Michelle Simms is tired of her life as a chorus girl in Las Vegas. She reluctantly agrees to marry Hubbell Flowers, who loves her deeply and promises to show her a better life. He brings her to his small hometown, where she receives a rather cold welcome. Hubbell’s overbearing mother, Fanny, is not happy about the news of their marriage and doesn’t want Michelle to move in with them. Fanny hosts a wedding reception, where Michelle interacts with the eccentric locals, who all seem to hate her. The only people Michelle makes a good impression on are Fanny’s ballet students, who are impressed by Michelle and her real dance experience. Out of nowhere, Michelle’s unstable new life is torn apart even further when Hubbell tragically and suddenly dies in a car accident. Now what will Michelle do?
Fanny becomes obsessed with organizing the perfect memorial for her son. She wants a tent to hold the entire town, Buddhist memorial traditions, a mariachi band and cocktail napkins with the face of the Dalai Lama, to name a few desires. Michelle feels lost and decides to take a long walk around town. At the memorial service, nothing seems to be going right for Fanny. Michelle decides to teach the girls and the rest of the class to perform for Fanny in honor of Hubbell. Fanny is actually touched. Just when Michelle thinks they are making progress, she and Fanny learn that before his death, Hubbell changed his will. Everything, including the house, is now in Michelle’s name.
Fanny makes a scene with her pouting following Hubbell’s assets being left to Michelle. Michelle gets a visit from a real estate agent who shows her around the seven-acre estate and warns of horror stories regarding maintenance. Frustrated, Michelle finds Hubbell’s restored Mustang convertible in a garage and takes it for a drive. She runs into trouble when the car breaks down. Waiting on the side of the road, she meets a mysterious and rich man named Grant who lives on a large estate. While telling Grant she has no reason to stay in Paradise, Michelle receives a text from the girls that makes her feel connected to the small town. Michelle finds that the estate has a guest house and decides to move into it.
Michelle realizes that the dance studio is not making Fanny any money. Fanny is in a great deal of debt.
Michelle decides to bring her to an accountant who tells the woman they need to start charging the students. Only a few have been paying thus far. They come up with more classes and Fanny tells Michelle she needs to help teach them and get parents to pay.
Michelle’s best friend from Las Vegas comes to Paradise to celebrate Michelle’s birthday, but their plans change when Michelle is forced to teach Fanny’s classes while she’s on vacation.
While Michelle is begrudgingly teaching Fanny’s classes she finds out that Fanny extended her trip by another week. How dare she?! Additionally, there’s a leak in the girls’ dressing room in the dance studio, causing the class to relocate to Michelle’s guest house.
Fanny finally returns just in time to prepare for The Nutcracker performance.
When Sasha leaves the dance team and goes over to cheerleading, Michelle tries to convince her otherwise. In the meantime, Fanny hires a professional dancer to play Clara in the Nutcracker performance. This creates some hostility between the two lead dancers when Sasha returns. During the show, chaos ensues backstage. Not only are there arguments but the entire team is accidentally sprayed with mace. Michelle decides it’s time to leave Paradise. She goes back to dancing in an off-strip Vegas mediocre show. Thankfully, after watching Michelle and Hubbell’s wedding video, Fanny comes to Vegas to take Michelle back to Paradise where she belongs. The women continue to struggle with making a profit. Michelle and Fanny discover by building an amphitheater theater on their land, they could make more money.
When a fire breaks out on the edge of town, the women are able to use the amphitheater as a make-shift evacuation center. How could they not help those in need? Stay tuned to see how Michelle and her dancing crew maneuver their lives in a small town called Paradise.