The life of Ipse, a 19-year-old girl who cannot get out of her own bed due to psychological trauma, is as motionless as a plant. Having no family and no clue of her family's mysterious history, she lives completely dependent on her neighbors, but starts to feel suffocated under the abuse and the looks she gets as if she was something to be eaten up. One day, in the midst of her hellish everyday life, a stranger comes to her house.

When Paul and Sandy Darden (Judge Reinhold and Demi Moore) move into a seemingly quiet upper-middle-class community, their American Dream is all but destroyed by the incessant din of barking dogs. So from valium-laced raw steaks to more hilarious methods of pet disposal, the Dardens try everything to make their dream house a quiet home.