Pulitzer Prize nominated photographer Nora Wilde (Téa Leoni) divorces her rich, philandering husband Leland Banks, asking for nothing in the settlement except the use of her maiden name. Broke and without prospects for employment, after Leland blackballs her from respectable mainstream work, Nora seeks work at The Comet, a sleazy celebrity tabloid owned by Sir Rudolph Halley (Tim Curry) and run by ruthless Camilla Dane (Holland Taylor). Initially, Nora is repulsed by the depths to which she has to sink for her new job – she finds herself in demeaning situations such as stealing Anna Nicole Smith's urine to run a pregnancy test, and staking out the sewer for mutant alligators – but before long, she begins to feel at home.