Melanie decides to not sign the papers, and that she does not want to marry Andrew, because she still loves Jake, which Andrew understands. On her wedding day, as she is walking down the aisle, her lawyer shows up and explains that Jake has signed the divorce papers, but she has not. They decide to have the wedding in Alabama and Andrew's mother comes down from New York. Andrew tells her how sorry he is and how he still wants to marry her. Melanie returns to her parents' house where her father walks in with Andrew. Andrew finds out that Melanie is still married to Jake and runs off angrily. Jake, identifying himself as Melanie's cousin, brings Andrew to Melanie. Jake meets him and discovers that he is Melanie's fiancГ©e. Jake pushes her away, however, and tells her to go home. Jake gives a blessing for Melanie to have a good life with Andrew, but Melanie says she cannot do it and kisses Jake. 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. That night, she goes to the cemetery to tell her old coon dog Bear good bye. Melanie learns that Jake had once gone to New York City to try to find her, because he still loved her. When she wakes up the next morning, the divorce papers are laying on her bed signed by Jake. Jake becomes angry with her and takes her home. Jake refuses to divorce her until one night she gets drunk and explains to everyone in the bar that the reason she married Jake was because she was pregnant, and she later had a miscarriage. She has not told Andrew that she is still married. Her private reason is to demand a divorce from Jake. When she becomes engaged to Andrew, 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.

Then it goes to present day with Melanie now a successful fashion designer in New York City.

The film starts at a beach in Alabama during a thunderstorm with two children chasing each other (10 yr old Melanie and Jake) who kiss but get struck by lightning. The story is a love triangle involving two childhood Alabama sweethearts who married but became estranged, Jake Perry and Melanie Smooter (Lucas and Witherspoon), and Melanie's boyfriend of 8 months, Andrew Hennings (Dempsey).The synopsis below may give away important plot points. 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. The longer she stays, the greater the chance the world, including the Hennings, will discover the truth. 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. So, it's not an in and out trip as Melanie had hoped. He still refuses to sign the divorce papers, seemingly just to make life difficult for her. Jake, a fishing guide, still lives in the same small, rural house where he and Melanie lived. 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. 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. They got married solely because she was pregnant, she ultimately miscarrying. Melanie initially ignored that advice and married her childhood sweetheart, Jake Perry, fresh out of high school. Her mother, Pearl Smooter, encouraged Melanie to get out of Pigeon Creek at any cost to have a better life for herself. The truth about Melanie's upbringing is that she grew up poor Melanie Smooter in Pigeon Creek. The Hennings' foresee the White House in Andrew's future.

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 fiancГ©, Andrew Hennings, a politician and son of the image conscious Mayor of New York City, Kate Hennings. Melanie Carmichael is a successful up and coming Manhattan fashion designer, seen as the one to watch in the industry.

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