jameson is currently downsizing her life, a term she prefers over ones like widowed, broke and homeless. After her husband's untimely death, she was forced to sell his business and their family home to pay off the debt. Now, with her party-hardy, twenty-one-year-old daughter Amber in tow, along with Amber's three-year-old daughter, Jet, Ellen has moved home with her mother, Wilma, a serial bride for whom stability is a dirty word.
And the changes keep on coming. Ellen's new job at The Cowboy of Taxes has a revolving door of down-on-their-luck clients - perfect for Ellen, considering her recent experiences. In the meantime she has something of a revolving door at home, given her mother and daughter remain convinced that men will solve their money problems.
But life is what you make it, and in colourful San Antonio, Texas, four generations of women discover that the most important thing about having a past is letting it go.