Architects Oscar Novak (Matthew Perry) and Peter Steinberg (Oliver Platt) have just landed a career-making opportunity to design of a multimillion dollar cultural center for wealthy businessman Charles Newman (Dylan McDermott). In a ploy for publicity, Newman has pitched Oscar and Peter in a neck-and-neck competition with their archrivals and former colleagues, the hugely successful Decker and Strauss (Bob Balaban and John C. McGinley). When Newman meets Oscar and Peter, he assumes that they are lovers, even though Oscar is straight. (Peter is in fact gay, but his relationship with Oscar is strictly platonic.) Under the mistaken impression that Oscar is gay, he asks Oscar to keep an eye on his mistress Amy (Neve Campbell) and make sure that she does not talk to his wife. Oscar falls for Amy virtually on sight, but she also thinks he is gay. He is forced to maintain the charade to avoid getting into trouble with Newman, and losing the commission.