Con artist Tom Turner (Greg Kinnear) is caught red-handed and sentenced by a compassionate judge to get and keep an honest job for an entire year. He is also ordered to abstain from conning or scams of any kind. If he succeeds, the judge will erase his criminal record. With that promise ringing in his ears, Turner gets a job working in the Dead Letter division of a local post office. There he finds himself force to figure out what to do with letters addressed to a variety of mythical figures including Superman, Elvis and God. Though post office rules strictly forbid it, Tom accidentally reads a heartrending letter written to God. Touched by its sincerity, Tom decides that no one will be harmed if he responds to it. Though he only meant to send the needful writer a little costume jewelry and an upbeat letter, he accidentally sends her his entire paycheck. His attempts to get the money back fail and when his loopy co-workers find out what a positive effect his accidental gesture had on the poor woman's life, they encourage him to keep on playing "God" and respond to more letters. His motives for doing so are not entirely altruistic, but he continues helping people until he is once again caught and sent to court for yet another trial.