A wizened old woman (an unrecognizable Phyllis Diller) lies on her deathbed in a hospital, and the last piece of wisdom she gives to her son Rob (Dana Ashbrook) is to say, "love is in the spirals." He’s perplexed by what this means.

After the funeral, his two siblings designate Rob to spread their mother’s ashes in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. He reluctantly requests a few days off. Rob’s hesitancy to expect time off for his mother’s funeral speaks to what a jerk his boss is. He is made to feel guilty about the request and receives a thinly veiled threat of unemployment if he’s not back soon. Rob’s self worth and image are strongly linked to his job. Although the seeds of change have been planted by the strained relationship with this guy, Rob’s fundamental way of looking at things is from a very egocentric, my job is my life point of view.

With ashes in tow Rob heads for the mountains. He stops at a roadside taco stand for lunch and lashes out at the poor kid dishing up the food because they have run out of beef. Ann (Tisha Campbell-Martin) is one of the people in line who are annoyed by Rob’s treatment of someone who clearly is not responsible for this and she tells him to get a life ¾ and try a bean burrito instead.

True to romantic situations in movies, further down the highway Rob finds Ann stranded by the side of the road, her car disabled. She needs a ride and will not let their little squabble at the taco stand keep her from trying to get help. She’s a chef on the way to cater an anniversary dinner for life-partners Rich and Mark (Zoey Drake and Matt Farnsworth). Tagging along with her is her one-eared dog that Rob instantly dubs Van Dog (in homage to Van Gogh). We learn later that the ear was clipped due to cancer. When Ann learns that it will take too long to get her car fixed to make her engagement, she enlists Rob to take her to the next town to catch a bus.

Rob is starting to relax and to enjoy Ann’s company. So when she tells him that her dog is not allowed on the bus Rob agrees to drive her to Rich and Mark’s. As they pull away he sees a dog carrier ready to be loaded on board the bus and he begins to understand that the sassy Ann is quite a go-getter and there’s more to her than appears on the surface. She has plans for him.

The film is engaging, even recognizing that it’s a small notch above what you would expect to find on a cable TV channel such as Hallmark or Lifetime. Although Ann is black and Rob is white, that has zero to do with the story. It is a non-issue. To the extent there is anything perceived by the viewer about race, it’s because they put it there.

There is plenty of humor in the film, but not from generating sit-com punch lines; though Tisha Campbell-Martin co-stars on TVs hit comedy "My Wife and Kids." Campbell-Martin is savvy and engaging as Ann, and with a more solid supporting cast and less of a smothering musical score, this would have been a stronger film. As we were wondering why we did not like the film better, and why we didn’t feel totally involved with the very important primary and secondary plots here, it became clear when Billy Dee Williams and Brock Peters were on the screen. They added a reality to the story that did not exist with the other key actors. Those things said, it’s refreshing to see a film that is not afraid to be a little ahead of its time. Without that we’d never get to where we need to be. In a number of ways, this is a more hopeful film than "Guess Who." It not only tells us where we are but also gives us reason to believe that the direction we are headed is the right one.