Hannah decides to quit teaching and leave her boyfriend, Jack, and return home to Chicago to become a writer. On the flight home to Chicago, Hannah meets and helps Marty deal with his fear of flying and he tells her about a research job open at Chicago Monthly, the magazine where he is a writer. Hannah goes down the magazine to apply for the job, meets the editor and is challenged to write a 2,000 word article on ""the tortilla wars, does Chicago prefer corn or flour?"" for 9 o'clock the following morning.