Discription
Ally Darling is a thirty-something woman navigating the choppy waters of life in Boston. Her carefully constructed plans have recently capsized. Her boyfriend, Rick, breaks up with her when she asks him to attend her sister Daisy's wedding, and to add insult to injury, she gets laid off from her job.
On the subway ride home, dejected and adrift, Ally's eyes fall upon a Marie Claire article titled "What's Your Number?" The article claims that women who have slept with more than twenty men struggle to find a husband. Intrigued and slightly horrified, Ally decides to take stock of her own romantic history.
To her surprise, she discovers she's at nineteen. A wave of panic washes over her. The article's ominous pronouncement echoes in her mind, and she vows to abstain from any further sexual encounters until she finds "the one."
Her resolve, however, proves short-lived. A drunken escapade at Daisy's bachelorette party leads to a regrettable encounter with her former boss, Roger. Mortified and determined to avoid an awkward confrontation, Ally invites her musician neighbor, Colin Shea, into her apartment as a human shield. Colin, it turns out, is equally eager to avoid a similar predicament, having just spent the night with a woman he has no intention of seeing again.
This unexpected encounter sparks a peculiar friendship. Ally, still reeling from the "What's Your Number?" revelation, decides to embark on a mission to track down all her past lovers. Perhaps, she thinks, one of them has matured into the man of her dreams, proving that her "number" is irrelevant.
Colin, a master of online sleuthing, agrees to help, his payment being exclusive access to Ally's apartment after his own one-night stands. He focuses his efforts on Jake Adams, a former flame Ally considers "the one that got away."
As Ally reunites with her past flames, her initial optimism quickly fades. Each encounter reveals the reasons why their relationships failed: one was still working at the same dead-end job, another expected her to pretend to be British. Disillusioned and disheartened, she seeks solace in Colin's company.
One night, after a few too many drinks, Ally and Colin find themselves on the verge of crossing a line. Ally stops them, realizing that her pursuit of Jake had blinded her to the growing connection she shared with Colin.
However, their budding romance is derailed when Ally discovers that Colin has been withholding information about Jake, believing their friendship would evolve into something more. Hurt and betrayed, Ally ends their arrangement.
Undeterred, Ally contacts Jake directly. They begin dating, and Ally even brings him to Daisy's wedding, a symbolic gesture of moving on from her past. However, while dancing with her father, Ally realizes that her happiness doesn't lie in conforming to her mother's expectations or in living up to the arbitrary standards set by a magazine article.
Later, confessing her "number" to Jake, she is met with a look of disgust. The realization hits her like a thunderbolt: she and Jake are fundamentally incompatible. Their relationship, built on a foundation of misrepresentation and a desperate attempt to conform, was doomed from the start.
With a newfound sense of liberation, Ally breaks up with Jake. She finally acknowledges that her happiness lies with Colin. She spends the next few days frantically searching for him, attending countless weddings until she finally finds him. Confessing her feelings, she is met with a reciprocated smile.
Waking up the next morning, nestled in Colin's arms, Ally receives a call from one of her exes. He sheepishly admits that they never actually slept together. A wave of relief washes over her. Colin, she realizes, is not just the man she wants to be with; he is the man who completes her "number," the final chapter in a story she had long thought was a curse.
As she lies beside Colin, a sense of peace settles over her. She has finally learned to embrace her past, to let go of the anxieties and expectations that had held her captive, and to embrace the unexpected twists and turns of life's journey.
