While the United States and Canada are engaged in a war of words over a proposed American base in the far North, widowed U.S. Vice President Cameron Austin travels to Canada for a weekend of R&R at the fishing lodge of a long-time friend near McPine north of Lake Ontario where the residents always respect his privacy. While driving the country roads, Austin gets lost and asks for directions from Laurie Cosner, a widowed writer and rose grower, and both like what they see.
After they spend as much time together as possible while he is in McPine, the Vice President invites Laurie to travel to Washington. When she escorts Austin at an official White House function, he introduces her to the President who is taken aback that Austin has seen fit to get involved with a Canadian while the climate of negotiations between the two countries is far from amicable. The Vice President's influential mother warns Laurie that the reality of her son's life is far from her simple life north of the border.
Austin returns to McPine to see Laurie despite the challenges of avoiding being recognized. When he sees Laurie's daughter, Sarah, a talented pianist, in action he is very impressed and arranges for her to perform for the President and other dignitaries in Washington. When pictures of the event are seen by Neal Landau in Florida, a famous songwriter stricken with AIDS who is Sarah's biological father, his paternal instincts surface and he want to meet his daughter. He wanted nothing to do with Laurie when she got pregnant, and Laurie married a man who raised Sarah as his own.
When the President plans an official visit to Canada to mend political fences he is met by protesters, including Laurie's brother, Mike, and his girlfriend, April. Later, while vacationing in the Thousand Islands region, April gets embroiled in the planning of a demonstration where explosives will be used. This worries non-violent Mike who informs the authorities of the plan, but when the explosives go off by accident, April is killed.
When Laurie learns that Neal Landau wants to see his daughter before dying, she panics. She arranges for Sarah to study music in England and breaks off her engagement to the Vice President using the death of April and its possible ramifications as an excuse.
After Neal Landau dies, Laurie is freed of her past, but the wheels she has set in motion will not stop. She is in England when the Vice President catches up to her. They eventually marry in a private ceremony away from Washington to which the President is not invited. The next day, Austin informs the President that he will not be seeking the presidency although he is the favorite candidate. However, things may change later when he becomes a father for the first time, much to the joy of the residents of McPine.