The film begins during the Christmas holiday season with Georgia Byrd, an employee in the cookware department at Kragen's Department Store in New Orleans. Georgia is a shy, unassuming woman who longs to cook professionally, and who records her dreams of a better life in a scrapbook labeled "Possibilities". While flirting with a co-worker named Sean Williams, Georgia bumps her head on a kitchen cabinet door and is taken to the store's health center for a CAT scan. There, she is told by company physician Dr. Gupta that she has several brain tumors resulting from a rare neurological disorder called Lampington's disease. Since her HMO plan will not cover the exorbitant cost of an operation, Georgia resigns herself to the fact she has only a few weeks to live, quits her job, liquidates her assets and sets off on a dream vacation at the deluxe Grandhotel Pupp in the spa city of Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic.