Plot

A young woman who has reinvented herself as a New York City socialite must return home to Alabama to obtain a divorce from her husband after seven years of separation.

Melanie Carmichael, an up and rising fashion designer in New York, has gotten almost everything she wished for since she was little. She has a great career and the JFK-like fiancée of New York City. But when he proposes to her, she doesn't forget about her family back down South. More importantly, her husband back there, who refuses to divorce her ever since she sent divorce papers seven years ago. To set matters straight, she decides to go to the south quick and make him sign the papers. When things don't turn out the way she planned them, she realizes that what she had before in the south was far more perfect than the life she had in New York City.—kay

Melanie Carmichael is a successful up and coming Manhattan fashion designer, seen as the one to watch in the industry. She grew up in a privileged environment on Carmichael Plantation in Pigeon Creek, Alabama, which is at least what she wants her social circle to believe, that social circle including her work associates, and her fiancé, Andrew Hennings, a politician and son of the image conscious Mayor of New York City, Kate Hennings. The Hennings' foresee the White House in Andrew's future. The truth about Melanie's upbringing is that she grew up poor Melanie Smooter in Pigeon Creek. Her mother, Pearl Smooter, encouraged Melanie to get out of Pigeon Creek at any cost to have a better life for herself. Melanie initially ignored that advice and married her childhood sweetheart, Jake Perry, fresh out of high school. They got married solely because she was pregnant, she ultimately miscarrying. Since she left Pigeon Creek and Jake seven years ago, Melanie has tried to get a divorce from Jake, signing divorce papers which he has refused to do. As such, she heads back to Pigeon Creek for the first time in seven years to finalize the divorce before she can marry Andrew, and before the Hennings discover not only her true background but that she is already married. Jake, a fishing guide, still lives in the same small, rural house where he and Melanie lived. He still refuses to sign the divorce papers, seemingly just to make life difficult for her. So, it's not an in and out trip as Melanie had hoped. As Melanie and Jake try to one-up the other in their marriage battle, Melanie reconnects with many of her childhood friends and acquaintances, all who have their own opinion of Melanie based on her leaving Pigeon Creek. The longer she stays, the greater the chance the world, including the Hennings, will discover the truth. What may also threaten Melanie's life with Andrew is if Melanie discovers the real reason why Jake won't sign the papers, and what he has been doing the past seven years without her.—Huggo

Sophisticated Melanie Carmichael, a rising New York clothing designer suddenly finds herself engaged to the city's most eligible bachelor. But this is no fairy tale romance for Melanie. She has skeletons in her fashion-filled closet that include Jake - the backwoods husband she married in high school who refuses to divorce her. Determined to end their marriage and sever all ties with her past once and for all, Melanie returns to Alabama. But home starts to tug at her heartstrings, and what she thought she wanted may not be what she wants at all.—Anonymous

At a beach in Alabama during a thunderstorm, two children are chasing each other (10-year-old Melanie and Jake). The sand gets struck by lightning and the kids go there to check. Jake asserts that they will be married one day. Jake and Melanie kiss, but their kiss is interrupted when lightning strikes the same spot again, separating them.

In the present day Melanie (Reese Witherspoon) is now a successful fashion designer in New York City who has adopted the surname "Carmichael" to hide her poor Southern roots. Melanie has been in New York for 7 years and is now conducting her very own fashion show. Tabatha (Rhona Mitra) is Melanie's closest friend.

Melanie is dating Andrew, who is very supportive of Melanie's fashion designer career. He asks Melanie to come to a charity event organized by his mother but takes her via a back door to Tiffany's instead for a private viewing. Andrew proposes to Melanie right there at Tiffany's and she accepts. Melanie gets to pick her own ring. When she becomes engaged to Andrew (Patrick Dempsey), the son of the mayor of New York City, Melanie announces that she has to go back home alone to Alabama to tell her parents in person. Her private reason is to demand a divorce from Jake (Josh Lucas). She has not told Andrew that she is still married. Andrew wanted to meet Melanie's family, but she asks him not to come with her, and says that her parents are not yet adjusted to him as he is a Yankee and a Democrat.

Meanwhile, Kate Hennings, Andrew's mother and current Mayor of New York City, doubts Melanie's suitability to wed her son, whom she is grooming to run for President of the United States. Kate orders her assistant Barry to do a full background check on Melanie, but Barry cannot find any record of Melanie Carmichael anywhere in Alabama.

Melanie visits Jake, who has refused to sign divorce papers over the years since she left for New York. Melanie is in a hurry as she wants to fly back to New York the very same day. Jake admonishes Melanie for not being there when their dog died, and also for ignoring her parents all of these years. Jake tells her to at least meet with her parents Earl (Fred Ward) and Pearl (Mary Kay Place) and orders her out of the house.

Melanie empties Jake's checking account, hoping to spur him into ending the marriage. Angry, Jake leaves to meet some friends at the local bar. Melanie follows and gets drunk, insults her old school friends, and outs her longtime friend, Bobby Ray (Ethan Embry).

Melanie explains to everyone in the bar that the reason she married Jake was because she was pregnant, and she later had a miscarriage. Jake becomes angry with her and takes her home. When she wakes up the next morning, the divorce papers are laying on her bed signed by Jake.

Melanie goes to the Carmichael plantation and apologizes to Bobby Ray, whose family lives there. She is cornered there by Kate's assistant Barry Lowenstein (Kevin Sussman), who is sent to gather information on Melanie's background, posing as a reporter for the New York Post. Bobby Ray backs up her pretense that she is a relative and the family mansion is her childhood home.

Melanie learns that Jake had once gone to New York City to try to find her, because he still loved her. Intimidated by the city and her success, he returned home to make something of himself first.

That night, she goes to the cemetery to tell her old coon dog Bear goodbye. Jake shows up and explains how he told the dog that her disappearance was his fault, and they end up talking about why the marriage did not work, the baby they lost, and why she left. Jake gives a blessing for Melanie to have a good life with Andrew, but Melanie says she cannot do it and kisses Jake. Jake pushes her away, however, and tells her to go home.

The next day, Andrew arrives in town. Jake meets him and discovers that he is Melanie's fiance. Jake, identifying himself as Melanie's cousin, brings Andrew to Melanie. Andrew finds out that Melanie is still married to Jake and runs off angrily.

Melanie returns to her parents' house where her father walks in with Andrew. Andrew tells her how sorry he is and how he still wants to marry her. They decide to have the wedding in Alabama and Andrew's mother Kate (Candice Bergen) comes down from New York. He later returns, saying he still wants to marry her, and the wedding is set into motion. Melanie's New York friends arrive. While visiting a restaurant/resort with a glassblowing gallery, they admire its glass sculptures. Melanie realizes that Jake is the artist and owns the resort.

On her wedding day, as she is walking down the aisle, her lawyer Wallace Buford shows up and explains that Jake has signed the divorce papers, but she has not. Melanie decides to not sign the papers. She tells Andrew that she gave her heart to Jake and never got it back. Melanie says that she does not want to marry Andrew, because she still loves Jake, which Andrew understands. Before running off to find Jake, she tells everyone who is friends and family of the bride to stick around.

Melanie runs away from her wedding to go find Jake, who is on the same beach where, years ago, ten-year-old Jake had told her that he wanted to marry her "so I can kiss you anytime I want."

Melanie tells him that she did not marry Andrew because she wanted to be with him so that she could kiss him whenever she wanted too. As Jake and Melanie kiss, Wade (Courtney Gains), the town sheriff, interrupts them by taking them back to Jake's mother's bar, where all of their friends and family are waiting.

They return to what would have been Melanie and Andrew's wedding reception, where they have their first dance as husband and wife.

A year later they have a baby daughter, Melanie continues to thrive as a designer, and Jake opens a "Deep South Glass" franchise in New York. Andrew is engaged to a girl named Erin Vanderbilt (Katharine Towne).