When 24 year old Lonnie Yolango is brought home "in shackles," he's unable to believe what he finds. In just two years his mother has turned his retired father into a television vegetable. Lonnie, who is confined to the house for sixty days for driving a rental car through a Catholic church, is determined to help his father regain control. Obstacles include his domineering mother, the police officer who is alert for house arrest violations, and the neighbor and her daughter who wants either a husband or a show business career. And there's father himself who would rather watch "Love Connection" then go on a job interview. Lonnie resorts to digging a tunnel through the basement so he and his father can escape to Mexico. Mother is not easily fooled and she thwarts this plan and arranges for Lonnie to marry the neighbor's daughter. Now Lonnie sees his possible future mirrored by his parents present lives and finally escapes.