The Douglases move to California, where at first they are depressed to find the residents as chilly as the weather is warm. Robbie enrols in the University and is totally captivated by a blonde girl, and Uncle Charley is initiated into the rapid-fire procedure of shopping in supermarkets. The family begins to feel that their next door neighbors represent the characteristic stand-offishness of all Californians until they discover that they moved into the neighborhood the day before they did.

Robbie and Katie pick a wedding date two weeks off. Katie's sorority sisters decide to do some private investigating on their own. Prospective groom Robbie then undergoes the complete once-over by his fiancee's family and runs the gamut of numerous cousins, aunts and a crotchety grandmother.