Small Wells is an inconspicuous Midwest town, where nothing truly spectacular happens, so whatever gets into its local newspaper, run by Mark Jansen, is ‘exciting’. The local wish well actually works, but only when one ‘makes the right wish’. When Mark’s motherless daughter does, it mysteriously brings along New York celebrity magazine editor Cynthia Tamerline. Somehow she becomes apprentice at the paper, which is in such poor financial state that Mark is resigned to sell out to a Chicago press syndicate magnate.