Any Day Now

Present: Mary Elizabeth Sims, a Birmingham wife, mother, and aspiring writer, reaches out to her estranged childhood friend Rene Jackson, a prominent Washington attorney, when she returns home upon the death of her father. The friends reconcile, and Rene decides to remain in Birmingtham and take over her father's law practice. Past: It's 1962, and Mary Elizabeth and Rene strike up a friendship over a shoplifted pack of cigarettes. Rene, a recent transplant from Detroit, has difficulty adjusting to the segregated South.

In court, Rene defends a developmentally disabled man who wants the right to be a father someday. Her case to save him from a vasectomy falls apart, however, when the man kidnaps a baby for Rene after she mentions wanting to have kids. Meanwhile, Mary Elizabeth starts her magazine internship and has a tough time fitting in with all the younger employees. Past: Rene and M.E. sneak off to a rock concert attended by both blacks and whites; but the girls find themselves in danger when the police get involved.

Rene takes the case of a 14-year-old boy who is on trial for murder. The prosecutor wants to try him as an adult. M.E. is frustrated with her lack of control when Colliar quits her job for her and gives her an allowance. Past: M.E. and Rene experiment with alcohol; disaster ensues

Present: Events put a damper on Rene's plans to move into a new office suite; Kelly brings a new dimension to nervous new motherhood and exhausts her parents with her constant, frantic calls; Rene loses an employment discrimination suit for her deaf client, but manages to gain a new case clerk and a new associate from the experience; inspired by Colliar's pillow talk and unwilling to sit down and take the absence of romance in their relationship quietly, M.E. devises an innovative way to spark up their marriage; Joe and one of his Harvard classmates become new associates in Rene's firm; at the first Jackson & Associates staff meeting, Rene discovers that her skills in researching and interviewing prospective employees could use some work. Past: Colliar, Tully and the girls endure the torture that is freshman hazing on their first days of high school; Rene joins Black Students Unite, and M.E. joins the pep squad.