The Wendells are a family who don't spend much time together. At least they didn't until they drove off a cliff and landed at the bottom of a canyon, , and are forced to learn to put up with one another and build a new life in their new home. In , they meet an eclectic group of neighbors who ended up there the same way that the Wendells did. Among the people they encounter are an astronaut and his chimp companion, a family of wealthy jerks, a has-been British punk rocker, a ventriloquist and his abusive dummy, and a woman with a bear for a servant.