Skylar and Holden are an upper-class
Manhattan couple ("
Just You, Just Me"). Holden enlists DJ, Skylar's younger sister, to help him choose an expensive diamond engagement ring ("
My Baby Just Cares for Me"). Skylar wants a "take-charge" kind of guy ("
I'm a Dreamer, Aren't We All"). Holden's romantic gesture, at DJ's urging, backfires when Skylar swallows the ring he slipped into her
parfait, resulting in a trip to the ER ("
Makin' Whoopee"). Bob and Steffi Dandridge, liberal
Democratic lawyers ("
Looking at You") who have a
blended family from previous marriages, are aghast at having a
Republican son, Scott, who wants criminals taken off the street and disapproves of Steffi's work rehabilitating felons. Steffi, who volunteers with the
American Civil Liberties Union ("He was an abused child who made one mistake."), brings to the engagement party one of her causes, Charles, who scares guests with accounts of prison stabbings. Initially alarmed by Charles's aggressive passes ("
If I Had You"), Skylar eventually falls under his spell ("I've never been kissed by a sociopath before."), breaking up with Holden. Steffi and Bob are friendly with Steffi's
neurotic ex-husband Joe, who lives in Paris, and has just broken up with his latest drug-using
nymphomaniac girlfriend ("I'm through with Love"). Steffi wants to fix Joe up with a more suitable woman, but Joe is still hung up on Steffi. On vacation with her father Joe in
Venice, Italy, DJ and her friend, whose mother is a psychologist, listen through a hole in the wall on the clientele's
therapy sessions. Von, an
art historian, relates to the therapist that she is discontented with her husband, longing for romance and discussing her fantasies. DJ suggests Joe "run into" Von jogging and then coaches Joe on how to woo her by faking interest in art, music, travel, African daisies, and a hastily bought Parisian garret, and by setting up "coincidental" meetings at a museum and a concert. Convinced she has met the man of her dreams ("All My Life"), the unsuspecting Von leaves her husband for Joe. DJ falls for a
gondolier and plans to drop out of college to marry him until she meets her next "flame": a student at
Columbia University ("
Cuddle up a Little Closer, Lovey Mine"). She then falls for a
rapper in New York, and finally falls in love with a dashing
Parisian. Competitive sisters Lane and Laura, DJ's half-sisters, both have crushes on a local lad, heir to the Vandermost millions, but 14-year-old Laura is heartbroken when Vandermost falls for Lane ("
I'm Through with Love"). Grandpa, an 88-year-old with
dementia, occasionally wanders off, corralled by Freda the maid, who DJ jokingly claims was
Hitler's maid at
Berchtesgaden. ("It's Bavarian pasta, it doesn't need any sauce; Italian pasta needs sauce. The Italians were weak!") At foot fetishist Grandpa's funeral, the corpses at the chapel sing and dance to "
Enjoy Yourself (It's Later than You Think)". Skylar encourages ex-con Charles to study law, but he has other plans, involving the unwitting Skylar in a grocery store robbery with his gang. Begging to be let out of the getaway car, Skylar successfully escapes and eventually reconciles at a Halloween Party with a forgiving Holden ("
Chiquita Banana"). This time Skylar swallows the engagement ring Holden has slipped in a box of
Cracker Jack. Scott is diagnosed with a blockage in an artery that has restricted the flow of oxygen to his brain, but it successfully resolves. He immediately resigns from the
Young Republicans Club and starts to espouse
left-wing causes. Having lived out all her fantasies with "the man of her dreams", Von no longer yearns for them; she leaves Joe to return to her husband. The family goes to Paris for Christmas and attends a
Groucho Marx-themed New Years party ("
Hooray for Captain Spaulding"). When Bob comes down with a cold, Steffi reunites with Joe and they reminisce, acknowledging that although their marriage didn't work out ("I'm Through With Love"), they still have feelings for each other. Although Steffi loves Bob "wholeheartedly", she and Joe kiss while accepting the boundaries of their mutually supportive relationship. Steffi encourages Joe to find someone who will make him happy. The family dances to "Everyone Says I love You" as DJ falls for a dance partner in a
Harpo Marx costume. ==Cast==