Vanella Morris has risen to the highest height of happiness in Cleveland, Ohio. Adding to the success of her career and wealth of friends is a great relationship with the love of her life, Alton Goode. However, as the saying goes, with every rise there is bound to be a fall, and she believes that the fall in her relationship will be her own fear of commitment. Vanella believes that the surest way to ruin a good relationship is to get married. So when her man proposes, she is heartbroken when she cannot convince a pro-marriage Alton to skip the wedding and just live together.

While working to salvage her relationship, the emotional bond of her family in St. Louis, begins to unravel. As she battles to boost up a dejected brother, a self-destructive sister, and an emotionally battered mother, a family secret emerges and tragedy results. Ironically, this secret inadvertently shatters the foundation of Vanella's fear of commitment.

During this tragedy, Vanella receives support from an unlikely source – her first love from college who had once committed an unforgivable sin. Professing his love for her, he seeks her forgiveness and desires to rekindle their interrupted relationship. Vanella discovers that she still has feelings for him, and quickly finds herself in the same predicament as with Alton. However, the question remains of if she can get beyond her O-theory to marry the man that she loves.