It's 2004 in Manhattan, and real estate is the driving factor behind most relationship decisions. Only here can strangers go from roommates to friends to lovers in less time than it takes a co-op board to approve a purchase.

• Robin Cromwell is in desperate need of a roommate. She's lucked into a rent-controlled classic-six on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, but her best friend is moving, and she can't afford to live there alone.
• Jessica Barlowe is counting the days until she moves in with her boyfriend in his renovated one-bedroom co-op. That is until she walks in on him with another woman, and all her plans, including where she is going to live, disappear into thin air.
• Tory Wallace is determined to move out from under her abhorrent parents' roof, even if that roof is covering a $50 million brownstone on the Upper East Side. Although Tory hasn't spent much time thinking about being self-sufficient, the tension at home has reached a boiling point, and she's got to get out.
• Zach Sullivan is a successful technology executive living in a modernized pre-war two-bedroom on West 78th Street. He'd never planned on renting out his spare bedroom, but a chance encounter results in an impulsive offer that will change his life forever.