David Basner (Tom Hanks) is a successful advertising executive who has it all: money, happiness, and women who want him. One day however, everything changes. David's world is torn apart when his mother (Eva Marie Saint) leaves his father (Jackie Gleason) and he ends up in the middle of the feuding spouses. Now he must balance his life between his mother, who is happy with her newfound independence, and his father, a recently laid off salesman who is hardheaded, stubborn, and hides a lot from David. As David copes with the downfall of his family, he must also struggle to keep the rest of his life intact.