This Is My Life

Dottie Ingels works at a Macy’s cosmetics counter in Queens while secretly pursuing a career in stand-up. She juggles paying the bills with testing material at work, improvising set pieces during customers’ makeup routines. She shares a small life with her two daughters and her aunt Harriet, who provides support.

Harriet dies suddenly, leaving Dottie the house she lived in. With the windfall, Dottie decides to sell the house and rent an apartment in Manhattan to chase her dream of stardom. She dresses in polka-dots to make herself memorable on stage and begins to believe she can finally break through.

Dottie lands her first gigs in local clubs, where her material lands well with skeptical audiences. She makes friends with other struggling comics who share the same late-night grind and small-time hopes. The tiny successes begin to fuel her belief that the dream might be possible.

Moss, a famous mega-agent, sees Dottie's set through his assistant Claudia Curtis and is impressed. He arranges a slot for her at the Comedy Shop on Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, offering a path to major exposure. Dottie's excitement is tempered by her daughters' skepticism but remains hopeful.

Moss's promotion launches Dottie into a high-profile West Coast run, culminating in a residency at the Comedy Shop on Sunset Strip. Her sets draw attention and she agrees to extend the trip by two weeks to capitalize on the momentum. She even scores a guest slot on a nationally syndicated late-night show, The Gary Garry Show.

Back home in NYC, Erica and Opal grow frustrated as Dottie returns briefly and then heads back to LA for more shows. Dottie also lands a well-paid but embarrassing gig as a talking chicken in a commercial, a paycheck that feels hollow against the kids’ disappointment. The rift between mom’s career and family life widens.

Erica begins dating a classmate named Jordan, but a private moment is interrupted when his endocrinologist mother walks in and lectures them about safe sex using a life-size model of the female reproductive system. The episode leaves Erica mortified and feeling misunderstood, while Dottie remains preoccupied with her career. The distance between the girls and their mother grows as work dominates attention.

While promoting her upcoming residency on a chat show, Dottie mentions that Erica dislikes the stand-up life and wants to change her name, bulldozing through their private family dynamics. The girls feel betrayed and exposed by their mother's public misstep. The moment strains their already fragile trust.

Dottie’s Tropicana residency in Las Vegas begins, and the girls overhear their mother coming back to the hotel suite with a man—who turns out to be Moss. The prospect of him becoming their stepfather unsettles them, and they confront the reality of living with a charismatic agent in their family life. The tension deepens as the public persona collides with private fear.

Desperate for answers about their father, the girls hire a private detective to locate Norm, who now lives upstate in Albany with a new wife, Martha. They meet Norm, who shows little interest in them and mocks Dottie’s success. The girls defend their mother and decide to press on with their own version of family truth.

On the train home from Albany, Erica reveals the truth behind Norm’s departure: he had said she would turn out fidgety—not frigid—and meant something cruel. The revelation shatters the girls' lingering trust in that memory and strengthens their bond with Dottie. The moment clarifies why they’d turned to their mother for stability.

Back in their NYC apartment, the sisters reconcile with Dottie and acknowledge the sacrifices she has made. Dottie apologizes for prioritizing her career over parenting, and the family begins to heal. The girls encourage their mother to write a sitcom about a single mother who works at a cosmetics counter in NYC, turning their experience into a hopeful path forward.