Sheridan Whiteside, famed radio personality, has a problem. As he was leaving a dinner party from the home of the Stanley's, in the middle of small-town Ohio, he fell and broke his hip. Now he must continue his business from the Stanely home, and what a business! The entire household is thrown into chaos as his demands grow more crazy, his friends and contacts send him various presents, and his famouns (and loony) friends show up to see how he is. To top it off, his secretary, Maggie, has fallen in love with a man in the town and wants to stay. Whiteside must do everything he can to break them up including stay in the household with a family he doesn't like, a doctor he detests, and a nurse whose life he makes absolutely miserable. What could possibly go wrong now?