Hope Floats begins with a talk show where a woman learns that her husband and her best friend are having an affair. Devastated, she flees from Chicago with her young daughter and moves back in with her mother in Smithville, Texas. Everybody in Smithville (and the world) witnessed her public humiliation. Why did you go on that show in the first place? her mother asks. Because I wanted a free makeover, she says. Well, you got one. The victim s name is Birdee Pruitt (Sandra Bullock), and she was the three-time Queen of Corn in Smithville. But she doesn t type and she doesn t compute, and her bitchy former classmate, who runs the local employment agency, tells her, I don t see a listing here for prom queen. Birdee finally gets a job in a photo developing lab, where the owner asks her to make extra prints of any interesting snapshots.