Martin Vanderhof is the eccentric patriarch of a clan of frustrated artists, who decided thirty years ago to retire from the rat-race and encourage his family to follow their dreams. He paints, badly, but is happy, and his children pursue various strange hobbies. Only Alice has a normal job, working as a receptionist in the offices of a somewhat shady businessman. She falls in love with her boss's son, who fears that his dour father would never approve of a marriage to the crazed Vanderhof family. The family tried to act normal for one night to impress the prospective in-laws, but it all goes horribly wrong.