The Simkins family was more or less normal – mother, father, two teenage children – until the father met an attractive American. Then came divorce, followed by the errant father being the beneficiary of a remarkable stroke of luck.
As a result, the Simkins tribe grew to include mother's new boyfriend, the son's surprisingly pretty girlfriend, the father's singular American girlfriend and, eventually, the daughter's realisation of a dream – a top-class footballer boyfriend.
But it's not a smooth ride. The involvement of lawyers who exhibit the most staggering incompetence serves only to muddy the waters, the unwitting gathering of the whole greater Simkins clan at the run-down establishment of a gay hotelier leads to the appearance of a racist, homophobic policeman in charge of the Riot Squad and the father very nearly achieves notoriety when, as a result of achieving a state somewhere way the other side of drunkenness, he tries to seduce his own daughter.
Add in the commentary provided by the family dog (!) and what results is a joyous tale that moves from domestic normality at the outset to chaotic hilarity at the end.