Abby Richter (Katherine Heigl) is a romantically challenged morning show producer in Sacramento, California. Coming home from a disasterous date one night, she happens to see a segment of a local television show, "The Ugly Truth," run by Mike Chadway (Gerard Butler), a male chauvinist whose cynicism of relationships prompts Abby to call into the show to argue with him on-air. The next day, she discovers that the station is threatening to cancel her show because of its poor ratings, and her superiors have hired Mike to do a segment on their show to bring them back up.


At first, the two have a rocky relationship; Abby thinks Mike is crass and disgusting while Mike finds Abby to be a control freak. However, after she meets the man of her dreams, a doctor named Colin living next to her, Mike persuades her to follow his lead to prove his theories on relationships and allow her to find love.