Rose-Ellen 'Zell' Carmichael Roy wears her late husband Nick's camouflage apron even when she's not in the kitchen. It's been over a year since Nick died tragically during a post-Katrina relief mission in New Orleans. Zell is still unable to enter her attic, which is full of Nick memories. She hasn't even turned on her oven because cooking was Nick's chore. That is, until she decides to enter celebrity chef Polly Pinch's first annual 'Desserts that Warm the Soul' baking contest, hoping to win the $20,000 grand prize to donate to Katrina survivors in Nick's honour. Meanwhile, in the adjacent apartment, nine-year-old Ingrid Knox is learning to cope with the loneliness of growing up without a mother. Ingrid treasures her doting father but begins to plot how she will meet her mother, whom she fiercely believes is Polly Pinch. When an embarrassing baking mishap brings Zell and Ingrid together, they form an unlikely friendship that will alter both of their lives forever.
