Ginger-Nell Hollyhock is a single and lonely hairdresser who lives in Kansas City, Missouri during the Great Depression year of 1933. When Ginger-Nell places classified ads in the local newspapers, she recruits a group of wacky relatives - a con-man husband, Fast Eddie Murtaugh; a tap-dancing daughter, Anna Marie Hollyhock; a son who wanted to fly like a bird, Junior Hollyhock; and a tottering old blind grandfather, Grandpa Hollyhock - all of whom come to live together for the laughs.