Julianne Potter (Julia Roberts) is a New York restaurant critic who learns that her lifelong friend, Michael O’Neal (Dermot mulroney) has been engaged in marriage. Both had previously made a commitment to marry each other when they turned 28 years old if they were both still single, which Julianne (or “Jules“) was secretly waiting for it to happen.
When Julianne arrives in Chicago for the wedding, tries to sabotage her, but the syrupy Kimberly “Kimmy” Wallace (Cameron Diaz), the girlfriend of Michael, name Jules as her maid of honor, offering that Jules cannot refuse.
Desperate, on the very evening of the wedding, Julianne finally confesses to Michael that she is in love with him, but the truth is that Michael he loves his fiancee, and Julianne he ends up understanding it.