"Fortune, Mass." is not a show about money. It's a story about the riches of life. About people with dreams, with problems, with the whole range of human emotions. People who try to carve their own unique niches in a small New England community where neighbors lend a helping hand and doors are still kept unlocked, but where no one is safe from town gossip.

Above all, the people of Fortune, Mass. are individualists who stand on principles, though a few don't mind bending them at times. This quaint pocket of southwestern Massachusetts, with its family-owned businesses, woebegone high school basketball team and its eclectic mixture of plotters and plodders all looking for a small bit of contentment, depicts small-town values in modern America in ways that are both amusing and poignant. Blending the aesthetic, village feel of "Northern Exposure," and the tavern camaraderie of "Cheers," with a dose of chowder-flavored "Andy Griffith" thrown in, "Fortune, Mass." vividly, and sometimes humorously, conveys the complexities of the human spirit.

Into this close-knit environment come the BLAYLOCKS ~from Chicago, an African-American family that includes Dr. Anthony Blaylock, his no-nonsense hospital administrator wife, Kimberly, and their two young children. The Blaylocks sense an estrangement with the rest of the local folk from the moment they first drive into town. Is it real or perceived? On top of that, the good doctor can't find another Cubs fan within miles of this rabid Red Sox outpost.