Ben Stone, a young East Coast surgeon, packs his bags and heads his fancy sports car for California and a plush job as a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon. Enroute he takes a wrong turn down a country road where his car is disabled in a minor accident when he swerves to avoid some cows walking on the road. The local judge throws the book at him for wreckless driving and sentences him to sixteen hours at the local hospital. He meets a variety of smalltown eccentrics while tending to their medical and personal problems. Out of gratitude for treating a gangrenous toe, one man presents Stone with a pig. Stone in turn, presents the pig as payment for repairs on his car, to the local garage which does not accept credit cards. He learns just in time that the garage sold the pig to the local butcher and rescues the pig, whom he names Jasmine. Stone becomes increasingly charmed with smalltown practice and finds himself falling in love with Lou, his attractive ambulance driver.