Mortimer Brewster, a drama critic, has just become engaged to the girl-next-door, and his sweet, spinster aunts couldn’t be happier. However the joy of his announcement is overshadowed by the antics of his wildly eccentric brother Teddy (who thinks he is President Roosevelt) and the arrival of another long-lost, maniacal and murderous brother, Jonathan. The aunts are most put out as Jonathan’s arrival and plan to bury his latest victim in the cellar could seriously hinder their “charity work”.