Susan Mayer is a forty something divorcee living with her 14-year-old daughter, Julie. Her romantic heart always has her looking for her next great love. Writing and illustrating children's books has kept her around Wisteria Lane most days making it easy for her to keep an eye on neighborhood beau, Mike Delfino, her occasional boyfriend.

She and her wise-beyond-years daughter have a tell all relationship often resulting in a parental role reversal. Susan often consults with Julie on important decisions like which dress was sexier for her first date with Mike and how to best stalk him after he became a presumed killer. Inevitably, Julie was always the one there to pick up the pieces, a tradition which began when Susan's adulterous ex-husband, Karl, walked out on them.

Susan's notoriously clumsy escapades have resulted in accidental arson, embarrassing public nudity and an unsightly encounter with a mechanical bull. Unfortunately her magnetic charm tends to attract trouble usually involving her secretive neighbor, Paul Young. She found herself knee-deep in a mystery surrounding her late friend Mary Alice Young's death involving a cryptic blackmail note, a dead woman's journal and a baby named Dana who may in fact be Mike's child.