Harvey, a self-doubting private investigator, plans to marry his girlfriend until he is hired to solve an adultery case and discovers the adulterer is cheating with his fiancée. Lost and dejected, Harvey quits his job and wallows in booze and the occasional odd blind date. Meanwhile, Katia, a Jewish woman from St. Petersburg, arrives in Sydney after answering an ad from an international matchmaking agency. But instead of love, she finds her prospective groom dead on arrival. Stranded in a foreign city with no one to turn to, Katia meets Ethan, a married man and Harvey's best friend. Ethan is soon scheming to figure out a way to keep Katia in the country without his wife Miriam discovering the affair. Ethan comes up with the perfect solution: he offers Harvey enough money to start writing the novel he has always dreamed of, if he agrees to marry Katia. Harvey is appalled by the idea. Ethan's marriage had been his only example that love can faithfully exist.