On 18 May 1963, in Middleburg, Virginia, Corinne Randolph marries Louie Jeffries. As she walks down the aisle, Philip Train, Louie’s best man, confides that he also loves her. A year later, in Washington, D.C., Louie is an assistant district attorney and Philip a reporter for The Washington Post. Corinne announces she is pregnant, and Philip arrives with wine and a cherry tree sapling to celebrate his friends’ first anniversary. Louie plays a tune on the piano, while Corrine plants the cherry tree in the garden. On his way to work, Louie buys a set of anniversary diamond earrings. At the courthouse, his case against gangster Anthony “Tony” Bonino is undermined when Judge Harrison Fenwick denies key evidence. Meanwhile, Philip gets an anonymous tip at the newspaper and telephones Louie that he should be at the beach on Theodore Roosevelt Island at 6:30 that evening. Hiding with a camera, Louie photographs Bonino giving Judge Fenwick an envelope. Afterward, he hurries to meet Corinne at a restaurant to give her the earrings, but a car runs him down, killing him. Louie finds himself in a cloudy “limbodrome,” where souls stand in lines awaiting their next assignment. When he insists that he needs to get back to his wife. He is taken to Omar, an angel who inoculates souls against prior memories before they return to earth to inhabit other bodies. Given a choice of babies, Louie picks one in Cleveland, Ohio, being born to Roger and Marlene Finch, but he has to hurry because Marlene has gone into labor. However, Louie runs off before Omar can inoculate him. Twenty-three years later, at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, graduating journalism student Alex Finch helps law student Miranda Jeffries avoid a library book fine. Meanwhile, at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., Miranda’s mother, Corinne Jeffries, curates a “First Ladies’ Gowns” exhibit. Miranda telephones to tell her she is coming home for the summer. Later, Corinne admits to Dr. Bailey, her psychiatrist, that she still carries her dead husband’s photograph, dreams about him, and cooks a meal for his birthday each year. Dr. Bailey suggests it is time she find a new relationship. Elsewhere, Alex Finch arrives in Washington and sleeps in his car. In the morning, he tricks his way into the Washington Post building to talk to editor Ben Bradlee about a job, and meets Philip Train, who helps him gain access. When the editor informs Alex he needs experience at smaller newspapers before he thinks about writing for the Washington Post. the young man thanks Philip and offers him a ride home. Seeing that Alex is living in his car, Philip invites him to have dinner with his friends, Corinne and Miranda Jeffries. As Alex approaches Corinne’s townhouse, he experiences déjà vu, and is shocked to discover that Miranda is the girl he met a few days earlier at the Yale library. Miranda tells Philip she is starting her summer job the the next day, as an intern for Judge Fenwick. When Corinne arrives home, Alex senses he knows her. He is curious about Philip’s relationship with the mother and daughter, and Philip explains that he is Miranda’s godfather, and that her real father died before she was born. In the kitchen, Miranda shows Alex her father’s photograph which Corinne keeps inside the refrigerator. Realizing their mutual attraction, Miranda and Alex kiss. When Alex watches Corrine in the garden, he recalls her planting the cherry tree, and also remembers her wedding. After drinking wine at dinner, Alex looks at himself in the mirror and sees Louie’s face. He runs from the house, but Miranda brings him back and allows him to sleep in a spare bedroom. As she tells him about her father, Alex breaks off their kiss, realizing she is his daughter. In the morning, Corinne hurries to work because Alex’s conversation makes her uneasy. Alex goes into Corinne’s bedroom, smells her pillow, and reads her journal. Learning that she she still loves Louie, he goes to the Smithsonian to see her. He overhears Corinne’s boss telling her that the First Ladies Exhibit cannot open without funding, and instructs her to “squeeze” Mavis Talmadge for a donation during that evening’s fund-raising ball. Corinne sees Alex and angrily orders him to leave. Later, Alex asks Philip why he has never expressed his true feelings toward Corinne, and Philip explains that he still respects her relationship with Louie. Alex sees a window display at a bookstore featuring books about past lives. He goes inside and meets a woman who claims she used to be Cleopatra and recognizes that he is similarly reincarnated. At her home, Corinne is shocked to hear Alex play one of Louie’s original compositions on the piano. That night at the ball, Alex woos Mavis Talmadge, and the dowager gives him a check for $2 million. He later visits Corinne’s bedroom and recites a litany of things he knows about her that nobody else could know, and Corinne allows him to kiss her. However, Alex gives her Mavis Talmadge’s check and abruptly leaves. Corinne reviews her treasure box of Louie’s belongings, including the anniversary earrings and small camera that were in his pocket when he died. Hearing Alex at the piano, she rushes to his side and they kiss. Afterward, she retreats to her bedroom alone. Alex finds Miranda waiting in his bed, and orders her to leave. When Corrine tells her psychiatrist, Dr. Bailey, about the new man she met, the doctor is concerned that he is half her age. Driving home, Corinne tosses Louie’s photograph out the window. Alex and Corinne revisit their favorite places together, and Alex proclaims that he wants to start a new family with her. Corinne is overjoyed, until a hot dog vendor mistakes Alex for her son. Meanwhile, Miranda tells Philip that she is in love with Alex. Returning home, Alex and Corinne hurry Philip out the door so they can make love, but Philip returns as they undress, and attacks Alex, calling him a scoundrel. When the younger man knocks Philip unconscious and places him on a couch, Corinne becomes angry and sends Alex to his room. However, she slips a note under his door announcing her plans to come to him at midnight. To set things right, Alex carries Philip to his bed and leaves to sleep at the Lincoln Memorial. When Corinne slips into Alex’s bed, she awakens a surprised Philip, who confesses his love for her. In the morning, Miranda is overjoyed to see her mother and Philip together. She starts her internship for Judge Fenwick, and after realizing he is in love with her, Alex arrives to see Miranda at the courthouse, but seeing the crowded courtroom, Alex shouts that he has photographs of the judge being paid off by Tony Bonino. Federal marshals give chase, and Alex trips and is knocked unconscious. Omar, the limbodrome angel, arrives at his hospital bed to inject him with the overdue memory eraser, and Alex awakens with no recollection of being Louie. In time, Judge Fenwick is indicted, and Ben Bradlee congratulates Alex on breaking the story. Corinne walks down the aisle to marry Philip, and Alex stands beside him as his best man. Later, Alex professes his love for Miranda, and Omar smiles among the guests.