Mel, a master teacher at prestigious high school on Long Island, envies Philip, an underpaid adjunct college language teacher, because he lusts for his beautiful wife, Chiharu, a business woman working in Manhattan. Mel deserts his "fat" wife, Janice, and their children for an English teaching job in Japan. Janice suffers a dark night of the soul because she is convinced she in fat. She recalls her school days when Mel, her future husband, thought her beautiful and idolized her. She also recalls how and her beautiful friends danced to the "Too Fat Polka" at the high school dances. Only now she realizes how this music must have hurt the fat students and feels ashamed of herself. She get the idea of joining a gym to regain her youthful body. Encouraged by Chiharu, Janice she does so. While she is to a great extent successful after a year, she still cannot get Mel back. To make Mel jealous and bring him home she has affairs, one with a man who wants to marry her and another with someone Mel knows.