Julia Bloom has no interest in running a deli. She's a lawyer. Her widowed mother, who worked at the store throughout her marriage, would be a superior choice. Even her uncle, Ben's younger brother Jay, would do a better job than Julia. But when Grandma Ida issues an edict, the family must obey--or at least pretend to obey.

Julia's pretense goes a little haywire. How can she run the place when the books are a mess, her law-firm boyfriend is trying to get her into bed, her sister Susie is swooning over the store's bagel designer, her mother and uncle are gunning for her job, something mysterious is locked inside her grandfather's old desk, and hundreds of dollars of merchandise goes missing every week? Ron Joffe, the business reporter from Gotham Magazine, intends to write an exposé on the floundering new president of this New York City landmark. Can Julie possibly convince him she knows what she's doing, when she can't even convince herself?