Carrie Bradshaw and her friends, traditional, optimistic art gallery manager Charlotte York, blunt, practical attorney Miranda Hobbs, and unapologetic mankiller, public relations maven Samantha Jones, try to accept that they'll never find the perfect man.
As Carrie researches the hold that beautiful women have on men, Miranda realizes she's picked the wrong man.
While Carrie takes a trip to visit married friends in the Hamptons, Charlotte and Samantha crash a party only to find themselves surrounded by married couples.
At a club opening, Samantha and Carrie go home with younger men.
Charlotte drops her inhibitions to pose for a famous artist and Carrie starts seeing an architect who lavishes expensive gifts on her.
Carrie worries that she is Big's secret relationship and that he's embarrassed to be seen with her in public.
The ladies deal with and discuss monogamy in various forms: Samantha discovers the exclusive arrangement she entered into with a real estate agent is so exclusive after all; Carrie's delighted to spend all her time with Big until she learns she's not the only one he's seeing; Miranda's surpised to run into Skipper with another girl.
As Charlotte finds out the guy she's dating is into threesomes, Carrie discovers Big's big secret.
As Samantha's less-attractive lover breaks off their relationship, Carrie's rattled by the realization that Big is adamant about never marrying again. Meanwhile, after Miranda raves about a fabulous new sex toy, Charlotte promptly becomes addicted to it.
Attending a baby shower for a formerly wild friend now distressingly tamed by marriage and impending motherhood, ignites concerns about the future among the four friends. Meanwhile, Carrie fears she's gotten pregnant.
Miranda and Samantha are driven to desperate measures to battle their unwanted celibacy. Meanwhile, Charlotte's a little uneasy daring a former boyfriend of Carrie, and Carrie worries that the sparks are cooling between her and Mr. Big.
Carrie frets about her relationship with Big when she learns he hasn't mentioned her to his mother. Meanwhile, fortunetellers' pessimistic predictions upset Charlotte; Samantha dates a man whose perfect except for one little problem; Miranda breaks it off with a Roman Catholic who has a religious hang-up about sex.